Froggy III

A flurry of posts to end the new year, but it seemed appropriate for LS to get one more photo session in with Froggy before the year was all gone.

What a surreal year for LS indeed, coming from out of nowhere and plunked down in the middle of this world. 2008 has been a great year, despite all of the overall background gloom and doom. As great as it's been, we're expecting an even greater 2009.

With the end of year coming, dad heard on the radio the introduction to a usual story about the "great ones" who passed away this past year. An understandable tradition, but unfortunate that we can't do the other side of it - a story about the best ones who were born this year. In general, they haven't proved themselves yet, but we have a feeling we have someone who would be in the running.

So on to the photo shoot:



Afterward we grabbed a candid shot of Froggy and LS at the photo shoot after-party sharing some secrets.



To everyone, from LS and family, best wishes for a Very Happy New Year!

LS and LL

It's never more surreal around here than at holiday time. Some years ago, we stopped getting a Christmas tree (dad didn't like the hassle) and opted instead to decorate a naked store mannequin with Christmas lights. Isn't that what you would do?

We've probably done this for about 10 years. For about 5 years now, she's gone by the name of "Lady Lights", which our niece M named her.

We also have tried to celebrate half-way through winter also. After the December celebrations are done, there is still so much dreary winter ahead! The mid-winter point turns out to be groundhogs day wouldn't you know it. And it turns out this isn't even a coincidence! Groundhogs day has its origins in an ancient Irish pagan holiday named Imbolc. At the center of Imbolc is a goddess, and the festival centers around the lighting of candles and fires. So, although by accident, our use of a naked woman wrapped in lights to celebrate winter being half over seems pretty appropriate!

Yes, we do keep the presents splayed at her feet while they are waiting to be opened. Mostly what she lacks is a place to hang ornaments.

Anyway, with LS in the house, now this time of year is doubly surreal! And about now, LS definitely has to be asking herself what she's gotten into.

We couldn't let the time go by without LS's first picture with Lady Lights.



- LS & LL, 2008

Movin out

It's probably been a week already, but time to report on a major event in LS's life. Moving out of her parents' place. Well, room anyway. We're pretty sure she'll want to stay in the house for a while! After all, she wasn't even 8 weeks at the time.

We hadn't planned on a specific time for her to stop sleeping in the bassinet in our room and move out into the crib in her bedroom. But it turns out she kind of decided on her own.

We started to have her take her day naps in the crib to get her used to the idea. She performed brilliantly. Since dad was staying up late anyway it was only maybe a day later when we had LS sleep in the crib for her first night-nap (the one from 9pm to 1am or so) while mom got some sleep and dad could keep an ear out from the office. Again, perfection.

With LS on such a streak, it seemed to make sense to have her just go the whole night in the crib. One of those first nights she slept 6 hours! Mom was pleased. Showing it was no fluke, this feat was performed again just last night. In fact, as this was written she was on 5 hours and counting... The bassinet days are behind us for good.

Thanks LS - what a great Christmas present! The gift of sleep.

Sorriso

We've been hoping to get little video clips of LS before and after she figured out how to smile. One where we'd encourage to smile and get her "serious" look, and then the other where she beamed with her new-found smiling ability.

Well, we finally got around to it yesterday. Here's the first in the series.



We're pretty sure she must have known what we were up to. This was on the changing table, but really does seem to be different then the gastic-induced smiles we've seen so far. If so, we managed to catch her first genuine smile on film. While, uh, of all things - hoping she wouldn't smile.

Video Withheld

We found out early on that there were two things LS loved to scream about (and not in a fun way): being changed and being bathed. I guess both those things seem to reveal an anti-cleaning ideology.

We're making progress on both fronts, though more so with the bathing - the subject at hand here.

What mom tried was bathing LS in the bathtub with her. None of these new-fangled plastic tubs. There've been a couple done this way, and today's LS seemed to particularly enjoy. It's a great scene really - two generations bathing together. Of course mom is just getting wet, not clean. And the water is only three inches deep or so. But LS's slippery little self is easier to manage.

And this is one of those cases where silence says it all, and slight hints of cooing pleasure are heard from LS instead of a full-on high pitched auditory assault.

Stat check: 12. That's how many inches of snow we're supposed to get tomorrow. And 12 is also supposed to be the temperature tomorrow night (-11 C), which LS is even less aware of inside our toasty house of 68 degrees.

Bye Bye Bear

It's actually come time that LS has outgrown some clothes. Today she wore the outfit that she came from the hospital in, and probably for the last time. It seemed so big then.

It seems that today might also have been the last day for the bear coat (seen here a week ago). This was a gift from a friend of mom's, who had bought the outfit before their baby was born, and their baby was born having already outgrown it!

Well, at least LS got some great usage out of it. She really took to clandestine operations, and enjoyed making it look like mom was talking to a stuffed animal at times. Only when turned around was her true identity revealed! Unfortunately it only lasted about 4 weeks.

Skypin' the night away

At not even 6 weeks old, LS has already had her first videoconference. Well, video *call* anyway. As LS cannot really figure out what is going on around her yet, memere definitely enjoyed it more on her end.

It's amazing that LS is born into a world that already has the ability to make free video calls anywhere in the world. Or where you can twitter short messages to an anonymous following. Or, well, blog about your daughter to anyone who cares to listen.

This reminded dad of those old AT&T commercials from 1993, where they predicted all kinds of cool technology that would be coming and would be provided by AT&T.

This one in particular, which includes a video call with a baby in it (that baby is now likely about 16 years old!).



It's amazing that all those things in the commercial LS can now do! Well, when she gets a little better control of her arms anyway. Of course, video calls aren't in phone booths (in fact, there are barely any more phone booths) - but still. Most of those things are better than they depict - like you don't have to go to a cash machine to buy concert tickets, you can do it sitting in your pajamas at home.

