Silly Shenanigans

We just got home last night from a too short, fun-filled trip to visit my family in TN and to celebrate the 2nd birthday of my sweet niece, Emma. Isn't she just precious?? I have to admit that it has been SOO hard to pick which pictures to post of our trip, so I'm going to go ahead and link to the entire album - videos and all!

Here is the birthday girl getting a head start on the celebrating...
Dancing on the table!
Isn't that a precious cake her mama made for her?
Look, being a princess is not all that easy. It takes a lot of hard work!
An AWE-filled birthday
Grammy & her girl
Pizza, cake & apple juice... quite a birthday feast for a little princess!
Nummy!!
Yay, presents! Emma got the most awesome kitchen ever from her mommy & daddy and a pretty adorable apron (from this lovely vendor) from a certain auntie, uncle & baby cousin...
And what did a Baby Kumquat do while her big cousin opened presents? Why, she sat in cousin's chair and had a snack, of course!
And let's not forget this sweet baby sissy...
Big girl teaching her little cousin how to cook

The fun continued the following day when we went to the greatest park ever. Seriously. It was amazing. It had LOADS of equipment, a splash pad, a lovely layout, and a Starbucks. What more could you possibly want?
An amazingly gorgeous day? Check.
Sweet girls to play with? Check.
Silly girls who always make me laugh? Definitely check!

On the Road Again - or - A Few of My Favorite Things

So, I've taken a bit of a blogging vacation. I've definitely taken a bit of a travel vacation. We're nearing the end of the end of the longest travel-plan-free spell we've had since we hit the road again after the baby was born. What have I been doing since we haven't been traveling? Honestly, I don't know. I suspect it somehow involves lots of playtime with a certain little girl, but seriously - where has the past month gone? From the state of things, I can tell you what I have NOT been doing: blogging, cleaning my house, working out, filling in K's baby book and responding to emails in a timely manner. Yup, I suck.

Anywho... We're hitting the road again soon, so I'm starting to think about our past trips and all those little friends of mine who have made my life a bit easier. If you've read this blog for long, you know that we're a jet-setting family who travels to exotic locations like Midland, TX, Sioux Falls, SD, and Clarksville, TN. Look at all the places we've been since DKG & I found out we were expecting a little Kumquat!

Source:create your own personalized map of the USA or check out our California travel guide

So far (knock on wood), she has been an amazing traveler. I certainly don't claim to be an expert on traveling with a baby, but I am an expert on traveling with a Baby Kumquat. I've had quite a few mama friends ask if I have any travel tips. My #1 tip is to have a happy, joyful, laid-back, easy-going baby who sleeps well and loves to cuddle close to her mama (especially when she's stuck in her mama's lap on a plane for 3 hours).

So, how about some things that that we actually have control over? There are some products I've found that do make our traveling days a little easier. Since I'm forever in the debt of many mommy friends who have shared their favorite products with me, I thought I'd return the favor and share my favorite things for traveling.

1. Chic & Cozy Blanket Bag by ChicTots.
   The first time I flew with the baby girl, I carried a big, heavy backpack stuffed with everything I thought I could possibly need. I really did use most everything in that bag, but boy was it heavy! For our last flight, I packed the backpack, but also brought this blanket bag along and used it to carry everything I'd need to have handy while we were on the plane or in the airport. As you can see, it came in handy once we were at the hotel and had a long wait while Lola took care of getting us checked in. Perfect for a picnic!
   
   
2. Changing Wallet by Skip*Hop
   I bet you think this is a diaper-changing wallet, don't you? Apparently the folks at Skip*Hop think so, too. But me? For me, it's an awesome way to organize all the odds & ends I need to feed a Kumquat on the go. I do use a diaper wallet for travel (this one, to be exact), but I have found that the Skip*Hop one is great for food. I usually bring a couple containers of baby food*, some spoons**, bibs***, snacks, table covers, wipes & extra ziploc bags in it.
   *I usually either make Baby K's food or use pre-made organic frozen food, but that doesn't travel so well. For travel, I use Gerber Organics. I'd prefer Earth's Best, but the glass jars are heavier for traveling with than Gerber's plastic ones.
   **I use the take & toss kind for travel because sometimes it's just easier not to worry about cleaning the spoons all of the time. I do always keep 2 Ziploc's in the bag - one for clean spoons & one for dirty.
   ***I usually bring one real bib, but mostly use disposables. I've found through trial and error (mostly error) that bibs can go awry in the luggage if they're not cleaned and dried very thoroughly before packing.
   
