Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Girls date night and a goodbye

So I have a wonderful friend Elise. We've been friends since high school. I blogged about how smart she is here.

Well, because she has that shiny new degree and funny black hat, she's moving onto bigger and better things. She's accepted a position at PRINCETON! How awesome is that?

The non-awesome part is that she be like quadruple the distance away from me. Visits will now take a flight rather than a quick car trip. She won't be a stopping point on the way to my in-laws anymore. In short, we're going to see each other a LOT less :(

My sweet hubby said I should go and see her one more time before she leaves this month. I didn't think I was going to get to see her again. But as it turns out her hubby took a last minute out of town trip and she had a concert ticket that needed using. And I needed to see her!

So I was there and back in less than 24 hours, and left Sophia at home.

We enjoyed a great night of entertainment. I was taken to dinner, a concert and dessert! Did you know they can mix liquid peanut butter into your Blizzard at Dairy Queen? Reeses+vanilla ice cream+liquid peanut butter= mmmm mmmm. And highly caloric. Use VERY sparingly!

The concert was entitled "Prism" and involved multiple FSU bands, orchestras and even the marching Chiefs! They did a lot of modern song arrangements but also some more classical symphony pieces. Of course there were some school spirit numbers in there too. They not only played from the stage but from the box seats and even lined the aisles! And after the drum lines kept playing in front of the Westscott Fountain.

Then Elise and I went home and talked until way too late for women with alarm clocks, jobs, kids and responsibilities. And it was worth it.

The whole trip was and ending. The end of Elise within easy driving distance. The end of the Tallahassee part of my life. The end of still reliving the college years. Of course I haven't lived in Tallahasse or been in college for quite some time now. But I still had that tie to it through Elise.

I was aware as we searched for campus parking, hiked up the hill from our far away parking, watched the after-party drum line, hoofed it back to our car and finally drove off campus. That will likely be the last time I visit Tallahassee and my Alma Mater. Barring winning free FSU football tickets, which our radio station does sometimes, I will likely not get off at exit 196 or 199 when traveling down I-10. It makes me melancholy.

But it makes me flat out sad to think that Elise will likely go on to have babies it will take me far too long to meet, go to concerts at Princeton I will never join her at and host may other wonderful people at her dinner table that I won't eat at.

That's the thing about getting older. Life takes you so many places, and that leaves a trail of wonderful times and wonderful people.

But don't think all hope is lost. Elise's mom still lives not too far from me (for now), so I may get to see her now and again. But we've always done best keeping up in person. And that'll be a little more difficult and a little more costly now. I guess we'll have to get better at Facetime and phone calls!



Monday, December 9, 2013

Sophia's One year old Stats/Summary

I wanted to take the time to tally up all of the milestones Sophia has reached in the last year. We just had her one year visit to the pediatrician and everything went well. (We saw the other MD in the practice and we were much happier with her than the doctor we saw the first time. Whew!)

Weight: Birth- 8 lbs 6 oz (93rd percentile), 1yr 21 lbs 4 oz (79th percentile)
Height: Birth 21 inches (99th percentile), 1 yr 30.75 inches (95th percentile)
So she remains tall for now. In fact she's about on par with most 16-18 month olds.

Firsts: Sophie took her first steps! It was about a week before her birthday. The max she has gotten to is 3. However she's not walking yet. The interest just isn't quite there. She can stand on her own for quite a bit. But most times when we try to get her to walk, she just squats down and crawls.

(2 second video of first steps here)

Talking: All her vocabulary now includes Momma, Papa, bye-bye, no, hey, hi, alright, ok, uh-oh, whoa, oooooh and sometimes thank you. Everything is pretty clear except thank you. She is quite the mockingbird these days. Sometimes she repeats you exactly and sometimes she just gets the basic inflection.

