Monday, December 26, 2011

A Seamless Transition

I know this might be a bit tardy, considering it's been almost 10 months - but I think it's important to mention our dealings with breastfeeding. I've written quite a few posts in the past on the importance of it and tried to give advise for those who question which way they want to follow but there was never a mention of the Baby finally transitioning from the teet to the cup.

The Baby weened herself. It was a gradual change - something I never really noticed until the Wifey mentioned it to me with a tear in her eye.

When I reflect, I always think about how the Wifey would nurse in public and I would make sure there was privacy - not for her, but for me. She could care less. She knew it was just her feeding the child, nothing risque or inappropriate about it. I just didn't want creepy guys to take a gander.

The nursing times proved to be our few minutes of sanity - just pure quietness for all three of us. The Baby would just cuddle up to Wifey and I could focus on my video games.

Now it's all about what snacks we can find. One moment it's grapes, the next moment she wants crackers, or cheese, or cheese and crackers. Or she wants string cheese but also sliced cheese - or now she wants yogurt but the adult yogurt with her baby spoon or the baby yogurt with the adult spoon. So many different options and variations when before it was either left or right boob.

But it was an experience - and it was a bond that I will never experience with Baby like she does with her mom. The only memories I can cherish is being yelled at for not cleaning the breast pump properly.

It's amazing to reflect and see how much breastfeeding consumed our lives, a set two hour schedule of 3 minutes on each side. And suddenly it was gone. Suddenly there was no quick food source - now we have to package snacks and now we have to clean up after her. And it's expensive feeding the Baby real food.

But it was a seamless transition, although my bank account will say otherwise, and something to always cherish.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Santa, the Scariest Man on Earth

We ventured out to NorthPark Center to once again visit their famous Santa Clause.

Since we are pretty much professionals now, we arrived at the mall, or "shopping center" as the snooty NorthPark people will say, at 830AM. A good two and half hours before the lines open to actually take a picture with Santa.

At 830AM, we were already 48th in line. The real professionals had brought lawn chairs and iPads and saved their spot as if they were waiting in line for U2 tickets.

The biggest obstacle was trying to keep the Baby sane for the time we were there. Luckily she took a nap so we didn't have to worry about a fussy baby.

The Baby was dressed in her Christmas outfit with her cute little bow and she was the happiest baby there...until we attempted the handoff to Santa.




Maybe next year will be different when the Baby finally understands Santa's magical powers or maybe she just loathes the guy. Who knows. We even thought it was just that particular Santa until we decided to partake in a free Santa photo session at the airport.

Different guy, same results. It's always fun to see true fear photographed.


We wish everyone a Merry, not as petrified, Christmas!

Friday, December 9, 2011

A Good Baby

Today I wasn't feeling well (probably because I spent the entire previous day cleaning the bedroom/bathroom) so I decided to make it a stay in bed all day until work day. And the Baby did not care one bit. Usually she gets stir crazy but today we just lied around and watched movies all morning. She snacked on grapes and would go from lying next to me with the pillow behind her head to sitting between my legs.

Occasionally she would come up to me and put her arms around me and then grab my face with her little hands and give me a kiss on the lips and go back to watching the movie.

We ended up taking a break to go get some pho and as always, the Baby loved it. She sat in a booster seat and for the most part did well - she did a lot better job of keeping her food in the bowl.

Usually on the drive back, she passes out and I can sneak in a nap but she stayed awake. My routine is to get out of her car seat and let her walk into the house. She will then press the lock button my car door and then jingle the hanging dog leash before we go into the house. When we walked in she grabbed her cup of grapes and a book and went straight into the bedroom and laid on the bed.

So we watched another movie and she laid her head on my arm and grabbed my arm and wrapped around her body and made sure the comforter was covering her legs and took a nap.

She was a good baby today and makes me very happy she's my kid.

So here are a few pictures.

Before our lunch date today, with her Mug O' Grapes next to her.

She grabbed her blanket and took a nap on the ground.

Fake sleeping, you can see the smile on her face.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

It's Peanut Butter Potty Time!

The Wifey and I have been getting a little fed up with the Baby's desire to constantly be naked. She is always taking her diaper off and I have even taken the step of taping her diaper, in which she throws the biggest fit ever.

So we decided to be proactive and and start setting her on the potty so she would get accustomed to it. And so far she has gotten the hang of it with minimal hiccups. Every morning she goes to the bathroom and pats her diaper and we set her on the seat. It usually takes her a good five minutes to start going (typical girls) but as soon as she's done she will start clapping and cheering. We don't know how long she will keep it up but at least she is good at going through the motions.

In related news, as soon as she hears the shower running, she immediately strips down. I guess she is trained to know when to shower as well. But a shower means she can draw with her bathtub crayons and splash water. Oh well, baby steps.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Change Up

Here is some neat advice if your toddler is refusing to eat a particular snack that they have been eating since forever.

Try placing the snack inside a cup as opposed to a bowl or a baggie. The Baby today would not eat any grapes (her favorite snack ever) and I had them in a bowl and a baggie. Then I threw them all into a cup and she went ape shit.

Literal. Ape. Shit.

She just laughed and giggled and ran around and danced. We took a nap and she had to make sure the cup of grapes was with her in the bed. And when she woke up, she grabbed her cup.

I can't wait to throw them grapes into a shoe, I wonder how crazy she will act then.