cindy's world

On Saturday, Allie met two of my mom’s closest friends, a couple named Muoi and Bob. Bob used to be a driving instructor and had given me some formal driving lessons when I was preparing to take the exam for my driver’s license at age 15. Muoi works with my mom. The two don’t have children of their own, so they are kind of vicarious grandparents of Allie’s. My mom says Muoi goes around work armed with photos of Allie on her iPad and shows them off like a proud grandma, although she does give actual grandma credit to my mom.

The four “grownups” got to our house after Allie’s afternoon nap. Much exclamations, excitement and cooing ensued. After we hung out at our house for awhile, we headed off to our favorite local sushi joint on the lake for some omakase. Since we arrived a bit before the restaurant opened, we wandered around the area and checked out a portion of the lake. Allie does more pointing and the rest of us unquestioningly follow her lead like her puppets.

“Now look over there!” *point*

Allie enjoys the fountain outside of the restaurant with Daddy.

We were the first into the restaurant, entering right as it opened and snagging seats at the sushi bar.

My mom said that Muoi and Bob had a great time. Although they loved sushi, this was their first time at a sushi bar. Definitely first with omakase. The sushi chef, Johnny, was a newbie at the restaurant and had only been there a month. He did GREAT…probably because he used to own two sushi restaurants, one in Florida and one in NorCal, before he relocated to SoCal. According to my mom, Allie was a big hit, too, and they talked nonstop about her on the whole drive back with my parents. Mom emailed me today and said that Muoi brought her iPad to work with her to show off photos she’d taken of/with Allie over the weekend. Haha.

Allie: Look up there!
Muoi: Okay!

Allie has a new thing to add to her signage repertoire: pointing. It’s used to draw our attention to something she’s taken an interest in (“Look mommy, a bright ceiling light!”), to indicate a desire (“I want that red cup, bring me to it.”), and to coerce some playful contact (“I point at you, you touch your nose or fingertip to mine, and you can either say ‘Boop’ if it’s your nose or ‘E.T. phone home’ if it’s your finger, I’ll smile at both.”).

Mr. W thought it’d be great to hand her a plush UCLA football, then get her to point at something overhead, so that she looks like she’s signing, “UCLA is #1!” So we turned on an overhead ceiling fan and just like a charm, she pointed repeatedly at it, fascinated. Then we handed her the football, a gift from Eddie (die-hard Trojan, of all things) and Michelle. Immediately she was distracted by the tag. Of course it went right in her mouth, and we tried lots of different tactics, changing up the timing of handing her the football, pointing to the fan ourselves, and this was the best we could do:

Her hand had dropped by the time the cameraphone took the photo. Oh, well.

In the car on Sunday, Allie looked up, pointing quizzically at the cabin light. So I thought I’d really impress her and show her something magical. “Light on!” I said, and flipped the switch to turn the cabin light on. She smiled. “Light off,” I announced, turning it off. She looked at me expectantly, then very deliberately pointed at the light again, leaving her hand in the air, waiting. “Light on!” *flick* Allie smiled. “Light off.” *flick* Allie looked up at the light again, then pointed up at it. “Light on!” *flick* “Light off.” *flick* *point* “Light on!” I announced, quickly regretting starting this game. *flick* “Light off.” *flick* *point* This went on for some time until I managed to distract her by pretending to loudly eat her foot.

Yes, we did go to Claudio’s girlfriend Jenny’s bday shindig on Saturday. Allie had a late nap, so we didn’t leave the house until after 4pm, arriving at 4:35p, and then wandering around the condo complex on foot getting lost for 15-20 minutes before finding the right place. The party was Hawaiian-themed and they put out quite a spread.

My parents had observed in photos that when Allie’s among strangers and feeling uncomfortable, she sucks in her lower lip tightly and doesn’t smile. She’s certainly doing that in these photos and clung on to me throughout the hour or so we were there, but we didn’t have time for her to warm up to everyone. We met the more important people, tho, like the birthday girl Jenny:

Uncky Andrae:

Tio Claudio:

Here’s Allie demonstrating the pointing thing, and it has the same effect on Uncky Andrae.

Allie: Look over there!
Andrae: Oh yes, I see…I think…
I got a good laugh out of how Andrae just automatically follows points, even a baby’s.
Unfortunately, the food came out late and we pushed Allie’s bedtime as much as we dared while we waited for Andrae (who said he’d overslept during his nap) to show up, but still missed dinner. We did have some ahi poke one of Jenny’s friends made (delish!) and Claudio’s BBQ’ed chicken looked and smelled teasingly delicious, too. It was 6pm when we got back to the car, and I zoomed back home, wanting to leave before Allie had a bedtime meltdown. She had a little fit in the car starting around 6:15p, upset that she was tired and not going thru her bedtime routine, yet, but went down fine by 7p when we got her in the house at 6:30p. Poor Mr. W. He was all hungry from the almost-dinner he had, but was piteously just going to drink water and play Diablo 3 for the rest of the night, so after I put the baby down, I made some noodle soup for dinner (not instant Ramen). He still got to spend the rest of the night playing Diablo, and I read myself to sleep upstairs.

(Giant zucchini from my courtroom assistant’s garden yesterday. It will soon be incorporated in Allie’s meals for the next, oh, month. In addition to other things, of course; currently in the freezer are pureed cauliflower, purple yam, sweet potato, a prior batch of zucchini, peach, pear. In the cabinet are pureed prunes and a variety of baby cereal: white rice, brown rice, oatmeal & banana, and mixed grains minus the allergenic wheat.)

Allie has been going through some changes. She’s resisting her napping for the 2nd week or so now. She’d fight her naptimes and then crash later from sheer exhaustion. She popped out her 5th tooth yesterday, right next to her bottom front-left tooth, so I figured maybe that was it, but she once again had shown no sign of any teething discomfort. The tooth was a surprise.

