cindy's world

One feature of working full time away from a quickly-developing baby is that we don’t always know when she’s on to the “next” stage of something. Like how one day, we had to bottlefeed her at home in our care (normally I nurse every meal when I’m not at work) and Mr. W realizes that Allie was holding her bottle on her own. Apparently this was nothing new to Jayne, but because Jayne’s with Allie daily for more hours than we are, she isn’t always aware that something that isn’t new to her is new to us.

Last week, we discovered that Allie is able to feed herself and this weekend, suddenly she’s able to use the sippy cup. The feeding herself came with a little practice. First, she was quickly putting little specks of random stuff she finds on the floor or furniture into her mouth before an adult could stop her. (Lint, mostly, sometimes scraps of paper or napkin she’d torn, and we’re usually able to stop her or at least catch her early enough to snap, “No!” and make her freeze.) Then, Mr. W tried feeding her some organic baby puffs. She would open her mouth and take it, and he’d hand it to her and she’d finger it, unsure of whether we’d actually allow her to put something into her mouth for once. When we guided her hand toward her mouth, she’d hesitantly look at us in confusion, then open her mouth just a tiny bit, and do a dainty test bite with her front teeth. Now she knows anything we put in front of her while she’s still in her high chair after a meal, shelled peas or puffs, are fair game. She feeds herself these fingerfoods with confidence.
The sippy cup was a little bit of a revelation. In our initial introduction of the sippy cup, Allie would bite at the extended mouthpiece, unsure of what to do with it. If you’d tried to describe the instruction for “suck” to an infant, you’ll know it’s pretty much a lost cause, so we’d put the sippy cup lid away, but did feed her water with the cup portion of the sippy cup with her solid meals so she’d be familiar with the cup and the water. When we were at a restaurant feeding her her purees, we’d do the same with a glass of water. We started with a straw, plugging up the top with our thumbs and bringing the bottom of the straw to her mouth, feeding her like a little birdie. She soon learned to suck the water out the bottom of the straw and not just leave it to gravity. Then, last week, we tried leaving the straw in the cup and letting her sip from the top. That didn’t work before, but after being “trained” to suck the straw from the bottom for a few weeks, the top was a small change and she did it. We thought, “This is great! Now we can skip the sippy cup altogether.” Then my cousin Jennifer told us that her daycare won’t let her 11-month-old graduate to the next class unless her kid could use a sippy cup. Darn it, back to the drawing board. So yesterday, we tried the sippy cup with the suction lid again. Allie suddenly took to it with no problem. I guess the trick was converting her from the top of the straw to the top of the sippy cup lid, because that’s a gradual change from what she already knows to do. So today, when my parents came to visit, they got to enjoy Allie’s new skills and they took this little 42-second video (among 23 other videos):

BTW, while I was downloading the video from my mom’s camera into our PC, I found this never-before-seen photo.

WHAT the…?! I’ve never seen my little baby look like that!
Allie: “Whatever doesn’t kill me…had BETTER START RUNNING!!”

Allie does many things that make me laugh aloud, but two of my favorite scenarios are as follows:

1) First, two facts. One, although Allie smiles claps when we say “clap clap clap,” she also associates “yay!” with clapping, because usually when we’re cheering about something she did correctly or obediently, we say “yay!” and clap in front of her. Two, because she doesn’t poop as often as other babies, I’m usually pretty happy when she has a nice poopie. I’ve figured out that after she wakes from her naps, if I leave her alone in her crib for 10-15 minutes as she plays on her own, which she does well, she uses that alone time to poop. Before I realized that, I didn’t know why she always has poopies twice a day after each nap with Jayne, but none on the weekends with us. Hubby has since discovered, while watching the babycam at work, that Jayne leaves Allie in her crib after she wakes from her nap for sometimes up to half an hour. So I’ve discovered that when she’s distracted and playing with us immediately after her nap, she’s not pooping. That’s a lot of background for a little description of a scenario…
We’ve accidentally found that when we’re changing her and she has a nice poopie, and we say, “Yay!,” she’ll just start clapping and smiling, but with a surprised look in her face like she doesn’t know exactly why she’s being complimented. So she looks like she’s clapping for herself for pooping.

