So here's an important note if you plan to buy anything for Gaz's lower half: she's now in size 5 diapers and she won't be wearing any denim/woven fabric pants any time soon. If you must send her pants, send her knit pants. She can't climb in pants with no give, and when she can't climb she throws a tantrum. I don't care for tantrums, so please, no jeans. You can buy them if you really want to, but I won't be dressing her in them. Thank you.
At long last I think we can identify a tie for Gaz's first word. After many almosts, it seems she actually gets "hi" and "tree." Why those two? No idea. But I do say "hi" to her probably hundreds of times every day, and we do look at trees rather often. Mama and Dada she can say, but I don't think she's figured out that those words are our labels, and while we were really optimistic that "Proton" might win out, she's only been teasing me with an occassional random "poh-twon." Nope. The winners are "hi" and "tree." Silly baby.
Insert the usual comments about how Gaz just won't nap or go to sleep when she ought to here. What else can I say? It's just a fact of life right now. Difficult as all get out, but so far as we have tried various tactics it can't be helped right this second.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Ouch
Gaz took a spectacular tumble from the couch last night. I was more of a bounce, actually. I found her climbing on the arm of the couch and went to get her, but before I could get there she flopped backwards, bounced off the cushions and, twisting mid-air, landed face first on the floor. It seems to have scared her (and me!) more than anything else. As soon as I got her Mr. Bump cold pack out of the fridge she brightened up and wouldn't let me hold anything cold to her face.
I'm happy the bruising wasn't more extensive and that the swelling hasn't affected her nursing. Her nose still whistles a little when she breathes, but it's not swollen shut. Small favors. I'm trying not to feel like the horrible mother--I know I had much worse accidents as a child and it sure wasn't my mom's fault.
I'm happy the bruising wasn't more extensive and that the swelling hasn't affected her nursing. Her nose still whistles a little when she breathes, but it's not swollen shut. Small favors. I'm trying not to feel like the horrible mother--I know I had much worse accidents as a child and it sure wasn't my mom's fault.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
five steps
Gaz just walked a good five steps, completely unaided, to Mark as he sat on the couch! It was amazing!
Mark insists that she wouldn't have walked to him if she hadn't already gotten primed by walking to me (maybe two steps before she grabbed my hands and walked the rest of the way, thereby reducing me to baby-perplexing tears of happiness and pride), but I don't care who's walking to whom.
My baby walked! Insert proud whooping here!
Mark insists that she wouldn't have walked to him if she hadn't already gotten primed by walking to me (maybe two steps before she grabbed my hands and walked the rest of the way, thereby reducing me to baby-perplexing tears of happiness and pride), but I don't care who's walking to whom.
My baby walked! Insert proud whooping here!
Friday, June 23, 2006
oh, thank you Chris!
Many, many thanks to Chris (and, I assume, Christina) Holland, who just upgraded my Flickr account!
I don't deserve such nice friends!
(New Evansville visit set can be seen here.)
Thank you again, you wonderful, wonderful people! I grovel!
I don't deserve such nice friends!
(New Evansville visit set can be seen here.)
Thank you again, you wonderful, wonderful people! I grovel!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Gaz's Southern Indiana Adventure
How to boil down the past week into a coherent blog entry? You'll have to settle for fractured and rambling, and likely incomplete. I'll try to cover everything as best I can.
Gaz picked up a few new tricks during our week in E-ville. She's hugging things now and clearly knows what we mean when we say "give X a hug." There was much cuteness as we encouraged her to hug all the stuffed animals we had gathered for her amusement. We discovered that she really likes cucumbers and cherries, so new food horizons are continuing to open. The freeze dried fruit snacks we got were a pretty big hit, too, but she'll only eat a certain amount of those and then she'll just hold onto them until her sweaty, slobbery hands turn the fruit pieces into sticky mush. Still, it's a good snack for the car and is now another weapon in the fight to keep her from screaming on long trips.
Let's see. . . She's taking a couple of steps at a time now, kinda lunging for the next nearest support. Grandma Cel got her a new standing toy (a Leap Frog Learning Table) and if you put that far enough but not too far from all the cruise-worthy furniture and start pushing buttons to entice her, she'll take a few staggering steps to get over to where the fun is. She's also more confident in standing by herself, which is also cool. The days of her hovering near furniture to pull herself up on are over. She just stands up whereever she is when the urge takes her. Her balance is pretty good, too. Stay tuned for more exciting ambulatory developments.
