K-911

We had a big scare this week with our dog Cooper. On Tuesday night, Cooper threw up, which normally is not a cause for alarm. This happened sometime in the middle of the night while we were asleep. When we woke up on Wednesday, he was acting strange and making a wimpery-wheezy noise. I didn't give it a second thought and left for work. Marty doesn't leave for work for a couple hours after I do, which turned out to be a lucky thing in this case. Cooper's breathing got progressively worse, so much that Marty wanted to take him to the vet.

After he dropped Brianne off, Marty took Cooper to our vet. They took one look at Cooper, and sent him straight to the veterinary emergency room. I didn't even know such things existed, but thankfully, there was a pet emergency room close by to our vet's office. Cooper was almost unconscious at this point, so when Marty walked through the door, they whisked Cooper back and put him on oxygen.

Long story short, Cooper had inhaled some of his vomit during the night, which severly injured his lungs. At the worst point, only 30% of his lungs were actually functioning, and they were filling with fluid. He spent 4 days in the pet hospital, confined to a little acrylic kennel with oxygen pumping into it, and an IV in his leg. Thanks to the hard work of the doctors, he pulled through it and we were able to bring him home Sunday, February 28. He shouldn't have any lasting effects. The only permanent change is that we will no longer be giving him raw hide bones to chew on, which we think was the reason he threw up in the first place (he ate almost an entire raw hide bone on Tuesday night before we went to bed).

Here is Cooper resting on a pillow, and Brianne giving him a welcome-home pat on the head.

Baby's First Parade

On February 27, Brianne was in her first parade! The Town of Davie hosts the annual Orange Blossom festival every year, and Marty and I have ridden in since he has been in office. This year had a really big turn out, so we were excited to show off our little cutie. Though we really would have liked to have Brianne ride in the parade with us, we decided that safety comes first, so she got to enjoy the parade from the side lines in her stroller with Grandma Mimi.

There were a bunch of neat things to see at the parade. Brianne got to see her first solar-powered vehicle, a lot of horses, a marching band, a donkey decorated with body glitter, a fire truck, a brigade of motorcycles, a mini-civil war re-enactment and the oldest person she has ever met, a very nice man that was 100 years old! And a partridge in a pear tree - just kidding. Brianne really enjoyed herself at the festival and meeting all her Davie neighbors!

Here is Brianne in her stroller taking everything in. She even wore a special hair bow for the occasion!

Here we are before the start of the parade. Even though she didn't ride with us, I couldn't resist getting a family picture before we started moving!

Brianne getting up close and personal with her very first horse. We do live in Davie after all, so a love of horses is almost a requirement.

Chomping at the Bit

It's official - Brianne has teeth! Two teeth to be precise. Her bottom-middle two teeth have come in. Not quite all the way, but you can see them easily now. Marty actually spotted them first a few weeks ago, but I didn't believe him.

Even though she has two teeth, she is still on pureed food. She cant really chew, but she could take your finger off given half the chance. Those little teeth are sharp! We're moving on to baby food that's slightly lumpy now to get her used to chewing. She is doing very well with it and will be chowing down like a grown up in no time.

If you look really close, you can see two little white dots in the center of her lower gums. Those are her little teeth-ies!

That's Edu-tainment

We still go to Mommy and Me classes at Nova University most Saturdays. As Brianne gets bigger, we enjoy our time in Mommy and Me in new and different ways. I feel like we have gotten a lot out of the classes, and each class we take is better than the last. I love learning new activities to do at home with Brianne, and have gotten a lot of great advice from the teachers and other moms.

Here is a peek inside our classes. We had just finished circle time and were exploring the free-play activities around the class room. If it looks like tons of fun, that's because it is!

Super Bowl Sunday in the Park

Super Bowl Sunday ended up being a gorgeous day to be outdoors. And it was the first Sunday of the month, so it was time to go back to the park for Sunday Jazz Brunch. We had some new additions to our picnic. Marty was able to break away from campaigning to join us, and my Grandma Marvelyn (my Dad's mom) came as well. We also had a flock of noisy green parrots and a ton of tourists/football fans thrown into the mix, which made for a fun day of people/bird watching. It was a lovely day as always, and we're look forward to doing it again!

Brianne and Granddad Steve sharing a smile.

Relaxing on our picnic blanket.

