We realized a few days ago that there was another little white pearl sticking through. Poor baby -- no wonder she's miserable. THREE upper teeth coming in at the same time. One of these days the frozen washcloths will no longer suffice.
I'll try to post a picture soon!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Swings and SeaWorld
September has been another busy month. Vivian turned 9 months old on the 11th. We visited the peds office for another weight check and a developmental check. She's now 20 lbs 9 oz (75th percentile) and 26" (10th percentile) and doing well.
We have discovered that Vivian likes swings. She really likes anything where she can feel the wind in her hair.
She's also mastered sitting back down and squatting from a standing position. She's getting pretty brave when she's standing up (and cruising). She likes to take both hands off of the object she's hanging on to to see if she can stand for a few seconds without holding on to something.
We've been recommended to go see a specialist about her language development. At the ped visit, we completed a survey about her language development and apparently the results caused some "concern." So, we'll see how the visit goes in a couple of weeks.
We took another quickie trip to Orlando this weekend to go shopping. Yes, 4 hrs each way to shop...sometimes you don't have a choice. I needed clothes, Chris needed shoes, we needed food from Whole Foods, and Vivian needed some things from Babies R Us.
We went to SeaWorld for a couple of hours. It was very hot (95 degrees) and humid all day, so it was a bit miserable. Vivian loved seeing the dolphins again and enjoyed spending time in the aquarium where she sat on the floor and looked at the fish and rays swim under her. We're hoping to make another trip down when it's not soooo hot.
I can't forget: We have 2 upper teeth coming in (finally!!!!!).
We have discovered that Vivian likes swings. She really likes anything where she can feel the wind in her hair.
She's also mastered sitting back down and squatting from a standing position. She's getting pretty brave when she's standing up (and cruising). She likes to take both hands off of the object she's hanging on to to see if she can stand for a few seconds without holding on to something.
We've been recommended to go see a specialist about her language development. At the ped visit, we completed a survey about her language development and apparently the results caused some "concern." So, we'll see how the visit goes in a couple of weeks.
We took another quickie trip to Orlando this weekend to go shopping. Yes, 4 hrs each way to shop...sometimes you don't have a choice. I needed clothes, Chris needed shoes, we needed food from Whole Foods, and Vivian needed some things from Babies R Us.
We went to SeaWorld for a couple of hours. It was very hot (95 degrees) and humid all day, so it was a bit miserable. Vivian loved seeing the dolphins again and enjoyed spending time in the aquarium where she sat on the floor and looked at the fish and rays swim under her. We're hoping to make another trip down when it's not soooo hot.
I can't forget: We have 2 upper teeth coming in (finally!!!!!).
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The hardest part about standing up....
is trying to figure out how to get back down! It's so funny how Vivian can figure out how to get up on everything now, but then gets stuck standing up. She'll whine a bit and then we'll help her get back down. We've been trying to teach her by bending a leg or offering a hand for support. Yesterday, I think she figured it out. One hand went out to the side, while the other hand was hanging onto to the object. One leg went out to the side and the other one bent at the knee and all of a sudden, she was down!
We're heading to the peds tomorrow for the 9-month visit. I don't think we'll have shots, but there is some kind of blood draw at the hospital. We're guessing she's right around 21 lbs. We'd like to ask about starting on more solid food, as opposed to all the pureed stuff she's been eating for the last couple of months. She's VERY interested in what we're eating and she's tried to grab at my plate several times. I'd like to try avocado and mashed up chickpeas. The trick is to have the food be smaller than the windpipe. The size of her windpipe though, is basically the same as the diameter of her finger. TINY! :) We might try some kind of pincher food. No Cheerios for this gluten-free kid though. We'll see what the ped suggests.
Everything else is going okay. I'm surviving my 5 classes, one research assistantship, and one other project. I definitely don't have a routine yet, which is making it pretty rough. Parking is a nightmare on campus, so Chris has been dropping me off everyday and then I hoof two miles to-and-from my classes. I guess my routine is being on-campus everyday from 8:30-9:00 am until 3:30 or 4:00 pm. Next semester (my last one of coursework) will be much easier!! Only 12 weeks to go until a break, which is much needed!!
We're heading to the peds tomorrow for the 9-month visit. I don't think we'll have shots, but there is some kind of blood draw at the hospital. We're guessing she's right around 21 lbs. We'd like to ask about starting on more solid food, as opposed to all the pureed stuff she's been eating for the last couple of months. She's VERY interested in what we're eating and she's tried to grab at my plate several times. I'd like to try avocado and mashed up chickpeas. The trick is to have the food be smaller than the windpipe. The size of her windpipe though, is basically the same as the diameter of her finger. TINY! :) We might try some kind of pincher food. No Cheerios for this gluten-free kid though. We'll see what the ped suggests.
