Happy Halloween!

Pictured above (click to enlarge): Sasha wears her little lamb halloween costume and plays with the bloody knife prop on Cassie's costume. Such a strange combination! It makes me laugh.
Whew, what a day.
Cassie is actually making some friends in school this year, which is a relief. She didn't have any last year. Today she wanted one of her friends to come over to our house after school so they could hang out. I agreed so I had to wake up early. Combine that with Sasha not wanting to go to sleep until late morning and we have sleep deprivation on my part and my husband's as well.
Cassie begged and convinced me to go get her a halloween costume, so I took her and her friend to the costume store. We got Cassie a Burger King costume...you know the Burger King from those creepy commercials, except we also had a big fake bloody knife as a funny prop to go with it. Then after we got the costume, Cassie and her friend went trick-or-treating. They only got ONE candy bar! It was so pathetic, hardly anyone was handing out candy.
Sasha and I handed out candy though, and Sasha thought it was such fun! She wore her little lamb costume. Once she got the hang of it, she got excited when someone knocked on our door and it was time to pass out some candy.
After her friend left, Cassie made another trick-or-treating round and actually did manage to get some candy. Sasha and I walked with her for part of the trick-or-treating but it was mostly so we could show off her cute costume and show her the trick-or-treating process. She didn't get any candy as I figured she was too young for that.

New Words

IDK my BFF Jill?
Sasha's had a significant vocabulary increase lately, both verbally and with her sign language skills. Every day she adds a new word or two to her vocabulary. Let's see if I can remember it all.
At the park yesterday, Sasha was distracted by the geese and ducks at the wading pond. I showed her the sign for "bird" and it didn't even look like she was paying attention. But later in the evening, I saw her looking at the television and signing "bird". Sure enough, there was a bird on tv. Although, to be fair, when a Comcast commercial featuring talking turtles came on tv, she pointed at them and signed "dog" excitedly. The "bird" sign was a sign she learned on her Baby Signing Time videos, so she probably remembered it from there. She rediscovered the "more" sign. It used to be one of her favorite signs but she hadn't used it in months.

I noticed that when she sees my husband's glasses, she says the same thing every time. It sort of sounds like 'dassis'. Eventually I realized that she was trying to say 'glasses'. Sure enough, when I pointed at his glasses and asked her what they were, she said it clear as day. It's her version of the word 'glasses', and it sounds very cute.

Tea! Sasha is a little tea fiend like her dad. My husband has a nightly ritual where he makes at least a gallon or two of tea in one big batch and she supervises the whole process from start to finish. Then whenever he drinks tea, she says "tea!" and makes him give her some to drink. She LOVES tea. But it's so cute the way she says tea. There's like no vowel sound at all the way she says it. It's just the "t" sound only.

Sasha has been a comedian lately. She's always trying to make me laugh. She tickles my feet, puts her finger in my belly button, or blows raspberries on my skin. She puts stuff on her head or hangs stuff out of her mouth and looks at me to make sure I'm watching her while she shows off. She really puts on a show!

I should also add that Sasha's got a new tooth! But this time it's one of the molars. I'm sort of confused by this. I thought she would get her canine teeth before she started getting any molars? But she's drooling up a storm. Fortunately she isn't so crabby anymore. She was about two weeks ago but now she's mostly in good spirits.

Happy Halloween!

Sasha is going to be a little lamb for Halloween. Isn't she cute?! I got her costume a bit big. The arms and legs were way too long. The arms were ok but I had to take in the legs or she would trip on them. So I had to pull out my sewing needle, something I've not done in a long time, and hemmed the legs. I think the costume should be big enough for her to wear next year too unless she has a major major growth spurt.

I haven't gotten Cassie a costume yet. Yes I know Halloween is today. Ugh. I'm so disorganized.

