I'm sure all parents feel like their baby is the best in the world, the cutest, the smartest, the prettiest....can't beat the sparkle we get in our eyes when our children make us proud.

Eva's gone and done me UBER proud. She totally started walking this week!

She is 14 months old and for the last 2 months she's been very determined to walk ALL BY HERSELF. Whenever we tried to help her by holding her hands, she'd go all jelly legs on us, throw her head back, scrunch up her nose and whine as if to say "I don't waaaaaaaaaa-nna." We figured we'd just let her be and she would do it when she was good and ready.

Randomly I would walk into the room and catch her standing up not holding onto anything. When I would exclaim "Good job Eva!" she'd get all embarrassed like I caught her stealing some cookies and fall to her bum. Last week, whenever I wasn't looking she was attempting to take a few steps on her own. I would just catch glimpses of it and wasn't sure if my eyes were deceiving me. Sure enough, when I would hold out a toy or her sippy cup she would toddle over to me a few steps. I would praise her and exclaim loudly "GOOD GIRL!!" She likes that. She gets a huge smile and claps her hands and you can read her mind and totally tell she is thinking... "I'm awesome."

Again, randomly, for no reason, she just up and started walking yesterday afternoon. She just picked herself up...and walked across the room. And kept doing it.

She's so great.

The other reason my baby is a genius is because she has also caught onto sign language this week. I am now no longer frustrated feeding her, because she turns her hands up in the air and says "All Done" (well...not actually says it...she signs it). It's a breakthrough! I love that I can communicate with her, and she back. I'm much less frustrated and she is too.

Yeah...she's gonna get a PhD soon...it's pretty much inevitable.

Yesterday was so surreal celebrating my girl's 1st birthday. I can't get over big she has gotten and how much she has matured from the little crying, pooping, spitting up goober who could barely open her eyes for more than 5 minutes. I just marvel at her beauty and her gentle spirit and the little person she is becoming.

Her changes astound me. She went from a skinny, scrawny little peanut, to a big chubber muffin to a gorgeous little girl. I love this girl so much.

Yesterday was spent just with family and we went out for supper to the Wok Box. Eva loves to eat the stir fry veggies and she made a royal mess trying to pick up the slippery udon noodles. We went for a walk around the lake, slurped some ice cream and then came home for Eva to tear into her birthday presents. So far the musical toddler piano we got her is a hit.

Today I was hustling and bustling getting ready for her baby pool party that we are having tomorrow afternoon (incidentally my birthday as well). I was cleaning, baking, organizing and blowing up a kiddie pool. I can't wait to see her and her little baby friends splashing in the pool while we sip on a cool glass of strawberry lemonade. It feels really strange to be planning a kids birthday party. Am I really at that stage in my life?

Yep. Guess so. I'll be 25 tomorrow. And my baby is 1. Life goes by so fast.

"It's coming any day now" I said matter of factly. "I know it's still a week away, but I've been 2 cm dilated for weeks, I've been having tons of braxton hicks contractions....and I just....I just have that feeling that it's soon, you know?"

"Okay well let me check you" she said. As I endured the discomfort of being checked, I secretly had my fingers crossed that I was more dilated than last week.

"AAAAAH!! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" I cried out as a pain shot through my nether-regions.

"You were still only 2 cm's dilated still, so I decided to help the process along and strip your membranes" my doctor said confidently. "It may do nothing, or I might be seeing you tonight at the hospital....have a good day!" she said with a smile.

As I left the doctors office I could already feel my stomach cramping. I went home to have a nap in the hopes that I would be having my baby later and I would need to be fully rested. Only a couple of hours later, I woke up thinking "These must be contractions....I'm not sure though". Steve began to make supper as I started breathing through the contractions. Pretty soon they got stronger and I timed them and...yep...sure enough. I was having contractions 3-5 minutes apart.

"Steve hurry up making that pizza! We've gotta get to the hospital!!" I yelled at him through a contraction.

"Kape. Just give me a couple minutes honey! I'm almost done."

FOURTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER, his homemade pizza was finally coming out of the oven and I was shoving him out the door.

