Behavior and Personality

In the last few weeks, it seems like you've gone through so many changes. Here is a short recap.
You no longer like the food that we've made for you, anything with veggies or soups that the nanny makes, you refuse to eat. So I had to buy a bunch of jarred food for you because some of those jars you eat just fine. Then for about a week you stopped eating cereal too, although last few days you are back to liking it. The food that we put for you on a tray in pieces at first goes on the floor, you pick it up look at it, and then throw it down (unless it's cheese), even after we say "No" and you seem to understand that too, because you follow up with a head shake. Then at some point you give it a try and if you like it, you eat it. So it's been a challenge to feed you. Before I could trick you into eating veggies by covering them up in yogurt, but that's no longer the case, in fact you don't even like the yogurt that you used to love so much. We did try "yo baby" yogurt yesterday and you did like that a lot, but of course it's because there is fruit in it and it's sweet unlike the one I have you before. You have no problem with fruits. But if you don't like something and you get frustrated, you make little fists with your hands and you do a little scream in frustration, like "stop feeding me". Lately you really dislike going into your high chair, you start crying immediately. Sometimes I manage to distract you if you put a few pieces of cereal on the tray before you get strapped in. I keep trying with signing language but I have yet to see you sign. :) So meanwhile you're getting a bit of a temper, which we're not that fond of... although entertaining we try not to laugh. I am sure if you do this all the time, we're definitely not going to find it very entertaining. Sure seems like mealtime in general has gotten to be a bit of a challenge.

As far as walking goes, you're making progress every day, you are still taking 3-4 steps on your own and then either sit down or leap into our arms. You have face planted a few times, when you decide to leap and we're not even looking or there. No bad accidents yet, luckily.
I've seen you attempt to get up on your own without holding onto anything, so you're still working on that one. When we hold 2 of your hands you start to almost run, and when we hold just 1 you're able to walk a bit better than before.

We've discovered your love for music and dance. As soon as you hear a tune, you start moving your body, and dancing... it's so cute. Also when you play with toys and you accomplish something instead of clapping (although we've seen you attempt to clap a few times) you start moving your body w/your arms side to side, it's very funny. It's sort of the same when you dance. I'll have to try and catch it on video.

You're talking all the time, and some of your words definitely sound like things that you're calling out. Like "ba" for bottle or balloon, but other things are just baby language... I sure wish I could understand what you're saying sometimes. You're able to copy the intonations in our voice pretty well, like "oh - oh", or "oh-no".
Well I am sure I am forgetting a bunch of other new little things that you do... your personality is developing so much already.

Fun times and Holidays

I am super behind on posts, so this is going to be one big one with lots of random pictures. I started this one way back when, and only finishing it now in 2009!

The day after your birthday we went hiking to Stone peak mountain near Cuyamaca Lake. We tried out your backpack for the 2nd time. You liked it in there for the most part. You especially enjoy it when you get bounced up and down... when daddy is running, a bit hard to run to the top of the mountain though. We also went to your first IMAX movie at Balboa Park with baby Kingston. This month has definitely been the busiest of all. I have a feeling it's going to be the case every December considering all of our birthdays are this month and the holidays.

Ready to go!

All the way at the top

Really pretty views

a stroll through Balboa park

Holding hands with Kingston at the movies? Gotta keep an eye on you two!

Cousin Sarah came to visit from Florida for daddy's surprise 30th birthday party which we were able to pull off brilliantly. Jeromey had no idea, and I was able to surprise him at Rock Bottom in La Jolla with a bunch of our friends waiting for us to arrive. He thought we were going to a friends Xmas party. :) It was definitely a night to remember. Here is your Birthday Slide Show.

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

Hanging out with Sarah

Enjoying a La Jolla Sunset together

Enjoying a Bike Ride along the Coronado sidewalk

You seem content, although there was some fussing for some reason, may be it was the cold wind or the sun in your face...

