The Toddler

Ok, so I'm a very delinquent mom. I wish I was the super mom who found time to work full time, keep the house clean, make a home cooked meal each night, AND keep up with my blog - the reality is a six month hiatus while work was insane, the house was a mess, dinner was hard to come by. Apologies to those who actually kept up in the past and I'll try to do better in the future.

Sara is a full up toddler now - a big one year old! She rang in the momentous birthday with a stomach bug that produced her first real throw up - twice! Daddy got the bug too and thus also enjoyed his first (plus 30) birthday. At least Sara didn't know what all the big fuss was about and isn't upset that mommy and daddy still haven't planned her a proper birthday party yet.

Along with getting bigger, Sara now has six teeth (four on top and two on bottom). She's actively teething now and we're waiting to see which teeth come in next. Teething is no fun for her, but she has taken it pretty good for the most part. Mommy has taken the brunt of the pain as Sara goes through biting spells while nursing when her gums are sore, but luckily she hasn't been too bad with this lately.

Sara just went in for her one year doctor visit this past Friday and it's amazing how she's grown in just one year. She was 22lbs 10oz and 30inches long. She's tripled her birth weight and grown almost a foot - it's hard to imagine that tiny newborn we had a year ago. Sara had a toe prick to test for anemia (standard test and she's just fine) as well as a few more shots (those just never end for her!). So far she's just chugging along and they haven't seemed to bother her too much other than making her a bit more sleepy. We took her to the park this afternoon and she had a lot of fun - she was particularly interested in the rocks at the playground and kept wanting to dive into them!

Sara is officially a walker now too. She had been taking onsie, twosie type steps since she was eleven months old, but finally did what I would call "real walking" on January 22nd for Daddy's birthday. She's been picking up the pace ever since and is really cruising all over the house these days. This past week she seemed to finally figure out that she can go wherever she wants in the house and started searching through rooms and wandering about - the chase is on! She's also doing well outside on grass and other terrain - it's hard to walk on surfaces like that when you're still learning balance. Here is Sara today at the park...you can see she still trips a lot on the grass.

Sara is also babbling up a storm these days. She actively imitates you and tries to repeat sounds you make. Her first "word" was "uh-oh" which she came home from school with just prior to Christmas. We say it was her first word since that was the first thing she said and actually associated a meaning with it. She now says daddy, hi, and bye. She tries to say Bridgette and Bruno but it currently comes out "digit and dudo" and it supremely cute. There is still an all to lacking amount of mama coming out of this child, but she can say it. She usually calls me daddy or just points. Occasionally she will say mama, but it really comes out more like "mehmeh". All that labor pain and I can't even get a "mama" -in fact, when asked to say "mama" she will without fail say "daddy"! It's almost like someone taught her to do that but Andy swears he didn't. It's cute and annoying all at once (just like uh-oh). Andy also thinks she tried to say "cheese" the other day but that is as of yet unverified and unrepeated. She repeats sounds frequently, and often gets very close to the word you just said, but doesn't really know what the word means yet. I'm sure her vocabulary will start to pick up in the next few months and it will be exciting to hear what she has to say!

Along with the exciting things, we also have gotten an introduction to toddler tantrums lately. Sara will certainly let you know when she is displeased to say the least. She will scream if you take something away that she wants and has also learned to throw and object down in anger. The best is when she throws herself onto the ground and screams - it's hard not to laugh when she pitches this kind of fit! At this age, we just try to ignore the behavior and hopefully she'll learn it doesn't get her anywhere. We'll see how that works out!

Sara still loves music and rocks to the beat of many songs. She will touch her head when "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" comes on and clap with "If You're Happy and You Know It" but hasn't learned all of the moves yet. She can correctly identify her head and nose when asked and is working on the other body parts. She is quite the little "noodle" as we call her.

