Single Parenting: Day 3

I'm not sure I can keep up this every day blogging schedule, but we'll see.

The weekend before E left for China, we also had a Little Gym Spring party. Here are a few pics of what G is currently doing in her class. The rock wall was higher than it normally is, probably for the bigger kids, but that did not deter G from climbing up several times.  

She also loves the bar and balance beam and rings. She can now do rolls on the beam, as well as over the bar.

I mention this because she had her Little Gym class today. The new thing we tried today was rolling on a GIANT wheel (it really was giant, maybe 4 ft in diameter!) and then doing a forward roll on the other side. Too bad I didn't have the camera with me in class. Next time. She also climbed up the rock wall several times today.  

I managed to get G on a good schedule today, breakfast at 9ish, nap for 1.5 hrs, lunch at 12:15, then class and picking up a few things at the grocery store, a little play time at home (with her new Duplo Lego blocks, yay!), nap for 2 hrs, dinner at 6:45 with her favorite friend (the one she shared a high chair with). G also started her weight gain supplement today (it came in the mail this morning during her nap, so only her lunch, snack, and dinner had it). We'll see how well it works... it seems to dissolve well in soups and yogurt, but not so well to coat it over strawberries!! 

Oh, and for E reading this in China: G still fussed again this morning when I went to get her, but not as much as the previous 2 days. She still misses you and we talk about you all the time.

Lots of updates!

We took her to a pumpkin patch to take some pictures. It was after Halloween, so there weren't many pumpkins left, oh well, I guess next year we will be more on top of things.

We also went to a party at the Little Gym, where G takes classes. G liked showing off to Daddy all the things she can do. Here she is crawling through a tunnel to Daddy. She got bored the second time around and Daddy came in to help coax her out. She was heading for a little container of bubbles she "won" in one of the carnival games at the party. As usual, she wanted to suck on it (but we didn't let her).

Here she is with Daddy jumping on the balance beam.
Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy on the bars.
And jumping on the low bars. Yesterday in class, we combined a low beam with these bars so G could "walk" along the beam holding onto the bars on each side.
G loved playing with Daddy and showing off all her new skills. Is that a wink?

Mommy had to do this one with G while Daddy took pictures. Here she is starting her roll:

Here she is with her hands down, that's a baby reflex.

Check out how excited G is to do her rolls on the beam!

We tried to put G down for a nap the other day and she wanted to have no part of it. After some time passed and it was clear she wasn't going to sleep, S went into G's room to get her and this is what she found. E rushed in and I told him to get the camera. You can't tell from the picture, but when she saw us, she had this big smile on her face, like she was so proud of herself!

The short story is that G finally figured out that one of the ties (in the corner) of the bumper was torn off so she could pull the whole thing down. I used a large  binder clip to clip the tie to the crib railing, but she managed to pull that off too. After much searching around the house, I finally found a needle and thread and attempted to sew the tie back on properly. So far so good. We also lowered her crib to the middle setting, but I'm sure soon enough we will have to lower it all the way down.

Feeding update: G is doing much better. We no longer have to strip her down to her onesie nor do we have to hold her hands down (much). While she still sometimes fusses, she will open her mouth and lean in when the spoon is in front of her. We are trying to do 2 feedings per day. We do, however, still think she's teething, as she's still more fussy than normal.

Locomotion!

G is officially on the move! Today, after her Little Gym class, we went grocery shopping (well, I shopped while she napped). When we got home, I turned on the front sprinklers, took out the groceries from the car, took G out of the car and put her on her playmat, put away the groceries, went out to turn off the sprinklers, came back to get G on the playmat only to find her totally NOT on the playmat. She was about 6 feet away from where I had placed her, off the mat by several feet, next to the sofa. Does she look happy to see me or surprised that I "caught" her? Yes, we will be baby-proofing and keeping a closer eye on her.

You may be wondering how exactly is she moving? She's rolling, which is old news. She's also scooting or creeping, which is the new news. Picture a soldier creeping around flat on the ground using his arms, and that's what G is doing. She uses her hands and arms to pull her body along. Her legs are trying to help, but it's mostly the arms at this point. We always knew her legs were strong from all her jumping and standing, but we never realized how strong her arms were!

Yosemite update: We stayed 2 night in a tent cabin in Curry Village. Our cabin was in a different area from everyone else's, which turned out to be a good thing. We hiked with G in her backpack carrier along the bottom of the Half Dome trail, to the second bridge. E was disappointed that we didn't go up the Mist Trail, but it was hot, he looked tired, I was tired, and I just felt that we weren't really prepared. Later that night, I woke up to rangers outside our cabin with flashlights. I didn't see or hear any bears, but I can only assume that was the reason. Apparently it was enough to wake up G and she was really upset. It took a long time to stop her crying, and after one failed attempt to put her back down in her mini-tent, I realized that I had to just hold her all night long rather than risk keeping everyone else in the camp awake, so E helped me put her in the carrier and I sat on a chair with her sleeping on me like that the rest of the night. Later, I heard what sounded like two gunshots, which we found out later were air rifles that the rangers used to scare away bears. I was so tired from sitting in the chair (that wasn't very comfortable) with her all night long, that I sent E with G to breakfast with the others while I stayed behind to sleep.
And as promised (only 3 weeks later), the pics from her first Little Gym class:

2024 Olympics, here we come...

Stay tuned for her feeding update...