Darci Lynne

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

Darci is a lucky girl to have her Dad at home with her full time. He's a great Dad! Marta shared some of her photos of Darci and her Daddy with me to make a Father's Day gift for Doug, and I thought I'd share them here, she's taken some great shots! You can see more of her work on her website: http://www.hurleygirlphotography.ifp3.com

Latest Photos

2011-06-12T19:35:00.001-07:00

Here is a link to my facebook album with Darci photos from June.

Facebook Photos

Oh No!

2011-06-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

A saying we hear all the time...

Bugwatching

2011-06-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

Darci thinks bugs are cute.

It Can’t Be June, It Feels Like November

2011-06-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

We’ve had a lot of rainy days this year, and I mean a lot. Every day we look at the forecast and just sigh. It should be 75 degrees, when it’s actually 55. In a normal year we’d have Darci in skirts and shorts by now, running around outside every day and ready for the pool and the beach. But instead, she and Daddy spend a lot of time coloring, playing with toys, and going shopping – she goes to the $1 Store a lot and gets a new animal or other fun toy. Most recently she got a mylar Tinkerbelle balloon, Doug says it’s the best dollar he’s ever spent – a week later the thing is still popular and going strong.

We did get a little break in the rain this Memorial Day weekend for a trip to the park with Darci’s McCoy Grandparents and her Auntie Emily on Saturday. The girls loved the wooden playground at Bear Creek Park. It was a great playground for Darci since the walkways all had railings so she was able to climb up and down all over the place pretty easily. Her favorite things to play on were a swinging platform and a rubber bouncy bridge, which she ran across at least a dozen times. Emily tried to coax her onto the little tire swing, and I tried to hold her in my lap to swing, but she hates swinging and absolutely refused both. It’s funny because she loves to be swung around and held upside down, but just hates the swings at the park.

Sunday we enjoyed having the McCoy’s over to our house for a BBQ, including Ben & Minda. It was yummy! Steaks, corn on the cob, BBQ chicken, and more. Darci loved it of course, she played dollhouse with Minda and Emily, got Emily to push her around on her Elmo airplane for a very long time, and generally got all the attention she could from everyone. We had a great time visiting.

Mommy was home Monday and Tuesday thanks to an extended holiday break at work, so we got in plenty of snuggle time and fun over four days. We took a trip out to Emigrant Lake and played on the playground, watched the geese with their babies, threw stuff in the water, ate snacks, and explored.

Tuesday was super rainy again, so we went to the Ashland library for Little Wobblers Storytime, but they cancelled it! Then out for grocery shopping, where Darci entertained me by naming every item she saw, fishing through my purse for toys, and singing. Daddy grilled up some brats, peppers and corn on the cob for us later in the afternoon. Darci loves corn on the cob.

Funny Girl

2011-06-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

Darci says and does a lot of funny things. Sometimes it’s tough to figure out where she got them from.

Lately I’ve been hearing her say “Hey, Lady!” to me (and to Daddy) multiple times a day. And it’s drawn out, like “Heeeey….Laaaadeeee!” (But you also have to substitute a W-sound for the L – Waaadeeee!) I’ll have to try to get a recording. It cracks me up every time. I finally realized where she got it when I was reading her one of her favorite books the other night, called “Hi!”. In it, little Margarita says Hi to each of the people coming into the post office, and no one responds until the Post Office “Lady” says “Hiiii!” back to her and I realized Darci was imitating me to a T, exactly the way I read that part of the book each night.

Over Memorial Day weekend we were talking about Hawaii and volcanoes. Darci picked up on the word volcano and insisted we needed to go there right now. “Come on, volcano!” she’d say, dragging Grandpa by the hand to the door or window. She kept insisting the next few days that we go to the volcano, and referred to a hill at the park as a volcano before climbing it. We figured it must be because Dora the Explorer goes to a lot of volcanoes.

I put some magnet letters on the fridge for her, she knows all her letters, numbers to 10, and colors now and loves bringing me all the pink ones or all the 9’s, etc. I’ve started putting together 3 letter words and sounding them out to her, like T-O-P or C-A-T. The other day she made a 12 letter word out of mostly consonants (some upside down), and then proudly sounded it out to me, H-O-T.

She wants to “work” on the computer and we have an application on our laptop that allows her to type whatever she wants and it shows the letters and reads them, and makes shapes for the other keys. She can bang on the keyboard to her heart’s content without renaming all of our files or causing other mayhem. She loves it, and when she gets into the office now she runs to the laptop bag and tries to haul it downstairs to play.

Darci’s Nana Fox got her a tea set with a talking/singing teapot and a little cake tray with three plastic cakes on it. She loves playing tea party and pouring cup after cup of pretend tea for herself and for you. And she really loves the cake tray. She carries it around everywhere balanced on one hand like a waitress. She’ll often will show up with it, announcing “It’s dinnertime!” and offering you an obligatory plastic treat.

BBQ time

2011-05-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a few days together between my job at Rogue Creamery and my new job at Harry & David. Went mushroom hunting, Darci is getting much better at navigating in the woods, loves to climb over fallen trees and jump in piles of snow. "I crush! Ice cubes!"

Friday afternoon we had a BBQ with cousins Marta and Damien and their two boys. Fun! Marta kept bringing great toys out for Darci to try, she loved the trampoline and the slide playground, and a plastic pool with rice and shovels for the kids to play with. Lots of fun stuff. Here's a short video of her.

Pigtails!

2011-05-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

I put pigtails in Darci's hair this weekend and she left them there for hours! She was soo cute! She is very into her Super Grover doll right now, that was mine from about age 1. She wraps him in a dishtowel and cuddles him and calls him her baby. That alternates with throwing him around the room shouting FLY, GROVER!

Darci's Art

2011-05-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

Naturally, with Doug as her Dad, Darci gets a lot of opportunities to make art. I think it's been fun for him, too, to get back to crayons and simple drawings and away from the critique of the education and art worlds. Just have fun making art! Mommy's tolerance for making a mess is not as good, so with me she likes to draw on the iphone. Here are a couple of her recent artworks, one coloring page and one drawing.

Fun with Wordle

2011-05-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Saw this on a friend's blog. You can paste the URL of your blog into a box and it makes a word cloud based on the frequency of word use. Fun! This was the result from Darci's blog.

A Little Recording

2011-05-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

I can't embed audio files into the blog, but here is a link to download a very short recording of Darci talking:

Darci Recording

Back in the Saddle

2011-05-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about getting back into the swing of updating Darci's blog. I see that you all still check in, thanks for that! I promise to put more things here and keep you up-to-date with all of Darci's doings.

As of today, Darci Lynne is 2 years, 2 months, 2 weeks and 5 days old. Wow. It's hard to remember what life was like without this little ray of sunshine running around and talking nonstop. Darci has adjusted very well since our move to Oregon. She loves the fact that our house has stairs and she gets up and down them now with ease, and mostly without even holding the railing or wall. We live right next to a brand new, large sports park with soccer fields, a football field, and baseball fields. All of them have cushy astroturf with rubber backing, a perfect surface for a toddler to run on. We call it the "numbers park" because Darci's favorite thing is to run from one number on the football field to another, loudly proclaiming which number she's headed for next. Doug takes her either to the numbers park or another park every day, she absolutely loves getting outside.

Darci narrates life constantly. She wants to name everything she sees and tell you about its attributes - "A car! It's red. It's fast. It's cool. Bye car!" or "It's Mama! Your shirt. My shirt. It's pink. My shirt has tinkerbelle. It's pretty. Mine!" That last word, Mine, has become increasingly frequent. She talks very well, strangers don't always have an easy time understanding her, but Doug or I can usually translate. She uses sentences, has the right inflection for questions and statements, and understands possession and plurality.

We are constantly amazed at how quickly she learns. She loves the iPhone my new job came with, and I have a bunch of games for her on it. One is photos of instruments, and if you tap the instrument it plays a little tune. She quickly learned bassoon, accordion, and all the rest of the names, castanets is her favorite. Another is flashcards of animal photos with their associated sounds and names. She loves the cicada and bison.

Darci loves to sing! She can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on her own, and recently started singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider. That was a relief for us, she was a one hit wonder for the last month. I sing nursery tunes with her all the time. She knows Are You Sleeping, Baa Baa Black Sheep and all the rest, it's amazing how many little tunes like that I know. She will always sing along, and asks you to repeat a new song over and over so she can learn to sing with you.

Darci knows her numbers up to at least 20, although counting in order is still a challenge sometimes. She'll start 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8... but if you start at 10 she seems able to go to 20 no problem. She recently got her colors figured out, that took longer than numbers or letters. Purple is without a doubt her favorite right now. She recognizes letters and even does things like bite her sandwich into a V shape and then tell you about how it's a V. She loves books and I read with her every day. Introducing a new book isn't easy, she prefers familiar stories over new. Right now we are reading Green Eggs and Ham, I Love You So, and the 3 Little Pigs. I'll have to capture a recording of her huffing and puffing, she loves that part!

