Duck.... first word.... unlikely

Funny little story, so tonite during Sophie's bathtime, I was signing to her (believe me it isn't good, she is the only one that would smile at me singing). I was singing 6 little ducks that i once knew.... She is following along, i say duck and she repeats it. duck. Haha, angie didn't hear it, but it was pretty clear to me. Duck. Could that be the first word, if so i bet you that is kind of strange. I will keep a lookout for the next "first word". I am going with mama.

John

Sleeping changed overnight

People say that at Sophie's age, 6 months, things change literally overnight. And it really is true. Sophie has always been a good sleeper, and she still is (knock on wood), but ever since she learned how to roll over consistently (and likes to do it), sleeping has been a bit more of a challenge. She no longer can be succesfully swadled since she just unwraps herself and when she is unwrapped she just goes side to side or end up on her stomach. she hasn't slept on her tummy yet, but I am guessing we will find her that way one of these mornings. I find all this uneasy, it was nice and simple before, we swaddled her, she slept on her back. Now she trashes around wants to pull everything into the crib with her. Any advice out there? What types of blankets should we use?

I haven't worried about her sleeping like this since she was about 2 weeks old. I used to think that I will never be able to go to sleep (due to worrying), but that passed and I guess this will too.

Anyway, thanks for reading, but any advice is always appreciated.

John
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Sitting up and rolling over

Once in a while angie makes a comment about my blog. I know she reads it, but usually doesn't comment about it a lot. A few days ago she said, how come you haven't blogged about the sitting up and rolling over, she has been doing those for a long time now. So, yes, little Sophie can now sit on her own while playing with an occasional fall if she gets distracted. She can also roll over but is not very eager to do so. She likes hanging out in the almost rolled over postion, but rarely completes the move (from her back to front). She has to be really motivated when reaching for something. Like a toy. So basically now, when we put her on the ground she rolls from side to side, depending on what viewing angle she wants.

Anyway all is good here. We are enjoying the crazy hot weather in southern ontario after our winter hibernation.

Thanks for reading
John
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Fishing Trip

At the end of last week I went on my annual fishing trip. I love my fishing and i basically now go fishing one day a month every month, but the annual fishing trip has been going on for basically 10 years. My fishing group consists of a good group of guys, who love to get away and spend a few days trying to catch a fish or two. In the past, these trips were way more elaborate (and longer), involved flying in to remote locations, but now since everyone has a newborn or two, the trips are shorter. Trust me though, when i say that we are not complaining. The trips are a tradition and we are trying to keep them going in any capacity we can. It has been about 10 years and i look forward to going for many years to come. This year's trip took us back up to the French River area since we had such a great time last year. The trip was perfect, i was only able to go on thursday and friday, but it was so great to spend a few days just casting and chatting with great friends. It is important to keep things going in my opinion, but as life and priorities change things like fishing trips need to adjust.

So instead of talking about how great the fishing was and all the "monsters" we cought, I would like to thank our significant others for letting us go. Thanks Angie, I love that you let me go and continue this tradition. Thanks, it really means a lot honey. Love you.

John

Natalia, 6 months post tx

Wow, time certainly flies for sure. I really can't believe that it has been 6 months since Natalia had her transplant and Sophie was born (within a week). To me it seems like a lifetime ago, and in reality Natalia was in the hospital still in early january so it has only been about 5 months. So I would like to write a quick note about all this and celebrate this milestone.

I am very proud of you sis, you battled all of last year to get to the transplant and you certainly battled after you had it (this part i was not ready for) and to see you these days taking care of Scarlett and leading a normal life is really cool to see. I really don't have that much to say except again that I am very very proud and love you very much. Many years of good health sis.

Here is some pictures that Natalia posted on facebook.

