Boyd - 1st birthday

Gabe's camera is awesome! Even a photography novice like myself can take halfway decent images.Gabe and Risha took most of these but I snapped the ones during the cake-eating extravaganza.

My mom and her friends cooked and prepped all morning. The food was delicious! The only way it could have been better is if my Auntie was here to cook - she makes the best Korean food.

Boyd borrowed a traditional Korean outfit for his 1st birthday party. Since then, my mom's friend Yonsil sent him the most beautiful (and expensive) custom outfit, complete with hat and booties. Will have those photos later.

Boyd had an array of symbolic items to choose from and he chose the thread (long life). Next he went for the money (success). Go Boyd!

"I am 1!"

Playing with the hammer from his new tool set, courtesy of Uncle Gabe and Auntie Risha.

Two identical birthday cards! He received many generous gifts - toys, clothes and money for his savings account.

His first birthday cake. I also made cupcakes and cake pops for everyone else.

He wasn't quite sure what to make of this situation.

Once he realized we were going to let him do whatever he wanted, it was GAME ON.

Pretty dainty. No big time cake smashing like we expected.

This was the largest piece he went for. I was worried about him sleeping later that night (since this was the most sugar he had EVER had) but he was fine.

LOVE this photo.

The post-cake bath with Auntie Risha.

Thanks for checking out the photos - quack quack!

Boyd -12 months

A year ago, D and I got up super early to head to the hospital for my scheduled induction. I remember being nervous and a little scared of what was to come, but ever so excited to meet our newest family member. We had no idea what we were in for over the next 12 months! You can read about the birth experience here.

We held a small birthday party last weekend - some photos below. Boyd did really well - smiled like a champ for the camera, took a short nap halfway through the festivities and got up for more partying, and was pretty well behaved.

Updates:

• Boyd has his 1-year appointment on Monday, February 25th. Can't wait to see his stats! He'll also have to get quite a few vaccinations - poor baby.
• We saw him clapping his hands together for the first time this week.
• He still smiles after sneezing- happy kid!
• It's marginally better during diaper changing time, but he would still rather squirm around and be upright.
• Mealtimes are hit or miss around here. Sometimes he'll eat the pureed foods, no problem - and other times they'll end up all over his bib and clothing after he has spit them out. I suspect he prefers finger foods now. Which is fine because we try to feed him whatever we're eating for most meals, minus anything really salty or sugary.
• I shouldn't be surprised by the fact that his first molars are coming in already. He has been way ahead of the curve with all of his teeth, e.g. 8 teeth by 9 months.

Here are a few of my iPhone photos from his Saturday birthday party. Risha and Gabe have quite a few more on their fancy Canon, so I'll post those at a later date...

Traditional Korean outfit for special occasions - birthday, New Year

His shirt says "I am 1"

Yeah, CAKE! He didn't tear into it like I thought he would. Mostly it was dainty little bites and he just picked at the cake

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Boyd - 11.75 months

Some updates:

• Boyd has started climbing the stairs as of a couple weeks ago! He's fast too. Someone is always behind him acting as a spotter, since he has a tendency to slip every once in a while and lose his balance. He's still standing for just a few seconds before falling down.
• Likes watching planes fly over the house and seeing cars drive by. He will pull himself up from the changing table to look out of the window to see these things. Big smiles when he does. 
• Seems like the most effective way to get him to calm down and be less fussy is to sing, but sometimes there's no consoling him. When he's tired it's a bad scene.
• Knows his name (and his nicknames).
• Loves watching himself on video or seeing photos of himself on my phone.
• Becoming more proficient at drinking out of a sippy cup. We practice with water.
• Gestures in the direction of what he wants or where he wants to go, occasionally points with one finger.
• Sometimes will give an item back if we ask for it, but mostly likes to take things. Is also starting to place things in a container instead of always taking them out. 
• Likes to open and close doors, over and over again.
• This has been going on for months, but he loves riding around on our shoulders.
• The "I'm gonna get YOU!" game is a fun one around here. He crawls away at top speed but then looks back and either keeps crawling or collapses in a fit of giggles.
• Also pretty hilarious - the Chewbaca noise he makes when happy. I need to get this on video.
• I bought him a little green Columbia fleece jacket for winter. D has one almost exactly like it and they look pretty darn adorable together. 

