Sasha at 7 Months

Baby girl at 6 months:

 and here at 7 months.  This is the best photo I got before she would leap off the couch. 

Well, she finally sits up all on her own.  She has been basically sitting up for about two months but would never hold still long enough for me to know if she really could. So now I can say, YES, she sits up.   

 And of course, she's pulling herself up...

 And up... lowered the crib this month cuz I was so worried she would just fall over.  There was one time she was playing in the living room, I went to the bathroom, and by the time I got back she had found her way completely into Kaleb's toy bucket (about the same height to her as that crib rail!)

 And of course with climbing up comes pulling things down... on top of yourself. 

 And nothing is safe.

 Such  mischievous grin.

 She seems to have a shoe fetish... not for the reason most girls have one.  Give her a pair of feet and she will suck on the toes. 

 This month, Sasha had a few firsts.  She got really sick, and we'll just say she didn't handle it well.  She was usually pretty happy ,but nap times were torture.  She would only go to sleep in someone's arms.  Which gave us plenty of opportunities for cuddles!!

 I kept getting comments about Sasha's hair, and it wasn't all good.  One of the most popular was from family members about how she had little wings on the side of her face... so we let Ammon's sister give her her first haircut. 

 Sasha also had snacks for the first time.  It took her three weeks to get a hang of putting them in her mouth. 

 And once she does... this is the face we get...?

 Her first bath in the sink.  My knees make it almost impossible to give her a bath in the tub, so here we are.  Thankfully Ammon has stepped up to fill that responsibility.

 And more shoes...

 This ball is like a giant koosh (for those who remember those fun little things), and it is Sasha's favorite toy.  She likes to put it up to her nose to tickle it.  She makes the goofiest faces while she is doing it.  I LOVE IT!!

 Occasionally we give Kaleb a temporary relief from Sasha's wandering hands.  She doesn't seem to care much, cuz she just stands next to the coffee table watching Kaleb the whole time. 

 And sometimes Kaleb just let's her know how he feels... by sitting on her. 

 Like I said, Daddy has been giving Sasha baths, and to tell you the truth, I think he kinda likes it. 

 "Mommy, Daddy fell asleep on me!"

 Overall, Kaleb and Sasha get along better than I could ask... here they are playing Peekaboo!  Stinkin cute!!

THE PAST
All of my life I've been considered a 'big girl.' Maybe some wouldn't have gone so far as to call me fat, but I've never been average in weight, and most of my life I've known that I was too heavy to be a 'healthy weight.' The funny thing was, I don't remember ever feeling held back physically. Sure I wasn't athletic, but I always had a ton of energy and once I realized I had value, my appearance didn't bother me much.

I remember my freshman year of high school, 14 years old, I weighed 185 pounds. Fast forward 6 years and I had gained another 100. That's when my grandmother stepped in and helped pay for a weight loss program for me and my mom. We both lost a bunch of weight, and I remember feeling sooo different. There was even a time when I couldn't sleep because I was full of so much natural energy. About a year after my weight loss, I injured my left knee. I was told I had torn a ligament. It would take time to heal, but if I was careful it would rarely bother me.

A few years later, I had kept most of the weight off. I was jogging six miles a week and was feeling great. I met the love of my life, and I got married. Over the past five years, amongst my two pregnancies, lack of work outside the home, online school and my simple love for food, I have gotten back to the exact same weight I was so many years ago... frustrating but that's not the worst of it.

THE PRESENT
Last November, I noticed my left knee starting to hurt, occasionally at first and then consistently. This went on for months until it got to the point I never walked without a serious limp. Thankfully my right knee functioned just fine, so I could get around just fine. Slowly, but fine. I started exercising in mid-January thinking it was just the extra weight aggravating my old injury. I lost about 15 pounds. Then, one morning I slipped on my elliptical, and that made things even worse. In the beginning of march, our primary care doc ordered x-ray and MRI. These two tests showed that I had arthritis, a torn ACL, a torn medial meniscus, fraying in the lateral meniscus, damage to the cartilage beneath my kneecap and a baker's cyst (water on the knee). My PC doc referred me to an orthopedic doctor.

This all sounded pretty severe, and before my ortho appointment Ammon and i joked that I would just get total knee replacement. Well, the orthopedic doctor gave me little real hope. He said surgery on the meniscus has a 1 in 3 chance of fixing the pain. The ACL can't be fixed unless it's torn into two separate pieces. Arthritis doesn't go away, and so it's something that I will have the rest of my life. He recommended physical therapy and cortisone shots (for the pain), both of which only really fix me for as long as I use them.

