Tubes, tubes, baby.

So, yesterday was the day that Sara had tubes put in her ears. We had to do the no eating for so many hours before the procedure, which, of course, was Sara's least favorite part of the day. But she did very well waiting considering that by the time we took her back to the O.R. that she normally would have already eaten twice and possibly been napping. I went back with her and she sat in my lap until they had her sedated, then I was kicked-to-the-curb, so-to-speak... and we waited in the appropriately named "waiting room". But not for long, just long enough to drink a cup of water and read the comics, really... maybe 15-20 minutes or so.... and then we got to go see her in Recovery. She actually slept longer in Recovery before waking up than the whole procedure took. The amazing thing to me is that she just rolled over and woke up, a little groggy, but no fussing, crying, whatsoever; like nothing happened. I am beginning to think the kid might be unflappable (unless she isn't be fed, of course). Anyway, after she woke up and had a little milk, we just took her home. We were in the car almost an hour after I walked out of the O.R.

So, we got home and what did she want... food. Yesterday was the day of grazing for little miss Sara. She was hungry, and hungry for solid food that she could feed to herself, for the most part. Peas, carrots, bananas, macaroni, pears, broccoli, and another half-dozen things (all in baby trial-size amounts, of course), she was ready to try anything yesterday. And then she played well, and slept well... basically, she enjoyed playing hooky from school with Mom and Dad for the day. And she did well today too.. so all is well, and the tubes are of no concern to Sara, it seems, which is a good thing.

In other news, Sara is moving all over the place... about 10 days or so ago she learned how to go from her stomach to her knees, and from there she had recently figured out how to sit back down... so from stomach to sitting! That has given her tremendous new range, reach forward this way, get a toy... back to sitting, then lurch forward in another direction... needless to say, she is never where we left her anymore, even if she doesn't move more than about 5-6 feet. She is also trying to crawl and stand-up at the same time... one of her favorite positions at the moment for trying to crawl involves one of her feet flat on the floor and a knee pointed at the ceiling... fun to watch! She also figured out in the last few days about putting one hand in front of another in a 'walking' motion, but she doesn't have the hands in sync with the legs (the legs don't move at all), so she face-plants, then gets back up and trys again... she is having fun trying... not to mention trying to 'pull-up' on occasion too... things are moving fast around here.... at least I got the gate at the top of the stairs installed already....

Meet me in St. Louie!

Well, last weekend Sara had her first plane ride - a trip to go see her Great-grandma J. and several great uncles, aunts and cousins in the St. Louis area. Our flight out was delayed a little, but she did great, sleeping part of the way. Our arrival was fine too, but I must say that getting car seats into rental cars in the dark is not my favorite sport... two vehicles and thirty minutes later we were out of there and on our way out to grandma's.

Even though Sara is showing signs of stranger anxiety every once in a while she did great, and clearly knew that great-grandma was "okay" as she often cuddled up to her and gave her hugs - something she doesn't often do with mom and dad. Anyway, Saturday was the big day of family... I think we counted something like 17 people in the house that day, and Sara did fabulously! She played with everyone, smiled, didn't fuss... clearly one of the biggest days she has had yet and she had a great time.... One of many highlights of the day was, of course, the big stuffed banana the she got from her great-uncle Jim, the produce-buyer for Dierberg's in St. Louis. It was nice to get to see everyone and pretty amazing to see how much Danette's cousins have grown up since the last time we were there... all of them are in college or high school now.

Sunday we basically chilled out, though we did go have lunch with Roger and Rosanna at their place, which was excellent as usual, and it was nice to catch up. Other than that we just hung with grandma and Sara took a bunch of naps. Then we got up early on Monday, President's Day, and headed back home where yet again piles of snow were waiting for me to snowblow/shovel.

The egg cart

Well, I don't want to disappoint my readers that have been clamoring to see a picture of me in 1970's babywear...(and to be honest my dad just sent me the picture). So, I figured, why not just post the pictures. Here are pictures of me at about 10 months and Sara at about 8 1/2 months playing each playing with our own versions of the Brio Egg Cart.

