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.