Not yet... but soon!
I've gotten several requests for ideas about first birthday presents for Amelia. She has been fairly tight lipped about revealing what she wants, so I guess I will have to speak for her this year. I'll start by saying that you don't have to get her anything!-- but I know some of you will. So the second thing I'll say is that some of her favorite things are things I never would have gotten for her. If you have your own ideas about what a one-year-old might want, I am sure they are great. A few of my ideas are below:
1. The ability to sleep through the night--this is not a joke. This is more for me than for Amelia but I will take prayers, charms, magic tricks, advice, stories about what worked for you, ANYTHING. Ironically, I have been too tired to write about Amelia's sleep. I will try to do it next--if her nap lasts long enough. Ha.
2. Come visit Amelia in Denver. She loves company more than gifts.
3. It occurred to me recently than Amelia needed shoes. She is pulling up to stand a lot and beginning to cruise. A closer look at the sand she so loves in the park reveals a variety of sharpish things, like sticks and even the occasional piece of glass. So today we had our first mommy-daughter shopping trip. I bought her a pair of Robeez. They are extremely cute. She is now a size 5. But according to the very knowledgeable shoe store lady, she will outgrow these shoes in about three months and also need shoes with a tougher sole for when she walks. So if you are into baby shoe shopping...
4. We've been thinking ahead to winter gear. A has a lot of summer clothes but relatively few long sleeve shirts and pants. Her size is currently around 12-18 months. Dean pointed out the other day that Amelia will have outgrown her old winter coats. Like a certain trio of kittens, she has no mittens. And she has one pair of these baby legwarmers that I love. Another pair might be nice. (Incidentally, the baby modeling the purple polka dot legwarmers (the one on the potty) is my friend's baby Faith!) Secondhand clothes--and shoes--and anything else--are great!
5. Toy wise, Amelia currently loves colorful board books and flash cards. Study or plastic-coated paper is best because she loves to chew on the books and cards as much as she likes to look at them. Maybe that will pass soon?
Other than that, I don't know. I am not sure what Dean and I will get her either. I think we are going to start a college fund for her... but it might be fun to get her a new toy also. I'd actually love suggestions from anyone with an older baby. What toys did your baby love around age one?
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Camping with A, Part Two: The Campsite
We lived in a tent with Amelia for two days.
Here's the site before the tent was set up.
Amelia loved playing in the tent and throwing herself around on the air mattress.
As one would expect, her sleep in the tent was not great. She actually did pretty well the first night, if you don't count being woken up by a barking dog an hour after she fell asleep. The second night, she cried a lot and loudly, and so we let her sleep in the air mattress with us. Unfortunately the air mattress had a slow leak, so we slept--to the extent that we slept--in a sort of U with baby A in the trough.
We were glad to see the mornings come. But it was chilly in the mornings, so Amelia wore her 80's legwarmers.
We had a great view.
Overall, we enjoyed camping. Dean and I are more used to backpacking than car camping so we were excited to have loads of things we couldn't have taken on a backpacking trip, like the aforementioned pillows and a bottle of wine. But we still made a long list of even more stuff we would take if we went again, like Amelia's high chair (she spent mealtimes crawling over her food in search of rocks to put in her mouth) and perhaps a soundproof box for the Pack and Play (haha).
Here's the site before the tent was set up.
Amelia loved playing in the tent and throwing herself around on the air mattress.
As one would expect, her sleep in the tent was not great. She actually did pretty well the first night, if you don't count being woken up by a barking dog an hour after she fell asleep. The second night, she cried a lot and loudly, and so we let her sleep in the air mattress with us. Unfortunately the air mattress had a slow leak, so we slept--to the extent that we slept--in a sort of U with baby A in the trough.
We were glad to see the mornings come. But it was chilly in the mornings, so Amelia wore her 80's legwarmers.
We had a great view.
Overall, we enjoyed camping. Dean and I are more used to backpacking than car camping so we were excited to have loads of things we couldn't have taken on a backpacking trip, like the aforementioned pillows and a bottle of wine. But we still made a long list of even more stuff we would take if we went again, like Amelia's high chair (she spent mealtimes crawling over her food in search of rocks to put in her mouth) and perhaps a soundproof box for the Pack and Play (haha).
Camping With A, Part One: Windsor Lake
So to continue the story of our busy August, after Liz and Oliver left, we packed up for our first camping trip with Baby A. Armed with a car full of essential gear, including an air mattress, the Pack and Play, a sleep sack, and our own wonderful pillows, we set off for Whitestar Campgound, a few miles outside of Leadville, CO.
