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).