Canada or bust

Armed with her crisp passport, Anya and I took the ferry from Anacortes to Sidney, B.C. We met my parents on their boat and stayed aboard for a week. After nearly a month and half of no baby time, my parents were thrilled to cuddle up with Anya and spoil her rotten.

Myles met up with us for a long weekend and it was a blast. I was a bit nervous about the sleeping arrangements since her pack and play would not fit on the boat. We made a "nest" for her on the side of the bed in the aft cabin and she took to it immediately. Unfortunately we had to oust the grandparents from their master suite to the lowely forward cabin, but both claimed they enjoyed their bunks up there too. Anya did take some afternoon naps on both her grandpa and grandma as seen in the pictures. I'm sure they hated every minute of it.... yeah right!

Bath time on the boat was interesting. Anya took showers with us, as well as a bath in the sink. Her favorite was her bucket in the shower though- she never wanted to get out of it.
The weather was beautiful- a bit cold, but that seems to be the norm for this summer anyway. We spent most the time in ports on dock but did spend two nights at Tumbo and Cabbage island crabbing, fishing, hiking, and playing on the beach. Anya didn't fall over board, nor did she tumble down either set of stairs from the main salon to the kitchen or bedroom so I think the trip was a success. She roamed around in circles wobbling with the boat rocking and crashing from time to time. I actually think her walking skills improved after having the extra balance challenge of being aboard the boat for a while.

She napped well, ate well, and slept well at night. We had a few early mornings once she realized she could stand up and peer over the bed at me trying to sleep in until at least 6am. This was my vacation for god's sake- doesn't she understand that? Ha ha.


This is most definitely a fun age. I am trying to enjoy her as much as possible. She is saying new words everyday, starting to run a little and generally getting much more stable on her two legs, and she loves to laugh and be silly. It is so fun to play with her and be ridiculous. Myles is getting in on the crazy stuff too- we end up laughing at each other most the time which of course elicits a cackle from Anya. We haven't hit the "naughty" stage yet; she will definitely test her boundaries and look for reactions, but generally she is pretty good.
I love this picture of her trying to push Myles's sled with a big weight on it. You go girl!

Pictures

Anya is walking but progress has slowed due to illness. YES- she is sick AGAIN! We are a week into battling a fever which turned to croup, which is now a sinus infection... lord help us. Anya has been nice enough to share this most recent illness with her parents. Both Myles and I are ill so our house looks like a Kleenex factory blew up and the drug store might want to think about re-stocking their shelves. Aside from being miserably tired and sick we are all hanging in there.

We were able to go out on the boat several times in the past few weeks which was nice. A week ago we invited the Youngs out for a evening sail. Being the crazy people we are we had two 14 month olds on board. It went reasonably well considering Harry had skipped his afternoon nap and unbeknownst to us Anya was coming down with a fever. We had planned to BBQ on board but the propane was out so instead with hiked the food home, put the kids to bed and ate outside in the backyard chatting until nearly 10. Being adults and having conversations is much easier when the little ones are sleeping peacefully.

Grandma and Grandpa are out on their boat so I have been relying on Belinda (Harry's mom), family, and friends to help watch Anya while I teach. Oma is coming up this week to stay a few nights and help with Anya- Momma needs a little break so I'm very much looking forward to it. She is easy when she is well but sick Anya and sick Mama make a miserable cranky pair. Just ask Myles! :)

We also spent a beautiful sunny Saturday down in Gig Harbor at Oma and Opa's house. Anya played all day with cousin Chloe and they both got very dirty but had a blast. I have added a video of Anya on the beach and she decided to taste a fist full of mud while I am taping- couldn't have planned it better.



Boone is really starting to love Anya. She feeds him snacks all the time and he is tolerating her "loves" (hugging him- or generally laying on him).

Terror on the loose

Something wonderful happened but now our lives as we know are over. She started walking, well really I should say running. As soon as she figured out how to do it she kept at it running around the yard. We had to block her from falling into the bushes, the deck, the cement sport court, and the sharp rose trunks. It was exhilarating to see her start walking but our smiles quickly turned to concerned scowls as we realized how dangerous she had become. Flailing herself any which way with crazy abandon isn't the best way to walk but apparently it is how she plans to learn. I now fully understand why parents gate stairways. While crawling she will stop herself and turn around to go down the stairs. However when she walks she would run right of the top landing without a second thought. I'm sure over time she will gain more control but right now it is just hilarious and frightening to watch her.


