First Food!

On Monday we gave Pearl her first taste of solid food: avocados.



I was only able to get the tiniest taste in her mouth before she took control of the spoon, and she didn't act too horrified. When she got the spoon she even put it in her own mouth and gave herself a little bite! After that it was just playing though, and it's amazing how messy just two tablespoons of avocado can get. Once we get a high chair we'll let her go wild with her food and feed herself, as I can see this whole spoon thing is not going to work, at least not until she learns that it means delicious food! I think she would've been more impressed with something sweet; bananas or sweet potatoes perhaps. We'll try one of those next.

Yesterday my sister and her baby and our friend and her baby and me and my baby all went to see a movie! We found out that a local theater does "Cinema Babies" so we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie, which did not disappoint, other than the fact that so much was left out... but that's how it is with book-to-movie adaptations. What was really awesome is that we were the only ones in the whole theater. And all three babies were pretty much happy the whole time, the newborn slept the whole time, my niece slept a great deal of the time, and Pearl, well, Pearl squirmed and jumped and nursed and wiggled the whole time!

Six Months Old

My little baby is six months old and I can't believe it. A whole half-year has flown by since the day Pearl was born, since I first saw her face and heard her voice. Sometimes I look at her and can't help but think of when she was first in my arms, because she looks just the same - especially when she cries. She did not cry when she was born but she grimaced against the light, not a very pretty expression, but still the most precious face I had ever seen. I was so happy to meet her.

And now she is six months old and the sweetest little bundle of fun! She plays several silly games with us. When I am laying down with her and she is on her belly, she will plant her face on the bed, then fling her head up and smile the biggest smile at me! She loves for me to play "This Little Piggy" with her and she loves to be tossed in the air. She's also really been enjoying banging on things - tupperware containers, the keyboard, the buckle on her car seat. The latest game she likes to play with her daddy is a screaming game - he will scream and laugh, and then she will scream and laugh, and they'll continue on in that vein for a while. It's really funny, and really loud.



A few days ago Mr. Peach was playing with her on the floor, and he got up to go get something and left Pearl sitting alone. I said, "You can't leave her there! She'll fall over!" But she didn't. She just kept on sitting by herself! She grows and changes so fast that things like this are hard for me to wrap my head around.



The pottying is going about the same: a stretch of good days with a few misses, then a shorter spell of more misses than catches. On those days it seems like she is fussier and has more problems with naps as well; teething perhaps. That's how my wisdom teeth pain goes, for a while they'll be fine then I'll get a few days of pain, then fine again. Maybe her teeth are following that pattern. Other than those off days, she is generally a sunshiny girl, full of smiles and laughs.

Our early morning wake-ups have not improved; in fact, the sleep situation has worsened with the addition of a 2am nightwaking. I thought this might be a diaper issue so we bought some disposables to try. The first night there was no difference but last night she slept until 5am so perhaps the disposables have settled the issue. If it's not a diaper thing, it's a crawling thing, because she uses her nightwaking time to practice. She is trying very hard to crawl! She gets her butt way up in the air, then her front half. If she ever gets the two put together I'll have to baby-proof the house but for now we're still putting it off. She's already gotten up on hands and knees at least once, so we had probably better get with it!



So, happy half-year birthday, my dear little Pearl. These have been the most joyous, intense, bittersweet six months of my life.

For Those of You Who Haven't Stumbled Across This Yet...

...go check out Longmire Does Romance Novels. The text on the covers is changed and the results are downright hilarious.

Ahhh.... Thanksgiving Is Over

My little family is lucky enough to attend two Thanksgiving dinners: my mother's, which took place yesterday, and my mother-in-law's, which was today. Double the turkey, double the visiting, double the stress on the mama's part. Worrying that Pearl would scream the whole way home from my mother's, that people would insist on holding her when she didn't want to be held, that she would be overwhelmed by all the people, that she would freak out when she woke up in a strange place.

Both dinners were fun and all. Yesterday, Pearl did freak out when she woke up in my old bedroom, but I got to her quickly enough this time to quell all-out unhappiness. And keeping the inside car light on, singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm with every possible animal and some vegetables included for thirty minutes, and then giving her a new toy to play with on the ride home prevented the evening car ride screaming until we reached our driveway.

Today at my mother-in-law's was both better and worse. Better, because it was in a house Pearl is very familiar with, and I could walk across the yard to our home for her naps. Worse because Scott's family is more prone to the insisting on holding the baby thing. I also had to turn a smile and deaf ears on comments about my baby crying when other people held her, and how the fact that she wasn't eating solids yet is the reason why she is so skinny.

However, Pearl is now showing signs of readiness for starting solid foods, and I have a couple of delicious organic avocadoes waiting in the fridge for her. We'll probably give that a shot this week. I'd considered giving her some sweet potatoes at either of the dinners, but of course I want to document it and that would've been a lot to juggle at a strange place.

Neither dinner was a bad time, it was nice to see our families and Pearl got much adoration, too much adoration in fact. But like I said it's been a stressful, crazy two days, and I am thankful (haha) that they're over.

Seriously, I am thankful for my family, and for my husband's family, and especially for our little family of three.

Click on the photo below to see scenes from today's festivities.