Home Sick

I was home sick last week so that's why I haven't been able to write any new entries lately. I got a flu shot. I figured that since I'm nursing, maybe if I got the flu shot I'd pass some immunity on to the baby. Or at least that's what I'm hoping. Sort of like a two-for-one shot :)
But it seemed like the flu shot gave me a bunch of different flus (flues? hrm what is the plural form of flu anyways? Neither looks correct.) Then to add insult to injury, I got a plugged milk duct. Ouch! I've read about those in my books on nursing, but I didn't realize they were so painful. I knew that if I Sasha and I didn't take care of it, it would only get worse and I was afraid it would turn into mastitis. Fortunately Sasha came through for me and I was back to normal within 24 hours.

I have a lot of catching up to do! It will probably take me several posts to get everything documented that I want to.

Blah!

I found a small 'park' closer to my home. I never knew it was there. So on Saturday, I took the baby for a walk to the park. It was good to get the exercise. The park had some baby swings, and a slide/playground set.
I let Sasha swing on the swings but she seemed scared. She had only been on a swing once back in July so I don't think she remembered that. She only lasted a minute on the swing before I had to take her off. She didn't like playing with the playground set.
But it was nice to get her out of the house and let her see something 'new'. Something other than the walls of the apartment.

I took her again on Sunday. This time, having been exposed to the park concept the day before, she was a little more open minded. She loved the swing and slowly drifted off to sleep in it. It was beautiful. After she woke back up, she played around with some of the playground stuff. There were these blue steps that she liked to bang on. I let her run around and explore whatever caught her interest, and I just followed her around. It was neat to see the world through her eyes and see what sort of things interested her. She had fun climbing up and down a curb. She found a stick and some leaves and played with those.
She discovered a pile of bird poo on a curb she was climbing on and wanted to poke at it with her finger. I caught her finger before she could touch it and said "No no! That's dirty! Blah!". She looked at me and started laughing like I said the most hilarious thing in the world. She stuck her tongue out so that it was hanging down to her chin and said "Blah! Blah! Blah!". So we sat there a while, laughing til our bellies hurt, saying "Blah!" to each other. She thinks that is the most hilarious word.
Even today, when she's fussy and I want to cheer her up, all I have to do is stick my tongue out and say "Blah!" and she erupts in giggles and starts saying "blah!".

Look Mom!

Sasha found a leaf and she's so proud of it.

Day

This week, Sasha has been on a day shift schedule. And I'm kind of happy about that this time. Because she's been mostly letting my husband sleep at night too.

I feel guilty working night shift some times. I feel like I'm making Sasha and my family miss out on a lot. Everything is open during the day, and that's when you can go out and do stuff or just see the world. But when you're awake at night, the only thing to do is stay in the apartment and try to stay very quiet so as not to annoy the neighbors too badly. Staying in an apartment and being quiet isn't necessarily the best for the intellectual growth of a baby. And so I feel bad.
But it had been nearly impossible for us to keep Sasha on a day shift with me on a night shift. She wanted to follow my schedule. It was easier on us if she did too. She could sleep with me and nurse on demand. And because she sleeps soundly with me, my husband can sleep too.
When we try to do a day shift with Sasha, that means that Sasha and my husband have to sleep while I'm at work. Sasha doesn't sleep so well without me. She tosses and turns. She wakes up and fusses. That keeps my husband awake and then he's exhausted by the time I get home from work. When I get home from work, I need to sleep so I can work again the next night, which means my husband has to continue to watch the baby during the day...he's supposed to be rested after all. But he's not and it leads to him getting himself so exhausted.
I hope that we can someday find a schedule that is healthy and works for everyone. A schedule that doesn't involve keeping the baby cooped up in our apartment watching infomercials all night. A schedule where she and my husband can go out to coffee shops or bookstores together, or maybe even *gasp* a park! Wouldn't that be something!
Maybe this is a "sleeping through the night" issue. I think most babies are already sleeping through the night by the time they are one. Maybe it's time we try to work on that with her.

And there she goes...

