Dear Socha,
I haven't put any updates up lately but you have been going through lots of interesting things over the last several weeks!
We flew out to California for Christmas. The second flight, from Philadelphia to San Francisco, was doozy. It was over 6 hours long, and you, my little imp, slept all of 20 minutes! You were in a great mood, but you just didn't want to sleep and you wanted to be moving around, so we had to keep you entertained. Traveling with you when you were less mobile was a lot easier!
We stayed at your Uncle Keith's new place in Placerville. Nana and Grampy came out too, so you were surrounded by Savages for the holiday! While we were there, your third tooth finally popped out (on December 27, 2012)! You've been teething for months and we feel really bad about the amounts of pain reliever we've been giving you - but the Doctor says it's OK. It was great to see Keith's new place and Nana and Grampy (and Keith, though he would never admit it <wink>) really enjoyed hanging out with you. We visited a state park near Keith's house and drove out to South Lake Tahoe as well. We wanted to get Keith out into California - and I think he liked it, since he was talking about visiting Tahoe in the spring or summer. So we got him a California map made by Benchmark (our favorite map-making company). Now we need to get him the California atlas...
We also spent some time in San Francisco where you met our friends, Andris and Prairie. By the time you got used to Pacific time we were ready to head to Michigan (and Eastern time) to visit the Jewett Clan.
In Michigan we stayed for most of the week at the VanAntwerp's. Your cousins loved cuddling with and playing with you. The Jewett boys came over on New Year's day, so the Van Antwerp home was a house of chaos! Helen was having a hard time deciding whether you were cool to play with or you were trying to steal all her toys. She was definitely at the "Mine!" stage and she let you know what was hers (and not yours!) regularly - "My momma!", "My book!", "My stairs!", etc. You were taken by all the children, but at moments you seemed to try to fade into the background and step away from all the chaos for a while. I enjoyed watching you dig through the toy basket during these moments - you were very focused and made sure to stick each toy in your mouth.
One day we went to "Sky Zone" - a trampoline park/gym. Basically this place had multiple trampolines covering the floor AND walls and you just get to jump around like crazy! Lots of fun for us, and I think you actually really enjoyed watching all the people. There were a couple of different themes for the trampoline rooms - just plain jumping, dodgeball (which your cousin John VA LOVED), and the foam block pit. I could not work up the guts to do any flips, but just jumping up and down on a trampoline is a lot of fun. :)
You got to meet your cousins Brittany and Katie for the first time while we were there. We met them for a long lunch in Okemos.
By Thursday of that week, almost the entire Van Antwerp clan had a cold or the flu and your grandpa Tom also had the flu. We hoped we could leave Michigan unscathed, but the odds were stacked against us. We spent Friday at great grandma Helen's. You charmed all the relatives - great grandma, great aunt Sue, great uncle Jim, great aunt Nancy, grandpa Tom, and uncle Jim. We had a lovely day there getting caught up on everybody's travels.
Then it was back to Massachusetts. Your Dad is in the midst of his second-year review at Deerfield, so he was pretty stressed out that first week back. Plus both he and I had come down with the cold from the Van Antwerp's (at least it ended up not being the flu - we all had flu shots, so we're pretty sure that helped decrease the effects of the illness). Plus your sleep schedule was WAY off. Plus I was pretty behind with work. And you had an appointment with the Brain, Cognition, and Development lab for their research. So that first week was a bit of a doozy. We made it through.
You had your 9-month checkup with Dr. O'Brien (at about 9 1/2 months). She said you look great! You are 30 inches long, and weigh 20 pounds 5 ounces! Getting big - you're in the 95th percentile for height and the 68th percentile for weight. Though you were at the beginning of the cold that day, you looked really good to the doctor. She also said she thinks you'll definitely be walking by the time you turn 1 year old.
