Christmas in Chicago

We are back from our trip to visit the grandparents in Chicago. Everything went smoothly for us from air travel to the weather - fortunately it wasn't too cold and we even had a White Christmas! As you can see from the look on Reese's face, we had a lot of fun.

Grandma and Grandpa's house is big and has so many things to look at and explore. Not the least of which is the Christmas tree. It has been in the same spot and decorated in almost the same way since I was a little girl but to Reese of course, it is all new and amazing. She is working on her crawling (anyday now!) but she mostly stays put so we didn't have to do too much to keep it out of her reach.

She also learned to play piano. We'll let you all know when she'll be giving her first recital.

As I said, the weather cooperated. It was in the mid-30's most of the time and there was snow on Christmas Eve and Day so we were able to take Reese out in the backyard to do a little sledding. Here she is doing her tribute to Ralphie's little brother from the Christmas Story.

I'll be honest, Reese wasn't wild about the snow. If you go back and look at the post from August where we took her to the swimming pool for the first time, her facial expression looked very similar. A sort of, "why are you doing this to me" look.

We asked her to make a snow angel but she didn't oblige.

There were many highlights to our visit. For one thing Reese finally got to meet her Uncle Morgan. Uncle Morgan was unable to come home when we visited in July so he has been very eager to meet his niece. Reese also got to experience dinner at The Drake Hotel on Christmas Eve, a Halacy family tradition for 20+ years. It was her first encounter with Santa Claus. Next year, when she can walk and talk, we'll take her to see him at the mall. For now, she can admire him from afar.


We need to go to the mall soon and check out some after-Christmas sales. It will be hard to top this year's look but I'm sure we can find her another pretty Christmas dress for next year.

Christmas morning was delightful, it was nice to see toys under the Christmas tree again after many, many years. The grandparents showed remarkable restraint for baby's first Christmas. We only had to ship 2 boxes of presents back to San Diego!

In addition to the Fisher Price animal sounds farm, Reese also got her two front teeth for Christmas (hey, that should be a song...)

Unfortunately you can't see the new teeth without prying open her jaw. So, I'll just leave you with this photo of clouds and sunset from the air just above San Diego as we flew home.

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas!

The San Diego Sandors Blog is going on a holiday hiatus. I will report back after Christmas with all the details from Reese's first Christmas including what she thought of the snow and subzero temperatures in Chicago to how much tinsel she ate. It should be a good one so stay tuned...

Until then, Reese, Mike and I wish you all a wonderful holiday, may your days be merry and bright!

All I want for Christmas is you!

Sitting Pretty

Now that Reese can sit up, it adds a whole new dimension to play time. Over the Thanksgiving weekend Mike and I took her to the park so she could try out the baby swings.

She was very serious most of the time so it's hard to say if she liked it or not but she did smile a little bit.

Reese also got to try out the slide with Daddy...

...and the big kid swings with mommy.

I think it will still be a few weeks before she can crawl. I keep saying this is a good stage of development because as much as I'd like her to crawl, at least right now if I put her down and turn my back for a minute, she's still pretty much where I left her.

The fact that she can sit unsupported also helps when we go to the grocery store. It used to be that we'd have to wear her in the front pack when we went shopping. Now she can sit in the cart.It gets a little hard to maneuver with an 18 lb. baby hanging off your chest so this works much better. (At 18 lbs and 27" inches, Reese is in the 90th percentile for both height and weight.) Such a big girl!

All About Daddy

The subject of this blog is not news by any means. I may have hinted at it in previous posts but in observing Reese this past week and in honor of Mike's birthday, I felt compelled to dedicate an entire blog post to the following topic: Reese LOVES her Daddy. From birth Reese has had the unique experience of being able to spend about equal time with her mommy and her daddy. Mike drops her off and picks her up from the sitter on Tuesdays and Thursdays on his way to school. Then while I'm working on Friday and Saturday he looks after Reese until I come home. He has a special way with her. He has always had the magic touch when tucking her in for the night. For some reason he can do it in half the time it takes me. I also have to admidt that he's better at feeding her solids. I'm the cook in the house but when Mike prepares Reese's meals, she gobbles them up. (If you are wondering how she responds when I feed her then you must not have seen the video of the Pureed Pear Fiasco in the Oct. 25th blog post.)

