Day 2: strabismus and you

Aria finding Elmo while I send an email off

another day behind us! today was Aria's appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist. we've been noticing her left eye has been turning in, and her pediatrician gave us a referral. Kaiser Permanente is great, but the long drives to different facilities annoy me. i had to drive in the rain to Springfield this morning. wasn't that bad a drive, but there was some traffic, so we were a bit late. Aria was fine until i had to hold her down so they could put drops in her eyes to dilate her pupils. after, she was cute and just wanted to hug me. :-)

so the upshot of it is, we have to start trying to put an eye patch on her right eye. YARRRR! the next step is a couple tattoos, and a parrot for her third birthday.

These are 3 and 5 lb. barbells that Aria moved herself into these positions. The mystery of Stonehenge REVEALED!!

and here we have Aria's first photos! very artistic, and good composition, imo!

mommy requests today: 9
total mommy requests: 21

first day A-OK

everything we normally do on the weekends became doubly difficult (duh). I woke up with Dana this morning (5:45) she left at 6:00, and I read until Aria woke up at 7:00. I fed her breakfast for the first time in a real LONG time. we then got ready and went to church. Aria had a blast as always in the nursery. when we got home, we had lunch while i made a nice cioppino:

a treat for me because SOMEONE doesn't like seafood that much :-)

After Aria's nap, she was not a happy camper. she woke up cranky, but i've seen this before. later, we had a couple fights about taking crayons up onto the couch. she doesn't try to color the couch, she just likes to hold onto the crayons and crawl onto the couch. they are washable crayons, so no permanent marks, and they have since "disappeared" along with the giant coloring book...

just before the "crayola fiasco"

All in all, a good day. we went outside and played, and she went to bed at 7:45 like normal without a problem. i gotta go to sleep so i'll wake up when she does. :-) i'll keep a tally of mommy requests FROM ARIA over the next 6 days:

mommy requests today: 12
total mommy requests: 12

steeling myself for the fun week!

a couple months ago, Dana was invited to go to Puerto Rico for the better part of a week (almost 6 full days) with her long time friend. it's all inclusive, even the airfare is paid. she almost didn't go because she thought it would be too difficult for me. of course that sounded like a challenge, so i told her to go. i think my exact words were "if you don't go, I will." :-)

ok. so this shouldn't be too bad. I watch Aria for about 8 of the 10 hours she's awake everyday. and occasionally i have to put her to sleep instead of Dana. and sometimes i have to get her in the morning because Dana has to go to work earlier than usual.

I will have to wake up with her and put her to bed 6 days in a row. this will be interesting.

Posts WILL be daily starting Sunday, so people (and Dana) will know we're still alive.

Doogan!

Sleeping with Doogan during the trip to Massachusetts last August

Aria is soooo attached to her stuffed bear. It helps that he's kinda in the shape of a star, and has a star patch on his belly (Aria's second word, and favorite shape). she even named him—well at about 6 months old, she said what sounded like "Doogan" so we've been calling him that.

"Have some breakfast, Doogan."

I've mentioned before that he's been washed countless times, and had 2 surgeries. the first was a tag-ectomy. Aria loved to suck on the tag whenever she had him, so it was dirty and falling apart. it had to be removed. so then Aria moved to the little ribbon/bow on Doogan's neck. this caused a hole to develop near that spot, so Grandma Jane had to sew up the accidental tracheotomy. well his next operation will probably be a re-stuffing, as all the loving and washing has clumped up his insides a bit.

Doogan looking real tired

A while ago, we basically made Doogan only available to Aria for naps and bedtime. I think this helped her sleep routine, as she knew when she was handed Doogan that it meant it was time for sleep and she would relax and if she's really tired, she leans towards her crib. As Doogan gets older, i think Aria may have found a replacement. Her new favorite toy is a little Elmo doll, and she has slept with him and Doogan sometimes. i hope Doogan doesn't get jealous!

18 months old

18 months have flown by so fast! it's fun to look at pictures when she was real little and totally immobile. it's hard to believe she was ever that way. it's fun watching her develop and learn new things. you can really see her thinking sometimes. i love that she can hug and give kisses. I think that was what i was most looking forward to as she's developed and grown.

we had to get her 18 month checkup early because Dana wanted to go too, and she'll be away on vacation the week we would have gone to the doctor. Aria's stats are still proportional when compared to her previous measurements, she weighs 23.75 lbs, and is 32" long. we just got her third pair of shoes—our little girl is growing!

Aria is trying to say at least 2 new words a day! when in a really good speaking mood, she'll try to repeat just about every word we ask her to. they don't always come out right though—when she got excited about her stuffed puppy the other day she said "kuppy", and then laughed because she knew she got it wrong.

that reminds me of something else that's relatively new with Aria. she has a budding sense of humor. Aria used to just laugh at things we did, having a passive role. now she has a more active role: she'll "make" jokes or be silly. She'll be playing and talking to her toys, and start laughing for no apparent reason. my goofy daughter!

Aria's official 18 month "anniversary" is April 7.

