Baby Talk

It's so funny to see Sara's first words emerge. The first word we noticed her use was "hi", and she has been saying it along with waving for a few months now. Here is a complete list of words she knows:

She can say:

• Hi
• Bye-bye
• Da-da, but she doesn't seem to know ma-ma yet :(
• Bottle (ba-ba)
  
• Baby -- we discovered this one on her birthday when she got a doll as a gift and said "baby!" over and over when she saw it.

She can sign:

• Hi
• Bye-Bye
• food
• water
• bottle
  
• cheese
  
• all done

In addition to speaking and signing words, she has started to babble incoherently, but I'm sure she thinks she's speaking full sentences! It's fun to just make up a conversation to talk with to her when she babbles.

She can do the actions for:

• Pat-a-cake
• Itsy-bitsy Spider

She also claps any time she hears applause, or if she sees somebody else clapping.

It's so fun to watch her learn and grow!

{Click Here to view videos of Sara saying "Baby", opening her first Christmas present, walking, playing with her birthday balloons, and eating birthday cake.}

Happy Birthday Sara!

{click to enlarge}

We enjoyed celebrating Sara's birthday today with my family in California. Can't believe our baby girl is a year old already!

Christmas

Two hats, two nerf boomerangs, a cape, flip flops with socks, what looks like a scarf-belt, and nose-mustache glasses‏

= AWESOME

That's me on the right there. I'm not exactly sure what my sister and I have on our heads or what we think we're dressed up as, but whatever is it, it's nothing compared to my brother's get-up! We obviously did not even come close to committing to it as much as he did. I am baffled by this photo for two reasons. 1) Yesterday was the first time I ever remember seeing this photo! and 2) In all my growing-up years, I don't remember my older brother being much of a dress-up man. But this picture proves that he was! And he did it in style.

She's a GIRL!!

If Sara isn't wearing a headband or an obviously girly outfit when we go out and about, she is often mistaken for a boy. The truth of the matter is: she does look like her dad! So I guess it's not hard for people to think she's a boy if she's dressed too neutrally. Today we were at the grocery store and Sara was sitting in her carseat in the front of the shopping cart. She was wearing brown socks, jeans with no noticeable girly embellishments (there are hearts on the back pockets, but those aren't visible while she's sitting) and a tan hoodie sweatshirt, again with the flower embellishments being hidden by the shoulder strap on her carseat. BUT the lining of her hood (which was clearly visible) is a purplish pink, and she had a PURPLE blanket on her!! Last I checked, purple is traditionally a color worn exclusivley by girls. But dispite this, a lady at the checkout came up to Sara and kept saying, "Oh he's so cute!" "He's smiling at me!" "How old is he?" -- I was very polite and didn't correct her error, but I am now recommitted to making sure she is obviously dressed like a girl when we go out!

blanket, bunny, and sippy cup

Every time we visit Primary Children's Medical Center, we always walk out with more than we came in with, and I'm not just talking about massive medical bills! People donate items to the hospital all the time, and today Sara received her 4th blanket from PCMC, as well as a big blue bunny that a technician gave her and a sippy cup of apple juice to drink after her visit. Sara had a followup appointment this morning to check the aortic arch repair she had done back in January. They did an EKG, took her blood pressures in all 4 limbs, and did a sedated echocardiogram. The cardiologist said everything looks great! She said any relapse or re-narrowing of the aorta normally occurs within 6 months after surgery, so the fact that Sara's is doing well is a good indicator that she will not have any future problems with it. Yay! There were a few other concerns back in January with one of the valves in her heart that looked slightly abnormal, but the doctor said it appears to be growing with her and is still functioning adequately, so it is not a major concern. The only other issue was a small hole between the right and left ventricles of her heart, but she said that has closed up on its own since our last visit. So everything looks great! As the cardiologist said, "Kudos to Dr. Burch!" (the surgeon who performed the repair) -- Yes, kudos to you Dr. Burch! Thanks again for saving our baby girl. We are continually thankful for today's surgical advancements and the miracles of modern medicine. Our little girl wouldn't be here without them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving here in Salt Lake with Rob's family. All his siblings were in town, so we decided to take some family photos.

Sara was quite tired after all the photo taking...

so she took a much needed nap on the dining room floor.

Eating her first Thanksgiving meal.

Yummy sweet potatoes!


Indian feathers.

Playing with the cousins

Thirsty?

