#9 Catching Up

I know I haven't been very good about blogging since I started my school year.  We just get so busy and I'd rather be spending time playing with Bryn than sitting at the computer. However, I need to jot down a few things before I forget. 

Sabryn got another top tooth (upper left and it's #6 for her) on August 23rd, 2010 (the first day I started school) and she got her upper right one on August 26th.  So she has a total of 7 teeth right now.

I am going to post a couple of videos of our little one. Hope everyone enjoys.  Sabryn is everywhere right now. She climbs furniture like a spider monkey and tears apart things like she is a paper shredder but she still is so precious to us.

The first video is showing how obsessed Sabryn is with cartoon Olivia.  Nothing can distract her....

The next video is Sabryn just being her silly self this morning.

#8 One Year Old Dr. Visit

Well today, Thursday August 26 at 3:45, Sabryn had her one year old checkup.  She weighed 17.9 pounds which puts her in the  9th percentile for weight.  She may be small but she is so mighty.  Her height was 29 inches (which means she grew 1.25 inches in the last 37 days) which lands her in the 39th percentile in height.
She got 3 shots today (Prevnar, MMR &  Chicken Px vaccine)and had her finger pricked.  She was so great and cried less than 10 seconds.  Our baby is awesome and so brave. 

I have started my 12th year teaching. I am teaching 7th grade in Mckinney, Texas. Sabryn is going to a different babysitter than she had last year. We are both looking forward to Saturday and Sunday when we can sleep in.  Sabryn is use to sleeping in til 9 or 10am during the summer and every morning when we wake her up at 7am she is so tired.

She still loves the cartoon, Olivia. It is about a pig named, Olivia and she has a big imagination. She has two little brothers. One named Ian whom she calls her "Little Bother" and a baby brother.  She also has a cat named Edwin and a dog named Perry. Sabryn loves it and will stare and dance at the tv.

#7Musical Birthday Card!

My mom, Shirley (Grandma Mall), sent Bryn a musical birthday card with the "Chicken Song". Sabryn loves to dance and as soon as she opened it she started to shake her little booty.  It was so cute but we are getting really tired of the song at this point.  We had to take the card away after about 30 minutes to give us a break.

Sabryn is totally walking now and has even begun to learn to run.  She is such a cute little walker.  Her 28 inch stature is so cute to watch.  She is small but so mighty. Most of the pictures we take are blurry of her walking  because she starts running towards the camera as soon as she sees it.

This is Bryn with her "crazy hair" right before bath time!

The cute outfit that her Aunt Lauren got her for her birthday!

This was Bryn eating some french fries at McDonalds.

When Lauren & I flew back from Cancun (where we went to attend brother Dustin's wedding), Lauren had a layover in Dallas for 2.5 hours. So, she left the airport and went to get something to eat with us (and so she could see Bryn for an hour or so).  Look closely at Sabryn's hair. She looked like a Viking Warrior with her Daddy doing her hair for five days.  Notice, Sabryn does not look happy in the pic! Would you with hair coming out of the sides of your head? Probably not...but at least Daddy tried!

#6 One Year Old Pictures, Opening Birthday Presents & Climbing the Stairs

Today Sabryn had her one year old birthday pictures taken. She got up at 8:00 this morning (which is really rare for her since she usually slepts til 9:30 or 10:00) and I was praying she'd take a morning nap before pictures at noon but...NOPE!  I was really worried about how she would do but she completed 89 pictures and was awesome! Here are several pics of the big birthday girl! ENJOY!

Sabryn hated sitting on this block. She wanted to jump off and run...so all the pics with the "block 1" are not very good! :(

I love this one because you can see her 3 botton teeth. What a pretty smile she has!

She did this with her tongue in about 30 pictures today.  Don't know why but it sure was cute!

She loved these flowers so much she was trying to eat them! (and there's that crazy tongue again!)

One of my favorites!

She is walking 90% of the time now...so she kept coming after the photographer.  Her outfit is a 6-9 mo. and you can see it still is a little big but I love those colors on her.

So, after our picture taking adventure she took a 3.5 hour nap and then she opened some gifts and had her birthday cupcake.

 

She is kissing her new hair clips! 

 New baby doll from Grandma Mall.

She loves the baby doll already! It was attached to her the rest of the evening.

New outfit from Auntie Lauren.  She is the most excited about the hair clips though!

She wanted to grab the candle so bad that Deke had to stand away from her.

 She was mad.

She loved the cupcake but didn't get too messy.  She kept stopping and looking at how messy her hands were getting and then licking them.

She's blowing us kisses because we are taking pictures!

She thought it was so funny.  She couldn't breathe very well

(look at the cake in her nose) and she would blow air through her nose and giggle.

She found this much easier too just eat directly off the tray

...she wasn't all about getting her hands too dirty.  TOO FUNNY!

#5 HOUSTON..we have a climber...ugh!

Today we got up and got Sabryn dressed for her one year old pictures. I had called the studio on Sunday and asked if I needed to make an appointment for Tuesday and they said "no" and to just come on in because they normally aren't too busy on that day.  So, Deke and I got Sabryn dressed and ready...drove 25 minutes to the studio only for them to tell us they were too busy to take her picture until either 2:30, 3:00 or 6:00...REALLY! Do they know what one year olds are like in the middle of nap time? I was really frustrated because she was all dressed and we were THERE!  So, I have SCHEDULED for her to go at noon tomorrow.

Today our Little Missy, decided to start her stair climbing adventures and in the span of 15 seconds of me running to get the camera she was already up 6 stairs.

6 Steps Up!

Standing up on the 5th step...I was a little nervous!

2nd step up ...she just got done clapping for herself!

Sitting down to scoot down to the next step! She's concentrating so hard!

