Strolling

Once again, I turned my back for a second and then Sabrina decided to stand. This time she used the stroller to power herself up. Her next move after this picture was to take my purse out of the stroller. Nothing is safe anymore!

Ouch!

Well, it is official...Sabrina has a tooth showing through the gumline on the right lower side. She bit me and that is how we discovered it! No wonder she was a little fussy! :-)

Happy 75th Grandpa!

Although we couldn't be with Grandpa on his birthday, we called and read a special Grandpa book! The book was great until it talked about watching football games with Grandpa. The picture the illustrator drew was a grandpa wearing a U of O cap! It was even green and yellow! This Beaver household may have to return the book tomorrow! Sabrina also celebrated by listening to a Brahams CD! I think she prefers the three tenors!

8 month old

Sabrina wore her best dress on Sunday...the day before her eighth month birthday! She received many complements, but refused to wear the hair bows!

A week of arm pulling

Sabrina has spent the last week pulling herself up using whatever she deems sturdy. Unfortunately, she sometime picks something that is not secure and falls backwards... resulting in tears and comfort from mom! We are already noting she can pull herself and thus reach items which once were safe.

A tooth on the horizon!

Last night we noticed that it feels like there is a tooth on the edge of breaking though the gums! So maybe today on her eighth month birthday a tooth will make its journey to the outside world! Sabrina celebrated the day eating cut up cheerios and washing them down with water in a bottle. We also went to library reading time and took the long way home through the trails. She really loves her stroller time!

Currently, she is rolling around the living room to the THREE TENORS! She loves music and just has to roll and wiggle!

Other photos

Some photos from the day:

Holding onto Mom's hand to stand.

Waiting for dinner!

Look who is standing on her own!

I turned around and Sabrina was standing with the aide of a chair. She pulled herself on her own. Right afterwards we took this footage! Our days are numbered before she is walking!

Growing up

This week we noted that Sabrina is making some benchmark strides. She almost has outgrown all her size 6 clothing and can squeeze into 6-9 month items (I guess they are bigger than straight 6 month sizes). However, I am putting her in 9 month items and rolling up the pant legs or arms. She still fights to wear socks. She has some longer Mary Jane socks that stay on longer, but they too have been worked off her feet and then played with for entertainment.

On the entertainment side, Sabrina loves cold water bottles with water inside. She pretends to drink like her parents and squeezes the bottles for the "crinkle" effect. Crawling over every inch of the apartment is a daily routine. Favorite targets are shoes... preferably Randy's and the door stops with the rubber tips...

Last week she started pulling herself up onto her feet with the assistance of the papasan chair. This she does routinely once a day!

To make her giggle,Randy and I get on all fours with a stuffed animal and make believe they are alive and crawling towards Sabrina. She giggles with glee every time. Fun stage!

She continues to love music of all sorts. This week we are listening to Opera: the Three Tenors! The first time we put in the soundtrack, she looked at me like "Hey, that is NOT Vivaldi's Four Seasons and these guys are not even singing in English!" Now she plays with her animals and giggles to the music!

Shoe bait

Sabrina can't resist shoes!

Nor can she resist glass!

Tribute to Alfred Hitchcock

Randy took a top down photo of us finishing our dinner in a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's photography style.

Gone to the Birds

Sundays we like to walk on the golf cart path at the local course. We can get closer to the ponds and do some bird watching. Lately, there have been many species of water fowl congregating at the ponds: ibis, heron, pelican, egrets and ducks. We have even seen a few huge birds that are related to the hawk family on our outings.

Raising of the high chair

Sabrina's high chair sits on another chair. We hesitated to put it on another chair as it felt high off the ground. However, we discovered it is easier to feed rice cereal when Sabrina is at our height instead of us sitting on the ground.

Randy and Sabrina have a new game when she is in the chair. She likes to giggle when his head is in her face...as demonstrated on the video.

The Little Polar Bear

Grandma Joyce sent a snow suit in a bear pattern. With the temperature below freezing here, it has been enjoyed on our walks outside.

The New Librarian in Town

We have a built in bookshelf that has Sabrina's books on the bottom. She has discovered them and loves to play librarian!

I've got your foot!

She is mobile and able to go after feet! Watch out

Sitting up in not hard to do.

Happy Cold New Year!

We have started the new year with cold temperatures just like the rest of the country. The morning has started in the 20s and reached maybe 40 for the daytime high. Needless to say, we are layered on our walks. Sunday we parents borrowed some of Sabrinas receiving blankets and rolled them up for scarves! With our sweatshirts or light sweaters and windbreaker for the warmest clothing we have, our hope is the cold spell is short! Happy New Year!

New information on an Old Church

Over vacation we posted pictures from an old Episcopal Church. That church is actually the oldest church in Charleston, St. Michael's Church. Famous people, like George Washington, Layfayette and General Robert E. Lee have all sat in the pews and worshipped. The pews were very interesting to me: they had doors on them and were compartmentalized! In Colonial America, families would buy a pew and then put up doors and walls to keep others out and I suppose keep their family members in. Doesn't seem very welcoming in today's standards. St. Michael's had a beautiful organ and the podium for the Bible readings was ornate with a winding staircase and carvings! Wow! During the Civil War, churches like St. Michael's would paint their steeples and take down their bells. These bells were melted down to make cannon balls. After the war was over, some churches remained "silent churches" as respect for the lives lost in the war. Many lost significant parts of their congregations.

Looking for the Tooth Fairy!

Being a new parent, I am not sure if the Tooth Fairy just takes teeth or brings them, too. We are hoping soon the Tooth Fairy will bring Sabrina a tooth or two! We tried to feed Sabrina a Cheerio or two, but all she did was mash it and swallow and then spit it back up. All the literature I have been reading says she should be eating some mushed up items and Cheerios. I think we will stick to mushy stuff for now!