Changing Directions

Yesterday, I decided to reverse the seat direction on our Bugaboo Bee so that PK faced forward rather than facing me. Since PK is so much more alert in the stroller these days, I figured that it would make our daily walks more enjoyable for her. After two days of doing this, I decided to reverse the seat direction back so that she faces me. I did this for two main reasons:

1. I can't tell whether or not PK is comfortable if the canopy is up. She hates the sunlight in her face and flings herself forward to use the covers from her foot muff to block the sun. If I know that she's uncomfortable, I can at least try to take some actions to block the sun from her face.

2. I can't recline the seat all the way back because my diaper bag is in the way. I normally like to recline the seat all the way back when she takes a nap, so that she's a bit more comfortable.

So much for that idea! I will eventually have her facing forward, but I think I'll wait until she's older, able to communicate better, and I don't have to lug a diaper bag around.

The Great Cook-a-thon

On Sunday we (actually I dragged the hubby into this and he played along) did some mega cooking for PK for the week. We'd bought apples, chick peas, pineapple, plums, mangoes, black beans, and potatoes the day before, and I was ready to try out some new foods on PK.

My plans were to make the following:
1. Pineapple/apple purée (using Golden Delicious apples - thanks Fawn!)
2. Apple/plum/mango purée (I tried it last week and she liked it, so I decided to go for seconds)
3. Mashed potatoes (Yukon Gold potatoes) with black bean (out of a can with some seasonings added) broth (a suggestion from my mom - quite tasty!)
4. Chick pea/butternut squash/sweet potato purée

The fruit purées turned out really well. I would like to add that PK quite enjoyed the pineapple/apple purée! The veggie ones, however, are another story.

First, the mashed potato purée. I have really bad luck with mashed potatoes. When the hubby and I were first married, we attempted to make mashed potatoes. We peeled a couple of potatoes, put them into a pot of water, let it come to a boil, and proceeded to mash them. The hubby was doing the mashing, and it wasn't happening. I started insulting him, saying that he was incapable of mashing potatoes, and proceeded to try mashing them myself. The potato masher started bending. Now, if you make mashed potatoes, you can probably already spot the problem here. I didn't boil the potatoes long enough. That and we didn't cut the potatoes before putting them into the pot. They were still raw. And hard. It was nasty. At the time, the hubby couldn't cook worth a damn, so I was calling the shots. Some direction I was giving! We still get a good chuckle out of the "mashed potato incident".

Anyway, back to PK's mashed potatoes. Since I had my little food processor out, I decided to use it to "mash" the potatoes. This time, I made sure that the potatoes were cut into small pieces and were nice and soft before putting them into the food processor. I drained all the water out of the pot, put the potatoes into the food processor, and I ended up with nice, creamy, mashed potatoes. Except that they were really gooey and sticky. I thought that it was still salvageable, however, figuring that I could just add water to make them less sticky.

The next day, I served PK her mashed potatoes with the black bean broth. This combination would normally be really tasty, it just tasted okay. PK wasn't a big fan of the combo, though my mom got her to finish it all up. Today's attempt at feeding her this combo didn't work out so well. I tasted the potatoes/bean broth combo before I fed it to her, and it tasted gross. PK knew it too. She took three spoonfuls before refusing to take any more. She closed her mouth and pushed the spoon away. I had to resort to feeding her some butternut squash soup which I had as a backup. I also managed to get her to have some plain yogurt mixed with apple sauce (something that she didn't like last week but seemed to be enjoying this week). At least she ate, so that makes me happy.

Now for the chick pea/butternut squash/sweet potato purée. That was a dud. I thought I'd be better off buying the dried chick peas from the bulk food section of the supermarket rather than getting the canned stuff. I figured that I'd just boil them long enough in a pot along with the butternut squash and sweet potatoes, and I'd be set. Unfortunately, I didn't really know what I was doing. With two hours of cooking the chick peas in the boiling water, they were still too hard. The butternut squash was in there so long that it began to disintegrate. I proceeded to attempt to put the mixture into the food processor, hoping that the chick peas would still chop up well enough that they would still be okay enough for PK to ingest. No such luck. The chick peas were still too hard. Not wanting to waste this mixture, the hubby had a brilliant idea. Add some garlic powder, onion powder, kalamata olives, milk, and some salt, and voilà - some home-made "hummus". Okay, so it's not real hummus because there was no tahini in it, but still. It tasted pretty darn good! Next time, I'll be sure to soak the chick peas for a couple of hours before I attempt to cook them. Or better yet, I'll just use the canned stuff and save myself the pain.

After two hours of cooking, we came out with some fabulous fruit purée, some yummy home-made "hummus", and some very pasty "mashed" potatoes. You win some, you lose some. As frustrating as it is to have some failures after cooking for so long, it's at least a good learning experience!

