Keira Videos from the last few months

J.R. took most of these on his iPhone. It might be overkill, but I thought they were cute. So sue me, I'm biased! (c:

Old MacDonald had a farm....

Tinkerbell Discovers the Doorbell!

Keira had a great time for her second Halloween! It was great weather, and we were able to go to our neighbor's houses without a coat. She was so excited to dress up and carry her little pumpkin around. Candy makes such a satisfying rattle in the plastic pumpkin! It continues to be her favorite thing to carry her blocks in. By far her favorite part was ringing the doorbells. It makes a fun noise and people come to the door? Sweet! She rings it every morning at daycare now.

Nana took us for a little trip to the Arboretum for a time-honored Daly family tradition. Every fall when I was a kid, my mom would take my brother and I down to the Arboretum to take pictures in the leaves and tromp around on the paths. We took Keira there for her first fall photo op. She had a little trouble figuring out that I wanted her to stay still while I backed away to take the picture. Many of our shots turned out to be motion-blurred as she stumbled back towards me as I tried to move far enough away to get her in frame! It was so much fun! I figure I better get as many of these in as I can before she turns into a reticent tween and karma takes over. (I was horrible!)

Pictures from her 1st Birthday Party

Elmo came to my party!

Hey Mom, what do I do with this?

Oh, I get it! That's good!

Hi Cousin Ryan! Wanna play?

I'm not so sure about my new pony...

...but I love my new car!

1-2-3-4 cake with party icing

The Daly's

4 generations of Sipka Women

The Moore's

She turned 1!

Well, everyone, we did it! Keira made it through a whole year safe and sound! Well, okay, her current nickname is boo-boo cause she gets so many, but mostly safe and sound...

It is amazing to me how much she is growing even from day to day. I looked at her the other day and I realized that she isn't my little baby anymore. She's really a little girl now. She has 3 teeth, a little hair, and a hugely independent personality! She has been walking for about a month and a half now and she is really getting quite stable now. We do laps around our living-dining-kitchen area. Now she plays peekaboo games with us, instead of the other way around. She also likes to close doors on us and then let us back in. She still uses specific words only very infrequently, but she has mama, more, and uh-oh pretty consistently.

Her birthday party was a huge success. I, of course, was very stressed because I had thrown my cousin's shower and my mom's surprise 60th birthday party the weekend before. This was the third of three parties, and I was tired. When the day came though, it was great! We had such a wonderful turn-out of family and friends. I wasn't quite sure how 45 people were going to fit in my little townhome, but it was cozy! My Babka was feeling good enough to come and it was so special to have her there! She was literally the life of the party. I made the traditional Moore 1-2-3-4 cake with party icing. It's so gooooood! I need to remember to make a double batch of the frosting...The Portillo's and McDonalds' cake were also good. Keira was such a good girl for her party. She just watched everybody and took it all in. She liked the italian beef and bread. The cake didn't go over well, but she did end up licking the icing off of her fingers! A girl after my own heart. By the time we got to presents, she was pretty tired out and only had energy to pull out the tissue paper from one present. I took care of the rest with her lounging in my lap. I think I need to hide some of her new toys and pull them out in a few months. She has so much stuff out, she can barely get through! Her favorite "toy" is a toss-up between her new talking purse and the music card that her Aunt Victoria sent her that plays Winnie the Pooh when you open it. She spent half an hour going back and forth between J.R. and I showing us how the card sang to her. It was so cute. I think she had a good time all told!

The day after her birthday we went in for her year check-up and vaccines. She weighs 24 lbs., is 30 inches tall, and her head is 18 inches around. She is right on with her physical benchmarks. Her speaking is a little behind, but she started walking so early, we think she just diverted a good bit of her energy into that instead. She is verbally communicating, just not matching specific words to as many objects/actions as our doctor would have expected. We are now making a whole lot of changes. Whole milk instead of formula, sippee cups instead of bottles...throw in the fact that I can't hold her in my lap to put her to sleep anymore because she is too big to get comfortable, and we are basically changing our entire sleep routine. So far so good, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm certainly not complaining. Three out of four nights this week I've been able to sleep straight through. I wake up feeling like a new woman. Then by ten I'm wiped again, because of course this is the week my body succumbs to the illness that has been circulating in my room for the last 2 weeks. I'm just hoping its not H1N1 flu. We had our first case reported at school, and I'm terrified of passing it along to Keira. Here's hoping that she manages to stay healthy through this flu season.

