Up Like a Whirlwind

Posted on August 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

Two short weeks and Barrett will be eight months. Wow! We have such a little personality on our hands, and I swear she is changing and figuring out something new by the minute.

Some things I jotted and don’t want to forget:
7/8 – you started crawling. I was working from home and watching you for a few minutes while Daddy was in the other room. You had been rocking back & forth, and trying other ways to move yourself forward, so when I saw your little arms pull forward and your little legs pushing as well, I can’t say I was surprised. I called out to Bryan, “come quick! She’s crawling!” and he replied, “oh yeah, she did that earlier today too.” Oh. Well, there you have it. And once you started you have only been going, going, going!

7/15 – we were out visiting at Casey, Stephanie and Owen’s beach house in Lincoln City. During one of your “up” times we all went to Regatta Park on the lake, it was SO neat with its wooden towers it looked like a castle. Next year you will love the slides, stairs, rings, swings, and bridges to explore. This year, you were giggle-full of joy to be in the bucket seat of a swing.

Your latest enjoyment is found in your little pointer finger. You love to find things, point at it, look at me to share what you’ve found, and giggle. Circles are especially fun to find. You will point out eyes on every page of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and if you find a speck on the floor where you are exploring, you will point it out and rub it with your tiny finger. So darling for me to watch.

This is my favorite clip of you when you were first getting your crawling gears going:

There have been so many things going on, I’m going to try and post another update this weekend.

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Green is around

Posted on July 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

Summer is “here”. Today reached 80 degrees, Sandwich played in water from the hose, Barrett sat in her diaper on the grass, and Bryan brought the loungey lawn chairs out. The plants that were nothing but brown and looking barren in our yard over the winter and my maternity leave are draped in green, green, green. I spent so much time cooped up in this house when Barrett was so small, partially due to recovery and having a flu/cold, and partially because it was just plain miserable out. Some of our plants have gone through a full cycle of flowering and turning to seed, and some are still getting ready for that. I find myself often reflecting on/comparing Barrett’s timeline of life so far and the life in our yard. Not sure why I do this and it is almost subconscious, how I track Barrett’s growth and compare her to the wild nature outside. Maybe after she turns one year old I’ll stop this funny comparison.

Our yard is so lush. There’s a big maple out front that shades our entire yard and keeps our house cool as well. Sitting in our living room, all I can see are hues of green and I absolutely love it. Especially now that the ivy on the fence is growing back, we have privacy in our plants. Sidenote: it’s a chain-link fence and the ivy was cut back to nothing but stems a few months ago.

I like to think that here, Sandwich is admiring our front yard. In reality, she is probably just soaking in this sunbeam.

I was thinking today about how much I love winter, and how fun it will be for my daughter to have a winter birthday. But then, what if she doesn’t like winter and wishes her birthday were in the summer? I started coming up with ideas of how I will explain to her and tell her all the fun things about winter. Summer always sells itself as most appealing with its warm weather, green lush plants, pretty bright blue skies … So many people prefer summer to the cold, monotone, stay-cozy-inside of winter. However, Bryan and I both love winter with its cold and snow, we love snowboarding and being outside in the cold, and it’s a great time for knitting and being indoors to share stories with friends. I would much rather be cold and need to add another pair of socks or long johns than being so hot that I can’t bear to sleep with clothes or a sheet on.

Maybe we will buy some Christmas cactus for Barrett.

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Thankful for …

Posted on June 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Baby goes down!

Tonight was the ending of a long day for baby Bear. She’s got some tooth or teeth coming in, and some serious pain wails coming out. After nearly an hour of rocking, rubbing gums and consoling, Barrett passed out. It broke my heart to see her in so much pain, but I know in the long run this is nothing.

I am thankful that nights like these are (so far) the hardest things we’ve had to deal with since we got settled in about 3 months ago. (Three months marks when I started feeling like we had more of a routine, and I also started getting more sleep at night and didn’t feel like I was floating through the days.) I hear and read heartbreaking stories of babies with health problems, parents who are out of work and their families are starving, and so many other terrible hardships that babies and families endure – and I am SO so thankful that we have not just a roof over our heads but that we are healthy, secure, happy, and much better off than so many people out there. My heart goes out to those who are struggling with more than just a teething baby who is having a hard time falling asleep.