My doc cheerfully said "Hey it worked!" as she entered my hospital room. I spent the next 2 hours in the shower with hot water on my back to ease myself through my contractions. My doc decided to speed the process along even more by breaking my water. Within a half an hour my contractions were so strong I thought I was going to lose it. I was having trouble concentrating on my breathing and staying calm. I started asking my nurse frantically "Can I PUH-LEEEEZE get an epidural?! I think I'd really like an epidural now....um....can I please have an epidural. 'Cus I think I'd really like one." She calmed me down and told me that the anesthesiologist was in a c-section and then he was heading to the woman's room next door, and then I would be next. Awesome. You better get your ass in gear anesthesiologist!!

After an hour and a half of strong contractions, the shower wasn't doing it for me anymore, I was losing concentration and my epidural still hadn't arrived. "Can I have morphine, demoral...ANYTHING?!" I asked my nurse. I had sworn I wouldn't get either of those, since most women had told me they didn't help the pain and just made you feel sick. At that moment my better judgment was escaping and I just wanted some pain relief. Luckily my nurse was an angel and calmed me, talked me through my contraction and told me I was doing great. Shortly after the anesthesiologist arrived (otherwise know was "A-Hole").

"Kindra your epidural is here. Can you come out of the shower and crawl on the bed?" my nurse asked politely. By this time my contractions were only 1-2 minutes apart, so I had to keep stopping and breathe through my contractions as I got my gown on and made my way towards the bed. The anesthesiologist asked me how I was doing just as I began to have a big contraction. Instead of answering him, or shaking his extended hand, I stopped, doubled over, closed my eyes tight and started breathing through my contraction. I could hear him in the background going "Hellooooo? I said how ARE YOU?" I kept ignoring him as I concentrated on just getting through the pain of the contraction.

"Can you get up on the bed?" I heard him ask me very annoyed.

No response.

"I said CAN YOU GET UP ON THE BED" he annunciated and said loudly.

"NOO!" I snapped as I still had my fists clenched and my eyes shut tight and breathing heavily. Can you not see I am in labor here buddy?! Just give me a minute.

Apparently my lack of response and snappy "no" offended him and he left the room. My contraction ended and I unclenched my fists and opened my eyes. I was then finally able to move and crawl up onto the bed as he was so unsympathetically asking me to do. The nurses called him back in and this time he was quite abrupt with me. "Bend over. Grab your knees. Hold still." Just as he began to insert the needle, I began to have another strong contraction and the pain was unbearable. I had searing pain in my back where he was inserting the needle and writhing pain over my belly as my baby began to move towards the birth canal.

Once all was said and done, I felt nothing. I felt wonderful. I laid there and savored the moments of being contraction-free. I could still feel when I was having contractions since it put such huge pressure on my womanly parts. My husband drifted off to sleep and I explored the strange feeling of having a belly that was completely numb. As I explored further down I began to realize that the freezing stopped short of the 'ol va-jay-jay. "Um....excuse me" I quietly said as I got my nurses attention. "Am I supposed to feel....stuff?"

"No you should be completely numb" she said.

"Okay. So like....will it be numb...down there?" I pointed.

"Yep. You shouldn't feel anything."

"Okay...um....cuz I can." I said as I started to feel a bit panicked. I didn't want to feel anything!!

My nurse began to check me by running an ice cube over my body to see where the freezing stopped and began. Sure enough...not frozen down below. As she ran the frozen melting ice cube over my bulging belly, I felt nothing. She continued higher and higher up. As she got up into my chest she said "Okay so you know you are supposed to tell me when you can feel it right?" "I know" I replied. "I still can't feel it." Just short of my collar bone I could finally start to feel it. You could see the look of panic on my nurse's eyes as she began to page for other nurses and the anesthesiologist. They were worried my lungs and heart would slow down from the freezing, so my nurse was ordered to shut off my epidural. SHUT IT OFF?! But I NEED it!

My nurse continued to monitor my contractions. I was still feeling pressure every couple of minutes. Suddenly I had intense pressure that wouldn't go away. Hmm....still pressure. "Are you having a contraction?" my nurse asked. "Ummm...yeah" I said short of breath. "Oh my...it's been a 4 minute contraction already and the baby's heartbeat is dropping." She rolled me o ver onto my side and 5 other nurses were buzzed into the room. I still had intense pressure and my body started shaking uncontrollably. "Wha- wha- wha- ts hap- pen- ing?" I asked my nurse. There was so much hustle and bustle no one could answer me.

