A few photos

I thought I'd post some recent photos for you guys. Here is Miss Roan, drinking from her sippy cup and looking like a toddler.

Here she is playing fetch with Sasha. Not sure if I've mentioned but Sasha has been less than enthused about the new creature living in her house. She's never been aggressive towards Roan and always been reserved, but you could tell she just did not like the child. Until recently, since Roan has learned to throw Sasha her ball. Which just happens to be Sasha's *favorite* game in the world. So now when Sasha looks at Roan she seems to be thinking something along the lines of "Maybe the little turd isn't so bad after all."

Here's Roan playing with her friend Camilla at one of our Baby Happy Hour nights.

We've been doing a bunch of home repair and fix-up stuff lately. One thing we did this past weekend (and of course by "we" I mean "Arwen") was install a new pedestal sink in the guest bathroom, where the old sink was falling off the wall. Arwen did a great job and it turned out fantastic.

But as you can see from this photo here, he still has not graduated to become a "real" plumber yet.

A video

Sorry for the lack of updates here lately. I've tried several times to upload some videos, without any luck. This last week we were all three relatively healthy (although the sniffles seem to have become a constant fixture for all of us). Arwen and I have made the most of our evening time when Roan goes to bed, by getting some fix-up projects done around the house. We're going to throw Roan a birthday party at the end of March (a little early) and we need to get the downstairs in shape to have guests.

It amazes me that Roan is just weeks shy of her first birthday. This year has really blown by. The first few months seemed to get off to a slow and overwhelming start, but I feel like we have gradually picked up steam as a family and for the longest time it seems like things get more and more fun around here all the time.

Roan shows so much character all the time; it's wonderful watching the clues to her personality gradually unfold. She is an amazing walker now. She can walk down the sidewalk with us, walk over grass or mulch or sand. She struts around as if she's in charge, sometimes making what I call "baby godzilla" sounds, sort of a harmless exhuberant roar. She seems full of confidence and joy all the time. The other morning she woke us up at 2 am with a dirty diaper. I am not usually in the best mood at these wee hours, but the same can't be said for her, at least on that night. She giggled all through the diaper change, any time I touched her tummy or if my hair fell in her face. It was infectious. She surprises me with her ability to help me see the sunny side.

Speaking of joy and laughter, here's a video of her and her daddy goofing around.

I have three more videos I was hoping to upload, showcasing some of Roan's new skills: putting blocks into a container instead of taking them out, playing ball with Sasha, and steering her walking toy rather than just mindlessly ramming things. I've been having trouble with the video uploader though, but hopefully I'll be able to post them eventually.

All better

Whew! Arwen is feeling better. I'm back at 100%. Roan's sniffley nose and diarreah seem to have cleared up. I've even managed to do some catch-up at work. I am so grateful for a little peace so far this week. The looks on our faces say it all.

Notice Roan is wearing her new purple fleece hoodie, courtesy of Lolli & G-Pop. She has decided she can't go anywhere without it. Whether she's inside, on the go, or going down for a nap she insists on wearing it! I've never seen her so insistent about anything.


Here's a snapshot from Monday's Operation Decontamination in which ALL plastic toys in this house were thoroughly washed. The stuffed animals, which I heartlessly subjected to the washing machine, are still air drying.

With all the time we've been spending recovering our health in bed, I've had a lot of time to knit. Here's Arwen in the first ever anything I have knit for him. It's an earflap hat, funky and washable, just like him. I also knit him up a striped hat (already completed) as well as a third hat still on the needles. Part of my hesitation in knitting him anything is that he tends to destroy, stain or lose things. Now that he has three heather-made hats, I won't be heartbroken if anything happens to one. Or two.

And here's me in my latest creation. Well actually draft 1 of the newsboy cap I finished like back in November. But I made it too deep, which gave it a rasta look I'm just not cool enough to pull off. It was such a pain to make I couldn't stomach frogging it and fixing it until I was stuck in bed for days on end, unable to get to the yarn store to buy new yarn for a new project. I'm glad I picked this one back up. I'm happy with how it turned out. And it matches the stripey scarf you can barely see in the picture. Now all I need to make are some fingerless gloves to match...

I would like to get off the merry-go-round now please

What a week.... Last Sunday Arwen went out of town on business for a few days. By the time he got back Wednesday night I was really looking forward to having another pair of hands to help with Roan. It's been tough with her being sick and not being in daycare.

