2006 Year In Review: The Year Of KRUF
I thought it might be fun to do a "Year of KRUF" post, chronicling our year to catch everyone up, so without further ado, I present to you:
The Year Of KRUF
The commencement of 2006 found us anticipating the arrival of someone who would make our family feel more complete. Patiently, we waited:
We were finally rewarded for our patience in the wee hours of the morning on April 18, 2006. After 12 hours in the hospital, only 45 minutes of pushing, and a cord scare (it was wrapped around his neck twice), Kieran Rustin made his grand entrance at 4:27 a.m., weighing in at 8 lbs. 10 oz. and measuring 22 inches in height, and our new family was complete.
After another night in the hospital, we took our bundle of joy home on April 19th, and our life together began. KRUF's Grandma Jackie arrived on the night of the 19th and stayed for two whole weeks, doing a lot of cooking and cleaning so we could get adjusted to being a family and I could begin my recovery from KRUF's birth. Of course, Grandma got to spend some time with the newest family member, too, especially in the mornings after some challenging nights. Everything was going wonderfully, and by the time that Kieran was 2 weeks old, he already weighed 10 pounds! Mom and Dad weren't doing to shabby, either. Both David and I finished our semesters with 4.0's! Not too bad for a couple of folks with a brand new baby!
He got his first sponge bath given by Daddy when he was just a few days old:
And it didn't take us long to dress him in proper attire:
We shortly thereafter also began babywearing:
Kieran's education began early, too:
At the end of May, KRUF and Mommy made the trip home to Virginia to meet some family and friends and go to a wedding: When we came back, KRUF started taking a bath without the baby sling in the bathtub, discovered his hands, and became much more interactive. All that learning he'd been doing started to become pertinent. He kept growing like a weed, too. At his six week check-up, he remained at the top of the growth chart (100th percentile!) in both height and weight, outmeasuring all the other babies around him. 
We headed back to Virginia at the end of June for Aunt Diane and Uncle Lincoln's wedding and the Fourth of July, and we moved to our new house just four short days after we returned!
Aunts Becky and Elizabeth came to visit to help us set up our new house,
and Kieran just kept growing like a weed. At his four month check-up, he already weighed 18.5 pounds and was 27.5 inches tall! He started to sit up by himself right around this time, too! Since he could sit up all by himself, he moved over to the "big boy" side of the bathtub, too. 
Shortly after KRUF turned four months old, school started back up for David and I. We utilized all our spare time for schoolwork; luckily, Kieran is a great sleeper! He goes to bed between 8 and 9 p.m. and only nurses for 5-10 minutes when he needs to eat, so there's often minimal interruption from him after he's down for the night.
KRUF got his first tooth and became a champion at rolling over, and he just kept growing! By the time we went in for his six month check-up, he was over 20 pounds at was 30.5 inches tall! He's off the charts in height, and he dropped down to the 97th percentile in weight. We're sure he's even bigger now. Right after his six month check-up, we went out and bought him a new, big boy carseat, which he LOVES!
He continues to LOVE to read and enjoys doing it all by himself, too!
Halloween came, and our little Pea-in-the-Pod was just to most adorable little guy we saw, and his costume was just too appropriate for the son of two vegetarians.
Shortly after Halloween, we got Kieran a highchair in anticipation of starting solids, and he got a new tooth.
He wasn't so sure he liked solids, though, so we just stuck to good old milk for the time being.
We made it home for Thanksgiving and spent time with both sides of the family and then headed back home to finish up the semester.
Grandma Jackie came to the rescue just after Thanksgiving! She flew out to spend a week and a half with Kieran while Mommy finished up the semester, and Daddy worked hard on his work, too. Her help did the trick--David got a lot of work done, and I finished up with another 4.0! I've maintained a 4.0 throughout my graduate career so far!
Lucky for Grandma--she got to hear Kieran's first word "mama" before she left. He quickly followed it up with"dada" and "babo," which we think means Bravo (which is what we tell him whenever he does something remarkable). He also started to clap hands, wave bye-bye and hello, and he can really understand what we're saying to him (like, please don't pull mommy's hair). His development has been truly remarkable in the last couple of weeks. He's truly blossomed right before our eyes!
After the semester was over, we began getting ready for Christmas.
We selected our tree, cut it down, brought it home and put it up, and eventually decorated it.
Kieran loves having it in our house! Although not crawling yet, he's becoming remarkably mobile and can get into just about anything he wants to now. We're starting to have to be careful about what we have around because he can reach it if it's too tantalizing.
We spent our first Christmas as a family by ourselves here at our house, and it was nice and relaxing, which is quite a change from the usual jet-setting, busy holiday we spend making the 2.5+ hour drive several times back and forth between our two families around the holidays. Here we are on Christmas Eve:
And here's Kieran, looking for Santa: 
On Christmas morning (and the rest of the day, too), we took a leisurely time opening up gifts and enjoyed being together as our own little family. Kieran loved opening his gifts and is enjoying playing with them all.
2006 closes with our family happy, healthy, and well. Kieran's weighing in at somewhere around 23 pounds (David weighed him today on our bathroom scale, so it's not a certified measurement), and he is beginning to assert his own personality. He certainly lets us know what he does and does not like, which is a trend I'm sure will continue into the future. He loves to play and act silly. He's just in the past few days started to eat a few solids. He's decided he likes mango and pear. We'll see about avocado, which I'll be pushing every so often because it's so yummy and nutritious. He's almost ready to crawl and will probably start to do so in the next few days or so in my estimation. He loves to walk holding onto our fingers, and he's started to be able to get himself from flat on his back or belly to sitting upright and is trying to pull himself up to standing but is currently unable to do so. I think we've still got a little bit before he accomplishes that feat (or I hope that we do...). In the past couple of days he's gotten two more teeth, his top two front teeth--He really wanted them for Christmas, but at least he got them for the New Year!