The waving is still hit or miss, and she never seems to wave the same way twice. Sometimes she waves her whole hand, sometimes she waves both hands, sometimes she does the open-and-closed-hand thing, sometimes she does that with both hands. She rarely aims her gesture at the person she's looking at, often waving behind her head or whoever is holding her or some convenient home furnishing.
She's still great with a crowd, and was very good at the family get together on Saturday, and at all the restaurants she was dragged to. She's a crowd pleaser. Of course, she saves all the tantrums for me (or whoever is "lucky" enough to be watching her in my absence). Which reminds me: at a rest stop at the junction of Indiana 63 and I74 she found an ashtray that said "Mommy's Little Monster," which she naturally wanted to chew on. Grandpa Charley had his work cut out for him, but he did manage to get it away from her. How apt, but she's too young for ashtrays. So says Mama.
I noticed halfway through the week that all the adults were referring to themselves by title (I was Mama, Dad was Grandpa, Mom was Grandma) and since there was much concentrated visiting, it was more obvious than usual. No real comment about that, it's just a thing. Just don't be surprised at the death of the personal pronoun in this house.
We did some exploring of the world. We went to see the bald eagle family in Henderson. The adults were out doing wild bald eagle things, so all we could see is the baby. Gaz of course saw nothing except for the bugs that were hovering nearby, but I'm sure she'll be excited to know that when she was just a wee thing we were out looking for honest-to-God wild bald eagles with her in tow. When she's older and we're embarassing her with baby stories, you know. We also went to Mesker Park Zoo, which is about half what I remembered and half not what I remembered. It smelled somewhat less horrible, probably because the Monkey Ship has no monkeys on it anymore.
The one tragedy of the visit is that just before leaving for E-ville, we bought a rocking recliner at CostCo to replace the old, sciatica-inducing rocker that we permanently borrowed from my folks. I only got to sit in it that evening, then not again for a whole week! It's as good, if not better, as Bob Marley and the Wailers at getting Gaz to go to sleep. It's amazing! I naturally spend as much time in it as possible. Another benefit of the new chair is that now Mark can fall asleep with Gaz on his chest or lap and I don't have to worry about him dropping her. There is much fluffy chair to keep them both safely contained.
I know there's tons more, but I'm tired and needing to send off resumes. Prod me for specific tales, if you like. I take requests. Pictures from the trip will be on my Flickr account, all tagged with "evansville" as I don't think this family can handle paying for two unlimited accounts now and I've used up my allotment of photo sets. Oh well.
Gaz picked up a few new tricks during our week in E-ville. She's hugging things now and clearly knows what we mean when we say "give X a hug." There was much cuteness as we encouraged her to hug all the stuffed animals we had gathered for her amusement. We discovered that she really likes cucumbers and cherries, so new food horizons are continuing to open. The freeze dried fruit snacks we got were a pretty big hit, too, but she'll only eat a certain amount of those and then she'll just hold onto them until her sweaty, slobbery hands turn the fruit pieces into sticky mush. Still, it's a good snack for the car and is now another weapon in the fight to keep her from screaming on long trips.
Let's see. . . She's taking a couple of steps at a time now, kinda lunging for the next nearest support. Grandma Cel got her a new standing toy (a Leap Frog Learning Table) and if you put that far enough but not too far from all the cruise-worthy furniture and start pushing buttons to entice her, she'll take a few staggering steps to get over to where the fun is. She's also more confident in standing by herself, which is also cool. The days of her hovering near furniture to pull herself up on are over. She just stands up whereever she is when the urge takes her. Her balance is pretty good, too. Stay tuned for more exciting ambulatory developments.
The waving is still hit or miss, and she never seems to wave the same way twice. Sometimes she waves her whole hand, sometimes she waves both hands, sometimes she does the open-and-closed-hand thing, sometimes she does that with both hands. She rarely aims her gesture at the person she's looking at, often waving behind her head or whoever is holding her or some convenient home furnishing.
