Casa Lennon has a new (web) casa

Hey,

Many of you already know, but just thought I'd make it formal. We have moved this blog to a new site. Stay up to date by following http://blog.casalennon.com/ for the latest goings on.

Month 9 (and part of month 10)

Good evening,

The post is taking longer and longer each time. This time, it is Michele doing the post. I broke the pictures out into four different groups: Friends, Family, Around the House, and Around Town.

Here are a few quick items since the last posting about a month ago:

We are really happy and enjoying spending time with our precious, happy girl. She has been sick a termendous amount (ear infections, pink eye, stomach bug ....) and we are fortunate to have jobs that let us be flexible about how we get our hours. Since Sophia started Jan 12th, she has only been to daycare all five days in a week twice! I think she missed more school than she went in March.

Sophia just moved into the next class at Primrose. I think she is in love with the teacher, Mrs. Lopez. She is from Columbia and speaks Spanish to Sophia. When I used to get her, she was ready to go and held onto me for dear life. Today, her first full day in the new class, she kept pushing me away to get down and play and move around. She also ate and slept really well there. It made me really happy that she enjoys where she spends so much time.

With how much Sophia was sick, her 9-month check up revealed what we guessed ... she weighed less than she did at her 6-month check up. She went from the 75% in weight to the 25% in weight. Luckily, she's already gained a few pounds since then and is well on her way again. The leeks, potatoes, carrots, and peas puree is one of her favorites along with yogurt, apple sauce and the always popular Cheerios.

Even though we don't get out as much as we used to, I realized when looking at the pictures that we get around alot still. Two weekends again we spent some time with Layna from KY, Maryjo read Sophia her bedtime stories and put her to bed, and we visited the Floyds, the Tanners, and the Turners. By Sunday though, we skipped out on a BBQ b/c Sophia napped the entire time of the BBQ.

For Easter weekend, we took a trip to DC to visit Dave's family and celebrate Grandpa Peter and Great Aunt Eileen (the twins) turning 70. Mike and Renee spent alot of time organizing and Elizabeth flew in from Spain. Sophia had a blast getting to know her family better.

Tonight Sophia moved from the infant tub to the real tub (pictures in the slide show). Luckily, I had no items on the Town Council agenda, so I got to play with Sophia instead. Other updates include her almost walking on her own (she now holds just one of my hands), three more teeth are coming in (that will make five), and she now knows Ma-Ma and Pa-Pa. I LOVE hearing her blabber Ma ma ma ma. She is happy and doesn't really whine ... her nickname with many is the "amazing baby". We truly adore her.

Without out any more blabber from ma ma, here are the links to the pictures. I'm going to leave the posting of the videos to Daddy Dave.

Click here to see Pictures of Sophia--Friends if your Flash isn't working.

(Just a few pictures)


Click here for Pictures of Family Pictures in DC



Click here to see Pictures of Sophia around Town -Just a few pix


Click here to see Pictures of Sophia around the house

Several pictures (about 30)--only the die hards will sit through this :).

Crawlin' and on the go at 8 months

After Sophia's abuela called Daddy Dave and gently reminded him that he hadn't posted pix in a while, He knew it was time to finally do it. The irony is that Daddy Dave posted pix and some videos a little while back, but never got around to actually putting some prose around it. So here goes, a quick overview of some of the things that have happened since the last post a month and a half ago. :(

The three of us took an unplanned trip to DC to spend time with the grandparents after Sophia's abuelo had a medical scare. Thankfully, he is doing very well. Sophia had a great time entertaining family in DC in her exersaucer. She absolutely loves that thing. See pix for proof. :)

From a development perspective, Sophia is advancing very well. At about 8 months, she decided to start crawling. She literally picked it up in about 3 days. It was an amazingly quick transition. As Mommy Michele said, "I think she just downloaded the 'crawl' program." (View this clip, if you don't get the Matrix reference.) She's actually pulling herself up, too. But no doubt, she is crawling around quickly.

Another step in Sophia's development is her ability (and interest) in holding her own bottle and feeding herself. For non-parents, that might just sound kind of neat. As other parents know, this is a super-cool step. It makes getting out the door easier. It enables the three of us to eat together and engage more than we have been able to. It really makes things a lot easier.



(The pic to the left is from a day stroll we took to Dunkin Donuts.)

One thing that Sophia has been wrestling with of late is being sick. I'm sure it is the combination of winter season and starting day care. Nevertheless, her nostrils are ever-flowing "snaucets". (snot-faucets; charming I know.) She's had a few trips to the pediatrician. She is doing much better now.

