Made in Kodiak

Alaska Grown!

teething necklace

check out my teeth!

We have a model in our midst...

I really love cloth diapering Fiona.  The diapers are so cute and I don't need to worry about any chemicals against her skin.  Living on an island with a land fill that is close to capacity makes us feel like we need to do our part for the environment too.  One of my favorite cloth diapering sites in Green Mountain Diapers. Great selections, great prices, great quality! I noticed that she needed some pictures of babes in her diapers.  Check out our diaper model about half way down the page!  She is officially famous now! (at least in the cloth diapering world!) Love it!

Teeth!

Just a quick note for today.  I began my adventure in solo parenting yesterday.  Good news is she went to bed peacefully.  She sometimes fights bed time and I rely on Brian a lot when she does so I was happy it went well.  Brian flew to Sand Point and will be doing his survey cruise until the 24th.  He brought the video camera so I hope he brings back some good footage of life on the boat to share.  They will be doing bottom trawl surveys from Sand Point to Kodiak.

And big news on the Fiona front... She has teeth coming in!  I saw one peeking out through her bottom gum last night!  So exciting.  I'm sorry Brian is missing it.  Fiona is handling it really well.  We've used the homeopathic teething tablets a bit and she's wearing her amber teething necklace which is helping a lot.  Brian was very skeptical about the amber necklace, claiming it was more of my "hippie stuff."  He did admit that in the past week she's been much less cranky about her teeth.  He said if the teeth came in with out much fuss he'd be a believer.  HA! I love it when I'm right!  Hippie stuff aint all bad!

4 Months Old!

Fiona in her "Mama Made" pants

Mama Made Pants

Munchin' on a string bean (it's organic!)

Hanging out in bed

It is amazing how fast these 4 months have flown by!  Our girl is 4 months old today.  She visited Dr. Laura today who said she's "Perfect!"  We knew that.  Fiona's still a teeny little thing but growing taller.  She weighs 11 pounds 13 ounces now and is 25 inches in length.  My dad would say she's the size of a nice silver!  We think she's a keeper!

She has decided to celebrate turning 4 months by learning to roll over!  She has done it more then once so we know its not a fluke!  Back to belly.  It's fun to watch her work at it and figure out what to do with her arms.  She's also working on some teeth.  We may not see them for some time but she's feeling them thats for sure.  She's a drool machine and has been munching on anything she can get into her mouth.

I've been teaching myself to sew.  I'm so excited about the pants that I made for Fiona.  They used to be t-shirts!  Somehow while hanging out in my closet they shrunk so I made them into pants for the babe instead!  The ultimate in recycling.  They turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!  No t-shirt is safe now.

It's Been a While...

"If you ask me where my smile is one more time..."

"OK, here it is!"

Morning Coffee

Mama and Papa

Forgive me.  We've been busy and the Fiona and I got sick.  Not too much fun.  She quickly recovered and my cold is still lingering as colds tend to do.  Blah!  This weekend was Crab Fest.  It's a big deal in Kodiak.  The carnies come to town and people have food booths set up.  We were fighting our colds and didn't spend too much time down there.  Last year I was all about it though and couldn't get enough of all the good food... I found out the next week I was pregnant!  It's fun to think about what we were feeling at this time last year.  The excitement of finally getting that positive test was settling in!  And now our girl is here!  We couldn't be happier!

Happy Mothers Day!

"Petting" the ever patient Willie

Our sweet girl

All my girls!

Walking at Spruce Cape

(This was on Saturday)

What a perfect day!  I woke up with my little girl snuggled up next to me in our family bed.  I'm so grateful for her and am amazed by the love I feel for her.  She's such a special little person and a true miracle to us.  I'm so happy to finally be a mom!

We spent the day together as a family doing some of our favorite things.  We sat in the morning sun having our coffee on the front porch.  Well Brian and I had coffee and Fiona had the usual mama's milk!  Fiona enjoyed "petting" Willie's fur.  By petting I mean grabbing fistfuls of it!  Later we took her for a walk through the neighborhood and she slept in her ergo for a bit.  Then it was off to one of our favorite coffee shops for lunch!  She and I sat and nursed in the car on the beach while Brian took the girls swimming on the way home.  Then it was back to nap time!  While Fiona nursed and napped I read my new Mothering magazine.  I might have closed my eyes for a few minutes but mostly I read in bed.  It was a nice treat.  We just got back from walking to Safeway for some dinner groceries.  She dozed off on the way home so we kept on walking just to make that evening nap last a bit longer.  We just started using the jog stroller which is great.  She likes it and there is room for a few groceries too!  The weather in Kodiak has been gorgeous!  This is why we live here!

Happy Mothers Day to all the mom's out there.  I hope everyone else had such a great day!

3 months old!

Carolina's Birthday cake!

Walking at the Buskin

Summer clothes!

Fiona with her Papa and her puppy, Maia

Tummy time

Fiona turned 3 months old on Friday!  I brought her in this morning for a vaccine (yikes, we hate those) and weighed her.  11 pounds, 1 ounce.  She's getting bigger and gaining new skills every day.  She is much better at grabbing things now.  Among her favorites are her dangling toys, Mama's hair, and best of all Papa's beard!  It's really fun to interact with her and have "conversations".  She goes on and on in baby talk.  We are just loving every day with her!

This weekend we were blessed with gorgeous weather.  It was about 60 degrees and totally clear blue skies!  Keep in mind that our "hot" summer weather is about 65.  We took the girls down to the Buskin River for a swim and to soak up some rays.  The fog suddenly rolled in that evening and it looked like rain so I made a mad dash outside to bring the diapers in from the line.  It made me think of how many times I had pulled laundry from the line when I was younger at our old house on Forest Street when it started to rain!  Despite the rain last night we are thrilled that Spring has finally arrived.  The tulips are starting to come up and the grass is getting green!  Yeah!  Oh and I'm so excited to have garlic coming up in the garden. :)

Our friend Carolina had her 13th Birthday this weekend too.  It has been a tradition to help her make a birthday cake every year since we've lived here.  We have a lot of fun.  She doesn't ever want just a basic round cake either.  Over the years we've done a teddy bear, a fish, a lady bug and this year a soccer ball.  It turned out great!  Carolina and I have learned that the key to success is to keep her mom, Alex, out of the process!  It's fun to think about what types of cakes Fiona will like for her birthdays.