The big number 1

Anya turned 1 a few weeks ago. It is quite a milestone to celebrate as parents with your first child. Not only is the kid still alive, but we have survived a year of sleep deprivation and constant change. It gets easier from here right?

In all honesty, Anya has been a fairly easy baby. She slept pretty well, has a good disposition, and generally laughs and smiles easily. Aside from our ER visit and 911 call the past year has been somewhat uneventful given the monumental change Anya has brought to our little family.

For her birthday we celebrated with family and she invited one friend- Harry. She had a scrumptious berry crisp complete with soy whip cream so it would be extra messy. Instead of traditional presents we asked everyone to bring a gift/token that was representative of who Anya will be when she grows up or their hopes for her future. We based this loosely off of the Korean first birthday celebration- Chut-tol. Everyone had interesting gifts and Anya was drawn to many of them. I have written down who gave what gift, the meaning behind the token, and plan to give her the "time capsule" when she graduates from High School. It will be pretty cool I think. Some items were- a necklace with the letter "A" to remind her who she is, a stepping stone to imprint her small foot print in so she will be able to see how small she was and far she has come, a compass hoping she chooses her own path, a cell phone predicting her chatty nature, and much more.

As for her stats- she is off the charts-literally. She is so light she doesn't even measure on the weight chart they use- she is under 0% if that is possible. Healthy as an ox though so no worries there. The child can EAT. She puts down a serious amount of food. I joke and say she has her dad's metabolism, but I really think she does. Thank god for that! She might eat us out of house and home one day though when she hits her teenage years if she keeps this up.

She uses sign language for many things now and it is really cool to be able to communicate with her that way. She loves her bath and signs bath all day long but only gets that request granted after dinner. Reading has all of sudden become an interest of hers. She now wants to sit on your lap and read book after book- but she doesn't let you finish one before she wants a new one- short attention span I guess.

We plan to play outside a lot this summer once the weather improves and hopefully get her out on the boat soon!

Hula babies

Oh my god I miss Hawaii so much. Sun, sand, surf and scrumptious cocktails for a full week. It was awesome.
I have to admit I went into this vacation a little skeptical about how much "fun" it would be travelling and vacationing with a 1 year old. Not to mention the two other couples have very young children too. Much to my surprise we all had a blast and the kids were spectacular. Granted the first morning we (meaning the moms because the Dads had been "breaking in" the liquor supply the night prior) were up playing peek a boo at 3:30 am. Yes you heard me right- 3:30 AM!!!! Technically it is 6:30am Seattle time so the kids were up and Adam ready to start their day like normal. The bakery didn't open until 7 so we had a bit of a wait- appropriately the dads all made it out of bed for the bakery run- coincidence?
Anya LOVED everything about Hawaii- well maybe not the slathering sunscreen routine- but everything else. The kids all played in the sand and were nice enough to taste it to make sure it was safe for the rest of us. Being on the Northshore, we are used to having some sizable surf, thankfully this time of year the waves slow down and the kids were all able to safely swim with us in the warm Pacific Ocean. Anya enjoyed the ocean and got really excited every time she went in but it usually was a quick dip because she was shivering pretty quickly. We had a warm outdoor shower and a splash pad pool for the kids to warm up in after their sand and ocean adventures.


NAPS, glorious naps. 2 hours twice a day. The tots were bushed. Being outside from sun up to sundown (in the shade mostly for you worry worts) really takes it out of them. They all napped like champs. This was ideal for the parents to get some much needed R&R reading on the beach and napping in the hammock.Lucy is a month older then Anya and walks, Owen is 19 months old and runs, but Anya held her own and crab crawled on the grass and sand (she doesn't like her knees to be on the ground outside- go figure). Her favorite activities were standing at the foot wash faucet and holding her hands under the running water, stealing Owen and Lucy's pacifiers and sippy cups, eating avocado and papaya, spending lots of time with Daddy, and any activity where she got to run around naked.

Flying was fine- not great, but better than expected. She would nap about a 1/2 hour after take off for a 1/2 hour, then wake up grumpy and bored. We would attempt to entertain her but broke down and gave her a small dose of Benydryl after which she slept for over an hour each time. The airports were awesome and aside from having no luggage (not even our carseat) when we landed on Oahu, no real glitches in the whole trip. Our bags, carseat, and pack and play had all been moved to a "special room" before we even arrived at baggage claim. I still don't know why- we were just glad to have them at all.

After returning home Anya got sick and we spent all last week sleep deprived and worried about her fever. She was diagnosed with an ear infection on her birthday (happy birthday- I know you would prefer some amoxicillin over birthday cake right?) but she's doing much better now.