I'm tired of pumping. Really tired. I've gone down to one session at work (4 ounces) instead of two since my milk production is slowing down. Boyd still gets 2 bottles during the day while I'm gone, so sometime this month (or next) we'll introduce whole milk and goat's milk. I will still nurse him in the morning and before bedtime, but hopefully soon I can phase out the pumping session at work.

In other news, my cat Little Dude has been diagnosed with diabetes. AWESOME. Now we have two older pets with diabetes that need insulin 2x per day - once in the a.m. and again in the evening. Some mornings it's a little overwhelming to manage double the feedings and insulin shots (30 minutes later), and then getting Boyd and myself ready and out the door. It's those days that I wish D left the house the same time as us.

New coat - and playing with my keys.

Care Bears unite!

Our Care Bears costumes were a hit! The weather was perfect - in the 20's - and the trails had plenty of snow. Our shuttle bus was running late so we missed the costume judging, but we made it in time for the Party Wave start. Since we were in the back the going was a little slow in the beginning, but I kind of liked not dealing with the crazy crush of skiers in the beginning. There were bottlenecks here and there, especially before a hill.

It was great to see all of the ladies (around 1,300) out skiing on Superbowl Sunday to suport domestic violence awareness. I loved watching the little kiddos on their little skis - so cute!

Here are a ton of photos from the Anchorage Daily News. And one from the race photographer at the race finish of us girls.

On the shuttle bus, heading to the course. Our 5th member got sick, so she stayed home. :-(

We worked on our costumes individually, but Susie made our red butt hearts that say Care Bears.

Ski for Women 2013

I'm participating in the Ski for Women on Sunday - yay! It ends early enough to where everyone can still head home and catch the Superbowl. I've done this in the past (see links below) and it's a blast to see all of the amazing costumes.

This year our group is pretty small - but we've decided to transform ourselves into Care Bears. I've been working on my costume (nothing fancy) and will post pics next week after the race. Here's hoping the weather will hover in the 20's - I hate skiing in single-digit or below zero temperatures.

Here are a couple posts from the last time I skied it: SFW 1 and SFW 2.

Happy weekend everyone!

Video: Tissue shredder - 11 months

One of Boyd's latest favorite activities is to pull as many tissues out of box as he can and then slowly shred the paper into little strips. Sometimes the pieces make it into his mouth if we aren't diligent enough.

Twinsies

Thanks to Risha for snapping this photo.

Boyd - 11 months

In just a few short weeks I'll be the mother of a 1-year old. Sometimes I look at Boyd and wonder how we got so lucky to have such a beautiful, healthy, and inquisitive baby.

