When I saw that our local polling place is just a few streets up in our neighborhood, I thought it’d be a cool idea to go to the voting booths this year with Allie to indoctrinate her into the democratic process. To cut down on line-waiting time, I decided last minute today to fill out my mail-in ballot and walk it in.
In my head, in my perfect scenario, I’m walking up to the table of poll workers with my patriotically-dressed baby girl. The senior citizen volunteers smile at her and maybe say a few “Aww”s, then Allie would hand over my signed sealed ballot. Maybe the poll worker would even let Allie drop it into the ballot box. Then they’d give me an “I Voted!” sticker, which I’d then stick on Allie’s shirt, and we’d take a picture of her in front of an American flag.
In reality, we walked up to the house where a line had already formed coming out of the garage where the voting was taking place. I stood uncertainly in line, telling Mr. W (who was holding my patriotically dressed baby girl) that I didn’t think I need to stand in line to just drop off my ballot. He said he thought I needed to stay in line to check in. The guy in front of us overheard and told me that they had just made an announcement shortly before we got there that anyone with mail-in ballots can just walk in and hand it to a guy by the ballot box. So I did. Mr. W did not walk Allie in with me, but stood nearby. I handed my ballot over to a guy who did not even so much as crack his lips into a smile or bother to part them to utter a greeting. I asked if I could hand this to him, he took my ballot (I’m not even sure he looked at me), handed it over his shoulder to another guy who examined it to make sure my signature and address were filled out correctly, and I said, “Are we good?”
“We’re good,” he said unceremoniously, dropping the ballot into the slot of the box, and proceeded to ignore me again.
I walked out and said, “I don’t get a sticker for coming in with a ballot?”
“I guess not,” Mr. W said. I wanted to go back in to ask for one, to at least score one part of my dream scenario and stick a sticker on Allie for a photo, but Mr. W told me to just forget about it. We walked a few feet down and tried to snap a picture of Allie by a small flag staked into the ground, but she wouldn’t stay still so all the photos were blurry and you can’t even see the cute little elephant holding a sparkler with its trunk embroidered on her top.
We walked home, fed her dinner, and she went to bed.
And here I want to quote Robert Burns’ “To a Mouse.” Most anticlimactic experience ever.
I hadn’t wanted to bother with Halloween this year because I figure Allie’s too young to understand the concept, too young to eat candy, too young to stay up after dark to go trick-or-treating, and spending money on a costume she’s only going to wear once for a few hours? No, thanks. The week of Halloween, however, I started seeing people’s adorable photos of their kids in a variety of costumes, and I thought, “She’s only going to be this size once. By this time next year, she’ll be a kid in a costume, not a toddler.” (She’s practically kid-sized already. BTW, did you know that girls reach half their adult height at approximately 20 months, and boys at 24 months? So however tall your toddler is at those respective ages, double it, and you’re looking at an approximate. Allie is probably already half my height at 11 months, so in another 9 months…she’ll probably already be taller than I am.) But I still didn’t want to go thru the trouble of costume shopping for a few hours’ worth of wear. And then it hit me.
Before Allie was born, my court reporter Louise’s daughter was working in Disney Tokyo and had bought a little outfit for Allie. It was for a toddler and not an infant, so I’d put it away for future wear. I dug it out, and it fits! So for Halloween this year, Allie was Japanese. 😀
She had no hair to put up, so Mr. W made do. (har.) We decided to take her to nearby Saddleback Church’s “Blocktober” family event after work, which is a fall-themed campus-wide shindig with toddler areas, kid areas, teen areas, food truck area, shows, trick-or-treating, photo ops, rock-climbing walls, rides, ziplines… but Allie’s favorite thing is something she spotted immediately and beelined for.
“Bbbloon, bbbloon, bbbbloon!” she said, rushing off, before I even saw the balloon arch myself.
There weren’t a lot of kiddie rides she could go on without slipping off (like the carousel horse or the suspended swing ride), so she only got to go on this one. At least it’s a character she’s familiar with, given the theme of her bedroom. She even imitated him!
There were a lot of photo ops for our little pumpkin.
Her big sister even joined in on one of them.
And you can’t be a good authentic Japanese maiden without a nice nature background with water and big rocks in your photo.
One of the children’s classrooms giving out toys to trick-or-treaters found an age-appropriate toy for Allie: a rubber ducky squirter in a tiara! Allie loved it and hung on to it the whole time without dropping it. She bathed with it the other night already.
Can you believe that dressed like that, someone STILL mistook her for a boy? “Whoa there, little guy!” as he patted her head.
We got her home in time for her normal bedtime, which we were pushing back a little each day anyway in preparation for the Daylight Savings “Fall Back” schedule. I considered taping a piece of paper over the doorbell so kids would knock instead of ring the bell while Allie’s sleeping, and college roommie Diana’s dad had a higher-tech solution along the same lines and he disconnected the wires to their doorbell so Alexis could sleep through Halloween, but Mr. W ended up doing the low-tech version: he sat outside the front door on the porch and played on his iPad and presumably ate candy from our giant punchbowl of chocolates while he waited for kids to walk up to our front door. We didn’t get a lot of trick-or-treaters this year at all, according to him. Maybe 10 kids. I tried to tell him not to buy candy from Costco. =P We probably have 8 pounds left over. Where was everyone this year?
