Holy Development, Batman!

PK is becoming increasingly proficient with her hands. Today, after months of trying, she was finally able to put her soother back in her mouth after taking it out. She even managed to repeat this several times!

She's also getting quite good at squealing. While she does make the occasional semi-coherent babbling sound, she does seem to prefer squealing over babbling. Her squeals have become quite sophisticated and we even sometimes trade squeals back and forth. I like to refer to it as "Pteradactyl Talk".

Tummy time continues to be a challenge. She totally hates it, and will always roll from her front to her back as soon as she gets a chance. Unfortunately, she's not always successful and sometimes winds up spread-eagle, squirming about, and wailing. Yesterday, she added something new to her tummy time repertoire. She actually moved her legs like she was trying to crawl. I think that she would've probably been successful were it not for the fact that she doesn't have enough upper-body strength to hold herself up long enough. The end result is her with her butt in the air and her head buried on the floor or bed as she tries to push herself forward. It's quite funny! On a related note, now that she has discovered this new leg movement, it seems to help her when she tries to roll over from a spread-eagle position since she manages to get her one arm under her torso. Before, said arm would keep her from rolling over in that position. Mind you, she hasn't put two and two together, so she can't actually roll over from a spread-eagle position quite yet. Soon though!

One thing she's been working on is rolling from her back to her front. Her legs are pretty powerful, and she can really get them to swing from side-to-side with a fair bit of force! She has almost managed to roll over to her side from her back a few times. I think that when she does manage to roll over successfully, she'll be sorely disappointed to realize that all this work was to roll over to a posiotion that she absolutely detests!

The most exciting development for me, however, is that now PK is able to support her own weight for a full 10 seconds when we stand her up (assisted, of course). Of course, while these milestones are great, it does mean that she will be mobile VERY soon, and I'm sure that that's when we're REALLY in for a wild ride!
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Hurtin' and Lovin' It!

Today, after being away from it for over one year, the hubby and I finally made it out to the climbing gym. My mom came over to look after PK, while we were out.

We had a blast! It almost felt like we hadn't even been away from it at all. We started off really easy with a 5.7, and gradually worked our way up. I managed to flash a 5.7, a 5.8, two 5.9s, a 5.10- (5.10a/b), and a 5.10+ (5.10c/d). I was unable to finish one climb. It was a 5.9 with a crazy-ass overhang. I might have made it up on my first attempt, but the steep overhang made me lose my nerve and I let go. I ended up swinging wildly on the rope for a while before the hubby let me down. My second attempt went no better, and I decided to stop trying that particular route so that I could save my energies for later. The hubby didn't fare any better at that route. In fact, he slipped during his first attempt. As he fell, I shot upward about 2 meters, losing both of my flip-flops, and he ended up on a collision course toward me, smacking his arm against my shin. I think that my shin ended up with the worse end of the deal. It's still hurting a bit, and has a big shiny bruise on it.

My final climb of the day was a 5.11- (5.11a/b). Aside from the killer 5.9, that was the only climb where I had a fall. I ended up slipping a few times, but I did finish the climb somewhat gracefully. By the end of that climb, I was done for, not because my fingers and forearms couldn't take it, but because my feet were just killing me. Back in my pre-pregnancy days, I wore a 34.5 size climbing shoe. I'm a 35 or 35.5 with regular shoes. It was a bit of a tight fit, but it was manageable. Well, I think that my pregnancy caused my feet to grow a bit, because that 34.5 shoe was just killing my feet. My toes are all sore, and my heels ache from the shoes digging into them. I'm hoping that this pain was a result of being away from climbing for so long, and that I just need to break in my shoes again. The only thing that worries me is that my shoes had never ever dug into my heels before, even when they were brand-new. So this might mean that I have to buy another pair of climbing shoes. While I do love shoe shopping, I HATE shopping for climbing shoes. Climbing shoes are supposed to hurt somewhat because they tend to be half a size or so smaller than your regular shoe size, and I just really can't stand any type of pain on my feet. Anyway, hopefully this will sort itself out.

Overall, I think that our return to climbing went very well; much better than I had anticipated. I think that for me, the transition was relatively smooth because of all of those hangboard workouts that I've been doing. Not only is the hangboard good for developing great back strength and tone, it is also great for developing finger strength and endurance. The trip to the climbing gym was also great because I got to spend some nice quality time with the hubby. Sure, we spend quality time at home, but this was different. It felt like the way things were when we were dating. We were goofing off. We were laughing at our injuries. It was fun!

As I type this, I am aching all over. My fingers, toes, and heels are killing me. I can barely walk. My legs are all bruised, my left elbow is scraped, and my shin hurts. But I would not trade this feeling for the world!

Writer's Block

I've got a long list of things that I want to write about on this blog. I often come up with a ton of witty things to write about while I'm out walking or while I'm in the shower, but sometimes, when I attempt to put them in writing, they end up being a great big writing disaster.

Yesterday, for example, I had started writing about how losing weight post-partum is difficult, in spite of breast-feeding. As you may or may not know, breast-feeding burns a ton of calories. It also makes you really really hungry. With me, I also found that I had these stupid cravings for sweets. The point that I tried to make is that you can end up GAINING weight post-partum because of the cravings and constant hunger which accompany breast-feeding. The post I was writing ended up sounding like I was bitching about my weight again, and I know that I, of all people should not be bitching about weight given that I fit into my post-partum clothes 2-3 weeks after delivering PK, and that they still fit. So yeah...that post went the way of the dodo.