Of course, if they went back and redid the commercials they'd have to say something like - "have you ever tucked a baby in over the phone? You will. And it will be free. And, uh, we're going to go nearly bankrupt and be bought up by one of our former regional bell companies by then. Oh, nevermind."

Come to think of it, it's even amazing that it took dad all of about 30 seconds to find a link to a video of an old commercial from 16 years ago that he remembered.

And by the time LS can read this, there will no doubt be all manner of things that she can do and will be in amazement that they just weren't available yet in 2008!

Surreal Hats

This weekend LS spent time at a holiday sale, for her first exposure to the atmosphere of selling hats. Talk about surreal. She performed pretty well in the midst of so many people.

Also, she had her second overnight visitor (though only for one night this time) - Avo. With Avo over she got to learn some Portuguese lullabies, though she is struggling to remember the words. We're sure Avo will give her plenty more practice.

Back at the hat show, she relented to trying on a hat or two. (Is she actually smiling?)

121.3

This is a stat check worth its own post.

We had a weigh-in for LS today, and she tipped the scales at... hold on now...

7 lbs 9.3 oz (for metric fans, that's 3.439 kilos)

Before the weigh-in, we were told that 1/2 pound a week is really good weight gain. So 2.58 lbs in 22 days was a big surprise.

That's the weight of one KFC Extra Crispy Whole Wing each and every day.

It's the same as one of the following per week (pick your favorite):

1. Two Taco Bell Double Decker Taco Supremes
2. One Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich plus an order of Biggie Fries
3. One McDonalds Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese, Small Fries, and 2 Ketchup Packets

During Memere's visit alone she tacked on a 10 piece McDonalds Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips plus 3 packages of sweet-n-sour sauce.

Talking about all this reminds me of these guys from back in the day.

Day 33

The following notes were found on crumpled paper near LS's bassinet.

Day 33. Still no sign of rescue. My warm dark past is but a fleeting memory in my dreams now. I fear I may lose my sanity. The natives, however, have begun to show signs of intelligence and use of tools.

1:45am - They finally here my crying - subtlety is lost on them. Come on, we've been sleeping since like - what? - 11?
2:00am - Not the worst changing I've had, but still could use some work. Milk is a wonderful reward.
4:29am - Changing wasn't easy this time. It seemed no matter how much I screamed it didn't make it any easier for her.
4:47am - Finally on to the milk.
8:03am - enh... Enh.
8:07am - ENH! Good, finally got the big one's attention. Not easy.
8:13am - We have to wait for the milk to warm. I don't feel patient. I tried to strike a deal - he cleans me up and I'll scream the whole time. This was another messy one - but there was no need to gawk at it.
8:27am - Too excited on the changing table - I've peed myself. It didn't seem to make things go any quicker.
8:33am - Ohhh, warmed milk. Tastes like real.
9:37am - Not very exciting, just hanging out here with the big one propped up leaning on him. Doesn't he know how to do something?
9:49am - Finally, the swing. A slightly better form of monotony.
10:08am - The littler one is up! It looked like things could get more interesting, but she decides to prop me up against her while she checks her email. *sigh*
10:45pm - Back to the swing. Yay.
10:52am - Mrs. M visits! I haven't seen anyone else but these two since Memere left yesterday. A short visit though it was.
11:18am - Great. Another changing. (Note to self - stop peeing)
11:45am - More milk. I never get sick of this.
12:25pm - Another diaper blowout (as they so delicately put it). Do they think I feel good about it? Just get it over with please.
12:30pm - Whoa, hey! What's with the car seat? I try to keep screaming until they let me know. Go ahead, pick it up and rock it, it isn't going to wor... oh. *yawn* Mmm.
2:20pm - Wake up confused. This that mommy group again? Warm. Must sleep. Ok, I suppose a little milk won't hurt anything.
3:15pm - Wake up confused again. This the car? How does that get me fed? And no, I won't stop screaming actually.
3:35pm - More changing and more milk.
4:52pm - Found thumb. Not bad, but not worth the trouble. Yet.
4:55pm - Tummy time? Are they for real? Look. I have a heavy head. Does that amuse you?
5:08pm - Oh such good milk. I forgive all.
5:45pm - Oh, so full. Now how about we *yawn*, I mean we *yawn*. I, uh, think I'll just close my eyes. Just for a se...
8:51pm - Not sure what happened there. I just shut my eyes for a second. But then I ... Hey! I'm hungry! Of course she just has to change me first.
9:29pm - *yawn* Tired again.
11:30pm - Just laying looking at these shadows on the ceiling. What does it all mean? Crying would just bring changing. I think I'll let them sleep a little longer.

Heavy Head

We dusted off the archives of LS for video of her first real tummy time at the age of 3 weeks (Nov 22). Although the video is a week and a half old, it still shines like it was taken yesterday.



We half suspect that LS will first master breakdancing the "worm" even before crawling. See the following for comparison.

1 Month

Wow. 1 month already. 1 month in this wild world of ours. Good thing LS doesn't know how to read the news yet.

The last few days were pretty full. As things worked out this year, there were two Thanksgiving dinners to be had - one on Thursday with dad's side of the family, and one on Saturday with mom's side of the family. Illnesses unfortunately cut the attendance on Saturday from what could have been 15 down to 8. Still, with two TG dinners this year, I guess that means it was a year to be twice as thankful as usual.

It seems LS had a reaction to something in TG dinner, because she didn't sleep well and seemed to have gas discomfort both Thursday night and Saturday night - but it seems to have only lasted one night each time, so I guess we're thankful for that.

Anyway, here's to 1 month gone by! Which draws us closer to... LS being able to sleep through the night. Now that will *really* be cause for celebration!