Water Baby

I've come to realize that the camera that I had was just not good enough with a quick moving baby in the house.  By the time my shutter snapped Sarah had already moved on from whatever cute action/adorable face she was making or doing.  So our weekend began with a trip to Best Buy to buy a new camera (and yes, it does take great pictures inside without a flash, and yes, I did research and it was less expensive at best buy than online).  This camera has some fun modes that I'm sure I'll grow tired of quite quickly, but was fun to play with this weekend.  I'd like to thank my daughter and my dogs for being (somewhat) willing models.

Toby in supersaturated color

 Our house in fish eye

 Bailey in the toy camera mode

On the way to the grocery store today my car thermometer registered 98 degrees, so while at Walmart we made an impulse buy of a baby pool.  I wasn't quite sure how this would go over as bath time is hit or miss as to whether it's fun or torture, but it was so hot today I figured she might like to cool down.  So after almost passing out blowing up the pool, we put her in her (already almost too small!) bathing suit and plopped her down.

She stayed in for almost 40 minutes until she decided she wanted to try to crawl out.

She was kicking, splashing, and having all sorts of fun!  Even without any toys in the pool with her, the idea of a hot day and water was enough. Next time I think I might try to bring out some shampoo and just use the baby pool as a bathtub.  Far less drama.

Toby thought the pool was a giant water bowl.  I think he was annoyed that the baby was in his bowl as opposed to Sarah being annoyed that Toby was in her pool.

With the temperature projected to maybe hit 100 tomorrow, and the pool only taking two buckets of water to fill, "See you later, alligator" pool may just have to make another appearance tomorrow.

Happy Mothers Day 2011

I know this is after Mothers Day by a couple weeks, but I just received our pictures in the email today, so I figured this would be a good time to share.  I had an INCREDIBLE first mothers day.  T.J. made me breakfast in the morning, and the we went out to Notaviva Vineyards.  They were having a mothers day special where for what amounted to $10 you got a professional picture.  Since my parents decided to join us (the day before they were leaving for Europe) I got two pictures take - one of the Flynn family and one of 3 generations.

From there we were going to go to Hillsborough Vineyards but missed the turn and serendipitously ended up turning in Loudoun Valley Vineyards.  Though the tasting room was a bit dated, it was free wine tasting and free cupcakes for moms, and the grounds were lovely.  T.J. took a whole series of pictures of Sarah and I, and I didn't realize why until later that night.

Before dinner at Ford's Fish Shack, Sarah gave me a present that she made for me - a tri-fold frame with her hand print on one side and her foot print on the other.   Though her foot was a little big larger than it should have been (daddy said she was not too cooperative with that), it really was the perfect gift for a perfect day.

Thanks Sarah!  Mommy loves you very much!

Summer is in the air (even though it's only May)

So we had a busy weekend this weekend, all of which kept me from doing what I should have been doing (grading, cleaning) but at least I got to enjoy the almost perfect weather.  Friday night Sarah went to her first concert.  My daughter is a baby after my own heart - she loves music (and it's not thanks to what I played her while I was pregnant, since most of the time my car is tuned to NPR).  When I sing to her, be it lullaby's or Katy  Perry she bounces along happy as a clam and apparently really loud rock music also makes her happy.  We went to Herndon Rocks with some friends, and there was a point where she was laying on her back staring at the (starless) sky and just kicking her legs bouncing around.  She also took time there to practice her new found rolling and scooting skills.  I am going to have to baby proof the house sooner than I expected.

Saturday Great grandma Andrews came back from Florida.  Again, the weather was perfect so we took time to hang out on the deck bouncing around.  This was the best picture I got of Sarah and Grandma mostly because she doesn't sit still.  I am glad that my grandmother has moved on from calling her "baby" to using her name.  I am so lucky to have my grandma in my life, and even luckier that Sarah can have not one but three great grandmas.

Today we were supposed to be productive and really, for the first five or six hours we were... then the weather was nice, and I live on a fabulous street, so Sarah got some quality time playing on neighbors toys.  The best part of the day was the girl who LOVES to stand up would NOT put her feet down on grass.  As soon as they were anywhere near the grass she's pull them up into a sitting position and freak out if she got too close.  As much as I love having a little princess, I'm not sure I can deal with one who won't get a little bit dirty.  Thanks to Gabi and Anna for sharing their dog.

I don't know how many more days left in school I have, but weather likes this really makes me wish summer were already here.

And then there were 2....

An update for the baby book - last night T.J was trying to feel the tooth and he noticed that there was more than one down there (before she locked her jaws super tight so we couldn't get into her mouth).  Today she spit out her binky across the car while running errands, and I put my finger in her mouth to quiet her down a bit.  Note to self:  Even with two teeth she's already figured out how to bite.

What's in a Name?

I know there are quite a few posts in quite a short period of time, but this blog is my way of putting memories down on paper, and I thought of another thing today that I want to write down (so I can print it out and one day just stick this in her baby book).

Sarah was not Sarah for the first two or three days of her life.  It took the birth registrar three visits to our hospital room before we agreed to sign the paper that gave her a name, and even that it was with some reluctance.  We found out that Sarah was a girl when I was 19 weeks pregnant, and one of the reasons that we wanted to know is that I am the worlds worst decision maker and we thought we'd need that much time to come up with a name.  I think perhaps less time might have been useful. 

