December 2005

December is one of the busiest months for a family, and we were no exception. Between the shopping, decorating, getting pictures, and making the rounds to four separate Christmas celebrations (with one left to go on New Year's Day), we feel ready to get back to normal... though don't get me wrong, we had a lot of fun along the way.

This past month I've noticed several emotional changes in Kyla. She has become more shy than she used to be with strangers and even people she knows, though this usually wears off within a few minutes and she becomes her more casual, vocal self. On an evening where we had a number of guests over for a book party, Kyla was playing with the stereo and it suddenly came on at an ear-splitting volume. We quickly turned it down, but Kyla was extremely embarrassed that she had caused the entire room to jump.

Recently she has begun counting to two, which I think means more to her as a sequence than a quantity. She can also identify most of the basic body parts, her favorite of which is the belly button.

As is tradition when a new year is about to begin, I found myself reflecting on the one that has come to pass and I am amazed by how much has changed in our little family. Kyla has transformed from an immobile baby to an energetic toddler. This summer just as a delicate feeling of normalcy began to settle on our lives, we decided to upend it with the whole home buying and selling process that took far more blood, sweat, and tears than we anticipated. All in all, 2005 was a transitional year for our family and I expect fewer adjustments in 2006... though I could be wrong.

Holiday Message 2005

2005 was the first full year that our family was a threesome, and it was quite an adventure.

Kyla has gone from a cooing little baby into a rambunctious toddler. She started walking in the summer and has mustered quite a vocabulary. She's constantly picking up new words, even ones we'd rather she didn't repeat. Her favorite hobbies are reading ( i.e. being read to) and climbing up on whatever her parents will find most terrifying once they discover her.

Becky has been very busy doing the full-time Mommy thing, bouncing from play group to toddler class to exercise class, etc. Kyla still doesn't sleep through the night, so Becky actually managed to find herself in a job that requires more hours than a public accounting firm during busy season.

Brett has been working at RAF Technology, a small software development company in Redmond. Most mornings he gets up with Kyla and gets her and himself ready while Becky gets an hour or so of extra sleep. He loves taking Kyla to the park and to swim class with his cousin Tom and Tom's daughter Rylee.

The biggest event of the year for us was our move to a house in the Issaquah Highlands. The buying and selling process took four months and turned into a nightmare, but in the end we found ourselves with a nice home in a terrific neighborhood.

We are growing into our new place very slowly since our condo was quite a bit smaller. For the first two months our Family Room was occupied only with the television and a blow up mattress... that leaked. The extra space has been relished by Kyla who loves to play in the back yard and in the bonus room, which is full of her toys.

We hope that this message finds you having a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous new year.

Sincerely,
Brett, Becky, and Kyla

November 2005

When she's in a cooperative mood, Kyla will attempt to say just about any one or two syllable word, with various levels of success. During the Apple Cup we taught her to say "purple" for the Huskies and "Wazzu" for the Cougs. The first time she said "I love you" wasn't to Becky or I; instead she was reciprocating to Baby Tad, a speaking toy.

Reading has become one of her favorite activities. She grabs a book, hands it to me, and then plops down in my lap. She will say the names of the items she can identify to me and points to those she can't for me to name for her.

Kyla has also become more active physically. She enjoys jumping and climbing more and more. One evening while Becky and I were sitting in the family room chatting, Becky's face suddenly went white and I turned to see Kyla standing on the kitchen table, very proud of herself. If this is the level of panic she brings at 15 months, I am very concerned about what the future has in store for us.

Even her musical side is showing through. When she likes a particular tune, Kyla starts bouncing and waving her hands to the beat. She can sing a few songs, such as "Row Row Row Your Boat." Actually she only actually sings the "row row row" part, but it's still very cute.
Thanksgiving was again an immensely busy weekend, putting in time at four different gatherings and consuming a prodigious amounts of food. We even had one festivity at our new house, and it was cool to exploit our added space.

With the real estate fiasco finally over and our daughter's adventurous spirit shining through, Becky and I have much to be thankful for this holiday season.

The Real Estate Ride Is Over

After three long months of being in the real estate market, we're finally out of it. When we started this whole process, someone told me that buying a new house was about as much stress as a death in the family. At the time I thought he was grossly exaggerating, now I'm not so sure.