2) Allie has discovered that she doesn’t have her hands free if she wants to bring a toy somewhere, because she needs both hands to crawl and sometimes two to pull herself up. She went thru a few times of looking confused with a toy on the ground that she’d dropped when she started to crawl or pull up, not knowing how to bring it with her. Now she’ll pop the toy in her mouth like a little dog and bring it with her that way, then take it out of her mouth again to play with when she’s reached her destination.

Of course, her uncanny imitations of a moose toy, the coffee maker, people blowing their nose, all are hilarious, too. Our laughing brings a gleam to her eye and she’ll do it again just to entertain us.

I had mused before about the fact that I was unaffected and dispassionate in dealing with criminal cases with children victims when such cases seem to bring out the inner murderer of other adults, and assumed it was because I was not a “kid-person.” I’d wondered if I’d feel differently if I were a mom. Today, I figured I would get to find out.
This morning we were given an assignment to do a preliminary hearing in which the victim is a 17-month-old little girl. Allegations are that the 22-year-old mother’s boyfriend (who is not the father) slammed the little girl onto the floor or some other hard surface, causing fractures and enough damage to her skull and brain stem that it killed her. The mom and defendant seem to say that the kid fell off a chair on accident while in the defendant’s care and it was not child-abuse related. The defendant is charged with a count of murder and a count of assault of a minor.
Before knowing anything about the case, just flipping through the evidentiary photos almost brought me to tears, and the autopsy photos of her skull were…*gag*. Now we’re in the midst of an expert witness pediatrician’s testimony about the injuries, and we’ve heard a part of the mom’s testimony. None of it has moved me to tears and the mom was rather giggly and rather clinical in her testimony (she’s a nurse). So I’m doing pretty well, I haven’t lost it in a fit of hysteria, yet. This is going to go on for a couple of days.
Meanwhile, I think this is a good time for sharing something I saw the other day and loved, cuz it’s SO TRUE. I have friends who occasionally comment about how we Asians don’t age, and I usually respond something to the effect of, “Yeah, but when we turn 60, overnight we look like our grandmas.” Observe:

My little girl turned a month old today! I can’t call her “little” anymore, though. Mr. W slapped a tape measure on her today, and she’s 23 inches long (that’s a two-inch gain in a month since her birth!) and her head measured 14.5 inches. I noticed when I looked at her around the 3 week mark that her hands looked double in size, because one tiny hand used to wrap around the upper half of my thumb, and now it wraps around my entire thumb. Last night, she stretched from crown to toes nearly end-to-end in her playard co-sleeper. Looking down at her today, I was almost startled at how big she looked in my arms. No, we didn’t take a photo today, but we have some from our Christmas photo shoot(s).

From December 8, 15 days ago, I tried to get some shots that I could use on Allie’s birth announcement card. (As always, rest mouse pointer over photos for captions.) These are outtakes:

From December 13, 10 days ago… Mr. W’s son came over and we tried to get a family shot so that I could make a Christmas photocard. It was NOT easy to get 4 adults AND a baby looking decent, looking at the camera, and all at the same time. Observe:

So apparently, only Allie was ready in this shot.

Allie already had enough of posing, and Son is losing focus fast. Daughter obviously was ready to go. =P

After many mediocre or less fruitful attempts, the stepdaughter predicted that “this next shot is it!” …and then Allie sneezed. “NOOOOOOOOO!” Stepdaughter cried.

We *almost* got the shot we wanted in the following one, but we weren’t sure if Allie gazing adoringly at her mommy would satiate people’s desire to see what Allie’s face actually looks like.

We decided to turn the camera so we could get a tighter shot on the group, and Allie actually looked at the camera at the right time, but Mr. W didn’t account for how tall he is when he set up the shot.