On the way to the campground, we took what was described in a certain guidebook (and by a certain other person in this family) to be "short," "easy," and "beautiful" hike to a lake.
Beautiful: yes.
Short: I'll concede to short. It was about a mile.
Easy: Um, no. The mile was straight uphill. Up, up and away.
So on the way up this mile, I began to get grouchy, very very grouchy. I generally get at least somewhat grouchy at some point during most hikes, around the same time I run out of breath. But I also usually get over the grouchiness very quickly, either by slowing down, taking a break, or getting Dean to encourage me. He is a pro at making it sound like we really are almost there. But this time, I think I was discouraged by the fact that this "easy" hike was so brutal. Finally I realized that Dean was very out of breath too. The guide book's author, quite simply, is a dirty liar.
To be fair, it really was a short hike. And I suspect that if I did the same hike today I wouldn't think it was quite as hard, because I am more used to climbing up Colorado's various slopes. But at the time it was really hard. Note to guide book authors: short and easy are not the same thing. I will take a long, flattish hike over a short, steep one any day. Not that I am likely to find a long, flat hike anywhere around here. Unless I can convince Dean that we need to hike the eastern plains...
Anyway, it also really was a beautiful hike. There were tons of wildflowers.
And toadstools.
And this cave.
And the lake was very beautiful. The water in these Rocky Mountain lakes is very clear.
When we got to the lake, Amelia and I had a little picnic while Dean climbed to the top of the ridge above the lake, so he could see over the Continental Divide. Then we went down, down, down, and made our merry way to the campground.
On the way to the campground, we took what was described in a certain guidebook (and by a certain other person in this family) to be "short," "easy," and "beautiful" hike to a lake.
Beautiful: yes.
Short: I'll concede to short. It was about a mile.
Easy: Um, no. The mile was straight uphill. Up, up and away.
So on the way up this mile, I began to get grouchy, very very grouchy. I generally get at least somewhat grouchy at some point during most hikes, around the same time I run out of breath. But I also usually get over the grouchiness very quickly, either by slowing down, taking a break, or getting Dean to encourage me. He is a pro at making it sound like we really are almost there. But this time, I think I was discouraged by the fact that this "easy" hike was so brutal. Finally I realized that Dean was very out of breath too. The guide book's author, quite simply, is a dirty liar.
To be fair, it really was a short hike. And I suspect that if I did the same hike today I wouldn't think it was quite as hard, because I am more used to climbing up Colorado's various slopes. But at the time it was really hard. Note to guide book authors: short and easy are not the same thing. I will take a long, flattish hike over a short, steep one any day. Not that I am likely to find a long, flat hike anywhere around here. Unless I can convince Dean that we need to hike the eastern plains...
Anyway, it also really was a beautiful hike. There were tons of wildflowers.
And toadstools.
And this cave.
And the lake was very beautiful. The water in these Rocky Mountain lakes is very clear.
When we got to the lake, Amelia and I had a little picnic while Dean climbed to the top of the ridge above the lake, so he could see over the Continental Divide. Then we went down, down, down, and made our merry way to the campground.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Blog Meets Blog
As you will recall, we kicked off our month of summer fun with a visit from my friend Liz and her son Oliver. Liz wrote about the visit much more promptly than I did (am doing), but rest assured it was a great week.
Last weekend I had some rare free time in our cabin in Estes Park (more on that soon), and I spent some of it catching up on my reading my blog list. I was really touched to read the nice things Liz had to say about her visit here and about our friendship.
I have probably written about this before but Liz and I met at Governor's School East in 1996. We spent 6 weeks becoming lifetime friends. I LOVED everything about GSE, especially getting to know Liz, and when it came time to go home that summer, I was heartbroken--except I wasn't that sad to leave Liz. I knew--I just knew--that we would always be friends.
As things worked out, we were--but also sort of weren't. We thought we might be college roommates, but then went to different universities. After college, we went our separate ways and only rarely wrote each other very short emails. But when somehow--I don't quite remember how--I started reading Liz's blog. Then I started my own blog. Then Liz and I shared some pieces of writing through email, and then she had a baby. Then I had a baby--and we were in touch constantly.