As for mom and dad, we are just enjoying life with a toddler. It's a lot of fun now that Sara really wants to play, can walk, and enjoys things like eating out and going to the park. We've not been enjoying the constant barrage of colds brought home from daycare that we both get or the toddler tantrums, but overall Sara has been an easy baby.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the New Year thus far. I'll try to get pictures posted soon and I also have a ton of videos to post at some point (those take forever to upload so I'll get them when I can).

Love,

Andy, Valarie, and Sara

Look at this Big Girl!

Sara wants to crawl very badly and is working hard to figure it out. It won't be long now before she is mobile! She also loves to stand up now and can stand on her own for brief periods of time. Once she has the balance figured out, she'll be walking! For fun, Sara is also really loving her exersaucer and playing on the floor with all sorts of toys. In particular, she loves her ball, Bernice the singing dinosaur, and her learning puppy that sings songs. She has started to rock back and forth when music plays which is super cute - it won't be long before she's dancing around! Sara is laughing more now, which is very fun, and she's practicing her "da" sound a lot as well and daddy likes to hear his name! We continue to think she has begun teething as she is really gnawing on things and is a bit cranky at times when she's putting things in her mouth. It won't be too long before that first tooth shows up. Solid foods are the next big thing on the agenda as Sara is almost six months old! We can't believe our baby girl is almost half a year old. Sara is starting to show interest in food when Andy and I eat and we're sure she'll take to it quickly in a few weeks since she loves her milk so much and has always been a good eater (just look at those cheeks!).

Hope everyone is having a good week - check out all the new videos and pictures that we've posted recently and be sure to leave comments when you get a chance as we love hearing from everyone!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone is enjoying Independence Day - here are some pictures of our All American Sweetheart! Her outfit says "My First 4th"

Picture Time!

I love pictures!

This is teddy bear - he tastes yummy!

I see my Daddy - he's the best!

Oh yeah, I know I'm the cutest!

Sitting Up, Teeth, and the Wreck

Sara has now mastered sitting up. She decided it might be a fun thing to do a few weeks ago and can now sit up for several minutes at a time. She can reach for toys, bend over and sit back up, and correct herself most times when she starts to tip one way or the other. She still topples over plenty - especially when she gets tired - but she gets steadier each day.

Sara's coordination has also improved quite a bit over the last couple weeks. Two Thursdays ago, Andy and I noticed that she had begun very purposefully grabbing her toys. In the past, she would swat or swipe at them and sometimes pick them up, but all of a sudden she was looking at the toy she wanted and just picking it up the first time she tried. She would even look for the toy when she dropped it and pick it back up again. We're not sure if her vision or depth perception just came into focus or she just finally decided that she really wanted those toys.

Sara is really enjoying sitting up in the bath now and playing with her bath toys. We have a small inflatable tub that fits in the big bath tub for now since she's still not so stable and the full tub is a bit scary to have her sitting in. It also uses a lot less water and she doesn't need that much right now.

Since Sara likes the water so much, we got her a little one ring pool for her to try out. Last weekend, we put some water in the sun to warm up and then let her play in the pool in the shade. She liked the water and the toys floating around her, but her pool adventure sadly had to be cut short when she decided it would be a good idea to poo in the pool. Since it was just a little pool we had let her go skinny dipping instead of trying to put her in a swim diaper - of course she decided to go poo!

In preparation for solid foods coming up in a month or so, we got Sara's high chair last weekend. We've put her in it a few times while we're in the kitchen and she seems content to sit there for a while. She's still super tiny in the seat, but she's growing like a weed and will soon be eating in it like a big girl!

Sara is sleeping through the night now, and just this weekend started rolling over onto her tummy at night. Andy said she was rolling up and down the crib this morning when he went in to get her, so she is becoming very mobile!

Even though Sara is sleeping pretty good, she has started waking frequently some nights. She sometimes needs a paci to go back to sleep and sometimes can put herself back to sleep. She's also been a bit more cranky lately and really putting toys in her mouth. Andy and I suspect that she may be in the beginning of teething. The pediatrician said that she would probably start to have sore gums at around four months of age and she does seem to have some of the signs of teething. Andy also discovered that she really wanted to put her mouth on his cold glass at a restaurant the other day, so we've started giving her teething rings out of the freezer when she gets fussy. She seems to like the cold in her mouth, but we're not sure if it's really helping or not yet. There are no signs of teeth ready to break through, but her gums may be sore for a while before that actually happens. Mommy isn't really looking forward to teeth and nursing, but hopefully she will behave!

