Kaylee meets Gala
Tim and I are officially parents and we’re loving it. Monday we checked out of our hotel room at Homewood Suites to check in to our rented one bedroom apartment. It was nice to have a bit more room to spread out. Kaylee was able to move from sleeping in her car seat to sleeping in our borrowed pack n’ play.
While we were waiting for it to be late enough to check into the apartment, we met up with Gala for lunch at the Perfect Cup in the Dimond Center mall. It was a lot of fun to see her and she was really excited to meet Kaylee.
Kaylee has been a really good sleeper. She does cry sometimes and she does need to eat in the middle of the night just like any other baby, but about half the time we have to wake her up to eat. We did have a bit of excitement at about 2:00 am on Tuesday. The fire alarm in our building started going off. We looked around and didn’t see any smoke, but decided we should still exit the building anyway. We figured the fire department would probably require it. Tim went to warm up the car while I started to get Kaylee in some warmer clothes. Just as we were ready to leave one of the firefighters came and told us we could stay inside. Back to bed we went.
The rest of the week was busy, but in a different way than I’m used to. There were so many things we wanted to do in Anchorage and so many things we needed to do, but ultimately the most important thing was to take care of Kaylee. Tim’s final project for one of his master classes was due on Friday and I had some final tests and final reviews to write for my classes. We had that hanging over our heads all week even though we didn’t want to think or worry about school.
While we were waiting for it to be late enough to check into the apartment, we met up with Gala for lunch at the Perfect Cup in the Dimond Center mall. It was a lot of fun to see her and she was really excited to meet Kaylee.
Kaylee has been a really good sleeper. She does cry sometimes and she does need to eat in the middle of the night just like any other baby, but about half the time we have to wake her up to eat. We did have a bit of excitement at about 2:00 am on Tuesday. The fire alarm in our building started going off. We looked around and didn’t see any smoke, but decided we should still exit the building anyway. We figured the fire department would probably require it. Tim went to warm up the car while I started to get Kaylee in some warmer clothes. Just as we were ready to leave one of the firefighters came and told us we could stay inside. Back to bed we went.
The rest of the week was busy, but in a different way than I’m used to. There were so many things we wanted to do in Anchorage and so many things we needed to do, but ultimately the most important thing was to take care of Kaylee. Tim’s final project for one of his master classes was due on Friday and I had some final tests and final reviews to write for my classes. We had that hanging over our heads all week even though we didn’t want to think or worry about school.
Quality time with Daddy
Tuesday we had the grandparents babysit while Tim and I went shopping for food and supplies to last hopefully until May. I was actually pretty impressed with how quickly we did it, although, we probably weren’t as thorough as we should have been. We had our Costco and Fred Meyer trips finished in about 3 hours. Later that evening my parents went to the post office with me to mail 3 totes and 1 large suitcase to ourselves in Togiak. We still had about 70 pounds of produce in the freezer and refrigerator that we would take in our suitcases with us.
Wednesday morning my parents and I went to LaTouche Pediatrics at Providence Hospital for Kaylee’s first check up. Tim stayed at the apartment to work on his final project. Kaylee passed her check up with flying colors. The doctor said she was very healthy. She weighed in at 7 pounds 3.6 ounces. We had her get her second PKU shot as well. My mom had been telling me how awful the shot was and how much Kaylee would cry, but she only flinched. I couldn’t believe how good she was.
After the apartment we met up with Angie Alston. She is a sister in our branch. She and her husband recently adopted a baby boy. Levi was born 11 weeks early at Providence and is in the NICU. Angie has been spending each day at the hospital with him since he was born. I think she really appreciates having some visitors sometimes. It was good to meet Angie in person.
Wednesday evening Andrew and Brianna Olsen brought dinner over to our house. They were so nice to help find us a car seat and lend us their playpen while we were in Anchorage and then to even bring us dinner. They ate dinner with us, but didn’t stay long because they knew that we had another appointment that evening. Jessika’s sister was not able to be at the placement ceremony because she was on her honeymoon in Hawaii. She returned on Wednesday morning, so we went over to Jessika’s parent’s home on Wednesday evening to meet with their family again. We let Jessika hold Kaylee the whole time we were there. I think she was really happy to see her again, but I was definitely getting anxious to have Kaylee back in my own arms.
Thursday morning a representative from LDSFS came to our apartment to do our first "home" visit. They asked a few questions about how Kaylee was doing and how her schedule was. I guess we passed since they let us keep her. After our meeting we went to pick up Angie Alston and take her to lunch at City Diner. Kaylee was 8 days old and had already been to City Diner twice. I never would have guessed I’d be saying that about my infant. Tim and I spent the rest of Thursday working as hard as we could to finish up schoolwork. I was able to get the things finished that needed to be done for Friday. Tim still had a bit of class work though.
Friday we got up really early to get ready to leave. We fed Kaylee at 3:00 a.m. so then we just stayed up and packed our bags. We had to pack our 70 pounds of produce into our suitcases as well as pack up our air mattresses and Kaylee’s things. We made it early enough to the airport that we didn’t scolded. It’s been awhile since I’ve arrived that early to the airport.
Wednesday morning my parents and I went to LaTouche Pediatrics at Providence Hospital for Kaylee’s first check up. Tim stayed at the apartment to work on his final project. Kaylee passed her check up with flying colors. The doctor said she was very healthy. She weighed in at 7 pounds 3.6 ounces. We had her get her second PKU shot as well. My mom had been telling me how awful the shot was and how much Kaylee would cry, but she only flinched. I couldn’t believe how good she was.
