August Travels

WOW! That is the only word that comes to mind when I think about the month of August. WOW! It was a busy month and it included both being travelers and hosting those who were traveling.  To begin the traveling portion of our month, Analiese and I drove to Tehachapi to drop off our dog, Marshall, and our parakeet, Clover. My Nana had kindly volunteered to watch them for us while we were gone.

Luckily for us, our trip there coincided with the 38th Annual Mountain Festival. For those of you who aren't from small towns, you have no idea what this means. For those of you who have lived in small towns, you know exactly what this means. Here is a photo of the family as we lined Tehachapi Boulevard to watch the parade. Afterwards, we strolled the city park to check out the local arts and crafts booths and to catch up with lots of friends, many of whom I have known for two and a half decades.

We arrived home from Tehachapi in the evening and at 3:00 a.m. we got up, loaded the car and were on our way to Ontario Airport. A bit bleary eyed but very excited, we boarded our first flight as a family to visit Kentucky. A plane flight with a baby sure is different than a plane flight without one! Gone are the days of reading, sleeping, listening to music or daydreaming out the airplane window. Now, it's a contained traveling circus with two overly animated adult faces, as many small toys as can be crammed into the carry-on diaper bag, and lots of juggling/readjusting of a wriggling little human.
But, we can't complain because Analiese never made a peep of discontented noise on any of our four flights (much to the relief of those who were seated around us). It was mildly discomfiting to see the horrified gazes of our fellow travelers as we made our way down the aisle...What a relief to prove them all wrong!

We spent a week in Owensboro Kentucky and it was heaven. The weather was gorgeous and we all enjoyed the ability to sit outside. Bystanders were able to overhear Kevin and I explaining things like, "See Analiese? This is what the outside looks like.", "Those things are called trees", and "That's the color green. Some people get to see green instead of brown when they go outside". One of our favorite things to do when we are in Kentucky is to visit Papaw on his houseboat - and to take the pontoon around Rough River. 

 Analiese got to wear her first life vest and hang out with her mama on the water.  She loved it.  I realize that you can't control your kids - they are their own human selves - but it sure would delight me it if she loved the water as much as we do!



 

It was great to see Nana again. Analiese was just starting to be animated when Brenda came out to visit us in June. But two months makes such a difference and they spent many an hour playing and giggling together while we were there. 

She and her husband Steve live in a gorgeous, renovated, old Owensboro home. Steve's granddaughter coined the phrase GrandmaPa, which is what Analiese will call him, and we were proud to introduce the two. Steve and Brenda are amazing cooks and this was just one of the many great meals we shared together - laden with home smoked/BBQ'd meats, various homemade sauces, and about three hundred side dishes. This is life in the South - and I love it!

Analiese got to meet her Aunt Jordan for the first time and  the two hit it off splendidly.

She also met her extended Kentucky family.  Our Aunt Becky has a home out at Rough River.  She, Aunt Sandy and our dear cousins, Leigh Ann and Sara hosted a huge family get together.  We met them out on the river for some boating and swimming and then reconvened at Aunt Becky's house for a wonderful BBQ.  The table was groaning with homemade food and we had such a fun time.  Now - you might wonder, "Where are the pictures?"  That's what I wondered when I sat down to write this blog.  Amazingly enough, NOT ONE SINGLE PICTURE was taken of the whole day.  I am heartbroken.  The only thing I can say is that it just goes to show what a great time we were having - so great that I left the camera in the diaper bag inside and spent my time being present with our wonderful Kentucky family members.  Next time,  THERE WILL BE PICTURES!

Our trip to Kentucky was wonderful and we are already homesick and ready to return. We figure if Analiese's legs get any bigger, we might get to skip the plane altogether, strap ourselves to her back and have her run us there!

Robert Emery Whittier (July 15 1927 - August 16, 2011)

For the Thompson Tribe, August was a month of beginnings and endings.  The Beginnings were the subject of my last post. The Endings were symbolized most poignantly with the passing of my beloved grandfather, Robert Emery Whittier. Here he is with Analiese when we went to visit him on his 84th birthday in July. I admire my grandfather for many things, not the least of which has been his unwavering presence in the lives of my brothers and I.  But in the end, I admired his courageous choice to die naturally in his own home, rather than using medical technology to string along his last shred of human life.  I am grateful to have had him in my life for as long as I did, and for the fact that he got to see and hold his first great-grandchild on several occasions.  I wish his soul a safe journey.

New Friends...

WELCOME BABY KARA ELLE!