In other news, Andy got an early Father's Day present on Thursday when he got rear-ended on his way home from work. A lady driving a Dodge Ram and hauling a trailer decided not to stop for the red light and plowed into his little Civic at about 30mph. Luckily Andy is ok though he has been a little sore and got a bruise on his arm where the seat belt slipped down. The Civic, however, is not ok and we can't imagine how it could be fixed. We've pretty much decided that we will demand it be totalled and get him a new one. It's the first new car Andy's ever had and it gets totalled within the first year he has it!

For the real Father's Day, Sara gave daddy the gift of time by getting him a lawn service for the summer. She said it took daddy a long time on the weekends to mow the lawn and she'd rather be playing with him instead. It will be nice for him to not have to be out in the heat too. She also made daddy a pencil holder at school with her picture, hand, and foot prints on it for daddy to take to work. Sara sure does love her daddy!

We hope you are all enjoying the weekend and Father's Day. Happy Daddy's Day to all the dads we know!

Playing is Fun

As Sara gets older, she continues to show more and more interest in toys, people, and playing in general. Last weekend Sara found her feet. All of a sudden her feet were constantly in her hands and she has been quite rolly polly as she curves her legs up to grab them. On Thursday she figured out that she could put her feet into her mouth (it was only a matter of time!) and that has been quite exciting for her as well.

Sara is continuing to work on sitting up and is slowly able to sit up for longer periods of time before she tumbles over. She still has to lean forward but doesn't have to use her hands for support all the time. She's really started showing interest in toys around her on the floor now that she can sit up a bit and tries to grab at them. Unfortunately, she falls over a lot doing this since she still hasn't mastered sitting up without a toy in her hand. She doesn't seem to mind though and usually keeps playing on her side or back where she has landed. It seems as though she is really interested in figuring out how to sit up so that she can play with more things whereas she can roll over but rarely does because there is nothing in it for her.

I did, however, see her roll over yesterday while playing on the floor. She rolled over onto her tummy and started to grab at toys around her. This was the first time I had seen her roll over where it seemed easy for her to do it. For a long time, she was getting over by rolling onto her side and then kicking to get her hips over. Yesterday she just seemed to roll over without effort so maybe she is practicing at school.

Once she was on her tummy, I placed a mirror in front of her as she loves to look at that baby in there. She smiled and laughed and cooed at that baby and tried to reach out to touch her. She really likes mirrors in general and loves to make faces at herself and watch other people make faces at her. It will be neat when she finally figures out that she is that baby in the mirror!

Sara has also began to take notice of Bridgette and Bruno. She has watched them for a long time, but just recently started to reach for them and show interest in "petting" the puppies. Luckily the dogs have been great with her and put up with her grabbing at them. She can really get a grip on their ears or the side of their face, but they are patient with her when she does. They are learning to flinch when she reaches for their face, which is where she always goes for. I think they have an agreement that she can pull at their ears as long as they get to lick her and eat the spit up that they find on her. I think the dogs will really like her as she gets older and can really play with them and understand what nice petting is.

We've been having fun with Sara as she starts to figure out all these new things. She is still talking a lot and figured out how to make the "da" sound this week. Andy likes it when she says "da da da da" since it sounds like dada. She also took better naps at school this week so we got more time with her each evening before she went to bed. Today she has been having fun playing all morning only pausing to take a quick cat nap. She figured out how to get her exersaucer to bounce today and was moving all around in it to make it shake. We took a couple of videos and will put them up on the site soon. (I have a bunch of videos and just need to take the time to upload them)

Hope everyone is having a good weekend so far!