One step to go...look at her fancy zig-zag hair...her Mama has got some mad skillz! :)

She would stop on a step and smile and clap for herself... then she'd blow us kisses. It was so cute but I was gritting my teeth taking these pics hoping she wouldn't fall.  She hates going down the steps backward. She would rather sit down and scoot down to the next step.  I guess we will have to practice.

Sabryn is a year old in 4 more days and she is such a tiny little thing.  She is 27.75 inches long and only 17.5 pounds,  The outfit she is wearing is a 3-6 months and it fits her perfectly. She has pretty big feet (almost out of a size 2) and her fingers are so long but I think she is just going to be short and mighty.

~Jen

#4 Starting to walk more than she crawls.

This afternoon for Sabryn first afternoon nap, she decided to take off her baby mobil that hangs over her crib and then started laughing. This told me "Button" (Sabryn) is awake. She is starting to walk more than she crawls. She is moving around the house that much faster. One minute she is watching Olivia (her favorite cartoon) and the next thing you know we are calling her name and she can be anywhere... the master bedroom closet, cat room, throwing things in the master tub and of course she is always laughing, etc... Always an adventure with her.


She is starting to mimic emotions from TV. Today she was watching an episode of "Olivia" where their was a scene that showed kids crying. I was feeding her in her highchair and she was glued to the TV while eating, when all of a sudden she started to cry and show a sad face. My wife Jen turned to me and said "What did you do"?  "Nothing!" I said.  Jen came over to console her and quickly figured out that she was mimicking the crying babies on TV. It is incredible to watch her emotions and character start to develop. On the other hand we are starting to see the tantrum and fits she's starting to throw when she doesn't get her way. (What a baby Diva she can be!!) Of course me - I'm a sucker for it but Jen dosen't stand for it. I need to do a better job of listening to Jen when she tells me things about Sabryn's development, especially her sleep schedule.


She is also starting to get a little dare devilish as she explores the house and tries to climb things. Jen calls her toes "the eagle claws" because she digs them into our bodies to climb on us. Today she climbed up on the couch and was watching TV from the middle of the couch. I was puzzled and proud at the same time trying to figure out how she got up there without any assistance or anything to push off of. She keeps Jen and me on our toes.


I love listening to her have her own conversations in baby language everyday. It's hilarious. She's starting to mimic Jen and I on the phone. She will grab the house phone, our cell phones, or even the remote control and hold it a little behind her ear and speak baby language on it as if she is really on the phone. She does a lot when she is watching Jen on the phone. We get a good laugh out of it.


I love spending every moment with her. She gives me gifts of laughter all throughout the day. The Lord could not have blessed me with a bigger gift than having Sabryn and my wife in my life. Looking forward to all the great adventures of being a father to a wonderfully happy child. Her smile takes way all of my pain. Love her to pieces. Thank you God!!!
~Deke/Daddy

#3 Day to Relax

Today was a very uneventful day. Sabryn slept in until 9 and went for a nap at 11:30 and then slept until 3.  She is a great sleeper...however, she woke up like a bear! The rest of the day she was crawling all over me digging her little eagle claw toes into me. She had to be on the couch if I was on there...the second I put her down the whining started. This went on until almost 9:00 and finally it was bedtime.

This is Bryn about 5 minutes after she fell asleep one night.

She does great when she goes to bed at night.  She just gets an 8 oz. bottle, music for 10 minutes, softie blankie by her face and she is out! She is the best...but if you ever try and lay or sleep with her... be prepared to be kicked by her feet, slapped by her hands and her head jammed into your face or gut. She is all over the place and will remain dead asleep. Plus, she never stays covered up. Gotta love her.

This is the typical way we find her sleeping most nights. LOL!  Notice the million blankets she has pushed around her!

Tomorrow I am going to go to my school to began to put my room together for the upcoming school year. I am praying they have already done the carpets so I can get some stuff done.  I am teaching 7th grade math again this year and am really looking forward to it since it will be my second year at that position and I will feel a little bit more confident. Sabryn will probably stay home with Daddy.  I leave from my brother Dustin's wedding in Cancun on Friday morning so Deke and I are going to celebrate Sabryn's birthday a little early (I'm sure she won't mind).

~Jen

#2 DAY 2...I can't believe it..2 days in a row!

Took no pictures today to post but Sabryn is almost totally walking now.  She started about a month ago when she was 11 months old, letting go of furniture and just standing up in the middle of crawling but now she easily lets go of furniture and adult assistance.  She does prefer to crawl over walk but she is getting more confident on just taking off on her own. 




She will be 1 year old in 7 more days.  Where has time gone. Here's a little bit about the past 6 months with our angel:


In mid- October 2009 we got word that Sabryn (whose given name was Aaliyah Lee) was placed in foster care. From the time we knew she was in foster care, Deke and I began the process of getting her placed with us in Texas for adoption. On Monday, February 8th at 3:15pm I received a call from Sabryn's case worker that the judge had ruled that she be placed with us (family) immediately.We flew to Denver to pick up Sabryn on February 10, 2010 at 2:30.  She was 6 months and 3 days old.  It had been a long 4 months of waiting but she was with a wonderful foster family that loved her very much.


Below is the write up that I sent out to friends and family on February 14th, 2010 when we finally arrived home in Texas with our baby girl.

#1 DAY 1 of My Blogging Adventure!

This is Sabryn "helping" with the dishes! She is 10 months old here. So stinkin' cute!

Well, I enjoy reading other's blogs so I decided to start one up of my own.  I am really doing this for Sabryn to read when she is older. I probably won't be a daily blogger but I hope to post stories/adventures once a week. Thanks for sharing in the best experience of my life, being a mother!