Single Parenting: Day 2

I managed to get G up and out for bible study this morning, which is a feat in itself. Bible study is at 9:15 (I'm never on time), and because it's so early for G (and me), we usually need E to help us in the morning. I was late, but at least I still made it. One of the reasons I didn't want to miss it was because this is one of the few places where I can drop off G at the nursery. She always cries when I drop her off, but always eats her breakfast and loves playing with everything there and has a great time.  

G only had one nap today, and I'm wondering whether she's getting more and more adjusted to only wanting to sleep in her crib and not being Ergo'ed out. If so, that will be unfortunate, as I take advantage of her sleeping in the Ergo to run errands like grocery shopping. Yesterday she refused to sleep when we went to Costco, and today she refused to sleep when we went to Target. 

Anyways, for dinner, we went over to some friends' house, and G had a great time playing with their kids. Apparently, G's shirt made a great surface for sticking checker pieces onto it... poor girl had no idea what they were doing. (We're laughing WITH you, yes, WITH you!)

Going on a little shopping trip, buying blocks and little books.

These pictures were taken last weekend, which was super busy. Here we are at Lullaby Lane, G is testing out a cool stroller (actually, we were there picking up a replacement crib and testing out car seats, but I just HAD to put G into the Stokke stroller which I totally have stroller-envy over)

Then, we stopped by a friend's house to visit, since they lived close to the store. This is G's first encounter w/ Lego (Duplo) blocks, which she quickly figured out how to take apart. I was really impressed and happy when she also was able to put two back together. Now the Lego obsession can begin for the next generation!!
Then we went to another friend's house for a sandbox/backyard playdate. G didn't like the sand at all (this was her second time to encounter it, she didn't like it the first time at the Children's Discovery Museum either). However, she did really enjoy riding around in the wagon.

G's going to hate us for taking so many pictures of her with food stuck on her face, but I just can't help it, it's so funny and cute!
You probably didn't know that this high chair can also be a double high chair! G and her best friend.

Single Parenting: Day 1

Bye bye, Daddy!

E left late last night (early this morning) for China. He's going with a group from church to help out at a new orphanage for disabled children, and will be there for 3 weeks. I will be trying to update this blog more often so that he can see what G's up to while he's gone. It is his first time away from her since she was born, and the longest he'll be away from me since we were married.

This morning, when G woke up, she was hysterical. And not in a good funny way. Normally, G wakes up around 7-8, which is also when E wakes up, so he retrieves her from her crib and brings her to our bed for me to nurse her, then takes her back to her crib to go back to sleep for a few more hours. This morning, I went to get her and brought her back to the bed. And she became very upset and didn't want to nurse, but was just hysterical crying and writhing around. After a few minutes of not being able to console her, I set her down on the floor by her exersaucer and went to the bathroom. By the time I came back, she had calmed down, and I brought her back to bed and was able to nurse her. She then slept until 11:30.

Today we had a picnic lunch (G's breakfast) in the park with two other friends. Then we went to Costco (yes, E went there yesterday for me, but I wanted to get more stuff and was in the wrong direction to go to Whole Foods), where I expected G to nap while I shopped. She apparently had other plans and didn't sleep until we got home and I put her in her crib, but at least she had a nice long nap. My women's group met at my house tonight so that I could put her to bed at a normal time, which worked out well, since they ended up staying rather late (it was a good time of catching up and sharing). 

I'm considering adjusting her schedule and not letting her go back to sleep in the morning so that she can have meals at more normal times. But that also means that I would have to get up earlier too.

G walking... almost

We noticed in the last 2 days that G was able to stand up by herself, completely unassisted.. she starts off holding onto the wall, then pushes off, is completely standing by herself, looks around, and maybe slowly sits down... but at least 10 seconds or longer.   Today, she took a step forward from a standing position!   She never takes a step... always sits down to scoot somewhere else, even if it's just really close...  

Since today is just before her 13 month-day, perhaps we can claim that she is starting to walk at 1 yr old  :)

-E

Fun with Socks

This is how much fun you can have AFTER the fun of taking off your socks:

This was supposed be a video of G throwing her socks around. She did this for about 10 minutes, totally cracking us up, but apparently I can't post videos, so oh well).

It's been a long time and things have been busy getting ready for G's birthday (both sets of grandparents visiting), and then recovering from the aftermath of her birthday (still opening presents!). We are also getting ready for E's first trip away from the family since G was born. Next week, E leaves for a 3 week trip to volunteer at an orphanage for disabled children in China. We've also had our city-wide big clean-up, which involved the two of us rearranging two rooms in the house and the garage, and dismantling and moving to the garage the huge dining table. We are also trying to finish up a year-long project of building a desk in the office.