If everything would have gone smoothly, we would have gotten away with a moderate amount of anxiety. Instead, the day before we were supposed to close both the sale of our condo and the purchase of our new house we found out that our buyer was having difficulty with their lender because our condo's home owners association was suing the complex's builder. The original basis of the litigation was mold that was discovered in a few other units and had nothing to do with our condo, but that didn't matter to the bank.

Soon the whole deal fell apart. Our buyers were still interested so we extended both the sale and purchase for a couple of weeks while they found another lender. Fortunately the people we were buying from were very patient and understanding. Then we found out that the buyer had a rocky credit history, and their mortgage broker (who was also our mortgage broker) had to fight an uphill battle to find a bank that would approve a loan on a unit involved in litigation and with a sub-par borrower.

Things were looking bad, so Becky and I had to decide whether or not we'd allow ourselves to loose the house if our sale didn't work out. We calculated that if we were to carry both properties while the condo was for sale, our cash flow would go negative by over $2,000 a month. We could handle this for a while, but obviously it wouldn't be sustainable.

Becky is generally more conservative when it comes to our finances, and didn't think the house was worth the risk. I was sure that we had gotten a good deal on the house, and by this time my heart was set on it and I had a hard time letting it go. It was a great house in a wonderful neighborhood and there weren't any others we liked nearly as much. After several heated conversations and a bit of soul-searching, we decided to take the risk.

Finally when the broker was able to get the loan approved, our buyers decided that they had had enough and cancelled the whole deal. This was a real blow to us, but we bought the house as planned and moved in thinking that this would bring us the closure we were looking for. Unfortunately I couldn't really let go of the fact that we still needed to sell the condo. I had trouble sleeping at night as I worried that my enthusiasm had put my young family on the road to bankruptcy.

After three weeks, we got two offers on the condo, and we accepted one. I was on pins and needles wondering if the lawsuit was going to burn us again, but apparently it wasn't an obstacle for a buyer with decent credit.

Now here I am, after a quarter of a year of riding the real estate roller coaster, I can finally enjoy my new home knowing that I haven't failed my family. I am starting to believe that because this endeavor was such a struggle, in the long run I am better off for having experienced it, but I sure as hell hope I never go through it again.

We Moved!

We moved! Finally!

After many trials and tribulations, we have moved into our new house. Technically we moved into it a few days before it was ours due to the kindness of the family we bought it from. It has taken us a few weeks to get situated, but we've now unpacked all of the boxes and gotten reasonably settled in.

The house is roughly twice the size of our old place, and this is evidenced by the absence of furniture in the Family Room and a couple of the bedrooms. We are looking for some new furniture, but it will take time due to the enormity of our new mortgage payment.

Thanks to some help from our fathers, the yard has been whipped into decent shape. Becky has arranged the kitchen just the way she likes it (I still can't seem to find anything). Kyla also has a new kitchen that Grandma Linda bought her that resides in the real kitchen so she won't feel left out when Mommy cooks. I spent a day in the garage hanging up tools and getting it just the way I like it, which I thoroughly enjoyed (insert manly grunt here). The Bonus Room has been filled with Kyla's toys and I installed a gate at the top of the stairs so she can wonder the whole second floor without us having to worry.

We've stored our old baby equipment that Kyla no longer uses, or never used as in the case of the crib, for potential future use by an as yet non-existent younger sibling, who may join us in a couple of years. The room was already blue, so if the next child (we refer to it as "Baby-X") is a boy, it would save us some painting.

Overall we are thrilled to be in this new house. It's in a great neighborhood, has lots of room, and fits our family very well. I think we'll be very happy here, which is good because I don't intend to deal with real estate, mortgages, and moving again for a very, very long time.

October 2005

Kyla's vocabulary has grown considerably this month. She now says "all done" when she's finished eating, "up" when she wants to be carried, "uh oh" when she drops something (even when it's intentional), and many more. Her favorite word seems to be "no," which is her reply to just about any question.

She not only communicates with people, but animals as well. Whenever our neighbor's dog barks, she responds with "ruff ruff!"

We bought Kyla a little toilet which sits in our bathroom. This month she actually peed in it... right after she peed on the bathroom floor. We try to encourage her to sit on her toilet once in a while, though we don't pressure her because she's still pretty young to be potty-trained.

