Christmas 2010

Mabel had quite an exciting Christmas. Lots of things to open, to see, push around.


The jack in the box has been a battery free hit that Mabel can't quite work for herself yet:

Formal Santa pic

Pic from the pro (guy with the lights):

Enter the potty

Who knows when it'll see regular and appropriate use, but Mabel and I selected a potty today.

And she sat herself on it all alone. And then tried to carry it through the story. And asked for it some of the ride home.

Santa

This morning after breakfast, Mabel got dressed up and we all headed downtown for some time with Santa.


We weren't sure if Mabel would cry or not, something pretty typical for the age. Some kids a few in front of us in line lost it and had to have their parents hold them in place. Mabel did very well, but started acting really meek:


Afterward we stopped by a book store with a nice kids' area for Mabel to hang out.


What else is new...Mabel is climbing:


And she has been hitting us and the dogs a bit. She has racked up her first couple timeouts, something that we think will be pretty frequent based on her genetic stubbornness.

Third Anniversary

A rainy Wednesday, and today was our third anniversary. Three years ago, we were on a beach.
Some flowers and a good bottle of wine then off to dinner while Mabel hung out at home with the nanny.

Dinner at Anchovies and Olives, on Bon Appétit’s Ten Best List for 2010 and close to our old townhouse. Started with some Kumamoto oysters with scallion mignonette and hamachi with orange & pine nut gremolata and a dill aïoli. Then bigoli pasta with anchovies, chilies, and pangrattato, a risotto with sweet potato, mussels, and oregano, and yellowfin tuna with fregola pasta, orange, fennel, and sultanas. Dessert was a pear almond cake and an espresso semifreddo.

Delicious and relaxing.

Christmas tree

Our first Christmas tree in the new house. A log bigger than we've had before and Mabel is really interested in it. Mabel likes to show us the ornaments Kate put on low branches, and then leave them somewhere in the house.

Catching up

Finally found the card reader for the little camera...

When people were out for Thanksgiving, we took Mabel to a nearby community center so she could play in the gym:


We also hit the aquarium with some friends. This time Mabel was a lot of interested in looking at fish than before, which makes it a bit more fun.

Post-turkey

We had grandma Muzzey and Mabel's uncle Dale out for parts of Thanksgiving week. As soon as they arrived the snow started to fall.
Mabel has been very busy lately. She is into everything lately, walking around, pushing carts, reading books, talking, climbing. It has been a lot of fun and she was more than happy to show-off for our visitors. Today was the first window in the weather and we took the pups to the dog park - after making sure the Buckeyes had their game wrapped up that is...



Just as the turkey was heading into the oven a pipe burst outside the house. Annoying. With every hardware store in town closed, I crimped and hurridly (mostly) soldered the line shut until stores opened early Friday. Fortunately the right part was $1 and things were fixed. I picked up a number of other caps and hope to not need them anytime soon.

15 month check-up

Mabel is 15 months old today and had a doctor visit to confirm it.
Findings are that she is a healthy baby weighing 25 lb 5 oz. and 31.25 inches tall, putting her in the 85 percentile overall. With a heckuva a belly, which she'll gladly show people who ask to see it.

The past couple days in particular she has been very interested in her doll. Carrying her around, undressing her and trying to put her clothes back on - normally looks like smothering the doll's face, or wrapping her up. Very cute. Says "baby" and "doll" most of the time with her. Mabel has also gotten interested in being pushed around the house in her umbrella stroller, letting us know by trying to climb into it. A nice circuit layout on the first floor and big obstacles like tables and the dogs make it pretty funny to run her around.

Halloween 2010

Porcupine!

Lasagna

Mabel is generally quite good. She says "hi" a lot. She walks everywhere. She likes to take Ama's dog bowl up the stairs.

Last night was an exception, where she spent some of the night throwing up lasagna in her crib. And then on me. And then on Kate. She had two baths and nobody slept well. Today she was fine and happy to nap.

