The Cook Family Adventure Blog

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Fiona is 10 months

Well - Fiona is 10 months old!!!! She continues to grow so much and develop into a young woman with very strong opinions. We are still under a "stay at home" order due to COVID-19, although things are slowly beginning to open up.

This month was a busy time across the country as the COVID pandemic is layered on top of Black Lives Matter protests and the beginning to summer. Throughout all of this, Fiona is a trooper and growing in leaps and bounds. Her social, physical and mental development continue to proceed quickly.

Fiona is easily pulling to stand now and cruising around. She is a FAST crawler and really has strong opinions about where to go, exploring around the house, finding things to break into and smash around. She's learned to climb the stairs by herself and lives going up - though hasn't actually gotten around to figuring out how to go down safely (she mostly just falls and then we catch her). We are VERY sure she is saying "HI" now when people come in and look at her and has figured out how to give high fives. The girl LOVES to eat and plows through her vegetables as well as increasingly eating the food that we are eating as a family. She loves to have her own bowl and spoon - just like the big kids!! She is a big smiler and LOVES to stand up and bounce around.

Fiona New Developments:

- standing up by herself

- crawling up stairs by herself

-clearly communicating what she wants, mostly by the tone of her scream though :(

-High fives

-The most adorable snorting pinched nose laugh

-Biting...not fun

Fiona Likes:

- pulling toys out of the play kitchen and smashing them around

- high fives

- smiles

- saying hi

- petting dogs

- giving mouthy kisses

- eating tasty "real food" of what the adults are eating

Fiona doesn't like

- Wes smooshing her

- Dad taking her away from mom

- eating baby food when better tasting "real food" is clear RIGHT THERE!! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!!!!!!

- dirty diapers

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Fiona is 9 months!

Fiona is now a big 9 month old girl and what a girl she is!! This month has been marked by explosions in gross motor skills and social skills. She is increasingly expressing a desire to be part of the the "big kid" fun and play with Elliot and Weston. This month also saw her learning to crawl and she is now off like a rocket whenever you put her down. She is a girl on a mission and is heading off where she wants to go.

She has also learned to stand this month and can balance holding on with just one hand! She clearly has a desire to advance because you can see her catching her balance, getting ready and then letting go with her hand to balance as long as she can without falling.

She is also the owner of two little teeth and a REALLY big gummy smile. She flashes smiles whenever people come home or near her and she is super happy about it! She is very good natured and mostly happy about most things most of the time. Her favorite game is "tear things out of the play kitchen" as she loves pulling out all the toy kitchen implements to taste each one in succession and then throw it on the ground!

She is getting better about communication, mostly grunts and screams for now but we are working on sign language and increasingly getting the sense that she is understanding what we are saying to her. She's not ready to follow direction just yet, but it definitely seems like she is listening, paying attending and even comprehending some of what is going on.

With the COVID pandemic, we haven't really gotten to go many places this month but we've been enjoying lots of family time in the house, out on walks, the backyard and the hot tub.

Fiona likes
-Playing with the big kids
-Putting everything in her mouth
-Pulling each puzzel and all there pieces off one by one
-Watermelon!

Fiona dislikes
-Being left alone
-Not being able to play with the big kids
-Diaper changes...she wants to be moving
-Feeding herself...the girl wants you to do the work for her

Fiona new developments
-Crawling
-Cruising
-Pulling to stand
-Being an all around big kids and making us baby proof the house
-Leg kicking tantrums if she is mad
-A huge gummy smile looking up at the sky
-Saying something similar to HI

Friday, May 1, 2020

Fiona is 8 months!

Well - Fiona is 8 months old!! It has been an interesting time as we mostly were at home under a statewide "stay at home" order in the setting of the COVID-19 Pandemic. This has really limited the amount of places we can go on adventures, but we have been making the best of it!

Fiona is growing in leaps and bounds. This month she grew not one, but TWO teeth and has been eating up a storm!! She loves zucchini, squash, yellow zucchini, black beans, broccoli, apples, pears, carrots, tiny bits of turkey burgers, eggs, cheese, avocado and milk! She is a HUGE fan of eating right now and loves to feed herself, although gets frustrated she cant get food into her mouth fast enough and so we have to spoon feed her in between handfuls of food she puts into her mouth....A growing girl!

She is also advancing in her gross motor skills and can pull to stand all by herself and is getting really good at rolling around and scooting backwards - although going forwards and/or crawling is still a bit of a work in progress. She is working hard on this and loves to move independently and increasingly wants to move by herself.

She is vocalizing more and babbles / coos / blows bubbles / screams / laughs all day long. Her favorite thing to do is watch her brother and sister do funny things and then giggle endlessly. She is also RIDICULOUSLY ticklish and can't help herself when you tickle her under the chin and buzz her bell.

She has been riding in the backpack more and more recently and loves to be up high and part of the team as we go on dog walks, putter around in the backyard, take the big kids on bike rides etc. She has really com into her own as an individual and is developing a personality that is independent, opinionated, funny and determined. We just love watching her grow!!

New skills this month:

- pulling to stand

- "walking" while holding onto two hands

- rolling all over the place and scooting backwards

- EATING!!!

