5th tooth, doctor

i had a sneaking suspicion there was something else going on in there, and sure enough, there's a 5th tooth in nissa's little mouth. just to the left of her 2 top teeth. awesome!

we went back to the doctor today for more shots. yippee. good thing was nissa put on a half pound, bad thing was she seems to have shrunk 3/4 an inch. i think someone mis-measured along the way. . .

official steps!

so, it's official, nissa has taken a few steps on her own. to recap, she's been standing and cruising for some time. she can stand on her own in the middle of the room (i.e. didn't need to pull up on something to stand) and sit back down relatively gracefully. she would even hold on to something, take a few steps out/sideways before dropping down to hands and knees and crawling away (to maximize the distance she could cover while standing, i think). and of course, she would walk all over the place if you held her hands- not even that much pressure, either. amusingly enough, i intended to post a note about this friday during the day, but didn't get around to it: walk watch 2009!

thursday night, while we were sitting around watching tv, adam said he saw nissa step/shift out of the corner of his eye. i just noticed her loosing her balance and having a seat. then earlier saturday, i was sitting in her room with her (she was playing, i was kitting) when she stood up and shifted twice with her left foot, in kind of a pivot. a little later, she picked up her alphabet pal and took 3 more super tiny steps (duh, baby steps!?!). then i started to really get excited and started having the phone/camera at the ready to capture the steps on film (first steps are first steps and momentous! i got some goofy stuff on video, but my patience did pay off:



on a significantly less exciting note, nissa's been doing lots of other cool stuff too. like the other day (thrusday, i believe) nissa was in her high chair and making a crazy noise and pointing. i was doing dishes at the time (had my back to her) so when i turned around, i noticed she had stopped eating and seemed to be pointing to her cup of water. i asked, do you want your water? she started getting excited (hard to describe it) so i gave her the water and she took a big gulp. it's kinda cool to have a new, more detailed, means of communication. very exciting.

earlier in the week nissa did something truly hilarious. first, let me explain that with gibson in the house, i tend to pick off his hairs from her clothes pretty regularly (ugh, fleece is such a bear for dog hair!!!). i was sitting on the couch with my bare feet on the coffee table. nissa walked up (she was holding on at that time) and started poking at my toes. upon further inspection, i discovered she was trying to take the [dog] hairs off my toes. unfortunately, i have very long hairs on my big toes (glamorous, i know) so i'm pretty sure she was mistaking my attached hair with the loose dog hair that can be found everywhere. how embarrassing, "no honey, those hairs are attached to mommy and aren't going anywhere." yipes.

stranded

lately i've been struggling with my daily commute. to and from work is pretty standard, about an hour each way if i leave when i'm supposed to (and even manage to score seats for most legs). the drag comes in when i have to hop in my car, er, van, to pick up nissa from the inlaws'. it's about a 20 minute drive, with a 10-20 minute break for pleasantries, then another 20 minutes, taking me at least an hour to get BACK home. then it's time to make dinner, eat, pretend to relax before putting nissa to bed then myself to bed. it makes for a blurry, non-restful evening, just about every day. heaven forbid i try to work in any extra tasks, cuz they ain't happenin!

so last night i tried my best to leave work on time, didn't stop for dinner groceries, walked straight to the van from the bus and made my pleasantry time brief. i even skipped visiting the little girl's room while i was at the inlaws' for expediency's sake. we were well on our way home (on ashland, just before irving) when the van stalled out and quit. no waiting to restart it, nothing. i had some solace in the fact that i had partially pulled over, but my back end was still in traffic, as every 6th car conveniently reminded me with a horn blast. we called adam and awaited his arrival (with fingers crossed that all we needed was gas). during our wait (made longer because it was now 6pm and had been snowing a blizzard-quality snow for over an hour now), a police vehicle stopped briefly. the 2 officers stopped long enough to confirm i was having car trouble and i was expecting someone to help, then pulled off with traffic as i was attempting to ask for a push to get out of traffic. is it their job to push vehicles out of traffic? no. but if you're going to bother to stop (and block more traffic) to inquire, why not take the extra 10 minutes it would take to ease up traffic (during rush hour at a busy intersection) and help a mom alone in a car with a small child. they didn't even remain stopped long enough to conclude the conversation, for crying out loud. grrr. so frustrating.

but, the experience ended on a very high note. when adam arrived, he tried a few times, unsuccessfully to move the van in a way to get it out of traffic. the weather was so crummy that it was hard for him to get enough traction/momentum to do it solo. then, miraculously enough, jane q public shows up to save the day. a wonderful young lady, about our age, walked up and offered to help push. she and adam had the van relocated in no time at all. so to you, random wonderful stranger, thank you for helping us out!!

anyways, the rest of the evening was pleasantly non-eventful. we all enjoyed a dinner of chicken alfredo, including nissa stuffing her mouth by the fistful. she is so amusing to watch some times. we then retired to the basement to enjoy the new disney christmas special (very amusing, by the way) and the peanuts christmas special. nissa seemed randomly interested at times, but mostly focused on climbing around her boxes and such.

