sweet tooth

today, baby sprouted her first tooth!

she was all sorts of unusual fussiness yesterday which is why i had nutella for dinner and then today at church was easy as pie, for which i was especially grateful because chris was out of town all weekend and i was kind of hesistant about being solo at church with this apparently newly fussy baby.  but she sat in her carseat and played for about 80% of church and was happy as ever.  i was sooo confused about this new jekyll and hyde thing.  but then half way through relief society, baby was gnawing on my finger when what do my wandering finger tips behold but a sharp little tooth in my child's mouth!  (poetic verse is not my thing).  i power slammed her onto my lap for further investigation while exclaiming to the girls i was sitting next to (in a very loud whisper) that i JUST found a tooth in my baby's mouth!  her first tooth ever!

well, you know how i am about pictures.  i don't remember anything unless i have a good picture or two to go with something.  so i went home and took some pictures.  i just meant for it to take two seconds but i just wasn't getting a decent shot.  that should have been my clue to just bust out the big camera.  but i didn't.  i stubbornly persisted with our little point and shoot.  here's what's wrong with all of these pictures (which by the way, are not all of the pictures i took).

blurry, because no flash, because it's a mirror shot.  but doesn't baby look great?!?!

self timer.  deer in the headlights.  and our faces look like they have self tanner on them.    can't figure that one out.

baby's face still looks dirty.  nose is orange/brown?!

just not appealing to me.

just so you know, this tooth can not be seen.  but that didn't stop me from photographing the location anyways.

i swear it's there.

okay, we can give up trying to see it now.

brown face.  this is seriously so odd.

grainy white splotches all over.

white splotches.  baby is so over this and just ready for her nap.

we all know the focal point of this picture.  and that's not what we're trying to focus on.

bad angle makes baby look like she has tree trunk legs.

so that's my story and i'm stickin' to it.  baby has an itty bitty razor blade in her mouth.

ps- my blogging sister emmy has had non stop fun for the past week.  parties, plays, movies, sports, country dancing, you name it.  she did not take a single picture.  

i. can. not. believe. it.

girls night IN

tonight we had a fabulous girls night in.  no boys allowed.  first, instead of going out to dinner, we ate in (hence girls night in).  baby girl had beef and beef broth (totally grossed out and rightfully so) with mango on the side (absolutely loved it) and i had straight up nutella (it was one of those days) and it was delightful.  

dinner in a jar

mmmmmmm

turns out, baby girl ADORES mango.

and absolutely despises baby beef broth.

i'll post videos from this meal another time.  they are pretty funny.  that whole experience where she was grossed out by peaches was a piece of cake compared to this beef broth stuff.  normally, if anything, she'll show a reaction to something the first bite or two and then get over it.  with peaches it was the whole first time.  for like five minutes or so.  and then the next night she ate peaches like a real georgia girl.

well, the first night (yesterday) of eating beef i didn't even get any video of it because it was so scary.  she hated it so much she wouldn't close her mouth (i'm noticing a trend that she doesn't like textured stuff) and she was gagging and dry heaving and her face turned all red and i thought she was going to throw up or choke or suffocate from a panic attack.  but i kept feeding it to her because i was so sure with the next bite she would get over it and finally i gave up.

well, i thought she would be over it for sure tonight but turns out she's still grossed out although not anywhere near as badly.  maybe tomorrow will be even better?  honestly, it smells like canned cat food and it's a nasty gray color.  i can't blame her.  but i pressed on, because i'm determined to have a tolerant child, dangit!  and don't worry, to keep meal time positive we finished up with some peas.  those were a hit.

then we moved on to bath time to take care of the tie dye mess that was her face.  i don't enjoy baby bath time so i'm always trying new things.  tonight i tried bathing my baby in this bucket-ish drawer container.

i had mixed feelings about the experience but baby loved it because it was more conducive to playing with, i.e., eating, her rubber duckies.

i think baby likes bath time about as much as i do.  all the other parents talk about how their baby kicks/squeals/giggles/laughs incessantly in the bath.  baby girl has never done this.  she will kick, but she does that without water as well.  anyways, maybe eating rubber duckies is the way to enjoy bathtime.  if only i could get her this into eating real food...

and this is for my posterity.  i'm raising the white flag.  after avoiding all forms of tapered pants for more than a decade...

you can mark 2.26.11 as my first day in skinny jeans.  sadly, i don't hate them as much as i thought i would.