She got her feet measured at Stride Right yesterday and wears a measly 3. They don't even make kids walking shoes until size 4, so she is wearing "prewalkers" but whatever, I'm sure they work the same. She has also gotten a mouth full of teeth. She had three top teeth all come through in one week.


Her favorite thing to do is play outside. She has her splash pad and water table for the days when it is hot enough to get wet. She enjoys walking around the yard smelling the flowers and occasionally ripping the blooms off the plants. She digs in the dirt and throws it over her shoulders. I never realized how many airplanes fly over our house but Anya is an eagle eye at hearing and then spying all the planes overhead. She is really ticklish and her laugh is contagious. Of course I laugh at just about anything so I'm not a tough critic in the laugh department.


Her sign language is really coming along. She signs for milk, drink, bath, eat, please, thank you, and more. If you ask her to blow a kiss, she will put her hand to her mouth and make a clicking noise that resembles the sound adults make when you blow a kiss. She understands almost anything you say to her and uses a few words but we still aren't sure what she is saying all the time. She also gives "loves". She will hug and love stuffed animals and people without provocation. It is very sweet when she hugs and pats the stuffed animals and just adorable when she crawls over to me and decides I need a hug too. Those are some of the moments that make being a mom amazing.

Eating is important to our little imp. She LOVES to eat and she eats a ton of food. While shopping at Nordstrom yesterday she ate an entire banana within 2 minutes. This was one of many snacks in between her large meals. She must have her father's metabolism because I really don't know where all the food goes.She and Harry know each other now and really like to "parallel play". It is fun to see the two of them together; Harry steals anything Anya has- a toy, her water, a rock- doesn't matter, if she has it he wants it. Fortunately Anya easily parts with the objects and Harry is only amused by his new find until Anya picks something else up.

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.

Hawaii or Bust

The vacation we have had planned for over a year is finally here. The three of us are going to the Northshore of Oahu for 8 days to relax with two other couples. There will be three babies, Anya- 11 1/2 months, Lucy- 12 1/2 months and Owen 18 months. This is a house we have stayed in three other times so it is starting to feel like home. One of the couples we are traveling with (the Piskels) owns the home on Sunset beach so to say we are spoiled is an understatement. I'm sure we will have plenty of adorable pictures to post when we return.

Upon our return Anya turns 1- I can't believe it. A whole year has past and our baby girl is getting so grown up already. Tantrums have started when changing diapers, she nearly walks, she is talking more and more everyday, pretty soon she will be asking for the car keys and I will have to start taking Valium.

Recently we have been having lots of fun playing and discovering the great outdoors. Myles and I have undertaken a few yard projects and Anya sits outside under the umbrella eating snacks and trying to eat dirt. She loves the grass under her toes and has decided dirt is much better to play with than to eat.

This past weekend we took a reunion trip with three other families to Fort Worden. It was a blast. Growing up, we traveled as a group to Fort Worden every year with these same four families. Now we are all grown and decided it would be fun to re-live the trip as adults. We rented out a few of the officer's houses and all stayed for the weekend. As kids we used to bike, play on the beach, fly kites in the grass field, and generally have a lot of fun. Our activities changed but the same level of group comradery was experienced by all. We took a walk up to the "bunkers" and it is just as scary as I remember. We had three third generation members in attendance, Anya (11 months), Lydia Freeman (19 months), and Mira Bahtia (7 weeks). All babies were too adorable.

Anya got a bad cold on Friday night and since we were sharing a room no one slept. I mean I actually contemplated packing up the car and driving home at 2am because I thought at least she might sleep sitting upright in her carseat. Eventually she did go to sleep but we were red eyed all day Saturday. Lydia woke with a fever on Sunday morning so our weekend was not without it's share of illness, but thankfully sweet Mira came away unscathed.

As embarrassing as the pictures are now as adults, it was tradition to bathe the kids together. So of course we will torture our own children in the same fashion. The three girls were absolutely hilarious in the bath together. Up until this point Lydia had despised the bath tub- but apparently bathing in groups agrees with her.

On Sunday, Myles, Scott, Natalie and I stayed on to run in the Rhody Run. An annual run through Fort Worden/Port Townsend in honor of the Rhododendron festival. It was a 12K and stroller friendly so Anya participated in her first race. Myles insisted he would be staying with me during the race but knowing him the way I do we decided on a meeting place afterward "just in case". Sure enough about mile 3 he pushed ahead with Anya in the BOB and never looked back. We are pretty sure he was the first "stroller runner" to cross the finish line- but who's counting? :)

Other things that have occurred recently in Anya's life......

She honored me on Mother's day with a beautiful breakfast and dinner. Myles also made me an awesome DVD with pictures and captions of my first year as a mom- it was a tear jerker, I'm not gonna lie.