Everything else is going okay. I'm surviving my 5 classes, one research assistantship, and one other project. I definitely don't have a routine yet, which is making it pretty rough. Parking is a nightmare on campus, so Chris has been dropping me off everyday and then I hoof two miles to-and-from my classes. I guess my routine is being on-campus everyday from 8:30-9:00 am until 3:30 or 4:00 pm. Next semester (my last one of coursework) will be much easier!! Only 12 weeks to go until a break, which is much needed!!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Look Mama! I can stand!
Yes, it's true. Vivian can now stand up when she grabs onto something (daddy's bag, her crib, her Fisher Price music table, and the coffee table)! It's amazing that a few weeks ago she learned how to sit up!
We also found out that she LOVES the piano! :) Perhaps she'll show some interest when she gets older and we can start her with piano lessons.
We also found out that she LOVES the piano! :) Perhaps she'll show some interest when she gets older and we can start her with piano lessons.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Where did summer go?
Tomorrow, I'm back to school FT. I can't believe the summer is officially over! We never made it out of Tallahassee this month, but we're talking about taking a day trip to Panama City Beach again to purchase some additional clothes for Vivian. She's now in 12-month clothes, which are fitting much better than the 9-month clothes because she's tall and CHUBBY in the thighs!
Vivian is doing so well. She's very actively crawling all over the place now and is starting to pull herself up on various objects -- me, Chris, and Chris's huge duffle bag that is stuffed with his Tae Kwon Do gear (hasn't seen any use since Feb of 2008 -- ugh).
We went to the pediatrician last week. She now weighs 20 lbs at 8 months. She's very healthy and doing great. Pears, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and winter squash seem to be pretty yummy. Peas, however, take a lot of effort to get into her mouth. She really doesn't like them.
Today, we went for a walk around Lake Ella. Vivian liked seeing the baby ducks. We also went to the Tallahassee Museum this afternoon. It's basically like a mini zoo. There are a few types of animals - a bald eagle, a red fox, two otters, an alligator, etc. Vivian didn't seem too excited, but at least we got out of the house and we plan to go back again.
I hope this semester isn't too eventful! I'm taking 4 classes and have a research assistantship. I'm also taking the qualifying exam in October. We're considering attending the big AECT conference in Louisville, Kentucky in October, but that means we'll be in a hotel (somewhere between Kentucky and FL) for Vivian's 1st Halloween. BOOOO!!!
Only time will tell...
Vivian is doing so well. She's very actively crawling all over the place now and is starting to pull herself up on various objects -- me, Chris, and Chris's huge duffle bag that is stuffed with his Tae Kwon Do gear (hasn't seen any use since Feb of 2008 -- ugh).
We went to the pediatrician last week. She now weighs 20 lbs at 8 months. She's very healthy and doing great. Pears, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and winter squash seem to be pretty yummy. Peas, however, take a lot of effort to get into her mouth. She really doesn't like them.
Today, we went for a walk around Lake Ella. Vivian liked seeing the baby ducks. We also went to the Tallahassee Museum this afternoon. It's basically like a mini zoo. There are a few types of animals - a bald eagle, a red fox, two otters, an alligator, etc. Vivian didn't seem too excited, but at least we got out of the house and we plan to go back again.
I hope this semester isn't too eventful! I'm taking 4 classes and have a research assistantship. I'm also taking the qualifying exam in October. We're considering attending the big AECT conference in Louisville, Kentucky in October, but that means we'll be in a hotel (somewhere between Kentucky and FL) for Vivian's 1st Halloween. BOOOO!!!
Only time will tell...
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Happy 8 months (and a day) Vivian
Vivian turned 8 months old yesterday. She's getting to be such a big girl. She hit another major milestone...this time on her birthday! She was on the floor on her tummy playing with her music table. I was sitting on the couch and watching her move into these weird contortionist-type moves. All of a sudden, she was sitting up. She looked over at me and smiled. We kept clapping and smiling at her and telling her what a great job she did. She was so happy. She did it again today, so I guess she really did figure it out.
My semester ended last Friday and I have two weeks "off" from classes. I'll be keeping busy preparing for the Educational Psychology and Learning Systems orientation and several teaching workshops offered over the two weeks. So much for a vacation, although we're hoping to go to Jacksonville for a few days! :(
Chris had surgery last Friday and had to take a few days off from doing anything, but he's recovering nicely. I think he enjoyed staying in bed and watching bad movies (Armageddon, Pineapple Express, No Country for Old Men).
Vivian is still excited about her solid foods, although we had another yakking incident (not as bad as with the apples) with peas. ICK. I don't like them either!
Poor Lilli has fleas and we found a tick on her tonight. Gotta love the deep south. YUCK!