so the night was filled with stuffing our faces with food, giggles, a relaxing bath (for baby), a fashion show, pillow fight... just kidding.  but really.  that was our night together.

and as much fun as it was, it just really made me miss my honey.

meal time

there are other things that interest my child more than eating.

and so it goes on.

nursing is the same story.  although i thought a video of that might be slightly inappropriate.

flat hair

remember that post about baby's fabulously downy fro puff hair?  well, here's the follow-up update because we're no longer sporting that style.

two weeks ago, baby's hair started filling in like crazy.  i mean i noticed it from day to day that week.  people say that you don't notice the changes and growing up of your own baby because it's so gradual and while i'm finding that to be very very true, this hair growth has been an exception.  it was fast and noticeable and lasted a whole week start to finish.

her hair went from this sweet 80's fro puff,

to this sleeker, more sophisticated style,

in a week!

ps- we're not ALWAYS in bed.  i have to take all of her hair pictures in front of the tv because the lighting and the black backdrop offer perfection when it comes to capturing her little blond baby hairs.  although we do log quite a few hours in bed so baby can practice sitting and scooting and neither of us have to endure our hard, terrible, scratchy student housing carpet floors.

and do not judge me for that crap on the dresser and tv.  FOR THE LIFE OF ME, i can not get my precious husband to put his clothes anywhere other than on top of his dresser.  about a year ago though i decided that it would be good for my ocd, and consequently our marriage, if this problem disappeared.  so there are 3.5 drawers in his dresser and i have designated one whole drawer as the "junk drawer."  so as soon as he puts his clothes on the dresser, i slide them off and stuff them into his junk drawer.  problem solved.  i used to either throw them in the hamper or put them away in his closet but he didn't like that.  anyways, now, i don't have to look at them and my sweet christopher is not complaining that he doesn't know what i've done with his clothes.  clothes on dresser --> clothes in drawer.  how wonderfully simple.  but sadly, i just wasn't on top of my game this time.

want to hear the saddest story of my life?  honey and baby and i were at church on sunday waiting for sunday school to start when my friend's husband turns around and starts talking to us about who knows what.  during the conversation he comments on our child's super blonde hair (not sure why it shows up so much darker in pictures) and then asks if there are any blonds in the family.  i wanted to cry.  i'm supposed to be blonde.  i've always been blonde and i know i haven't seen the sun in the past five years and my hair has gotten darker but still, can't i at least pass for a really dirty blonde?  if i'm not blonde then what am i?!?!  i know i can't be brunette.  that would just be wrong.  talk about an identity crisis.  just thinking about it makes me die a little inside.  

but to end on a happy note, my beautiful blonde child.  she's even smiling in this picture.

probably because no one's accusing her of being a brunette.

dear liza, it's been a busy day

this afternoon my non blogging sister, liza, called as i was walking out of the post office.  she was asking me why we haven't talked much lately and i told her i've been pretty busy.  so i told her a few things as i walked out of the post office, across the street, got baby in the car, and got myself buckled and the car started.  then i told her i'd have to call her back when i got to my next place since it's illegal to talk on the phone while driving.  our conversation lasted 2 minutes and 3 seconds.  i didn't even call her back.  because i got busy.

turns out, we need more than two arms after all.

so dear liza, here's what i did today.

wait, i'll be right back, i have to get the laundry.

okay.  laundry is put away now.

here's my day.  yesterday evening someone in the ward sent out an email saying they needed someone to watch their kid from 10-2.  at 10:30 i wrote back saying if she still needed someone then i was available.  she needed someone.  so that was part of my day today.

baby woke up at 6 15.  gave her a pacifier.  my alarm went off at 8 30.  i could hear baby babbling.  i checked email and stuff in bed until 9 when i got baby up and fed her.  got her dressed.  got me dressed.  at 9:45 the kid came over and we walked over to the bizkids playdate which took until 10:05 at least i swear because that little boy is the slowest walker you've ever met.  holy cow i couldn't believe how slow he was.  but he was incredibly easy and well behaved so i really can't complain.  

after the playdate we went home and i tried to feed baby but really she was just wanting to go to bed.  she's coming off of another nursing strike and still isn't back to full and focused feedings yet.  anyways, she went down at noon and i took the little boy out into our courtyard to play but he's so self sufficient he was perfectly alright playing on his own.  so with the exception of a little swinging and a little bike riding, he didn't need my help at all and i spent my time taking pictures of him.  which was tricky.  because he moves fast.  so i was basically just chasing him around the whole time.  we did come in for a few minutes to grab a bite to eat.  but then we were back to playing.

