Day 188: Precious Moments

In total, I think I had roughly an hour to an hour and a half with the baby today.  Not nearly enough, but it was just one of those days.   I did get to spend a small amount of time with her after day care, when we just hung out in the living room and played.  She's really starting to get a hang of getting herself into a crawling stance (even if she's barely shuffling forward while there), and she is better at kneeling and attempting to stand from kneeling. I love watching her figure out mobility.  

Day 187: Sleepy Goose

Sleepy goose.

She was able to rally for avocado and a bath, but bedtime came quickly tonight.

Day 186: Sippy

Our current project is the sippy cup.  It's taken a while, but I think we're starting to make some headway.  We've tried a couple of different kinds: different spouts, handles, no handles, tall, sort... the list goes on.  We were given the recommendation of a particular cup at our August baby lunch in California a week and a half ago, so I went out and picked up a set of two at Target.  So far... not 100% success, but she is drinking from the cup - as you can see above.  Our goal is to work up to one bottle at bed with sippy cups during the day.  Wish us luck!

Day 185: Fourth of July!

How do you get three babies in patriotic dress to look in one direction and smile for the camera?  It's magic, I tell you.  I'm not sure how we were able to get this to happen, especially since Michal was turned around at one point!


We celebrated the fourth with friends at a BBQ and whiffle ball contest.  Whiffle ball, as usual, was hilarious, but Michal and I cheered her daddy on anyway.  Michal got to play with some baby friends, and we got to catch up with friends we've known practically forever.   


Before the BBQ we stopped for our annual Fourth of July dim sum.  This might seem like a strange tradition (today was the 9th such meal), but on July 4, 2003, after a meal of dim sum, Josh proposed to me in Moody Towers, one of the dorms at the University of Houston, where I was spending my summer training teachers.  Ever since, we mark this special anniversary with a tasty meal.  

Michal, of course, joined us.  It was an ideal meal for her, since food travels around the room on carts, and Michal had a constant stream of visitors to greet and charm.  Our waiter especially took to her, chatting with her, making her smile and giggle, and, at the end, bringing her a fortune cookie.  While I had him give it to me (wasn't sure it was the best idea for a 10 1/2 month old baby to have the plastic wrapped treat), I did open  it to find the fortune.  I cracked up after reading this: You will always get what you want through your charm and personality.  Considering the baby charming everyone around her, it seemed quite apropos.  Although, I would add "intelligence" or "wit" to round out the fortune.  But that's just me.

Day 184: Summer Afternoon

We had plans to meet friends for dinner, so we arrived at the restaurant a bit early, hoping the geese would be around the lake across the way.  Michal enjoyed watching them swim and walk around, waving hello to each one.  We started the lesson today that sometimes "hi"s should be given from afar - those geese can get feisty!

Day 183: Folk Life

Today we took advantage of where we live and headed into the city to attend the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, a two-week-long festival held each year on the National Mall to celebrate the music, crafts, and food of several US and foreign cultures.  This year the festival highlighted Colombia, the Peace Corps (celebrating their 50th anniversary), and Rhythm & Blues.  

Michal sits in front of masks for the Feast of the Chontaduro, or "Dance of the Doll," which takes place at the height of the summer season in Colombia, during the harvest of the chontaduro palm.  This ritual dance reaffirms human ties to the world of water.  And the masks and costumes look pretty cool.

Walking past the Rhythm & Blues area, we discovered a concert about to start.  The Funk Brothers, session musicians who played the backing to most Motown Records records from 1959 to the early 1970s, played a great set of Motown hits, including "My Girl," "Heat Wave," "Dancing in the Streets," and "Get Ready," to name a few.  Random fact(?) of the day: The Funk Brothers have played more number one hits than The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys... combined.  

 After a nap through the first part of the show, Michal woke up and hung out with Grandma, dancing and bouncing to the music (when she wasn't saying hi to everyone around us).

Holy humidity curls, Batman!

Today marks the more-than-halfway mark in the progress of this blog.  Wow!

Day 182: Jet Lag? Growth Spurt? Wonder Week?

We were pretty confident that Michal had adjusted back to East Coast time - she seemed to easily revert back to her normal nap, sleep, and waking schedule.  But maybe she is suffering from jet lag?  Or maybe it's a growth spurt?  Or perhaps it is just a wonder week?

We aren't sure what the problem is, but every night this week, our angelic, sleep-talented baby has woken up screaming and crying at some point - usually at least two or three hours into her sleep.  If we go in to try and rock her back to sleep, then replace her in her crib - screaming and crying recommence.  The past two nights, an additional bottle helped her back to sleep, which fueled our suspecting a growth spurt.  A growing girl has to eat, after all.  Tonight did not work quite as easily.

Josh - feeding and rocking her back to sleep. 

I thought it could be a wonder week - a fussy period during which a baby experiences great and drastic changes in his/her mental development.  While a baby is hungry and tends to sleep more frequently during a growth spurt, wonder weeks are fussy growing times.  Considering Michal has been sleeping her normal amount (more or less, given the evening wakings), I'm not so sure it's this.

So who knows - she eventually went back to sleep after much fussy ado.  We will just continue to keep her as close to her normal schedule and ride it out.

Here is what occurred before the meltdowns:

Digging through toys, searching for the perfect one - today it was a block. 

Smiles :) 

Eyeing her dinner of spaghetti and meatballs - the kid loves meatballs.  

She also rather enjoyed some bits of challah.

And following the meal - a MUCH needed bath.  With scrubbing.  And lots of soap.