| 9/20/2005 | |
| Catch Up, Ketchup, or Catsup | |
| I have been very neglectful of my journal of late. The previous five or so entries were made today (going back to July). In this episode I will just run off all of the things I can think of that should be documented for which I have no specific date (although doing this is sparking my memory for more dated material). Juliet has grown so much of late. She just started wearing size three diapers. I am still using size twos where I can because those things are unbelievably expensive and I hate to toss 1/2 a pack. Like I said in a previous entry, Julie is eating Step II solid foods. She is also on strictly formula instead of breast milk. Once Juliet cut her teeth (about three months ago) the teeth have been cutting Hannah's nipples and our fingers; those things are sharp and she knows how to use them (and gets a real kick out of our cries of pain when she does). At that point Hannah had to start pumping Juliet's milk. As our lives started to resume a somewhat normal shape it became difficult for Hannah to get the chance to pump as often as she should have. As a result her milk supply dwindled quickly. She tried to rejuvenate her production later on but it appeared to have been too late. Juliet had been almost exclusively breast fed for the first six months (not counting the solid foods) and that's that "they" recommend so I think we did OK. She's growing like a weed; she's happy, healthy and developing physically, mentally and emotionally at or beyond the norm so I think she's none the worse for wear. Finster likes to be thrown around. She cracks up laughing when you toss her in the air, swing her around in your arms, bounce her on your knee or pick her up over your head. She reacts well to physical comedy. I do this goofy shaking of my head while making weird noises with my mouth thing (if you've ever seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon you know what I mean) and she just busts out. I think I have to stop doing that for a while though because I get headaches very easily when I do it now. I think I've shaken something loose by doing that too much recently. This must be how Eric Lindros feels. Jujubee crawls. She hasn't quite figured out the full power of her legs yet but she is definitely getting them involved in her mobility. She sits up as well. As with the rolling over thing a while back, I think she can totally sit up but she is usually just not motivated to. She will sit there for a while, then do one of her kicking motions thereby knocking herself over. Then she will take off crawling to go and get something she sees. I think she's more interested in getting around than sitting around. The funniest part is watching her try to crawl when she wants to bring two objects with her. She does seem to appreciate that she can play with things better in a seated position than a prone one. I think she just needs to work on her transition game a bit and she will be good to go. You really have to watch her in danger zones though, like when prepping her for bath time on the kitchen table and whenever she's on a changing table. If you turn your back on her for three seconds she will be on the floor screaming. Not that that has ever happened, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where she would end up if you didn't keep a hand on her at all times. Baby Face's sleep patterns have evolved much over the last few months but she seems to be relatively stable now. She wakes up around 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning. She usually wakes up an hour or so before "requesting" that we get her up. She hangs out in her crib, plays with her dolly and "talks" to herself. Usually around 8:00 she squawks and we get her up and feed her a bottle. She's usually ready for a nap again around 10:00. Her naps are hit-and-miss. On a good day you can get three hours out of her. On a bad day you get 20 minutes (if you're lucky). After her morning nap is her first solid feeding followed by a small bottle. Her afternoon nap is usually around 2:00 or 3:00. As with the morning nap, it's hit or miss. She usually gets her second solid feeding after that (did I mention that we feed her solids twice a day?). Bed time is a pretty solid 7:00 PM. She is pretty religeous about this time and, while sometimes she will hang out in her crib and play, she usually goes pretty much right down. We put that padding thing back around the base of her crib. That incident with her getting both legs stuck in the crib rails was just too much, although the sleeping bag basically eliminates the need for the padding thing for overnight sleeping. Another behavior she has learned is that once her mobile has stopped running, if she kicks the side of the crib the mobile will run for a second or two. She will repeat this over and over until the thing won't even emit a little jingle. She definitely gets the concept of cause-and-effect. Finny Phoofs is also very portable. On several occasions we have taken her over to friends' houses at night. At bed time we set up the Pack-N-Play in a somewhat quiet area, set her up with some music (usually smooth jazz or classic R&B) and she's good to go. She kinda freaks out when she wakes up in a strange place, but she calms right down when she sees either Hannah or me. Fooferson's favorite activity has definitely become floor time. Floor time used to piss her off, or at least bore her quickly, most likely because she had trouble rolling around. Now that she rolls like a champ and crawls relatively well she doesn't like to be confined to her exersaucer. I can't even remember the last time we put her in her seat or her swing. We have actually tossed around the idea of packing those away in the basement. It's just amazing how fast she grows out of things, either physically or emotionally. She likes to go for walks. She seems to really like the out-of-doors. She likes to watch birds, bugs, trees, bats, just about anything really. It will be interesting to take her into the back yard to meet the llama, sheep, and goat (it's too over-grown to go back there during the summer). She also digs riding in the TT. She's up front with me so she can actually see me and see out the window too. She finds that fascinating. Fooferfeld definitely has her favorite objects. I hesitate to call them toys, because for her everything is a toy. She likes to eat paper. We have to keep a solid eye on her when she's doing floor time or she will scarf down the whole pile of newspapers. Her first truly solid food was the corner of a Kleenex box. At least she chooses high-fiber, low-fat foods eh? Remote controls are a favorite. Not just any control though, mind you, it has to be one of our regularly used ones (stereo or Tivo). Her favorite baby toy is this white plastic dog with bone-shaped rings around it's waist. That one is my fault; I've been pushing it on her for weeks. I like that one. She also likes wires (gee, where does she get that?). The network cable running across the sunroom floor is purple and I have dubbed it the "grape flavored cable". She is drawn to it. She will go way out of her way to try and make you think she's not heading toward it, but the she cuts left and "shlurp", it's in her mouth. Ugh, time for another wireless hub (yes, I already have one but I had to move it back to the other end of the house {out of range} because I had two comptuers die in one week and one of them did my routing). Oh, and she likes hard drives. They are shiny on one side and rough with lots of little doodads on the other. What's not to like? |
|
| << Previous Date | Next Date >> |