baby woke up a little after 2 so i got her up and put her in the jumper while i changed this kid's SECOND poopy diaper (i don't remember signing up to change two of those), which is when his mom came to the door.  i was happy to report he was an absolute dream to watch.  i was also happy he is a very skinny kid because i was able to fit him in to one of baby girl's size 3's since we were not planning on needing to change him so much and there were not enough diapers in the bag.  

anyways!  they left at 2:15 or so and i fed baby and we were on our way to the post office which is when we talked to you!  then it took at least 15 or 20 minutes to get up to menlo park and when i got to the store i realized i did not have enough hands to carry a carseat, hold jeans, rummage through the racks, and hold a phone.  so i was a really bad sister and didn't call you back.  ;-(  i was also kind of sad that you didn't call me and tell me how you were too anxious to wait for my call.  

i got two pairs of jeans.  one pair regular, one pair skinny jeans.  we'll see if i ever have the guts to wear them since they make my hips look absolutely enormous and they make me look like i have a tiny little bubble butt. BUT they were cheap and they are trendy and i'm bored with my clothes so i thought it would be a good way for me to go out of my comfort zone a little bit whole lot.  while i was there i tried on a million different pairs of jeans.  apparently they have a ten minute limit for the dressing rooms since there are only two.  i got about 4 warnings two of the times i was in there.  in my defense, one of the times, i spent absolutely forever cleaning up baby's terrible blowout.  it was like her poop reverted back to newborn poop, which i had been really glad to say goodbye to a few weeks ago.  

so after spending three, yes, THREE hours shopping for jeans, we were out of there!  but we stopped by safeway on the way home because i needed milk and mozzarella cheese.  but as soon as i walked in the door i forgot that i only needed those two things and i proceeded to spend forever in safeway going up and down the aisles, several of them two and three times.  it was kind of ridiculous.  i finally got out of there with some produce, milk, mozzarella cheese, and london broil that was half off.  and maybe a few other things too.  christopher and i randomly watched the first few episodes of jamie oliver's food revolution on youtube a few days ago and are rededicating ourselves to try and eat less processed foods.  it's semi working.  on monday when we went down the cereal aisle at walmart, christopher picked up a few kashi cereals.  and then some captain crunch.... but really, we didn't get a lot of the junk that we normally do.

i got to the car and realized that it had been over five hours since baby woke up -whoops- and over 4.5 since she'd eaten - whoops again- so of course she fell asleep on the drive home.  she napped in her carseat while i unloaded groceries, ate a banana, and took out the trash, diaper pail, and recycling.  when she woke up i nursed her, fed her solids, and nursed her again before getting her ready for bed and putting her down at 8:30.

then i put in a load of laundry (with her dirty clothes, carseat cover, my new jeans, etc. that all needed to be washed) did some dishes, cleaned the counters, made/ate some broccoli, cleaned up more of our apartment, hung up wet clothes and put the rest in the dryer.  i also did some researching on the babywise mom blog about solids feeding schedules.  and then i started writing this post!  

so even though that doesn't catch you up on my weekend like we'd originally planned, it catches you up on my day.  so now tomorrow we don't have to spend our valuable talk time on any of this... assuming you even still read my boring blog posts... and can talk about things that are more fun and interesting than the random things that come together to make my day.

love you lots and sweet dreams.

baby's dirty clothes

when i got home.  although by that time she was asleep.  and really it had only been 2.5 hours since i changed her diaper.

passed out while i put groceries away.

somehow in all of this my purse got 100% disorganized.  i had brought that banana to eat while i was out but i forgot about it.  so i ate it when i got home.  defeats the purpose of bringing a snack to go.  crazy how fast they bruise and turn brown but it still tasted fine.

okay goodnight.

cell phone love

baby girl is obsessed with my cell phone. it is her favorite thing at the moment. she will even put up a fuss if i take it away from her and i actually have to hide it before/while she eats or else she'll refuse to nurse because she's looking for my phone! it's a problem.

these are some pictures i took while baby was on speakerphone with her auntie emmy last week. 

eventually we had to call it quits.  phones are not for eating, baby girl.

