Progress

Hi Sidra,
you have been making some big strides lately. We have been feeding you some solid food lately, and you are getting to like it. Well, I'll say this, the second time we got the spoon out in front of you you knew exactly what to do. You nearly lunged for it. Anyway your first food is rice cereal mixed with your mom's milk. You seem to like it. You are still a pretty messy eater, though. I like to use the bibs with plastic fronts because what drops on the bib can be easily scooped up and returned to your mouth. We tried some sweet potatoes with you yesterday, but I guess you didn't like those as much. I wasn't there to see, so I don't know. We will try those again later today. The trick is to introduce new foods one at a time so we can see if you might be allergic to the new food.

Also, you are getting really good at sitting up on your own. This morning when you woke up from your first nap, I sat you up on the bed and let you have some toys nearby and you stayed sitting and entertained yourself for about 20 minutes. We still don't leave you sitting on your own on hard surfaces, but on the bed we can leave you for a while. You still like standing up a lot. You can't do that on your own yet, but are getting close. I can believe that you will walk before your first birthday, maybe even sooner than that.

You do like the water, too. We took you out for a backyard swim in your little pool the other day. I used the sun to give you a nice warm pool to swim in, and you had a great time. You had trouble sitting on your own because the bottom of the pool was so slick, but you even enjoyed laying down in the water.
love you,
aba

Noahs Quest 2007

Hey Sidra,
We just had the second annual Noah's Quest this last weekend. It's an event your mom and I created to help people remember your brother and also raise awareness of stillbirth and infant loss. It turned out pretty well, we had about the same number of walkers/runners as last year. We had a few problems with the results again, and we will figure out how to fix those problems. You got to participate, too. Your cousin Audrey and her friend Rachel Perry pushed you around the course in the 5km run, using the jogger/trailer that we give you rides in. You wore your Noah's Quest shirt like we did, and were a big part of the day.
One thing that everyone does at Noah's Quest is light a candle for the baby that they lost. We of course lit one for Noah, and I was holding you when I lit one, and told you that I hoped you would light one yourself next year. It was the hardest part of the day for me, holding you in one arm and lighting a candle for your brother with the other. It represented the best and worst events in my life. Your birth and Noah's stillbirth.
At the same time, I felt very proud of your mother and myself for providing this event for others like us. The grief associated with losing a child at birth or shortly after is very misunderstood by those around the parents of the loss. Fortunately we had Pat Schwiebert speak to the group and help explain what parents who have lost kids go through. Not only does Noah's Quest help us remember him, it helps other parents remember their lost children. The way Pat finished her talk was by saying parents of lost children feel "if you ask my child's name, I may cry, but if don't ask about my child, you'll break my heart."
The pictures here were taken by your Uncle David, who came all the way from Boston to attend the event.
You got a little bit sick the night before the event. You woke up about 3:30am with a runny, stuffy nose. Actually, you were still sleeping, but your mom and I were awake worrying about you because your breathing was so noisy. So, it was a hard day for us, but you were great all day in spite of your illness. I am getting the idea that you are going to be a tough little cookie, and will be happy most of the time in spite of what we put you through.
More soon about how you are progressing really fast recently.
Love, aba

Toe Sucker

Hi kid,
Your mom's brother mentioned that the blog hadn't been updated in about a month, so we better put something out this weekend.
You have a talent now that you might not have for much longer. You can get your toes into your mouth, and you don't seem to mind doing it. So, two of these pictures are of you doing that.
Since the last post, we had a fun family weekend in Sunriver. All the aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents were there. We had a great time and you got a lot of attention.
Also, we did some footage of you sitting up this weekend. I decided I should do it soon because you were getting too good at it and soon you wouldn't doing your funny fallovers anymore. We sit you up on the big bed so you won't hurt yourself when falling. Yesterday we practiced sitting and you started to get it but still were falling quite a bit. Today when I got the video camera you sat up for what seemed like about 2 minutes before going down. You seemed to be about twice as good at keeping your balance as yesterday. So I am glad that I got the video today. Next weekend will probably be too late.
I am only a week and half away from being through with school for the summer, so I will be able to update the blog more often and make more videos of you. We also did video of you in the Johnny Jump up, so that will probably be in the next posted video.
In two weeks will be the second annual Noah's Quest. It's a walk/run event in honor of your brother and other lost children. Your mom and I worked on that this weekend, scouting the new route and making a map. This year you will have your own t shirt, and you will get to do the walk with one (or some!) of your cousins. Today you went with us when we checked out the route, riding in the backpack like on the mother's day hike. This time, we put many layers on you, not wanting to repeat the our mistake. I think you were warm enough. You didn't complain too much, even though our full walk was probably as long as on Mother's day.
Right now you are listening to your mom reading you a book. But I had to interrupt that sentence to get a binky for you because you were 'grunting.'
Ok, that's all for now,
a new post soon!
love, aba