I wouldn't call Liz one of my "mommy friends"-- those are the friends you have just because you are a mom, people you wouldn't really have much to say to if you weren't both sitting on blankets in the park, trying to prevent your babies from eating too much grass. Liz is my friend because she is kind, funny, and super smart, because she is just one of those people, rare in my life at least, that I liked immediately and liked more the more I got to know her. But she has been one of my most important friends who is also a mom. Oliver was born a year and a month before Amelia, and not only has Liz patiently dispensed advice regarding breast pumps, diapers, baby monitors, and God knows what else, watching the adventures of Liz and little G has also, more importantly, given me a model of what life as a mother can look like. Liz is a mom but also a teacher and a writer , a wife, a sister and a daughter, a blogger and a friend to others and someone who takes time for herself--not to mention a pregnant person. And now she is also a PhD student. She wrote that she is nervous about this new venture, understandably so, but if anyone can do it, it's you, Liz! I have no doubts. You will make a truly outstanding professor of education.
Anyway, so Liz and Oliver came to visit! We had a great time, especially considering that due to A and G's different ages and nap schedules, one of them was sleeping for a great part of each day. We managed trips to both the zoo and to Book Babies, and had daily picnics in the park. Liz was very patient with some of Amelia's more difficult nap episodes and my fear of driving on Denver's Interstate 25, which made our travels from and to the airport take longer than they really should have. (I have since conquered that fear--yea me! I am a grownup who can drive on the busiest stretch of interstate in Colorado!--but at the time I insisted on taking the long way.) It was a real treat to have so much time to catch up with Liz and to really meet Oliver, who I have read about extensively but spent little actual time with. He is a fabulous kid. He is calm, happy, loving--and he can put away an impressive number of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!
Speaking of the airport, I cried when we dropped them off. Thanks for visiting, Liz. I wish you lived next door, but I know we will be friends wherever we are.
P.S.! The fish oil smell is all gone. :)
11 Months
Amelia was 11 months old on Sunday, September 5!
It's a little hard to believe she will be one year old in less than a month. Although we have been through plenty of days that seemed to last forever, I can see why parents say time passes so quickly.
Here is Amelia last year at this time.
Whew.
We wrapped up our month of visitor and travel this weekend with a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. It has been a great month, busy but very fun. We have really enjoyed having so much company, showing off our new house and new city. Now, I have a lot of catching up to do on the blog and with writing in general. There are 140 messages in my email inbox, something that almost never happens. I like to keep up. And I started and then abandoned a new poetry blog, and I have some ideas for poems. So, I am making September a writing month. Stay tuned.
It's a little hard to believe she will be one year old in less than a month. Although we have been through plenty of days that seemed to last forever, I can see why parents say time passes so quickly.
Here is Amelia last year at this time.
Whew.
We wrapped up our month of visitor and travel this weekend with a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. It has been a great month, busy but very fun. We have really enjoyed having so much company, showing off our new house and new city. Now, I have a lot of catching up to do on the blog and with writing in general. There are 140 messages in my email inbox, something that almost never happens. I like to keep up. And I started and then abandoned a new poetry blog, and I have some ideas for poems. So, I am making September a writing month. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Eat, Play, Sleep
It's been awhile since I have recorded Amelia's current habits and such and I thought eat, play and sleep would be good organizing topics.
Let's start with the most fun, play:
as you might have noticed from the recent videos, Amelia is a very fun girl. She started crawling at about 9 and a half months and has been on the move ever since. She quickly progressed to pulling up to stand on couches, chairs, benches, and anything else she can reach, including, this week, the bottom of the refrigerator. She likes to take the magnets off of it. She can now stand on both legs without holding onto anything with her hands for several seconds at a time, and has even started to "cruise," or move short distances between items she can hold on to.
Also around the end of 9 months, Amelia discovered books. We were reading this book I got from the library called "Baby Loves Peekaboo." It has flaps that open to reveal hidden cats, bears, toys and babies. The pictures are photographs, not drawings, and A loves to look at "real" babies. So we were reading and all of a sudden she seemed to notice that the could open the flap and see the babies. She was delighted. After that we introduced story time into the bedtime routine--more on that below.
Some of A's other favorite activities are rolling around on a stack of three comforters and pillows on the living room floor, turning the pages of various board books, taking all of the credit and other cards out of my wallet, tackling and biting large stuffed animals, and standing at her toy box, removing toys one at a time. Oh, and throwing things! She loves to throw and roll balls, but also enjoys throwing other toys--and sometimes, while she is eating, she throws spoons, forks, and small pieces of food. We take it as a sign that she is no longer hungry.