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Half a Year Flies By

Posted on June 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

Summer has been trying to arrive, slowly the days are a little warmer and we even have full days of blue skies with sun. Two days before summer solstice, Barrett had her little six month “birthday”. We didn’t do anything to celebrate, but in my mind I played over all the ways she has grown and changed since arriving.

This post is a little diary of recollection for me.

Three days after turning 5 months, we offered you food. It was 1tsp of rice cereal mixed with 3tbsp milk. You actually started getting the hang of it, wanting to feed yourself and then before long, your attention turned to the dog who was happily lapping up what fell on the floor below. Nearly a week later, we offer you banana which you make a scrunched up face at, but you are so adventurous you keep opening up for more.

May 29: you are rolling over as much as you want, like little sideways somersaults. Before this day, you were rolling over every now and then but not with such intent.

June 3 was a Friday, and I was home working on the couch so that I could watch Barrett at the same time. Bryan was on the floor with her, and we see her scoot in a full 360 on her tummy. This was over maybe 15-minute period, but we realized this was the beginning of crawling. The ne

June 5: your first little tooth is coming through! I discovered it because you kept wanting to chew on the book we were reading, so I gave you my thumb to gnaw on. Lower left, in the middle. A few days later its pair was coming up next, and we suspect you have a third coming in soon as I write – you keep waking up crying very loudly, in pain.

On June 5, you started sitting unassisted. Just like that! After nursing in the morning in bed (so mama can get some rest still – you wake up so early!), you started sitting and were very pleased with yourself. I took you down on the floor and set you down there, you were just as sturdy.

June 10 – you taste the avocado! You are adventurous and intrigued. I wanted to record this one, because daddy and me both like the avocado very much.

Every day I sing to you, every day I hug and I kiss you, every day I think I won’t be able to love you any more than I already do. Being your mama is the best thing that ever happened to me, and the time we spend together as a family is always my favorite time. Whether it’s going for a walk in the neighborhood, playing inside or out, or just having time sharing stories with you and daddy, I am so thankful for all we have. We are very fortunate.

Barrett and Sandwich the Dog

Barrett and her best friend, Sandwich.

Peonies from our yard. They bloomed on the solstice, which felt very fitting.

Playing with dada - always fun!

Sandwich and Barrett watching me getting ready in the morning. Lately, Barrett has been especially interested in the part where I brush my teeth.

Bryan got the hot tub filled up and running! Here we are on Barrett's first day in. She was generally very quiet which is normal when she's in a new situation, taking it in.

I want to use the spoon by myself!

We finally got our P-Patch plot! It's been doing awesome, and Bryan can take all the credit for what comes out of it since I haven't been there more than a handful of times.

 

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Baby Powwow with our Centering Group

Posted on June 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

The experience Bryan and I had with our centering group has been pretty awesome. Six other families went through prenatal “checkups” (actually, 2-hr meetings) with us. All of them are pretty cool in their own right. After our babies were born we have managed to stay in touch to some degree, mostly through Facebook. Our babies are all almost 1-month apart and one was born the day before Barrett. Last we got together, Barrett was six weeks old and I think everyone was still trying to figure out what life with baby meant. Now our babies are six or almost six months old (Barrett is 5 months, 4 weeks) and yesterday we had everyone over for some potluck and hang time.

I loved catching up with everyone, hearing their stories and about what they’re doing with their baby. Another fun this was just how adorable and squeezably cute all the babies were. The words “oh, _____ is SO CUTE!” must have left my lips a hundred times. Sounds like we’re going to try and get together again in the fall. This time, we had a range of teething, sitting, crawling, sleeping stories, poop stories – you name it. Will be fun to see the different stages of development that pop up when they’re a few months older, as well.