I spent 20 minutes on the phone yesterday with lactation nurse Kelsie, whom I’m familiar with and had all of my lactation clinic visits with, and another 20 minutes with Allie’s regular pediatrician, Dr. T.
Lactation Nurse re Calories
Kelsie noted that Allie’s weight had dropped to the 66th percentile although her height has remained in the 99th, but didn’t find it an alarming dip. She said babies are so active and growing at this age that the quick weight gains of early babyhood no longer apply. She asked where Allie’s sources of fat come from, and aside from breastmilk, I couldn’t think of any. Kelsie suggested avocado, which is the ONE THING Allie had rejected. I guess I’ll re-introduce it. “She doesn’t need a lot, so you can just hide it inside a food she does eat, like sweet potatoes,” Kelsie suggested. She said the only thing of possible concern for her based on what I was saying about Allie is that according to Jayne, Allie seems to still be hungry after bottlefeedings and solids feedings, so maybe higher fat in her foods would help the stomach stay fuller longer.
Re Waning Milk Supply
As for my milk supply, Kelsie was impressed I was still breastfeeding, saying that she often gets calls from moms who ask resentfully, “Do I still have to keep doing this? When can I stop?!” She says at 8 months, we’re approaching the end of milk being the main supply of nutrition for the baby, so we’re almost done. Babies at 1 year typically only nurse twice a day, morning and night, and all their other nutrition comes from foods outside of breastmilk. I’ve dropped an OUNCE per pumping since that maintenance guy walked in on me, which means I’m only getting 2-3 ounces per pump session at work, and 6-7 ounces at 4:30 a.m., which isn’t enough to keep up with demand and my freezer supply cushion is starting to show it. Kelsie says this is a normal drop as my body is responding to Allie’s lesser demands for milk now that she’s been on solids for a couple of months. This is how the body follows child-led weaning. It’s nothing I did or didn’t do.

Pediatrician re Milk & Food
In speaking to the pediatrician Dr. T, he said to hold off on meat until 9 months and to keep breastmilk the primary source of nutrition through this 8th month if possible. He said all the protein the baby needs now, she gets from breastmilk. If it really seems like my milk supply can’t keep up, then I can start adding more solids, increasing the frequency of feedings from 2-3 times a day to 3-4 times a day and that would encourage her to decrease demand on milk, altho it’s best to let this happen naturally at after 9 months. The variety of foods is good for acclimating her palate to different healthy foods, and if she’s doing well with new flavors now, it’s likely a good sign that she won’t have issues switching to cow’s milk at 1 year. Babies who are picky with flavor may need to be transitioned to cow’s (whole) milk with a breastmilk/cow milk blend, then slowly cut back on the percentage of breastmilk. Although there’s nothing “magical” about 9 months, he clarified, I should still make every effort to bridge the gap between 8 and 9 months so that I don’t need to put her on formula to supplement. Adding formula after all these months of breastmilk would only “invite problems,” such as with digestive issues and taste adjustments. But he agrees with the lactation nurse to also increase Allie’s bottlefeedings of breastmilk if Allie seems hungry after feedings, saying increase her 7-oz bottles to 8 oz, and her 5-oz late-day bottle to 7. So now the pressure’s on a little bit. Must.produce.more.milk.
Re Nap Resistance
With the napping disruptions, Dr. T suggested that we do either the delayed-response method or cry-it-out method. Allie has enough memory now to realize that things are different between the time she went to nap and the time she wakes up, even in things like the lighting from the sun, which means she missed something. “Babies used to think nothing happens when they nap; now they know that life goes on outside of their napping, and they don’t want to be left out.” So they’ll fight sleep. He suggested a 20-25 minute consistent naptime routine that will tell her, “We’re about to have naptime,” and then soothe her to sleep and put her in her crib. If she cries or fights the soothing, to end it and put her in her crib and leave. If she cries in the crib, to let her cry herself to sleep so she knows there are no exceptions. The fact is, she IS tired at all the regular times, but she just has more motivation to fight it and keep playing now. Jayne did leave her in her crib awake during a late nap yesterday, and reported that Allie put herself down after less than a minute of complaining. “If you want her to stick to her regular naps, and most babies her age still need 2 naps a day, you need to do this now or it’ll be harder to get her to do this at 15 months.” He doesn’t think this will be very difficult, since Allie already sleeps 10-11 hours through the night so that means she wakes up on her own and puts herself back to sleep on her own. Now she just needs to learn that dark or not, sleeping time is sleeping time.
Re Teeth Care
As far as teeth go, Dr. T said we can now buy a baby toothbrush and start brushing her teeth and gums with just water one or two times a day. This isn’t for any intensive cleaning, but it’s to get her used to the sensation so she won’t fight the toothbrush when she actually DOES need to be brushed daily, after she’s a year old.
Re Allie’s Weight
Re Allie being slender, Dr. T said that babies being chubby at 4 months or so are a result of mom’s nutrition, what she ate while pregnant, what she ate while nursing, etc. At this point, the child’s build is based on her own metabolism taking over so we’re seeing the shape Allie is naturally inclining toward. I guess she’s not going to be a fat kid. Then again, I was rail-thin to the point of concern for my parents until 6 years old, when we immigrated to this country and I discovered processed fast foods. =P

Both of them were super-impressed with the fresh organic purees I’d been making and feeding Allie. Dr. T, who also specializes in child nutrition, says this is exactly the kind of nutrition a baby needs to be on at this age, fruits and veggies and some grains, and breastmilk. Kelsie said she wishes all mothers could be more like me. All I know is that I want what’s best for Allie and will do what’s in my control to contribute toward that, and I am SO LUCKY I have a support system who does exactly this, so that I don’t even know of any other way. My cousin Jennifer breastfed as long as she could until her body couldn’t/wouldn’t produce anymore when she went back to work. Flip flop girl (Christi) nursed, pumped, pureed, cooked, and has been an invaluable source of information and experience for me. College roommie Diana does all the same things and with a baby close to Allie’s age, we’ve swapped experiences and tips and suggestions. I think all this would’ve been a nearly unsurmountable learning curve if not for these women in my life.