Lasagna = bad and messy. Will be a long time before she has it again.

A tree and two stumps

We had a big tree in our backyard - a big nasty tree. Sure it looked alright, but it was messy and too big for the yard. And I'm a little sad it is gone. But not too much.





I'll be patching the fence and attempting to straighten it out this weekend. Eventually we'll be putting in a few more appropriate, lower maintenance, less gutter choking trees.

We also had a big stump in our tiny front yard removed. No pics of that, because it was even more boring than this.

Armed and dangerous

1 year old pro pics

We just received our 1 year old pro shots of Mabel.


Click on picture for a slideshow (opens in a new tab)

Family reunited

Kate and Mabel are back home from their weekend in Chicago. Kate had a nice time seeing lots of friends and Mabel got to meet a number of our friends' kids. Not a lot of pictures from the trip to share (that's normally my role). Great to have the ladies home; I'd really missed them.


Insulation went well and all holes are now painted and very difficult to pick out from even a few feet away. Inside, the house is quieter. We haven't been in the house long enough to have a meaningful heating bill history, but we'll assume they'll be lower. And we'll be more comfortable in the summer and winter. On to the next house project...

Bachelor weekend

Kate and Mabel are on a trip to Chicago for Kate's birthday weekend. I was left behind to entertain the dogs and to oversee the completion of our house insulation. A crew is showing up Thursday and Friday to drill lots of holes in the exterior of the house and to blow insulation into our 100% empty walls. Promises of more comfort and lower bills along with it being a bit quieter...will see. I suspect much of my weekend will involve dealing with the many, many 1" holes.

House feels empty and quiet, even with the newest Deerhunter album blasting. Next on the playlist is the newish Grinderman. I don't get much music in at night anymore, gotta catch up.

Applesauce

Mabel has been getting more and more interested in using a spoon for herself. And sometimes even gets some food in her mouth.

Mabel Update

M is doing well these days. Her eyes remain goop free since her procedure which makes everyone happy. We have just been out an about this week visiting with her baby friends. All the babies are still too young to actually play together, but at least now they realize there are other babies in the room. The weather has been great so we have been out at the park almost every day.

She is big into animal sounds. Her repertoire includes dog, cat, duck, snake, elephant, bear, lizard, owl, penguin, sheep, cow, and pig. We are pretty sure we have the next Dr Doolittle on our hands.

She is also improving with her signing. She now signs more, please, milk and fish very consistently. Next up is Thank you.

As for speaking, she has started saying Cheese really clearly. Of course, it's a food word.

House projects

We are now scheduled to have the attic insulated on Thursday (10/7) and the exterior walls insulated the following Thursday when Kate and Mabel are off in Chicago. I can understand why there was not much insulation in the attic and none in the walls when the house was built, 100 years ago. I have a harder time understanding how/why all subsequent owners (of which we're the 7th since 1993) didn't see fit to improve things. Well, we are trying at least.

Other projects we're going to be setting up in the near future - plumbing overhaul, including changing our gas water heater over to a tankless one, and having a big messy tree in the backyard removed.

Kate's 5k and other news

Mabel and I cheered Kate on for a 5k this morning. Really nice weather made the it a fun time for everyone. Kate even finished with a smile.

Pre-race warm-up:


Finish line:


In other news, Mabel got a cool Dora car for her birthday from her cousins and like to cruise around with it:


We had the electrical wiring in our house updated during the week. The old (old) wiring didn't allow for us to insulate our attic, so with that fixed, time to schedule the next bit of work before it gets any colder.

Eyeballs

M is doing well today. She woke up with just a tiny crusty in one eye but they have stayed clear all day. It is crazy how different her eyes look already. I guess I am so used to seeing them full of tears that aren't draining, to see them operating correctly looks weird. She is bright eyed, literally, and bushy tailed.

