Spring break - A Week without Plastic!

It's spring break and we're enjoying a week with Che, and Mark is off work too! Great family bonding time :)

One thing we're keeping busy with is a family learning project we've taken on...to acquire no new plastic for a week (at least). We're doing some research, writing some letters, doing some experimenting, asking a lot of questions, being inspired by many folks and so far having a great time of it.

The reporting on this adventure is happening at http://shop4change.blogspot.com if you want to follow along.

Another update on the wonderful life of Sasha will coming soon enough...hope you enjoy this pic for now (I love that it shows her 3 dimples on the right cheek and her top 2 teeth);)

recovering nicely

Yawn!

This was just before 7 am. Waiting for the nurse who would check her vitals...before we had to spend time in the first waiting room.

Sasha's deflux and cystoscopy procedure was scheduled for 8:15 and we had to be there 1 1/2 hours before...so an early start with all of us up before 5:30! Usually at that time when Sasha wakes we just pull her into bed with us for a snuggle before the real wake up time ;)

She was remarkably patient in the waiting room for someone who hadn't eaten since the night before , so she was tired and hungry. Lots of positive distractions helped pass the time for her such as stories with Granma (see pic below) and a nice volunteer blowing bubbles for the kids had them all entertained for ages...oh the magic of bubbles!

Then the hard part...letting the nurse take her away! Yes...I got weepy. Then we took a deep breath and decided hanging in the new waiting room for the whole 45 minutes was not tolerable (I've no idea how you wait through hours of waiting...heart ached with less than an hour to contend with!) So we got a coffee and muffins...much needed by almost 9 am!

She came out of it all just fine of course. Our strong little girl was ready to crawl out of there in no time...when she wasn't shaking off her grogginess. A bit out of sorts through the day, but the smiles are back and all seems well. And we were home well before noon which was nice!

She's been on mostly fluids today, but tomorrow will be back on her regular meals.

And if she heals well, the urologist has told us she can go off the anti-biotics after her follow up in about 6 weeks. Early May is just after her 1st birthday and when she will finally be drug free again...

So for now, when it comes to her kidneys and reflux - no news is good news...and I'll let you know when there's something to know :)



wake up...time to go home baby :)

many new skills :)

This picture shows the defiant side of our happy go lucky girl...she has certainly found her voice of protest and is putting it to good use testing us out the past couple of months!

We had a few weeks where she became more fussy than not - and REALLY needy...but this kinda coincided with her being sick a bit (another fever - not extreme but still hard to practice patience through) and fortunately she seems to have reconnected with her happy independent self. The thing I loved about her first needy stage ('cuz I believe there's likely more than one trying stage to come in her development) is that she has become one heck of a snuggler...it is so heart filling when she buries her head into you and snuggles close! Makes up for the new cries she is now testing out, one of which is soooo fake it makes me laugh every time! ;)

What else is she up to at 10+ months? She's found her rhythm and likes bouncin' to all kinds of tunes; she's waving and clapping; she's feeding herself finger foods; her dexterous fingers are capable of pulling keys off keyboards; she understands (and can almost sign clearly) 'more', 'eat' and 'milk'; she has 4 teeth and some molars pretty close to coming through; she is able to push herself up into a squat from sitting position; she does some cruising and she is actually able to walk around with help holding our hands...not too long before she's on her own two feet...scary!

She also seems to have a pretty good understanding of a large number of words and phrases. One example: she recently got a little people doll house which has a fridge door that opens up. One day we were sitting on the other side of the room and i looked at the doll house and said "look Sasha, the fridge door is open. can you close the fridge door?" and she crawled across the room and closed the fridge door!! I thought it was a fluke, but she has done it many times now...this and other examples prove her knowledge of open and closed for starters...which to me is very cool indeed :)

Her deflux procedure is this coming Wednesday, so I'll update again by the end of the week to let everyone know how it goes...

'Til then here's a selection of other fave pics from the past few weeks: Sasha with mom, dad, brother (boppin' to his ukelele groove), Cheyenne and her buddies Merlin and Jakob; trying to get out the door; sittin' in a big girl chair; flippin' through one of her favorite books (she has dexterous fingers and really likes playing with flaps and other tactile things); sorting her hats; "helping" the cable guy by sortin' through his tool box; and hangin' with researcher Vivien at the Infant Development Centre at UBC where she participated in a cognitive and language development study.