Airplanes, aunties, and other adventures

The last couple of weeks have been quite an adventure. We took Aurora on a plane to Georgia to visit her  godmoms, she did a couple 1/2 days with her sitter, and then there was the new jumparoo.  Watch the video and decide for yourself how that went over.

Eventful Week!

Quite an eventful week, or at least a rather intense ending to it. First I took the lil' bit on her first road-trip. 

I drove up little one to meet her great-grandma Florence in Sacramento on Thursday. Tried to time it so I missed the bulk of traffic, and I confess, I enjoyed my tiny little carpool lane buddy. She slept almost all the way there, had a quick diaper change in Vacaville, then waited patiently for a fresh bottle until we got to Sac. 

Grandma has been in an assisted-care facility for a few years now. She still thinks she just got there, but enjoys it. I had called the day before to tell her we were coming, but our arrival was a surprise and a delight (as surprising as the new great-granddaughter!)

If you ever want to feel like the most popular person on the block, take a happy baby to a nursing home or assisted care facility. My baby girl was a rock-star up in there. We sat with Grandma while she had her lunch, and the little bit just stood on my lap and alternately waved and laughed to every delighted person in the cafeteria trying to catch her eye. Grandma loved the attention, before and after lunch she made sure we strolled very slowly down the hallway, chatting up everyone and showing off. I couldn't stop laughing at what a little charmer this girl was being, at 4 months old. 

My favorite photo from the trip. 

I did wonder during the road trip why she was sleeping so much, but chalked it up to just the known effect of cars on babies. She'd been drooling on and off for a few days, and was munching pretty hard on her Sophie chew toy. So on Friday, she would NOT nap at all in the morning, every time I tried to put her down she wailed. Not like my normal happy baby at all. By 2:30 I was frantic, and begged my wife to take an earlier train home. She suggested the possibility of teething. Again, not normal at 4 months, but given this child's precociousness in all other things, a lightbulb suddenly went off in my head. 

Grabbed the frozen teething ring I'd been stashing for a few days. I'll let you watch the video and decide if this is the smoking gun evidence:

As soon as I finished filming this, I ran and got a dose of Tylenol on board (Dad, tell Mom I know and didn't wait!) By the time we picked up Mama at the train station 45 minutes later, all was happy and smiles. Then a 4 hour crash/nap. Woke up just in time to go to bed--then slept (mostly) until 5:30am. We've been figuring out the all-new teething routine all day today. Poor little girl is just not her happy-go-lucky self today. Well, during doses of Tylenol she is, but once it wears off...

Cereal

When we had our 4 month appointment the doctor said to try giving her some cereal. Once she recovered from the belly ache she got from her immunizations, we made up a little rice cereal. M put together her highchair the other day, so this was the perfect chance to try it out. I can't say for sure she liked it, but she didn't hate it. She wasn't quite sure what to think. She ate about a 1/2 teaspoon of cereal that was just slightly thicker than milk. I got a few photos of the experience:

I've got my bib on, lets get going!

First bite

Hmm, that's some interesting stuff.









Yup, this is my spoon.

4 month appointment!

Yesterday afternoon the little bit had her 4 month doctors appointment. A week early, but she was so very ready for it.

She has shot up in size and percentiles over the last two months. She came out pretty average size, right in the 50th percentile for everything, but has really started sprouting out since the two month appointment.

Officially she's at 24 3/4" long (I swear it was actually 25", but the nurse stole a quarter inch), and a whopping 15 lbs, 7 oz, which puts her in the 80th+ percentile. Head circumference is up there too where it should be. She's growing like a weed.

She's been watching us eat for at least two weeks now. Like obsessively watching us eat, even to the point of opening/closing her mouth repeatedly while she drools a little. I mean, knowing my cooking, I can't really blame her. So we asked her doc if she could start in on rice cereal early, and we got the go-ahead. We're going to wait until tonight, as she had a number of vaccinations yesterday (thankfully not feeling too bad this time) and we want to make sure her guts are ok before we introduce something new. A week or two of rice, then we get to start in on fruits and veggies. By the time most babies are just starting on rice, she'll be able to do more than stare longingly at the many amazing concoctions I put on a plate.

I know I'm supposed to brag about my child, but she's so smart and ahead it really is scary. During tummy time for doc yesterday, she showed off how close she is to crawling--as soon as she realizes those knees can get traction under her, we're doomed. Then her doc wanted to see if she was sitting at all, but the little doodlebug was having none of just plain old sitting, and wanted to show her how well she could stand with a little assistance. Sitting is old hat, she's been doing that for weeks, now she can pull herself up and stand with just a bit of help.

Talking up a storm, at least to her stuffed animals and us. Not quite intelligible yet, but periodically she'll pop out a word that you're pretty sure you understand, even if its not quite right.

All in all, at 4 months, its amazing to see her progress. After all the headaches and heartaches getting this child, we really got a winner. Smart, happy (laughs all day long), and generally a very good kid. Jackpot.

Mommy time

Wow, two whole weeks into my bonding leave, and S back to work. We're figuring out good schedules between Aurora and I.

For those that have this weird idea that its relaxing to be home with your newborn, please go find a wall to beat your head into. It isn't. Enter into evidence the fact I've been home two weeks, and am just now posting this, and it took me 3 days to complete it. My life has been divided up into the 20 minute increments it takes the music mobile in her gym to run through its rotation of songs. (yes, every one is seared in my brain.)

Since I've had many, many requests for more pictures, I'm doing a big batch here. This page will take forever to load. Sorry.

First up are several of my favorites from birth on up to the last two weeks at home:

First smile for Mommy

Hi there!

Tasting this new world.

Hello world!

Oooh, hungry!

Is Mommy doing something over there?

The dog and I are going to take over the world!

Going to see Mama at work.

Enjoy a little dappled sun on the front porch.

I have dinosaur feet!

I LOVE the orange tree and outside!

Milk-drunk and passed out.

Peace, yo.

Watching the dogs chase squirrels.

I'm 3 months old today

Time flies by with this little girl, today she is 3 months old! I'm coming up on the end of my maternity leave (back to work March 7th) and it seems like the time has gone by so fast. We're lucky that Aurora will be home for 6 more weeks with her Mommy before she needs to start daycare. We're getting more and more time full of laughter as Aurora has started to express her sense of humor. Apparently the dogs are hilarious as is cousin Michael. She loves to chatter to anyone who will listen and tells her toys all about her day. She still is a terrible napper and despite my assurances that she isn't missing anything while she's sleeping, she still keeps her naps under 40 minutes.

We're still pretty sleep deprived but that never stops us from offering a smile and a hug to this beautiful babe. We know we are truly blessed that she is here with us.

12 months ago to the day

12 months ago to the day we made our last trek to the sperm bank and the last doctor appointment to try and get good swimmers on board. Today we have an absolutely beautiful almost 3 month old baby. Amazing, isn't it? What a whirlwind year.

Sorry I haven't been posting much, since she was born I've been back to work most of the time and balancing life with a newborn. Been leaving it to S to take care of most of this, but I've been steadily taking photos and videos of her as she's been growing.

I took this video about two weeks ago. She's been trying to eat everything in sight, and especially and most obsessively her favorite stuffed giraffe (his name is Alvin. Or aaavvvwiiiin. Or EEeyyyWwinnn. Something like that.) Problem is that he weighs just a tiny bit too much for her to pick him all the way up and get him to her mouth.