More pics.... and tubes....

Here are some pictures of Sara engaging in some of her favorite activities: reading, playing, vamping for the camera, and chewing. Sara has become more and more interested in books for their non-chewing value (though she still enjoys chomping a good book), and she will now sit and pay attention to the pages, often for more than one reading or more than one book at a time. This has been a big shift for her over the last 2-3 weeks and is certainly fun for Mom and Dad.



This is one of Sara's favorite toys, especially the red egg, it is often the first thing she reaches for when we set her down near it... she also likes to cradle it like a football, so we are expecting great things from her in this area... running back maybe? Interestingly (to us at least), I had the same toy (Egg and cart to carry it) when I was her age and it was one of my favorites according to my parents... and there is a similar picture of me (though in stylish mid 70's baby-wear). Of course, Sara has many favorite toys, including books, trains, some hard-plastic bugs, and those large rings that stack on a pole.



No discussion of Sara and her favorite activities/toys would be complete without mentioning tags... I have no idea why babies love these taggies objects and really any tag, but Sara is at the top of the taggie fan club.



In other news, we took Sara in for a checkup of her ears after all those ear infections she had in the fall and found out she had another one, even though she wasn't complaining one bit. So we saw the ear doc on Thursday and we had seen the pediatrician earlier in the week on Monday and her ears were fine then, so we thought we were home free. Alas, no. Sara is scheduled for tubes in 10 days. Fortunately, it has become a really fast procedure lately, and she'll probably be back in our arms in less than 30 minutes. Hopefully this will clear up the ear infections and let her live without taking antibiotics all the time.

She's a pretty happy kid and we know she'll take it well... though mom and dad might be a little anxious that morning. Other than that, we are preparing for a visit with Sara's great grandmother and several great aunts and uncles and almost as importantly, her first plane ride. Should be exciting and hopefully there will be lots of good pics to post in a few weeks.

Fun in the snow... and other stuff too

All right, so the posts aren't as often as they used to be, but life with an 8 month old (a 22 lb one that is) can be a little busy. In the last two and half weeks we have been learning new things, eating new things, and expanding our horizons... or something like that. Sara still enjoys new foods, at various times she has had some bread, pasta, mashed potatoes, spinach, real, un-pureed peas, bananas, and peaches. Interestingly she likes bananas, unlike her mother, and dislikes the baby food peaches - though the peaches seem to be quite strong on flavor, so maybe not a surprise. She has also started eating puffed rice, and some puffed vegetable pieces that we have found.


All-in-all pretty good.... that is until the stomach flu hit the house this week... Another new experience for Sara, so-to-speak. She is feeling better now, but Wednesday morning and afternoon were a little rough. Danette was in Atlanta for the day, so it was Sara and Daddy time... fortunately for me (not them) the day care got the bad side-effects of her illness, I just had to help her feel better... and amazingly she bounced back well. I am honestly amazed at how she went from not wanting to leave my arms and even sleeping in them, which she hasn't done more than once in the last 4-5 months, to feeling better by the time Mom got home. Pretty cool, because I doubt I would have felt well that fast....


Anyway, she is getting ever closer to crawling, she bounces/rocks on her knees a lot and has fun pushing herself backwards on the hardwood floor while trying to push up. In fact, the top picture was taken just before I moved her off the rug on to the hardwood and she went from one side of our living room to the other in short order, and back again after I helped her rotate properly.

Other than that, really the weather here is the real story... who knew that Cleveland had winter in January and February... heck I think we are supposed to have highs in the single digits the next few days, without windchill! We also had about a week to ten days of consistent snow. Got some good use out of the snow shovel and snowblower, often more than once a day. Of course, that meant another new fun activity for Sara... we picked up a clearance, inflatable sled at Target (clearance winter items in January... we Americans are such forward thinking people) and then took her for a few spins around the front and back yards... she was pretty passive at first, but she was much more excited as time went on... and the fact that it kept snowing was a nice treat for her too... unfortunately it is a little cold, especially with the wind to have a repeat this weekend, but maybe next weekend.