But enough excuses... so what is G up to these days? She had her 12-month appointment, where she weighed in just under 16 lbs. and was referred to a nutritionist, which proved to be fairly useless as she was unable to provide any useful points specific to our situation. She did tell us, though, that ("bad") saturated fats are totally ok for G, as neither of us have cholesterol problems. We have introduced whole milk into G's diet, which seems to be ok. With her two top teeth finally making their appearance (and two more top teeth trying to poke through), G is discovering a whole new world of biting food. Now, it's no longer good enough to give her small bite-sized pieces of food, she wants something she can grasp in her hand and take bites out of. Asparagus and, occasionally, broccoli, are big hits. She's also getting better at drinking from her sippy cups, she now has two, one for water, and another (non-metal) for milk.

We just got back from our annual church retreat, I'll try to post more photos of that later, as those are on a different camera and haven't been downloaded yet.

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!

technical difficulties...

We have been having some difficulties with our computers and have been unable to post photos. 

What's been up with G lately? We went up to Tahoe last weekend for our first Tahoe SNOW trip (she has been up once just visiting and once camping both were in the summer). We were lucky and our friend's dad volunteered to babysite G for us so we could both go snowboarding together (it was already 2pm by the time we got her settled in with lunch, nursing, and down for her nap). It was great to be up on the mountain together, even though we spent most of our time going to watch our friend race a slalom course. We found out later that our friend's dad gave G a chocolate m&m after she woke up from her nap, because she was watching him eat them. Sigh.

Then, on Friday, we were at a friend's house, and I was telling them the m&m story, and one of our friends wanted to give G a strawberry, even though they are supposed to be high on the allergy list and you're supposed to wait a while. Well, our friend ended up giving G a strawberry, and she LOVED it.

We've added a Music Around the World class for G, which is music with other babies and kids. Most of the music is in English, but some in other languages as well, which is why we decided to take the class. I think I was somewhat disappointed with the class initially, because I thought it was something I could do with her on my own, but oh well. She continues with her Little Gym class, the last class of the semester is this week, but we signed up for another semester. Last week, she got to hang on some rings, and she has also learned to flip around on a bar! This might be our last month of the library lapsit/reading time, because it only supposed to be for babies up to 12 months. We have a pretty full schedule, with something scheduled Monday through Thursday, with Fridays often taken up by playdates.

G's milestones: she's cruising pretty well (walking along furniture) and standing alone for brief seconds. She can now put things into boxes/containers (in the past she has only been able to take things out).  She's also eating a lot of table food, as well as spitting it out and dropping it on the floor. We wipe her chair, table, and floor 3 times a day.

Stay tuned, we are planning G's Baby Dedication and First Birthday/Red Egg Ginger party for the weekend of February 21/22. Both sets of grandparents will be in town. 

G's New Year!

G had a quiet New Year, as she developed a cough a few days before. So far, she's only slightly congested and still coughing, so we are happy that she has not developed a fever, as her dr thought might happen. But despite her cough, she is still eating and sleeping and playing fairly normally (she is still waking up once every night, usually between 2-4am, but it can vary). 

G is now eating more and more table food. Recent table food she's had: nai wan bao and (unsalted) french fries, mushrooms and cheese from S's hamburger. The reason she only had nai wan bao at dim sum, was that she slept through most of the meal, so by the time she woke up, there wasn't much available for her to eat. I still have not given her boba, though I've thought about it the last few times. Her typical diet these days: For breakfast, she has yogurt or cottage cheese with pureed fruit (pears, apples, and/or prunes), maybe some fried egg yolk. For lunch, if we are out, more finger food type stuff like olives, grapes, tofu, chunky soft veggies, egg yolk, bao (bread) or crackers. For dinner, multi-grain puree cereal mixed with two kinds of veggies (usually one green and one yellow/orange) and maybe some meat. She has now had all the main meats, turkey, chicken, pork, and beef (in that order). She has bao (brioche dinner rolls) or crackers at almost every meal because we can give her some to start eating as we are preparing her other food. Foods she's not allowed to have yet: fish, egg whites, nuts, honey. We've also avoided citrus fruits and tomatoes for their high acid content. 

A few days after she learned to feed herself, G also learned how to spit food out. Now we have a constant battle of her pushing food out with her tongue. The funny thing is that it's not necessarily that she doesn't want it or like it, it could be stuff she likes, and eventually she will eat it if you put it back in her mouth enough times.

In other news, G also got a new car! New Year's Eve, we took a family trip to a Subaru dealer, and 3 hours later, drove away with a used 2008 Subaru Outback wagon, Blue. G loves that it sits a little higher than her old car, so she can see more, and also that it has the LATCH system making her carseat a little easier to install and maybe making it a little safer too.  Her new car also has more storage/trunk space so it easily fits her stroller, portable high chair, spare diaper bag, with plenty of room for groceries and Costco shopping, and room for small family vacations like trips to Tahoe for snow and trips to Yosemite for camping.