After what seemed like forever, the pressure eased off and the tension in the room from the nurses eased as well. My nurse breathed a sigh of relief and said "That was a BIG contraction! It was 6 minutes long, but the baby's heartbeat is back up. We think she was turning to get in the right position." Relief swept over me. My body was still shaking uncontrollably and the pressure from the contractions were barely separated. Steve had slept through the whole ordeal and I figured now might be the time to wake him up. I shook him "Steve? Steve?" He woke with a start as he saw me laying on my side and shaking uncontrollably. "KIN! KIN! Calm down! Concentrate on your breathing!! DON"T LOSE FOCUS!"

"I'm fine! I can't stop shaking because my body is doing in involuntarily. I'm not losing control!" I was suddenly glad he had slept through the scariness of the 6 minute contraction. All of the sudden I had this urge to bear down and push that I couldn't control. " 'Scuse....MEEEEE. I can't.....stop....puuuushing" I told my nurse. "Well, try to stop" she told me. "I just checked you a few minutes ago and you were only 8 cm's." As the next contraction came I couldn't control it or stop it. It was like a wave was sucking me in and I was forced to hunker down and push. "I....can't.....stop!" "I swear you are only..." as my nurse lifted up the sheets to check me. "OH! Nevermind. You are 10 cm's and this baby is coming!" (Needless to say, they never did get a chance to turn my epidural back on.)

Finally! Some action. More nurses filed into the room and my doctor was called. I hunkered down for the first push and my nurses and husband guided me so well, I felt progress with every push. I really began to burn and understand what other mom's meant by the "ring of fire". My doctor showed up just in time for the last couple pushes and with one last "AAAHH!" I felt the release of the pressure and a slimy baby slide out.

Only 11 hours after the first real contraction hit and 20 minutes of pushing, I squealed with joy (and pain) and tears streamed down my face as my slimy baby was immediately immersed into my arms. MY BABY. I couldn't get over the miracle. I finally understood how parents could look upon the purple, swollen, goopy face of their minute old baby and exclaim how beautiful they were. I always thought they must really be blinded by love to think that THAT was beautiful. But as love and adoration washed over me I thought I was holding the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.





It is so hard to believe that this all happened one year ago today. One year ago I recovered in my hospital bed, tired, hungry and vibrating with excitement as I gazed upon the face of my sleeping baby. She has become a delightful, happy, chatty, goofy girl that crawls and gets into everything and smiles and giggles with whole-hearted joy. I never knew this kind of love for another human could well up inside you and make your heart so warm it almost bursts.


Enduring the pain of childbirth at the time I swore I would never have another baby. I tried to focus and breathe through a contraction as I yelled to Steve "I am NEVER doing this again!" But as I look at my precious baby girl I can't imagine NOT doing it again. Her curiosity and joy make me excited to do it all over again.

Happy Birthday to my 1 year old girl!

Look at that little chomper! (Click on the picture and it will show up bigger)
The other one right beside it is on it's way up as well. Still no crying on the teething front. Steve and I have been so blessed.

And look! She's crawling too.




She's scooting herself all over the place now. She has also discovered how to sit up. She can go from lying on her back, flip over to her tummy, and then sit up on her bum. The only thing she has to learn now is how to watch out behind her. Yesterday she shimmied her way under the piano bench and then got stuck. It was so cute! Listen to me as I laugh at her misfortunate shimmy.

Dear Eva,

It has been an amazing journey with you these last 8 months. Watching you grow and change has been nothing short of a miracle.


You started off so incredibly small and delicate. You were perfect. You had pretty little features and made the cutest little newborn yawns, sighs and squeaks. Your Daddy and I both fell head over heels in love with you. You were irresistible.


Within a short month you were giving us big smiles. Our hearts were bursting with every smile you cracked at us. You recognized us. You loved us enough to flash us your big gummy new baby smile.

With every month that passed you became more and more You. You have a sweet disposition and a gentle heart.

When I feed you your bottle you look up at me with your big baby blues. You reach your hand up to touch my face and you gently caress. You run your fingers gently between the strands of my hair. I smile at you, and even though you are drinking, you smile back with the bottle still between your lips.

You are also very goofy.


You are continually making silly noises and faces. You make your Daddy and I laugh. You continue being as cute as can be, all while flashing us a big toothless grin. We can't get enough of you, and when I am having a horrible day, if you smile and laugh your big giggley laugh, I melt. My heart turns to mush. You soften even the worst days.