That wraps up our KRUF year in review. A happy New Year and 2007 to you all!
The commencement of 2006 found us anticipating the arrival of someone who would make our family feel more complete. Patiently, we waited:
We were finally rewarded for our patience in the wee hours of the morning on April 18, 2006. After 12 hours in the hospital, only 45 minutes of pushing, and a cord scare (it was wrapped around his neck twice), Kieran Rustin made his grand entrance at 4:27 a.m., weighing in at 8 lbs. 10 oz. and measuring 22 inches in height, and our new family was complete.
After another night in the hospital, we took our bundle of joy home on April 19th, and our life together began. KRUF's Grandma Jackie arrived on the night of the 19th and stayed for two whole weeks, doing a lot of cooking and cleaning so we could get adjusted to being a family and I could begin my recovery from KRUF's birth. Of course, Grandma got to spend some time with the newest family member, too, especially in the mornings after some challenging nights. Everything was going wonderfully, and by the time that Kieran was 2 weeks old, he already weighed 10 pounds! Mom and Dad weren't doing to shabby, either. Both David and I finished our semesters with 4.0's! Not too bad for a couple of folks with a brand new baby! 
He got his first sponge bath given by Daddy when he was just a few days old:
And it didn't take us long to dress him in proper attire:
We shortly thereafter also began babywearing:
Kieran's education began early, too:
At the end of May, KRUF and Mommy made the trip home to Virginia to meet some family and friends and go to a wedding: When we came back, KRUF started taking a bath without the baby sling in the bathtub, discovered his hands, and became much more interactive. All that learning he'd been doing started to become pertinent. He kept growing like a weed, too. At his six week check-up, he remained at the top of the growth chart (100th percentile!) in both height and weight, outmeasuring all the other babies around him. 
We headed back to Virginia at the end of June for Aunt Diane and Uncle Lincoln's wedding and the Fourth of July, and we moved to our new house just four short days after we returned!
Aunts Becky and Elizabeth came to visit to help us set up our new house,
and Kieran just kept growing like a weed. At his four month check-up, he already weighed 18.5 pounds and was 27.5 inches tall! He started to sit up by himself right around this time, too! Since he could sit up all by himself, he moved over to the "big boy" side of the bathtub, too. 
Shortly after KRUF turned four months old, school started back up for David and I. We utilized all our spare time for schoolwork; luckily, Kieran is a great sleeper! He goes to bed between 8 and 9 p.m. and only nurses for 5-10 minutes when he needs to eat, so there's often minimal interruption from him after he's down for the night.KRUF got his first tooth and became a champion at rolling over, and he just kept growing! By the time we went in for his six month check-up, he was over 20 pounds at was 30.5 inches tall! He's off the charts in height, and he dropped down to the 97th percentile in weight. We're sure he's even bigger now. Right after his six month check-up, we went out and bought him a new, big boy carseat, which he LOVES!
He continues to LOVE to read and enjoys doing it all by himself, too!
Halloween came, and our little Pea-in-the-Pod was just to most adorable little guy we saw, and his costume was just too appropriate for the son of two vegetarians.
Shortly after Halloween, we got Kieran a highchair in anticipation of starting solids, and he got a new tooth.
He wasn't so sure he liked solids, though, so we just stuck to good old milk for the time being.
We made it home for Thanksgiving and spent time with both sides of the family and then headed back home to finish up the semester.
Grandma Jackie came to the rescue just after Thanksgiving! She flew out to spend a week and a half with Kieran while Mommy finished up the semester, and Daddy worked hard on his work, too. Her help did the trick--David got a lot of work done, and I finished up with another 4.0! I've maintained a 4.0 throughout my graduate career so far!
Lucky for Grandma--she got to hear Kieran's first word "mama" before she left. He quickly followed it up with"dada" and "babo," which we think means Bravo (which is what we tell him whenever he does something remarkable). He also started to clap hands, wave bye-bye and hello, and he can really understand what we're saying to him (like, please don't pull mommy's hair). His development has been truly remarkable in the last couple of weeks. He's truly blossomed right before our eyes!After the semester was over, we began getting ready for Christmas.
We selected our tree, cut it down, brought it home and put it up, and eventually decorated it.
Kieran loves having it in our house! Although not crawling yet, he's becoming remarkably mobile and can get into just about anything he wants to now. We're starting to have to be careful about what we have around because he can reach it if it's too tantalizing.
And here's Kieran, looking for Santa: 
On Christmas morning (and the rest of the day, too), we took a leisurely time opening up gifts and enjoyed being together as our own little family. Kieran loved opening his gifts and is enjoying playing with them all.
2006 closes with our family happy, healthy, and well. Kieran's weighing in at somewhere around 23 pounds (David weighed him today on our bathroom scale, so it's not a certified measurement), and he is beginning to assert his own personality. He certainly lets us know what he does and does not like, which is a trend I'm sure will continue into the future. He loves to play and act silly. He's just in the past few days started to eat a few solids. He's decided he likes mango and pear. We'll see about avocado, which I'll be pushing every so often because it's so yummy and nutritious. He's almost ready to crawl and will probably start to do so in the next few days or so in my estimation. He loves to walk holding onto our fingers, and he's started to be able to get himself from flat on his back or belly to sitting upright and is trying to pull himself up to standing but is currently unable to do so. I think we've still got a little bit before he accomplishes that feat (or I hope that we do...). In the past couple of days he's gotten two more teeth, his top two front teeth--He really wanted them for Christmas, but at least he got them for the New Year!That wraps up our KRUF year in review. A happy New Year and 2007 to you all!
