For once I'm posting a bit early! I'm on my break from teaching until June 10, and I'm trying to get everything out of the way before class starts again. I'll be teaching 4 days a week--MTW from 8:00-2:30 and R from 10:15-12:30. Gabby's going to daycare 5 days a week for those 8 weeks so that I can get grading/prep done on Fridays. I know she's going to have a blast--Phoenix does a summer camp sort of programs, which means that she'll get to play outside and in the water a ton. They did the first water day yesterday, and her teachers said she loved it!
Speaking of water, we bought her what we thought was a small wading pool, but turned out to be a bit larger than anticipated. It is shaped like a whale, though!
She was fine while I was holding her.
As you can imagine, this was great for my knees and back.
But once I put her down...
she wasn't so happy.
We sat on the side and splashed for a bit.
Then I put on my suit and got in with her
Which worked much better for her.
We also got her some toys (measuring spoons and salad tongs), which she used to drink the water. At least she was well hydrated.
She really seemed to enjoy "swimming" around.
And some mommy tickles, too!
She's added a few words to her vocabulary--she now says toes (does), bubble (which is very clear, and she uses it to mean outside too), balloon (bloon), shoe (doo), hat, belly (belye), door (she leaves off the r), yes, no (a clear favorite right now!), oh no, book (leaves off the k), baby, waffle, and apple (usually bapple). She is obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba and asks to watch it all the time.
She gets really upset when she has to wait! And don't worry--this is the only kids show we really let her watch, and she only gets 1 episode before we go and do something else.
She also can do some of the motions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (thanks to Elizabeth for showing them to me!), and she loves to watch us do Itsy Bitsy Spider. Gabby loves to dance, but seems to be cursed with my lack of execution.
Yup, just like mommy!
Gabby is growing so fast and is learning so much that it's hard to believe that just a few months ago I was worried that she'd never walk. I'm so proud of her, and can't believe how much I love this little girl :)
15 month stats: 31.25 inches and 22 lbs. She's long and lean like her parents! And she is now 100% a walker--if she does start to crawl, she will immediately stand up and try to run instead.
Gabby's 15 month check-up went very well. I had suspected for a while that she has allergies, and not only did the pediatrician confirm it, he also said they seem to have given her an ear infection and probably sinusitis! She's probably had both for about a week, but the only unusual thing I noticed was a cough. I assumed it was kennel cough (what I call the perpetual cough that comes from sending your kid to daycare), and thought nothing of it. Especially since she was acting fine, had no fever, wasn't pulling on her ears, and her nasal discharge was completely clear. So I was really surprised to hear about an infection! She's on antibiotics now, so the infection should clear up in a few days to a week. I'm just really glad we had the appointment--who knows how long it would have taken for me to notice something was wrong!
The pediatrician was really surprised when she smiled at him when he came into the room. I've noticed that as long as I'm holding her, her stranger danger isn't really too bad. I know daycare is to thank for that, since it's not like I take her anywhere myself! He was also impressed with her words--I think she says 20 or so (for the record: mama, dada, something that sounds like zoe without the z, ball (bawl), bye-bye, hello (hewwo), hi, nose, eye (both of which she can also identify on herself and others), this (disss--accompanied by a finger point to show what she wants), mail, all done (da-done), more (ma), uh-oh (she's like an uh-oh bird right now), banana (na-na), go go go (doe doe doe--we say this when it's time to go somewhere and she's picked it up to use when she wants to leave), o (for Cheerios), booty (for her favorite snack Pirate Booty; this one is odd--she'll say the boo and then almost swallow the "dy" at the end, kind of like she burps in the middle of the word), and she'll say "bang" with accompanying hand gesture after we sing the theme from the Big Bang Theory to her), and knows the baby signs for more, all done (she signs and says these at the same time, which is how I know what her noises mean), milk and eat (she's very intense about eat--she'll look you dead in the eye and poke her mouth with 1 finger until you get up). I think it's hilarious to hear her pronunciations--it really brings home what words sound like to little kids, and how little control they have over their mouths and voices (as you can probably tell from above, Gabby usually says a "d" sound whenever she tries to say a word). Again, this is all daycare! She may have said her first sentence (bye, Daddy), but it's really hard to make out what exactly she's saying. She loves to go outside, and if she sees her shoes she will carry them to you and insist that you put them on her, and then walk to the door and try to open it (or just say "doe doe doe!" to get you moving). She's also good at carrying out simple instructions (throw the ball to mommy, bring that to mommy, etc). It's amazing how much she has learned!
