Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Julia's changing eating habits
Right now, Julia eats:
Sweet potatoes
Pears
Peas
Carrots
Apricots
Prunes
Peaches
Green Beans
Apples
Mangos
Papaya
Avocado
Oatmeal
Rice
Squash
Broccoli
Edamame
Tofu
Miso
Goat Cheese
Chili
Dhal
Ice Cream
The one thing we've tried with her that we think she may be sensitive to is bananas. They seem to give her a stuffy nose.
Right now, if she sees a person drinking from a glass, she immediately eschews her bottle and demands a glass of her own. But she still doesn't have the concept of sipping from the sippy cup. So we're giving it to her sans valve. It's messier that way, but less so than a regular cup. Now, if only she'll hold it herself!
Surprise Pic
This morning when I plugged the digi in to retreive a picture I found this and 2 other oh-so-cute pictures of Julia from this morning on there. Kristin had to have taken them, cause Oliver doesn't know how to focus and Oscar only takes pictures of himself.
Monday, February 27, 2006
New Tooth
Look, look, look at Julia's new tooth! I finally got her to show it off for the camera. We think there's another one coming up right next to the current one (closer to the center) so soon we should have two. To celebrate, I gave her homemade chili the other day. She LOVED it.
In other news, Julia had her 6 month well baby check. She is 15 lbs 9.5 oz (hanging steady at the 25th percentile for weight) 23.5 inches (also hanging steady at the 3rd percentile for height) and her head is 16 inches in circumference (I can't remember what percentile that is right now.) So she is still short and (relatively) chubby with a (again, relatively) big head.
And oh, my goodness, but is she a talker! The doctor was amused by how much she had to tell him at her visit. I expect her to start using a few words within the next couple of months. At this point her first word will likely be related to our dogs rather than Mama or Mommie -- since we spend so much of our freakin' time trying to keep dogs' tongues away from her face and dogs' teeth away from her toys (chewed toy count so far: 9).
Friday, February 24, 2006
First tooth
This morning I took a look at Julia's swollen tooth bud and discovered that sometime over the night the tooth had erupted. There are no longer gums over the top surface of the tooth! This teething thing is a piece of cake! No crying, no fever, no drooling, no diarrhea, no orneriness! Just a swollen spot, a lot of chewing, and a tooth.
This is me trying to take a picture of it, but it's still pretty small. She pulled her lip back over it at the last second, and then wouldn't keep her tongue off of it so I could photograph it. Oh well, I have a feelign we're going to be seeing a lot of that tooth in the future, no its no big deal that it's being a bit shy right now.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Well, we're working on it.
Here is proof that Julia can share. Sort of. Not that sharing is super important at this age. But still, it always pays to be polite, no?
Right now this ball is Julia's favorite toy, so the fact that she handed it over even for a second makes my heart go pitter-pat.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Well, she is an only child...
At least for now.
Over the weekend we took Julia to Summer's birthday. There were two other children there, Summer & Merr's little boy, Camden, and the 1 year old son of some other friends of ours. Normally Julia really enjoys being around the boys. She laughs at their rough play, she babbles back at them when they talk to her, she smiles at them as they take her toys away.* But this weekend something changed. She had been playing with a ring of plastic keys. This time, instead of it being stolen, she threw it and started gumming on some other toy. Well, the boys picked up the keys and took them to an adult, and the adult started shaking the keys for the boys. Well, Julia heard those keys rattle, and her head whips around and she zeros in on those keys and starts screaming. She wanted those keys back, and she wanted them back immediately!
I guess we need to work on the concept of sharing a little earlier than we expected.
*wouldn't you know it, a whole room of toys for toddlers, and the boys are only interested in the handful of infant toys we bring for Julia!
Friday, February 17, 2006
Through the looking glass
Just the second before I snapped this she was smiling and blowing raspberries at herself in the mirror. Just as I took this picture she looked at me. Still, it's just too cute not to share!
