Day 151: Messy Girl

Someone loves strawberries so much she decided to wear them.

I'm SO happy I insisted she wear a bib.  You know, since it kept her so clean.

At one point - strawberry in the arm pit.

Goofball.

Day 150: Pool Day

 Our community pool opened this past Saturday, so we headed over there today, the first time in the three years we have lived here.  I had no idea our pool is so awesome!  I have been looking forward to taking Michal swimming.  I grew up a water baby, always at, around, or in the pool.  I'd love for her to have the same love for water and to become comfortable and safe in it.  Today was a great start!

 All sunscreened up, shades on, ready to go!

(Don't worry - she had a hat, too)

First dip in the pool with Daddy 

What is this stuff?  And who are all these people? 

She was not a fan of wearing the hat.  Even when I used the strap, she found a way to get it off her head.

After swimming a bit, we left the pool and had some lunch and down time at home.  Michal took a two hour long nap (!!), and we watched a movie.  Later, it was time for dinner - strawberries and yogurt.  Yummmm.

 It was quite the crazy yogurt meal.  She had strawberries first and loved them, so I added some to her plain yogurt. She was also overtired, as her schedule has been REALLY off since Friday.  Subsequently - crazy yogurt baby...

... and then incredibly sad yogurt baby.  

It goes without saying that a bath followed soon after.

Day 149: Tortillas, Thunder, and Space

 Michal and her daddy, standing in front of the Apollo Lunar Module

Today was another day filled with fun and friends.  After a leisurely morning at home (aided by a nice long Michal nap), we headed into our fair city for some time with friends. 

Waiting at the top of the escalators at the Chinatown Metro stop, waiting for our friends.  Michal thoroughly enjoyed chewing on her straps while we listened to good music provided by a violin and guitar.  I just love looking at her eyes - every light brings new variations on the color.

 Once everyone arrived, we headed deep into the heart of Washington DC's Chinatown for some... California Tortilla?  It worked for everyone and proved to be a quick meal that did not delay our heading down to the National Mall for our real destination: museums.  In addition to her tofu and puffs, Michal snacked on various portions of my burrito - mostly rice, guacamole, and some bell pepper.  Yum!  As is often the case, Michal was riveted by her Uncle Roy.  He is a funny guy.

Clearly Roy is proving himself quite hilarious.  At least Michal thinks so.

Along the way our progress was slowed down by the riders of Rolling Thunder.  An annual motorcycle gathering held in Washington DC during Memorial Day weekend, Rolling Thunder brings thousands of motorcyclists who ride across the district to honor American war heroes and to bring awareness to POW/MIA issues.  They also work during the rest of the year to promote legislation to increase veterans benefits.  It was a pretty impressive sight as we stood at Constitution Avenue, watching wave after wave of riders roaring past, many with a variety of flags.  Definitely reminds us of the meaning of Memorial Day.


After a break in the Thunder, we headed to the National Mall, where we decided to visit the National Air and Space Museum.  We wandered through a number of exhibits and took in the various airplanes and space vehicles on display.  Midway through our visit, it became apparently that the babes needed her afternoon nap.  We reclined her stroller, laid her down, and continued along her way.  After a short while, Josh checked on her, and mentioned that her feet were backwards.  I came around to the front and found this:

Not exactly how she started out.  We tried flipping her over and actually put her in the straps, but the incredibly sad cries that followed were too much.  Eventually I got her situated in our Ergo, where she eventually fell asleep against me.  Such a nice treat, since it has been an incredibly long time since she has done that in any form.


Tomorrow brings us another first!  Stay tuned!

Day 148: Strawberries!

What fun we had today - can't you tell from Michal's face?


Today we met up with some college friends and their daughter to pick strawberries at a nearby farm.  While we did not get a chance to go check out the farm animals, which would have been fun since Michal was not super aware of their existence the last time we were there (she was two months old), we did get out to the fields to pick some strawberries.  We were good and managed to pick only four pounds of fruit. 


Michal was not super helpful, but she did like watching us do all the work.  I'm sure she will enjoy a taste of them tomorrow! (This was one fruit I was nervous about, but after our discovery yesterday about food sensitivities and allergies, she will have some soon.)

Before we headed out to the fields.  She actually did not try to drag the hat off her head.  It did obscure her vision, but she just dealt with it.

After bringing in the fruits of our labor.  She hung out on the picnic table, turning this way and that to watch everyone around us.  I finally got her to look at me.


Oh, and of course, I forgot to grab the actual camera, so thanks to my phone for these pictures.

Day 147: Bamba Baby

Today was Michal's nine month checkup.  As usual, she was a rock star and impressed our awesome pediatrician, who was excited to see which cloth diaper Michal was wearing today.  Unfortunately it turns out the M has an infection in her right ear, so she is again on amoxicillin.  Extra yogurt is on the menu this week to try to avoid any sort of yeast-related guest, like we had the last time.