Gabby loves to draw, and has a ton of sidewalk chalk that she uses whenever she's in the back yard. She and Brian fill the watering can with water (accompanied by quite a bit of splashing by Gabby) and water the plants every night after dinner. She likes to play with her ball, but that really only lasts for a few minutes. We got her a balloon at the store the other day, and she carried it around squishing and hugging it the rest of the night. She also loves books, and is starting to really sit and listen to me read rather than just turning the pages as fast as she can. Her favorite thing seems to be her Little People--we got her the Noah's Ark for her birthday, and she loves to dump the animals out, put them back in, and then dump them out again. She also loves watching Brian and me make them hunt.
She also loves the park, particularly the swings and the sandbox. She loves nothing more than having me fill up the bucket, and then dumping the sand down her front.
Her eating continues to be really good. She's decided recently that she doesn't want to eat peas or corn at dinner, so we're struggling a bit to get her back to eating them, but the girl loves bread, cheese and fruit. Daycare comments on how much she loves food as well. If I get there while she's eating a snack, she will either hurry up and shove the food in her mouth, or just start handing it to me to take with us. It's very funny. She also tends to shove things into her mouth whole. It's not been a problem yet, and I really hope she continues to handle it (her 4th molar came in, so that probably helps a ton).
My parents have been here this past week, and we've been having a ton of fun. We went to the Sacramento zoo for Mothers Day on Sunday (it was also Intel employees get in free day--score!), and then went to the park after Gabby's nap. My parents went up to Tahoe for a few days, but in between, we've just hung out and enjoyed spending time together.
We got her to push her own stroller for a while. Another family saw us and thanked us for the idea!
She loved watching all of the animals, especially the leopard and the giraffes (since they were the only ones moving)
The leopard was going to town on a plastic container.
I didn't let Brian photo-edit, so the lighting is off, but this is Gabby trying to get away from Grandma.
This rotation is annoying, but here's my big girl walking.
Mom's side of the family.
All tired out after lunch.
On the job front, I finally have more hours this fall. Another adjunct at ARC got the job I didn't get interviewed for, so I'm taking over his class, as well as the make-up lab he ran. The hours are not ideal--Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:30-10:00 pm, but at least I have an entire class of my own and not just a part of someone else's! The make-up lab is Fridays 1-4, and should be a challenge--basically anyone who's missed a lab that week comes to the Friday session in order to make up the work. I've heard stories of 12 different labs going at once! I'm looking forward to it!
I'm done with the classes for this semester, but still have the final on Monday. I start the summer class on June 10, and it goes 8 weeks. It should be a really fun time, and it will be good practice for this fall. Apparently all I need to do is write about how badly the job situation is for it to change!
Note: I wrote this on April 11, but managed to lose the cord to connect the camera to the computer. So if the info seems dated, that's why!
Another month down, a serious skill picked up! Gabby's been walking short distances for a little over 2 weeks--maybe 2-3 steps at a time before falling or grabbing on to something. She was able to walk really long distances (from the kitchen to the family room) while holding onto my hand, and was starting to try to let go of me. Then, over the weekend of April 6, we went to our friends' wedding (congratulations, Justin and Karen!), and while we were gone, Auntie Amy and Ryan came out from IL to watch Gabby. When we got back, they told us that she'd walked pretty much the whole time and barely crawled at all! We've known for a while that she is more likely to walk if she has an audience, but I was really surprised to hear just how much she walked. She definitely walked a little more the next few days, but really picked up on Tuesday while I was home with her. I took her outside (she actually asked--by giving me her shoes and waving bye-bye after I put them on her!), and she was walking like crazy! I took a video on my cell phone (note: this is actually at the park near our house, and was taken last weekend; as an aside, this is also the day Gabby got an orangefrom a random 8 year old stranger--that's who she's looking at at the end of the video):
But missed the best part when she was walking in the street in front of our house (a cul-de-sac, so no traffic). I was holding her hand, but she jerked hers out of mine, and started walking as fast as she could across the street! She was very determined to get our neighbors lights. The funniest thing--she was walking just like I would expect a zombie to, and her breathing sounded like zombie moans. I'm so sorry I didn't get it on video!
She's still not an exclusive walker, and I think she walks more at home and more outside (and now all she wants to do when she is awake is go outside!) than she does at daycare or inside, but she's certainly well on her way to being a true toddler now. (April 22: She's pretty much only walking now, even at daycare. I talked to her daycare director, and she thinks Gabby is ready to move up to the 1 year old room at last! She'll make the move on May 1).