Finally, this is the shot we went with:

By the way, Allie’s fancy dress is an adorable onesie with a tutu attached, and it says “Santa Baby” on the shirt, not that anyone could tell cuz Allie keeps clasping her hands in front of her chest like an opera singer. And of course we learn after closer examination that I should’ve been sitting on the higher chair, but whatever. We were done with all the effort.

I wrote an email to Allie’s pediatrician yesterday morning explaining about her gassiness and lack of poopy. She was on her 5th day of being a pea-shu. At Rebecca’s suggestion, I’d started drinking half a cup of prune juice a day (and it’s done stuff for ME, but hadn’t yet done anything for Allie); at lots of people’s suggestions, I’d cut out gassy foods from my diet, such as onions, beans, cabbage, dairy. Allie’s gas issue seems better — she fusses still, but has her hysterical fits much less, and now settles down more easily and it doesn’t take 2+ hours of comforting her anymore to get her to stop crying. She still wakes from sleep fussing here and there, though. The pediatrician’s nurse wrote me back late afternoon saying that the doctor is out of the office that day, but that after the 3rd week of life, a breastfed infant can go 5-7 days without pooping, and it’s okay as long as the baby doesn’t appear to be in pain. Previous nurses and doctors were all unconcerned at Allie’s prior poopilessness because her stomach wasn’t distended or hard and she was tooting, which means no blockage. They say she’s just using up all the nutrients and her body isn’t wasting anything to expel, and she’s peeing plenty so she’s not dehydrated. But that was when she skipped 1-3 days. The nurse went on in her email to tell me that if I’m concerned and the problem continues, I can get some infant glycerin suppositories and put half a pill in Allie.

Today makes 6 days of unpoopiness, so I went out this evening in search of the said suppositories. CVS drugstore had individually-packed liquid glycerin doses, but specified it was for children 2-5 years of age. I considered using half a dose, but how do you half-dose liquid? And what if there’s a specific reason this is not labeled for babies, such as the concentration was stronger?
I walked from there to Ralphs grocery store. They didn’t have anything useful. “Little Tummys” stomach medication; “Little Noses” sniffles medication; “Little Colds” cold medication…where was “Little Anuses?”
I drove to Walgreens Pharmacy. They had the same “Little” collection and liquid glycerine for 2-5 year olds. I was about to leave, but then asked to be directed to a pharmacist so that I could at least ask before I gave up. I had to wait behind 2 idiots who took up nearly 15 minutes each with their stupid issues (one picked up her prescription, then asked to check on a prescription for her mom, which the pharmacist confirmed was in the system and filled but was ordered at a different branch, so the lady wanted to transfer it to this branch, but didn’t want to wait 15 minutes for it, then decided she wanted it anyway, then asked for a demonstration on how to use it even tho it was her mom’s; the other lady had issues with her insurance not letting her get 2 refills’ worth of meds at the same time and made the pharmacy call her insurance and doctor). Too bad they didn’t turn around to read my Happy Bunny shirt, which read “Make the stupid people shut up!” I finally got to explain my dilemma to the pharmacist, asking if I could just squeeze half a bulb’s worth of meds into Allie. The pharmacist took me to a whole different section of the store where they were apparently hiding the infant glycerin suppositories, and instructed me on how to cut one in half and insert it, warning me sympathetically not to overuse the product because we don’t want Allie dependent on it for bowel movements. Because of this warning, I decided to buy the product but wait until after the 7th day of poopilessness before administering it. (On the 7th day of Christmas, my true love sent to me…)

“Okay, Allie, you have one day to poopy on your own before I stick something up your butt,” I told her when I got home.
She poopied less than an hour later. I keep kicking myself for not simply ASKING her to do something earlier, like when I kept complaining she wasn’t coming out into the world but the day Mr. W simply ASKED her to come out, she started my contractions that night.

