The day Ethan was born

Here are a few pics and videos from the day Ethan was born at our house.

Ethan on my chest in the first hour or so after being born.


Kira meeting Ethan for the first time when she woke up that morning. She was soooo happy and excited!




Kira's "big sister skirt" from Grandma Val. She loves it!




Kira eating "big sister cake", a piece of cake leftover from a cake I made and hid from her a few days before the birth. I can't recall ever seeing Kira eat something so ravenously.


I still haven't put up any really good face shots of Ethan on the interwebs. I have some on my camera and will try to get them transferred and uploaded soon.

A couple snippets

Me: Can I have a piece of corn?
Kira: Yes.
Me: [eats corn]
Kira: Spit it out.
Me: No, I'm not going to spit it out. That's dirty and yucky.
Kira: [spits to show me how to do it]
Me: No, I'm not going to spit it out. You gave it to me!
Kira: [cries]

Me: Do you want to eat noodles?
Kira: Yes, I do.
Me: Do you want cold noodles or warm noodles?
Kira: I farted. Excuse me. Warm noodles.

What I have done for the last hour

I lay on the floor next to Kira's bed and read or surf the Net while Kira falls asleep. Today was a typical bad time trying to fall asleep. I didn't start writing down what she was saying until the last 20 minutes. At that point I was bored and figured, "Hey, I might as well just write up a transcript."

Ready, go! Row row row row, merry merry merry merry. Ready, go! Row row row row, merry merry merry merry, merry merry, merry merry, merry merry, merry merry, merry merry, merry merry... Good job! Good job Kira! Baby, [unintelligible]....... A B C... I see you! I see you! I see you! I see you! I see you! I see you! I see you! I see you baby! Rain rain, rain rain, rain rain, rain rain, rain rain, rain rain, rain rain, rain rain, rain rain, rain rain...... where'd monkey go? kisses!...... blanket on! blanket on! blanket on! [I put on her blanket] Binky! [I locate binky and put it in her mouth]...... do dee do dee do dee do dee... hey. hey! hey hey hey. cry, cry... do dee do dee do dee do dee... Happy birthday! Happy Grandma! Happy Chad! Happy Chad Grandma! Happy birthday Chad! Happy Chad! Happy choo choo! [whispering] Dada sad. Mama sad. [sings] Dada sad. I sleep. Dada sleeping. I'm happy to see you. Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!... Where's bear. I want bear. I want bear. [I go get bear] [giggles manically] Thank you. Thank you [drops binky] I drop it. [I put binky back in mouth]...... mm hmm. mm hmm. mm hmm. Hair. In mouth. Hair mouth. Hair mouth. Hair mouth. [I pull hair out of her mouth] I roll. I roll. Monkey there. Monkey right there [whiney]... [Me: Go to sleep!] Sleep. Sleep! Sleep, sleep. Sleep...... Waterfalls? No waterfalls? Okay. Waterfalls? No waterfalls. No applesauce. Mess, mess mess. Mess mess mess. mama mess. Mess mess mess mess. I miss. Grandma mess. I'm happy to see you! Happy birthday! Happy birthday! Chad. Swing, swing. No pizza. No pizza Grandma. [whispering]...... I pee pee. I pee pee. I bouncing! Dada... mama... [Me: Kira go to sleep!] [whispering] I sleep mama. I sleep....... One, two, three. Run, run. Running running running. Up down. Up down! Sleep, sleep. Baby day! Sleeping. Sleep. I sleeping pillow.... Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! I fall. Oh no! Lay down... [whispering] Right there. Night night. Night night. Sleep sleep... Oopsy oopsy. mmm mmm. mmmmmmm. Right there. Right there!... Binky! My binky! [I change her diaper, she says a bunch of stuff and laughs really hard. Me: Go to sleep!]... I bite. I bite!!! Wheeeeee. WWwwwhheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! No no no! No no no! No no no! No no no! No no no! No no no! No no no! No no no! No no no! No no no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. Swing swing swing. Swing swing swing. Swing swing swing. Swing swing swing.........Good song. Good song! Good song! Good song! [whispering to animals] Sleep? sleep?... Merry merry............ [laughs]...[yawns]......[falls asleep]

Some recent vids

From about a month ago (we don't eat baby food like this anymore)


Tonight in the snow, grouchy after no nap

A few pictures

Dada and baby


A special bowl just for artichoke dip


Kira and Papa


Pretty hair


Playing with water


Mama and Kira and their dots

What Kira does when she thinks she's alone

This story is going to start out kind of gross, and for that I apologize. Just don't use your imagination. I'll keep the language general to protect our gentle readers.

Kira made a special kind of mess in the bathtub this evening. This is the second day of this in a row. I was frustrated, but explained to Kira that I had to clean the bathtub and bath toys again and why. I needed a minute, so after I got Kira dried, diapered, and dressed, I told her to play with her toys in her room, and that I would be in the bathroom cleaning her bathtub. I locked the bathroom door so I could keep Kira away from the biohazard zone.

I think she played for a few minutes, but then I heard something from the kitchen. I said, "Kira?" and heard no response. I sighed and washed my hands. I opened the door and checked Kira's room, which was empty. I continued down the hallway to the kitchen.

Kira was kneeling on a kitchen chair in front of the cookie bin on the kitchen table. She had opened it, took out a little red star cookie that she knew she liked, and had taken a very small bite of it that she was still chewing on when I surprised her. She wasn't expecting me, that's for sure. I told her she wasn't allowed to have any cookies, and I put the nibbled cookie back in the bin. She didn't even protest. I think she felt she made out with just that one nibble.

She's a super fun, super ornery little girl. I'm sure she'll just get more fun and more ornery.

New tricks

Kira has learned a few new tricks to get her way, and while they are endearing, it is clear she will soon outsmart her mother and me :) Team parents may outnumber team Kira 2:1, but she is in no way daunted by this.

She has already begun attempting to pit us against each other. If one of us does something she disagrees with, or doesn't want to do, she immediately asks for the other. There is no subtlety in her method. It is clear that the offending parent has just failed to make passing marks, been dropped from future consideration, and the replacement is already late for the job. No one is as demanding as someone who doesn't know that it is indeed possible to not get their way :)