I was going through my camera today and I saw the picture that J.R. took when they handed Keira to me for the first time and I remembered that overwhelming feeling of love and responsibility and elation that washed over me. I feel truly blessed that I get that same emotion every time I walk into day care to pick her up and she throws those little arms around my neck for a tight hug, as if she's been waiting for me to walk back in that door all day so she can show me what she's been learning. It's been a year of tough learning, tears, frustrations, and fear. It has also been a year of laughter, joy, love, and smiles. And so it goes...I wouldn't have it any other way!

My Little Bears Fan

Keira got into the swing of things for the Bears/Denver game. Notice that she is wearing Cutler's new jersey. Bear Down!

First Trip to the Zoo

Uncle Gavin and Aunt Laura took us all for a stroll through Lincoln Park Zoo. Keira had a great time! And although I'm pretty sure she had no idea what she was looking at, she was fascinated! We saw lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) as well as (almost) flying monkeys, gorillas, pigs, horses, goats, and more! She was on cloud nine! I think the pictures do it better justice... For a more complete set, check out my facebook page.

Wow, that's a big monkey...

This one's a little more my size...

Daddy, I don't see anything!

Oh my goodness, there was a big old bear in there! Much bigger than teddy...

Cincinnati here we come!

Keira finally got to meet her cousins in Cincinnati. My cousin Heather and her husband Ryan and their two girls, Emma & Kate, moved to Venice for a business opportunity recently and hadn't gotten to meet Keira before they left. Luckily they came home for a summer visit and G.G. (pronounced like Gigi, short for great-grandmother), Keira, and I made the trip down to Cincy to see them and eat at my cousin Sean's restaurant, Hugo. I learned an important lesson about traveling with Keira. I need to plan in more time to do it. She was fine for the first 2-3 hours because she took a nap. But when we stopped to feed her and stretch our legs, getting her right back into the carseat was very unpleasant to day the least. She basically cried herself silly until she conked out again. I think if I was able to have her out and let her play for an hour or two in between legs, it might have gone better. Well, I'll know for the next trip.

The actual visit was a blast! My dad was on a business trip to Indianapolis and drove down to surprise everyone for dinner. We ate at Hugo and it was AMAZING! For those of you who don't know me well, you might be surprised to learn that I like food. No, scratch that, I love food. Perhaps I didn't type that right...I LOVE FOOD! One look at the Hugo menu and I found myself with a delicious conundrum. So much to try, with so little room in my stomach! Luckily, my grandmother & father were also having similar difficulties, and so with a little strategic ordering we were all able to try the delicious hanger steak with crispy fried onions & potato galette, the duck with crispy lentils and okra cake, and the pork loin with sweet corn & asparagus & truffle oil. (That's not even mentioning the amazing grits appetizer and watermelon salad & fried green tomatoes that I am definitely stealing for my next supper club.) Needless to say we all left stuffed to the brim, although I did manage to find a little room left over for the peach cobbler (sigh). Is it any wonder I'm not losing the baby weight? Then again I wouldn't have traded the meal or the company for the world. Maybe it is for the best though that I was unable to convince Sean to relocate to Chi-town...

By far the best part of the trip though was just hanging out with the girls. I am well aware of the attention span limitations of most 3 to 6 year olds. I was blown away by how well the girls played with Keira. For two whole days, they shared their toys, made sure that she didn't play with anything dangerous, helped her up when she fell, helped feed her, and kept her generally well-entertained! She loved it! I was so proud of them! The thing I was unaware of is the tenacity of a 6-year-old's curiosity. I was nursing Keira under a blanket and the girls came in and wanted to know what was going on. Heather and I tag-teamed the explanation and thought it was case closed. But for the next two days they kept asking if they could watch me nurse her. They were fascinated by what was happening under the mystical blanket. It was hilarious, but no matter how many times we explained that it was a private thing and that Keira needed to focus, they were not convinced that it wasn't going to happen. This unfortunately led to some disappointment and fortunately the need for a couch cuddle and more bottle feeding time. The best part of all this is that THEY'RE NOT GOING BACK! The project has shifted and Ryan can come home, so Keira can look forward to lots more visits with her fantastic cousins! Thanks to Aunt Victoria and Uncle Rob for opening up their home and helping to coordinate everything. It was great to hang out and catch up after the girls had gone to bed. I wish Cincinnati were closer! It was a great trip!