30 minutes before I was supposed to leave for the airport Roan goes Exorcist on me and starts puking like crazy for about an hour straight. It was so sad, the poor thing. She kept looking at me with big eyes as if to ask, "Mommy, what's happening to me?" All of a sudden I had a mountain of putrid, disgusting, chunky laundry and a very sick kiddo on my hands.

I had to call Arwen and tell him I wouldn't be able to pick him up from the airport. He was less than enthused. The poor guy had come down with fever and chills while in Houston, his flight had been delayed 2 hours, and he was just barely hanging on throughout the trip home telling himself, Heather will be here soon. He ended up taking a shuttle and getting home after midnight, when he was supposed to have arrived by 9.

The next two days were a blur. Arwen spent them in bed - something I've rarely seen in the past 15 years - and I spent them changing Roan's constant blowout diapers, ala her new stomach bug. The two of them were a pair, let me tell you. A pair who couldn't come within 10 yards of each other for fear of cross contamination. I must've gone through a gallon of purell trying to keep his germs away from her, hers away from him and both away from me!

By Friday afternoon I was beginning to feel the onset of symptoms - whether Arwen's or Roan's I couldn't quite tell. I was just feeling run down and puny. Although after the week I'd had, it probably wouldn't have taken a microorganism to put me over the edge that way. I was filled with an impending sense of doom. Arwen was nowhere close to being well enough to look after Roan - he remained bedridden till Sunday - and I knew if I came down with what he had I'd have to fend for myself. I was most worried that with both of us sick with high fevers, she would inevitably get it. If it had laid Arwen low like that, I was worried it could mean a trip to the hospital for her.

So Friday night our friend Molly came over (the mom we nanny share with). She's a Physician's Assistant, and she brought her medical bag. She tested Arwen for flu and he came back positive for Influenza B. So she put us both on Tamiflu. I was starting to feel better by the next morning, and he has gradually seen improvement as well. Things were looking up.

By this morning Arwen was feeling so well he was at his desk working by 8:15. And by 8:30 he was back in bed, nauseous. I was sitting at the dining room table, logging on to say hello to my colleagues when I see him tear butt across the hallway, too little too late unfortunately. He had a massive spontaneous vomitaceous eruption that unfortunately rendered our bedroom, bathroom and the hallway contamination zones. He offered to clean up after himself, but come on. How heartless am I?

I am still working my way through the resulting mountain of laundry. We decided to do all the sheets, towels, pretty much everything in the house while we were at it. And I went ahead and vacuumed, mopped and generally sanitized the whole house. All of Roan's plastic toys have been washed. A load of stuffed animals is still waiting to go into the laundry. Needless to say I'm exhausted!

I've decided that life lately is like a riptide. It's only if you fight it that you drown. If I can just relax and take it as it comes, eventually I'll end up at the shore again. At least that's what I'm telling myself!

More pictures soon. I snapped a cute one of Roan and me today.

In Memory of Hallie Anne Long

Hallie's long struggle with illness ended yesterday, February 21st. We are so sad to see her go. The little darlin put up a tough fight to the very end. She and Sasha got to play ball together one last time. I kept thinking about the sassy little red legwarmers I had wanted to knit for her. I'm sad I didn't get the chance. Sasha's going to miss her best buddy; they were like sisters.

I am at a loss as to something to do to ease Jen and Micah's grief. I just hope they can find some peace.

Nice Visit

Lolli and G-Pop went home this afternoon after a long weekend (that felt short!) in honor of Valentine's Day. Their Valentine's Day present to each other was to spend a few days with their grandbaby, and their Valentine's Day present to us was to give us an incredible worry-free two whole days and nights off from being on Baby Duty.

We had originally planned to go to Breckenridge for the weekend and go snowboarding, but as it turned out I came down with the latest incarnation of Roan's cough and cold and wasn't up to it. You would think that would be a bummer, but it really wasn't. We had two whole blissful nights of long, uninterrupted sleep while Mom, Stephen, Jen and Micah looked after Roan at Jen and Micah's house. And no kidding - it was absolutely transformative for me.

Having that time off, being able to get a good night's sleep, being able to get up and just take a frigging shower and blow dry my hair without having to entertain/ divert/ herd Roan was so wonderful. I felt a fog I hadn't even realized was there quietly lift away, as I was able to lift my gaze from where it's been the past ten months - three feet in front of me - and take stock of all the stuff that I've let fall to the side. Arwen and I spent some time together doing some fun stuff and some necessary stuff, having conversations that were about six months overdue. It was really really good for us!