swaddle saga

last night, i made a spur of the moment decision to ditch the swaddle.  i was planning on doing at least two weeks of the one arm out thing and then maybe even a week or so of just swaddling her torso, but last night i was nursing baby and she was falling asleep because i'd kept her up for 5 hours straight running errands and then keeping her awake so that christopher could play with her before she went to bed.  seriously, she's normally awake for 2 hours at a time so 5 was a big deal.  i knew she was super exhausted so i thought maybe she wouldn't have as much energy to fight it.  

i finally got her asleep around 9.  after probably an hour of in and out comforting her, rubbing her back, etc.  she would go through stages of crying, moaning, fussing, laying quietly, kicking her legs, and everything else.  very unpredictable.  so she finally fell asleep while i rubbed her back which was a huge success because i've never been able to do that before.  she'll always lock her arms and not lay down.  i think the one arm swaddle helped.  and the lack of sleep.

anyways, she went down at 9 and the night was not anywhere as bad as i was anticipating although i know it wasn't christopher's idea of fun.  up at 11:45.  up at 2:15.  up at 6:30.  up at 10:45.  i let her sleep in since we were up for about an hour each time.  but really, i was very pleased with it all.  

for baby's first nap today, i had to go in a comfort her a couple of times and i rubbed her back while she drifted off.  i'm normally all about her falling asleep on her own but i feel like i kind of need to be there to hold her hand while she learns the ropes of sleeping sans swaddle.  i'm not against letting her cry, but it's counter productive when she gets herself all worked up and won't lay her head down.  so i'm okay with mild intervention.

you'll have to excuse the quality of these pictures since they were taken in a dark room with a camera phone that has no flash.  so they are pretty heavily edited so you can actually see what's going on...

this is what she looked like for her first nap unswaddled.  put it in the papers, my baby can take a nap unswaddled!  too bad it lasted less than an hour.  but still, it's a start.

second nap went better, i only had to go in to comfort her once and i left while she was still wide awake.  she moaned for about ten minutes and was out for about an hour and a half.  i have no complaints.  and she slept like this for the duration of her nap...

she just started that in the last two weeks when i've left her an arm free.

nice huh?  maybe she's gotta hang on so she doesn't roll to her back?  who knows?

and tonight i put her in her crib, she smiled and laughed while i told her goodnight, i walked out of the room, and she was out after two minutes.  someone wanna edit that sentence for me?  my poor father would be appalled... let it be known that i know how to write much more properly than what i actually do.  

so this is the current state of baby girl.  even though it was pitch black, i was brave enough to use our loud camera... with a flash.

i sure love that little bum.

pigs are flying!

okay, so i'm sure she's going to wake up in 45 minutes crying and flailing, but OH MY GOODNESS MY BABY FELL ASLEEP WITHOUT HER SWADDLE!

there was a little crying involved and a little comforting and she was soooo super tired but IT HAPPENED!  for the first time in who knows how many months!!!

baby steps, baby steps.  we'll get there eventually.

ps- i'm watching downton abbey on pbs.org and it is FABULOUS.  i'm loving it.

happy seven months baby girl

i love you to pieces.

georgia peach

the other day i gave baby some peaches.

i was afraid my baby would hate peaches... as if that was saying something about her feelings for georgia.  well, fear be gone.  she liked them more the next day.

tropical ice skating

let me tell you, stanford is the way to go when it comes to family friendly graduate programs.  we went to an ice skating event on saturday put on by the graduate student housing.  it was just for families with kids and we all had fun skating our strollers around on the ice.

first on the ice

skating with a stroller is kind of the equivalent of walking with a cane.  you'd be surprised how much it helps stabilize you...

HENRY!  and nicole, who loved making that face every time i took a picture of her.

see all the short sleeves?!?!  

apparently this is a pointless picture because i have no caption for it.  oh wait.  now i do.

it kind of felt like summer.  see the sun back there?  we were shaded the whole time and it was still HOT.

christopher took her around the ice one time in his arms before someone came out to tell us that is NOT allowed!

family ice skating pictures really aren't that great when the tiny member has to stay hidden in her stroller.

how precious is this tiny little ice queen in her carriage?  makes me think of that evil white woman in narnia.  but only the ice part.

and we're done.  or dizzy.

i can't wait til baby can wear her own itty bitty ice skates.  or hockey skates.  you never know...