Intro to camping

Yesterday, we went out to our local sporting goods store and bought a 6 person tent. We've been talking about introducing Sarah to camping, and this was the perfect weekend weather wise to do it. We found a great deal on a large tent, marked down 33%, plus we got sleeping bags for the two of us (Sarah got one as a birthday gift) for $10 a piece. We got out of there for less than $100.

Sarah was all excited about sleeping in the tent. On the way home from dinner though, she got a bit aprehensive about it. Once it was set up though, she was chomping at the bit to get out there and sleep in it. She was so excited that it took a while for her to finally calm down. She did really well. We'er going to have to do it again, building up to camping out at a camp ground.

I couldn't find a picture of the tent online, so I'll have to post on of my own. Eventually :)

Christmas 2005

Sarah had a wonderful Christmas this year filled with presents and family. She has already had 5 seperate parties with one more to come. It's nuts trying to get her around to see everyone and also not run too rampant. Next year will be interesting with one more for us on the way and my sister being pregnant.

I know I had a heck of a time putting together a list of gifts to give to Santa this year. Sarah is so smart, that anything age appropriate bores her, and anything intelligence appropriate has small piece or other age issues. The Lego Duplo Thomas and Friends sets ended up under the tree this year. She has played with some of Paige's trains and has shown an interest, so we decided to foster and encourage this. The set she got had a bridge that she loved putting the trains on the top of and pushing them down the ramp. This toy went over big.

This was also a green Christmas without even trying, which made me happy. She got a bunch of wooden toys (blocks, puzzles), as well as soy based crayons and the Legos, which are PVC free.

Sarah also loves her 20 gallon fish tank we set up last week. We went out on Monday morning and bought 10 fish. 5 Zebra Danios and 5 Leopard Danios. All are still alive this morning. Sarah stood at the tank while drinking her milk watching the fish swim. She enjoyed telling me that they were going 'round and 'round.

Almost 15 months old

It's been about a month since I last posted, and I am, rightfully so, beginning to hear about it. These days are forever gone, and will only live on in our memories, and the point of this weblog is to assist in that memory.

Sarah has been doing very well these past several months. She is now running, not walking, and getting into all sorts of trouble associated with mobility. Her favorite thing to drive me crazy right now is playing in the cat's water dish. She even dropped her gold fish crackers in there yesterday, and then wanted to go back and rescue them after we had a talk. I think she is hitting the terrible two's a bit early. She has even started to throw fits when she doesn't get her way. She even has mastered the word 'no', and uses it often. It's amusing to hear, but frustrating hearing someone so small trying to talk back to you. And you can't reason with her yet.

She is really growing up and fine tuning her personality. Her vocabulary is growing daily, sometime to our dismay when we slip and say something 'bad'. She really loves to immitate the two of us.

Sarah also now appears to be over her grass phobia. Last weekend, our neighborhood had a block party in the back yards, and she was just cruising around (with shoes on of course) running all over the 3 yards that were being used. We haven't put her in the grass since, but I'm sure it won't take much to get her going.

I've also been slacking with photos, both taking and posting. I have some that I need to get posted, and will try to do that within the next couple of days. Check back for an update.

Reflections

It's been over a year since Sarah was born and I still remember the moment as vividly as if it were this morning. I'm sure there are parts that Karen would not like to remember, like the b**ch of an OB we had, or the discomfort of the delivery experience, but all in all, I think it was the best experience of our lives.

I was reading an article on MSNBC today by a new father, talking about the anxieties he had before his wife delivered, and I was taken back to what I had felt in the months leading up to the birth of Sarah. I remember my fear of all the blood and watching my wife go through agonizing pain, and wondering if I would be upright or passed out when she was born. It's a scary thing to face! As time progressed, and I realized how much help I was to my wife with the pain management and the encouragement, my fears began to subside. I can still remember seeing my daughters head begin to poke through and my reaction. It brought me to tears, I was so excited and happy at that moment.

I know one thing that made a world of difference for me was the education that our Bradley classes provided. I believe had we not gone through the classes, and just went with a quick Lamaze class, I would have missed what is now the most memorable and life altering event I have ever been through.

