Some Month 4 Photos

Somebody's teething! We're thinking that her "cold" symptoms earlier this week may have been related to teething. Claire is starting to enjoy gnawing on her cold toys. She is able to hold them in her mouth and free up her hands for other things.

Sasha is starting to see the benefit of having a baby around, as an alibi! Actually, Claire was more of a partner in crime, since she grabbed a shirt and yanked as Sasha jumped in the laundry basket.

Claire is getting more curious about our faces, and she likes being able to look us in the eye. Daddy is always obliging when it comes to helping her stand, especially during their diaper changing chats.

Rockin' and Rolling

We can't put Claire down on her back anymore. She immediately rolls onto her tummy! It's getting a little tricky to change her diapers and clothes because of this. We are actually going to get to start using the seat-belt on the changing table soon.

In other news although we live in the Bay Area, Yusing does not. He won the Bridge contest from the earlier post and therefore gets two free sentences on the blog post. We were expecting something a little easier to work into an everyday posting but Yusing decided to submit something hard to take out of context. Since it's his two free sentences (for everyone else its $1 a sentence) he's entitled to say what he wants. He says:

"Friends keep encouraging me to move back to the Bay Area, but without a job, it's difficult. I'm hoping a lucrative "manny" job opens up in the Sivitz household, just like Brittany Spears' household."

Our retort to this statement is move back to the Bay Area! It just so happens that we're not getting many applications for our "manny" job. Not sure why, we're offering unlimited free sentences on the blog AND the priviledge of looking after one of the world's premier experts on drooling, fist-eating, and rolling!

Bring on the Snot

The nasal bulb syringe is out of the package and getting alot of use! Claire has gotten her first cold, as of Sunday night. Brian and I have become pros at using the "snot sucker", and Claire doesn't seem to mind us sticking the blue tube up her nostrils. I guess she knows it's helping. No worries yet since her temp peaked only at 100.4 on Sunday night and is already back to normal. That was odd too -- Claire did not mind the first use of the rectal thermometer. I think it bothered us more than her!

Amidst the snot production and sneezing, Claire is still practicing her rolling from back to stomach. She seems to be really getting the hang of it going to the right, but going to the left is more tricky and she stops on her side to yell for a good 5 minutes before continuing on.

Claire seems to be really attached to the elephant in the photo. It plays a lullaby and she hugs it against her face as she falls asleep for nap times. We are sooo happy that Claire is a trooper. We can tell that she is uncomfortable, but she is still napping and feeding as usual, and giving us lots of smiles. Brian and I are MUCH bigger babies when we get colds.

The old tub has left the building

Wow, we have great neighbors. One of them, a man named Bob who is in his seventies, cheerfully volunteered to help us remove our old bath tub yesterday. He marched right over, strapped the 200+ lb tub to his dolly, and rolled it right out! We don't know what we would have done without him. We got the new tub in place ourselves, as it was considerably lighter. Many thanks, Bob!

Brian is making excellent progress on the guest bathroom remodel job. He has put in the ceiling drywall, wiring for new lights and a fan, and new water valves. Claire will be taking a bath in there in no time! While Daddy is busy working in the bathroom, she and I have been pruning all the plants in the gardens. Technically Claire just sits in her bumbo and plays with toys while Mommy does all the pruning. But it's work to her!

This weekend we hiked at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, again carrying Claire in the back pack. There were lots of redwoods as the name suggests but also some great big ponderosa pines to our surprise, at the observation deck. For all you locals, it's a great time to hike in the redwood forests because the rhododendrons are blooming and the creeks are flowing. Claire stared at the trees as usual and fought a nap to the best of her abilities. (Fortunately she caved and napped on the way home.) Brian found a four-leaf clover! Can you see it in the photo?

Guess and Win 2

This is NOT the Golden Gate bridge. Do you know which bridge it is?

The winner's get 2 free sentences in the next blog post.

(The DRs. Juliens are not allowed to guess)

Site Under Construction

As you have probably noticed, we're doing some remodelling to our blog site. The primary objective is to have a bigger space for our posts and photos, since we tend to write an awful lot. It looks like this template will accomplish that goal. We're still playing around with a new title and color scheme.

Poor Kitty!

Sasha had a minor surgery on Tuesday to remove a quarter-sized lump on her back. We just feel awful for her, but 24 hours later she's acting like nothing happened. She is aware of the bald spot however and keeps trying to groom her fur around it in a "comb-over" style. This was the first time we've ever seen her coming out of anesthesia and it was scary! She was extremely aggressive and would NOT get into her pet carrier until mommy came back there and pet her. I thought she was going to bite my hand off based on how she was attacking the cage door, but fortunately she recognized my smell and my hand is still attached. We'll get the pathology results in one week.

Claire is such a big girl now, she gets to ride in a back-pack

on our hikes! We went on a short hike over the weekend and she seemed to really enjoy her new vantage point. She even napped for a good half hour with her head completely lolled over to the side. At four months old, she is such a happy gal and always smiling. We're having a ton of fun making goofy faces and noises at her, just to get a laugh. Claire weighed in at 14 lbs 11 oz, and 24.5 inches long at her doctor's visit last week. She did fine with the round of shots, and we feel lucky that she did not have a fever or any fussiness afterwards. Claire must be going through a bit of a growth spurt because she's now waking up starving during the night. This doesn't surprise us because she has been more active during the day, sitting, standing, grabbing toys, even talking to herself in the car.

Don't be fooled by the following photos...Claire does not know how to read yet, and she is not crawling yet. She just pretends to do these things to the best of her abilities. On her tummy, she picks up all four limbs and flails them around madly. Alas, this gets her nowhere but it's a heck of a workout! And if you hand her one of her books, she appears to be trying to turn the pages. I doubt that she actually knows what she is doing but it's pretty cute to see how hard she is concentrating, as if she really is reading.