Jun

Leslie, and Aaron, and Sami, did manage to make my first fathers day in *this* family a special one — probably the most special one I’ve had to date! We started off with a little expedition to the crafts fair that was going on this weekend so that Leslie and Aaron could get me a gift from there from Aaron and Sami that Leslie and Aaron had picked out together (after I had given them the ambiguous hint the previous day, that the *perfect* present could be found there.

Yup — they found it — a cool clock with a funny face (literally) made out of used computer parts — thus the clock face is a hard-drive disk made to look like a funny face. Attached is a body, which is a floppy disk — and then the “legs” are a two-part pendulum made out of a cut up circuit board. It combines my passions for faces/masks and computers — and is truly cool, besides. The fact that they were able to correctly identify that this is what I had in mind, merely from the clue that the “perfect gift is there” (somewhere in what was a huge crafts fair of about 150 Artisans) was really cool, too!

We all had a nice brunch at a local restaurant called Boscos — but I couldn’t have my requisite (for this kind of special brunch) mimosa because there is a local law against serving liquor in restaurants until noon on Sundays, because church goes until about then. Go figure the logic in that! Anyway the brunch was good company, anyway, and I got more presents — a cool cookbook describing a zillion ways to make interesting rice-based dishes — a book on moody vegetables to read with Sami for bedtime — and the promise of a TiVo system so that we can digitally watch all our time-shifted shows.

The rest of the day was mostly a quiet day at home — although we did venture out just before dinner to buy an entertainment saucer with lots of cool toys for Sami — since she is getting bored with the limited toys she has so far (limited only because she has been too small to do much with much of anything, I assure you! %-), and at her Dr. visit we were told her posture was so good she was ready for and could benefit from things like this where she can sit/stand supported and play. She loves it!

The other big adventure was trying to give Sami her first cereal. I don’t think Leslie has to worry about losing her baby just yet. So far Sami is tolerant of being spoon fed her gruel/cereal, but she isn’t enthusiastic, and I think she manages to force about 80% of what I give her (which isn’t much anyway) down her chin. So I suspect it will still be a couple of weeks before we can say she is really “eating”. But I am sure that the day isn’t so far off.

OK — sleepy time for me ….

  

Jun

Today (technically yesterday now) was my first Father’s Day as a Mommy. That probably sounds a little strange, but I really love holidays – Hallmarky or not, they give us a chance to pause from the hustle and bustle of day to day life and remember all the things we have to be grateful for. I generally go out of my way to make holidays as special as possible, though sometimes I fail because I’m too unorganized, time pressured, etc. Craig said he thought Father’s Day was a fake day, and didn’t expect much. So I was determined to make his “first” Father’s Day (with Sami at least) fun for him. Since it was his day, I’ll prod him to write a blog tomorrow to say how it went…

The other big news is…my baby’s not a baby anymore!!! Well, perhaps that is a slight exxageration, but today she did take her first step toward independence – “solid” food.

On Friday she had her 4 month well-baby visit, and the doctor said it was time to start her on solids. Of course, the term solid is used very loosely in this case, since it is really just a tiny bit of cereal mixed with a lot of breastmilk. Anyway, we had known this was coming, since all the books, etc. still say to start kids on solids at around 4 months (though the American Academy of Pediatricians, recommends now that you breastfeed exclusively for 6 months). I was in favor of waiting myself, but I will be going away in August for 8 days (to a conference), and the doctor thought we should go ahead and start her on solids now, because she needs to be on them by 6 months, and if I am gone it will be harder for her to adjust to it. Also, since she will be starting daycare next month, we thought we should tackle on change at a time.

So, yesterday Craig bought some rice cereal from the store and left the box out on the counter so I could see it and start acclimating myself to the idea. I was still pretty reticent, but tonight we went ahead and tried it. We got out her special bib with her name on it that she got from my friend Amy, and we went out and bought a bowl for her. I made a videotape, which I will try to put up on the web page at some point – that allowed me to distance myself from it a little bit. Craig fed it to her, but she really didn’t like it at all. She spit almost all of it out, and she even choked on it a couple of times. The doctor said it would probably take a few times before she gets used to having anything besides milk.

It’s funny – it really is a small thing, her starting to have some other foods, but it has really unsettled me. I made a commitment to myself, and to her, before she was born, that I would nurse her for at least 6 months. After she was born and my milk came in, I realized that she wasn’t having any problems with the nursing, and I was really enjoying it to, so I made a commitment to nurse her for at least her whole first year, and hopefully to let her wean herself when she is ready (that is what doctors now recommend, though of course that doesn’t work for everyone). I guess I am afraid that she will decide that she likes the solid foods better than nursing. I genuinely believe nursing her as long as possible is what’s best for her. but I am realizing more and more each day that it is also what’s best for me. I feel like one day she’s going to start eating solid foods, and the next day she’ll be graduating from college or something.

