First fall

I think this is my favorite picture of Scarlett ever. I kind of wish she wasn't wearing such a Halloween outfit, because otherwise I'd frame it and put it on the wall. Holly took it. Turns out she's not just an excellent babysitter but also an awesome photographer. Who knew?



Time to wear coats already!

Luckily, we have some cute coats.

I already posted a bunch of Halloween pictures on Facebook and emailed them to non-Facebookers, but you'll have to indulge me. Here are a bunch more of her green-stinger-tailed, straight-from-China-via-eBay bee costume.










Scarlett's finally starting to get some of her top teeth. That means she's drooling like crazy and chewing on everything she can get her hands on. Here's her favorite trick at the moment. No hands!





"Sorry, mom, I'm teething. What do you want me to do? Also, do you have anything else for me to gnaw on?"

And finally, here's my tall girl getting ready for bed tonight. I bought these new pajamas in the 18-month size, and holding them up in the store I swore they'd be way, way too long for her. But they fit just fine!

Nanny cam

Our nanny, Holly, gave me a disk with a bunch of pictures she'd taken of Scarlett recently. She had some good ones, so I thought I'd share!



























We're all amused by how transfixed Scarlett is by the TV. I'm sure it won't be as amusing when she's a couch potato who wants to watch TV all day rather than playing outside, but for now, it's still amusing. She has her favorite shows (Ni Hao Kai-Lan and Wonder Pets) and she'll watch the whole episode if you let her.




And here's a video Holly took of Scarlett babbling. It's from the beginning of September. She's saying a whole bunch more sounds now, but for a while there, mama and baba were her go-to favorites all day long.

Scarlett talking from Shelley Mann on Vimeo.

Eye surgery and other adventures

I think we've pretty much established that Scarlett is one brave little girl. So it was no surprise that she did just great during her eye surgery last month, but I was proud nonetheless.

Even though we had to get up way earlier than usual, and she wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight the night before, and she had to wear a scratchy gown that made her eczema flare up, and she had to be poked and prodded by a bunch of nurses and doctors pre-op, in spite of all that she stayed calm and happy for most of the morning before heading into surgery.

Here she is hanging out in the pre-op room. These are the last couple funny-face-from-crossed-eyes picture we got before here eyes were straightened:



Just relaxing minutes before the surgery. Her casually crossed legs kill me.

The actual surgery took a bit more than an hour, and everything went according to plan. Basically, the doctor weakened the muscles in her inner eye so the outer eye muscles can get stronger and her eyes will stop being pulled inward.

The only brief scare came when Scarlett had a little trouble getting her oxygen levels back up as she came out of the anesthesia. At first they kept us in the waiting room, but after they finally let me come back and see her, she stopped crying and her levels slowly went back up. Once they were convinced she was OK, we only had to stick around the hospital another couple hours and then they let us go home!

Here's Scarlett one day after the surgery:

Her eyes were really read, but she didn't seem to be in any pain. She hardly even rubbed at them, and I was convinced she would. The doctor said we would notice a difference right away in terms of alignment, but that it would take about two months for them to completely straighten out as much as they're going to.

These were taken four days post-surgery (at this point, her eyes were just pink):



And this is one week afterwards:

By a week after the surgery, you couldn't even see any redness. We had a follow-up appointment with her doctor about a week and a half afterward, and she was thrilled with the improvement she saw. I'm really glad we did it, even though she's so young. Of course, since we are way way past our out-of-pocket maximums for the year, it was basically a freebie procedure, but I think even the hassle was well worth it.

It's funny, everywhere we go, everyone who looks at Scarlett comments on how pretty her eyes are. So if people are going to be noticing her eyes for the rest of her life, I'm glad they're going to be straight!

Here are a few photo shoots showing off her new and improved eyes:








We've done other things since my last update, too. Like Scarlett got to swing in a real swing for the first time! I took her to the Jeffrey Mansion playground in Bexley. She loved swinging, at least until a three-year-old boy started swinging next to us and then she couldn't take her eyes off him and didn't so much care about swinging anymore.






Scarlett also went to her first wedding! Jason's friend Mike got married in September, and we took Scarlett with us to the wedding part (grandma and grandpa babysat during the reception.)

We didn't get too many pictures, unfortunately, but here are a couple where you can see Scarlett's dress:




And here's Jason and I at the reception:


She's also still doing great at eating solid foods. We've made our way through most of the single-ingredient cereals, fruits and vegetables, so now we're getting started on mixing stuff together. Also she is just starting to be able to eat the little Gerber Puffs things without gagging or spitting them back out. Her favorite foods so far are prunes, pears, sweet potatoes, and apples. Least favorites are green beans and peas, both of which inspired lots of disgusted faces.

Here are some happier mealtime faces:



And finally, here are some of our best family portraits yet! Everyone's looking at the camera and we're even all kind of smiling! If only they were a tiny more in focus ...


(Whew! Promise I won't wait so long between posts next time.)