June 7, 2010

Greetings and happy late springtime to all! Lyell has been busy helping me with the spring cleaning. As you can see here he has developed a new organizational system for the junk mail recycling. Lyell's latest hobby of re-organizing all the household items has kept me on my toes, or more literally, on my hands and knees. Fortunately, we have finally finished our "porch containment system" which allows us to be outside and makes everyone happy.

It is hard to believe that Lyell will be turning one year old in just a few short weeks. I still feel like each day is a new adventure as Lyell's personality unfolds and he becomes more aware of the world. The past six weeks have brought several ups and downs, which I'm learning are just the cycles of parenthood. Just when you think everything is cruising along wonderfully, or when you are sure that it can't get much worse, something shifts.

This past weekend was a super high for me I completed my first Olympic distance triathlon! Unfortunately, at the same time Lyell experienced a low in his health with a wicked and relentless cold that earned him the nickname Mr. FussyPants for the weekend. Here are a few pictures...

Warming up for the start of the race in my snazzy wetsuit. The first leg was a 1.5 km open water swim. I was a tad nervous because I had only practiced once with my wetsuit and it didn't go too well (those of you who know Dawn Lake can imagine swimming it with a wetsuit.)

Awaiting the start of the race the announcer asked if this was anyone's first triathlon, I was one of the only ones to raise my hand...yikes.

The start of the swim, we are aiming for that white triangle waaaaaay out there, then we have to turn right and swim to another distant white triangle and finally back. It looked so far, but the swim actually turned out to be much less scary then it looked.

After the swim I peeled off my wetsuit and prepared for the 24 mile bike. The bike ride went well except that I forgot to drink water, so when I got back and changed for the 6 mile run I realized I was totally dehydrated. Also, the temperature in this lovely Central Valley location had climbed to above 90 degrees and the run section had no shade. So... what I though was going to be the easy part, as running is my sport, turned into a repeated mantra of "one foot in front of the other."

Matthew tried to take some video of the start and finish of the run. He was caught between cheering me on, being videographer and caring for Lyell...

I finished in 3 hours and 5 minutes! The most painful injury I sustained is pictured below. Next time I will take the 20 extra seconds needed to APPLY SUNSCREEN.

This picture sums up Lyell's opinion of the whole event. Poor guy, he had a runny nose, runny eyes, and teeth trying to pop through. He did enjoy swimming in the lake with daddy, making rock collections at our campsite, and playing endless peek-a-boo in his pack and play.

Earlier in May we spent a week with my sister and our parents in Hawaii. Here we are at Kona Brewing Co. for some Friday night fun.

Sisters and cousins at the beach.

Patty and Georgia practice holding their heads up on their bellies.

Lyell enjoys a tropical treat. He really got into the pineapple, so much so that we had to wrestle this one away from him before he ingested the pokey bits.

In the sand with his Buddha belly and luscious thigh rolls.

Lyell and Georgia had lots to talk about. However, their conversations were often abruptly ended when Lyell tried to explore Georgia's eyes or pull out her hair.

They seemed to do much better when they had they own sections in the stroller.

And the Van Kuran's busy schedule wore them out!

Grandpa said, "No problem, I can watch both of the babies for a while." That lasted less than 5 minutes before he called for reinforcements.

We took a trip around the marina on the St. Germain boat. Chip actually drove the boat up to the front door of their house to pick up the babies, which is a perk of living on the Hawaii Kai marina! We are looking forward to Georgia's first trip to Yosemite in September.

Back on the home front Lyell has started to interact more with his little friends. Mostly they just pat each other on the face and hair. But sometimes they do incredibly cute things together, like bang on a piano in unison, or pass a lego back and forth like it's a buried treasure.

Lyell's friend Tamzen is a very good teacher, and she helps him discover the wonders of places like dog kennels.

Spring also brings many festivals to our area, and one of our favorites is the Art and Wine Fair. Our friends sell this beautiful pottery there, and Lyell tries to behave himself amongst all the fancy items.

Here is how the garden looks in the late spring. The first two rows are garlic and the remaining rows have a cover crop growing.

Matthew and his students came to Mariposa to release butterflies for the annual Mariposa Butterfly Festival in the beginning of May.

Lyell and his fan club at and El Portal Elementary event.

Lyell bearing astonishingly close resemblance to the Pilsbury Dough Boy in this picture.

And of course there has been lots of time with Lyell's best friend, Nariz.

Lately Lyell has been practicing his tackling and wrestling skills with the world's most tolerant kitty.

Enough with the pictures already mom! It's time for my nap.

That's all for now from our little household. We are gearing up for a summer of travel and adventure... the north coast, the Kings River and South America are on the agenda. Yikes, what are we thinking?? Better get some sleep while we can.

Love to all,

Kim, Matthew and Lyell

Ten Months Old

It has been a wild spring here in the foothills, where one day the view from our porch looks like this...

And the next day it looks like this...

And Lyell has gone from his clean winter look...

To wild romps with the wonders of spring.

Spring means waterfalls and poison oak, and here we are on a hike to a waterfall pruning some poison oak off the trail.