She even loves the taste of Daddy's hair.

Part of the reason I have such a hard time feeding her is that if Mike is anywhere near us, she cranes her head around to see what he's doing or just to make sure he isn't going to far away.

Forget the penguin, where's my Daddy?

But the thing Mike is the best at is making our girl laugh. They have so much fun together. I really enjoy watching them. As he put it the other day, "Her laugh is music to my ears." What do you think?

Actually Mike wasn't even in the house when that video was shot. I wasn't actually doing anything either but Reese just started cracking up...no doubt thinking about something daddy did earlier that day.

Happy Halloween!

It's Reese's first Halloween!

I don't think she has any idea what's going on but Mike and I are sure having a lot of fun. Mike took Reese shopping for a costume weeks ago. We have a wonderful children's resale store nearby that had some really cute costumes; way better than the more expensive ones you find at Party City or the Halloween Superstore. They were so cute he ended up buying two. Reese has been wearing this little monkey costume around town for the past few weeks. It's a great outfit for the cooler weather we're having and Mike says it's a big hit with little old ladies at the mall.

This is Reese's "real" Halloween costume.SO CUTE!

She showed it off at a very fun Halloween Party last night. Everyone there was either a first time parent or an expectant couple. All the familes had themed costumes so, Mike and I were chefs/bakers who specialized in making gingerbread.

Mmmm...that's good gingerbread!

The party was hosted by Little Bo Peep (Kristen), the Big Bad Wolf, (Craig) and a little lamb (baby Sage). Here are Reese and I with some of the other moms....

...and Mike and Reese with the dads and their babies.

Too Much Cute

Can you believe our little girl is 6 months old already? Where does the time go? Sometimes I look at her and wonder where my new little baby went. She's doing so many things little kids do; sprouting teeth, eating real food, sitting up by herself. It won't be long before she's walking and talking.
This is a great age though. We are having so much fun. She makes us laugh every day and really, what more could you wish for? Watch this video to see Reese playing with the Daddy-monster.

Reese can be a challenge too. She definitely has a mind of her own, especially at meal times. Check out this footage where I try to feed her some cereal mixed with pears.

Special note to my father: You should know that I blame you for encouraging her to blow raspberries while you were visiting.

After I shut the camera off, we got down to business and she finished every last bite but she sure made me work for it.

Reese, I love you and I can't wait to see what the next six months brings!

Action Packed Autumn

It's been a busy Fall! The day after my last post was my 33rd birthday.

The day after that my parents arrived for an 8 day visit.

During that visit Mike and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary and somehow between then and now, Reese learned to roll from her tummy to her back (she had already mastered back to front), she moved on from rice cereal and discovered butternut squash, (she will tolerate avocado but so far it's not looking good for the green foods.) and her first two teeth are poking through. Busy girl.

Yummy squash!

Her favorite thing to chew on remains things like my hair, dad's homework and her toes.

Having my parents here was nice. My mom did all the cooking to give us a break from the house work.

My dad enjoyed reading to Reese and even changed a poopy diaper or two. Here he is reading a bedtime story to the whole family.

The best part was that Mike and I were able to get away and spend a night at a hotel to celebrate our anniversary and to get some much needed sleep. Reese didn't seem to miss us one bit. Grandma's still got the magic touch!

This is the third visit my parents have had with us since Reese was born. They really enjoyed her at this stage because she is so much more interactive and responsive. She and Grandpa had extensive conversations by blowing only raspberries and she delighted Grandma with all her smiles.

Mike and I are also enjoying watching her change and learn new things. Reese and I recently spent a nice afternoon playing peek-a-boo. Take a look:

Fun and Food

This has been an exhausting but fun week. Reese and I have been very busy on the days that I am home with her. We started a Mom & Baby yoga class that meets Monday and Wednesday mornings. It gives me a chance to stretch and get some exercise and it gives Reese a relaxing environment with new things to look at and other babies to check out.

