Nine Months - A New Age Dawns

playing in the park - happy to be 9 mos!

Our little babe turned 9 months on Friday. Nine months and she's like a new babe - cute as ever but her gross motor skills are rearing at speeds mom and dad aren't quite ready for. Her crawls now span great distances between rooms and down hallways; she crawls to tables and pulls herself up to standing, bumping her head along the way. Her forehead is now decorated with bruises and cuts documenting her achievements and trials. Our next task is to baby-proof the house.

I remember visiting my cousins Amy and Kyle in Burnsville, NC over Christmas. They have a beautiful home, but not many decorations around. At first I thought this was a reflection of Amy's simplicity until I left my water glass on the end table that night only to wake to it being smashed by their one-year old James. Now I get it.

On other news: fine motor development - We've worked on perfecting her pincher grab, which now is utilized to pick up every speck of whatever on the floor. Tatum is better than a vacuum. I've come to adore stories of babes eating cat poop and pebbles and coins - putting my conscious at ease if and when Tatum swallows something not so ordinary. Children are resilient and antibodies are good - thus my new mantra. And the ER is less than a mile away!

Tatum and I visited the ER last weekend at the suggestion of my brother in law Andy, who is a pediatrician. Since our trip to El Capitan, Tatum was sick and running a fever over 100 degrees for a few days accompanied by a tight cough. Since bronchitis can turn quickly in babes, Andy suggested that we take her into the hospital and get a better look at her sickness. After four hours, Tatum came out A-Okay and a diagnosis of an ear infection. She finished her 10-day dose of antibiotics yesterday. And the whole family is feeling better.

our sick babe giving herself an oxygen treatment in the ER

Birthday Get-a-way

In celebration of momma's 30th birthday, we took three days off work, packed the car with our bikes, hiking packs, camp stoves, lanterns and cooler and headed up California's beautiful coast line to El Capitan Canyon.



Our first stop was lunch in Ventura with our cousins Robbie, Luther and Allison who are here for the season establishing their newest Drop Zone - a sky diving adventure business. If any locals are interested in sky diving, let me know and I can tell you the best place in town to go! I however choose ground adventures, and have yet to take the dive.



So this is it - our birthday celebration cabin in a seaside canyon retreat - complete with a king size bed, kitchenette, bathroom, living space, front deck, fire pit and picnic table. Please visit my flicker page (upper left corner of the blog) to check out more views and sites.

On my 30th birthday day, February 12th, the family awoke sick. The only benefit to a sick babe is that she sleeps in and is super cuddly in and out of bed. So we spent the better part of the morning in bed with Tatum. After a hearty nap we bundled her up and went in search of the best source of Vitamin D the canyon and beaches had to offer.

Since our last ride I was informed that babes under one year old should not be in a bike seat because their neck muscles are not yet sufficiently developed. So we now know that, however, we evaluated the risks, and choose to take a short 5 minute ride to the beach for a picnic lunch among the crashing waves and flying birds. Tatum loved it and so did we.

The air was chilly but as you can see the skies were blue. After lunch we rode home for another well deserved nap. Upon waking we took to the hills for a quick hike to the summit. Turning 30 takes perspective, and this hike gave it to me.

On our return, we jotted over to the hot tub for a sunset soak and let Tatum enjoy us poolside.

The next day brought rains and our return trip home. But the fortune of rains is rainbows.



Memories were made.

Pumpkin Allergy

The first food allergy has appeared - PUMPKIN. Interesting huh? I thought so. Other gourds have been fine; but there's something about the pumpkin. If anyone has any leads on this subject, I would love the references.

In the beginning we thought it was teething and day care too thought "oh yes, Tatum is teething." She was waking every two to three hours in the night and was fussy during the day. I began using Humphrey's Teething Pellets at the blog advice of my LA friend corsakti (great blog, check it out). It had to be teething, it just had to be.

After two nights of crazy waking, I noticed on the third evening that Tatum had a rash on her body - red spots all over the abdomen, and spots on her face. I laid off the pumpkin only in attempt to provide her what she loved during this teething time - peas, sweet potatoes and peaches.

It wasn't for until the next day that the word "allergy" popped into my head. I referenced my baby food cookbook and sure enough the symptoms were not teething at all.

Tatum is nearly nine months old and not a tooth in site. Andrew reminded me that for the last three months I've stated "oh, she must be teething" at least two dozen times. I'm sure I will know when it truly is teething time - nevertheless we're laying off the pumpkin. Perhaps we'll turn the leftovers into a soup for us!

Crawling Straight Into My Heart

For those that know me, I am a hippy at heart and follow the moon as it waxes and wanes. This past full moon brought with it my 30th year birthday and Tatum's 9 month birthday - yes, we were both born on a full moon day. After her bath and massage that evening, Tatum explored the bedroom floor with her new found ability to get up on all fours and move. She scooted and rolled and crawled to the corner of the room. So I called for her to come back to me - "Tatum, come to momma, come on over here..." - she looked up with her toothless grin and charged forward in huffing laughter moving across the floor and then lurched herself onto my lap. The girl crawled straight into my heart. These are the glory moments of motherhood.

A visit from Lala and A brings surprises

My folks are known as Lala and A to the grandbabes. They visited this weekend from Greenville, NC in an attempt to avoid the snow and cold and experience sunny So Cal; but the weather had other plans. It seems that Lala and A brought a bit of the stormy weather with them - but inside the Shearer home there was nothing but clear skies and sunshine brought by the excitement of Tatum's first crawl! It was quite auspicious to have Lala and A here to witness a first in Tatum's life. Now it's time for Momma and Poppa to clean house.