BEST WEEKEND EVER

This week we've been cooped up in the house because the air quality has been so severely impacted by the 1100 wildfires all over northern California. However, on Saturday afternoon the ocean breeze came in, the sunshine made its way through the smoke, and we decided that we should take advantage of a couple of good hours outdoors before the bad air returned. So, on Saturday afternoon, Vita had her first picnic! She got lots of attention, and had a great time. We've been enjoying our lawn whenever we get the chance to. After all, having caused Vita's botulism, it may be the most expensive lawn ever so we might as well enjoy it... Good friends, a bit of food, a new cocktail that I call the "Laura Palmer", and life is good. Also, the very small fig tree that I planted when we first moved in (I call it "figlet") finally produced its first fig. On Sunday morning we slept in late. Then, Vita practiced more sitting up. She's doing great, and she can already sit up for five minutes at a time! Here's a side profile... Vita has also been saying "dada"! Actually, she's been saying "dadadadadadadadadadadadad..." Does that count as her first word? I say... YES, IT DOES! I've been trying to get a good video of her saying dada, but she's really good at stopping as soon as she sees the camera, so this was the best I could do. Now that Vita is sitting up, she can enjoy all of her old toys in new ways. This activity triangle is now more fun than when she used to use it during tummy time! And I just have to point out how cute this outfit is... check out her dinosaur onsie with a matching spikey pointed hat! The rocking chair is more fun now, too. She can rock in it all by herself! (Well, with VERY close supervision, that is...) Finally, to celebrate her new skill, we bought a "sitting up toy". She loves this activity table, and it's quite educational. It's got the ABC song, numbers up to 10, it operates in English and Spanish, and it operates in "learning mode" and "music mode" (as if music doesn't count as learning). Anyway, it's great, and it's something she couldn't have played with before she was sitting up. Also, as she starts learning to stand, she can lean on this toy for some support. Here's little Vita playing indepently with her new toy. After all that has happened, I find so much joy in every little acheivement she makes... and every happy day that we share together seems like the best day ever.

Sitting Pretty

Paralyzing illness? What paralyzing illness? This baby doesn't look like she's recovering from paralysis. In fact, she's getting close to sitting up again. Vita can sit up for a few seconds, sometimes even a minute, before toppling over. Vita has also made peace with the lawn that might have given her botulism. (It's likely that when we planted this grass just a few days before Vita got sick, spores of botulism were released from the soil into the air, and Vita inhaled them.) Don't worry, it's safe for Vita to play on the lawn, and we plan to have a lot of summer fun on this lawn! Vita is also starting to eat more solids, including yam (which she loves). In this picture, Ernie is trying to feed her, but I keep distracting her.

は、公平な

Today, we went to the Japanese Cultural Fair. It was another beautiful, yet hot, summer day in Santa Cruz. The sky was blue, and the clouds were spectacular.

We slathered Vita up in sunscreen, grabbed a sun hat, and headed out. At the Fair, we met up with some good friends (not pictured... because we forgot). Again, Vita slept through much of the heat.

Once we found a shady spot, Vita enjoyed watching the martial arts demonstration and listening to the drums from afar.

She particularly liked the people watching from her unique vantage point. Vita loves being high up in the air!

Sorry, Vita. No green tea ice cream for you! Note - a good friend made Vita a dress with Japanese girls in kimonos... and I didn't think to dress her in that for the fair. D'oh!

Summer!

Today is the first day of Summer, and we're having record breaking heat. It was 102 degrees in Santa Cruz today! Fortunately, Vita knows how to beat the heat. She napped through the hottest part of the day, took a cool bath, and then while she was still damp from her bath, she was having fun "standing" in front of the fan. I think it's just about time to start stocking up on all kinds of summer supplies, like a kiddie pool, a sandbox, some bubbles... It's going to be a fun summer!

Fathers Day 2 - Conclusion

Here's Ernie and Vita wrapping up a boring (aka luxurious) Fathers Day with an afternoon nap.

Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to all Dads, most of all to Vita's Dad Ernie! To celebrate Fathers Day, Ernie and I did a little shopping (as I didn't have his gift yet... go figure) and went out to a huge sushi dinner. Then we came home and played. Here's Vita in some overalls that were once worn by her cousin Dan. Vita is waving hello. Isn't it great to see Vita looking like herself again? As you can see, Vita has Ernie wrapped around her little finger. It's so nice to have something to post about, other than illness and recovery. But, I suppose I'll give a recovery update too. You may have noticed that Vita has no more tubes! Feeding has been going really well, so Ernie removed the feeding tube today. Getting Vita to eat is still a struggle, and takes a long time, but it's happening. Although the tube is out, we'll continue to work with lactation consultants and weigh her daily to make sure she's gaining weight... but we feel confident that she's getting all the nutrition she needs. In fact, she'll probably start back in on solid foods next week. In other exciting news, Vita is finally big enough (sort of) to wear the cutest jacket we've ever seen. These pictures were taken yesterday, so Vita still had the tube at that point. The feeding tube didn't seem to bother Vita at all, but we're still glad it's gone.

Home At Last

At last... after 17 days, we've been released from the Stanford Children's Hospital! Vita is still learning how to eat on her own again. So, she still has the feeding tube going through her nose into her tummy (and she'll probably need the feeding tube for a while). Generally, the hospital doesn't like to discharge people with a feeding tube, so we had to prove ourselves by being trained on how to insert and remove the feeding tube ourselves at home. Anyway, no pictures tonight because I'm exhausted. We still have a long road ahead of us with intense physical and occupational therapy, and lactation and neurological follow up as well. But we're past the worst of it, and we're well on the way to recovery. Deep sigh... THANK YOU SO MUCH - to everyone who called, wrote letters, came to visit from close or from far away, who brought food and treats for us and the hospital staff, gave books and music and toys to Vita, who sent nice emails or posted comments, and kept us in your thoughts. We were so overwhelmed by support. There's no need to continue to post daily updates, so I guess this will go back to being a regular old baby blog... that I will update randomly with normal baby activities (along with period recovery updates).