Back to Work, The Cold, and Drama

Well, as is obvious by the lack of postings, mommy has returned to work. I went back to work on April 14th and we've all been adjusting since. Weekends are too short and we're so tired weeknights that posting a blog entry is the last thing we think to do.

Returning to work has been difficult, but mostly on me. Sara has seemed to have no problem going to daycare and the teachers in her room are really great with her. Once she got over her bottle aversion, which only took a couple weeks, she's really done well there. All the teachers and the front door staff just love her and she seems very happy there. This makes it so much easier for me to continue working, but it doesn't make me miss her any less. I still plan to continue to evaluate work as she gets older, but so far it does seem to be working ok.

One down side of Sara in daycare is that she doesn't seem to nap as well there. I guess there is too much fun and excitement going on as she gets to play with bubbles, listen to music, and even fingerpaint! She is having all kinds of neat experiences and doesn't want to sleep very much there. This sometimes means that we don't get to see her very much during the evening when we get home. Often, she is pooped out and just wants to nurse and go to bed when she gets home. These days are hard for Andy and I since we want to spend time with her when we get home and she just wants to sleep. It's definitely not everyday, but sometimes she goes several days in a row like this and we just miss her.

I've also been playing around with when to take her to daycare, how much she needs in bottles, and other such fun. I started out trying to nurse her in the mornings before we left, but I was actually trying to artificially add a feeding at that point since she normally didn't want to eat until around 8am and I was trying to feed her between 6-7am. I did this for about a month, but she was mostly just playing around and taking up a lot of time. It was taking me three hours from the time I got up to the time I got to work and I wasn't getting home with her until 5:30 or 6:00. The last couple weeks I've been sending her to school with a bottle for the morning. This means that she now has to have three bottles at school instead of two, but the last one is only a couple of ounces to tide her over until I can pick her up and feed her at home. It has saved a lot of time since now I can just get her up and dressed and out the door. I've started working nine hour days Monday through Thursday so that I can take half days on Fridays and have more time with her for the weekend. So far I think that is worth it versus picking her up an hour earlier each day, but this whole thing is a constant trial and error!

We've also been playing the guessing game as to how much milk she needs in her bottles since I don't know how much she's taking when she nurses. We started with four ounces and she was finishing all of it. We then went to 4.5-5 ounces and she was finishing all of that too. So, the last couple weeks she has been getting two 6 ounce bottles during the day and a small snack before I pick her up. This seems to be satisfying her for now, and I have been lucky to be able to pump a ton of milk while at work to keep up with her demand.

In other news, the whole family has been passing around different colds for over a month now. Sadly, Sara got her first cold from mommy and daddy and not the other kids at school. The poor kid had snot out the wazzoo for four weeks solid and didn't feel too great for the first couple weeks either. Andy and I spent a lot of time cleaning out her nose with the Nose Frida, a disgusting but highly effective contraption that allows us to actually suck the snot out of her nose (http://www.nosefrida.com/). Of course Sara hated having her nose suctioned out with this thing, but we did get all kinds of nasty stuff out that had to help her breathe better. During the same time, Andy and I got about three different rounds of a cold too. We're still not sure if it's the same cold being passed around or if we just keep catching different ones and giving them to each other. It's really sad for Sara though because there's nothing we can give her to help her with the sinus trouble because she is so little. All we can do is put saline drops in her nose to help break up the mucus and suction it out for her. I can't imagine not being able to blow my nose - it must feel so aweful for her! The worst thing now is that after about a week of no snot, she has a runny nose again today. I'm hoping it won't be as long and drawn out as this first cold was - we really need to get everyone in the house over this thing!

We've been trying to do lots of fun things with Sara on the weekends to expose her to new things as she grows. She's been to the zoo, had her first picnic, and been to her first birthday party for her friend Sophia. So far, she loves to go new places and look around. She has gotten a lot better about traveling in the car too and doesn't scream when the car comes to a stop (mostly she just snoozes in the car now). We plan to take her to the children's museum soon and let her check out the infant room that we hear is a lot of fun.