Getting too brave

Monday night, we put Sarah in her crib to play a bit while Karen and I were cleaning up her room a bit. She managed to pull herself up to a standing position using her crib rails. She's been doing this a bit already, but we finally realized that we need to drop her mattress a bit so she doesn't flip out over the top. I lowered the crib and all is well now.

Last night, however, she decided to see what it would be like to do a face plant off the couch at Todd and Megan's house. One of her toys fell to the ground, and before we knew it, she was going after it and fell off the couch. She was shaken up, but not hurt. I guess we need to keep these things in mind now that is really moving around quickly and freely.

Way too lucky, way too long

Our lucky streak with Sarah sleeping through the night for at least 8 hours seems to have ended, at least for the moment. Monday night, Sarah decided she was ready for bed around 9:00, and then proceded to get her normal 8+ hours of sleep and woke up at 5:30 AM. Not too bad, we just figured it was because she went to sleep so early that she was well rested and ready to go so early. Well, last night, she went to bed at her normal time, somewhere around 10:30 or so, but this time she got up at 4:30. Ugh! Karen went and got her and changed her while I grabbed her a 2 oz bottle thinking maybe she just needed something small. She ended up drinking 4 oz, forcing me to go back downstairs to get more. She then fell back asleep with us and slept until Karen was ready to leave for work and take her to day care.

I guess I can't complain. She has been sleeping through the night for the past 6 weeks or so and we have just become accustomed to it. We were really lucky. Guess we'll have to see how tonight goes.

5 weeks down.....

I tried again today to give sarah some formula. I feel that it is inevitable that she will have to be switched over from breast milk before too long--she is just eating too much for me to be able to keep up with her. We have decided that if that has to be done then that is what we have to do. So, I thought I would start trying to introduce formula to her slowly so that when the day comes she will be used to it. Well it has been a disaster so far....

being backwards

Does anyone understand why maternety leave is for the first 6 or 12 weeks when the baby doesn't do anything but eat, sleep and dirty their diapers and then they go off to day care and are all grown up it seems. They roll over, talk crawl and all kinds of other fun stuff when you can no longer seem them more than 8 or 10 hours a day. How is that fair?

Update

It's been a while since I posted about Sarah's adventures in life, and so much has happened. To start, she passed her hearing test with flying colors mid last week. When they tested her 24 hours after birth, one ear passed and the other referred (didn't pass) twice. Not a big deal, but we had to go back at 2 weeks of age and have her retested. She passed just like we knew she would.

Saturday night was her first experience with fireworks, and like her father when I was young, she was not happy at all. We walked up to the hill by Todd and Megan's to see the Marietta fireworks, and ended up leaving shortly after they started. She was tugging at her ears and was just screaming. We probably shouldn't have taken her out, but hindsight is always 20/20. She's fine now, but next year could be interesting, not sure if we will take her out or not yet.

Yesterday, for the first time, she met her great grandparents. They are back from Florida for the summer, and to see her, and we were finally able to get together and show her off. We were able to get a four generation picture. She also was able to meet one of her great aunts and her second cousin. There still is more family to meet, but we are doing it on her schedule and little by little.

Awesome friends and family

Yesterday, our wonderful neighbors brought over a box of cigars that they made custom labels for. They own their own business and one of the things they do is the custom wrappers. They gave us a box of cigars with the labels, as well as 10 more in glass tubes. Takers on people to help smoke them?

There are also more pictures up in the gallery from the past few days.

Fathers Day

Yesterday for the first time, I was the focus of a Fathers Day celebration. Karen is a bit jealous that I get a fathers day this year and she has to wait another year for her first mothers day, but she is happy to have Sarah here.

We had both of our families over yesterday, just to make it easier for us and Sarah. That way we didn't have to take her out of the house and worry about getting her all ready and being in yet another strange environment. I have a feeling that Sunday nights will be here for a while for the same reasons. We did the typical summer Bar-B-Que foods on the grill and just enjoyed everyones company.