While I was at Ruby’s bridal shower yesterday, Ruby’s fiance (Edgar)’s mom walked in late. I’ve known Edgar since we were both 14, and I’ve spent a significant part of that time as Edgar’s best friend, so I’m quite familiar with his mother. Since moving out of my parents’ house, however, I’ve rarely had occasion to see Edgar’s parents, who live in my parents’ neighborhood.

So I waved at Edgar’s mom. She looked at me and then said, in a surprised voice, “You are Cindy!” Why, yes, I am. “I almost didn’t recognize you because you look so different!” she said. I did a polite chuckle. She kept going. “You look SO different! Wow!”
“Thank you…?” I said unsurely. Because of the unsure tone, she thought she ought to clarify, apparently.
“You used to be, kind of…” She puffed her cheeks out with air and cupped her hands out on either side of her face, as if indicating that my cheeks used to extend out 4 inches on either side of my face. Everyone at our table was staring at her now, and looking back at me. She kept elaborating. “You used to be chubby, but now you look good!”
I gave another polite laugh. “Thank you,” I said, because I couldn’t really say anything else.
“No, really! Try to maintain like this! You look much better now! I’m not lying to you, I have no reason to pat your horse on its rear.” (Chinese euphemism for BS-ing for the purpose of ass-kissing.) She kept on for a little bit, and all I could do was the polite laugh and the thanks.

I told Mr. W about this when I got home, and he laughed and said, “Asian moms are so tactless.” I didn’t even tell him about the amount of time she’d later spent on advising me to have more children, because having just one child take care of me/us in my old age is too big a burden so for Allie’s sake, I should give her some siblings. And not too far apart in age, either, because I’d want them to close enough to communicate effectively with each other when the time comes to take over our affairs. One-and-a-half years apart is ideal, but definitely not three years. I’d thought about Mr. W’s other 2 kids, 2 decades older than Allie, and how we no longer have embryos in our possession, but decided not to mention any of that. After all, she’s not MY mother-in-law. =P

Oh, and apparently, I’m supposed to have bangs, too. Not straight flat bangs, but sideswept bangs. I explained that I pull all my hair back now because the baby grabs at it, and was given temporary reprieve from obeying her advice on my appearance.

(This was at Tranquil Tea Lounge, btw.)

(videos courtesy my parents, who came over yesterday, took these, and emailed them to me today. if you understand Mandarin, you may get a kick out of my parents’ conversation on the videos. most of the voices are theirs, and I wasn’t even present at the time the videos were taken, except for the couple in which I’m feeding Allie)

Allie turns 8 months tomorrow. Aside from minor setbacks here and there, things have been pretty nice. Today, she resisted both her naps despite being tired enough to fall asleep on us before the transfer to the crib. I had to give up after a few failed transfers wherein she ended up crying as soon as she hit the crib, and I took her out of her room, went downstairs for awhile, and tried again half an hour later with no problems. The neighbor doing his weed-wacking and lawn-mowing woke her up in just half an hour, though. The second nap was Mr. W’s doing. I had gone to Ruby’s bridal shower. Reportedly, Allie resisted the 1pm nap despite falling asleep on Mr. W while they walked back from lunch across the street, so Mr. W did the same thing — took her out, tried again in half an hour, and she slept for over 90 minutes. Things like that happening are about the worst it gets most of the time. She’s been amazingly healthy; no ear infections, ailments outside of that first bout with RSV, diaper rashes, or teething issues *knocking on wood*. No serious injuries aside from stuff like what happened yesterday on Mr. W’s watch, when she banged her head on her Exersaucer from the outside 3 times, hit her face on the side of the couch on her way down, nearly choked on a piece of peach that Mr. W fed her from a slice, and swallowed liquid bath soap. =P No, she’s not eating whole foods yet, altho yesterday while we were out having a salad, we did take the shell off some cooked peas and let her gum the inside soft slippery part. That went well and she liked it. Other stuff she likes:
* eating her homemade purees. (I’m also having a blast making all sorts of purees for her; never would’ve thought.) So far the only thing she’s really rejected was avocado, and we’d only tried it once. I figure, more for me! (in the food videos below, she’s trying cauliflower for the first time)

* doing things for laughs, such as making funny faces and doing fake coughs. A favorite funny face of hers is wrinkling up her nose while snorting in and out loudly with teeth bared.

* playing peek-a-boo around corners or behind furniture with us, and with fabric covering her/our face (burp cloth over her head, us saying, “Where’s Allie?” as she dramatically pulls the cloth down. “There’s Allie!” we’d say in relief as she laughs. Then, “Where’s mommy?” She pulls the cloth off my head. “HERE I am!” She laughs.)
* drinking water from a straw. No, not sucking it out, yet. We plug up one end of the straw with a thumb and offer the bottom of the straw to her. She sees it coming and her mouth’s already wide open, waiting.
* climbing stairs by herself. Jayne told us they were practicing this on Friday, so of course this weekend, we had to see for ourselves.

* crawling on the tile. We try to keep her on the soft living room rug, but she beelines for the travertine. It’s a losing battle because Jayne lets her crawl there. We try to preserve her tender little knees and knee-skin.
* pulling herself up and standing (in the video below, I can tell by my dad’s sound effects that he’s opening and closing his hands at her, and she mimics him to my parents’ surprised delight)

* being wrapped in a hooded towel as she’s handed off to me coming out of a warm bath (biggest smile ever. we don’t get it, but it always makes Mr. W laugh)
* rubbing her face on and stroking soft furry things, such as the monogrammed “A” blanket Auntie Jordan gave her, and her fuzzy bear from the Sheriff’s Dept. Both of them seem to send her right to sleep.
* showing signs of excitement, like “jumping” (except her feet don’t actually leave the ground), clapping, waving her arms left and right, opening and closing her hands to show happiness or to respond to a greeting

* playing with anything that’s not a toy (diapers, tubes of ointment, plastic bags, crinkly paper, cardboard boxes, paper bags… she’s basically Dodo)
* and oh, yes, she loves Dodo. She’ll freeze in anything she’s doing if he meows or passes by and watch him, even if he’s not doing anything. (Dodo, on the other hand, generally ignores her because he’s learned that if he gets too close, she’ll grab his fur hard and pull, like she does to her mommy’s hair.)