At 33 pounds she is still a big girl. we haven't measured her height lately but she is taller than other kids her age still. She is wearing size 3T clothes and toddler size 6 shoes. She loves to play with costumes, and recently started wanting to look in the mirror after putting on costumes, hats, or glasses. She has been asking us to put pretty barrettes in her hair but still won't leave them there for any length of time.

Darci is very affectionate and when she's not too busy she loves to snuggle. She understands feelings and is very concerned when anyone has a boo boo, I recently burned my arm on the oven rack, just a little burn, and Darci checks on it multiple times a day to see if it's better yet, and recommends that I put on a bandage. On the rare occasion that she hurts herself she runs up to request kisses, then "all better!"

Darci is a hearty little kid, no longer any trace of baby left. She is strong willed and outgoing, never unsure of herself and never scared. She's so much fun to be around but boy, is it tiring! :-) Thankfully she also prefers a nice early bedtime between 6-7 and generally sleeps all night until 7 AM. Wish you could all visit and see her right now, our door is open and our guest room is awesome!

Twenty Months Update!

2010-10-25T14:18:00.001-07:00

Twenty months have passed and Little Miss gets bigger and brighter every day. Time for another update on her development…

Physically Darci is still a big girl, larger than most of her peers. She fits in size 24 months – 2T right now. She climbs well to get up on chairs and such, and has been climbing more at the playground. She runs at a good speed and can get away from you pretty quickly. She is able to turn doorknobs and will open and shut doors as she pleases.

She hasn’t tried climbing out of her crib again at all, so she is still in the crib and we haven’t had to convert it yet to the toddler bed. She is a good sleeper at night, she goes down between 6:30 – 7 every night with no fuss and no waking during the night, and I usually get her out of bed at 7 AM. Lucky us! Naptime is not the same story, however, and poor Daddy has to deal with something different every day.

Darci can help you dress her by lifting legs out of and into pants, holding her arms up when asked and she will help pull the shirt off over her head. She hasn’t undressed herself yet, but I don’t think that is very far off. She shows no preference for wearing one thing or another yet. She won’t allow any hair bands or barrettes yet, she just pulls them right out.

She prefers to feed herself but if it’s something really yummy she’ll let you help. I recently got her a fork and some new spoons. She’s gotten pretty good with the fork and can poke and eat with the best of us. But the spoon (also one of her favorite words) is not the same story. She just can’t seem to understand the need to keep the food on the upright side of the spoon and not to turn it upside down before sticking it in her mouth. She is still fairly open to try new things but she decides sometimes that she doesn’t like something and it’s tough to get her to try it again. Omelettes, mandarin oranges and yogurt are her favorite foods right now. And anything you happen to be eating.

Toddlers are known for being emotional, and Darci is no exception. She is capable of understanding good behavior and is a very good girl for the most part. Even though she can climb and get into anything she can reach, she really doesn’t do much of that and we don’t have child locks on most cabinets, just the key ones with dangerous items. She gets frustrated easily and it’s best if you can head that off when you see it coming. She plays well by herself but will engage you when she wants to play and plays well with us, she’s not demanding or selfish with her toys right now.

She’s learning very quickly and is eager to be learning something all the time. She asks us to read to her, and most of reading right now consists of asking her where something in the picture is and having her point it out. She can identify a couple of hundred items, shapes and animals, a few numbers, and maybe a letter or two. Numbers, letters, and colors are things we’re working on right now.

Her vocabulary seems pretty wide when it comes to knowing the labels for things, and she understands us as long as she knows what we’re talking about. When you give her a new word now she will repeat it most of the time and wants to say it with you over and over. Only certain words make up her daily language, though she seems to know many more than she says. Once she starts making a new sound (last week it was the B sound) then she likes to say words with that sound, like ball and baby. She uses a few two word phrases but the only thing close to a sentence is “I love you Daddy!” (you can actually understand it most of the time) which she shouts whenever one of us is out of sight. We shout back “I love you Darci!” and she laughs uproariously. Doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

Ohana Aloha

2010-10-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

Ohana is the Hawaiian word for family. Darci’s ohana in Hawaii has one member she hadn’t yet met until last weekend – Aunt Michele! Darci thinks Auntie Michele is the bees knees. She loved her! Mike and Michele came from Honolulu for the weekend of October 16-17 and we had as much fun as possible in such a short amount of time. Doug and Mike love to cook good food, so there was a lot of eating going on. Darci enjoyed grilled steak, shrimp scampi, and more!

Activities included a trip downtown Lewiston for Pumpkinpalooza. I’m not sure this event lived up to the “palooza” moniker, but it was fun to get some snacks and get out in the fall weather. Auntie Mishi got Darci an apple cider sipper in a mini pumpkin (still very popular with Darci) and picked up some yummy cookies.

Sunday we made it out to Wawaiwai Park, a popular destination for us with visitors! It’s such a beautiful oasis and there’s almost never anyone there. We grilled some brats and relaxed in the last few hours of sunlight. We’re so glad that we get to see each other again in April next year – only this time we’ll bring our little ohana to Hawaii!

Duck Migration

2010-10-25T13:27:00.001-07:00

Darci’s had lots of great visits lately! Her Grandparents and Aunt from Oregon were here the second weekend of October and we had a fun weekend together. They arrived on a Friday afternoon and left Sunday morning.

Friday dinner was at Rooster’s Restaurant on the waterfront. Darci and Emily had fun coloring and Darci charmed the waitress who was expecting her own bundle of joy at any minute. After dinner we took a trip to Baskin Robbins, where we learned that there are now far more than 31 flavors to pick from. Grandpa shared his chocolate ice cream with Darci and she loved it, of course!

Saturday morning the girls were up bright and early and ready to play. Darci loved having her family here, and especially Auntie Emily, who straightened up after Darci and made sure her magnets and toys were well organized. They were able to play together more this visit than before since Darci’s a little more interactive now.

We enjoyed a trip to the park before lunchtime. The girls played on all the equipment and everyone spent some time on the swings. This was the first time Darci’s really enjoyed swinging. When we put her in the baby swing she usually looks uncomfortable and then asks to be let out. I held her on my lap this day and she loved it! She laughed and laughed, it was so adorable.

After everyone was fed and napped we went out to the corn maze by the rodeo grounds. The maze itself was a little complex but not too hard, the corn was really tall and covered in bugs, that part was gross. We made it through without incident and enjoyed a yummy Mexican dinner at El Sombrero afterwards.

We packed in a few fun outings and a lot of great food. Can’t wait for next time!

Another checkup

2010-09-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

Doug took Darci to see Dr. Harris on Tuesday for her 18-month checkup. She is now 29 lbs. which puts her in the 92nd percentile for weight, and she is 2 ft. 9.25 inches tall, which is the 79th percentile for height. That means she is bigger than average but her own growth is on a very nice curve. She got two more shots and did well with them, but had a tough evening not feeling too good. This morning she was back to her sunny self.

A year and a half gone by...

2010-08-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

Darci turned eighteen months old on Saturday! She got a new pair of fairy wings, petal skirt and a firefighter helmet to play dress up, and a flip book with photos of all of her family and friends.

We always like to keep one eye on the developmental milestones that Darci should be reaching as she grows. Kids all develop at different rates, we know several others born within weeks of Darci and they have different strengths. Here’s a rundown of the 18th month milestones, with notes about where Darci is right now:

Most toddlers should be able to . . .

Draw and scribble well
This is going great! Some of you have already benefited from her amazing crayon skills and those who haven’t can expect a crayon picture on their next birthday. She likes to have one in each hand, and so far we decide which colors and control the box, otherwise the selection seems too much for her. She has learned a good grip but she can’t hold them correctly quite yet. She is getting better at manipulating the crayons and understands which end to write with. She leans way down close to the paper when she colors, very intense!

Run well
She runs extremely well, you must be ready to chase when you set her down.

Become picky about certain foods
Not so much, thankfully. She will decide when she’s done with a food, and will sometimes turn down an item, but she pretty much eats what we offer her. She doesn’t seem to have favorites, either, although yogurt is pretty high on her list.

Say at least 15 or 20 words
I don’t think she has this many words yet. Maybe more like 10. But she has been starting to repeat things occasionally and it sounds like she’s trying to say what we said even if it doesn’t sound very close at all.

Feed self with spoon
Yes and no. She always has her own spoon in hand when it’s time to eat. If she is very hungry or if the food is something she particularly enjoys she will feed herself. She scoops food with her spoon at every meal but will usually just bang it on her tray or fling it around or try to use it to smear food on Mommy’s hand. I’m not sure how to help her with this skill since I can’t handle leaving her a bowl of food to make an insane mess with.

Some toddlers will probably be able to . . .

String more words together to make phrases or put together pairs of words
Her most complete verbal communication is “please, ok,” which usually means take this from me, or feed this to me, or read this to me, or play this toy with me. She says ok instead of yes, and she never says no, just shakes her head. “What’s that” is still a favorite phrase.

Talk more clearly
Although her vocabulary is limited, she talks a lot. She tells us things, gestures, and sings. She understand the labels for a lot of things but won’t say them herself yet.

