Day 59: Big Girl

There are times when I want to just slow down the clock a bit.  It is so exciting to watch Michal grow and develop, but sometimes it seems as if everything is happening just a touch too quickly.  The other day, Michal was hanging out in the living room with her daddy, jumping away in her jumperoo (she just figured out jumping.  Apparently it is a lot of fun), and I stepped away for a few minutes, off doing something or other.  I came back, and Michal had figured out how to flip the "book" on her jumper in both directions.  Five minutes before, she could only flip the "pages" to one side, then one of us would move all of them back so she could do it again.  Well, she figured out both ways.  In three minutes, already a change.


So I won't go into how excited and slightly sad I was tonight when Josh showed me how Michal could stand, balancing herself, holding on to a stationary object for nearly half a minute.  All by herself.  She loves to stand and has done so with our assistance for a while, but it was so amazing seeing her do it all on her own.  And bittersweet - she's already a big girl already.  Okay, a big baby girl, but she's growing nonetheless.


While I pretend that she isn't brilliantly growing and developing at amazing speeds, I'll concentrate on the smaller changes.  She sits in a real high chair in restaurants now, and tonight, instead of hauling either her in her infant bucket or finagling the stroller out of the back of the car, I carried her inside Targ.et, plopped her in the front of the cart, buckled her up, and off we went.  Of course she charmed everyone around her with her quiet cuteness.

   What big eyes you have, my dear.. the better to see everything around you!

Day 58: Naptime

Michal is a terrific sleeper, routinely snoozing for 10-12 hours every night.  We should only learn from her example.  She is a pretty decent napper, although she sleeps best in her car seat and at day care.  I'm lucky if I can get her to take a nap in her crib for more than twenty minutes (she often takes 1-2 hour naps at day care).  Today, she totally conked out in the afternoon, sleeping for nearly an hour and a half.

Day 57: Dim Sum

We have a special relationship with dim sum in our household.  It is our tradition every year to indulge in a dim sum outing on July 4th, our special way of marking the anniversary of our engagement.  We also try to make a special outing every so often throughout the course of the year, often with family or friends.  The fact that I do not eat about 90% of the offerings on those carts does not hold us back - I just grab every plate of Chinese broccoli and other vegetables and place an order for Vegetable Chow Foon.  Yum.


At a special request from two friends, who had not yet experienced the small plates of dumplings, noodles, and more, we headed down to meet them, and another couple, for lunch.  Michal, of course brought her own food, but enjoyed checking out everyone in the restaurant and making one of the employees stop pushing her cart to spend a good minute making the baby smile.  Despite her poor napping that morning, Michal was a trooper.  She sat in a high chair at the table, supplied with her Sophie and Manhatten Winkle toy, and checked everything out.

Fortunately, the Taro did not entice her, so the fact that it was well within her reach was not a worry.

Day 56: Check Up

We had Michal's six month check up today, complete with four shots and one oral vaccine.  First, the stats:

• Weight: 18 lbs, 3.5oz - 90th percentile 
• Height: 27" - 90th percentile (a little bit of a drop here... she was 97th percentile last month.  Girly needs to stretch!)
• Head: 17" (75th percentile)

And of course her doctor proclaimed her perfect.  We knew this of course.

Since she got her shots today, we assumed much of the day would look like this:

It ended up looking more like:

Some babies are fussy after shots, but Michal had a great day.  She did cry for about 15-20 seconds once she realized what the nurse was doing, but then she stopped, looked up at daddy with big teary eyes, then smiled.  We were pretty much fine the rest of the day.  Until much later, when she realized she skipped her afternoon nap and was ready to have dinner and go to bed (hence the first picture up above - taken about 10 minutes after the smiley picture).

But before we let her go to bed, she had to take a trip.  On an aeroplane.  I think she likes it.

Day 55: Look, Ma, No Hands!

We have an interesting conundrum.  As stated previously, Michal dislikes being on her stomach for any prolonged amount of time, so tummy time ends up being a ticking time bomb of how long she will happily play along with the activity before she starts to get frustrated and explode.  That amount of time has increased over time, but it is still her least favorite activity.  It is amazing how quickly the screwed-up, upset face relaxes into a huge smile and coos once we flip her over onto her back.  She has made progress, rolling from her stomach onto her back twice, but it is still a great frustration for her.


 Michal rolls onto her stomach, from her back, all the time now in her sleep.  Sometimes she rolls over and continues to sleep, happily oblivious to her position in the crib.  But sometimes, especially in the morning, she begins to get incredibly upset, unable to figure out how to be in a more comfortable, less strenuous position.  