Months, that is. Things are going well. Her ankles are looking much better. The skin still looks like the thin shiny skin of scar tissue, but no more redness (well, maybe a little pink), blistering, or swelling. I continue to apply the tea tree oil antiseptic lotion twice a day, which bottle Allie loves to take from me and shake. Most things that aren’t toys (paper advertisements, manuals, shoes, ziploc bags, ointment tubes…) make her happy and since she still complains when we put her on her back for diaper or clothing changes, I’m happy to hand her whatever brings that big open-mouthed smile to her face.
Thanks to an app I have, I know that on this day last year, I had my first Braxton-Hicks contraction. I was out on a walk and it took my breath away. I didn’t know then, of course, that we were exactly a month away from meeting Allie out in the world. I thought I was about 2 weeks away. I had really been hoping for a slightly early delivery, since she was getting big in there and I didn’t want labor to be too difficult. Well, she was 2 days late, she was big, but everything was wonderful. (We’ll just smear past the next few months of my head going to hormonal imbalance hell.)
She’s a pretty good walker these days, unless she isn’t paying attention and trips over an unflat surface, my feet, her feet, a toy, etc. She’s just starting to trot, and it looks like running’s around the corner. Because of this, Mr. W expects her to be a lot more accident-prone (altho she seems to be pretty careful generally) and has ordered a 21-foot by 12-foot carpet rug so that we can turn pretty much the ENTIRE downstairs area, and not just the living room area, into her play area. That rug is to be delivered sometime today. According to tracking information online, the “package” is 120 pounds. Yikes.
Allie still eats well, still no food reactions, altho I’m hesitant to try avocado again. That may have to be one of those things she tries when she’s a kid and I offer it from my plate.
She loves to watch (slightly) older children play. At parks, she could watch a soccer game for as long as we let her. Yesterday, she watched the neighbor’s kids play four-square with a kick ball. She’d point excitedly and say, “Bah!” (ball). She’d wave her little arms up and down, yelling “Haa!” (hi) and “Aaay!” (hey). She’d walk right up into their game and try to join them if we don’t run over and snatch her up. There’s something beautiful about how she just smiles excitedly and goes over to greet a kid, reaching out to him/her with a big smile and a “Haa!” It’s as if rejection has never occurred to her. (Well, who would reject this little face?)
Right?
For the most part, other kids are delighted to see her and would talk to her or just smile right back at her as she walks up and smiles up at them. Well, except for that stupid kid in the video and this one kid last weekend:
So far, she hasn’t yet realized that she could refuse something. There are things she dislikes now, such as brushing her teeth. Mr. W would hold her up on her bathroom counter, we’d tell her, “Aaaahhhh!” as I bring the toothbrush up, and she’d whimper and complain, but she would do it with her mouth open and a big sad frown, sometimes fussing her way through it, but always reopening her mouth as needed. When she sees holes anywhere, the finger automatically goes in, and this is problematic if the hole is, as it occasionally has been, an electrical outlet socket. We tell her a stern, “No!” and she’ll pause, look at us, complain, but stop anyway. She’ll walk away fussing, shaking her head, with a frustrated look on her face, but she’ll do as she’s told. It’s the same when we make her not put rocks, leaves, grass, envelopes, flowers in her mouth. She’s not happy about it, but she accepts it. I guess it’s wishful thinking that she’ll always stay that way. =P
I’m starting to enjoy the lack of hair thing. Her peach fuzz is getting longer, but it still doesn’t require much more than a pat-down. No brushing, no barrettes, no bows, no tangles. I’m not taking that for granted. I’m sure I’ll be singing a different tune if she’s ready to start school and still only has peach fuzz on her little head.
She loves little dogs now. She got to pet one a couple of weekends ago, a well-behaved shih-tzu-looking lap dog, and she was gentle and never closed her hand on the hair, never pulled. So now she can spot a dog half a block away and say, “DAW!,” point, and beeline toward it. That’s when I have to kill my back leaning over her to brace her around the waist, cuz that’s when she’s so focused on the Daw (and sometimes balloons [“bbbbloo! bbbloo!” with a vibrating “B” that I can’t do], which the other day she also spotted half a block away raced toward, as racingly as a toddler can manage) that she will trip over anything. The good thing is that she doesn’t cry unless she bangs her head on something in a fall, which rarely happens, and has never happened outdoors to my knowledge.
Oh, I think she’s also starting to wean herself. Nursings are now about 6 minutes or less a side in her hungry mornings, and 3-4 minutes a side in the middle of the day. At night, she dozes as she nurses, so that may go longer, but there’s been a few times now when she’s decided she’s done with nursing and still wide awake, so I’d put her to bed in her crib wide awake, and just let her settle down on her own. Sometimes it’s a nerve-wracking 45 minutes, and I think the best she’s done was 10 minutes, but so far it’s always been before 8pm. The most helpful thing Mr. W has ever said to me about that is, “She’s fine! She’s never NOT slept at night.” That being true, I remind myself of that every time she’s up kicking around and bear wrestling instead of being able to be put down asleep.
