Thankful

Tomorrow I'm bringing Aurora to work for a few hours, then heading home to pack and prepare for our early morning flight to Arizona, where we'll be spending Thanksgiving with the Wadey/Imus clan. We'll bring the video camera and a laptop, but I'm not expecting to blog again for the next week, so I wanted to wish you ALL a very happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends at the LAF. I truly am thankful to work for such an amazing organization with such great people. I'm thankful to be in the "mom club," and feel fortunate to have friends in Jennifer, Sue, Brooke, and all the other LAF mommies. And Kim Barnett, Teresa, Kelsey, Bianca... I could go on and on.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Ostergards and Slanes up in Seattle. I have so many great memories of Thanksgivings with you guys as a teenager, and I'm sure family gatherings have only gotten more fun with the addition of so many new family members!

Happy Thanksgiving to Katie and her parents, who have always been like a second family to me. And to Amelia, who I'm thinking of so much this week and wishing peace and love.

Happy Thanksgiving to my Mom & Dad, who will be celebrating more than just the holiday this week in Miama. It's also Grandpa's 85th birthday!!! Grandpa Sandler has always been so generous and supportive of our family. I wanted to post a few photos to honor his big day...

This is me and my grandpa in 1979. Oh yeah, and Julian :)

Here we are in 1986, dancing at his wedding.

And this silly picture is from just two short months ago, September 2008. I hope Aurora and I get to visit you many many more times!

We love you Grandpa Sandler!

What a weekend...

Last night Aurora was up just about every hour, crying and drooling and chomping her gums together. I couldn't feel any teeth today, but it's pretty obvious she's working on them. At one point I filled a sippy cup with ice water, and she liked that, but it didn't help for long. Tonight I'm prepared with soothing drops and Tylenol.

The most amazing thing was that this morning she woke up happy! I was sure she'd be overtired and cranky. Nope. We had a full day of breakfast at Le Madeleine, coffee with friends at the Borders bookstore in the Domain, yoga with Jennifer and Larkin, and a little afternoon shopping.

I'm afraid this may have been our last postnatal yoga class. Aurora is a little too mobile, and she's not shy about crawling over to other babies and grabbing them. Last week she reached over and grabbed Larkin's MOUTH! Today she kept crawling across the room to Lyric, who's in our class at daycare, and Doris Ann, who's 9 months old and pretty content to stay in one place. Larkin and Lyric are a couple months younger than Aurora and are not even sitting up yet, so they can't exactly play with her (or defend themselves against her!).

Rora has a great time at yoga and we'll both miss it, but once the babies can crawl they sort of 'graduate' into the crawlers and toddlers class - which is only offered on weekday mornings. Oh well. Here are a couple pictures from today. Larkin was keeping her eye on Aurora!

Today I took Aurora shopping dressed like this...

Hair!

No, this post is not about Aurora's hair (though it is certainly getting thicker)... it's about my haircut. More than the cut, this blog is about my new hair color, which I like to call NOT GRAY!

When I was pregnant, my hair got really thick, and the gray began to multiply. A few months ago it started thinning out, but those silver hairs are tough - they do not fall out. The color makes me feel like I look about 5 years younger, which is pretty nice.

A crawler, a stander, and a sleeper...

Tonight Aurora started crawling on her hands and knees then pulling herself up to standing! She'd already done it perfectly and without any help before I grabbed the camera (of course), but I think this video gives you the gist of it...

I can't believe she'll be crawling around Grandma Nancy's house a week from today. I'm sad that Julia will be working and won't be able to spend much time with Aurora, but I'm pretty excited that we get Zeland all weekend! I have a feeling that A & Z will be best buds.

And speaking of baby Z, I wanted to post a couple sweet pics of Rora in her favorite sleeping position. Julia posted a completely adorable picture of Zeland sleeping earlier in the week on her blog, which inspired me to take these. Sleeping babies are the best.

7-month old sweetie

Yesterday I got a call from daycare and it was Carole saying that she didn’t think Aurora was feeling very well. Rora didn’t want to play and seemed tired but didn’t want to sleep. After picking her up a little early, I decided she must’ve just been worn out from the weekend, or possibly even a little sad that she couldn’t spend the day with us after having such a fun weekend. Rest assured she’s doing fine now – as happy as ever and definitely not sick.

Today Aurora’s 7-months old and she’s growing up too fast! I truly expected that the baby phase would be so hard and seem never ending, but lately I wish I could just freeze her at this age forever. She’s the best and most beautiful little baby I could’ve asked for.

Julian once said that the days go by slow, but the years fly by. I just can’t get enough Aurora time and frankly it seems to me that the days are going by a little too fast…

Not to distract from Santa, but...

Pictures with Santa!

Today we went to the mall with Kim to get pedicures, and Santa was there! The truth is, we weren't planning on a picture with Santa – at least not this early in the season – but I couldn’t resist, and here’s why:

1) Aurora was happy and active, so the timing was right

2) Santa looked really nice – he and the staff seemed happy to be there, which may not be the case a month from now

3) The line was short

4) Aurora was wearing the cutest hoodie! All the other babies in line had frilly dresses and tights and patent leather shoes, but Aurora was just so sweet and comfy. The dad in front of us, who had 2 little girls in fancy outfits, kept calling Aurora a “cute little guy." She IS wearing a pink onesie under the hoodie, plus there's pink on her socks and flowers are embroidered on the jeans. Even the hoodie has a few feminine details, but you can't see any of it in the photo... oh well.

