What's in the box?

Go go!

My new hat

Lucy & Mommy

Headstand

Strawberry hat

Lucy & Daddy

Christmas PJ's

I'm not touching it...yet

Christmas Eve

Lucy & The Tree

A much needed nap

Lucy in a box

Crawling

Christmas hat

X-mad with mommy

Don't take my picture, help me!!!

Poor Lucy... she was exploring all the nooks and crannies at grandmas house and decided to try to crawl between the two arm chairs. It was a terrible fail, as she couldn't move forward and couldn't back out. Instead of rescuing her immediately, I grabbed my camera.

I'm glad that grandma was right there because I did have to lift one of the chairs to free her and it required a second pair of hands.  Lucy survived, but I doubt she'll ever view the garbage compactor scene in Star Wars without a faint traumatic memory.

Christmas came early

Friday Night Solo

I'm a supporter of a unique concept started by the church I attend called Luther's Table. It is a cafe, pub, non-traditional worship space in downtown Renton. This not-for profit place has a pastor leading the show and custom brewed beer served by volunteers. It's a crazy concept to bring the welcome and community aspect of "church" to people who are not likely to show up in a chapel on Sunday.

I'm turned on by it because I'm spiritual but not churchy. I don't quote the bible, I don't expect God to speak to me in matters of life, and I certainly don't think my attendance on Sundays will earn me anything other than the peaceful feeling I get.

Tonight a benefit concert is being held to keep the doors open. We attended the "gala dinner" a couple weeks ago and I was going to opt out of tonight because we had already had a babysitter event this month and I (selfishly?) felt I had done my part.

Well, I'm not one to say no to direct requests for help. So, in addition to selling tickets for the last 3 Sundays, today I baked cookies and got here early to be a ticket taker.

Jason and Lucy were going to come and we had her all dolled up in super cute holiday pj's. I left the house at 6:10 and they were going to come at 7. I received a sad text from j that said:

And........

She's asleep. :(

See you when you get home.
- J

Jason is at home watching over a snoozy Lucy while I'm manning the ticket table. I think he's also providing tech support. I wish we were hanging out together but I appreciate updated anti-virus.

The concert I didn't want to attend has been amazing. I hope Jason is enjoying his night of almost bachelorhood. Once the tech support is done I'm guessing he'll watch some of those shows that are in the DVR that I refuse to watch...Real Housewives of King County. (kidding)
Terri

Did I mention that I cut my hair?

Memories

I'm pretending to be a regular worker bee today. I'm attending a meeting in downtown Seattle and instead of driving I opted to commute by bus. For the first time in almost three years (since I started shacking up at Jason's condo in 2008) I took the same metro bus route that took me to MegaBank for almost 10 years.

I was a bit excited to work out the timing, the bus fare and had some hope that I might run into a former bus friend or two. Maybe I just wanted to brag about how good life is, new(ish) fabulous husband, mildly cute baby, great job...my list goes on and on these days. It didn't work out the wayI had planned, two buses were clustered and the bus I was on didn't stop at the park and ride where the majority of "my" bus friends connected. It was a quiet ride into the city and I was able to make a dent in my book.

Getting off the bus downtown is kind of a strange thrill. It's dark, wet and people of all circumstances are everywhere. The business people zip by carrying their needs for the day in all manner of shoulder bags or back packs. The people who spend their days and possibly nights are tucked under bus shelters and doorways with their needs stashed in bags that are closely guarded.

I passed a gaggle of people who were coming up Marion street from the ferry. At Second Avenue they split into two groups moving in separate directions. There were calls of "have a great week end" and "Merry Christmas, if I don't see you!".

While this has been fun I am glad to be able to "commute" to my office across the hall from my bedroom. Getting up at 5 and spending no time with Lucy this morning is not how I would like to spend every day. I'm extraordinarily fortunate to get to play with her for an hour each morning. Before I know it she'll be 13 and won't want to play on the floor with me before school, so I'm soaking up these days while I can.