Speaking of eating:
Just this week, I FINALLY got Amelia to eat babyfood. As we recall, she has loved solids for some time, and by that I mean actual solids: only food she can pick up herself. She loves cheese, rice, beans, Cheerios, toast, bread, tortillas, tofu, black bean burgers, little bits of spinach, these odd chalky puffs of freeze dried yogurt they now make for babies, and any type of meat she has tried. But she generally avoids being spoon fed with all of her will and might. It may seem easy to put a spoon into a baby's mouth but unless the baby wants the spoon there, it is not. She has a few exceptions to spoonfeeding, such as peaches, instant oatmeal, and ice cream (which she has only had 2 or 3 times), but none of that helps me get more vegetables into her little body--it's hard for her to eat vegetables because generally if they are soft enough for her to chew, they are also too wet and slippery for her to keep hold of. She can pick up peas, but does so only so that she can throw them on the floor. So I have been trying various ways to sneak in the veggies: spreading a thin layer of pureed green beans onto bread, attempting to pass off sauteed yellow pepper as peaches, etc. None of this has really worked. Then I saw this new kind of babyfood that comes in little plastic pouches, like Capri Sun. It's fancy sparkly organic babyfood supposedly made by "real chefs." It has a little tube at the end and while the idea seems to be that you can squeeze as much as you need into a bowl, I thought why couldn't you just squeeze it directly into the baby's mouth.
It turns out this stuff is delicious. (I take Caroline's advice of long ago to always taste whatever you put into your baby"s mouth.) I mean it is really delicious. The roasted sweet potatoes taste like Thanksgiving dinner. If for some reason you ever have to be off solid foods (wisdom teeth removal?), stock up on this stuff. So I have been feeding it to Amelia while she plays. I can't get as much in her while she is officially eating and sitting at her high chair because she starts to want to hold the tube and do it herself and then half of the babyfood, which costs 1 million dollars per ounce, ends up on her face, her clothes, my clothes, and the floor. But while she is playing I can sneak the tube up to her mouth and she will take a sip, realize it is delicious, then take some more. The go back to playing, and repeat.
I have had the most success with the flavors that mix fruits and veggies, like this afternoon's "blueberry pear purple carrot." But I have high hopes for "spinach pear peas" and "pumpkin corn apple."
So that is eating. She is now officially breastfeeding a number of times a day that I can count, which is 7: when she wakes in the morning, again awhile after she wakes up, before her morning nap, about half an hour after her nap, before her afternoon nap, early evening, and bedtime. Then once more at about 4 am.
I guess that sounds like a lot. Actually some books say that a baby will nurse 6-8 times a day by 3 months or something like that. At some point, maybe 5 months, I realized that Amelia was nursing way more than what most books described as common, and I called the DC Breastfeeding Center about it. The LC told me that just like some adults, some babies were grazers. "Sometimes you want a whole meal," she said, "but sometimes you just want a bagel. Sometimes you just want a cup of coffee." Amelia has cut out most of her coffee breaks. When she does nurse now, it's only for about 5 minutes.
Ironically, just when I was ready to move on to sleep, Amelia is waking up from her nap. And I am sure you are all at the edge of your seats about Amelia's sleep! I usually am. So, to be continued...
Let's start with the most fun, play:
as you might have noticed from the recent videos, Amelia is a very fun girl. She started crawling at about 9 and a half months and has been on the move ever since. She quickly progressed to pulling up to stand on couches, chairs, benches, and anything else she can reach, including, this week, the bottom of the refrigerator. She likes to take the magnets off of it. She can now stand on both legs without holding onto anything with her hands for several seconds at a time, and has even started to "cruise," or move short distances between items she can hold on to.
Also around the end of 9 months, Amelia discovered books. We were reading this book I got from the library called "Baby Loves Peekaboo." It has flaps that open to reveal hidden cats, bears, toys and babies. The pictures are photographs, not drawings, and A loves to look at "real" babies. So we were reading and all of a sudden she seemed to notice that the could open the flap and see the babies. She was delighted. After that we introduced story time into the bedtime routine--more on that below.
Some of A's other favorite activities are rolling around on a stack of three comforters and pillows on the living room floor, turning the pages of various board books, taking all of the credit and other cards out of my wallet, tackling and biting large stuffed animals, and standing at her toy box, removing toys one at a time. Oh, and throwing things! She loves to throw and roll balls, but also enjoys throwing other toys--and sometimes, while she is eating, she throws spoons, forks, and small pieces of food. We take it as a sign that she is no longer hungry.