Here are her stats:

29" long/tall (It just feels weird to say "long") - 89th percentile

20 lbs., 8 oz. - 75th percentile

head circumference: 17 3/4" (I don't recall which percentile, but not in the your-kid-has-a-huge-noggin area)

I have been looking forward to this appointment for a while, partly to see if Michal is continuing her anti-Rothschild streak of being tall (my father's side of the family is vertically challenged), partly to pepper the pediatrician with a myriad of questions.  Most of my queries were food-related: how should we approach the sippy cup given Michal's penchant to use it as a weapon, how and when to transition from formula to good old cow's milk, what should we consider and anticipate during our first plane ride in just three weeks' time, and.. of course... food.

We have been fairly adventurous in regards to food, and Michal has not had true "baby food" (aka purees) for a good long while now.  She eats finger foods almost exclusively, sometimes with extra assistance, and has had a fairly wide array of tastes: apple, apricot, avocado, banana, broccoli, butternut squash, carrots, egg - just the yolk so far, green beans, mango, peach, peas, plum, sweet potato, tofu, yogurt... I'm sure there are more, I just can't think of them.  There are a few foods that I had heard were best saved until after the age of one, but I had also heard some newer research showed that these foods, often delayed because of potential allergies, were actually best to introduce EARLIER rather than later.  

For a long while, the general consensus was to wait on foods that could cause a food sensitivity, as if introducing it earlier could make that sensitivity more likely.  There is new research, though, from the past few years, that actually shows the opposite.  This study, conducted with children in Israel and the UK, looked at the incidence of peanut allergy in children in relation to general societal norms in the ingestion of peanuts and peanut products.  In Israel, where children regularly teethe on Bamba, a peanut butter flavored puff, if you will, there is an incredibly low incidence of peanut allergies.  Conversely, in England, parents typically wait until a child is 12-18 months to introduce those products and, perhaps subsequently (?), there is a much higher peanut allergy rate.  This might show that we have been doing things completely wrong (which might, in fact, explain the growing rates of food sensitivities as of late), and we should be exposing kids to all sorts of foods earlier rather than later.

With this information in hand, and with the wholehearted blessing of our pediatrician, Michal is now free to experience the full breadth of a culinary palate, save anything that could be a choking hazard.   

First up - Bamba.  Given my dislike of peanuts and most peanut products, Michal's face is 100% right on in my book (Josh would disagree).  This was also the first time she has really had anything that was crunchy - her puffs sort of crunch, but really, they just dissolve.  She seemed rather perplexed by this strange food. 

Hmmm... what IS this? 

Still playing with it.  She has yet to figure out what to do with those chompers in front. 

What the heck was that, momma?

She did eat the entire piece, although the second piece ended up being instrumental in an all-out assault on her Zany Zoo toy.  

Day 146: Afternoon at the Park

Apparently we are effectively ending spring early, as it topped 98 degrees today.  It is abnormally warm, and it should get back down to a normal streak of weather soon.  Even though it was on the warm side, I decided we needed to visit the awesome park near our house after I picked up Michal from day care and spend some time outside.  It is a really cool park with a climbing wall,  giant "ship" and "castle" play structures, and one baby swing.  Just one.  Inevitably, someone else walks up to the swing with their kid RIGHT as we are walking up.  So we have to go find something to do to kill time until it is free.  Most of the structures are really intended for older kids, but we managed to occupy ourselves.

Not so sure about the wind

We found a menagerie of animals, including a lion, monkey, seal, dolphin, and this alligator.  It was really the only one that she could do anything on, so she sat on it.  And watched a girl and her older brother playing near the ship.  It took forever to get her attention away from them to pose for the camera - she loves watching kids.

Finally the swing opened up.  She LOVES the swing.  You can tell - huge, wide smile. 

Love <3

Day 145: Frustrating Apricots

Apricots are frustrating.


On any given day, they might be a little slippery but shouldn't pose too much of a problem.  However, if you are a teething nine-month-old who is minutes away from bath and bedtime, they are an evil instrument of torture.  


Dinner tonight was a mixture of standby favorites and new tastes - avocado and apricot.  Michal managed a few pieces of apricot at first, got a little frustrated, then switched happily to avocado.  When she ran out of that, she went back to the apricot.  She was able to snag one or two with relatively little difficulty, but then one would prove to be troublesome and she would start to fret.  She would calm down, try again, but to no avail.  Those little guys are tricky!  

Day 144: Rolling with my Homies

Quick post today as my laptop quickly loses battery.


Best part about Tuesday is Michal gets a visit from her friend Trey.  True, he normally just tries to tickle her, but she thinks he's pretty awesome.  

Midday snack.  Love her eyes.

Please, leave me alone, paparazzi! 

Day 143: Playing Outside the Box

 I have a feeling our time with the exersaucer might be limited.


She still plays with it - don't get me wrong.  In fact just today she was inside, jumping up and down so frequently and with such gusto that I had to close my office door.  Perhaps I should raise it up to the last notch, but I am not sure it will do much good.