Oh....we celebrated Vivian's birthday by going to Walmart. For some reason she was VERY excited about sitting in the shopping cart and had a huge grin and kept wiggling...so, we took a pic! :)
My semester ended last Friday and I have two weeks "off" from classes. I'll be keeping busy preparing for the Educational Psychology and Learning Systems orientation and several teaching workshops offered over the two weeks. So much for a vacation, although we're hoping to go to Jacksonville for a few days! :(
Chris had surgery last Friday and had to take a few days off from doing anything, but he's recovering nicely. I think he enjoyed staying in bed and watching bad movies (Armageddon, Pineapple Express, No Country for Old Men).
Vivian is still excited about her solid foods, although we had another yakking incident (not as bad as with the apples) with peas. ICK. I don't like them either!
Poor Lilli has fleas and we found a tick on her tonight. Gotta love the deep south. YUCK!
Oh....we celebrated Vivian's birthday by going to Walmart. For some reason she was VERY excited about sitting in the shopping cart and had a huge grin and kept wiggling...so, we took a pic! :)
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Where did July go?
July zoomed by, which was a bit crazy.
We retired the bouncy seat officially, although she hasn't used it in a couple of months.
For 4th of July we stayed at home and lit a few "Florida-style" fireworks.
We welcomed another IS baby into the world! Poppy finally received her name -- Addison! I can't believe there's another girl in the program! How crazy is that!
We were originally going to go see the Blue Angels in Pensacola, but then decided to go to Orlando to possibly see the shuttle launch on the 11th (Vivian's 7-month birthday!). It takes about 4 hrs to get to Orlando, which isn't bad although the drive is HORRRRIBLY boring.
On our first full day we went to SeaWorld. We spent almost all day there. Vivian LOVED the underwater viewing tank with the dolphins. It scared her the first time she saw them, but then she was mesmerized by them swimming by her.
We tried to go see the Shamu show. We were sitting in our seats VERY early, but then the thunder and lightning started and then the pouring rain. We were getting drenched, even though we were in the covered part of the stadium. The wind was blowing the rain in from the back of the stadium. They canceled the show due to the lightning that was right over SeaWorld. SeaWorld + lightning and that = BAD NEWS BEARS!
The next 45 minutes or so is something we'll never forget. As we were all huddled underneath the outside of the stadium, some kid starting yakking right next to me. YUCK. Chris stuck Vivian in the stroller (which was wet) and covered her up with a poncho and we made a run for it. By run, I mean dashing from building to building, trying to figure out where we were compared to the exit. You couldn't see anything, the rain was coming down so hard. We were wading through calf-deep water. Yes, it was a lovely experience.
We finally made it back to the car and safely to the hotel where we all showered and dried off. I had to buy new shoes, because my shoes were soaked through.
The next day, we headed to Universal's City Walk. We had a wonderful lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, which had a gluten-free menu!!! YEAH for my burger and fries!! The chef even came out to meet with us!
Next we went to Downtown Disney, which was really disappointing. I had been there before when I was in Orlando several years ago for a conference, but there was less to do now that the Virgin Megastore was gone! :( And guess what, like a typical Florida late afternoon, another thunderstorm. We were a bit more prepared this time and closer to the car, so we made a run for it!
The next day we decided to go back to SeaWorld, because we bought an annual pass AND no one goes to SeaWorld without seeing Shamu. So....we finally saw Shamu! What an amazing show!
Vivian seemed to be happy!
Vivian really wanted to go see the dolphins again, so we first saw the dolphin show, which Vivian watched very intently...
....then back to the underwater viewing tank.
The next day we headed home, back to Tally. Oh well. At least we got to escape for a weekend!
Vivian had a 7-month weight-check on the 17th. She weighed in at 19 lbs! Our little girl is getting big!! We also had professional pictures taken that morning! Vivian was on her best behaviour and was very happy! The pictures are absolutely gorgeous!! Thanks to Whitney Fletcher for taking them!!
Vivian also had another milestone. We started additional solid foods. She wasn't sure what to think at first, but I think she really liked her pears and bananas. Sweet potatoes are okay, although really messy!
We also had our first projectile incident! We gave Vivian a mesh teether with a frozen apple chunk in it. We made the mistake of giving it to her right after her 7 oz bottle! Most of those 7 ozs ended up all over daddy, Vivian, and the floor. We survived though, after showers for everyone!
We also took Vivian to one of the local pools here. There is a little tot area with sprinklers and other water features. She seemed to really enjoy it!
Vivian's two bottom teeth are STILL coming in and seem to be bothering her more now. Frozen washcloths and walks before bedtime are helping a bit.
She is now crawling all over the place, which is really fun to watch, but also very scary. She seems to be the most interested in daddy's speaker stand and daddy's power cord for the laptop. Time to finish babyproofing!!
We also bought her a big girl carseat, which she'll be in for a long, long time! She is pretty happy in it so far.
