Stomach Sleeper

Sandy has started sleeping on her stomach. It took us awhile to figure out what she was trying to do. She'd wake up crying and I'd go in and find her on her stomach. I thought she was crying because she was on her stomach. I knew she could flip herself if she wanted to but thought she was just too tired to do it. So I'd flip her back on to her back and stick her binkie back in her mouth. This happened several times before we finally figured out what was going on. She'd flip herself onto her stomach because apparently she now likes sleeping on her stomach. But in the process she'd lose her binkie and that is what was waking her up. So, she's getting better at keeping her binkie in her mouth as she rolls and Bill and I are getting really good at searching for it in the dark and getting it back into her mouth while leaving her on her stomach.

It's Unanimous

The City Council voted unanimously against a master plan amendment that would demolish homes in our neighborhood to expand a local nursing home. Hooray! All the work by our neighborhood has really paid off. Here are links to articles for anyone who is interested in more information.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705293002,00.html

http://www.sltrib.com/Salt%20Lake%20Tribune%20Home%20Page/ci_11989895

Tracy Aviary

Today, after Sandy's nap, we went to the Tracy Aviary. We went because there was a free "Sing with your Child" class. The class was full, but they still let us into the Aviary so we walked around for awhile.


There were peacocks and other birds walking around freely.

Here's Sandy watching a peacock.

Sandy watched intently, but was so serious the entire time.

The only time she smiled was when we saw a black dog tied up by the exit. The dog seemed very calm, so I decided to take a picture of her smiling.

While I was taking the picture, she reached and rocked until the dog turned toward her and she was able to touch his nose with her hand. Then she laughed and laughed.

This is a picture of her laughing after she touched the dog.

Sandy is 9 months old!

Sandy is 9 months old today. We went to the doctor this morning for her 9-month checkup and she is 73.66 centimeter long (92nd percentile) and 17 pounds 1 ounce (20th percentile). Dr. Burton* initially said she was concerned about Sandy's weight, but then she looked at Sandy's fat rolls on her legs and said she looks very healthy. When she learned that Sandy is still breastfeeding 4 times a day and eats solid food as many times a day, she said she wasn't concerned about her weight at all. That made me feel better, but I'm still going to try to see if I can't fatten her up a bit. Dr. Burton suggested giving Sandy eggs and yogurt - two things she hasn't tried yet - so maybe those will help.

Dr. Burton was very impressed with Sandy's pincer grasp and said she has the ability of a 1-year-old. Sandy can pick up very small items between her thumb and index finger. It's great when I put teething tablets in front of her and she can put them in her own mouth. It's not so great when she finds items on the floor that the vacuum missed.

Dr. Burton also said not to worry about Sandy not crawling yet because crawling isn't a developmental milestone. Sandy scoots, mostly backwards. She likes to stand up, though, and will walk if she has something to hold on to. She's almost able to pull herself up.

Dr. Burton said Sandy is on track to be 20 pounds when she turns 1 and said we can move her to a forward facing car seat then. I guess she's not following the guidelines my brother-in-law talked about in his blog entry today. I'm glad. I'm really excited for Sandy to start facing forward in the car. It will be a lot easier to check on her.

*This is the first time Dr. Burton has seen Sandy. Sandy usually sees Dr. Baar, but Dr. Baar is on maternity leave.

Sunday Pictures

Sunday Bill's family got together to celebrate his mom's birthday. Here's a picture of Jaydene with her cake.

Here she is opening presents.

Here is Sandy gobbling down cereal before dinner started.




Here is Sandy's cousin, Enoch.

Sandy's cousin, Bea, is in the next two photos; first with her dad and second with her Aunt April.


A picture of grandma.


Doug, Julie, and Jake.

Bill in the News and Pictures of Sandy

The big vote on the Villa expansion is tomorrow. Bill is quoted in tomorrow's Salt Lake Tribune (already posted online) about the latest developments.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11979145

On another subject, I've been trying to get a picture of Sandy's two bottom teeth. I didn't have very good luck, but if you look very closely you might be able to see part of them in this picture.


I didn't get her teeth in this picture, but she is almost smiling.


Here's a video of Sandy. I was once again unsuccessful in getting her to show her teeth, but I thought my mom might like to watch her climb around on the floor.

Sleep Schedules

I've decided that Sandy and I need to get to bed earlier.

Sandy's usual bedtime is 7 p.m., and I'm very happy with her sleep schedule. But when we push her bedtime back for events it seems that we both pay a heavy price the next day. She gets up at 6 a.m. regardless of when she goes to bed and it seems to take her an entire day to catch up on the sleep she missed if she went to bed late the night before.

So Bill and I decided that we need to be better about getting Sandy to bed on time and consistently whether that means turning down evening events (so long to my Thursday night book club), one of us going alone to events, or getting a babysitter. We got to try it out twice this weekend as Bill's family had evening events both Saturday and Sunday. So we took separate cars and I left early with Sandy and left Bill to visit until the end. Due to lost keys Saturday night and a very late dinner Sunday night (we went to the Draper Temple dedication and then met for dinner after), Sandy went to bed shortly before 9 both nights. It still created some hard days, especially today, but it was significantly better than if she had been going to bed an hour later when Bill got home. Hopefully we'll be able to be more consistent with bedtime now.

I was looking something up online and found some advice on a web site. I can't find it now, but it said that if a baby's bedtime is 7 p.m. the frazzled parent should be in bed by 7:01 p.m. I have been feeling pretty frazzled lately and it occurred to me that I haven't had very good sleep. Between getting Sandy's sleep schedule down (we're doing much better now), teething, and Bill being gone at class most nights I end up staying up late and getting up early. So, I decided that while we're recommitting to consistency on Sandy's bedtime I should recommit to consistency on mine as well. So the past two nights I've been in bed before 10 and life is looking much brighter than it has. Maybe I'll even be able to keep track of my keys. *

*I lost my keys four times last week and spent over 1/2 hour each time searching for them. I think it's just one of many symptoms of being sleep deprived.

One-year-old Birthday Parties

Today Sandy and I went to a one-year-old birthday party for our friend Max. It was such a cute party - the theme was monkeys, everything was adorable, and I didn't think to pull out my camera. It's started me thinking about Sandy's upcoming birthday. It's still 3 months away, but I'm excited to celebrate her first birthday.

Multicultural Baby

Here's Sandy eating from my chopsticks. We had Chinese food for dinner tonight and so she ate green beans, squash, mushrooms, chicken, and lo mein off my chopsticks.

We're really lucky that Sandy is such a good eater. She hasn't turned anything down yet. So I just keep feeding her whatever we are eating and hope she'll continue to be a good eater.

When we stopped to pick up the Chinese food, she flirted with the cashier and he gave her a chocolate chip cookie.


Here's the chocolate-faced girl laughing with her daddy.

Our New Office

It's Spring Break and Bill took the week off of work to catch up on school and life. He did take some time to put together cabinets and a new desk from Ikea. He said they take "some assembly required" to a new level - it's more like all assembly required.

I love it! I wish I'd taken a before picture so you could see the dramatic difference. Now that Sandy is mobile,* I'm glad we have a solution that keeps the cords off the floor.

*Nope, she's still not crawling, but she does scoot and twist her way around the floor and can travel from one end of the room to the other.

Happy Birthday, Jaydene!

It was my mother-in-law's birthday today and we went to lunch to celebrate. Here is the birthday girl cuddling with her granddaughter.

We went to Marie Callendar's. Sandy liked the food. Especially my chocolate satin pie.

One in Each Hand

Sandy is a fantastic eater and she now eats pretty much everything we do. Here she is eating Ritz crackers - one in each hand. It is amazing to me how much she can gum down without any teeth.

Although her days of gumming food are quickly coming to an end. She cut two teeth on the bottom at the end of last week and judging by her fussiness she's working on the top teeth this week.

Sunday Afternoon Walk

I just love Sunday afternoon walks! We took one today for the first time in a very long time. Now that the weather is warming up we'll have to do it more often.

Sandy in the News

Sandy is in today's Deseret News. Yesterday we went to a senior center downtown for a free music class.

The above photo was captioned: Mae Dean enjoys the sight of 8-month-old Sandra Buhler during the celebration.


And here's the group. Sandy and I are in the right corner.

The Imagination Place is offering free music classes this month to celebrate Sing with Your Child month. We also did one of these free classes back in December. The classes are fantastic - fun songs and rhythms and Sandy really enjoys it.

I'm really excited about their (free of course) Sing with the Birds class at Tracy Aviary on Tuesday, March 24. If anyone wants to come, it is at 11 a.m. and if you mention at the gate you are there for the Music Together class you get into the Aviary free. The music together classes are for children from birth to age 5.

City Council Meeting

Bill, Sandy, and I went to our City Council meeting last night. It was a late night. I held Sandy for the first hour and a half. Bill held her for the last half hour and she fell asleep (she never falls asleep when I hold her!).

This meeting was about the St. Joseph's Villa expansion. Thanks to all who looked at the packet I posted on February 12 about this and for all the nice comments. I think the City Council meeting went really well. We had 145 people show up from our neighborhood to oppose the expansion (well, we're not really opposed to their expansion, just to them changing the master plan and demolitioning houses to expand). Both Bill and I spoke. The City Council will vote on March 24, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

Here are some links for anyone that is interested.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705289978,00.html

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11884107?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-salt-lake-city-council-debates-senior-center,0,6498939.story

Temple Open House

I finally figured out why my camera wasn't downloading. Well, not exactly why, but I found a work around, so I can catch up on some posts.

Sandy and I went to the open house for the Draper Temple on Monday. It was my first temple open house and I really enjoyed it. Sandy enjoyed it, too, especially the cookies afterward.

Happy Birthday, Rosie!

Sandy's New Hat

I crocheted Sandy a hat. She wore it to church yesterday. Here are some pictures.

Wedding

On Saturday we went to my cousin Brandon's wedding. Here are some pictures, mostly for my mom's benefit because I know she would have liked to be there. Bill took several pictures and I'm saving them onto a cd today to mail to my aunt and uncle.

The bride and groom. The flower girls (on the left) wore black dresses with hot pink or lime green cardigans over them. Carson is on the right as the best man.


The colors were hot pink, orange, and green.


Here is the cake.




The centerpieces.



Ice sculpture on the buffet table.



Shellie's dress.




Parker and Shayli.


Kayli's boyfriend, Hyrum.


Another picture of Kayli and Hyrum.


Pictures of Sandy.



With Grandpa Shupe.