Playing Pat-a-cake


And finally, this is how we all felt after stuffing ourselves full of delicious Thanksgiving food...

Hope you all had a great holiday!

Sad Face

Sara recently started making a funny face when she is sad or when she wants something. So dramatic! Hmmm, I wonder where she gets it. Certainly not from her mother.



If you stick it out and watch the whole video, you'll also see some "bye-bye" in there.

Don't you just want to smooch her little face?!

Repurposing

<-- I'll be purchasing this tomorrow (used. $6.00. Score!)
















because the babes has been using this -->
as if it were one.







It's time to get the real deal.

reading material

It's hard to get mad at the baby for pulling all the magazines out of the basket when I'm the one who keeps the basket on the floor, well within her reach, just sitting there, taunting her. But where else am I supposed to put them?!

I should open a flower shop

I like to arrange flowers. It's fun. And arranged flowers always look better than bouquet stuck in a vase flowers.

get ready to rock

I did this. And by that I mean Rob's Mom did it and I helped. Kind of. I think I may have hindered more than I actually helped. BUT look what we did!


Sara is 10 months old and we just got a rocking chair. Why didn't we get it sooner? Who knows. But Sara likes to be held/rocked to sleep (spoiled!) and the lack of a rocking chair was getting more and more difficult. SO we finally broke down and bought one. We wanted to get something "stylish", but didn't want to spend a ton of money, so we compromised and bought a second-hand basic glider but recovered the cushions in a fun print. It looks SO much better than the original fabric. I was too excited about recovering it that I forgot to take a "before" photo before we ripped the old fabric off, but here's a shot of the fabric sans chair.

BEFORE

AFTER!

Quite the improvement, don't you think?!

Sara seems to like it.

I think I'll move to Arizona

I've decided I don't like Daylight Savings Time, 'cause I don't care if it's totally dark at 5:00 AM, but when I can't see my own hand in front of my face at 5:00 PM, I've got a problem with that. SO to whoever made the rules regarding your so-called "Daylight Savings" -- what do you have against saving the daylight for the evenings? 'Cause seriously, nobody will miss it from the mornings. Gimme back my sunshine please.

Oh.

Ok, so I just did a little research, and it turns out that Daylight Savings Time is during the Summer, which means right now we are in regular "Standard" time. Good ol' Wikipedia says, "Daylight savings time is the practice of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn." So I think I owe an apology to Daylight Savings Time. I DO like it after all! It is Standard Time I have the problem with! I say, why do we need to "Fall Back"? Let's just change to Daylight Savings all year round, because when we switch back to Standard Time in the Fall (like right now) it just gets too dang dark too dang early.

Ok. Sorry again DST. Hugs and kisses.

Shortcake

Staying up too late

It's what I do.

Why don't babies understand how great sleeping is?

I mean, I usually can't get enough of it. But try and lay Sara down for bed and it's like we just put her in a torture chamber. Close your eyes! Relax! Go to sleep! You'll really like it once you try it, I promise!! -- my logic strangely doesn't seem to work on her.

Who told me this was good?

'cause I didn't think it was all that great. But maybe that's because I was making headbands for Sara the whole time. Or maybe I was making headbands for Sara the whole time because it wasn't that great. One of those chicken and egg things. Well at least I only paid one dollar for it. Thanks RedBox.

uhg

Every surface in our apartment is covered in clutter right now, and it's quite the dilemma because 1) I don't feel like cleaning, and 2) it's driving me crazy because I can't find anything!! So my question to you is, who wants to come on over and clean for me?! Oh, but that won't help either because I still won't be able to find anything if I didn't put it away myself. Lose lose. Blah.

My second question is, does anybody have a box of matches and some lighter fluid? That might be a faster solution.

Love is Everything

Some friends of ours are trying to adopt a child, and are spreading the word to anyone who can help them hopefully find a new baby to bring into their home. They are a great couple who have one son of their own and want to add another child to their family through adoption. Please keep this couple in mind and contact them if you know of a baby in need of adoption.

Please read the letter below from the couple, and you can find out more about them on their blog by clicking here.

Thanks!

********************************

Dear Family and Friends,

Many of you know of our desire to adopt a baby. We have been in the adoption application process for the past eight months. Within the next three to six weeks, we should be approved. So all that's left is to find a baby! We are seeking your help in spreading the word. We have created a blog to help prospective birth parents get acquainted with our family. If you hear of someone facing an unplanned pregnancy who is considering adoption, will you please give them our blog and/or email address? Feel free to forward this email to your friends and family if you feel so inclined.