Determined to get a post published yesterday one way or another, I finally opted to write about Christmas Eve in PK Land. The post turned out okay, though I think it wound up sounding like I was a bit of a zombie on Christmas Eve due to my obsession with installing Ubuntu on my laptop. Okay, so I was a bit of a zombie, but I did enjoy Christmas Eve with the family. Honest! Anyway, my attempts to post kept me up until 2:30am, which would've been fine except for the fact that PK woke us up at 8:30am, so I'm kind of running on fumes now. I'm sure I'll wind up taking a spontaneous catnap at some point or another during the day. Either that, or I'll end up going to bed really early.

Oh, hell, even this post is starting to go down the toilet. I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Poopy Facts

I never thought that poop could be so amusing, and yet PK's poop continues to be a source of amusement. PK's pooping schedule is stable enough these days such that we know that 90% of the time, she will take a morning poop. She will, however, sometimes surprise us with an afternoon poop.

The funny thing about afternoon poop is its consistency. Most of the time, it's her pasty brownish-gray formula-only poop. Sometimes, however, we will be graced with seedy lighter-brown poop - the hybrid poop that used to be produced by feeding her a combination of breast milk and formula. Either way, afternoon poop tends to be a pain because she's usually in her G-Diaper by then, and it's a pain to clean the poop off of the plastic liner.

On the off-chance that PK doesn't poop in the morning, it usually means that she will poop in the afternoon. The afternoon poop project is a work-in-progress. We know that it will eventually materialize because of some pre-poop signs: namely some pre-poop grunting, pre-poop farting, and my favorite, the bug-eyed look. The bug-eyed look usually means that the poop is still a couple of hours away. When the poop finally does materialize, it's usually during an early evening or late-afternoon bottle. Yes, PK can only muster an afternoon poop while she's feeding. I don't know why, but I find it freaking hillarious. She'll start out taking her bottle just fine. Then she'll start getting all shifty and start grunting while drinking her milk. This is usually followed by a series of farts, more squirming, and finally, the pièce de resistance.

No matter what though, PK is ALWAYS in a great mood following a poop. Although I can't say that I'm a fan of cleaning up her poop, seeing how happy she gets on the change table while a mop up her butt just puts a smile on my face. Who would've thought that poopy talk would be such a source of amusement?

A PK Land Christmas Eve

Every year since getting married, we'd celebrate Christmas Eve at my parents' place. We'd have a Christmas Eve dinner, open presents, and putter around the house until 11pm, when my mom, my sister, and I would head over to the church for Christmas Mass. I don't go to Christmas Mass out of my own free will, with me being an atheist and all, but it pleases my mom, so I go. The hubby and I would usually stay at my parents' place overnight, and then we'd head over to the in-laws' in the early afternoon to celebrate Christmas there.

This year was different, with it being PK's first Christmas. Instead of celebrating Christmas Eve at my parents' place, we hosted it at our place. One might wonder why we'd host Christmas Eve at our place this year of all years, with having a child and all. The simple answer is that, while this setup was in some ways more hectic, it did allow us to stick to PK's nighttime routine. She continues to sleep through the night, and while feeding her formula DOES help, I think that her sleeping through the night is in part due to her nighttime routine. Her nighttime routine starts with 6pm with some playtime to wear her out before bed, followed by her bath at 7:30pm, a little feeding nightcap, and then bedtime. She winds up falling asleep between 8:15pm and 8:30pm. Keeping to PK's schedule on Christmas Eve lessened the chance of mucking with her nighttime routine, especially given that we knew that it would be somewhat messed up on Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve at our place went overall very well. I baked my grandmother's chocolate cake, a loaf of apple bread, tea biscuits, and some corn soufflé. My parents brought some store-bought chicken (at my parents' place, my mom would make a Christmas chicken), and my brother-in-law brought some apricot chicken. We ended up having a late lunch in lieu of dinner, so as to not conflict with PK's schedule. The food was all delicious, and everyone enjoyed themselves. PK slept while we opened our presents, but we woke her up to open up her own presents. Obviously she couldn't open her own presents, but she at least seemed to be fascinated by the stuff she got. My mom bought her this cute little Baby Einstein piano, which she is able to bang on to make some semblance of music. My sis and her hubby bought her an exer-saucer. It was a little big for her at first, but she has really grown into it in the last week. Just crazy!

Clean-up turned out not to be a huge deal, since my mom helped out with quite a bit of clean-up during the day, and then the hubby finished off some of the clean-up after he put PK to bed. I messed around on the computer while he did that, trying to install Ubuntu Eee on my Eee PC (my Christmas present to myself). Warning: the following description contains a bunch of techno-babble.

I got my Eee PC one week before Christmas, and had set it up all nicely. I blasted the original Linux distribution on the machine since it was total crap, and had replaced it with Ubuntu, my very favorite Linux distribution. It was all working perfectly. Then, it all fell apart, when, on Christmas Eve, my dad convinced me that I should be installing Ubuntu Eee on the machine instead. Ubuntu Eee is a version of Ubuntu that is optimized for the Eee PC. I figured that it made more sense, so I started doing that while the family was over. The install went well, until I realized that the machine refused to recognize my USB flash drives and my built-in SD card reader. This was definitely unacceptable, and so I scoured the Internet for an explanation. Of course, I was baffled by this, since my dad never had an issue with his own Eee PC. Through the course of Christmas Eve, I must have installed Ubuntu Eee about 6 times (if not more). Still, I had no luck in getting the O/S to acknowledge the existence of my USB flash drives out-of-the box. I did find some documentation that showed me how to get Ubuntu to recognize these devices, but even after I created the proper config file, the damned thing was still acting up. Since I knew that the full version of Ubuntu worked perfectly fine, I ended up reverting to my previous setup (i.e. full Ubuntu).

