Barefoot Santa

 Happy Holidays from the barefoot Santa! Although our Christmas plans to go visit Danny's Dad in Portland, Oregon were foiled because Kierran had a nasty case of Roseola, he still recovered and enjoyed  his first Christmas in Clayton at Grammy and Grampy Martins.

Here he is at home in Capitola with our tree- if you look closely you can see surfing Santa is hanging ten to the right of Kierran's head.

Another one for me? He enjoyed the wrappings, just as we suspected...
Can I have one please? I know that's the good stuff...
I think I love you Uncle Jason. 
Grammy gave me one of momma's old baby dolls. Everyone was so surprised how happy I was when I pulled it out of the bag and saw my little friend's face.

The standard visit to the Ghiglieri's, my Childhood friends, big fat Italian Christmas, only the visit was cut short this year by a needy napper in the picture, can you guess who?

Baby's first prime rib and yorkshire pudding. The horseradish face was a classic.. should have had the camera ready.

Tired, tired baby with Grammy and Grampy. 

Well, another fabulous holiday! Can't wait until next Christmas!

months gone by

What you really want to hear is:

little bear for Halloween

I made it to the top! Kierran climbs Half Dome, in the picture at least, at Yosemite right before Thanksgiving.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Since my last post was in August, there is too much catching up to do. The pictures to most of the talking. There has been a major blog stall since I returned to work full time in early August. Everything is going fine with that, although I would much rather not have to work full time and just be with my baby! Of course the first month transitioning back was pretty brutal, but we survived. Since then we have had a pretty lock step daily/weekly routine to get by and some recovery on the weekends after we sort out what the work week left behind (mainly lots of laundry and piles of mail). Mostly we have just been staying local and enjoying our neighborhoods walkability. We still visit the beach daily, if not more on the weekends.

As for my latest mommy brag...

Since August, Kierran moved into crawling, pulling to standing and now cruising around the coffee table or pushing his walker. Kierran's daycare is awesome and he has lots of fun there. He loves the other kids and his caregiver, and they love him too. One of his favorite activities is dancing. As one of his reports from his caregiver said, "he danced to the music, danced to the wind chime, danced to phone ringing." He has a sweet head bang and elvis leg move.

He eats anything and everything, most desirable if it is on the floor. He babbles endlessly, and when he wakes up from a nap or at 5:30 in the morning we hear mama, mama, mama. He also says dada or paba, something of the mix. Intentional or not it is pretty darn intoxicating, except at 5 am. When he wants milk he often says, boom boom... you can derive your own explanation for that one. He is also a fan of the ever so popular goo goo ga ga. Our new favorite is when he seems to be saying "what's that?", sounds more like "whatha" with a look of inquiry. He loves been chased on all fours around the coffee table, or anywhere in the house for that matter. Every night around 6 there is a good deal of laughter and giggles to be heard at our house. Thank goodness, after a long stressful workday we all need it!

It is just hard to believe that last year at this time Kierran was

and now he will be a year old in 2 months!!!

Rollin', Rollin', Rolling

Well it has been a while since our last blog, understandably. We have been busy since the last post at 4 months. Kierran, still bald and toothless, is now 7 months old, 17ish+ pounds and 27ish+ inches- double + his birth weight of 8 lbs. and 8 inches longer than at birth. 

laughter from megan jacobsmeyer on Vimeo.

His latest tricks are rolling everywhere (especially under tables, chairs the crib etc), sticking all things in his mouth- including my face for a "kiss", sitting up (with a spotter) laughing, pulling hair, babbling, squealing like a teradactle, sucking his thumb (lefty preference like his Gramps) eating, and drinking from cup (with help, of course, and without drowning himself with water). 

Crawling is definitly coming soon with all his push up practice and desire to move! Just like when he was a newborn, he still loves to stare and things intently for a long time (especially trees), be outside and seems very strong for such a little guy, only in the 25th percentile in most categories- height, weight etc. Overall Kierran is a really mellow guy and a delight to be around.

Here we are with our first feeding ever- a dive for a banana mom was eating- guess the time was right! Kierran really enjoys eating solid foods: rice cereal, Banana, Yams, Carrots, peas, pears, applesauce, spinach... socks.. pretty much anything baby approved. 

Under the table again...
this is surfing at 4 months

Thumb love, especially with some sand on it!

blankets are for chewing... so cozy

He loves his toys, especially the way they taste.

The last time we posted, 3 months ago, it seemed Kierran was improving on his sleep patterns. That proved not to be lasting and we were up every 45 minutes again for that next month. So much for the "no cry sleep solution". 11 weeks of working with it and we were all crying in desperation! As that book says in the "what to do if it still not working" section, it works for some babies, but some may need a different approach to sleep learning.  In some countries sleep deprivation is used form of torture, we could relate. After much difficulty we took our first stance as parents and taught him his most important life skill at 5 months- how to sleep through the night and take naps. It was a hard decision to make and of course there were some tears, and we all were much happier after a couple of nights. We used a book called the "Sleepeasy Solution", (for 4 months through age five) and now I am out converting other desperate parents because it worked so well and fast for us. 

