Self timer

I'm very good at smiling when I see Mom or Dad behind the camera. But I'm not so good at smiling at the camera when it's set to the self-timer mode. I just don't get it.

This was the best shot out of the 20 we took!

Grandpa and Grandma

Catching up on photos from last weekend...

See? If you come visit, we'll put your picture on the internet!

 Ok, I think I had reached my limit of pictures by this point. 

 But I like being tickled!

Seven months

Happy seven-month birthday to me!

This is the first month where I've actually enjoyed the photo shoot with Keillor. I think he's funny.

 Having fun with my buddy.

 Keillor, are you smiling? Mom says we're supposed to be smiling. 

 We're both laughing at Mom's funny dancing.

Keillor must have seen a squirrel on the porch. You can see I'm holding him back.

There's been a lot of excitement this month. I've enjoyed moving my legs more now that I'm out of my hip harness. And I'm pretty close to rolling over. I know how to swing my arm, head and leg in the right direction, but not all at the same time. I love sitting upright whether it's in my highchairs, propped on the couch or in a lap.

One of my favorite morning activities is sitting on Mom or Dad's lap while watching Keillor try to catch his tail. It makes me laugh out loud. I keep trying more new foods, too. My current favorites: Apples, pears and cauliflower. I don't quite like the puff snacks yet. 

I'm talking quite a bit lately (babababa, gagagaga, dadadadada). And I'm really good at smiling every time I see the camera come out.

Sitting

One of the things I couldn't practice while in my hip harness was sitting upright. I'm catching up quickly!

Even more fun when hanging onto Mom.

Reading?

I was listening politely until I saw Dad with the camera!

Grandparents

Grandpa and Grandma are in town!

Solid food

Dr. Gordon (my regular pediatrician) gave Mom and Dad permission to give me some puff snacks! They dissolve in my mouth. Pretty cool. Anyhow, I had one in my hand last night but somehow lost it on the way to my mouth.

Keillor must have grabbed it!

Jail

I've been getting lots of workout time on my tummy lately. I was doing some exercises in bed the other day and just had to set my head down for a bit...

Towels

I've decided that my favorite part of bath time is after the bath. Mom's good at swaddling me in every baby towel we have!

Six month stats

Mom and Dad took me to my 6-month checkup this morning. It was a few weeks after my 6-month birthday because my 4-month checkup was a few weeks late (since I was in the hospital at the actual 4-month mark). Anyhow, they require two full months in-between vaccinations, so that's why it was today. I got three shots and only cried for a minute or two.

Height: 25 inches (10th percentile, thanks Mom)
Head size: 17 1/4 inches (80th percentile)
Weight: 19 lbs, 1.4 ounces (86th percentile)

Tummy time

Now that I'm out of my harness, I've started working out again. I'm pretty good at pushing my chest up and I'm getting close to learning how to role over!

 Building those muscles.

A girl needs to rest a bit, too!

Highchair

I still do quite a bit of hanging out in the chair that Dad and Uncle Brady made for me, but I've recently started sitting in my highchair, too.

It's ok, I guess.

The BOB

One of the perks of being out of my harness is that I get to go on regular stroller rides again. And I'm finally big enough to sit facing forward. Walks are so much more fun now!

Seriously, do you know how much more a kid can see during a walk if she gets to sit facing forward? A lot. That's how much. 

p.s. Happy Syttende Mai! Dad says we're having pickled herring for dinner!

Mother's Day

Catching up on pictures from last weekend. Here's the whole family after a walk to get ice cream. Of course I didn't get any. Whatever.

My dog

Keillor had a rough Saturday. Dad gave him a new tennis ball for inside the house (normally tennis balls are outside only) and the poor guy couldn't even let go of it for his nap.

Flower shopping

Mom and Dad took me shopping to Home Depot on Saturday to get plants for the porch.

It was fun.

 And then it got boring.

New hat

Aunt Judey sent me a new hat to wear in the Colorado sun!

