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Bisco

Katherine Talking and Walking

Katherine is officially mobile. When we left for our biking trip, Katherine could walk 4 or 5 steps between me and Steve. When we came home, after much practicing, she could walk 8 to 9 steps. Now she can easily wobble in Frankenstein fashion 14 or 15 steps. We play a game of “go to mommy” and “go to daddy” where she will beam and walk between us. Not only is she mobile, she can now squat and then stand back up again. For instance, if we duck behind the coffee table, she will grasp the table with one hand, squat down, peer at us from under the table and laugh at us. Tonight, I caught her walking to Bisco who was lying on the floor. She leaned down, grabbed his head, ears and then nose – at different times. I tried to explain that she needs to be gentle, but that didn’t work out too well. It’s fortunate that Bisco is very patient. He just stayed on the floor looking very resigned.

Katherine is also expanding her vocabulary. Today, I came home and Patty informed me that Katherine says “Up.” She confirmed this by lifting her arms up, looking up at me and saying “Uph.” It was very sweet. So, I spent the rest of the evening saying Up and Down. And we’re continuing to say Thanks (which I’ve heard a couple times as “Tanks”) and we think she is trying to say Bisco as “Bith.” She babbles a lot now, talking to herself as she plays with her toys and walks around.

Everyone Sings in Our House!

With Steve out of town this week, I’ve taken the opportunity to practice my violin warming up for a few minutes each night with some nursery songs and a few scales. For some reason, Bisco has real issues with the violin. He simply purses his muzzle and howls “AWHOOOO” non-stop. Even when I play simple songs, he’ll hop on the couch and moan.

Last night, I took my violin out for the first time in months. Katherine spied it and clung to my leg looking at the violin curiously. When I started to tune, Bisco rushed over and started to howl. Katherine really enjoyed the show – Bisco howling next to me as I tuned and played the violin. Tonight, I took out a harmonica that we got at Sid’s birthday party, and the same thing happened. I want to make sure that Katherine grows up with music (As they say at Tiny Tots “it’s a musical life!”), so hopefully she’ll develop a love for stringed instruments. I took her hand and let her touch my violin and bow, she was so curious!

Curious Katherine

We call her “Curious Katherine” because she wants to check everything out. Tonight, she wobbled behind one of our chairs and found the gymboree parachute that was collapsed. She picked it up (strong!) and dragged it from behind the chair as if telling me “Mom, I want to play with this!” I opened it up and she crawled through. After staring at it, she grabbed the tag and one end and started to roll the parachute back and forth watching it roll across the floor.

During our trip to the Bay Area, she investigated everything around her. On the plane, she would check out her roundabout seat (not that she doesn’t sit in it everyday!) and she would peer at the people around her. She even stood on Steve’s lap and giggled at the people behind her over his shoulder. At the hotel, she checked out all the rooms and found bath salts next to the bath tub. I moved them to a nearby table, thinking she couldn’t reach them. Not only did she reach them, but she also then dropped the bag scattering the bath salts everywhere. I turned around from filling the tub and saw her stick a salt granule in her mouth. Holy Cow! Yes, we managed to get it out of her mouth.

Katherine goes to her first wedding

My previous roomate from Tempe, Sueling, got married this past weekend, so we all headed down to Los Gatos on Friday and came home on Sunday. Katherine was a trooper on the plane rides and drank lots of water to relieve her ear pressure. I’m not sure how parents travel with children, because she only slept one hour on Friday. With all the new experiences, Katherine didn’t want to miss a minute and stayed alert thru the airport, flight and to San Jose. She did sleep to the hotel, but promptly woke up as we carried her to the room. Coincidentally, Steve’s parents  were in town too for the Stanford homecoming weekend, so they visited Friday and saw Katherine’s new developments. For dinner, we went to the California Cafe in the old town shopping center, sat out on the patio with other families and then walked back to the hotel room to watch the last out of the World Series first game. It was a beautiful evening, and Los Gatos is a very “tony” town as Steve’s mother described it.

On Saturday, we had breakfast with Steve’s parents at a local, Southern establishment. We headed back and stopped at the first annual glass art pumpkin festival. Local glass artists sold all sizes, colors and types of glass pumpkins to help raise money for hosting schools. Since we were staying right across from the Los Gatos High School, we stopped by and found a large, colorful pumpkin created by a Stanford grad only several years ahead of us. Since they wouldn’t ship, Steve had to visit a local store to double box the pumpkin for delivery home (it arrived in one piece!). It’s about 18″ in diameter and while orange in color has all sorts of blobs of colors all over it. The artist, when she found out we were from Seattle said, “bringing glass back to Seattle…that’s like taking coal to Newcastle!” I’m not sure how many people can afford the glass art she was referring to! Also, when Steve and I were debating one largely orange pumpkin and the one we bought, another woman explained that the colorful one was better because we could display it all year and it would go with more stuff. Pretty good rationale, so we bought it.