We also got to spend some good time with my mom and Stephen. We took Roan to the Children's Museum Thursday afternoon. She had so much fun! She climbed up and down and slid and crawled on this cool contraption they have. She played in a toy boat and caught stuffed fish with a magnetized fishing pole. And she wandered around chewing on every random toy that wasn't glued down.

And then on Saturday we took her to the Aquarium where she saw all kinds of fish, sharks, and her very favorite: tigers. We brought her stroller, as did virtually all parents of kiddos Roan's age, but we might as well have left it at home. She was determined to walk through the whole thing. I think she had more fun walking from exhibit to exhibit like the big kids than actually checking out the fish. With the exception of the tigers (why they have real live tigers at an aquarium, I don't know), which she didn't want to leave. And Aunt Jen swears she heard Roan say "ti-guh."

We've had another major development this weekend: Roan is now clapping her hands. I know, compared to walking, no big deal right? But it was the one thing left on the list a kid her age "should" be doing that she just had not done. And then out of nowhere, she started clapping with G-Pop and Lolli, clapping either her own hands or grabbing their hands to clap them.

Also, on a note of personal satisfaction, Roan seems to *love* the new hat I knit her. At first it seemed all she wanted to do was pull it off as soon as I put it on her. But over the weekend when she was staying over at Aunt Jen's house, she apparently got her hat out and wore it around quite a bit. It seemed like maybe she picked it up as a way to connect with Mama when I wasn't around. And again this evening alone with me, she was curled up in my lap drinking a bottle when she caught a glimpse of the hat and insisted on putting it on. Jen says she wants to knit me one to match. I can hardly wait!

Tonight I watched a show about a couple with eight kids and it really gave me a lot to think about. They had fertility treatments in order to conceive a set of twin girls. Then they wanted "just one more." Instead they got a set of sextuplets. Holy cow man. Knowing the challenges that one child presents to your sense of self, your relationship with your mate, your sleep patterns... I cannot imagine dealing with eight, and six of them being newborns at the same time! Not that Roan is some terrible burden. She is a joyful burden, if you will, and one I feel so lucky to carry. She is an angel of a child. Even sick her temperment is so sweet and joyful. Watching that couple though, I will confess, it made me stop and think maybe we should be grateful for the wonderful child we have and leave it at that.

A few more photos

Here are some photos from being out and about over the weekend, plus the promised pic of the new sweater & hat set.

Here are Roan and Sasha out on a stroll on Sunday. It was sunny and in the 50's, so we walked over to Tennyson, picked up some pad thai and headed up to the park for a quickie picinic.

Here's Roan on the swings with her Daddy. She was rather nonplussed as you can see from the photo. Nonplussed was a big improvement over just plain grumpy after being sick and housebound for the last month, though. Getting out in the fresh air seemed to do her some good.

And here is the new sweater and hat set. I'm pleased with how it came out, considering I didn't use a pattern for the sweater. It took several re-dos but that's par for the course. She likes the pom poms on the hat - keeps trying to eat them! Now I'm working on a hat for Arwen in the same basic pattern, but a finer gauge yarn in autumn colors.

The latest

Here's Roan fresh out of the bath, wrapped up in her special flower power towel (notice the bee, so cute!) in her proud papa's arms. Roan and Arwen have been spending more time together lately, especially in the wee hours. Since she's had the World's Longest Running Cold, all the 4 am wakeups were just killing me. So he's taken them over completely. And with such enthusiasm! Aaaahhh...



I've been sneaking in some knitting for my little cutie pie. I knit her up a sweater, pictured here, though it's not the best picture ever. It was supposed to be a picture of her sweater but someone put her hand in the way (oops!). It doesn't have nearly as much growing room in it as I intended, but oh well. It'll fit her great for the next few weeks! Better pictures to follow. And I just finished a hat with earflaps to match it today. It is so cute on her... little pom poms and all. I got called in for jury duty so I had plenty of time sitting around.

So other than jury duty (which was educational but not so fun) the big excitement this week is Lolli & G-Pop's visit starting Wednesday. They're coming in to spend some time with Roan and let Arwen and I have some quality Valentine's time together. I think we might go snowboarding!