- giggling and babbling up a storm

Fiona Loves

- EATING (everything)

- Rolling around

- Splashing in the bathtub

- Riding around in the backpack and seeing the world

- laughing at her siblings

Fiona Doesn't Like

- Feeling left out

- Being left behind

- Dogs licking her legs while she eats. Actually hard to tell if she loves this or hates this

- Having a poopy butt

Look at me...I am ready to crawl

Bubbles are her favorite past time right now!

Mom...really not so sure about this.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

2020 starting off a rough year. #socialdistancing

Well its the beginning of April, spring has spring, but 2020 is proving to be a rough year.

We started 2020 coming back form Christmas in Wisconsin with Mac and Crystal being sick with a flu like virus more than we have even been. This was then followed by a tonsillitis abscess and a broken toe for Crystal then another cold. The kids were sick multiple times and it was feeling like we couldn't catch a break.

End of January brought a breath of fresh air with a trip to Bend to enjoy the snow. Elliot really hit her stride skiing at Mt Bachelor and was able to ski the entire learner slope by herself! She took her first formal skiing lesson and is really making forward progress towards being able to ski by herself. Wes was on skis for the first time and, while he fell a lot, he LOVED IT!!! We got some quality time in at one of the snow parks for sledding and goofing around in the deep snow. It was a welcome break to being in town and a nice get away. As part of the process of getting down there, Wes got to spend his first day at ABC and he absolutely LOVED IT!!! He was so excited about going there and being with the big kids, there is actually a picture from his day at school where you can see his body vibrating with excitement. He will start 2 days a week at ABC in the fall and so this was a nice introduction for him.

Uncle Patrick came out for a visit and we were able to to go camping and get some quality screwing around time at home! It was great to see him out here in Oregon. Around about this time, Fiona began to turn into a smiley pumpikin! She is a VERY good natured little girl - smiling to say hi to people, giggling and laughing. While she did have some troubles sleeping at times, she transitioned into being a pretty good sleeper, all things considered. She loves looking at the camera and eating peoples noses!

We got to go to a birthday party at an indoor waterslide park for one of our friends kids and it was AMAZING! It was next to an airplane museum and the waterslide park had a 747 parked on the roof that you could climb into and have the slides come out of! Birthdays abounded as we celebrated Andrea's birthday at our house with a number of au pairs over, the kids LOVED IT! Andrea had fun too.

We continued our skiing adventures with a trip to Timberline and again the kids were LOVING skiing and Elliot can pretty much ski by herself now, while Wes just wants to go as fast as possible. Andrea was able to watch the kids for a bit while Crystal and Mac got in a few adult turns, not exactly shredding the sicky gnar pow - but at least something other than the Bruno lift for a bit.

Mid February we were able to take a weekend to the "Getaway" cabins in Washington up by Mt Adams for a break. A series of tiny home cabins between Hood River and Mt. Adamas, these were really off the grid - no cell service even. We went for a night with Boni and rented two of them - one for Mac, Crystal and Fiona and another for Boni, Wes and Elliot. We got to go on nature hikes, roast marshmellows and relax by a fire - letting grandma Weis and the kids enjoy themselves. Stops in Hood River before and after for playground time and visits to brewpubs really capped off the experience!

Grandma Cook also came out to visit during this time for a special treat visit for Elliot - a real ballet show!! Chris, Crystal and Elliot got to go see the Sleeping Beauty ballet and it was a VERY special treat for Elliot! A trip to the zoo, multiple walks, messy cheesecakes and lots of fun time with Grandma. Also, perhaps most shockingly, Grandma Cook didn't get sick!!!

Early March brought more and more news and uncertainty with the cases of Coronavirus expanding. Out much anticipated trip to Maine for spring break and the Elliot/Wes' plan to stay at Cooks Camp for the week needed to get canceled as well as a trip to Wisconsin for Easter. Our planned May trip to Belize is looking borderline, at best. Mac and Crystal got thrust into a head spinning world at work.

So many unknowns, limited data and science about how to properly treat patients. Unclear protocols that are changing day to day. Concern for bringing the home the virus to the kids and Andrea. Lack of PPE at work making it unclear the proper way to protect ourselves. Thoughts of if we are really a an asymptomatic carrier and were we putting the kids at risk. Shelter in place orders got put in place for Oregon and pretty much everything (school, swimming, gymnastics, violin lessons, music, OMSI, the children's museum, the zoo, restaurants etc) closed. Physical distancing and concern over the virus has kept us away from friends and family...although we do a lot of facetiming now. Keeping Elliot home from school, no real outlets for the kids other than walks and bike rides - and Elliot got a new bigger bike while while Wes is cruising on his scoot bike and will likely start a peddle bike this summer. Fiona is happily riding in the bike trailer and we eagerly await the arrival of our electric Bunch Bike.

The kids are generally doing ok with all the staying at home and we are trying to build routine and educational time into the days - reading, working on letters, building physcial skills etc. We are cooking a bunch, baking more than usual and just refinished the deck! There are great online resources for yoga classes and ballet classes and we are doing ZOOM violin lessons to try and keep up. Fiona is making huge steps forward on her mobility, rolling all over the place and can now pull to stand and really, really, really wants to move! She has her first tooth and is working on her second one.