Dance Dance Dance

Jon and I were standing in front of Sasha's crib yesterday, having a conversation. I can not remember what it was about. (sorry Jon!) Maybe guns or gun laws? One of those topics that really gets him going. Sasha was standing in the crib, watching us. As each of us talked, she looked back and forth between us. I watched her as she would pip in with squeaks and squeals, as if she was adding her own opinions to the subject matter- a happy participant in the conversation.
But the topic hit a nerve. Jon proceded to break into a very long monologue. Sasha became annoyed. She tried to squeak her way back into the conversation, but she just couldn't catch a break in the conversation. When Jon was finished with his lecture, I kindly remarked that Sasha wanted in in the conversation but he was getting a bit too long-winded for her.
"She's talking to us, but you're not following the rules of conversation. Back and forth, talk then listen," I said.
Jon asked Sasha if she wanted in the conversation too. She squealed and started to dance.
He interpreted what she said as "Remember to take a break and dance, dance, dance!". Wisdom beyond her years. It meant something to him.
Remember to take a break and dance, dance, dance.
And baby girl, Daddy wants you to know that when you get older, and you're busy working too hard on school, Dad will remind you as well. "Remember to take a break and dance, dance, dance!"

Look who's crawling

I think we can officially call it crawling now. Yesterday, she started getting into stuff!
Previous to yesterday, she could sort of army crawl or squirm her way to something. Locomotion by sheer force of will is what I would have called it. If she didn't get distracted, it would take her half of forever to get to anything more than an equivalent of two of my steps away if she REALLY REALLY wanted to get there. So even though she technically could move about, if I set her down on the floor, odds were 5 min later she'd still be in pretty close to the same spot. I think that's the determining factor of crawling...if the baby stays mostly where you put them, I really don't consider that crawling.
Now, she is getting better at scooting herself to wherever she wants to go. She isn't exactly up on her knees when she moves. It looks more like she's dragging a leg, with one leg up on its knee and the other laying on the ground. She occasionally gets herself up on hands and knees but doesn't crawl like that. Other times, she gets herself up on hands and toes, with her butt high up in the air like she's doing the downward-facing-dog yoga position.
So yesterday, she was actually moving about the apartment. I didn't get the memo that she would become mobile that day, so it took me a bit to realize why I was getting frustrated at her. I set her down next to my computer chair and tried to look at some stuff online. Next thing I knew she was at the computer, fascinated by the blinking lights on the case and trying to hit the power button. Oops. So I picked her up and set her back down next to my chair. She was suddenly under my computer desk trying to play with the power cords. Back to the original spot and she started going for power cords behind the living room lamp. She seemed to be everywhere. I realized that for the first time, I can't depend on her staying where I put her anymore!
This changes things. At least once I realized that I now have to actually follow her around and keep her out of things, I was a little less frustrated. Happy that she made a new accomplishment, but sad at the same time. Things will never be the same again.
I'm sure this is something great and wonderful for her too. She seems to find it curious that Mom & Dad are now yelling "No!" at her.

9-month Professional portraits

Click to see enlargement:





I got these taken at Kiddie Kandids and was very happy. We went to the mall on a Monday morning, so it was not very busy. Jon went to go get a new phone at the Sprint store and I took Sasha to the portrait studio to get her 9-month pictures taken. There was only one employee staffing the store, and no other customers.
Last time we went to Kiddie Kandids for Sasha's 6 month portrait, she had a bad case of stranger anxiety and would not cooperate for photos. It was the same woman taking pictures again today.
Sasha seemed ambivalent, until I tried to put her on the 'stage'. She started crying and suddenly didn't seem to like the picture lady. Fortunately, the photographer was VERY patient, and it was obvious that the photographer loved children. She let me take Sasha to the back room to nurse her and calm her down. It took Sasha a half hour to warm up to the photographer and the store. She warmed up enough to be friendly with the photographer but would still get angry and cry if we tried to put her on the photo stage. I ended up calling Jon to come to the store to help out. The moment she had her Daddy with her, Sasha immediately became her normal cheerful self.
The first two pictures were with the flag background. That background was the main reason I chose to return to Kiddie Kandids this time around. We lured Sasha to the column with the blocks. She would not let us take them away from her once she actually stood at that column so the blocks ended up in the picture. Oh well, small price to pay for such a cute picture. Sasha continued to cooperate for the two garden backdrop pictures, and her close up portraits.
I love her dress and the bow in her hair. And those cute little baby teeth in the close up portrait.
In our living room, we have a picture of Jon when he was 9 months. The resemblance between Sasha's 9 month portraits and Jon's is amazing. I find it funny because at first glance, people seem to think she looks like me. I think it's because she has my cheeks or maybe because she's a girl. But honestly, Sasha has almost all of Jon's features and looks identical to his baby pictures. Put a dress on him in his baby pictures and you have a baby Sasha, hehe!