Unfortunately, messing with the O/S sucked up most of my evening after we put PK to bed, and the hubby and I didn't really get to enjoy Christmas Eve together. It unfortunately also turned me into a half zombie when my family was around, as I was busy re-installing the O/S after lunch, and wound up being half there for the festivities. I really regret having done that, but that was my own fault. I hope that this serves as a reminder of the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

In spite of my obsessive installation of Linux, Christmas Eve did go surprisingly well. I was initially really bummed out over the fact that we wouldn't be celebrating it at my parents' place, and even missed the idea of going to midnight mass, but this worked out well in the end. I don't know if we'll be hosting again at our place next year, or if we'll return to business as usual at my parents' place, but I do know that whatever we decide, I will NOT be installing Linux next Christmas Eve!

A Dose of Reality

While I've really enjoyed hanging out with my mommy friends every week, I have come to conclusions:

1. Apart from us all having babies, I don't really have much in common with most of them.
2. Once we return to work, most of us will probably not hang out anymore.
3. I don't really share the same parenting views as most of these moms.

Common Bonds
I really don't have much in common with some of these moms. We all come from different walks of life. I have very in-your-face opinions about politics, religion, and professional sports, which would piss most people off. I am a super-geek who can get lost for hours in a geeky side-project (much to the hubby's dismay, at times, even though he himself is a fellow geek). This is definitely not the type of thing that most women are into. I feel more comfortable around my guy friends than with my female friends, with a few exceptions.

Post-Mat-Leave Life
I think that life after mat-leave will be very different for all of us. Right now, we all have time on our side (even if our babies do seem to take up most of that time). We can meet on a weekly basis in the middle of the day, because most of us aren't working right now. Things will be very different once we return to work. We'll have to balance working with making sure that we get quality time with our babies. Getting together on a weekly basis will simply not be possible, because we just won't have that kind of time anymore.

Parenting Style
I feel like a bit of an outsider in the mommy group. Most of the moms in the group are big on cloth diapers, bed-sharing, breast-feeding, and baby-wearing. There is nothing wrong with any of these things, but that just isn't my bag. We did flirt with the idea of going with a cloth diaper service, but realistically, I don't think that the eco-footprint of the cloth diaper service would be any better than the eco-footprint of going with gDiapers instead. The bed-sharing thing is just foreign to me. I know that many moms are into it, but I don't get it. I'd be terrified of smushing my baby to death. Besides, I just find it awkward to sleep in the same bed as your baby. I think that baby needs his/her own little personal space. PK LOVES her room. I've yapped enough about the beast-feeding thing and I won't go into it anymore. In a nutshell: I would've loved to have done it for longer, but formula-feeding is not the end of the world. And finally, baby-wearing. I love the concept, but PK is just not into that. She even fusses in her sling now. Somehow I end up feeling bad about the fact that PK isn't into her carrier. So I find that all I can do with regards to these things is smile and nod.

I may have given the impression that I hate my mommy group or am annoyed by some of the moms in the group. That is not at all what I was trying to get at. I'm just saying that were it not for our babies, these moms and I would probably not be friends. I hope this doesn't come off as me knocking them. The moms in the group are all very nice, friendly, and intelligent, and we do have some enjoyable chats. I'm just saying that the fact that we all had babies at around the same time doesn't make us all BFFs. That's not to say that it hasn't been a blast. It is nice to have a support network as a new mom. I swear I'd go nuts if I didn't have these weekly meetings to look forward to. I've even made a few good friends that I'm sure that I'll stay in touch with through the year. People come and go in our lives, and most of the ladies in the group will certainly come and go from my life. Wherever life takes us however, I hope that we all look back upon this time and cherish the good memories.

The End of an Era

Back in September, I was pondering whether or not to continue playing with the symphonic band that I've been in on and off for the past 8 years or so. At the time, I'd opted to take a hiatus for the first half of the season, with plans to return to playing in January.

In early December, I once again found myself at a bit of a crossroads. Was it worth coming back in January 2009? On the one hand, I know that I'm not an amazing clarinet player, but the band at least forced me to keep playing. Also, one of my best friends from university also plays in the band. We both have ridiculously busy schedules, so it was an excuse for us to hang out. On the other hand, the band is made up of mostly students, most of whom are in their late teens (ack!) and early 20s. I, on the other hand, am a 29-year-old mother in IT. There are a few of us senior members in the band, but we are few and far-between. We are mostly surrounded by kiddies whose priorities are much much different from those of us boring old married folk.

In the end, I have decided to ditch the band and move on to bigger and better things. Music is still a HUGE part of my life, and I also want it to be a huge part of PK's life (that is, if she even LIKES music in the same way). I also know that I am as lazy as can be when it comes to practicing on my own. I guess that if I don't have an end goal (e.g. concert, impressing music teacher), then there's really nothing to motivate me to play.

So here's my plan. I own a violin, which has been sitting in its case gathering dust for 5 years now. I'd gotten it as a birthday present under the delusion that I'd be able to teach mysellf how to play it. I play clarinet, sax, flute, piano, and a teensy bit of guitar, so I figured that playing the violin would be no biggie. Well, I was wrong. It is FREAKING HARD to play! So freaking hard to play that I gave up on it. Until last week, when I decided to sign myself up for violin lessons. I am both excited and nervous about these lessons. Aside from music class in middle school and high school, I have never really had any "formal" musical training. Besides, when I attempt to play the violin, I sound like a dying cat. I really hope that these lessons change all that.

While I am sad to be officially leaving the band, I think that this decision is for the best. It is time for me to move on, and what better way to do this than to explore uncharted musical territory?

Splish Splash

Today I signed PK up for her very first set of swimming lessons. I had the opportunity to sign her up back in mid- or late October with some of the moms in my mommy group, but she was too young and couldn't even hold up her head that well.

Now that PK is a bit older, she's got much better control of her upper-body and holds her head up quite nicely. Also, she enjoys her bath so much now that I think that she'd really enjoy swimming lessons. Her lessons start in mid-January, at which point she'll be just over 5 months old.