9 month Checkup

So Keira went in for her 9 month check-up a week and a half ago. Here are the stats:

Height: 28.5 inches

Weight: 23 lbs. 4 oz

Head Circ.: 45 cm

She up at the top of the charts again, although she had some blood drawn, too, and it turns out that she's anemic. (pardon the run-on sentence; it's late...) She was at a 9 and she should be up at 11 or 12. So what does this mean? Well, in addition to her iron fortified formula, she has iron fortified oatmeal for breakfast, and lots of beef, beans, and/or leafy greens during the rest of the day. Let me tell you the diapers are loads of fun...literally... And for snack she has Cheerios. Do you know how much iron is in one serving of Cheerios? Quite a bit! At this point you may have noticed another milestone. She is no longer eating strained baby food, but has moved on to table food. She has two little teeth right in front on the bottom. I have learned the hard way that just because they are small does not make them any less painful when they are sunk into your upper arm. She is able to gum most soft foods. A few favorites: spinach, toast, pork chops, carrots, noodles. She is doing really well with feeding herself, too! When she starts "feeding the puppies" I know she's done. The only down side to this signal is that she throws the food on the floor whether the puppies are there or not! And now, as promised, some photo updates...

"I'm SOOOOOO big!"

Daddy, why are you wearing this funny dress?

So this is where you guys got married, huh?

I love watching baseball with my daddy!

Happy Fourth of July

I can't believe how much she has grown. Keira is almost 9 months old now.  It seems like the milestones just keep coming!  In the last month, we've seen quite a few.  She had her first full crawl across the floor in our living room.  She's also pulling herself up to standing on any available stable surface.  She can slowly slide her way around our L-shaped couch to get to the toys she wants.  She has cut her first two teeth (front bottom) in the midst of her second ear infection.  That was quite a treat!  We also found out that she is allergic to amoxicillin during that particularly fun week.  She is also babbling quite a bit more.  Mamamamamamamama is a favorite although it is not directed at any one thing or person in particular.  I keep waiting for the breakthrough though!  It is just such a strange feeling to look down and see this beautiful strong sweet child in my lap where I used to have a small helpless infant.  Each day I wake up and wonder what she'll do next!  I'll post new pictures just as soon as I find the cord...

My First Mother's Day

This was my very first Mother's Day and it was a little surreal.  Last week, "daughter" was one of the words on our spelling list and I made up a sentence about my daughter and it really hit me.  I have a daughter!  Keira sent me flowers in a hugs & kisses bouquet (tulips and irises).  Very pretty!  J.R. gave me a beautiful vintage crystal necklace, also very pretty!  The best part of the day though was the tea party.  Laura and I got together and had an honest to goodness tea party, complete with little sandwiches and scones, to celebrate all of the mothers in our lives.  Her mother and grandmother came and my mother and both of my grandmothers were there, too.  It was nice to be able to sit and chat with everyone.  I think the last time we were all together was maybe Laura and Gavin's wedding.  Having all of those special ladies in one room really made me appreciate having the close family that I do.  Keira is such a lucky little girl!  I repeat my toast: God Bless all the mothers who have made us who we are!  Where would we be without you?

Love you Momma!

Almost 7 month check-up

Yeah yeah so we were running a little behind schedule due to some head colds, but we are back on track with her vaccines and her check-ups now.  Here are the official details:

Head circumference: 17 1/4 in (75%)

Height: 27 in (75%)

Weight: 20 lbs 1 oz (95%)

The doctor said everything looked good and that she was at a healthy weight for a 1 year old.  Re-read the title of this post and then read that last line again!  Ha!  You should see my arms!  It's the only part of this body that is back in shape already.  Truth be told they're in better shape that they were before!

Milestones:

Drooling and chewing really hard on anything hard.  Doctor thinks teeth will be here in the next month or so.

Able to sit up on her own and right herself when she reaches for something to the side.  Can grab and hold her toys.  Is starting to find the humor in throwing items to the ground for Mommy and Daddy to pick up.  Yay.

