The Rice Cereal Experiment

Well, we tried rice cereal last night. Oh my, Baby girl loves her rice cereal! About 95% of it ended up on her and maybe 1% made it down her throat. She had a great time. Tim filmed the event while I fed her, apparently not fast enough since she tried to “help” me by sticking her little fist in the cereal and smearing it all over her face in an attempt to eat it. She kept trying to grab the bowl and bring it to her mouth. She was very messy and sticky when we were done. Baby girl got a bath after that. She was not 100% thrilled with that since she was still hungry. I think the key to her love of rice cereal is the pumped milk I used to make it.

I had to work late tonight, but when I got home we tried again. She still loved it. She did the hungry face, opening her mouth in an “O” and going “uh, uh, uh”. This time, my hubby held her arms so she wouldn’t “help” quite so much. I think 3% made it down her throat.

Baby girl is also teething, I can see the teeth. She doesn’t let me look in her mouth at her bottom gum, but I can see ridges, so hopefully soon they will be through the gum and the worst will be over. She is pretty happy, but then she will just dissolve into screaming tears and throw herself backwards (like I said, perpetual motion machine). Then, after 10-15 minutes, as suddenly as it began, it subsides and she is happy again. Lord help us if she is like this with every tooth. How many teeth do babies have?

It is a few months away, but does anyone have a suggestion of first foods to start a baby with? We have no known allergies on either side, so that is not an issue. I am curious, do you start with a veggie first or a fruit?

Ok, time to feed the kiddo.

-B-

Photo

As promised, my little monkey’s crib antics.

4 Month Update

Baby girl’s appointment went well yesterday. I was half right about her stats. She is 15lbs 8 oz and 25 3/4 inches. She is a big girl, yay me! It was the happiest doctor visit we have had, until the shots. She was just shocked that the nurse would hurt her when she had done nothing to her. She calmed as soon as my hubby handed her to me. It’s great to be the mommy. The doctor also said that he can see teeth looking like they are about to come through and we get to start vitamins and rice cereal this weekend. I will let you know how her first foray into solids goes.

On Thursday, at 3:40 p.m., Babay girl rolled over from her back to her tummy. I was at work and did not get to see this, my hubby recorded the time for me. Tuesday and Wednesday nights she had gone from her side to her tummy, but we didn’t count that as rolling over. About an hour ago, I put her down for a nap and went to empy the dishwasher. I went in to check on her. My little monkey had managed to not only roll over in the crib, but do a 90 degree turn and stick her legs out of the crib. I took a picture and a short video of it. I will post the picture soon.

We have had a cold front move in and the temps are only in the 80s, 20 degrees cooler than last weekend! Well, Baby girl is being grumpy (perhaps it is the teeth).

-B-

Bon anniversaire

Today is my parent’s 35th wedding anniversary! That’s a lot of years! In their 35 years together they have lived in 7 states, owned 3 homes in as many states, had 3 daughters, gotten 3 masters degrees and 1 Ph.D. between them, lost 3 of their parents, and become grandparents. Whew, that’s a lot of life!

This day has made me happy (my parents are still together) and sad (I am not ready to talk about this part yet, but no my hubby and I are not headed for divorce court).

In Baby Girl news, she will be 4 months old on Thursday! I cannot believe it! That and I have been back at work for a month. Time flies. Baby girl has her 4 month check-up on Friday, can’t wait for the shots, ugh. I have taken the morning off to be with her. I really think that it hurts me more than it does her. I am guessing that she is over 15lbs and close to 30 inches, we’ll see if I am right. She has almost outgrown size 2 Pampers. This makes me sad, while they do have Swaddlers in a 2-3 size, at her growth rate, she won’t be in them for long. I am not looking forward to the Cruizers, they don’t seem to be as absorbent as my Baby girl needs them to be. We shall see.

Friday night we went out for our first outing as a family sans behemoth stroller. We carried her, ate in the food court and then I put her into the front carrier. She likes being able to see mommy with the illusion of being held and mommy likes to have her hands. We went to the mall, Barnes and Noble, and Best Buy. We found she really likes chai (the smell), but not daddy’s Americano. We also bought me a new camera at Best Buy, yay me!

So, Baby girl’s new thing is to grab or attempt to grab food and/or utensils out of our hands. Now, I know that this is a sign that babies are ready for solids, but come on, she started doing this at 15 weeks (she’s 17 in case you are wondering). I am going to ask her pediatrician on Friday, I was hoping to nurse her exclusively until she was 6 months and then supplement with breast milk until she was a year. We’ll see what he says. I am also going to ask about teething because I swear, she is, but nothing is coming through.