I’m still undecided about Halloween. Since it’s on Wednesday this year, I don’t think we’d have time to participate between coming home from work, feeding her dinner, and putting her down to bed by 7p. So I didn’t get her a costume. Well, she has two Halloween-themed outfits, one of which she wore on Saturday.
Allie: “You’re getting sleepy…verrrrry sleeeeeepy…When you awake, you will put on my shoes and take me out for breakfast.”
It worked! Mr. W took us to…wow, I can not for the life of me right now remember WHERE we went to breakfast, but I know we had! Maybe I was under Allie’s spell, too.
She likes soft furry textures. She loves her pink “A” blanket that Jordan got her (she has to nap with it daily), my Footsie UC bears, the fluffy lambwool rug, her fleece PJ fabrics, the big fuzzy bear that she still sleeps on in her crib. She will stop in her tracks when she comes across one of these things, and either pull it up to her cheek and lean her head on it with a big smile, or she’ll squat on the ground and lay her cheek onto it if it were on the floor. Doing this to the Footsie stuffed bear and to her fleece PJs is how she bonked her head on the bottom shelf of her low bookshelf once, and the travertine floor the other day when she pulled the new PJs out of the bag onto the floor. Yes, each of those led to a brief cry, seconds-long. I laughed involuntarily both times, so I’m glad she was unhurt.
Here’s a 30-second video clip my parents took when they visited on Saturday. They brought bubble necklaces to amuse Allie with. I think it’s funny how in the end, you can tell my mom (behind the camera) panicked.
I’ve been closely following Flip Flop Girl’s food allergy mystery involving her toddler, Sienna. Sienna’s about 5 months older than Allie, and has eczema flare-ups and other skin reactions to various foods, and Flip Flop Girl, along with their team of pediatricians, have been trying to isolate the specific food items that are causing the reactions. Good thing her 3-year-old son Kyden has been logging all this stuff down in his blog! 🙂 I’m learning a lot.
Yesterday evening, Mr. W and I took Allie to Claim Jumper restaurant for dinner, and while I always bring her containers of homemade babyfood with us to restaurants, she’s starting to eat some tablefoods, so when I saw the big bowl of mashed up hard-boiled egg at the salad bar, I thought, Hmm. I was holding off introduction of egg, as previous AAP recommendation is that egg white is allergenic so to avoid egg altogether for the first 10 months (I think), then only introduce egg yolk, and then after the first year, egg white as well. But Allie’s pediatrician had said that AAP recently changed their guidelines and introduction of the two together is now okay. Allie doesn’t seem to have had reactions to foods so far, and I know that college roommie Diana has started feeding her baby (2 weeks younger than Allie) hard-boiled egg yolk, so I thought I’d give it a try.
But I’d learned some stuff from Kyden’s blog.
So first, I rubbed a piece of rubbery hard-boiled egg white on Allie’s forearm. She was sitting in the high chair, self-feeding on some baby puffs, and she stopped what she was doing after I rubbed the egg on her, looked at me with the oddest concerned look on her face, sucking in her lower lip so that her mouth formed a straight line. She looked at her arm where traces of yellow egg yolk powder could be seen. Then she looked at me again. “What the heck did you do that for?” she seemed to think at me. Then she looked at her arm again.
There was no reaction whatsoever on her skin, so I put a few clumps of yellow yolk on her baby spoon and offered to her. She opened her mouth trustingly. There was no expression change as she seemed to mash the yolk on her tongue. I offered her the sippy cup, she sipped, pointed at me, grunted, “Uggh!” So I fed her some more yolk. She ate it as if she were eating any of her food. When we were out of egg yolk, she went back to her puffs. And nothing happened. So I guess she’s not allergic to eggs.
But she does seem to be reacting to SOMEthing. Pretty much since her first weeks out in the world, her ankle wrinkles have been red with occasional patches of dryness on it. The pediatrician said it was just dry because her foot’s always flexed, it’s not eczema or anything. He said to just put Aquaphor on it twice a day, as with her then-bumpy section on her neck rolls. The tiny bumps (it looked like heat reaction) on her neck rolls went away, and then her neck rolls went away altogether, and I’ve stopped using Aquaphor on her neck. However, the ankle thing stuck around. She doesn’t seem bothered by it, and when I touch it to apply the Aquaphor, she doesn’t draw her feet back or seem to think it’s itchy, and a second pediatrician said it was just dry skin, so I haven’t been concerned with it. I kept hoping she’d outgrow it once she started not flexing her foot, but she didn’t. And then 2 nights ago, the spots got ANGRY.
What the heck is that? Both ankles are red and patchy in blotches, and her left ankle actually grew stuff that looked like tiny blisters.
These photos are taken the morning after, when the ankles are much better, but the blisters are still present. Simultaneously, she got a rare case of diaper rash. So the 2 nights her ankles were worst, were the same nights we saw a widespread diaper rash. She still didn’t react much to contact with the affected areas; we applied Desitin to the diaper rash, and Aquaphor to the ankles. Anytime she seems to have a flare-up of something (which we normally discover when we change her as we prepare to put her down to bed for the night), it clears by up morning, altho it may recur by the next evening. Such was the case this time, but the only new thing in her diet was string beans, and I can’t imagine a reaction to that. Nevertheless, I eliminated string beans the 2nd day, and the issues were still there, so I reintroduced string beans.