Speaking of other babies, I have been getting to know a few other new mothers which has been nice. On Wednesday we took our little ones to the San Diego Zoo. Pictured below from left to right are: Kate, Kristen, Kelly, Me and Luciana. Luciana and I work together at UCSD and she introduced me to the other girls.

It was a beautiful day and I had a lot of fun but Reese seemed more interested in people watching than checking out the animals. We bought a season pass though so we'll go back and see if she becomes more curious about our four-legged friends.

Keeping so active is exhausting especially since Reese STILL isn't sleeping through the night-- even though she is at the point (5 months today!) where most babies do. She has been waking up every 2-3 hours for several weeks now and it is driving me and Mike crazy. We aren't sure if she's waking up because she's hungry or if she just wakes up between sleep cycles and thinks she needs to nurse to get back to sleep. We are trying out a lot of techniques and I even got a book from the library on teaching baby to sleep.

Some people say that starting babies on solid foods can help them sleep better because the solid food takes longer to digest than breastmilk. So, we gave her rice cereal for the first time on Friday. I don't know that it's helpng her sleep but it did make for a good photo-op.

First the spoon by itself so that she could get used to having it in her mouth. Everything goes in her mouth these days so she enjoyed the spoon immensely.The food on the other hand, was not what she was expecting.

In the end, most of it ended up on her chin but, we did get better the next day.

And, in what may be a coincidence, but could also be attributed to her new diet, Reese slept for 4 hour stretches last night. This may not seem like much to you but in Mike's words, for us it's a luxury.

Time Flies

Hello blog fans,

Sorry for the unexpected 3 week hiatus. I can't say specifically what has kept me too busy to blog but I guess that's what happens when you try to juggle work (me), school (Mike), and a 4 1/2 month old baby. I'll do my best to recap what you've missed.

Reese has been going to my friend Noreen's house twice a week. Noreen has two girls; Kalia 4 and Makenna 7, pictured here with Reese:

Now that Makenna is in 1st grade, Noreen has Kalia enrolled in a parent participation preschool so Reese accompanies them on the mornings when Noreen is watching her. Although sometimes it seems the preschool is too stimulating for Reese and disrupts her nap schedule, it also gives her the chance to be around other children, who sing songs, play musical instruments and tell stories. I understand that Kalia has assumed the role of "big sister/protector" to Reese and won't let the other kids near her unless they wash their hands.

Despite Kalia's efforts, Reese did catch her first cold last week. She had the sniffles and a low grade fever. Fortunately she fought it off and was back to her cheerful self within two days.

Since we have been so busy, there aren't many events to report. It's been a challenge just getting dinner on the table and keeping the house in order but we did manage to capture a few pictures for your entertainment. Enjoy!

We have decided not to start Reese on solid foods until she's six months but she does enjoy sitting in her high chair. Now she can be eye-level with us at the dinner table.

Reese can't sit up yet, but from the looks of it, we can look forward to that in a few months too.

Real California girls wear shades...

...that match their outfit.

I have chubby legs and no pants...
...and I don't care!

4 Month Doctor Visit

We took Reese for her 4-month check up on Friday. She is growing steadily and now measures 25 inches. At birth she was 21 inches so she seems to be averaging an inch each month. She has also doubled her birth weight which is typical. She now weighs just a little over 15 pounds.

It was also time for some more vaccinations. Reese was such a brave girl and did not cry at all. We were amazed. She did however let us know by her facial expressions that she was not enjoying it one bit. Mike caught the play-by-play with his cell phone.

The rotavirus vaccine is administered orally. That was actually the one that bothered her most.Here comes the first shot!Reese is not happy!Another one?!ANOTHER ONE?!?!?!Mommy tries to comfort her.Mr Bunny does the trick.On the way home Reese is just not herself. Poor baby. What a day!