39 posts tagged “baby”

Since our successful flea market trip, Owen and I have become yard sale addicts. It fits perfectly into our new summer Saturday morning routine. Owen has recently moved his waking time from 7am to 6, which means that even after plopping him on our bedroom floor with a bin of toys while we desperately try to get a few more minutes of sleep, we're left with a large chunk of time before his 9ish am nap. Since I'm the world's nicest wife, I take Owen out on Saturday mornings to let L sleep in.

Our local farmers' market is about a 15 minute walk, so we walk up, do our shopping, get coffee and split a muffin, and then head back for naptime. Now we browse any yard sale we can find on our way up. A couple weeks ago, we picked up a Little Tikes tool bench for $3.  Last week, we were headed out to a strawberry festival in the country at naptime, so we did a quick cruise by car. A good move since we picked up some large loot. We got a Little Tikes workshop (w/ all the tools), backpack, Clifford book and barely-touched animal bowling set all for $20!

We're still on the hunt for a little ride-on/push toy like the now-broken one at our playground. Fortunately, there's a block sale in our neighborhood this weekend. The best part is that I don't have to spend $ buying new plastic crap toys, and it's like we're recycling. :)

This morning we found ourselves waiting in line to get into a neighborhood flea market. We didn't intentionally get there before it opened, I mis-remembered the starting time by an hour. I have bought a few used things at the local kids' boutique, but in general I avoid used stuff. I grew up in second-hand clothes, and now that I can afford shiny new things, I may have a bit of a shopping compulsion. But, seeing how quickly the Monkey is outgrowing things, I've been forced to reconsider. Today, we picked up a wood tool set, hammering bench, a plastic cube thingy, Builder Bob dvd, little tikes lawnmower, hanna tshirt and classic radio flyer mini trike, all for $15 - the cost of the tshirt alone. Not bad!

A busy week this week, with Passover seder last night and Owen's baptism on Easter Saturday. (Yes, he's bi-religious.)

Mommy Assimilation Phase 1: Cutesy Nickname.

I've never been a nickname person. Maybe it comes from having a nickname-proof name. My only childhood nicknames were "Sissy" - by my brother who had a hard time with his L's - and something unrelated my mother called me (actually a nickname for another name she thought about naming me but didn't.) In junior high I briefly went by my middle name, Nicole, so I could be "Nikki." (I wanted i's to dot with hearts, of course.) In college, my friends started calling me by my first initial and that's continued on. I've occasionally been called by my maiden last name, usually the mispronounced version. I call my husband by his full name, though he's generally known to the rest of the world by the first syllable. And of course Owen doesn't have a whole lot of nickname-potential, part of the reason we chose it.

When he was first born, my recessive British genes emerged and I started calling him "love." Only in private of course, I don't want to embarrass him in front of his future elementary-school classmates. But a new nickname has gradually grown on me. I think my husband may have used it first, but in those days of poop explosions I started calling him "Poop Monkey." This has evolved into "Water Monkey" (see bath stories) and now just a good all-purpose "Monkey." And so it's official, I call my baby by a cutesy nickname.  The first of many things I thought I'd never do when I became a mother.

BTW, the hubby finally got around to posting his "5 things", check it out. I didn't even know about his fear of bunnies!

Have recently been researching jogging strollers and I'm pretty much settled on the Baby Jogger City Series -- smaller tires and swivel front wheel for maneuvering the bumpy brick sidewalks and tight corners on our power walks/shopping trips in Old Town -- and the limited edition pink version is more than $100 off at Babystyle. I'm all for supporting breast cancer research, but I just can't put the boy in a pink stroller...

In follow up to my previous post on preschool, here's a frightening article about a new trend. Admissions consultants. For KINDERGARTEN.

In an age of toddler interviews and fierce pre-K competition, parents of little children are hiring admissions consultants to help them navigate the system and give their kids an edge. ... One Washington mother says that soon after her daughter started kindergarten at a small private school last fall, three different parents asked her which consultant she had used: “I thought, ‘consultant? Was I supposed to use a consultant for kindergarten?’ ”

I've been reading more about our local schools and I'm not entirely opposed to sending O to public school. But at mom's group coffee Friday, the topic of conversation was private preschools. Because someone had heard that to have a shot at getting into the top local private schools, you have to be on the waiting list for the affiliated preschool by the time your kid is 1.5 years old. One of the moms was a teacher at one of the private schools, and confirmed that that's true - or at least by 2 yrs. And if all O's friends are going to private school.... argh. We haven't even gotten into daycare yet and now I have to start collecting preschool apps.