What I also did was buy some tea tree oil antiseptic lotion at a local organic food grocery store, and applied that to her ankles. Now all the redness is gone, and the ankles have gone back to just patchy dryness where the skin looks almost like post-burn or post-scab skin, and the blisters have dried up. We’ve asked Missy to apply a protective organic butt balm to Allie during diaper changes, and we’ve continued use of Desitin, and the diaper rash has not recurred.
The baby stuff is pretty puzzling. If anyone knows or suspects what the ankle stuff is, I welcome suggestions.
Meanwhile, here’s Allie being held by my dad last weekend, spotting a plane overhead.
Today is Day 4 with the new nanny, Missy. She seems more independent and confident than Jayne, and handles Allie well. Allie appears to love her. She’s able and has been doing everything with Allie that is a part of Allie’s routine, only the timing was off the first 2 days and Allie was taking her second nap pretty late, so I’ve had to make her bedtimes later to balance between her routine sleepy time when she’s rubbing her eyes and her being yet physically not tired enough to go down easily. Turned out Missy didn’t read the notes I’d left for her about Allie’s routine. When she did on Wednesday (yesterday), the day was picture-perfect and Allie was in a great mood, not hungry nor overtired.
I’d been offered 3 days off last week, the first 3 days of Jayne’s absence, and took it. Allie and I got to hang out, she got half of her flu shot (half-dose for babies on first shot, then the second half-dose 30+ days later), I nursed exclusively didn’t have to pump/wash pump parts or bottles for 5 days straight. It was nice, except for Friday, when the stepdaughter wanted to go out for lunch together when Allie and I were planning to get some fall jackets for her, so it was a rushed lunch out with the errand. I gave the stepdaughter time to walk around with Allie while I finished my lunch, and when we were making our way back to the car, suddenly Allie threw up all over her new jacket and my arm. In looking at the splatter of vomit on the ground, most of which were the last course of pears she’d just eaten for dessert, I pointed to a bright red and green area and said, “She ate flowers?” The stepdaughter leaned down, looked at the intact petals and leaves, and said, “Oh! I didn’t even know she did that!” Yeah, you have to watch the kid when you watch the kid these days. Allie was fine, though. The worst that came out of that is that she lost her pears. She didn’t throw up her first two courses of chicken with spinach, or her beets.
Things have been going pretty well, so when my supervisor offered me this week and next week off last-minute (I’d been on the wait list), I declined. It’s a good thing to let Allie get used to a new nanny, in case Jayne is unavailable again for whatever reason. Jayne had always wanted her friend Missy to be her “backup” in the rare times she may be sick or unable to start her car or something, and Missy lives 5 minutes from us, and has always expressed a willingness and interest in at least part-time or as-needed care of Allie. Plus, the more who love Allie, the better; it keeps her flexible and secure in the knowledge that her world is full of people she could love and trust. The stranger-danger lessons can come when she’s just a TOUCH older. 🙂
Jayne comes back next Thursday. I hope things stay as uneventful as they have been. I know Jayne’s been in contact with Missy, checking on Allie, and she’s probably still terrified that Allie’s not gonna remember her or want her when she comes back. She said she’s already mentally prepared herself not to take rejection personally. It may take Allie a minute to warm back up, but I don’t expect there to be any issues. I had been told not to take it personally if Allie wants the nanny over me sometimes since her daytime caretaker spends more awake time with her, but that hasn’t happened, either. She’s always ecstatic and excited when we come home, giving a little gasp and stopping whatever she’s doing to clammer over to the edge of the gate, looking out toward the garage entrance to the house when she hears the garage door and house door open (according to Jayne, and I’ve seen this myself when Mr. W comes home if I’m with her already), then giving us a big smile and reaching her arms out to us.
I can’t wait for her to be big enough to enjoy things like traveling, but at the same time, I’m loving this age and don’t really want it to pass that quickly.
I’m at home right now in the first of 3 days off this week to spend with Allie. Jayne left for New York last nite. For next week and half of the following week, Jayne’s friend Missy will be here to care for Allie in Jayne’s place. That’s right, our nanny found us a relief nanny, AND “trained” her, too! Allie seems to love Missy so much and so quickly that Jayne’s jealous. It may be weird and cute, but I’m happy so many people love Allie.
Allie’s napping right now, and I have beets baking to puree later on. Earlier after we played for a bit indoors, we went for a 40 minute walk around the neighborhood, during which she hummed along with her musical toy and pointed at crows and random things. Putting her down for naps and even bedtimes are psychologically easier on me, now, because she basically does it all herself. I go thru a small short nap routine (putting her fuzzy blanket in the crib, turning on the air purifier, closing the bathroom door), and then she’s already pulling toward the crib. I put her in, she rubs her cheek on her blanket, smiles at me, I whisper a nite-nite to her and walk out as she smiles at me. She takes however much time she needs to settle down (usually 10-20 mins in the AM nap, up to 30 in the PM nap, so I get her in the crib in plenty of time), and she naps for a little over an hour in the AM, between 1-2 hrs in the PM. At bedtime, she rarely falls asleep nursing and stays asleep for the crib transfer anymore, so I lay her gently in her crib and leave to let her settle down, which she does quietly, sometimes bear-wrestling for awhile, but she does.
