(insert laugh here)….the past few weeks have found us entering into a phase where patience and sanity are pushing the limits. I consider my husband and I somewhat intelligent people; however, no school, seminar, or parenting website has even tried to explain how the heck you deal with a toddler’s tantrums. Are these the terrible twos?

It started about a month ago. I try and take every other Friday off to spend time with our Little Miss. She is 16 (almost 17) months old now and still fascinates me as I watch her advance. On this particular day, we did our usual morning breakfast, followed by a fantastic walk, great lunch with daddy, and then mama had this wonderful idea of getting the weekly grocery shopping done before the weekend rush started. Big mistake! As we walked into the doors of Target, Little Miss kindly started to tug away from me. Grabbing her to stop as I got a buggy, she proceeded to throw herself down to the ground, kicking and screaming bloody murder. Are you kidding me? With people looking and giving me the “control your kid” eye, my blood pressure began to boil. Do I spank her right here? Do I leave or become that parent that has a screaming kid throughout the store? I had no freaking clue. All I knew was I had a screaming kid and I was pissed. To add to that episode, these tantrums are starting to happen at restaurants or social events too. My husband is a lot more patient with her than I am, but we are still in this flux on how to discipline her effectively.

It’s good birth control I suppose, but how the heck do parents do it? We have been blessed with an extremely independent (i.e. stubborn) daughter. Watching her these past few months, I have been amazed at how quick she catches onto things, and more importantly how sneaky she is. She knows exactly what I’m telling her – I know it. But, when she is in a mood or doesn’t get what she wants, the battle is on and God help me it wears me out. How do we discipline a toddler? We both believe in spanking; however, I don’t think spanking every other minute is very productive. Then comes timeout which is a whole other story to me. She will not stay in the corner for anything. It’s so nerve racking. People are constantly asking when we are having another one. Our answer – as soon as we can tame this one! HA!

Long story short, just laugh with us during this stage. There are nights when we find ourselves exhausted and annoyed at each other because of different parenting tactics or having to leave an event early because we have an insanely grouchy Little Miss. I swear I’m starting to see gray hair and Dave laughs because he thinks he is balding more and more each day. All in all, I think this is God’s way of getting us back – for being the stubborn children we were to our parents and for reminding us that, even though intelligent, we sure as heck don’t know everything.

Much love,
Carla

A fun update on Miss Sasha. She is still the apple of our eye and getting extremely fun.  She is now 16 months old and we are entering into the “almost” terrible twos.  It’s so exciting to see her learning new things and becoming so curious about everything all the time.  With that curiosity, we have learned she definitely has a stubborn side (she gets this from her daddy as I have never known a Sepulvado to be stubborn!).  We have started introducing time out and I was raised with getting your butt beat when you needed it, so it’s been a mixture of both.

Besides her usual baby doll or kitchen set, she enjoys reading and LOVES music. Anytime there is music on, she dances around clapping and laughing. Not that I’m biased or anything, but the girl has some rhythm. She is very active in Gymboree and we are looking to start her at the Swim School hopefully this spring.  Her favorite song is “My Girl” which cracks me up because this was the song my dad and I used to dance to all the time.  Now, ole Pappaw has her listening to his oldies CDs so who knows what song will be next.  Nonetheless, each time her song comes on I enjoy seeing this huge smile pop up while she starts shaking her bootie in her car seat.  Let me repeat….I absolutely love this age!

Our televison watching consists of anything on LPB, esp Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, Super Why and I can’t forget Sesame Street with “Nelmo.” How do kids enjoy Elmo so dang much?  It’s crazy to me!  Her abilities are continually amazing me and while I know every parent thinks their child is a genius, I do wonder about how advanced she seems to be compared to other kids her age.  Her comprehension is by far greater than a typical 16 month old, and her coordination is dynamic.  I’m just nervous that the attitude is advanced as well and surely going to cause my first gray hairs to emerge.

In October, we celebrated her first birthday. I’ve always said I would not be one of “those parents” that has elaborate birthdays, so when I looked up and finally counted the 60 adults and 30 kids in our backyard, I had to laugh at myself and join the bandwagon. It was perfect though and we could not have asked for a better turn out. Sasha had such a great time and we’ve realized anything with the Anderson/Sepulvado family is never going to be small.

Daycare has been quite a challenge for us.  I didn’t want Sasha in a public daycare for the first year, so we have had my “adopted” mom (who is 70) coming to our house and watching her each week.  Although this set up is great, Lora’s health has been up and down prompting many days of Sasha being at work with mama.  Sasha at work with mama equals having to reschedule appointments with different clients and/or doctors (i.e. not fun).  It’s especially fun when the clients call and get to hear a crazy little one running crazy on the other end of the line.  Oh well….it’s my life and I love working and being a mama.  We have started taking her two days a week to a friend of ours that has two boys Sasha’s age.  It has been a great outlet to let Sasha play with other kiddos and to let her learn valuable lessons such as sharing.  I still know, however, that we will be looking at daycares sooner rather than later and my emotions are really mixed - Dave went to daycare; I was raised at home with Lora.