A bunch of our moms' group moms recently had baby food cooking classes with a local mom who runs a business called "Meals 4 Munchkins." Steaming and pureeing fruits and veggies is hardly rocket science, but I took the class anyway for an excuse for moms' night out. And I picked up a few good tips. I've made sweet potatoes so far. Brown rice (baby cereal rice is so disgusting), peas and apple sauce are next on the list. And I even have some bananas ripening on the counter. (I hate bananas, but we've agreed to make (let) Owen eat even the things we hate.)
And I recently bought the two books on the left - so many yummy ideas.

I know those of you out west were introduced to winter last week, but winter has finally arrived here on the East Coast as well. Owen saw his first snowfall on Sunday afternoon (obligatory snowsuit photo coming soon). He seemed unimpressed. Far more exciting is the reaction he gets from the ladies when he's out in his winter hat & boots (pictured). Yesterday we bjorned into S'ucks en route to pick up some quick groceries & diapers, and two young women were sitting out front. They literally shrieked as we approached, gushing over his outfit (special European cords, courtesy of O's Austrian aunt) and adorable cheeks. The attention naturally brought out the giant grin, leading to still more shrieking. It was quite the experience for my little ladies' man.

Wednesday
1.00am    Not sleeping because I'm having a meltdown over having to go back to work after two straight weeks with my baby*.

4.00am     Baby screaming. Fever of 104*. Like all good newbie parents, we frantically call the after-hours nurse to find out he has a cold. (I take back what I said before about the boob milk antibodies. Apparently a week full of new germs - from east coast grandma giving him a cough to four planes full of germs and sick west coast relatives - was too much for that little immune system.) Sure enough, by morning he has red, watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, coughing. My baby is awesome, however. As we're anxiously waiting for the nurse to call back, he, miserable hot little boy, gives us a big happy grin! He's always excited to see us whenever he wakes up.

7.45am    It takes me three tries to leave our street as I forgot 1) the pump, 2) my office keys.

9.00am    L calls to tell me I left all the pump parts next to the front door.

So, L packs up sick baby and brings him into town for lunch at my office. My coworkers had been asking when they'd get to see the baby (I never got around to doing it while on leave) so at least we got that out of the way too. And I didn't have to worry about them infecting him since he was already sick. He was such a trooper and napped both ways in the car, and took long naps at home for Daddy. When I took him to the pediatrician yesterday (he's fine, no complications) Dr. S. goes, "You look great!" Uh, okay ... then explained most parents of sick infants look exhausted.  I explained that actually he'd been really happy and sleeping even better than usual. I guess we got lucky. :)

To top it all off, they cancelled my favorite show, the OC.

* I guess I haven't mentioned that our nanny quit the week before Christmas. More on that later.

We had a nice time in Oregon. Owen's 11 month older cousin Hailee warmed up to him a little. On Christmas she obligingly sat next to him for a photo shoot in front of the tree. He was fascinated by her and would reach out to pet her blond hair. And by the end of the visit she was bringing him her balls to play with.

Owen's hand-eye coordination improved just in time for the holidays. Rather than just thrusting his hands in the general direction of an object, he can now pick it up in both hands and put it in his mouth. He had quite the appetite for wrapping paper, in particular. He and Hailee had soo many gifts under the tree, we had to stop present opening TWICE for naps. My family makes everyone open presents in turn, youngest to oldest. Even with Hailee and Owen doubling up on their turns, this still took an eternity.

Flying went less smoothly than our first trip. Four hour flight to Denver + teething infant, not the most pleasant experience. He had a good 2 hour cranky session. I always cringed when I saw babies on my flights in my naive pre-baby days, so I felt terrible. Fortunately, as it was Christmas Eve there were lots of families and other babies on the flight. Somehow the woman next to us slept most of the flight, and the older couple across the aisle must have been parents because they never batted an eye. In fact the only negativity was from our super bitchy flight attendants! The second flight to Portland went much better. We were in the front row with friendly flight attendants with whom Owen giggled and chatted (even the pilot came out to say hello) until he fell asleep. And our flights home were smoother as well, with longer naps and a shorter fussy period on the last flight. There was a poop incident in Denver but nothing a change of outfit/purchase of new socks couldn't fix.

In new baby tricks, Owen groans/grunts violently as if to say "gimme!" in the direction of what he wishes to put in his mouth. And now that he can sit up on his own, he is so over the infant carrier. He digs in with his elbows to resist being put in. Once in, he still takes good naps in it, once he gives in and lets himself relax.