The problem is this: she cannot quite figure out how to get leverage to roll her body over.  It does not help that her fluffy, cloth-covered bum adds a slight obstacle to the motion, and it certainly does not help that she expects to roll without the help of her hands and arms.

  She will not really push up on her arms to tilt her body over.  Instead, she lifts her entire body up off the ground, leaning back as far as she can, trying desperately to roll over (I cannot imagine the core strength she is building from this).  Unfortunately, the arm you cannot see in this photo acts as a sort of kick stand that keeps her body from toppling over.  We tried to show her how to keep her arms out in front of her so she could more easily roll over without the hindrance of her arm, but she is a stubborn one, continuing to do it her way.  I have no doubt that she will eventually find a way to flip over, but in the meantime, flailing baby persists. 

Day 54: Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?

Today seemed to be a tough one for Miss M, and unfortunately there is not a clear cut culprit for her unhappiness.  We have her six month appointment on Friday, with accompanying immunizations, so I am steeling myself for a potential mood/energy shift with the baby, but the only potential villain in today's drama was an illusive, ambiguous one: teething.  There is no proof that she is teething.  Sure, she chews on her hands and drools much of the time, but that has been going on for a while now.  If I could see a bump or any change in her gum, I could identify the enemy, but alas, it's still a guessing game.


Apparently she was difficult at day care as well as at home tonight.  At day care she apparently was distracted enough by some insane housewives in a city whose name I have forgotten (our kid likes reality TV. Go figure), but at home, this is what we found:

Poor kid. Luckily we distracted her with toys and fun.  Tonight she REALLY got into her jumperoo, and she went to town on that toy, jumping all over the place.  She stopped occasionally to gnaw on a thumb or three fingers, but at least the face of misery was gone.


Still no luck on apples.  Who would have guessed that of all the foods we have tried, apples would be the only non-starter.  She likes peas more than she likes apples.  The only way I can get her to eat apples is to mix them with some oatmeal.  She LOVES this.  She goes to town, opening her mouth like a baby bird, furiously demanding another bite of the delicious food.  And when it's all gone, she looks up at you...

Doing her best impersonation of a Dickensian character.

Day 53: Hard Day's Night

It is difficult to not compare babies.  It does not matter how frequently you read or are told that every baby is different, there is a secret comparison.  Well, at least I compare.    I read of babies who are roughly the same age as Michal who have teeth, who scoot and crawl around, who roll all over the place (both ways), and some who even have started to "talk."  I get a little jealous at times, but for the most part, I am perfectly content with where she is at developmentally.  She is a happy, easy baby, and I know she is doing fine. 

Well, today, she was mostly happy.  There were periods of extreme discontent.  I got into the shower, letting her hang out on a towel for some naked baby time before she got her chance to be washed up, and about five seconds in, hysterical crying ensued.  For those of you who know Michal, this is unusual.  If she is upset, she fusses.  In fact, once I mentioned to someone, in apology for her noise, that she was fussing, and I was given a "look" and told, no, that's not fussy.  She's a pretty even-tempered baby, so anything that is loud is a bit unusual.* Multiple times during the day, this is what I encountered, arms thrown in the air:

I just missed the REALLY upset face, and yes, I'm THAT mom who, laughing, grabs her camera to take a picture of the pissed off baby... and THEN, I grab her to see what's wrong.


Once she went down for a nap, she edged in a slightly better mood, until she got upset again, and then returned to happy baby mode.  We met Daddy/Josh for lunch - I'm sure he never tires of watching her face light up when she recognizes him - and then made our way to work.  She is definitely getting much more comfortable with all of my coworkers, smiling on cue for all of them.  


After eating a bottle and playing in her exersaucer, she began to melt down a bit, obviously getting tired and rubbing her eyes.  I dimmed the lights in my office, closed the door, tuned Pandora to a Beethoven-inspired station, and bundled her up into her stroller, zipping her into her sleeping bag.  After a few minutes of fussing, I suddenly heard only the music, looked over, and saw this:

Totally crashed out baby.  She slept for an hour without stirring once, when Josh came to get her, and I'm sure she would have taken a longer nap had she been left undisturbed.


And yes.  That is a different shirt than she was wearing this morning (both products of a recent shopping trip with her California Grandma).  She got a little messy while eating her late morning bottle, even while wearing a bib.  Quite the neat little lady.


*I do not say all of this to brag, just to give context.