New Toys

Sasha has some new toys I should probably talk about! She's been having much fun with them lately.

At Meijer's about two weeks back, we roamed the whole store from beginning to end. Sasha and I had a blast with it but I think we wore her Dad down. Anyways, I was thinking of getting a toy that would help Sasha work on her emerging simple mechanical skills and got her a Fisher Price pop-up toy called the Bobble & Giggle Pals. I also found Cabbage Patch Newborn dolls! I had been looking for a Cabbage Patch Newborn doll, specifically a bald baby girl with no teeth (the cabbage patch dolls with teeth creep me out). They didn't have any bald girls, but they had one with a little brown tuft at the top of her head with blue eyes. Since I haven't found a bald one in the 10+ months I've been looking, I got it for Sasha anyways despite the hair tuft. It does mean a lot to me, as I got Cassie a little bald newborn cabbage patch doll when she was a baby too. (Cassie only recently learned that the cabbage patch doll she grew up and loved was a *gasp* boy! But I simply dressed it up in pink.)

The first time Sasha played with her pop-up toy, I think it was a bit too over-stimulating. It's sort of like a jack in the box...it has 4 little critters hidden in boxes, then when she turns or pulls the levers in the right way it will pop up and play music. The first time I showed it to her, she would cry every time the toy would pop up. It scared and startled her. It took several days and several attempts to play with it but she cautiously warmed up to it. Now curiosity has won her over and she's getting to be a pro at it. She's got most of the levers figured out.

Watching Sasha play with her Cabbage Patch doll warmed my heart. The doll came with a little toy baby bottle. When I introduced the doll to Sasha, I showed it to her and pretended like I was feeding the baby from the toy bottle, then I gave it to her. She mimicked me immediately. She holds the baby, puts the bottle in the dolls mouth or bangs it against her head and makes little fake sucking sounds like she's feeding the baby. She gets a big smile like she's so proud of herself. She does copy playing with it, and it's cute to see how she parents her little doll. Tonight, she was sitting in her green bouncy chair hugging it and watching a video. She kept looking back and forth, from the video to the doll, video to doll...exactly the same way Daddy watches tv when he's watching Sasha. Like she was checking on it to make sure it was ok :)

Yesterday I got Sasha a 100 piece wooden block set. Various shapes and sizes. She LOVES them. I put them in a box and set the box in front of her. She took a few blocks out and banged them together for about 10 minutes straight, smiling. Then she started taking them out of the box one by one. I showed her how to put them back in the box, which of course was NOT as interesting as taking them out. Next time she played with them she liked to try to just tip the box of blocks over. Dad took great interest in them (it's that engineering blood) and built stuff with it, and Sasha gleefully knocked them down for him. It's a good Daddy/Sasha toy and I hear blocks are good for their little growing minds.

