We had a nice time this weekend striking a few poses for our friend and photog extraordinaire, Ava Van. She is the same artist who took these great pix of our little Babaghanoush when she was just two months old.
This time, we did an outdoor shoot, complete with gorgeous fall leaves, some bubbles and funky hats for the baby. Here's a good one of her smiling, which she always does whenever someone has a camera trained on her moneymaker:
So far we've only gotten a few sample pix from Ava and I can't wait to see the entire set. But judging from the ones I've seen so far, our baby knows how to work it:
Sorry for the misdirection, I'm not talking about the Transformer, as cool as he is. Rather...
As an eternal optimist, I often think about how fortunate we all are to be happy and healthy (for those family members and friends who are.) This song pretty much sums up how I feel every time I look at Kailyn and Helen:
We did some trick or treating a little early this year, deciding to all dress up as Star Wars characters (hey, we gotta get multiple use out of these costumes!) Everyone loved the group outfit, and I loved the realization that the candy Kailyn's cuteness scored us will go directly into my belly!
Seeing the wonders of fall through the eyes of a baby is fun. We took Kailyn to her first pumpkin patch with some friends and their kids. A good time was had by all!
Someone once accused me of only posting smiley pictures of Kailyn on this blog in an effort to brand her as 'The Happy Baby.' Though I am a pr guy, I can honestly tell you that she really is this happy most of the time and that she knows how to smile when the camera is on her. I don't have to do much to get a quality shot with her.
Of course, there are times she does cry, but it's pretty rare. We lucked out in that regard. However, for those who insist on seeing the baby when she's upset, here you go:
Quite a past few weeks in the constant development of Kailyn. Here's the breakdown-
1) Standing. I walked into the baby's room the other morning to find her standing in her crib, smiling and bouncing up and down while her hands were on the railing for support. It was funny. When we watch TV, she'll also crawl around looking for something to grab onto to use as leverage and prop herself up.
2) Teeth. Kiki now has a couple of bottom teeth popping through her gums. They're not quite fully there, but are growing by the day, ready for solid foods. I've made the mistake of putting my finger in her mouth, and she chomps on it like it's dinner.
3) Crawling. She's learned to crawl forward, backwards, and every which way in between. This is significant because for a while, she could only go in reverse but hadn't quite grasped the concept of shifting into 'drive.' Now she's got that down and is mobile, and our lives have changed forever.
Now, I know many non-parents may be saying "whoop-dee-damn-do" like former Syracuse Orange hoops legend Derrick Coleman once famously said (see #10 on this list for the reference) but for those who have gone through the excitement of seeing your kid make strides like these, you know these milestones are pretty cool. Especially since practice makes perfect!
Kailyn's hair is growing longer, much to Helen's delight. There are lots of advantages to this: mommy can put clips in the baby's hair, Kailyn looks less like a little boy and perhaps now strangers will stop calling her 'buddy.'
The one downside to her hair growth is that, while she's still pretty cute, her 'do is currently in the 'in-between' stage of too long to be considered short, but too short to be 'long.' See?
I wrote about doppelgangers once before, and I'd say Kailyn's hair twin is probably one of these three people/characters:
Bruce Lee:
Justin Bieber:
The Gruesomes (from The Flintstones):
Of course, pretty soon Baby K's hair will grow out long and nicely like Rapunzel's and she'll look even more like the little princess she is. But for now I think she's a 'tween, at least when it comes to her hair.
Today is my birthday and it was relatively low-key. I guess that's what happens when you get perilously close to turning 40 - you'd just assume forget how old you are.
That said, there have been some nice things about today: the great Hawaiian-themed birthday party my coworkers threw for me complete with Kahlua pork, macaroni salad, mango-chocolate cake and hula lessons on YouTube (Mahalo, Mai Ling!) Then, there were the more than 100 birthday messages on Facebook sent from my friends and relatives from across the country including a very sweet note from Helen. Finally, we had dinner with some friends and I got to eat like it was my last day on earth. Oh yeah, Helen's gift to me was pretty good, too.
Of course, there's no better present that having a perfect little daughter, and the best part of my day was dropping in on Kailyn's movement class during my lunch break and seeing her face light up when she saw me walk through the door. Happy Birthday to me.
*UPDATE: This was also the best part of my day - seeing Baby K in a onesie that has 'I love Daddy' written in Chinese :)