Brush teeth with help
Brushing a toddler’s teeth is not easy. I’ve had to use several tricks to keep her interested and I haven’t found a great method yet. Darci has her own Elmo toothbrush and she always brushes her own teeth (a couple of swipes is all) and I get in there and scrub away as quick as I can while she’ll let me. My goal is to get her teeth relatively clean but most importantly to get her to like brushing.

Take off an article of clothing alone
She seems capable of doing this but has not yet undressed. She can certainly take off socks and her bib. She loves hats and is getting more successful at putting them on by herself. She will help you when you're dressing and undressing her.

Jump around
We have seen more jumping and bouncy dancing lately. She will also walk backwards and walk around with her eyes closed, both of which she thinks are hilarious. She does pretty good backwards but you can imagine how eyes closed walking works out. She doesn’t get too upset when she hurts herself unless it’s a hard hit.

Some toddlers could possibly be able to . . .

Take apart toys and sometimes puts them back together
Darci can take toys apart, that’s for sure. Doug got her a Mr. Potato Head recently and she has no trouble taking all of his body parts off, and working the trap door on his behind where they all get stashed. She is able to put the pieces back on him but sometimes needs help to keep from getting frustrated. She’s also good at stacking her big legos.

Show signs of potty training
Not yet, although it is getting easier to picture training her. She will have dry periods sometimes for a couple of hours, but she does not indicate to us when she goes or show any desire to be changed.

Climb out of crib and high chair
So far she’s only climbed out of the crib once, and hasn’t attempted to climb out of the high chair. She’s always belted in so probably couldn’t do that anyway. She may have been as surprised as I was the night she got out of the crib, she had a long, tough day with tooth pain and fussiness and did not want to settle down and sleep. That was more than a week ago and she hasn’t done it since, thankfully! Next time she climbs out we will have to convert her to the big girl bed and that opens a whole new world of self control for her. Hopefully it will be a little while.

Draw circles
Not yet.

Understand two part directions
She does well with directions, but not two part directions yet. She does surprise me often, though. I can ask her to put something away and she understands that means to put it back where she got it from. She can envision a series of events, and she never lets you skip a step in a process. If she got to turn off the light after her bath last night, you are supposed to stop and let her do it again tonight. If you miss something like this it might take a minute to figure out why she is getting squirmy and mad, but she usually gets her point across and reminds you.

There’s nothing better than the sunny smile I get every morning when I get Darci up. She goes to bed at 7 PM and sleeps straight through to 7 AM. She’s the sweetest little girl with just the right mix of wanting to cuddle and wanting to be independent.

Seventeen Months!

2010-07-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

Darci turns seventeen months today. Time to schedule another Dr. visit for immunizations and a checkup, and time for her first dentist visit! She has four front teeth on top, two on bottom, and her first molars are coming in. They have been coming in for a while now! She gets her teeth brushed right after she gets in the tub every night, and she loves it. Last night she opened her mouth super wide and flung her head back so I could brush in there, what a good girl!

Darci is learning new things very quickly now. She says please (sounds like peas) all the time when she wants something. She will say please to have us pick her up, give her a snack, open doors or gates, or play with something she brings us. She also says yes and seems to understand what it means. If you ask her if she’s hungry or wants breakfast she will go over to the kitchen gate ready to eat, and if you ask if she’s ready for bath time she will run to the hall gate and beg to get out for her bath. This morning Doug and I both heard some version of the word banana from her when she saw her banana, she eats one every morning. She points to things and asks “what’s that” (sounds like wazzzah) about a million times a day, and we are happy to oblige with the names of everything, over and over. She will bring you a book to read and loves looking at the pictures, turning the pages, and pointing to things so you can name them. She will also read her books on her own, sometimes talking like she’s reading.

She has started mimicking us in speech and action, and she can pretend. She’ll pretend to pick small things out of your hand and toss them away. We recently saw her pushing one of her little stuffed cars around like she knew it was a car. Doug bought her some sidewalk chalk and she’s been enjoying scribbling all over the concrete outside. We’ve been trying to contain it to just one area but we’ll see how long that lasts.

Darci’s getting taller, we still need to get her a height chart so we can start marking her growth. We bought size 5 diapers for the first time this month, she’s been in size 4 since October of last year. She has slimmed down just a little, but still has a bit of baby fat in all the right places. She is in size 18 or 24 month clothes. Jeans are not great right now, since they impede her climbing. She spends most of her time in t-shirts and shorts or one piece sunsuits.

Meal times are good right now. She likes to have her own spoon, and will feed herself a few times with it, but mostly she bangs things and puts her spoon in and out of the bowl. She will let you feed her but sometimes you have to be sneaky about it and get in a spoonful when she’s distracted. For breakfast she has milk when she wakes up, followed closely by a banana, then oatmeal about an hour later. For lunch she usually eats her own ham and cheese sandwich cut into bites. For dinner she eats what we do, which is usually pasta with meat and veggies in it or a potato dish with meat and veggies, and she has a fruit course (dessert) with every meal, either yogurt or fresh or canned fruit. Snacks include fruit, yogurt, animal crackers, and cereal (which is generic apple jacks presently).

She gives hugs all the time, and she thinks giving kisses means putting out your cheek for Mommy or Daddy to kiss, which is perfect for now. She loves to dance and will do so anytime she hears music. Today I am selling her swing since she is too big for it, and consigning my maternity wardrobe at the resale shop. It’s bittersweet to think we won’t have a baby for much longer, but she is quickly turning in to a little kid with a great personality.

Summer Fun at Last!

2010-07-12T15:31:00.000-07:00

We’ve had a very long, cool, wet springtime this year. Summer temps and sunny days have just begun in the past week or two. This weekend was the warmest yet, with both days hitting 100. That means morning is the best time to spend a few minutes outside playing in the yard while it’s still cool. I took a few photos of outdoor play on Sunday. Darci loves to run around the yard, and is very curious about everything. She found all the remaining fireworks debris among the gravel right away, each tiny jumping jack was like a new treasure and I ended up with a whole pocket full of them before she was done hunting.

Darci likes to be your shadow now, especially outside. That makes it a little easier to get things done, since she’s usually right there where you are, lending her tiny “helping” hands. She loves going out so much that her new word is shoes, and she will tote her shoes around saying it over and over. She knows which shoes belong to whom and once you get hers on she will bring you yours so everyone can go outside together.

Doug is in the midst of an outdoor project to make a private, shady area for Darci’s pool, so we got out the sprinkler this weekend to cool off and enjoy more time outside. Darci was fine going through the water if you held her, although she was not a big fan of getting sprayed. This little video is after the first trip through – Daddy was trying to coax her to run through holding his hand and she wasn’t having any of it!

Outdoor play involves a lot of getting dirty now, so we have to be prepared for a change of clothes at least, and usually a bath after playing outside. She piles rocks on other rocks, digs in the dirt with sticks and her hands, crawls around in the rocks and dirt, and seems completely oblivious to bare knees and tender fingertips. Here are a few shots of her playing with a stick in the dirt, chewing on the stick, and then offering it to me.

She’s very busy, always on the go. She now has kitchen access for most of the day, which she really enjoys. Favorite activities include carting big things around, putting small things into a bucket and then dumping them out, transferring small things from one bucket to another, and finding ways to get frustrated.

With the recent addition of the word “shoes” she now says 4 words. She eats whatever we do for the most part. We’ve been playing with crayons a bit lately, and her first masterpiece is now on display on our fridge. It takes a few minutes for her to warm up to writing with them, and I think her biggest pleasure is collecting them, lining them up on her high chair tray and then reaching for more to add to her collection.

Darci's Almost 16 months!

2010-06-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

It’s time for another update about Darci’s amazing new skills. I should be taking more videos so you can see her in action, but it’s hard to keep up! At nearly 16 months, Darci is now a full-blown toddler, complete with tantrums, food issues, and intentional misbehavior. She is strong willed and very confident. In fact, she is so confident that she thinks gravity shouldn’t even apply to her and she defies it at every turn. Her coordination is getting much better and she doesn’t fall much now while walking. She can maneuver between the dozens of toys strewn around the living room and is a very adept climber. She loves to climb and will get up on anything she can hike her leg up on. So far she hasn’t tried climbing out of the crib, although that can’t be too far off now.

Our biggest challenge right now is being consistent with discipline when we can see that she can barely control herself. Some rules she learns quickly and will comply with - like don’t bang toys on the wall, don’t bang on the paintings or speakers, and things like that. But other things we try over and over to teach her and she just can’t help herself. Her misbehavior of choice is to climb up on Walter’s couch and then shimmy over on top of the coffee table and push buttons on the front of the TV. No matter how many times we consistently say no and remove her, or give her timeout in her playpen or in her crib, she just can’t resist the lure of the on-off button. We may have to reconfigure the living room (again) to combat the problem. It is so cute to see her back down really quickly and sit so nicely with her hands in her lap and legs crossed, smiling at you knowing she just got caught!