You are so special to us.

You are continually growing and changing, and each step of the way we are more and more proud to call you our daughter. You light up our life. I almost wish we could stop time and you would never get any bigger, but you will. And I will love it. I'm drinking you in and savoring you just as you are.

I love you so much. You are my precious, beautiful girl.
Happy 8 Month Birthday Eva.

Love Mommy

It's report card time in the schools and even though I'm not teaching right now...I've got the itch. In true teacher fashion I thought I would do a little bit of a progress report for Eva. It's never too early to start assigning grades to your child's accomplishments ;)

Language Arts: Eva is quite a chatty girl, uttering phrases such as "Bah Bah Bah" and "Dah Dah Dah". I'm workin' on "Mah Mah Mah" with her....she hasn't caught on yet. She has forgotten about her pterodactyl squeal, but instead chooses to make noise by uttering "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh", sounding a bit like a native singer at times. I think she really likes to hear her own voice and will do it the car while we are driving just to hear how the car vibrations change it.

Almost two months ago, we started teaching Eva baby sign language. We haven't made any progress yet. Steve and I do "All Done!" at the end of every meal or when she is whining to get out of her excersaucer. I also do "milk" with her every time I had her her bottle. I'm sticking with just these two for now until she starts to sign back. After that I will probably add "more" and "bed" to her repertoire.

As I've said before, my girl has been sleeping through the night since she was 8 weeks old (with the exception of shots and growth spurts of course). Lately her newest achievement of rolling over from her back to her front has been the cause for a few sleepless nights or short naps. She will roll over onto her belly and either get her arm/shoulder caught underneath her body weight and will scream because she is losing circulation to her hand, or she will scream anyway because she is on her tummy and she can't fall asleep. I was wondering how long this was going to take to blow over (one website said months!)....

This morning I heard Eva stirring at 8:30am. I looked at the clock and didn't feel like either of us had slept long enough yet, so I waited to see if her cries died down and she would go back to sleep (which she often does). They weren't death screams, only whiney I am awake cries, so after 5-10 minutes it was silent. I rolled over and realized I would be getting more precious sleep. Around 10am I woke up, but Eva still hadn't. I decided it was time for both of us to start our day, and as I sauntered into her room, lo and behold!!....This is what I found:


She had rolled onto her belly, and was able to get comfortable enough to fall asleep! I love new baby achievements.

So I'm not sure if you've heard about baby sign language, but it is quite popular right now. I had considered starting to teach Eva, but realized maybe it was just a fad or that I would only be doing it as a sort of novelty. I have been reading a series of parenting books called "Babywise" and just finished reading "Babywise II". In the book, the author makes a good case for teaching your baby sign language. He says your baby has the ability to understand language, but no way of communicating it yet.....so if they want something they will whine or scream. Eva has a HORRIBLE habit of whining. It can be so annoying. He really hit home when he touched on that point let me tell ya! He said a way to get around that is to teach sign language since babies are capable of signing back to you. Like I said....he convinced me.

Two weeks ago we starting teaching Eva sign language. We started with the signs mostly to do with feeding: more, all done, milk, carrots, apples, banana, etc. I also do a few others like: please, bedtime, and beautiful. I sign to her, and then I make her hands do the sign back. I can't wait till she can communicate with me! Here is a little video of dinner time teaching Eva to sign.

Eva always seems to have some strange new sound that she is making. Her latest is this really loud screamy squeal. I think she just really likes to hear her own voice. She will talk to her toys sometimes in the squeal, and it's pretty cute. Steve is downright annoyed...he thinks it's cute for about 5 seconds and then the screamy squeal starts to pierce his eardrums.

On top of strange noises, she does cute but strange things. This is her weird lipsucking thing:



Back in December I would stick my tongue out at her and "blow raspberries"....she thought it was hilarious. After about 3 days she was realizing she had a tongue, and was attempting to do it too. By day 4 she had it down pat, and now it is her favorite! She does it ALL the time. The only thing I now have to teach her is that it's only okay for playtime....not during eating. She's done it a few times during dinner, and I have had to bust out my stern mom's voice and tell her "no!" We'll see how that goes. Anyway, here she is making her favorite sound:



Notice at the end she had this really dramatic cough that she pushed out and was totally fake? Yeah, she's funny...bit of a drama queen.