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Valentine's Day
We took Julia out to sushi for Valentine's day. Ok, we didn't really feed her sushi, she got rice cereal with tropical fruits. And edamame. And tofu from our miso soups. And she LOVED it all. And while she was there, entertaining herself while her mommies ate their sushi, she showed us a new trick. That flower thing hanging from her car seat has a pull string that buzzes (like a bee) when you pull it. She knows this, and even just a few days ago she would try and try to pull the thing to get it to buzz. She would frustrated she would start yelling at the poor toy, while pulling with all her little might.
Well, at dinner Tuesday, she reached up casually, crinkled the crinkly petals, and then oh-so-nonchalantly yanked the flower down and set the thing to a'buzzin. The whole while grinning up a pride-storm at us.
Obviously she's been practicing when we're not around.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Sleep -- lovely, lovely sleep
Ok, I haven't wanted to blog about it for fear of jinxing it. But Julia is now sleeping in her crib! All by herself! For most of the night! And she'll even fall asleep on her own sometimes! Can you tell how excited I am by this? We're actually getting an average of 7 hours sleep (up from the average of 3 hours as of early December). The key to this blissful state? Her nursing pillow. It cradles her as if she were in our arms, allowing our arms to be elsewhere. I know that eventually I will mourn the loss of those all-night cuddle fests, but right now I'm too busy catching up on months of lost sleep.
Monday, February 13, 2006
However
She is getting pretty good at drinking from a glass. And by "pretty good" I mean: opens her mouth wide and chomps down repeatedly on the edge of the glass while letting most of the water dribble out of the corners of her mouth and the rest backwash back into the cup but swallowing just enough to make her think that she's actually accomplished something. Yeah, she's "pretty good" all right.
you wanna re-think that?
AFter seeing how confidently and masterfully she manages to whack herself right between the eyes with her spoon, would you still think it's a good idea to let her try to feed herself?
I didn't think so.
Of course, maybe a smaller spoon would help.
I think it's about time you let me feed myself
Doesn't she just look so confident and ready to conquer the world one dish of rice cereal and peaches at a time? After looking deep into those determined eyes wouldn't YOU want to let her feed herself?
More solidy solids
This past week Kristin and I have upped the solids quotient. Thursday I gave her avocado mashed with a fork. I left little chunks in the mix -- small enough that she wouldn't choke, but large enough that she would notice them. At first she wasn't exactly sure what to do with the harder pieces, so she swallowed the softer mush and pushed the chunks out with her tongue, where after a few bites they began to look like a little goatee (I didn't wipe them off right away because I thought they looked cute). By the end of the feeding session, though, she was gumming like a champ!
Friday, February 10, 2006
face to face
Julia's been doing this thing where as she falls asleep she reaches her hand out and when her little fist hits a face she opens her hand up and pets the face a little bit and then rests her palm on the face until she falls asleep and the little hand slips down. Sometimes she'll start fussing without coming completely awake, and do the hand thing, and the moment she rests her hand on my face she relaxes and falls back into a peaceful sleep.
We were over at Mom and Dad's so Dad could do our taxes. Mom was witnessing this behavior and I explained that we feel this is the way Julia reassures herself that we are still here even though her eyes are closed -- we take it as a sign that she is deeply bonded to us and that she is developing object permanence. She knows us by the feel of our faces -- she doesn't let her hand linger on others' faces when she's sleeping in someone else's arms -- she wakes up and cries. I also had my hand cupping Julia's face as she was drifting to sleep -- this is one of the easiest ways for us to get her to relax and fall asleep. Even if we're not holding her, we can place our hand on the side of her face and she will quiet. we discovered this trick when thinking about how when she was in the womb the ultrasound technicians always had a difficult time getting pictures of her face because she kept it pressed into the placenta. We figured that having her face cushioned and caressed was something innately comforting to her and tried that ourselves and found it to be true.
My mom sat there quietly for a moment and then said: You two are such great parents. You're doing such a good job with her, she is obviously a very happy and secure baby.
At the end of the day, I still want my parents' approval. I'm glad that I have it.