Thursday, September 30, 2010

As Promised...

We finally introduced solids into the Baby's diet and she is slowly catching on. We're letting the Baby self-feed; basically we mash up the food and put it front of her and let her figure out how to shovel it into her mouth. It sounds barbaric and savage but it allows her to figure out how to use her fingers to eat and she knows when to stop. It also helps her get a sense of her gag reflex by self-feeding, otherwise if we piled everything on a spoon, she would just get used to a spoon down her throat and never really establish a gag reflex. Although that will make her everyone's favorite girlfriend when she grows up, it's not a trait I want her exposed to. We've only tried two things: avocados and bananas. The avocados she wasn't impressed with but she seemed to enjoy the taste of bananas.  The Baby is a pretty messy eater, so I take that as genetics.

Anyways, we have an appointment with the doctor pretty soon. Our pediatrician apparently was invited to a taping of the Oprah Winfrey show so we had to schedule the Baby's appointment accordingly. But I will have her stats so everyone can judge our Baby's development.

These next three videos are fun. They are appropriately named so it shouldn't be hard to figure out but just in case:

Fake sleeping: You can barely see the Baby's eyes are open but I am making movements with my hand to make her smile. She tries to contain them but she can't and she is exposed for the fraud she really is. Please forgive my cheesy use of video fades and title screens, I was using Windows Movie Maker and I was too lazy to edit that stuff out of AutoMovie.



Fake smile: So here in this clip she is actually waking up but she throws us a snarky ass fake smile just to appease us. I even think she rolls her eyes but who knows...



Waking up: This is the longest of the clips but it's the most fun. She is finally waking up and everyone can see how happy she is. So for all you expectant parents, this is going to be your new weekend routine: Grabbing the camera just to record your baby. It's nice to sleep in but it's also more fun to watch babies wake up. Initially the Baby is confused as to where she is at exactly but then she realizes that A) it's a new day and B) her parents are weirdos.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

6 Months!

How do you celebrate your daughter turning 6 months old? By having the air conditioner go out and spending the night at the grandmother's house. We also took the Baby to the doctor earlier in the day because she was tugging at her ear and she hasn't been sleeping too well at night. Turns out the Baby is cutting more teeth and she does not have an ear infection. Tomorrow the Baby is going to eat her first solids --- I'm thinking lobster or a Big Mac. The Wifey wants to feed her avocado. Boooooring. We are also feeding her early in the morning just in case she has some crazy allergic reaction we can make a bee-line to the doctor's office. She will probably react to the avocado by throwing up because it's nasty. If she has any sense of taste and texture like her father, she will pass on the vegetables and head for the protein. Veggies are for the cows.

We are going to head to the State Fair of Texas tomorrow. It should be an interesting day as we're going to try to hit up all the shows and eat all the food and drink all the beer. I'm hoping the Baby will enjoy the dog show and petting zoo as much as the Wifey does. Even if the Baby enjoys them only a tenth as much, that's still a lot of enjoyment. The Wifey can spend hours watching YouTube videos of "cute puppies", think what a dancing pug in a grass skirt does to her brain.

Anyways, pictures and some videos will be up for the next post. Just giving out a shoutout to the cutest 6 month old baby today!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Trouble

This Baby is going to be trouble. I posted awhile back on how she loves laughing when we yell at her. Well, last night I had the Wifey's belt and I was snapping it and the Baby thought it was one of the funniest things ever. We tried to videotape it but we couldn't find the camera. I won't be able to threaten her with my belt like my dad used to do. She's just going to laugh at me snapping the belt and then my heart is going to melt and I am going to feed her ice cream.


The Baby also has figured how to fake things. She will fake cry. She will fake cough. She will even fake smile. She's really sarcastic. The Wifey says she gets it from me. I highly doubt that.  But anyways, when the Wifey and I are minding our own business and she's just hanging out in her swing or Baby Einstein orb of toys, she will fake cough and then immediately look at us to see if she has our attention. And if we continue to "ignore" her she will continue to do it until she gets noticed. But her fake crying is the best. She will start crying and then bury her face in the bed when she is on her stomach. And she will get quiet, look up at us, and then do it all over again. You just have to look at her and she will put her face into the sheets and start crying.

Her fake smile is a fun one too. I think she smiles just to appease us. The Baby will be minding her own business and we'll look at her and make a goofy face and she will just smirk and look away. We know when she truly smiles. What a bitch. Just like her mom.

Development wise the Baby hasn't done anything extraordinary. She has begun to flap her arms like a penguin. And she also likes to slap her hands on stuff. I think it's neat watching the Baby's senses being exposed to different objects, like touch. You can just watch her eyes and see her brain going crazy when she touches something new like a rough surface or a slimy surface. The Baby really loves her toys and she interacts with them fairly well. She also eats all her toys but that's common among babies.

We took her to an FC Dallas game at Pizza Hut Park, courtesy of our awesome friend Jessica, and the Baby absolutely loved it. We were worried because she hadn't napped that much all day and she would be grouchy during the game. But she was excited and smiling (real smiles, not her fake ass bitchy smile) about being outside and watching soccer. During the game I was holding her and letting her enjoy the sights and sounds and then FC Dallas scored and the crowd erupted with applause and yelling. The Baby did not appreciate that at all and she started crying like the baby she is. So the Wifey had to calm her down as I continued to celebrate.