I think why it was so nerve-wracking before, was because she didn’t have the ability to help herself sleep or stay asleep or go back to sleep, so I had to bridge that gap, but there was only so much I could do. I had to hold her and gently sway back and forth until she’s comfortable enough to fall asleep against me, then transfer her to the crib, praying that if she wakes up a little, that it’s not so wide awake that she’ll be up wailing as soon as she hits the mattress, necessitating me to pick her up and try to soothe her again. If she woke up due to noise or whatever back then, she was unable to soothe herself back to sleep, so the nap was over and I’d just have an overtired kid on my hands until the next nap. Same thing with bedtime. Now that she’s older and has had plenty of practice between then and now self-soothing and getting used to the more common sounds, she doesn’t wake up, or will just sick her thumb if necessary, close her eyes or flop in a different position, and go back to sleep. Since she bridges her own gap between awake and sleep, all I have to do is get her to her crib at the appropriate times.
Her AM nap used to be 1.5 – 2 hours, but it’s been closer to an hour these days, and one day she skipped her PM nap. Since that’s not the nap that’s supposed to disappear (the AM nap is), I looked it up. So turns out that the AM nap is supposed to decrease and start to disappear between 10-12 months (i.e., now), but if the PM nap starts to disappear, it’s because the AM nap is too long. To protect the PM nap, which is to stay until she’s past toddlerhood, she’s to take no more than a 90-minute AM nap. The way to do that is to wake her between 60-90 mins at her 9am nap, and/or put her to bed a bit earlier at night so she’s better rested in the mornings and less dependent on the AM nap to catch up. I don’t really want her to go to bed that much earlier as she typically in her crib by 7pm these days, but maybe I’ll move it up 10 mins or so on days when she’s had more active time before bed, or woke up earlier from her 1pm nap.
I feel most of the depression waning away, now. (Ha, as I typed that, the gardeners showed up and started blasting their noisy mowers, leaf blowers and weed whackers outside her room, but seeing that she’s already been sleeping 1:05 hrs, if this wakes her up it’ll save me the trouble of having to wake her so that she’ll hit her PM nap on time.) Things are easier on me as they go from my control to Allie’s own control. There’s less pressure on me to figure out what to do to help her out, and feeling like a failure if I can’t get the result. Pretty much all I’m responsible for in the day-to-day these days where Allie’s concerned is that she gets to nap when she needs it (9am & 1pm), and she eats well, and she’s safe.
Allie’s interest in milk is waning, and I didn’t pump at 5am for the first time on Saturday and Sunday, so my milk supply just from that has dipped dramatically. I hope the 8 gallon baggies in the freezer is enough to get her through her first year until we can switch her to cow’s milk, but I’m not too stressed about it, especially since she nurses just fine, still. She’s down to drinking 14.5 oz in bottles at home a day when I’m not here, and I’ve been pumping/storing 9 oz a day or less, but she nurses for all her milk intake when I’m here on weekends, and she still gets her daily morning and bedtime milk from nursing. I think my stockpile is fine even if I stop the 5am pumpings altogether, which I think I’ll do since I’ve been only getting 2.5 oz from that anyway after I’d stopped this past weekend, which is hardly worth the early risetime and the milk-storage and washing pump parts, etc.
Huh. This kid is still sleeping through the gardening noise, at 1:22 into her nap.
I only blogged once this past week?! Geez. Busy. And oh yeah, I must not have been on the computer at home. I wonder why.
Speaking of busy, we had a very full long weekend! On Saturday, Kyden and his family drove all the way down from San Jose so that he could have his 3rd birthday at Disneyland! As an invited guest, Allie also got to visit Disneyland for the very first time (not counting the time she was at Downtown Disney outside of Disneyland with her cousin Alexandra when she was 2 months old).
I started the day by getting her out of bed at her usual time after she woke up, a little after 6am, and then winding her down early and letting her hit her first name on time at 9am (she actually took it 10 mins early). I was jumping for joy that she woke on her own in 75 minutes, so that I didn’t have to wake her so that she’d hit her 2nd nap on time, which she did at exactly 1pm. We did have to wake her from that one so that we could leave for Disneyland and get there by 3p. I pumped while she napped and fed her via bottle on the drive to save time. That didn’t go too well; she was too distracted to eat more than 3-4 ounces and we had to dump 2 ounces. Ouch. We really tried, but still ended up being 15 minutes late because it took longer than expected to get to the Plaza Inn via the old “People Mover” (anyone remember those days?) and everyone else was already there, but Kyden forgave us, I think. (Sorry, Flip Flop Girl, aka Kyden’s Mommy!)
A coworker with a 2nd job as Disneyland security signed Mr. W and I in as his free guests. That saved us a LOT of moolah! The stepkidlet came along with her premium annual pass, expecting to meet a friend there later, altho she ended up just hanging out with us the whole time we were there. That worked out for us, since that means we had a photographer. 😀 (As always, hover mouse pointer over photos for captions.)