A list of the finalists and why they weren't chosen:
Teresa/Theresa (we were leaning toward the first spelling): I love the name Teresa, but even more I love the nickname Tessa.  T.J. was fine with Teresa, but he didn't like Tessa and we figured that calling our baby girl by two different names might have been a bit confusing.

Molly: A late entry into the field, but once I found out that Molly is the number one dogs name in America, I couldn't name my daughter that.  And as soon as we ruled out Molly, my aunt and two of our nurses said they knew Molly dogs.

Caroline (Callie):  Callie is a name we both liked, but we couldn't agree on a long name form of it.  Calista is too Calista Flockhart (Sarah, you'll have no idea who she is in 20 years) and Calliope reminds me of an organ grinder monkey.  I did look up that Caroline can be a long name for Callie, but like the Teresa issue, it was a stretch and therefore not a winner.  This name though may come up again if Sarah ever has a sister.

Hannah/Leah:  I still love both of these names, but T.J. said I couldn't name her after the Gosslin children.

A bunch of really weird modern names like Hensley: Growing up as a Jennifer that was so trendy in the 70s and early 80s, but I wanted a name that would stand the test of time.

Haley/Hailey: Rhymes with Bailey.  And though I offered to rename our dog, I didn't want the first 8 years or so confusing the dog and the baby.  I do that already and Toby/Bailey sound nothing like Sarah.

Elisabeth/Elizabeth: This ended up being her middle name as it's a great family name.  My grandmother is Elizabeth, T.J.'s sister is Elizabeth and my mom is Mary Elizabeth.  But he didn't want to use it as a first name.

So we ended up with Sarah.  Classic, biblical, and means princess.  I wanted a name outside of the top 20 (it was 21 in 2009), a name that is popular but not #1.  I think we did well.

And as an added bonus, Sarah fell to #30 in popularity in 2010.

The Good Eater Award

I suspect the frequency of posts will greatly decrease in the coming months (years?) but I have 7 months of baby life to catch up on, so I figure a few more thrown in at the beginning won't hurt.

Sarah is her daddy's daughter when it comes to eating.  She got off to a little bit of a late start, losing weight for the first couple weeks and all, but since then she's been a champ!  Anytime a bottle comes near her mouth she makes this cute little fish mouth face like she's drinking it already.   However, the girl hates water.  Even water spiked with pear juice to make it nice and sweet, no interest in in.  If it even makes it in her mouth (because sometimes I swear she smells it coming... even though water has no smell?) she'll bat it away until you put it down.  We've got to work on this at some point, but baby steps.

Solid food has been a fun game to play!  I'm making all of her food thus far - I feel it's something that I can give her if I have to leave her to work every day, and so far it's been pretty easy - big steaming sessions on the weekends and lots of ice cube sized food pieces to serve during the week.  There is a video on facebook of our first try of solid food - sweet potatoes, but since then we've had quite an expanded pallate - sweet potatoes, zucchini, green beans, peas, apples, pears, bananas at home and avocado, papaya and fabulous fruits at daycare.  So far this baby has yet to see something on a spoon that she doesn't want to eat.

Today we explored the realm of hard food with cheerios.  Sarah had a grand total of four (not four scoops, or four cups, four) but it took almost 15 minutes to have her try to get them in her mouth,then drop then, get them in her mouth, drop them, have me feed her, have her gum it since she has only 1 tooth, then swallow.  The only ones we had in the house were multigrain, but some of the faces she made were priceless.  We might try cheerios again tomorrow, this time with video camera in hand. 

The Flynn Effect

So I've been really bad at keeping a baby book.  The first couple months when I was home with Sarah (and going to the doctor every other day for some malady or another) I was very good at putting in her weight and height and head percentile, but I don't think I've written a single thing in her baby book since I've gone back to work.  And that was the end of January.  Recently I feel she's hitting milestones left and right, and if I don't record them somewhere they're going to be lost in time and when Sarah is 18 and asks me when she got her first tooth my answer will be "before you were 1".  My grandmother knows that my dad got his first tooth at 4 months old and I do not have the memory my grandmother does, so I'm hoping this helps me keep track of time.

I have to give Meredith credit for the title of this blog.  This really was a spur of the moment thing, and she happened to call when I was on the page that had me pick a title.  Apparently "The Flynn Effect" refers to the rising of IQs over the past 100 years.  I had to wiki that to find out, and though I don't think reading this will make you any smarter, hopefully it will give you a bit of insight into life with our firstborn, especially if you're family far away.  Plus the name was just plain catchy.

I make no promises as to how often or not often this will be updated.  I hope this won't be the only post, but with clothes to watch, games to play, houses to clean, papers to grade, shopping to do, who knows.  But it does take less time to do this than to find the baby book, so here's hoping.

P.S.  Sarah got her first tooth this past Sunday, May 15th, and started rolling over (like again and again and again) this morning.  I just had to pause writing to keep her from rolling off the couch next to me.  What will this amazing girl do next?