post-Turkey Day excitement

So, happy day after Thanksgiving... I refuse to call it bl**k Friday... because the stock market didn't crash... and no one called it that before a couple of years ago, despite the recent media bandwagon.

Anyway, I digress. Thanksgiving was good here. We had a pretty small gathering here, just us, one of my grad students and one of Danette's co-workers and her 12-year old daughter (who came over while their husband/dad had to work as a police officer). Enjoyable company and Sara played nice most of the day, though she was engaging in her recent strategy of micro-naps... (though she is sleeping well today!). The weather here was great, ~50 degrees or so and completely blue sky and same today. We even took a walk before it got dark yesterday with Sara, which she loved.


This morning, since Sara gets up pretty early, we decided to do the early x-mas shopping thing for a little while... so Sara's first experience of holiday shopping, she even had some ideas of her own ;).

She did quite well and had fun... then came home and took a good nap! After that and a little cereal she was thirsty, but mom wasn't easily at hand and warming up a bottle just wasn't going to be the best idea for a few minutes... so we tried water, from a sippy cup... and not only did she take it (eventually) she held the cup herself! talk about a bunch of first for her.

Probably take another walk this afternoon... and then tomorrow morning we get to see Stacey, Scott (friends from STL) and their son Carter who are in town to see some family... so more fun!

Double trouble....

An adventurous week around here. Monday we had some friends come through... Later we discovered why Sara wasn't sleeping the previous week... not one... but two infected ears.... She isn't really enjoying the flavor of the antibiotics... but she is definitely feeling better and sleeping through more of the night.

We also got back her first 'school pictures' They were decent, but she definitely had that 'Whatchyou talkin' 'bout Willis?' look on her face.

Today we took her to a professional photographer nearby... he had done some good work with one of our friend's daughter. Sara did well... but not too many of her wide-open grins and smiles for some reason... still there should be some great photos, and hopefully one of the family shots came out too.... but there were just a few of those at the end of the sitting, so we'll have to wait and see.


The top photo is just due to the element of timing, but I love how she looks like she is ready to go all 'hollywood bodyguard' on dad and his camera... jeez papparazzi these days!

And the second one is just more of that tongue sticking out.

She also moved to her third cereal today - barley, and she seemed fine with it.... it is amazing to think that we'll probably be starting other vegies and stuff here in a week or so.

Sara is also moving around more and more and more... she spins, she rolls, she drives to the hoop... okay, maybe not the latter... yet. She tries to make forward movement and get her legs under her, but she isn't there yet. She is also sitting on her own more... can't get to a sitting position by herself, though she loves to try, but she likes to sit... in fact she sat for most of the time with the photographer with just some help here and there for stability. She's growin' up so fast!

Happy thanksgiving week! 

where oh where has the sleep gone?

So, a semi-rest full weekend... didn't have to go to work at least.  Last week was pretty nice at the end of the week, so much so that we cut out a little bit early one day so that we could take Sara outside on a walk before it go dark... which she thoroughly enjoyed.  Otherwise, not too much else of note during the week.  We finally ordered up some prints of pictures of Sara and those turned out pretty well.

Yesterday, there was a retirement party for one of the faculty in my department that had been here for 39 years.  It was at a nice place on the lake called the Gwinn Estate.  A beautiful old estate and house that I am guessing hasn't been actively lived in much since the 60's and is now rented out to non-profits to use for events like this.  The neatest part of the house was a room in the basement that opened out onto the yard and lake that was literally a big sandbox!  The party was fun too... even saw one of my former profs who drove in for the party because Sam (the retiree) inspired him as an undergrad...

Other than that, we are just hoping that Sara will sleep tonight... she has more and more restless during the night the last month and it is starting to wear and Danette and I bit, especially today after the party and then coming home and getting sucked into The Great Escape which Paul and Leah were watching while babysitting... ahh well, that's life.  In more interesting news, Sara is expanding her range of sounds that she can make... and today she started stringing da da da.... da da da.... da da da... together... so clearly she knows who her dad is, right?  :)

Tomorrow we are getting a quick visit from our friends Michelle, Tom, and their son Leo.... they are taking a trip east and stopping by on their way for the night, so that should be fun tomorrow.

Have a great week everyone.... it is almost Thanksgiving!

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Happy post-election day

Sara had her first trip to the polls yesterday evening and watched raptly in her mom's arms while she voted.

Last week or so has been reasonably active... Danette has been doing a lot of day-traveling around the area for work, I am approaching the end of the semester, yada yada yada. Sara however has finally licked that cold, I think, which is a great thing.

The weekend was kind of fun because we got together with friends both Saturday and Sunday... somehow small kids are always involved these days, which is also fun. We even made one of our favorite fall recipes... sweet potato bisque.... mmm

Sara is doing great, she is rolling from back to front and back again (still less frequently than back to front, but more often) and stringing them together to get across the room. I found her chewing on furniture earlier this week, which was new!... but she quickly discovered it wasn't nearly as tasty as her toys.

She is also spinning around on her tummy a lot and try to get those legs under so she can crawl or creep or something... but not yet.

The pics are fun because she is spending so much time sticking out her tongue like this lately, it is always so cute... and the last pic is fun because she is sporting her Minnesota sweatshirt even though it is still a tad big on her.


Well... happy Wednesday!