The Holidays, Part III: Winter Wonderland

The month of January has been snowy, snowy, snowy. We take Iris out for adventures as much as we can, with cold little hands being the major limiting factor. She is a pretty good sport, and likes playing in the snow, throwing snowballs, making holes and shapes in the snow, and getting hauled around in sleds and sleighs. And she looks so darn cute in her snowsuit.

The Holidays: Part II, Christmas

Iris had her first full-blown Christmas experience at Oma and Pa-Pa's house in Boise. We maintained our own house in a decidedly un-Christmasy state knowing that we would be subjected to the Full Christmas Immersion in Boise. Oma did not disappoint, with two Christmas trees, a train set, and all manner of holiday knickknacks for Iris' entertainment. She woke up each morning and said, "Get up. Toys!" Another favorite word was 'noise' since her favorite new toys made plenty of it.

Other favorite activities were playing with Madilyn and Abigail, Iris' cousins, and getting in some more snow fun. She didn't much go for relaxing to watch the bowl games - "No football. Boo-Boos!" Instead, Mama and Dada actually got some exercise over the week, since Iris refused to nap in her temporary nest/fort. So we packed her up in the stroller or ski trailer for a daily walk in the neighborhood, on the Boise greenbelt, or on our X-C skis. Iris typically zonks out in a moving vehicle pretty reliably, so it makes for a great napping back-up option.

Photos show Iris with family - Oma and Pa-Pa, cousins Madilyn and Abigail, and big cousins Chloe and Beau - and our fancy bike trailer converted into a sleigh. It's definitely been worth buying the conversion kit. It has been a snowy winter!

The Holidays: Part I, Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we did the full cross-country flying thing, to Gloucester, VA, for a Thanksgiving week with Granny. Iris did really well with the travel, although the return flight included an extra hour on a runway in Philadelphia resulting in a missed connection in Denver, and a VERY, VERY long and late day. Iris still enjoyed goofing off in the airports. And she had a nice time with her Granny and Uncle Austin. She couldn't quite manage the word, 'Granny' so tried Grandma and came up with 'Ama.'

When we returned from Thanksgiving in Virginia, Iris decided she no longer would sleep in a crib. So we spent a few weeks of nighttime chaos as we tried to figure out alternatives for a VERY ACTIVE sleeper. She is now sleeping in a makeshift bed/fort on the floor and this seems to be working for the most part, though she does venture
into our bed on some nights. On some occasions now she will reject her booster seat at the table. It's funny that, although Iris wants to be treated as a big girl, she also occasionally asks for her milk in a bottle, by saying "baby milk!"

At the beginning of December Iris got 'promoted' to the next room at daycare, with 2-3 yr olds. She is adjusting to the change and making new friends, and coming home with new words (and behaviors!) every day. She is quite interested in letters and numbers, though right now every number is '2;' she knows a bunch of colors when they are on her pens and crayons, though has some difficulty on unfamiliar objects. Her first sentences appear to be moderately intelligible versions of "Pick it up," "I love you," "I'm a girl!" and "I'm a boy!" (she states the latter two with equal conviction, while signing 'girl' or 'boy'). Iris likes balls and trains, playing in the snow, playing the piano, and drawing. She's around 34 inches and 26 lbs. The belly is shrinking!

And Iris has some Terrible Twos coming out, too. She gets obsessed with something, and if she can't have it, the noise is tremendous and rather theatrical. But then sometimes she will give herself time-outs - ask to go 'night-night.' We put her in her little nest-fort-space and she rests until she's ready to face the world
again. Of course, this only works when we're at home....

Visitors and Vocabulary

This fall we got to experience what is referred to as the "language explosion" - Iris built up her vocabulary into well over 100 words, some time in September, then we lost track. She has several two-word phrases, and is attempting to make longer ones, although they get mumbled away. This has been rather fun and exciting for us. Iris has also been assigning relative size to objects. Large things are 'Big!" and small versions of the same are "Baby!" She has also been learning names of familiar, as well as new, people. She knows everyone in her daycare group by name, and talks about them at home. In late September we had a visit from Iris' Gramps and Uncle Joe. The word "Gramps" was a struggle with all the diphthongs, so we tried Grandpa and then Iris came up with "Pa-Pa." It looks like Iris and Pa-Pa get along just fine. "Joe" turned out to be "Doh" (or "Dough"). In October we had a visit from friends John and Ann, with Zola (~3 yrs) and baby Opal. Iris had lots of fun playing with her friend Zola. The fall here has been very nice, with opportunities for bicycling, and even a late-season swim in the Snake River near Lewiston.

Iris Likes Camping

Over Labor Day weekend we took Iris on her first camping trip. We stayed at Heyburn St. Park, on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Iris loved the tent and had no problems sleeping there, even when the campground was fairly noisy. Other than the noise, though, it was an ideal location for taking Iris on a bike ride on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. Iris likes the bike trailer, and wearing her 'helm' and generally gets a nice nap on long rides. The other photos show our breakfast/booster seat arrangement on the picnic table, and Iris and Daddy enjoying one of several dips in the lake.

