A Birthday Celebration!

We celebrated Fiona's birthday today with a few friends. It was a really nice gathering with her daycare friends and their families. We decorated birthday crowns, played with balloons, ate snacks and enjoyed banana cake (with Grandpa J's jam as the filling!). Her birthday is not until Monday but last year at this time is when my labor started. 40 hours of labor calls for 40 hours of celebration I think! One of our party guests was Zoya, who was our doula. It was fun to look back on my labor and Fiona's birth with her. She had the good news that Kodiak is getting a midwife and birth center this Fall! Yeah! I told Brian we can have another baby now!

Decked out in her birthday outfit (thanks for the hand me down Anna, we love the dress!) I made her birthday crown out of wool felt.

Party girls!

Lots of help and excitement over gifts!

ALL DONE

Fiona signs "all done" after dinner. Her appetite has increased so much this past month. She's gone from playing and eating a bit here and there to eating a ton. Dinner is her favorite. She will sit and eat for half an hour. When she's had enough she signs "all done" very enthusiastically as you can see above. She's like her Mama in that she doesn't eat much at breakfast but loves a big lunch and dinner. Tonight she devoured venison fried rice. Yummy! Brian is pretty sure that she's had more variety in her diet so far than he has in his whole life! Thankfully she pretty much eats anything we give her. She'll get her first chance at cake this weekend when we have her birthday party... its sure to be a hit!

MILK DRUNK

Nu-Nu is nursing in our house. I've heard it by that name for so many years by nieces and nephews that there is no other name I could have used! Fiona loves her nu-nu. Now that she is communicating more and more she loves to do the ASL milk sign and say nu-nu, nu-nu when she wants to nurse. She loves to cozy up on the couch or in the bed. I tried to get a picture of her nursing but she was too excited by the camera to cooperate! Brian often hands her off to me when she won't be appeased by him and say, "A girl just needs her nu-nu." Its true, Fiona, not much is better. He also points out if we have a restless night that we have a growing girl who needs to nurse. I agree she does need it. Nursing is good for her physically as well as emotionally. As we creep into toddlerhood and into her second year I feel that nursing her remains just as important now as it did in the beginning. In fact she just crawled into my lap as I'm writing this for a little nu-nu.

KODIAK KID

The carharts and xtratuffs are the classic "uniform" of Alaskans. Fiona fits right in. I can picture her out in the garden this summer in her carharts and her little xtratuffs (yes, we have a pair of tiny ones!) She's going to be my number one helper!

IRRESISTIBLE

I love this picture because it captures a look we get from Fiona often. She tilts her head down and flashes that smile with her eyes looking up at you. As someone pointed out to us recently, we're in for it when she's older. I think they are right! Who could resist that look? Sure baby, you can have whatever you want. (says Papa!)

A Winter Walk at Buskin Beach

A Movie for Maggie

A special request has been made for more video coverage! Here you go Maggie Jane, this one is for you... Fiona showing off her new mobility!

Settling In to the New Year

We've been busy sorting at our house. We've packed away some of Fiona's baby toys and rotated some new ones in. We've pulled out the next size of clothes (I forgot about this one, put it on her quick!) and packed the smaller ones away. We moved our family bed to a different wall and wonder why we never did that in the first place... the room seems so much bigger now! It feels good to be cleaning and sorting as we settle in to this new year. I think its way better then Spring cleaning too because who wants to be inside then! Happy 2010!

Can you believe that Fiona is almost one?! It's amazing to us that we are on the verge of her birthday. She has been so busy in this first year of her life! She's on the verge of walking. She loves pushing her wagon along and will cruise all over the house with it. She also walks along the hall with one hand on the wall... I feel like its only a matter of days before she lets go and realizes she can walk without holding on! Look out world, here she comes!

She's talking more and more too. It seems that every few days she adds more words and signs. Her latest addition is her own version of Stuey, the little boy I babysit. It sounds like shhee. She's pretty much in love with him! Sheep are still a big favorite around here too. She likes to sing Baa Baa Black Sheep... her version is "baa baa sheepy, yeah ss, yeah ss". (yes sir, yes sir) Brian is still trying to learn the right words to these nursery rhymes! She may grow up with some very interesting versions to these songs! She also has long conversations with us in baby talk that always end in "yeah?"

Brian spent several days of last week out on the boat fishing for work. She was so excited to get her Papa home. We were up before her the next morning and had the monitor on. Did she ask for Mama when she woke up? Nope! She remembered that he was home and called out, "Papa, Papa". It was very clear that he had been missed by his little girl!

Catching Up!

There is so much to catch up on! Fiona and I left for Whidbey the day after Christmas so I haven't had time to catch up on the blog until now. We are back home recovering from our travels which went smoothly until hitting Anchorage. With a canceled flight I had the joy of hauling all of our baggage, including a car seat, to a hotel for the night. Thank God for hotel shuttles and bellman. We woke up at 4:00 the next morning to catch the morning jet. Thankfully weather in Kodiak cleared and we arrived safely home! So now I can tell you about our Christmas and our trip!

Solstice!

The Solstice fairy arrived at our house again with a new pair of PJ's for Fiona. She was excited to open her gift before we headed out to our friends Solstice party. In Alaska, we are happy to celebrate the shortest (darkest) day of the year because we know that little by little we will start to get more light in our day. Bring on the light!

Christmas!

We so enjoyed our first Christmas as a family of three! Fiona did well opening gifts and thought the wrapping paper was pretty great. She got overwhelmed so we took it slow and gave her a few things to open that night. She must have been a very good girl because Santa brought her some musical instruments (a xylophone and a bell bracelet) and a wooden walker wagon. Brian and I got her some new books and socks! In the evening we enjoyed a feast with good friends!

Fiona is delighted with her new xylophone!

A beautiful Christmas wagon!

Clara!

As you know, we have our beautiful Clara Mary! My beautiful niece waited for me to get to Whidbey for her birth! I was so happy to be there. Fiona was amazing at the birth given that I scooped her up out of bed to go to the cabin. She sensed that something special was happening. The cabin was so peaceful with the Christmas tree lights glowing and the kids surrounding Molly. I am so happy that we got to share that with them. I want a homebirth next time! I told Molly that if we don't get a midwife in Kodiak I'd have my next baby at her house!

Fiona all smiles at her first homebirth

Aunty Sue and Clara!

Baptism

It was very special to have Fiona baptized with her cousin. Clara was just a few days old and we wondered if she would make it time for this planned double baptism. She did! Fiona really liked it! After having water and oil rubbed on her head she began to rub her head all around. The congregation loved it! She smiled through most of it! She was also able to wear the baptism gown that nearly every member of my family has worn. We estimate that it is about 120 years old. Her great grandmother wore this gown for her own baptism!

A beautiful cake to share after mass

Fiona's baptism

Fiona loves it!

Being dressed in her gown

Fiona and me with her godparents, Ben and Emily

Clara Mary!

We are so happy to bring Clara Mary into our family! She was born at home on December 31st at 1:52 am. She is no small baby! 9 pounds, 5 ounces and 21 inches long. Molly and Clara are doing great! It was such a beautiful birth.  Fiona and I were there along with Grandma and Clara's family.  I am so happy that we made it time for the birth! She is beautiful and has such nice fat cheeks! It is fun to think of the fun that Clara and Fiona will have with each other as they grow up.