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8 months!

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:51:36 +0100

It's been a busy month. We were in SF for just 2 weeks or so after getting back from Cape Town, then left for our east coast trip in early May. We spent time on Long Island, where my Mom threw a "Welcome Keira" party and we visited with some old friends and family, and Keira went to her first Mets game (and my first official one at Citi Field). Then we went to Vermont for a few days of quiet time with my Mom. Then on to Niagara Falls and Toronto where Keira got to meet my Best Man Mark and his family, including 5 year old Max and 3 year old Robbie.

She is now clapping (at this very moment), waving at people on the street, and generally engaging everyone she comes into contact with. It's a treat to watch and take part in it all.

Pics from the east coast trip are here.

7 months - 1 day

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:45:24 +0100

So we're back from Cape Town. Some photos here.

Great trip. Keira grew up quite a bit in that time. She loves to walk holding our hands, and wants to navigate her surrounding wherever we are. Not content to sit still and play with her toys hardly ever.

Out of time. Here's a fun video of her encounter with an elephant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMYpVrfNvpg

5 months + 1 day

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:01:56 +0100

Yesterday was Jen's birthday, and also Keira's 5 month mark. Having a bit of a get together tonight to celebrate. Had a great trip to Tahoe last weekend. Keira really enjoyed the snow. I can't wait to get her a pair of skis. Just a few more years.

Pics are here, using Yola's new and improved image optimization features. Don't need to use FB, PB, or anything else to store images anymore. I've been working on this for most of the last month, glad I could put it to some good use.

I'll continue posting videos to Youtube though. Unlimited space, better bandwidth.

Keira's also started babbling a little differently the last week or so. It sounds more like talking. I think it's that she's just recently started adding consonant sounds to her vocabulary, previously it was almost all vowels. Not sure if that's normal or not, feel free and comment on that thought if you've got any ideas.

She's also sitting much better. We won't leave her without being there to catch her, but she'll stay seated (assuming she doesn't lunge for any toys) for several minutes at a time. Still doesn't like the tummy time, and (see moonwalk video below) is pretty happy being upright, so I'm convinced she'll be an early walker and possibly never crawl very much.

18 Weeks today!

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:25:59 +0100

Another Chai day!

(note to the non-judaic types out there: 18 is good number. The letters for the word "life" (Chai), if you add them up, equal 18. Doubles and other multiplicatives of 18 are good too. So I guess today is doubly good since we are at 18 weeks and also 126 days (18x7))

For those who haven't seen the youtube video yet, it's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rnuU3Lufp4

New photos on new photobucket page.

Happenings of late: She's laughing a lot more now, along with lots of other noises she likes to make, at surprising volume. She will stay in a seated position for maybe 30 seconds without falling over or screaming because she's stuck too far forward. She'll stand, supporting her own weight while we help balance her body or arms, for minutes at a time. She will not suffer being put down asleep by anyone without a boob in her mouth. She loves to look at herself in the mirror, and touch her reflection. She is getting much better in the car, hopefully this will translate well to plane travel. Jen is finding her lots of friends in the neighborhood.. We know 17 other babies under a year old at last count (and there have probably been several additions (both born and met) since I last counted last week)

We are going to Cape Town March 20 - April 17. 27 hour trip each way with a 6 month old. I fear for the poor people sitting near us on the long-ass Atlanta - Johannesburg leg. Other than that, should be a great trip. Will take lots of pictures and post them to the usual locations (and likely some new ones, flickr has run out of space and I'm not about to start paying them)

Also, we took her to her first concert. Think she had a good time...

Happy New Year!

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:06:01 +0100

Keira stayed up till 12:05am last night to ring in the new year. Or rather bounce and coo and giggle her way into the new year. She wasn't cranky, but just refused to go to sleep till I gave her over to her mom once the illegal fireworks starting going off throughout the neighborhood.

Tomorrow she'll be 14 weeks old. We are well into 3 month territory, and things are getting very interesting. She's very vocal and very aware of what's going on around her. She frequently seems to be intensely concentrating to try and figure something out. Right now she is sitting in Jen's lap reading a Terry Pratchett discworld novel. All is well.

Lots of new pics up over at the flickr page

11 Weeks!

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:33:28 +0100

Hard to believe it's 11 weeks. She's growing fast. 14 lbs! Grown out of a lot of stuff already, wearing some 6 month old clothes already at just over 2 month. Thanks for the wardrobe contributions, and for all the great toys and other gifts as well

More pictures posted of her various adventures over the last few weeks: Thanksgiving at the cabin. Tree shopping and chopping. Santa. Synagogue. More sightseeing around the neighborhood. More friends.

Answering various often heard questions:

No, she's not sleeping through the night yet, but she's sleeping better
97th percentile of weight for her age, and yet distinctly smaller than all of the other kids our birth friends (babies born with the same midwives in a 2 week span... she is the youngest though)
Smiles a lot. Laughs a little. Coos and yelps and grunts aplently. Snorts occasionally. Yawns and stretches enthusiastically
Likes to be held facing out (not 3/4), and you better stand up and at least try and rock or bounce a little

Things are good, crazy, busy. Looking forward to a few days off from work to just get some stuff done around the house. And relax... doesn't that sound nice?

50 days old!

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:58:48 +0100

So we hit the 7 week point yesterday, so supposedly, depending on which book you read, we're past the peak of the colicky-ness. Which is very cool. She does seem to be sleeping somewhat longer the last few days, but she's still pretty irritable in the evenings. Which is, of course, when I see her most.

Except for weekend mornings, when I take her for some long walks. All the pics you see with the city skyline and various parks in the bg (actually pretty much any picture of her outside) was probably taken by me on our walks. Last week we actually had a destination in mind, heading over to Anita and Jesse's for brunch. Yesterday I took her to the farmer's market and to a fun-run/bake sale at the local elementary school. She sleeps through a lot of it, but she's awake and happy (and sometimes not so happy) for quite a bit too.

More pics (and now videos!) posted to facebook and flickr. The purple stuff on her face in these pics is Gentian Violet, and antifungal we were using to treat Thrush, which after staining various garments and blankets purple, we found out she never really had.

36 days old today!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:23:01 +0100

Happy double chai day!

So, finding the time to post is hard. Even finding time to upload pictures is hard. I haven't even decided how best to share photos yet. I could post them here, my facebook account, jen's facebook, or flickr (and possibly several thousand other options). We'll probably some combination of the latter 3. Posting to Yola directly is still annoying since we've yet to push out the image optimization features in any real way.

So, I've added a flickr pics and facebook pics page here which should show all the stuff so this is your one stop shop.

She's getting big already.. 11 lbs 9.5oz as of yesterday, starting to smile, make some noises other than screaming.. and occassionally sleep a little longer. Her sleep rhythms are a little off right now, preferring to sleep more between 1am and 10am or so. Could be worse I suppose. Jen and her are upstairs sleeping right now.

Haloween party at Louise and Gary's yesterday was fun. See the pumpkin outfits on flickr. She wasn't a huge fan of them though.

Birth Pics!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:54:38 +0100

First pictures of the birth are now up on the Pictures page.

Birth!

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:12:59 +0100

Keira Ilana Schwartz was born at 1:05 am on Saturday, September 26, 2009. She was born at home. She weighed 9 pounds, 10 oz.