PK's First Tooth!

We have just discovered PK's very first tooth popping out of her lower jaw (center right)! I was so excited when I saw it that I started crying (tears of joy). We found out about it quite by accident. PK was sitting on the hubby's lap after dinner tonight and pulled his finger into her mouth and bit on it. He thought he'd felt a little pointy bump on her lower jaw. Sure enough, I put my finger in there and felt that same little pointy bump. I then lifter her tongue (very difficult considering that she kept swishing it about), and there it was. A little white bump protruding from her gums.

That at least partially explains:
- Her sniffles (it may still be a cold too).
- Why she kept sticking out her tongue all the time for the past 3 days (she was feeling her gums/tooth).
- Her bad mood (kinda, sorta).
- Her red right cheek this afternoon.

While I'll totally miss that gummy old man smile, this is definitely a really exciting milestone! Time to get PK a toothbrush!
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Sniffly Baby

PK has the sniffles. It started out as a mild annoyance to PK, but it only got really bad about three days ago. I'm knocking on wood as I say this, but it's only the second cold that PK has had since she was born. She caught her first cold about 2 or 3 weeks after she was born. I was sick with a cold when PK was born, and though it was pretty mild, it was REALLY contagious, having made its way to my mom, my sis, and the hubby. It was only a matter of time before PK got it. But I digress...

All things considered, PK catching this latest cold was only a matter of time. For one thing, there was ALWAYS someone sick in PK's music class, which INFURIATES me. The babies share toys and instruments in music class, so the place is pretty much a germ factory already. Add a sick baby and/or parent to the equation and you're pretty much guaranteed to pick something up. I remember one mom saying that her daughter kept her up the night before because of a cold. I also remember thinking how nice it was for her to take her sick baby to music class and potentially cause other parents similar misery. Arrrrgh!!!

PK wasn't in music class this week because I didn't want her spreading her germs to other babies (last week was March Break, so no classes).

As I was saying, the worst of it started about 3 days ago. That's when it really started bothering her at night. She'd fall asleep for the night just fine, but then would wake up at around 1 or 2am crying because of a stuffy nose. The two worst days were Friday night and Sunday night. The poor thing was inconsolable. On Friday night, she woke up screaming. The hubby, who is usually on nighttime duty, gave her a bottle, which calmed her down. Unfortunately, she started screaming again once the bottle was done. I lay in bed as I heard all of this transpiring through the monitor. And then, total silence. It was completely eerie. One minute, she's screaming her head off. The next, she's totally quiet. What the hell?

When the hubby came back into the bedroom, he told me that PK had been trying to reach for his ear after finishing the bottle, and out of desperation, he just let her grab it. Well, that was the clincher. She played with his ear for a few seconds, and then was out cold. Wow!

On Sunday night, same deal. The bottle only did so much to calm her down before she started screaming again. The hubby offered his ear, but unfortunately, PK got her little claws in a bit too deep and drew some blood. That did it for the hubby and he put her down in her crib as I dressed his battle wound. We lay in bed for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, listening to her crying.

I finally decided to try my hand at calming her down. I picked her up, holding her vertically, in the hopes of helping to unplug that nose. No dice. She kept pushing me away quite vigorously, as she cried and cried and cried.

I resorted to the aspirator. She HATES the aspirator (I don't know of a single baby who likes that thing), but at least it gets the excess snot out. It was a bit of a struggle - she pushed it away and turned her head this way and that - but I prevailed in the end. Then I picked her up and cradled her in my arms as I bounced her and danced around the room while I sang. It at least calmed her down enough to stop her crying. I sang to her in English, French, and Portuguese. My soothing music repertoire is limited, so I resorted to Beatles tunes: "Yesterday", "Blackbird", and "In My Life". Finally, her body went limp. I kept on singing while I put her back in her crib.

And then she opened her eyes. And pretty soon, her eyes were wide open, she was giggling, and flapping her arms. Damn! Back to square one. I picked her up again, singing the same songs. This time, as her body went limp, I kept on singing some more. Then I stopped singing and just kept bouncing and dancing for another 2 minutes. Then I stopped that and just stood there with her in my arms for another minute before putting her into her crib (I timed it as I looked at the big digital clock in her room). That did the trick. She was out. And just in time too! My arms felt like jelly, and so did my legs!

It took 40 minutes for me to calm her down, but in the end I prevailed and we at least got some sleep that night. Fortunately, that was the worst night of her cold and it now seems to be tapering off. The things we do for our children, eh?

Nap Nap

***WRITER'S NOTE: If you think that this post looks vaguely familiar, then you're probably right. I started writing this last Thursday on my BlackBerry and instead of hitting Save, I got a bit trigger-happy and hit Send instead, thereby ending with a half-finished post. Here's the completed version!