   
3. My Little Seat
   
   
   I think one of the most difficult things about staying in a hotel with a baby is feeding her. Most hotel rooms don't come with a highchair, you know. I've also found - especially in Vegas - that so many highchairs in restaurants are broken. This lovely little highchair sling is awesome. It folds to about the size of a diaper. It's easy to use and as long as you can tie a knot, the baby is quite secure! I've even used it at home when the regular cover on K's highchair was in the wash.
   
   
4. My Buddies, Robeez
   Baby K loves to stand. She pulls herself up on everything. In preparation for our last flight, I imagined the little girl standing in the airport, on the airport carpeting, with her sweet, soft little baby feet and had only one thought... eew! I wanted to make sure we had something on her feet that would stay put. When she was younger (and it was cooler), I'd just dress her in a sleeper for a flight. But we were flying to Vegas and it was supposed to be well over 100. So, we needed shoes. I'd heard these shoes are way hard for kids to remove and it's true! So far, our little Houdini has not gotten them off on her own. She also doesn't seem to mind that they're on her feet. Oh, and have I mentioned that they're so. stinkin'. cute?! (And isn't Baby K??)
   
   
5. Fiddlesticks!
   I've recently become a fan of Plum Organics. I have to admit that I don't love their frozen baby food as much as Happy Baby's, but I really love their Fiddlesticks and Mish Mash. Fiddlesticks are basically like teething biscuits, but not as messy. I'm continuously searching for healthy snacks for us to take on the go and these two are my current favorites. I thought the Mish Mash (like Gogurt, but just fruit and easier for little ones) might be too advanced for my Baby Kumquat, but we tried it for the first time this morning and she was able to feed herself very easily. That's my goal, after all. (And that's for entirely noble, good-parent reasons like encouraging her self-sufficiency, independence, and sense of competence which will then lead to a healthy self-esteem and positive attitude towards the word and has absolutely nothing to do with the face that once she can feed herself, I can do other things... like eat.)

So there you have it! A few of my favorite (traveling) things! Hopefully these guys will continue to help us have happy trails. I'll keep you posted!

Welcome Baby Paul!

A warm welcome to the newest member of the family... my nephew and godson, Paul! We love him already and I just can't wait to see him next month and kiss his sweet little toes off!

-- A Mobile Post

Remembering 9/11

It was one of those moments when you automatically knew you would always remember the day it happened and what you were doing when you heard. The Challenger Disaster was the first experience I'd had with this in my life (we were in Sr. John's 3rd grade class listening to the launch on the radio... yep, I'm that old!), but we all knew right away that this was huge. Here are my memories of that day...

I was working in Admissions at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Over the summer, we'd had a tropical storm, which flooded caused a "high water incident" in Texas Medical Center and destroyed the Admissions Office. After several moves, we took up residence in a cubbyhole office in the Department of Internal Medicine. That's where I was when my co-worker's boyfriend called and said that "something bad was happening" and we should find a TV. We did find one down the hall and got there just in time to see the first tower collapse.

I returned to my office and called my mom, who hadn't heard anything yet. My youngest brother was in the 82nd Airborne Division & they were on field alert status, which means they had to be ready to ship out within 24 hours (or something like that - sorry if I have that wrong, Kev!). My mom was immediately panicking saying, "He's gone, he's gone. They've already gone, I'm sure." It seems funny now - 2 deployments later - that the idea of his deploying was so terrifying. But it was.

By the afternoon, all of the "non-essential" (basically non-medical) people in the Medical Center were being sent home. Probably because no one was really interested in working anyway. I remember riding the bus home & seeing all of the emergency vehicles stationed in the Med Center... just in case.

