Daily Peep: Diaper Fish

This fishie (which puffs air in little girls' faces - and tummies - when squeezed) has swum his way onto the changing table, and Peeper plays with him while having her diaper changed.

That's why his name is Diaper Fish.

Daily Peep: Piggy Back Ride

I know that before long, Peeper's going to be getting too big to comfortably wear in a front carry, facing out and since she likes to see what's going on, I'm thinking a back carry would be good.

So, I have to learn how to do that!

A couple of months ago, I asked DoulaK to show me how to get her onto my back, and she demonstrated with a mei tai, saying, "This is the way I do it - but you won't do it. I know you're you're never going to do this in the middle of the Target parking lot."

Well, of course, I took that as a challenge, and although I still haven't, I am determined that I will put her on my back in the Target parking lot at some point!

In general, I prefer the wrap to any of our other carriers, so I'm trying to master a back carry with it. I've seen a video and know what I need to do, I just need a lot of practice, because Peeper gets bored and starts fussing before I can get everything all tied up.

Today, in response to a post asking for quick, easy recipe ideas (more on that later, I'm sure), one of my British baby-led weaning buddies suggested I wear Peeper on my back while cooking, if she's not happy to sit and play on her own for long enough to get anything done.

Which reminded me that DoulaK had made the very same suggestion, oh, months ago.

(I'd tried putting her on my back a few months ago and I could do it, but didn't feel secure at all.)

So, I decided that, although my ultimate goal is to perfect the back carry with the wrap (thus one-upping what DoulaK told me I'd never do) I might as well try out the other carriers for the time being.

I didn't get any photos with the mei tai, but it went pretty well, although I didn't have her quite centered in it and I need to experiment with exactly how to wrap the straps.

It was quite easy to get her all set up in the not-an-Ergo (it's Ergo-like, but a knock-off brand), but wasn't as comfortable for me.

I'm a little hesitant to wear this one in public, though, (and now I'm also a little iffy about the wrap instructions that seem to have it ending up in the same positions as the straps of the Ergo) because here's what happens when you take breasts that are already quite large, plus they are lactating, and then you cinch a belt really tightly right below them, and another right above. . . .


Hell-ooooo, Mama!

Daily Peep: Peeper's Pretty Pink Panda Pajamas

Baby's First Bee Sting

Peeper got up this (yesterday) morning around 10:45, and I handed her off to Shrike and went back to bed for a little while longer.

When I got up, around 11:30, they were playing happily in the living room.

"Oh," said Shrike, "She got stung by a bee."

WHAT?!?!

It seems that they were walking in the backyard, in one of the less clovery areas actually, when Peeper suddenly burst into tears.

Thinking she'd stepped on a sharp twig or something, Shrike looked at her foot - and found a stinger.

By the time I got up, she'd removed the stinger, tried to put ice on it (although Peeper wasn't too keen on that), put some anti-itch stuff on it and given her Tylenol.

I pretty much missed the whole thing.

She did give her to me to nurse, telling her that "Some goody will make it all better," so at least I felt like I'd done something.

This is what it looked like then, within the first hour. Notice that her left foot (on the viewer's right, of course) is a bit red and swollen in the arch. It's a little hard to tell in the photo.

It doesn't seem like it's bothering her too much, but about four hours after the first dose of Tylenol, I noticed that she was walking flat-footed with the other foot, and tippy-toed with that one (I think. She's still pretty random on how her little feet hit the ground.) so I gave her some more.

She got another dose later and we'll probably give her one more before bed, just for good measure, so it doesn't disturb her sleep.

(Whoops. Forgot to do that and she's already asleep. Oh well.)

This was taken this evening, about twelve hours after the sting.

It really is about that red, but it's not very swollen at all and, of course, she's had no other reaction, so we're pretty relieved about that.

Shrike's dad is pretty seriously allergic to bees, so now that she's been sensitized, we will watch very closely the next time she gets stung.

And will think about finding her some shoes for walking around in the grass.

Daily Peep: Making a Call

Silly girl, nobody uses the Yellow Pages anymore.

Why don't you just Google it?

That's More Like It

We finally got the swing up.

Panda Pics - Ten Months (43 weeks, 3 days)

(Full disclosure - she's kind of sitting on Mr. Panda's tummy.)

Ten Months

Dear Peeper:

You are ten months old today.