Dardy found an article that features an Australian diver’s photographs which document, for the first time ever, a fish using “tools.” It was suspected that fish may use tools to help them, but it was never shown until these photos. The article explores the definition of tool usage — some say because the fish used its mouth to hold and break a clam against a rock, that it’s not tool use because it didn’t hold the tool. Others say tool use shouldn’t be defined by hand-holding, because there are species that don’t have the same limbs and appendages but still use something to help it do something else. And what about people who lost or are unable to use their limbs, but who use their mouths to accomplish tasks? Are they not using tools?

So Dardy comments, “fish may use tools? what is the definition of using tools? (fish have no limbs.) still pretty cool.”
Me: I’ve seen my dad’s parrotfish pick up a mouthful of pebbles to spit at another fish invading its territory, so I guess that’s like using tools, too.
Dardy: pretty cool. “unintelligent” animals showing signs of intelligence is a nice surprise.
Dardy: the next thing you know, an amoeba will be writing poetry.
Me: I would LOVE to read amoebic poetry!
“In cool viscous flows
I drift and ooze with the rest
Invisibly by”

Yay, I read the mind of an amoeba and wrote down the haiku it composed (since it can’t use tools yet to write or type). Rebecca had implied a couple of times today that I’m more psychic than I realize. Funnily enough, that topic was touched upon, too. Continuing on the thread of conversation comments:

Me: Have you seen “I Am Legend?” It explores “unintelligence”/”desocialization” as perceived (erroneously) by man, i.e. Will Smith.
Dardy’s friend Neal: Cindy… That’s sort of freaky you said that. Two posts above this one on my [social networking feed], a friend just linked something that has a picture from “I Am Legend” o_O
Me: we’re all tapping into the same psychic marrow! 🙂
Neal: Apparently! Spooky…
Dardy: wow, that’s great amoebic poetry. i haven’t seen the movie.
Me: Yeah, that’s one talented amoeba.

I’d meant to post this email exchange from last week between me and my dad in honor of Father’s Day, cuz it’s cute. But I didn’t get a chance, so I’m posting it now (Tues, 6/21) and pre-dating the post to Father’s Day Sunday a few days ago. Yes, I’m cheating by controlling time. But at least I’m open about it.

Some quick background. My mom brings up on occasion that my dad doesn’t know when her birthday is, or didn’t do anything special for her on her birthday. My dad’s rebut is always the same — how is he supposed to keep track of all her birthdays when she goes by the lunar calendar, the solar (Western) calendar, AND there was an error Immigration made in her paperwork on her DOB that instead of correcting, my mom instead just went with to make things easier, so there’s an actual birthday and the erroneous birthday? (I didn’t even know that the “legal” birthday I’d always thought was her actual birthday wasn’t the correct day until adulthood.)
~ * ~
Me: Do you want to go to San Diego for that seafood buffet brunch on Sunday for Father’s Day? I can treat you and [Mr. W].

Dad: Is sunday your mom’s birthday ? And 29 is your birthday? So every body had some reason to happy ?

Me: Sunday’s not mom’s birthday! Her bday is next Wednesday. But we can do advance celebrations.
Also, the Service Dept at Lexus is not open on Sundays, so to save you a trip on Saturday, [Mr. W] and I will go over after work on Friday, I’ll leave mom my car and take hers, then I’ll get her car navigation reprogrammed at Lexus on Saturday, then on Sunday when you come over for the brunch, you’ll bring back my car and later drive mom’s car back home. (Confusing?)

Dad: Mon’s bday make more confusing, As I know grand mom said your mom’s bday is jun 22. And she said is jun 26 and you said is next Wednesday. and I know she was born May 01 at intercalary month that is the reason (excuse) not to know which day is her bday. haha
For Lexus it is much easy to understand you and [Mr. W] home Fri. Me and mon to your home Sun. see it is easy. One more thing the save beal on driver side need to fix too. It is face wrong side.