Darci clearly understands most of what we ask her to do, and will bring you a specific item, look around for something you name, and kick or throw the ball, although getting the ball to go in a specific direction is still difficult. She jabbers away all the time but still doesn’t say many words. Daddy is her best, clearest word, followed by Kitty (sounds like “key”) and Fish (just the “sh” part so far). All living things fall into one of those categories – people are all Daddy (including Mommy), furred animals or birds are all Kitties, and anything in the water (and maybe the water itself) are all Fish. She likes watching fishing shows with Daddy and will say fish over and over as soon as she sees the water or fish.

She can point to her own ears, your nose, or Elmo’s eyes, but can’t do ears, nose and eyes on anyone else. Just this week she learned how to stack her giant lego blocks, so now she can make a little tower and then throw it across the room in frustration. She can easily play with push or pull toys, although we had to put her popper away, it was causing so much frustration, she would start whining and crying before she even started pushing the thing. We’ll try that one again soon.

Darci loves bath time and herds her ducks or her little sea creatures around her during the bath. We tried giving her a cup to play with but she just wanted to drink the bathwater. When she gets her diaper off in her room she knows it’s time for her bath. She runs down the hallway and tries to hike her leg over the side of the tub, grinning and shaking with anticipation!

Mealtime is not much fun right now. We seem to be in a transition where she wants to be in charge of the bites but she can’t work the spoon. She also won’t allow you to help, which doesn’t work very well. This morning I got her to eat her oatmeal by giving her her own spoon and letting her bang it on the tray and the bowl while I snuck bites past it into her mouth. She’s a little picky right now, although she seems more concerned with texture and temperature than taste. She’ll eat a spicy sausage if it’s warm, but won’t touch cold turkey. The only things she will eat cold are oranges and yogurt. She loves yogurt. I think most of our issues right now are about autonomy more than food. Hopefully she will morph back into her sweet, compliant dinner behavior sometime soon!

Darci is very affectionate and funny and loves to give hugs, snuggle, and make you laugh. She loves roughhousing and thinks it’s hilarious to put her face super close to yours. One of her newest games with Daddy is to hold her nose and talk funny and then break out in giggles. Here she is playing “nose talk” with Daddy and Elmo last night:

Summertime Weather at Last!

2010-06-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

We finally had some nice weather this past weekend and took advantage of it! Our friend Todd from Wyoming was visiting for the weekend, and we had friends Evan and Megan down for a little get together Friday night, then Evan came back Saturday for a cookout, and he brought little Mr. Weenie with him! What a cutie! Walter was pretty excited when they first arrived, but he was very good and they played together with Walter only stepping on him a few times. Here they are enjoying the beautiful weather and rolling in the grass.

Here's a closeup of Mr. Weenie:

Darci loved Mr. Weenie, too, of course! She followed him around quite a bit and played sticks with him. Now that summer weather is here I had to get out this new outfit from Grandma Burns. She loved the ribbons hanging on the front and all the sequins! Here she is playing with the dogs:

Doug grilled some great BBQ chicken thighs, onions, and the best grilled sweet corn he's ever made. It was about 80 degrees and we all had to stay in the shade. We got a spray-on sunscreen for Darci and that stuff works great! It's so easy to put on her (and on us) and she hasn't had any sunburns yet. She is getting pretty tan, though. Here are a few more from Saturday:

Nana Fox & Darci

2010-05-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

Just a few shots of Darci and Nana over the last year, it's fun to see how much Darci's grown:

Nana & Grampus Visit

2010-05-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

We had another terrific visit with Darci’s Nana & Grampus this past week! They flew in on Friday afternoon and on Saturday we went up to Moscow for the Farmer’s Market and some shopping at the mall. Darci got a new batik top, and a bracelet which she wore proudly for the rest of the afternoon. She also got to try Korean BBQ on a stick, brisket, and lemonade, all of which she liked very much. The only thing we tried to feed her that she didn’t go for was a golden raisin from our Middle Eastern dessert. Here she is with her new bracelet enjoying the gorgeous day.

It was a bright day and she would wear her Pirates hat on and off, but would only wear the sunglasses for as long as it took to snap this photo.

After the market we went to the mall, where Nana got her some new socks, PJ’s, two new pairs of shoes (including pink sandals with butterflies and pink baby crocs!), and a couple of outfits. Then we went to Winger’s for lunch and Darci ate a little of everything and was adorable, smiling and jabbering at our waitress and all of the other people sitting nearby.

Later that afternoon back at home we all played outside in the yard, and while we were sitting there we heard the ice cream truck! Ok, it was more like an ice cream golf cart. We got some ice cream sandwiches, and Darci tried a bite but didn’t care for it.

On Sunday we packed up the grill and got some brats and enjoyed a couple of hours at Chief Timothy Park. Darci ran around and played with Walter’s water bowl and with her new pink ball. She would kick it for a little ways or carry it around. Here she is with Nana at the park.

Sunday evening we gave Darci her first bath in the big tub. Up to now she’s had her bath with one of her parents or in her little blue baby tub. She did great by herself and mostly listened to us when we told her not to stand up. She had her ducks in the tub with her and spent most of her time trying to herd them all together, then splashing and then re-herding the ducks. And being adorable, of course!

One of the highlights of the week was the arrival of her new tricycle! Grampus bought her a John Deere Mighty Trike, and is it ever mighty! He shipped it to our house and put it together for her. She loves it, even though she’s still a little small for it, and tried to swing her leg over the seat and climb up on it over and over. She is going to be riding in style! Now we will accessorize it with Oregon Ducks stickers and handle bar tassels and she’ll be all set!

We had several more shopping trips for more super cute outfits and a toys and Darci got to go to a bunch of restaurants, all of which she enjoyed very much. She loves going out and seeing people, and she will eat just about anything we put in her mouth, so it was really fun taking her out with us all week. Here she is deciding what to order at a Mexican restaurant:

We all went to Hell’s Gate State Park to look at the Lewis & Clark exhibits at the visitor’s center there, and visited the Jack O’Connor Center which was full of hunting trophies. Darci liked viewing all of the different animals and didn’t seem scared of even the most frightening mounts, including a grizzly bear, lions and tigers. And Nana’s personal favorite, the javelina. We didn’t think to get photos with the mounts, but we did get a few of Darci outside at the visitor’s center. Her favorite thing to do is walk around and mess with whatever she can reach. Stepping between two different textured areas or up and down a step or curb is also high on her list.

I took Monday through Wednesday off work, but had to go in Thursday and Friday. Nana and Grampus watched Darci those two days so Doug got a chance to head out to the woods and pick some morels on Thursday, and fish to his heart’s content on Friday. Darci got to go to the park both days and run around and play.

We were sad to say goodbye Saturday night. It was such a great visit, we really got out for a lot of fun activities and enjoyed a ton of great food! We took a few family photos the last night of their visit:

Comments Fixed!

2010-05-13T16:53:00.001-07:00

I was able to add a comment so now I think you can comment on my posts at the bottom of each if you would like to!

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

We all enjoyed a great weekend for Mother's Day! Sunday was a beautiful day, so we got some brats and took the grill out to the river. Darci played with Walter and ran around, then home for a nap, then out for a walk along the levee, then suppertime, then off to bed.

Darci had two favorite activities at the river. One was stepping up and down the 3 inch rise on the concrete pad. She needed help for the step up but figured out the step down after a few spills. Here she is during one of her up and down workouts.

The other fun activity was climbing in and out of Mommy's chair over and over and over. She got really good at it! Here she is spacing out and eating her rice snacks after successfully climbing into the chair.

My good looking family walking along the levee!

I shot several videos of Darci and of Walter but none of them came out very good, this was the best one. Here is Darci walking around the back yard. Her balance has really improved lately but that big diaper doesn't make walking easy!

Playing Two-liter

2010-05-02T21:08:00.001-07:00

Darci loves toting things around, and the heavier and more awkward the better. Here she is at the park carrying around Walter's water bottle.

14 months old

2010-04-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

Darci is over 14 months now, and I haven't put an update for a while! Doug took her to see Dr. Harris on Wednesday of this week, and she weighed 25 lbs and is 31 inches tall. Both height and weight are in the 75-90 percentile, so she is a little larger than average still, but her growth has slowed. It's been nice to settle in to a wardrobe that fits more than once or twice like her infant clothes did!

At her Dr. visit she got two shots, one was a flu booster and the other was a vaccine. She didn't cry at all, just made a face. She is very sociable and likes going anywhere. She especially loves riding in the cart at the store and looking at all the people. You have to keep the cart away from anything she can reach, though!

Darci's been improving at walking, but she still just falls all the time while walking around. She dances, does funny marching steps, and seems to move to her own imaginary rhythm all the time. She still loves music and will stop whatever she's doing to listen to any kind of music.

We've all been adjusting to Walter being in our house this week. Darci likes him but also already expresses herself to him. If he wants to lick her, which he doesn't do too often, he's very calm, she will just push him off if she doesn't want it. And he just moves on immediately. It seems like a great match so far. She is delighted by him, she will walk around behind him and say "ahhh" over and over. She pets him very nicely, but also tries to climb on him whenever he's laying down. He tolerates anything, but we are teaching her not to be rough with him.

