Getting into trouble

Here's our little chewer.



Trying to get to what she wants...

Teething?

Geesh, I hope it is teething. That means that a) this is not a permanent personality change, and b) there will be an end to this behavior.

We've got it all: drooling like a mad woman, chewing on everything in sight, very fussy days, and very very frequent night-awakenings. It's been grand!

But seriously folks... the complexity of the human body amazes me. The detail is astounding and ingenious. Who can remain an atheist after taking a physiology or neuroscience class? Someone has remarkable attention to detail.

But teeth breaking through living tissue? Really? THAT'S how we get teeth? I mean, really?

Sharp, sharp enamel. Soft tender gums. Voila, tooth!

Uh, there wasn't a better option?

Now, some of you might have noticed the remarkable timing of this (should I be right in my toothing hypothesis) amazing occurrence. More remarkable timing has not yet been observed in young Kate's life. I mean, freaking creepy, the stars have aligned timing. You know what I'm talking about.

X-Men Origins is out this weekend! That's right, all the pain that Wolverine feels when those metal talons tear through his skin is remarkably similar to what our poor baby Kate is experiencing! This is all the more apropos since Wolverine is indeed my favorite X-Men character, and Kate is, well, my favorite daughter, so yeah, it's pretty freaking weird the coincidence!!!



Here's some rolling from yesterday. No video from today. Unless you really wanted to hear how she whined and cried all day long. Yeah, thought so. She's realized she can roll consecutively and get across the floor. Then once on the hardwood she's noticed she can move pretty quickly just using her arms without having to really figure out this arm-leg crawling business at all.

I'm not oblivious to the implications. A baby gate is now swinging happily at the top of the stairs, all potentially falling objects have been removed from her bedroom, and outlet covers go on tomorrow. I am, of course, as any good survivalist mom would, leaving strategically placed challenges such as the exposed tile step, random cords, and books at baby height available so that no one can ever say that survival of the fittest no longer applies to the human race.

Earth's Best Baby Food Sale

For those of you interested... I bought 36 cans of Earth's Best organic baby food for $20 at BabiesRUs today (which would normally run about $30). Yay sale!

Demand Crying

There's feeding on demand... but for Kate it is all standing on demand. This baby wants to stand all day long. Forget trying to crawl. Bor-ring. No no. She will sit and hold her arms out or try to grab your fingers and if you are not prompt in your response, the crying will begin until she gets to stand. Talk about early communication.

I got so tired of holding her up all day long (my arms are getting quite toned) that she is now couch supported. With mommy back-up of course.

For your viewing pleasure, a glimpse of her standing and trying to figure out how to move while doing it.

Carrot Explosion

Just a warning... if you do decide to make your own babyfood, and you see a 5 lb. bag of organic carrots for $5 at the store... think twice before buying it. I figure we saved about $15 in carrot baby food by doing it this way, but apparently carrots take a long time to steam. The whole process took most of my evening to finish (as I waited for steaming to finish and then pureed, waited and pureed). Oh and yeah, don't put carrot shavings in the garbage disposal. The evening ended with pipes being dissembled... Bleck.

Granted, if I had given in and done it on the stove it wouldn't have taken as long, but it would have heated the whole house up and it was just too hot outside for that. So, I used my steamer/rice cooker/slow cooker and did it in three different batches. And we still have carrot sticks in the fridge after all that. But we have carrots upon carrots in the freezer!! Now I see why they sell those baby food all-in-one contraptions. Plus the small scale of it means that it is fresher and you can adapt to what the baby likes. All I have to say is, baby Kate better freaking love carrots (cuz I hate 'em)...

If I were more ambitious (and perhaps lived in S.L.C. with my canning crazy sister and her canning crazier mother-in-law) I would do it right and can it all. Our freezer is packed to the brim so my baby food making will have to take a break. Well, after I finish with the zucchini and pears that I'd already bought... they were just too cheap to pass up!!!

Catching the last bluebonnets

Kate and I (with the help of the Grandparents) went on a quest to find bluebonnets. We've pretty much missed the season. The days I was ready for picture taking were overtaken with thunderstorms, so I did what I could and we actually managed to get a couple cute ones.

Foods and Pesticide

Don't know about the accuracy of this... but thought I'd pass it along if you're trying to figure out when to spend those big bucks on organic foods...

Foods and Pesticides

On Strike?

Last week I dropped our afternoon feeding for a bottle of milk instead. It was a bit liberating really. I could run errands and go out after her afternoon nap and not worry about finding a dark closet to feed her in (since she refuses to breastfeed in public -- embarrassed to be seen with mom already...). That had been going pretty well overall, but then this morning... well, she decided to take control.