As far as other Gabby news, she now has 11 teeth, including 3 molars! And that molar cutting was no joke--she was really miserable and didn't want to eat much (a sure sign of trouble--this kid loves to eat). I can see the last molar and all 4 of her canines in her gums, so I know we're in for another round of teething soon.
She most definitely now understands exactly what I'm saying and not just my tone--I changed how I ask questions, and she still responds in an appropriate manner. For example, we were walking in the kitchen and I asked if she was hungry. She then led me to her high chair and pointed at it. I also asked if she needed a nap, and she put her arms up and fell right asleep when we got to her room. I finally got her some bubbles, and when I put them away and she wasn't quite done, she said "bub" and pointed at them (and started whining) until I got them back out (which I only did because of the "bub" and pointing--I'm trying to encourage communication in ways other than crying). It just amazes me how fast she is learning, and how I really don't have a small baby anymore, but a toddler instead!
Another thing bringing that home is the amount of tantrums she throws now. She gets so mad when she can't play with things (like my phone), or she can't go outside anytime she wants to (which, since the walking started, is basically anytime we're at home). I know this is merely a prelude of things to come, and I can't say I'm looking forward to it!
On the job front, I applied for a full time teaching position at a community college about 10 miles from our house and didn't even get to the interview stage :(. I think I still just don't have enough experience--this was the first job that had been posted in about 5 years, so there are a ton of adjuncts out there accumulating experience just like I am. It's going to be a rough road to a full time job for me. I also only have 1 class for the fall semester so far. It is a bit early (one college never contacts me until summer), but this time last year I had 2 classes lined up already. It's just a little discouraging for me right now!
The memorial service for my father-in-law was the weekend before last, and it was a very moving event. We interred his ashes on Friday with just his immediate family, and then had the memorial on Saturday. Gabby was an angel during the interment--she fell asleep as we were starting and stayed asleep until it was over. She was also really good at the restaurant afterwards. I thanked her multiple times for her behavior!
Brian and Gabby at the grave site. It's actually really pretty there, despite the power lines in this shot.
Gabby says the dirt tastes fine.
Fortunately, Brian's sister Jennifer included us with her babysitter for the Saturday event, and Gabby had a blast playing with her cousins Audrey and Olivia. It was also really nice to visit with people without having a baby clinging to me! I think Gabby may have sensed that something was wrong--she was VERY clingy while we were in LA, and while some of that is probably the new people and the strange places, it seemed to be more than that. She's still totally a momma's girl, which is nice, but sometimes momma's arms get really tired of holding her!
After the memorial weekend, we took advantage of my spring break and went to San Diego. Gabby had a blast! She loved the shows at Sea World (especially the dolphin show), she loved seeing all of the animals at the Safari Park, and she loved having us all to herself!
I know it looks like we're super close here, but we're actually in the very last row. Brian got a new camera lens and loved playing with it.
Gabby loved the bird lady most of all. Unfortunately, we have no reaction shots, since Brian's lens wouldn't let him shoot that close.
Again, we were really far away!
Blowing kisses to the butterflies. I have no idea why it's rotated.
Riding the Africa tram
Watching the animals roll by
She finally got to touch an animal!
It was so much fun for me to see her reaction--it was like I was seeing it for the very first time myself. She was just so excited, clapping her hands, pointing and waving. I admit that I got a little teary, and realized that this is why we have kids--so we can show them the world! We got to meet one of my mommy Facebook friends and her daughter Olivia, and Gabby just loved seeing another baby her size (and with the same amount of hair!). The only thing she didn't love was being in the bathroom (in a crib) overnight. She woke up every night but one at 3:30 am, and was a pain to get back to sleep. Other than the sleep deprivation, we all had a great time there!
What she didn't do at 3:30.
Gabby is now 13 months old, and well on her way to toddler-hood. She still doesn't walk, but she can now stand up without having something to hold onto for support. She can also take a few steps, but only if she has a clear goal in mind. She'll walk from a table to me, but she won't just walk without thinking about it. She also walks a lot more when she has an audience--we went to her friend Phoebe's first birthday party, and she definitely put on a show there with her walking.
I can hold 2 of them!
We went back to the Berrys' for Easter yesterday, and Gabby had a great time playing with Phoebe and Charlotte.
In her Easter dress. Yes, she wore the same thing to the memorial.
Bouncing Charlotte's ball
Swinging with Chris
This is actually not Easter, but none of the Charlotte Easter pictures turned out!
"I love you, Phoebe"
"I hate you, Phoebe!" She'd actually just dropped a toy.