DKG (who was home because he'd had a bad needle stick the day before and had to get HIV testing & preemptive HIV meds) and I watched the news in my apartment in Houston for the rest of the day. There was lots of concern in the news about whether or not Houston would be attacked, as I'm sure there was everywhere else. They were worried about the oil refineries being terrorist targets and there were people evacuating the city. The shock, fear and grief was overwhelming. I remember thinking that nothing would ever be the same, that some previously unacknowledged sense of safety and security was gone forever.

There's a passage from Rilla of Ingleside (one of the Anne of Green Gables novels) I thought of immediately...

In March of the year of grace 1918 there was one week into which must have crowded more of searing human agony than any seven days had ever held before in the history of the world. And in that week there was one day when all of humanity seemed nailed to the cross; on that day the whole planet must have been agroan with universal convulsion; everywhere the hearts of men were failing them for fear.

What were you doing on September 11, 2001?

Ten Months!

It's true! As of yesterday, the Baby Kumquat is 10 months old! Cr-azy. What's also crazy is all the stuff she's started doing in the last few weeks. Let's see if I can hit some highlights:

• She is a signing machine! I love it. She started signing "milk" almost as soon as we began doing the sign language thing when she was around 7 mos. It took a while for many others to catch on, but now she's all over it. Some of the ones she uses often (that I've recognized, anyway) are: "more," "all done," "fish," "ball," "shoe," "hat," "dog," "wash hands," and "dad."
  
  
• She's talking more and more every day. It's funny to me how she gets and loses words. She'll start with a new word and use it regularly, but then stop for a while. Over the past few weeks, she's used "duck," "dog," "cat," "uh-oh," "bye," "mama," and "dada."
  
  
• She's all over the place, too. She has gotten super quick with her crawling - and she's now doing a more traditional right-left crawl rather than her earlier inchworm moves. She pulling up and cruising all over the house. She seems to have lost interest in walking for the moment, but I have a feeling that won't last for long. She used to take a few steps if I held her hands. Now she usually just sits down. She has stood for a few seconds without any support a few times, too!
  
  
  Oh, and she's a dancing queen, too.
  
  
  
• She eats so well. I'm very lucky that she's been pretty open to most everything I've tried giving her. She definitely does not prefer the green veggies, but she'll eat them if I'm persistent. She totally ♥'s cheese. It's basically her favorite thing ever. She recently has decided that she would much rather feed herself than wait for her mama to feed her mush with a spoon. Oh, and she's quite generous. She's more than happy to share her puffs with me.
  
  
• She's still a great traveler, although I think our recent trip to and through South Dakota may have traumatized her just a bit. She was awesome on the trip, but for about a week, she cried every time we put her in her carseat. Hopefully she'll get over that soon. Her summer has included trips to SD, TN, Las Vegas, and MO. Busy girl! I recently counted them up and realized Baby K will be in at least 11 states by her first birthday. Now that's crazy!
  

I've always been fascinated by people's thought processes (part of why I became a counselor), so that's exponentially true for my daughter. I love that she's signing & talking more because I've been able to have more insights into how she's beginning to understand the world. It truly amazes me how much babies pick up. Yesterday we were singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" (yep, she does motions for it - oh, and she claps & waves now, too!) she signed "wash hands" when I said, "washed the spider out." Impressive, no?

Funny story... When we were in SD, Baby K was able to say "cat" and she used it both for my bro's kitties and for her own stuffed kitty. When we came home, though, she seemed to forget that those critters are "cats" and started calling ours "dog." Given Connor's size and mass, it's a totally understandable mistake. I've been trying to correct her when she calls them dog, though. It happens often.
The other day, she pointed to Connor and said "Dog."
I said, "No, Baby. He's a cat."
K looked at me like I clearly was insane and signed "hat."
"No, Baby. Not 'hat.' Connor's a 'cat.'"
"Dog," said K, as she signed "hat."

So, that's our "cat" for now. A dog who wears a hat.