One thing that was keeping me from enrolling her in swimming lessons, however, was the logistical aspect of swimming lessons. How would I change myself and PK into swim clothes and NOT go crazy? Well, my sister-in-law suggested bringing lots of towels with me so that I could put PK down on the floor while I got changed. This would be especially improtant for when we got out of the pool and I needed to change both myself and PK out of cold, wet swim clothes. She also suggested wearing my swimsuit under my clothes so that when I get to the pool, I only need to change PK into her swimming diaper. Definitely good ideas to keep in mind.

There will be one other thing, however, which will make it even easier to manage things. I signed up for a weekend swim class. While the hubby and I can't BOTH be in the water at the same time for the lesson, one of us can be in the water with PK while the other watches from an observation area. The mere fact that both of us can come to the swimming classes together means that whoever is staying in the observation area can get PK changed, while the parent doing the actual class can change in peace. Besides, the obvious great advantage to doing weekend swimming lessons means that we can alternate on who's in the pool with PK, thereby allowing both of us to share in this special bonding time with PK.

Hopefully PK actually takes to the swimming classes. Stay tuned to find out!
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Geeking Out

Ever since PK was born, I've been pretty much 100% in mommy mode. I'm a geek at heart, and I was hurting for some geekiness. Well, my dry spell has finally come to an end! Last week I ordered myself a little Christmas present, and it arrived 2 days after I ordered it. My geeky toy was an Asus Eee PC. Why do I need yet another laptop, you may ask? This may sound funny, but the answer is portability. My HP laptop is a real clunker, runs Windows XP, and takes forever to boot. My new little Asus Eee PC is teeny, lightweight, and runs Linux. Being the geek that I am, I was not satisfied with the out-of-the-box product. The flavor off Linux that it ran was amateurish at best, and I am no Linux amateur. So, my little side-project was blasting the pre-loaded Linux O/S on the Eee PC, and replacing it with my favorite flavor of Linux, Ubuntu.

Fortunately, I found a great site which had everything I needed to know to Ubuntify the machine, so I was able to load Ubuntu within a day. Of course, since the instructions were written by a fellow computer geek, they did assume a certain amount of knowledge on things such as setting up partitions at install-time, which, although I know what I'm doing, had me scratching me head for about 30 minutes or so.

Although re-O/Sing my new laptop was a pretty simple task which didn't take up too much of my time, it was nice to be back into the swing of geekiness. I sometimes need a reminder that I do have a life outside of being a mom to little PK. I have to admit that while I've been having a blast with her, I found that I was in dire need of a non-mommyhood-related activity. Unfortunately, I was also finding that I lacked the motivation to get off my post-pregnancy ass to get the ball rolling. Hopefully the completion of my little side-project means that I can get out of this slump and start tackling other things outside of the realm of mommy-hood.

Inaccessible

PK is a stroller baby, through and through. While I've had limited luck in carrying her in her sling, she still doesn't quite take to her carrier. I have managed to keep her in for a bit longer each time, though the only time she actually seems happy in it is when I stand in front of a mirror with her in the carrier. So, I must use the stroller on a day-to-day basis to get from point A to point B. I don't mind so much, since I can walk at a pretty good clip with the stroller, Plus, it has awesome storage on the bottom, so I can put groceries and other purchases in there.

The only sucky thing about taking PK around in a stroller on a day-to-day basis is that you start to realize just how wheelchair un-friendly Toronto really is. First off, only some TTC subway stations are wheelchair-friendly (and hence stroller-friendly). This means that a person in a wheelchair can't just get off at any subway station that he or she chooses. This is absolutely appalling. By making only some subway stations wheelchair-friendly, the city is basically snubbing people in wheelchairs, sending a message that they don't think that these people deserve to get out and take public transit along with the rest of us. When there IS a wheelchair-friendly station, the elevators aren't necessarily working. I have gotten off a many a subway station where time and again I have been unable to take the elevator due to "Preventive Maintenance". That's all fine and dandy, except that the TTC's solution when their elevators aren't working is to take the subway to another wheelchair-friendly station and hop on a whelchair-friendly bus that will hopefully get you to your destination. I'm a little more flexible with the stroller when the elevator isn't working, as long as there's a working escalator going in the direction that I need it to go. Sometimes only the up escalator is working when I need to go down, for example. In that case, I'm either screwed and must turn back, or I have to ask some kind soul to help carry my stroller up a bunch of stairs.

Now, even if all TTC stations were wheelchair-friendly, it wouldn't do wheelchair-bound individuals much good in a snowstorm, because the city does a piss-poor job of making sure that sidewalks are properly cleared of snow. Some of the property owners on my street do such a sloppy job of clearing out the snow (i.e they don't clear it at all), that not only is it nearly impossible to navigate the sidewalks with a stroller, it poses a SERIOUS hazard when all of that snow or slush re-freezes. Last year, when I was pregnant, I almost took a HUGE spill in front of a house when we were returning from the supermarket, because the property owners/tenants were too damned lazy to clear the snow. The only reason why I didn't fall was because some blessed soul happened to be walking just behind me and caught me as I fell.

One observation that I've made since I've started taking the elevator when I ride the TTC with the stroller is the number of people who use the elevator because they're just plain lazy. It is freaking ridiculous. I have lost count of the number of times that I've gotten into a TTC elevator with young, able-bodied individuals who could've just as easily have taken the damn stairs. I've never gotten to the point where I've had to yell at these people to get off the elevator to make room for the stroller. Fortunately, they at least have the common courtesy to do so.

