Reflecting

I have been going through the thousands of photos we've taken of Rosalyn over the last 1 year, 1 month and 16 days. I'm trying to delete a few of the repeats and blurry ones to free up room on my computer, but it's so hard because every slight change in her expression or new skill is so special to me, even if there's a "better" photo very similar.

I thought I'd post a video from the summer, when she was moving a lot but not going anywhere, and making noise but not meaning much. Now she is walking with very little assistance and saying several words. It's hard to believe how much she has grown, and we're so thankful for every day with her.

Leaving the aquarium

Rosalyn had lots of fun at the aquarium yesterday, but I think we stayed just a little too long. The plus side, she did sleep *really* well last night.

Aquarium

Roz and I visited the aquarium today- it was her first time. She had a pulmonologist appt this morning (good news, they think her breathing troubles are seasonal and should decrease as she ages), so I thought it would be a fun treat. I wasnt sure we would make it because she gets so cranky when going to the dr. But she did fine as soon as we left, so we had a nice lunch with a special friend who loves to see Roz, and then we headed downtown. She had lots of fun, and everything was "pur-ty."
She tired out quickly (I'll post more about that later), so I'm glad we bought an annual pass. We'll have to make frequent but short trips, so if anyone ever wants to join us at the aquarium, just let me know.
Tomorrow it's back to daycare for Roz and lots of errands, studying, and catching up on things for me!

Roz with Uncle Ryan

My youngest brother Ryan has been a bit hesitant to hold Rosalyn so far, but Corey plopped her in his lap at Christmas, and he did great. He didn't freak out, and she stayed there at least long enough for me to get my camera and take a photo, and neither of them seemed to have any detrimental effects from the encounter. Ryan even smiled at her, although he tried to hide it.

Doll baby

Roz got many nice things for Christmas. Here's a photo of her kissing her doll from Aunt Donna and Cousin Ashley (while sitting in her "sleigh".

Stair Master

At Thanksgiving, Roz didn't even seem interested in the stairs. After one day in Macon this time, she is practically running up them. In this video, she is actually slower than most of her adventures. Luckily she gets quite a workout and took a long nap yesterday afternoon.

Little Drummer Girl

Roz used her new kitchen supplies to drum us a Christmas tune on an old Christmas popcorn tin. The tin has multiple uses, as she's also been walking it all around the house.

Hercules

Roz got a new chair from my parents, but she's been more interested in pushing it around than sitting in it. Her table got in the way, so she just pushed that too. :) Although I don't think Hercules would have cries when it got stuck.

Dance and spin

Corey got Roz a sit and spin. She hasn't yet figured out how to sit and spin, but she does like to walk in circles and dance around it.

Thug life

Roz is ready for the thug life.

Pasta sauce

Roz has had pasta several times- tonight was the first time with marinara (or any) sauce. The photo says it all. Corey made me wipe her down thoroughly before e would put her in a bath. :)

Walking the plank

Today was our last day at Callaway. While waiting for a Birds of Prey show, Roz had fun strutting her stuff on the benches. She also really liked the show. She kept pointing at the birds, saying "puh-ty."

Grandpa's girl

Roz thinks she's big stuff getting to eat at a big table while we're in Callaway. She insisted on eating her whole dinner standing up, so I guess she'll take after my dad in that respect- he has a tendency to eat standing up a lot.

Fantasy in Lights

Last night we rode the trolley around Fantasy in Lights at Callaway. We had lots of fun but couldn't get a great photo. Roz was mesmerized by the lights. We walked around some trails and the beach today, and we're on the way back to do the Fantasy in Lights again.

Fountain watching

We arrived at Callaway Gardens around lunchtime. There is a nice fountain near our cottage that Roz loves. She sat there watching it for such a long time.
She really wanted to climb it, but she was surprisingly content watching. She points at trees saying "chee," which makes me proud that what I would consider her second word (after "da," which means dad, dog, mom and a few other things) is something in nature. And several times she has made a "sa sa" sound when you give her something, which I think might be thank you.
She's overdue for a nap now and crashing hard, but hopefully we'll have more to post after our trolley ride through the Fantasy of Lights tonight. :)

Random cuteness

She likes wrapping up in and playing with my scarf, and check out the diva sneakers. :)

So independent

Roz does more and more on her own every day. When Corey's parents first brought this to Roz for her birthday, we had to hold her on it and make it rock. Now, she holds herself on, even turning different ways and pointing, an rocks herself. In this video she is staring at the Christmas tree that is just put lights on last night. She's also becoming more vocal. They aren't sensical words, but she's certainly communicating with a purpose. :)

Walking champ

Roz has been taking a few unassisted steps at a time for several weeks now, but she started doing much more this weekend. Maybe the steroids she's been on the last few days (for her asthma) have had other effects as well ;). She's been very grumpy the last several days while on prednisone, but her last dose was last night, and we started seeing some of our sweet lovey-dovey little girl again this afternoon. What a relief for me and Corey, and hopefully it's a good sign for how Rozi's feeling!