Then you got sick. Poor thing. You are so snotty and now you're coughing and congested. You are having a terrible time sleeping which has made it hard for us to sleep, so we're not quite over our colds yet either. And this illness just adds insult to injury for you - your fourth tooth popped out yesterday (January 16, 2013). And you've begun grinding your teeth together! I hope you're doing this just because it feels different and makes a funny sound - not because you're stressed and clenching your jaw (like I do). The sound makes us shudder. But now that the tooth is through and you are on the mend with the cold, I'm hoping that you will get a break from feeling uncomfortable for a while. And I hope that your sleep will get better - you were doing really well right before we left for the holidays, but the travel and then the illness have completely derailed our progress. At least I know that you can sleep for long periods. We just have to work on getting you to do it!
You are crawling faster and with more purpose these days. And you are standing up on your own and balancing for long periods of time. You still grin at us when we say "No!" and you're figuring out when it's time to sit down for a meal (you head to the table and start trying to climb up into your chair). You're helping us turn the pages in your books and you're trying to put small boxes into the big boxes. It's amazing to see you learn and watch you discover how something works. If only humans could learn so much in such a short time all their lives!
As usual, you bring joy to everyone who sees you. You've begun singing, so that when we walk together to and from the dining hall, you and I sing terribly off-key duets very loudly. You definitely like the sound of your own voice. I suppose we should try to get a video/sound recording of this some day soon.
And finally, several new foods have been added to your menu: broccoli, green beans, yogurt, blue berries, and spinach. We're trying squash again since a month ago you might have had a reaction to them. We're also trying to get you to eat more solid things like carrot bits and puffs. You are learning to drink from a cup but not well yet. Next we need to work on more protein, I think. And let you practice eating those puffs more often. Maybe peaches will be your next food...
I haven't put any updates up lately but you have been going through lots of interesting things over the last several weeks!
We flew out to California for Christmas. The second flight, from Philadelphia to San Francisco, was doozy. It was over 6 hours long, and you, my little imp, slept all of 20 minutes! You were in a great mood, but you just didn't want to sleep and you wanted to be moving around, so we had to keep you entertained. Traveling with you when you were less mobile was a lot easier!
We stayed at your Uncle Keith's new place in Placerville. Nana and Grampy came out too, so you were surrounded by Savages for the holiday! While we were there, your third tooth finally popped out (on December 27, 2012)! You've been teething for months and we feel really bad about the amounts of pain reliever we've been giving you - but the Doctor says it's OK. It was great to see Keith's new place and Nana and Grampy (and Keith, though he would never admit it <wink>) really enjoyed hanging out with you. We visited a state park near Keith's house and drove out to South Lake Tahoe as well. We wanted to get Keith out into California - and I think he liked it, since he was talking about visiting Tahoe in the spring or summer. So we got him a California map made by Benchmark (our favorite map-making company). Now we need to get him the California atlas...
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| Uncle Keith and a cat toy! What could be better? |
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| Nana made me a Christmas stocking. |
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| The Savage Clan on the shore of Lake Tahoe. |
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| Have to taste the map before we give it to Uncle Keith. |
We also spent some time in San Francisco where you met our friends, Andris and Prairie. By the time you got used to Pacific time we were ready to head to Michigan (and Eastern time) to visit the Jewett Clan.
In Michigan we stayed for most of the week at the VanAntwerp's. Your cousins loved cuddling with and playing with you. The Jewett boys came over on New Year's day, so the Van Antwerp home was a house of chaos! Helen was having a hard time deciding whether you were cool to play with or you were trying to steal all her toys. She was definitely at the "Mine!" stage and she let you know what was hers (and not yours!) regularly - "My momma!", "My book!", "My stairs!", etc. You were taken by all the children, but at moments you seemed to try to fade into the background and step away from all the chaos for a while. I enjoyed watching you dig through the toy basket during these moments - you were very focused and made sure to stick each toy in your mouth.
