Ninja Baby

I might have mentioned this before but I believe Julia has the potential to become a spy or maybe a ninja.

The way bedtime works is Tara feeds Julia and Julia goes to sleep. After Tara pumps the last time of the night she goes to bed and at some point after that I go to bed. When I go upstairs I brush my teeth, check on Julia and go to bed, in that order. For quite awhile Julia would wake (loudly - not necessarily crying but obviously awake) at the same time I headed up. I would change her diaper and Tara would feed her. Recently Julia has slept through some nights so I usually look in on her but its dark so I have to use a flashlight. Last night I came out of the shower and it was absolutely quiet but when I got over to the crib Julia was standing there waiting.

Standing in the dark, not making a peep.

If I had not gone over to the crib I would not have know she was up. She would have said something - she's done that before - but you would think a hungry baby, or at least one who is awake in the middle of the night would at least grunt and groan a little when a parent walks past their bed. Not Julia, she was stone silent.

So, if she doesn't become an engineer she might become a ninja.

Babblish and Other Great Things a 10-11 month old Does!

Babblish - combination of the words babbling and English (I'm so clever!)

It sounds like Chinese (Cantonese to be more specific) and we wish someone could translate. It all sounds so interesting. We encourage her with "Yeah" and "Really" and "How interesting" though we have NO idea what she is saying! : )

the constant laughing - us and Julia - it's a circle of giggles!
Julia is one happy baby!

clapping her hands - she's got it down now

patting our backs or shoulders or arm - very cute and comforting

Walking Fun!

Frankenstein Walks
Originally uploaded by bmitd67

Tara captured this great display of the Zombie/Frankenstein walk - ADORABLE! An amused and proud Tara can be heard in the background.

Tara's sidebar: Julia is wearing a romper my college friend, Christine's daughter, Amelia, gave us. It looks like a dress because we should have put her in it many weeks ago! Julia doesn't weigh much, but she's long and lean as we call her. Most of her tops are like the 3/4 length look and her pants look like capris.

I am going to a consignment sale this weekend - just in time for some new threads! : )

P.S. We have some child-proofing to do - procrastinate much!

Modern Family

The best NEW show ever!

You know I'm addicted to TV... therefore I know good TV.
"Modern Family" is a combination of "The Office" and "Arrested Development". That alone should make you watch it because those are 2 funny shows.

Some of my other favorite new TV shows are "The Good Wife" and "Glee." Even Jai likes Glee and he hates musicals so you know that says a lot. We LOVE Glee!

Another great show is "Mad Men" (just finished 3rd season). Great writing, art direction, costumes, acting of course. Catch seasons 1-2 on DVD if you don't watch it.

Favorite line from last week's "The Office" -
Kevin: "he lives on Sesame Street, dumb ass!"

If you don't watch TV, you need to watch these 4 shows plus "The Office" of course.

ENJOY! Happy TV watching!

Pumping Countdown

I have less than a month left!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOO HOO!!!

2 full weeks of work, then 2 days of Thanksgiving Break week, then 2 days of Julia's birthday week.

I cannot wait to retire that pump!

Ironically the rental pump is due to be returned on December 9. So appropriate!!
The home pump is getting put away, too!
: )

Grateful Journal

I named this post many months ago, but didn't write any comments. It was a thought I didn't want to forget... that is what I resort to now.

During my P.P.D. period, one of the ideas was to write daily in a grateful journal. I started in March; it was wonderfully therapeutic to identify good elements in my day. It helped me make the big & overwhelming seem manageable and positive. Occasionally I read past entries and one common theme is how frequently I mention Jai.

Julia too of course!

Jai is the best husband/partner and friend. He truly has been a rock, especially the past few months. He doesn't get any more rest than me. Jai continues to cook our meals, clean, grocery shop, care for Julia while I'm at work. Sometimes it seems like a lot more compared to me working and feeding Julia. Yet it takes a lot of energy to produce milk & feed/pump for Julia.

That is how we organize our family/life responsibilities right now.

I am grateful for many wonderful things in my life!

The Lactivist

Lactation Activist - pretty clever.

That's me. It has been my focus for the past 11 months! I'm slightly obsessed I know. I laughed when I read the word "lactivist" on the back of a book, Sippy Cups are not for Chardonnay. It's a perfect term to describe my slightly militant stance on BFing. It's actually a pretty funny book about new motherhood until you realize the author is an alcoholic. The title is a hint obviously!

Anyway, I find that I talk about breastfeeding A LOT. For example, we were at dinner with friends a couple of months ago. Jai put his hand on my leg as I kind of ranted about something related to BFing. However, it is really important ... and here I go again!

That is one of the reasons I enjoy my monthly La Leche League meeting and attend faithfully. It is a supportive environment with women (and their children) committed to BFing. Maybe it makes me feel superior, but mainly I'm proud of my accomplishment. Growing a baby is an amazing feat and feeding a baby is also an incredible ability. I also like to support other women who want to BF their child. Don't get me wrong - I'll be glad to stop this part of my relationship with Julia. I'm looking forward to not having something growing inside of me or attached to me in that way. I need some space! I'm looking forward to doing other activities with Julia - playing with balls and reading to her for example.

I had a funny experience last weekend with a newer mom (11 week old baby). She mentioned how hard BFing is and how it can push you to the edge and you cannot understand if you've never experienced it. I said "yeah, I know it's difficult." It was a weird situation and chalked it up to her new mom hormones, but I wish I had said "I know you've been feeding your baby for 11 weeks and it is hard, but I've been doing it for 11 months."

I know the EDGE. Been there - done that!
: )

My friend got engaged!