Speaking of eating:
Just this week, I FINALLY got Amelia to eat babyfood. As we recall, she has loved solids for some time, and by that I mean actual solids: only food she can pick up herself. She loves cheese, rice, beans, Cheerios, toast, bread, tortillas, tofu, black bean burgers, little bits of spinach, these odd chalky puffs of freeze dried yogurt they now make for babies, and any type of meat she has tried. But she generally avoids being spoon fed with all of her will and might. It may seem easy to put a spoon into a baby's mouth but unless the baby wants the spoon there, it is not. She has a few exceptions to spoonfeeding, such as peaches, instant oatmeal, and ice cream (which she has only had 2 or 3 times), but none of that helps me get more vegetables into her little body--it's hard for her to eat vegetables because generally if they are soft enough for her to chew, they are also too wet and slippery for her to keep hold of. She can pick up peas, but does so only so that she can throw them on the floor. So I have been trying various ways to sneak in the veggies: spreading a thin layer of pureed green beans onto bread, attempting to pass off sauteed yellow pepper as peaches, etc. None of this has really worked. Then I saw this new kind of babyfood that comes in little plastic pouches, like Capri Sun. It's fancy sparkly organic babyfood supposedly made by "real chefs." It has a little tube at the end and while the idea seems to be that you can squeeze as much as you need into a bowl, I thought why couldn't you just squeeze it directly into the baby's mouth.
It turns out this stuff is delicious. (I take Caroline's advice of long ago to always taste whatever you put into your baby"s mouth.) I mean it is really delicious. The roasted sweet potatoes taste like Thanksgiving dinner. If for some reason you ever have to be off solid foods (wisdom teeth removal?), stock up on this stuff. So I have been feeding it to Amelia while she plays. I can't get as much in her while she is officially eating and sitting at her high chair because she starts to want to hold the tube and do it herself and then half of the babyfood, which costs 1 million dollars per ounce, ends up on her face, her clothes, my clothes, and the floor. But while she is playing I can sneak the tube up to her mouth and she will take a sip, realize it is delicious, then take some more. The go back to playing, and repeat.
I have had the most success with the flavors that mix fruits and veggies, like this afternoon's "blueberry pear purple carrot." But I have high hopes for "spinach pear peas" and "pumpkin corn apple."
So that is eating. She is now officially breastfeeding a number of times a day that I can count, which is 7: when she wakes in the morning, again awhile after she wakes up, before her morning nap, about half an hour after her nap, before her afternoon nap, early evening, and bedtime. Then once more at about 4 am.
I guess that sounds like a lot. Actually some books say that a baby will nurse 6-8 times a day by 3 months or something like that. At some point, maybe 5 months, I realized that Amelia was nursing way more than what most books described as common, and I called the DC Breastfeeding Center about it. The LC told me that just like some adults, some babies were grazers. "Sometimes you want a whole meal," she said, "but sometimes you just want a bagel. Sometimes you just want a cup of coffee." Amelia has cut out most of her coffee breaks. When she does nurse now, it's only for about 5 minutes.
Ironically, just when I was ready to move on to sleep, Amelia is waking up from her nap. And I am sure you are all at the edge of your seats about Amelia's sleep! I usually am. So, to be continued...
Saturday, August 21, 2010
House Tour: Amelia's Room
Amelia's room has lots of nooks and crannies, so it's hard to get it all in one picture.
This is looking in from the doorway.
To the left is her little crib cave.
To the right is the changing table, some shelves, and the glider.
(A note on the glider: I didn't buy it until we left DC--I got it used from a MOTH right before we left. It is the MOST comfortable piece of furniture ever. I truly wish I had had it from day 1. It you are having a baby, GET A GLIDER, even if you don't think you have enough space. Sacrifice something else. Get a glider.)
A's room is very colorful.
She has a lot of pretty items and artwork, including this toybox, made my her grandmother and other Whimsical Women.
She is standing tall.
This is looking in from the doorway.
To the left is her little crib cave.
To the right is the changing table, some shelves, and the glider.
(A note on the glider: I didn't buy it until we left DC--I got it used from a MOTH right before we left. It is the MOST comfortable piece of furniture ever. I truly wish I had had it from day 1. It you are having a baby, GET A GLIDER, even if you don't think you have enough space. Sacrifice something else. Get a glider.)
A's room is very colorful.
She has a lot of pretty items and artwork, including this toybox, made my her grandmother and other Whimsical Women.
She is standing tall.
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