home day for all..

Yes, we all stayed home today. Yesterday Caitlin came down sick and feverish and wasn't feeling any better this morning. In fact, little Midge seemed a bit sniffley too. So I stayed home to keep everyone rested. Of course I was feeling a bit under the weather also. It has been a quiet day at the homestead.

Since the little one seemed a bit on the low side, I was sure to dress her up cozy. Of course, that means the jeans again and her fancy red handmade socks!

Of course, I just had to get a picture of that!

the continuing saga...

I think that we have hit 7 straight nights of Midge getting 7-8 hours of solid sleep in her crib. It certainly changes things! Away have flown my silly thoughts of "nothing but co-sleeping for us"! Let her have her own bed. Plus, she always wakes up right around 7 which is just perfect for me.

What else? Well she still is getting greater and greater. Her joy in seeing people and her actually having an interest in things (ceiling fans, light fixtures...if they're shaped just right) is also exciting and so she just gets more and more fun. And more and more calm. Not that she doesn't still freak-out, but she is more and more happy to just lay around and flail her arms and legs and make her funny sounds... Which have gotten a lot louder.

She had her doctors appointment this week. Which we had been eagerly awaiting, since it had been 8 weeks since her last one. She is still tall, but not as heavy as we might have thought (only 11.5 pounds)... Of course, what made it exciting and made me both glad and sad that I wasn't there... Seemingly it was vaccination time! Um, yay?

Of course, the doctor is all for vaccinations and Caitlin has some questions and concerns about them but me? I pretty much oppose everything but the Tetanus one. Not only that, but I have misgivings about why 2 month old babies get vaccinated against all sorts of things that it is highly unlikely that they will be at risk for during their infant time. It just all seems odd to me, but then again, I have concerns about anything (vaccinations, fluoride, no water bottles on planes, prescription medications, the war in Iraq, taxation) that the "powers that be" not only expect us to buy into but also act like we are insane/traitorous/gullible/idiot/communists if we have the gall to even ask questions about them. I realize that it sort of is shirking ones societal role to try and avoid these things, but when I realize that the only way to get polio on this continent seems to be to get the polio vaccination and that they are vaccinating infants against Hep B, and vaccinating kids against chicken pox (when I always thought that the best way to deal with chicken pox was to have your child catch it)... I want to be sure that they are the right thing.

Honestly, I would rather someone get sick due to accidental exposure to germs or viruses than have them get sick in an attempt to not get sick. But really what throws me off is the early age at which these vaccinations occur and that it seems like they are looking for vaccinations for everything that anyone anywhere might ever get? All I can say is that if you are planning on vaccinating your baby, but you aren't quite sure about it... Don't read any books about it (I chose Vaccine Guide: Risks and Benefits for Children and Adults) because they will freak you out! Go to Amazon and type in vaccination and look at the books that come up, read some of them and then try to go through the 30+ vaccinations with an easy mind. Though, yes, at some level I know that I'm making a big deal out of nothing and that 99%+ of kids get nothing but a fever from these treatments... I guess it's just my Beatnik bloodlines...

Anyway, I don't mean (or hope) to start any kind of outrage, but that's what I'm thinking about this week... That and finding some cute pictures of Elinor! Including some of her first time in her first pair of jeans!

Five is a charm..

Well, if things don't just get better and better! Every day her personality comes out more and more: smiling at people, enjoying herself, easier to calm down. She made a smiling face today that reminded Caitlin of me. And speaking of improvements...

Elinor is in her crib right now. It's the fifth night in a row! The first two nights we got some good hours of sleep from her in there, but night before last she slept for 7 hours... And last night? From 11:30pm until 7am! Honestly it is such a shock and such a sudden change that I feel speechless about it! Of course, I get nervous with her in there for so long, and in the next room, but I don't want to check on her too much because the floor is very creaky and she sleeps very lightly. I also managed to keep her still briefly in the carry-pack, which she hasn't gotten used to yet.

Speaking of not used to, we tried the stroller for the first time a couple of days ago. The standard story, she was fine and dandy for the first 15 minutes or so, then she became inconsolable until she was picked up. Caitlin then had a repeat on a later day. It seems that unless she's asleep, she seems to be able to handle about at most about 15 minutes without being fed or held. On the bed, in the car seat in the stroller... It doesn't seem to matter to her.

Today was, of course, the families first fathers day! It was very fun! The wife made me a wonderful little book of pictures of my little peach and got me a special camera to take more pictures with! We also made a trip to Cold Stone and Belmont Station, the beer store! A very fine day indeed.

On Wednesday we also took her into work for a visit. There she got some pictures taken.



The booties give her away...


look ma! no hands!

The first summer

Yes, it's here. It's a bit too hot for me, but I don't think Elinor minds. Plus we've been filling the days with all sorts of fun! As an update from last week, she becomes more and more smiley everyday and really just seems to be enjoying herself more. And able to be alone more (shhh, she's sleeping in her crib as we speak! And she was even awake when I put her in it). But then I spent some time this evening trying to expand her horizons, yes, there was more of her unswaddled wiggling around on the couch...



Earlier I tried out the crib again. She kept trying to lose control but with liberal use of the Haba Balloon Music Box and rocking the crib, she was able to keep herself under control. This second time around, the crib seemed much more palatable to her but then she was pretty tired.

And of course she was tired, she had a long social day... Hours at Mom's shop (and home away from home), Mabel's Cafe, visiting with Reese (who brought her a hat to match his) and Frances... Much fun was had! And then? Off on a walk down the street to Piccolo Park (a little park for little folks) for more fun with Frances!



In the park!



In the park with friends!

Doesn't she ever sleep?

Yes, like I mentioned before, the co-sleeping really works best for us but it doesn't really answer the daytime question. She doesn't really sleep at all during the day. She may doze off in the moby or when being bounced or while nursing... but it doesn't last long and she comes out of it likity-split! So you are back where you started...

But she has started smiling and basically being in a much better mood, which is a lot of fun for us. But she has so much more to enjoy now! She goes to play group and the mom's group and she's been seeing a lot of her special friend Reese (they even hung out in a hammock together... Yes, they had a chaperone) and today she visited with her friend Frances and then we had dinner with Ryan and Susie (who has a magical ability to calm little Midge down). Speaking of friends, when she heard the good news about her friend Georgia's successful surgery, she threw up her arms and danced a victory dance!



So for Elinor, it was a good couple of days... Little sleeping, no pooing, lots of friends and many many hours of nursing. I think she'd nurse all day long if we let her.

We still need to figure out the day-sleeping though, she gets very tired but really puts up a fight to stay awake. At least we followed the advice of turning the lights off at night (that certainly helped!), if only there was an equally easy cure for the daytime...

I grabbed some fun new shots of her: bundled in her velcro swaddle, and making sure that there is no space for me in the bed...