Mom pinned a pink bow to it so it was sufficiently girly enough. 

After my bath

Yesterday was my first bath at home in over two months. I didn't like it. But I did like relaxing in my towels afterwards...

 p.s. Thanks to my folks for updating everyone on my health stuff. I'm totally fine now and I'll be taking over my blog again!

Home

Arrived home a little while ago with a tired and hungry baby. She's napping now after a big meal.

To follow up on yesterday's information:

Drs. Novais (Brazil) and Booker have a plan for Tess' hips. That plan is to wait. Several months. Then we'll do an open reduction on both hips where they'll operate and put her in a cast. But that's down the road. We'll share more on that once we see the docs at our follow-up appointment in a couple weeks.

For now, our instructions are to treat this kid like any other baby. She's got some catching up to do in terms of sitting up and using those legs that have been in the harness the past couple months. They may be a little tender, but Tess seems to enjoy kicking them! We're excited because this means we can get her back in the stroller and all that other fun stuff. And we'll worry about those hips down the road.

If you live in the Denver area (or want to travel here quickly): 2nd Friday at the Lubansky's is still on for tonight!

Morning report

Tess' reaction after I asked if she was ready to go home today.

She's doing great. All signs point to us getting out of here after the doctors make their rounds (which could be any time between 9:00 am and noon).

Quick update

The pulmonary attending doctor just stopped by and she's seen this before. Babies have a very delicate reflex when having tubes stuck down their throats. The tubes occasionally cause the airway to constrict. The constriction is more severe when babies are sedated (which Tess was) and it's even more severe when babies have a virus (which they're testing for now).

A virus wouldn't necessarily keep us here in the hospital.

And the airway constriction stuff is preventable for next time now that they know Tess is susceptible to it. 

Our tolerance for staying in the hospital is low and we're already sick of it.

 Playing with a toy instead of all the cables and tubes!

Back in the hospital for the night

This is Andy typing. Tess has granted me permission to post an update since she's in bed right now.

Summary: Tess is ok.

Details: We're back at Children's Hospital. We came in for a scheduled arthrogram (series of x-rays) this morning to check on the status of Tess' hips. While Tess was under anesthesia, she had two bronchial spasms which caused her to stop breathing for a very brief minute. So of course they halted the x-rays and worked on getting Tess healthy.

We're now in the ICU for the night. Tess is a bit crabby because she's not allowed to eat yet, but she's doing her best to be her normal cheery self. The consensus as this point seems to be that it was an isolated incident, but they're running tests (allergies, viruses, etc.)

Her hip harness has been removed. They were only able to look at one hip before she had her bronchial spasms and it is still unstable, so she'll have some sort of cast procedure in the future (no timeline yet).

We'll continue to update here as we learn more. 

Holding my own

I've sort have always wanted to help hold my bottle, but only recently have I figured out proper form.

Win-win

Keillor and I have finally figured out how to work together. He licks and I get clean!

Turns out Keillor likes peas and carrots, too!

Peas

Much to Dad's dismay, I really like peas.

They make me smile.

Giraffe

No giraffes were harmed in the making of my sweatshirt.

Can you spot my toy giraffe? She's camouflaged!

Piano

Thanks to Uncle Jeff for leaving his crappy little keyboard at home in Minnesota for the past 20 years. And thanks to Grandma for driving it out to me last month!

And now, my debut performance...

Self portraits

Dad and I were playing around with the camera earlier in the week.

What's that, Dad?

Oh! It's just the camera!

Carrots and sweet potatoes

Don't forget, you can always click any of the photos in my blog to see a larger version!

Fun in the backyard

We Skyped with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Judey and Uncle Chris on Sunday. I modeled my new sunglasses for them!

Relaxing

 Hanging out with Mom before bed time. 

Here's Mom and Dad trying to teach me how the timer on the camera works. 

We took several before I started looking at the camera. Guess I'll work on a smile later!