From left: Jackson, Olivia, Rosie, Barrett, Ben, Parker (missing Maggie)

Jackson is one of the oldest in the group. During the week of Thanksgiving, four out of the seven centering babies were born! He's the first one crawling and looks to be keeping mommy and daddy plenty active.

Barrett checking out sweet Rosie and curious Ben.

Barrett having conversations with Jackson (in stripes), Olivia and Ben about what it's like to sit up.

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Welcoming Summer and a Few Firsts

Posted on June 5, 2011 | 1 Comment

What a day! Earlier this week it was in the 40′s, raining. Today we wake up to warm breeze and expected temperatures in the high 70′s. That’s just how things go in Seattle. Tomorrow should be more of the same – woohoo!

Yesterday, Barrett officially started “crawling”. On Sunday, we got home from visiting Bryan’s parents (a 5-hour drive to Tillamook), and Barrett was so excited to be home from a fun adventure that she spent an hour rolling over and over and over. Until this day, she had rolled over now and again, but not with such gusto and intent. She has also started doing a modified crab-walk: on her back she will scoot using her feet but no hands. I don’t know how this doesn’t hurt her head or neck but she loves it. So, yesterday, we see a combination of rolling over, crab-walking, and then while she’s on her tummy she will scoot and pull herself sideways. There was one instance where she kept pushing with her hands and she had done a complete 360.

We are no longer safe to leave her in one place.

Today, we had another round of fun firsts. The letter “B” appears to be coming out now, which is really cute. She purses her lips together and pushes air with such might that bubbles come out. She’s also combining the “B” with vowels, so we heard “bbbbbbaaa”. I think I also heard a murmur of “mmmmmaaaahhhh”, she’s really throwing more sounds out. So far we have B, G, M and then all the vowels.

This afternoon we gave Bear a little taste of banana. At first she didn’t really take to it but we were trying straight banana mash and the texture may have been too much. So we mixed with some rice milk (cereal + formula), mashed it all together, and she ended up having a blast. She’s now reaching for the spoon now.

barrett black & white eating

barrett in her mini boden swimsuit

All ready for a play in my bathtub outside!

Playing in my bathtub.

In my cute pink bloomers with mom at Lincoln Park.

barrett and bryan

Having fun with daddy.

My room was so warm, I didn't wear a diaper for part of the day.

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Posted in Around Town, Family, Outside

A-Camping We Will Go …

Posted on May 13, 2011 | 1 Comment

Well, we did it. We got out there and went camping with the baby. This was mostly for my sanity, to prove that the baby is portable enough to take out to the woods for some family outing. I knew this, inside, but for some reason it’s one of those things I had to experience.

Partly due to weather (80% chance of rain) and partly for the convenience of running home if all hell broke loose, our destination was set to Manchester State Park. A five-minute drive to the ferry and a 20-minute crossing? Yes, please.

Ripka family in our new Kingdom 4 tent

Ripka family camping in effect

Everything went well except for when the rain came about. It came and it stayed, stayed, stayed. Our tent was GREAT. Very glad we made that purchase and I want to take it camping a few more times but want to write a review I like it so much. You can stand in the whole tent! Luxury camping is what we like to call it.

Daddy and daughter. So sweet.

Barrett did okay. She napped, but was too excited about her new surroundings to get a really good nap in. Seeing her taking in the trees, sounds, and everything new is such fun. Even the boring underbrush was fascinating to her, which in turn makes it fascinating for me.

Barrett in the Moby Wrap

Melissa with Barrett in the Moby Wrap, Sandwich in her rain gear, and our REI Alcove and Kingdom 4 ... they match!! We are THOSE PEOPLE with the matching camp gear!

I learned from this experience that camping with a baby isn’t a big deal, but it is a pretty big change from camping just us two. We weren’t as free to do what we please, and I didn’t think to bring more than some books to keep me busy. I should have brought knitting, more “fun” books, my drawing book and maybe a toy to play with Sandwich. When it’s raining out and too dreary to make a campfire, I’d much prefer the warmth and cozy of my home to roughing it with baby.

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