9-Month Well Baby Exam

It seems like it's been forever since our last doctor visit! Sasha last had a doctor visit at 6 months, then nothing until 9 months. Well, actually, she did have a 'visit' when we took her in when she was constipated at about 7 months, but that wasn't a well baby visit that time though, just trying to figure out why she hadn't poo'ed in a week. It really did seem disconcerting to not have those monthly height and weight statistics that let me know how she was growing. We tried meaurements at home, but when we measured her length, it seemed to indicate she was still 27 inches long and only 17lbs...so no height increase and only a 1lb increase in 3 months. And that was a scary thought. I went into this appointment fearing my baby had not grown.
Sasha was happy at first arrival at her appointment, but once we sat her on the exam table she seemed to understand right away what was going on and she voiced her displeasure loudly. The nurse, same nurse as every other appointment, is never going to see another Sasha smile again I fear. Sasha recognizes her as the bad woman who does all the mean stuff. She immediately started in on a flurry of baby torture and Sasha screamed the whole time. She had us take off all the baby clothes, weighed her (sitting on the scale like a big girl!), took her height measurements. She stuck Sasha's big right toe with a needle, squeezed the toe repeatedly and milked it for blood for an iron test and a lead test. Sasha's iron levels were in the normal range. It was 11.2 but I don't know what the units are for that measurement. Apparently they like to see those iron levels between 11 and 14 so she's doing good. Hurray for cheerios- her biggest source of iron.
Dad was antsy during all the baby torture. He just wanted to sweep Sasha up and give her a big hug but we had agreed that I would be the bad mommy. The one that held her down for the shots. The one getting the "et tu, Brute?" expression from those sweet little crying blue eyes. And he would be her knight in shining armor to pick her up, wipe the tears from her eyes, and snuggle her comfortingly. So we kept him out of site for the bad stuff until it was all over and he had to bite his fingernails in the corner until then. Daddy emerged as the hero. In Sasha's eyes, Daddy made it all better.
At least, until the doctor came in. She calmed down between the nurse visit and the doctor visit, but not completely. Once the doc entered, she started back up again. Something about the exam table sent her into hysterics. I have to say her ped is very thorough when he examines babies. He checks her belly, hip joints, knees, ankles, fontanelle, etc.. I really like and trust her pediatrician...with the life of my baby girl.
All in all, she is healthy. 18lbs 2oz. 27 inches long..so she did gain weight and height! She is down to 65 percentile in height and still at about 50% in weight according to the ped's charts. (I will probably look those stats up in the WHO charts as he does not appear to be using those). He is unconcerned with her not crawling...she'll do that any day now I know. She is army crawling and able to start getting up on all fours so I know it'll happen any moment now.
Our pediatrician is happy we are making our own baby food and says to continue with that and with breastfeeding. We mentioned our concerns about how Sasha has started cutting back on her milk and food consumption. He said that is ok. He is happy with her weight and height and says he doesn't want her to get fat, she's right where he wants her to be.

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's day!
This is my husband's first father's day with the new baby. My husband is a wonderful father to his little girl, and to my other 'little' girl as well.
The day Sasha was born, I saw my husband turn into a father. He was instantly smitten by his little girl from the moment she was born, and I suspect even before then as well. When we were in the hospital in those early days, he stayed protectively by our sides, making sure that Sasha's and my every needs were met. Without him, I don't know how I would have made it through the early nursing woes. I couldn't figure out how to position the baby, how to feed her. The lactation consultant was no help. My husband patiently helped me figure out nursing, wrote down the time and duration of every feeding, put pillows under my arms, brought me water, fetched me nurses. I couldn't have done it without him. Well, maybe I could have through sheer stubbornness but it wouldn't have been pretty. He takes great care of us.

He is the most hands-on father I have ever met. While I am at work, he is taking care of the baby. But that's an understatement. When he takes care of the baby, he gives her his complete and undivided attention. That's hard to do for 8.5 hours straight. I admire his patience but I know he loves his daughter completely.

Sasha is a lucky baby to have a daddy like my husband. He is far beyond anything I could have ever hoped for. He is a real man, and a great and loving father.

First time sleeping by herself

In the previous post, I talked about how Sasha's sleep patterns had gradually changed lately. When I thought about it, I realized that this might be my best opportunity to get Sasha to sleep on her own successfully.

Today, I tried to get her to sleep alone in her cosleeper. It's like a crib/playpen and it is in our bedroom so she will still be in the room with us.
I saw that she was getting tired, so I put her in the cosleeper. She cried. I knew she would. I sat next to her and rubbed her little belly to let her know mommy was still there for her. The hard part was keeping her dad from climbing the walls :) Once she calmed herself down, I took her out and nursed her until she was asleep. I put her back in the cosleeper but she woke right back up and cried a little in protest. I rubbed her belly again, and she rolled over onto her stomach. I thought she was going to start trying to crawl and stand, and thought we were through. But she put her head down, whimpered a little, and I gave her a back rub. I let her cry just a little more and she fell right asleep!
She slept alone in her cosleeper for a good 4-5 hours. She woke up, and I brought her in bed with me.
I consider this mission successful. I wanted to work on putting her to sleep in her cosleeper. I know this will take patience and work on our part. It will take a few days for her to understand what we are doing, for it to become part of her accepted routine. But if I keep at it, I can later work on helping her sleep longer. I don't mind bringing her back into bed after she's slept on her own for a few hours. Small steps.
Today I got to sleep by myself for a few hours. Too bad I couldn't fall asleep without her :(

