Big Birthday Weekend

This weekend was Cherilyn's birthday.  She turned the Big Three Oh!  We had quite a good time.  On Saturday we went to the Habeck's house and had a get together with all the Science babies.  This fall I did a longterm sub for Liz Schiedel and now I'm doing a longterm for Missy.  So we got all three of our babies together for a nice lunch.  Ashley Riesgraf another science teacher came as well and we finally got to meet her "hot side dish".  We had fun together and then Sydney got to go on her first trip to Ikea.  She was so excited that she slept through the entire visit.

Henry in "Jail"

McKeon's strategy to eat food is to pull his mom's hand into his mouth

As you can see he is very good at chewing on all available resources

Oliver was very sleepy

McKeon making friends with Sydney....or he might be trying to chew on her

Liz dancing with Sydney

Sunday was the big B-day.  We started the day out with a bath and it was the first time that I hadn't seen Sydney cry while we were drying her off.  This produced a new cute bath hair picture.

After the bath in her Duckie towel

Cherilyn loved her curly hair

Then we went out to bruch at the Woodbury Cafe. Unfortunately we encountered the least friendly hostess I've ever met.  She took our name and said nothing, so we asked how long it would be.  She stared at the list and then glared at us as she said "Well there's seven in front of you."  Yup, that was helpful.  It was a good meal but the waitress then forgot to bring syrup 3 times and didn't bring me pancakes.  During lunch however Cherilyn decided we should go to Carters and get Sydney some outfits.  I know what your thinking.  "Dave there is no way this was Cherilyn's idea.  You are just trying to take the blame away from yourself"  But it's true.  Cherilyn wanted to use some coupons that we had from my last addiction excursion.  This time we found the Clearance rack!  Oh Joy of Joys the Clearance Rack!  Here is the Birthday mohma with her baby showing off the clothes.

These are her formal dresses for all the Balls and dinners that Sydney will be invited to attend.

OVERALLS!

The Flower dress is my personal favorite

Finally a guitar on a girl's outfit

You can't go wrong butterflies

Tonight we went to chruch and to our first new member class.  Sydney did well during the service and got to meet a bunch of new people.  5 people at the class had new babies or were currently expecting.  We also learned that there are over 400 kids in sunday school every week.  That is amazing.  We are looking forward to joining and to Sydney's baptism next weekend.  When we got home in addition to taking pictures with the clothes we took some cute pics of the Birthday mohma with baby and pops. 

Happy Birthday Cherilyn!

Sydney's Favorite Things: Mobiles and "Thumb" sucking

Sydney is now almost 12 weeks old and is definitely developing a personality and has many things she enjoys.  In general, she is quite an easy going baby and quite happy most of the time.  Lately she has been tracking objects and people very well and really likes anything that moves.  She also has decent head control in the seated position so it was enjoyable and easy for her to watch her daddy's basketball game yesterday.  She watched the players up and down the court tracking them all the way.  She made it through one and a half games, watching intently the whole time, before falling asleep.  (These were junior high games with 15 minute halves.)  She also tracks me walking around the room and has just started to notice Odin and loves to watch him walking around and wagging his tail.  She even smiled at him today, which is the first time I have seen her do that.  Most of her smiles are reserved for people.

Her most favorite thing to watch besides people is her mobile.  It is a "Jungle Babies" theme with a palm tree in the center and a fuzzy elephant, tiger, giraffe, and monkey swinging around the outside.  It plays Brahm's Lullaby song in a mechanical, music box-like manner.  The song quality is really not that great or soothing, but Sydney does not care.  She LOVES it!  When she sees it wiggle or hears the song start to play, her eyes get wide with anticipation and eventually her mouth becomes a wide smile and her eyes twinkle with delight. However, it does not serve its purpose of helping her off to sleep, instead it make her super excited and she fights sleep to watch the animals go around one more time.  So we use it during play time during the day instead. I'll try to get a video of this soon.

Her other new favorite toy is her ocean-themed play mat with fish hanging down to watch and hit.  They are just low enough that when she swings her arms in excitement she hits one from time to time and then she is really enthusiastic about the swimming fish.  There is also a mirror that I believe she enjoys as well.  I don't think that she has noticed yet that she kicks a ball on the other end every once in awhile.  The kitties have also taken a liking to this toy and have used it when she is otherwise occupied.

Watching the fishies

Loki wants to play too.

Odin wonders what all the fuss is about.

Loki is playing while Ender looks on.

She also enjoys Olivia the Owl who hangs out with giraffes over her pack n play.  The video speaks for itself.


Untitled from Cherilyn Wicks on Vimeo.

She played and kicked so hard that she fell asleep and turned almost 90 degrees.

Her other favorite activity has been trying to suck her thumb. Unfortunately her hands are not very cooperative and her thumbs usually stay tightly tucked into her little fists.  She is just figuring out how to get her fists to her mouth and then attempts to suck on them. At times, it looks like she will get her entire fist into her mouth.  As you can see by our title picture she has been doing this since birth by reflex, but is definitely more of a conscious effort now.  Usually, after a little while of trying to suck on her thumb but only getting a lumpy, too large fist, she gets angry and then Mom or Dad finds a pacifier to help with her sucking needs.  However, tonight she succeeded for the first time at getting her thumb in her mouth and sucking on it a few times.  Unfortunately for her and me, this was right after she had eaten and it was a surprise to her. She sucked on it quite vigorously causing her thumb to stimulate her gag-reflex which resulted in a baby volcano.  I initially thought that she had recovered from the gag, but poor Sydney's esophageal sphincter is not yet developed enough to hold down all that milk.  Apparently, this is becoming a Friday night affair since the last time we had a baby volcano was last Friday night right after we got to Jim and Beth's house in Iowa City.  Hopefully she learned from this and will be a little less aggressive with the thumb sucking next time.

