9 1/2 months!

I can't believe that Sabrina is over 9 1/2 months old! It has been awhile since I've been able to post and it's just a result of us being ridiculously busy. But in the spirit of full disclosure, part of why we're so busy is that we've been partying it up like crazy for my birthday, and Natalie's birthday as well. It's been a blast.

Two weekends ago Brent and I took our first overnight trip without Sabrina. Mom and Dad were sweet enough to hire a babysitter for us so we could enjoy a romantic getaway to Devil's Thumb Ranch outside of Winter Park. Sabrina stayed with Hannah who was one of her favorite teachers at the Cottage where she goes to daycare. Hannah doesn't work at the Cottage anymore, but she's available for babysitting. It works out really well since Sabrina already knows her and we already trust her. Sabrina did great while we were gone, and she got to spend the whole day on Sunday with her Nana and Poppy, followed by a BBQ at Lee and Cara's house where we showed up on Sunday afternoon. It was a full weekend for all of us! We all survived the weekend apart (with only a minor hunger strike from Sabrina) and it felt great to get over the hurdle of having a babysitter watch Sabrina. In fact, we felt so comfortable with it that we used Hannah again this past weekend so that Brent and I could go out to dinner with Natalie and Kurt, followed by a movie. I think it was the first time the four of us have had a full conversation in about 18 months!! (no offense, Celia and Sabrina!) Once again, Sabrina did well with Hannah, and even made it easy on us by kicking and flapping all four limbs with excitement when Hannah walked in the house. I think she hardly noticed that we were gone. Be careful...we could get used to this!

Sabrina is right on the brink of walking. She stands unsupported all the time now and then last Tuesday she took 2 unsupported steps! She was standing next to Mom (Nana), and then took two steps and fell into my arms. We aren't calling it walking, but it was pretty amazing to see. Since Mom and Dad left for the ranch in CA the next morning, we've been following Mom's request to knock her over every time she tries to walk again before they get back (just kidding!) She hasn't taken anymore steps yet, but she's getting very stable on her feet. We think it's mostly a matter of motivation now. Like with crawling, we have to find out what she wants badly enough to move.

Her favorite things these days are:
- doors and cabinets (she still LOVES to sit in front of them and open, close, open, close, open...)
- tuperware (unfortunately this also means that we either clean all of our tuperware daily, or deal with little bit of Pongo hair in all of our leftovers...hmm...)
- a wooden stacking toy that she's figured out well enough to take off all the pieces and put them back on the three posts - we watch the coordination this takes and we can't believe how well she does at it
- the stairs - going up AND down these days. Going up is pretty solid and she's gone down the stairs pretty well a few times in the right way, turning around backwards, etc..., but it's still a little scary
- her alligator push toy - she walks from the living room to the kitchen back and forth. we took it outside the other night and she walked up and down the sidewalk several times (and waved at Pongo as she walked by our house - it was hysterical and drove him crazy as he sat at the front door watching her!) (see video)



- water - she gulps water like crazy during meals - and I'm pretty sure that she has said "water" a few times now. the first time I thought it was a fluke, even though it was used in a perfect context, but when she did it again at the right time, I think she might really be learning that word! very cool.
- drumming on everything, including her food (see video)





- flipping upside down - a sure laugh every time
- peekaboo - still gets her almost every time

Her favorite foods these days include: beets (the golden ones are less messy, so we've been cooking those), chicken, cheese, crackers, pears, apples, yogurt, cheerios, puffs, veggie straws, sweet potato fries, bread, cheesy vegetables, french toast, mac and cheese...and a new favorite (messy in many ways) is baked beans with bacon (Thanks Nana).

We've been in a bad sleeping pattern for the past month or two and I think we finally realized that she started it, but we didn't do a good job of getting her back on track. We've gotten into the habit of feeding her in the middle of the night, bringing her into our bed in the morning, and basically indulging her each time she wakes up. As we've started feeling run-down and worn out, we've read a bit about infant sleep. We've learned that she really doesn't need to be eating during the night and that she probably isn't getting very good sleep either because she doesn't know how to get back to sleep. So we've been working on a plan for the past few nights of making her put herself back to sleep if it hasn't been long enough for a feeding. We're also slowly increasing the times between feedings until we can eliminate them all together. It means more crying at night than we're used to, but she's been doing really well even after only a few nights. Last night she cried once for 6 minutes (not that I was counting...ha), and then she slept for 8.5 hours before eating, and then slept another 3.5 hours after eating. We hope to be back to sleeping through the night in a few weeks! Looking forward to that.

And, in general, she's still an extremely happy baby who smiles and laughs all the time. Here's another video from tonight of her just cracking up at me imitating her. Sorry for the shaky video!! In this video, you'll also hear Pongo trying to get attention. All I can say is "Poor dog." We try.