Friends again at the ball popper
Otherwise on the milestone front, Gabby is really good at pointing. I love this, since it makes it so much easier for her to tell me what she wants. She also baby-signs all done, but tends to use it to mean "pick me up". She's now blowing kisses (cutest thing ever!), and understands at least my tone when I give simple commands. For example, I'll ask her if she wants to eat, and she'll drop what she's doing and come right over. She also does this when she really doesn't want it--I asked her if she wanted a nap, and she came to me, but clearly wasn't tired. I think she's like the cats and is just responding to the tone of voice and not the actual words yet.
I've also started to see some frustration from her. She'll try to do something like put a block in a hole, and if she can't get it in, she'll get really frustrated and start yelling. I usually just tell her calmly "you can do it", and for the most part, she can. It just takes her longer and makes her mad when she knows it's supposed to work. I'm fighting my urge to just jump in and help--she needs to get frustrated so that she can learn to deal with it!
Gabby is just a constant joy, and I'm so glad to have her. I can really see her personality developing, and I know she's going to be so much fun when she can communicate more.
Unfortunately, we've had a very eventful month here--Brian's father, Gabby's
Grandpa Romo passed away on March 1.
I haven't written at all about Carl and his health because, frankly, I felt
like it wasn't my business. I only knew him for a short period of time
(we met around Christmas 2007), and I always felt it was his family's place to
advertise what was happening, not mine. Now however, I feel like I should
put the whole story down. Carl was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about 2
years ago, but even before that, we all knew things weren't quite right with
his memory. Even me, a relative outsider, realized that his lapses in
memory were more than just those acquired in old age. He would ask me
every time I saw him what I did and where I lived--clearly not remembering that
we had met before. Before he was on medication, there were times when I
know he didn't know who Brian or Jennifer (Brian's sister) were--sometimes he
thought Brian was a nice man who came to visit, other times he thought Brian
was his brother (to be fair, Brian does resemble his uncle quite a bit).
He could never remember that Gabby was a girl, persisting on calling her
"he" even when she was dressed in all pink, although I think that
stemmed from thinking Brian was his brother, since Brian's uncle had 2
boys. Once he was diagnosed and got on a medication schedule that worked,
things got much better. He would still get "stuck in time" (a
phrase used when people think they are living in a past time) and talk about
work he was doing and how his bosses would be really upset when they learned he
was retired, but for the most part he could follow a conversation and seemed
able to recognize his wife and children as well as other important people in
his life.
We figured he would persist like this, slowly losing his memory and
eventually having to be put in a nursing home for another 10 years or so.
Then in mid-February he caught the flu and stopped eating. No big deal--I
don't eat much when I'm sick either. However, when he got over the flu,
he didn't start eating again. Their regular doctor was out of town, so
Anne took him to the back-up doctor who ran a battery of tests, and basically
told her that there was nothing wrong with him and that he would eat when he
wanted to eat. Fast forward a week later and he still wasn't eating (they
figured he was getting maybe 200-300 calories/day). He then collapsed, and the regular doctor told Anne to get him to the ER.
There they found that he had pneumonia, and since he was so malnourished
treating it probably would not work. Anne, Jennifer and Brian decided to
admit him to hospice where he stayed for 2 days before passing away.
This has understandably been a really rough time for Brian and his
family. They decided not to do a funeral right away (Carl's brother was
visiting family with his wife and Anne's brother was recovering from back surgery
and couldn't fly), but to do a memorial service instead, which will be this
upcoming weekend. We're all very saddened by the loss of a great husband,
father, grandfather, and friend.
Now for the boring stats part of the 1 year post--feel free to go back and look at the pictures in the last post if you're not interested!
So Gabby went to the doctor for her 1 year check-up, shots and a blood draw. She is 23 lbs, and 30 in long (75th percentile for both)! What a huge change from when she was 3 months old and not even on the chart for her weight! I'm so proud of how far she has come. She also got 3 shots and had a repeat blood draw. Apparently, her lead levels were high on the 9 month draw--something I didn't know about until I got a letter from the state telling me her blood needed to be rechecked this month. This is definitely a case where being a scientist bites me in the butt, because I know what elevated Pb levels can do, and I immediately freaked out about it. After talking to her pediatrician yesterday and the daycare provider the day before, I'm pretty convinced it was an error in testing. The daycare director has been watching kids in Sac for over 10 years, and the pediatrician has been here for 8, and neither one of them have ever heard of a child in Sacramento with elevated Pb levels. Our house was built in 1983, and the daycare just went through a certification process to be declared "environmentally fit", so the places where she spends 99% of her time really should not have any Pb in them. So now it's just a waiting game to see if this second draw comes back normal. Hopefully I'll know by Friday.