In her cute Pooh PJs trying to suck her thumb.

Back to the old stomping grounds

Howdy all, This weekend we went back to Iowa City to visit Jim, Beth, Olivia, Hannah, Jake, Ayaka, and new baby Leon.  We stayed with the Stecher's and we fell right back into our old habits.  We ate Old Chicago and Cherilyn and Jim discussed technical doctor type things while Beth and I broke down the pros and cons of the Harry Potter movies.  Unfortunately Beth and Olivia were feeling ill so they had to cancel Hannah's birthday party.  It was still a lot of fun seeing Sydney with Olivia and Hannah.  Hannah was pretty cute at dinner.  She was stealing Beth's napkins and handing them to me.  Pretty soon I had a whole stack next to my plate.  And Olivia was still flashing the Hook 'Em horns.  Somehow I didn't take many pictures, but I Beth did so I stole some from her.  Thanks Beth!  I should have taken a picture of Jim on Superbowl Sunday all dressed to the nines in Bears gear.  It was pretty awesome.  Here are a few pictures from their house.

Showing off her shoes

Where's Sydney's belly?

We went to the Herrings on Saturday and got to meet baby Leon.  He is quite adorable as all Herrings are.  We brought over the best lunch Iowa City can offer.  Quinton's of course.  I think I would drive the 5 hours just for their potato bacon soup.  It is spectacular mmmmm.......but anyway back to Leon.  It's amazing how much Sydney has grown seeing her next to Leon.  But I promise I won't start saying they grow up so fast even if they do.   We had a great time hanging out with the Herrings.  Hopefully we'll see them and the Stechers again soon.  Plus Jake needs a rematch since I whooped him on the Nurburgring in Gran Turismo. BOOM!

Two Month Checkup

Today Sweet Sydney had her two-month checkup. This was bitter sweet for me as it meant I got to go to work, but not work, and see all the wonderful people at Bethesda Clinic, which was very enjoyable.  However, I knew it would be painful for my little sweetie.  I actually was not too worried as I knew it really only hurts for a few seconds with maybe a little thigh soreness after that and the lasting benefits of the vaccines greatly outweigh the short-term pain.  I did premedicate her with Tylenol before leaving the house, which I hoped would help.

When we arrived, we were surrounded by admiring nurses and doctors.  She was so good and just stared at everyone with her big blue eyes.  Everyone was amazed by how much she had grown.  Most had not seen her since she was a week old.  She then was measured and weighed.  She almost doubled her birth weight and is now 12 pounds, 4 ounces which is about the 75th%ile and length was 23.5 inches also 75th%ile.  Her head is around the 50th %ile. at 39cm.  In other words, she is growing well and is now larger than average.  Her small 6pound 6 ounce birth weight was a smaller than average and a surprise to many who thought that since Daddy Dave was so big that he would naturally have a huge baby. She has not caught her father yet though as I was told that from a very young age he was at the 99th%ile for height. 

Next, Dr. Martin checked her out, and she passed her exam with flying colors.   I did learn from the nurses that it is a Hmong custom that if a baby's hair sticks up like hers then you have an uncle spit on their hand and smooth it down and that should make it lie down for good. It sounds like it would probably work in the the short term, but I am guessing that after a subsequent bath it would stick back up again.  I'm not sure how Uncles Dan and Nathan feel about this either.

Then it was time for the shots.  I know Grandma Hyndman AKA Nana Nette was curious about the shots she would receive so I will list them all.   Diptheria-Tetanus-Pertussis (DTaP), H. influenza (Hib) (meningitis-causing bacteria), Polio (IPV) are all in one.  Pneumococcus (PCV) (Pneumonia causing bacteria).  Hepatitis B. and oral Rotavirus (severe diarrhea-causing virus).  So three shots and one oral vaccine. She will get the same ones at 4 and 6 months.  She did very well!  She cried for about 30 seconds after the shots but with a little comforting she calmed down and was fine. I fed her before leaving the clinic as well and that was even more comforting as she feel asleep for a 3.5 hour nap.  She was more fussy, sleepy, and cuddly than usual this evening, which I thought was possibly due to her legs being sore, so I did give her another dose of Tylenol which seemed to help.

Sydney's doctor, Dr. Casey Martin, at the office Christmas party.

Dr. Martin is not just a great doctor.  He plays the guitar, does a great Santa impression, and, in season, pitches a mean softball.

Daddy had a relapse

Howdy all.  I had a bit of a relapse tonight.  We are going to be visiting baby Leon and the Stechers this weekend in Iowa City. We went out to buy some gifts tonight because we'll be busy the other nights this week.  And I need to say in my defense we were in no way unsuccessful in our mission to buy gifts.  I will admit however that I had trouble keeping my eyes on the prize.  I should have known I would have no chance at being successful in Carters.  I was 29 days sober, but my addiction took over as soon as we walked through the doors.  We were supposed to be looking for clothes for Leon, but I never left the girls section.  Thankfully Cherilyn has plenty of willpower and found some great outfits for him.  Then we went to Borders to get books.  WOW that was fun.  I am in trouble there too.  Did you guys know how awesome pop up books can be.  There was a DC comics pop up book that was mind blowingly elaborate.  Batman was sticking up about a foot out of the book.  There were also Star Wars and Marvel comics books too.  Luckily I was distracted by nostalgia.  After we found some books for gifts I grabbed up a few of my favorite books that I remember from when I was young.  Here is Sydney with her new outfits and books.  We'll show them off soon.

I loved Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  Until I saw the cover I had completely forgotten about Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs too.  If only Carters hadn't been closing 4 minutes after we had gotten there.  Maybe then I wouldn't have had to limit myself to 8 outfits.