Roan is doing just great, aside from being sick with a cold and cough. She is toddling all over the place, as you can see in the videos. And she is babbling constantly, though it's 99% unintelligible. She never fails to say "dada" when she sees Arwen, but sometimes on the first or second try with me, I am also "dada" until I reminder her, and then she says "mamama," like "Oh yeah, I knew that!" She loves her books - whether she's pulling them all off the shelf and onto the floor, or flipping through them, or being read to. When we read together, she always likes to turn the pages. She seems to take the job seriously.

I've been doing some reading lately. The book I borrowed from the library is called "Redirecting Children's Behavior," and I love it because 1) it's very thin and short!, 2) it covers ages birth to 18, and 3) it articulates a parenting philosophy we both agree with. I picked it up on the recommendation of Eric and Pam, whose parenting style we always marvel at whenever we spend time with them and their son Gunther. The basic idea it offers is a way to deal with misbehavior or annoying behavior in such a way that it offers the child choices to make and a sense of control over themselves, while taking the frustration out of the equation for the parent.

Roan's still rather young for most of the techniques, but I get the sense that she will be challenging us soon, and I want to be ready with some tools that are constructive rather than reactive. One of the main things the book says that I strongly agree with, is that as parents our job is to gradually work ourselves out of a job. If we do well, we raise confident decision makers who need us less and less over time. Such a philosophy focuses on helping a child to feel motivated from within to make good decisions, rather than the parent imposing control from the outside. I think it's pretty consistent with the way both Arwen and I were raised. Even though our childhoods were very different from each other, I think all our parents had the same thought in the backs of their minds. Anyway, it sounds good enough in theory that I think it's worth a try!

Well I think I'm going to retire for the evening. Now that Roan is down, it's prime wind-down time for Arwen and me, and he has just informed me that my presence is needed! Good night all.

More videos

Doing her best imitation of Hercules:

Her first time trying out her big girl cup from Grandma YaYa. She loves this cup so much, I can hardly get it away from her long enough to refill it!

Toddling around the house in her diaper:

Nice weekend

We had a good time at Audrey's birthday party on Saturday. Any day that starts with bloody marys is a good day right? There must've been 15 kids under age 4 running around like wild animals. Colorful plastic was strewn everywhere, spills were made left and right, germs were spread like crazy, and the words "MINE!" were heard on numerous occassions. Roan was dressed up in a pink dress (what has happened to me!) with a pretty white bow in her hair (not pictured, sorry), tights and her mary janes. Cute as a button. Although in this picture she was just about ready to go down for a nap.


I didn't snap as many photos as I intended to. It was a little like being under seige - hard to break out the camera in a war zone. It was a lovely party though, and we had a great time. One of the highlights (besides seeing the birthday girl decimate her chocolate cupcake and throw it on the floor) was seeing some acquaintance/friends who just returned from Khazakstan with their newly adopted daughter, Saule (pronounced saw-LAY). They landed in Denver less than 24 hours before the party, after 30 hours of travel, so it was wonderful they could make it. Her name means sun in Russian, and she is an adorable little thing. Roan was very interested to meet her. Sorry, no picture of her yet.

But here is the birthday girl. She and Roan have a lot of fun together. Although they hadn't seen each other in a couple of weeks because Audrey was sick with a terrible respiratory infection. Suspiciously, she got all better just in time for her party. Seems a little young to be trying to cut school, but I guess you never know.

And here is our friend Conrad, with his 10 week old daughter Claire, sleeping peacefully in his arms despite the utter chaos going on around them. You think she looks just like her daddy until you see her next to her mom. She is like a mini me of her mother, for real! It doesn't seem like all that long ago that Roan was so tiny and helpless, and we were sleep deprived and clueless. As cute as she was, you'd have to pay me a lot of money to turn the clock back to those days. She is so much fun now. I wake up every morning just wanting to see what new thing she does next.

She is walking so well now I can hardly believe it. She doesn't crawl much anymore, except when she's getting tired. She can get from one side of the room to the other and back again without falling down, when she's on her game. Once again I had a hard time narrowing down which videos to upload for you guys. Just one for tonight, more to come soon.

Such a big girl

Well I think I am weaning Roan off of nursing. I didn't really plan it, I haven't done any research on it (gasp!), it's just sort of happening. She has been such a wiggle worm lately that it seems like she prefers a bottle to nursing. Case in point, this photo here. On two separate occassions the only way I could get her to nurse was by letting her stand! Awkward for me, and silly to boot. But makes for a funny picture.