Christmas Eve, grandpa Dave came over to spend some time with us. Christmas day was spent with Jeromey's mom, Amber & Zac. We went downstairs to open gifts and we helped you open yours. The one gift I was excited about that I got for you was a Ball Popper. The reason I thought you'd like it is because you were playing with another toy that required you to pick up balls and put them in the hole and then watch them fall through little obstacles and come out. Once you pushed the ball in, you were so proud of yourself you would rock back and forth and sometimes almost try to clap. So I thought Ball Popper would be a lot of fun. Well I was wrong. We put in the batteries and turned it on, and you started crying immediately... it was really sad. You got so scared of it, as soon as you heard the noise (may be it was too loud) and then music came on, it was over, you were screaming, turned all red. So we put the toy in the corner and left it alone. Another time we tried to pull it out and just at the sign of it, your face would change.
Then a few days later we tried the toy again, but this time we sat you further away, you made a few wining noises, but you didn't really get as upset as before. Then the next time we sat you down in our lap and turned it on again, slowly but surely you warmed up to the toy and started to get interested in it, even trying to grab the balls as they were coming out. Now you turn the toy on yourself. Go figure, you like the toy after all... it just took a while for you to warm up to it.

opening gifts

the only box you were actually interested in opening

Not the reaction we expected to the Ball Popper toy... poor baby got so scared of it!
Huge tears came rolling down your face, I promise we turned it right off!

The other super cute thing you're doing now is dancing, and pushing buttons. You love buttons in general, you always notice them on our clothes, but you also love toys with buttons and most of them start playing a song once pushed and if you're sitting down you start to rock and do a little dance, and if you're standing up then your little bum starts moving back and forth with a huge smile on your face... it is the cutest little thing! Also We got you this Lion toy that starts playing music when it's touched and at first you had such a funny reaction to it. You smile super big, let out a squeal and then you start dancing to it. I hope I caught it on video. Ok I am sure I have forgotten a few other things, but I better wrap up this post.

1st Year Video

I uploaded the video that was shown at your 1st Birthday, a recap of your first year. Daddy and his wonderful friend Jason worked on it all night long, and now we can enjoy watching it whenever we want to look back and see how amazing our 1st year with you was. What an awesome memory to have.

We love you so much!

Another Tooth

So I randomly noticed yesterday that another tooth popped up next to your other 2 on the bottom. It's actually pretty noticeable and I am surprised that I didn't see it sooner, but I guess I wasn't checking for any new teeth for a while and this one didn't look like it bothered you too much, so I really have no idea when it came, but I am guessing at least a week ago. :) You have 7 teeth now, but you don't really like to use them. We try and go through the chewing motions, but I keep seeing you just swallow things you put in your mouth. For example when you eat cereal or other pieces of food that you should really start breaking down w/your teeth, instead you swallow them whole, I end up having to break them into smaller pieces because I am afraid that they might get stuck. Hope you start doing that soon.

Happy 1st Birthday little Munchkin Sascha!

Oh my... is it really true? A year has flown by and now it's going to be a little toddler. Well not so fast, since you're not really a toddler until you start walking which you're not doing just yet.

Here are your 1 year old Stats:

weight - 19 lbs 10 oz (25%)

height - 30 inches (80%)

head circ. - 17 inches (7 %)

I was convinced that you were over 20 lbs, but looks like I was wrong! You sure are tall though, and have a small head (certainly doesn't seem like it!)

You had your 1 year shots and you weren't happy about them, you only got 2 of them, and we'll be coming back for the 3rd one in a little while. Ouch... I am so sorry for those!

Your newest accomplishments are standing by yourself for a brief period of time, although you do not yet stand up on your own. Also we've seen you take 2-3 steps on your own and then you leap into our arms. You cruise around the edges of furniture and you babble a ton. You love books and you even talk to the books, as well as the little bear that is in your crib, you talk to him as well. You favorite words are dada, daddy, or dad. I keep trying to get you to say mama again and you haven't in a while... You're eating more table foods, it's pretty messy, but I guess that's how you learn to feed yourself.