She and I made it through day one of our five days without Brett. We went to visit a friend today who gave us some photos she had taken at her child's birthday party. One was a picture of Brett and Mabel. I let M carry that pic around all day today and she kept smiling at it saying "dada." The picture is pretty grimy now, but grimy with love.

All done

Mabel did great, playing and loving some raisins already. Her right duct was worse than her left and she has some blood from the duct now. Should clear up in the next day or so. Some eye drops and hoping we don't need to repeat or have tubes put in.

Moving on.

Pre-procedure anxiety

Parents are on edge today as we wait for Mabel's eye procedure this afternoon.

Problem and procedure (link)

Except that the doctor will be attempting the procedure with Mabel restrained and awake.

Eyes and Teeth

Mabel went to the eye doctor yesterday, had her eyes dilated, and her tear ducts looked at. One seems fine, while the other will require medical intervention. She has an appointment for this coming Wednesday where they'll attempt to open the duct without putting Mabel under. Will have to see how that plays out as she is pretty strong.

Mabel went to the dentist this morning and things look fine. Got a new toothpaste and toothbrush. We should stop giving her milk outside of meals. Before sending her off, we loaded her up with pancakes and blueberries, both of which she ate while roaming the kitchen.

Mabel's first haircut

When Mabel was born with a head of hair, we weren't too surprised. After a little over a year, her hair was long enough to necessitate some attention.













And her hair in front is in a tucked pony-tail - we didn't have her bangs removed.

In other news, Kate and I are through the worst of whatever we had and were upright and moving today. An unpleasant 24+ hours.

Illness migration

Mabel is feeling a lot better.
Kate is feeling a lot worse.

Hopefully the bug leaves her as quickly as it did Mabel. And maybe it could skip me - it seems pretty unpleasant.

Illness

Mabel has some manner of virus that has her stomach out of wack. She got sick in her crib last night and didn't keep breakfast down. Kate took her to the doctor and Mabel is now enjoying Pedialyte as she tries to kick this bug.

Zoo

We skipped swim class today and took Mabel to the zoo. We weren't there for all that long, but did get to see the hippos and stopped to see some goats.


And stood in their food bowl:


Didn't pet these goats:

1 year checkup

I took M to the doctor today for her 1 year checkup. She weighs 24 lbs, is just over 30 inches tall and has a big ol' melon. Her stats put her in the 90th percentile across the board. Her head has been 90th since the moment she was born. Her weight has been 90th also, except for her 9 month checkup where it dropped to 85th. Her height has been increasing though. She started out in the 50th percentile at birth, was 75th at 9 months and now is 90th. Our little bubba is growing like a weed!

She also got 2 more shots and a toe prick to get a blood sample. All standard. M was not happy about the shots this time. Not even baby music videos on the iPhone could keep her from screaming. But she survived.

We also got a referral for a pediatric ophthalmologist as M's tear ducts are still plugged. We'll see what needs to happen re: surgery once we meet with them.

Mabel's First Birthday Party

This past Saturday we rented a little party room at a nearby park to celebrate Mabel's first birthday with friends and one set of grandparents.

Birthday girl

On the 12th Mabel turned 1.

Her first gift was well received:



Her party is today.

Lots of pictures to come, once we get a little bit of down time.

It walks!

First few steps, right into Kate's arms. Repeated a few times.

Signs

When Mabel was maybe 4 months old we got a sign language DVD for babies. Since we don't watch TV with Mabel, that DVD was a rare treat and one that she would watch for almost 1 minute before losing interest. And we pretty much gave up on the DVD but since we try to repeat some of the signs along with whatever is going on...

At this point we have pretty consistent signs from Mabel for "milk" and "more". Encouraging. Maybe it's time to give that DVD another spin.



Kate spent much of the weekend baking for Mabel's upcoming birthday. She also got Mabel a new car seat that faces forward. I gave slow cooking some ribs a shot and they turned out great. Pretty easy too with a nice smoke ring from the apple wood smoke.

Post-Housewarming

Party was a success. Nice turnout, good weather, food was edible. House survived.