Our blog: DanBrittany.blogspot.com

Our email: DanandBrittany@gmail.com

It feels awkward "advertising" for a baby. We certainly didn't plan on being in this situation, but we have felt the influence of God's hand in our life and feel driven to the adoption process. We are anxious to love and care for another child.

We appreciate your help. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Thank you for your love, prayers, and support.

Love,

Brittany and Dan

Constant Companions

I've been seeing much more of these than I'd like to recently.

Not a box

I left Rob and Sara alone for a few hours, and this is what I found when I returned.

"One of the best videos of all time"

laundry day

Ambidextrous?

Sara uses her left hand for eating finger foods, and her right hand for playing with toys. It's probably too early to tell, but my younger brother is a lefty, and my older brother is ambidextrous, and I'm starting to wonder if maybe it's genetic. I suppose we'll have to wait and see!!

Other fun facts about the wee babes. She:

* is 9 months old! (Already?) I know.
* likes to crawl through tight spaces, like under chairs or between the ottoman and couch, and frequently gets stuck in such places.
* usually makes a Rachael Ray "Mmmmm" sound when she eats, which is handy for being able to tell when she's found something on the floor to snack on that I need to fish out of her mouth.
* loves any toy that squeaks, jingles, chirps, or rattles.
* recently re-discovered her hands. She loves to hold them up to her face or above her head and study them while she turns her wrists or opens and closes her fingers. She also loves studying my hands, trying to figure out how all the joints and knuckles work.
* is still pretty bald, but is starting to get just enough hair to have fuzzy bed head in the mornings.
* has started to mimic. Sometimes I copy the noises she makes, and then she gets a smile on her face and plays along, copying my noises too.
* really loves bath time and enjoys splashing to her heart's content.
* is a true master of crawling and can now get from crawling to kneeling or sitting with ease. It's not really a huge accomplishment (kinda the next step after crawling), but I just think it's so cute every time I see her stop mid-crawl and push her weight back on to her bum to sit for a spell.
* is starting to play "peek-a-boo"
* loves to watch herself in videos (who doesn't!) and already understands the concept of immediately watching what I just recorded.
* is cute. Here, see for yourself!

TOOTH!

(click on the picture to enlarge--at least that works for me)

P.S.

Oh, by the way. . . . Our friends who had the pirate party for their little boy want to give away (FREE) the decorations and extra party favors to anybody who is interested. So if you're looking to throw a themed party and have a hankering to wear an eye patch, just let me know and I'll hook you up.

TTFN

A Pirate's Life for Me

Some friends of ours had a party on Saturday for their little boy's 3rd birthday. The theme was pirates, and we were asked to dress up. And so we did!

Here is Sara in her costume, all ready to go to the party.


And all of us at the party. Sara was more interested in Mommy's sword than she was in looking at the camera.


Sara enjoyed digging for treasure in the pirate chest,


Keeping the lookout with the spyglass,


and practicing her new "scrunchy nose" smile.



The decorations at the party were superb. This cute pirate ship on the fence,



flags hanging above the yard,



and a detailed treasure map to guide the kids toward the treasure chest.


And, most importantly. . .

THE CAKE!

We had a great time. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!

First encounter with a balloon

Dear Anna,

Please stop buying me. We both know I'm too delicious to resist, so just do yourself a favor and keep on walking when you see that frozen section at the grocery store. And don't go sending your husband out to get me either. You know you'll just regret it later after you've eaten half of me in one night. I know I'm tasty, I know I'm sweet, but you're just going to have to get over me and move on.

Sincerely,
Mint Chocolate Cookie

I like me some Scrabble

Remembering

Do you think I could sell it on ebay?

The trouble with not having enough counter space in your kitchen is you use your stove top for extra counter space. The trouble with using your stove top for extra counter space is inevitably, something will be left on there that shouldn't be. The trouble with leaving something on there that shouldn't be is that somebody will turn the oven on to cook a party pizza without clearing off the stove top first. The trouble with cooking a party pizza without clearing off the stove top is, this happens:



On the plus side, now I have this cool "man in the moon" looking piece of tupperware. It won't keep any food items fresh, but it sure is fun to look at.

p.s. I would label this under "me being dumb", but I wasn't the one who cooked the party pizza. :)