Our Vacation in Oregon

This will be a BIG post, with plenty of pictures. In mid-August, we took a 1.5 week vacation in Oregon. On the way there, we stopped in the Tri-Cities, WA, to take a little lunch and Iris-exercise break, and Iris discovered Kennewick's outdoor, free, water park. There was no keeping her out of it, so she just went ahead and got soaked.

Our first destination was the John Day area of Oregon's central desert. We stayed in Antelope, in a house owned by Deb's cousin. The area was beautiful and quiet and very interesting, both topographically and historically. Antelope wasn't much for news until the Rajneeshies essentially took over the town in the mid-80s. The photos show a short hike in the desert, and Charles and Iris at the county fair/rodeo we stumbled upon in nearby Fossil. Iris especially liked the chickens and the cookie displays, and was quite the celebrity at the BBQ in the community center. The ice cream was Iris' first ice cream CONE, which the vendor in Shaniko insisted was an important experience, and so Iris got her first cone, free.

We then traveled to Portland and stayed with Deb's Aunt and Uncle. We took Iris to the Children's Museum, and a nearby playground, using the wagon for transport.

The last part of our vacation was on the Oregon Coast, so Iris could see an ocean again and enjoy the sand. Splashing is about Iris' favorite activity. In the 'screaming' photo, she is simply beside herself with joy, as she swims in Tillamook Bay. She also liked seeing kites and shells and sand dollars.

Deb

A Busy Summer

The summer went by quickly, with both of us busy at work, but with a little time for weekend fun. We did take one vacation - that will be in the next post.

The photos show Charles and Iris on one of their many hiking excursions, Deb and Iris at Moscow's aquatic center. Iris LOVES the water, and even went down a few of the water slides - supervised, of course!

We enjoyed a brief visit from Oma and Gramps. The photo shows us enjoying an outdoor concert at Moscow's Farmers' Market. The remaining photo is Iris in her jogging stroller. The red thing is one of Iris' comfort items - a tank top that mommy used to sleep in. Fortunately we have two of these and so they can get washed regularly. Iris mostly uses them at night and at naptime, and refers to each as a "Ga-ga."

Over the summer, Iris learned to run, kick and throw balls, and greatly increased her signing vocabulary. We'll have more in a future post about her verbal vocabulary, which really exploded in September.

Deb

Flying Home

Flying Home - a great tune by Lionel Hampton, and music to our ears, too. I think we were all ready to be back home.

Iris was a terrific traveler for the LONG day of crossing the continent: three flights, all of them delayed, then the drive from Lewiston. She managed several 1 to 1.5 hr naps on some flights, and we let her burn off energy in the airports. She especially liked the phones, and watching the planes take off and land. Compared to the flight from China, this was cake!

Iris' Honorary Uncle Antone (a.k.a. Rufus T. Firefly) met us at the airport, and later that week, joined Iris and Daddy on a hike to let Iris become re-acquainted with her home territory by pack and by foot.

A big thanks to Tshering and Sam for house-sitting, and making sure our cats stayed fed and brushed!

Deb

Iris the Traveler, Pat 4, installment II: The Beach

Here's Iris loving the beach, with Mom and Dad. Photos are from our last afternoon in Florida - two students from the lab, Tshering and Bhavani, enjoyed playing with Iris on the beach, too.

Iris the Traveler, Part 4

At the beginning of May, we flew to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, for two back-to-back conferences, and for some serious relaxation and fun. Iris really had a great time, with many new adventures, and lots of dining out. She was a celebrity wherever we went. Bottom photo shows Iris during the flight, shortly before reclining into a nap across our laps. Other photos are simply Iris being Iris. Note that the mess after the crab dinner was not all because there was a baby at the table.

A second installment will show beach photos!

Deb

Deb

Iris the Traveler, Part 3, installment II

In addition to outdoor excursions, Iris hit the social cicuit, meeting not only Charles' extended family, but also many family friends, and friends of Charles from high school and college. Eventually, Granny talked us into dressing Iris for these occasions, rather than the rather practical and gender-neutral clothing that had otherwise suited her quite well (and she likes the color blue, too). These photos show that Iris can look girly, too. The only problem was that, in dresses, she was unable to see her own shoes, and she very much likes admiring her own shoes!

Deb

Iris the Traveler, Part 3

Part 3 will be blogged in two installments. In this one we show photos of Iris at Granny's home, where she looks very sweet and content with the arrangements. After a few days of becoming adjusted to the new time zone/surroundings, she did very well, with Daddy and Granny running the show while I was at work. Iris had a wonderful time getting into EVERYTHING.

The other two photos are from two of our many short excursions. Iris got to pet many animals at the petting zoo at the Hopkins Spring Fair, and was especially intrigued by the potbellied pig. Iris also went on many hikes using various modes of transport, including the backpack and the stroller. But we let her use her own feet as much as possible, since she was a good walker and seemingly tireless. The last photo shows her excitement at seeing the 'top' of Chesapeake Bay, at Susquehanna St. Park.

Deb