Can support her own head and holds herself in the crawl position, although she collapses when she tries to reach forward.  She does this crazy tripod scoot to try to get to her toys or remote control but doesn't get very far yet.  This is probably a good thing because the tripod consists of her two knees and her forehead!  I'm worried she'll get a matching bald spot up front.

Loves to swing in the baby swings at the park.

She's going to be starting on a lot more solid food (3 x a day!) and adding meats to the mix.  We're also going to introduce the sippy cup!  

All very fascinating I know, but for those of you who don't get to see her very often I'm trying to give you as much info as I can.

I guess the best part about this stage is that she is starting to have her own personality.  She likes to play on her own, but looks up constantly to see if you are nearby and to check out any new faces that happen by.  She loves watching other people, especially kids.  She watches them play so intently, that I know she's just storing up ideas for the day when she can move like them.  She smiles and laughs and talks to you or herself or the dogs or anyone who'll listen!  She cocks her head to the side and rests her temple on your shoulder or chest when she wants to flirt or is feeling shy.  Watch out boys, she'll chew you up!  She looks like an absolute angel in her sleep until her teeth start to hurt and wake her up, and you'll do just about anything to help take those tears away, including letting her chew on your chin until you are sure you'll have to explain a strange circular hickey under your lips to your class of third graders in the morning.  I love her more and more each day, and each night when I go to lay her down in her crib I take few extra moments after she's fallen asleep to just hold her close and enjoy our special time.  It just keeps getting better!

Sporty Baby

Thanks to a remarkable confluence of events our daughter has now been to a ridiculous number of Chicago sporting events.  J.R.'s company gave us tickets to a Wolves game (minor league hockey) and a Cubs game.  Then, over Spring Break, one of the parents at my school who works in promotions for the White Sox offered free tickets to a Bulls game.  Then Booth formerly known as GSB had an outing to the White Sox game.  And at the end of the month, we'll round it out with a Chicago Fire game!  The only two majors she'll be missing are the Bears (too cold) and the Blackhawks (too pricey).  So far she's done well with all of them, although the Cubs game was a little scary the first time everyone stood up and screamed.  But a little happy face from Mommy helped turn it around!  Last night at the Sox game was a little cold, but by the end of the 1st inning, Daddy broke down and bought a big black and white blanket so we could all cuddle in the stands.  If Keira isn't sporty, it isn't from lack of her parents trying to imprint it early!  Enjoy!

Wait, I've seen this one...Isn't it Angels in the Outfield? Go Sox!

Everybody thought I was a boy...maybe it was the hat.  Go Cubbies!

  I'm so excited I can't sit still!

Opening Day!!! It's Opening Day!

What do you mean it's too cold for the game?!?!

Baseball Season in Chicago...I guess I'd better get used to it...

Who's this big guy behind us?

Does anyone see the cougar creeping up behind us? Scary!

The Joys of Being a Nursing/Working Mom

Someday, I'm going to write my own book about being a nursing mom going back to work.  It will probably have a specific section on the school environment.  Every book I've read so far on the subject has had really good advice about maintaining a connection with your baby, the benefits of adequate hydration, and pumping tips.  They recommend sleeping with your baby so that you maintain enough physical contact with her even though you're gone all day so that your supply doesn't drop off.  (They don’t mention that this means "sleeping through the night" is still a long way off…) They tell you to get relaxed, find a quiet place, free from distractions and focus on your baby to help with the let down response.  Which is great to get you started and all, but what happens when you're in the trenches, so to speak, and difficulties arise?  Wouldn't you like some advanced warning of pitfalls to avoid?  I had a few particularly trying weeks leading up to Spring Break.  Can you tell?  As you may know, I have my little nook at school that I use as my pumping room.  It is a "room" that goes by many names: 4^th grade storage closet, elevator room, special ed testing room, physical therapy overflow room, and the list goes on.  It has bins of books, a silver insulated conduit, the door for the elevator, and no lock on the exterior door.  Needless to say, I am not the sole user of said closet.  It has become a well known fact that before school, sometime between 9:35-10:45, late lunchtime, and right after school are the times when I will be occupying this room.  3 out of the 4 do not cause a problem.  The mid-morning pump is the culprit because it changes depending on the day of the week.  I can't just leave to pump whenever I feel like it.  I have to wait until my kids are gone to a special like music or gym.  Wednesday is the day we have our IEP meetings and is also a day that there is an extra sub in the building so that our special ed teachers can attend the meetings or get testing of kids done.  Unfortunately my little room is the only available space Wednesday morning to use for that testing.  Now I have all of the special ed dept interested in when I'll be pumping.  When they say a nursing mom loses all modesty, it is true in so many more ways than you can imagine.