My right knee hurts now as well, almost to the level of my left knee. I don't think I can possibly explain how frustrating it is to have two really bad knees. I have a seven month old who crawls around on her hands and knees, and I can't join her on the floor. I can't even kneel at the bath tub to give her a bath. If she gets into something it takes me three times longer than a normal person to stand up, walk slowly to her and grab her... hopefully before she hurts herself. I have a preschooler who loves going to the mall and the park and who loves to dance around, but I can only walk a few hundred yards without serious pain. I can barely bend my knees sometimes, and spinning in a circle is impossible. Doing simple tasks like cleaning, grocery shopping or planning any activities (like goofy golfing with my sweety) takes twice as long or is out of the question. Don't even get me started on what all of this has done to my emotional well-being!

THE FUTURE
Now, why do I share all of this? Well, partially because I see my blog as a type of journal. Few people read it anymore anyway, so it really is more for me than anyone else. Another reason is because this can't g one forever. I am either going to get worse or get better, and I REALLLLLY want to get better!!! I started physical therapy a few weeks ago, and I feel about about a third better than I did before. Does this mean I have hope? Of course it does. Minimal but it is there. Also, I'm joining Weight Watchers tomorrow. Yes my legs are injured, but that doesn't mean I need to continue feeling the way I do. Unless I try everything I can to improve my condition, I really have no right to complain about it, right? My weight has absolutely contributed to the arthritis in my knees, and to keep myself at this weight is just asking for a knee replacement before I'm forty! If you can or do, please pray for me to have strength and faith through all this because I think that's what I need most of all right now!!

Keep logging on for updates!

Family photos March 2012

We recently did a little family photo shoot. A friend of ours was gracious enough to do them for us. It was cold. And windy. And the grass was so wet my feet were soaked by the end... but I think they turned out pretty good considering!
Sasha was such a good little smiler when she had mommy or daddy or Kaleb to smile for!

We were just trying to get the poor little girl warm!

I love this picture cause of Sasha's little scrunchy face!

And of course... the tongue

Kaleb loves to be in front of the camera... eventually.

He just had so much fun this time around

Classic Ammon, sweeping me off my feet!

The wind and the noisy waterfall made it almost impossible for our photographer to get Sasha's attention, but we got one pretty good family portrait for 2012!

Sasha is 6 Months!!!

My sweet little girl is growing up WAAAYYY too fast!! Above is her at 5 months and below is 6 months. She doesn't look much bigger because she barely gained any weight. She is now 26.75 inches (90th percentile) and 14 lbs, 9 oz (25th percentile). I never imagined any of my kids would ever grow more up than out but here is the proof.
Right at her five month point Sasha started rolling around like crazy!! Here she is about five minutes after I put her on her playmate. That girl loved to move!

But she wasn't done yet! Within another week she was up on her knees...

And less than two weeks after that... You guessed it, she was crawling!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YODBqNsTDLY

This has obviously thrown me for a loop. Kaleb didn't crawl till seven months and most little girls don't start till they're nine months! I get the feeling she is going to be a very motivated little girl... for better or worse!

One of the worst parts about discovering your world is that there is always something new to discover!! So of course, naptimes become passe!

Oh, sure it's fun to find new toys, but only if your big brother doesn't mind sharing... which will often only happen when Mommy threatens

Another unfortunate result of crawling are all the dirty knees. You become aware very quickly of how filthy everyone's floors are. (I'm not judging cuz well, it's arizona and dirt happens!) Good thing I have a great stain remover!

With all of this moving, Sasha was needing more calories, so I started her on baby food. It took her a little while to get the hang of accepting food out of a spoon, but she is finally a pro and doesn't mind eating a single thing (yet). She eats much better in her carseat than anywhere else because she gets WAY too distracted otherwise.

Sasha has gotten into this horrible habit of pooping right after I change her diaper, so a lot of the time I will wait till the latter end of her 'awake time' to change her diaper. Well, one infamous time while we were at church, I was holding Sasha on my hip and she started pooping. It was kind of an inconvenient time (bearing my testimony during Relief Society), so I decided to wait till we got home to change her... well, by the time church got over, I picked up Kaleb from nursery and we found Ammon, I realized she had leaked out of her diaper!!! NASTY! That's right! All over her pretty yellow dress! All over me!! Thankfully it was the end of church, but eeew!

One of the things that made Sasha so hard to spoon-feed was her CRAZY TONGUE! During this past month, she would have that little thing popping out of her mouth bout 75% of the day. It made family pictures a little more challenging, but for a 6 month old it's nothing but endearing!

Sasha's first learned 'trick' was to give u kisses. On your request she would open her mouth, put it against your face and give you the tiniest little licks. It sounds messy, but it's sooooo sweet!

Another thing she LOVES to do (and Kaleb has started to enjoy as well) is playing peekaboo. You put a burp cloth over her face and say "Where's Sasha?", she will get all excited and pull the blanket off of her face. We all yell "There she is!" and are rewarded with her adorable smile!!

It Turns out Sasha gets a real kick out of Kaleb. We've gotten two awesome videos of Sasha laughing at something Kaleb has done. I love those good baby belly laughs!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNl0QdKYQhA

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcBfXMstAKw

My sweet little thing!