Sabah's Party

Sabah turns 1 in a little over two weeks, but she had her party today. My nephew Elijah's birthday is on the 5th, and since my parents live in Eugene (about two hours away), we decided to celebrate both birthday and Mother's Day today. It was a very busy day. Sabah had fun opening presents, but I think the thing she enjoyed the most was digging into her birthday cake. It had a couple of big strawberries on it, and before I could even blink, she snagged one off and put the WHOLE thing in her mouth. I had to pry her lips open and almost needed the jaws of life to get her mouth open....she did not want to give up that berry. But, I got it out, cut it into bite size pieces and then let her go at the cake. She LOVED it. I had to cut her off since I didn't want her to eat the entire thing.

Here are a few pictures of the day (sorry for those of you on facebook....they are pretty much the same pictures).

Swimming Lessons and Other Stuff

Yesterday Sabah had her first swimming lesson at Matt Dishman Community Pool. I had a feeling she would like it because she LOVES her bath time, but I was ill prepared for HOW much she would like it. Let me just say that this child is a fish!!! She was slightly hesitant at first, I think mostly because of the temperature of the water, but once she got in there and started kicking and splashing around, she just wouldn’t stop. It was so darn cute and I really enjoyed seeing her have so much fun. We are definitely going to be spending a lot of time at the pool this summer.

Being a single mom, I had no one to take pictures of her in the pool, but I did get one of her in the locker room (actually, you aren’t supposed to take pictures in the locker room, but no one was around, so I snuck one in). I’m going to ask the parents of the other baby in the class if they can take pictures and e-mail me some (they were taking TONS of their daughter).

Other happenings worth noting:

Sabah is getting her top two front teeth. One is coming in faster than the other, so she has a lopsided smile. It’s so cute. She had a rough time cutting these two teeth…..runny nose, diaper rash (her first one ever), crabbiness. It was not fun. But, once they cut through the gums, she was much much happier….and so was I.

She is also starting to want to stand on her own, and will let go of whatever she is holding onto, to see how long she can balance. It is all of about 2-3 seconds at this point, but it is so exciting for both of us. She gets so excited that she actually GIGGLES! And for anyone who keeps up on this blog, you know that Sabah does not giggle. Oh, she is a happy, smiley baby, but she does not giggle. So it is really exciting to see her laughing. Her 1st birthday is in three weeks and I am betting that she will be walking by then….she is soooooo close.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This girl still continues to eat like a horse. She is hardly interested in her bottle anymore, and I have a tough time getting her to drink all her formula. I even dropped her from three 8 oz bottles down to three 6 oz bottles and she STILL does not want to finish them. As soon as she turns one, she is getting switched to whole milk, and we will start switching her to a sippy cup. I can’t believe how fast she is growing up and how much she is changing.

We are going to Great Wolf Lodge in Olympia, WA this weekend to celebrate my nephews 6th birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIJAH), and I am really looking forward to it. Great Wolf Lodge is an indoor water park, and since I now know Sabah LOVES the water, I think it is going to be a blast. I’m not looking forward to parading around in my swimming suite all weekend, but will suck it up to enjoy the time with Sabah and nephews. Oh the things we do for our children.

On Mother’s Day (my first mother’s day), my parents will be in Portland and we will celebrate Sabah’s birthday, Elijah’s birthday, and of course Mother’s Day. It is going to be one busy weekend. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures.

I don’t know yet what I will do on Sabah’s actual birthday. It’s a workday, so we will probably just celebrate with an Ethiopian dinner and a small cake.

Beautiful Weekend

We had a beautiful weekend here in Portland. On Sunday, Sabah and I joined my sister and her family on a picnic at the park. We spent the day feeding the ducks, swinging, eating sand (Sabah, not me), and just enjoying the sun-shine. It was a really nice, relaxing day.

Sabah looking at..........

The Geese and Ducks


Me pushing my fantastic nephews Ethan and Elijah



Sabah with her favorite Auntie watching me push Eli and Ethan



Sabah and mommy swinging

First Easter

Well, Sabah's first Easter was pretty uneventful. We did end up going down to Eugene to visit my parents, and she got her first chocolate bunny (thanks mom and dad.....I enjoyed it). Their Doxie just had puppies so Sabah had fun playing with the babies.

The Easter Bunny left her a basket, and she was pretty excited about that. She did NOT like the fake grass that came in it though. It was pretty funny....when she was stepping on it, she would lift her foot up, look around and start crying. I'm actually pretty happy that she didn't care for it, because it made keeping the house "grass" free, much easier.

I have a little bit of video, but I will have to try and figure out how to edit it before I post, otherwise you will all be bored out of your mind.

Mommy/Daughter Pictures

A few weeks ago, Sabah and I went down to get our first professional pictures taken together. I thought I was all smart when I blocked a time just after her nap and snack, thinking she would be in the perfect mood for the camera. Well, it might have worked if the studio wasn't running almost 30 minutes behind. By the time we got into the photo room, Sabah was getting a bit tired of sitting. Then, as soon as the camera came out, she refused to do anything except cling to me. It didn't turn out as I had hoped, but the cameraman managed to get a few good shots. The one below is one of my favorites.

Good Eats

On my way home from work today, I decided to stop for some Ethiopian food. My favorite restaurant, Burqitu, wasn't open, so I went to the restaurant three blocks from my house. I ordered their Mudai combo to go, which is a little bit of EVERYTHING, and then Sabah and I had a yummy feast.....with PLENTY left over for tomorrow. Sabah is getting very good at eating by herself (she of course is still VERY messy), and will eat ANYTHING I put in front of her. She LOVES Ethiopian food and was smiling and happy throughout our entire dinner.

YUM YUM

Sabah's Second Boo-Boo

OK, I'm really going to have to baby proof my house a little better. Sabah has suffered her second boo-boo. She is sooooo active, and gets so worked up trying to get from one place to another, that she forgets that she can't walk yet. She lost her balance and went face first into one of her toys. The result.....

Her First Fat Lip- it's a little hard to see, but the right side (her right) of her upper lip is swollen. Poor baby!

She cried for about 1 minute, and then off she went about her merry way.