We returned to the hotel. Katherine took a nap, and we headed off to Sueling’s wedding only 6 or 7 miles up highway 17. The wedding was held at a small and tucked away facility with english cabs, a train, play houses and a refurbished barn! The ceremony was beautiful and in front of a lake with fountain with us sitting amongst the trees. (Katherine and Steve stayed outside the ceremony area so she wouldn’t disturb anyone – although it turned out she was quiet throughout.) We ate appetizers, rode in the train, and talked with others at the wedding.  For dinner, we partaked in a 9 course dinner; we were just stuffed and Katherine was bleary eyed, so we had to leave prior to the cake cutting for nap time. She slept for 45 minutes in the car, and then we headed later to Mountain View to synch up with old friends, James, Lily and Kristina. After a short visit, we drove back to the hotel and hit the sack.

On Sunday, we woke early and headed to Albany for a visit with family. We visited with my Uncle Richard, Aunt Susan, and cousins Henry and Ronald. It was good to see everyone, after 7 years! Katherine played or banged on their piano, walked around their house and we enjoyed catching up.  Unfortunately, we had to leave after only an hour and a half to make it back to the San Jose airport in time for our flight.

Labor Day Weekend with Katherine

Steve and I had a wonderful weekend with Katherine. On Saturday we had few commitments aside from our haircuts. So, we had planned to take her to Gymboree in the late morning. Unfortunately, I discovered when I got home from my workout at 10:30 that Katherine still had not taken her morning nap. Steve had pulled every trick in the book, but to no avail. She cried some more and was fairly unhappy until 11 when she finally passed out. Needless to say, we missed our one opportunity this weekend to see Katherine in action at Gymboree, which was very disappointing.

We recovered in the afternoon by taking her to Remlinger Farms in Carnation. Katherine had a nice time at the restaurant watching other children and then going through the barn and seeing all animals. Her favorite was a goat that poked his head out of the fence as we walked by. While she was a bit small for the roller coaster, the mini-merry go around, and teacups, she was just the right size for the steam train. ๐Ÿ™‚ It was a really hot day – well over 85 degrees, so by the time we had made our way around the park, we were pretty tired. We grabbed some fresh fruit, vegetables and drove back towards home. Katherine slept in the car as we dropped off our groceries and went to our haircuts. Post-haircuts, we drove to Kirkland waterfront and walked to a Mexican restaurant. Katherine shared part of our meal – avocado and mushed beans. Given all the excitement of the day, she was pretty tired, so we powered through our meals, got takeout and went home.

Sunday was equally eventful. We took her on a long walk in the morning and sent her to bed. To our surprise, she slept almost 3 hours! We were very late to the Mariners game – and arrived halfway thru the game. We met up with some friends from college/work and saw the Mariners beat the Orioles. Katherine had a great time even with the crowds and noise. She said hello to the people behind her, tried to pickup the popcorn from the ground, watched the game and people cheering around her. After the game, we stopped by Larry’s for groceries and went to a friends house for BBQ. Through all of this Katherine stayed alert – we finally got home and Katherine to sleep by 8:30. She went almost 7 hours without an afternoon nap! Our guess is that she has been trying to stay up as late as possible in the morning so she can drop her afternoon nap.

Of course, Katherine blew our theory today. We discovered that it’s only a short walk from our house to a nearby development and….a latte stand! We took Katherine and Bisco on a nice 2 hour walk, meandering thru the trails between our developments and checking out the new development. Katherine was very stoic, wrapped up by Steve in 3 layers of clothing (it was chilly this morning), and sucked on her binky. She fell asleep on our way home, but slept only 45 minutes. We then headed out to Bellevue Square to catchup on shopping, get new 12 month onesies from Nordstrom and gifts for upcoming birthdays. After her nap, we stayed at home, playing with her toys, cooking dinner and getting ready for the week.

Katherine continues to develop at a rapid pace. She readily waves (at herself sometimes) and babbles. She will take mushy foods from our plates (for instance noodles at Zoopas) and grasp them with her pointer and thumb. She’s almost mastered the pincer grasp, with maybe a 30% success rate at getting food in her mouth. ๐Ÿ™‚ She’s also becoming a proficient page turner. She especially likes books that have thick pages that she can turn. We bought a new book today that she seems to love, partially because it’s a touch and feel book and also because the pages are easily turn-able (unlike many board books). We spent a few minutes tonight just flipping different pages back and forth and touching the different textures in the book.

Spending three days with Katherine was a very fulfilling experience. We loved seeing her interact with her environment. I suspect that she enjoyed the weekend too, as she fought to stay awake to spend time with us.