Stuff that makes her complain…loudly:
* being put on her back for a diaper change or clothing change, especially during the nighttime routine (she’ll squirm, kick, twist, crawl away, making the entire experience twice as long as it has to be. giving her a Pooh character from her mobile has been working recently, as it’ll absorb her for the few minutes it should take for us to do what we need to do)
* bedtime reading (man, she’s impatient. this has mostly been cured by making sure she’s not too tired, and gets her own cardboard book to chew on while we read her another one)
* going into the carseat in the car (oddly, she has no problem with going into the carseat carrier in the house, and being carried into the car and snapped in. returning to the carseat and being buckled in from inside the car is the problem.)
* anyone who was interacting with her visibly walking away from her (this is new)

This doesn’t fall into either category, but surprised us all the same — she understands and is obedient to the word “no.” When she’s crawling along the floor going for the Glade Plug-In, Mr. W has told her “no” when she reaches for it. She may reach for it another time or two as if to make sure this is the activity we’re forbidding, and if he continues with a firm “no,” she’ll give up, but look at it longingly. Yesterday, she was so excited having a puree she enjoyed that she “hopped” up and down in her seat, kicked her legs, said “Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!” and clapped and swung her arms back and forth repeatedly. Sometimes our motions would be unfortunately simultaneous and she’d end up clapping the approaching spoon and causing a mess. Mr. W told her “no,” and “stay still,” and each mouthful after that, she was very, very still and careful, altho she’d wave around after the spoon has been removed. But as soon as she opens her mouth, signaling readiness for another bite, she would be very still and quiet. This lasted until the end of that feeding. It was remarkable.
She also understands “You wanna come out?” when she’s in the carseat, high chair, Exersaucer, swing, walker. If she wants out, she’d lift her arms toward me when I ask.
One thing she understands and no longer obeys is “let go.” The girl is a human velcro. Now we have to gently remove certain things from her grasp, i.e. drinking straw, my hair. Ouch on the latter.

She’s still being nursed to sleep at night. I have no idea what to do when she’s weaned, but meanwhile, I’m enjoying this. After she dozes off on the Boppy and I ready her to be picked up by lifting her head slightly with my left hand and sliding my right arm quickly underneath so that her head rests against the inside of my right elbow, I give her a few seconds to fall back to sleep while cradled in my arms. At these moments, I frequently look down at her and marvel at her delicate, cherubic sleeping face. The long dark lashes, the sympathetic-looking curvature of her eyebrows, her cute little round nose, sculpted lips, rounded cheeks, softly pointed chin, the growing downy fuzziness of her hair on her still-visible scalp. Her features and lines are as flawless as a drawing, but imagination alone couldn’t have come up with this combination of details that works so perfectly together. My little girl. Thanks for the past 8 months, Allie. Looking forward to the many, many more.

Mr. W and I took this past Monday off and set off with Allie on Saturday morning for her first trip to Vegas. It’s not the kind of trip you’d expect. We were going to visit his parents, 2 brothers and the brothers’ families, not to play on The Strip. It would be Allie’s first time meeting everyone in his family aside from his parents, who had visited us in California when Allie was about 3 months old.

Allie did really well on the drive there. Given that Mr. W makes a 5 hours drive in more like 3 hours, we didn’t spend that much time in the car. When her regular 9 a.m. naptime rolled around in the car, Allie just simply went to sleep on her own in her carseat. When she awoke, we stopped for a diaper change and feeding in Baker, took her into an old restaurant, plopped her in a high chair while we had lunch, she people-watched and drank water dropped into her mouth from a straw, then we hit the road again. 12:30p rolled around quickly and she went to sleep again. Unfortunately, that nap only lasted half an hour because Mr. W drove too fast. We got to Allie’s grandparents’ house by 1:30p and immediately commenced to turn their living room into Allie’s playground.

Allie’s wearing a Cubs outfit because it was a gift from a coworker, who kinda assumed that because Mr. W’s family is from Chicago that he’d be a Cubs fan. He’s a White Sox fan, as with most members of his family, except for Rocker Bro. I sent this photo to Rocker Bro with the caption, “Hi Uncle Jimmy, guess where I am!” It was a quiet relaxing Saturday at grandma and grandpa’s, and we set up Allie’s playyard/bed in a spare room, blasted white noise on her iPad (yes, HER iPad, Mr. W’s 1st generation that he’d replaced with the 3rd generation), and she went down for the night on time like a pro. She did wake up and wail twice, the first because the clocks at the house chimed each hour with a lot of sound effects, and Mr. W’s parents took the battery out of that clock for the rest of the weekend. The second wake-up, she just gave a wail, then a whimper, and was quiet again. It was a challenge with no cameras to know what was going on in there, but I didn’t want to open the door and go in to check on her because that may wake her up, and if she sees me, she wasn’t going to go back to sleep.

On Sunday, it was crazy meet the family day. Everyone and their mothers (and grandmothers and grandchildren and babies) came to the house to hang out throughout the day. Allie was GREAT with all the new faces, and she in particular liked to crawl to the little girls, reach out her hand, and interact with them. She taught Rocker Bro how to crawl…

…she had her first rocking horse ride…

…she showed everyone how she now stands, and claps (started clapping Friday), and makes funny faces. See funny face in 24-second video below. 😀

Naps were challenging that day because the noise level was high, but she still went down in her room at grandma and grandpa’s and was transferred into the play yard just fine. She didn’t stay down long for the second nap, just 30 minutes, but you’d never know it by how well-tempered she was into the evening, even tho we had to delay her bedtime by an hour because people were still over. I ended up just staying in the room with her for the second nap, hiding behind the blocked-off section of her play yard, because I wouldn’t be able to check on her to see if she was awake from outside of the room without opening the door and letting in immense volumes of people laughing, TV blasting, kids running around playing. Who would nap when they’d rather be out joining in that much fun, right? Even tho that nap was short, I was pleasantly surprised how the white noise eliminated a large amount of outside voices, except for the sounds of metal hitting counters or kids running and screaming close to her room. She slept pretty well that night with no audible wake-ups.

