Today Kaija turned 14 months old. Quite a bit has changed since the last update. I forgot to mention then that she no longer tolerates baby food. She’ll let us feed her apple sauce or yogurt, but she’s in control of putting everything else in her mouth.She used to like Cheerios, but since about the beginning of the year they’re so yesterday. She loves to eat a slice of plain bread or toast in the morning. She’s also become fond of Rice Chex. Other foods she likes: ground red meat (beef, gyros meat), pasta, peaches, pears, peas, dried cranberries, and anything that comes out of the crock pot. We have to be careful about the order in which we put things in plain view, though. If she sees us pull out the cranberries to sprinkle over our salads, she’ll stop eating her vegetables until she gets some.She still likes to sway back and forth when she hears music on the radio. About a month ago she added the Flashdance running-in-place routine to her repetoir, though she doesn’t seem to do that much anymore.She hasn’t really learned any more Baby Signs except for one that she uses constantly… No! Ever since we started shaking our heads when she threw her food on the ground or walked over to an electrical outlet and put her finger near it, she’s become very familiar with the motion. And she quickly picked up on the notion. She shakes her head when we ask her to hand over something that she’s not suppose to have or when we ask her if she’s ready to go down for a nap.Though she understands quite a bit of what we say, she really hasn’t expanded her vocabulary much. However, she does say “doh” when she shakes her head, and will say “dah” and “woof” when she sees a dog. She’ll also say “dat” and point to an object. We can only assume she’s asking “What’s that?” so we try to figure out what it is and repeat its name a few times.It’s pretty apparent than at this point Kaija has left the “baby” stage behind and is very much a “little kid” now.

Whoo hoo! My 5 lbs. of dried organic mango slices just arrived. I became hooked on them two years ago when my Aunt Brenda received said quantity from a friend who runs a mail-order business. She shared them with Jennifer and I while we were staying at her place over the holidays. Though they are a little expensive, they are a much healthier snack than potato chips/cookies/chocolate/etc.When I discovered that the Whole Foods in San Francisco carried them in their bulk section, I new I was in trouble. Every time I walked past the store during my morning and evening commutes I had to restrain myself from going in because there was no way I was going to leave without at least a pound of them.I was severely disappointed when I found that the Whole Foods near our house in Michigan does not carry the dried mango slices. Occasionally they will carry dried mango chunks which aren’t nearly as good. They don’t have nearly the flavor of the mango slices, so they are often coated with sugar to compensate.Thank goodness for the Internet. After a particularly strong hankering for the orange goodness, I came across an online shop that sells them called SunRidge Farms in Santa Cruz, CA. The mangos they sell are a little more expensive than the mangos that I had been buying from Whole Foods, considering I also needed to pay for shipping. But I just ripped open the bag and they actually taste quite a bit better. They have a bit more flavor and aren’t as dry or as tough, probably because they have not been sitting in a bulk bin in a forced-air building for several days.Now, I’m not usually one to fall for bribes, but if anytime in the future you want to sway me one way or another, dried mango slices would be a good place to start. 😉

The interesting times never stop here at Casa Windeler.Our house is at the end of a T intersection within our neighborhood. When we first looked at this house, I remember wondering if the owners had had any problems with cars failing to stop at the intersection and driving onto the lawn. I never asked them if they had, but I don’t have to wonder any longer. Two nights ago we received a few inches of snow. At about 11 am yesterday I opened up our front door to retreive a package that the UPS delivery person left on the front porch and noticed a dark patch in the ditch at the front of the property. Looking a little closer, I noticed a set of tire tracks in the snow that ran along the front of the yard to our driveway. Apparently as a reflection of the old fogie that I seem to be becoming, my first thought was “Great, we’ve got some $*#% teenagers going for joy rides across our front lawn.” Then I realized that the roads were probably pretty slick and that somebody had slid off the road into the ditch. They weren’t able to back out, so they drove forward and then to our driveway. I wonder how many more times that will happen this year.Last night we received a few inches more of snow. I was up late doing some work, so I woke up a little later than usual. I had just finished eating breakfast and started doing the dishes at the kitchen sink when I heard a rumbling sound from our driveway. I looked up from the sink and out the window only to see a visible stretch of black pavement. I hadn’t gotten around to shoveling yet, so the driveway should still have been covered with a decent blanket of snow. I commented to Jennifer about this, and we walked over to the window that faced the rest of our driveway. There, in a beat up old red Ford truck with an equally beat up yellow plow attached to the front of it, were two guys plowing away like there was no tomorrow. In less than 10 minutes the driveway was cleared and they were off. When they pulled out of the driveway they didn’t even stop at any of the neighbors. We don’t pay for a plowing service. We didn’t recognize them. They didn’t leave a service brochure or anything. We don’t know if they were friends of the previous owners who don’t know that they’ve moved or what. We’re guessing that maybe they were friends of the people who slid into our yard the previous morning and they’re doing it as a “Let us make it up to you” gesture. Regardless, Thank You Mysterious Plow People! You saved us a lot of work. Perhaps you could stop by the next time we get a few inches of snow?