• Boyd has been waving when we say "hi" or "bye-bye." Sometimes he'll even just do it out of the blue or with two hands. I'm sure we look like idiots waving to him all of the time, but hey, when a baby interacts waves at you - you wave back.
• Likes shaking his head back and forth, like he's saying "no." I'm not sure he knows what it means, but it's still funny to see him do it with a smile on his face. 
• This cracks us up too, but it's hard to explain - Boyd will scrunch up his face and breathe in and out really quickly through his nose. Somehow he gets us all to do it and then we're all laughing hysterically. Where do babies get this stuff?
• He says "dada" a lot. Constantly and every day. I say "mama" to him and he sweetly replies "dada!" He uses varying inflections, depending on the situation. Really happy? Screams it. Mellow? Says it like he's talking about a mythical creature.
• I dread diaper changing time now. The best analogy I can offer is it's like wrestling an octopus - a writhing mass of arms and legs. Especially if an octopus shrieks and screams in the process, and tries to roll over on the changing table with a diaper full of poop.
• Has been all over the dog lately. He will crawl up to Drift to pet him, taste his fur (yuck), or hug him. Boyd will also do this thing where he'll use Drift's body as leverage to get into a standing position. The other day he did this and then promptly tumbled over Drift.
• Yes, our baby has been standing BY HIMSELF for a few seconds at a time. I'm not sure we're ready for our Tasmanian Devil to start walking yet. We just put up baby gates to block off his access to both sets of stairs. He is quite the fast crawler and moves faster than I thought possible.
• Another thing he loves to do is a baby-modified version of the Captain Morgan pose (crouching with one knee up).
• My mom works with him on vocabulary when she watches him, and at home D and I explain things to him so we think he's picking up a wide range of language skills.
• He absolutely is a music fan. Likes to do his version of dancing - sitting on his knees and bouncing up and down. We'll say, "let's play music" and he'll hit the music player's buttons. 
• How exactly do you discipline an 11-month old? Anything we tell him not to touch (e.g. the stand-alone radiator in his room, the pet water bowl, etc.) he of course touches and gets a big smile on his face. I know it's a big game to him but I'm getting tired of pulling him away from this stuff.
• We're pretty thankful that he loves food - all and any types. He's still drinking breastmilk, although less than before, and when he turns 1 we'll start supplementing with whole cow's milk. Or I've heard goat's milk is really beneficial (it's most like human milk) but I'm not sure where to get that in Anchorage. 
• This week there were a couple challenging evenings when he we would wake up about 40 minutes after bedtime and couldn't soothe himself back to sleep. I'm thinking he has too much excitement about learning new skills (like he can't turn his brain off). So I would have to go in to calm him down, which mainly consists of singing songs (which he loves) and holding him. He still goes down sleepy but awake for naps and bedtime. We're on a fairly consistent schedule for sleep (most days). Nap times are around 9:45 a.m. (takes about 15 minutes to fall asleep) and 2:30 p.m. (15 mins to sleep).
  At night we start the bedtime routine at 6:45 p.m. (diaper, jammies, nursing/milk, books and songs, then sleep.)

Super cute outfit my friend Stephanie bought Boyd for Christmas!

Even has flap on the butt - adorbs!

Hanging around outside during the warm days earlier this month.

I love his little off-center hair swirl. 

Broccoli, cauliflower and cheese.

Video: Crab fest - 10.75 months

My mom's birthday was earlier this month so D, Boyd and I took her out to a really nice Asian buffet here in town. The restaurant features crab at dinner time so my mom loaded up and even shared with Boyd, who apparently loves shellfish too.

Video: New shoes - 10.75 months

Why can't they make baby socks that actually stay on feet? I've started putting shoes on Boyd when we go out because those darn socks always fall off. Now he likes pulling off his socks AND shoes. These shoes were a gift from my boss - very cute!

Video: Reaching out - 10.5 months

Daddy teases Boyd using a tape measure.

Ski day

The snow finally arrived and we were outside ASAP on Saturday! Because it was our first time pulling Boyd in the Chariot, I wanted somewhere fairly flat with no creek crossings to ski on this day. We ended up choosing the Campbell Airstrip, which isn't too far from our house in the Campbell Tract BLM - except for the fact that the gate nearest our house (less than a mile) was closed. Was very surprised about that since it was the first weekend day after a big snow - didn't they think people would want to use the trails?

Anyway, we drove to the east side of town for the other access point, a trailhead in Far North Bicentennial Park. D estimates that just the airstrip portion was about 3/4 of a mile and we ended up skiing that 4 times, so total for the day was somewhere around 4 miles. We would have gone longer but Boyd started to get fussy after he awoke from a nap - our outdoor adventures are much shorter now that we have a baby!

The Chariot isn't heavy, per se, but it's definitely a workout to pull it with a little one inside. The ski attachment worked perfectly and the harness was pretty comfortable. I pulled it for about a mile until I got tired - D did the rest. Boyd weighs about 23 pounds now, so it's only going to get heavier as time goes on.

Chariots are very common around here, so we only received a few comments on our setup. We unscrewed the stroller wheels, removed the back wheels and popped on the skis. All very easy and quick.