Last month, I predicted that you'd be cruising by the time I wrote this letter, but you haven't quite gotten there yet.

You are starting to be more comfortable moving your hands from one object to another when you're standing up, and sometimes your feet follow, but you're still not actually going anywhere yet.

But, let you grab hold of a couple of Mama-hands instead of some dumb furniture - and you are off to the races!

You are very purposeful in your assisted-walking, too. You will occassionally ramble a bit (one night, a couple of weeks ago, we were pacing in the living room for quite a while!) but you usually head right to a very specific destination.

Of course, it's not usually a destination that we want to head to.

You love being outside, but haven't quite caught on that we don't go wandering around the backyard at midnight.

To be honest, as much as, in theory, I like the fact that you like to be outdoors, I'm not so keen on wandering you around the yard even in the daytime, dodging stickers and bees and dog poop. I'd just as soon leave that to Mommy.

We finally got your swing hung up in the tree today, though, so at least we'll have a destination when we do go out there.

That, and playing the windchimes, which you also love to do.

More than once, I've been sitting at the computer thinking, "Holy hell, it's blowing out there!" only to realize it was just you and Mommy!

The past week or two, you've wanted to walk all the damn time, and have complained mightily when we've suggested that you sit down and play with toys for a while.

You know, if you just had some balance, you could do this on your own, kid!

And, we know it's only a matter of time until you do, so we've been working on babyproofing.

(I guess we've actually gotten off easy on that, so far, since you've decided not to bother with crawling, haven't we?)

We've plugged all the empty outlets, and today we had locks installed on the cabinets and drawers (I wonder how long it will take us to learn that they are there, and stop banging them around everytime we try to open something?).

We've also got new outlet plate covers for the ones with things plugged in, that will turn and cover up the holes if you yank the plugs out, as well as toilet locks (you are already fascinated with the toilets) and cord organizers.

Speaking of the toilet - this week, we put your potty seat in the bathroom, just for funsies. I sit you on it (wearing a diaper) when I'm pottying and you think it's pretty funny.

Mommy tells me that you almost always pee-pee during your first diaper change of the morning, so we talked about letting you sit on it diaperless when you get up, to see if we can catch some, but I don't know if she's done that yet.

Like I said, that's all for fun now, just so you are familiar and comfortable with it when the time comes.

(And, because if you are happy sitting on it, that's better than standing against the tub and trying to climb into my lap while I potty!)

You've doing much better with that pincer grasp that you were so close to having a month ago. You still do a bit of a two-handed juggle with the Cheerios sometimes, but you're definitely picking them up and getting them in your mouth more often than not.

You've made big leaps in your language skills over the past month, too. Right after your 9-month check-up, you starting saying "bababa" and "dadada" and a couple of weeks later, you started with the "mamama" sounds.

We don't think you are really saying "Mama" or "Mommy" but we do hear a lot of "mum" and "mumum" sounds from you, and sometimes they seem to be in context.

A couple of nights ago, for example, Mommy was putting your jammies on you while I was putting on my own. You were ready to nurse, and were complaining about the jammies, and reached toward me saying, as clear as could be (but probably still accidentally) "Mum-Mama!"

We won't claim that you really mean it until you stop saying it to your books, panda bears and keyrings, too, but it sure does sound good!

In related news, we're pretty sure that you've been signing "more" for the past couple of days!

At first, you were definitely talking about Cheerios, but now I think you may be using it when you wants anything, not just when you want "more" of something.

Makes sense.

I'm sure you're thinking:

Mama does that thing with her hands when she gives me the food I'm asking for, so maybe I should try it.

Hey, when *I* do that thing, Mama gives me the food I want, too!

Ok, now I want (a toy, up from the chair, to be done with my diaper change). Maybe if I do that hand thing again, Mama will give me what I want.

Hey, why didn't it work? What's she flapping her hands around ("all done") about now?

Well damn, I thought I had it all figured out.

So, we're trying to be more diligent - and more emphatic - about showing you other signs. Now that you've caught on to the general concept, I'm hoping you'll get a few more, soon.

I wish there were a baby signing class available around here, but I guess we'll have to make do with what we've learned from the interwebs and the one boring DVD that we have.

Speaking of classes, you really seemed to enjoy your swimming lessons, once you got use to the idea. We finished up last week, and will start again in a couple of weeks.

We also have you signed up for a Kindermusik class at the community college in Mommy's WorkTown.

