May Sylvie update

Our gal is doing very well, in every way these days. She's crawling like a pro now and almost ready to start walking. She conitnues to add new words to her vocabulary, both vocal and sign, and has developed some very cute habits, such as: "talking on the phone"-- said phone being her playphone, a spoon, a toy, a doll or even her own fist. She will jabber away, quite aggressively, in a language that sounds like a cross between Russian and Klingon until she very sweetly says, "bye!" Trying to get her to talk on an actual phone when someone is on the other end is another story however as she would rather just push the buttons. "ticky,ticky"-- whenever we tickle Sylvie we have taken to saying "ticky, ticky" while doing it. She has adopted our habit and loves to poke us in the ribs or belly while saying "ticky, ticky!" "good doggy...I mean daddy"--sometimes Sylvie decided that we have been especially good parents and favors us with head pats. She'll gesture for Theron to bend his head toward her and she will pat it. Then she will do the same to me, and the cycle repeats numerous times. All the while she murmurs approvingly because we are such good doggies...I mean parents. "feed the parents"-- this actually started a few months back but I don't believe I've written about it yet. Sylvie likes to pretend to pinch off our moles (and in Theron's case chest hair) and then pretend to feed them to us. Sometimes she "snacks" on them herself. Disgustingly cute or cutely disgusting? You decide. Speaking of feeding, Sylvie has begun to catch up some on her weight gain. At her last appointment with her nutritionist, we learned that she had gained 2lbs in two months (yay!) and is now back on a growth curve, if still below the 5th percentile. We also saw her cardiologist this past week and he said that things looked the same as before so no immediate steps needed to be taken to address her heart defects. We go back to see him in a year for another checkup and to discuss plans for her surgery, which will probably be done sometime before she turns 5. He has assured us that the surgery is quite common these days so, while we're not thrilled with the prospect, we know that she needs to have it. Next week, Sylvie sees her pediatrician for her 15 month checkup and a week later, she'll see her GI again. I'm hoping that the GI will no longer see the need fot a gtube once she's seen how well Sylvie's been gaining weight on her own. Keep your fingers, toes, eyes...whatever you can cross, crossed!

A tooth! A tooth! Finally a tooth!

Sylvie has experienced two breakthroughs this month: 1) she can pull herself into a standing position and 2) her lower left central incisor! Ladies and gentlemen...she FINALLY HAS A TOOTH! And it looks as the the lower right central incisor will be popping through the gum any day now as well. Luckily, she's had no obvious discomfort while teething and I'm hoping that holds true for all the rest of the pearly-whites-to-be. As for the weaning, it has gone extremely smoothly for both of us. I had the one bad day early on and I finally went ahead and boobed Sylvie to ease the pressure. Then we went another couple of days without and I developed a sore spot on one side, (presumably a blocked duct), that I again relieved with nursing Sylvie. I coud tell though that my milk was just about gone. At this point, I'm pretty sure that the dairy has closed down until future child(ren). Bye bye, boobs....Thaaaaanks foooor the maaaamarieeees...hyuck, hyuck.

March update

A lot happened with Sylvie this past month: She turned one, travelled to Savannah for the first time where she finally got to meet her Uncle T, attended her first bridal tea and (extra-utero) baby shower, had her hair cut, started bah-ing when shown pictures of sheep, learned how to sit-up all by herself AND...she's started talking to us in a second language--well third if you count baby jabber--by signing! So far she knows the signs for "more" and "milk". Sylvie and pal S also had their first visit to the Children's Museum.

Sylvie's first haircut!!! (Before and After)

The peer-pressure became too great so today we jumped on the haircut bandwagon. Here are the results.

Just a quickie...

Yes, yes, I KNOW I've become less than regular with my blogging but any of you who have or have had small children probably know why. I promise a much longer post about our trip to Savannah for M's baby shower and J's bridal tea v. soon but right now all I have time for is a little bit of bragging about our baby girl. New skills she has aquired recently include: *spreading arms wide (or sometimes just one) in response to the question, "How big is Sylvie?" *pointing at herself in response to the question "Where's the baby?" *self feeding with spoon (see photos in post below) *having her blood drawn in a much more nonchalant and mature way than her mother was able to do until she was in her late teens. (She had a blood draw yesterday that lasted for a couple of minutes because they needed to take quite a bit of blood. She never cried once but only fussed impatiently at being restrained during the procedure. If I didn't know better I'd wonder if she were really my child since I am and always have been a big whiner about needles.)

She got skillz

Sylvie's first birthday!!!

Wow. Has it really been a whole year already? Has it really been 365 days since our wee one switched from quasi-amphibian to full on oxygen breather? Wow...just wow. Amazing to think how different she is now from when she first came into our lives, all blob-like and covered in cream cheese. Amazing to realize that so many of the feelings that I'd felt before her birth, and thought were the deepest most profound emotions one could have, were but ripples on the surface of what I realize I am capable of experiencing now. A couple of people I'll call "Stinky-Goo-Head" and "Slimy-Muck-Ball" (please know these are actually terms of great affection) have told me that I worry too much about Sylvie's various and sundry health issues. I don't agree; I think I worry about as much as your average new parent. However, I do probably harp on the more negative things health wise with Sylvie on this blog...mostly because I need to vent about them. And I'll admit that I've worried incessantly about Sylvie's growth and weight gain (or lack thereof) and I've filled sheet after sheet of paper with the details of Sylvie's diet, what she's eaten, how many calories she's taken in in a given day. I've worried about how she's yet to crawl or pull up or stand unassisted especially when I've been around other moms whose children, though a month or two younger than Sylvie, are 10 lbs heavier and toddling around like pros. I know that all kids develop differently and at their own rates, yet I've worried. But the other day, I was paging through What to Expect the First Year, something I do only rarely because it has so often fed my fears rather than soothed them and I happened to read the milestones for a kid her age and I gotta tell ya...she's above average on just about everything but the standing up thing. I've been afraid to be "that mom", ya know, the one who goes on and on about how gifted her kid is and such. Well, forget that, because I'm going to take this opportunity to puff up with mommy pride and relate to you all of the things our Sylvie is doing. She speaks! momma, daddy, kitty, doggy, Izzy, booby (and yes it means she wants mama juice), hi and bye (with a wave!) and mmm! (which doubles for "I'm hungry" and "that looks tasty can I try some?") Sylvie the Action Figure! clapping, pointing, "conducting", "singing" and bouncing to music, can roll a ball back and forth to us, plays peekabo, stacks/unstacks rings, recognizes people in photos AND she's finally started pulling up into a standing position with a little help from Theron and I. She's just incredible, our girl. Everyday she grows more and more amazing and beautiful and...wow. Just wow. Happy birthday baby! Love, mommy and daddy.