This Friday the Baby gets her first experience at the State Fair. I really hope she enjoys the fried beer.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Let Her Sleep

Alright, so quick little update.

The tooth hath cometh! Actually, teeth hath cometh. The Baby has one top tooth and two little bottom teeth popping through her gums. It's been really fun dealing with a teething baby but the Baby has been a trooper. She is obviously in pain from the teeth because she is trying to grab them with her hands. But it's fun watching her put her tongue to her teeth and be shocked to have them there. We tried the frozen toys to help soothe the pain but then we put the toy in our mouths and it tasted nasty so we stopped doing that.

We have also stopped swaddling the Baby at night when she sleeps. She now sleeps in her little pajamas. It's still an adjustment for the Baby as she has become an expert on flopping around.

The Wifey is out with some friends at a Bachelorette party, so it's just the Baby and myself tonight. The Wifey needs a break but I know she misses the Baby.

But I am not the best dad/husband. I can sleep through anything. When the Wifey is going to be out for most of the night, I have to put the Baby in the bassinet in the master bedroom, otherwise I won't hear her cry. I could have the Baby monitor strapped to my head, with those fancy Dr. Dre Beatz headphones in my ears and I still wouldn't hear the Baby cry. Lately, with the Baby's teething issues going on PLUS the Baby is going through another growth spurt, the Wifey has been up every hour to take care of the Baby. And I just sleep away. In fact, the Wifey will bring a crying baby into the bed, feed said crying baby and I wouldn't know. I really am the worst dad/husband ever. But the Wifey doesn't complain. She's probably used to it. But that's still no excuse for me. Now that I think about it, the Wifey is beyond exhausted. The other night she fell out of bed and just sat on the ground. I asked her if she needed any help and she just sat there. So I had to pick her up and put her back into bed. The next day she didn't remember a thing.

So for all those soon to be dads:

If you are heavy sleeper, quit it. Become a light sleeper. Sleep with one eye open. Sleep with both ears open. Sleep with one foot on the ground ready to hop out of bed when the Baby starts crying. In fact, learn to anticipate when your baby will cry so you can be proactive and prevent your child from crying before it starts.

Massage your wife's body. Her feet, her back, her hands, her hips, her head, her elbows. If you can knead your fingers into it, you can massage it.

Let your wife nap. Let her nap anywhere. If she wants to snooze while sitting on the toilet, let her snooze. If she wants to close her eyes in the car while you pump gas, let her sleep. This holds especially true for full-time breast feeding mothers. These moms work their body into a schedule and the body adheres to that schedule, whether they like it or not. They have to squirt their milk into the pail on a regular basis. When the baby isn't on the teet, the teet is crammed into a machine. I swear the Wifey's breast pump is like some fancy handbag that she will never leave home without.

And lastly, tell her every chance you get that you love her. You're not telling you love her because she forgets, you tell her because she falls out of bed because you can sleep through a baby crying it's head off.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Rear View Mirror

I think we spend too much time focusing on the road ahead of us that we forget to appreciate what's in our rear view mirror. Maybe we're happy to be leaving someplace we despise or maybe we just want a little reminder on what we'll be coming back to, but the rear view mirror gets overlooked. This is the view in my rear view mirror:




That's the baby chilling in her rear facing car seat and she's just laughing and enjoying the scenery around her. Sometimes on our drives, she will just stare out the window and watch the world pass by; that's usually before she passes out. Other times she just joins the Wifey and I's conversation and just talks and talks.

I know it's tragic to hear about parents who truly, accidentally leave their child in the car. Most of the time these families have siblings and in all the chaos that comes with children, parents tend to forget the quiet ones. "Industry experts" suggest leaving something of importance in the car seat, like a cell phone so a parent will make sure to get their kid out of the car. Unfortunately, it makes sense. We get so caught up in our lives that we forget the things that aren't screaming for our attention. And the same goes for day cares. The care givers at a daycare are going to usually pay more attention to that child that is screaming their heads off. And the quiet ones, the ones that just mind their business and do their own thing, sometimes get overlooked. The Wifey would tell me how when she worked at a daycare that workers would forget to feed a child because the kid wasn't fussing at all and they were too busy tending to other children. Granted, she worked at a daycare in Denton, but still. And that's why we worry for the Baby. She keeps herself entertained. She doesn't need to be constantly held or entertained, she just does her own thing. And it can be frustrating. The Wifey and I will get into the car and if it's dark and I can't see the backseat in my rear view mirror, I always ask "we got the Baby right?" But I guess that's a small price to pay for a good child.

I went out and bought this from Babies R Us, an oversized mirror from Safe Fit:

It's an ugly, massive eye sore but it works. Most car mirrors have horizontal straps that wrap around the headrest, like its hugging it. That's an issue because the straps slide up and down and I can never see the Baby in the mirror. This one has vertical straps and just fits so much better. PLUS it has a built in light so I can actually see the Baby without turning on the dome light. Pretty gadgety but it works.



In other news, J'acadi sent an apology gift awhile back. It was a very nice gesture for our experience. We were sent a bottle of baby perfume that the Wifey is actually using but I don't think she wants anybody to know. At least she doesn't have to worry about someone else wearing her scent. The Baby also got a nice little stuffed animal.





Luckily the Baby is fitting into bigger clothes, so we can actually shop at J'acadi now and buy some of their adorable outfits.