Happy Little Camper

It's been a while, but Monday the Internet was down, and since then, I've been busy.

The camping trip was a success! G had her own little tent inside our tent (which was the smallest tent by far of all the families, and we were not the smallest family). She did so well, we didn't need any of the extra clothes that we brought for her, not even the warm ones because it never really got that cold, and we were putting her down to sleep earlier anyways (because she was waking up at dawn with the rest of the kids running around and making noise). E & G did one little hike up to something called Balancing Rock (pic to be entered later after E processes all the pics he shot in raw). Then, Saturday afternoon everyone went to the beach, but we stayed at camp b/c G was taking a nap. Overall, it was relaxing and fun hanging out with friends. There were about 20-25 kids total there, my guess is that most were under 8 or 10, most of the families there had 2-3 kids per family. Everyone commented about how G seemed like such an easy baby and that she never made a sound (except for when I was feeding her, but that was in our tent).

What else is G doing these days? Now that she is such an expert at rolling, she does it all the time, and sometimes we have to go back into her room to flip her over because she has rolled onto her tummy before going to sleep. G is now practicing her sitting techniques. She can sit for about 1-2 minutes at most, but usually she falls over within 30 seconds. Will post a pic of this too once it gets off of the camera. I am also preparing for when G turns 6 months and can start solids. I will be attempting to make her baby food, so that she can have fresh and organic foods. I'm excited about it, but sad and nervous as well. Excited and nervous to try making her food and hoping it works out in terms of time and effort, sad that her nutrition will no longer come from just drinking breast-milk.

In other news, the other day I went out to run errands and realized (already parked outside the store) that I didn't have G's stroller in the trunk. We had taken it out for camping over the weekend and had forgotten to put it back. Oops. I almost just went home, since G was sleeping in her car seat. Instead, I decided, to use her carrier and continue shopping. It actually turned out well, I managed to get G into the carrier without waking her up, and was able to push around a regular shopping cart with plenty of room to pick up all the stuff I needed (the big stuff were plastic bins for sorting and storing G's hand-me-downs that we've been getting from friends). After she woke up, she looked around and seemed happy. It was such a success, that I did this again to go grocery shopping today, except that she started out awake, then fell asleep midway through, and I was able to get her back into her car seat still asleep.

It's a great feeling to know that I can handle taking her out running errands and adapt on the fly and learn new (and sometimes better) ways of being out with her. There are definitely benefits to using her carrier versus the car seat - preventing flat head, facilitating bonding/attachment through close contact, allowing G to have a better view, just to name a few.

Now all I have to figure out is timing cooking dinner since G always seems to be awake when I need to cook (the hour before E comes home). Today's strategy: cook when she takes her nap in the afternoon, and reheat when E comes home. I'm also going to look into things that take longer to cook, so that I can do it earlier also when she's napping, like roasts or stews that you stick in the oven for hours. We also have a new household rule that there will be no cooking in the house when the inside temperature reaches 80 degrees. Today the inside high was 79, oh well. It was ok, because since I had just gone grocery shopping I had sort of planned a meal already (mixed white/brown rice, spinach with garlic, and ground pork, tofu, squash with black bean sauce, my feeble attempt at cooking Asian style. E is much better at the Asian cuisine, while I am better with the American/Italian/French stuff).

The good & the bad

I had to take G to worship practice with me last night. It's my off month, but there's a new drummer that I was curious to jam with. However, I didn't realize when I offered to play that they changed practice to Wednesday night, which is when E has one of his Bible study groups. Ususally, E meets me at church, where I nurse G during our sharing/prayer time and then he takes her home and by the time I get home from practice it's just about time for me to feed her again. It's a good routine. So, this week, stuck with no one to watch her, I had to keep her with me at church. So I packed her portable tent and play mat, a few toys, and hoped for the best. Half way to church, I realized that I left the tent on the couch. Oops. On to plan B, which was to just leave her in her car seat and hope for the best (worst case scenario, one of the singers could maybe hold her).

G did awesome! I was so surprised, especially because she wasn't in the mood to finish eating at church (I fed her half a meal at home). She didn't cry at all and stayed in her car seat the whole time. There were some other kids that were there that occasionally made faces at her, but for the most part, she just looked around and seemed rather content. She even fell asleep while we practiced one of the slower songs. And even when she woke back up when we started rockin' out, she was ok. What a relief and answer to prayer!

Today, we decided to stay home. We've been out so much, trying to run errands. I wanted to go to the mall to return some stuff, but decided at the last minute to just stay home. The last few nights, by the time G is on her last feeding of the day, I can barely keep my eyes open. I managed to make pasta salad (I'm practicing making bigger batches of food so that I don't have to cook quite so much, it's good to have leftovers and to have a husband who will eat left overs), though it took two of her naps with a feeding in between to finish making it. Then, for dinner, we had steak with truffle butter (I looked everywhere for my grill pan, turns out it's probably at E's office), melon and prosciutto, pasta salad (I forgot to cook the potatoes), and caprese salad (tomato, basil, mozzarella, buffalo, of course, with balsamic vinegar & olive oil). Most of the meal was organic too. Oh, and the best part of the day was that I got to take a two hour nap w/ G (she only sleeps for 45-60 minutes during the day now, unless in her car seat, sling, or being held.

The down side of her long nap was that she didn't nap for the next two feedings, making for a very cranky baby. So we put her down a little earlier than normal.

G hasn't slept in her crib again because the bumper got ripped so we have to return it.

Speaking of returns, 7th Gen is awesome. I had a problem with some diapers we bought, and I ended up having to call the company. After a few tries, I finally got a hold of someone who was so nice and ended up offering me diaper vouchers or a refund. Initially, I was going to take the vouchers, since we really like 7th Gen and G is no where near the point of not wearing them anymore, but then I thought, hey, it would be nice to have the cash. And I told the guy how much we love using 7th Gen products, and he offered to give us some coupons too. Yeah, baby!