For Halloween Kyla was a bumble-bee. That afternoon we met Kyla's play group at Gilman Village for trick-or-treating. In the evening the Lasserres came over so our kids could solicit candy around our house, which was a good way to meet some of our new neighbors.

September 2005

Kyla continues to grow, and so does her vocabulary. She now says her own name, but pronounces it "Dy-da." She clearly understands the meaning of much of what she's saying. When we ask her to clap without moving our own hands, she complies. Occasionally she'll even kiss me upon request.

Whenever we ask her to get a book, she returns with Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. This is a reminder to us that young children have a much higher tolerance for repetition than adults do. This is just the first of a number of stories she's going to want to hear ad nauseam, though I shouldn't be surprised since I've lost count how many times her mother has seen Pretty Woman.

We've been trying to communicate with her using signs since she was six months old, and she's picked several of them up. Whenever she wants to nurse, she holds out her hand and squeezes it; whenever she wants to eat or drink, she plays with her lips; and when she is done eating, she waves her hands around. This makes all of our lives easier since Kyla gets her needs met faster, and we don't have to interpret her whining.

Kyla's second year has begun, "dum diddy dum diddy dum dum dum."

New House

On a Saturday in late July, I mentioned to Becky somewhat out of the blue that we should start thinking about moving in about a year. Kyla loves to play outside, even if it's just out on our little deck, so it seemed like it was time to get a yard. Until recently I have been spoiled by the zero-maintenance required by condo living.

The next day Becky went to Stroller Strides in the Issaquah Highlands and was immediately convinced that we needed to live there. The Highlands is a massive housing development on the southern edge of the Sammamish Plateau. There are thousands of houses and condos there with a retail area, Park and Ride, and elementary school under construction.

The following weekend, Becky had zeroed in on a home that she dubbed her "dream house." The price tag was a little staggering, but according to the banks we could afford it... barely.

By this time Becky's house-fever had rubbed off on me, so we put our condo on the market. By the time we got a buyer, the dream house had sold, but we found one just like it on the same street, but with more extras.

We should move in by the end of the month, and we couldn't be more excited. This place is much larger than our condo with a small but still reasonably sized back yard, a bonus room for all of Kyla's new toys from her birthday, and a bedroom for "Baby-X," which is my name for our second child whom we plan on having some day down the road.

Kyla's 1st Birthday Party

Kyla's party was on Saturday, September 10^th. We originally planned on having it at Pine Lake Park, but it was raining hard that morning so we changed the venue to Grandpa Doug's. This actually worked out well because we turned his basement into a play area and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

We had over 50 guests including family, friends, and Kyla's little buddies. She received some nice clothes and cool toys, which we barely have room for. As usual, Kyla reveled in being the center of attention. I used iMovie to create a slideshow of Kyla's first year with some video cut in that I screened for everyone.

Throwing a birthday party for a one-year-old was quite a bit more work than I had anticipated. Fortunately we had a lot of help, especially from Doug, Barb, and Linda.

August 2005

Kyla has made a full trip around the sun! On one hand, I can't believe that it was an entire year ago that she was born. On the other, Kyla has become such an essential and indelible part of my life, I'm starting to forget what life was like without her.

Walking continues to make life more interesting. She zips back and forth from place to place making protecting her more difficult, as well as protecting things from her. Falling down is a common occurrence, but Kyla bounces back quickly and never shows fear.

She becomes more and more entertaining everyday. Recently she has begun clapping and giving high-fives. At the park she loves going down the big slides, though it really freaks Becky out... which is half the fun for me.

On her birthday I took the day off and spent it doing a lot of what Becky does on a normal weekday. We worked out at Stroller Strides, played with Kyla's buddies at an indoor playground, and did some shopping at Babies 'R' Us with Kirsten and Rylee. Her party will be on September 10th.

One of Becky's friends asked if we were sad that Kyla was no longer really a baby. I can honestly say no because a toddler is far more fun to play with than a baby, and a little less work. Every day she does something new, so why dwell on the past?

I Give Up

Something had to give. When I originally started working on the website, Hovenkotter.net, it was a lot of fun building it and hosting it myself. After a while, it became a major pain in the butt and you may have noticed some serious lag time between updates.