Normal nap routine... get upstairs to feed her breakfast... sit down in her comfy chair and she SCREAMS. Downright screams. Geesh. I think, okay, maybe she's got an air bubble. Bounce, pat, bounce, pat. Nothing. Okay, maybe she just wants to go straight to sleep. So we skip the book and I put her down. Louder screaming. Okay, huh. Bottle? Yep. Sat down with her on the chair with her curled up into my arm but so she can see the room and she guzzled that thing down and fell asleep doing it. I couldn't rouse her at all to burp or read a story or anything. Out cold.

This morning, I got up to feed her at 6:30am before putting her back down for another hour of sleep and I sat there and enjoyed the moment. Noted how big she was getting. How when I burp her she takes up my whole body now and her feet dangle and fold since she is so long. I rocked and cuddled and burped her after she ate and just enjoyed the snuggly moment.

Now I'm wondering if it was a good thing I did...! We shall see! I can't decide how I feel about it. I think I'm okay with it if this is what happens. She wants to be so independent and involved in her world, you can see how resistant she is to having to put her back to it all to eat. It's so funny. Every noise she hears she tears (and this word choice is deliberate) around to see what is happening behind her and grudgingly returns to eating. I think we had a good run of it. I'm leaving it up to her.

We added bananas to our list of foods today. So far we have acorn squash, sweet potatoes, peas, and apples that were big hits. Avocado she didn't particularly like. And banana seems to be a hit, too. I have a fridge full of zucchini that was on crazy sale that I need to cook up soon (planning on throwing it on the grill with our dinner tonight to save on cooking) and freeze for her after our banana trial is over.

She's getting back to her old self slowly. The rash is fading, and her temperature is down. She's insisting on standing almost all the time and even tries to move her feet around. It usually ends in her cascading to the floor, but she's a trooper and insists (as in, whining and reaching for my fingers) on standing again.

Dropsies

Grandma came over today to give me a break from fussy pants. Somehow though when the baby was returned to me she was no longer fussy. In fact, she was feeling so much better that she was able to sit and play in her high chair while we ate dinner. Well, she was able to entertain herself by her new dropsie game. She was especially interested to see if she could get the dog's attention, which surprisingly she didn't.

Hiatus

Baby Kate has been sick... and so have I... so things have been slow. We have a doctor's appointment scheduled for late this morning to help us figure out what's going on. She had a cold last week so my guess is ear infection. What else makes a baby refuse to lie down, cry constantly, and not eat? My little eater? That girl would eat if the room was on fire. So something's up. She also has a strange rash all over that I'm hoping is due to avocados...

Not much news to report. Daddy P is still waiting to hear on the results of his three interviews... I am determined to finally do... well, something...! Finally submit this darn article for publication I think. Get this monkey off my back.

Hopefully we'll have more to share soon!

By the way... peas revisited... Two frozen bags ($1.50) made about 36 oz in the food processor. Nice huh?

Lesson Re-Learned. Again.

Kate can't tolerate dairy.

You'd think I knew that.

It didn't even register as I chowed down on yummy creamed corn that I was eating the richest dairy of all. Well, it didn't register until I had to change shirts three times today. And, Daddy P had to change Kate's shirt another three times.

Fun.

Splish Splash

Correction: formula

I have it on good authority I misspoke.

Correction - Cow's milk (and dairy) is okay before the year of 1, just not as a replacement for formula and breastmilk. Formula with dairy is fine for babies without tummy problems. But, since Kate was intolerant to dairy in my diet, it might still bother her in formula.

Regardless, we ordered the lactose free formula since it was the same price as others I've heard recommended. When that runs out we may try the Enfamil Gentlease (milk based) and see if her tummy can handle it. We'll see.

Right now I've only dropped one feeding a day, so we're just giving her breastmilk that's already in the fridge/freezer. We'll cross that formula bridge soon though!

Houston = bye bye breastfeeding?

We journeyed back to Houston this weekend for a whirlwind trip for a job interview. Baby Kate and I hung out in ever-exciting Clear Lake and went to Panera and the mall while Daddy P interviewed. We also played a lot at the hotel and made friends with the front desk staff so we could get a check-out after her afternoon naptime. (Sooooo wonderful.)

Unfortunately, Kate now hates her carseat. I don't blame her really. The four hours down was long, and she didn't like having to do nighttime sleeping in a partially upright position. Plus she has a cold which made the whole trip a little harder. We got a suite for the night courtesy of Daddy P's interviewer, and put ourselves up at a suite last night. Makes such a huge difference! Lucky for us La Quinta has cheap suites!



But what mostly came of this trip (aside from Daddy P knocking the socks off the interviewers) was my decision to wean. It's time. Baby Kate is ready, and as a result, has made me ready by her twisting (ouch!), turning (ouch ouch!), and generally need-to-see-eating.

