These Feet Were Made for Walkin'

Over the last month or so, Keira has been making steady progress toward walking. First, she started pulling herself up onto the furniture and everything else within reach. Then, she started cruising along while holding on. She also has a walker toy and started out by walking with it while we held her up for extra support. Then, she suddenly took off on her own with the walker toy, dashing around the living room. After that, came standing up on her own. At first, she would pull herself up onto something and then let go, but this progressed into standing straight up from a sitting position on the floor. Then, a few days ago, she began taking her first steps! Of course, we try to entice her to walk to us, but she also stands up by herself and takes slow, deliberate steps while concentrating hard and balancing herself. This is an exciting time and soon we will have a toddler on our hands--yikes!!

Tearing around the house with her walker toy:

Big girl showing off her first steps!

Getting Ready for Summer!

A couple weeks ago it was pretty hot outside, so I took advantage and let Keira play outside in the water. She was a bit unsure at first, as the video below shows:

Hmm...this is interesting...

Hey, I could get in to this!

Sunny day!

After a few minutes, she got the hang of the water play and was having fun splashing around!

After getting cleaned up! Look how fluffy her hair is!

Other preparations for summer included getting Keira a pair of sunglasses. These have a strap around the back so she can't pull them off. Unfortunately, she HATES these sunglasses! She will cry her eyes out, tears and all, when we put them on her. Here, we are trying to entice her into being like Daddy since he is wearing his sunglasses too! She actually didn't cry this time!

Obviously, she is not too happy.



When the warm weather hit a couple weeks ago, we bought Keira a little kiddie pool for the backyard. But in true San Diego fashion, the weather turned chilly again and we hadn't been able to use the pool yet, until yesterday! I was so excited to air it up and give Keira the opportunity to play in the water to her heart's content! After airing up the pool, filling it with enough water, getting Keira's swimsuit on and lathering her up with sunscreen, we were ready!

Naturally, I had my camera ready to capture the moment, and, naturally, Keira was more focused on getting the camera than she was about exploring the swimming pool! Well, at least I snapped a few pics, like this cute one!

This look says, "Just hand over the camera!"


After playing in the pool for a few minutes, Keira wanted to get out and play with bubbles instead. Oh well! We'll try the pool again on another hot day! Here's some videos of her first romp in the pool!

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was low-key and simple, just the way I like it! The day started out with Noah making me breakfast--blueberry pancakes and sausage--yum! After church, I got to be pampered at the hair salon! I got a much-needed trim and I had my hair flat-ironed for the first time. Gone were all my frizzies and my just-enough-to-be-annoying waves. It was so fun to have perfectly straight and sleek hair for a day (since I don't own a flat-iron, nor do I have an hour+ each day to style my hair, I won't be duplicating this look any time soon!)!

During the afternoon, we hung out at home. Keira was in a happy and playful mood, so we had a lot of fun together. In the evening, we planned on picking up Chipotle and taking it to the park for a picnic, but the weather turned cold and windy. Instead, we just ate at Chipotle, not before stopping in at Petco to show Keira all the birds, fish, and turtles--she was giggling with glee at the animals, which, of course, made our hearts happy too! It was a lovely day with my wonderful family. :)

A kiss for Mother's Day

Motherhood = pure joy

Bath Time Shenanigans

I wouldn't say Keira LOVES the bath, but she likes it okay. When I'm filling up the tub, she stands at the side, happily tapping on the tub. But when I'm all done washing her off, she stands right up and is ready to get out. So, her baths last all of about 5 minutes. However, AFTER bath time is over, the party really begins...

As soon as I lay her down to dry off and get dressed, she immediately starts giggling and wildly kicking her legs

Then, Daddy peeks around the corner and starts singing the "naked baby" song and she goes even wilder!

Usually, she kicks her legs by hitting her heals against the floor, kind of like she's running. However, she recently started doing a new leg kick where she lifts her whole lower body off the ground and throws her legs up wildly. Can you see the air she's getting with those legs?!

Try putting a diaper on this wild girl!

P.S. She is now standing up by herself! Yay!

Earthquake & PQ Hike

Easter Sunday was a gorgeous, sunny day here in San Diego. We had the pleasure of going to La Jolla Cove for a BBQ. Below is a picture of the La Jolla coastline, the view from our BBQ spot. It's hard to tell from the picture, but we were sitting up on the grassy area, on top of the cliff. Why am I being so detailed in my description? Well, as we were sitting on the cliff, enjoying the view and each other, an earthquake began rattling underneath us! It didn't take long for us to realize what was going on, but our eyes grew wider as the quake continued on and on and on. Thankfully, the cliff did not fall off into the ocean and we enjoyed the rest of our BBQ amidst the beauty of La Jolla.

The grill master

Family

Paddle ball!

Jack found a friend!

Whoa, Jack!

Cousin Katie and her man, Alan

The next day we went on a hike in the Rancho Penasquitos Canyon

Aww...Wardrip siblings

Pretty

Reaching for the camera (of course!)

Catching Up!

Noah just reminded me that I needed to update the blog. This is a big deal because he rarely ever checks the blog in the first place. So, since he checked it and nothing new had been posted, that means I'm long overdue for an update.

Well, the last big event that happened since my last post was Easter. We enjoyed having Noah's family here while we introduced Keira to our favorite Easter traditions: coloring eggs, her first Easter basket, church, etc. I'll keep the dialogue to a minimum because there are lots of pictures to share!

Clearly, Keira got bored shortly after we started coloring eggs.
She began an impromptu game of peek-a-boo!

Still more peek-a-boo while Noah and I are seriously contemplating our egg

Playing footsie with Uncle Jonathan

She loves bubbles!

Always coming after the camera!

Easter morning: we finally found the basket after a long hunt!
Don't worry, the chocolate is for Mommy and Daddy!

Another hunt for Easter loot from Grandma Sheila

Our church has an Easter tradition of covering a wooden cross in chicken wire and then adorning it with flowers. Here's the fam waiting in line to put flowers on the cross.

Reaching way up to the top!

He is risen!

Happy Easter!

The Wardrips

Back at home, we had a little photo shoot with our cute Easter bunny!

Stay tuned for more updates...