We put Boyd in all of his layers plus the down snowsuit, and then popped him a warm bunting bag. I put Vaseline on his face (especially those cheeks!) to protect his fair skin. Definitely got the fair skin from his father.

From the looks of it, many people were happy to get out into the snow. We saw people walking with dogs, running, skiing (classic, like us, and skate skiing), and skijoring (skiing while a dog in harness pulls you).

Topsy-turvey weather

It's currently snowing now (YES!!!) but for almost a week we were dealing with the fallout from a warm front, chinook winds and rain. Yes, rain in Alaska in January. Most of our wonderful snow melted and then refroze into sheets of slick ice.

The photo below is no joke - even our neighborhood street looked just like this. School and many businesses closed down on Monday - even D got the day off! I made sure to put my ice cleats on my shoes so I wouldn't take a nasty fall with Boyd in my arms.

So far we've received a couple inches of snow at our house and I am itching to go x-c skiing this weekend with my boys!

Snowshoe adventure #2

I'm so bummed about our lack of snow so far this winter! Last year was the snowiest winter ever (we smashed a previous record) with a total precipitation count of 133.6 inches - that's 11 feet of snow. Last year my doctor wouldn't let me ski because of the pregnancy and I was so looking forward to it this year. Alas, most of the snow we did get has melted into ice and hard, crusty layers.

Hopefully soon we'll get another snow dump and will finally be able to test out our new Chariot with the little peanut safely nestled inside. In the meantime, D and I took Boyd out for his second snowshoe outing since he was born. It was a lovely way to celebrate New Year's Day, 2013.

The trail was very icy in some places, so I'm glad we had our snowshoes to better grip the slippery surface. Boyd got to hang out in a comfy hiking backpack that D found on Craigslist for cheap. It worked pretty well and Boyd even fell asleep at one point!

A trail on the east side of town.

Sleepy baby.

That is pure ICE under our snowshoes.

Abandoned beaver hut. It was HUGE!

Overcast day, but fairly warm - around 20 degrees, I think? Pretty view of the Chugach Range.

Some sort of animal track, I forgot to ask D what kind. Maybe moose?

Close up of the tracks encased in ice near the creek.

Thought it was interesting how a hole in the ice opened up for this plant.

Little waterway that hasn't frozen over.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Colicky blues

I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I can handle having another child. And to clarify, it's not pregnancy or physically birthing the baby or even the day to day details of raising a kid. That stuff can be difficult at times but I am TERRIFIED of having another colicky baby. I almost lost my mind with Boyd and I'm sure that having a mild form of postpartum depression didn't help the situation.Or maybe his colic played into the baby blues, either way it was tough.

Not having help with hard too. That wasn't anyone's fault - D had to take the job that was offered and it just happened to be out of town. My mom wasn't able to be up here when she had planned on it, my sister had her own job and life to deal with, and my friends were busy. But I absolutely won't have another child unless I have a strong support system in place. Not having anyone to turn to after 4 straight days in baby isolation with constant crying, no sleep and crazy hormones is not healthy. I remember watching D's truck pull away on Monday morning as he drove to Cooper Landing for the week and feeling the rising panic in my chest that I would try to dampen. Knowing that Friday was a very long way away.

I read this article and was like, yes, someone gets it! http://www.babble.com/baby/colic-dealing-with-crying-baby-harm-to-parents/  This paragraph sums up where D and I are now very succinctly:

"We’re also still more cautious than other parents we know. For months, we’d both get jumpy from just a little normal “I’m hungry” or “I’m tired” crying. It was weeks after colic was over before we started taking the baby out with friends. We still plan our lives around naps or bedtimes, and I’m sure our friends think we’re overprotective."

I am SO protective of Boyd's sleep! If we go out to eat, I make my family meet up no later than 5:30 so we can finish up and be home by 7 p.m. for Boyd's bedtime. I won't sacrifice naps for fun activities, it's just not worth it.

I look at this face and thank our lucky stars that Boyd is here, but it was a rough road.