First of all, resizing all of the images took quite a bit of time, though this was improved once I started using Photoshop batch operations. Both the photo album organizer and the blog required me to write a fair amount of XML by hand. I thought of ways I could automate some of the mundane activies, but it would require some up front work, and I wasn't all that motivated.

Then someone introduced me to Flickr (the 'e' is left out intentionally) and I immediately thought, "what am I doing spending all of this time maintaining my own site when I could use something that is obviously far superior to anything I could develop." Now it is really easy to upload pictures as soon as I pull them from my camera, so I plan on updating my Flickr site several times a month.

If I'm going to let another service do the heavy lifting for my pictures, then it made sense to offload the blog to a third-party service as well, which is where you are now. Blogger is a service owned by Google, and again is much better than anything I could come up within a reasonable timeframe. You'll notice that all of the pictures incorporated with this blog link to Flickr.

I have to admit that it is a tiny infliction to my ego that my once glorious (at least I though so) website is now being pulled apart into third-party services, but this will allow me to spend more time with Becky and Kyla... and maybe on some other hobbies as well ;)

July 2005

This has been by far the hardest month on my back. Kyla loves walking, and demanded that someone assist her by holding her hands while she wondered. Bending over to assist someone who is two feet tall to walk is very punishing to the back of someone who is 6' 3".

Gradually Kyla became comfortable only holding one had for balance, and finally, she decided that she was ready to walk all on her own. This development has truly made life easier since Kyla enjoys her additional autonomy, which allows us to get a little more done while she is awake.

Her vocabulary continues to expand and she now strings two words together (e.g. "Hi Daddy"). Kyla is extremely outgoing and says "Hi" to just about anyone. In crowded rooms she has a knack of attaching herself to whomever is the center of attention... or she just tries to draw everyone's attention to her by squealing.

Kyla found out just how far her extended family extends when we attended the Huck (my Grandma Marian's family) reunion. It'll be a long time before she can count the number of first cousins three times removed were there. On the 4th we went to the zoo at Point Defiance with Linda. Afterwards we watched my Uncle Tom's small fireworks show at the Chambers' Lake House, which scared Kyla a bit at first, but she soon decided she enjoyed the loud noise and bright colors. We also took a trip to Chelan with my mother's family where we got some sun and swam in the lake.

So far it's been a fun summer, but when do we get to relax?

June 2005

Kyla has joined the ranks of the bipeds.

If she is properly motivated, Kyla will take a few steps unassisted. Sometimes she reaches her destination unassisted, though we often have to catch her before she falls. I see a lot of bumps and bruises in the near future. Occasionally she becomes very brave and walks after something interesting without an anyone to help her.

Kyla also has learned to wave and even says "hi" as she does so. Becky and I have learned that if she is suffering separation anxiety when one of us attempts to leave, she will less distraught if we first acknowledge her and wave as we go.

My little girl is starting to transition from a baby to a toddler. Every journey begins with a first step.

May 2005

"Dada." At first I couldn't believe it. I still don't know if Kyla knows it's me she's referring to, but those two syllables still had a profound effect on me when I first heard them.

In all fairness, she said "Mama" first, though I wasn't there to witness it. There have been times when we were sure she was referring to us, but she also says "Mama" and "Dada" when she isn't looking at either of us. We delight in hearing our "names" so much, that I don't think Becky and I really care what Kyla's inducement is for saying them.

Linda spotted her first little tooth protruding from her lower gum. This is after six months of teething; perhaps we misdiagnosed some of her earlier crankiness. It's still hard to spot, but she'll have a mouth full of sharp little teeth soon. It's times like this that I am really glad I'm not the one who has to breastfeed her.

Becky, Kyla, and Grandma Linda went to Las Vegas to see Kyla's Great Grandma Ruby. This was Kyla's first adventure on an airplane and the flight went pretty well, however both she and Becky became ill while they were there. Becky had a headache severe enough for them to visit an emergency room. Fortunately some antibiotics got her feeling better.

Now I hope we can look forward to a warm summer.

April 2005

Life has taken a dramatic turn in the past month. Kyla has learned to crawl and our household will never be the same.

It began with her taking only a couple of strides, but within a few days she was everywhere and getting into everything. Becky and I acted quickly to baby-proof the living room and our bedroom, but it is an evolving process as she learns to defeat our obstacles one by one. She's also learned to pull herself up to a standing position, which brings many other enticing items into her range.