So in a nutshell, we have a very active, stubborn little girl in our lives right now.  Although we sit back and laugh most of the time, I have a feeling we better fasten our seatbelts because this is going to be one wild ride!

Much love,

Carla

We are gearing up for our baby girl’s first birthday and finding it very hard to believe that our lives were so boring one year ago at this time.

During this first year, I’ve learned a few odds and ends.  Here you go in case you need some laughs:

- sleep is not a necessity

- cuddles warm your heart

- hearing “mama or dada” for the first time is like having Santa deliver the best present ever

- grandparents are ridiculously cheesy – it’s hilarious!

- multitasking takes on a new meaning (for mamas especially)

- changing diapers really doesn’t effect you (unless they are REALLY bad)

- Friday nights become dinner at home and a movie (if you both are up long enough to watch it)

- Using the restroom alone, taking a quiet bubble bath, or enjoying your usual bi-monthly spa day are no longer

- the day begins between 5 and 6 AM and does not end until 8:30 PM (better known as “bedtime” in Andersonville

- sticky fingers, throw up and a little blood here and there just become normal

- And last but not least, reading to our baby and seeing her sleep…..OH….it just doesn’t get much better than that!

I would not trade for a second the joy that I have been able to share with Dave and Sasha this year.  Through all the late nights or rough days, I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and I can’t wait to celebrate this year’s birthday of our sweet baby girl!

Sasha was baptized on Sunday,  February 21, 2010.

As Christians this was a major event in lives of my wife and me.

Participating in the baptism of our daughter and pledging to raise her accordingly is a major responsibility that we are proud to accept.

We were excited to celebrate this occasion with family and friends.

Thanks to everyone who came to the baptism and after party.

Photos of the event are in the Photo Gallery.

Our church, First United Methodist Church in Shreveport, LA has posted the video online in both standard and HD formats:

Standard Definition  (642.7 MB)

HD (2.1 GB)

I am not sure how long the church will have the videos online, but will try to get only the Baptism portion online soon.

Update 2/28/2010:

Special thanks to Chris Benard for putting the baptism video on YouTube:

For several weeks Sasha has had a slight redness to her face and dry skin on her head. Carla and I didn’t think much of it because we were told her skin would dry out and begin peeling in the next few weeks.

A couple of nights ago while giving Sasha a bath, she began screaming. Carla looked at the top of her head and the rash had turned into small open sores and were actually bleeding a little bit around the scabs. She then realized she had just washed Sasha’s hair with Johnson’s No More Tears “Gentle as Water” Baby Shampoo, and assumed the soap was burning the rash. We had another bottle of Baby Shampoo, Aveeno, so Carla decided to finish the bath with Aveeno (see update below) rather than Johnson’s. Miraculously, Sasha stopped screaming immediately.

After a quick Google search I found the problem: Quaternium-15.

Quaternium-15 is a chemical used by Johnson’s (and several other brands) as an antibacterial. It kills bacteria by releasing formaldehyde. Apparently, many people get allergic contact dermatitis when exposed to the chemical, especially small children. Why does Johnson’s use a chemical known to cause allergic reactions in baby products?

After a few days of using the Aveeno shampoo instead of the Johnson’s the rash is completely gone. Sasha is now sleeping better and is far less cranky during the day. As a parent I wish we would have discovered this sooner. While some have major reactions to the chemical, luckily Sasha had a mild, slow progressing allergic reaction.

Hopefully this will help others experiencing the same problem.

More information on Quaternium-15 in Johnson’s products causing allergic contact dermatitis:

http://mommygoesgreen.com/tag/johnsons-baby-shampoo/

http://www.momsrising.org/blog/rub-a-dub-dub-watch-out-for-chemical-induced-rashes-in-the-tub/

http://www.safecosmetics.org/article.php?id=426

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/browse.php?category=baby%20shampoo&ingred06=705478

UPDATE: 2/19/2010:

Sasha is now having an allergic reaction to Aveeno as well.

She was fine with our original bottle, but when we ran out and bought the 2nd bottle she began to have a reaction to it as well.

There were no listed ingredient differences between the 2 bottles, so we have determined Sasha just has fairly sensitive skin.

We have now switched again to Burt Bee’s Baby Bees Shampoo & Wash.

So far, so good.

