We had a bit of a crisis over the course of a week or two that has pretty much been resolved at this point. And thus, the tale can now be told!
As mentioned before on this very page, PrettyGirl has been eating solid food for varying solidity. It had been recommended by the Maryland Food program, with which our daycare provider must conform, that we give PG cereal three times a day at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a fruit or vegetable twice a day. Since the only fruit PG had been introduced to was bananas, she was eating banana twice a day. PG was cool with this, from a flavor standpoint, but her innards weren't too crazy about it after a week of this diet so it ultimately made her uncomfortable and cranky.
So, after conferring with some other mothers who had been there and done that, along with Dr. Sears and La Leche League, M decided to take PG off the solids for a weekend and stick to breast milk. After all, M was assured, breast milk is really the only important thing, nutritionally. At six months, solid foods are just there to expand the baby's flavor and texture horizons and get her used to all that.
But when M let our daycare provider know about the milk-only weekend, she got upset about it. Apparently, it was "cruel" to introduce solids, only to take them away. While we can appreciate her concern for our daughter - a good trait to have when we're entrusting her with caring for said daughter during the day - we didn't appreciate the accusatory attitude, especially when it went counter to all of the advice we had been getting over the previous few days.
Finally, at our daycare provider's insistence (and my suggestion,) M called our pediatrician. She talked to a nurse there who agreed more or less with us - that PG was getting too many solids too soon. The nurse consulted a grid (which she subsequently faxed to M) that stated that until PG can sit on her own (which she's close to doing, but not there yet,) she should have cereal for breakfast, milk all day long and a fruit or vegetable for dinner.
That was a plan we were comfortable with, and we passed it along to our daycare provider. She was cool with it too, though we did have to give her a signed letter giving her authorization from us to not follow the Maryland Food Program, for when inspectors come to check up on her.
So, everybody's on the same page now, and all is well.
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PG had her six month doctor appointment today. Her usual pediatrician is on maternity leave, so she had a different doctor. I wasn't there, but the report from M is that he was A-OK too.
PG is falling a bit behind in the weight percentile, down to 40th after being in the 50th two months ago, but the doctor isn't worried about it. She has, however, kept up in the height/length percentile, still in the 50th. So I'm guessing she's gonna be a skinny kid.
Her eye color should remain what it is now, which makes us happy because her eyes look like mine, and that's what we wanted in our kid(s) since before any kid had even entered the picture!
She got a few shots, including her first of two flu shots. The shots made her sad, but she calmed down once M picked her up, which apparently doesn't happen often with post-shot babies. Such a good girl!
And the latest verdict on the solid food question: she's ready for a sitting-on-her-own baby's diet, which means cereal and fruit throughout the day, but we can increase the solids at a pace we feel is best.
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And now, here's your dose of other random stuff...
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Lately I've been seeing bumper stickers that say "Choose Civility In Howard County." I used to live in Howard County, and now I'm not sure I'd want to go back. It's a bit troubling that things could be so uncivil there that someone thought it necessary to make a bumper sticker asking people to be nicer. On the other hand, it might be a good sign that so many people have that sticker on their cars. After all, civility isn't exactly running rampant here on the East Coast, so it's a good sentiment to advertise.
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I imagine the slash fiction writers are gonna have a field day with the recent Dumbledore revelation. They were probably way ahead of the curve on that one, actually.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Party Girl!
PG turned six months last Saturday and celebrated by going to a party. It wasn't a party for her, of course - M's colleague's husband was turning 40 and had just been named head of the music department at a local college - but that didn't stop her from being the center of attention a lot.
We had been in the house for all of about 30 or 40 seconds when a teenage girl we had never met asked if she could hold our baby. M had already gone on ahead to find the hostess of the party, so I was on my own to handle this request. I just pretended to not hear the question, being as it caught me so off guard, but when she asked again a few minutes later, after some more oohing and aahing from her and her sister, I decided what the hell. The girl was very careful and sat down before taking PG, and it gave my arms a rest. M came back in the room a few minutes later to find our daughter in the arms of a stranger, but Daddy was keeping an eye on things!
Our arms got plenty of rest that evening. After our new acquaintance relinquished control, she quickly ended up in the arm's of M's former boss. Then it was M's colleague. Then it was another colleague. PG made lots of friends!
There were lots of other kids there, so I got some insight into the various types that PG may or may not grow into. There was the shy little girl who pretty much kept to herself and didn't say much to us. Then there was her brother, who played with every truck-like toy he could get his eager hands on. And then there was the kid with the black eye, the result of a recent bunkbed mishap. He seemed to be looking for danger, that kid. A bunch of kids were on the swingset, in the two-seater swing, and this kid hung on the outside, letting his body get dragged underneath the swing as it swung towards him. There was room for that, of course, but if his grip had slipped... well, I guess it's a good thing his grip didn't slip and gave us a chance to find out what would happen.