This has lead to a big formula investigation and I learned something I hadn't realized. You either feed your baby corn syrup based formula (the majority and what our pediatrician "recommended"), milk based formula (which I don't get since they say not to introduce milk until 1 year, and we know how lactose sits with Kate), or soy based formula (same comment... plus we know soy makes Kate spit up like crazy). But apparently Baby's Only just started a Lactose free formula that is based on brown rice syrup instead of corn syrup, the thinking being that a complex carbohydrate is better for baby than the corn syrup...

So, we ordered our first container and now we will see what she thinks!

Baby Colon Cleanse

Who needs to spend all that money on colon cleanse products? Or eat only raw foods for days on end? All we need are adult-size jumperoos!

Bounce bounce... concentrate... concentrate... bounce bounce...

Dirty Christians

Kate's sick. Her first child care experience at church on Sunday and here we stand. Sniffly nose, spitting up, fussy and just really tired. (Kate, I mean.) She's just not her perky self today...

Didn't show at the park yesterday though! She had fun watching the kids run around and play.

New Favorite Activity

Standing.

She practically demands it of you, reaching for your fingers whenever possible to pull herself to a standing position. She's also pretty good at leaning against something to stand which is a nice break for my fingers.

But most importantly, she is learning to fall. Not the stiff body, straight body, knock your head on the ground fall, but the gentle let-the-butt-take-it fall. Gotta protect that noggin!

Sleep Update

Naps are a piece of cake. (Knock Knock. Who's there? Oh, no, it's just me making sure you didn't totally flub up by jinxing nap-time.) Like I was saying, naps, well, Kate's got it down. Nurse, story, singing, horsey and blanket, and Momma is out the door and she is down in under 10. Ohmygosh I never really believed it would happen.

This, to my little newbie mama-mind, meant that she knew how to fall asleep.

Ooooooooooh no it don't.

Hint #1: We're in Houston. She will not fall sleep in her tent at night. My friend and I listen to her cry as I continue to go downstairs to comfort her every five minutes. Finally crack and nurse her again and she's out.
Misinterpretation: She can't fall asleep in a new place.

Hint #2: Grandma and Grandpa Locals come over and babysit on Sunday. Baby Kate is still awake when we get home at 8:30pm and fussy.
Misinterpretation: Separation anxiety.

Hint #3: At home, with Mom, at regular bedtime, Kate cries and cries when I try to put her down awake after her bedtime routine.

Ahhhh... Kate doesn't know how to fall asleep at night!

Ding ding ding!!!

So we are restarting our nap-training process with nighttime sleep. It took 20 minutes of crying last night to get her down, with me picking her up three times to calm her, and spending the whole time patting her tummy. At the 20 minute mark she went immediately from crying to asleep. Always a weird thing to see. But, she did it "alone" and that's what counts.

I am chasing the dream of a night away from the baby and am determined to get this down to make it happen. Please oh please let it work the same as naptime...

Spikey

Getting some peach fuzz up top!

Sympathy crying, puking, and all the rest

We went to Easter service last night with the baby. It was the first time we'd tried child care at church. I do believe I was quite brave! When we dropped Baby Kate off, she was the second baby in the baby room with two women there eager to take her. I said goodbye and quickly walked away before either of us could wail. But, I should have expected the baby of a stay-at-home mom to have some trouble with this. About 45 minutes in, her baby number flashed up on the big screen in church beckoning us to come and pick her up. I let Daddy P do it.

He reported that the room was filled (about 15 babies) and the childcare workers (about 4) had their arms full with crying babies. Apparently the whole room was crying, they had just already tried everything with Kate (diaper, bottle, rocking, bouncing) with no luck.

Which brings me to sympathy crying. Now, you know of that vomit trigger: see a vomit make a vomit. I remember one bus trip in Elementary school which knocked us down one by one after that first child fell victim to the windy roads. But sympathy crying? I've noticed that when we are around another baby that begins to cry, Kate cries too. I don't know if babies just has an enormous amount of empathy that we totally lose by 1 year old, or if she just has a soft crying trigger.

She does this, not only with babies mind you, but with dogs. Well, our dog. If Elly barks -- no wait, let me be totally accurate -- if someone makes Elly bark, Kate cries. This was demonstrated when we had some friends over for dinner and one of them, in playing with Elly, made her bark. Kate instantly looked from man to dog to man and began to cry. Elly barking on her own (at the door, at a strange noise) causes Kate to look worried and to carefully watch what is happening, but she rarely cries because of it. It seems it is the concern for the dog that prompts the cry.

So maybe childcare last night was less about being scared of these strange church ladies (which, the news has illustrated lately isn't necessarily a bad thing...) and more about sympathy crying. Kate's amazing empathy?