It's at 6 pm, so she'll be able to join us over her dinner break - we'll pick her up at work, go to class, and drop her back at work when we're finished.

I think you'll really enjoy that, because you like music and you like being around other babies and big kids, so it should be perfect.

What else do you like these days?

You're really starting to be interested in your "touchy-feely" books, and you like anything that makes music. You've figured out how to push buttons on several of your toys, to make the music play, although you still have trouble hitting them hard enough.

You're still a big fan of your "farm" (exersaucer) and I think we're going to have to move the legs up to the highest setting soon, because you are almost standing flat-footed in it again.

You have several wooden puzzles that you like to play with, but it's still all about chewing on the pieces. That's still what you do with most of your toys, actually.

Oh, chewing - that reminds me!

You now have three teeth, and the two bottom ones are now big enough to actually see when you give us a big grin.

The top one is still just a nubbin, and we can see that your gums are awful lumpy all along the top, so we think its buddy is coming soon, and maybe even their neighbors.

These new teeth have been (knock wood) fairly well-behaved so far. You've bitten my goodies a few times, but I could probably count on one hand the number of times it's been significant.

I've just stopped for a moment and told you not to bite, because it hurts Mama. The couple of times that you've bitten me a second time, I've taken that to mean that you weren't in the mood for goody right then anyway, so we've stopped and come back to it later.

Now that you are ten months old, there's no denying that your birthday is right around the corner.

We received a catalog of first birthday party supplies in the mail this week, and yesterday, I sent out a "save the date" email to our friends and family who will be invited to your party.

I can't believe that I am actually planning your first birthday party.

That is absolutely insane.

Two months doesn't seem like very long at all, but on the other hand, when I think how far you've come and how much you've learned in the past two months, it seems like forever.

Which is fine with me, because I am so not ready for you to be a year old yet.

But I will go ahead and start thinking about what kind of cake you might want when you are.

I sure do love you, Cuteness.


Love,
Mama

Daily Peep: Monkey Girl

It's been quite a while since Peeper's had banana.


She still likes it.

Daily Peep: In Case You Were Wondering

No, she's not always happy, she's just usually photographed that way.

And, lately, she's not particularly happy if she's not on her feet, dragging one of us around the house.

Enmeshed / Outmeshed?

Shrike and I often joke that we "are the same person," or at least that there's only one brain cell that must be shared between the two of us.

Peeper's probably just now starting to get the idea that she and I are separate people, and I've often caught myself thinking in ways that tell me I feel like we are one and the same.

So, this one caught me by surprise:

A couple of nights ago, Shrike and Peeper were in bed and I'd gotten back up to have a snack. I'd finished and was messing around on the interwebs when I heard Peeper crying.

I rushed back into the bedroom, unhooking my bra as I went, and did not actually say, only because I figured she was more likely to get really awake if I spoke, but thought, and almost said, "It's okay honey, here we are."

Here we are.

As in, me and my boobs.

Preemie Mojo for a Friend, Please

Thanks to Facebook, I've recently reconnected with SDH, a friend from high school, and learned that she's been having a very difficult pregnancy.

The short story is that she was carrying twins and, at around 18 weeks, began going into labor. They found that Twin A (closest to her cervix) had died in utero, but Twin B looked fine, so they did a "delayed interval delivery" in which they allowed her to deliver A then stopped her labor.

She's been on strict bedrest since then, and at 24 weeks (the outer limit of viability) they moved her to a hospital with a Level III NICU, a couple of hours from home. It was hoped that she could move back home at 28 weeks at deliver at the hospital there, but the baby was born last night, just shy of 27 weeks gestation.

He weighs 2 lbs 3 oz and is 14 inches long. On S's Care Page, her husband reports that the baby (also an S name, actually) "is stable and is struggling with all of the issues you expect an almost 27 week old gestation baby to deal with," and that "S is resting and recovering from a C-section."

It is amazing that he survived his brother's death and birth (it's just not right at all to have to say it that way) and that he managed to stay inside for another eight weeks, so he has already overcome incredible odds to be where he is, but he still has quite a challenge ahead of him.

I know that Mama S and her whole family (including Baby S's big sister and four big brothers) would appreciate your prayers, good wishes, or whatever sort of mojo you've got.

More?!?

Okay, baby signers - what do you make of this?

Am I seeing things? Is she just trying to clap, or is she signing "more?"