Me: mom said her bday is actually June 22 (next Wednesday) but that immigration made a mistake when doing her paperwork and wrote June 26. So her “legal” birthday is June 26, which is what I always thought it was until one day I found out it was a paperwork mistake. So now I ignore the mistake birthday and celebrate the “real” birthday. And now you say it’s May 1. So I have no idea. I want 3 birthdays, too.
Oh, that’s right about the safety belt. I’ll have them fix that, too.

Dad: you know what one day mom ask me to pick up Savon for her, The counter asking me what is your wife’s bday? and then every body lol because they understand been marryed for so many year(don’t remember how many years) old man alway can not know wife’s bday.

Me: Why would Sav-On need mom’s birthday, anyway? You should’ve explained that it was an unfair question for you, because you remember 3-4 different birthdays, so you should get more credit.

Dad: As you know Sav-On when you pick up some times asking zip. or tel last 4 # or…to see it they give you the right medicinal. never had any one asking for bday but because I pick up for my wife so they think the other way to have fun (I guess),
When I drop prescription the old man (druggist) see the prescription is for shawling and try to verify I told him “Jun 26 1951” he lol and said “close enough I been marry so long and still had problem to remember my wife bday” then when drug ready the lady asking the same question and said it is not the corrct should be Jun 22. How would I know which day mom use for different place ? and how to explain one people had 6 different bday?
1. May 1
2. May 1 lunar year.
3. Jun 22
4. Jun 22 lunar year
5. Jun 26
6. Jun 26 lunar year
And your mom actually bday is lunar calendar Intercalary month May 1 so in Solar calendar is Jun 22…… How you think I may use my poor english to explain to some one don’t know lunar calendar ?? To make thing’s easy just laugh on it. right ? ha ha did I make it clear ??
~ * ~
Did you guys understand that? Do I need to translate? 🙂 Longest emails my dad had ever written me. Usually his emails are stuff like “CINDY: GOT EML. WL TALK TO MOM RPLY. THKS”

Email from me to my dad, mom’s work, and mom’s home email at 9:30 this morning (since she has very limited access at work):
Subject: First baby picture
Here is your first photo of your grandchild.

Reply email from mom’s work to me:
We can see the baby already? I can’t open it!

Reply email from me to my mom’s work:
awwww, I guess you’ll have to wait until you get home!

Reply email from my dad to me and my mom:
Dear Cindy :
Wow ! look’s just like you ha ha ha

Reply email from me to my dad and mom:
I know! That’s what I look like at night after I take off all my makeup! Mom says she can’t view the picture.

IM from Flip Flop Girl (whom I showed this string to):
hahahahahaha
you and your dad are so mean!!!
but SO funny

IM from me to Flip Flop Girl:
hee hee!
she’s probably called my dad by now and has wailed, “I can’t see it! What does it look like? Can you print it out and fax it to me?”

It poured and poured last night. I think some newscaster said something about two inches of rain every hour. More freeways closed due to flooding. Visibility this morning was awful. I considered taking a photo of the quantity of water spraying out from wheel wells and undercarriages of cars on the freeway. It made the bottom half of all the moving cars look like they were submerged underwater. I bet people’s undercarriages have never been this clean since the cars’ production. Today’s social network status message honoring the rainfall is:

Cindy brings you today’s rain quote, courtesy of hottie actress Halle Berry: “I’d like to be able to use Storm’s powers for good, like have it rain more in Southern California. We could do with it.”

Some more discussion by people on this followed. And then, in the early evening, the skies silenced, clouds parted, and we saw the first glimpse of blue in a week. Photos of a huge double rainbow appeared all over the networking site as Southern Californians recorded and posted this awesome reward for having endured the torrents. It seems that the storms have passed through for a few days, and weathermen and -women speak of sunshine through Christmas weekend, temperatures in the high 60s. That means my online friends will have to do without my rain-themed status messages for now. I know my sarcastic 12-year-old nephew in Chicago will miss it…

Ryan’s results for the quiz “How Much Time Are You Wasting”: You are approximately wasting 7.25 hours daily or 110.26 days in a year in not very worthwhile activities. At this rate, now on, you will waste 30.21% of your life.”
Cindy: eek, what a depressing quiz!
Ryan: I know, i answered 2 hours on [the social networking site], 2 hours waiting for something..(christmass) 2 hours was highest but i dont think thats whta it meant but I don’t know…
Cindy: see, the formula is wrong. 2 hours on [the social networking site] is NOT a waste! haha
Ryan: EXACTLY! where else are u going to hear daily rain qoutes?
Cindy: hey now! =P
(Ryan likes this.)