My sister Terra and I talk a lot about being Mommys these days – she has been a great resource and role model for me. We both agree that having kids makes us wish we had been nicer to our parents. I dread the day Sami decides I’m stupid, or embarrassing, or annoying, or all three. And when I think that one day she will not want me to hug her or kiss her, or really have much to do with her at all, it just makes me want to bawl my eyes out. I know a lot will happen between now and the time she is a teenager to help prepare me for her becoming independent. But somehow, I think that when that day comes, it will still make me cry.

  

Jun

Well, it’s been a while since I checked in. Guess it is time — in honor of Sami’s 4 mo b-day and all.

She is a sweetie! I haven’t known that many babies all that well, but she has the sweetest disposition of those I’ve known! All smiles and laughs (well, not *all* — see Leslie’s blogs about going to sleep!). She is very gregarious — when you “connect” with her, and share a laugh or something like that — she is in literal *ecstasy* — must be a fun life!

It’s also great fun to watch her develop. She is working on sitting up, and becoming real adept at reaching for things (as Mommy found out the other day with that hot bowl of soup in the restaurant — if mommy hadn’t been on her toes both my girls would have been burned!), etc. And boy is she getting big! I think she’s a keeper!

OK, off to sleep now — ’cause if we’re lucky, in about 5 hours …

  

Jun

My baby is 4 months old now!!! I just doesn’t seem like she should be that “old” already; on the other hand, it seems like she has always been a part of us. She’s down for the night now – she is sleeping through the night more and more, but the cost is that she likes to be up until 11:00 or so before she will settle down. She’s so funny the way she fights sleep – I joke with Dayna all the time about how if she only knew how tired she would be as an adult, she would want to sleep all the time! But not our Sami – she doesn’t want to miss a thing.

Speaking of her sleeping, I’m embarrassed at how often I still go in and check on her while she’s sleeping, to make sure she’s still breathing. All the talk about SIDS really scares me, even though we do everything “right” – put her to sleep on her back, no pillows or toys or blankets in the crib, make sure she doesn’t get overheated while she’s sleeping, etc. But someone in Craig’s ex-wife’s family had a baby die of SIDS, and they did everything right, too; it can happen to anybody. I just can’t stand the thought of anything bad happening to her.

Well, I think that’s enough for now – since she’s asleep, I better take the opportunity to get some shut-eye, too. I’ve learned to live on a lot less sleep than I would’ve ever believed was possible, but still! And who knows, maybe I’ll actually have the energy to kiss my husband good night before I pass out…;-)

  

Jun

Hello, darlin’. It’s been a long time…sorry, we had a guest from out of town this past weekend and one of our stops was to the new Country Music Hall of Fame. Now I have country music on the brain. Anyway, it has been a while, as usual. Oh, well, what matters is, I’m here now!

I’ve just finished a couple of very big work projects, so I’m feeling less pressured than I have really since Sami was born. Who knows, maybe later I’ll even feel up to updating our web page! %-) Craig says I should turn the “Cute Sami Picture of the Week” feature into “Cute Sami Picture of the Month”. But I think it’s been longer than that now…

Speaking of Sami, she is doing *very* well! She is getting so big, we just can’t believe it – she’ll be 4 months old on Sunday!!! Time flies. We just picked up her 3 month pictures from the photographer yesterday, and they are absolutely precious – watch for them in the mail. I’ll be sending them along with thank-you notes which I haven’t gotten around to yet, and also with the 6 week pictures, which I never got around to mailing. %-) I do the best I can, I really do!

Our big news these days is that Sami will be starting daycare next month. She got “accepted” (whatever that means for a baby) at our first choice place, and her first day will be July 22nd, after we’re back from our summer vacations to visit family. I know it will be a good experience for her – research has shown that. Contrary to what many people think and what Republicans want everyone to believe , kids in daycare *at worst* are the same as kids who aren’t, and at best they actually develop better social skills and advanced cognitively relative to kids who have stay at home moms (or dads).

See, I sound defensive though, don’t I? That’s because I have surprised myself by feeling guilty about sending her to daycare. It’s not that I want to quit my job and become a “full-time mom”. No offense to those who do that – it’s just not my style. I worked very hard to get my Ph.D., I am good at what I do, and I love what I do. And it is very important to me to raise Sami as a strong, independent woman. But what Craig and I have done for the last 4 months is trade off days, so that at least one of us has been home all the time with her. So, I feel a little guilty that we won’t still be doing that. The reality, though, is that she will likely get more attention at daycare than she does with us during the days – we feed her and diaper her as needed (of course), and play with her when we can, but otherwise we have her in a bouncer seat or in her swing much of the day, while we struggle to get work done. Still – it pains me. And, even though he pretends to be the calm, collected, non-neurotic dad, it pains Craig, too. One of our developmental psychologist friends says that it will be a lot harder on us than on her. I’m starting to have a better understanding of what she means!