Aside from the wiggle factor is the fact that the girl can intake some volume, I tell ya. I've found it necessary to nurse her on both sides instead of just one side, and even after that sometimes she'll take a little more from a bottle. And given how much she can drink at one sitting, she seems to prefer drinking at a pace that ol' Mom can't keep up with. Over the past couple of weeks I've been nursing half time and bottle feeding half time, and she seems to prefer the quicker pace of the bottle. She has also gotten very good at holding the bottle herself, even when tired, and seems to take pride in doing so.

I think this is a good time to let go of the nursing because first and foremost, she seems ready for that next step, and secondly nursing hasn't dragged out to the point of being a burden on me. Probably better to bid it farewell while I still feel fondly about it. I am a little sad at letting it go though. And it also seems almost a shame - It is pretty awe inspiring what a great milk maker my body has been! But I also feel good about letting go gracefully, encouraging Roan to continue to grow and blossom, and not trying to hold on to her baby days beyond their expiration.

In other news, our little troublemaker continues to improve her walking. Even her new bunny slippers (from Great Aunt Bunnie) haven't slowed her down. She has spent most of this week trying to get over a cold, which means not eating much in the way of solids, napping irregularly, waking up at least once every night. It also involves me constantly wiping some mixture of snot - tears - drool - spitup off her face. There have been a few "extreme booger" mornings where I went in to pick her up in the morning and her hair looked like Cameron Diaz's bangs in "Something About Mary" from all the snot in her hair. Children are foul creatures!

Tomorrow Roan is going to her first birthday party. Her buddy Audrey is turning 1. Audrey's parents are throwing more of a celebration at having survived their rather vociferous child's first year. They are kicking it off right - with Bloody Marys at 10 AM! Can't wait!

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."

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

Merry Christmas!

Well I hope everyone out there had a wonderful holiday - Channukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, whatever floats your boat. We sure did. We spent the week leading up to Christmas with friends and family who traveled from all over the place to be here: my dad & Karen from Miami, Mommy 2.0 and Ronnie from outside Austin, Pam, Eric & Gunther from Houston, Brian and Jessica from Charlotte, NC and my brother John and Angela from outside of Dallas. And of course Jen and Micah were there as well.

We stayed at a wonderful home in Breckenridge that was comfortable and well appointed. It had a hot tub, a game room and a home theater. It was a fun and relaxing week. We put up a Christmas tree, Roan got lots of quality grandparent and aunt and uncle time, and Arwen taught me how to snoboard!!!

Oh but wait I forgot the most fun of all. Remember the nasty stomach flu that our house, Roan's buddy's house and our nanny's house all came down with? We managed to share our Christmas germs with our out of state visitors. I think in all, 11 people came down with some form of it, from mild to merciless. At least it was over quickly and our vacation was long enough that folks were able to get back on the slopes after recovering. Surprisingly, even the 2nd time it reared its ugly head I managed to escape its wrath.

In Roan news, she slept horribly all last week. It proved too great a temptation sharing a room with Mom and Dad. Either that or she was having a growth spurt. She kept waking up at night wanting to eat. There were two nights in a row that I didn't get any sleep at all. She's also had two new teeth break through the surface, one incisor and one on the bottom, giving her six in all. I suspect it's those teeth that have changed her eating habits. Lately she's not been interested in anything on a spoon. So I'm mostly giving her real food now - she likes broccoli, apple, carrot, squash, tomato, spiral pasta, crackers and toast. She is not interested in cheese, cottage cheese or yogurt in the slightest. It seems like she actually ingested much much more when I was spooning it into her mouth. Now that she's in charge of shoveling food in, most of it seems to end up in her lap or on the floor.

She has been making more word-ish sounds lately. She seems to say "ma ma," "da da," "daw" for dog, and "sss" for shoe with some regularity (although Arwen says I've lost my mind). She gets a thrill out of waving hello/goodby, and I *swear* tonight she waved at me from across the room and said "hi." But then again maybe I really am crazy. In the last week she's also started standing on her own from anywhere between 1-10 seconds. She can stand there even with toys in her hands. And then tonight... she stood for about 5 seconds, took one solid step, and stood for about 5 more. Looks like walking is just around the corner!

Roan must've been a very good girl because Santa brought her all kinds of fun things. She got her very own rocking horse that makes horsie sounds, so now she can be a cowgirl. She also got her first kiddie computer, so she can be a geek like mama and daddy. And she also got some happy music to listen to at playtime and lots and lots of new books to read.