UPDATE: 11/10/2010:
As Sasha approached 1 year of age, her hair became more and more curly. We decided to try Johnson’s “No More Curls” shampoo.
The shampoo worked quite well and did not cause Sasha to develop a rash.
We have also since switched from Deft-like baby detergent for her clothes to the same detergent Carla and I use.

Sasha is doing great. It appears that her sensitivity to shampoo has disappeared now that she is over a year old.

I have separated 1st month photos from Birth & Homecoming and added a few new photos from around Halloween.

Also, I have added a new 2nd month album containing photos from Katie & Sean Ewell’s wedding last weekend.

More to come.

I finally finished adding hospital and homecoming photos to the gallery.

I have also removed the gallery password due to the high number of requests to see the photos.

Sasha Renee’ Anderson was born on October 5, 2009 at 11:23 am.

She was 7 lbs 13 oz and 20.5 inches long.

We are now home.

Sasha and Momma are both doing well.

Photos have been added to the photo gallery.

Well, time for another feeding…. more to come…

Unless Sasha decides to surprise us all this week, the doctor will be inducing labor next Monday on October 5th, 2009.

It’s getting close now.

Carla and I are as ready, excited, and nervous as any new parents can be

Can you believe this website!?  Someone’s daddy must be a techy type or something!

Dave and I are counting down the days until Sasha arrives and it’s officially starting to become real as mama bird is up all hours of the night, works all day, and tries to get some rest and relaxation that every keeps telling me I will need in between.  Due date is set as Dave mentioned before for October 5, 2009, but I can’t help but wonder if she’s going to come earlier.  I guess we will just have to wait and see! 

The past 8 1/2 months have been filled with some really awesome memories. We got to tell our parents in such a fun way – told my folks on my Dad’s 59th birthday and Dave’s folks on Valentines Day.  The entire experience went just how we wanted it to go and both sides of the family were priceless in their expressions.  I joke, being the youngest and only girl in my family, I have never seen my dad so giddy and teared up when my grandma found out and called that I was going to have a little girl with curly black hair before we even knew it was a girl.  Times like those are just priceless. 

A rough outline from that point up to now: The first trimester was insane.  Between trying to hide how horrible I was feeling and working all the time, I have to admit that was the roughest stint.  I jokingly remember teaching at LSUS one night and running out of the classroom after one of the speeches on pregnancy prevention was over to get sick while my students panicked and wanted to call 911.  Once I told them the news, they were so excited and have never let me forget that experience.  I can’t count the number of days I was so green inside, BUT we made it through and thank the good Lord for a great business partner and kind husband.  I don’t know what I would have done without them both.  Second trimester was wonderful.  I felt great, got to attend my best friend’s bachelorette weekend, and even was still able to fit into most of my clothes from before.  I was so excited and thought for sure I had this pregnancy thing down!  Third trimester entered and before I could even look down, I swear my stomach had grown 800 miles and my feet had started swelling.  My entire body had/has officially expanded and I’m constantly in a state of disbelief when I try things on; however, the coolest experience has come about during this phase.  Before the third trimester, Sasha would move but you could barely feel it. Now…Sasha moves constantly at certain times of the day, and I can talk with her!  It’s amazing!!! I just love being able to sit back and watch my stomach move.  It makes for a really boring weekend I suppose, but I would not trade it for the world.  Our pups, Sherman and Penelope, are getting adjusted too.  Sherman just looks worried all the time and keeps right by my side.  Penelope wakes up with me about 10 times a night making sure I’m okay as I venture to the ladies room.  They sense something is about to happen and I’ll be interested to see how they react.     

All the baby showers were wonderful.  Between both of our works throwing showers for us and then our family/friends showers, things could not have been better.  Everyone totally picked up on the ladybug theme which I loved.  I’m sure Sasha is going to grow to hate them, but they are still cute. We have gotten some really great things and just laugh as our little townhome has officially become baby land.  P.S. If you know of someone selling there house, please let us know!  We will be looking soon. 

That pretty much catches us up to where we are today.  Dave has been on me about blogging and I guess I had a lot more to say than I realized!  It’s a girl thing! But really, now we are just waiting for the big arrival.  Dave’s company has been so helpful letting him take off a few weeks with me post baby, and I am gearing up to pull myself out of work for a month or two so I can give all my attention to this new one! 

Long story short: I’m so happy with where Dave and I are right now. I know lots of changes are coming, but I would not trade for a moment us waiting a little bit after we married to experience this aspect of marriage together.  For me, it’s made me grow up and realize just how great of a partner Dave is and how thankful I am God brought us together.  And too….it’s awesome to see how excited he is about this little girl.  I can only imagine how she is going to feel about him too – it’s going to be great to watch! This past Sunday our sermon was on God’s will in our life and I do believe being parents has to be God’s will for us!  Until the next post (I promise not to write another novel)….much love and many blessings! GET EXCITED!