While she still enjoys this toy - it is a really great place in which to give her snacks during the day, as it has an area that is almost like a tray - she seems to be tiring of it.  Today she was in it for a little while before she started to fuss and express displeasure.  Once outside of the toy, she was perfectly content to stand and play with it from the outside.  Unfortunately, while she is normally fairly confident at standing, the exersaucer does rotate, so I occasionally had to catch her as she started to slide to one side or another.  She remained undeterred.

Later - quite content to play with paper.  I guess it wasn't so awful that we came without many toys today.  Until she tried to eat the paper.

Day 142: Poker Face Baby

 Today was one of those days that I do not love much.  I think I saw Michal for just about two hours of the day - maybe a bit more, but not much.  Just a good amount of stuff going on, and while most of it was really great, amazingly inspiring, heartwarming stuff, I only got to see the babes for just about 120 minutes.  Of course, I made the most of that time.


Josh and Michal came and picked me up to grab some lunch, sitting outside of a local restaurant.  The day was warm and humid, but luckily we avoided much of the rain we thought might be with us.  Due to some nap issues, Michal was only occasionally her cute, happy self.  At lunch, she chowed down on some sweet potato fries, occasionally got really upset, then smiled a bunch, watched some big girls twirl and dance in their dresses, and, here, checked out the cool red umbrella over our table. 

This is what most everyone else received when we saw them later at an Israel festival.  One lucky person was granted a squishy smile, everyone else got poker face baby.

Day 141: People of the Book

 Today found us at the Gaithersburg Book Festival, where we had the opportunity to drink in some good ole book-iness.  There is something about being surrounded by books and the people who love them.  Of course the offerings spanned a wide range from fairy books (I saw The Belly Button Fairy, which sounded intriguing) to a book written by a former secret service agent, and we were fortunate to get to hear a keynote address and reading by a blogger I have followed off and on for a while.

Here is Michal, checking out the crowd at the keynote address.  Curls! 

Looking very serious, although between that look, the runny nose, and the copious amounts of drool, it was clear to us that she was teething.  Oh, and she's actually watching the keynote speaker's daughter play just behind us - she loves watching big kids.

 Funny face, but you can definitely see the top two teeth poking through.  

Teeth #5 & 6 are on their way as well.

After a while, Michal started to fuss and talk a bit too much, so Josh put her in the stroller and walked a little ways away so she could try and fall asleep (the top picture I took from a good 25 yards away - nice zoom!  That was pre-nap activity - she loves using her feet to explore.

Naptime!

Much later, dinnertime.  She had plain yogurt with some quesadilla.  

At some point, she grabbed the spoon, and I let her play.  

Looks like she's creating an abstract masterpiece with the yogurt on her tray.

Day 140: Changing Time

Back in January I posted about our cloth diaper stash, but I have not blogged much about this topic.  Today, on my other blog, I wrote a post about our cloth diaper system as part of the cloth diaper week one of my favorite blogs, The Crafty Nest, is holding.  I took a bunch of pictures during changing time, so I thought I would talk briefly about two things: fluff (cloth diapers) and movement. 

Our laid back baby goose is starting to feel like moving.  Looking at her here, though, you wouldn't believe it.  Look how innocent she appears, totally content to hang out on her changing pad.

 Do I detect a little bit of movement here?  She started to roll towards the edge, but I was able to block her way.  

Mid-diaper change.  Take note of her left foot.  She is obsessed with the wipes container, and if it is within reach, she reaches out with her foot to mess with it.  

This is one of her newest diapers, made by a work at home mom (WAHM) in Oregon (I think).  Love it!  

Modeling her new diaper.. Look how innocent...

At one point I flipped her over (facing the opposite direction) so I could take some pictures of the diaper.  In the past, she would have hung out in that position for a while, but all of a sudden...

...she started to squirm and wiggle her way around on the changing pad.  This was a first - she has discovered how to rotate her entire body.  Her destination... the wipes, of course.  I have no idea what draws her attention there.  Perhaps it is the button that, upon depression, flips up the lid.  What a goose.

Day 139: Curly Girl

 Maybe it's just the increased humidity in the air lately, but Michal's hair is starting to take on a bit of a curl.  It is not curly all over, but it's wavy with some curls here and there.  As it gets longer, it is more obvious and people have been commenting on it.  


Today was a full baby day at work.  She was in a great mood as usual (except when she had to take a nap, when she screamed and cried bloody murder), rolling around, practicing her standing and dancing (read: bouncing up and down), and even sitting in on a meeting.

 Caught her mid-roll!

"C'mon, mama, enough with the camera already - I'm trying to eat!"

Day 138: Costco Baby

We had one of those crazy post-pickup evenings where we had to run a few errands, so the camera on my phone was going to have to do for the blog tonight.  I'm still pretty impressed with the quality of those photos, even if I much prefer the "real" camera.


We had to run to Costco for a potential work purchase (fail there), so Michal got to hang out and people watch to her heart's content.   

 "Hmm.... who's over there?"

"Ooh, that's colorful - I wonder if it is tasty?" 

We were pulled alongside another cart with much older kids.  

She is obviously interested but still a little leery. 

"Hey!  Where ya goin'?"