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| She's more Irish than any other nationality |
We laid low for the beginning of the month, and fell a little bit out of our nightly walking routine. We did take her to see the Easter Bunny at the Irvine Railroad and by looking at our family photo, you would have no idea what we were going through. Everything seems normal, but in this photo is a Mom afraid of dying, a husband afraid of loosing her, and a little girl who doesn't deserve either. But, none of it was true - it was all a mistake.
Around the middle of the month we started to have some freedom from the fear that being told you have cancer brings. Although it turned out not to be true, it was our reality for three weeks (my husband lost 15 pounds, and a whole lot of sleep). Baby A and I returned to our "Babies Love Music" class on Saturday mornings, our walks, gardening and crafting for her first birthday. The flower girls from our wedding (and their parents) stopped by and the girls loved "playing" with her. More importantly, she loved playing with them, and was not concerned at all about being away from me as they pushed her around the house in her tricycle, and took her into the back yard. She seemed confident and curious and the girls were so good with her.
It was the day after this visit that we were told that a mistake had been made, and I do not have melanoma. My biopsy results were somehow mixed up with another woman.
Just as it took me three weeks to adjust to the fact I had cancer and a 67%-86% chance of being alive in 10 years (depending on which doctor you asked), it also took us awhile to adjust to the news that I did not. My husband remained unconvinced that I was magically cancer-free. He does have a point: If this doctor's office made a mistake one time, what is to say that the melanoma biopsy was really from another person and not one of the three areas on me that were taken that day. We are still in the process of getting genetic testing done on the samples to prove that it was really a mistake, but it has been an arduous process with many calls and still no results.
She learned to use her walker around the middle of the month, a few days after our flower girls visited and showed her how. One day, she looked at her walker, crawled to it, and stood up and took a step. She slowly lowered herself down, and then repeated it. The third time, she was off, taking at least ten consecutive steps, until the walker ran into the wall. We turned her and the walker around, and she went the length of the living room. "Shouldn't we be recording this?" my husband asked, and we both took out our cell phones.
Bean can pull herself up on almost anything now, even my skirt. She roams freely around the house, and slowly squats to a sitting position when she is tired of standing. She enjoys our shopping trips and even all of the doctor's appointments that I had. We were shopping for a new light fixture at Home Depo. and "taught" her to kiss. First, she watches us with a huge grin, then we try to kiss her and she leans in, with her mouth agape. It's pretty much the cutest thing ever. She will often clap when she's done, like she does in the video below.
Saturday the 19th was the first day of Spring. We booked a Christmas trip to Italy (Venice, Lake Como and Milan) and applied for her passport. We had to do this in person, at the post office, and raise our right hands and solemnly swear that she was our daughter. This made it all seem very official, and I cannot wait to get her passport (they should make the tiny-sized for her little hands and pockets) and start earning stamps from different countries!
She knows what clapping means now, and will clap for herself after she does something that we ask, like when she leans her forehead in for a kiss, or gives me a kiss. She will also way bye. Around the end of the month, she started kissing our dog, Trevi and laughing. I feel this way every month, but this is by far my favorite age. I just cannot get enough of her, and never want to do anything that I can't take her to.
She continues to be the happiest baby I have ever been around, and is not even fussy when she's sick. We took her to the emergency room for croup and even though she had a fever of 101, she was cuddly and sweet. We had never experienced the barking seal-like sound of croup, and we were so frightened as we rushed her to CHOC, worried it could be whooping cough. They gave her the very first dose of medicine she has ever received when they gave her ibuprofen. She was then given a steroid, dexamethazone, which she threw up. We had to wait longer for a shot to be ordered, and she was given a breathing treatment while we waited. Her temperature was back to normal before we left around 2am. I thought for sure she would fall right asleep when we got home, but apparently steroids are like crack for babies. She was babbling and standing up looking out the window which we had opened to let in the cool night air for close to an hour before she fell asleep. I was afraid that I would fall asleep before her and she would be on her own, roaming around the bed.
I went to work the next morning on 3 hours of sleep. Since this was my very first sleep-deprived night since the first few weeks of her life, I can't complain. Both her and my husband were sleeping when I got home, and I watched her while he rested until about 6:30pm when I just had to lay down. He took over baby duty and I fell asleep at 7pm, telling him to wake me if she was fussy or I was needed. When I woke up at 11pm to a dark, quiet house and the baby monitor on beside me, I figured that all went well and fell back to sleep until morning.