I'm totally knocking on wood as I write this - it appears that PK has finally fallen into some sort of a nap schedule! While a morning nap is pretty hit-and-miss these days, PK IS going down for a good 2 to 2.5-hour nap right after lunch. Not only that, all I have to do is change her diaper, put her into her Grobag, turn on her Baby Einstein aquarium, and leave the room. She actually falls asleep by herself!

I don't know how long this is going to last, but I'll take it for as long as it lasts! I usually take this rare opportunity of having free time to retreat to my basement hideaway and get in a good workout. It's total win-win: PK wakes up refreshed and I feel like a million bucks after a good workout.

On another note, it appears that stroller napping is no longer a sure-fire thing. Last Wednesday I headed out at noon for the mommy group meeting, planning to go to the host mommy's house on foot so that PK could still get her lunchtime nap in and thereby avoiding an over-tired meltdown at the mommy group. PK fell asleep about 5 minutes after we'd left. Twenty minutes later, I had to stop to peel of some layers, since it was way to warm and I was way too over-dressed. That coupled with noisy downtown Toronto traffic was the deal-breaker. PK was awake. Wide awake. I had to prop her back up to a seated position, because she was positively taken with her surroundings. She just kept looking around, taking it all in. It was really cute, but I knew that I would pay for it later. And I did.

When we arrived at my friend's house, PK was in a pretty good mood. She even played with the other babies. That is, as much as babies play with one another at this age. It was more like PK sat with other babies as they took each others' toys. It was funny to watch. Unfortunately, about an hour later, she got really fussy. And then when I looked away for one second, she fell back from a seated position and hit her head on the laminate wood floor. It wasn't a huge thud, but she was pretty upset. I'm sure that she was more upset than she'd normally be because she was also pretty tired. We ended up having to leave early because she was not a happy camper.

I decided to walk back home in the hopes that she'd be so tired that she'd fall into a deep sleep. I got about three-quarters of the way home before she woke up again (she'd been sleeping for 40 minutes by then). Again, she was just too enthralled with her surroundings to fall asleep. I suppose that it could have been worse. She was in a pretty good mood overall, so the walk home ended up being quite pleasant.

In some ways, this new sleep schedule is quite good. On the one hand, I know that I'll get a sure-fire nap out of her for 2 hours right after lunch, which gives me some workout time. On the other hand, I can no longer fit in a workout and a nap at the same time by taking her out in the stroller and hoping that she'll sleep for 2 hours at a time. The other sucky thing about her waking up from her naps during our walks is that PK can no longer sleep off hunger. This means that if I happen to be out and about when PK is due for a bottle, then I'd better stop to feed her, or haul some ass home.That being said, it's pretty cool that PK is getting so much more out of our stroller trips. She's finally getting to see the world! Okay - an itty bitty, teeny weeny cross-section of the world. But still!

She Knows What She Wants

PK gets excited about food. REALLY excited. From a very young age, PK realized that putting a bib on her meant that a bottle would materialize soon thereafter. Oftentimes the mere sight of her bottle causes her to go into a frenzy. This has also transferred onto her solids. She gets particularly excited about cereal and apple sauce!

Today, our little munchkin took food excitement to the next level. This morning, PK had her soother in her mouth as we got ready to feed her her first bottle of the day. (Her soother has got to be her all-time favorite toy; however, the excitement over her soother pales in comparison to her excitement over her bottle.) When she caught site of her morning bottle, she turned her head, spat out her soother, and opened her mouth in anticipation of her bottle.

Ah, she cracks me up!
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Some People Just Don't Get It

The hubby and I were invited to a friend's surprise birthday dinner which is taking place next week. My friend's wife said that we could bring PK along if we'd like. I politely replied to her saying that we were able to get a babysitter (i.e. one of our sets of parents) for that evening, then both of us would be attending, and that otherwise, I would be flying solo. She replied back saying that I should just bring PK along with me.

I really really know that she meant well, but I really think that a lot of my friends sans kids really really don't get it. The dinner would be starting at 7:15pm. PK's bathtime routine starts at 7:30pm, and she's asleep by 8pm. I am a BIG believer in routines for babies. Establishing a good routine at a young age goes a long way and really teaches discipline, in my opinion. While I don't agree with my mom's style of parenting on many things (for one thing, I think that she was way too strict), I do agree with her that establishing a routine is of the utmost importance when kids are growing up. It helps to establish a basic set of rules, and sets the parent as a figure of authority. When I child is growing up, the parent HAS to be a figure of authority, like it or not. Sure, once the kid is older, the parent transitions into more of a friendship role, but before then, having an authoritative figure in one's life helps give some sort of guidance. I really don't understand how so many of my mommy friends go out to dinner with their babies in tow. And then they complain that their babies don't sleep through the night (and I'm talking technical definition of 5-6 hours straight at night).