Darci still doesn't say many words. She is a champion whiner which I'm sure she inherited from me, and is my karmic just desserts. She only says Mama when she is whining. She says Dada all the time and obviously knows that is her Daddy. She calls to him when he's out of the room. She can understand us better every day, and will follow instructions for some simple things.

Darci's diet is including more normal foods and less baby foods all the time. She now has four teeth on the top and only two on the bottom, so we haven't given her food that really needs work to chew. She will feed herself and seems to like doing that. Today for lunch she had a turkey and cheese sandwich with mayo and I tore it up and gave her the bits and she fed each bit to herself.

She's very affectionate and funny. She is getting more independent but still wants to cuddle and gives hugs all the time. Her idea of kisses seems to be just coming toward you with her mouth open, so we have to work on that. She loves to make us laugh and it's obvious that she is intentionally being funny. She's very fun to be around most of the time.

This weekend we are turning her carseat around to face the front. She will love the new perspective, I'm sure. We are hoping to get out to do a mushroom hunt on Sunday. It will be fun to take Darci and Walter out to the forest.

Feeding Herself!

2010-04-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

Darci is learning to eat on her own, every meal now we try to give her something she can feed to herself. Tonight we all had rigatoni with sauce, she loved it!

Outdoor Adventures

2010-04-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

This morning we got out to the park again, Daddy has been taking her there every day this week. I shot a couple of short videos of her explorations. She loves seeing the people and dogs along the path. She yells at the people and makes barking noises at the dogs and wants everyone's attention. When she sees people or animals she runs right for them. It's fun to see her move around the grass and examine everything.

Playing Sticks

2010-04-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

Doug and Darci have been getting out to the park a lot lately as the weather gets better. She's very good at walking now, although she still falls often. This past week she's learned how fun sticks are. She runs around and pokes things with them, and this afternoon she got ahold of two at once!

Talking to Daddy

2010-03-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

Doug took this video of Darci on Friday afternoon. She's on top of her fort. She's using a lot of inflection when she talks, but she can't say many words. She says Daddy best, and shows that off here.

She's Walking!

2010-03-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

Darci is now walking! She has been working on it for a while now, but really got going over the past week. Today Doug brought her over to the park to meet me for lunch and I got a few photos and videos of her with my cell phone.

At The Park

2010-03-07T19:21:00.001-08:00

We got out for a walk on the levee today and played at the park. I shot two short videos.

Birthday Fort!

2010-03-01T21:14:00.000-08:00

I finally got Darci's birthday videos edited. Here she is on her birthday playing with her new fort. By now she can climb up on her own and slide down the slide. I need to get a new video already!

Under the Fort!

2010-03-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

Night vision Darci!

Playing With Daddy

2010-03-01T21:08:00.000-08:00

Playing with Daddy and her new fort.

Birthday Party Dress

2010-03-01T21:05:00.001-08:00

In her pretty birthday dress, ready for dinner!

Birthday Dinner

2010-03-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

Birthday Cake!

2010-03-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a 4 minute movie of Darci's birthday cake.

Darci's First Birthday!

2010-02-22T20:31:00.000-08:00

Darci turned one on Sunday, February 21st. Doug and I had fun celebrating, Darci enjoyed it all, too, but of course she had no idea what was up. Daddy bought her a Little Tikes Fort. It has a slide, a climbing wall, you can crawl underneath it and it has a steering wheel on a raised platform. She isn't able to take full advantage of it's features yet, but she does love climbing on it.

Doug put it together on Saturday night and Darci got to see it right when she got up. I have a video that I will post when I get time to edit it. We helped her figure out how to play with it.

We all went to Costco together to pick up something for a special birthday dinner. We decided on teriyaki hamburgers, baked french fries and peas. Darci feeds herself snacks if we help a little, so we thought we'd let her try to eat her own dinner if she wanted. She didn't. She played with the peas and gnawed on a french fry for a bit, but didn't really enjoy it much. So we cleared it and she loved her baby food and oatmeal dinner as usual.

It was a fun day, I got to help her open presents and she got a ton of great gifts! Thank you to Gma and Gpa Burns for the super, unbelievably adorable party dresses, and so many other summery outfits. They are going to be perfect and just the right size. She got lots of clothes for her birthday, including a shopping spree at Old Navy with my Dad and Amy, and a box with two pairs of the cutest jeans ever made, along with tops and jammies from Nana and Grampus.

Doug and I also got her some round markers and a toy cat that's remote controlled, I'll have to shoot a video of it, she can really make it go. Darci also got a pass to the aquatic center from my Mom and Gary, and a check from her Great-Grandparents Fox. She made out like a little bandit! And she was such a good girl all day long. She even took two hour-long naps. I dressed her in several outfits throughout the day to maximize adorable photo opportunities.

I made her some cupcakes and put vanilla pudding on one for her birthday cake. Daddy picked out a Mickey Mouse candle and we sang happy birthday. I have a video of that, too, that I will post later. She smashed her hands in the cupcake but never really went at it. I helped her put a little in her mouth and she pushed it back out and down her chest. She enjoyed laughing for the camera more than smashing the cupcake.

We loved trying to spoil her on her first birthday, it was a great day for all of us!

11 month update...a little late

2010-02-08T15:28:00.001-08:00

Darci's been 11 months for a couple of weeks now, but I haven't put an update yet with her latest skills! She is still not quite walking, but seems just about to take off. She will walk if you hold her hands, and she is able to stand on her own for about a minute. We're seeing her standing more often now without always having to hold on. So far she has only taken a few independent steps at our urging. We've both been helping her practice by standing her a few steps away from us and beckoning.

She understands more now when we talk to her or ask her things, although still that's not much. The only sound she uses consistently for the same thing is her "kitty" sound, which is basically just a "k" sound. She always makes that sound when she sees either of the cats, and she gets very excited and wants to chase them. She can help a little when you are dressing her, by holding her arms out and such, which also means she can work against you when you are dressing her, although she is pretty compliant and usually puts up with quite a bit when changing her clothes. She will hand you objects, but only when you gesture for them, she doesn't seem to understand their names yet.

She is still very interested in music and loves to hear any kind of music. She will stop whatever she's doing to look and listen, and she sings to herself quite a bit. We can hear her in her crib in the morning just singing and talking.

She has been sleeping through the night consistently for a few weeks now (crossing fingers...). She goes to bed between 6 and 7 every night and wakes sometime after 6. If we aren't ready to get her yet she will play happily with her tiny dolly and other little stuffed toys in her crib unless she needs changed or gets hungry.

Darci is still a very good eater and will eat just about anything you offer her. We've been introducing new flavors over the last month. She is voracious and always wants to be snacking, especially if she sees either of us with food, so we feed her bites of anything we're eating that is good for her. We are transitioning her from formula to cow's milk over the next few weeks, and to help get more dairy into her I tried cottage cheese at her lunch this past weekend. The first few bites went down fine, but then she decided she didn't care for it, and pushed each bite back out of her mouth with her tongue, refusing any more attempts at cottage cheese. It was really funny. I've read that you should try a new food up to 10 times before they will accept it, so we'll keep going with the cottage cheese, maybe with a little more fruit-to-cheese ratio.

She is still wearing size 12-month clothes, and although we can tell she is getting taller, she has slowed down a little on her growth. She has a few 12-month outfits that still aren't quite the right fit. The pants tend to be made for walkers rather than crawlers, and the same is true for dresses or long tops, she gets them caught under her knees as she tries to crawl around. Anyone thinking of new outfits for Darci should look at 18-month sizes, in summertime styles. :-) She could use more onesies and socks are always good! She takes them off wherever she likes, so we usually have some sock orphans in the drawer.

Darci is a very happy kid and very easygoing. She is always good in social situations and loves new experiences. We can't wait to celebrate her first birthday in a couple of weeks. It's hard to imagine life without her now.

Video Fixed?

2010-02-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

I uploaded a different format of the video, hopefully this one works!

Another Video

2010-01-25T19:30:00.000-08:00

I shot another video of Darci while she was playing yesterday, this one was on my cell phone so the quality isn't great. But she's still cute! She understands what to so with her little phone, she holds it to her ear every time now.

Happy Baby

2010-01-18T20:16:00.000-08:00

I was putting away Darci's laundry this afternoon while she played in the crib. She was in such a good mood I had to get the camera out. It is so wonderful to see her happy and healthy again, she had a very tough week last week.

Playing Kitty

2010-01-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

Darci is very talkative now but only says three words - Dadda, Mama, and Kitty. She doesn't always say Dadda or Mama to the right person, but she knows the kitties and points and says something that sounds quite similar to kitty, but maybe missing the -itty part.

She loves Mango and Matilda and always wants to watch them or touch them if they let their guard down. Here she is the other night 'playing kitty' with Matilda.