One thing that we are very happy about is that for the first time since she started day care in mid March, Sophia has finally gone all 5 days in one week. It took 2 months, but she finally made it one complete week. We need we could do it, we just had to be patient. Sophia has adjusted pretty well to day care. We were just informed that the second week of April she will begin her transition to the next class. We are very excited about that because Sophia is enamored with the main teacher in that classroom. Mrs' Lopez is Columbian and speaks to Sophia in Spanish. Sophia totally lights up when she speaks to her in Spanish. Incidentally, we estimate that Sophia's Spanish will be at Daddy Dave's level within 3 months.

One last anecdote that we find very amusing is Sophia's interest and fascination with brushing her teeth. Both of them. Sophia always seemed transfixed when we brushed our teeth. So Mommy Michele gave her a toothbrush once while brushing her teeth, and Sophia mimicked perfectly. Sophia now has her own toothbrush that she uses to brush her teeth. It's quite cute actually.

Alright, enough for now. Here are the pix and video.

Pictures from Months 7 - 8
Here is a slideshow of the pix. As always, you can view the pictures directly by going to the Picasa web folder.


Videos from Months 7 - 8
Here a few videos from the last couple of months. I love the first one.
This is Daddy Dave goofing around with Sophia and having a good time. (Direct Link to video.)


Sophia playing with Michele and crawling at 8 months (Direct Link to Video.)


A video of the 3 of us relaxing one night. Sophia at 8 months. Likely something only family might like. :) (Direct Link to Video.)

Sophia (kinda) starts day care and Daddy Dave (kinda) returns to work

I'd hoped to update this sooner, but it has been a whirlwind couple of weeks. When you last left our intrepid family, we were re-covering from the holiday season and we were getting ready for Sophia to go to day care. Well, as many you may know by now, that did not exactly go quite as planned. (I'm learning that is a theme with a kid.)

THE PLAN
- Daddy Dave takes Sophia to day care a few times before she actually begins.
- Sophia starts day care on Monday January 12.
- Daddy Dave returns to work on Monday January 12.
(Sounds simple enough, right?)

THE REALITY
- Sophia got pretty sick the Friday night before she was to go to day care. Hmm, that's ominous.
- Sunday before day care, Mommy Michele gets that bug. Hmm, this is getting worse before it gets better.
- Monday, January 12 (first day of day care), Daddy Dave stays home to take care of the girls.
- Tuesday, Daddy Dave gets sick, too. Another day not going to work and Sophia still not in day care.
- Wednesday, January 14 - Daddy Dave finally makes it back to work for about a half a day. Mommy Michele still looking after Sophia.
- January 16 - We finally take Sophia to day care. (Yeah!) It lasts about an hour before they tell us she threw up (and more). Mommy Michele goes to get her.
(Quite an interesting "first week" of day care)
- Second week shortened by snow day and Sophia getting sent home Thursday afternoon with a rash (along with two classmates. OY!)


You can tell Sophia was not well because she was really "clingy" and quiet. (See pic on the right. :( ) So what made this return even more special was an insurance fiasco. Apparently, Sophia's pediatrician is no longer covered by Daddy Dave's insurance. Duke emailed this information to Daddy Dave about a week after he went on leave, so he didn't get it until about 3 months later. In the mean time, Sophia's pediatrician, Rex Pediatrics of Cary, has been submitting claims that have been refused for about 2 months. Sure wish someone would have told us. Especially before Sophia had some blood samples and chest X-Ray. :( Long story short (too late), Duke allowed us to switch insurance providers retroactively to January 1 so that claims could be refiled. (Thank you, Duke!)

Well, this has been a pretty gloomy post so far (sorry), so thought we would end on a more positive note. Sophia got to experience her first snow. We hesitated to take outside since she was not doing well. But, thankfully, abuela Lennon and Mimi both got her snow suits and we felt better taking her out. Sophia enjoyed the fresh air and weird white stuff.



More importantly, Sophia is doing well now and is acting like her usual cheerful, smiling, laughing self. Having a sick kid is awful because you want nothing more than to have them get better. But when they get better, you seem to appreciate and love them even more. (Is that possible?)

Oh yeah, Sophia has made it successfully through two consecutive days of day care. Of course, she was not there for 8 hours either day, but oh well. Daddy Dave dropped her off and Mommy Michele picked her up. I think picking up may be the easier of the two. ;) Although Michele got to take Sophia out of Dave's Accord coupe. I think we may be closer to getting Daddy Dave's much desired Honda Odyssey. :-D

Some Recent Pictures
OK, well here are a series of pics from January.
(Note: You can view all the pictures at your own pace here.)


Some Recent Videos
I like this first video because there are a couple of cute smiles by Sophia.