Sleep changes

Sometimes change happens so gradually that it's hard to notice until you really make a conscious effort, or sometimes you notice it after you've noticed the change has come far along.
Baby Sasha's sleep habits had been slowly changing, a little more each night. I've started to notice the past few nights but when I thought about it I realized the change was more drastic than I originally thought, and started a lot earlier.
For at least 8 months, Sasha would wake up to nurse/eat several times a night. She stayed on my breast ALL night, as if I was a pacifier. This forced me to sleep on my side, which was a necessary inconvenience.
I first started to notice that she wasn't waking up so often. And then about a week or two ago, she started rolling away from me so that she would put her back to me, then she would fuss until I put my arm around her. She would hug my arm tight against her as she slept. I call it the teddy bear snuggle, because it felt like I was snuggling with a teddy bear. But basically it was like spooning.

At first that meant to me "wow, I can start to sleep on my back". But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that gradually, Sasha had drastically cut back on her night nursings. To the point where I think she was only using me as a pacifier for the last month or so. Not nursing. Now that she is turning away from me, she doesn't even need the pacification anymore. I don't think I noticed, of course, because I was mostly sleeping. And because it happened so gradually.

The more I think about it, the more things are starting to make sense. She's hasn't been eating so much at night. But she's also cut back her food/milk intake during the day as well so I guess she's not eating so much. I have to keep an eye on that. It also means that she is becoming less dependant on me at night. She is starting to drift off, move away from me, move around.
It seems like she is making the changes required to sleep on her own soon...and for the night. She isn't being awakened in the night by hunger anymore. She is self weaning herself from pacification.

Daddy feeds baby...

PAPAPAPAYA!
How sweet. I was sitting at work when my husband sent me this picture via camera phone. Papaya!
He asks me if I noticed that she wrecked her outfit in the picture.
I look closer and logically I ask "Hey, where's the bib?".
He says he didn't want to get it dirty :)


Ok, I know he was joking but it was still amusing. He just sort of forgot it while searching for the baby spoon.

Picnic, sleep, and more crawling

"Classics to Read Aloud to Your Children"....works better when they read them to you.

On Monday, we had a work function. It was a family picnic. The husband, Sasha, and I went to the picnic in the park and I thought it was very fun. Sasha got to see the great outdoors, a few trees (mommy misses those), and got a little sun and some fresh air.
Unfortunately, the picnic started at noon. This totally messed up the sleep schedule for everyone, and here it is now Friday and we're all still not quite recovered yet. Jon and I suffered much sleep deprivation, but fortunately last night we were able to make up for a lot of lost sleep. I hope we are able to return to normal soon.

Sasha is doing more 'army crawling'. She's sort of mobile if she really really wants to get something, but she's not efficient at it by any stretch. If I put her down somewhere, she mostly stays there, and I think that is an important distinction to make. She's ALMOST mobile, not giving her mommy and daddy a headache yet.

2 weeks

Today, Cassie went to my parent's house. She will be staying with them for two weeks. Grandma and Grandpa are going to take her camping in their new camper. I hope she has fun. I will miss her, but I will also enjoy the break.

Wow, 2 weeks without her. It should be strange. I was looking forward to her having a summer break. It is convenient to not have to send her off to school every morning, then having to wait for her to come home in the afternoon. It wouldn't be so bad, I guess, if I didn't keep a night shift schedule. Now that it's summer, once she gets back from Grandma and Grandpa's, she'll probably switch to a night shift schedule with us for the summer. I do plan to take her out to see a few local sights though, like maybe the zoo, planetarium, museum, and what-not, if I can ever figure out how to navigate around the area. I am terrified of traffic and this is such a big city that I just want to hide in my house.
My parents are better at doing activities and stuff with Cassie than me. So it is good that she does go there. So long as Cassie doesn't come back with a bad attitude as she tends to do.