On to the birthday preparation!
Mabel's paternal grandparents will be out in just over a week for the festivities.

Next up we're going to look at getting some house projects started like updated electrical, plumbing, bathroom(s), whatnot. Or at least we'll get a better idea of what will be involved and then deal with what we have for a while. Either way, it is time to call some professionals in for help. Fun stuff.

Busy week

We have been swamped the past week trying to get our house in order for a house warming party this Saturday. We had promised ourselves when we started our house hunt that we would have one and are actually going to follow through. The menu is (mostly) set and some prep work has started, things are relatively clean and hidden away. Hopefully the floors don't give way.

And Mabel wore a cute monkey hat:

Stand Up!

Today Mabel stood on her own for the first time!!!

We were at our mom's group. I was sitting on the ground and M was standing, holding herself up on my bent knee. I was telling a story and, as usual, M wanted to be the center of attention so she let go and just stood there. We all freaked out and started clapping. M plopped to the ground and started clapping too. I almost cried I was so excited.

Seems like walking is really on its way!

Camping: Colonial Creek

We took Mabel out for two nights of car camping in the North Cascades. Everyone had a great time. We met some friends for their last night out and some others joined us for our two. Perfect weather, nice day hike, and some happy babies.

After our day hike:


Car camping allows for a pack'n'play, entertainment not included:


Monster marshmallows:

91 days of water

Shortly after moving into the new house we put a whole house water filter in. That filter had been in for 91 days:


And the replaced filter:


Yuck. Thank you GE for the filter and to Kate's dad for helping to install it.

It climbs

Yard time

Everybody goes outside.

First ice cream

Balsamic Strawberry, just like every baby's first ice cream:

Happy 4th of July

So what all is new with us...

Mabel is weened. We're looking forward to her first birthday and the intro of whole milk so we can stop with formula. Kate is sad and I'm going to quit my job and make my fortune selling formula.

"Words" keep popping up: dog, book, bus,
We've also gotten dada, mom, mama, but never in context so we don't count.

No solo steps yet although we've been close.

An ear infection threw a wrench into our pleasant baby early last week and it wasn't until Thursday that antibiotics came to the rescue. She is feeling/sleeping/eating much better now.

Hoping Mabel takes after Kate and sleeps through the fireworks while I try and keep Mak from freaking out all night.

More Chelan

Hadn't nabbed all the pics off the cameras from Chelan and found a couple nice ones:



Almost ready to stand by herself:

Lake Chelan

We had a couple days this week in central Washington relaxing at Lake Chelan. The weather was a little nicer than Seattle, but not as hot and sunny as I guess it usually is. Mabel and I still had a nice time while Kate took place is some continuing education/legal conference thingy.

Pool floating time:


Mabel almost took her first solo step:


Walking the beach:


And with Kate, who Mabel is looking more and more like:

Tub runner

Started just a few days ago:

One tree down

Our neighbors behind us are getting ready to replace their rotted, worthless fence. Which is nice. As part of that, they offered/asked if they could remove a Hawthorne tree that was growing on our side of the fence. Yes please, as we still have a much larger one for shade and dropping lots and lots of petals and other junk.

Before:


After:


Now to make sure the neighbors build the tallest fence they can.

Woodland Park Zoo

Today I took a day off of work and we could take Mabel to the zoo. Of course our primary reason for the zoo visit was to find some real hippos and see if Mabel liked them in real life. She did.

She even tried to climb over the railing:

One of the hippos we were watching:


We also went to a "farm" part of the zoo where she got to pet a goat, a rabbit, and a donkey. She liked the donkey best and comes by that honestly.


She got a bit low on the rabbit going for the hay it was sitting on:

A minute after we walked out of this area this donkey got really loud and most of the kids near it just froze.


A fun day and we're all pretty tired. Kate and I missed lunch in our excitement and hurry to get Mabel to the zoo in between naps. Good times.