It’s been a while, so I figured I’d give an update to what’s new with Kaija. What kind of parent would I be if I didn’t talk about my kid?At 12 1/2 months old, she now has 12 teeth. Her molars have started poking through, which of course meant a number of nights of restless sleeping and drooling non-stop during the day.A few weeks ago she started kissing us back. Sometimes she would just walk up to us while playing and kiss us. Occasionally when we would ask her for a kiss, she would give one (or more!) to us.She has started to learn a number of baby signs, though she probably has a slightly different meanings for them. She learned “more” quickly, though she uses it more like “I’m hungry” or “Feed me”, as she’ll do the sign without having had anything to eat yet. She also learned “hat”, though we think she might think it means “I’m sleepy” because it’s one of the signs we go through while flipping through the Word Signs book before going to sleep. Most recently, she’s learned “milk” for when she wants Jennifer to breast feed her. She will also wave when people are leaving and stretch her hands out with her palms up when she doesn’t know where something went.She still likes going for walks with us, though getting her dressed up for the cold can be frustrating. She doesn’t like to wear hats or mittens and will try to take them off while indoors. Once we get outside, though, she’s fairly good about leaving them on.Overall, I think she’s adjusting to Michigan life pretty well. She definitely likes all of the space in our new house to run around in. And she loves that her grandparents live so close now. She gets a big smile on her face and reaches out to be held when one of them walks in the door.

This morning, as I was reluctantly coming to terms with the fact that I needed to wake up, Jennifer shouted over to me from the window by our master bathroom. “Brahm! There’s a deer in our back yard!” Now the previous owners of our house said they saw deer quite frequently, but I had yet to see any in the month or so since we moved in. Jennifer saw one a few weeks back in our back yard as she was driving into our driveway but it ran off as she approached our garage. This deer was scavenging in the ground cover that runs between our back yard and our neighbor’s back yard. It wasn’t there long before finding some shelter under a nearby pine tree. As it walked it had a slight limp, as if its left rear leg was sprained.Later today, as I was coming home from the office and driving into the driveway, I was startled to see another deer to the right of the driveway near the back of our property. It stood and turned its head momentarily, then turned back and fled to the back of the neighbor’s yard.So after not seeing any deer at all for a month, I saw two in one day. It’s nice to know that the suburban sprawl hasn’t totally displaced the wildlife in our area.

As a baby shower gift when Kaija was born, we received a one-year membership for the Picture People. This gave us a few free prints and sittings for the year, so we decided to get some professional photographs of Kaija taken at 4 month intervals. Her 4- and 8-month photos turned out pretty well, but we left California before she turned 1 year old. There are no Picture People studios in Michigan. :(Jennifer found a coupon for a $5 photo package at the Olan Mills studio at the nearby K-Mart, so she took Kaija in last week. When we went to pick up the photos today, we found out that one of Kaija’s photos had been choosen to be used for that store’s Kid of the Week photo sometime in the coming weeks. I’m not sure how many photos of kids they take per week, but I have to say that’s pretty darn cool!

This morning we went to Jennifer’s parents place to celebrate Thanksgiving with her side of the family. The moment we set Kaija down she walked directly to the place where Grandma keeps the baskets of toys. How quickly they learn!

I let Kaija “help” me do some work today, though I’m not sure if I’m going to let her do it again for a while. I’ve learned my lesson.Sitting on my knee at the table, I let her pound away on the keys to my laptop after saving my work and quitting all of the active applications. Inevitably a window would pop up here and there, which I would promptly close. Based on past experience, I figured the worst she could do was rename something on the desktop. Jennifer and I have deduced that that’s how the hard drive on my PowerBook formerly known as “Macintosh HD” became known as “dghf”.But of course, I’m a software guy, so that’s all I had really considered. Kaija had other plans. She was more interested in the hardware. As she raked her hands across the keys, she managed to rip the right Shift key off of the laptop keyboard. I was loathe to discover that repairing it was no simple matter. It wasn’t just a cap that I could pop back on. There were several small moving parts under that key that weren’t easy to put back into place. About twenty minutes later after Jennifer and I had both put a lot of blood and sweat into it (okay, no blood), I was finally able to get it back to its pre-Kaija encounter state.I guess I’ll need to pull out the old PC keyboard in the closet to let her practice before our next work session.

Well, I’d say it’s official. At 8 1/2 months old, Kaija is walking. She has taken about 20 steps at a time without holding onto anything. When she wants to get from Point A to Point B, the distance is quickly becoming less of a factor in deciding to walk or crawl. She’s focusing less on each step and more on her destination.We’re doomed.

What better way to spend a day off from work than cleaning up our back porch! I spent a few hours sweeping up dirt and tree debris, removing cob webs, and wiping down various pieces of furniture. My greatest joy came in “fixing” our gas grill. The left burner stopped working well about a year ago. When I noticed the problem, I found that one of the clips that holds the gas distributer to the gas line had gone missing. Looking around, it was no where to be found. I improvised with a short segment of piano wire, but still could not get it to work well. The flames were paltry and inconsistent at best. I tried on a number of occasions to use the grill for various meaty consumables with lousy results. Disheartened and figuring I’d need to mail order the missing clip part, the grill has gone virtually unused for many months due to procrastination.Well, during the cleaning spree, I wiped the thick layer of dirt and dust that had accumulated on it. While doing so, I decided to start disassembling the grill. I removed the gas distributor only to find a small but fairly dense spider web in the left gas duct. A quick sweep with the piano wire removed the sticky mess. I reassebled the grill and voila! Beautiful, constant flame on both sides!Let the summer BBQ’s commence!