Hard to tell. Regardless, I know I'm going to find myself struggling with leaving her again, but know it will be good for her. Separation anxiety definitely has its grip on Kate which means crawling can't be too far away really. And with that knowledge, armed with a tube of super glue, I walked around the house carefully gluing all those rubber tips on to the door stoppers so she can't pull 'em off and eat them. The bottom floor is almost babyproofed! Computer, check. Bookshelves, check. Random wires, check. Window cords, check. I have kitchen cabinets to go and one more hutch needs to be wall-anchored. Just watch: we'll move before she crawls because I've started this. Mark my words.

Sweet Potato Explosion

In a continuation of homemade babyfood... I was making sweet potato fries for Daddy P and I and with the oven fired up I threw in a few potatoes for Baby Kate. Wow oh wow did Baby Kate end up with a lot of food.

I bought sweet potatoes at the store to compare price and quantity...

3.5 oz of store-bought for $1.00
30 oz of homemade (about 3 potatoes) for $2.50

Okay, so that's a no-brainer. Sweet potatoes are definitely worth the money. The downside is that compared to the peas they were a little more work (mostly because of the quantity). But, I froze most of it (see my pretty cube containers below?) and only saved a bit in the fridge for this week.



My food mill is getting quite the work-out... We had some grapes that were getting wrinkly and old so I boiled them and threw them in! Now Baby Kate has grape cubes in the freezer to try!

Kate is getting to be quite the scooter. I've been trying to get a video of it but haven't managed yet. She's moved beyond the tummy-pivot and now can scootch a little ways if there's something she wants to get. She looks kinda like her legs are numbed: she hoists herself up on her arms and drags her body behind. It's funny to watch and pretty effective for now. You can see the desire in her eyes for more, though... Looks like I'll be babyproofing soon!

Here's a shot of her pivoting from last week:

Heritage revisted

Another peek into where she came from...



Although frankly, I think she looks more like her cousin than either of us! :)

Spit flying

Blowing raspberries is the talent of the week. She does it constantly and for all occasions!

Will you be mine?

Kate experienced her first rejection...

Homemade vs. Store bought

Here's the bottom line...

Making peas at home took me 5 minutes of simmering a bag of frozen organic peas, then 5 minutes of pureeing them in the food mill. You can see the shells left from making pea mash...



A 16 oz bag of organic peas: $1.79
Yield: 6 oz mashed peas (give or take depending on your desired consistency)
Homemade: $0.30 / oz

2.5 oz organic store-bought peas: $0.80
Store-bought: $0.32 / oz

So really, the only benefit to making homemade peas is saving on packaging. I'm hopeful that other vegetables will yield a greater savings. There was a lot of wasted food product from the peas (shells) because Kate's not really old enough to negotiate the texture of them.

Purely mashed peas would have been $0.11 /oz.

6 months old!

Kate was a bit sore from the shots yesterday so I waited until today to take her 6 month pictures.

16 lbs 6 oz
24 3/4 in
50th percentile weight; 25th percentile length; 25th - 50th percentile head



You can tell she's really gotten this sitting thing down in the last month! She can confidently sit and reach for things around her now. She also will pull herself to sitting if she's lying down and grabs your fingers.

Winter Squash

We added winter squash to Kate's menu today. She gobbled down her oats and barley for lunch like a starved inmate (at the time, I said "zombie" but that's because I'm just stuck on zombies at the moment i do think). Then for dinner she tried some acorn squash. I made some last night. Check this out. One acorn squash yielded only about a cup of food:



Next time I'll cook a few at a time and freeze the results. My food mill made quick work of the squash though. The whole process took me about 10 minutes to do (not counting oven time). Not so shabby! After checking out the prices for organic baby food I decided we definitely can't afford to go that route and I have the time to make her homemade stuff for now so why not!

We see the doc tomorrow and I plan on clarifying some of this solid-eating business with him. It's so darn confusing! This kid would eat a whole squash at once if we let her, so I am planning on asking questions about quantity, variety, and so on and so forth...

But yeah, tonight Daddy P gave Kate her dinner. We weren't really sure what to expect from her...

Pre-Food Happiness

"Mmmmm squash!"

Give me MORE SQUASH!

Vacation

So I am finally getting around to posting pictures from our ski vacation. I know it took a little while. It was great to just get out and be active for a weekend, but it wasn't nearly long enough. The weather was okay, chilly, but it warmed up by the end. Daddy P was determine to get Kate started on snowboarding early. Those of you who know him have heard the "professional snowboarder" prediction for her. Well, believe it or not, by the end of the weekend you could kinda push her and she'd stay upright for a bit. Granted she'd topple fast, but it was a soft landing.