Another day, another hike for Lyell in the National Park that is his backyard. That's Bridalveil Falls in the background (falling into Lyell's hat.)

Lyell still has plenty of time to play with Nariz, and above is our attempt to summarize their incredible relationship on the video screen.

Back on the home front, Lyell has decided to explore all the intricacies of our house. A few places he discovered before I discovered him were the shower and the pantry. I realize that I should start a business buying everyday household items, relabeling them as "Baby Toys" and selling them in fancy baby stores at twice the price :)

Lyell somehow figured out that if you blow raspberries with food in the mouth it makes the funniest mess. It is truly hilarious the first time, and then it becomes totally counterproductive to actually swallowing any food. As you can see our first "behavior modification" strategies to get Lyell to stop are working famously.

This is one of the first times that Lyell pulled himself up to standing. He is a bit surprised and then he couldn't stop singing to himself as he reveled in his new upright status. Unfortunately he couldn't figure out a way to get himself back down to the floor. Soon he got tired...and I took the next picture before helping him down (see the video at the end of the post.)

All of a sudden Lyell was pulling himself up on everything. These are the bars of the fence around our wood stove (not a miniature jail as it might appear :)

When I saw Lyell standing by himself for the first time the lump in my throat ballooned and my heart burst open. In that moment my baby grew up and I went through the first of what I image to be a life long process of letting go. He can stand up all by himself and needs me just a teensy bit less.

Nana and Grandpa VK came for a weekend in Yosemite, and we spent a day hiking and biking in the Valley. Lyell did not have one sad moment the whole day, which we attribute to the fact that he got to be outside with his favorite things: sticks, leaves and dirt.

One of Lyell's other favorite things is Grandpa's hat, which he gets to play with often. Grandpa has been Lyell's favorite babysitter for the past month (poopy diaper changes and all!) as I have been doing a little contract work.

We celebrated Easter with a gathering of family and friends in Palo Alto. Here is Lyell, Molly and Grandpa having playtime.

There were five of the "original Garland Drive gang" there for the event. We have all known each other since birth and grew up riding big wheels and playing kick the can together.

Lyell and I going out for a coffee in the big city.

Matthew's parents celebrated their 40th anniversary this month as well, and his siblings gave them this cake, which I think is just about the coolest thing ever!

Matthew embraced the long winter on a backcountry ski trip up to Tuolumne Meadows. He caught a break between two huge April storms and met up with a few friends at this hut.

Just last weekend we frolicked in the warm weather at Spring Fling in El Portal. A fabulous gathering of friends, food, music and even a 10k run in the morning. Many of Matthew's students were there and in the above picture he is sharing a little quiet conversation with one. I am constantly awed and guided by my husband's ability to connect with his students.

Lyell looking a leeeetle tired by late afternoon, but mommy still had so much socializing and dancing to do :)

Just this week our resident Harlequin Lupine's began to bloom.

I will leave you with one last little video clip of Lyell's first standing-up epic. Lyell does in fact leave his little play area in the corner where all the videos are shot, we just forget to bring the camera anywhere else.

The World Opens Up

Happy springtime to all from the flowering foothills where life is emerging from every corner of our world! This is by far my absolute favorite time of year and I can't wait to share it with Lyell.

Lyell is pushing 9 months old, and he has taken our house, and any other surface we plop him down on, by storm. He is fully mobile now and has developed his own way of crawling, which you can see on the videos at the end of this post. I am particularly impressed with his discovery of the "helicopter pivot" which he employs to change directions on a moments notice (again, refer to the video.)

It has taken me all of nine months to figure out how to post video to this site, but now that I am savvy get ready for some full length Lyell feature films coming up. I have yet to fully capture the full beauty of Lyell's special relationship to our kitty, Nariz.

I was inspired to post today after a glorious time playing at our local lake and playground. I have been taking Lyell to this playgroup since he was 3 weeks old and he slept the whole time! Now he can swing on the swings and slide down the slide (with a little help.)

Here are Lyell and Matiah on the swings with our lake in the background.

Lyell and Tamzen on the pine needles.

This is my personal favorite picture of Lyell sporting his first Giants hat.

Working on the "traditional" crawl maneuver.

Ready to play!

Like father, like son.

Lyell's "excito-saucer" (as Matthew calls it) where he gives his most expressive monologues to all his plastic friends.

Lyell gets all prepped for the next x-c ski adventure. Thank goodness for our Subaru, which is our home away from home. Lyell christened it with his first car-sickness gift last weekend.

Lyell on our family hike at Trabucco Ranch.

His hair has been sticking straight up and fuzzy for the past month.

Classic Lyell just waking up from his nap. Note the ski pajamas, our favorite.

These last few tiny pictures show us trying out the ski sled at Badger last weekend. We all loved it, although Matthew did "capsize" a few times while taking Lyell off piste in the powder.

The next day I ran a 5 mile race with my good friend Josie down in Hornitos. Triathlon training is going full speed, thanks to the weather, our Chariot with its various attachments, and most importantly the love and support of my incredible husband.

Finally we have a few videos of Lyell in action. His spirit lights up our lives everyday and we are so blessed and thankful to have him in our life. -Kim and Matthew