Save on Diapers & more!

I found this great site with free shipping! They sell all sorts of things for baby's needs. We are currently using cloth diapers, but still use disposables at night. I just found our diaper dekor (biodegradable) refills which aren't widely carried in stores. Plus they have a nifty sprayer that connects to the toliet that can be used for the cloth diapers. Check it out and be sure to use the code "dmzak" to get $5 off your first purchase! Happy shopping!

St. Baldricks before and after pics

Before and after (at the event) the REAL after photo is at the bottom ;-)

First, I'd like to thank everyone who donated. This really is one of those great causes and reading some of the stories of the children who were diagnosed with some rare or less-than-rare form of cancer at 12 months or so really tugs the heart strings. For me, even more so now that we have Aria. I can't even begin to imagine what those parents must have gone through. and the children are always so happy!

ugh - i'm getting worked up just thinking about it.

The event was fun - There was tons of good food to be had, and green beer! Aria had a blast moving chairs around in the shaving hall. notice the background of the picture - the chairs used to be in a nice line until she got to em!

Thank you again for your donations, i picked what seemed like an easy to reach goal of $300, and ended up with $715! next year, i'll grow my hair out a little more, and set my sights a little higher. my goal will be $1000, and i bet i hit it easily, especially since friends/family will basically be paying to shave my head because it will look real bad grown out (haven't had it longer than a half-inch since my baldness has taken over).

Getting my hair shaved

the guy who shaved my head went too quickly, so there were some slightly longer patches. when we got home, i decided to trim it up. well, one thing led to another, and i just ended up using my electric razor on my head. yup, to the skin. i figured that people who normally have full heads of hair getting their heads shaved with clippers are sacrificing, but for me that's what i always do. so this is more drastic and makes me feel like i sacrificed a little more than if i kept it the way it usually is.

The REAL after pic!

new blog address

just a quick note to say that i bought the domain goofydaddy.com. no need to update any bookmarks, the old address will be forwarded to the new one indefinitely. the new one is maybe a little easier to remember, and fits better since i changed the blog title a while back. :-)

Gymboree fun

I think Gymbo the Clown just told Aria a joke...

When you are signed up for a Gymboree class, you can go at certain times for free-play time. Dana really wanted to see Aria in action, so we went Sunday morning. This way, we actually got to take pictures of her also - normally I wouldn't be able to when it's just me and Aria. ;-)

Fun tube crawling
She loves the rings, and has to collect them all!
I'm noticing a theme here...

Just give the kid a stick

This past weekend we went to the local park to play at the playground. She had a good time, but the best part was the cedar chips on the playground and all the sticks she found on the walk back to the car! She counldn't get enough of them in her hands. My parents were there too and my dad says she's training to collect wood to build bonfires at our family cottage this summer. I think she will be a big help!

Happy about sticks!

I think she could fit one more, what do you think?

She's on a mission...

Gymboree

We've been going to the freebie classes at Gymboree, Little Gym, and My Gym. Aria liked them all, but i think Gymboree was her favorite. so we decided to sign up for that every friday. it's a fun friday cause the Gymboree is near where i work, so i can take Aria to lunch afterwards with my coworkers.

I'm also looking forward to it cause i'm gonna miss taking care of her everyday so this will be our fun friday routine/day together!

other side of the coin, i can't wait to increase my work hours and go into the office more. right now, i go in only on tuesdays, and usually from 1:00ish-5:00ish. anything i have planned for completing while there NEVER gets done, because we have a staff meeting from 2-3, and i get bombarded before and after with little jobs that people save to give me when i come in on tuesdays! you'd think i would have caught on after 14 months of this...

so starting April 7, when she is exactly 18 months old, Aria is going to preschool on monday, wednesday, and thursday, and the grandparents will still be coming over on tuesdays. I will be able to get almost 30 hours all while at the office! yay - the other 4 hours will be when i'm home on friday, or on the weekend, or in the evenings, or even getting to work a little earlier.

Getting in early to work has always been tough. now, i don't think it will be that tough. Aria's trained me well. :-)

had a rough day at work yesterday, that's why this went from Aria's Gymboree class to my working more hours. needed to vent a bit, sorry!

shaving my head for a cause

so yeah i normally cut my hair pretty close (been using the clippers with no attachments recently), but i'm letting it grow out a bit so i can have it shaved off for a good cause. I'm shaving my head for the eighth annual St. Baldrick's Day in solidarity with children who have cancer and typically lose their hair during cancer treatment. i will be posting pics before and after :-)
my page on stbaldricks site

Worldwide, more than 160,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year. While advances have saved many children, childhood cancer still claims the lives of more children in the US than any other disease - more than diabetes, asthma, congenital anomalies, cystic fibrosis and AIDS - combined!

Please make a donation on my behalf to support childhood cancer research so that all children diagnosed with cancer will have a better chance for a cure. Funds raised by the St. Baldrick's Foundation will be used to fund childhood cancer research - to help speed the day when every child with cancer will be guaranteed a healthy future.