Little Bou

It didn't hit me until a couple of months ago - I unwittingly named my darling baby girl after my husband's fantasy basketball team! Aaaagggghhhh!

Karis' name was agreed upon about one week prior to her birth. We knew she was going to be a boy - everyone thought so - because of the way I carried her (see pregnancy myth #458): super low, out front, and I was HUGE. But, just for fun, we thought maybe we should have a girl's name handy. Enter "Karis Hope."

After the dozens of nicknames we came up with for Rach & Zekers, Karis' list has been pretty short. She started out as "Baby Love" and slowly became "Kari Bou" (with variations such as "Baby Bou", and "Little Bou Bou"). In vain, I attempted to change the nickname to "Kari Lou." No dice. She simply IS Kari Bou.

FYI, Danny's team is the Carson City Caribou, so he's always been after me to name a boy "Carson" and a girl "Cari", with a middle name of "Bou." I, of course, said what any loving wife would say: "Over my dead body." And here we are. Things have degenerated to the point that I can't think of her as anything else.

While we're on the topic: my little Bou turned one year old last Tuesday; we had her party on Saturday. I feel I must mention it was the ONE day all week that was actually cold, windy and rained most of the afternoon and evening. We did manage to hang out and open gifts before it really started coming down, although she was forced to finish mauling her cake indoors. In spite of the schitzophrenic weather and realizing at the last minute that we had about 20 less lawn chairs than we needed, it was a fun day with family and friends.

In honor of Karis being out in the open for one year, I thought I'd jot down several adjectives that describe her most accurately. Here we go:

Determined - When she decides she wants to do something, watch out! She WILL figure out how to do it.

Hungry - Have you ever seen this kid eat? At times she out-eats both her older siblings. And there's nothing she won't try, including sand, dirt, and wood chips (with the exception of certain vegetables, of course). There's no other way to say it - she's a pig.

Stinky - She can also poop like nobody's business. The last three days in a row, she's gone to pooping after breakfast, waiting for me to change her, and then going for round two almost immediately.

Fun - She's one of the happiest (usually) babies I've ever been around. It's way too easy to get a belly laugh from her; in fact, sometimes she comes up to one of us and just starts laughing because she knows it will make us laugh. She's full of personality and life; if anyone in the house is having fun, she has to plop herself right down in the middle of it. What a clown.

Cute - see pictures

Tough - She's had no choice but to learn to fight back . . .

Accident-prone - Goes with #1, I guess. She walks around with more bruises and cuts even than Zekers used to. Yesterday she somehow managed to fall face-forward while in her high chair, bringing the entire chair down on top of herself. That one resulted in a pretty good shiner. The child simply refuses to sit still.

Sweet - Just spend five minutes with her, and you'll see what I mean.

Loud - Ditto

Mamma's Girl - In my opinion, this is by far her best quality. I love that she likes to lay her head on my shoulder and that she wants to snuggle after every "injury" and that her first word was "Mama." She loves her Daddy too, of course, and has a special smile she reserves just for him.

Happy Birthday, Kari Bou! I love you!