The Disney party at the Plaza Inn was super-cute. Each person (including kid) got to decorate their own cake!
This was the first time Allie ever touched cake, white flour, frosting, food dye, sugar… and I’m happy to say, she did NOT like the taste of any of it.
She took one tiny pinch of cake, put it in her mouth, made a face. She tried again just to make sure she didn’t like it. And that was the last time she tried the cake AND the frosting. And this is a kid who eats dried leaves from the lawn.
Allie: How could you let me put that in my MOUTH, mommy? I want my sippy cup!
She had a lot of fun at the party, and got to see lots of things she’d never seen before. She saw a person dressed up as a birthday cake. She saw lots of kids in party hats. She saw sprinkles and M&Ms and frosting. She saw a giant mouse run by.
She saw the birthday boy and the birthday daddy chasing down the runaway mouse.
She even helped point out which way the giant mouse went, just to make sure he’s caught.
We caught up to the giant mouse and his girlfriend!
Okay, it wasn’t us. It was a team effort. It took lots of people. All Kyden’s guests, in fact.
“Good job finding the mice so we can catch them, Allie! Mice running loose in a restaurant would NOT do!”
Allie even found an old friend at the party, the birthday boy’s sister, Sienna! Kyden was helping make sure Sienna had her vitamin C and phytonutrients for the day.
I’m totally bummed because Allie and Sienna walked up to each other and HUGGED, and I had my camera ready to go, but missed it cuz Kyden was patting my stomach and I was talking to him instead. Oh, well. Birthday boy gets priority, those ARE the rules.
I caught the birthday daddy, Uncle Mike, having a serious discussion with Allie about signing on to his pest control company, since she helped catch the big mice.
Allie must’ve disagreed with him, cuz Mike tried to Jedi-Mind-Trick her next. I’m not sure that it worked, tho.
We had a lot of fun, but we left after an hour or so, so that we could explore Disneyland with Allie in the hour or so we had left. She was so happy people-watching, seeing all the colors and balloons go by, and she hummed along with the music blaring over the loudspeakers.
Did you notice…no stroller! Yup, we were able to run around and dart in between people cuz we didn’t have to make room in the crowd for a stroller. At some point, Allie decided we were still too slow, so she took the initiative in trying something faster…
…and when that was too dangerous in a crowd, she opted for something even faster.
We landed in front Sleeping Beauty’s castle, holding our own sleeping beauty. I’m happy when Allie sleeps at least 11 hours at night and over an hour in her naps, she doesn’t need to do 100 years straight like Aurora.
We did ride one ride: Pinocchio. It was the scariest ride ever when you look at it from a baby’s point of view. Mr. W and I sat in front of the buggy with Allie in between us, and she looked around wide-eyed at everything. Most of the ride was in the dark with glaring ominous characters. She started whimpering toward the end, but that was when the blue sparkly fairy came out and brought us back to sunlight again, so it went fine. (We would’ve gone on Small World, but the line was 45 minutes by the time we got there.)
We got home in time to put Allie down for bed on time, even with some minutes to spare, but wouldn’t you know it, she was too full of residual happiness from the Happiest Place on Earth. She fell asleep nursing, but popped wide awake in her crib when I transferred her, and stayed up and played for almost an hour on her own. Ack. She was sound asleep before 8pm, tho.
I have a ton more photos, but I don’t want to overwhelm this post (altho it may be too late for that). Happy 3rd Birthday, Kyden! Thanks for the adventure!
Yesterday was the Mid-Autumn Festival, when the moon is at its fullest and Chinese people traditionally spend the evening sitting outside, admiring the moon (and writing poetic homages to it back in the day), drinking tea and eating mooncakes.
My parents came over in the afternoon brought a box of assorted mooncakes. When Allie awoke from her afternoon nap, we took the little beaver (she decided on Sunday to start gnawing on her very expensive crib’s front and side rails, and has taken the paint off and a few layers of wood, as well) out for an early dinner at a local Chinese restaurant near the lake. We didn’t get lake views like we do at our favorite sushi restaurant, but Japanese has to stand aside for Chinese yesterday.
Food was good, altho all the dishes were a bit on the sweet side. My dad recognized his motherland dialect in the conversations between the staff, so he figured the restaurant is Shanghai-style. That explains the sweetness. If you guys like Shanghai-style Chinese food, visit Lakeside Chinese Cuisine (they don’t seem to have a website I can link).
Despite another epic nap of over 2 hours in length in the afternoon, Allie was able to nurse to sleep and be laid gently in her crib, which I was grateful for, because if she has to be put in her crib awake again, I know she’ll end up eating more of her crib. While I was nursing, Mr. W ran out to Babies R Us and picked up a crib rail protector called the Easy Teether by Leach Co., which is basically just a fabric wrap that velcros around the front rail of the crib. It probably won’t stop Allie from chewing on the crib, but it’ll keep her from ingesting more of the paint and wood splinters. The deep gouges and damage she was able to do in just one day, 2 naps’ worth of time spent in her crib, were pretty horrific. I wish I’d been prepared for this ahead of time. There’s no “touch-up” possible for what was done; when she gets older and that piece converts into her full-size bed’s footboard, that entire piece will have to be sanded down and refinished. Glad we paid more for the hardwood option instead of soft pine. =P The very light color of exposed wood, however, makes me just a little suspicious.