My meeting is at the Seattle Harbor Club, which is fantastic because if it is super boring I can stare out the windows at the view of Puget Sound. Oh relax, I'll pay attention. One of my fab co-workers is speaking and I have a list of super uncomfortable questions to ask him when we get to the Q&A portion of the program.

1) When you first lost your hair, was it gradual or kind of all at once?
2) I heard you voted for Sarah Palin, can you explain that?
3) I "Zillowed" your house value and I'm wondering if you plan on continuing to pay your mortgage or let the bank have it back?

I'm SURE he will see the humor in it. No?! You don't think so...oh well maybe I'll stick with supportive comments that highlight how truly brilliant he is. BORING.

Well, I've successfully killed the 45 minutes I needed, and am off to start my day as a faux-business person. Too bad I'm looking forward to the event, spending the day further downtown in the shopping district would be fun too.

Spaghetti Head

Standing!

Lucy can now be found standing in her crib, in the port-a-crib (aka the Lucy Containment Device) and at the coffee table.  This new skill is exciting and it is great to have an upright kid vs. the swaddled or sitting kid.  However, at 3:00 am, this skill is rather frustrating because while she can get up, she cannot get back down on her own.  She can "fall" to a sitting position, but that is generally quite traumatic and causes loud squawks of anger.

She's been sleeping really well, but last night was messy in that I had to do a 3am diaper refresh which flies in the face of don't pick up the kid between bedtime and morning.  The books say that getting a middle of the night snuggle is counterproductive to sleeping through the night.  All that is well and good, but a 90 pound wet diaper is not acceptable.  She simply did NOT want to go back to bed after the diaper change and was rather loud about her displeasure.  Jason and I took turns going back in to her room to  lay her down at the pediatrician recommended 10-15 minute intervals.  I will confess that my tolerance for the panicked "I'm sitting and I can't lay down" cry is pretty small and my version of 10 minutes at 3:20 in the morning is more like 6-7 minutes.

Jason asked me what I hear in her cry that tells me it's more than "I'm awake and bored" and rather  "I need help!"  I can't pinpoint it, but I can hear it.  There's a tone in the cry that sounds more alarmed than irritated and manipulative.

The 'funny' thing is that she was a pill at 3:00 am and then at 6:00 she was happy and flirty (see the pictures as evidence.)  You can't harbor any resentment for twilight behavior when you get smiles like that in the morning.

You can't stay mad at this face!

Playtime at the grandparent's house

Playing with grandma's boots

I own this section of the floor!

Post Pediatrician Update

Miss Lucy is 19 pounds 8 ounces (in a heavy diaper that I put at at least 4 ounces). She's 28.5 inches tall, which means that when standing flat footed she's 2 feet tall. Such a big girl.

We are on target nutrition wise, and developmentally.  Her use of words should become more clear in the next 3 months, and hopefully the loud squawking will abate somewhat.

Where we got into a bit of, well, not quite trouble but gentle advisement from the doctor was regarding our sleep habits.  She suggested that we stop the middle of the night feeding right away.  So, after a discussion we decided that Wednesday night was the last night of a bottle between 12:30 and 4:30.

I was nervous about her reaction and it wasn't so great, but it wasn't terrible either.  The first wake up I did a bad thing and gave her the pacifier and she zipped right back to sleep.  The second wake up, I waited the 10 minutes before going into her room and sure enough, she put herself back to sleep (after a period of intense fake crying.)  I know it was fake because of the lack of tears and the lack of longevity.

She woke up again around 4:45 and I waited 10 minutes before going in and she put herself back to sleep.  It made me wonder how many times I've gone to her when it wasn't really needed.  The other thing that made me realize we are doing the right thing is that she didn't wake up at 6 ready to eat her mattress.  She was the same happy kid who was thrilled to eat breakfast at 7am.

We'll see how tonight goes.  We hope that by Monday the idea of a bottle at 12:30 will be long gone.