Today

My Sweet Precious Baby

When Babies Attack

View this clip on Vimeo

They're not really attacking each other... just playing together! They get so excited to see each other; K starts quivering and Pearl jumps up and down. It is very amusing, as you can tell by the background giggles of my mother, my sister and I.

Sorry for the crappy quality; still trying to figure vimeo out. It shrank... perhaps when they converted it from a .wmv to a .mov. I don't know. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

Virginia Creeper with Lichens on Redbud Bark

The Gods Are Punishing Me for Shopping

So I mentioned a few posts back that I'd been spending money. I worked out a budget at the beginning of this month, as my husband gets paid monthly. I determined how much extra money we would have and what I wanted to spend it on, and then I went and spent it. That was where I went wrong. I should've waited until the end of the month to spend the extra money, because of course things are going to come up.

Like a broken camera. And after one goes and spends a hefty sum on a new camera by way of the savings account, the motorcycle breaks. And after the motorcycle breaks, the sink springs an unfixable leak. And so it ends up that the extra money wasn't so extra after all.

That is my budgeting lesson for the month. Extra money gets spent at the END of the month.

I Got a New Camera!

I bought a new camera yesterday. I couldn't help myself. I went with the newest version of my old camera as it had served me well (up until the whole dying thing, which was probably my fault as I dropped it all the time and banged it up), I already had the type of memory required, and was familiar with how it worked. It is a Sony DSC P200. My old one was a DSC P52. At any rate, the new camera makes the old one look so clunky! It's less than half its size, and so light. The LCD screen is bigger. It's 7.2 megapixels as compared to 3.2. The P200 has a battery pack so I won't be changing out AA's every day. It also has macro mode, something I'm looking forward to exploring.

My Camera Is Broken

Today my camera decided to die. Its shutter does a little death dance every time I try to turn it on. This comes hard on the heels of a spending spree; holiday dresses, Christmas tree and ornaments.

I bought a fake Christmas tree. It was a hard choice between real and fake and fake won, though I feel a little sad about it. My family always had real trees growing up, just cedars chopped down from our woods for the poorer Christmases. The fact that our culture steadily replaces such things with plastic representations seems strange to me and doesn't sit well, but here I am joining in on it.

Maybe in years to come, when this tree is worn down, we'll have a real tree. Or maybe I'll get a small potted pine, just for the scent and the nostalgia. Any tree at all is an improvement over past holidays. Mr. Peach is a total grinch and we've never had a tree in the three Christmases we've been together. Last year we had a Christmas Lamp.

Pearl has been decidely difficult in the evenings for a week or so now. She refuses to sleep in between the hours of five and nine, which wouldn't be a problem if she could stay awake cheerfully that long. So couple that with the early awakenings and my days both end and start stressfully, trying to get a tired baby to sleep.

A Walk at the Lake

A few days ago Pearl and I took a drive to a small lake very near our house. It was a lovely sunny day and I'd been wanting to go hang out there and take some photos while the fall foliage was at its peak but I waited almost too late; many of the trees were already bare. Still we enjoyed walking around the park, Pearl in the mei tai, checking out the lake and the tall pines and the buildings constructed by the CCC during the Great Depression.

Cute Hat

Halloweenies

I searched everywhere for a headband with bear ears on it, so that I could be a mama bear for Halloween. Nobody carried them. I even scoured that great shopping mall known as the Internet with pitiful results. So a day before the Halloween party I purchased some fuzzy material and whipped some up on my sewing machine! Well, I guess I didn't exactly whip them up; there was a lot of trial and error involved. But they turned out pretty well. I enjoyed making them and think it might have turned my crafty switch back on.

We attended a little family party at my sister's, and nobody managed to take a picture of the babies in their costumes together. There was much adoration all around. It was fun except for two things. Pearl woke up from a nap in my sister's bedroom and the baby monitor did not do its job and alert me to that, so my sister found her awake when she peeked in at her and brought her to me... and she was okay until she saw me and then burst into tears and was pretty darn inconsolable for a while. I felt bad; she seemed pretty upset by waking in a strange place without mama. And then the ride home. Pearl just does not like the car in the evenings at all and she lets us know, and I feel so bad, sitting next to her as she cries, looking at me as if she's thinking, "Why aren't you getting me out of this carseat?!" So Mr. Peach and I decided we're just not going to make social calls in the evenings for a while. It sucks, but it's not worth it for a half hour of misery for all involved.

I would share pictures of the fabulous jack-o-lantern I carved but I didn't carve one as I waited too long to buy a pumpkin and there were no decent pumpkins to be had.

What with the Halloween party and the time change Pearl's sleeping has gotten seriously messed up. I hope we get back on track soon because waking up at 2:30am isn't fun at all.

Day of the Dead

Today is a personal memorial day of sorts for me, a sad anniversary. Coincidentally enough it is also the Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos, and so today, if only mentally, I am doing a little celebrating along with a little mourning, and if nothing else, a little remembering. Some cultures think our world is closest to the spirit world at this time of year and that is why we celebrate Halloween or All Saint's Day or Samhain or el Dia de los Muertos or whatever. I do not know if this is true, no signs this year, nor the last. Maybe some spirits just never come back once they've finished lingering.