Monday, October 30, 2006

Costume Madness

Mark and I are finishing up Gaz's Halloween costume, but for those who want a sort of sneak peek, feel free to check out these pictures from our Milwaukee visit over the weekend.

Photos by our good friend Clare, aka Raggedy Android. :-)

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Ugh

Gaz has a fever, and has had a terrible night of sniffling and coughing and crying her little eyes out. It's been rough on all of us, but particularly out little girl, who had not been sick before just now. She's snoozing sans pajamas now, just a little blanket-hating ball in a diaper. Once our doctor's office back home opens up I'm going to give a call and talk to a nurse. Then if we need to go to a doctor I'll have to call the insurance company and see where I can take her.

I'm glad to have help, but we came here to help out my family, not to wake everyone up repeatedly all night long. But it was helpful for someone else to give Gaz her Tylenol while I held her. She didn't want anyone else.

Spooky trivia: I had my first fever when I was about this age, about this time of year, while visiting my maternal grandparents. Mom says it was an ear infection.

I'm going to lay down with Gaz again, see if I can get a little more shut-eye.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Family Update/New Gaz Tricks

My grandpa is doing much better all of a sudden. He recognized me and Gaz last night and was amused by her antics before he fell asleep again. Three cheers for some real progress!

Gaz has done some cool things too. She now repeats strange new words with a good degree of accuracy. She just said "funky" just a second ago, and she's said "cracker" and a whole lot of other words that haven't quite joined the vocabularly but she's really working on the variety of sounds she can make. I'm all aglow. One big new thing is that she calls Grandpa Charley "Papa" as reliably as she calls me Mama and Mark Dada. So now we're seeing if "Nana" sticks for Grandma Cel.

She's also mastered climbing into chairs. Last night at the nursing home she climbed into the chairs in Great-Grandpa's room over and over. At Nana and Papa's house she's got her own little rocking chair (which used to be mine) that she can get into and use with relative ease. Now she hates being strapped into her little high chair booster seat thing, so we just set her in it now. She also refuses to use the tray most meals, preferring to eat at the table like a big girl.

My, how they grow.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Better late than never

This week we got a card from the governor, welcoming our new baby. Yeah, they're more than a little behind the times. Best of all is the note inside encouraging us new parents to get our little bundle of joy all her essential vaccinations by the time she's two months old. They even give us a nice little card to write down all the dates of the vaccinations.

There was also a note from the First Lady regarding a "new" law that protects a woman's right to breastfeed in any public place. Except that the law came out two years ago in August.

Can you tell that it's an election year?

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Good and Bad

You'll have to forgive this not-entirely-Gaz-related post. There's a lot going on these days, and it's all overlapping.

The Good: Yesterday we went to an Attachment Parenting group and had a wonderful time. Gaz got some quality play time in with a bunch of kids of varying ages, I got to spend some much-needed time with other moms, and it was generally a positive experience. Gaz didn't get too unruly or tantrumy, and even ate a whole strawberry (including the green bits I couldn't get away from her in time), some pineapple chunks, and a lot of floor Cheerios (they seem to be instantly more attractive on the floor). I also got to poke around a bit at the venue, BeBYBaby, and they've got this whole wall of nursing bras! I was amazed. I will definitely have to go back sans Gaz, plus checkbook to see about getting some attractive underthings. (Oh, the woes of nursing. ;-) ) Gaz was also a total champ about running errands after the meeting, including a trip to get Proton his prescription food, and stopping by Whole Foods to try to find some toothpaste our little vegetarian will tolerate. Speaking our little veggie girl, I could not believe that she willingly set aside the oreo that J. gave her as we were on our way up to the apartment for lunch in favor of tofu and peas! Whatta gal.

The Bad: My grandfather had a stroke on Sunday. Gaz and I are going to head home this weekend to stay with my folks for a while. I'll be able to help where I can, and everyone can benefit from having a little dose of Vitamin Gaz. Mark is driving us down so that I don't have to try to make the long drive by myself.

The Ugly: Today after lunch I was trying to clean up the table when Gaz, who had stolen my seat now that she's figured out how to climb up on the dining room chairs, was splashing around in some liquid on the table. Just as I was about to take her sippy cup away and shoo her off to play in the living room, I saw that her sippy cup was nowhere near her and still sitting upright. Then I noticed that my sweatshirt was completely soaked and dripping onto the table. I'm not sure what set off my milk-ejection reflex, but I definitley couldn't blame the mess on Gaz. She was a good girl and helped me wipe up the table, and now that I've got on a clean dry shirt, I'm a happy mom again.

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Bad day for teething

My poor girl is miserable today. We skipped storytime at some local shop because she spent the morning in hysterics. She's napping now, thanks to Tylenol. Nothing else worked today, not fridge teethers, not freezer teethers, not cold drinks, not anything. She did feel well enough to eat a bunch of tofu and beans and a little bit of apple and puffed wheat cereal, so we're doing better on food today than any other day this week. Generally we've been nursing quite a lot and cuddling even more. I've been wiped out for many days now because Gaz constantly wants to be held. Did I mention that she is a heavy child? Of course I give her all the hugs and hefts and nursing she needs. I wish I could make the pain get over with faster.

While she was screaming this morning I got a good look in her mouth: three canines (all but the lower left) are out and the top two molars each have the tiniest point out, but obviously not enough for her to be unafflicted. Come on molars! Mama's getting impatient with you!

Another side effect of all this is that I think we're getting closer to getting Gaz to reliably and independently say "chichi," which is our time-honored family term for breastfeeding. It's either "gutter Spanish" (as my late Abuela used to call it) for "breast" or Nahuatl for "to nurse," take your pick.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Bobblehead

Just a quick update to note that now Gaz nods as well as shakes her head. Since she's not saying "yes" and "no" yet, this is a great help to figuring out what the heck she's on about.

Also, getting much better about signing "more" and "finished" at mealtimes. Wheeee!