Vondos in the House!

Aunt Julie and Cousin Kacee reporting on our week with Freja.... We must have picked the right week to be in Colorado, because the weather was as wonderful as Freja. The blue skies and warm sunshine were perfect. Kacee enjoyed a long hike on Sunday with Kelly, while Jan went to Snowmass (I think) for a long bike ride; I spent QT with sweet, sweet Freja.  She babbled and played and napped right on schedule.  Every morning, Jan was up with Freja, either holding her while she had her bottle or chatting with her like daddies do. Kelly worked from home Monday and Friday, and at the office Tuesday-Thursday. Martha, one of Freja's sitters, spent Tuesday with Freja, while Kacee and I enjoyed a day of mom/daughter togetherness. We savored lunch at Ajax Tavern and indulged at the Aspen Candy Company. But enough about our fun, I know you want to hear about Freja...By the end of the week, she had mastered sitting but was still using the "super-stretch-belling-crawl" as a method of movement. Her first tooth began to come thru. She enjoyed using a finger as a chew toy as well as the sound of a trilling 'r'...that made her laugh, laugh, laugh. Kel has colorful letters, that spell her name, I would spell them out and then sound them out while pointing to each letter, she smiled and giggled.  Kacee drew a picture that is taped to the underside of a shelf over the changing table...we hope it gives her something to focus on while she's in for a pit stop. Kacee and I also worked an some simple baby-proofing projects like moving plants and stands and installing outlet covers. I went thru drawers pulling precious baby clothes that she's amazingly (and beautifully) outgrown. Oh, and not to be left out...Shady made it perfectly clear that I wasn't to use the dryer when he was around and that not everyone in the house was happy we were there. He certainly doesn't hide his feelings. We can't wait to see Freja again.  As her onesie says, "The Best of Mom and Dad."

Back Home Again in Indiana

The Koorns are still recovering from a whirlwind trip to Indiana last week, we had such a good time taking the Freja show on the road! We got to experience flying with a baby, our first time being "those people" with a screaming baby on a plane. Lucky for us people sitting around us were all very patient and understanding, clearly we all survived. 

In Indiana Freja got to meet my grandma Elsie, who makes 99 years young look absolutely amazing. We stayed at my dad's house outside of Bloomington, and LOTS of family & friends came down to visit us and meet the babe. Jan rented a bike for a couple of days, and I got to do a little solo shopping. Before we knew it we were back on a plane to Aspen. You can check out a few of my favorite pics from the trip in the flickr stream.

The leaves are gold & orange, snow has been falling on the mountains and winter is just around the corner. Hope you all are enjoying a happy fall!

7 Months & Counting!

I have no idea how this happened, but Freja is already 7 months old! She is growing & growing, and eating food and rolling around and jabbering up a storm. She's very entertaining these days, with new tricks all the time. We're working on sitting up unassisted, introducing new foods and crawling just might be around the corner. We've also been introducing her to some basic sign language - mostly "Daddy," "Mommy," and "kitty" for now - to see if it catches on.

The three of us are holding on tight to warm summery days (even though it's now officially fall) and plan to get outside this weekend for some family time on a bike ride - time to break in the Chariot bike trailer we recently got so Freja can ride along!

New pics have been added to the flickr feed - enjoy a little Freja fix!

Sittin' On Top of the World

Or at least, sitting up high in her high chair! We finally got a chair for Freja to make feeding her solid foods easier, (a little) less messy, and to give us a place for her to hang out while we're working on dinner etc. in the kitchen. So far she seems to like sitting up high instead of being down on the ground, this way she can keep an eye on us. Since Jan & I like to cook, now we get to involve Freja when we're in the kitchen. It won't be long until she's our little sous chef! 

By now we've tried two types of solid foods, rice cereal and sweet potatoes. Both proved to be pretty popular! Last night I put peaches in a mesh feeder, which is sort of like a lollipop that she can chew on without us having to worry that she might choke. She LOVED the peach, as evidenced in today's video. Have a great weekend!

Freja's First Food

Freja is just over 6 months old now, just the right age to move beyond the liquid diet and try some food. We've been experimenting with rice cereal this week, and tonight we're moving on to sweet potatoes. It's fun to see her reaction to food, the spoon, getting the cereal all over her face, etc.

On Sunday we went up Aspen Mountain to watch some friends finish a mountain bike race and see some bluegrass. The family photo shows the gorgeous (although cloudy) views from the top.

Hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend!

Living the dream

Yesterday was my 33rd birthday and this week marks 6 months that Freja's been out in the world with us. Life just keeps getting better for all of us. Kelly sent me off to Steamboat for the weekend to do some mountain biking and when I came back we had a fun dinner out with a group of friends. Four different couples and 5 little girls ranging from 4 to 4 months. It was pretty cute. Freja continues to develop and grow. It's a nice finish to each day to come home to such a lovely daughter. She loves her jumper and the following photos I think are pretty cute. Enjoy!

Heading back to Cali... by JPK

So, it's been awhile since our last blog update, but as always things have been busy. Kelly has been back working part-time since mid-June, and I've been busy trying to organize a bike race for later in August. That said, we took our first real vacation of the year and drove out to California. We visited both friends and family as well as enjoyed a few days to ourselves.

We started our trip at my parents place in Garden Valley. My mom and her friends threw us an amazing party at their house. She invited a lot of my old teachers and other people I had grown up with... most of whom had known me since I was born. It was a lot of fun to see them and introduce Freja. It reminded me of how lucky I was to grow up in such a tight community of friends and I hope that we can provide a similar environment for Freja.

Our next stop was in Calistoga, a small town just outside of Napa. We didn't venture out much there, but had some nice times at the pool and ate lots of good food. From there we started our trip south and headed to Los Gatos to see Will, Nika and Persis. Will and I have been friends since before I even could spell the word 'friend' (or Will for that matter). Persis is about a month older than Freja and is a super sweet baby with her Momma's good looks.

I enjoyed copious amounts of Will's home brewed beer and watching Persis and Freja interact. We all went to a baby music class which was ultimately more fun for the parents I think than the girls. Persis conked out at the end of it. We also did a private wine tasting at Ridge Winery which was exceptional. Wine tasting with babies in tow is a bit different from wine tasting in the good ol' days, but fun nevertheless.

From there we headed to Ojai which is inland from Santa Barbara. We stayed at a resort owned by the same family that owns Aspen Skiing Company. Again, we did little other than relax and eat.

Our final stop for the trip was Los Angeles. Uncle Jan and Nancy hosted us at their place and Arie came up for a visit. The highlight for us was going to visit Grandma Rachel in Santa Monica. It was fun to have four generations of family in the same room. I am blessed with being related (and married) to strong women, but none are stronger than Grandma Rachel. I hope Freja inherits of her strength and spirit.

We also had a great time introducing Freja to Arie, Jan and Nancy. I love the influences each of them will bring to Freja's upbringing and I hope each will come to visit us in Colorado often.

So, that's our trip in summary. I will note that on this trip Freja started sleeping longer at night and started rolling from her back to her stomach. Both good signs of progression. For me, the best part of this trip was spending much needed time with my smoking hot wife and darling daughter. I really am a lucky man.

Finally, here is a fun video we shot just today. Freja is really starting to love playing peek-a-boo!