Darci's First Christmas

2009-12-31T09:56:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful first Christmas with Darci. We drove to Salem to see her McCoy Grandparents and her Auntie Emily, and dogs Duke and Daisy too. The ride in the van was 7 hours, and there were a few sections where she was tired of being strapped into her seat, but for the most part she did really well. I sat in the back with her most of the trip and fed her cheerios and she drank water from her sippy cup, along with her regular bottles. I also ‘fed’ her toy after toy, watching as she gleefully dropped them on the other side of her seat where Mommy couldn’t reach.

Christmas Eve we arrived around bedtime, and enjoyed our traditional Christmas Eve fare of little smokies, cheese and sausage with crackers, and other yummies. Darci had a rough night the first night, she had a little trouble being out of her routine and in a new place. So she slept most of the night on Mommy, but that was ok, it’s been many months since we’ve done that.

In the morning Darci woke us with her usual 6:30 AM reveille and we joined Emily in the living room to see what Santa brought. He didn’t miss anyone in the house, there were stockings for each of us including Duke and Daisy. Darci got a sock monkey (so cute!), some crayola markers for little bitty hands, a couple of teething toys, and a baby’s first Christmas t-shirt, which I now realize we didn’t put on her! I guess there were too many things going on at once.

Gift opening commenced and wow, did Darci ever have a lot of presents. With four sets of Grandparents (Burns, Fox/Sacry, McCoy, and Great-grandparents Fox) she is one lucky little girl. She wasn’t too interested in opening the presents, but she did enjoy playing with the bows and of course playing with each toy after it was wrestled from the packaging. Lights and music were featured in many of her gifts.

I don’t know if I can list all of her toys from memory, but she got a ride on toy airplane with Elmo on it, the Playschool barn that makes animal sounds, a shape sorter bucket, the playschool chatter telephone and popper (classics!), some super adorable outfits, and a ton of books. She loves books and now has quite a nice library, mostly thanks to her Nana Fox. Thank you to everyone who gave her such cool presents, she has been enjoying all of them!

We all got to stay in our pjs for a while on Christmas, then into some nice clothes for an awesome Christmas dinner of prime rib, potatoes, scalloped corn, Amy’s amazing homemade apple and pumpkin pies. Darci had a few bites of corn, but her meal mainly consisted of a jar of turkey and veggies baby food, followed by cereal with yams. She wore her beautiful Christmas dress that Grandma and Grandpa Burns sent and we got some photos with Emily by the Christmas tree. Just by chance Emily had the same color dress as Darci!

We enjoyed post Christmas Chinese food the next night, after a day of pie for breakfast and a second chance at Christmas dinner for lunch. Thank you to Dad and Amy for hosting us, we had a great time! We headed home Sunday morning and had a nice drive, arriving just before dark. Darci did well in the car again, and this time she napped a bit more.

Now the bags are almost unpacked and the living room looks like a hurricane blew through a toy shop. It was a wonderful holiday; I wish we could have spent it with all the people we love.

Getting Taller

2009-12-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

She's been growing pretty quickly still. Here is a comparison about a month apart. Her jumper was under her heels in early November, where she is facing the camera, and now the legs are up above her ankles in the other photo, taken last week. It's amazing how fast they grow.

Third Generation Sweatsuit

2009-12-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

Darci has been having a lot of discomfort lately as her bottom two middle teeth are coming in. This is from the other night, she was starting to get upset, but it was cute, too. This sweatsuit was worn by her Great Uncles and her Uncles before Darci got it. It won't fit much longer!

Early Christmas Present

2009-12-16T19:42:00.001-08:00

We got a box of presents from Doug's parents this week, and included was a gift that Darci was to open right away. So we got out the camera and tried to interest her in opening the gift. Here's the result:

Darci Visits Dr. Harris

2009-12-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

We had our 9 month Dr. appointment today, just a check-up and some shots. Darci officially weighs 23 pounds now, which is a little lighter than we had thought. She in about the 95th percentile for her weight. We have been seeing her slim down just a bit lately as she spends more time cruising around on two legs, getting into everything. She is 29 inches tall, so about 2 1/2 feet. Her height is 75-95th percentile for age, so she is a little taller than average at this point. Her head measured 17 inches around, right on average.

She is very healthy and we really just talked about nutrition with Dr. Harris and how to wean her from nighttime feedings. He suggested that the meals and snacks we are doing now sound just right and reminded us what foods to avoid - citrus, milk, wheat (we've already broken that rule, but since she didn't have a bad reaction he said not to bother avoiding wheat now), nuts, honey, eggs, and I think that was about it. To help her get away from needing to eat during the night he suggested slowly watering down the formula over the next three weeks until she gets used to not having as many calories at night. It would be nice to sleep through the night a little more often, so we'll see how that goes.

Darci did really well with her shots, she had her 9 month vaccination shot which is a combo of Hep B and polio, and then a regular flu shot and an H1N1 shot. We take her back in one month for flu boosters since this is the first time she's had flu shots. She didn't notice the first shot, but the second and third were definitely painful for her. But she was calm again in a couple of minutes and now a few hours later doesn't seem to have any tenderness or other reaction to the shots.

We were happy again to see that she wasn't afraid of the Dr. or nurse, she seemed really interested in everything there and wanted to look around. She's a very outgoing baby right now and loves going anywhere. New experiences are very exciting to her. Hopefully she will stay that way, it's fun to introduce her to new places and people.

Sunday Afternoon

2009-11-29T18:45:00.000-08:00

I took a few videos of Darci today as we were hanging out. Isn't she just the cutest kid ever?

9 Months Old!

2009-11-29T14:10:00.000-08:00

I'm a week late with this post, but it's time to take stock of Darci's amazing skills. :-) She is about 27 pounds by my estimate stepping on the scale with and without her. We go to see Dr. Harris on December 8 for her 9 month appointment so we'll know for sure then. She's in 9-12 month clothes, so anyone thinking of Christmas should look at 12-18 months.

She is getting closer to walking every day. I predict she will be taking her first steps by Christmas. She prefers to walk around the living room and we have a lot of furniture and Rubbermaid bins around (aka baby barrier) so she can do a circuit of the whole room. She's recently started trying to climb the bins, so I suspect we will be figuring out a new babyproofing system soon.

It is obvious now that she understands her name, and almost always turns when you call her. She says Dadda and Momma and on occasion it seems like she says them to us, although not yet with any regularity.

Darci reaches to be picked up and is usually standing in her crib when we go to get her up. She still naps 2-3 times during the day, for 20 minutes to an hour each time. She's branched out on her eating, we feed her different jarred baby foods now and a variety of snacks. She loves her yogurt snacks, cheerios and her "cheesy poofs". She will now feed herself rice teething biscuits, although she still has trouble trying to feed herself finger foods. Everything else she grabs goes right in her mouth, but when she picks up food bits they end up on the floor!

Darci loves music and will turn to any source of music. I am trying to help her learn to dance, I can't wait to see her do a bouncing dance. She's a very easy baby right now and we're having a lot of fun with her. Christmas is going to be so fun with Darci to make it all more meaningful.

Nana Visits

2009-11-15T21:05:00.000-08:00

Nana is here visiting this weekend. We've had a great time so far! Friday night we just stayed in and ate lasagna and watched Darci entertain us with all her recent new tricks. She now stands as much as she can, and only gets down on the floor to move from one place to another, or sometimes to play with a toy. She needs support for standing but will use absolutely anything that's handy, whether its stable enough to hold her weight or not.

Saturday Nana watched her for a while when Daddy left to clean some fish and I had to be at work. Then we played all afternoon and evening. Today, Sunday, Nana and I took Darci out shopping. We went to KMart, Ross and Shopko, with a side trip to McDonald's for shopping fortification. Darci got several new adorable outfits in 12 month size, and a few footed jammies. We are not shopping in the baby section anymore, which was a little bittersweet for me. Now her size is in the toddler or little girl section. We tried several pairs of shoes on her, but her chubby feet weren't having it. We'll look again tomorrow.

Nana also got her a bunch of new toys, which I'm sure will all be featured in videos here eventually. She got her own "tv remote" and some other toys that light up and make noise, and some simple toys like textured balls. When we got them all out of the packages at home, Darci was really into them all and it was fun to watch her explore the new toys.

Getting Around

2009-11-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

I took a few little videos of Darci moving around this afternoon. She is a little unsteady still but for the most part she can get herself to wherever she wants to go right now.

Monkey Baby

2009-10-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

Darci is now extremely mobile. She will pull herself up on anything she can, and is starting to let go so she can just stand upright. Of course this results in falling unless we are there to catch her, but she tries nevertheless. Here is a video I took of her pulling up on the loveseat this morning.

Eight Months Old

2009-10-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

Today Darci turns eight months old. Time for a status update! She is approximately 28 pounds now, I weighed her by stepping on the scale with and without her, so it's not exact, but pretty close. We are changing to size 4 diapers next time we buy some, and I am ordering her a new carseat, since she has just passed the weight limit on the infant seat.

