Thursday, October 17, 2013

Seven Months

The calendar keeps moving - I can't believe we have a seven-month-old in our house!



Nora continues to surprise us with her developing personality and milestones.  Here's a quick run-down:

CRAWLS.  That's right - our little girl started crawling somewhere around 6.5 months.  Everyday she gets faster and more agile.  Is our house baby-proofed?  Of course not.  Here's a video of her going after some dangling cords - uh oh!



Waves hello and says "Hi!".  She more or less waves at herself, but I remember when my niece did the same thing.  I think all babies start waving at themselves before they turn their little hands around.

Says "Dada."  It was hard for me to admit that - not only is she her Daddy's twin, Nora is saying his name.  Never mind the fact that I endured the 42 week pregnancy, 20 hour labor and delivery for our 7 pound, 4 ounce miracle, and then breastfed said miracle for almost 5 months.  Nada for Mama.

Works on her name in sign language.  When I was in college, I spent time volunteering for the Mississippi School for the Deaf and have a big heart for the deaf culture.  While I can no longer carry on a conversation in sign language, I'd always heard what a great tool baby sign language (Mommy, Daddy, Milk, More, All Gone, Dog, etc.) was in communicating with your baby.  In addition to teaching her basic signs, I have been hand-spelling Nora's name.  She loves to mimic me!

Back in the brace.  I know what you're thinking - that we had gotten the second opinion on her hip dysplasia and decided to take her out of the brace.  After we made that decision, I kept having this nagging feeling that we leapt too soon when we heard what we wanted to hear.  I had conversations with her physical therapist, a neighbor who is a pediatric anesthesiologist and her pediatrician who all encouraged a third opinion.  The ultimate sticking point was the fact that Nora's old pediatric orthopedic doctor wrote us a typed, three-page letter detailing the reasons why she felt that we received 'imprudent' advice from our second opinion doc.  She even attached references and articles supporting her position.  We never received the letter because it was sent to our old address - the pediatrician mentioned it to me, which is when I found out about its existence.  We decided to have her fitted for a long-term brace that Nora will wear when she sleeps until she is at least 3 or 4 years old.  Will surgery still be in her future?  Possibly, but at least we will know that we did everything we could to prevent Nora's hip operation if that happens.

Working on standing.  This is turning into the 'motor skills' blog post.  Now that Nora is crawling, I'll put an object that she wants up on the edge of the couch or something.  She will try to pull up.  If I put her in a standing position, I really don't have to support her that much while she grabs the object.

Eating more formula and food.  JD and I had wondered off and on if we were feeding Nora enough.  I had already increased her veggie baby food intake to two containers a day when her daycare workers mentioned that Nora always seemed hungry.  We increased the amount of formula she receives to 32 ounces a day (from 29 ounces), and have been feeding her real bits of food.  The other day, I gave her a few bits of my sandwich to see if she would eat any of it - she gobbled up every piece of turkey, avocado and tomato.  My girl loves to eat everything!  The highest her weight percentage has ever been was 25% for her age, so we aren't worried too much about overfeeding her at this stage.

Here is the latest photo dump:



Nora hangs out in my bathroom every morning while I get ready.  I guess she got a little tired of waiting on Mommy and passed out.


Headed to dinner with our friends to celebrate their new baby, Meredith.


One of my old co-workers, Carmen, gave me this shopping cart cover at a baby shower.  This was our first time trying it out!  So much easier than having a car seat in the basket, but it does tire her out a little bit.  I have to wedge my purse between her and the side of the cart so she can lean over and relax:)



We like to play on the floor of her closet.  Nora crawled over to the piled up bumper pads (JD won't let me use them in her crib) and the whole pile fell on top of her, much to her delight!



My mother and sister gave this to me at one of my baby showers - it's a toy that is supposed to help kids learn how to walk.  At her age, she can put the balls is specific places for the noisemaker to work.  She played with it for ten minutes before she started 'connecting the dots' and attempting to put the pieces in their similar sized holes.  So smart!  In a few months she will hopefully be pushing it around on those little baby legs!