You're almost off the formula, since I have been mixing whole milk with it for a while.

Sometimes you still refuse your bottle at night, may be I should feed you dinner sooner... so that you are not as full come bed time.

You have gotten very playful. You flip pages in books, you put things inside containers and take them out like your fish tank. Also you love toys where you have to push a button to get music playing and often you even dance to it. You still love watching Wilbur in the mornings.

It is much harder to go places with you or friends houses, I constantly have to keep my eye on you. You crawl all over and pull up, and since not many houses are "child proof" it's a work out to keep up with you, but it's also a lot of fun to watch you go to a new place and explore everything.

Mommy and Sascha

I love this one!

sitting pretty in your adorable dress and balloons

You had a fun party. Family, friends, babies and lots of toys. Oh my how spoiled you are... here are some pictures from your big day.

that's my cake? Yep, grandma made it just for you!

You hated the hat... oh well!

The cake you tried, but very little... didn't care much for it

Thanks to all for my wonderful gifts! I am one spoiled little munchkin

Thanksgiving & Mommy's Birthday

Sascha celebrated her first thanksgiving holiday. We visited my family that day, and then went to have dinner at Jeromeys mom's house. Sascha had her first complete 'table food' dinner, no baby food at all. She seemed to really enjoy the turkey and the mashed potatoes.

yummy

all smiles

too full to smile here...

Then we decided to make our 4 day weekend into a 5 day weekend by taking Monday off too which also happened to be my birthday. We drove up the 101 and went to a late breakfast near Swami's beach and then took a little stroll around the area. It was a beautiful sunny day, and an awesome birthday to spend with the family. Later Jeromey surprised me with desert (after we had a dinner date) and the rest of the family was there too. Lots of fun! Here are a few pictures from our day.

always a happy little munchkin

practicing our walk

wow, that's high

Saying "happy birthday mommy!"

all 3 of us...

surprise!

even Sascha was there for the surprise!

Family Photo Shoot

I was planning on getting your 1 year old pictures done, plus the holidays coming up, so we went to Old Poway park and did a photoshoot with Vanessa. It was actually a super hot November day... go figure? Middle of November and it's 90 degrees out and it was windy, but after a little while you got used to everything and were a trooper. We got some really beautiful shots of you and all of us. Thank you so much Vanessa! Here is a sneak peak. 

This one is definitely one of my favorites, you were so mesmerized by the leaves and everything around you it was tough to make you look up, but I am so glad you finally did!

Happy Super baby!

Kisses, Kisses, and more Kisses

In your adorable Birthday dress - a gift from our friend Khanh

It's a wrap!

Ok... more pictures later!

Pushing a Walker

Vesicoureteral reflux

Here is the definition from Wikipedia:

Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is an abnormal movement of urine from the bladder into ureters or kidneys. Urine normally travels from the kidneys via the ureters to the bladder. In vesicoureteral reflux the direction of urine flow is reversed (retrograde).

So we've been busy going to Children's hospital for the last 2 weeks and it has been the hardest few weeks since you were born. You've been diagnosed with the above condition after we went in for an ultrasound and a VCUG test. On a scale from 1 to 5, your reflux is about a 3/4 on one side and 4 on another which is pretty severe. This of course explains why you've now had 2 UTI infections in the last 5 months. So we went to a pediatric urologist for a consult and it looks like for now you'll be put on a prophylactic dose of antibiotics and we now hope for no breakthrough UTI infections. There is a high chance that you may grow out of this condition by the age of 5 or 6, as many children do especially in the lower grade reflux. However if you still get UTIs even though you're on antibiotics, we'll have to explore the option of surgery. We are of course hoping to not have to worry about surgery since you are still so little and it would be so hard to have to put you through something like that. The VCUG test alone took a lot out of me, it was so hard to watch you cry. They had to put a catheter in so that they can insert the dye into your bladder and then take X-ray to monitor where the dye would go. You had no idea what was going on, and I am sure you were pretty scared as you had two sandbags hold your arms down and a nurse hold your legs to make sure you didn't move too much while they were taking a X-ray. I am sure that was pretty traumatic, although you recovered quickly, just as soon as I was able to pick you up. Then you fell asleep on the way home, whimpering every now and then.

