Month 10

Sasha passed 10 months yesterday and we celebrated with a shopping trip to Old Navy for some new pajamas for her and some much-needed long sleeved shirts for me. I've decided to commit to updating this at least once a month on her monthly "birthday." I'll try for more posts, but I can at least commit to that and give an update of what's happened over the last month.

Month 9 gave us Sasha's first Halloween. I dressed her up as a monkey which apparently was not to her liking. Every time I put her in the monkey suit, I got icy looks like this one:
My little indignant monkey. Next year maybe she'll be able to have more of a say in what her costume will be.

This month she also started pointing at everything and everyone. We'll give her the name of a familiar object, like "star" and she'll point to the hanging star in her room. Pretty nifty. She's also started waving "hi" and "bye" but this is less consistent and usually in response to someone waving at her.

All of her top four teeth are now coming in. Her left front tooth has popped through and the teeth to the immediate left and right of that one are starting to poke through, as well. She's done really well with the teething and hasn't seemed too bothered by it other than some restless nights here and there.

The big thing that Sasha has started to do in the last few weeks is take her first steps! It started a week or so ago with one or two tiny, shaky steps. Today she took several steps on her own! It was so exciting and made me a bit teary. My little girl is growing up. I'm glad I got to witness these first few steps before she enters daycare this winter. I get sad thinking I'll miss all these fun firsts. My friend, Kyra, thinks they save the big moments for mom and dad, and I hope she's right. I've really enjoyed being able to stay home with her these last several months and I can't believe our days together are almost over.

Before the monitor gets too blurry, I'll leave you with a picture of Sasha and her friend, the alpaca.

here comes the rain again...

Did I happen to mention that Sasha is the most beautiful, brilliant baby I know? I know, I know, everyone thinks their baby is the most beautiful and brilliant, but I swear she is special. What? Everyone once in a while I just need to be one of those moms. Every once in a while I need to compulsively italicize every other word. Ahhh, all better.

Jay and I have gone to a pumpkin patch every October since we've known each other. Every year we would wander the patch, just man and woman among the squash and the mud and the rosy-cheeked children. We'd pick out our favorite pumpkin, grab a steaming cup of cider, maybe pet a goat or feed a chicken. Despite our delight in pumpkin hunting, somehow it just always felt empty; like we were missing something. Every year we'd say, "It would probably be more fun if we brought a kid with us." There was one year that a 10 year old kid followed us through the corn maize. It was kind of cute at first, but then we started getting that itchy, annoyed feeling that childless folks do when chatty 10 year olds overstay their welcome. We decided then that it wasn't just enough to bring any old kid. We needed to bring a chatty tot of our own.

Long story short, it's much more fun now that Sasha is around. Sasha picked out a beautiful pumpkin which will be carved this weekend. Thank you, Sasha, for brightening our pumpkin hunts.

The auction at Tougo Coffee Co. for the Community Birth & Family Center was a great success. We made almost $2500 which is several hundred more dollars than I had expected to make. I was nervous that the space would be too small, but it ended up being perfect for the number of people who came. It almost makes me want to do it again!

No time for that, though. Stefanie and I are plugging away again at our business plan. As always, the numbers portion of the plan has us biting our nails and we need to find some friendly salon owners to give up their start-up numbers so that we can do first year projections. I have a few leads that I can work on, so I'm crossing my fingers that someone will be nice enough to divulge some numbers.

We also met with an architect, Ariel Kemp, and we like him despite the fact that he gave us homework. It's fun homework, though - finding visuals of spaces that we like, writing narratives, mapping out the space we envision. I like his previous work and he comes highly recommended by Brian, the owner of Tougo.

I need to raise a good chunk of money, though, so if any of you win the lottery and want to share, give me a call.





Word to all the mothers.

Three More Days

Just three more days until the auction and then I lose my excuse for not posting to the blog. I've been seriously busy with this thing and when I've had a few minutes to post, I only want to sit and just not think about anything.

However, there is much to recap and I feel like as time slips away, so does the memory of all that has happened recently.