First time playing with my Uncle John.  He's been sick off and on since this summer, and we went to visit them on my day off on Friday.  He loved Nora!


This was the first time she met my Aunt Candice, she loved hanging out with my aunt and uncle!


A pretty good idea of my mornings - Nora plays on the floor of our bathroom and spits up.  Buddy watches for the spit up and tries to lick it up before I chase him away.  Every. Morning.


Nora gets to wear the medal for being related to her Uncle Kevin, who finished first in his age range and fourth overall for the LeBonheur Pumpkin Run 5K.  Good job, Kev!


Post-bath in her Princess hooded towel.  How fitting in our house:)



Thirty ONE-derful Years

Last weekend, I celebrated my 31st birthday.  I am officially 'in my 30s'.  I told one of my doctors a few days before my birthday that I was 31, and then he corrected me and asked why I was in a rush to turn another year older?  I laughed and said that nothing makes you feel older than being a parent.  Being the father of three, he knew exactly what I was talking about.

JD planned a very special surprise day for my birthday (actually the day before):

It started out with a beautiful flower delivery - in a pumpkin!  JD always has the florist do something unique with my flowers - either the actual arrangement or the container.


Three years ago, I learned how to play disc golf during one my sessions with Leadership Germantown. I had such a good time, and have been asking JD for THREE YEARS to play disc golf with me to no avail.  He thought it looked silly, etc.  He had a babysitter come over to our house on Friday afternoon, and told me to get dressed 'casually', that we would be walking around in the woods.  I rolled my eyes, but complied.  As we left the house on foot, he was carrying a huge wrapped present.  I kept peppering him with questions about the present, but he just acted like he always carries wrapped presents on his walks.  As we got closer to the park, I realized what we were about to do - he was going to play disc golf with me!  Our neighborhood park has a really well-known 18-hole disc golf trail.  After we located the first tee box, I was allowed to unwrap my first present - two disc golf sets and a carrying case.  We played nine holes, and JD was hooked.  I enjoyed muttering phrases like "I'm going to need my putter for that," and "I can't believe I lost my driver in the water."  We are already recruiting friends to play with us:)

As we got back to the house, JD told me I had to hurry to get ready because we needed to be in East Memphis by 5:45 p.m., but wouldn't say why.  About a month or so ago, I ordered so many clothes for Nora that JD made me promise to stop for a little while.  I agreed, but kept lamenting about how much I loved dressing Nora up in unique, adorable clothes (IMO).  At 5:45, JD parked in front of one of my favorite baby boutiques in Memphis.  He said - "they close at 6 p.m., I'll buy Nora anything you pick out in the next 15 minutes"...or at least, that's what I think he said because I was already out of the car and headed for the door!  I think he underestimated my shopping abilities because about ten minutes into my 'baby shopping spree', he gave me a look and said that I had been 'most efficient.'  We had fun, and JD even picked out a few outfits.  FYI - his weakness is pink clothes for our little girl.  If I think he is wary about me buying clothes for Nora, I just have to show him something pink.  Haha!


After the baby shopping spree, he took me across the street to pick out one book from my favorite bookstore.  Of course I convinced him to purchase three;)


Then we headed downtown for dinner.  JD knows how much I love dining outdoors, so he found the perfect combo - a new restaurant with a patio!  We ate amazing things like lobster pronto pups and split a bottle of wine.  After a quick walk for ice cream, we headed home to our sweet, sleeping baby.


The next day, on my actual birthday, I got to open my other presents - a gift card from Nora to my salon (she is always pulling on my hair), a ping pong net for our recently acquired ping pong table (the previous homeowner left it for us and I love to play) and a volleyball net for pool volleyball (the new house has a pool with holes in the floor of the pool for volleyball net poles).  We spent the day running around together, getting Nora's hand print made at Itty Bitty Bella (of course I had to buy her another outfit!) and doing projects during Nora's naps.  What a fun weekend!