4 weeks post

5 weeks post (at Toronto General Hospital)

7 weeks post

2 months post

9 weeks post

9 weeks post

5 months post

6 months post (and i can't do that)

Long Weekend with great weather

Hello all, we had a fantastic long weekend here in southern ontario. The weather was incredible, perfect actually, sunny, no wind, not a cloud in the sky. I took a few days off thursday and friday and went fishing with my fishing friends and came home friday nite ready to spend the long weekend with my girls. We spent a huge part of the weekend outside, walked and walked and walked. Actually on sunday we walked about 15k+ (you can tell we are runners). But the weather was so nice, that we just couldn't be inside. The big highlight of one of the walks is that we put Sophie in a swing for the first time. Nothing crazy, just put her in there and swung a little, she liked it, little tentative at first, but we got a few good laughs out of it. Here is a nice pic or two that captures the moment.

The next day, we took both the girls swimming. We wanted to get Sophie and Scarlett in the pool and this was the first chance we got. We went to the club that Natalia and Martin belong to and tested out the waters. Overall, it went well, there were lots of kids splashing around and both the girls handled it well. Here are some pics from a really great day. Can't wait to see them grow up together starting with some cottage time this summer. Can't wait.

Hope you all had a great long weekend and as always, thanks for reading.

John

Projectile vomit

It finally happened. I for one believed that babies and kids throw up, but projectile vomit seemed like a myth to me. How could a little baby vomit across a room, cover someone completely... Thought it was one of those stories that mothers tell us all. Well I have seen the light. On wednesday nite a few of my friends came over and were there as we were putting Sophie down at 8pm. All seemed normal, until Angie picked Sophie up and our little pumpkin began to vomit all over her. She covered Angie and a good portion of the floor. I couldn't believe how much there was and easily it just came out. Sophie didn't seem to mind too much and went back to sleep minutes after. We were a little stunned since it was our first. How often does this happen?

Oh well, I now believe.

John
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

6 months today

So princess is now 6 months old (just catching up on my blogging after a busy week). 6 months, half way through the first year. It has gone by very fast i must say. Everything is going well, we really can't complain. Just today Angie said that she is now like a little person, no longer just a baby at all. The doctor was very happy with everything and we are now working out the new food schedule and starting to introduce new foods. All pretty exciting. Here is some pictures of the half birthday girl.

Sitting with daddy. (who is looking scruffy and tired)

tummy time

all smiles for the camera

i love this one, Angie keeps taking pictures of her next to her first outfit, that outfit was huge on her , we had to roll up the sleeves. I guess they do grow :)

Thanks for reading.

John

6 month appointment

So we had the 6 month doctor's appointment and all is well. Our doctor is very happy with her progress and she is doing great with her weight and height so we are very very happy. We also had the last of the shots which are always a little traumatic, but Sophie handled it well and Angie stayed true to self and looked the other way while i held Sophie during the shots. Our nurse always says that the second shot is very painful and it always raises my blood pressure a bit. So we are all clear now to eat all kinds of food and we have started with some banana for this week. Hard to gauge how much she likes it and how much she is actually getting, but she makes some funny funny faces while eating it. Here is a picture that makes me laugh. Beth, you are right, cover everything in plastic for the next decade.

Thanks for reading

John

6 month appt tomorrow

Just a quick note, tomorrow we have our 6 month check up. I literally can't believe this. It seems like she was born yesterday. 6 months. Wow. So we have a set of shots, so I get to hold her down while Angie looks the other way. After this, no more shots for 6 months (i think). She has a bit of a cold right now (congested) so that's good that our dr. (who we both like very much) will have a closer look at her. I really enjoy going to these appointments. I haven't missed a scheduled appointment yet and don't intend to. Will report tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