Studious Rozi

Another photo from around Thanksgiving. I wish I had better resolution on this photo, but it was so cute I had to post it anyways. :)

They're certainly no Mozart or Joplin

I might get in trouble for posting this one, but here's a video from Thanksgiving featuring Iffy (my mom) and her sister Janie. They did pretty well for hating piano lessons and not playing for dozens of years.

Catching up

I've gotten a little behind with the blog posts, but here's a video of Roz trying to feed my mom Graham crackers while she was in the hospital right before Thanksgiving. I'll try to catch up with more videos and photos throughout the next week or so.

Hospital again

Roz had to go to the hospital again Monday afternoon because of her breathing problems. They transported her by ambulance so she would be on oxygen, and we had to strap her carseat to the stretcher in the ambulance. She didn't love all the fuss, but she was such a trooper.
She was admitted for one night but got to leave last night. She's going much better, and we're looking forward to thanksgiving with family! :)

1st birthday cake

Here's Roz's messy cake video. She ate a lot of cake but also enjoyed moving it from one plate to another. We had a blast celebrating with everyone! I have a one year old!

Rocking horse

Grandmothers have exempted themselves from my no-gift rule for Rosalyn's birthday (no one else should get any ideas though). Corey's parents arrived last night and brought this rocking chair which they refinished and painted purple for us. We put her on it first thing this morning and she loved it!

Graham crackers

Graham crackers

One food Roz doesn't throw around is Graham crackers. We just recently started giving them to her periodically, and she loves them. We went for a walk earlier tonight, and I took a few Graham crackers in a bag so she would have a snack while we were out.
When we got back, I put the bag of unused crackers on the table. After making a huge mess out of her dinner and getting a bath, she just found the bag of crackers. I thought I would let her hold it for a minute before taking it away from her (plastic bags not being ideal play toys and all), but before I knew it she had somehow opened the bag and gotten both crackers out. She seems quite proud of herself. :)

Dinner time

Rosalyn is much more interested in playing with her food than eating it these days. Luckily the dogs do a pretty thorough clean up of the floor and high chair, but I still have to accomplish the baby cleaning. Here's a picture of a carrot on her ear, probably one of the first of many similar experiences. I think we've reached the point where a bath every other day will no longer suffice!

Silly time with daddy

Rosalyn certainly has moments of "less than pleasant" behavior, but we've had lots of silliness and laughs lately. As she gets bigger, she is enjoying a little rough-housing, some climbing, lots of tickling, etc. She loves for Corey to toss her in the air, and we love listening to her laugh. :)

Monkey

Just in case anyone wonders why I always call Roz a monkey, here's one of several reasons. She easily puts down a whole banana at breakfast. Sometimes a whole banana is even too much for my tastes, and she probably ~10% of my weight.

Baby food clean-up

I highly recommend our efficient clean up machine for the mess babies make while learning to feed themselves. Key features include a floor-level vacuum, plus a high-powered attachment for food dropped in the seat. The attachment for cleaning the seat comes with an extra moisture compartment for crusted-on foods. Now if only they picked up her toys too (without consuming them)!

Climbing

She gets to new places, in new ways everyday. :)

Hippie for Halloween

Rosalyn is a hippie for Halloween. We went to a party last night and have another this afternoon. We decided to put together our own outfit rather than buy one of the over-price baby costumes. So, we have a pair of pants with dancing mushrooms on them from a box of clothes that have been passed around my family for decades- presumably they were mine or one of my cousins many years ago. And my mom found us a shirt with a hippie flower. Last night we tried teaching Roz to make the peace symbol, but unfortunately she hasn't caught on yet. She did really like her friend Connor's special chair. She would climb into it and then try to walk straight into the baby shopping cart. What a mess she is, but a really fun one. :). We'll try to get some more photos dressed up today.

Sliding

I'm supposed to be studying cholesterol right now, but this is much more fun. When we were at Amicalola last weekend, we stopped at the park by the visitor center, and Corey took Rozi down the slide- she seemed to like it. The scary thing is that she'll be doing this much more independently very soon.

Pumpkin patch

We had a great day in North GA on Saturday. We went to a pumpkin patch that had really large and really tiny pumpkins in orange, white, green, etc. Roz had fun playing with the pumpkins and tried climbing on them. She really liked reaching for the stem in the middle, but many of them were hard to reach because the pumpkins were so big. After the pumpkin patch, we stopped by Amicalola to briefly walk the portion of the trail that was stroller friendly. It was a really chilly day, but so much fun getting our growing girl all bundled up for her first Fall fun.

Pumpkin patch

A quick preview of the day's events. :)

Exploring

She's constantly into something, and I have a hard time getting her to hold still for photos. :)

Tights

Here's a photo of Roz wearing her first pair of tights and a new outfit. She's already 11 months and transitioning from baby clothes to little girl clothes. What a darling.

Too cute

This dress came in a box of clothes that used to be mine. It sure is cute on her.

New toy

I had to go to Babies R Us last weekend, so I picked up some of these stacking cups because Roz seems to enjoy them when she plays with them at other people's houses. When we got home and started playing with them, she kind of went crazy. We couldn't even get half of them stacked back up before she was charging at them, and she laughed so hard when they all went flying. She got a little distracted when I tried to video it, but this gives you the idea.

Feeling better

This photo was taken Thurs am before we left the hospital. Roz was feeling much better and dancing to some music. One of the hardest things about the hospital was keeping her occupied and happy in spite of her limited environment.
The cutest thing was her adorable boxing glove hand, which she started waving at everyone as she began feeling better. That's where her IV was, and they covered it with a diaper to keep her from picking at it. It was sad but precious.
We're glad to be home!

Rozi's boxing mit

I'm sure everyone knows that we've been at the hospital with Roz for the last few days. Roz had a bacterial pneumonia and wasn't getting enough oxygen. They were also concerned about an unusual pocket of air they found by xray in an area near her heart and lungs. She received oxygen, antibiotics, breathing treatments (albuterol) and lots of love. Everything seems to be cleared up, and Roz is thrilled to no longer have any cords or tubes attached. We didnt think she was that sick initially because she was still in such a good mood, just coughing some and not sleeping at night. She seemed more upset about having her movement restrained, etc than about actually being sick. We're currently waiting for discharge papers and hopefully heading home soon to deal with the minor rain/flood damage, then hopefully get some sleep.
We are so, so grateful for our wonderful family and friends, including a college friend who happened to be Roz's intern and a pediatric lung specialist who worked with my old lab and came to check on us.
Yay!

Silly basketball

A lot of silliness took place this weekend while Corey was out of town, I was/am stressed about an upcoming test, Roz is sick (reactive airways), and my parents came up to visit and help take care of her. We have to give Roz breathing treatments with a mask over her face, which needless to say, doesn't thrill her. So we did everything possible to try to make her happy after. Here my mom is "shooting hoops" with the area between dad's arms and Roz the hoop. Dad and I were most impressed with mom's accurate concepts of basketball score keeping :). Unfortunately the earlier festivities of mom rapping the alphabet to Roz was not caught on tape/iPhone.

Nake-y cuteness

I deleted this video after mom warned me that some people could consider naked photos inappropriate.

I love her naked little tush. Last night after a bath Rozi absolutely did not want to get a diaper on, so we let her crawl around without it for a while. Corey loves to play this game with her, getting her to crawl toward him and then stepping over her going to opposite direction.

Flood plain

Now we know why they consider our house to be in a flood plain.

Good news: my potted plants are getting lots of water

Good news: I didn't bother planting a late summer/fall garden

Bad news: my compost bin almost just floated into the neighbors yard

Good news: no water is in the house, or even in the shed (since Corey is smart enough to build it slightly elevated)

Bad news: The water isn't receding and we're supposed to get another downpour at 10pm.

Good news: A few years back our favorite neighbors, Jethro and Cletis (pseudonyms), built an Ark. :)

Grand-mudder's girl

Rosalyn is showing her Grandmudder (Corey's mom) genes- she's got a giraffe in each hand. :)

"Walking"

Here's Rozi practicing walking with her nifty new toy.

Quilt

Some of you may want to stop reading now- this post has nothing to do with Rosalyn. :(
However, I am excited to say that the quilt for my bed that I have been working on for 1.5 years is finally finished. I had numerous interruptions and it's pretty big, so it seems like I've been working on it forever. Corey and I have been sleeping under separate blankets since shortly after I got pregnant because I was so warm at night, and the only light-weight blankets we owned weren't very big.
Hope the quilt is cozy but not to warm- goodnight!

Sippy sweetness

Rosalyn's really into the sippycup now, and she's started holding it herself (yes!), at least for a few seconds at a time. She still likes to chew the spout as much as she likes drinking out of it, but she's so cute when she sits there drinking out of the cup and fluttering her little eyelashes at you :)

Playing in the yard

For the Labor Day weekend, Corey labored away in the yard, mostly pulling weeds because our yard was beginning to look abandoned.
For a little while, we set up Rosalyn's pack and play in the yard so we could all be out there together. Taffy joined us and laid next to Roz the whole time.