A Sign of The Times

Today, we received a catalog in the mail, called "1st Wishes."

It is filled with paper goods, decorations, games, hats, and more - for first birthday parties.

Holy crap.

Daily Peep: Swingin'

Peeper seems to like this swing.


Shrike, not so much.

MilestOOHH!n

During tonight's bath, Peeper discovered that grown-ups have hair in places that babies do not.

And that is all I have to say about that.

Daily Peep: Kicked Back

Lately, Peeper's been starting to protest (in the form of the stiff-back maneuver) when I put her in the the highchair.

Usually, after I tell her a couple of times that, "You don't have to eat anything, but it's lunch/dinner/whatever time, so we're going to sit at the table," she relaxes and let's me buckle her in.

(Does the telling matter? I have no idea, but I figure it can't hurt.)

Then immediately starts smiling and banging on the table, and usually eats at least some of whatever I offer her.

But she insists on using her feet to push her chair back from the table, and then sit like this:

Oddly enough, none of the four photos I took caught her looking anything but sleepy or pissed off, but in reality, she continues to give me a big old squinty-eyed grin everytime I point the camera at her and the red-eye reduction light starts flashing.

Daily Peep: Sliding

We spent the evening at the park with some new friends.

Thanks for Your Concern

A few minutes ago, Shrike and Peeper (and the dogs) were playing in the office, while I fixed myself some lunch.

I was headed toward the office to wait on the microwave, when the highchair jumped out and threw itself right in front of my pinkie toe. As I clipped it, it slammed against the wall making a big noise.

I then followed with several more big noises, as I slammed my hand against the wall and cursed. Loudly. And repeatedly. Because that makes it feel better.

I could hear Shrike saying, soothingly, "Shhh, it's okay. . ." much too quietly to be addressing me, so then I felt kind of like a jerk for scaring the baby.

After I'd pulled myself together, I said, pointedly "I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

Shrike said, "I could tell what happened, so it seemed superfluous to ask."

"Well," I said indignently, "You could've asked if I was okay."

"Why?" she said, "It was obvious you weren't."

PS: Oh, and I hadn't frightened Peeper at all with my banging around. Just PerfectPup. For a dog, she's kind of a pussy.

Surprise Tooth!

A couple of hours ago, Shrike and Peeper were reading books in her room, and I was playing on the computer, when Shrike said, "Honey, I think she's getting some teeth on top."

Well, okay, we've had a bit of a reprieve from the teething grumpiness, so I suppose it's time to move on to the next round.

A day or two ago, I'd felt around up there and thought that I was starting to feel some lumps where teeth will be, so it makes sense that they'd be starting to bother her.

"Because I think she's grinding them together."

Yeah, I bet it would feel kind of good to push those sharpy-sharp bottom teeth into the top gums, where the new teeth are starting to push out.

"I mean, I hear it."

What?!

I went in there, and stuck my finger in Peeper's mouth, and what the fuck?! sure enough, there is another tooth poking through her gum, on the top left.

Shrike said, "I knew there had to be a tooth there, because I could hear them grinding. I know what grinding teeth sound like.

(She's a grinder. And, evidently, so is Peeper. Or maybe she's just playing with her new mouth-toy.)

"And you know what else?" Shrike said, "When she started grinding them - we were looking at this picture."



Whoa.

Daily Peep: Bubbles!

A few days ago, Peeper and I were bathing, when Shrike asked me "So, when is she allowed to have a bubble bath?"

"Hmm, I don't know. Now, I guess?"

I made a mental note to look for some baby bubble bath but then, well, you know what happens to mental notes!

Today, I was going through the stash of lotions, potions and powders that we received as shower gifts and haven't gotten to yet (we have used several, but we really got a lot, so there are still several more) and guess what I found?!

Daily Peep: Ham Bone

Two of these photos were taken yesterday, and one this evening.

In both instances, Peeper was playing by herself in the floor, and then started whining around, and thinking about crying.

I pointed the camera at her, and this is what happened.

Double Rainbow

Peeper and I saw a great double rainbow on our way home from Target today.

Usually, you just see a little bit of a rainbow, but this one went from the horizon on one side (shown in the crappy cellphone pointed backward out the window of the car at a red light photo above) to about 15 degrees above the horizon on the other side.

The secondary rainbow (to the right a bit, just barely visible in this photo) went about 45 degrees up from the horizon.