There are a lot of fun pictures from the week, and I'm working on getting them posted, but in the mean time here are a couple I hope you enjoy.

What a crazy turn of events

Well strangely a lot has happened since my post last night. Roan and I had a great night's sleep last night - surprising, considering her diarreah. I awoke feeling refreshed, only to find that everyone in my house has come down with a nasty stomach flu. Arwen is feeling bad enough to stay in bed today. Jen and Micah got the worst of it. It had them both up all night long if you know what I mean.

When we called our new Denver employee (who happens to be married to our nanny) to warn him not to come over, it turned out that both he and Lindsay had been up all night with the same thing! And Roan's little buddy that we nanny share with has it as well. Her mom said yesterday Audrey puked on every sleeper they own, doused all her crib bedding and ended up in the bathtub for emergency cleanup twice. Whatever you do, don't come near us!

So I'm the last man standing, knock on wood. I have four sick babies to take care of today. Plus a software rollout and the inevitable Christmas preparations. Add to that the fact that my dog is wearing a cone on her head to keep her from licking her own nether regions (she had another butt explosion last week).

But the saddest thing of all is that Hallie is the very sickest of all our babies right now. As we speak she's in the animal hospital getting a GI scope. Jen took her into the vet yesterday because she too has diarreah. Later Jen got an upsetting call from the vet saying that the blood test results showed Hallie has an alarmingly low amount of protein in her blood. They're trying to figure out if it's kidney trouble, liver trouble or the big C. Jen and Micah are understandably upset. I ended up having to be the one to take Hallie in this morning though because neither Jen nor Micah could leave the vicinity of the bathroom.

So think good thoughts for Hallie. And keep your fingers crossed for me. Hopefully I can stay well enough to help nurse everyone else back from the brink.

Overdue for an update

I know, I know. It's been a while since the last update. What can I say, it's a busy time of year. Between deadlines at work, holiday baking, Christmas cards, and keeping up with Miss Thing it's a wonder I get any sleep at night.

Roan's up to more of the same. More getting around, more making noises, eating more stuff... At the moment she has a little bit of a tummy bug. Awww, her first case of diarreah. Yet another precious milestone. She's been a trooper though. She's been crawling around and playing all day, making a squirt squirt sound from her back end. Sick and happy, no problem. Sick and miserable is a heartbreaker.

So here are some photos - I know that's what you REALLY want.

Here's Roan in her hat & coat from Grandma Fifa

Here's us together in our hats & coats

Here's Daddy goofing around with Roanie

Here she is with our nanny Lindsay. It has recently been brought to my attention that our nanny is HOT. Interesting that I didn't really notice before.

Here she is with a squinty smile. If you look hard you can see 3 out of 4 teeth.

And here she is measuring herself with my measuring tape.

That's our little cutie! I'll try to update in the coming week, but I'm making no promises. So if I don't get a chance to post again before Christmas, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

I'm going to eat your face off

Yesterday makes 8 months for Roan! Hard to believe. In a blink this baby will be a year old.

So what's new with her. Well at this *very* moment she's crawling all over the house, pulling up on things, moving chairs out of the way to get where she wants to go and shrieking like a pterodactyl. She has a little more hair coming in, and every day her top two teeth are showing more of themselves, as you can see!

She's been mixing it up a bit lately, keeping us guessing. Napping at all different weird times of the day, going to bed early, going to bed late, drinking only and not eating solids, eating solids and not drinking anything... you know just keeping us in suspense.

Over the weekend just for fun she got 100.6* fever and didn't hardly sleep for two nights in a row. Anything for a laugh.

Here are a couple of pictures from our Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, by the way. We had a terrific one. Christina and Jan Mendelt were in town from Cincinnati, Charles and Josefa came in from San Fran, and Gavin, Andye & McKenna came over from Lyons (just outside Boulder). We had a fantastic meal, if I may be so bold as to toot our collective horn, with turkey, tons of delicious sides, wine and beer aplenty and killer desserts.

Roan is experimenting with lots of new sounds. Besides the familiar ma, da and ba sounds, she's added puh, fuh, guh and kuh. Sometimes when she looks at us she says mama or dada. But she also says mama and dada while talking to various and sundry inanimate objects. The one word she seems to comprehend and say reliably is "dog," or at least "daw." She says it all the time when the dogs walk in or out of a room. And when you say something along the lines of "doggy says woof woof" she laughs hysterically as if you're both in on the same joke.

Here's a little video of her doing some talking.