After the bath

Rozi still doesn't seem to enjoy the post-bath festivities: drying off, getting lotion, a new diaper, etc. She usually doesn't want to get out of the tub, and she certainly doesn't like to hold still that long.
This is a rare photo of a calm, smiley post-bath cutie.

Bath time

Rosalyn is really enjoying bath time again, and bath photos are always adorable. She stands at the edge of the tub a lot now, just because she can. :)
She always has at least one toy in each hand, and sometimes one in her mouth.

Sleepy Angel

My favorite time with Roz is always right after she wakes up- she's just such an angel. I haven't gotten to watch her sleep much lately because she is getting older and no longer falls asleep at the drop of a hat. I rarely go into her room while she's sleeping because I don't want to wake her up. However, this morning she slept in and I got to watch her wake up. I opened the door, which is usually enough to wake her right up, but it didn't today. If that doesn't happen, usually opening the blinds opening does it, but not today. So I turned on her light and gently talked to her until she woke up. Luckily, I thought to grab the camera and catch her on tape- what sweetness. You can even hear her snoring a little at the beginning of the video.

Silliness

I can now load video directly from the phone- yay! Roz was home "sick" from daycare yesterday. She had a slight fever Monday afternoon, so they said she was not allowed to come back until today. I think she's just teething- she sure isn't acting sick!

Testing photo post from phone

Roz likes to pull up on this bookshelf (it's mounted to the wall). The other day we went to the store and I hadn't yet put away the toilet paper. It was in her way, so she decided to stand on it- why should anything get in the way of something she wants? We now have a whole package of flat TP rolls.

Testing the iPhone blog app

This is just a test of the app that will hopefully allow me to post to the blog directly from my phone, making it easier to add photos taken on the phone, etc.

Playing with paper

This video is actually a few weeks old, but I forgot to post it. Last time we were in Macon, my mom checked the mail and found a catalog. She laid it out in the living room floor for Rosalyn to play with, and they had a grand-ole-time for at least 20-30 minutes. Mom had to "help" Rosalyn remember not to put it in her mouth, but they threw paper in the air and laughed like it was the funnest game ever.
Daycare update: everything went great. Rosalyn had fun playing with new toys and other kids, and I got a lot of stuff done today. Roz was pretty cuddly when we got home (which I enjoyed because she's been so busy lately!), but not clingy or upset. The daycare teachers said the only time she got upset was when they changed her diaper, and I said at least she's consistent!
Let's hope tomorrow goes as smoothly!

Day Care

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the disappearance recently. We've had a busy few weeks, but Rosalyn started daycare today. While I'm sad that I won't witness every moment from now on, I really like the daycare she's at, and I'm super excited to be able to get some things done in the next week or so before I start classes.

Corey (and everyone else) was concerned that I would be a wreck all day. Seriously though, the roach I had to kill this morning got me more worked up than having to start daycare. She was in good spirits this morning, and she's become such a social thing, so I'm sure she's doing fine. Here's a quick photo Corey snapped before we left to drop her off. I'll try to update tonight or tomorrow.

I almost can't believe how many little tasks I'm accomplishing so quickly having a day all to myself!

(But don't be surprised if you see me wistfully scrolling through all of the photos on my phone just to look at her).

Have a great day!

Practice makes perfect

We went to Macon over the weekend, and Rosalyn spent most of her time there practicing pulling up on things. As soon as she got up, she would sit right back down and do it again.

We took these photos at Granny's. At my parents' house, she kept going back and forth between a chair and the ottoman. She's getting pretty talented!

I added this picture just because sometimes I have to see the photos to remind myself that she was once this small and non-mobile! :)

Unstoppable

My child is absolutely unstoppable. She's had strong will since she was born, but lately she's been learning how to exert that will - crawling all over the place, pulling up on everything, demanding attention, refusing sleep, rolling over during diaper changes (every time), etc. Every picture I take seems to be blurry because she never stops moving. The only time she wants to cuddle is when she falls and gets upset - otherwise she would rather be moving. She has also started throwing minor tantrums when she doesn't get her way. She's doesn't seem old enough to try to reason with her, so I just try to laugh (and take pictures of the cute fussy faces).

This is Roz pitching a semi-fit because I wouldn't let her eat the camera. It is only a "semi"-fit because she is always so busy that she doesn't have enough energy left to muster up a full fit. :)

Here is the series of events leading up to the fit. I was trying to take a photo of her quilt that I just finished, but she preferred to come eat the camera instead.

This all happened within a matter of seconds.

Also, I have obtained several bruises, a burn on my hand, and a bite on my finger in the last week thanks to my sweet little girl.

At least she's assertive. I don't think we'll have to worry about Roz being bullied anytime soon. :)

(I'm just waiting for my mom to read this so she can laugh and tell me how much it reminds her of me as a child.)