On a similar note, a HUGE pet peeve I have is when people press the button to automatically open doors that are meant for wheelchair or stroller access. This behavior pisses me off for two reasons. First of all, by doing so, people are causing unnecessary wear and tear on the automated system. This means that the automated door mechanism ends up breaking down sooner, and the people who actually NEED the system are the ones who get screwed over. The other thing that gets me is that, as with the elevators, I don't get what the big deal is about exerting a little bit of effort to open a freaking door. WTF??? Unless I have the stroller with me, I will not push the automatic-door button.

It's funny how having a stroller to lug around can be such an eye-opener, isn't it?

Forced Hibernation

On Friday, Toronto got its first major snowfall of the season. It snowed continuously for about 12 hours, if not longer, and we ended up with somewhere around 15 or 20 cm of snow by the end of it. That's quite a bit of snow for the city, so you can imagine how much snow must've gotten dumped in the outskirts! Anyway, I am a HUGE fan of big winter storms, as long as I'm not driving, of course. I'm also a huge fan of walking in the middle of these big storms. Call me crazy, but walking in ankle-deep snow is an awesome workout. Besides, on days like these, most people stay indoors, so you get the streets all to yourself.

Anyway, Friday would've been a great day for a winter storm walk, except for the fact that there was no way in hell that I could've walked outside with my stroller in that storm. As much as I love my Bugaboo Bee, it is NOT suited for walking around in the middle of a major winter storm. Its wheels are just too small to navigate in 15cm of snow. As a result, I ended up spending all of Friday at home. I didn't mind so much, since it was a great stay-at-home day. I enjoyed sitting in my kitchen, watching the snow come down, while PK napped for 2 hours. Of course, by Saturday, I was itching to get outside.

I did get a call at one point on Friday from one of my mommy friends to see if I was up for a walk, and though I was very tempted to take her up on her invitation, I am glad that I stayed indoors that day. The snow wasn't ploughed from the sidewalks and from the street until well after 7pm on Friday, and even still, it was quite difficult to walk on the sidewalks the following day. We were out on Saturday to finish up our Christmas shopping, and had a hell of a time walking along the sidewalk on our street with our Bugaboo Bee. The stroller got stuck in the snow more than a few times, and poor little PK was bouncing around so much in there that I was starting to get worried. For once, I was jealous of those moms pushing around strollers with big-ass wheels.

Four Months and Three Weeks

The last few weeks have been quite busy for PK in the growth and development side of things. First, there's her language development. In addition to the fact that she is chatting up a storm these days, on Friday, I actually heard her say "ha" and "la". On Saturday, the hubby heard her say "da". How exciting is that???

We've also been working on having PK sit up on her own. She has definitely developed her back muscles quite nicely and is sitting up very well on the couch. No more slumping over for her! On Saturday, we also managed to get her to sit up on her own on the bed for about 5 seconds. Not only that, we got it on video! On a related note, she has also started pulling herself forward (somewhat) when we offer our fingers to her for sitting up.

While I've seen a huge improvement in PK's ability to sit up, I haven't found any huge strides being made in the standing up department. We practice standing up every day, and for a while there, PK would be able to support her body weight on her feet for a few brief seconds. Unfortunately, nowadays, whenever we try doing this, she keeps shifting her weight from her left foot to her right foot. It ends up looking like she's doing a little dance, which is quite amusing, though I think I'd prefer it if she worked more on the standing up part. I'm hoping that once she gets into the exer-saucer that my sis and her husband bought her for Christmas, she'll start getting more into standing.

As for tummy time, she still hates it. About a month ago, I thought I'd discovered Super-Awesome Tummy Time. Super-Awesome Tummy Time was when I played Superman with her (had her flying through the air while I lay on my back), and then put her down on her tummy, resting on my legs. The first few times I tried it were a complete success. She would totally push herself up, and did NOT complain about it. Then after her brief flirtation with teething, she started to get annoyed about tummy time again, and even started refusing to roll. Well, the rules of the game have once again changed. While PK is still in I Hate Tummy Time mode, she has now taken to rolling again. The funny thing is that she'll start wailing while she's on her tummy, roll over, and stop crying, accompanied by an "All in a Day's Work" expression on her face. Unfortunately, she only seems to roll on her left side. Not a huge surprise, given that her left side is her default favorite side for everything.

On that note, however, after working very intensely on getting PK to show some interest in her right side, it seems that we are finally seeing some good results. She is grasping equally-well with both her left and right hands, and seems to be amenable to the idea of looking off to her right side every once in a while. She does, however, tend to prefer her left side over her right side when she is tired. I think switching feeding sides every so often has helped a lot, along with putting all of her toys on her right side. Even still, she is pretty resourceful with that left hand.

One interesting thing that has become more prevalent in the past few weeks is her desire to lick things. PK actually started licking objects at somewhere around 3 months, though she didn't do it too often. Nowadays, I find that most objects you give her will go straight to her mouth, so that her tongue can do a little tactile inspection of the object. As part of her licking phase, PK has also taken to putting her index and middle fingers in her mouth (something that I used to do as a baby as well). Though these two fingers are most definitely NOT a replacement for a pacifier, they do provide her with quite a bit of amusement these days. Although she does tend to show a slight preference for the left hand over the right hand, the right hand does get quite a bit of tongue time. One funny side-effect of this licking phase of PK's is that whenever I pull her up to a sitting position, she will start licking my fingers if they happen to be close enough to her mouth.

What fun and exciting things will PK be up to next? Stay tuned to find out!

Chatterbox

PK has gotten so incredibly chatty over the last week. I'd say that since last Thursday or so, her language development has suddenly shot up out of nowhere. Granted, she was making a few little gurgly sounds when she was between 2.5 and 3 months. She would even squeal a bit at around 3 or 3.5 months. After a while though, I didn't see any huge developments.

