It's been a while...

E asked me this morning (3 days ago when I started this post) when was the last time I posted. It took several attempts to "fix" the problem of not being able to upload and access photos, but it's done. E also cleaned out the virus/spyware that I apparently downloaded trying to get the second part of a tv show (Criminal Minds, in case you wanted to know).

Chinese New Year, G wore a dress that E's cousin brought back for us from Hong Kong. It came with a matching jacket and purse (for all her red envelopes!). Speaking of red envelopes, G really loved them, so bright and shiny, and they made a great sound when crinkled. Here she is w/ her buddy from church who is 2 weeks older than G. I think they look like the Emperor and Empress of China!

For the Superbowl, we shuttled between two parties, and luckily, G fell asleep in the car and slept through most of the second half. Yes, because we were party-hopping, we missed the big 100 yd interception/touchdown. If you look carefully, you'll notice that G's wearing her 49ers shirt, just to show her loyalties. For the week before the game, we prepped G with a trick where we say "Touchdown!" and she raises her arms up. We had to alternate watching her and watching the game for the first half, but since she was sleeping later, we both got to watch. BTW, that's the camera lens cap in her hand.

G loves being flung into the air! E can't wait until she's old enough for roller coasters.

These are her cool climbing blocks that G got for Christmas. Now she can really practice all her Little Gym moves... except for the rings, bars, and balance beam. G's standing on her own briefly and amazes us with her great sense of balance! 

While I do tend to be picky about her toys (natural materials like wood, BPA-free, phthalate-free, PVC-free plastics, etc), we are also creative with some of her toys too. This was her diaper box, and I cut out a bunch of different shaped/sized holes for her to drop stuff into and take stuff out.  She thought it was really funny to be in the box too! (BTW, not that we're looking for gifts, but if you're ever wondering what to get G, our favorite brands of toys are Plan Toys and Haba, both make great wooden toys with natural paints, Manhattan Toys is also a great company.)

We are still waiting for G's 3rd tooth to come in, we keep thinking, any day now... but despite only having 2 teeth, G is eating lots of table food, but continues to be really picky about what she eats (we found out at our Chinese New Year dinner that she likes the chinese wood ear mushrooms, weird!). We did discover a great trick from another mom friend who suggested we read to G while she's eating. And funny thing, it works! I guess she's distracted enough by the book that she forgets that she's supposed to be refusing to eat and actually opens her mouth. She only feeds herself stuff she really likes, and even then, she stops after a while and waits for us to feed her. Notice the corn on her chin and the strawberry in her mouth!

G's latest tricks? Her best one is that she can tell you where her brain is. She can also tell you how a lion sounds, and blink both her eyes. We're now trying to change over her "Touchdown!" trick to a charismatic "Hallelujah!" trick. 

Her current schedule? G has two classes now, a multicultural/lingual music class where we sing songs in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and maybe some other languages too. She also continues to take her Little Gym class. She's adjusting to the nursery at my Wednesday bible study too, doing a lot more playing and  a lot less crying. We haven't been going to the library because of her new class schedule, but are hoping to start going to a different library for story time. It makes for a pretty full week, especially when you start to add in the playdates that she has almost every week too!

All good things must come to an end...

S's parents have been here all week, which could explain why there haven't been any updates since last week. Also, G's schedule has been changing, well, a lot of things have been changing. For a few weeks now, she's cut down her night time sleeping to 11-12 hours, which is fine with us, but I just have to be more disciplined about waking up earlier to do all the things I want to do before she wakes up. Lately, she has also become more fussy when away from mommy, this week, she began waking up at 6am, and yesterday afternoon started a runny nose that by the middle of the night, we realized was probably a cold. Today I found out that one of the babies in the church nursery (this was only her second time there, the first time was the week before where she was in for about 10-15 minutes only because of nursing and nap time) was sick. Live and learn, I guess - now we will ask if any of the babies are sick before leaving her there. So aside from her current cold, we don't know if she is 1) teething, 2) having a growth spurt, 3) developing separation anxiety, 4) adjusting to Wai Po and Wai Gong (grandparents) living with her this week.