We also got some demonstrations on parenting practices to avoid. Another little boy, not looking for danger, got himself a can of danger anyway when he wandered a little too close in front of the swings (the regular single-seaters) and got hit. No biggie, really, just got knocked down, but his dad kinda made a production of it, so, of course, the kid, in turn, got upset and cried his head off. The lesson: stay calm, make sure the kid's OK, comfort him (or her) gently, don't be all "oh noes! OMG!"
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Todd and Jason were referring to the game Civilization IV as "Civilization eye-vee," so my brother took the opportunity to teach them about Roman numerals. This was, of course, right up Todd's alley, so he started writing down every number in Roman numerals, starting with I. As of the weekend before last, he was up to the DCCs. I forgot to check on his progress last weekend, so I don't know how much further he had gotten. Perhaps the MCs or MCCs. Maybe even the MCDs!
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PG has a boyfriend already! I can't remember his actual name, because I always refer to him as Glasses McBlabberson (not to his face nor to anyone who might tell his parents.) I named him such because 1) the poor kid wears thick glasses at the tender age of 23 months, and 2) he talks a lot, usually unintelligibly. He's very taken with PG, and she seems to like him better than the other kids. He's only allowed to touch her feet, so I'm not too worried about him getting fresh with her. Nevertheless, I gave him a little talk one morning while dropping PG off. He looked at me politely the whole time, though he probably didn't understand what I was talking about.
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I was listening to Melissa's Etheridge's I Run For Life the other day. My mom would have really liked that song. She was all about putting a positive spin on dealing with that stuff. As for me, I'll be refraining from listening to it while driving from here on out. Too dangerous. I need to be able to see while I'm driving.
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I may as well give you all the heads-up now: I'm planning on officially participating in NaBloPoMo this year. That will, of course, coincide with PoMoOftMo, unless I decide to postpone that until December, to keep the frequent posts coming an extra month. Whenever it may be, PoMoOftMo will happen, if not for any other reason because I have an idea for this year's logo.
We had been in the house for all of about 30 or 40 seconds when a teenage girl we had never met asked if she could hold our baby. M had already gone on ahead to find the hostess of the party, so I was on my own to handle this request. I just pretended to not hear the question, being as it caught me so off guard, but when she asked again a few minutes later, after some more oohing and aahing from her and her sister, I decided what the hell. The girl was very careful and sat down before taking PG, and it gave my arms a rest. M came back in the room a few minutes later to find our daughter in the arms of a stranger, but Daddy was keeping an eye on things!
Our arms got plenty of rest that evening. After our new acquaintance relinquished control, she quickly ended up in the arm's of M's former boss. Then it was M's colleague. Then it was another colleague. PG made lots of friends!
There were lots of other kids there, so I got some insight into the various types that PG may or may not grow into. There was the shy little girl who pretty much kept to herself and didn't say much to us. Then there was her brother, who played with every truck-like toy he could get his eager hands on. And then there was the kid with the black eye, the result of a recent bunkbed mishap. He seemed to be looking for danger, that kid. A bunch of kids were on the swingset, in the two-seater swing, and this kid hung on the outside, letting his body get dragged underneath the swing as it swung towards him. There was room for that, of course, but if his grip had slipped... well, I guess it's a good thing his grip didn't slip and gave us a chance to find out what would happen.
We also got some demonstrations on parenting practices to avoid. Another little boy, not looking for danger, got himself a can of danger anyway when he wandered a little too close in front of the swings (the regular single-seaters) and got hit. No biggie, really, just got knocked down, but his dad kinda made a production of it, so, of course, the kid, in turn, got upset and cried his head off. The lesson: stay calm, make sure the kid's OK, comfort him (or her) gently, don't be all "oh noes! OMG!"
********************
Todd and Jason were referring to the game Civilization IV as "Civilization eye-vee," so my brother took the opportunity to teach them about Roman numerals. This was, of course, right up Todd's alley, so he started writing down every number in Roman numerals, starting with I. As of the weekend before last, he was up to the DCCs. I forgot to check on his progress last weekend, so I don't know how much further he had gotten. Perhaps the MCs or MCCs. Maybe even the MCDs!
