Thanksgiving with a Tiny Squee

Nappin' with her Doodad

We drove down to Corvallis on Tuesday night see my parents for Thanksgiving. TS slept the whole drive, which was fabulous. However, it did mean that we couldn't stop - if the car stops, she often wakes up. We stayed Tuesday night with my dad and had a leisurely Wednesday hanging out with him. He scrambled eggs for breakfast, which TS always enjoys. She also had some banana. Nothing exciting to report regarding Wednesday's activities except that my dad and I took a small walk and TS napped in the carrier. It was very nice weather for Thanksgiving. Sterling wasn't impressed with dinner that night for some reason. She kept forcefully flinging bites of it on the floor. Salmon? Fah! Onto the floor with you! Carrot? Fah! Banana? Fah! It just wasn't a night for eating.

Wednesday night we headed up to stay with my mother. We built a nest out of couches padded with (many layers of) blankets and TS and I stayed there, while Mike bunked in the guest bedroom. The bed there is a little small to comfortably fit 2+TS. Mike got to sleep in, which was good because he drove back home Thursday night after dinner. Wednesday morning, we had more eggs. TS ate quite an impressive quantity and also enjoyed some banana and avocado.

Sweet potatoes taste best when eaten with
the entire face.

We cooked a turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (in the crock pot), steamed broccoli, and had rolls. Everything was excellent and TS enjoyed it a great deal. She was underwhelmed with broccoli (a former favorite), but really got into the turkey. The grownups had pie for dessert.

Turkey is AWESOME!

Friday, I took the baby down to my dad's and we had breakfast (a sort of dutch baby pancake thing). TS skipped breakfast because I thought there was too much butter and sugar in the pancake. She made up for it later that afternoon, consuming half a banana and a quarter of an avocado in her mesh bag. This was after she'd had some turkey and possibly other things as well. She's turning into quite a good eater.

We gave her a bath in the kitchen sink
 on Friday afternoon.

My mother and I watched Avatar in 3-D, with breaks to potty and relocate the baby. She was pretty happy (and safe) in the couch nest. She napped through the beginning of Avatar, which was handy. We took a couple of breaks to do things (laundry, make sandwiches), which was good because it's a ridiculously long movie. We also watched LA Confidential, which was quite good. TS napped through part of it as well.

Fig, it's what's for dinner.

My mother drove us home this morning. We timed it exactly to correspond with the morning nap and the baby slept for nearly all of the 2 hour drive. Good job! We sat down and shared a Harry and David pear after my mother left, which was excellently tasty. Later, TS stole a dried fig (she was standing on the back of the couch and reaching over onto the table where the dried fruit is stored) and enjoyed it quite a bit. I think she ate the whole thing, except for the pieces that were plastered onto her face.

I started a loaf of bread in the breadmaker and chopped up some veggies to go in the turkey carcass soup (we'd boiled the carcass down at my mothers). TS did some excellent jumping in her doorway jumper while I cooked. Now, she's napping in the carrier while we sit in the recliner and blog.

Pulling up

She's pulling up on everything now. This morning, she pulled up on the couch, my recliner, and my legs. Unfortunately, she hasn't mastered the dismount yet.

It's good she's cute...

This morning, as we were doing our usual lay-in-bed-and-nurse-as-long-as-possible-before-getting-up routine, TS bit me on the nipple. I pulled her off, then let her go back on and she bit me *again*. Hard. I stuck my finger in her mouth and said "NO!" She started to cry. Scream, really. It woke Mike up and he said "poor Tiny Squee," thinking she was having teething pain. Poor Tiny Squee? Poor nipple!

She absolutely didn't want to be put down after this episode, so I ate my oatmeal while holding a baby. When it came time for me to leave, she screamed and cried and grabbed me round the neck. It's tough to pry off your screaming baby and leave for work. For a second, I was tempted to call in sick.

We didn't have a good bedtime experience this evening. She was exhausted by 5pm (Mike says she was on a totally wonked-out nap schedule), so I gave her a bath and we read a story and I nursed her to sleep. 23 minutes later, she was up again. I went in and patted and shushed her. Didn't work. I tried to nurse her. Not interested. I picked her up and patted her on the bed. She cried. Finally, I brought her out into the living room and held her in the rocking chair and patted her. She quietly nestled with me for about an hour, then we went back into the bed and I nursed her to sleep a second time. She's been asleep for about 40 minutes now. Putting the baby to bed tonight required two hours of work. It's good she's cute.

Wonder Weeks

The next Wonder Week leap starts at 37 weeks. This leap is learning about categories (like "animal" or "food").

That means that she's scheduled to enter her fussy period about now; she's currently 33 weeks. It says that the babies "may seem cranky, whiny, fidgety, grumpy, bad-tempered, discontented, unmanagable, restless, or impatient." One of the mother quoted in the book calls her baby at this stage "my little leech." This sounds pretty much like TS at this point.

Tooth number two!

Tooth number one is poking out substantially now. And tooth number two is poking out as of today! There's just a little nublet of it poking out, but hopefully we're close to done with teething for a little while.

Today wasn't a great day as far as teething goes. TS was very cranky for a good chunk of the day. She also refused to be put into bed to nap, so I spent several hours with her strapped to my chest asleep in the carrier.

Pulling up

Tiny Squee has started pulling up on her knees pretty regularly. I think she likes the higher point of view. 

 

She's also started pulling up on things to an actual standing position. But often she falls down pretty shortly after she pulls up. Luckily, she hasn't bonked herself on the head yet.

Eating

Learning to drink out of a cup.
It's just water, really.

Sterling went through a period of intensive eating in the last week or so. Several days in a row, she ate an entire banana. That statement should be taken with a grain of salt, though. When she "eats" food, not all of it makes it into her mouth. And even all of the food that makes it into her mouth doesn't actually get swallowed. However, she did eat a pretty substantial amount for a tiny squee of her magnitude.

She has a mesh bag thing that she likes to eat out of as well. I'm not entirely sure what makes it so appealing, but she'll eat a lot when we use it.

Here she's eating quinoa with curried yogurt with mango a pear. The Baby Led Weaning book says that it's ok to give her dairy in the form of yogurt or as milk cooked in things.

Sometimes, we combine our love of food
AND our love of potties!

She's been eating enough that she's started having grown-up solid poops. No more liquid breastmilk poo for this baby, she's moved up to tiny turdlets. Most mornings, she wakes up between 5 and 6am and we head into the bathroom where I put her on her potty seat on the toilet. Often, she'll have a poo (usually she fires off several warning farts in bed, which motivates me to get up). It's nice that the potty project is going well.

De-diapering

I have a ton of baby updates to post, but I've been very busy with working and having a baby. I just wanted a quick update and then I'll try to do a real one later today.

I've sold two batches of diapers in the past couple of days. The Fuzzibunz and Bum Genius diapers are all gone. I think I sold them for roughly the same amount i paid for them, although I can't remember precisely and I didn't remember when I blogged about them before.

6 Fuzzibunz for $40
15 BumGenius for $100 (although two of these I had bought new, so I probably lost money on them)

I have a few more that I'm trying to sell. They don't seem to be terrifically popular.