Here are two of the pics we submitted to the Gap photo contest... the other two we picked were the one with the ball and the one from Gap that they took.
Here she is hard at work. We love this toy because it helps keep her occupied when in her high chair and the suctions on it are GREAT! She can grab the wires and pull herself, high chair included, towards the table. So far she only spins the beads, she hasn't gotten the concept of sliding the wooden beads along the wire yet, but we're confident she'll figure it out soon. Seems a lot of our pictures these days are of her eating. Maybe because they are so funny. I think this was zucchini.

E took this picture one early morning, it's my new desktop picture.

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.

Consumer Info

I was asking a mom friend the other day about the velcro hooks she had on her stroller handle and her husband started to tease me about being like Consumer Reports. Well, I have a lot of mom friends, so why not ask their advice instead of re-inventing the wheel? His take was that if they had to go through the trial and error, then we should too, but I think it makes sense to learn from other people's trial and error. Plus, just because it works for some people, doesn't mean it will work for you because it depends on your needs and preferences, so it's not just about, does it work or do you like it? Yes, I'm sort of crazy when it comes to researching G's stuff, but I feel good about doing it and like that I'm trying to provide her with the best possible environment that I can. I guess it's part of my love language! Here's where I go mostly:

The Soft Landing: Everything sold here is BPA free, plus there are articles to read, and a blog with news and info. We will be making a purchase there soon for G's feeding supplies, just waiting for the bibbity bibs to get in stock. I can't believe she will be 6 months in a few weeks (the magic number for starting solids). It's possible to buy items from elsewhere for cheaper, but I believe in good service, I appreciate their time and efforts and the service they provide, so I'm willing to pay a little more for it to support them. What they do makes my life easier, and if they go under, it will just be more work for me to have to call companies, etc, to get the info I need.

Giggle: This store just happened to be around the corner from where we used to live in SF. They do a lot of research into their products so I feel safe buying a product that they carry. I browse their website frequently. For example, I saw this at a baby store, I wanted to buy it for G on impulse. Just before we got up to the register, I had second thoughts because I wondered about the paint (it's comprised of painted wood and some kind of stretchy cord) because of all the recent toy recalls about lead paint. So I put it back and didn't buy it. Later, I saw it at Giggle, specifically asked them about the paint, and felt reassured and confident that it was safe and bought it for G (btw, she totally loves it, it makes a very light tinkling sound and it's so easy for her to grab and the knobs are perfect for her to suck on).

I use Amazon and Babycenter to read reviews, but I don't put too much stock in them because I find a lot of people just say things like, oh, my baby didn't like this, which I don't find helpful. I also subscribe to several blogs, many on green/healthy parenting.

Safe & Long-lasting & Fun(ky)

Not all toys are created equal. I tend to be somewhat obsessive when it comes to G's toys (for all things we purchase for her, for that matter). I research things to death, which is very easy to do with the internet. Things we stay away from, things that might have lead paint (yes, I've called several manufacturers about their products), plastics that might have PVC, BPA, phthalates, and other harmful chemicals, other things that may have harmful chemicals. Just because it's popular doesn't make it safe.

Recently, we bought a (used) Fisher-Price jumperoo. I didn't do as much research as I would have liked and on hindsight, may have preferred a different brand (I kind of liked the Baby Einstein jumperoo I saw at the store recently). When E brought it home and assembled it, he commented that it definitely doesn't "look" like G's other toys. I think it has something to do with the plasticy-ness of it, maybe the colors. I probably will not buy Fisher-Price again in the future, if I can help it.

So what toys do we like for her? We prefer to buy her toys that will help her developmentally, that are stimulating, and that can grow with her.

Lamaze: Great developmental toys. We have the Octotunes (we've heard bad reviews that it's hard for little hands to get any sound out of, but it will be fun for us to play songs for her, and we just liked it anyways), and the other octopus activity toy (Octivity toy or something like that) where each leg has something unique, like crunchy sounds, different fabrics & ribbons, a mirror, rings, etc. She really likes the legs that crunch.

Manhattan Toy: G has the Skwish, which she loves, it's wooden, safe paint, and makes a soft tinkling sound. She can easily grab it and wave it around, and it's easy for her to keep holding on to it even if a few fingers open up. She also likes to suck on it and is really good at getting the balls on the end to her mouth. I also like several other of their toys that I haven't purchased yet, like some of their stuffed animals, which are just funky and cute. The Whoozit is very popular, and comes in many forms, but we don't have one for G yet, don't know if we will, I'm sort of on the fence about it, maybe just because it seems so trendy.