The car ride home was more of the same; her morning naptime hit, she yawned and just went to sleep. When she woke up from that first nap, we were a bit far from stuff so she got a little impatient, straining against the seat belt and yelling to be let out. I had to entertain her with songs, hand-tricks, pretenses of eating her foot and hand, all of which worked for only so long before I had to resort to what I didn’t want to — a cartoon video of some Miss Spider’s Tea Party something-or-other on iPad. She watched that for awhile and when she once again got impatient, thankfully we got to a shopping retail outlet and pulled over. I changed her in a relatively empty food court restroom’s baby station, but there was nowhere to feed her. I decided that a Maidenform employee was more apt to help me than a Guess employee, so I popped my head into the store and asked across the racks of bras on sale, “I’m sorry, I have a random question. Do you know where there may be a restroom with a lounge where I can nurse my baby?” The employee pointed out a couple of possibilities, but then offered her store’s changing room. She said the benches in there aren’t too comfortable, but it’s private and quiet and air-conditioned. I thanked her gratefully for her very generous offer and were shown to a room. Allie took a look around once we were in and let out an amused half-chuckle.
“Huh!” she said.
“I know this is weird, but it works!” I told her. And she ate and ate until her little tummy was round. We walked around the outlet a bit after that, bought her some cute outfits at Old Navy, then got back in the car. Remember the bear from the sheriff’s department she’s addicted to sleeping on? It put her right to sleep for her second nap, too. She was SO HAPPY to see it.

Many babies have a security toy, stuffed animal, or blankie…my kid has a giant bear rug.

Mr. W flew home amidst warning indicator lights and beeps that came on in his car that said “PROBLEM.” We dropped his car off at the dealership maintenance department soon after we got home and unpacked. Turned out the oil was so low that he may have damaged his engine, as for each hard turn or hard braking he did, the oil would drop below the sensor level and set off the indicator warning. He’s going to try just topping off the oil regularly instead of spending $4K on a new engine just yet. Ack.

Just for poops and giggles, here’s a 2-minute clip from Monday after our return home, when Allie was playing with Mr. W. She likes to arch her back now and see the world upside-down, like I did when I was her age.

And here’s a video of something Mr. W was excited about all weekend, Allie standing on her own and clapping. He kept saying Allie stood for like 10 seconds unsupported and clapped, but I never saw it, cuz every time I came over from making her next batch of new food puree (sweet potatoes this time!), she’d see me and get distracted and not do it. She’d wave and smile at me, tho. In this video, she does stand and clap, but not for 10 seconds. (The couch behind her is plush leather on the bottom and sides, and plush microfiber on top, so don’t worry, there aren’t hard edges for her to fall against.)

Here’s something else we discovered on Monday. She now holds the bottle by herself! We don’t bottlefeed her because when we’re home, she’s exclusively nursed, but I’d wanted to use up some milk that Jayne had out and thawed but didn’t use.

I wonder what else she does that we aren’t aware of. Maybe she sells original artwork and sculptures online.

We had a new person, also a vet hospital technician, come by and medicate Dodo day and night. She cost double what the other girl (who was not available last weekend) charged, but it was okay by me to pay her $20 each trip because Dodo was in good hands. Catherine loves cats, has cats of her own, is used to taking care of animals at her job, and even plans to get a Scottish Fold like Dodo as her next cat. I got text updates from her telling me how everything was going at the house, and she even stayed after meds to clean up after Dodo’s litter, make sure food/water is clean and plentiful, and give him lots of love and attention.

Allie skipped a nap for the past 2 days in a row. She had been doing pretty well before that, taking her 2 naps for usually over an hour each. Yesterday, she skipped her morning nap and took her afternoon nap an hour early and stayed down for 90 minutes or so. Today, she skipped her afternoon nap altho her morning nap lasted almost 90 minutes. Jayne is totally frazzled because when Allie doesn’t get her sleep, she is crabby. According to Jayne, she’s also been unusually dependent, protesting and wailing if left alone for a bit, or even put down sometimes. Both days, Allie crashed while playing at various times out of sheer exhaustion, and both nights, she had to be put to bed early and knocked out easily. Tonight while I nursed her to sleep, she was the limpest I’d ever seen her. It was like she was drugged. I sat her up to switch sides and she just stayed asleep, sagging against me while I had her in sitting position. I did get her to wake up, whimpering, to eat a little on the second side, but that lasted 3 minutes before she was out cold again. Poor baby.

I love that she’s super-happy to see me when I come in the room and would stop what she’s doing as recognition crosses her face, and she’d break out in a big smile. I open and close my fist in a wave to her from across the room or from the upstairs landing while she’s downstairs, and she locks eyes with me, smiles, reaches her hand toward me, and open and closes her little hand in her greeting back to me.

