Our Weekend

We stayed busy and had lots of playing time this weekend. Too bad we have to go back to work!

PS: Mara has her first tooth coming in, but I can't get any pictures of it yet, but I will keep trying! It is so cute, our little Beaver girl!

Mara excited to be playing.

Mara and Daddy posing with Daddy's new hat.

Mara sledding today.

Here is Mara playing doggy with Daddy.

Here is Samara showing us how she claps.

This is Samara finding her favorite letter of the alphabet, the letter Q.

Daddy Travis taking Samara on her first snow jump, courtesy of our side yard!

Surgery

Surgery went well on Wednesday, but of course it was difficult for us to see Mara drift off from the effects of the Versed! But there were no complications, except for that she was sick. On Thursday she continued to have too much bleeding for my liking, so we went back to Children's Hospital and they suctioned her ear out again and gave us a different prescription. That seems to be working well, but the daycare still didn't like that her ear was leaking, so they called us to pick her up again today. IRRITATING! Needless to say I went and got her and Trav came home a few hours later so I could go to work because I had an emergency with a client that took 4.5 hours to work out! Oh I want a vacation!

We are off to Madison tomorrow for our hockey game and hoping for safe travels through the snow. But, I am not counting on it, considering that the weather idiots said we were going to get 5-9inches earlier this week and we got a little rain and nothing more. How do they get paid for being wrong all the time??

Videos at long last...and new feats!

I have some pictures from our weekend and videos and an update: We are T minus 2 days until Samara's surgery: She is having tubes placed in her ears to drain the fluid and help her hear better. We will go back in 3 weeks for a check and another hearing test. Please offer up prayers for a smooth surgery (very typical surgery for kids), protection, and that this would reverse the hearing loss.

Mara posing for the camera during mealtime.

Mara laughing with us.

The litany of Valentines Samara got from friends at school.

I caught you!

Trav trying to hide away.

Samara making sweet music for us while we cooked breakfast Saturday.

Listen carefully: Mara is making music with her boogery nose!

This is Samara's new thing: If we put her on her hands and knees, she can move into a sitting position. May not be that huge, but considering she only learned how to do this with our help on Wednesday and by Sunday could do it on her own, we are very proud! Her physical therapist taught us this move to help her to want to crawl; the idea is if she crawls, it isn't that fun because then she is still stuck on her belly. But if we teach her how to move from her hands and knees to her butt, then crawling will be more appealing. We love our PT! Next step is hopefully getting onto her hands and knees on her own.

School has started

and I am already two chapters behind! I also procrastinated writing my first paper until an hour before it was due....AAAHHHH school, nothing like it. Maybe I should stop procrastinating for this class, since word is the prof never gives A's. Anyway, Mara is great, but has been having difficulty sleeping the last two nights, so I am TIE-RED. Thinking that it is a growth spurt, but she won't eat more than usual during the day. Oh well, we'll see how things go tonight. Anyway, not much else is going on. Trav is home and we love that, the after school center is going well~ the kids all made me birthday cards last week! Uber cute! Work is work, school, well we already discussed that mess. I will post some pictures this weekend hopefully, of out little darling talking up a mad storm and playing with daddy. She sure loves her swim time at the Y! Too bad we can't get any pics of that!

Videos for Travis

And others, but I wanted to get Trav's attention! Thankfully, he will be coming in on the red eye tomorrow night. Man, it has been a longgggggggggg two weeks!

Mara has another cold now and may be teething. Last Wednesday she all of a sudden started drooling (never, ever drools), had a red rash on her face, and her gums were swollen. Then came the cold. What a one-two punch! Anyway, no teeth yet, but we are waiting...

I know this is way late, but it is too cute to not put up. Trav is playing with Mara at my grandma's house at Christmas.

Here is Samara in her new sled, going down the hill!

Samara is standing and playing with her table...until she falls. I had to cut that out because it wasn't too pretty!

BTW

By the way, Samara had her 9-month check-up Friday:
Weight: 18.8, 10-25%
Height: 26.5, 10-25%
Head: No idea, but also on the 10-25%.

All is good, no concerns. We are very happy with her fine motor development and working on her large motor (crawling, pulling to stand) with her physical therapist. Basically, she rocks!

New Things

Daycare isn't so bad. They are at least trying to help teach the things I am trying at home. As a result, Mara has mastered eating Cheerios. Before, she would just pick them up and throw them, but now she can feed herself. She also is standing up a lot more now. We have carved out a play area from our living room that I have been working on while Trav is gone and we spent most of the weekend playing there. Tons o fun!

We also went swimming at the Y yesterday and had a blast. We tried church today, but Mara wanted to get up just when the message started, so we listened from afar (the lobby) while Mara watched the other kids and their parents. For today, we just have pictures. I will add videos later (I shot way too much video for Trav while he is gone).

Mara playing with her leapfrog musical table in her new playroom.

Busy at work, trying to stay standing up!

I LOVE CHEERIOS!

My fav giraffe always goes in my mouth!


Samara now likes to put all her toys in her mouth and show me. She likes this so much because she knows it makes me laugh.