I really like that I have found a way to post videos (bet you couldn't tell ;) )...I take so many of them, and it's hard to send over email, so I hope the grandparents appreciate it :)

Eva has been learning new tricks all the time. Her latest one is rolling over from her back to her front. Steve and I have been going into her room every morning for the last 3 days and finding her on her tummy...but we have yet to see her do it!

I took a video of her attempting to do it....I was trying to prompt her with with her doll, but I had no success. I guess she will just continue to secretly roll over for now.

It seems like Eva has hit so many milestones lately that I have to do many posts to fit them all in. This one is mostly for the grandparents, who miss out on these milestones because they are far away :(

We started Eva on solid food about 1 month ago. She had seemed interested in it for awhile, but I really wanted to give her tummy time to develop so we didn't risk allergies or digestive problems. She was about a week and a half away from being 6 months old when I started. We didn't have a high chair yet, so I improvised by using the exersaucer at first. This got much too distracting for her, and she wanted to play and jump around, so we eventually moved her to the corner of the couch so she was supported. This worked well, but she was pretty messy which was not so good for my couch. We got her a booster-seat like chair that straps onto our kitchen chairs....we like it because it folds up and travels well. We took it on a road trip this past weekend.

Her first solid food was rice cereal. Eva was very eager and interested in trying it, but as soon as it was in her mouth she looked at me like "what IS this mom?!" She looked pretty surprised by the flavor.



A few days later, we tried avocado as her first fruit. I read that avocado's are really easy on baby's tummies and make a great first food. They have really good fats in them (omega) and it seemed to me to be a fairly bland fruit. (By the way I call it a vegetable in the video, but I found out later that it is a fruit...go figure). Here is her reaction to it.....she was NOT impressed:



When avocado was a no-go, we tried banana. This was received much better. Her initial reaction is a look of disgust, but she tends to do that will all new foods....I think she is just trying to figure out this new flavor in her mouth. She continued to eat her banana (without gagging or puking!), so that was her first successful fruit!



Since then, Eva's repertoire of food has expanded to include: rice cereal, banana, carrot, sweet potato (she LOVES sweet potato), green beans, barley cereal and applesauce. I didn't try new foods with her in any specific order...I've heard start with all the veggies and then fruit so they get used to bitter before sweet, I've heard do all the yellow veggies, then all green, etc., I have one friend who is getting her baby used to ALL the cereals first before anything else (barley, rice, oatmeal, wheat)....but I just switched it up. I waited 4 or 5 days before trying each new food, so I could make sure she didn't get an allergic reaction, but that's about it. I wanted her to have a variety right off the bat, and now I can make sure she gets a cereal, a fruit, an orange veggie and a green veggie in her diet everyday, and I've only introduced a handful of things so far. I'm sure you've seen my post on homemade baby food, and how ecstatic I am about it, so I can hardly contain myself when I get to try a new food. Today is the first time for peas....can't wait!

I had a wonderful weekend. Steve and I were away visiting some friends. It was full of friendship, babies/baby talk, good food and laughs. I have not laughed so hard in a long time. My heart was really warm. It was nice for a change in my daily routine. Thank you my friends for such a wonderful time.

While visiting, my baby learned a new trick! She rolled over for the very first time! I was so proud of her. I was beginning to think it would be another month or more before she rolled. Every time I layed her on her tummy, she wouldn't even attempt to roll over. I was hanging out with Audrey, and I placed Eva on her tummy....and she started to lean to one side. Before I had time to wonder what she was doing she had done her first roll over! First try! The sad thing was, Steve wasn't there to witness it. Audrey managed to capture it on video though, so Steve got to enjoy it later that evening.






She got frustrated in these pictures, because she couldn't quite make it over....but she eventually made it....and in the process, peed a lil on Sharon's blanket :)

This whole process of watching my baby grow before my very eyes has been fascinating and wonderful. Her newest achievement was the greatest of all so far....she laughed!! It was amazing! It was about a week ago...she had been a big fat grump all day, and Steve was holding her and we were talking and laughing with our friend Mark. Eva sounded like she was going to continue her grumping and whining, when all of the sudden she decided to join in and laugh with us! Steve and I were shocked, and it was so amazing we had tears streaming down our faces. We kept looking at her like "what the heck are you doing?" and once she had started she couldn't stop herself. The sound of my baby's laughter is my new favorite sound in the world. It was such perfect baby laughter, it was pure joy.