Jayne was reading The Wonder Weeks when I walked in this evening after getting home from work. She said that Allie seems to be in the middle of a developmental leap so Jayne’s relieved “it’s not [her].” Sure enough, the book says Wonder Week 37, the World of Categories, begins its first phase at approximately 34 weeks (or between 32 and 37 weeks) and the second phase at about 37 seeks. As baby learns to see and associate details with things, baby learns that a cat is an animal like a cow, but it is not a cow. Pea puree is food like water, but it is green and comes from a bowl and tastes different. And then the baby’s working on new physical skills, too. Language, emotions, understanding the two from others. Brain waves show drastic changes at this time. The baby feels overwhelmed by all the new information bombarding its brain, which will cause some or all of the following fussy signs:
* crying more easily than usual
* seeming cranky, whiny, fidgety, grumpy, bad-tempered, discontented, unmanageable, restless, or impatient
* jealous and clingy
* sleeping less
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. All of the above. Also, I learned that they are now old enough to have nightmares. This explains the 2 nights when, about an hour after going to sleep, she suddenly woke up screaming and crying. This didn’t last more than minutes or less until she laid down and konked out again. I had wondered whether she was having night terrors, but she’s too young for those and nightmares make sense. This chapter in “Wonder Weeks” seem to be talking specifically about Allie, even down to the “When you set your baby down to be dressed, undressed, or changed, she may protest, scream wriggle, act impatient, and be unmanageable. Most babies do now.” This is why I start the changing/dressing routine at 6p and finish at 6:20 deaf and sweaty. The books says this fussy period lasts about 4 weeks. =P

But it’s cool. I tell myself, it’s okay if she misses a few naps as she goes through this phase. It’s okay if she’s sweeter than moon pie (which hubby introduced me to a couple years ago and I still gag now thinking about it) one minute, leaning back in my arms and cuddling against my shoulder, then suddenly bounces impatiently and tries to wriggle out while voicing a big loud complaint the next. She’s growing, she’ll get over this, and she’ll live. Unlike the toddler who is the reason for our preliminary hearing the past 2 days. Today, my judge held the defendant (baby’s mother’s boyfriend) to answer to one count of murder and another count of assault of a minor under age 8.

We met my HS friend Lily and her hubby Arnold’s baby on Saturday. Harrison is 11 weeks old, and a quiet little thing who hangs out inconspicuously in his carrier and sticks his tongue out as he looks out cozily. It’s hard for me to imagine Harrison being almost 3 months, since it seems like just a few weeks ago that Lily gave birth. Time flies when it’s not your own life, I guess.

Harrison also seemed newborn-y to me. His head still needed to be supported, and he was tiny. His parents said he’s been consistently in the 30-something percentile. Allie was born in the 99th percentile plus and has remained there, so the last time I saw her looking that floppy was before 6 weeks old, when she started holding up her own head sitting.

It’s true about the mommy amnesia thing. Mr. W and I were so impressed with how low-maintenance and quiet Harrison was the whole evening, even while we were out at our favorite neighborhood Greek restaurant eating. He cooed quietly here and there, and may have whimpered once before he was picked up, but that was it. I kept saying how when Allie was that age, we could not have gone that long without her crying and freaking me out. I knew Lily was okay with new-motherhood and didn’t have postpartum depression like I did when I received an email from her early on, and in it she’d written, “I always think Harrison is cute, even when he’s crying.” Wow. Back in the early days, when Allie cried, I was terrified and miserable, often near tears myself. When Allie wasn’t crying, I was having an anxiety attack thinking I heard her cry, or that she was about to wail. I was always on eggshells, something the therapists said was a hormonal imbalance thing due to PPD. It was nauseating. Even tho Mr. W had agreed with me that Harrison is WAY more mellow than Allie was at that age, turned out I didn’t give Allie enough credit. I went back to my blog at her 11-week point, and read. At 11 weeks (early February), she was going through the crazy-sick thing when she had to be on the nebulizer, was so congested she couldn’t breathe, but I still had her on a regular napping schedule according to her needs, she did well and was happy and I had been so impressed with her (the pediatrician was, as well) for being such a good, happy, smiling baby despite her miserable symptoms. She had been going to Gymboree for a few weeks and was very active, talkative, and kicky. She was also very interactive with people. She was picking up things and sticking them in her mouth, and was sucking on her fists and trying to get our fingers into her mouth to suck. Mr. W pointed out that maybe Harrison wasn’t doing those things because his parents had put newborn mittens on his hands. That’s true, I recalled. For all we knew he was signing the alphabet in there and we couldn’t see it.
Reading more posts on my blog, I was surprised that when Allie was Harrison’s age, I was already going through my nanny search in preparation for returning to work. In my head, that’s pretty late in the game and Allie had made a ton of progress and we were “out of the woods.” I guess when I imagined the early days of when I was convinced Allie had colic, that was the first 6-8 weeks or so. Man, those days seemed to have gone on for months. I would’ve been more traumatized than I am now if it weren’t for my mommy support system, the new-mom friends who let me text them at 2, 3, 4 in the morning, who’d always responded promptly and gave me unending encouragement and tips from their experience. I should’ve sent them Mother’s Day flowers. I wish I’d have thought of it. I hope I remember next year.

