Too Busy To Blog

It's been a little while since we last blogged. Honestly, we've been pretty busy --no, not with work or our crazy social lives. We're busy with our little Karis H. Robinson. The "H" now stands for Hurricane.

She is one curious, strong, persistent, fearless, non-stop baby. She is now in every part of our home. She used to stay in the main traffic areas, but she now crawls under the table, through the high chair, and even up into the dishwasher. She also used to stay close by, but now she wanders off into the next room or straight towards the open front door.

Here is what we deal with on a daily basis:

1) Diaper changes, or better known as "Mommy (or Daddy) vs. Baby" wrestling matches.
Here is a play by play:

• Baby gets put down on the changing mat
• Baby submits for about 8 seconds (max!) and then attempts to flip over
• Mommy places one hand on baby's stomach
• Baby squeals
• Mommy is a sucker and loosens her hold
• Baby turns over and mommy grabs baby's ankles
• Baby starts to walk away on her hands with her legs in the air
• Mommy releases legs for fear of a face plant and is left watching a little naked butt crawl away
• Clearly it seems as if baby is winning during the entire match, but eventually mommy wins ... but not without a few beads of sweat on her brow

2) Every day we try to teach her what she is not allowed to play with in hopes that one day she will actually understand what we're saying. We call our home the Garden of Eden. There are plenty of toys, an exersaucer, a little shelf for her toys so she can stand and play, a little activity table, plastic containers we leave out on the kitchen floor for her to play with, etc. But like the Garden of Eden, there are just a couple of apple trees Karis is not allowed to "eat" from. Of course, those are the things she is most drawn to ALL DAY LONG. Those things include the bathroom, the refrigerator, the pots and pan rack, and one exposed outlet we use for her baby monitor.

We now keep the bathroom door closed at all times. But if one of us goes in there, you will soon hear a toy drop and then little legs scurrying along the carpet. In just a couple of seconds, little Karis will be at the door with a big smile and she'll excitedly continue on into the bathroom. She'll stand up along the toilet and pull out the toilet paper, or she’ll look into the tub where she takes her baths, or she’ll play with the tag that hangs off the pipe behind the toilet. If a guest leaves the toilet lid open and the bathroom door open, she will notice it far sooner than one of us will. She makes her way in there and dips her fingers in the toilet bowl.

It's the same thing with the refrigerator. If the door opens, she’ll quickly make her way over and crawl around or even under the door just to stand there and look at the mecca of things she's never seen, touched or stuffed in her mouth before.

3) Michievous behavior. One example of this is her fairly new "skill" she has taught herself. She can now pull herself up on the hamper, take the lid off and pull out her dirty clothes… as if there wasn’t enough of her stuff lying around everywhere. There are plenty of other examples such as chewing on our flip flops, knocking down the trashcan to get at the paper inside, emptying the diaper caddy, and pulling out diaper wipes to suck on them.

4) Loud repetitive behavior. One thing she loves to do is stand up and pound her hands above her head against whatever is supporting her, be it the DVR in the entertainment center, the bedroom door or the sliding mirror closet doors. It's quite loud and not our favorite thing for her to do, but she seems to be doing it out of sheer excitement – for what, I don’t know. Another non-favorite of ours is her opening and closing the door of the entertainment center. She will open and slam the door closed over and over and over again.

There are probably things that I forgot to mention but I think you get the idea. But all that said, I am having so much fun with her. She makes me smile and laugh all day long. If you just look at her, she gets happy and smiles. When she does, how can I not quickly forget about the thing she just knocked over or the receipt she just ate?

She plays so well by herself but she definitely loves having someone to play with. Her giggles are contagious and she gives the best little hugs and kisses. I love watching her try to figure things out and slowly start to understand a little more about the world she lives in. I am so thankful that God has entrusted us with this precious life. I just pray that we will be honorable, loving and gracious every step of the way.

Karis at 8-months

Karis turned 8-months old earlier this week. She has had quite the busy month or two. She has accomplished a lot (some great and some not so great things) in a short period of time. Here is a quick list of the things she has been up to:

• she crawls like a champ from room to room
• she comes when she's called
• she can pull up on everything, even a wall
• she is just starting to cruise along the sofa
• she has eaten a fair amount of paper, pieces of mail, and envelopes
• she has managed to dip her fingertips in the toilet bowl
• she has stuffed her mouth with toilet paper while spinning out half the roll
• she has managed to open the diaper wipe container and suck on the wipes
• she recognizes her name
• despite her parents' best efforts, she has managed to snag flip flops and chew on them
• she tore a door stop off the wall that made ...well, use to make an interesting "twang" sound every time she tugged on it at our friend's house
• she burned her finger on the outside of the stove =(
• she is constantly on the move and therefore has taken a good number of bumps to the head and pinches to the fingers
• she gives kisses (quite wet and sloppy)
• she has learned how to give high-5s
• she is working on the fine art of eating finger foods. she can pick them up, she just doesn't open her hand to release them into her mouth and ends up flinging them onto the floor.