 ISATs were particularly fun.  Not only was I stressed, but my schedule was all shifted around.  One morning I went to pump, only to discover that the special ed teacher was giving a make-up ISAT in the hallway right outside my little room!  Here is a glimpse at my inner monologue…"Well crap!  My pump is being held hostage!  I can't go back there while he's working on his ISAT, especially if they finally got him to work on it…And he gets extended time!  Double crap!  When did they start?  I can wait until 10:30 and still have enough time to knock this out before my kids come back from art at 10:45…."  Luckily as I was sneaking in at 10:30 to surreptitiously snatch my pump and find some other closet to hide in, they were just finishing.  So I was able to use my little room.  I quickly got set up and down to business when on the other side of my door, yes the one that doesn't lock, I heard our school psychologist say "I think we'll be ok working back here…"  ACK!  Now I have a former student doing his IEP update testing right outside my door!  AND he's ADHD so I really don’t want to distract him.  The last thing I want to hear is "Hey Mrs. Moore!  What's that?"    I'm trapped!!!  Luckily I summoned all of my ninja skills and waited by the door until I heard him end a subtest with "I don't know that one,"  and slid silently behind him and through a side door into my room.  He never even knew I was there!  Whew! 

That same afternoon I was back there after school and was in the middle of pumping when I heard my name being literally screamed in my classroom.  Now when a child screams my name, I go running in crisis mode.  I literally take off the cones, drip all over my pants, pull up one shirt, pull down the other, and run back into my classroom to find the 5 year old little brother of one of my students who had been out sick and his mother.  They wanted to pick up his homework.  Yeah, that was worth screaming…I don’t think that she caught what was happening, but she wanted to stop and chat and I was very short with her since I was still leaking.

And then there are the other times when you just throw your hands in the air and say "I guess it's just not going to happen today!" like the day of our practice lockdown with the police.  I was just sitting down to get started, when I hear "We are in lockdown!" come over the intercom.  SO I quickly put myself back together and duck into the nearest room, which happens to the social worker's room, only slightly larger than my pumping closet.  Since there are windows in the door, she and I and the three first graders she was meeting with had to huddle in her "closet" (read: room with just enough space to lock up her file cabinet).  Did I mention that this was the group who does not know how to stop talking?  Literally, that's why they see her.   Trying keep them quiet was quite the challenge.  The ridiculousness of the situation was not lost on me.  More recently my principal has begun to tell me when the top-secret fire drills are going to be happening, so I don't get caught unawares.

I spend a little over an hour of my time at school in this little utility room trying to relax and make enough milk to get Keira through her next day while simultaneously worrying that it's not going to be enough.  She is growing so fast and wanting more and more and I just can't keep up!  I had always heard that nursing was hard for a lot of women for physical reasons and that I get because it wasn't easy for us to get started either.  Luckily we managed it, but I had no idea how hard it was going to be to maintain it once I went back to work.  Honestly, if my day-care provider and principal were not both former La Leche League group leaders who have cheerfully encouraged me and helped me figure everything out, I doubt I would have made it this long.  The experts are recommending a full year of breast-feeding, but I am not surprised that many do not make it to that point if they are not stay at home moms.  I often wonder if this is going to be the week where I just can't get it all done.