She is able to easily sit upright now, although still has trouble trying to get herself into an upright position on her own. She would much rather sit up than lay down most of the time now. She is a very good crawler now, and can make it across the room or across the house in no time! The newest thing she is working on is standing up. She will pull herself up to a standing position whenever she is near something that will hold her.

She babbles quite a bit now, and makes repetitive syllables as you can hear in the videos below. It is getting easier to imagine her talking and walking soon. We have lowered her crib mattress, but haven't seen her pulling herself up in the crib yet.

She sleeps well for naps and at night. She goes to bed between 7-8 every night. Usually she will wake in the night around 2 AM and again around 5 AM. Sometimes I feed her at night, but I am trying to get her enough food to get through the night to 5 AM at least without needing to eat. We are in the process of weaning from breastfeeding. She is not interested much anymore and it feels like a natural progression toward no more nursing.

Darci loves to eat solid food and has two meals a day. She's tried a few different foods - oatmeal, bananas, peaches, avocado, peas and broccoli. This week we will be trying carrots and then butternut squash. So far we have been just preparing fresh or frozen fruit and veggies for her. Dan and Beth gave us a food mill that works great for making baby food puree out of regular foods.

She loves all of her toys and can take advantage of most of their features. She loves her Weeble Wobble house, her board books, and anything that makes noise when she shakes it. We're having a great time with her and can't wait to see what the next few months bring!

Playing with Daddy

2009-10-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

Doug got her giggling a bit this afternoon. I keep trying to capture her laughing, so far this is the best video. I'll keep trying!

Learning to Talk

2009-10-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

Lately Darci has added a few consonants to her vocabulary. Now instead of only high pitched shrieks, we get to hear "babababa" and then a high pitched shriek. I got two videos of her "talking" this afternoon.

Motoring Baby

2009-10-15T20:51:00.001-07:00

Darci has figured out how to crawl! For the past month or more she's been getting up on all fours and rocking, sometimes making a couple of hesitant movements forward. Last night Doug and I were talking in the kitchen and Darci decided that was motivation enough to get up and crawl out there, too. Matilda had also just walked by and she always wants to chase down the cats. They'd better watch out, by tonight she had it totally figured out! Here's a video of her new skills.

Piano Time

2009-09-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

She's well on her way to virtuosity...

Trying Avocados

2009-09-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

Darci is a very good eater, and has been since birth. We started solid foods with oatmeal, and then added bananas. Here she is trying avocados for the first time last week. Today I think we'll try some zucchini.

She's Gotta Wear Shades

2009-09-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

We went for a drive up the Snake River today and I tried Darci's sunglasses on her again. We haven't tried them lately. She didn't flinch as I adjusted them and wore them for a while! They're so cute! Here's a movie of her in the van with me, we were waiting a few minutes for Daddy to get done fishing.

A Little Video

2009-09-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

Here is Darci in her stroller entertaining herself. Dorothy and I had breakfast at the hotel restaurant Sunday morning while the guys went fishing, and Darci came along and did great.

Great Grandparents!

2009-09-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

We had a visit this weekend from Darci's Great Grandparents from Iowa. We had a really fun visit, it seemed like we did a lot in just two days! We went up to Moscow the first day and walked around downtown looking into a few shops. Then we watched the first quarter of the college football game at the University of Idaho, and they scored two goals while we were there, and I went down on the field before the game to give out an award to a teacher that is sponsored by my office.

Here is Darci entertaining Dorothy and me while we waited for the guys to get back from buying a fishing license.

On Sunday Grandpa went fishing with Doug and his friend Ben, they went for a while in the morning and then again for a few hours in the afternoon. They had a great trip and caught some steelhead. The released all the fish they caught, but we still had steelhead for dinner since there was one in the freezer. It was really tasty.

Darci was great the whole weekend, and she loved being played with by her Great Grandparents. I put more photos from their trip in the slide show, and I need to take a couple in the morning with the three of them.

In Her Bumbo Chair

2009-09-16T14:52:00.001-07:00

Just a quick little video of Darci sitting in her Bumbo chair this past Saturday.

Darci's First "Meal"

2009-09-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

I took a short video of Grandma Lynne feeding Darci her first bowl of oatmeal. It only took a few bites before Darci got into it.

Darci Goes to Vegas

2009-09-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome trip!! It was so great to see our family and spend a little bit of time with them. The Hilton we got to stay at had all the amenities and no casino, a nice change for a Vegas vacation. The trip was way too short, but we appreciated the time we got to spend together.

Darci was so good throughout the whole trip. She didn't cry on the planes, she played and enjoyed the time, and even slept for a while on each flight. On our flight from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas there was a small tv on the back of each seat, so we were able to play trivia and watch TV. That was nice, Darci enjoyed a few minutes of Fairly Oddparents as we were getting ready to land, but she slept through most of that flight. Here she is on her first airplane, getting ready to take off from Lewiston:
Darci enjoyed a lot of "firsts" on this trip. Her first plane ride (and second, and third, and fourth!); her first ride in an elevator; her first swim in a big pool; and her first solid food. She was a very happy baby throughout the trip.

Grandma Lynne fed Darci her first bowl of solid (well, semi-solid) food - oatmeal mixed with formula. She loved it! She ate every bit of it and probably would have eaten more if we offered it. I took a video of the event, but it's 100 MB, so I need to edit it down a little before uploading it here.

When we took her in the pool it was early in the morning. The air was warm but the pool was a little on the cool side, so we didn't stay in very long. At first she curled her legs up underneath her and looked a little nervous, but after we played for a bit with Daddy she loosened up. I held her under her arms and pulled her around the pool on her belly. She kicked her legs a bit and even held her hand out to feel the water pouring into the pool from some overhead spouts. Here we are in the pool:
Her favorite part, though, was the toweling off afterward. She really loves being wrapped up in a towel, and she always has a smile for the camera!
Darci loved getting to know her Grandma and Grandpa and had lots of laughs and smiles for them. One evening Grandpa Bud was holding her and stroking her head, and she nodded off, an extremely rare sight...
We couldn't believe how easy Darci was to travel with, and how well she did interacting with her family. The only thing we would change about the trip is to add about seven more days! Thanks Mom and Dad Burns for making this little family reunion possible!

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

2009-09-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Darci gets to go on her first plane ride. Two rides, as a matter of fact. We leave at 6:30 AM from Lewiston and fly an hour and a half to Salt Lake City, then a two hour layover, and another hour and a half to Las Vegas! We are being met at the airport by Darci's Grandma and Grandpa Burns, aka Lynne and Bud.

Doug and I took all day today to pack for the trip. We really didn't want to have to pay to check a bag, so we did some creative problem-solving to pack in two carry-ons, a diaper bag, and my purse. We also have a small fold-up stroller for Darci which we will check at the gate. We were able to fit 25 diapers, half a can of formula, and everything else needed for the trip! We had to do plenty of internet research to be sure we had our liquids and gels packed correctly, and had to be sure to clean out every bag and my purse to make sure we weren't inadvertently bringing contraband to the airport. Have I told you the story of the steak knife in the computer bag when I was flying to Hawaii for our wedding? Lesson learned!

We are so excited to introduce Darci to her wonderful grandparents, her uncle Mike and her only cousin, Shaw. We anticipate a very fun weekend!!!!!

The Crib - Success??

2009-09-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

Since Darci was born, she has been quite particular about her sleeping arrangements. She prefers to sleep rocking in her swing, she prefers to fall asleep with us rocking her, and she prefers to be swaddled in order to fall asleep at naptimes and bedtime.

Now that she is starting to fall into a bit of a routine, we decided it is time for her to sleep in her crib, unswaddled. She is mature enough now to show her emotions and not just be in distress when things are not the way she would like them to be. The last three nights, I have put her to bed in the crib, with no swaddling. The first night she fell asleep in there unexpectedly while I was on the phone with my dad and was fiddling around the nursery gathering her laundry and such. The next night I tried going in just a couple of times when she really got worked up and calmed her with a bottle.

Tonight it was a little bit harder for me. She was definitely tired after being up for more than 4 hours, she was fed and clean. And she cried forcefully for about half an hour before falling asleep. It's so tough to hear her cry, and she's so little I don't want her to feel scared or lonely, but I know it will just take a few nights and she'll be more comfortable falling asleep on her own in her crib.

She's sleeping there now.....

6 Month Dr. Visit

2009-08-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

Today we took Darci to see Dr. Harris for her 6 month checkup. She is officially 20 lbs, 3 oz and 26.5 inches long. So she is above the 95% for weight, and 50-75% for height. She got a clean bill of health and got two vaccinations, one shot and one oral vaccine. She did great despite being very tired, her appointment ended up being right about naptime.

We talked with Dr. Harris about her development and she's right where she should be. He agreed now is a good time to start solids and gave us some advice on that. She goes back in October for a flu shot and then in November for her 9 month checkup.

Getting Around

2009-08-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

Last night I got a cute video of Darci and her new mobility:

Six Months Old Already?

2009-08-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Today Darci turns 6 months old. It's hard to believe that so much time has already passed since she came into our lives.

