Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Random Daddy thoughts

[The following is an *actual* excerpt from a *real* conversation in the Vaughan household this afternoon.]

Arwen explaining to Roan as she was happily sitting on his lap, "This is your pointer toe, and this one's your index toe..."
"Wait a minute, hold on there Arwen. Pointer toe? There's no pointer toe."
"Well what are the names of the different toes?" he asks. I look at him quizzically. He continues, "You know like the fingers have."
I offer, "Let's see, there's the Big Toe and then there's... well.. there's all the rest of the toes."
"You mean they don't have names?" he asks, indignant. "They should have names."
"Sorry honey, I'm pretty sure there's no Thumb Toe or Pinky Toe."
"They really should have names. How are you supposed to do that piggy game?"
"You mean 'This little piggy'? You just say 'This little piggy...'"
"That's just wrong. Toes need names."
"Perhaps you have a point there, honey."

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Videos!

Finally! I got the video uploader to work. Man what a pain that was.

Here's another one of Roan having her way with the laundry basket.



And the next two give you a sample of what she's like on an ordinary day lately: constantly on the go, in her own little world, and making a ton of noise.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Overdue

Well it seems I'm long overdue for an update. It seems like Roan is changing so much every day. On Wednesday after she was with the nanny all day I could swear she grew just since that morning. And she's starting to look a little more like a toddler and a little less like a baby. She is still my sweet baby girl though.

Even when she's a pistol, which she has been all week. She is constantly shrieking at what I don't know. Such a busy body, always on the move, always into what she should be staying out of. A little more willful all the time.

She has discovered how fun it is to play behind the couch, as you can see. She's doing better with her walking, making it across the room when she wants to with jerky confidence. She also finally got into the toilet when she got away from us once this week and splashed around in the bowl with both hands. Can you say "Ewwwww"? (Stu I can hear you now!)


Although these pictures would lead you to believe otherwise, she hasn't been getting as much time with Aunt Jen as she would like. When we do get together, she lunges for Jen and Micah and holds on for dear life. But we did get to go to storytime today with Aunt Jen, which was a lot of fun.

We read books every day. Roan is excellent at turning the pages of her board books now. She also enjoys just taking them all of the shelf one by one. She's nowhere close to being able to handle books with paper pages yet though, because so far she hasn't met a piece of paper that didn't taste delicious. She has several favorites. Pat the Bunny is still at the top of the list, as well as a book about dogs that has furry places to touch, ears to pull as well as wagging and scratching action. And a counting book about dogs that involves me making ten different dog barks (who knew there were so many) which she finds very entertaining. I really have to put a lot of feeling into it though!

Aside from Roan, the other baby that has our attention right now is Hallie, and trying to get her well. She has continued to drop an alarming amount of weight and sometimes shows no interest in eating. Jen and Micah in concert with their vet are doing everything they can to get her healthy again. And the vet assured Jen today that it's not time to give up hope yet. Hallie spends the days with us so we can feed her lunch and let her out as much as she needs to. As skinny as she is, it's hard for her to stay warm even at a comfortable temperature so I've been snuggling her into a blanket. She was so cute on the couch this morning I had to snap a picture.
I had a really hard time picking a video to upload this week, because Roan has been up to so many shenanigans. I hope you enjoy these. Now I'm off to bed - it's not even 8:30 - to get some extra sleep. Roan's been waking up every night around 4 AM and on top of that I seem to have a bit of a head cold.


I'm having trouble uploading more videos... hopefully more will come soon.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

This is the greatest age

I've decided that 9 months is just the greatest age. I have had so much fun with Roan lately. She is almost always in good spirits and has so much personality now. She often seems to be carrying on a conversation, although I can't make out the words she's saying. She is constantly on the move, so curious about her world. She *loves* to play peek-a-boo, and will pull a blanket or her shirt over her head before making a dramatic appearance. She'll play it with me, Arwen or even the dog. Seriously, I saw her the other day peeking around the corner over and over at Sasha, laughing hysterically.

We've been going to storytime at the library/toy library the past couple of weeks and that has been a lot of fun too. Roan is so interested in the other bigger kids, not to mention the guy with the banjo. It is interesting for me to see how she interacts with other kids in a new environment. She seems to be quite the social butterfly. Unlike my girlfriends that I go with (whose babies are a couple months younger than Roan), she cannot be contained. While they sit happily playing with one or two toys, Roan is crawling determiniedly off to the other side of the room, going up to older kids, snatching toys out of their hands or just earnestly watching what they're doing. Today she broke up a play picinic between two adorable blond-haired four-year-olds. When she grabbed a toy sandwhich away from one of them, the little girl looked up at me for a moment in horror, but then offered Roan a piece of plastic birthday cake as a peace offering. It was adorable. Later Roan buddied up to a beautiful black toddler with a gorgeous afro who was playing the xylophone shoulder to shoulder with her blonde haired friend. It could have been a Benneton commercial, I tell you.