Traveling with baby

We took our first long distance vacation with Keira when we traveled to LA for her Uncle Denny's wedding.  She handled the flights as well as could be expected.  She had a head cold and cried for the first half an hour of each flight until we reached cruising altitude and her ears stopped popping.  We tried the whole nursing during take-off trick, but on the way out we sat in line on the runway to take off and she was done nursing by the time we took off.  On the way back we pushed back her feeding so that she could just make it until we took off, and then our flight got delay 45 minutes.  She handled the airports like a pro and with the checked luggage it wasn't too bad.  She slept through the rest of all the flights, even a stop over in Denver!  In LA it was a little more stressful because we were trying to mesh her schedule with other people's schedule for the wedding.  Also, J.R. was the best man and had responsibilities of his own, so she and I were on our own for part of the weekend.  I'm sure I was being a bit paranoid and over-protective in a strange town, but can you blame me?  It's kind of my role now… With the exception of not wanting to go to sleep at all during the reception (we were up until 11:30 Cali time!) she managed to stay her normal happy chill self through all of her schedule changes.  We are so lucky!

4 1/2 month checkup 2/23/09

16 ½ in head circumference

height  25 ¾ in

weight 17 lbs.

 

We had to wait two weeks to go in for her vaccinations because we were out of town for the wedding in LA and she was still getting over her head cold when we got back.  I really didn't want to overload her immune system by giving her the vaccines while she was still sick.  This of course has thrown off our entire schedule of doctor visits, so we won't be going in again (knock-on-wood) until May.  I had to take her in for her vaccines by myself and it was awful!  They line up a nurse on either side and ask you to hold her still while they simultaneously poke her little thighs with big needles.  Those of you who know me well understand my aversion to needles going into me.  It is worse when they are going into your baby and you have to hold her down for it! 

 

SHE'S HUGE!

We just got back from Keira's first official birthday party.  My girlfriend's daughter just turned one and we simply had to celebrate.  The scariest thing was that Victoria and Keira are the same size.  Same weight, similar height, the only difference is that Victoria is pulling herself up and walking around tables, while Keira can't quite master sitting up.  I am raising a giant.  Thought you should know.  

PS- Keira wore her favorite party dress from Jackie & Jane's.  It's pink and green plaid, very Jackie O, and a size 6-12 months!  We had trouble getting her arms through the bodice....

Success!

So far daycare is good.  Keira had a good morning.  The ladies there seemed very nice.  One of them has a daughter Keira's age who is also there.  She went through 1 set of clothes, 2 bottles, and 3 bibs, played on the floor with some toys, and relaxed in the swing.  She didn't fuss at all and was sound asleep when I picked her up.  We went and had lunch with Daddy, and she was all smiles.  And the best news of all, Mommy held it together and didn't cry once, not even when I had to hand her off!  And she got a lot of work done at school today!  Yay!

Daycare

This has been a lovely long weekend, full of family cuddles, a friend's wedding, and a visit from Uncle Gavin & Aunt Laura. But on Monday Keira starts at her daycare center. Many of you may be thinking, "But Col, don't you have the day off?" Yes, I do, but we thought it would be good to do a dry run where I could go pick her up midday. I'm sure she'll be fine, but Mommy may need to cut the day short. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I know she'll be okay and is near to JR if anything goes wrong. On the other hand, I've gotten really spoiled having family be able to take care of her for so long. The amount of preparation necessary each morning is a little daunting, and I'm not sure how much more stress I'll feel knowing that she is with strangers. The level of trust is much lower right now. But there are some things that make me feel slightly better. The place we are leaving her is run by a former nurse, who took time off to run a daycare for her daughter's children out of her home. It grew and grew and now they are in a separate building with about forty kids 0-3. The nursery area, which is in a separate room, is run by her daughter and they maintain a 1-3 ratio, even though the state only requires 1-4. The other cool thing is that they have an agreement with Elmhurst College and often have their Early Childhood students working with them for their contact hours. The other great thing is that my mom has been able to take two days off each week to stay home with Keira, so the daycare is only for three days. I'll let you all know how it goes...

She's getting so big

Every time I look down I swear she's gotten bigger.  Especially her hands.  When she was born, she could barely fit her hand around my pinkie.  Now, she can easily grab any of my fingers all the way around.  She is also starting to grab for things she wants, like bright rattles and her quilt.  Although she hasn't quite figured out all the mechanics of it yet, she is making progress.  She puts her hand out and then leans her entire body forward until she can get what she wants.  Super cute!  I just can't believe how quickly she's getting bigger.  Each day there are more outfits that don't fit.  She is already out of all her 0-3 month clothes, the 3-6 months fit just about right, and we even reach into the 6-9 month drawer in a pinch!  Crazy!