Foods: We are almost done transitioning her to whole milk instead of formula. She has tolerated it fine other than some bowel changes. Her doctor said this is perfectly normal when changing her diet.
We're also working on weaning off bottles and solely to sippy cups. I think this will be easier once we're not using bottles to measure and mix formula then trying to remember to pour to a sippy. So far she eats an ounce or two less from the sippy than the bottle.
Breakfast is usually a combination of two of three things: whole milk organic yogurt, unsweetened applesauce or homemade cinnamon raisin oatmeal. Some staples in her diet are cooked chicken (she especially loves rotisserie), mandarin oranges, fruit cups and black beans. She really loves roasted or baked turkey too. She continues to love broccoli and not like peas very much. She loves to chomp apple cores and even corn cobs! The list of foods she has tried and likes are too many to list now. Generally she eats whatever we eat for dinner, supplemented by some of her "staple" foods if she doesn't each much of ours. She had a few bites of pumpkin pie over Thanksgiving and really loved it. She actually smiled! She doesn't do that very often at all over food.

Speaking of chomping: teeth. She still has the same 7 she had last time I updated, over 3 months ago. I know there are molars and lateral incisors needing to come through! Come on already!

Sleep: Sophia's sleep was disturbed for about a month. On the worst nights she was waking up 3-4 times. Some nights were very hard. She had various things going on: transitioning to whole milk, a short cold, teething? and night terrors. Sometimes her night terrors are really bad. It's so pitiful because she cries uncontrollably until we can finally get her woken up enough to realize she's being comforted. We tried just rocking, then pain meds, then finally feeding. Which one did the trick was different every night. Finally the last few days I felt like it was becoming a habit and she was forgetting how to self soothe, so I would only comfort her a few minutes and then put her back in bed, rather than rocking her to sleep or giving a bottle. She had to CIO a couple times, but it was only for about 20 minutes max. Last night she slept through her full 12 hours!

Vaccines: until now we hadn't given Sophia any vaccines. I'd made a plan to start when she turned one. I just felt (and of course did research) that her little body didn't need to be pumped up with all those medications until she was more developed. I'm still going to follow Dr. Sears recommendation of only having 2 vaccines at a time. I knew I wanted to start with TDaP and either HIB or PCV. The doctor recommended PCV over HIB because they still see pneumococcal infections but very rarely HIB infections. I want to delay until 2 or possibly not at all for MMR. That one is so controversial and the conflicting data scares me. Heck even the handouts on the vaccines she did get, which are put out by the CDC, were pretty ominous in their side effects and occurrence rates. I'm not sure we'll do Polio either since that is eradicated in the whole Western hemisphere. And we won't do Hep B until she has a much greater chance of coming in blood contact with an infected person, like in contact sports. In six weeks we'll go back and start the HIB series.
We were both very grateful that the doctor did not demean or chastise us for our decisions on vaccines. She was very friendly and acted like it was not a problem at all. The only "flack" we got at all was that the medical assistant who checked us in wanted to know if we wanted any vaccines and if so which ones was she do for. I explained that we were just starting vaccines that day. And she said "Ok, so do you have your own shot card?". I explained we didn't because she hadn't had any vaccines yet. She asked again which vaccines did I want and did I know she was like "Way behind?" I explained I wanted to start and wanted DTaP and either HIB or PCV. She said "Do you want to talk to the doctor to decide which one?" which I appreciated and did. She was very nice about it and I know it all just came from our decisions being outside the norm of what they do every day. So all in all it went well.

Play: Although we have continued to try different toys with Sophia, she still prefers household objects the most. Her favorites are laptops, remotes, cell phones, dishes in the dishwasher, toilets, trash cans, dog toys and keys. She also likes acrylic straws, things in the pantry, paper, laundry, laundry baskets, pens, earrings, rings, nail clippers, plants, dirt, balls and pushing dining room chairs around. She also likes board books, sometimes for reading but mostly for chewing. She has an awesome play table, a cool pink motorcycle walker, a ball popper, a rock-a-stack, a musical cube and a xylophone. She doesn't play with any of them for more than 2 minutes.

Overall, she is developing perfectly and right on track. We are so pleased with and proud of our baby girl. We just love her to pieces!

Here are some photos from her birthday shoot credit to Lauren Seymore of Seemore Photography







Friday, December 6, 2013

Sophia is 1! {Party Post}

I can't believe it finally came...and went. My baby's first birthday!
It was a great time. I would say it was bittersweet, but really it was only sweet.
Sure, I may have gotten a bit misty and squeezed her extra tight putting her to bed the night before her birthday in her special birthday PJ's. But even that is sweet.