I’m glad I kept up the blogging through the PPD. I’d either blocked info out, or things were just a blur to me as I lived in a sleep-deprived, anxiety-ridden haze. My posts were pretty detailed, which made me realize I’m less detailed now about what we do daily. That’s probably cuz I’m back at work and the baby’s “daily” is more in Jayne’s realm. So, a typical day:
I wake up between 4:30a and 5a to pump out the overnight engorgement with the hand pump. I get out between 7-8 ounces. Then I sneak downstairs with the pump, my purse, electric pump backpack, and I store the milk in 2 breastmilk bags, pop them in the freezer. I fill a syringe with 0.25ml Amlodipine (for high blood pressure) for Dodo, bring that and the now-empty pump upstairs, making sure along the way that the computer downstairs has all 4 cameras displayed for Jayne later, and that the front door is unlocked so Jayne can get in. I go upstairs, wash out the pump parts, draw up 1ml of liquid potassium for Dodo, and administer both meds to him orally while he struggles. I then get myself ready for work. Meanwhile, somewhere in there at 5:30a, Mr. W gets out of bed and gets himself ready for work and has breakfast. I join him for breakfast between 6a and 6:15a, then we go get Allie up. Often, she’s already up, and playing quietly in her crib. I’m happy if she wakes up after 6a, but she wakes up between 5:30a-6a a lot. We just leave her alone and she just hangs out in her crib quietly rolling, crawling, practicing standing, humming to herself, playing with her bear. When we get her, I open the curtains and say, “Good MORning, sweetheart!” She smiles at me, stretches, smiles at Mr. W as he talks to her and tickles her, then he picks her up and changes her as I take her bear out of her crib and preps her room for the day, moving the stepstool out of the way of her crib cuz Jayne doesn’t use it, getting her clothes for the day, etc. Then Mr. W hands her over as I’m in the feeding chair, and I nurse her. When that’s down, I close the curtains and blinds again, preparing the room for her naps, then go downstairs with her. Jayne may or may not be there by then; she’s been coming in later and later, and today didn’t get there till 7a. Mr. W and I chat with her a few minutes and we rush out and go to work.
In the day, Allie now takes 2 naps, the first staring between 8:30a-9a, and lasts about an hour or a little over, the second starting between 12p-1p and lasts between 1-2 hours. On odd days, like yesterday, Allie only slept half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon and was crabby from lack of sleep all day, so I gave her the optional late-afternoon nap at 3:30p and she slept for a little over an hour before I woke her so that she wouldn’t be messed up for her bedtime. Her mood was much improved after she got sufficient rest. She still goes right into soothing position upon entry into her room: head resting against my chest, sucking on her left thumb. Eyes close slowly as I sway side to side for a few minutes. When the sucking slows and stops, I lay her gently in her crib. She wakes up during the move, sees the approaching mattress, and drops her face into it and goes to sleep on her tummy. Also in the day, Allie now gets 2 feedings of solids — a puree of a veggie + brown rice cereal and a fruit late-morning, another veggie and fruit + rice cereal early afternoon. Right now there are pureed peach, pear, prune, cantaloupe, purple yam, peas, zucchini, and yellow squash in baggies in the freezer to choose from, all no more than a week old since I puree a batch of something every 3-4 days. She’s also got carrots and broccoli in her eating repertoire, and sweet potatoes waiting to be introduced. I should do spinach soon before her growing taste buds start thinking they can refuse different-tasting foods. White meat’s coming up later this month. Allie right now still gets 5 breastmilk feedings a day, the first and last by nursing. The middle 3 bottles are 7 oz, 7 oz, 5 oz.
When we get home after work, it’s about 5p and we have about an hour to play with Allie, give her a feeding of solids around 5:30p, bathe her every other evening, read her a story on our bed, and put her to bed. In her room with just me around 6:15p, her nightly routine is a diaper and a change into her PJs, I apply Aquaphor on her dry ankles and her neck folds, pick her up, nurse her to sleep in the La-Z-Boy, lower her into her crib, and close the door behind me as I walk out. I aim for this to be between 6:45-7p. There’s a whole strategy to nursing her to sleep, too, including making sure her last side is the right side so she’s facing the right way to be picked up and placed in the crib, letting her slow her sucking into a slumber before I move her upper arm out of the way, letting her go back into a slumber before I withdraw, then letting her stir and go back to sleep for close to a minute before I move my arm under her neck and cradle her for pick-up, letting her drift again before standing up and moving her into her crib. Otherwise I place her in her crib too roused and she’ll wake up and cry and thrash around in there for awhile before going to sleep. After she’s put down, I re-medicate the cat and Mr. W and I have have dinner, then do our own things. Lately it’s been him playing Diablo 3 and me reading. I try to be in bed around 8:30p, altho I may not sleep till much later. This morning Allie slept in until we had to wake her at 6:30a so that was good, altho I always feel bad waking her.

Allie’s a lot of fun right now. When I open and close my hand in a wave, she smiles in recognition of the game, and does the same back. I think because she sees my palm when I do this to her, she does it back by facing her own palm toward herself, also, so she can see how she’s doing what we’re doing. We say “bye-bye” or “hi” when we do this wave, and it’s done when I greet her in the morning or after a nap, and Mr. W does it to her when he waves bye-bye to her as she goes upstairs with me for a nap. Over the weekend, she was tired and fussing for a nap, and she started waving at us. We think she’s associating it with “Need to go nap! Go bye-bye to nap!” She also crawls around and explores everything on her own, following after Dodo sometimes. I WAS hoping to not need to babyproof, but that’s starting to look slim. She also likes to get to the edge of the couch or to the landing of the stairs to pull herself to stand. She’s starting to cruise, just a little. Maybe a step or two, or to change direction, as long as she has an adult’s arm or some furniture to keep a hand on for balance.

Playing peek-a-boo is a lot of fun. I would cover her head with a burp cloth, and say, “Where’s Allie? Where’d Allie go?” And then she’d yank the cloth off herself very suddenly, and I’d say, “THERE’s Allie!” and she’d laugh. Then I’d put the cloth on my head and say, “Where’s mommy?” She’d put her hand on the cloth, wait for me to pause in my speech, then yank the cloth down and I’d be face-to-face with a huge wide-mouthed, 4-toothed grin, and I’d say, “HERE’s mommy!” and she’d laugh. And then we’d repeat with Daddy. She’d occasionally initiate the game by placing the cloth awkwardly on her own head. I’d fix it to cover her better, then ask where Allie is.

She’s also easy to take out to a meal. As long as she has her high chair and we bring some purees to feed her first, she’s fine to sit and people-watch. We went to dim sum yesterday for lunch.

(Yes, I’ve stopped wearing makeup. No point when the kid runs her hands all over my face when I’m nursing. Unless I want her to eat foundation.)

Yesterday, after Allie awoke from a nap and played with the camera and pulled repeated on its wires, Mr. W had to move her on-crib camera to over-crib, mounted on the ceiling (amidst very colorful language in which even the crib’s mother was insulted). This is our new view of Allie’s crib, so we get a new perspective on her sleeping form:

She laid like that for a long time. How does she keep her leg up in the air like that? It’s like she fell asleep in mid-dance.