Sasha and I went on another adventure together, this time to visit Gigi-ma and Gigi-pa in Las Vegas. I am always incredibly proud of my grandparents, and our trip down there did not tarnish the image they hold in my mind. These two wonderful people rented every baby item we could possibly need, they bought the food Sasha loves, my grandfather pushed the stroller around the mall and washed bottles - they were just perfect hosts to me and my babe.

Unfortunately, our visit meant that their dogs, Dudley and Sparky, didn't eat for three days - Dudley because he was so darn thrilled to have Sasha around and Sparky because he was so darn miserable. Dudley and Sasha were the best of friends all weekend and enjoyed many rousing games of Slobber Ball. He didn't even mind when Sasha would try and eat his food. Heck, he wasn't eating it, so why not?

Here's a photo of the happy family. And no, despite our Eastern European ancestry, we are not a family of vampires. I just forgot to use the red eye flash thingy. I think it's actually called that.

Don't I have a gorgeous family??






In other Sasha news, she is continuing to prove herself to be a physical dynamo. She's lightning fast and has stood on her own several times now. She also can clap, although not quite on command. She loves to clap at the end of a song, so sing her a little ditty the next time you see her and I bet she'll clap for you. It's great for the ego.

I think she understands the word "ball" and "where is" and "kitty." She definitely understands "Daddy" and still throws a party every time Jay gets home.

Oh, the lady of the house just woke up, so I better go. I hope not to let so much time go between posts next time!

Time's A-Wastin'

I really, really suck at this whole blog thing. I seriously have been busy, though. Not just busy raising my busy daughter, but busy with working with some moms to try and get a silent auction going for the Community Birth & Family Center who has hosted the amazing First Weeks/Next Months classes and is now facing some hard times.

This involves a lot of emails, some phone calls, lots of planning, and much time. I haven't had much left over for blogging, although I have managed to find the time to read two books in the last two weeks. It helps that they were kind of fluffy summertime books, but it feels good to be reading at my usual pace again. I just reserved a bunch of books from the library, along with some children's CDs to burn for Sasha.

Sasha is growing at an alarmingly exponential rate. Well, not really growing so much as developing. She recently learned to crawl and now she's pulling herself up to stand on everything. Today she started practicing how to lower herself back down again, which should cut down on the bumps to her head. I've been a little concerned at how often she bangs her noggin, but I don't want to hinder her exploration. Hopefully she gets more graceful as time goes by and doesn't take after me, who was stuck in head injury land until I was about 13 years old. I'm quite sure I've sustained mild brain damage along the way.

Here's Sasha enjoying a nice cup of bath water:


Jay and I are planning/fantasizing about what to do for Christmas this year. We're trying to stay low budget this year, so I'm thinking a trip to Florida may not be in the cards, unfortunately. We're considering Vancouver, BC which would make me very happy. I'm going to start looking into renting an apartment or house in the city. If anyone knows of anything...

We have crawling! And teeth!

It's been an exciting week in the Hilwig household. Sasha cut her first tooth last Thursday, which was followed soon after with her second tooth breaking through today. They are still just peeking above the surface on her bottom gums, but the sharp bite is undeniable. I'm looking forward to posting photos of toothy grins!

We also officially have crawling - on her hands and knees - as of tonight. She has finally worked up the nerve to move her left hand forward. Coupled with a new sense of coordination between her legs and arms, she is a burgeoning crawling dynamo. Guess it's time to baby proof? I found out today in my refresher Infant CPR class that most household plants are not poisonous. In fact, it would take ingesting 30 leaves of a poinsettia plant to knock out a baby. Even Sasha doesn't have an appetite that big.

This week has flown by due to all the fun times we've had. On Monday, we went to our first Sitters & Rollers class as Sasha long ago graduated to the 6 - 9 month old group. It was a blast seeing all the babies sitting with straight backs in a circle, checking each other out and stealing each other's toys.

On Tuesday, we went swimming with some friends - Kyra and baby Ayla, and Jen and baby Jonas. We kept the babies from turning blue in the frigid 85 degree water by alternating our swim time with breaks in the sauna. My CPR instructor was a little concerned about both the "turning blue" and "sauna break" portions of my swimming story. Um, next time we'll get out as soon as gums start chattering and no sauna for over 1 minute.