Arwen groaned when I told him about Roan's behavior at the toy library, thinking she may be a handful in the future. But I personally am delighted to see her so full of confidence and curiousity. As a person who struggled with shyness my whole young life I would consider it a blessing for Roan if she can feel so outgoing from the get-go.

It's really neat how much Roan can do now. She's no longer a lump lying there, and it's just plain fun interacting with her in new ways. But on the flip side what makes this age even more precious is that she is still very much my little baby. She loves to curl up in my lap and snuggle or read books. Sometimes she lifts her arms, just needing to be held. And when she's tired she'll nuzzle her head into my chest. She can be such a sweetheart. I have the distinct sense that as she becomes a better walker, and then a runner, these tender moments may become fewer and farther between, so I am basking in them while they last.

Here's a quick video, nothing award winning, just her eating an apple.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Someone stop me

Well I must have just far too much time on my hands these days because all of a sudden I looked up and took stock of what I've been up to and realized I have once again veered over into Freakish Mommy Territory. Exhibit A, Today's Activities:

- Made homemade brown rice cereal for Roan, involving griding rice in the blender (yes you can buy it at the store and add water but that would be too easy)
- Made homemade yogurt (no not from breastmilk, at least I'm not that kooky)
- Watched a video on selecting a good pre-school (um yeah I know that's like 2 years away)
- Have a stack of approximately 2 dozen library books next to the bed on a wide array of behavioral, nutritional, teaching and parenting advice



Exhibit B, recent craft projects: I sewed 5 bibs for Roan from microfiber dishcloths (the dishcloths were leftover from the Homemade Diaper Debacle). I was really excited about how cute they turned out, especially with the rickrack and matching trim, until I tried them on her and found out I cut the &*@$! neck holes too big. The pictures are rigged to hide this fatal flaw. I am reminded once again that I HATE TO SEW.




And finally Exhibit C, cutesy activities: I recently took Roan to her first storytime/music time at the library. After a very nice man with a banjo sings silly songs and reads stories, they open the "toy library" and all the kids get to play with the toys and even check some out to take home.

Well maybe I am throwing myself a little too much into mommyhood lately, but I've been having fun doing it. And actually I've done a pretty good job of making time for myself. I've been knitting fiendishly (a sweater for myself, thank you very much), I've been going to the gym on a regular basis (Roan loves the daycare there are much as I do!), and I've been making time for makeup, earrings, a cute hat, the little things that allow me to feel fairly human.

How is this possible, you ask? Where does she find the time, you want to know? Well I think I basically haven't gotten anything done at work for the past two weeks. Somethin's gotta give, right? Work was really cutting into my "me" time so ya know, who needs it!

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Baby Steps

We've got walking!

Although Roan took her first couple of steps before New Year's Day, I didn't really consider that "walking" since it seemed more of a fluke. But she's been steadily progressing and last night she took six steps in a row, a feat she's reproduced many times since! She is hooked on walking and doesn't seem to want to do much else. She hasn't been eating much or drinking much milk, but at least she's been tiring herself out enough that she's been a good sleeper!

She is standing up unassisted all over the place too - in her crib, on the couch, our bed, our laps, the dining room table, wherever she happens to be. She loves to stand on her own and shake a toy around, even lift it over her head. Her balance is remarkable.

Last week she had her 9 month checkup with Dr. Bacon. It was lucky it was scheduled when it was because the night before she got a horrible case of diaper rash. Actually all last week was terrible for her diapered places. She got 3 different kinds of rashes, none of which we'd seen before. One looked like chicken pox and then was gone the next day, the next involved bleeding which was horrendously shocking and worrisome but was gone the next day, and the third was a variety that didn't look bad - just a little redness - but was more painful than any diaper rash in her life. She screamed any time I went near her. But we've finally gotten all of that cleared up now, and it's back to normal down there, thank goodness.

Roan is now measuring 27 1/4 inches and is 18 lbs, 7 oz. I thought for sure she was over 20 lbs by now; guess I need to start lifting weights! She has fallen from the 80th percentile for height and weight down to the 50th. Of course now Arwen is paranoid we're malnourishing her. If we are, it's not for lack of trying. We offer her all manner of fresh "grownup" foods now as well as the usual baby fare. She just doesn't seem particularly interested in it. She'd rather get down on the floor and try taking a few more steps.

Here's a short video of our little walker, just seconds after her Six Step Spectacular. I'm having some cinematic challenges actually capturing her walking - seems like she plops down right as I get the camera going. But this is better than nothing. Be patient and I'll get a better one posted soon!

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Happy 9 Months

Roan is doing great on her 9 month birthday today. She is standing more and more confidently, and throwing in the occasional step. She is so over baby food though. Apparrently at 9 months she's decided she's all grown up. Only real people food interests her. Tooth #7 is making an appearance (right incisor). Today she got to play with her nanny Lindsay and her best buddy Audrey, and they all had a lot of fun.



The only item for concern is a bad case of darn diaper rash, but luckily she's scheduled for a checkup tomorrow morning so I'm sure we'll get that all taken care of.



And I know, I know, I've GOT to get all the pictures from Christmas posted. I will, I promise! Here's a Christmas video to tide you over.