Meanwhile we're just adjusting to the fact that we have to give you medicine daily. You've done very well with Keflex for the last few weeks, but we're switching the antibiotic today, and I am hoping that you will still be ok taking it... I know it would make it a lot easier on us and you.

11 Months

At 11 months you are doing all sorts of things:having 3 solid food meals a day, and now refusing your bottle at night, so only getting two 6-7 oz bottles a day and just water at night. Two days ago you pulled up to standing on your own, but it was on the bed, I haven't seen you do it on a hard surface yet. You're able to balance on your own for a few seconds before you plop back on the floor. You are pretty independent most of the time. I can leave you in your play area (aka jail) that's fenced in our living room and you are quite happy playing with your toys. In the evening time you're more restless and don't like to be left alone much. Your fun thing to do is pull up while holding our hands and then pull our hands back and forth like you're dancing. You're now pulling up to standing much easier, one second I see you sitting, and another you pulled up next to a wall.

It's taken me a while to try and do your 11 month pictures. I must say that I had the hardest time! I couldn't get you to sit still at all, I crawled after you all over the place. It was totally exhausting oh and I didn't get any good pictures either. Here is what it was like. The first shot was pretty much all I got, and then you went wild... a total trouble maker, crawling all over, pulling up, playing with the outlet... you name it, you tried it. It was a work out just to keep up with you, by the end I was totally exhausted.
It went like this:

Got you sitting still for about 2 seconds

Trying to escape already

Is that camera for me to play with?

Well if I can't play with the camera, then how about the electrical outlets?
Ok... I'll sit and pose for another second, but that's it!

A few nights ago, about 30 minutes before bed time we could not get you to settle down, you were just all over the place, we've never seen you have this much energy. So once it was time for bed, you once again refused any formula, drank some water and I put you in the crib. It took you over an hour and a half to finally calm down. You were up, then down, then talking, then playing... you were constantly messing w/the video monitor so we had to go in and fix it. It was nuts, you did not want to settled down and sleep. At least you didn't cry... It was a bit better the next night, but still took a lot longer than usual. May be your last nap is running a bit too late and you just still have too much energy at 8pm to go to bed.

Your birthday is just around the corner... I can't believe it!

Baby Talk

One week - 3 more teeth

First the two front ones showed up pretty much at the same time, and then the side one came out a few days later to even out the tooth that came early last month.  I had a big chunk of watermelon yesterday and you now bite off pieces of it and you make chewing motions as well. Toothy little munchkin.

The one thing that you do which I don't like is you've started to grind your teeth together. Mostly it's the earlier one against the two lower teeth. I am not sure how to break that terrible habit, hopefully you'll just stop. :)

While we were gone ...

A quick recap, you got 2 of your front teeth, you got sick and went to Children's hospital only to be tested and sent home, and the next day your fever got so high that you went to Children's in an ambulance... our poor little munchkin.

It seemed like the longest week of my life... I wasn't even sure if I should write about this because I bet every time I read this I will get upset...here goes...

We left you with grandma on Friday night and flew to Boston. Saturday you seemed fine, but Saturday evening you started to run a fever and were pretty much up most of the night with my mom and sister. Sunday they took you to the hospital and took a urine sample because last time you had the same symptoms, high fever, smelly urine, and very fussy. They put a catheter in and took a sample. It returned negative for a UTI and they sent you home with a virus diagnosis and gave you Motrin and Tylenol to keep the fever down. Meanwhile the sample got sent to the lab for further 24 hr testing and cultures. The next night was very tough as well. By 3pm the next day, your temperature shot up to 105 and you started shaking and Tylenol/Motrin were not working, you got to the hospital by ambulance and the doctor checked the the test which was taken a day and half ago of course showed that you indeed had a UTI. Ugh... and no one called to let us know that, they had the results before hand.