Honestly, if you can't find someone to look after your baby at night, then you probably shouldn't be going out to begin with. When you have a kid, you also have to think about their well-being, Staying out late like that with a baby will just make them over-tired and cranky. That "me-me-me" mentality just doesn't cut it. It's a harsh reality, but it's true.

Hello, Goodbye

I was at Baby Gap this afternoon with PK, buying a couple of summer hats and a pair of sunglasses for her. She really hates the sun in her eyes so I thought that these would help. As an aside, she tolerates the hats but yanks the sunglasses off as soon as I put them on. The funny thin is that she was okay with the sunglasses in the store. So much for that idea...

Anyway, I digress. PK was totally alert and cheerful in the store, and the cashier thought she was just very adorable. As PK's very biased mother, I obviously agree with that. As we were leaving, the cashier waved goodbye, and PK actually waved back! I was totally floored! I'd been practicing waving with PK, but this was the first time that she waved on her own. How cool is that??? Now, I wonder if it's repeatable...
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Milestones, Shmilestones

I hate baby books. While they're written with the best of intentions, the fact of the matter is that they wind up making you feel completely inadequate as a parent if your baby doesn't reach certain milestones by a given amount of time.

For example PK is nowhere near saying "bababa" or "mamama". And yet, she does experiment with different sounds, especially while she's standidng. So, should I feel bad because PK doesn't say what she's supposed to? Probably not. After all, she's still developing her vocal chords. And yet, I am totally jealous when I see a baby younger than PK "bababa" or "mamama"-ing.

PK is also nowhere near crawling. I think it's partially due to the fact that she has always hated tummy time. To her, it's the second-meanest thing you can do to her. (First place goes to wiping her face at mealtimes or sticking an aspirator in her nose.) I feel totally cheated on the tummy time thing. I see how other babies are so comfortable and happy on their tummies, and how unhappy PK is when she's on her tummy. As a funny aside, she's okay on her tummy as long as she has one arm under her tummy (the result of rolling over from her back). Anyway, I think that this severe dislike for tummy time means that she probably won't crawl - especially since she likes standing so much. The only way that she *might* crawl would be from a sitting position. I'm not too optimistic, however.

The other thing that really bugs me is the fact that PK has no teeth! I know that it just means more work and more pain and all that, but seriously, seeing all her little friends on their 4th or in one case, 8th tooth just kills me. I feel so left out! I know this sounds totally dumb and irrational, but that's just how I feel.

At this point, I've all but stopped reading baby books because I'd wind up calling up the hubby in tears in the middle of the day because she wasn't doing what the book said she was supposed to be doing. Although I'm not fully there, I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that not all babies are created equal. While PK did some things ahead of the pack (like rolling over from her tummy to her back, object transfers between hands, sitting on her own, and standing with assistance), there are things that she's slightly behind on or may never even do. I also need to stop comparing her to other babies in my mommy group. That's tough, because I think that most of us tend to compare ouselves to others, even if to a small degree. (Don't deny it, because you do!)
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Back-to-Work Update

This week we decided to up PK's daycare stay from 2 days per week to 3 days per week. This means that we'll be paying a whopping $975/month of childcare. It's still better than the ~$1600/month of childcare that we'd be paying if PK were in daycare full-time. Toronto sure is expensive for full-time childcare. It's more expensive than university tuition (or at least more expensive than tuition was when I was in university).

The reason behind the slight change in childcare arrangements is that I'm pretty convinced that if my mom took her for 3 days a week, she'd just end up too tired and overwhelmed. Besides, I'd rather secure 3 days a week sooner rather than later. Even with this daycare, which seems to be pretty accommodating, the longer we wait to add an extra day, the harder it'll be to get that day. And then, we may just end up in a situation where we'd be missing a day of childcare. The thing is, I haven't told my mom yet. I'm scared of how she'll react. I know that I'll eventually have to tell her, but I just don't know how I'll do it.

On a related note, I'm starting to get my act together on the whole back-to-work thing. I'm meeting up with my manager and his boss in a couple of weeks to discuss things. At this point in time, I'm trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to go back to work part-time for a couple of months before going back full-time in August, or just start back full-time in August. I'm hoping that the meeting with the bosses will help me make my decision. The thing is, I wonder if going back part-time for a couple of months will do anyone any good. For my co-workers, they have to deal with the fact that I'm there, but I'm not. For me, I may end up more frustrated - really looking forward to my off-days, and being really resentful for being at work on my on-days. At the same time, I know myself. I get soooooooooooo crabby when I go back to work after a 2-week vaction. Will it be an easier transition for me if I do the part-time thing first, or will it just make things worse?