It’s been raining nonstop for over a week now. Some freeways are closed due to flooding, my friends are complaining about their yards turning into lakes and moats. Our backyard is pretty swampy, too, and the patio furniture is getting a good washing. I even parked my car out on the driveway the other night to get my free carwash in. All the dirt, dust and bird poop rinsed off effortlessly by morning. I’m looking forward to the fresh greens sure to be popping everywhere soon, and meanwhile, decided to show my appreciation by posting a rain-happy status message on a social networking site for every day that it continues to rain. Today is the first day (with some minor redactions for privacy):

Cindy brings you today’s rain quote, courtesy of a Chinese proverb: “Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.” 2 hours ago
View Feedback (16) Hide Feedback (16)
(Danielle C., Rebecca F. and Eric K. like this.)

Claudio F.: Yay!
*slips and falls*
Ow.
(Maggie likes this.)
Maggie: That’s lovely, however, I think it should include an Ark for this rainstorm.
Cindy: Okay, modification. “Anyone who says sunshine brings happness has never danced starboard on an ark in this rain while fully insured for any medical slip-and-fall mishaps.”
(Rebecca F. likes this.)
Eric K.[who works for an insurance company]: What about a trained claims adjuster to make sure we’re not paying any frivilous claims?
Micha K.[Eric’s wife]: OMG stop.
Cindy: “Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced starboard on an ark in this rain while fully insured for any legitimate medical slip-and-fall mishaps over which a trained claims adjuster will prevail to keep everyone’s insurance rates low by ensuring that frivolous claims will not be paid.”
(Daren N. likes this.)
Micha K.: *Sigh*
Danielle C.: Naked? (did that once on a camping trip – cathartic)
Cindy: “Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in their birthday suit starboard on an ark in this rain while fully insured for any legitimate medical slip-and-fall mishaps over which a trained claims adjuster will prevail to keep everyone’s insurance rates low by ensuring that frivolous claims will not be paid.”
(Danielle C. likes this.)
Danielle C.: LMFAO!! You are my facebook soulmate!! BIG fan. Huge.
(Cindy likes this.)
Cindy: This now excludes me in all the terms and conditions, and sounds more like fine print than a proverb-to-live-by. 🙂
Danielle C.: Belly. Laugh.
Cindy: I <3 my [online] playmates.
Maggie: Excellent job with all the additions!
Cindy: I’m ready for my bar card now.
Maggie: Indeed!

I was wandering around online, enjoying the scenery, and came across an old conversation I had on a social networking site with some work friends. A district attorney buddy and I have a running joke of using chicken terms, i.e. “cluck” and “pluck,” in lieu of profanity. On his page…

Me: Where the cluck have you been?!
Maggie: Whittier
Me: What the pluck was he doing THERE?
DA buddy: Just in the wrong place at the wrong time and got stuck covering one of the misD courts here this past week. I’ll be back home next week…..thankfully. 🙂
Maggie: I was in Dept 4 yesterday. You were NOT there.
Me: busted! he flew the chicken coop!
Maggie: Well…he could have been in one of the other 4 depts.
Me: yeah, I guess he’d have to obey the pecking order down there and go wherever the feed is.
Me: unless he’s just following the chicks around.
DA Buddy: @Mags: Yeah, I was in Dept. 2 yesterday. That’s Olivia Rosales’s court.
@Cindy: Ur cluckin’ hilarious!!!!
Me: Just pleasin’ my peeps. 🙂