Sara was very sweet to mommy for Mother's Day and asked daddy to get some flowers and a gift certificate to the spa. We also went out for a nice dinner at our local steak house, Killens, where they were giving out roses for moms. I took some pictures with her that day too and got a few cute ones. Mother's Day was particularly neat since I found out that I was pregnant last year on Mother's Day and now have my daughter to hold for this one! Now we'll have to see if Sara is as sweet to her daddy for Father's Day next month :)

Just like all babies, Sara is growing and changing so fast! We just took her in for her fourth month appointment this past Friday and she is doing very good. She weighed in at 14lbs 13oz and 25.5 inches long. She's in the 75th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for height! Wow. She is growing so fast at this point and getting quite a lot of baby chub on her. She is now mostly in six month size clothing and needs the 6-9 month size for onsies and sleepers! So far, she's only lasted about two months in each size group. I'm sure she'll slow down at some point, but she's still growing like a weed right now. Sara had another round of immunizations this time too, which is always no fun. She had another four shots in her legs the poor kid and then was just a bit fussy for the next two days. She didn't seem to run a fever at all this time though, so that is at least a bit better than the first round. I still gave her Tylenol to help with the pain and crankiness, but she did seem a bit better this time.

As for new things, Sara now loves to "talk" and will chat you up with lots of different sounds and squeals. She discovered that she could squeal a few weeks ago and it was the only noise she made for two weeks straight. The higher pitched the sound, the more proud she was of herself! She loves it when you sing to her now and smiles a lot. She's getting into peek-a-boo now as well and laughs when you play it with her. She still mostly does a big open mouth smile when she's having fun, but is starting to actually laugh now and then too. She almost doesn't know what to think when the laugh comes out, but we keep trying to encourage her to do it. It's probably the best sound I've ever heard when she has a real belly laugh and I can't wait for her to start doing it on a regular basis!

Sara still likes to play with her activity mat, but she's much more mobile now. We change out the toys on it frequently to keep her interest and she can pull and grab all sorts of toys now. She also wiggles around a lot on the mat and ends up completely sideways at times. She is getting very wiggly on the ground and can roll over from back to front and front to back if she wants to. She also wiggles in her sleep and we often find her in a completely different place in her crib than where we put her down. If she follows her daddy's footsteps, she'll be walking by nine months! For now, she's working on sitting up on her own. She can now sit on her own for a few minutes at a time if she's leaning forward and can use her hands for balance. She can't quite sit straight up yet though because she doesn't have the side to side balance down. I think she's probably going to figure things out within this month though - she's been a very quick learner so far with all the physical milestone type things.

Sara's big new toy is her Exersaucer. We got it for her when she turned three months since she could hold her head steady, but we still have to stick a towel in the seat with her for support. She loves all the toys on it and is good at spinning herself around when she wants to play with something new. She hasn't quite figured out all the capabilities of the toys as many of the things have batteries to play songs or make noise or light up, but she's still really enjoying it at this point. I'm sure she'll really get to like the thing as she gets a bit bigger and can really get all the bells and whistles going on it!

As much fun as we've been having watching Sara figure out all these new things, she's also started a bit of the drama as we like to call it. Her cry is definitely more dramatic when she's not really in pain but just cranky. She's also starting to cry over little things just to get attention. She rolled over the other morning while playing with daddy on the floor and just started a blood curdling scream. I'm not sure if she scared herself or what, but it bolted me from bed to see what horrible thing had just happened to her only to find her just fine but dramatically crying over nothing. It took fifteen minutes to get her to calm down and we still couldn't figure out what had scared her so bad in the first place. She didn't even cry nearly that much when she got her shots! Andy and I both get the feeling that she's starting to figure out some things and how to play mommy and daddy is one of them. She's still not old enough to understand that this might be wrong, so we just have to laugh at her sometimes even though the crying is a bit much. I'm sure this is just the beginning of her trying to figure out just what she can get away with - oh the toddler years will be fun!

Well, I hope this gets everyone caught up on the Athon family for now. Hopefully things will get a bit easier as we get over the colds and I can be better about making new posts. I hope everyone is doing great - we're ready for visitors again soon!