And then, there's the parental pressure. My parents really really really mean well, but they are really on my ass when it comes to my return to work. For them, the sooner, the better. They're afraid that I'll lose career momentum, and they're afraid that with the economy being in the schizzer, I'd end up losing my job. My parents keep citing examples of moms they know of who get the axe before going back to work. Except that all of these women were unfortunately axed because their departments were cut. It's not like they were specifically singled out. Besides, to give a mom on mat-leave the axe before she finishes mat-leave is ILLEGAL.

Oh, and I also keep getting lectures on how all these moms that they know of in the US went back to work after only a few weeks. I don't think that they quite understand the fact that in the US, women don't get a 1-year mat-leave. According to this article, only 12 weeks. TWELVE WEEKS! How crazy! Arrgh!!!

It's bad enough that I have to make this decision, but to have it clouded due to pressure from my parents is just aggravating. I'm going to be 30 years old this year, and I sometimes feel like I'm 12. Will I be like this with PK? Geez, I really really hope not. I really really hope that I'm open-minded yet strict when need be, so that I can spare her from this torture. Like I said, they mean well. Really, they do. I don't resent them for it, but it's bloody frustrating. After all, it IS my decision and I shouldn't be stressing out even more than I should because of this external pressure.

Passport Photo

Last weekend we finally got off our asses and finally got around to getting PK's passport photo taken. I was surprised by how fast the whole process was. I've heard horror stories on how long it takes to get these things done. Fortunately, PK was in a great mood and was just fascinated by the photo store.

PK had her photo taken while standing, with me holding her up for support as she stood on a stool. I also had to keep her hands at her sides because she kept wanting to stick them in her mouth. I brought a toy along so that we could use it to distract her. It definitely came in handy, because she kept looking all around - EXCEPT in front of the camera. The hubby waved the toy in front of her, forcing her to look at the camera, and then...*snap*. All done.

PK's passport photo looks really cute. She's smiling. I hoped that the smiling wouldn't be an issue, since, she IS a baby after all, and it's hard to tell her what expression to make. Besides, the person taking the photo probably knew what she was doing, right??? Right...Well, this morning, I was filling out PK's passport application form, I read the following:

Facial expression must be neutral (not frowning or smiling)
with the mouth closed.

Crap!!! I KNEW it was too good to be true!!! I'm hoping that we can get the photo place to take the new passport photos for free, since they're the ones who goofed up. I'll be sure to print out that page of the passport application form. The problem is, how long will it be until we get around to dragging our asses to the photo place again? Arrgh...

Seven Months Old!

Where did the last month go? I could've sworn that PK had turned six months old just yesterday! And that I first fed her solids just yesterday! I can't believe that it has been about 4 weeks of solids already. Crazy! Some highlights:

1. Standing
PK has gotten REALLY good at standing, and it's her favorite thing in the world.

2. Tummy Time
Still no dice here, though lately we've managed to get her to spend a teeny amount of time on her tummy. The good news is that she definitely has the upper-body strength to push herself up. She just chooses not to. I'm still pretty sure that she'll walk before she crawls, but she may surprise me yet. Sometimes while we practice standing, she spots a toy on the floor that she really wants, and almost gets into a crawling position. Except that she doesn't realize that she needs to support herself when she dives for a toy and ends up splat on her face (on a soft surface, so not so bad).

3. Rolling
PK has gotten really good at rolling onto both sides from her back. Usually the motivator for rolling over is when she spots her soother or a favorite toy. She sometimes even rolls onto her front, though there's always an arm in the way when she does that and she still hasn't quite figured out how to move it out of the way. One time, I went up to her room to check in on her while she napped, and was surprised to find her sleeping on her left side, with her right arm flung behind her back. I ended up moving the arm to her front so that it didn't end up falling asleep. I didn't want her to wake up freaked out over it or anything.

4. Sleep
She is still a fussy napper, but if I'm lucky, she gets in a 2-hour nap, which means that I can retreat to basement to work out, or read a book. I've started putting her down in her crib in her grobag and her Baby Einstein aquarium going to help her fall asleep, and just leave the room. I find that she gets better (and longer) sleeps when she's in her grobag. She's not always happy to be left in her room alone to fall asleep, but she does eventually fall asleep. It's easy to tell that she's tired - she rubs her eyes - so it's only a matter of time before she's overcome with fatigue. We still haven't managed to get her to fall asleep in her crib by herself, but we're getting close. I think part of the problem is that the hubby - who is in charge of putting her to bed - likes to have her fall asleep in his lap. I can't blame him - she's a very cuddly baby!

