Bumbo chair

After Sabrina saw the bumbo chair at all of her friends' houses, she
finally convinced her parents to get her one too. Here she is tonight
helping me make dinner. She sits up really well in this chair...it's
great!

Sabrina turns 3 months old!

Wow. Three months went by quickly. And so did our busy day with our little girl. We kicked it off with a little (not so hot) hot tub session. We're prepping Sabrina for her beach time down in Mexico. She wasn't fazed by the water, but she needs a little practice with her strokes.

Then we had our first reunion with our birthing class. So much fun to see all the babies out in the world. It's funny how the birth seemed like such a big deal during the class (and it certainly was a big deal), but now it's a distant memory. I didn't hear anyone talk about their birth -- now it's all about diapers and daycare.

After checking in with the class of 2028, Sabrina was off to wish her Poppy a happy birthday. Robert's new luggage scale weighed her in at about 12.5 lbs. She keeps laughing at her grandma, and we're pretty sure she managed to roll over. Fun times!

San Francisco March 2010

Sabrina is a terrific traveler! Mom (Nana) and I just returned today from San Francisco, CA where we visited (Aunt) Ashley along with Joan, Kathleen, Rootie, Dante, and Ellora while touring around the Bay and the City. Sabrina was incredible. She usually slept in the car, she was a delight when she was awake, and she slept wonderfully in her little travel bed. She smiles almost every time you look at her and she outright laughs whenever Mom (Nana) (or Kathleen!) looks at her. She had one small crying session on the flight out there but squats and swaying at the back of the plane put her back to sleep. On the flight home (a very early morning flight) she was awake all through the airport, but fell asleep as soon as we sat on the plane and I woke her up for the first time to nurse her as we were landing. She slept soundly the entire flight. What a trooper! As for the rest of the time, she made Ashley and Nana earn their stripes on a particularly sad trip from Stanford Shopping Center up to Joan's house in Portola Valley...we decided that she just HATES traffic, and...she's right. It was about a half an hour of torture for Ash and Nana who tried everything they could think of to help. Turned out she just wanted out of the car.
Then she graced us all with a crying concert for about 15 minutes while driving from Ellora's house in the Presidio down to dinner. Other than that, she really didn't cry. It was amazing! We thought overstimulation might be a serious concern on this trip but she proved to be able to handle almost everything we threw her way.
We had great hosts (Joan and Ash/Dante and even Ellora for a bit) who all provided us with a Fit Ball when needed. It's still Sabrina's favorite. Ashley got Sabrina to take a pacifier twice in the car when she was getting a little fussy, so I've decided I just need Ashley to be in the back of my car at all times. Somehow, I think that's going to be difficult to swing, but I'm still working on it.
Here are some photos from the week. I'm feeling incredibly lucky right now to have such a fun travel buddy. Next trip, Cabo San Lucas! and this time we're bringing Brent! We missed him way too much.

Sunset walk to dinner

We took Sabrina down to Murphy's Bar & Grill tonight for an early dinner. The sun was shining brightly so we tried out her new sun hat instead of her normal warm hat. Here are some shots of her in the sun looking pretty happy.

New SLR Camera

Here are the photos from this weekend from our new digital SLR camera. We promise to try to be reasonable with the photos, but some of these were just too darn cute to delete! If it helps, we deleted 353 photos and only saved 55...progress, right? Pongo gets some good face time in this album as well (it's about time) with his buddy Mifflin. They had tons of puppy fun on a hike today at the Spruce Creek Trail outside of Breckenridge.
http://picasaweb.google.com/brent.e.halsey/BreckenridgeWeekendWithOurNewCamera#

Tired puppies

Brent was a superhero this morning and took the dogs to the dog park
before skiing. Here is the result and Natalie and I could not have
been more grateful.

Breckenridge weekend with the Baumgartners

We are enjoying a great weekend in Breckenridge with Natalie, Kurt and
Cecilia. The boys spent the day skiing and Natalie and I spent the day
with the dogs and the girls. We finished off the day with a walk on
Boreas Pass even though it was only about 20 degrees outside. The
girls hung in there really well for most of the hike.

Here is a picture of Sabrina chillin on her activity mat.

Cocktail hour at the Stanley Hotel

After St Pattys Day Brunch at Nana and Poppy's this morning, we
scooted up the canyon to Estes Park with her Great Aunt Deed for a
wonderful, sunny cocktail hour on the porch of the Stanley Hotel.
Sabrina had a great time laughing with her Poppy!

St Patty's Day babies

Happy St Pattys Day from Sabrina and Casey!! They donned their green
outfits at nana's house and had tea and scones.

New Photos of Sabrina

Operation Sleep In Your Own Room

Step 1: Move co-sleeper across the room (still in our room). Date completed: 3/10/10. She slept great across the room for about a week. CHECK. Moving onto Step 2

Step 2: Move co-sleeper into her own room. Date completed: 3/15/10. She slept great again! Woohoo! Go Sabrina!

Next step, move from co-sleeper to crib. We'll attempt that after we return from San Francisco next week.

Feeling better...and talking!

