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.

Just past 5 months and kicking along

Sophia is just over 5 months old and she seems to be developing so quickly. I don't know if it's because I am home with her now and I see it more readily, or if she's just growing up so dern fast. :) Some of the new developments since our last post:

• Sophia has decided to try quite a few different foods. We introduced rice cereal last month at the recommendation of our pediatrician. Of course, many sites and books tell you that the American Academy of Pediatricians recommends no solids til month 6, but oh well. (Actually, looks like 4-6 months.) Foods she has had since:
  
  

  Avocado - She absolutely loved it. She finished all of what we gave her.
  Banana - This was not as popular. The banana may not have been ripe enough. But she did not inhale it (literally and figuratively) like she did the avocado.
  Butternut squash - She has had quite a bit of this. We bought one to make some risotto and blended the rest for her. we mix it up with her rice cereal and she goes to town.

• Sophia has decided that while lying on her back, she can actually scoot around the room. On the one hand, we love it because it is a sin of progress and development. On the other, it is not so great, cuz now I can't just leave her in the middle of the room and walk away. She will find the hardest object in the room and head (pun intended) straight for it. It got bad enough that we broke down and bought bumpers for her bed. Daddy Dave thought she'd get used to it, but when she rams her head at 3:00am, she doesn't just "deal with it." :)
• We have started referring to Sophia as our little Baby raptor. (As in a baby velociraptor.) Quite often, she will start to cry/screech in what can only be described as the wail of a baby velociraptor. (No idea what I am talking about, see some other random baby making the noise.)
• Sophia had her first Skype call earlier this week. Abuela Lennon called, and it was feeding time. So I went ahead and turned on Skype with video chat and Sophia's paternal grandparents were able to watch. sound didn't work, for some reason, but who cares, that's not the important part.
• Earlier this week we also tried to introduce Sophia to the sippy cup. Though we know we'll be there some day, it did not go so well today. It was very much a foreign concept to her. (To Daddy Dave, too, to be honest. Took me a minute to figure out that the rubber part inside needed to be "split".
• Sophia also got a new stroller thanks to Abuela Lennon. This new stroller (pictured in the slideshow below) is much lighter than our original one. We still use them both, but there is definitely a difference between a "jogging" stroller (original) and an "umbrella" stroller (new one). As long as Sophia is comfortable in either, we're happy.
  

The Usual Dose of Pictures
Here are the latest round of pix. Only 23 this time, so I won't waste your whole day. :)



The Usual Dose of Videos
This video has Daddy Dave's annoying voice trying to describe Sophia's new found interest in moving around on her back. Daddy Dave was in a good mood cuz she had a great nap. :)


This is Sophia having a "conversation" with her daddy. She likes to just sit there some times and half giggle half talk.


This video is more amusing for Mommy Michele's efforts to get Sophia to do something of interest. I especially like her singing.