One of my dearest friends from college just had her first baby on August 11. Kara Elle Barber is a beautiful baby girl. Her birth is especially exciting for me because when I was growing up, the children of my parents' close friends became like family to us. Often we addressed the parents as "Aunt..." or "Uncle..." so their children were like our cousins, and sometimes we even introduced them as such. We always looked forward to the several times a year we got together because those children were 'special friends'. They didn't live on our block or go to school with us - we had to drive in a car and spend a night, or several nights, in the course of a visit. We camped with these friends. We went to Disneyland with these friends. These friends were outside the realm of the normal day-to-day life stuff and that made them way cooler. Because we were all born within the same span of several years, none of us really remembers childhood without one another.

Marleena and Marc now have baby Kara, which means Analiese and Kara are now linked in each others' lives - even if they don't know it yet. Another of my best childhood friends is due to have her first baby, also a girl, in September. We look forward to meeting her. I know that Analiese will grow up with these two girls as her friends and it makes me smile.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

Since we don't have a scale, or a soft measuring tape, we had absolutely no idea how big or tall Analiese was. My only reference as to how much she weighs is by taking into consideration the fatigue of my left arm when balancing her on my hip at social functions. By my estimation, she is heavy compared to when she was born. And since she just upgraded to the next size of baby clothes, I am also able to make a very technical assessment and confidently announce that she is also longer than when she was born. Now, we are happy to bring you bona fide weights and measures, as recorded professionally by a real doctor.

Analiese now weighs 16 lbs. 14 oz. (as opposed to the 8 lbs. 14 oz. at her birth)
Analiese now measures 26.5 inches (as opposed to the 21.5 inches at her birth).

So - I was right. She is bigger. Who needs doctors anyway?

She started rolling from her back to her front on July 13th(ish). I think I referenced in our last post that we spend quite a bit of time rescuing her from this new stunt. Once on her tummy, she gets stuck, gets frustrated, and engages a grunt-to-whine-to-shriek sound track that requires one of us to set her on her back again. She smiles with gratitude, then immediately rolls onto her tummy again and the saga continues. The doctor told us that this is the complete reverse of the "average" baby (whoever he/she is) as babies normally go from tummy to back first, and then back to tummy second. Either way, we have eagerly anticipated the day that she will move on to Step 2 and get herself righted out. In the meantime, I have been intending to get a video of her turning over. It's been over a month, for crying out loud. Finally, I figured I better do it before she is 6 years old and we are having her reinact the moment - which doesn't have the same allure. Here she is - with an unchoreographed Marshall moment as well!

I turned the camera off and then saw that it looked like she was practicing rolling further over but Marshall's hind end was in the way...

I thought, "I'll move Marshall out of the way and maybe I can get some good 'practice' footage..."

It was so great to actually catch her first front-to-back roll on camera.

So now it's on to whole new horizons - - keeping track of a mobile baby. Yikes!

Lazy Days...

Let's be honest here - no days are really "lazy days" when you have a baby. But what that really translates to is "day after day after day in the apartment". Summertime keeps rolling on by here in the desert - mostly it rolls on by our windows because it's way too hot for it to roll by in person outside! But being in the apartment means lots of time to take pictures of Analiese and to revisit pictures that never made it into the blog. So this post is dedicated to some of our favorite pictures of our favorite girl:

This first series of pictures I will title, "Going, Going, Gone!" They were taken when we first moved in. Analiese and I were sitting in the U-Haul, waiting for Kevin to finalize the paperwork for our apartment. I took all three in about a 60-second period of time. Apparently she takes after her daddy in the sleep department...

Whenever we visit Tehachapi, we always take a little time to visit my Nana at her house. Even though she is usually present at family events, it's easier for us to have a conversation when it's one on one. My Pop-Pop passed away in November of 2009 and so I usually sit on his chair, with Analiese in my lap, when we are visiting. On one of our last visits, I sat Analiese by herself while I ran to help my Nana with something. When I turned around, it was so cute, I had to snap a picture. I call this one, "Pop Pop's Chair". I wish he could have been able to hold her in person, but this is the next best thing.
My youngest brother, Jared, recently graduated from a nursing program. We went to Tehachapi to attend his graduation. His girlfriend, Kelsey, flew out from Florida as a surprise to him. Our joke is that Jared's graduation was really just an excuse, as the real reason she flew out was to see Analiese. I love these pictures of them.

Although Analiese is obviously still a baby (at just 4 months old), it is amazing how her face is losing the pure baby look and beginning to show signs of the little girl who is emerging. When we packed to move into the studio (ha!) we put a ton of stuff in storage that we knew we wouldn't have room for - and this big bear was one of them. We wanted to take a picture of her with him as they probably won't meet again for another year or so. This was taken right before Memorial Day weekend and you can see how much her baby face has changed since then.