Kushies/Zolo: These are the BEST. We have their playmat, one of our first big purchases for G. It's reversible, one side just has lots of black/white patterns on it, the other side has funky colored patterns with different fabrics and toys that velcro on. There's also bars that arch across from the corners and you can hang stuff from them. In the beginning, we just used the black/white side for her tummy time. As she got better and started rolling, we used the colored side more. Then we discovered she likes to kick the arches in the corners in order to shake the stuff that's hanging. She's been using it since about week 3 or 4, and she definitely hasn't maxed out it's usage yet (just wait until she figures out the peek a boo toy). We just recently got her the stacking rings, Zolo Boa, (again, fun colors, lots of different fabrics and ribbons, and each ring makes a sound) and some stacking bean bags, Bean Stax, both of which are still advanced for G, but she can grow into them. Both have lots of parts to them, and for now, we have only given her one or two rings to play with, and a few of the beanbags (the one that crunches). Things I'm eyeing: the Hugbug, stuffed animal with funky fabrics/ribbons/colors, and the arms pull through, so that if you pull the left side, it makes the right side short, and then you can pull the right side to make the left side short.

Under the Nile: Good for clothes and toys. This is a locally based company that has all organic stuff. We have a few of the organic cotton fruits & vegetable teething toys for her. Some research suggests that babies/kids are more likely to eat stuff they are familiar with (have seen before) than those that are foreign. Granted, a toy tomato that has a head may not seem exactly the same as a real one, but it's closer than a ball or some other random toy. The fruits and veggies come in sets, but I've been cheap. A local store had some on sale that I've bought, so far, she only has the beans, banana, tomato, and mushroom. I'm eyeing the grapes, corn, asparagus, eggplant, broccoli, strawberry, and all the others for future purchases. BTW, the beans was the first one I bought, because it seemed like the skinniest for her to grab and get into her mouth. I somehow recall it being one of her first toys, but don't remember if I bought it before or after she was born.

There are lots of websites and blogs I read to get ideas and information about safe and educational/developmental toys.

If I feel up to it later, I'll put some links up so you can see exactly what toys I'm talking about. Amazon has a lot of them.

Photo Update

This is how we put G down in her crib:

This is how we sometimes find her:

So the question is how many times each night is she spinning around in her crib? Does she do it in her sleep or when she semi-wakes up? We'll need a night video or video monitor if we want to find the answer. Last night I went to check on her about 20-30 minutes after I had put her down for the night and she had already done her 180. She unfortunately woke up about 3 hrs into the night, but was still able to get her 10.5 hours in after that.

Here is G in her new bathtub. Bathtime is Daddy-time. Now we need a collection of bath toys for her. Notice her ball, which used to be tied to her stroller has now been reallocated for bathtime use. A few of her teething toys that we used to link things off her play mat have also been reallocated. I'm excited, because I've been eyeing this since before she was born, and now we have an excuse to get it. I thought it was so cute (and functional as well, easy clean up and has a drain hole too! I don't care about the mounting issues from reviews because we have to eventually remodel this bathroom to put in a proper showerhead instead of the handheld we installed, or at the very least, re-tile it because it originally didn't have a showerhead, so the tile doesn't go up very far).

I realized at some point that all her toys were unisex. That's not a bad thing, I'm actually a big fan of unisex toys (why push the whole gender stereotype stuff on them? I want her to do and be whatever she can dream, without being hindered by gender. Growing up a tomboy, I was never into the girly/doll thing, my toys of choice growing up were legos, back when you actually needed imagination to build stuff, not just following instructions to build what's on the box, but that's another rant). Anyways, so I liked this one because it's not all girly. Notice the natural wood rings at the arms, and I picked the blue one, it also came in a pinky-purple. Supposedly it smells like lavender too, but who knows. When she gets older, I will probably get her these dolls, they're un-stereotypical & multi-ethnic, if she wants dolls to play with.

When E's parents were in town last weekend, we took a little trip to Hakone Gardens. G handles her paparazzi very well. At one point E was holding her and Grandma, Grandpa, and Mom (me) were all taking photos of her.

Several people have commented over the last few weeks about her eyelashes being curly. No, I'm not curling them, they are naturally growing like that. And no, I'm curling her hair either, it's also natural, comes from S's maternal grandfather, who has wavy hair, as do all of S's maternal uncles. S's hair didn't become wavy until post-college.