There were many who told us that crawling was not a positive development, but I've really enjoyed it. It's more fun to play with Kyla now that she is mobile, and she is more apt to entertain herself than before.

Kyla now has several solid food meals a day, and has learned the pincher grab (gripping with your thumb and index finger) to pick up her food piece by piece. Apparently those small jars of traditional baby food are no better for infants than normal food, so she generally eats small samples of whatever we're eating, minus a large list of no-nos. So far her only fauna has been chicken, which covers the taste of about 80% of all meat, right?

Our lives keep on moving, and now they will move a little faster.

March 2005

Though she isn’t truly mobile yet, Kyla has become much more active this month. As a result she’s much more fun to play with, but much more difficult to manage.

She generally resists having her diaper changed now, constantly rolling over, flailing about, and trying to grab hold of anything close by. It is often easier to dress her while she is standing up because she simply refuses to remain still lying down.

Kyla continues to become more mobile, and has managed to start scooting herself backwards a bit. She can also push herself up into a sitting position. My cousin Jolie gave us an upright mobile walker that Kyla uses to practice bipedaling, though she still lacks the balance to push it around on her own.

The solid food diet has increased in both variety and quantity. She eats her own version of dinner with us every night; her current favorites are avocado and puffed millet. I will omit the details of how this has affected the consistency of her dirty diapers.

Every week Becky and Kyla now attend swim class, which Kyla relishes. She’s learning to paddle, grab onto the side of the pool, dunk under water, and splash like hell. She is so lively in the pool that she usually takes a long nap afterwards.

Becky and I are eagerly awaiting Kyla’s first venture into crawling, though everyone tells us it’s as much a curse as it is a blessing. Perhaps we should be careful what we wish for…

February 2005

Kyla has now been a part of the outside world for half of a year! Reaching these little milestones feels very satisfying to new parents because keeping a human being alive and healthy who is completely dependent on you for all of her needs is a significant accomplishment.

Kyla becomes more and more mobile every day. She easily rolls herself in both directions and can rotate herself around on her belly. She’s obviously thinking about crawling when you place something interesting in front of her and she kicks her feet and grabs at the floor with her hands, but she still hasn’t figured out how to lift herself off of her tummy yet. She has also begun eating solid food. So far she really likes mango and sweet potatoes, which my mother tells me is the only thing I would eat when I was about her age, so much so that I started turning orange.

We have become a very active family basically out of necessity. At home, it doesn’t take long for Kyla to get bored and fussy, so we’ve been taking trips to the aquarium, the park (thanks to an early Spring), and the mall. Half the time however, she falls asleep halfway to our destination and we just end up driving around for an hour. It doesn’t take long for new parents to discover that waking a baby in the middle of a nap is perilous.

Becky has finally come to accept that she would rather be a stay-at-home mother while Kyla is still really young, and put her career on hold accept for telecommuting work. This was not an easy decision for someone as ambitious as she is (she was just promoted to a manager before taking maternity leave); we just believe that this is the best decision for our family for the time being.

On to the next six months…

January 2005

Another month has gone by, where do I begin?

Kyla is no longer content to just lie back and coo at us. She now wants to be active and entertained. Thank goodness for swings and exersaucers, each of which will buy us a five-minute break until she’s ready to move on to the next activity. Kyla also likes to get out of the house, and Becky is very accommodating taking trips to Stroller Strides, baby classes, Skate King, the Tuesday mommy-baby movie, and various social activities with other new mommies and babies.

When held up, she can walk herself forward, though she obviously lacks the balance to walk independently anytime soon. If Zoe is in the room, Kyla will walk herself in the cat’s direction. Up until now Zoe hasn’t paid much attention to Kyla, though I think once Kyla figures out crawling they’ll be playing cat and mouse quite a bit, with Zoe as the mouse. Kyla can also sit up on her own… for about five seconds until she falls over.

Laughter is no longer that rare, and she’s even starting to get ticklish. She is still just as fond of baths as ever, in part because she loves being naked. Kyla has also discovered her feet and enjoys sucking on her toes, though she’ll have to give that up eventually unless she becomes a fan of Yoga.