Pretty little hair bows

I caved in and bought some bows for Sasha's hair. It's starting to get long on top and if I part it in the middle like I like to, it hangs in her eyes. These are two of my current favorite pictures. I love the one with her sitting on her dad's shoulders. The other one I love as she just looks so pretty in it. I love the expression on her face.
And while we're talking about hair bows, here's a little hair style I did for my older daughter. She wanted a black hair bow in her hair, with a ribbon twisted around it...sort of like Tohya character in the MegaTokyo web cartoon. I think it's very cute if I do say so myself :)

Summer Break!

June 6th was the last day of school. It was a half-day, and I don't know why they bothered. Actually, the 5th was supposed to be the last day of school but the school had to make up some of those snow days, so I guess the 6th was just a token "go to school and go home day" to at least say they made it up.
Cassie's report card came in, and she did better than we all thought, even to her surprise. We walked into her room, report card in hand, and forced some grave expressions on our face.
"Do you know what this is?" I said as I shook the report card in my hand. She said she didn't know.
"It's your report card," I said with a scowl. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
Cassie apologized profusely, made a few excuses.
"What do you mean getting all A's, B's, and C's on your report card? Where are the D's?"
She just looked at me stunned for a moment. She had thought she'd be getting a D, maybe even an F, in her Language Arts class. Somehow, with a lot of last minute hard work, she pulled off a C.

Oh, speaking of last minute hard work in her Language Arts class, the photos in this entry are of her project for that class. Their assignment was to create a super hero, write a story, and make a life-size drawing of that character. The pictures show her making that life sized drawing. She is very talented at drawing, especially manga characters. Her super-hero was a character she named Elixir, and the villain of her story was named Toxic. Elixir is pretty cute, no?

She eventually gave her Elixir drawing to a friend. Oh, note the inspirational pictures of the combat boots she wanted for her birthday, stuck in a picture frame and occasionally hugged. I think she was hinting at what she REALLY wanted for her birthday!

MMMM Ribs!

I love these pictures and had to share. We ordered out at a local italian delivery, and sat at the table for our nightly family dinner. Sasha seemed to be eyeing up my ribs, so I ate most of the meat off of one and handed her the rest.
Such a little carnivore (just like her daddy)! She loved them! I couldn't help but take a picture. She ate the rest of the meat right off the bones, nibbled on the bones a bit. I'm sure that felt good with her new tooth coming in.

Presents for Daddy

Happy Birthday Jon!
For his birthday, we got him a water heater. A 2.2l water dispenser that we found at the local japanese supermarket. This now puts hot tea at his fingertips at any waking moment. Those who know Jon know that this makes a happy Jon. The man loves his tea. But it also makes sure that there is hot water available at any moment to heat the baby's bottle. This should make Sasha happy as well!

Besides the water dispenser, Sasha gave her daddy several presents! First, we have a "30-wipe Ass-pocalypse", and a "15-wipe Ass-pocalypse". She had been saving up and witholding all bowel movements for the past 8 days so that she could give her daddy SUPER OMGWTFBBQ FULL DIAPERS! Her dad was even able to keep her cute little dress clean with the first diaper change, but alas the dress was soiled the second time she exploded in her diaper.

Secondly, I figured out why she has been so crabby the last few days. A new tooth!!! A new tooth has erupted in the top. I think it is her top left tooth but I'm not exactly certain. Only one tooth up top and it isn't visible but it has clearly broken through her gums. I can not imagine what that must feel like but I'm sure it isn't pleasant. Now I'm only surprised she wasn't more crabby, although I can assure you she was inconsolably crabby the previous night. She wore her Daddy out, but he was relieved to know that there was actually a reason for it.

Third present for Dad: She sort of crawled. First time successfully scooting herself along the floor to something she wanted. It took her a while to do so she still has a bit to learn. She's not going to make us pull out her hair quite yet. But still, she did it so it's officially in the baby book. We then put her toy out of her reach a second time and she did it again so it was repeatable. Like I said, she still has a bit more to learn about crawling efficiently. It still pissed her off to be on the floor on her belly.

BENTO!