Daily Peep: All Wet

Peeper hit the kiddie pool today. This time she wore her cute little swimmy diaper.

Daily Peep: Swimming Gear

That bag (which is much larger than the child) contains our gear for swimming lessons:


For Peeper - Swim diaper, baby wetsuit, clean diaper, couple of washclothes in case she's poopy when we arrive, 2 towels. She wears regular clothes/diaper to the pool and changes when we arrive. She puts back on the same outfit, with a clean diaper, to come home.

For Mama - Underwear, bra, nursing tank, 2 towels. I wear my bathing suit with shorts & shirt over it to the pool and just strip down when we arrive. I put back on the same clothes with real underwear to come home.

When we get home, it all goes in the wash, and the bag waits on top of the dryer. When everything is dry, it goes right back in the bag for the next session.

Now that we've got the system all worked out, the class is over.

We actually got rained out tonight (can't swim when it's lightning, even though the pool is indoors), so we got all dressed just to sit around and wait.

And to get her certificate of completion!

The next class starts in mid-September, just once a week. I think we're probably going to sign up again.

Baby Einstein Colbert

Is this bad?

(Yes, this is the baby who Does. Not. Watch. TV. But sometimes Mama does.)

Laughing Baby

Peeper thinks this book about clothes is high-larious!

Daily Peep: Waterlogged

Peeper had a very wet day today: Swimming in the kiddie pool in our backyard, a spit bath from BigGaloot and swimming lessons at the Y with Mommy.

Geez, You Say Something Once...(...and capture it on video, and post it to the interwebs for all the world to see.)

Ever since I narrated this video, the standard unit of measurement at our house for a mass of fur that is no longer attached to a pet is a "bob."

A very small mass of fur is a "bobby" and, of course, a very large mass is a "robert."

Grocery Girl

We did a little grocery shopping tonight.

Peeper actually only rode in the cart for a few minutes. The plan was for Shrike to wear her, but she had to go to the potty when we got there, so we put Peeper in the cart until she was finished and got the wrap on.

She seemed to like it at first, but then was trying to pull my shirt off and/or climb up my chest while I pushed the cart, so we figured we should go ahead with the wearing plan, rather than dealing with that all the way through the store.

(The other thing I don't like so much about the idea of putting her in the cart is that then we have to stay right with the cart, rather than being able to leave it in one spot while we, say, gather fruits and veggies from all over the produce department. Well, that and the cart is for big kids and she's just a bay-bee!)

She wasn't too keen on being worn, though and at first I thought she needed to nurse (that shirt-pulling-off thing) but it turned out that what she really wanted was to walk.

Shrike offered to walk with her, but I put the kibosh on that plan because I really do not want her to think, at nine and a half months old, when she doesn't have enough balance to stand independently for more than three seconds, that she gets to walk through the grocery store.

It's fine and dandy if we're all together and Mommy wants to break her back following her around, but I would be screwed the next time I took her to the grocery or Target or, well, anywhere alone.

So, we ended up with me wearing her, and she seemed pretty okay with that, as long as we kept moving.

We didn't pick up any chicks tonight, but we did run into our neighbors from across-the-street-and-next-door, who couldn't get over how big Peeper's getting, because they haven't seen her since the day we brought her home from the hospital.

(Yeah, it's a real tight-knit neighborhood.)

Daily Peep: Skinny Dipping

As cute at this was, I think we'll probably put her in her swimmy diaper next time, for a couple of reasons.

1. I'm not 100% comfortable with what might be on the bottom of this pool that BigGaloot romps in, and it squicks me out a bit to think of her most sensitive parts sitting on whatever that might be. (She was already seated when I thought of that, so it was too late. Shrike humored me by cleaning her off before rediapering her.)
   
2. Although we feel quite strongly that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a baby playing naked in her own backyard, or her parents taking video of it, or even posting that video on the internet, we are a tiny bit afraid that someone might have a problem with it, and we've read enough horror stories about such things that we figured we'd better only post the still photos in which she's hiding her girlie-parts, which means that you're missing out on some really cute video of her splashing and playing with toys, because she's being rather less than modest and some nutjob out there might report us for it.
   
   And it really pisses me off that there would even be a possibility that such a thing could happen.

Daily Peep: Baby Beethoven

And Baby Beethoven's Cat

The Next Spielberg?

This is what happens when you let the baby take over filming.

Daily Peep: Play Time