A Quick Update

I know it's been a while since we posted - we've been busy with our little snoochie boochie. She's changing so fast it's hard to believe, so I'll try to give everyone the highlights.

Sara rolled over for the first time two Saturdays ago (3/29) from stomach to back. She did it twice in a row for her daddy in the morning and I saw her do it again later that afternoon. I think she really doesn't enjoy tummy time very much and was quite motivated that day to get back on her back. Of course Sara has decided that she has no need to roll over for us again - especially since we constantly have the camera set to video it when we put her on her tummy. Most times now she just makes crawling motions but isn't strong enough yet to actually move anywhere. If we ever get the roll over on video, we'll be sure to post it!

The other big change is that Sara is now intentionally reaching for her toys. Last Saturday she started reaching for the toys on her play mat and actually grabbing them. She's always liked her play mat, but now she has a lot of fun with it and grabs different toys dangling from it in both hands. She even talks to her toys as she grabs them and sometimes smiles at them. She's been trying to get them in her mouth, but none of them stretch that far. It won't be long before everything in her reach goes in her mouth I'm sure.

Sara has continued to do pretty good in her crib at night, which is nice for us! She still starts off most nights in the swing, but we're trying to break her of that need slowly. Last night she was pretty sleepy after her last feeding, so I put her down in her crib and she stayed in there for the night. I'm not sure if she'll do it again tonight, but it was great to have her in bed and not have to creep around the living room with her asleep in the swing until we went to bed. She's also sleeping a bit better at night and we've been having to make less runs to put a paci in before she needs to eat. We've been really lucky in general with her sleeping as she's adapted to her crib pretty well and started sleeping for a long stretch at such a young age. It definitely allows us to sleep better and feel a bit more human in the morning.

This week is my last week of maternity leave and I go back to work full time next week. I started Sara in daycare this week so that I could take her there a few hours each day to get her used to it. I'd been worried about daycare in general and then Sara decided a couple weeks ago that she no longer wanted to take a bottle. She had taken them just fine for a while, and then she decided that she wasn't having any of it. From what I've read about the subject, she's at the age where eating in general becomes a choice instead of just a reflex/instinct and she clearly has a decided that the bottle is not what she wants to eat from. Trying to give her a bottle after this switch, she would scream and scream until she eventually got hungry enough to take it. Last week I made her take one a day to try to get her used to it since she won't have any other choice at daycare. She was all over the place taking it just fine one day and screaming for three hours before taking it another. I felt so bad for her, but I also didn't want to give in because she does need to learn to take the bottle. I've heard from several friends that she will pick it up in a week or two at daycare and I know she can take the bottle when she gets hungry enough. I just hate to think of her at daycare screaming and hungry for hours.

So bottle problems and all she started daycare this week. I've only been taking her for half days so she only has to take one bottle while she's getting used to the new surroundings. I think daycare is way harder on me than it is on her because she seems to be doing great there. She did have a problem with the bottle on Monday, but they got her to drink half of it at least. Yesterday she took almost the whole thing, so we'll see how much she had taken when I go to pick her up today. She has napped in her crib there, which shocked me since she hates to do so at home, and has had a chance to play and do tummy time. She seems happy when I pick her up and doesn't look like she's been crying or upset. I do like her main teacher, Rosie, a lot and that makes me feel pretty good about her being there. It's just hard to not have her with me all the time like I've been able to do while on leave. It's been hard taking her to daycare each day and coming home to an empty house. The first two days I just pumped and left for the afternoon because I didn't want to be here without her. I've felt a bit better today and decided to try to get some things done around the house and update the blog while she's gone, but I still keep looking at the clock to see when I can leave to go pick her up. Work is definitely going to be different when I go back and there will be no more long days for sure.

Speaking of picking up my baby, it is almost time so I'll go for now. I have a bunch of pictures and a few videos to upload when I get a chance, so be on the lookout for those soon. Hope you are all having a good week!