SP Day 5

Yesterday, we mostly stayed at home, and made a quick trip to Whole Foods for organic milk. I should have just picked it up from Safeway the day before, but I wanted to get the small container, which Safeway didn't have. But it would have saved me an extra trip, oh well. I was frustrated with G because she wasn't eating her breakfast, but figured out she was just really tired, so I ended up putting her down for a nap, and she finished her breakfast at lunch. We had home group tonight, and she LOVED her black beans, corn, rice, carnitas pork mixture, eating it all, and even having secons of corn! 

Today we had our big Easter party with the other little kids in her playgroup (my moms' group). The Easter egg "hunt" was sort of just a see and grab, just a 'arrive and see some eggs appear at your feet' sort of thing, but there were lots of plastic eggs (some whole, some opened) scattered all over the grass, along with lots of cheerios and goldfish too... 

I did G's hair in braids just for the event! Here's a pic of it from the back, it was done while she was eating breakfast, in her high chair.

She's free standing more and more, and taking steps too. Soon, soon.

Look! I can open these things and eat the stuff inside! (Cheerios and Cheddar Goldfish)
Here she is cruising around with one of her friends.
One of her birthday toys is a wood animal puzzle. Apparently she likes to walk around with the  bird in her mouth... (BTW, if you ask her where the bird is, she will look toward the window!)
New food discovery: salad leaves! I give her the darker ones or the spinach, as they have more nutrition. And she's not just sucking off the dressing, she will actually eat the whole leaf!
I had to change her entire outfit when we got home because I discovered an entire Cadbury chocolate egg melted inside the back of her onesie. At first I just thought it was on the back of her neck and hair, but as I was changing her diaper, I discovered what looked like a blow-out (leaky poop) up her back and out the diaper, but it smelled like chocolate and I could see the wrapper still mixed in. I should have taken a picture before washing it out, oh well!

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.

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!