Then we can work on the pacifier.  If we get it gone by her first birthday we're done with it.  If we still have it at 18 months, chances are she's a kid with a pacifier for ages and ages. We're going to eliminate it from daytime use (except in dire emergencies.)   Of course with an airplane trip in our future we can't say for sure that we're going to opt for baby training over the blissful silence that the pacifier provides.

I guess part of this training thing is parental training too.

Happy 9th Month

I think we might just survive this first year of parenting. Lucy is officially 9 months old as of today.  She is crawling, but really wants to be walking.  She is babbling (mostly nonsense, but we talk back and she seems to like it.)

We have the two cute teeth, the top two teeth should be next but could arrive in up to 3 months from now.

Lucy is happy to be standing and will play with her activity cube for long periods of time.

She is somewhat uninterested in the Christmas tree, it helps that we've given her some great things to keep her busy and when she finds herself at the tree she is greeted with a calm, but firm "that is not for Lucy".

Her sleep patterns of late have been more of a challenge and I'm not sure if it's the cold we've been passing around to each other, or her growing pains or our failure to keep the pacifier out of the crib.  Either way, she has brief wake-ups during the night and is still having a light feeding about 6 hours into the night.  The last week or so she's been waking up at 5:45 or earlier and that is not fun.  We take turns with who gets up in the middle of the night and then who gets the morning, but the morning is pretty easy in that she generally just comes back to bed with us.  I do love that morning time before we start our day, but with Lucy's new mobility it is a far more active time than it use to be. We do get parent specific snuggles which is awesome and she's very vocal about wanting us both around.

Trips to the grocery store or any store where shopping carts are the norm are super fun.  Lucy loves the visuals and the movement.  To her it's a giant roller coaster.  She flirts with all the people and the entire experience is far more social than it ever was as a single person or as a twosome.  Since there's no requirements to become a parent (other than some kind of child procurement) I wonder what it is that makes you think that people with kids are more accessible? I don't mind the interaction with strangers, but it is remarkably different than before.

Lucy has not started the "grabs" or the "I wants", but we will not be immune from such behavior.  There was a sweet little being at Target the other day whose dialog sounded like this:

"Grandma, I want this"
"Grandma, and this is what I need."
"Oh and I want this"
"This too, Grandma"

Grandma looked beat and was not throwing the "needed" items into her cart, but it was clear that shopping with her Angel was getting on her last nerve.  My hope is that we are able to cure Lucy of the "I wants" pretty early on and that she learns the difference between need vs. want and not to pester sweet Grandma for "things."

We do think that dinners out with Lucy are over for a long while.  It is not that Lucy is ill-behaved, it is that she doesn't have command of her voice just yet and any attempt at communication is frustrating and LOUD.  Even at a rock n' roll place like Red Robin, we were uncomfortable with her squawking.  In spite of the fact that we had come prepared with food, activities and anything else she might need it was not a pleasant meal.   This is not a horrific development, we were expecting it and know that eating at home is better for us anyway.

 Today is Lucy's 9 month pediatric appointment and we're looking forward to the check in on her height and weight.  She seems fuller in the face, but I don't think we've got a chunky baby on our hands.  We'll see what Dr. Robin has to say.

My other pediatrician questions are related to food.  We're not supposed to give Lucy milk until 1 year, but the books say that introducing cheese and yogurt is ok.  I want to confirm this before the joy that is yogurt passes her lips.

Lucy has been eating more finger foods lately.  She has nibbled on Cheerios (a staple), rice, well cooked carrots, edemame, fish, bananas and broccoli.  The ladies at school gave her green beans and peas.

I opened a can of black beans to add to my salad today and will give her a few of the sweet beans to try this evening.  Anything she can pick up, and gum that is healthy is a good thing.   My fear of transitioning to solid foods is waning and I am confident we'll do just fine.  Lucy will take the goopy baby food up to a point and then push the spoon away as if she is full, but will nibble on the finger food treats as long as we will dole them out.  My guess is that we're going to have to transition sooner rather than later to more 'real' food vs. goop for nutrition purposes.  Since we're not loading her up with cookies we should be just fine.