And then, last week happened. That's when she discovered that she could shape her mouth to make new sounds. Since then, she has been a real chatterbox. The sounds coming out of her little mouth are just amazing! I try to record them whenever I can, but whenever I try to record her with my BlackBerry or with the video camera, she stops chatting. I guess she's fascinated by the devices and just stares at them.

Yesterday was her chattiest day ever. The high point of the day was when she let out some babble that I swear was on the verge of being actual words! The hubby and I stopped in our tracks when we heard her. He even repeated her chattery babble back to her and she said it back to him. By the time we got the video camera out, however, the moment had passed.

This is only the beginning of her language development, and I am totally psyched to see where it goes next!
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Boy or Girl

I often get asked by people who don't know me if PK is a boy or a girl. This question annoys me, because to me it's obvious. At the same time, I don't blame them. I sometimes have trouble telling the difference with babies. They all friggin' look alike if they're not your own!

Of course, I confuse the matter further because of some of the clothes that I dress PK in. There are some REALLY cute baby boy clothes out there and I don't think that I should refrain from buying these clothes just because PK is a girl! For example, I bought PK a really nice blue toque and matching jacket from Baby Gap. One time, I was looking for a pair of jeans for PK and the girl jeans had these dumb embroidered pink flowers on them. This would've made it harder to come up with different outfits, so I bought her the boy jeans. They were just plain old jeans with no dumb-ass flowers on them. Who would be able to tell the difference anyway? Baby girl and baby boy bodies are more or less the same at this stage - apart from the obvious parts "under the hood", that is.

So yeah, I've gotten a few "Oh, he's so cute!" comments where I had to promptly correct the speaker. One woman actually got mad at me and said I shouldn't dress her in boy colors so that I didn't confuse people. I knew that she said this to hide her obvious embarrassment, but the comment still pissed me off. To hell with gender stereotypes! That being said, I would not go out of my way to dress a baby boy in pink. That might give the boy a complex and you'd probably end up with a kid like Celine Dion's son, who clearly thinks he's a girl because his mother makes him practically dress like one. Okay, so I guess there's a bit of a double-standard.
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First Impressions

We recently bought one of those kits to take an impression of PK's hands and feet. Great concept in theory, but not so practical.

It took a few tries to get PK's hand flat enough on the clay-like substance in order to get a decent impression. In addition to that, I didn't want to put too much pressure on her little hand (the clay wansn't too soft to begin with). Her foot was equally-annoying. Her toes kept curling up, and I had to re-start a couple of times. This was extra-hard since I didn't want to muck with the handprint that I had already done.

I finally did manage to get an impression of PK's left hand and left foot side-by side, after a few attempts. In the end it was totally worth it. To have a lasting impression of the little munchkin at this point in time is just priceless.
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Four-Month Check-up

PK had her 4-month check-up today. The doctor seemed to be pretty pleased with her progress. Although PK still totally prefers her left side over her right, the pediatrician didn't seem to be too concerned over this, since the hubby and I have been aggressively working on developing PK's right side skills. Fortunately, the doctor didn't notice a crick in PK's neck that warranted physiotherapy. Whew!

In the weight department, PK is now up to 5.6kg (12.3lbs) and measures 63cm long. Her weight continues to be in the 25th percentile while her height continues to be in the 75th percentile.

Now, since this WAS the 4-month check-up, it mean that PK was due for her next set of shots. This meant one needle jab to each leg, followed by an oral vaccine for the rotavirus. The latter vaccine isn't covered by OHIP. We discovered last time that doing the oral vaccine after the needles tended to calm her down. I also had a bottle ready to go. Fortunately, my mom was with me, which helped A TON! Overall, PK behaved as well as can be expected after being poked at with two needles. Fortunately her bottle calmed her down enough for us to get her into the stroller to go home.

The subway was stuck at one of the stations on the way home, so we walked the rest of the way home, with a stop at Baby Gap for some Christmas presents for PK. PK slept the entire way home, and was very chatty as I prepared her bottle when we got home.

When I went to feed her though, all hell broke loose, and it took a while to calm her down before she'd even consider taking a bottle. She finally did calm down and had 100ml out of her usual 160ml bottle before she started to push it away, telling me that she was done. After that, she sat on my lap pretty calmly until the hubby got home, and then she started to fuss again. That's when I noticed that her right leg was bright red. She was having a reaction to the vaccine and was obviously in a lot of pain. Fortunately we had some Tempra on-hand, which we'd picked up a while back in case of an emergency. This wasn't a major emergency or anything, but no parent likes to see their child cry so hard to the point of gagging.

The Tempra worked almost immediately, and it left PK in a happy drunken stupor. At least that meant that the hubby would be able to handle bedtime on his own tonight while I went out tonight for a couple of hours with my sis.

Now I'm on the subway on my way to Yorkdale to meet up with my sis. Hopefully all is well in the homestead by the time I get back. Tomorrow we're having our friends over for an official PK meet-and-greet (most of them haven't met her yet), so I hope that she's feeling better by then.
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Superdad

The hubby has always been a great dad to PK from day one. He stayed up with me when she was feeding at night every three hours. He is more than willing to take her for an evening when I need to catch my breath. He puts her to bed every night. He sings made-up songs to her. He tells her stories. He helped her develop her right hand when it was lagging behind in development compared to the left hand. Most importantly, he is patient and loves her to the ends of the Earth.

But what really sealed the deal for me was what happened tonight, just as he got home. PK hadnr had a poop since Sunday night (48 hours sans poop), and tonight, she blew a BIG load in her diaper just as he'd arrived home from work. (I'd also sent him on a few errands on his way home.) I had PK on the change table and had opened her diaper. It was NASTY. Definitely a return-to-sender poop. Just as he walked in the door, I called out from her room, "Wanna change a poopy diaper?"