Vivian and Chris come to visit me almost everyday at school and we go for a walk around the campus. It's a nice little break for me and it gets Chris out of the house. Vivian has a friend who is just a few days younger than she is and they like to stare at each other and talk. She has made friends with a lot of the people on the 3rd floor of Stone! Here's Vivian hanging out in front of my cubie.
This week is finals week for me and then 2 weeks off without classes. We're hoping to go away for a few days, but we have no plans yet. I can really only be gone for a week because of my other school obligations (orientation, prepping for a fall class), so we'll see what we can do!
We retired the bouncy seat officially, although she hasn't used it in a couple of months.
For 4th of July we stayed at home and lit a few "Florida-style" fireworks.
We welcomed another IS baby into the world! Poppy finally received her name -- Addison! I can't believe there's another girl in the program! How crazy is that!
We were originally going to go see the Blue Angels in Pensacola, but then decided to go to Orlando to possibly see the shuttle launch on the 11th (Vivian's 7-month birthday!). It takes about 4 hrs to get to Orlando, which isn't bad although the drive is HORRRRIBLY boring.
On our first full day we went to SeaWorld. We spent almost all day there. Vivian LOVED the underwater viewing tank with the dolphins. It scared her the first time she saw them, but then she was mesmerized by them swimming by her.
We tried to go see the Shamu show. We were sitting in our seats VERY early, but then the thunder and lightning started and then the pouring rain. We were getting drenched, even though we were in the covered part of the stadium. The wind was blowing the rain in from the back of the stadium. They canceled the show due to the lightning that was right over SeaWorld. SeaWorld + lightning and that = BAD NEWS BEARS!
The next 45 minutes or so is something we'll never forget. As we were all huddled underneath the outside of the stadium, some kid starting yakking right next to me. YUCK. Chris stuck Vivian in the stroller (which was wet) and covered her up with a poncho and we made a run for it. By run, I mean dashing from building to building, trying to figure out where we were compared to the exit. You couldn't see anything, the rain was coming down so hard. We were wading through calf-deep water. Yes, it was a lovely experience.
We finally made it back to the car and safely to the hotel where we all showered and dried off. I had to buy new shoes, because my shoes were soaked through.
The next day, we headed to Universal's City Walk. We had a wonderful lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, which had a gluten-free menu!!! YEAH for my burger and fries!! The chef even came out to meet with us!
Next we went to Downtown Disney, which was really disappointing. I had been there before when I was in Orlando several years ago for a conference, but there was less to do now that the Virgin Megastore was gone! :( And guess what, like a typical Florida late afternoon, another thunderstorm. We were a bit more prepared this time and closer to the car, so we made a run for it!
The next day we decided to go back to SeaWorld, because we bought an annual pass AND no one goes to SeaWorld without seeing Shamu. So....we finally saw Shamu! What an amazing show!
Vivian seemed to be happy!
Vivian really wanted to go see the dolphins again, so we first saw the dolphin show, which Vivian watched very intently...
....then back to the underwater viewing tank.
The next day we headed home, back to Tally. Oh well. At least we got to escape for a weekend!
Vivian had a 7-month weight-check on the 17th. She weighed in at 19 lbs! Our little girl is getting big!! We also had professional pictures taken that morning! Vivian was on her best behaviour and was very happy! The pictures are absolutely gorgeous!! Thanks to Whitney Fletcher for taking them!!
Vivian also had another milestone. We started additional solid foods. She wasn't sure what to think at first, but I think she really liked her pears and bananas. Sweet potatoes are okay, although really messy!
We also had our first projectile incident! We gave Vivian a mesh teether with a frozen apple chunk in it. We made the mistake of giving it to her right after her 7 oz bottle! Most of those 7 ozs ended up all over daddy, Vivian, and the floor. We survived though, after showers for everyone!
We also took Vivian to one of the local pools here. There is a little tot area with sprinklers and other water features. She seemed to really enjoy it!
Vivian's two bottom teeth are STILL coming in and seem to be bothering her more now. Frozen washcloths and walks before bedtime are helping a bit.
She is now crawling all over the place, which is really fun to watch, but also very scary. She seems to be the most interested in daddy's speaker stand and daddy's power cord for the laptop. Time to finish babyproofing!!
We also bought her a big girl carseat, which she'll be in for a long, long time! She is pretty happy in it so far.
Vivian and Chris come to visit me almost everyday at school and we go for a walk around the campus. It's a nice little break for me and it gets Chris out of the house. Vivian has a friend who is just a few days younger than she is and they like to stare at each other and talk. She has made friends with a lot of the people on the 3rd floor of Stone! Here's Vivian hanging out in front of my cubie.
This week is finals week for me and then 2 weeks off without classes. We're hoping to go away for a few days, but we have no plans yet. I can really only be gone for a week because of my other school obligations (orientation, prepping for a fall class), so we'll see what we can do!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)