This morning, I figured Sasha could use a little change of scenery. She was very awake and active, so I took her down to the lobby of our apartment building and let her run amok. We have no yard for her to play in, no nearby park. Nothing but heavy traffic all around. So the lobby was all I had. It was fun! Sasha walked all around the lobby, investigated every painting, art piece, every furniture item, the carpeting, flooring, lights, mirrors, and all.
Then after about 30 min, I decided to let her walk back up to our apartment. I thought it would be too much for her, but she did it! She mostly stayed a step or two behind me and followed my lead, but she had a few bursts of energy where she sprinted past me.
She walked to the elevator, stood in the elevator as we went up. We got out of the elevator and started down the hallway. She got distracted by the laundry room along the way, so we detoured. She took about 15 laps around the laundry room, opened and closed every dryer, and was back off in the hallway. She walked the whole way from the laundry room to our apartment door. To my surprise, she did not try to walk into other apartments. She ignored the doors of apartments that were not ours. Once we got to our door, she walked up to it like she KNEW it was the right one.
I opened the front door of our apartment, and she walked in. And out. And in. And out. At least 7 or 8 times, she just kept walking in and out of the apartment. I could she was thinking, trying to reconcile the walk down the hallway with entering the familiar apartment, putting the two worlds together in her mind.

She now knows that beyond the front door, there is a world out there.

Little Walker

Sasha has been walking for the past few weeks now and I still can't get over it. With her petite size, she looks like a little walking baby. Her little excited steps make me happy every time I see her. She's now walking around the house in circles. I'll sit down on the living room floor and she'll walk up to me and give me a big hug. Then she'll walk away from me towards our front door. Just before she reaches the door, she'll turns around and excitedly walk back to me, giggling and squealing, and gives me another huge hug. She keeps doing this repeatedly...wander away from mom....run back to mom and hug me. I know that babies do this sort of wander then return orbiting behavior when they first start becoming mobile but it still is really fun to watch. I know eventually the distances she will travel from me will grow farther and farther until she one day stops returning back to me and asserts her independant self. Until then, I'm enjoying it.

Cassie and Sasha have been having fun together. It really makes me happy to see the two of them playing and having a good time. When Cassie goes to school, Sasha signs her sign language equivalent of "Cassie" (we use the sign for girl as the sign that represents cassie). She'll often give me this concerned look and signs "Cassie" and I have to show her Cassie's room and explain that Cassie is not home, she's at school but will be back. After she looks at Cassie's bed, she finally becomes convinced that Cassie isn't there and has me take her to Cassie's pictures on the hallway wall. After she looks at the pictures for a while, she points at them, signs "Cassie" a few more times, then she's ready to go play something else. "Cassie" is by far her most commonly used sign. She has been signing eat, drink, and sleep a lot more lately though.

One thing that has us worried lately is Sasha's appetite, or lack of. I do wish she would eat more real food. Instead she mostly relies on nursing. I haven't posted the results of her 12-month doctor visit, but the news was disappointing. She had not gained any height, and barely any weight in the last 3 months. So we've been experimenting with different foods lately to see what we can and can't get her to eat. So far, it looks like she'll eat most anything her dad feeds her, but if I try to feed her she doesn't want it. We believe that because I've been the mean one that had to try to feed her foods she didn't like, she's suspicious of anything I give her. But in my defense, someone had to learn that she didn't like broccoli and zucchini, hehe. I wouldn't have known that without trying! She seems to basically like foods that her dad likes...and that's not much. He's pretty picky too. She likes meats, beef jerky, coffee, doughnuts, and tea. Alas I am not going to feed her coffee and doughnuts. We bought her some caffeine free herbal fruit teas from a local tea shop and she seems to be okay with those but they stain her clothes and face. She is still refusing milk in any form.
Today she did eat well, I admit. She ate some salmon with rice in the morning, then for dinner she ate some spicy jambalaya. Good girl!

Dancing Baby

Lately, Sasha has been a happy little dancer. She dances to EVERYTHING. Commercial on tv? Dance dance! The credits music at the beginning or end of a show or movie? Dance dance! Background music at bookstores and anywhere else we go? Dance dance! Her musical fridge magnet or her Baby Einstein musical Kaleidoscope? Dance dance!
So iTunes has been one of her favorite things to do. Dad fires up the iTunes and the visualizer and she is in dancing baby heaven. She even says 'dance dance' when she wants to dance or when she's dancing.
Today, she started bouncing her hips to the sides, grabbed Jon's hand, said "Da!?" and looked at him like "May i have this dance?". Can you imagine? It was so heartwarming. I think it made his heart skip a beat.

