Happy Birthday!

Our little girl turned 3 years old on January 4th! We had our little family celebration the day before, spending the day at the Silliman Family Aquatic Center, an absolutely fabulous indoor activity pool run by the city of Newark. But first, the day started off with presents!

The cooking set from Aunt Andrea & Company was a big hit. She almost didn't want to open the rest of them.

But she was glad when she finally did! Our ballerina!

Presents are fine and good, but to Nina, birthdays are really all about the cake, candles and the birthday song. Nina requested a vanilla cake.

Adding the sprinkles, serious business.

"Happy birthday to you!"

Alright, now we are ready for the good stuff!

How did we do?

Success! Birthday smiles!

The day of her birthday was actually the first day back to school after the long holiday, so we had a little party for her there as well. She was very excited to share her birthday with her friends in LKP2 and even let her best buddy Mehran blow out her candles! Apparently they planned it all day long.

Nina's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Nina's Birthday in Tahoe this year. We had a big snow storm on January 2, so we decided that was as good a day as any for a birthday party! Nina was very excited about the birthday cake, candles and birthday song. And the presents weren't too shabby either!

Click to watch the movie!

Nina picked out the Dora theme herself! "Dooohwa"

After Christmas, Nina had become a pro at the present thing!

Nina thinks maybe not.

Mr. Potatohead

Nina happily opened more presents a few days later when Grammie's package arrived.

And now after her big birthday, Nina will gladly tell you that she is .... "tree". Oh, well, we'll work on that one.

7 Months

On Saturday, Nina turned 7 months old. Wow! She is such a busy and active baby, I don't even know how to begin to describe everything she is up to. First of all, she loves pulling herself up to a standing position. Here she is all confident and holding on with just one hand:

You can put her in a frilly dress, but she still has her game face on. She is pretty much an expert at getting up and down now. Coffee tables, shelves, you name it. Or even better climbing up Mt. Mom or Mt. Dad (then pulling their hair).

One amazing thing she started doing is dancing when you turn on music. She starts bouncing up and down. It blows my mind that she has figured this out.

Her hair is starting to come in more, or at least reaching a critical mass. It is light brown and a little curly. So cute!

Nina has adapted quite well to daycare. She actually started at a new place at the beginning of August. After 13 months on the waitlist, we got a spot at the CCSC at Stanford. Yay! I thought we would sort of have to start over with getting her adjusted to a new place, but nope, on the first day I picked up her after work the girls said it was like she had been there all along. They also said she explored every single inch of the place. And I believe it! When I drop her off in the morning, she digs right in playing with the toys or bouncing to the good morning song. In related news, she is now officially a member of the runny nose club.


P.S. This post was brought to you by grandmas' homemade clothing! Grandma Vicky made the outfit in the top two pictures as well as the hat in the bottom one. Baka Dragica knitted the pink poncho in the bottom picture.

5 month portraits

4 Months

Nina is 4 months old today. And for her big birthday she got to .... go to the doctor! and get 4 shots! and an oral live virus vaccine! Lucky girl. Here are her four month stats:

Height: 24 inches (41%)
Weight: 13 lbs 14 oz (57%)
Head Circumference: 40.5 cm (37%)

Her growth in the second 2 months of her life has been a lot slower than the first 2 months as is normal. She has, however, moved down in the percentiles (they were all around 70% last time). The doctor was not at all concerned. She said height and head measurements can vary by a bit since they are so hard to measure, and her weight looked fine especially since she is so active. Blah, blah, blah, she is healthy and doing great. Dr. Enright also said Nina has good trunk control. Now if that is not a complement then I just don't know what is!

Ok, ok, now let's get to what you really want to see - 4 month portraits!



As you can see in these pictures, Nina's personality is really coming out. She is alert and aware of the world around her, but she is also beginning to respond and interact with it. She is definitely wanting to put everything in her mouth these days but her coordination is not always quite there. The development of hand-eye coordination is really a very slow process. She has managed to put her pacifier back in her mouth a couple of times. If she is on her stomach or side and the pacifier falls very close to her and is angled just right, she can use her hand to push it toward her mouth. Pretty cool!

To make up for the whole shots-on-her-birthday business, I bought her one of those exersaucer thingies. So stay tuned for some fun standing baby pictures! On second thought it could take a while - there appears to be rather a lot of assembly required.

0.25

Today Nina is 3 months old. Here is comparison that pretty much sums it up.

Nina at 2 days and 3 months. (As always) click for a larger version.

She is an amazing little creature. We are overjoyed to have her in our lives. What more can I say?

Mesmerized and Pacified

Today Nina is two months old!

"Happy Birthday to me!"

She is starting to become a bit more interactive. She stares intently at our faces then gives us a big smile and a bit of a laugh. She looks genuinely happy! It seems like she is trying to imitate our facial expressions like opening her mouth or sticking out her tongue. She mostly likes to look at faces and didn't really take much interest in the toys we tried to show her - until I found this black and white mobile for her. The high contrast patterns really attract her attention. You can tell in her eyes that she is really engaged. If we move it around slowly she tracks it with her eyes.

Mesmerized

About a month ago, we introduced a pacifier for Nina. At first I was a little reluctant, I guess I didn't want her using it all the time, or something... I am not even sure why. In the beginning, she would just push it out with her tongue, and it took two or three weeks for her to take it reliably. But now, whoa, what a difference! Talk about happiest baby on the block. It really provides her with a great deal of comfort. We have virtually eliminated the 20 or so minutes of crying before each nap, and car trips are, well, possible. She seems happier and that definitely makes my life easier. Now instead of coming home to a crying baby and a stressed out mom, Mirko can enjoy the evenings with his little noodle.

Also as promised, here is a movie we took last weekend of little Lucia after she figured out how to turn on the music on Nina's bouncy seat.

Mirko has been playing around with some new processing software for creating high dynamic range images. Here is a picture of our local park. Anya is the red ghost on the left. Whaddaya think?

1 Month

Yesterday was Nina's one month birthday! We dressed her up and our friends had a party for her. Actually, it was a Superbowl party, but don't tell her that!


She has grown like a weed in the past month. She is about 4 or 5 inches longer than when she was born and definitely has gained weight but we aren't sure how much. Her awake periods are getting longer. After a nap and a feeding, she's awake for an hour or two, generally just looking around and checking out the world. She is starting to gain a little control of her limbs - her arms and legs flail around slightly less, and she can lift her head for a second or two. Mirko claims that she smiles at him every morning, but everyone else thinks it is just gas! She tends to have a fussy period in the late afternoon and evening, but then when she does settle in for the night she'll sleep for stretches of up to four and half hours. Not too bad!

Having her nails done.

Another bath.

Walk with the grandparents.

Introducing Nina Belle

Our beautiful baby girl, Nina Belle, was born on Thursday, January 4 at 2:11pm at Stanford's Lucille Packard Children's Hospital. She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and measured 19.5 inches. Everyone is healthy and happy. We came home from the hospital today to rest and get to know each other!