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| Waking up to very energetic cousins. |
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| The Van Antwerp/Jewett/Savage band. |
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| Maggie loved being helpful. |
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| Helen says, "Mine!" |
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| Teething cousins. |
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| Learning to French kiss with the mirror. |
One day we went to "Sky Zone" - a trampoline park/gym. Basically this place had multiple trampolines covering the floor AND walls and you just get to jump around like crazy! Lots of fun for us, and I think you actually really enjoyed watching all the people. There were a couple of different themes for the trampoline rooms - just plain jumping, dodgeball (which your cousin John VA LOVED), and the foam block pit. I could not work up the guts to do any flips, but just jumping up and down on a trampoline is a lot of fun. :)
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| Getting ready to jump. |
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| Seriously, could this be any more fun?! |
You got to meet your cousins Brittany and Katie for the first time while we were there. We met them for a long lunch in Okemos.
 |
| Cousins Brittany and Katie. |
By Thursday of that week, almost the entire Van Antwerp clan had a cold or the flu and your grandpa Tom also had the flu. We hoped we could leave Michigan unscathed, but the odds were stacked against us. We spent Friday at great grandma Helen's. You charmed all the relatives - great grandma, great aunt Sue, great uncle Jim, great aunt Nancy, grandpa Tom, and uncle Jim. We had a lovely day there getting caught up on everybody's travels.
 |
| At Grandma Helen's. |
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| Dinner time! |
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| Hi! |
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| Grandpa Tom is not so sure about that... |
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| A ribbon in my hair. |
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| At the airport, checking to make sure there's no water in the bottle. |
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| With the Jewett boys! |
Then it was back to Massachusetts. Your Dad is in the midst of his second-year review at Deerfield, so he was pretty stressed out that first week back. Plus both he and I had come down with the cold from the Van Antwerp's (at least it ended up not being the flu - we all had flu shots, so we're pretty sure that helped decrease the effects of the illness). Plus your sleep schedule was WAY off. Plus I was pretty behind with work. And you had an appointment with the Brain, Cognition, and Development lab for their research. So that first week was a bit of a doozy. We made it through.
 |
| Part 1 of the Brain, Cognition, and Development lab - watching where the eyes go. |
 |
| Part 2 of the BCD lab - reading brainwaves while looking at pictures. |
You had your 9-month checkup with Dr. O'Brien (at about 9 1/2 months). She said you look great! You are 30 inches long, and weigh 20 pounds 5 ounces! Getting big - you're in the 95th percentile for height and the 68th percentile for weight. Though you were at the beginning of the cold that day, you looked really good to the doctor. She also said she thinks you'll definitely be walking by the time you turn 1 year old.
Then you got sick. Poor thing. You are so snotty and now you're coughing and congested. You are having a terrible time sleeping which has made it hard for us to sleep, so we're not quite over our colds yet either. And this illness just adds insult to injury for you - your fourth tooth popped out yesterday (January 16, 2013). And you've begun grinding your teeth together! I hope you're doing this just because it feels different and makes a funny sound - not because you're stressed and clenching your jaw (like I do). The sound makes us shudder. But now that the tooth is through and you are on the mend with the cold, I'm hoping that you will get a break from feeling uncomfortable for a while. And I hope that your sleep will get better - you were doing really well right before we left for the holidays, but the travel and then the illness have completely derailed our progress. At least I know that you can sleep for long periods. We just have to work on getting you to do it!
You are crawling faster and with more purpose these days. And you are standing up on your own and balancing for long periods of time. You still grin at us when we say "No!" and you're figuring out when it's time to sit down for a meal (you head to the table and start trying to climb up into your chair). You're helping us turn the pages in your books and you're trying to put small boxes into the big boxes. It's amazing to see you learn and watch you discover how something works. If only humans could learn so much in such a short time all their lives!
 |
| Using the whisk as a microphone... |
As usual, you bring joy to everyone who sees you. You've begun singing, so that when we walk together to and from the dining hall, you and I sing terribly off-key duets very loudly. You definitely like the sound of your own voice. I suppose we should try to get a video/sound recording of this some day soon.
And finally, several new foods have been added to your menu: broccoli, green beans, yogurt, blue berries, and spinach. We're trying squash again since a month ago you might have had a reaction to them. We're also trying to get you to eat more solid things like carrot bits and puffs. You are learning to drink from a cup but not well yet. Next we need to work on more protein, I think. And let you practice eating those puffs more often. Maybe peaches will be your next food...
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