He didn't even hesitate. Still in his dress clothes, he went up to PK's room to change her very nasty diaper as I saw my sis off. (She had been over for the afternoon.)

He definitely deserves that #1 Dad mug on Father's Day and then some.
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Smokin'

Last night we were woken up TWICE by the smoke alarm. Although both times were false alarms, we were naturally worried. The hubby suspects that the kitchen smoke detector was malfunctioning. It tends to be overly-sensitive, especially when I open the oven door to pull out my baking. (The smoke detectors are about 10 years old, so they've seen better days.)

Since all of the smoke detectors in our house are inter-connected, it meant that the alarm went off outside of PK's room. This would've been acceptable under "legitimate" circumstances, but given that this was a false alarm, it startled PK and disrupted her sleep. She was a bit agitated after the first false alarm at 4am, but went to sleep after we put the soother in her mouth. At 5:30am, when the second alarm went off, PK ended up waking up, though she was quite stunned. She ended up feeding and then slept for another three hours but this disruption screwed with her pooping schedule - no morning poop.

This whole experience, while annoying, did have a silver lining. Having a child in the house makes it extra-important to have a house full of working smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. Though we disconnected the kitchen smoke detector, the hubby went out and bought a whole whackload of new smoke detectors plus some extra CO detectors for the house, and installed them all. We just hope that we won't ever need to put this new equipment through a true test.
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Santa - Friend or Foe?

A long time ago, I vowed that if I ever had I children, I would NOT teach him or her to believe in Santa Claus. I feel quite strongly about this, though I honestly don't know if the hubby necessarily sees eye-to-eye with me on the matter. I have a feeling that he's just playing along. I'm sure that some people will read this blog entry and be absolutely appalled. Before you pass judgment hear me out:

Fact: Outside of storybooks, and malls at Christmas time, Santa Claus DOES NOT EXIST.

Fact: Most kids are taught by their parents that Santa Claus exists. Said parents often go through great lengths to convince their children of this fact. Not only that, the media also go through great lengths to keep the kiddies believing in Santa Claus, with Christmas episodes of sitcoms and the like always hinting at the fact that Santa is in fact real.

Fact: All kids are eventually told that Santa Claus doesn't really exist.

So here's my question to parents who propagate the Great Santa Lie. Why oh why would you go through so much trouble to convince your kid that Santa exists, only to tell them a few years down the road that Santa doesn't really exist? When you break it down into its simplest form, you are basically lying to your kid - for SEVERAL years. Not only that, you're teaching your kids that lying is okay. So how is that a good thing? What exactly does a kid gain by believing in Santa, only to have his entire world shattered when he is eventually told that Santa isn't actually real?

Of course, my decision to not teach PK to believe in Santa Claus at all will be interesting to deal with on a social level. First of all, PK has two cousins, and I have a feeling that both cousins are going to be (mis)led to believe in Santa. Secondly, PK will eventually go to school, and in school she will be around kids who believe in Santa. I remember that when my sis was in grade 1, she had a little friend named Emily who believed in Santa, and every time Emily talked about Santa, my sis would try to contain her laughter. Even though my sis was told by my mom to be tactful around Emily, I guess my sis found it silly that Emily was so convinced of Santa's existence. I'm sure that no matter how much I tell PK to be tactful around her cousins and around her classmates and friends, she may react the same way. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

So, what's the verdict? Am I an evil bitch for taking the magic and wonder of Christmas away from PK?

PK's Boyfriend

Yup, PK has a boyfriend. His name is James, and they've known each other since they were in utero. The funny thing is that both had the same due date - August 7th, 2008. PK was born one day before her due date, and James was born 3 weeks before his due date (July 17th).

James' mom and I hang out quite a bit, and we even go to storytime together. Whenever we get together, we always take pictures of PK and James together. It's always fun to see how they are around each other. The first time they met face-to-face, PK was about 2 weeks old, and James was 5 weeks old. We placed them in PK's playpen in the living room. PK slept and James flailed about.

One time, Lana, James' mom was over for some Friday afternoon baking, and we sat both babies side-by-side on an armchair in my living room. They weren't terribly interested in each other. They also posed together at the baby Halloween party. James was dressed as a corn-on-the-cob, and PK was dressed in a little kimono that my parents brought back from a recent trip to Japan.

On Friday, James and PK were hanging out at the library for storytime, and Lana and I decided to hold our babies up so they could face each other. For the first time ever, they seemed to take some notice of each other, and kept swatting at one another! I can't wait for them to be able to babble to each other in baby talk and start playing with each other!

Four Months Old!

PK turned 4 months old today. Here are some of the highlights of her fourth month:

Language Development
PK continues making little sounds here and there, though there's nothing terribly new. The only thing that sticks out is that she squeals a bit more than she did before. She'll still laugh, though we've never gotten her to crack up the way she did in mid-November. Sometimes I'll make some random faces at her or say something and she starts giggling, but the thing that triggered the giggles the one time won't trigger any giggling the next time. I try to repeat her sounds back to her, but I don't think she's terribly interested in repeating them back.

Tummy Time
For a while there, tummy time was going superbly well. I'd put her on her tummy and she'd manage to hold herself up with her arms, and lift her head way up to gaze up at her surroundings. I had even managed to get her to roll from her tummy to her back. Unfortunately, she's gotten a little lazy. A couple of weeks ago, the laziness was a result of her teething (no teeth as yet though). I haven't seen any signs of teething over this past week, though she was definitely still in a crusty mood. I think part of it was due to gas. At any rate, more often than not, when I put her on her tummy, she stays up for like two seconds, then flails her arms outward into a starfish position on her tummy, kicks her legs around like she's trying to turn, and cries. I've managed to get a few rolls in this week and SOME extended tummy time, this week, though it was definitely not her best week for tummy time.

