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.