She's still great with a crowd, and was very good at the family get together on Saturday, and at all the restaurants she was dragged to. She's a crowd pleaser. Of course, she saves all the tantrums for me (or whoever is "lucky" enough to be watching her in my absence). Which reminds me: at a rest stop at the junction of Indiana 63 and I74 she found an ashtray that said "Mommy's Little Monster," which she naturally wanted to chew on. Grandpa Charley had his work cut out for him, but he did manage to get it away from her. How apt, but she's too young for ashtrays. So says Mama.
I noticed halfway through the week that all the adults were referring to themselves by title (I was Mama, Dad was Grandpa, Mom was Grandma) and since there was much concentrated visiting, it was more obvious than usual. No real comment about that, it's just a thing. Just don't be surprised at the death of the personal pronoun in this house.
We did some exploring of the world. We went to see the bald eagle family in Henderson. The adults were out doing wild bald eagle things, so all we could see is the baby. Gaz of course saw nothing except for the bugs that were hovering nearby, but I'm sure she'll be excited to know that when she was just a wee thing we were out looking for honest-to-God wild bald eagles with her in tow. When she's older and we're embarassing her with baby stories, you know. We also went to Mesker Park Zoo, which is about half what I remembered and half not what I remembered. It smelled somewhat less horrible, probably because the Monkey Ship has no monkeys on it anymore.
The one tragedy of the visit is that just before leaving for E-ville, we bought a rocking recliner at CostCo to replace the old, sciatica-inducing rocker that we permanently borrowed from my folks. I only got to sit in it that evening, then not again for a whole week! It's as good, if not better, as Bob Marley and the Wailers at getting Gaz to go to sleep. It's amazing! I naturally spend as much time in it as possible. Another benefit of the new chair is that now Mark can fall asleep with Gaz on his chest or lap and I don't have to worry about him dropping her. There is much fluffy chair to keep them both safely contained.
I know there's tons more, but I'm tired and needing to send off resumes. Prod me for specific tales, if you like. I take requests. Pictures from the trip will be on my Flickr account, all tagged with "evansville" as I don't think this family can handle paying for two unlimited accounts now and I've used up my allotment of photo sets. Oh well.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Gaz's big day!
I finally did get to take Gaz's temperature and it was normal, so no trip to the doctor today after all. The checkbook and the daughter thank us, I'm sure. But after several frustrating days, we've been having a very good and fun morning.
Today at breakfast Gaz signed "more"!! She was clearly not putting the sign with me putting more food on her tray, but she has figured out that when she's sitting at the high chair that is one of the signs to use. So WOOO! It's just too bad Mark was asleep. He was very excited when he woke up, though.
She's finally figured out how to push the buttons on the musical bug toy she inherited from her cousins. She played some music and practically glowed when we clapped and cheered her little accomplishment. She's not quite figured out how to work buttons and switches, but today is a good step forward.
She's getting better at walking when I grab her hands, too. She's slowly figuring out that when one of us is supporting her that she can just throw herself into it. It's so fun to watch her brain work!
Today at breakfast Gaz signed "more"!! She was clearly not putting the sign with me putting more food on her tray, but she has figured out that when she's sitting at the high chair that is one of the signs to use. So WOOO! It's just too bad Mark was asleep. He was very excited when he woke up, though.
She's finally figured out how to push the buttons on the musical bug toy she inherited from her cousins. She played some music and practically glowed when we clapped and cheered her little accomplishment. She's not quite figured out how to work buttons and switches, but today is a good step forward.
She's getting better at walking when I grab her hands, too. She's slowly figuring out that when one of us is supporting her that she can just throw herself into it. It's so fun to watch her brain work!
Friday, June 9, 2006
Oh, the Cranky
Gaz has been on a hair trigger/not sleeping well/not eating as much solids the past couple of days, so naturally I start wondering What's Wrong With My Baby. I call the nurse this morning and she asks if she's running a temperature. Let me tell you about trying to take this child's temperature.
1. Raise Gaz arm; apply thermometer to arm.
2. Gaz starts whining and refusing to let me lower her arm over the thermometer.
3. I persist and she progresses to keening and twisting away from me.
4. I move the thermometer so that it's behind her where she can't see it and try to grab it.
5. Gaz howls and writhes, now crawling away from me while I try to hold onto her and the thermometer.
6. The thermometer has still not registered her temperature, after five minutes of trying to keep it under her arm. Mama gives up and calls nurse.
