It's been awhile...

I don't know what I have been doing really, but I have been too busy to post any news. I want to keep this for Sasha as a keepsake, so I was not happy to not be writing. After our trip out to the East Coast to look at colleges I was pretty tired. I was exhausted the entire trip, but never had time to catch up on sleep. Once we got home it was time to make a big decision about WHICH COLLEGE. We wound up taking a last minute trip up to visit a college in Northern California. I took Sasha since I didn't want to leave her again and there really was no one who could watch her anyway. We left a few hours after Dakota got out of school one day and came back home the next night. It was a quick trip, but not even a second of it was relaxing. Sasha is normally a pretty quiet, but active little girl so I wasn't sure how the trip would go. The flight was only just over an hour long, which was great since Sasha became curious about everything and everyone around us on the flight. She wanted to reach between the seats in front of us to touch the people sitting there, to look over my shoulder at the people behind us, and touch and eat everything she could get her hands on. It was like I had a totally different child. Usually she is really only concerned with where I am and if I am planning on putting her down and getting something done. That really upsets her. But the entire flight she was Miss Social. We got our bags, took the shuttle to the car rental place, and then drove to the college campus to see the area. It is pretty close to Berkeley, which is great. I didn't love the area around it really. I want something with barb wire fences separating the college kids from the outside world. At least for the first semester. We drove around for an hour while Sasha slept and then we headed back to the hotel. It was pretty cold out when we got out of the car to go into the hotel so Sasha woke up. By then it was around 11:00 pm. She was very happy to be at a new place so she stayed up for the next few hours celebrating. I was really tired and wanted to fall asleep, but was afraid she would fall off the bed. She fell asleep around 1:30 am,but woke up again and again to sit up and smile at me. At 3:30 am she woke up and wanted to play. She thought it was so funny to see me next to her every time she woke up. I was so tired I really thought I would fall asleep and she would be awake on her own. I finally woke Dakota up at 4:30 am and asked her to watch Sasha for 45 minutes so I could get some sleep. I woke up at 5:30 am to take her back and then we all slept for few hours. Not a good night.
We checked out the college the next day. I liked the college itself, just not the area around it. Actually I liked the area two blocks away from it a lot. Really neat houses, stores and resteraunts. The two blocks between the college and that area is sketchy. It's fine during the day and iffy at night. It turns out that classes had ended the Friday before we visited so we didn't get to look at any of the work since it was all taken down. That also explains why we didn't see a ton of college students out and about the night before. Dakota liked the campus and the area. We also checked out their San Francisco campus. I guess the students can take classes at either campus and there is a shuttle that goes back and forth several times a day. I really some things at both campuses. The big deciding factor was that she got a really big merit scholarship at that school. The other ones she was accepted into (RISD, MICA,SMFA, and Moore) were crazy expensive. She got scholarships at those, but not enough to make it realistic. RISD is $45,000++!
Anyway, on the tours of the campuses, Sasha was so vocal. She hardly ever makes much noise, but she was making loud noises the entire time. She wanted to get down and walk around and touch everything. She actually went up and smiled at a couple of the people on the tour with us, which she never does. She usually only smiles if I am holding her and it is clear that the person who is trying to get her to smile is not going to take her away from me. We had lunch at a local hamburger place the students go to before heading to San Francisco. I think she sat down for thirty seconds before she was ready to go. So we drove to the campus, took a tour, and then drove around the city for a while before heading back to the airport. We dropped off the rental car,took a shuttle to the airport, and then waited for our flight. Sasha kept wanting to touch everything in the airport and head off away from us. It was so tiring. Maybe I mentioned how iring the trip was. She hasn't ever really shown any interest inthe stuffed animals or dolls we have at home, but she loved one we saw at the airport. She grabbed it, kissed it (she has never kissed anything before that), held it next to her face and wouldn't let it go. I was probably going to buy it (even though we have a ton of cuter ones at home) but suddenly my shirt was wet and I realizeed I needed to run off and change her diaper. She didn't cry when we put down the toy, so I wound up not getting it. Sasha once again became Miss Social on the trip home and was actually draped over Dakota's lap on her back looking at the man sitting next to her upside down. She was laughing, clapping, grabbing, standing, bouncing...just not sitting or relaxing. On the flight there and back a man took the open seat next to ours. And on each trip the men paid attention to Sasha the entire time. It makes for a l-o-n-g trip. I like when they ignore me until the last five minutes and then we talk.
Anyway, we made it home. Within a few days Dakota decided to go to that school and I sent off the paperwork.
Sasha has been great. She went right back to being a quiet little girl again the day after we got back. She doesn't really say any words except "Momma," and I think it is just now starting to mean me. She kind of grunts for other things. In fact, my two other little kids have started grunting too. She likes to sway and "dance" to music. Yesterday Brookelyn and I were singing the ABC's and Sasha started trying to sing with us. Very cute. She loves balls and toy cars. Today she kept putting a ball into a little basketball net. I bought her a little stuffed dog from the Scholastic fair at school and she likes to hug that and carry it around. I give her a soft blanket when she goes to bed and she hugs it as she goes to sleep. She knocks people's hands away when they try to take her from me. She likes to watch some tv shows like Dora the Exlorer. We don't watch much tv since Brookelyn doesn't like to watch it at all and actually turns it off if we try to watch it.
We went to her one year doctor appointment last Friday. She is actually almost 14 months old but we had to wait until she could get her next set of imunizzations. Sasha cried from the moment we walked into the room until we left a half hour later. She never acts like that. She must have remembered from our last visit. She only wieghs 16 pounds and 12 ounces and is 28 1/2 inches long. She is just until the 5th percentile for her weight. Still small. She also found that she had an ear infection and the beginning of one in her other ear. I think she just must have a high tolerance for pain because she never acted cranky or pulled on her ears. She took a long nap later that afternoon but then was really upset for a couple of hours after she woke up.