5. Talking
PK is still not into the "bababa" or "mamama" babbling that I keep reading about in baby books, but I think it's okay. I don't think that all babies do that quite yet anyway. She IS experimenting with different sounds. Her favorite thing in the world is to squeal. And I think that the squealing has gotten more high-pitched over time. It does a number on my ears! I do enjoy her squeals, though, because it means that she's happy. She's also really into sticking out her tongue and buzzing her lips. It's one of her favorite things to do while she stands. I find it just hillarous to watch. She also experiments with a few vowel sounds here and there. Mostly she just makes whatever sound she feels like making, and sticks to ones she finds to be fun.

6. Teeth
No sign of teeth yet. That's fine by me. I like that gummy old woman smile anyway. I find that teeth on babies actually look creepy! At the same time, I do look forward to her first teeth coming out.

I guess we're past the halfway mark now before I have to be at work full-time. And right now I'm pondering whether or not I even want to return to work part-time from May until August. Right now I'm leaning towards no. I rather enjoy this time off! Alas, that's a pondering for another day.

More Fun on Solids

Aside from PK's sleeping issues due to the introduction of solids (or so I think), the whole experience has been positive overall. Naturally, there are some foods that she doesn't really like. And, as I've mentioned before, every time we introduce a new food, she has trouble pooing. All things considered, I can count my blessings because at least there are foods that she will eat and absolutely loves!

PK continues to like her sweet potato/butternut squash/carrot purée mix. And I've finally gotten her to eat peas if I mix in a VERY small amount with the aforementioned purée.

Last week, I introduced mashed bananas. She HATED the mashed bananas. She hated bananas so much that even when my mom mixed a TEENY amount of mashed bananas in with her oatmeal, she flat out refused to eat it. I've also tried to mix them in with mashed avocado and apple purée. No dice. The funny thing is that the hubby hates bananas too, so I think that she has inherited this dislike for bananas from him. I really hope that she doesn't inherit any other food dislikes from him, because he's a VERY picky eater - no seafood (boo!), mushrooms, eggs, and bananas, to name a few.

I also introduced mashed avocadoes last week. I can't say that she totally hated it, but I don't think that it was her favorite thing in the world either. All I did was cut up an avocado and mash it. It was really pasty, and definitely pastier than what she's used to, so maybe the consistency got to her. I tried again with the aforementioned mashed banana and apple purée mix, and she really didn't go for that either. I'm guessing that the bananas were the deal-breaker.

Another food I tried to give her last week was a home-made apple/mango purée mix. I made sure that I bought a Red Delicious apple, since it's sweeter, and I bought an Ataulfo mango, which is also supposed to be sweet. I think I made about 6 little containers worth. Well, much to my surprise, she made the Renée Zelwegger sour face. I so wish that I'd gotten that on camera. She totally scrunched up her face and looked at us with disgust. She took maybe 3 more spoonfuls before she caught on to the fact that this food was awful. I tried it myself and sure enough, it was REALLY REALLY sour. I really like sour foods, but I guess that sort of thing doesn't tickle her fancy. Too bad. I guess it just goes to show that I should try PK's food before serving it to her.

Since my lovely apple/mango purée was not well-received, I had the hubby buy some jarred puréed apples. Her first go at it was so-so. She ate it all, but not nearly with enough gusto as she does for her sweet potato/butternut squash/carrot purée. The next time we gave it to her, however, she jumped for it! Another winner!!! My next goal is to try to make my own apple purée - hopefully one that's actually sweet, and not sour.

The lastest food we introduced to PK was potato leek soup. We actually bought the soup for ourselves over the weekend while we were grocery shopping. They had samples of the soup at the supermarket and we got suckered into buying it. Tee hee. Anyway, we were having some for dinner yesterday and while getting PK's dinner together, I decided to pour some for her. I checked the ingredients and they seemed fine (all organic ingredients and no artificial crap), so I figured, why not. Much to my surprise, she really really liked the soup. Just to be sure, we fed it to her again today, and she totally went for it. That is, after she had a little hissy fit because she got way too excited over the fact that it was dinnertime.

I continue giving her cereal at lunchtime, though lately we've been giving her barley cereal instead of oatmeal. We introduced the barley cereal about a week ago, and surprisingly, she took to it. I'm glad, because now we can alternate between oatmeal and barley cereal to shake things up. I don't think I'm going to try rice cereal at all. Maybe I'll do that eventually, since at least it gives her some exposure to rice. I'll see.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we're probably going to cool it on introducing new foods to her for the time being so that it gives her digestive system some time to adjust to all of these changes. That and I'm hoping that these middle-of-the-night wakeups will stop for a bit. I can dream, can't I?

All Good Things Must Come to an End...

