G at a party; T diapers

G at a friends birthday party:



All the kids sat together in one long low table. Quite fun. They had a teacher from Music Time come and do a parents-and-me session, so G and I were clapping, singing, banging drums, etc. Lots of fun. S and T stayed home, too tired and not allowed to go out yet, respectively.

I took G around the block today as it was a nice day and her vocabulary continues to build. She said, "gou gou kan fei ji" or "doggy see airplane".

Changing T's diapers continues to be a challenge -- no I haven't gotten peed on, it's just that the diapers keep leaking, from the front. Yesterday S and I saw this wet spot suddenly appear and grow on his tummy. When I open the diaper his member is always pointed down! So our latest theory is that when he pees it points up and somehow the top of the diaper is loose enough to allow the liquid to go up. If anyone has any boy diaper techniques to pass this way I would definitely appreciate it!


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8 months (late)

I know, it's several days past her 8 month birthday, but oh well.

So, I think can rule out separation anxiety, as we were at a Halloween playdate and G was the only baby that didn't cry when all the moms (10+) wanted a group picture of the babies in costume and put them all down on the floor to take pictures. She just smiled at me and looked around wondering why everyone was crying (and all the mommies laughing). Too funny, it was the most chaotic few minutes I've experienced recently. However, G still tends to be more fussy when tired or hungry, but I guess that could be normal. She still could be teething or having a growth spurt. Also, within a few days after S's parents left, G was back to sleeping 11-12 hrs. She still woke up at 6am once, but I think she's back to a 10-12 hr schedule, plus her 2-3 naps during the day. And she isn't crying anymore during her bathtime.

Ok, so back to G and 8 months. She's crawling now, we realized that it's the hardwood surface in our house that's holding her back. She's been doing a hybrid crawl that looks like an inch worm where she comes up on hands and knees, then goes flat on belly, then back on hands and knees, etc, but she's still very reluctant to go from sitting to on the belly when on the floor (she'll do it on her bed, our bed, the couch, etc). However, on Saturday at our church's Harvest Festival, she crawled the entire length of the picnic blanket (maybe 6 feet) several times without going flat.

Stats at 8 months: 27 inches tall (I think we can say tall now, instead of long, since she's starting to stand), 14 pounds. For those tracking, yes, she lost some weight from last month. We think it is a combination of her getting sick last week and her becoming much more active.

Besides crawling, G loves to climb. I think she actually likes it more than crawling. She's also getting a little better at eating, and will actually open her mouth and lean her head forward for grapes and rice noodles. Her current list of foods: rice, oatmeal, zucchini, spaghetti squash, sweet potato, spinach, peas, avocado, grapes (once I let her suck on a piece of honeydew, so I'm not sure if that counts). Coming up of things to try: artichoke (I will steam whole ones and just mash up the hearts), apples, pears, butternut squash, broccoli, carrots.

We have also completed G's transition to cloth diapers. She just completed 24 hrs of all cloth. When we first started , it was only at home and during the day, then, last weekend, we tried overnight, and this week we have kept her in cloth going out on short trips where won't need a diaper change. We have not yet changed a cloth diaper outside of the house. G has been successful pooping on the toilet too, except for a tiny bit that got on her diaper once.

Here are some pictures of her Halloween costumes (yes, we borrowed a few):

This one was a bit small for her (and she didn't seem to like it), so we decided not to use it, but she still looks cute.

Here she was on her first Halloween playdate. There were two other ladybugs there but we think she was the cutest one! This is the one we will probably use for Halloween.

Here she is dressed up for our church's Harvest Fest & Pumpkin Patch! We took home the same pumpkin that we brought. What a bargain!

gDiaper update

I flushed one insert a few days ago, but just the insides, and threw away the liner, but the toilet sounded funny after flushing (not the normal smooth flush, but kind of burped air up which is not usually a good sign). It made me nervous, so after that, we are back on gDiaper hiatus.

However, gDiapers is paying for our plumbing bill, which is very nice of them. I was talking and emailing back and forth with one of the founders. 

I am in the process of cutting up her pei-peis (flat cloth diapers) to use as cloth inserts for the gDiapers (and putting her on the toilet or 7th Gen for poops). Seems like we are back to doing laundry almost daily anyways because of her messy eating.

Busy Week

But not in a good way...

Monday: S notices the master bathroom shower is draining slowly.

Tuesday: S buys natural drain cleaner (uses enzymes or something) but drain seems ok so we don't use it.

Wednesday: Master bathroom shower drains slowly again.

Thursday: Master bathroom toilet clogs, S plunges it. Hall bathroom toilet not filling up with water, after a few flushes, water starts backing up into the tub. Check back to the master bathroom to find water backing up into tub as well. Luckily, E was working from home that morning, so he helped mix the natural drain cleaner stuff (activates by mixing with warm water, has to let stand for the day). S scrambles to find somewhere to go after G wakes up from her nap since we have no working toilets. That evening, flush toilets to find problem still there. E buys regular drain cleaner and borrows a drain snake and attempts to snake drains. Still clogged and backing up.

Friday: E calls our homeowner insurance (free for our first year) and plumber comes. We have no outtake pipe so he has to snake through the roof, which isn't covered by insurance. S spends the rest of the day cleaning the floors (since the plumber wore his shoes all through the house and bathrooms), and triple cleaning/disinfecting the bathrooms (toilets, sinks, tubs). S also calls gDiapers to find out what can be done about the flushable inserts (we have returned to 7th Gen for now, but are considering several alternatives which include cloth inserts into gDiaper covers, only flushing the pulp part of the gDiaper and trashing the liner, try to start composting to compost the inserts). We are waiting to hear back from gDiapers, but so far they seem very nice.