Now let's talk about sleep. Today she and I got 14, yes fourteen, hours of sleep. Crazy! My husband redid the covering on the bedroom window to block out the daylight sun so we can sleep during the day (we're night shifters), and it is now nearly pitch dark in our bedroom, day or night. It's wonderful. But... the complete darkness during sleep seems to be having an extra effect on our sleep. The last few days Sasha and I have gotten extra sleep and had a hard time waking up. (too bad poor dad has not. Construction noises in the building keep him awake.) If it's the window coverings, I'll have to find a way to wake us up after we've gotten enough sleep to prevent us from over-sleeping so much. As nice as it sounds to sleep all day, we do have other things in our lives we should do besides sleep. It's probably best if we actually wake up and do stuff. Maybe get out of the house once in a while like normal people.

Apple Picking!

Sunday I took the girls to the apple orchard. Like I mentioned in my last post, it is something I like to do every autumn, and it was Sasha's first time going apple picking with us!


Sasha picks her first apple. After we took this picture, I realized that it looked like Sasha has HUGE arms and hands. No those are not her hands, those are mine.

Sasha and her mommy at the corn maze.

Have an apple! Cassie climbs trees and passes me the apples at the apple orchard.

Cassie monkeys around in the apple trees.

Sasha shows off her apple. Once we handed her the baby sized apple, she held on to it for the rest of the trip. Although she offered it to every passing stranger, every goat, and everyone in the restauraunt we later went to. As a matter of fact, she's offering it to Cassie while she takes the picture.

Here goat, have my apple! Just kidding!

Goats! Sasha LOVED them, especially this little one. The feeling seemed mutual. The moment Sasha saw the goats she squealed happily, pointed, barked at them, and blew them kisses. She squirmed in my arms til I let her play with them.

Sasha happily plays with the goats.

"Look at my apple!", Sasha shows off her apple in the restauraunt at the orchard. I love this picture.

Pumpkin Hater- Almost everyone at the orchard posed their little ones in the pumpkin patch for pics, so I thought it would be nice to do that too. Nope, Sasha did NOT like the pumpkins.
The lady at the apple orchard says Sasha is the only baby she's ever seen cry at the pumpkins. "People put their kids with the pumpkins to take pictures all day," she explains, "and I've not seen any of them cry like that"


Sasha sleeps on the trip back, clutching her well-worn "Bad Baby" book.

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At the end of the trip, Cassie admitted that while she originally didn't want to go to the orchard, she's glad we did. She said she had fun. I smiled to myself. I had fun too.

Apple Memories

For several years, Cassie and I had a tradition. When autumn rolls around, we trek on over to a local apple orchard and pick ourselves a metric buttload of fresh picked apples. I usually send Cassie up in the trees in search of the perfect apple. Then I make her carry the heavy bag full of apples to the car while she whines that it is too heavy. We then spend the next few weeks wondering what to do with 3,892,782 tons of apples. Apple pie, applesauce, apple jam, apple butter, apple chutney, spiced apples, baked apples, my mother-in-law's recipe for apple crisp, and just plain apples. So many we get sick of them. Ah, pleasant memories. We're not a family with many traditions, so it's nice to have at least one.

But alas, last year at this time, I was pregnant with Sasha, and it was not wise to go wandering out in the apple orchards. So we had to skip the annual apple picking. I was very sad to miss it. This year, Cassie didn't want to go. I was starting to be afraid that our autumn tradition was dying.
It made me sad. Our one tradition was at risk of dying. In my mind, I had visions of my children growing up, moving away from me, forgetting to call their dear old mother. But come autumn time, I wanted them to notice the weather cooling off and think to themselves "It's almost apple picking weather" and maybe have a few memories of picking apples, cooking apples, and eating them. Or maybe some day when they're mother's, they'll take their own children apple picking. Wishful thinking but is it too much for a mother to want to make happy memories for her children?
We did get to go on Sunday. It was fun for all. And made extra special because it was Sasha's first annual trip to the apple orchard.
Hopefully not her last.