PK started sleeping through the night at a very early age - about 2 months. And yes, I do know that the technical definition of her sleeping through the night is 5 or 6 hours straight of sleep. PK sleeping through the night meant 8 to 12 hours of straight sleep. Maybe she slept that long because she was on formula at such an early age. Maybe it's because she's like her dad and loves to sleep. I don't really think it was the formula, because even while she was exclusively breast-fed, she could still sleep 5 hours at a time at night. And remember that I only exclusively breast-fed for about 2 weeks. Anyway, I don't know why she slept for so long, but I counted my blessings. I've heard from many parents who said that their kids wouldn't sleep through the night until they were almost 1, or even later than that. Eeek!

And then PK turned 6 months old, and her nice routine of sleeping for hours on end went to the pooper. It all started after she had her 6-month shots. That was a ROUGH week. It took her about a week to get over the shots. She never had a fever or anything, but she was just in a bad mood all week and had trouble sleeping at night. This was further amplified by the introduction of solids into her diet.

PK has now tried all sorts of different foods, and every time we introduce a new food, it's pretty much a given that she will go between one and two days without a poop - even if we mix prune juice in with her food and her formula. The good news is that she now gets the poops out on her own, so we haven't had to use those glycerine suppositories in a while. Unfortunately, these pooping issues usually mean that she is grumpy during the day and/or at night.

Sometimes we're lucky and PK just lets out a little cry at night which is easily rectified by having one of us (usually the hubby) go up to her room and put her soother back in (she usually sleeps without it). On most nights, however, she'll wake up at least once, usually with a sopping wet diaper, and will only fall back asleep if we give her a bottle - usually 100ml will do the trick. I'm pretty convinced that all of this is the result of her diet changes, so I think we won't introduce any new foods for the next couple of weeks to see test out that theory and hopefully get a better night's sleep.

No Thanks, I'd Rather Stand

Over the last few weeks, PK has gotten really good at sitting on her own. She's gotten very good at reaching out and grabbing toys near her while sitting. She can play for minutes at a time on her own in a seated position. All I have to do is put a bunch of pillows around her in case she falls and I can sit back and relax (somewhat) while she plays on her own.

The thing is, most of the time, PK would much rather stand than sit. When I try to put her in a seated position on her playmat, she straightens out her entire body, as if to say, "No thanks, I'd rather stand." And sometimes from a seated position she'll purposely fall back so that when I prop her up again, she straightens her body and gets me to put her in a standing positon. She likes to practice standing on her playmat, which has two arches that she uses for support. She can hold herself up really well, and can even stand with just one hand used for support. I find it quite an impressive feat for such a little person.

Her other favorite standing trick is when I have her stand in her crib, near the corner. At the foot of the crib she has Baby Einstein aquarium which she absolutely loves. She really enjoys standing in front of the aquarium and holding onto it for support. She also likes to try to move over from the foot of the crib to the side of the crib with some fancy fast hand work. She doesn't do it perfectly and oftentimes loses her balance, but she is successful at making the back-and-forth transition part of the time. What's cool about it is that she's the one who came up with this little trick. I think that someday she'll make a great little rock climber!

Although I find PK's love for standing to be more tiring compared to when she sits - I always need to be spotting her in case she loses her balance - it makes me happy to see how much she enjoys it. I call it her happy place. As she stands, she squeals with delight and babbles away. She doesn't ever display this much gusto when she's sitting. I'm convinced that all this standing practice is actually encouraging speech development.

Her newest endeavor is to try to stand on her own with no support. She started doing this in the last week. The thing is that she ends up arching her back as she does this and falls straight back. I call it her Nestea Plunge move. I catch her as she does this, but I let her "fall" a short distance so that she realizes the consequences of losing her balance.

While she's great with switching her arms to keep her balance, she hasn't yet realized that she can move her feet to keep her from falling. We've now started working on trying to get her to use her feet by doing some walking practice. Basically it means that I alternate in pulling her body left-right as I hold her arms up. She doesn't seem to find this exercise quite as amusing! Slowly but surely, we'll get there!
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I Really Should Feel More Relieved, But...

Today we officially got a spot at a daycare!!! It's actually perfect. It's close to work, the facilities seem nice, the children at the place seemed happy, they have Webcam access so that we can watch the kiddies throughout the day, they give you a progress report for your child at the end of the day, they provide breakfast, lunch, and a snack for the kiddies on big-people food, they've got a kindergarten program, and PK can be there part-time. This means that my mom can take care of her for part of the week, which is something that she really really wanted to do (no joke). I really should be ecstatic. I should feel this huge sense of relief. I DO feel relieved. There aren't too many places out there that will guarantee you a spot AND do it for part-time care. Especially in Toronto. To say that Toronto is terrible when it comes to getting childcare is an understatement. As I'd mentioned in a previous post, we actually got booted off of two daycare lists because they hadn't heard back from us. And you know what? These daycares don't give two shakes about it, because they know that demand is so high that booting a couple of people off of a list won't really matter in the long-run. They'll still be able to fill all of their spots anyway.