She still has only two front bottom teeth. She is drooly as all get out but no more teeth have cut through.

As much as I have enjoyed nursing Anya the time came to call it quits. When she had her fever she didn't eat for a few days and that pretty much sealed the deal for my milk supply. 11 months was a good run and I do miss the closeness already, but the freedom is nice too. We are sticking to soy formula until she hits one and then we launch into soy milk.

Her allergies have been kind of a pain. She is such a good eater that it's really a shame she can't just eat what we eat. I did give her a garden burger which is made with some mozzarella and she was fine, so maybe cheese is OK? Hopefully she out grows the allergy but until then her diet is a bit restrictive.

We took Anya wine tasting up in Woodinville. Who knew it was totally kosher to taste wine with your baby in tow. It was awesome and will soon be repeated.

Scare of a lifetime

Many of our family and friends already know about our recent scare but I would like to post a blog about it for posterity's sake.

A little over a week ago Anya had a seizure.

That sentence in and of itself is horrific. The ordeal we all endured was beyond horrible.

I thought Anya was teething because she was running a low grade fever and her appetite was shot. On Wednesday night she started getting lethargic and very crabby so we gave her a bit of Motrin earlier in the evening just to help her sleep a little.

Around 12:45am we were all fast asleep when we heard Anya wail- and I mean a scary screaming cry that would wake any parent out of a dead sleep. I took a peep at the video monitor and saw the blanket vibrating. Myles went rushing in and found our sweet baby convulsing in her crib. He picked her up, I called 911 and we both didn't breathe for a good minute I swear.

We thought we were going to lose our daughter.

The receptionist on the 911 call was fabulous. She kept me focused on her instructions and we helped Anya as best we could. She asked if Anya had a fever that day- of course I replied yes. She then informed me in the calmest voice ever that Anya was most likely having a febrile seizure which is a common side effect when a fever spikes in infants/children. When she asked if Anya was breathing I almost lost it, but it seemed as if she was so I answered yes. She instructed us to take off her pajamas to cool her down and let her have her convulsions in a safe place. The firemen were on their way.

It seemed like forever but it was probably only 5-7 minutes before they got here. By then, Anya had stopped the violent convulsions and was only shaking mildly and staring off in space. To say we were scared shitless would be the world's biggest understatement. We had never heard of febrile seizures and witnessing your child have violent convulsions, eyes rolled back, not really breathing is something NO parent should ever have to experience. The firemen were calm and acted as if this was a common affliction they see from time to time. Anya started coming to and getting scared and tired- her crying was the best sound I had ever heard.

We chose to keep her home for the night and go to the doctor first thing in the morning. There was nothing the ER would be able to do the firemen assured us. We were instructed to manage her fever with Motrin or Tylenol and keep dosing her without letting it lapse. The seizure was caused by her fever spiking very quickly and it could happen again.

No one slept. Anya kept waking up screaming and we couldn't get to her fast enough. When she was sleeping we were watching the monitor- any moan, gasp, grunt - we were wide eyed ready to pounce into action again.

She had the fever for several more days. We spent all of Thursday and Friday trying to collect a urine sample (not the easiest task on a little baby girl). Results were no meningitis, no ear infection, no bladder infection.... then why was she so sick? She wasn't eating anything, slept all day, needed to be held constantly and cried all day long. I was reassured by my pediatrician that she most likely had a virus and she WOULD get better I just had to be patient. I am convinced that if this would have been just a bad fever with a virus it wouldn't have been as traumatizing. But since she had the seizure I was totally freaked that she was sick for good, or never going to return to her happy, smiley, hungry self. They were the longest few days of my life.

Saturday her fever broke and she got a rash. This is a classic sign of Roseola- a virus commonly associated with febrile seizures. So there was our answer.

It is Thursday now and Anya is finally back to normal more then a week later. She laughs, smiles, hugs, and is eating like a horse.

We have done a lot of research on febrile seizures and feel confident that she has not been harmed in any way by this event. We on the other hand are still dealing with the leftover feelings of panic, fear, and gut wrenching love.

After going through this it became apparent that all the medical personnel we dealt with were very familiar with febrile seizures. However- 99% of the parents we spoke to have never heard of them. So if you want more information please visit this site- we found it very helpful.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/febrile_seizures/detail_febrile_seizures.htm

Our baby is fine, we have some war wounds but we are resilient people. We love her more than ever. The emotions are overwhelming at times; I never in my wildest dreams thought I could love someone so deeply.

Kiss those you love- especially the little ones.