********************
PG has a boyfriend already! I can't remember his actual name, because I always refer to him as Glasses McBlabberson (not to his face nor to anyone who might tell his parents.) I named him such because 1) the poor kid wears thick glasses at the tender age of 23 months, and 2) he talks a lot, usually unintelligibly. He's very taken with PG, and she seems to like him better than the other kids. He's only allowed to touch her feet, so I'm not too worried about him getting fresh with her. Nevertheless, I gave him a little talk one morning while dropping PG off. He looked at me politely the whole time, though he probably didn't understand what I was talking about.
********************
I was listening to Melissa's Etheridge's I Run For Life the other day. My mom would have really liked that song. She was all about putting a positive spin on dealing with that stuff. As for me, I'll be refraining from listening to it while driving from here on out. Too dangerous. I need to be able to see while I'm driving.
********************
I may as well give you all the heads-up now: I'm planning on officially participating in NaBloPoMo this year. That will, of course, coincide with PoMoOftMo, unless I decide to postpone that until December, to keep the frequent posts coming an extra month. Whenever it may be, PoMoOftMo will happen, if not for any other reason because I have an idea for this year's logo.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Rocktober!
Our little PrettyGirl is becoming quite the jabberjaw! Of course, none of her jabbering is in English (though I'm pretty sure she has accidentally said her own name more than once.) We've been awakened around 4:30 AM a few times recently by her talking to herself.
She has also figured out how to scream on purpose. She let out a fairly robust scream in early August, but hadn't repeated the feat for a while. But now she can scream at will. And does so quite often. It's sometimes a little hard to tell, without looking at her, if she's actually complaining or just amusing herself. M can usually tell if she's screaming out of boredom or out of hunger during her early-morning performances.
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Also in the category of "Things About PG That Probably Only Interest Her Parents," PG is now eating solid food that can actually be reasonably considered, you know, solid. We gave her some Gerber banana goop on Sunday, which she gulped down. Monday night, we went with an actual banana that had been pureed in the blender. It looked identical to the Gerber stuff, but did have the advantage of smelling more like an actual banana and less like butt.
In all fairness, Gerber does use actual banana in their goop. I'm guessing it's the addition of the citric acid or extra Vitamin C that makes it kinda stink.
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I'm sure you all have been waiting with bated breath to know how long it took the classic rock station to finish their A-Z thing. It ended pretty much exactly when I predicted it would, conveniently just in time for the weekend blocks to begin. As I did not predict, it was "The Zoo" by The Scorpions that ended it. "Ziggy Stardust" was the second-last song. "A Hard Day's Night" by, of course, The Beatles was the first one. Why "The" doesn't put a song in with the T's, but "A" puts the song in with the A's is anybody's guess. I was also interested to learn that The Scorpions are considered classic rock now. Ah, how old we're getting. It's just a matter of time before they start breaking out the Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
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One of M's old boyfriends recently e-mailed M to see if she had the baby yet. Mind you, he was told of her pregnancy about a year ago, and he had sent us a present when PG was born. This is what I have to compete with in the Former Lover department.
She has also figured out how to scream on purpose. She let out a fairly robust scream in early August, but hadn't repeated the feat for a while. But now she can scream at will. And does so quite often. It's sometimes a little hard to tell, without looking at her, if she's actually complaining or just amusing herself. M can usually tell if she's screaming out of boredom or out of hunger during her early-morning performances.
********************
Also in the category of "Things About PG That Probably Only Interest Her Parents," PG is now eating solid food that can actually be reasonably considered, you know, solid. We gave her some Gerber banana goop on Sunday, which she gulped down. Monday night, we went with an actual banana that had been pureed in the blender. It looked identical to the Gerber stuff, but did have the advantage of smelling more like an actual banana and less like butt.
In all fairness, Gerber does use actual banana in their goop. I'm guessing it's the addition of the citric acid or extra Vitamin C that makes it kinda stink.
********************
I'm sure you all have been waiting with bated breath to know how long it took the classic rock station to finish their A-Z thing. It ended pretty much exactly when I predicted it would, conveniently just in time for the weekend blocks to begin. As I did not predict, it was "The Zoo" by The Scorpions that ended it. "Ziggy Stardust" was the second-last song. "A Hard Day's Night" by, of course, The Beatles was the first one. Why "The" doesn't put a song in with the T's, but "A" puts the song in with the A's is anybody's guess. I was also interested to learn that The Scorpions are considered classic rock now. Ah, how old we're getting. It's just a matter of time before they start breaking out the Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
********************
One of M's old boyfriends recently e-mailed M to see if she had the baby yet. Mind you, he was told of her pregnancy about a year ago, and he had sent us a present when PG was born. This is what I have to compete with in the Former Lover department.
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