Favorite Side
PK seems to favor her left side over her right side, which is worrisome because all of the baby books say that she shouldn't prefer one side over the other until much much later. I mentioned this to PK's pediatrician at the 3-month appointment, and the pediatrician suggested switching the side that we change her on. I don't think we were as diligent as we should've been, because PK definitely still favors her left side over her right.

I've noticed that she grasps things a lot better with her left hand than with her right hand, and she LOVES turning to her left side. This week we've gotten very aggressive with getting her to use her right side more often, by placing all of her toys on her right-hand side. It's still pretty difficult to get her to play with stuff on her right, because that little head of hers is always turned to the left. I try to gently turn her head to the right, but man, it's a stubborn little head! My solution has been to dangle toys in front of her, and slowly move them over to the right. She usually manages to track the toy and has even started grasping at toys with her right hand. I've definitely noticed some huge improvements this week. Whereas before she'd use her right hand mostly for swatting, she is now definitely grasping things with that hand.

I think that the main reason behind her side preference is a direct result of how we hold her when she feeds. I hold her with my left arm when she feeds, and so does the hubby (even though I'm a leftie and he's a rightie). When I was breast-feeding, I was forced to change sides when I changed breasts, but when I bottle feed, I go with whatever is most comfortable. Unfortunately, this means that her right hand ends up dangling behind my back while her left hand remains more active by touching the bottle, pushing it away, and bringing it closer in. We've currently trying to rectify this by holding her on the right side when we feed her.

Hair Grasping
PK has discovered hair this week - both mine and her own. On Friday I noticed her grabbing at her hair with her right hand. That same day, I had my face very close to her and my hair was hanging down close to her face, and she grasped at my hair with both hands and started pulling at it. It was definitely cute, though I hope that she doesn't pull any of it out (both hers and mine)!

Leg Flailing
I noticed last Wednesday that PK has taken to raising her legs up vertically, and then smacking them on the bed (or floor). She has also started bringing her knees up to her chest so that she could gaze at her feet. She hasn't been able to grab her feet yet, though I think that that's not too far off. I sometimes try to push her feet closer to her so that she can touch them. She is definitely fascinated by her feet, ever since she discovered them in the bathtub in November.

Assisted Sitting
Last week I started pulling her into a sitting position from a lying down position, and already I've noticed that her back is getting a lot stronger. To get her into sitting position, I get her to grasp my middle fingers as I pull her up to sitting. Most of the time I need to grip her hands with my thumbs to keep her from toppling over, but sometimes her grip is strong enough that she can stabilize herself without my help. I still need to teach her how to use her hands to keep from falling over and smacking her head. Fortunately we practice this on a soft surface.

Standing Practice
Last week I've also started practicing standing with her. She needs quite a bit of support from me in order to do this (I hold her under her armpits), but she can support all of her weight on her feet for a few seconds, which is cool. Practice makes perfect!

A Dose of Reality

So there's this new reality TV show based in Toronto that's starting up. The show is aimed at first-time mommyhood and its accompanying pressures. The time commitment is 3-4 months, 10-12 days per month, and they are auditioning groups of 4-5 new moms and their babies who know each other RIGHT NOW!

I found out about this little show from the ladies in my weekly mommy group - one of the moms posted the details on our Facebook group and is trying to get as many of us to audition as possible.

This would be so totally exciting except for 2 things:

1. I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE reality TV with a passion. I think that reality shows are for people who want their 15 minutes of fame and are desperate enough to make asses of themselves on TV to get it.

2. I am very much against the exploitation of children in TV and film. These children are way too young to have a say, are deprived of a normal upbringing, and become a source of income for their parents.

All that aside, consider the fact that parenthood (not just motherhood) is a VERY tough job to begin with. Having a bunch of cameras following you around while you're still trying to get your bearings is just asking for trouble.

There, I said it. Love me or hate me for it, but that's my opinion.

It's All in the Tone

My sis was over today since she was done with her med elective early, and after a nice walk, we returned to my place where we retreated to PK's room for some playtime. My sis had to do some studying while I put some of PK's laundry away. PK contented herself with her pal for the day, Ribbitty Frog.

I was halfway through putting PK's laundry away when I noticed that my sis was singing to PK and PK seemed really entertained. The kicker is that my sis was singing about the stuff she was reading - medical case studies. PK was flailing around and squealing with delight to songs of incontinence and high blood pressure!
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Little Miss Crankypants

PK was INCREDIBLY cranky all of week. Something was definitely bothering her, and my guess is that she's in the early stages of teething. Here's why:

- Trouble falling asleep for her daytime naps. Fortunately she was still able to nap in her stroller during our daily walks.
- Drool...lots of drool. Even more than usual.
- Lazy lazy lazy! She refused to roll over all of last when I placed her on her tummy. In addition, tummy time was annoying her more than usual - lately she hadn't been hating it as much. I'd also noticed that she was not making much of an effort to keep her head up in her Bumbo chair. Instead, she'd just flop her head down and slump over her chair.
- Frustration! She got so freaking frustrated by everything last week, that it was hard to feed her. Her head swayed from side to side as I fed her, and got annoyed when the bottle nipple would leave her mouth.
- Fingers in her mouth. She kept sticking her fingers in her mouth as if rubbing her gums. After a while she'd get annoyed by that and would only find relief in a soother.

I did buy her a couple of wooden teething toys just in case, and she has her Sophie giraffe as well. Unfortunately, the only things she took to were her soother and her fingers, and sometimes Sophie.
I was totally convinced that I'd see teeth pop up last weekend, but that was not to be. Instead, the pain seemed to have subsided and she was once again in a good mood since last Saturday. We'll see how long that lasts. Until it starts up again, I'll enjoy having an uncranky baby once again!
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