A Wet Friday with Karis

No, I'm not referring to her diapers. =)

Dad got Karis dolled out in her rash guard and short shorts for the pool. We even took the floatie. Yes, I did put some sunblock on her and let it soak in before being exposed. I think we tooled around in the water for about 1/2 hour. While there, she managed to swallow a small amount of water... twice. She likes lunging forward and face-planting. It allows her to get her face just past the inner floatie and into the mesh material that connects to the outer floatie.

Here's a photo for reference:

While at the pool, I managed to sink a bluetooth earpiece in the pool. I let it dry out and it powers up, but I haven't successfully been able to connect it to phone or turn it off. Strange.

We showered off at the pool. Heading Lena's advice about having trouble getting Karis out of the rash guard, I removed it at the pool while she was still happy. Good one! I figured Momma wouldn't consider that a bath, so I bathed Karis at home in the big tub. It's much roomier than her infant one.

But all that water excitement must have fired her up as she didn't fall asleep during her afternoon nap time. Uh oh!

Lessons From The Toilet

The other day our toilet handle lever inside the tank broke in the guest bathroom. Derek spoke with our landlord and found out that it would cost our landlord $200 to get a plumber out to our place. That sounded ridiculous, so Derek graciously offered to fix the toilet himself.

He went to Lowe's with the baby and bought the necessary components. He came home and fixed it in no time! Later that day I went to use the bathroom.

"What a funny looking handle." I said to Derek who was in the family room. It definitely wasn't the handle that I would have picked out. It was a bit bulky and had an odd shape.

"What?" he replied.

Hmm, he must not have heard me, I thought. "What a funny looking handle" I repeated.

"What?" he said again.

I paused, laughed and then said, "Thanks, babe for fixing the toilet."

"You're welcome."

I smiled and then continued to take care of my business in the bathroom. I definitely need to remember to show my appreciation and/or start out with the positive before jumping into criticism. Thankfully, I have a funny, light-hearted husband who is willing to gently remind me of this.

Summer Days

It sure has been hot the past month or so. Unfortunately, we've had to run the A/C every day to stay cool. I wish I could say that we've been spending every day at the pool, but I can't. It's actually a lot of work to get all geared up, dressed, lathered with sunblock and down at the pool when Karis is awake for no longer than two hours at a time (and that has to also include taking a bottle that she takes her time with).

But, we have made it down to the pool a couple times. Each time we go, she seems to enjoy the water more. At first, she didn't really pay attention to the fact that she was in a large pool of water. Now she is more aware and enjoys playing with the water. She definitely enjoys it more when her cousins are hanging out with her.

Here she is sporting her new bathing suit that Aunt Stephanie bought her.

Time for Rogaine?

No, not for Derek... thank goodness... for our baby girl. Her hair doesn't seem to be growing in. We keep waiting and waiting and waiting. All of her friends (younger and older) have a nice set of hair, beautifully adorned with bows, flowers, etc. Not Karis. There is nothing to adorn.

We are hopeful because she has one patch of hair at the top of her head that is growing in just great. Now if just the rest of her head would do the same.

Karis "eating"

At times, I'm thankful that I watch Karis solo only one day a week. She's more active each an every week. The one time I find her activity most frustrating is meal time with baby food. I'm not sure why... I know part of it is that I don't like messes (other than my own personal space and the piles of things I have which other people may consider messy). And Karis makes quite a mess while eating. Actually, I think she eats less than 50% of the food so I think I cannot technically call it "eating." I think another part of the frustration is that inability to communicate to her while "eating." She doesn't comprehend "Keep your fingers out of your mouth!" and other well-used phrases. I'm getting better though. =)

Here's a quick little video for your viewing pleasure.




Should you be wondering, yes, I did get the oatmeal out of her eye.

Here are some photos of Karis taken at a wedding we were at this morning.  

Daddy's little girl

Karis stayed nice and quiet during the ceremony.  During the reception, her sleepiness kicked in and she became quite talkative at the most inopportune time (the bride's father was not able to make it to the wedding due to a stroke the day he was supposed to fly out. She tearfully started to talk about him when Karis started to "talk" too.  Yikes!).  We went outside during the speeches and took a few more photos.

The Word "No"

I recently read an article in a parenting magazine about how not to overuse the word "no" with your baby. If you're always saying, "No, don't do that," or "No, don't touch that," your baby will likely tune the word out. Or worse, their first word may be "no" (we'd prefer it to be "mommy" or "dada"). They recommended you save the word "no" for safety situations. If you say "no" when they're about to touch something hot or do something dangerous, they will be more likely to take notice.

We've been trying to make a conscious effort not to overuse the word so we've been frequently saying, "Karis, let's not do that" and "Karis, why don't you come over here and play with your toys?" We say it often as there are many things that Karis is drawn to that we would rather she not play with. She has a whole area in our living room with toys galore, but she always wanders off looking for something else.

Other things she does include trying to get at her baby monitor camera while standing up in her crib.  She also loves to eat paper and we'll find a receipt or a piece of paper in her mouth that she's found laying around.  

She also doesn't sit still for too long in her bouncer or her rocker. This is one of the many positions she would rather be in. 

 

Bath Time

It's been awhile since we've taken photos of Karis' bath time. The last time we shared photos (http://sweetfamilyrobinson.blogspot.com/2009/01/bath-time.html), bath times looked very different.

Here are a few pics of Karis' pre-bath time.