Anyway, after leaving Allie and medicating the cat, who promptly made himself throw up his meds so that I had to readminister more meds, Mr. W and I went outside to take a peek at the full moon. We probably only sat there for 30 seconds before I went back in and ate a miniature mooncake with some red wine. I cut another small mooncake in half, keeping in mind what college roommie Diana had warned me about how bad mooncakes are health-wise, chatted with the stepkidlet and her boyfriend who had come back from the grocery store and were eating at the kitchen table, then read myself to sleep.
Next year, maybe Allie would be able to stay up until the moon comes out and could join us for a taste of mooncake. It’s fun to think about how dramatically different things will be a year or two from now, just as it was fun, when I was pregnant, to think about how different things this year would be from last year. (Boy, did I underestimate “different” in my naivete, tho.)
Yesterday, Allie was eating a powerful nutrition house of veggies for part of her dinner: baked beets with baked sweet potato and steamed variety of baby kale. You need only google the nutritional content of those three items to know she’s got more vitamins, amino acids, phytonutrients, antioxidants, blah blah in that little dish than many adults have all day.
Mr. W was feeding and said in a mocking tone to the stepdaughter to come see or try what Allie’s eating, and the junk food fan of the family’s response was that what Allie’s eating is “disgusting.”
Insulting someone else’s food is the second biggest peeve I have (the first is being mis-accused of something I’m innocent of; I will instantaneously fly off the handle, don’t even get me started). I don’t care if someone’s picky; picky is a personal preference (altho open-minded eaters are more fun to eat with). But making negative comments is a voluntary behavior.
There was a girl, Lauren, in my junior high school whom everyone picked on. She basically had no friends and I was new to the school and I didn’t know why she was so unpopular. She was a bit homely, but not everyone in junior high is going to dress like a rich girl. I made the effort to talk to her a few times and we laughed together, I enjoyed the conversation, and almost the moment I told someone I really liked her and think I’d like to be her friend, she enacted the peeve. I was eating a zhong zi at lunchtime, which we jokingly call a “Chinese tamale.” It is seasoned sticky rice with roasted pork, mushrooms, some other veggies, wrapped in a bamboo leaf and steamed, so that the fragrance of the bamboo is infused in the rice when the leaf pouch is opened. It had always been a favorite item of mine since very early childhood. Lauren walked by and pointed and said really loudly, “WHAT is THAT? Ew!” and laughed. I was instantly annoyed. Before I could even begin to tell her what it was, she went on, “You’re eating a LEAF! Hahaha! What are you, a rabbit? Haha!” She looked around to see if anyone else was going to join in to mock my lunch. I was kind of incredulous that she was trying to incite an anti-Cindy fiasco when I was her only friend. No one joined in, altho some looked at her rather blankly. I forgot what I said to her, but I’m sure it was something irrate. Her response was, “Well I’m SORRY, I’ve just never known anyone who eats GREEN LEAVES before! HAHA!” I was too disgusted with her to bother pointing out that apparently, no one she knows eats salads or leafy green vegetables. AND, you don’t eat the leaf part of my lunch. I made her go away instead. And I didn’t befriend her after all.
Michelle is a former “friend” on the social networking site who seemed cool and spunky and I’d really liked her, up until she started commenting on photos I’d post of stuff I was eating/drinking. I didn’t really know her; she was married to a guy I was close with back in the day, so when his wife friend-requested me, I’d accepted. They’d moved to Texas, and she eats like a Texan, apparently. Loves beef, potatoes, large portions, burgers, sodas, deep-fried foods, and lived on Taco Bell imitation meat when she was pregnant. I knew from a nutrition stand-point that she could do better in her food choices, but it wasn’t my place to say anything, so I only commented when I could be truthfully supportive in something. SHE, on the other hand, constantly commented on my photos of fresh carrot+ginger+beet juice, caramelized fig & onion tartlet, homemade mushroom & zucchini pizzas on spelt and flaxseed whole grain crust with stuff like, “That’s disgusting.” “OMG, I don’t think we can be friends anymore.” “Ew, gross.”
I don’t care if there are foods out there you would never touch with a 10-foot pole. Don’t touch them. I don’t care if you’re not adventurous, I don’t care if you’re picky, because it’s not my problem if you decide to miss out on all the great stuff out there. And some people have preferences for things I don’t. Some friends are texture-sensitive, others are flavor-sensitive, and some just plain ol’ love salty deep-fried stuff that I wouldn’t eat because I’m trying to be more aware of health. BUT…don’t go pointing at someone’s food while they’re eating, sneer, and make a judgment call that insults their food, makes them feel like a freak for eating something perfectly fine and healthy, because that only makes YOU look ignorant, closed-minded, picky, and rude! And when the food being picked on is a superfood, you look uneducated and unhealthy, too!
Now that I have a toddler (almost-toddler; I counted 17 independent steps last night before she somehow got confused which foot was supposed to lift next, lifted the same foot twice in a row, and then flew forward almost face-planting), I get to have more of those endearing “If I knew then what I know now” moments.