7. Nurse says "just keep her distracted."
8. Mama asks if this really is the best way to take a temperature; nurse suggests taking a rectal temperature while I'm changing a daiper. Clearly, this woman has not seen Gaz getting her diaper changed.
9. Mama ask when walk-in hours are tomorrow.
::headdesk::
Not to mention that Gaz did finally fall off the couch this morning while I was trying to contain her for temperature taking. But fear not: she was much more upset that I wouldn't let her chew on the cold pack I was trying in vain to hold on the back of her head than she was about bonking her noggin.
And after all this I still don't want to ship her off to the moon. I am a glutton for punishment.
1. Raise Gaz arm; apply thermometer to arm.
2. Gaz starts whining and refusing to let me lower her arm over the thermometer.
3. I persist and she progresses to keening and twisting away from me.
4. I move the thermometer so that it's behind her where she can't see it and try to grab it.
5. Gaz howls and writhes, now crawling away from me while I try to hold onto her and the thermometer.
6. The thermometer has still not registered her temperature, after five minutes of trying to keep it under her arm. Mama gives up and calls nurse.
7. Nurse says "just keep her distracted."
8. Mama asks if this really is the best way to take a temperature; nurse suggests taking a rectal temperature while I'm changing a daiper. Clearly, this woman has not seen Gaz getting her diaper changed.
9. Mama ask when walk-in hours are tomorrow.
::headdesk::
Not to mention that Gaz did finally fall off the couch this morning while I was trying to contain her for temperature taking. But fear not: she was much more upset that I wouldn't let her chew on the cold pack I was trying in vain to hold on the back of her head than she was about bonking her noggin.
And after all this I still don't want to ship her off to the moon. I am a glutton for punishment.
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Ozomatzin
Little Monkey, that is.
The coffee table is in the dining room on the other side of the fence until we can figure out something else to do with it. I caught her on there three times this morning and decided that now is as good a time as any to remove the coffee table. She didn't complain, which is a nice change for today. She's been complain-o-riffic.
She's got a new trick though: when she stands up on the couch and someone says "no standing on the couch!" she'll fling herself down onto the cushions and cackle like mad. Of course, this will one day cause other problems, but today it's cute.
I cannot believe how much she changes in a matter of days. I'm glad I don't have to live in fear of missing something big now. (For them what doesn't know: I'm now a work-from-home mom, freelancing with my law office and on various copyediting projects as they come up.)
The coffee table is in the dining room on the other side of the fence until we can figure out something else to do with it. I caught her on there three times this morning and decided that now is as good a time as any to remove the coffee table. She didn't complain, which is a nice change for today. She's been complain-o-riffic.
She's got a new trick though: when she stands up on the couch and someone says "no standing on the couch!" she'll fling herself down onto the cushions and cackle like mad. Of course, this will one day cause other problems, but today it's cute.
I cannot believe how much she changes in a matter of days. I'm glad I don't have to live in fear of missing something big now. (For them what doesn't know: I'm now a work-from-home mom, freelancing with my law office and on various copyediting projects as they come up.)
Saturday, June 3, 2006
and downward, suddenly
Of course just as soon as she figures out how to climb up onto the coffee table, she also figures out how to creatively fall off the coffee table. We've got it pushed up against a wall, just under some windows. She was on the table and I was sitting on the floor next to it. I foolishly figured that if I just kept nearby to keep her from toppling over one of the three free sides that all would be well. Silly me.
She is strong enough to push the table away from the wall with the greatest of ease, after which feat she immediately fell between the table and the wall: butt and legs first, leaving the top half of her to register her surprise before following the bottom half of her. I threw the table to one side to expose a crying little girl with absolutely no bruises or little red bump marks. You know ultrawhite babies: every little bump usually leaves a red mark for a minute or two. Not even any of those! So mostly she scared the hell out of both of us.
Lessons learned, probably just on my part. We really need to find another place for the coffee table.
She is strong enough to push the table away from the wall with the greatest of ease, after which feat she immediately fell between the table and the wall: butt and legs first, leaving the top half of her to register her surprise before following the bottom half of her. I threw the table to one side to expose a crying little girl with absolutely no bruises or little red bump marks. You know ultrawhite babies: every little bump usually leaves a red mark for a minute or two. Not even any of those! So mostly she scared the hell out of both of us.
Lessons learned, probably just on my part. We really need to find another place for the coffee table.
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