Check out the silly video of Sabrina "talking." Make sure your sound is turned on! She does this all the time since last week and it's pretty hysterical when you get her going. She got a little upset at the end of this session, but she can often do this for a long time in a completely good mood. It's fun...and funny. She still coughs every now and then, but mostly she's feeling better we think. She's certainly been in a very good mood this morning and has been charming her visitors. Jill's mom stopped by today to give Sabrina a beautiful, fun blanket and a hoodie towel that she and Jill made. Very cute! Then Brenna came by for our weekly walk around the lake with the dogs. We thought it was going to be a cold and snowy day, but by 11:30, we were stripping off jackets and hats in the sunshine. Spring is definitely on the way!

First cough of her little life

Sabrina has a pretty nasty cough right now so we took her to the doctor yesterday. Poor thing!  But she didn't need medication (or hospitalization, thank goodness!!). The doctor just said that it's been a terrible cold season here in CO so she probably just caught a bug. Right now she is just fighting it off and doing so in good spirits. We had to do a steam session in the bathroom last night, a la Tim as a baby with his croup bouts, which seemed to help a bit so we will likely do another tonight.  Despite this, she was a wonderful sport today as we trucked her around the city and we managed to have a fantastic day.  She still coughs and it breaks our heart, plus she's taken to snoring just like her papa, but we know it's all part of the healing process so we are hoping her little immune system keeps working.   

Denver day

We spent this afternoon at the Natural History Museum in Denver at the
Body Worlds exhibit. Afterward we took a walk around the lake in City
Park and Sabrina showed off her Broncos Mile High Salute. Her mommy
was so proud! (her dad couldn't see what she was doing, hence the
smile). We finished off the day at an Ethiopian restaurant on E Colfax
with our friend Shawn.

Sabrina and Casey

At our moms group this week, we got a nice shot of the babies doing
some side-by-side tummy time. These two are destined to be good
buddies in the future, having spent significant utero time together
already. Thanks for hosting a good session, Cara! Moms group is a
savior some weeks. :-)

Post-Bath

Here is Sabrina after her bath this weekend. What a looker!

Look Mom, head control!

This week Sabrina got to flip around in her carrier to face out now
that she's got sufficient head control. Walks just took on a whole new
level of excitement.
Sorry for the stupid photo but it was taken, once again, with my phone.

Sabrina's First Oscars Party

Sabrina was introduced to the family tradtion of dressing up for the Oscars this year. She dressed as the movie Up, complete with a set of balloons tied to her. I wish I could say that she found it as amusing as we all did, but unfortunately she had a bit of a meltdown while we were there so Bevin had to step in with her master mom skills and do deep knee bends with Sabrina for at least 20 minutes until she fell asleep. Bevin admitted to being sore the next day from all the squats! Thank you Bevin!! Brent dressed up as Sherlock Holmes and I went as the girl from An Education. Sabrina proved a natural at the Oscars and her movie, Up, won more awards than both of her parents' movies, so we are definitely bringing her again next year.

Thumb sucker!!!

We've got a thumb sucker! Yikes!

Sabrina is 2 months old

Yesterday we took Sabrina to her 2-month check up appointment with our new pediatrician. It was a good appointment and our little girl is growing up just as she's supposed to be. She is 11 lbs., 3 1/2 oz., and 22.5 inches long, which puts her at the 50% percentile for both weight and height. Who knew she could still pull off "average" with that belly and those cheeks?! The doc also said that she looks very good developmentally...she's holding up her head very well these days, she's smiling, cooing, sucking her thumb (that's new so I'll post a photo of that too) and seems to be right on track. We liked the new pediatrician a lot and feel much more comfortable with her than with our previous doctor.

Sabrina got her first round of immunizations yesterday as well and she was pretty fussy last night, but she woke up this morning in a downright goofy mood, so that was a relief. She never got a fever or a rash from the shots, and I nursed her while she was getting pricked so she didn't even wail...too much! (ok, the second shot kind of ticked her off)

Today we went on a walk with Cara and Casey up Mt. Sanitas in Boulder (with the dogs in tow), had a fun lunch with Bernd Uwe, Mom (Nana), Brent (Dad), Cara and Casey, then took a walk around the lake by our house with friends Laura and her (hopefully) adopted daughter Lyra. It was about 55-60 degrees and bright and sunny today so we had a blast taking advantage of the weather.

Here is a picture of Sabrina from last evening when she was calm and snuggly. Sorry for the shadow on her face - I was bouncing her on the ball while trying to take the photo. Oh, the skills I'm learning as a mom!

Isn't she cute?

Just a cute picture of the little girl.

Happy 40th Andy!

This weekend we went to Steamboat with a group of friends to celebrate Andy's 40th Birthday (and Diedre's birthday and Jonathan's birthday). We shared a condo with Andy, Diedre, Nadia (2) and Izzie (6 weeks) and next door we had Kevin, Lea, Jonathan, Erik (6), Amy, and Misha (4). Talk about kid craziness! We had a great time watching all the older kids and thinking about our future days with Sabrina as she grows up into a crazy, fun, adorable, emotional, energetic wobbler then toddler then little girl. She has wonderful examples in front of her to teach her the ropes of all the next stages. Here is one photo of Sabrina (pink/white) with Izzie (green) and Nadia (stripes) chillin' on the floor of our condo.

Also, here is a picture of Brent and Andy consoling their little ladies...sans Fit Ball (which we brought to Steamboat, but forgot the stopper to keep the ball blown up, so no Fit Ball for the dads to bounce the girls on in the fussy periods). On the way home we went snowshoeing on Rabbit Ears Pass on Bruce's Trail. It was a great weekend!