Sophie had a nice party here at the house. I considered a park, but wanted all her creature comforts in easy reach in case she got tired or cranky.

I read a blog post about celebrating birthdays from a mother of 6 children. Her first advice was to NOT visit Pinterest for ideas. I wanted the party to be easy and stress free. So I didn't! Even a simple party is $50, so I decided not to up the cost with supplies for a bunch of DIY deco and crafts. I used tissue poms from her baby shower (that hang in her room full-time) and all my other decor was from Dollar Tree. My best friend Sarah made cupcakes and cake pops. I made chili and broccoli cheese soups. It was tasty and simple to do.

Maybe some year when Sophie can really appreciate the effort, I'll throw some DIY themed party that takes months of prep or hundreds of dollars on Etsy. Not this year.

Sophie got many wonderful presents. I was really blessed by everyone's generosity. She also got lots of really cute clothes.











Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We spent wonderful time with friends. Friends who cook and take pictures and play games!

Here are some of the aforementioned pictures that may show up on a Christmas card :)











Saturday, November 30, 2013

I'm so very greatful for a healthy baby who's here

Tonight I put Sophia to bed for the last time before her first birthday. I may have cried a little. I may be a bit misty as I type.

I'm just so grateful. I didn't know one little soul could change my life so drastically and amazingly. I didn't know another person's happiness could feel so much like my own. I didn't know my husband could love his baby so much that he would be perfectly fine with all girls in our family.

But, I can't help but think of so many mothers who never celebrated their baby's first birthday. Or did so wondering if they would celebrate a second one. There are so so so so many tragedies out there that I will never understand. I don't know how a 7 month old gets cancer. I don't know how a momma watches her baby shrivel away from malnutrition or treatable disease because she can afford neither food nor medical care. I don't know how a 30-something pregnant woman is nearly brain dead from the flu and pneumonia while her baby and husband live on. I don't know how babies are murdered. I don't know how young mommas die from cancer, leaving their beautiful perfect children behind, many so young they will never remember their mommas who loved them so fiercely. I could just bawl thinking about if I faced the same fate. If Sophia never knew who I was and how much I loved her, how much joy she brought me.

My only comfort is this, my Father knows. If I were gone, he would send another to love her. Maybe not in the same way I do, but more than enough to meet her needs. I trust he does the same for all children who have lost a mom. Maybe it's not a physical person, in some situations the Father himself is the only one there to love those children like they should be loved. And I know the Father comforts those who have lost children if they let Him. I do not understand how because that is not the road He has chosen for me. I know tomorrow it could be. Oh how that thought hurts my heart. I will trust that it would somehow be in His plan and bring Him glory.

But today, I am oh so thankful that Sophia has come through her first year healthy and thriving and that she, myself and her papa are all here to enjoy it together. I'm keenly aware not everyone gets this privilege.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Merrily we roll along

Ore the interstates.

So as aforementioned here are some photos of all our travels.

The first trip was to Georgia, seeing John's side of the family.

Sophia with Grandpa Johnny

Sophia is enamored with Uncle Jeff

She loves Grammy Melanie (and her jewelry)

Still enamored with Uncle Jeff

Us at the rehearsal dinner

Bathing in Great Great Aunt Susan's sink

The Basset Hound Ring Bearer, Jake

Still enamored with Uncle Jeff

Playing with cousins

Snuggled up to Aunt Hali

The White Women, present and former
Papa makes her smile

Family visiting after the wedding

Great Uncle Dale and his big baby Standard Poodle, Millie

Goats!

Goats sniffing Sophia!

Sunday on The Farm (Hilltop Farm)


Then on to church camp the next week

Loves riding on Papa's shoulders and using his head for a drum

Brrrrr! It was cold in that concrete building with hardwood pews

Our Pastor's wife, her daughter, and Sophia

Lots of cooking...and eating

Helping in the kitchen

Another chilly night, hanging out in the camper before church service

Peeling lots of veggies

The little kids found a turtle

Enjoying a warm day!

And last weekend, on to Baton Rouge for Megan's Bridal Shower


They had the cutest mice on the cheese platter!

With MawMaw Gena and Aunt Megan

Fun with Aunt Megan
So as you can see, it was a busy and fun three weeks. I had a good time, but am glad to be home!