Bragging rights allowed after 5 months of, on the average, being up every hour: Since July 5th, Kierran sleeps 11 hours, from 6:30-5:30 each night and takes 3 naps a day, an hour or more each, sometimes over 2 hours! (Enter sigh of relief and sanity here) This was our greatest challenge so far.

Sleeping on the knees, thumb locked in, love it!
Danny and I have also both back working full time, teaching for a month already! I am still in 1st grade with 20 students and Danny is back up in 5th grade with 29. The transition was pretty brutal (challenge #2). Full of separation anxiety and tears, for mom that is... ha ha. Kierran did awesome. His daycare is amazing and he adjusted really well there. It is a small home daycare where the woman has her own son and a few other kids. Kierran is the only baby. His care provider, Rachel, writes us a detailed report each day with what he ate, when, how much, when he slept, what and when his diapers where like- and yes as all you moms know I acctually do want to know about this- and a little note from Kierran about what he did that day. My favorite so far was from his first day:
"I smiled really big when Rachel played the tape of mommy and daddy's voice (Grammy's genius idea to tape record ourselves) When it was over I cried and she played it again 3 more times...I started looking around the room for you, kicking my legs the whole time" 

 or maybe it was last weeks "I was rolling around on the blanket outside and rolled onto the dirt. At first I didn't like it, but then I started rubbing my hands in the dirt. Then I picked up the dirt clod and tried to eat it, so Rachel picked me up and put me back on the blanket!" 

Classic. 

Here are more pictures of some of our activities lately:

Ready for the pool

Kierran loves the water! (even though his face doesn't show it here)

Every day we walk 81 stairs down to the beach...

Orange you glad we are back on the blog? for this month at least.... =)

Summer, summer, summertime!

Hey everyone, I was just lounging around and thought I would update you all on what I have been doing these past couple of months. Mostly I just have been studying the things around me, talking, smiling, laughing and chewing on my hands, but there has been the occasional notable event.

I am four months old now, pretty big time, I know. I just had my four month appointment and I am weighing in at 14 lbs. 8 oz.

Here are some Photos to show you what has been going on:

Hanging with some of my buddies




Hanging with my Aly for her birthday and getting excited for her Wedding festivities this summer!


These things are called feet, I just found them sitting there. Sometimes they even come with these interesting things called socks on them.


What? Can't I be a teacher too? I am preparing a lesson on Goodnight Moon.


Grandma and Grandpa Norwine came to visit and make me a Chiefs fan.


Cousin Rachel came from DC to visit. We had a fabulous time around Santa Cruz. All that wine tasting was exhausting! I had to take a nap.


Poppa taught me how to fly.


SLEEP POWER! I learned how to sleep a lot better, and I didn't even cry about it. OK I am still working on it, but everyone else seems to think this is really great that I don't get up every 45 minutes after midnight anymore, especially momma and poppa. I think I will throw them a party to celebrate, how about tonight at 3 AM????


My Buddy Dino, who lives next door in my duplex, taught me how to Skateboard. He also helping me learn my days of the week by making sure I have been given the appropriate pair of my day of the week socks each day. If you look closely, I am wearing my Sunday socks on a Sunday. SIlly mom was having me wear Friday socks on Mondays! I sure think Dino is cool. He knows a lot of stuff, especially when it comes to trucks. I love to watch him everyday.



Schools out for summer and that means I have both Mom and Dad for full time fun, I am pretty excited about it. I spend most of my day looking back at forth at the 2 of them trying to decide who to play with first. Orange you glad they make ray bans in my size?


I'll be chillin' on the beach in my diaper with my folks if you need me, you'll know where to find me!

If you are happy and you know it.....

10 weeks already! Wowsers, Kierran is getting big. at his 2 month appointment, weeks ago he was 11 lbs. 7 oz. and 23.5 inches. He is averaging a half pound a week and is exactly 50th percentile in head size, hight, and weight (very textbook growth, for a very textbook birthed baby. What can we say, we teachers like to go by the book =)
Even though we are pretty certain by the ever increasing rolls and chub that he has cleared the 12 pound mark, the 12 pound "sleep through the night" rule does not seem to be applying itself here. 3-4 hours at a time at night is the norm and on special occasions, like visiting Grandma and Grandpa's, he has been known to bust out a 5 hour stretch!
Kierran's latest tricks are: smiling, squealing, cooing, mimicking our faces, kicking (great preparation for his soccer days ahead) high pitched screaming =), observing everything all the time with his great big eyes, and of course loving his momma and poppa.
He is loving being on his back these days and facing out to see the world.


Recently we had a great visit with his GG, Great Grandma, who came all the way from Rhode Island to see her first great grandchild. Kierran also made his grand debut to the Clayton crew Easter weekend, it was such a blast. Danny has been home on spring break giving us a little taste of what summer will be like as a family and we like it. =) Danny is just waiting for the perfect moment to give Kierran his first plunge into the ocean.



Everyday (and night) is an adventure! Hopefully you will join us in Capitola for some beach fun soon!
Orange you glad spring is here?

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