Audrey’s Cool Swing System

Katherine’s friend Audrey got a Rainbow System last month, and Audrey was nice enough to share it with Katherine earlier this week. As you can see from the pictures, Steve (and Katherine) had a wonderful time, going down the slide and swinging. Katherine also tried out Audrey’s plastic car. She wasn’t really sure what to make of it, but she gripped on tightly!

Feeding Bisco

It was inevitable. Katherine has started to feed Bisco from her high chair. In the past, she would hold her hand out and drop Cheerios or biscuits to the floor. Tonight, she leaned down towards her foot ledge and seemed to deliberately offer her whole wheat bread to Bisco. She did this repeatedly, despite our explaining that Bisco didn’t need any more food.

Katherine is also really enjoying finger food. Tonight, she munged up banana, cantaloupe, and boiled carrot pieces. We also gave her roasted asparagus stems thinking she wouldn’t eat it – since she refuses to eat pureed steamed asparagus. Instead, she stuck one end in her mouth and sucked out the asparagus from the stem. When she finished one end, she then flipped the asparagus to the other end and went to work on it. This continued until dinner was over, at which point she dropped it on the floor for Bisco. ๐Ÿ™‚

Other favorites: peas and rice, apricots, Zwieback toast (dry wheat toast), and any sort of wheat bread. She managed to tolerate a bit of cottage cheese this morning. She still loves Veggie Booty, but we’ve decided not to give her anymore since it isn’t very healthy for her (or us for that matter).

More Teething, Crankiness and Napping

We read in a book that babies “as they approach a year” try to go from two to one naps. Katherine a couple days this past week decided that she doesn’t need two full naps. She slept as little as 75 to 90 minutes – unlike her full 3 hours a day. Unfortunately, she’s demonstrated through some serious crankiness that she really needs 2.5-3 hours still a day. So, we’ve used all sorts of techniques to get her to nap, from driving her around to walking her in her jogger. I hope this phase doesn’t last too long, as it’s also resulted in her waking up a couple times during the night.

Katherine’s three top teeth are now descending, giving her more of a toddler look. And, we also found that a fourth top tooth will be coming in soon! That makes a total soon of 6 teeth!

Training Mom and Dad

Katherine has really learned how to train us. When she screams bloody murder in her high chair, it means that she wants to sip water from a straw or that she has a dirty diaper. When she squirms off our laps, it means she wants to walk. Most notably, she’s learned how to sleep with Mom and Dad; namely by getting up and screaming every two hours in the middle of the night. This really has a way of wearing down defenses. This also has resulted in Dad escorting Katherine to Mom who feeds Katherine and places her in between the parents.

Generally speaking, we haven’t had any major issues – until last weekend when Katherine fell off the bed!! According to Steve, Katherine and I were snoring and edged him out of bed. He put his pillow to one side of the bed to serve as a bumper and went to the other room. This solution apparently didn’t work. At 4AM, I woke up to the sound of something hitting the floor (THUMP!). I walked around the bed, and lo and behold Katherine was lying on top of the pillow on the floor. She didn’t seem too upset until I picked her up. Interestingly enough, Steve heard the thump from the other room, came running in, grabbed Katherine from me and gave her the once-over to make sure she was OK.

As a result, we’ve decided that its time to start the Farber-izing again and to make sure that Katherine stays in her crib. She cried 30 minutes tonight and made every effort to stay up. As I walked her in the upper hallway towards the family room she peered over the wall, and gave Steve who was on the downstairs couch the biggest smile. Once she realized that it was time for bed, she howled all the way back to her crib.

Gross Motor Skills & Mobility

Katherine is getting faster and faster. We can put her down in the family room, turn around and find her in the kitchen just a few seconds later. Typically, she wanders off the carpet onto the hardwoods, climbs up her highchair, or crawls under the kitchen table. I found her standing next to different kitchen chairs this afternoon.

She can also easily walk along an object like the coffee table. She uses the coffee table cushion to stand up, then walks along the table holding onto the cushion. Everything from laptop power cords to drinks to the remote is fair game for her. Steve claims that she pulled his power cord out of his laptop several times.

She also stands up in her tub when we bathe her and squirms all over trying to get at the toy most out of reach.

Gymcrawlers Class

At least once a week Patty takes Katherine to Gymboree and the Gymcrawlers class. We’ve never been to class, but apparently Katherine has a blast! Patty and her daughter Paulette took these pictures at their last class. Katherine crawled into the tunnel for the first time; see her big smile! She also played on the parachute and in the inner tube. We’re thinking of moving her to the Gymwalkers class, since she is now walking with assistance.

Faerber-izing Continued…

We’re plugging ahead with the Faeber method, and so far it’s working well. Since her first two nights, she cried 12 minutes the third night and only 5 minutes the fourth night. Last night, she cried 2 minutes and started to suck her thumb vigorously (we could hear this on the monitor). This crying, sucking cycle went on for about 15-20 minutes. In all, she only cries a few minutes at a time and is learning how to soothe herself to sleep.