There are things that babies learn to do that make a parent beam with pride and joy, such as earlier, when I was taking Allie upstairs to her nap, and she spontaneously learned to wave bye-bye to daddy. Mr. W was smiling at her from down below as we ascended the stairs, and he opened and closed his hand repeatedly, saying, “Bye-bye!” She smiled and did the same thing back. She’d been randomly opening and closing her hand at will to learn to grasp things lately, so I didn’t think much of it the first time. But Mr. W would stop, do it back and say bye-bye, and she’d do it back again, smiling and laughing with her arm outstretched and palm facing him. This happened too perfectly and too many times exactly at Mr. W’s cues to be anything but deliberate. So yay, baby learned to wave bye-bye today.

And then there’s stuff like this after she woke up from her earlier nap, that makes a parent go, “EEEEEEEK!!!”
I looked at the cameras (we have 4) and saw that Allie had moved to the front of her crib, and was starting to pull on the rails. No biggie, nothing new.

And then, she stood up! Oh crud, I’m gonna switch to the other camera that’s on the edge of her crib.

EEEEEEEEK!!!

Now her chubby little fingers are RIGHT ON THE CAMERA! And she’s shaking it!

Um, I guess this means it’s time to move the on-crib camera.

(as with all my photos, hover mouse pointer over each photo to get a photo caption)

Last Friday, I aged another year but I insist that I remain in my “mid-thirties.” I figure 38 would be “late thirties,” so I’ve still got a few years. It seems like just a couple of years ago that I was making this argument about being in my “mid-twenties.”

Mr. W kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday. There really wasn’t anything I could think of. If Allie weren’t in existence, or if Dodo weren’t doing pretty well, I may have a few birthday wishes. Not knowing what else to do, Mr. W ended up bringing home what seems like 2 dozen beautiful yellow and sunset roses from his Costco shopping trip, and taking a couple of hours off work so he could take me out to an early dinner while Jayne was still at home with Allie. We had a delicious adults-only meal at Seasons 52 at South Coast Plaza, and after that, walked into the attached swanky mall to Sephora, where after a looooong hunt (and being delayed half an hour by an annoying salesperson who insisted she was “like, like, a makeup artist, like, you know,” and wasted my time putting unwanted shades of eyeshadow on me that made me look like a zombie despite my saying I just want a simple matte gray to go), I found my gray eyeshadow. It was a Sephora store brand, cuz EVERY OTHER brand they carried was either metallic or glittery or shimmery. I got overexcited and selected 3, and Mr. W insisted on paying for them at the register. So yay for a very much appreciated birthday gift! And good gawd, when did some powder pigments start costing $13 each?!

I was SWAMPED trying to clean up a certain problematic floater’s mess with a 3-defendant attempted murder trial at work, but I don’t want to dwell on that. It’s a good thing that in this day of layoffs and difficulty in getting a job, that I’m gainfully employed. Unfortunately, certain others are also equally gainfully employed, even tho apparently I’M doing THEIR work. Okay, I’ll stop now. There were good things that happened at work on my bday, too. For instance:

My former court reporter Louise must’ve had early notice that she would be in our courthouse on my birthday, because she popped in prepared with three very sinful, very gourmet cakelets (yes, I just made that up) from The Great Dane Bakery for me. This place makes wedding cakes, so you can imagine how fancy her little cakes were. I was being floated all over the building, so I “didn’t get a chance” to share. In the afternoon, a few hours after consuming one such cakelet for lunch, my courtroom assistant noted after witnessing my 700 wpm phone conversation about a case, that I was on a sugar high. Later, the nausea and headache set in. Amazing how sensitive my system has become given my very careful eating ever since I started prepping for pregnancy (and now breastfeeding). That didn’t stop me from eating the other 2 cakelets. YUM.

Of course, given the above birthday indulgence yesterday, I had to go for a run this morning. Mr. W opted to not go, so he stayed home with Allie. Finding myself not accountable to anyone for my run, I got lazy and slowed to a walk shortly after starting up a hill. Suddenly, I looked up and saw this:

So I sighed, obeyed, and ran the rest of the way, not stopping again until I reached home. As my friend Danielle said, “Sign, signs, everywhere are signs.”

I must’ve earned my karma, because Allie was THE PERFECT BABY today. She took her first nap at 8:30a for an hour and a half; took her second nap at 12:30p for another hour and a half. Mr. W’s son came over during Allie’s 2nd nap and we all went out to sushi for Son’s birthday which was earlier in the week. Thanks to her great rest, Allie was so happy, she didn’t even get stranger-shy around Son like she did about a month ago. She was super well-behaved and patient while we ate at the sushi bar, too. After this early dinner, Mr. W and Son went to purchase Son’s bday gift, an iPad3. I swear, Mr. W should get commission for those things. (My mom called, and I told her what our plans were today. She said, “An iPad? And you only got eyeshadow for your birthday?!” I guess she’s a lurker on my social networking site.) I stayed home with Allie and got to enjoy her wonderful mood all day, giggling, playing, dancing, humming. It inspired me to take a 10-minute video of her doing basically nothing but hanging out, crawling and playing, enjoying herself and her blocks that I stack up and she likes to knock down, and a sturdy plastic bag that I inflated and ziplocked. (I know, I’m not supposed to let babies play with flimsy plastic bags or any plastic sheeting, but she was well-supervised.) She’s so like her brother Dodo. You can buy all the expensive stuff you want for them, but their favorite things will be plastic bags, cardboard boxes, and crinkly paper. Mr. W and Son got home from the Apple store in time to spend some time frolicking with Allie before her bedtime, which was also caught on my 10-minute video.

Allie went to bed for the night without a hitch, and Mr. W is spending quality time chatting with his son in the backyard. I finally have the computer to myself. Now, if only the screaming neighbor boys would stop making all the noise playing basketball on their driveway outside of Allie’s bedroom window, it would be a great evening. They kept Allie tossing and turning. I blame summer’s long days and Daylight Savings hours.