After the apartment we met up with Angie Alston. She is a sister in our branch. She and her husband recently adopted a baby boy. Levi was born 11 weeks early at Providence and is in the NICU. Angie has been spending each day at the hospital with him since he was born. I think she really appreciates having some visitors sometimes. It was good to meet Angie in person.
Wednesday evening Andrew and Brianna Olsen brought dinner over to our house. They were so nice to help find us a car seat and lend us their playpen while we were in Anchorage and then to even bring us dinner. They ate dinner with us, but didn’t stay long because they knew that we had another appointment that evening. Jessika’s sister was not able to be at the placement ceremony because she was on her honeymoon in Hawaii. She returned on Wednesday morning, so we went over to Jessika’s parent’s home on Wednesday evening to meet with their family again. We let Jessika hold Kaylee the whole time we were there. I think she was really happy to see her again, but I was definitely getting anxious to have Kaylee back in my own arms.
Thursday morning a representative from LDSFS came to our apartment to do our first "home" visit. They asked a few questions about how Kaylee was doing and how her schedule was. I guess we passed since they let us keep her. After our meeting we went to pick up Angie Alston and take her to lunch at City Diner. Kaylee was 8 days old and had already been to City Diner twice. I never would have guessed I’d be saying that about my infant. Tim and I spent the rest of Thursday working as hard as we could to finish up schoolwork. I was able to get the things finished that needed to be done for Friday. Tim still had a bit of class work though.
Friday we got up really early to get ready to leave. We fed Kaylee at 3:00 a.m. so then we just stayed up and packed our bags. We had to pack our 70 pounds of produce into our suitcases as well as pack up our air mattresses and Kaylee’s things. We made it early enough to the airport that we didn’t scolded. It’s been awhile since I’ve arrived that early to the airport.
Kaylee's first bush flight. She's inside that bundle of blankets.
I was a little nervous about taking Kaylee on the loud, cold planes, but we bundled her up with a bunch of blankets and she did fine. I think she was more comfortable than I was. We flew to King Salmon first and then they flew us back to Anchorage because the weather was too bad in Dillingham. When we got back to Anchorage we were told that we were rescheduled for the 5:30 pm flight into Dillingham. I don’t think I’ve seen Tim quite so stressed out before. He still needed to finish his final project and wasn’t very happy with the prospects of trying to focus and work in the airport. We weren’t left with much of a choice though. He eventually was able to find a place to work and finished just before we were ready to board.
When we got to Dillingham it was too late to fly to Togiak that evening. Steve, from our district office came to drop off a vehicle for us. We had to wait over an hour for a luggage to be unloaded, but we eventually made our way to the district bunkhouse where we spent the night.
Saturday morning about 10:00 am we flew to Togiak in a little Piper Saratoga (6-seater) plane. It was really cold outside, but once again we bundled Kaylee up in lots of blankets and she did just fine. I’m glad that AIA has a van driver so that we didn’t have to drive from the airport to our apartment on a 4-wheeler. It was definitely too cold to do that with an infant.
It felt so good to finally be home. We tried to get unpacked and settled in, but we didn’t make a ton of progress because we had a steady stream of visitors. It was pretty fun to have so many people come over and visit. We saw Heather, Kim, Belynda, Leslie, Greg, and Evelyn. A couple hours after arriving home, Shari Abraham, our van driver, came back to our house with a little box that read “Happy Birthday Cikiun”. day gift for Kaylee, a teeny ivory ring with scrimshaw roses on it. I thought it was so nice of her to do that. She wrote on the box.
We still hadn’t received our crib in the mail yet, so even though we were home, Kaylee had to sleep in a suitcase. It actually worked out really well. A pillow fits just perfectly in a carry-on size suitcase and an infant fits perfectly on a pillow.
Sunday we attended church in our living room as usual. After our meetings, we left the men to watch the baby and my mom and I headed down to the school to take the grand tour. When we returned home we invited our neighbor, Mike, up to dinner so he could meet Kaylee. It has been so fun to have my parents come visit in Togiak. I didn’t think I would actually ever see them here.
When we got to Dillingham it was too late to fly to Togiak that evening. Steve, from our district office came to drop off a vehicle for us. We had to wait over an hour for a luggage to be unloaded, but we eventually made our way to the district bunkhouse where we spent the night.
Saturday morning about 10:00 am we flew to Togiak in a little Piper Saratoga (6-seater) plane. It was really cold outside, but once again we bundled Kaylee up in lots of blankets and she did just fine. I’m glad that AIA has a van driver so that we didn’t have to drive from the airport to our apartment on a 4-wheeler. It was definitely too cold to do that with an infant.
It felt so good to finally be home. We tried to get unpacked and settled in, but we didn’t make a ton of progress because we had a steady stream of visitors. It was pretty fun to have so many people come over and visit. We saw Heather, Kim, Belynda, Leslie, Greg, and Evelyn. A couple hours after arriving home, Shari Abraham, our van driver, came back to our house with a little box that read “Happy Birthday Cikiun”. day gift for Kaylee, a teeny ivory ring with scrimshaw roses on it. I thought it was so nice of her to do that. She wrote on the box.
We still hadn’t received our crib in the mail yet, so even though we were home, Kaylee had to sleep in a suitcase. It actually worked out really well. A pillow fits just perfectly in a carry-on size suitcase and an infant fits perfectly on a pillow.
Sunday we attended church in our living room as usual. After our meetings, we left the men to watch the baby and my mom and I headed down to the school to take the grand tour. When we returned home we invited our neighbor, Mike, up to dinner so he could meet Kaylee. It has been so fun to have my parents come visit in Togiak. I didn’t think I would actually ever see them here.