Here's E's pic of what got snaked out of the drains: several weeks' worth of gDiaper inserts (maybe abou 25):

7 months!

Time flies. I keep saying it, but it's so true!

Anyways, I've been told that my posts are huge essays, 

so I'm going to keep this brief.

G is now eating sweet potatoes and peas, in addition to brown rice (all organic and home-made). It's actually much easier than I had anticipated. I prep about 1 ounce for her, maybe half stays in her mouth. Here she is after a sweet potato meal.  BTW, peas smell really funky on a baby...

Mom got a new toy, and so did baby. G enjoyed playing with her two new boxes. S also enjoys her new toy, and E is also getting addicted to it as well (I should add that my parents came in town about 24 hours ago, and both are now addicted and I can't watch tv or play on it myself and now my mom wants me to find a Wii for her - I should also note here that my grandfather has been playing his Wii for over a year now, he loves bowling and tennis). I was able to convince E to get one after we went over to a friend's house to play on her Wii and Wii Fit. She says that all new moms should have one (see? doctor recommended!!) She also uses her storage box (of too small clothes) as a toy/drum. At this age, anything makes a great toy!

G is also creeping all over the place, and can be quite persistent and fast when she really wants too. We have pretty much switched over G to 6-9 month sized clothes, though there are still a few 3-6 things floating around in her wardrobe. 

And best of all, we finally got over our fear of the gDiapers and tested one out in the toilet. After it didn't clog, we got up the courage to put one on her. They are GREAT, we love them (even E can flush them by himself) even though the inserts are pricey, they are worth it for helping out the environment. I still keep thinking about cloth to use instead of the inserts, but can't really get past having to wash them (and don't want to use a diaper service) so for now, this is the best we can do for the environment. And they look so cute on G, with the "g" printed on the back! For now, we only use it at home (and after she has pooped). EC is also going well, she had another successful poop on the toilet this morning.

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!

The Last Diaper Standing

Thank goodness for diapers.com! I placed my order yesterday morning before G's playdate and her diapers arrived today. For new moms, next day delivery plus free shipping (and tax-free) is awesome, and they have more than just diapers. I think there are only 5-6 diapers left in the house, including the ones in her diaper bags. That's pretty sad.

Today I changed G's diaper in my lap, in the car. We saw a friend do a diaper change on the lap with their kid while we were out at a restaurant and it seemed like a handy trick to learn. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of nursing her, and in the second half of her meal, she pooped, so the diaper only lasted maybe 15 minutes.

Today was a busy day, but I felt productive about it. I ran two errands with G and was out most of the day. She slept great, so well that I actually woke her up to feed her. However, since we came home, she hasn't slept at all (and I've fed her 3 times). But I was still able to cook dinner. Yay for running errands and cooking dinner!

We tried to EC her again tonight, but failed miserably. She was hysterical, poop was everywhere, and she ended up having a HUGE spit up (luckily it missed her and me and most of it went on the floor, two big waves). It was traumatizing for everyone involved. I think we may put a pause on the EC-ing for now. Oh well.

Tomorrow will be another busy day. Babies R Us is accepting old Avent and Dr. Browns bottles (they are switching over to BPA-free ones). They will give you 100% back for complete bottles, and 50% for ones missing parts, no receipt or packaging needed. You get store credit, but it's still a great deal.

Delayed 1 Month Update & New Discoveries

So, I had intended to post something on G's first month, but that was last week and this is the first chance I've had to get online to post. That's what parenthood is about, everything takes WAYYYY longer. Had a family get-together for her one month "Man Yue" thing. According to my grandmother, because G was born at 11:30 at night, it counts as the next day, and in addition to the Chinese tradition of starting out life at one year old at birth, that means technically we celebrated her "thirteenth month plus one day"...

Oh, also in her first month, I got to discover the wonderful world of plugged ducts, we took G on her first trip to SF (for her friend's Red Egg party), met all her grandparents.

G also graduated to the next diaper size, maybe a week or more ago. We are using 7th Gen diapers and when E was sent on his first trip to buy diapers a few weeks ago, he called from the store wanting to buy Size 1 diapers instead of the newborn ones because you get like 12 or 16 more diapers for the same price. Uhh, she's not that big yet so stick w/ the newborn size. However, she is now on the Size 1 diapers, yay! We've got "new parents" written all over our foreheads, I took pictures of her in her Size 1 diaper... like I'm going to have time to scrapbook all of this! We'll see, I still have high hopes.

On a more recent note, today G discovered her fingers/thumb. This morning as E was changing her diaper, she was unusually quiet, and E noticed that she was sucking a finger. Of course we had to stop everything to take a picture because it was oh so cute! Then, later when she woke up from only sleeping an hour, I was doing everything I could to get her back to sleep. I put her in the sling, trying it left-handed for the first time which totally threw her off because she kept turning her head into the sling instead of outwards (way to freak out new mom smothering her baby in the sling). Anyways, we finally figured it out, and she was still crying and seemed to want to nurse, but I had started heating up some chicken & rice soup my mom had made because I was hungry so I wanted to eat first before feeding G (yeah, that didn't happen...) So, I was walking around with G in the sling, and she would quiet down and nod off in between crying and one of the times she nodded off, I noticed her thumb in her mouth, fingers up along her nose towards her eyes... so cute! Of course, tried to get a picture of it, but have you ever tried to take a picture of a baby while wearing her in a sling? Very difficult. I'll have to get E to upload the pics from my camera...