Kentucky part 1

Ok, so here's the first set of pictures from our busy trip to Kentucky! We enjoyed a wonderful visit with Aunt Phoebe at her house (Granny Phoebe to Ivy!). The bacon pictured below is from a big country breakfast we ate together. We certainly didn't need the calories, but it was delish!

The other food pictured was a Louisville Hot Brown and Derby Pie from the Brown Hotel in downtown Lousiville. I love a good hot brown, and wanted to try one from the source! We went there on Thursday- Brian's parents watched Ivy for us while we had our first "date" since we got Ivy! We had lunch and then toured a forge. Not your normal idea of a date, but hey- it worked for us. It definitely felt strange to be by ourselves. I kept looking in the back seat at the carseat! Brian's parents did well with Ivy, but she did cry a fair amount-- missing us I suppose. Brian's sister, Vonda came over and helped entertain her and got her to go to sleep for a while. We did enjoy our time out on the town though!

We got together with family every day during our time in Lousiville. I love the picture below of Ivy in the center of a circle of admirers.... her first hen party! Ivy enjoyed lots of cuddling from everyone! She was a good sport, as usual and seemed delighted at all of the attention. She slept well each night in her little tent and woke up refreshed.

The next blog entry will cover when we left Lousiville to head into the hills of Southeastern Kentucky!

Weekend tutu pictures!

Ok, I got a new camera. I've been steadily more interested in photography for the past few years, enjoying my pocket sized camera, and more recently my vintage Mimiya for film photography... but taking pictures of Ivy all the time, I started to get the itch for a more sophisticated camera! I've got a lot to learn about all of the ways to use it, but I had fun getting started this afternoon for a few minutes. Thank goodness she doesn't seem to mind.... I got the tutu she is wearing for $7.00 at the local antique store... not an antique of course, but who could resist! I didn't factor in the drool when I was taking these pictures... so much of it these days, those teeth have got to be on their way in!

Ivy's eating food now 2 or 3 times a day-- she likes carrots best, but enjoys peas and bannanas too! I plan to begin making baby food when we come back from our vacation- don't want to confuse her pallate!

We are heading to Kentucky on Tuesday for a week of family visits! Lots of family pictures to come, I'm sure!

Despite discomfort with the teething, she continues to have a sunny attitude towards things! She really can sit up by herself now for long perriods of time-- I'm delighted to have more varrying photo ops :)!!! Crawling doesn't seem immenent, but she does move around a lot!!!

San Jose

We made the trek down to San Jose today to visit with Kim, Nahshon, Finn, and my aunt and uncle. We all live in far flung places from each other, so it was nice to get together for a few hours. We took a stroll around a Japanese Garden and then had a delicious authentic lunch in a Mexican restaurant in San Jose. Ivy was a real trooper (as usual) during the nearly 12 hour day of car travel, stroller and lap time. She got a few minutes of play time with Finn towards the end of the visit- she always reaches out gently to other babies-- and she wanted to hold Finn's hand, which confirms my suspicions that she will be boy crazy! When we got home, there was a big surprise on my front porch! We got a new fun toy for Ivy as a gift from Doug and Iris in North Carolina! She actually doesn't have anything like this yet- and is just now getting to the point she can enjoy it I think! I put it together tonight and snapped a quick picture for the blog! Thanks!!!! She totally loves it!

The other pictures are of Ivy and my dad at lunch= clowning with the John Deere hat, and a cool old theater across the street from lunch.

Halloween!

Well, I'd say that Baby's first Halloween was a "screaming success!"

Ivy wore her costume a number of times over the week before Halloween-- various events around town. The mommie's group had a costume party... lots of babies in costume! Several pumpkins-- Ivy had her photo op with the critters group. It was fun!

We went trick or treating in our neighborhood- visiting the neighbors that we are close with. She was a good sport, as usual-- though she must have been tired by the end of it.

We had our 6 month visit with Dr. Wong this week and were thrilled to learn that Ivy is progressing in her development and skills as she should be! She moves around a lot on the floor- can roll from her tummy to her back both ways and from her back to her sides both ways. She can sit up unassisted for short periods of time sometimes-- and appears to have really good posture! She's eating rice cereal with prune juice 2 or 3 times a day-- boy is it messy! We got some of those plastic bibs. She got several shots that day... and had an unpleasant reaction to the flu shot (normal one- not H1N1). We had our first fever and vomit o rama. Enough said!

Thursday we also had our 2nd (of 4) post placement home visits with our social worker. Our next one is scheduled for Thanksgiving week. The visits are really nice- just checking in to see how she is doing- how she is progressing, etc.

Well, we are off to Kentucky next week to visit Brian's family- and then home to settle in for the holidays!

Ivy's 6 months old!

Well, we had a pretty busy week, with work, events and visits with friends. Our friend Greg visited from the Sonoma Coast- and we had a nice walk downtown and lunch together. He and Ivy admired her Tokyo photo album!

On saturday, my mom and I took Ivy to a tutu event at Nordstrom-- kind of geared towards older girls, but that was ok. She was the only baby there- but she had her tutu! This picture of her in the tutu is pretty accurate for how it is with her these days-- everything goes in the mouth! She's teething for sure. Lots of drool... knawing on things and some obvious discomfort at times :(.

Yesterday was her 6 month birthday! We went shopping and got a new toy and also a walking thing... that she isn't quite tall enough for yet. She also tried out a jumping thing this week that hangs from a door way. She approaches each new thing with interest and an open mind, which I'm grateful for! Brian and I celebrated her 1/2 birthday with a steak dinner and some chocolate cake!

It's pumpkin time

We went to Apple Hill last weekend to take the obligatory pumpkin pictures! It was a fun day! We had apple pie, did a lot of people watching and dresed Ivy up in her bee costume. We didn't have much time at the pumpkin patch- and a storm was rolling in, but we did get some cute pictures! More pictures to come. I'll be taking Ivy to some Halloween events here in town- and Aunt Vickie wants a photo op- since she loves bees so much!

New dress in the back yard

Not much to say, but I can't stand how cute this outfit is on her! She got some new shoes in the mail today- a gift from a friend of ours... and they perfectly matched her outfit- so I had to take about 40 pictures!