John

Meagan's Walk

Today was a really nice day. Angie's first mother day and I think the day was a special one. In the morning, Sophie and I presented our gifts which included two nice cards and a gift card to Banana Republic. We were told to not buy any gifts, but we didn't think that mommy really meant it so we bought the gift anyway. After the morning nap, we went downtown to take part in Meagan's Walk. It is an annual event organized by one of my coworkers who lost his daughter to brain cancer 10 years ago. I have always wanted to go, but never did make it out, mostly since I didn't have any kids myself so I thought I would have felt awkward. Anyway, the event is a huge fundraiser and it keeps growing and growing and I would encourage anyone to take part in the future. Basically, quite a simple idea, 5km walk to Toronto's famous Sick Kids Hospital where the crowd surrounds the building holding hands and "hugs" the hospital. Today was a cold day, I would say unusually cold (especially this year), but it didn't stop people from coming out. Thousands of people came out with their kids, strollers and easily hugged the building. I must say i found it pretty emotional, I had tears in my eyes. I knew I would cry, but it really hit me. You could see the kids on the inside with their parents and just thinking about our last few years (or the last 20 years) and the time we spent at sick kids. That hospital has a special place in my life and Angie's as well since she had heart surgery there as a child. So we stood in the cold, held hands with strangers that stood next to us. At one point the women to my left asked me who I was walking for and I said nobody, really couldn't speak since i was quite emotional at the time. Sorry for that, the actual answer is: all the kids in that hospital now. I wish those kids could be somewhere else and weren't sick, but if you are sick, there literally isn't a better children's hospital anywhere.

Pretty cool way to spend a day, and very very well done by the Bebenek family.

Here is some links to the Meagan's Walk and Sick Kids hospital.

Thanks for reading.

Sitting, finding her feet and more

Hello all, new stuff is happening here every day now. Literally during the last week there has been lots of progress, our little baby sophie is changing every day. First came the sitting up. We have been sitting her during playtime (while holding her) for some time, but she was very very wobbly. And now you sit her down and as loing as there are no serious distractions to her left or right she will sit like that for a very long time.

We are not seeing a whole lot of progress on the rolling over, she is basically there, but doesn't seem very interested in completing the roll over. She gets to her side and stops. Oh well, i am sure one day we will go and get her from her nap and she will be on her belly looking up at us.

Also, on thursday this week she found her feet. Now she just grabs them and plays with them and based on what i saw with Scarlett, those feet are going in her mouth in another week. Ha ha. I find all of this very amusing. It is incredible to think about the speed of the baby's development at this age, every time she wakes up from a nap, she has learned something new. Me on the other hand, i feel like every time i wake up i feel a little bit older and a little bit slower.... Maybe there is only so much smarts out there at any given time and it is slowly transferring from me to her.

Thanks for reading.

High Chair Update with picture

So a week of using the highchair has gone by and overall Sophie seems to be ok with it. She sits in it for the cereal feeding and in the evening with us as we have dinner. So far so good. Here is a picture during one of those feeds that i miss during the week.

She really is growing up fast.

John

New High Chair

Hello folks,

little bit of an update, the cereal feeding is going well. We are not exactly sure how much Sophie is eating, but we are certainly trying to give her the cereal. To go along with the feeding, we got a fancy new high chair based on Natalia's recommendation. It is a pretty fancy chair and it fits the rest of the decor. Here is a picture to the chair, and that's not Sophie, but picture of her in the chair coming very soon (with cereal all over her face). Very excited to eat with our little one.

Thanks for reading.

John

Sophie's first real food

Yesterday was our official start to feeding Sophie real food. We gave her the Milupa cereal. Quite a little production, first we fed her normal bottle, than sat her down, put on a nice bib and started to give her the cereal. She has never been fed with a spoon, so most of the food going in was coming back out. I am guessing that is quite normal. She made a few interesting faces, but generally she was fairly ok with the whole thing. Our plan is to do this once a day for a week and after increase to twice a day. At some point I am guessing we also start giving some other mushed up fruit. All of it very exciting to be honest. She is getting bigger and bigger, and more demanding each day. She needs serious entertainment now and gets bored with stuff quite quickly. I can't believe she is almost 6 months now. Time flies when you are having fun I guess. Will post an updated picture or two shortly. We got some great shots in the last month or two.

Thanks for reading
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry