Isn't she beautiful?!
The bean + I are taking off for Massachusetts tomorrow morning to see the lovely Katie and do our best to help her new parents.
Yippee!
I'm late posting this, but last weekend we became godparents to our good friends Dan + Diana's baby boy, Noah. He is such a sweet boy; I hope we can do a good job! It's so cool to watch him with Leah, knowing that they'll grow up together.
I'm an auntie!
Katherine Elizabeth Decoulos was born this morning at 3:28am, after a very long + hard labor (which seems to run in the family, unfortunately), under a pink moon. She is 6lb, 7oz and 19.5 inches long. (I may have some of these details wrong, as I'm buzzing with excitement after having just talked to my exhausted sister.)
Emily did an incredible job, and is now resting + nursing in the hospital with her husband Jim + sweet Katie. I get to go visit at the end of next week with Leah while Rob is in Vegas for business, and I CANNOT WAIT!!
Congratulations, Em + Jim!
I can't concentrate on anything else, so here I am. My sister Emily is in labor with my (soon-to-be?) niece, many many miles away in Massachusetts. I keep checking to make sure our phone is actually working. (It is.) I wonder how she's doing, who's with her, how her husband is feeling, if her nurse is nice + her midwife is reassuring and attentive. I think back to my birth experience, almost 11 months ago, and hope that hers is much better (shorter). But most of all, I hope that my sister has as happy a result as I did.
That "result" had her first playground swing ride this afternoon. We walked, with a new neighbor and her 2-year-old daughter (transported in a red wagon), to a nearby park/playground. Leah was delighted with her ride on the swing, alternately watching the kid next to her and laughing at me.
It is so quiet out here during the day. I thought that alone would drive me batty, but it's actually a nice change from all the crazy truck drivers that drive past our old apartment building, shaking the building's foundation as they barrel down the street. Instead there is the occasional SUV-ish automobile pulling in or out of a neighbor's driveway as they come + go during a typical suburban day. There are also birds (not just pigeons!) chirping - very bucolic.
No, I do not hate the suburbs. And yes, Rob was in Kentucky. I'll take a picture of Leah 's hair sprouts later. I am presently too lazy to go up the stairs + try to retrieve the camera. This multi-level house thing is still too new to me!
The house is at an acceptable state of unpacked-ness. There are still about a dozen boxes to go through, in addition to some bags full of clothes that need to be introduced to closets or dresser drawers + furniture + odds and ends in the garage to move into the house, but it's starting to feel more manageable. Babyproofing definitely helps.
In honor of April Fool's Day, here are 2 things that are true + 1 that is not:
1) Rob is in Kentucky.
2) I don't hate the suburbs.
3) Leah still isn't growing much hair.
More later, as I find my camera + we do some more unpacking.
Leah looks cute while she packs. We have bugged-out eyes + funny hair + last night's takeout on our clothes.
Click to see Video
Apparently crawling wasn't good enough. I'm afraid to see what tomorrow will bring! (Sorry about the questionable content on the video page...)By the way, if we're not calling or emailing you back, we apologize + will get back to you as soon as we can -- we're up to our eyeballs in frenzied packing for our move on Sunday!
It's official - Leah is now a crawler! She has also been heard saying "Mama" (in addition to her regular Da-da-da-da-da).
I'm doing okay. I'm getting help, and people have been very very supportive, so I'm thankful for that.
On the house front, the floors were finished last week. Now the contractor is working on ceilings, wallpaper stripping, painting, etc. He probably won't be done by Sunday, but we're moving in anyway. And now, I must go work on taxes...
On Saturday morning Leah saw her new (closer to the house) pediatrician, who is wonderful. She is now 21 lbs, 6 oz (80th percentile) and 28.5 inches tall (75th percentile). I could have sworn that she's heavier than that, but perhaps she has a special trick of making herself heavier in my arms.
Things she's doing now:
- pulling herself up on our coffee table (usually to chew on it)
- playing with her new Lego house; dumping all the pieces out, putting them to her mouth + yelling into them, tossing them about
- learning how to use a recent eBay score: her Learning Table
She spends more + more time on the floor, getting increasingly mobile (though not crawling yet) + sometimes standing unsupported (when she's not paying attention). She's a very happy+ good-natured baby (kid?).
In other news, I've been hit with the PPD stick. Not fun, especially while trying to pack and move and work and do taxes and take care of a baby. Blecch.
Without much fanfare, Leah's first tooth (middle, bottom) popped through sometime Friday during the night. It's still hugging her gum, so not visible enough to show up in a picture, but we sure can feel it!
Each time we hit the road to visit relatives, Leah seems to come home with a whole new set of skills, and this weekend was no different. My sister's shower was a great, jovial affair and especially entertaining for Leah. She honed her growing social skills as she smiled + waved + exclaimed along with all the other (mostly) women. She loved spending time with her grandparents + aunties + uncles, and even put her little hands on her cousin-to-be. It took a few days for her to adjust to being back at home without all the extra stimulation, but luckily her beloved Uncle Dave came back with us for a few days to check out NYC, which eased the transition.