Gabby is still not walking, despite most everyone (including Brian and me) swearing she would by now! She is an expert at standing, and often lets go while playing to pass something from one hand to the other. She can also "walk" using her now 3 walker toys, or by holding on to our hands. So she has the balance and the mechanics down, it's just a matter of her putting it all together and taking off! I think what I said in her 11 month post still holds true here--she gets along just fine by crawling, so she feels there's no need for her to walk! Brian's convinced if they move her and the other 1 year old who is not walking yet into the 1 year old room at daycare they will both be walking within a week, but the rule is they can't be moved until they are walking steadily in shoes. It makes a lot of sense from the teachers' point of view, but I can see Brian's point that Gabby and Dahlia never see walking so they don't know that they should be doing it. I'm sure it'll work itself out and Gabby will be running around like crazy soon. Then I'll be eating my words in this post!
Gabby has come a really long way with her eating in the past month. We already had her on only formula and solids at breakfast (bananas and Cheerios at home, and whatever starch and fruit they serve at daycare that day), but now she is completely off of baby food altogether at home! Daycare still sometimes gives her some at lunch (they make lunches for the 1-5 year olds, so sometimes there are things like sloppy joes that they don't give to the littlest ones; on those days, she gets pureed meat), but we currently have several containers in our pantry that will probably never be used. Gabby loves the frozen mixed veggies (especially carrots and peas--surprising considering how much she hated the peas baby food), and the ready-made chicken strips. She also loves frozen waffles, pancakes, bread and almost every other starch she's had. The thing she loves most, though, is fruit. Blueberries are her favorites, with grapes and strawberries a close second. She also wolfs down catalope, honeydew, pineapple, apples, bananas--pretty much anything but mango (I think it's a bit too hard). At dinner, we give her some chicken and the mixed veggies, and then top her off with fruit for dessert. I'd love to have her eating our meals with us, but Brian really doesn't get home early enough for her to eat with us. She's usually mostly done by the time we sit down to dinner. She just needs to eat so much earlier than we do, and we cannot deviate from her schedule (plus it takes her forever to eat)! For snack time, Pirate Booty is her absolute favorite, but she also likes goldfish, animal crackers, Ritz and chips. Her favorite going out restaurant is Panera (their kids meals have no veggies or fruit, but she loves the lunch meat, cheese, bread and yogurt), and we just recently discovered that Chevy's has a really good kids' menu as well (Red Robin and Chili's do not--at least not if you want your kids to have more than fried food!). It's so much easier now that we don't have to carry her food with us all the time!
We have also started mixing whole milk in with her formula. She's still all formula at daycare, but at home, her bottles are now 50/50. I need to get her on some vitamins soon so that we can make sure she's still getting the nutrients she needs. I'm hoping to get her off of formula soon, and to wean her from the bottle at the same time.
As far as her words, she now consistently says bye, mama, dada, ball, bah (for sheep), baba (bottle), she makes a pretty good trumpeting sound (elephant noise), she is desperately trying to figure out how to make the ssss sound (she uses her nose now, and hasn't figured out the mouth yet), and just yesterday she started saying uh oh. She uses the "word" a-na (accompanied with a really nice finger point) when she wants something identified or she wants it to play with. She follows my pointing finger very well. She loves to look at trees, but doesn't really have a word for them yet. I'm really shocked that she doesn't have names for the cats yet. She doesn't even try with Zoe, but sometimes she'll say dub when she's looking at Snowball. I think she finds combinations of sounds a little intimidating still. Although in thinking about it, if she does make a noise at a cat, it's always ma at Zoe and da at Snowball. I love sharing billing with my cat. I will say that she understands a ton more than she can say--especially food-related commands!
One really annoying thing she does now is bite--particularly annoying because she only bites me. She's usually trying to bite my clothes, but she broke skin 2 weeks ago on my stomach. I've instituted a "very stern NO! and walk away policy" (basically a time out, but I leave and she stays), but she still insists on biting me! I have no idea why she only does it to me, and I'm not at all happy about it. I guess I'll just keep up with the time outs. I've already warned daycare so they can watch her when she's around the other kids (but again, it seems like she only does it at home and only to me).
As far as teaching goes, my classes are going well. I'm in the classroom Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and have Thursday as my planning/grading day. I've also just started a UOP class, so I'm going to be taking Gabby to daycare on Tuesdays so that I can get all the extra work done too. The wine is coming along as well. We racked for the first time this past weekend, and it tasted pretty much like my first batch of zin did at this point, so I'm optimistic it will be OK. It's harder to make wine with a little one around!
I'll try to update again this week with the results of the Pb test!