Analiese has learned to roll over from her back to her front. She is quite pleased with herself as this next pictures demonstrates. Well, she is pleased with herself for about 5.6 seconds, at which point she starts howling with frustration because she has yet to learn how to roll herself back over. We are hoping that next step comes soon because large portions of our day are now spent having to finally roll her back over when her wails have reached a certain decibel level. The minute we help her out - she rolls right back over on her stomach and the cycle begins again. l leave you with this last picture I call, "Analiese Smiles".

The Mother-In-Law Visit

In traditional American Folklore, the Mother-in-Law visit is a dreaded event. Thankfully for me, I have the world's best Mother-in-Law. We were very excited to host her and Kevin's niece, Kenrda, for a week back in June. We had barely brushed the box dust off our hands before they were here to remind us that there is life after moving. It was an especially meaningful visit since they both live in Kentucky and were coming out to meet Analiese for the first time.




Analiese was thrilled to be entertained twenty-four hours a day during their visit. No bouncy chair for her that week! At any given moment she had an adoring Nana or Auntie to cuddle her up. Here she is with her Nana.










Kendra insists that she is not really a "kid person" and certainly isn't going to have any of her own. However, whenever Analiese gave the slightest indication of unhappiness, her Auntie Kendra was right there to coo and sympathize with her. So she might not be a "kid person", but she certainly is an "Analiese Person".











Analiese's Aunt Mary Beth, Uncle Kurt, and cousins, Lauren and Lila, live in (relatively) nearby Riverside. They came to meet us for lunch in Palm Springs. It was fun to get to see them. The drive to Palm Springs was a first for us and we enjoyed seeing the cute little desert towns between here and there.









Mary Beth brought us a bag full of sun hats and other fun summer accessories for little girls. They are certainly necessary around here! Analiese doesn't seem to mind them at all and they sure look adorable on her.







San Diego is a little over 2 hours from where we are so we decided to take a little road trip. The fastest way to get there entails a rather windy road through the San Jacinto mountains. Our Kentuckyians are used to green green green so these rugged desert-scapes were something new for them. Here are Brenda, Kevin, and Kendra at one of the look out spots.




Since Kevin and I don't really know our way around San Diego, we decided to spend the day on the "Hop On Hop Off Trolley". It was great! We only had to find one parking space and then spent the rest of the day being driven all around the San Diego hot spots, listening to the entertaining drivers share San Diego history and fun facts. We were able to get off wherever we wanted to spend a little more time looking around, and then we could hop back on to the next trolley that came along. It was a great way to see Old Historic Downtown, Balboa Park, Coronado Island, etc. etc.


The Trolley goes over the bridge to Coronado Island and although you can't tell (the photographer missed at her aim of artistic bridge view scenery in the background...) - this is Brenda and Kendra with gorgeous ocean and the San Diego skyline behind them.










Here are Kevin and Analiese enjoying the view. It was SO nice to be outside for a whole day in sunny, breezy, 70-degree, San Diego weather. If only it were just a wee bit closer...

We are ready for Kevin's company to start acquiring vacation homes there so we can manage the San Diego division (it never hurts to dream, right??!?).






We spent so many fun days together laughing, talking, eating good food, shopping, watching movies and being spoiled in each others' company. It was very sad to see them go but we can't wait to visit them in Kentucky - - soon, we hope!

Three Month Milestones...

We have been told by several people, "Just wait until she gets to Three Months! That's when it gets good." I have to admit that there is something pretty special about the Three Month marker. It's as if Analiese is finally able to take all that she has synthesized & internalized over the past few months and assemble it all interactively. Here are some pictures and videos of the things that have developed just in the last few weeks:

After a couple of months of separation, Analiese wasn't very clear on what role Kevin played in her life. We thought that bottle feeding would serve as a "Power Bonding Tool". So I have started pumping, Kevin has started feeding, and Analiese is learning how to drink from a bottle (and that her mother isn't the only person she depends on around here!).

Analiese is starting to vocalize more and is learning that she can control her own hands to reach for things. (Marshall can't imagine that I would want to video tape or take pictures of anything without him in it...so it's either allow him in frames or spend a video saying, "Marshall!! Move over!!")

With vocalizing comes all sorts of mouth mechanics that need to be learned. What repertoire of mouth sounds would be complete without raspberries? Mimicking is also an important learning tool so Analiese had fun imitating her Aunt Ale using Analiese's new favorite sound.

This is by no means a milestone. Analiese has been falling asleep since Day 1!! But, this is the first time she has ever fallen asleep while sitting up on the couch. I guess all that abdominal exercise involved in the learning process wiped her out.

I think the best thing about the Three Month marker is that it really feels like Analiese is able to communicate with us and that she appreciates being communicated with. It makes parenting even more fulfilling and rewarding. Here is a picture of Analiese smiling into the eyes of her 95-year old Great Nana.