Brianne with Great-Grandma Marvelyn.

What a cutie!

Party like it's 1999

Recently we went up to Wellington to celebrate Brianne's friend, Abby Goldasich's second birthday. It's funny to me to think that when we attended Abby's first birthday party, I was still pregnant. Kids parties are so much more fun when you go with a little kid of your own! Abby's parents threw her a super fun party, with a bounce house and a surprise special guest - Dora the Explorer! While Brianne seemed excited to meet Dora, I think her favorite part of the day was exploring all the toys in Abby's play room and spending time with her friends, Abby, Abby's new baby sister Peyton, Bradley DiPaolo and Tyler Child. There were a lot of bigger kids there too, and it's hard to believe that pretty soon, she'll be screaming right along with them, playing and enjoying being a kid.

Here we are in the play room at Abby's birthday party.

Of all the cool things in there, I think she liked the red spinning top the most.

Look at all those babies! From left to right: Tiffany with Baby Tyler, Lauren with Birthday girl Abby and Baby Peyton, Alona with Baby Bradley, and me and Brianne.


Brianne with Dora the Explorer. She may not look it in this picture, but she is getting ready to burst with excitement at meeting Dora.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a LOVE-ly Baby's First Valentine's Day. We never go out to eat on Valentine's since everyone and their mother goes out to eat on this day, so we just made dinner in and enjoyed no lines, no waiting and excellent cuisine at Chez Kiar. We gave Brianne the ultimate Valentine's gift by getting her a card with extra sparkles on it. She played with her card for a good 30 minutes. It was a pain scrubbing all the glitter off her later, but it was fun to watch her having a great time with a piece of paper.

Here's Brianne with her special Valentine - Daddy!

Here is Brianne playing with her card.

And here's a little romantic tune from the Kiars to all you lovers out there - Happy Valentine's Day!

Seven Months Old

As of February 17, Brianne will be 7 months old. I can't believe how much has changed, even in the last month. We are enjoying every minute with Brianne, and celebrating the new little things she does every day.

She is doing great on her tummy, and is pushing up higher and higher on her hands. She isn't crawling yet, but I think as soon as she can coordinate her hand and leg motions, she will be off! She does this funny thing with her head where she shakes it from side to side, but ear to shoulder. She has mastered the "no" shake, and I think she is trying to move on to nodding, but she's only half way there. She is a lot more steady sitting up right, and can sit unassisted for 20 minutes or more. I am always sitting close by when she is sitting up in case she tips over. She can pass things, like a spoon or toy, from hand to hand (you didn't know this was a skill to be learned, did you).

Probably the most fun thing she is learning to do is clap and wave. As for waving, whenever we drop her off to Joan's house, Joan stands on her front porch with Brianne and waves her arm at us. Lately, when Joan takes her own hand away, Brianne's little arm is still sticking up. Not quite a wave, but we're getting there. The clapping thing is the newest trick. It started when she learned to bang two toys together. I gave her a little tin case, and she likes to bang the bottom and top together. Now she is starting to bang her hands together. She isn't making any noise yet, but the motion is there!

Brianne has developed ticklish spots. I discovered them during bath time, cleaning under her neck and under her arms. Not that these spots are unique or anything, but it was a surprise to me when she giggled one day during her bath when she never had in all her baths prior.

We had a doctor visit that was technically supposed to be her six month check up, but it ended up being closer to seven months. She weighed in at 16 lbs, 7 oz. and measured 26.5". I was concerned because based on length, she only grew a half inch, but the doctor said that length isn't the best indicator as it depends on how you stretch her when you measure her. Based on weight, she is right on track. She is in the 50th percentile for weight, and 75th percentile for height. Also, the doctor had to re-measure her head, because apparently her head is on the larger side. All normal, just big. We think her head size is just perfect!

Here is Brianne showing the doctor how she sits up.

The crinkly paper on the exam table provided lots of entertainment while we waited for the doctor.

The Last Few Cruise Pictures

I know I've already done a few posts about our cruise, but I had just a few more pictures that were too cute not to share.

Here is Brianne enjoying time wearing her first bathing suit and cover up - even though we didn't get to swim. See, you don't need to swim to have a great time!

Here we are getting ready for dinner. We dressed Brianne in her jammies and laid her in her stroller. Great little baby that she is, she slept right through dinner so we could enjoy our meal and fun conversation. Then we went back to the room, gave her a bottle, and she went right to bed.