Now she's making up for the "lack" of attention by concentrating on other things. She can now to pull herself to standing in her crib + steal things hanging on the back of the door nearby, wave to people + play peekaboo without prompting, and eat beans at our favorite Mexican restaurant. She's just all-around more present + active + strong, enjoying life. I am soaking up as much of it as I can.
We are off again to Massachusetts - taking advantage of the long holiday weekend to celebrate (via the time-honored tradition of a baby shower) the impending (April 10th, or thereabouts) birth of my sister + her husband's baby!
Hopefully Leah will enjoy the festivities. I know I can't wait.
Plotting...
and success!
Though it's hard to tell in the picture (for everyone except her daddy), Leah is great at moving around the center channel loudspeaker - among other things.
Right now she's playing in her crib after a visit out to our almost-house to meet with another flooring contractor. The girl loves getting out + about, and as a result is very happily "talking" and laughing + chirping while she rolls + kinda crawls + explores the space. She seems to have come through another growth/learning spurt and is very content, for the moment, to be herself.
She sat up on her own for the first time 2 nights ago. Eeek!
Now that we've told our landlord, I feel free to finally mention that we are buying a house in the suburbs. Well, not the whole-hog suburbs, as Newark is in our back yard, but we won't be fulfilling our original plan to stay in Jersey City, as much as we've come to love it during our six years here. We tried hard to stay city-folk, but the bank account wasn't having any of it. So in March we will become homeowners in the lovely town (village?) of South Orange, NJ - not too far away from friends or work or church.
Leah will have a little back yard to dig around in, Rob will have a place to spread out all his gear, Amelia will be able to hunt all kinds of new animals through the windows, and we'll finally have a guest room that isn't filled with blinking electronics + a futon.
I suppose it will all be worth it, and everyone says it's the right thing to do, but I still have my doubts. Homeownership in the Jersey suburbs is far scarier to me than having a baby. But since I've never done it, I'm trying to keep an open mind. I guess I'll find out whether it really is more frightening soon enough...
Edited 1/27/08: It was, and is.
Yes, it's another baby carrier! (I seem to have an addiction. Thank God for eBay.) We finally mastered Leah's new wrap this morning. It's good for both sleeping...
and hanging out.
I love it because it helps me keep my 20-pound darling close + happy while I get a little work done. Granted, it's not nearly the amount of work I anticipated being able to do with a baby, but it's something. And if I can keep the both of us content for a few consecutive hours, I consider that a job well-done.
The girl moves too quickly these days for me to get pictures of her on a regular basis. So I'll quit holding out for a good pic, and update anyway.
Things she's been doing: scooting + rolling around on the floor, and rocking front to back on her hands + knees. When she breaks free of the carpet, she does a moonwalk (mooncrawl?) on the wood floor. Her voice is getting deeper, and she chirps when she's happy. She loves to grab my hair + chew on it, and is becoming an expert surprise nose-picker.
The cat is becoming an obsession for her, and prompts many giggles when Leah's dangled over the furry beast. She (the baby) also loves being held upside down, being tickled, and flipping herself over on the changing table. She can hold herself in a sitting position for a while + hold onto the coffee table while standing. When she's excited, she flaps her arms and squeals. Yesterday she had a screaming contest with another child on the subway. She did not win, I am pleased to report.
Before the screaming contest yesterday, she had the 2nd part of her flu shot in the city, and weighed in at 19 lbs, 15 oz! No wonder my arms have been hurting so much.
I hear lots of disparaging lawyer remarks, working in a law office. This, however, is pretty redeeming.
I wasn't going to do this because I thought it was "too political" and someone might be offended. But then I realized that now I'm a mother, almost everything is political, and I can't worry too much about offending people. I mean, some people are offended by things like wearing pink + red together. Which is silly, but besides the point.
So I'm lending my little blog to the cause because I believe that having reproductive freedom is one of the most critical freedoms a woman can have. Today is the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade - yay! Which means my generation hasn't had to worry too much about our reproductive rights. However, more + more of those rights are being taken away in various sneaky and slimy ways. I am determined not to let those rights be stolen or diminished; I do not want my daughter's freedoms taken away before she even knows what they are.
If Leah decides to have a child, it should be a joyous event for her, not obligation or punishment. So I will work to make sure our government supports women in all ways, not just the ones that make hypocritical politicians look good to their $campaign $contributors.
It's like Woodstock, just without the mud. And the fun. And the happy drugs.Ha ha.
I seem to be suffering from a Brain Cloud.
Or it could just be January, mixed with an extremely active no-sleep baby. Rob gifted me with a wonderful single-serving coffeee brewer for Christmas, which enables me to make a quick cup of coffee anytime I feel I need one. It's fabulous, but I think it's upping my tolerance for the drug, leading to my fuzzy brain condition. I think I feel as out-of-it as I was when the bean was born, though I really can't recall.