I am starting to rethink the outfits we bought for her Thanksgiving photo shoot with Zeland. I’ve been searching for a nice outfit for her, and figured that if we’re having a special sitting, she should wear a special holiday dress. But I’m wondering if a cute little top and pants won’t be good enough – I mean, we do want her to be comfortable and look like herself, and I’m not sure if that'll be the case if she's wearing fancy clothes. Maybe we’ll just have to do one or two outfit changes to get a good variety... we'll see!

Da da da da da...

Typical

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared a daily schedule with you. This is partly because I don’t want to brag, and partly because I don’t want to temp fate. Our schedule has been really good. I’m lucky enough to have a husband who can take the baby to daycare, a job that is extremely flexible, and (since about the time Aurora got good at eating solid foods) a daughter who’s the best sleeper. So, here’s how our days have been going lately:

6:45am – Aurora and I wake up, Rora’s first feeding
7:00am – Chuck wakes up, I shower and get ready
7:30am – I pack everybody’s food and head to work
8:00am – I get to work, Chuck brings Aurora to daycare
11:00am – Aurora gets an 8 oz bottle and ½ jar baby food
3:00pm – Aurora gets her second bottle
4:00pm – I leave work and pick Rora up from daycare
5:30pm – Aurora eats rice cereal, fruits and veggies
6:00pm – Bath time, playtime, and story time
6:30pm – Rora’s last feeding and bedtime
7:00pm – Dinnertime
I watch TV and do the dishes, Chuck keeps working… then we go to bed some time between 10:00-11:00pm.

How could this be more perfect? Well, I really do wish I could spend more time with my baby. I basically get just over 2 hours/day with her, and on the days Chuck goes into the office, he only sees her for an hour. Also, if we could go out every now and again while Aurora’s sleeping, that would be nice. Luckily, I do enjoy cooking, and we’re both homebodies for the most part… but really, by 9:00pm I miss my baby and often feel a little bored. Thank goodness for blogging and weekends!

How many car seats does one baby need?

Last month we put the big girl car seat from my baby shower in the Element, and it's been great. I've still been using the infant carrier in the Scion, and have been hesitant to change it out. She does still fit in it and it's very convenient, but more so I had to do some research to find a seat that would actually fit in my tiny car.

Today we installed a Britax Roundabout, which was expensive, but fits and looks great in the Scion. I'm hoping it'll be comfy for the little Rooster... she was pretty sad this evening when we put her in it for the first time, but I think it was because I'd just brought her home from daycare and she didn't want to go back out again!

I borrowed the infant carrier and stroller from a coworker, but I don't think I'm ready to give them back just yet. The travel system will be good for our trip to AZ. Chuck suggested that now we may need another stroller so we can keep one in each car... so, how many car seats and strollers does one baby need? A LOT!!!

McWhat!?

Yesterday Julian posted a blog about McTeacher Day, where the teachers served all the kids at McDonald's. In the last couple of days I've reconnected on facebook with several friends from WAY back in the day when I worked at McD's (for more years than I should admit to). So, it seemed appropriate that Chuck & I take Aurora to McDonald's this morning for breakfast. I have to say, the McCafe is a good addition, and their high chairs are better than most restaurants. Rora enjoyed herself despite not being able to actually eat anything. Perhaps they should add McBaby Food to the menu next?

Afterwards, in an effort to offset the trip to McD's, we headed on down to the local Farmer's Market. What a beautiful morning to shop for fruits and veggies! I came home with more than I expected to... sweet potatoes, zucchini, basil, okra, tangerines, peppers and onions... delish.

Then we headed on over to Babies'R'Us, in pursuit of winter outfits for Aurora to wear to Arizona for Thanksgiving. We found some very cute stuff, including this adorable cap. While we love the sweet little bald head, I have to say she looks awfully cute in hats!!!

What a nice day we've had - and it's not even Noon yet!

Finally!

Our pumpkin patch photos came in the mail today. They turned out SO cute, and came on a beautiful scrapbook-style frame. Actually, one came in the frame, and they sent two other shots in addition to this one. They didn't charge us a penny, we just showed up on a Saturday and bought a pumpkin from them. How nice is that!?

And here's a cute picture we took that day... Chuck insisted I include it :)

Six month check-up

Okay, so she’s closer to 7-months old, but today was Aurora’s 6-month well baby visit. I was actually surprised by her most recent stats – I honestly thought she was bigger than she really is!!! She hasn’t grown a whole lot since her 4-month appointment, but she’s in the 50% percentile so she’s right where she needs to be at 15 lbs 12 oz and 25 ¾” long.



They gave her 4 shots today – three standard vaccinations and a flu shot. Of course, she screamed and cried pretty hard while the shots were going in, but she recovered quickly and took a good long nap afterwards. She’s been eating and sleeping great, and really has been the best little daughter we could’ve asked for.

And you thought I’d blog about the election!!!

Crawl Position