We had a lot of fun collecting towel animals throughout our cruise. Here is Brianne showing the love to the towel swans.

Kiars at Sea

Our cruise went to two destinations - Cozumel and Belize. We've been to Cozumel before, but not Belize. It was pretty rainy on both port days, so we opted to stay onboard the ship. We managed to amuse ourselves pretty well...

We read books in the Solarium...

We broke the pool rules and dipped Brianne's toe in the water. Babies in diapers (even swimmy diapers) are not allowed in any pools due to health reasons. I didn't put her all the way in - I mostly just wanted to put her in a bathing suit!

This is as close as we got to Baby's First international country - Mexico. That's Cozumel in the back ground.

Here we are trying to play miniature golf. It was so windy that when we took Brianne out of the stroller for this picture, the stroller actually blew over. Staying up there seemed like a safety hazard, so we cut our game short. And I was beating Marty, so he didn't mind quitting early :o)

Eating on the ship presented some interesting challenges. Luckily, they have plenty of cloth napkins, so we fashioned a full body drape whenever we fed Brianne. Doesn't she look super cute in green?

Oceans of Fun

The next couple days during our cruise, we spent enjoying all the amenities on the ship. I haven't cruised for vacation in a few years, so it was exciting to sail and not have to run between meetings, set up special events, or wear pointy dress shoes. What was especially fun was experiencing all the different programs for families. Cruising with kids is a totally different experience than cruising with just adults, but Royal Caribbean does a great job with having a lot of options for family-friendly activities. Again, I can't stress enough how much better this cruise was because my mom was there. We still did a lot of activities that included the baby, however, we got to have a break every once in awhile.

Whenever we cruise, playing in the ping pong tournament is a MUST DO for Marty. Marty actually won the tournament during our cruise. Here he is posing with his paddle (yes, he brought it from home). He even let Brianne pose with his special medal.

Here we are strolling down the Royal Promenade, getting ready to enjoy some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Brianne has never had ice cream, but she was still ready to bang down the glass case to get some!

We did some P90X sessions in the onboard gym (in between their scheduled classes). The great thing about Brianne not being mobile yet is that we could lay her down on a yoga mat while we sweated off our midnight buffet.

Come Sail Away

The week of January 25th marked a huge milestone - Baby's First Cruise! Of course, we chose Royal Caribbean to for this special occasion. Though I'm afraid we have ruined her for all other cruises because Royal Caribbean is the best! Can you tell I'm biased?? Ok, that's it for my sales pitch (gotta do my employee duty).

We sailed on the Navigator of the Seas 5-Night Western Caribbean out of Miami. The Navigator is one of Royal Caribbean's larger ships, and has the city street down the middle (the Royal Promenade), which is one of my favorite places on the ship. We also paid a little extra to upgrade our stateroom to a family ocean view. It normally sleeps six, so it was plenty of room for the 3 of us and our mountain of stuff (think pack-N-play, stroller, and the 3 humongous suit cases).

But what really made the difference in the enjoyment of this vacation was that my mom came with us. I don't think this trip would have been nearly as fun and relaxing for us if we had to wrangle the baby all by ourselves.

Here we are on embarkation day (January 25). This is our family ocean view stateroom. You cant see from this angle, but there is a bunch of space over to the right, and a mini-bedroom by the door. All this space was definitely worth every penny! Even Marty was excited, can't you tell?


While Marty napped, my Mom, Brianne and I took a walk around the ship. I had Brianne in the Baby Bjorn, which made it a lot easier to get around. The age cut off to cruise is 6 months, so Brianne just made it! She was the youngest baby on the ship, so she was definitely a little star. Here we are leaving the Port of Miami. We danced Baby's First Macarena during the sail away party.

From South Carolina, With Love

Brianne had another fun-filled family visit with our Uncle Ron (my aunt Jeanie's husband). Uncle Ron was in town to escape the cold, enjoy some warm weather and golf. Also, he graciously volunteered to watch my mom's dog while we went on Baby's First Cruise, but more on that later. We had a great visit and I'm thinking we need to plan a road trip up to South Carolina sooner rather than later!

Here we are in front of our house. Uncle Ron looks ready to hit the links, but Brianne and I are a couple of hot messes in our jammies.