She is developing very quickly right now. It took her just a couple of days to master rolling from her tummy to her back, so now she rolls both directions, and she scoots across the floor to get to things. She is extremely interested in getting into everything. She immediately rolls her walker over to the curtains, bookcase, or kitchen island...anything she can reach gets taken down and put in her mouth.

She is fascinated by the cats, and shakes with excitement when she sees one of them. She reaches for them and wants to "pet" them, which so far consists of grabbing a handful of their hide as they scurry past. She will chase them down when she's in her walker.

This morning she treated us to her most boisterous vocal display yet. She was babbling and shrieking for a couple of hours, and she seemed to really enjoy talking and yelling. She loves going places and will be satisfied watching people or looking out the car window on drives.

I put together a smilebox with my favorite photos of her, enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Her Latest Trick

2009-08-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

The newest skill that Darci is working on is moving on all fours. So far she only goes backwards. I took a video of her scooting a bit last week. She started out going backwards in the walker, too, but it didn't take her long to figure that out, so we'd better start babyproofing already!

Her First Luau

2009-08-10T18:53:00.000-07:00

We went to a luau at the Moose Lodge in Clarkston last weekend. Yes, the Moose Lodge in Clarkston hosted a luau. It was put on by the Hawiian community here. The meal included kalua pork, mac salad, lumpia, and other traditional cookout foods. There was a band with a stand up base and three ukuleles, and various groups from the local hula classes performed dances. We all had a great time, and Darci wore her first mumu sent to us by her Grandma and Grandpa Burns in Hawaii. The photos were taken in low light without a flash on my camera phone, sorry the quality is not good!

Darci Meets a Camel

2009-08-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

We took Darci out in the stroller at the Alive After Five event in downtown Clarkston on Thursday night last week. She saw lots of people and charmed them all, and even met her first camel, who she totally ignored. She got a new dress and some new little shoes from Nana. And the thing she enjoyed most: the breeze. Every time the wind blew she would get a huge smile and we even heard a laugh or two. So cute!

Nana & Gampus Visit

2009-08-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

We had a fun visit the past week with Nana & Gampus. They arrived on the 1^st and just left for home this morning. Darci had a little bit of hesitation initially, but she warmed up to her grandparents, and I just know she was so thankful to have them babysit while her Daddy went camping and Mommy went to work.

She got to go to several restaurants with us throughout the week and really seemed to enjoy looking at all of the people and watching everyone eat. She is starting to show some interest in food, we will be starting her on solid food next month during our visit with Grandma and Grandpa Burns.

Here are a couple of photos from the week with her Nana and Grampus:

Darci The Giant

2009-08-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

We weighed Darci by stepping on the bathroom scale with and without her recently, and she was 21 pounds! Yikes! She is a very large baby. At 5 and a half months, 21 pounds puts her in the 99th percentile for weight. That means if you had 100 babies, Darci would be nearly the biggest one.

Can that be right? I guess she takes after her Dad so far! We will have her weighed at Dr. Harris's office on the 25th and we'll know for sure how big she is.

...And Another Walker Video

2009-07-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

I can't resist posting another video in the walker. This is the same night as the previous video, but taken with our other camera.

5 Months Old

2009-07-21T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today Darci turns 5 months old already! We haven't weighed her lately but she must be over 17 lbs by now. She is very close to being able to sit up on her own. Every day she gets better at using her hands, and she will reach for and grab toys now and even play with them a little. Of course, everything is going in her mouth lately, and she drools a lot! She really loves the walker and it's fun to put her in there and watch her move around.

She is not eating solid food yet, we are planning to wait one more month for that. She just changed into size 3 diapers this past week, she's still on the large side for her age. She is very vocal and makes a lot of different sounds. She is also starting to express anger and frustration along with laughing at funny faces and noises. I wish I could catch her laugh on tape.

Here is a movie of her in the walker tonight.

Jumperoo!

2009-07-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

Darci and I visited our friends Bridjett and Bethany today. The girls watched each other and reached to touch each other with their hands and their feet. Darci tried out Bethany's jumperoo, and I think we might need to pick one up for her, she loved it! I took two small videos with the digital camera.

Mastering the Walker

2009-07-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

Darci is getting a bit better at managing the walker. And she seems very happy while she's in it. She likes being able to move herself around and be upright. This was taped yesterday night. When I came home for lunch yesterday Doug had her in the walker. She saw me, smiled, and came right over to me! It was so adorable!

It's not a baby Pterodactyl...it's Darci

2009-07-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

I got a recording of her doing her latest noises last night. I call her the baby pterodactyl when she screams. She sounds like some kind of dinosaur or small animal to me. She makes these noises a lot right now. Sometimes she's mad, sometimes she just wants to hear herself.

Rolling Over

2009-07-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

I wasn't able to capture a good scream, but I did get video of her latest athletic feat. Here is Darci rolling over.

Finding Her Voice

2009-07-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

Darci's latest 'trick' is screaming. She's not always mad when she screams, most of the time she seems to just be trying out her voice. She has great volume and would be very embarrassing to take anywhere right now. :-) I will try to get a recording of it to post here. We think it's pretty funny so far, but I'm sure the charm will wear off soon.

Independence Day

2009-07-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

July 4 was a great day for Darci. She got to go in the pool for the first time. She seemed to really enjoy it. There wasn't a lot of smiling or laughing, mostly she was quiet and just looked at the water and at us. That's pretty much what she does in the bath, too. She seems to like the feeling of the water, but doesn't splash or play in it yet.

We each held her for a while and then we got her bouncy seat out and put it in the pool. She sat in there for about a half hour and ate her bottle. It was about 100 degrees so a perfect day to be in the water.

We hadn't intended to watch the fireworks with her. But at about 5 pm Doug's friend Ben called and said they had staked out a great spot across the river from the municipal fireworks display and invited us to join his family. So we went over at about 7:30. The fireworks didn't start until after 10, but Darci was great the whole time. She seemed really interested in all the people, and just sat on my lap and watched everyone. Ben has a 15 month old daughter and a 4 year old son, and Darci was fascinated by both of them.

When people started showing up in droves to watch the fireworks we had already set ourselves up in a terrific spot. There were some people shooting off fireworks in the parking lot about 50 yards away, and we could see a lot of mortars going up across the river. We were in Idaho, and the fireworks we were watching were in Washington. The laws are pretty lax in Washington and the law enforcement is even more lax. There were a lot of fireworks to watch besides the ones from the city.

It was a great show and Darci watched it all without flinching even once. It wasn't too loud from our vantage point but there was some booming. She wasn't bothered at all by the noise and watched the fireworks for most of the time.

It was a great fourth!

Darci's New Website

2009-07-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

I am starting up this new website for Darci, since it costs about $9 a month for the baby jelly beans site, and I've figured out how to use this blogger website pretty well. I've seen some blogs that are so cute, I'm sure as I go I can make this one pretty neat, too.

One nice feature of the baby jelly beans site is that they will burn you a keepsake CD, so I ordered that this morning and then set up this new site. Darci now has an electronic baby book on CD. I'm no good at writing and keeping up with a handwritten journal, so hopefully as time goes by there will still be a way to read CDs.

One feature of the blog website is the ability to subscribe to the RSS feed. It will alert you when I post new items and stories on the blog. If you want help to set that up, let me know.

I hope you enjoy Darci's new website!

Darci Lynne

Happy Father's Day!

Latest Photos

Oh No!

Bugwatching

It Can’t Be June, It Feels Like November

Funny Girl

BBQ time

Pigtails!

Darci's Art

Fun with Wordle

A Little Recording

Back in the Saddle

Twenty Months Update!

Ohana Aloha

Duck Migration

Another checkup

A year and a half gone by...

Seventeen Months!

Summer Fun at Last!

Darci's Almost 16 months!

Summertime Weather at Last!

Nana Fox & Darci

Nana & Grampus Visit

Comments Fixed!

Mother's Day

Playing Two-liter

14 months old

Feeding Herself!

More Videos

Outdoor Adventures

Playing Sticks

Talking to Daddy

She's Walking!

At The Park

Birthday Fort!

Under the Fort!

Playing With Daddy

Birthday Party Dress

Birthday Dinner

Birthday Cake!

Darci's First Birthday!

11 month update...a little late

Video Fixed?

Another Video

Happy Baby

Playing Kitty

Darci's First Christmas

Getting Taller

Third Generation Sweatsuit

Early Christmas Present

Darci Visits Dr. Harris

Sunday Afternoon

9 Months Old!

Nana Visits

Getting Around

Monkey Baby

Eight Months Old

Playing with Daddy

Learning to Talk

Motoring Baby

More Walker Videos!

Piano Time

Trying Avocados

She's Gotta Wear Shades

A Little Video

Great Grandparents!

In Her Bumbo Chair

Darci's First "Meal"

Darci Goes to Vegas

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

The Crib - Success??

6 Month Dr. Visit

Getting Around

Six Months Old Already?

Her Latest Trick

Her First Luau

Darci Meets a Camel

Nana & Gampus Visit

Darci The Giant