I know this blog is about our family, but friends are family, too. This is one of my best friends from college, Pauline, my tennis camp buddy. We also were DJs together (parties & campus radio station) at college & we each visited the other when we lived in Asia in 1994 (me in Thailand, P in Hong Kong).

She got engaged last weekend to her boyfriend, Andy.

YEAH! I am so happy for her. She deserves the most happiness!

I love an occasion to get together with my Wellesley friends, their partners and children. There are so many of us now. I also look forward to seeing Pauline's parents and sister and probably some of my other friends' parents. 2010 is going to be a busy year since we all turn 40 too. We have a plan to celebrate that event together - not sure how, we're still brainstorming, hopefully a spa somewhere, WITHOUT children or spouses. : )

Congratulations, Pauline and Andy!

P.S. They're moving to Memphis in August 2010!!!

Wow! What a week or two!

I have never been so tired in my life.

As you all saw, I welcomed Aunt Susie back home with footsteps. I'd been working at it for awhile and I thought that was the perfect time to show it off. And you know what? That was just the beginning of a world wind couple of weeks that lead up to a momentous monthiversary, my 11th month, my last monthiversary before we start celebrating my birthday!!!!!! YEEAAAHHH, MEEEE!

So what else? Well, Grandma Bonnie married Poppy (Grandpa Buddy) on Halloween. It was so much fun, we had to go to back and forth to a dorm room on Scarritt's campus. I was an honored guest so Mom and I were escorted into the big Whitman Chapel. It's a lot like "the chapel" (All Saints) at Sewanee, which I visited a couple of weeks ago. There aren't photos of my first Halloween because Dad's hard drive crashed before he could upload them to Flickr. Hopefully somebody else has some to post, I looked cute. I got to meet all sorts of people but it was weird because they didn't look like normal people, they were all different colors and wearing funny clothes and hats and wings! We danced in a big circle outside and I got to eat at the big people table.

Speaking of food I am really exploring big people food. We went to an Indian restaurant the night before the wedding and I ate some rice and some Spinach Paneer. I didn't think much about it but most of the adults were surprised that I was eating the spicy spinach. Dad and I didn't think it was so spicy. I eat a lot of oat bran and soy yogurt but recently dad introduced me to sweet potato and butternut squash (I like orange food - carrots are pretty good too) but you know what I really, REALLY love? Soy Milk. Yup, like my Mom and my cousin, LJ, I love me some soy milk. I sit there with my sippy cup and guzzle it down. I tried drinking it standing up once but I feel and it didn't feel so good when my butt hit the ground and I had a mouthful of milk.

So everybody knows I'm walking but you know what I really like to do and I'm not sure why? I like to carry stuff while I walk. If I'm in my room I love to carry my bunny rabbit and maybe a book or some blocks. When I'm downstairs its all about the yogurt containers. If those things are within eyesight I will waddle over and do my best to grab them. Then I must pull every magazine or book (especially really big ones) off the shelf. Its really fun.

Well, now I've caught you up to where I am at this 11th month celebration.

I think I'll start talking in big people English soon.

The Frankenstein Walk

The past few weeks/months have been so much fun, watching Julia move around her surroundings, first her crib and Pack-N-Play, holding onto the sides and getting her "sea legs" and becoming more steady.

Soon Julia started letting go more often and shifting from side to side. Then she begin to cruise on the ground, especially liking to walk around the coffee table in the living room ... easy to hold onto whenever she needed.

Then 2 weeks ago she took her first steps and off she went! At first she'd walk a few steps and then drop down to crawl - seemed faster I guess. Now she walks more before going to the crawl. Julia gains more confidence in her independent skills each day. She still walks kind of stilted - reminds us of Frankenstein.

Also she LOVES to hold items in her hand(s) while moving upright or crawling. In the video of her "first" walking she has a "play bowl" in her hand . Usually it is the yogurt containers or lamb blanket or rattle bunny rabbit. Anything she can grab and then WALK!

It's adorable - like everything Julia does.

Modified Still Insane Daily Schedule

As with everything with a baby, once I get used to a routine, then the baby changes it! : ) That is hard for me, I like consistency, not a fan of change; however, that is my life now.

Actually I started this post in Sept. and finished it in Nov.
Obviously, my life ran away from me! Work will be busy always and when I get home, the same applies. I want to spend time with Julia & Jai, too. She's lots of fun now - really always! Once she goes to bed, then I get ready for the next day.

Now that Julia eats food, we eat dinner together. Occasionally she stares at our food. We speculate that she wonders when she'll get to eat salad and ground turkey. Julia loves her food - banana is still her favorite & soy yogurt. Now she adores oats! I believe oats are my saving grace - she started sleeping 10-11 hours at night recently. She goes to sleep at 7p & wakes around 6:30am. It's quite lovely!

Again some of this is temporary. Pumping at work ends soon. December 8 is the ONE year end zone - my ultimate goal! If Julia wants to continue to breastfeed, we'll do it when I'm home - hopefully 1-2 times a day.

Halloween

Julia's first Halloween was also the occasion of her grandmother's wedding. It was a great celebration. We saw lots of family and friends.

Julia planned to be a lady bug but the costume was too small - see funny photos of her in it last month. We had a gown someone gave us with the words "Heaven Sent" on the front and little wings on the back... therefore Julia was an angel. Appropriate I know. : )

Since October weather is unpredictable, we paired it with some white leggings with pink Mary Jane "shoes" - that way people know she is a girl.

We put her in the whole range of colors, including blue, and I guess that is why we get comments often about "how old is your son?" and "he is so cute." Now we try to put her in at least one pink item - hat, hoodie, socks, pants - something! It's become a joke now between us about her gender.

One of my students recently saw a picture in my office and asked if this was my son?!?!? When I mentioned the frequency of this misconception, he said it's because her hair is short.

She's a baby - most babies are bald! : )