* Now: This week, Allie learned to wave and say “bye-bye” and then POINT to the door, basically throwing people out. She did this on Sunday to my parents as they got ready to leave, then she did it Monday evening to throw Jayne out after we got home, and Tuesday morning, she did it to us pointing to the garage door through which we leave after saying our morning goodbyes. She does it in the evenings as she says goodnight to daddy in her bedroom and then tries to close the door on Mr. W even tho his face is sometimes still in the room. Allie has also, just in the last day or two, started pointing upstairs to indicate that she’s tired and wants to take a nap or go down for the night.
* Then (cutting and pasting from an old e-mail between me and a former supervisor that I just stumbled upon, much to my amusement now. I’ve reversed the order so that it reads top to bottom):
>>> [SUPERVISOR] 7/1/2011 8:09 AM >>>
Good morning,
The $40 criminal security fee was originally scheduled to sunset on July 1, 2011, and return to $30, however SB78 extended the sunset date to July 1, 2013. So this fee will remain at $40 until that date.
If you have any questions please let me know.
Thank you.
>>> [CINDY] 7/5/2011 8:07 AM >>>
*raising hand*
I have a question. Is “sunset” the official legal term for expiration of temporary fee increases, or is that your own romantic euphemism?
>>> [SUPERVISOR] 7/5/2011 8:14 AM >>>
No, can’t take credit for “sunset”. It’s a political term of art approximating the terms “rational contraction” and “downsizing” to describe laying someone off of their job. Always remember, “never say what you mean or mean what you say”. Obfuscate the truth for political or personal gain. This is the way of the Representative Republic wherein the representatives sole responsibility is re-election.
Hope you had a happy Independence Day! God Save the King!
>>> [CINDY] 7/5/2011 8:16 AM >>>
*eyes glazing over*
Thanks! Thanks to you, I’ve learned that I’ve been doing things wrong. I thought I was supposed to be impeccable with my word, but apparently, that’s why I don’t have a yacht or a helicopter like a lot of politicians have. YOU, on the other hand, have a giant beautiful house with a gorgeous backyard… hmmmmmm…
>>> [SUPERVISOR] 7/5/2011 8:26 AM >>>
When someone, especially someone intelligent, raises their hand I feel obligated to give them the undiluted answer.
Oh, and the “gorgeous backyard” requires eight hours of yard work per week. It’s a Yin and Yang thing, or a communing with Nature thing, or something.
How’s the Kid kicking?!
>>> [CINDY] 7/5/2011 8:33 AM >>>
Good Lord, 8 hours a week! I’ve never said life wasn’t fair. Altho I’ve complained about it not being unfair in MY favor.
The kid’s been noticeably kicking since 15 weeks. We had a full-screen diagnostic ultrasound with radiology last Wednesday (at 20 weeks), and I laid there a LONG time while they took close to 100 ultrasound photos of organs, spinal columns, heart valves, etc. The radiologist said then that it looks like a girl. At one point, I watched the fetus barely raise her knee in a small jerk motion and I felt a now-familiar corresponding tap on the side of my abdomen. This must mean that future REAL movements, like actual kicks, are gonna be unignorable. I should just take maternity leave now. =P
>>> [SUPERVISOR] 7/5/2011 8:39 AM >>>
Even with all of the trials and tribulations of their growing up children are the only perfect things in the world (with the notable exceptions of ages 2 1/2-3 1/2 and 15). It’s like a roller coaster, scary, but well worth the ride.
>>> [CINDY] 7/5/2011 8:45 AM >>>
I’ll agree with you, altho I’d like to add my cat to the list of perfection (as I’m sure you’d add yours, heh) and I will let you know about what Allison does at 2.5 – 3.5 (aside from teaching her father how to properly use adverbs in his everyday speech and how to play the piano expressively), and at 15 (when I’m not too busy driving her to her academic decathlon award ceremonies and volunteer events). I should print out this email so she can laugh at me in 16 years.
>>> [SUPERVISOR] 7/5/2011 8:54 AM >>>
Spoken like a true first time parent-to-be! If Alison is anything like her Mother then the World gets another kind enlightened soul. Which we desperately need.
There is a quote from Benjamin Franklin that goes “beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy”. l think that the existence of cats is the inverse of that thought. My good wife strenuously disagrees with my view hence “our” four cats.
>>> [CINDY] 7/5/2011 9:00 AM >>>
Thank you for the compliment somewhere in that email. 🙂 I don’t actually expect to be able to dictate another human’s path in life, of course, altho I hope I can be influential enough so that whatever she does, she does well and with integrity and intention. Unless she’s a stripper. I hope she’d suck at that and be fired.
Re your thoughts on cats… =O! How rude.
>>> [SUPERVISOR] 7/5/2011 9:08 AM >>>
TIME is the most valuable thing a parent can give to their child. That’s what makes them grow to be honest, honorable, hard-working adults. At least that is what we have found to be true. Knowing you I’m sure Allison will be fine, without a doubt. Some people “have” children and others actually “raise” their children. I’m certain you will do the latter.
Cats are the spawn of black holes, anti-matter, and the “dark side”. That’s not rude, just a fact.
And, strippers are people too!