Here at work, the only thing on which I can concentrate is how much I'd love to crawl under my desk for a good nap. I bet Leah's taking some good naps today for Xenia, since she didn't have any yesterday. Not ANY!
I keep meaning to post pictures from our post-holiday celebrations with Rob's parents, but that damn BC ain't allowing it. In the meantime, feast your eyes on Leah, feasting on her now-favorite food: avocado!
Lest you fear that she only eats the green slimy stuff, let me say that she also greatly enjoys baby oatmeal (which is nothing like real oatmeal, but more like cardboard sprinkles), as well as pureed apples.
Leah's temporarily being distracted by her activity center! There is much rejoicing in the house. I will use my precious 10 seconds to update. Leah, now 7 months + 3 days is hosting a Teething Fest. It's like a hardcore summer concert, but without the good food + music... just the sunshine headache and, eventually, hangover. And only 3 of us bought tickets. But she's also growing hair + becoming increasingly mobile + social, so that's cool.
Massachusetts (ignoring Leah's sleep issues) was a great success. Leah was showered with gifts and attention, and her parents had fun passing her around to different people in order to accomplish things like making (and drinking!) coffee. Leah showed off her new skill of drinking water from a cup, and gobbled up some Christmas mashed potato. It was really fantastic to spend the week with my family, and the time seemed all-too-short when it came time to depart. Now that we're back, Leah definitely seeems to miss her grandparents, uncles, and aunts (and possibly even her bump of a cousin). We'll be celebrating Christmas with Rob's parents (and picking up our much-ignored cat) this Thursday, so she'll be able to get another social fix.
Here's the girl yesterday, "reading" her crib mirror and under a chair in our hallway after having scooted herself backwards underneath it.
That is all I have to say.
Happy belated Christmas! We are visiting my side of the family in Massachusetts during a rare winter heat wave (temps have been in the 40s!). It's been great so far, and because I've wanted to spend every spare minute with them (and trying to get some sleep), there has been little updating.
So I'll leave you with this picture of Leah in one of her many holiday outfits (which her father also wore in olden days), and post more later!
Now that the sick has mostly left the building, Leah tried some new solid food today - avocado.She really wanted to eat it, and eagerly opened her mouth each time a mushy green spoonful approached her mouth. And every time she had a taste, she screwed up her face in abject disgust. But it didn't stop her for asking for more.Very strange, but that's our monkey...
I mean, baby!
The digital camera video of Leah's first cereal experience is up, at the end of the entry here. Bear in mind that it is not easy to feed + film at the same time!
Everyone needs one of these! Although obviously a sign that the world (no, wait - the U.S.) is going crazy, I think I would have been overjoyed to know this existed when I was a child.
But what exactly would you do with it? Would it be a soothing zen-fountain of chocolate? A pseudo-fondue pot? Something to fatten up the family dog or cat? Who knows.
In other news, Leah's fever has broken and she seems to be feeling much better, after a long and sleepless night. Though I must say it's been quite an adventure trying to get medicine into her. Perhaps I should hide it in a chocolate fountain and let her go to town.
Leah had her 6-month checkup scheduled today, which was handy because she woke this morning (can you say that someone woke up if they never really went to sleep?) acting sick - no big smiles, a bit listless, and cranky. So we packed up and headed into the city this afternoon, where we learned that she has an ear infection. In both ears, the poor thing. She screamed + cried while the doctor examined her and puked up the baby Tylenol he gave her - into my hand. (Does this mean I'm a real mother now?)
Stats from the appointment (at which she was declared very healthy, otherwise):
head circumference = 17 inches (50th - 75th percentile)
height = 27.5 inches (75th - 90th percentile)
weight = 17.5 lbs (75th - 90th percentile)
We nixed the dinner + concert we were going to tonight, and I'll be staying home from work tomorrow. But I don't care. I just want her to get better.
"Real food" update: This evening she tried her first taste of banana. And made another lemon face. I can't tell if she likes bananas better than rice cereal, but I think she'd prefer to stick to what's she regularly eats at the Mama Diner. We'll see what the doc says tomorrow at her 6-month checkup.
Late yesterday afternoon we bundled up the bean in Rob's first winter bunting, and took her for a walk to the Hamilton Park gazebo, where the park association had invited Santa to visit. We don't know what she asked for, but she seems to think she'll get it, judging by the look on her face.
Then we strolled back home, through the slush of the season's first snow and past glittering Christmas lights and Christmas tree stands. Leah was very quiet and extremely attentive in her stroller, her cheeks and nose pinking up as we made our way through the neighborhood. Yay for Christmas time!
Here are some overdue pics from our trip north to see my new niece + Leah's cousin! We had a great time, even though Rob had to go west to Vegas for work.