I know this post isn't about Sasha or Cassie. But I've got a new hobby this week. Bento!
I was inspired by the following links:
http://www.bentoyum.com/
http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/2007/05/bit-about-bentos-and-yes-you-can-buy.html

I had already considered trying it out. I bought a Mr.Bento set a few weeks earlier at the local japanese supermarket. Then another trip to the japanese supermarket netted me a few bento sets.
So without further ado, my first attempt at bento. Isn't it pretty?


The bento's contain the following:
Rice with pickled ginger and teriyaki seaweed, furikake packet hidden under cucumber and carrots, black beans.
Rice crackers, ritz crackers, 3 nutella and peanut butter sandwichs pressed and cut into flower shapes, and a snack tray of almonds, sunflower seads, chocolate chips, cheerios, under a rice cracker.
My first attempt at a 'bento' type lunch ever, made for my daughter. Hope she likes it as she hates school lunch.

Hi and Bye-Bye

Sasha can wave Hi and Bye-bye. This post is sort of belated but I find it fun that she can do so on command now. I'll say "Sasha say bye-bye" and I'll wave at someone, then she'll wave at them too. She's definitely copying and mimicking us more in general, so that is a lot of fun for us all.
The other endearing thing that she is doing now is 'sharing'. Like she'll feed us her food when we're feeding her. She'll shove her pacifier in her daddy's mouth.

She is eating finger foods very well! Actually I'm impressed at her ability to bite and eat foods. I get so scared each time she does...I'm afraid she will choke but she is getting very skilled. She's only got the two teeth. I can assure you they are very sharp (she actually gnawed the hell out of a rubber spatula and tore it to pieces). Anyways I've been cutting up pieces of avocado, mango, and tofu, plus I've been giving her handfuls of cheerios and crackers. I let her feed herself some finger foods before I feed her a meal of her smushed baby foods. She seems to enjoy it and she takes forever when she feeds herself so it gives me a chance to do dishes or kitchen work while she plays with her food.

Still not crawling or walking but soooooo close to being able to crawl.
And in other news, today is Cassie's last day of school! Summer break is almost upon us.

Guess what?

Baby Butt!

An extra long weekend

A classic favorite picture: Mom and Newborn Sasha in the hospital.

I decided to use my Memorial Day holiday to take a 3 day weekend. I made that decision when I woke up Tuesday afternoon. Sasha gave me a look like "don't leave me tonight Mommy", and I realized all I wanted to do was spend another night with her. I'm glad I did. She has been really into her Mommy lately. She is so happy in my arms and when I am with her. She and I had been having such fun during my weekend and I didn't want it to end.
So our weekend routine was fun. Each day, we went out somewhere for the afternoon...(a bookstore, IHOP, or a japanese supermarket). Sasha takes a nap at 10:30pm every night like clockwork. (Remember, we're night shifters so our "day" begins at night). After about an hour or two, she wakes up and I would play with her for an hour. I liked to take her down to the lobby of the apartment building and let her explore all the art work and furniture. The change of scenery did her good and brought out the curiosity in her. I would hold her little hands and let her walk around to whatever caught her fancy. She would bang on the floor to ceiling mirror as she giggled at her reflection. She would touch the texture of the fur 'artwork' on the walls, and the tiles on the walls by the elevator. She had such a blast exploring! Then I let her explore the laundry room. She loved to look inside the washers and dryers, and to open and close the dryer doors, and bang on them. I enjoyed watching her have such fun.
After a good hour of exploring, we'd come back to our apartment for her solids meal. I'd dish out a handful of cheerios and crackers. She'd nibble on those. Then when she was done playing with feeding herself, I'd feed her the squishy baby food. She'd play with the bowls, spoons, and cups. When she was done eating another hour was done.
Of course she'd be messy so we'd do a bath. She easily spent another hour playing in the bath tub, splashing and playing with the water and her tub toys.
Another nap, a little more play with Mom & Dad, and next thing I knew, the night was over. She was exhausted and ready for bed. On Wednesday morning, Sasha fell asleep nursing, and I held on to her for two hours, not daring to let her go. She slept in my arms as my husband and I watched an old movie on tv. I kept sneaking peeks at her beautiful sleeping face and I nearly wept at her beautiful little face and at how much I love her. I cherished holding her there and didn't want to let her go or put her down. I just wanted to enjoy every moment of holding that little baby girl in my arms.
She grows so fast. I sometimes wish she would slow it down. But I don't dare hold her back.