Fortunately they were able to get your temperature down and you got a shot of antibiotics before returning home. I had no idea about any of this until the evening you returned. I had a feeling something was wrong from a couple of conversations I had w/my sister and mom, but they didn't tell me about the previous day because they thought it was nothing serious and didn't want to spoil our trip, but I kept trying to call the house and it was pretty late in the evening by then and no one was picking up... until of course they got home and were able to talk to me.

The next day your fever was under control and by the evening you were off Motrin and slept through the night. The important thing is that you were ok and getting better. The upsetting thing is that if not for the negligence of Children's hospital the whole 2nd trip to the ER could have been avoided along with the scary fever which caused what they called a "seizure". I can't even imagine this, and when I do my eyes swell up in tears. Neither I or daddy were even there to comfort you and for that I feel horrible. Of course you were in great hands with my mom and sister and my dad and thank god there were there, but I can't help but feel awful. I don't think we'll be going on any more trips without you, or at least not in the near future.

Now we need to go to a follow up appointment and have an ultrasound done and possibly other tests to see what might be causing this reoccurring problem. For now you are taking antibiotics and I was also told that you will keep taking antibiotics for a while to make sure it doesn't happen again, but I'll have to find out what "a while" really means.
We are of course in hopes that it's nothing serious.

On a happier note, you're growing so much. You are starting to refuse formula, not sure if it's too early to start mixing it with whole milk. You hardly ever finish your 5 or 6 oz bottle which you only get 3 times a day. Also you've gotten pretty picky with a few things that I feed you, mostly vegetables. To get you to eat them, I disguise them with kefir/yogurt and cottage cheese which you love, sometimes you totally figure out that I am tricking you and get upset, but other times I manage to get you to finish it all.

You pull up on practically everything you possibly can, and you're getting stronger and stronger on your feet. Your 3 teeth I mentioned before have come through as well. Your hair is getting super long and you're absolutely adorable.

I cannot stop taking pictures of you, because of all the wonderful moments I want to freeze in time. You are growing so fast that I sometimes wish I could just freeze time altogether. I cannot believe you are almost a year old already!

I love hats, and babies in hats

Another silly hat, and you attempting to stand on your own

Actually it was more like falling into daddy's arms after he let go

Up and down, up and down... enough energy for all!

Pre-Halloween

I decided to take pictures of you in your costume early. We actually will be coming back from our trip to Boston on Halloween night, but I am pretty sure you'll be asleep by the time we get home... so here are a few that I took of you. Happy early Halloween!
You are an adorable little bunny!

Bunny's don't sit like that, but you do!

Hop, Hop, Hop ... up the stairs

Next to your baby pumpkin

Stayed in the basket just for a second, enough for me to take a picture

In the last week you've gotten a lot stronger on your feet. You pull up on everything within your reach and stand for a long time and you've now learned how to sit your butt down gracefully too without falling backwards when you let go of whatever it is that you were holding on to. Yesterday you let go of the walker and stood there without anything holding you for about 3-4 seconds, I couldn't believe it. The activity walker that I took video of you in is no longer safe. The last few times I put you in it, the whole thing almost flipped on its side. You no longer walk around it, you run around it as fast as you can... it's so funny, and it's not really stable enough for your weight.

You're very chatty, although it's hard to make out what you're really saying. You're a real chatter box sometimes. You love your 2 little pink bears and sometimes when I give them to you, you get super excited and grab it immediately and hug it and even kiss it and then you start talking to it. Ah... so cute!

The 3 teeth which I was convinced were coming last week are still not here, haha, so I guess I was wrong... may be they'll show up while we're gone, we'll see.
We haven't left yet, and I miss you already. I really thought I would handle it much better, but it's so hard and nerve racking, it's all I can think of today. :(