So, a little bit of background here. Back in late August/early September, when the hubby was back at work after taking 3 weeks off to help me with PK after her birth, my mom came over to help out with PK for the first time. That day, she had casually asked if I'd like it if she would take care of PK at least one day per week. I said no. My reasoning was that we had such different views on parenting. She had been so strict with me. As a teenager, I had a ridiculous curfew - 9pm. My first 2 years of university were spent in rez because my parents lived in a different city from me, but then they moved to Toronto in my 3rd year and I moved back home to save money, since I was paying for school by then. Let me tell you, moving back home is HARD once you've tasted freedom. Most kids go through their rebellious phase in high school. I had mine in university.

I lived with my parents up until I got married, and even then, at age 23, I had a curfew (1am - whoopee!). Even though my mom and I both survived my rebellious phase, things have never been the same between us. We didn't really see eye-to-eye anymore on things like raising a child - at least as far as how much freedom to give a child. So my reasoning behind having her look after PK at all during the week was that she'd eventually go against my judgement as a parent.

Well, my mom was VERY offended by my rejection of her nanny services. I made her cry. I felt guilty, but didn't really budge. Then life changed. My grandmother died. My mom felt guilty about my grandmother's death. My mom was here in Canada, while my grandmother was in Brazil. Alone. There was nobody there to look after her. The image of her dying all by herself in her living room in front of the TV, with nobody there still haunts me to this day. I try not to think about it too much, otherwise it just makes me very sad.

My grandmother's death put a lot of things in perspective. I began to realize just how much my grandmother had helped my mom out when my sis and I were little in Brazil. I began to realize how important the role of a grandmother is in a child's life. I began to realize just how important it was for my mom to spend time with PK. Taking care of PK is just about the only thing that gets my mom out of her funk over my grandmother.

My mom has been coming over 2x per week to help me out with PK, which has been fantastic. It gives me the chance to run errands while she looks after PK. I can zip from one place to another without worrying about whether or not PK has had enough to eat or needs a diaper change. While she's over, I can also disappear for an hour to the basement to work out. My mom is more than happy to look after PK and PK totally loves her. Seeing how much she loves PK and how much PK loves her further reinforced the fact that my mom SHOULD help out with PK on a part-time basis.

So my daycare plans evolved from full-time daycare to part-time daycare. My mom would look after PK 3 days per week, and I'd need to find daycare for 2 days in the week. That is just about impossible in Toronto, since most places will give preference to full-time care. If you think that being on the waiting list for full-time daycare is tough, imagine how much worse it must be for part-time care. With that in mind, I was starting to think that I'd either need to hire a nanny part-time for 2 days a week, or work some sort of compressed work schedule, cramming 40 hours into 3 or 4 days.

Then we found the daycare that we signed up for today, and it seemed like things were finally fitting into placce. Except...

Okay, my first worry is probably paranoid and frivolous. The site said that in order to guarantee a spot, you need to apply at least 6 months in advance. PK will be 7 months old this week. This meant that we'd have a guaranteed spot in early September. Bleh. So that's what I put down on my on-line application form. Then when we got there today, the lady said that getting daycare for early August should be fine. So now the start date that she jotted down by hand doesn't match what I wrote in the on-line form. Not to mention the fact that I changed the 2 days of the week that I wanted originally for daycare. I know I'm being paranoid about this, but not having both pieces of information match up just seems like it's begging for a mix-up. I sent them an e-mail this afternoon asking if I should update the on-line form to reflect the new info, and I'm still waiting to hear back. We'll see. The hubby thinks that I'm being paranoid. He's probably right.

The other worry is more legitimate. The fact of the matter is that I don't know if my mom has the energy to look after PK three days out of the week. She's not what I'd consider old (she's 55). At the same time, she always seems so pooped when she gets home after taking care of PK, and that's from leaving here at 3:20pm, which gets her home at 5:30pm on public transit (my parents live in the burbs). When I start back at work, I'll be getting home at 5pm at the earliest, which will probably get her home at 7 or 8pm. And remember that my house has a buttload of stairs AND that PK will be older and more active. Also, she'll be taking PK to music class and storytime on the days she looks after PK. That's probably okay on the most part, but my mom hasn't been feeling so peachy lately. My parents are heading to Brazil soon to continue looking after my grandmother's estate, and there's still so much stuff left to do, that it's stressing my mom out. That coupled with her guilt over not being even in the same city as my grandmother at the time of her death is just wearing her down.

So there you have it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Am I blowing this all out of proportion?