I am so tired, I stayed up to watch men’s gymnastics and I will stay up again to watch the women tonight. I think I will treat myself to a coffee shop stop in the morning, after I get gas (thankfully a Versa only has a 14 gallon tank!)

-B-

Transportation humor

For those of you who don’t know, I am a Transportation Planner in DFW. The link below is hilarious to me and pretty much all of my coworkers.

Enjoy!

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/5_million_car_pileup_kills 

-B-

Baby girl and the Olympics

We watched the Olympics last night. I was awesome. I LOVE the Olympics, winter and summer. Baby girl likes to watch tv if there is anything red one. Last night, Tim and I discovered that our daughter has a crush on Michael Phelps. Yes, at 16 1/2 weeks, our daughter has her first crush. Every time his face was on the screen she giggled and talked to him. She also did her version of raspberries (she just uses her lips). Of all the people she could have a crush on, Michael Phelps is perfectly fine with me. Maybe she feels a swimming connection. He’s a swimmer, she was a swimmer until a few months ago. 

In other interesting news, I saw a coworker of mine on our local PBS stations half hour news talk show this morning. I didn’t even know she would be on there. She was talking about a new program that another team in our department was rolling out.

-B-

 

My future Olympian

08-08-08

Awesome day and the Olympics start tonight! Yay!

Thankful Thursday

I am stealing this idea from one of my friends blogs. Things I am thankful for:

1.) My wonderful hubby who I love very, very much and would be lost without. There is only 1 person who I love more than him. I am so happy that he can stay home with our baby girl during the day so she does not have to be in daycare.

2.) My sweet baby girl. I didn’t realise how much I wanted a daughter until about 2 days before I gave birth. I was so happy to hear the nurse say “It’s a girl!” (about 5 minutes after she was born, I think the OB thought we knew what we were having). I love her more and more everyday.

3.) My family’s health. You never realize how much you take it for granted.

4.) My job. I really love what I do and I get to talk to adults.

-B-

Hands

Baby Girl found her hands almost 2 months ago (and her feet soon afterword). She would sit or lie quietly, looking around, rubbing her hands together or grabbing fingers. Recently she has discovered that she can see her hands touching. She always holds them out at arms length and watches them.

She also loves to grab one foot and roll from side to side holding it. She once put  her foot in her mouth, I was at work, but she has not done it since. I have tried to show her how (using her foot), but she’s not going for it. She will happily suck on her toes if you put them in her mouth.

We are also this close to rolling over. I have also been sowing her how that is done. She rolls from her back to a side and stays becasue the view is so interesting. When I put her on her tummy, she lifts her legs and butt into the air and tries to scoot forward. I am not exactly sure what she is trying to do, but it is not rolling.

Yesterday, she was staring at the tv remote. I picked it up to show it to her and she grabbed it with both hands! She also somehow managed to turn the tv on! Right now she is trying to help me type this post. We just finished a mommy and me workout that I have been doing off and on with her since she was 4 weeks. She hated it, until today. She had a great time, even when we had to stop in the middle so I could clean spit-up off the floor (she got really excited about “flying”).

-B-

That’s it, I’m tappin’ out

Today has just been one of those days (and it’s only 1:00p.m.!). Baby girl was up almost every hour last night needing to be fed (she sleeps with us most of the time, so it was just moving her from side to side). She has been cluster feeding the last couple of nights, but last night was rough. Then at 5:30 a.m. she had a diaper blow-out.  While my hubby changed her, I put towels and washclothes down to soak up and cover up the mess. All our other sheets were dirty, too. I had my hubby put her in her crib so that maybe I could get a couple hours of sleep. He got up at 7:30 to get ready for work. I got to sleep until 8:00. I was able to shower before Baby girl decided I had had enough “me” time. Luckily, I was able to put her in her swing so I could eat a bowl of cereal. I started the laundry and only got 3 loads done before a very rude, smoking fellow resident jumped in front of me, while I was in the laundry room, and proceeded to do his laundry. Now, if my hubby or I had done this to them, we would have been yelled at and probably called awful names including racist, but for them it was ok. It was at this moment that I decided that we are getting out of here.

We have been looking for a place to buy since we moved down here 2 years ago, but we keep encountering idiots when we put offers in. We also found out that in this particular town in DFW, with taxes, a mortgage (with taxes and insurance) on a $99,000 condo is in excess of $1,200/month! If I am going to pay that, I want a house.

In the little bit of quiet, me time I have had today (she has been taking a nap for the past 45 minutes) I have been house and condo/townhouse hunting. Wish me luck, I need it.

-B-