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So, I started this THREE days ago and finally have time to get back to it.

We went swimming again on Friday, with Misha, Stuart, and Blix. Coleman Pool is great because it's a saltwater pool, is heated, and looks out over the beautiful Sound. My only complaint is that it was packed with every member of the Boys & Girls Club. We did manage to find a somewhat peaceful spot in the pool where Sasha and Blix could practice their moves. Sasha does a mean breast stroke.

I'm hoping we can get over to the Zoo today, if we can find anyone to join us. Otherwise, maybe we'll just take a walk in the Arboretum.

Here's a picture of Sasha and Jay on our blueberry picking expedition a couple of weekends ago.
They aren't really that pale.

Worst Night EVER

Ok, it probably wasn't the worst night ever. There are some nights in those first few weeks that could definitely beat last night's out. It was a big bowl of BAD, however.

She refused to take an afternoon nap yesterday, so by 6pm she was Miss Crankypants 2007 and sleep just had to be done. I put her down around 6:15pm, and then split for my Capitol Hill Mamas' Happy Hour which I look forward to every Wednesday. While I sipped my cosmopolitan and soaked up some adult conversation, Sasha was laying her first assault and Jay was taking the hits. She woke up at 7pm at which point Jay fed her. She then woke up at 7:45pm and he put her back down to sleep. I got home around 8:45pm, at which point she woke up again. And then, around 10:15, just as we were falling asleep. I thought for sure she'd settle into a longer pattern, but she woke up at 1:45am, 3:00am, and finally, 6:41am. She was in her bed until 1:45am and then came in our bed after that.

I'm really not sure what happened. The night before was near perfection and then she switched it up on us to the extreme. Jay thinks she went to bed too early. I wonder if it was skipping the afternoon nap that did it. Or maybe waking up that first time and having me be gone. Maybe swimming on Tuesday really tired her out and relaxed her into a full night's sleep. It's hard to say, but I can say for certain that parenting is a lesson in Zen.

Best Night EVER

"Wazzzup??"

I had Stephen Colbert running in the background while we practiced crawling, and she found the remote and turned it to the Weather Channel. Apparently, she is a 70 year old man trapped in the body of a six month old girl.

On the crawling front, we have definite progress. Since yesterday, she will now lift one hand off the ground while on her hands and knees, as if testing her balance. Last night, she even brought the hand forward and then one knee went forward and then she toppled over. She always gets right back up, though. Here's a shot of her gamely and gleefully trying out her crawling skills:
In other Sasha news, she has had a couple of good nights of sleep. Last night, we not only got her to fall asleep on her own, but she slept almost SIX hours in her own crib, in her own room, which is a personal best so far. I then brought her into our bed after her first night feeding, as usual, but she couldn't get comfortable. I put her back in her crib, and she passed out immediately, sleeping for another five hours. She woke up at 5am and I brought her into our bed, where she slept until 8am. I'm extremely pleased with last night's sleeping. I think she is very happy with the crib and the quiet, dark, cool environment in her room. Our bedroom is so stuffy at night and we get a lot of street noise. Heck, I'd rather sleep in her room, too.

I've been incredibly busy these days, although sometimes I think it just seems that way because Sasha is sleeping less during the day. That leaves me with limited time to do any sort of housework (darn) or catch up on emails/blogs/etc. and finally, to work on my business idea. Yes, a friend and I are hopefully starting a business together. We have a very well-formed idea that we think is going to be huge and we've possibly already found a prime location for the business. At least, the person in charge of filling the space is very interested and supportive of our idea. We're working on a business plan right now, and then I'll need to raise some money. It's not a huge amount, about equal to my student loan, actually, but I think I can do it if our business plan is solid. I'm just so confident about this idea and we've already gotten great feedback from the survey we've distributed. I'll definitely be updating more on this topic.

Ok, I probably have only a few more minutes before Sasha wakes up from her nap. Over and out!