The next step is to do this consistently with all naps and during the night. For instance, last night at 11:30, she was really mad that I put her down after I gave her a snack. She spent at least 20 minutes, cycling between thrashing around in her crib, letting out a few cries and sucking her thumb. This morning I put her down semi-sleepy and she did the same for 40 minutes. So, hopefully, this length of time will shorten and she will be able to fall sleep quickly and easily on her own.

The biggest challenge, funnily enough, is coordinating efforts across the entire family. The third night, Steve and I agreed that we wouldn’t go in her room for 15 minutes. Well, as I headed upstairs right as she stopped crying, I saw Bisco padding out of her room! I guess he heard her crying and was checking up on her. Also, last night I had put Katherine down to find Steve holding her 5 minutes later – not realizing that I was letting Katherine put herself to sleep.

Getting More and More Mobile…

Katherine can pull herself up using almost anything now. She uses the toys that hang off of her toy bookcase to get to a standing position. Once she’s standing, she pulls toys, books out of her bookcase and plays with them for a bit. We also removed the Pack and Play and put down her quilt and toys. This is now her area for standing next to her block and table. She crawls between this area and her bookcase freely.

She’s becoming a frighteningly fast crawler. This morning, I turned around to put a music CD in the DVD player. When I turned back around, I found her under the side table picking up device that turns out the lamp. She’s also learned to make a beeline for any power cord in the family room that’s readily available. I guess we’ll be baby proofing the family room some more this weekend.

Mother’s Day

Sunday was Christine’s first official Mother’s Day. Last year Christine was pregnant with Katherine but this is the first year Katherine could actually give Christine a Mother’s Day gift (with a little help from Dad). Surprisingly enough, Dad coordinated Mother’s Day gifts for Katherine, Bisco, and himself. Christine is a great mom to Katherine and Bisco in addition to being a loving wife. After a lazy morning, we spent the rest of the day running errands.

Mother’s Day at the Fialas

The extended family got together to celebrate Mother’s Day at the Fialas. In addition to Art and Pat Fiala, Dave, Trina, and Will Fiala were there. Trina is 8 months pregnant with their second boy and looks great. Their first boy Will has grown up and loves to run around and play with Kevin and his grandparents (Art and Pat). Amy, Jason, and Kevin Olbright also attended the family gathering. Kevin is Will’s age and the two of them had a great time playing together. The Fialas have turned their house into a kid fun zone complete with toys, sandbox, swings, mini-basketball hoop, and of course their golden retriever Mandy. Kevin and Will immediately wanted to play on the swings. Both were experienced swingers and loved to have someone yell “boo” or give them a high five when the swing reached the apex of it’s swing.

Katherine patiently waited her turn for the swings (actually she had no clue). After the boys were done Katherine played on the swing. Katherine loves the swing. She likes having dad or mom stand in front of the swing yell “boo” when she comes close. Katherine has 15 minutes of pure joy of the swing before she’s ready to get off.

After the swings, we decided to line up the kids for a group photo shot. Will Fiala sat in the left chair, Katherine in the middle, and Kevin Olbright on the right. Kevin and Will have obviously done this before, sat patiently, and smiled. Katherine slowly sank in the chair and had to be readjusted a couple of times.

It was good to see everyone. Kevin and Will are growing up and hopefully someday soon Katherine will be able to play with them.

Katherine Hacking with Dad

Dad’s been working really hard the last couple of weeks shipping Pure Networks’ first product Port Magic. Katherine would watch dad type on the keyboard and stare at the monitor. It was clear to dad that she understood typing on the keyboard created the movement in the monitor. Katherine thought this was a lot of fun, especially when dad would grab the keyboard to prevent Katherine from doing something serious to the PC.

Katherine is Growing Up

I’ve been really busy for the last couple of weeks so I haven’t contributed to the weblog very much. Here’s a brief synopsis of Katherine’s growth over the last couple of weeks. Katherine is intensely interested in the world around here. She struggles to stay awake on the weekend and at night because she just wants to play. She gets herself so worked up that she cannot fall asleep. And she’s so loud. I used to be able to wake up at 1A, change her diaper and get her back to sleep while remaining in a semi-asleep stupor. These nights are over. Katherine screams at the top of her lungs when she’s being changed so I’m wide awake by the time I get her back to sleep.

Christine and I call Katherine “swivel-head” as she now leans back and swivels her head from one side to another to check out her surroundings. It’s fun to watch her take interest in one noise and then be distracted by mom or dad talking in the opposite direction. She’s absorbing her surroundings like a sponge. Bisco has become a great source of entertainment for Katherine. When Bisco comes near, she wants to grab his fur and stick it in her mouth.