Me: "So, everything went well last night" I said in the morning, as more of a statement than an inquiry.
Husband: "Not really, she was up until 10:30 pm just staring at the monitor."
Me: "What?? Poor thing! You know I always hold her until she falls asleep! Alone in the dark and looking at the monitor?? How sad!"
Husband: "Actually, it was kind of scary with those beady little eyes staring at me."
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| From Jeri & Mitch Hammock. Jeri sends her special gifts in honor of my Mom. |
I had a few night events at work toward the end of the month. One night, I returned to work for a parent group and left after my short talk. My husband and baby A had walked to El Torrito and just sat down to eat, so I joined them. It was the best feeling to walk up to the table and see her sitting in her highchair, happy and babbling away to Daddy, not a care in the world. She tried a few pieces of rice and a mashed-up bean as he told me how wonderful she had been, just enjoying her time with him. As we walked home (he came back for the car later), she fell asleep. Even though she was tired, she wasn't fussy at all! I know it sounds trite, but seeing what an amazing father he is to her causes me to fall in love with him more and more.
Baby A loves dancing, and one song I play frequently for her is "Dancing Queen" by Abba. We change the lyrics to Dancing Bean. She still does her little head bob, but now will also bend her knees if she's standing and sometimes move her arms back and forth. Not knowing this, daycare commented on how much she loves music and dancing.
She continues to love daycare, which is so comforting to me. As I was leaving the other day, one of the workers was returning from her car and walked toward us. As she approached us, Baby A leaned forward, and stretched out her arms to be held. This says everything that her words cannot say, and assures me that she loves it there! Joan took her into her arms and kissed her cheeks. She told her "I love you too! You just made my day."
Milestones:
- Pulling herself up to standing, and staying for awhile
- SIX teeth
- Walking using walker (March 15th)
- "Kissing" both of us, and Trevi, with her mouth agape
- Pushing items while crawling
- Pulling items toward her
- Giving me things
- Turning pages in a book (I have to hold the ones I don't want her to turn)
- Walking while holding on to couch or coffee table
- Uses thumb and finger to pick up small objects
- Looks for partially hidden objects (like my phone!)
- Drinking from a cup (with assistance)
- Sitting in a little chair at the table at daycare and trying finger foods
- Lifting her arms up when she wants to be picked up (this just happened at the very end of the month)
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| Scrunchie nose! |
- Squealing when she gets excited - sometimes, several short squeals in a row
- Brushing her teeth, with a huge grin
- Nicknames: Bun Snuggler, Autonomous, Baby A, Bean, Choochee Face
- Giving me kisses
- Playing in the bathroom in the mornings when I get ready
- How she scrunches up her nose
Routines we're continuing:
- Singing to her: You Are My Sunshine, Amazing Grace (bedtime)
- Reading children's books to her. She has started to look at the pictures and turn the pages. She loves Madeline (thanks Ivy-Curwen clan!)
- Evening walks
- Crocheting
- Nightly prayers
- Morning snuggle time - she now sleeps in the crook of my left arm.
- This little piggy. She now anticipates the "Wee, wee, wee all the way home" part and will smile and scrunch her shoulders.
- Asking "Where's Daddy?" or "Where's Trevi?" and cheering when she looks
- Lunch visits - every day!
- Peak-a-boo - she recently started using the bed sheets to hide herself while playing.
- Listening to the same record at every feeding. I have it on the floor, by her high chair, and she loves watching it spin. Its an old Disney record, "Mother Goose."
- Brushing her teeth
Routines we're establishing:
- Playing with items in the cupboards, taking items out of the diaper bag or refrigerator. We always thank her for "organizing."
- Practicing kissing. She doesn't know how to pucker up yet.
- Brushing her teeth
- Clicking noises with her tongue
- Strawberries (real)
- Butternut squash (real - still too solid for her liking)
- Egg (just the yoke, mixed with oatmeal)
- Cottage cheese
- Pumpkin
- Prunes
- Lemon!
- Cheery-O's
- Cheese
- Rice
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