this morning, though, i noticed something odd. after our morning nurse, i picked up nissa into my arms to cradle her a brief second (won't let me do that for any longer) as i carried her to her bed. i then noticed that my little babe had become a long, lanky toddler whose leggs dangled far beyond my arms. it was very obvious and it struck me just how different a shape my little nissa had taken on. part of me loves it, to watch her slowly get bigger (and see evidence, which is hard on a day-to-day basis) but at the time i was mostly nostalgic for my little infant girl that fit perfectly in the crook of my arm. . . bah. i love her getting bigger, pausing her nursing to tell me something she thought of, turning my face with her hand so she can admire my ear, or swinging side to side to express herself (bored? happy? trying to amuse us?).

my goodness this kid is cute.

thanksgiving, family photos

so last weekend was the adventurous trip out to dearborn, mi to spend thanksgiving with adam's mom's family. it's an annual tradition that we all enjoy. the drive out was a bit rough with traffic, as was the drive back, but most of the time there was wonderful. it's always a pleasure to catch up with everyone over several meals, it's so relaxing and homey. adam's grandma very generously lets us stay at her house (as well as adam's parents and aaron's family) so it often leads to late nights and grand sleep over-type experiences.

we were looking forward to showing off nissa, and perhaps witnessing her first steps (she's still holding out on us!). but instead nissa developed a fever (got up to 103' at the worst) and was the fussiest we've seen her. ever. our usually happy-go-lucky, sit with anyone, chill baby became a cranky, only calm with mommy, refusing to sleep critter that proved frustrating at times. oh well. you can't have a perfect baby all the time, right?

yesterday we had the good fortune of getting together with rick and his family to take family holiday photos at the garfield conservatory. the holiday flower show is in full bloom and the showhouse is gorgeous with poinsettias, a giant christmas tree, holly, mistletoe, the works. we snapped some fun shots of everyone and i think we all came away with photos that were ready to be used for christmas cards. hooray!





today we're supposed to get our christmas tree, but we haven't yet determined how we're going to keep nissa out of harm's way. there was talk of purchasing a play yard fence type thing, but that didn't happen yet. we don't really plan on decorating all that much anyways (maybe some lights and a few choice ornaments), so maybe it'll work out fine. i guess we'll just wing it!

more kisses

we've tried to teach nissa how to give kisses for a while, but she never really caught on. sometimes she seems to be willing to go mouth-to-mouth with you, but there's usually tongue involved and that's just not what we're looking for. now lately, she's been tucking her lips in, mouth slightly open for a kiss, which works a lot better. it's really cute. we're still working on blowing kisses.

a little think i do with nissa is to take one of her stuffed animals, sing a simple tune and make them "dance." sometimes i finish with them dancing in close and giving her a kiss. she thinks it's hilarious, so i try do this often. over the weekend, we were playing with nissa's little pooh bear (thanks amy and karl), having it dance up arms and legs and giving nissa kisses. to my surprise and delight, nissa would take the bear herself and "do do do" and move the doll around then hold it up to my lips for a kiss. we took turns at this for a while and i just loved it- she's totally imitating something we do with her. adam and i were both impressed.

i'm also impressed by how much more cruising nissa has been doing. she seems to be favoring more and more to walk along furniture then to get back down on all fours and crawl. maybe she'll show off for family in detroit?

nissa and i joined my coworker meg to see the lighting of michigan avenue saturday night. we missed mickey (who initiates the lights) in the parade but we did see santa. it was an interesting experience, to say the least. i then dropped her off and grandparents a's house to head out to an ATV show at cubby bear. a long, fun filled day to say the least.

my monday has already started out great, so i hope i can keep it going for the 2 days i have to be at work this week. after nursing nissa and burping her, i was holding her in my arms for a vain attempt to snuggle before heading off to work. i told her how i have to go to work, that i have to go bye bye. she then took her thumb from her mouth, waved and said, "bye bye." it was sooooo cool!

12 month doctor's visit

it's hard to believe that we've made it to the one year mark, but here we are. wow.

we had a doctor's appointment yesterday and i'm pleased to say i am very happy with our new doctor. she is attentive, cheerful and honest. her support staff are helpful and respectful of my time there. i'm really glad we made the move. at the appointment, nissa is in the 15% for weight at 18.5 lbs, but 75% for height at 29.75". our gal is long and lean! fortunately the doc is happy with her weight and eating habits, so we have nothing to worry about on that front. the doc was impressed by nissa's verbalization and standing skills; so much so with the latter that she assumed nissa was walking. that's my girl! impressing folks all over the place. she impressed a mom in the waiting room with her "hi" greeting: yes, she really does say hi and means it! nissa's on track for the basic development stuff, so yeah team! after all the good stuff came the inevitable bad stuff: shots. she got 4, 2 in each arm. we come back for more in a month, since her schedule is out of whack due to the previous doctor being unable to have necessary supplies on hand. of course, she was miserable, but nothing a few minutes nursing and a 3 hour nap couldn't fix. today you could hardly tell.

on a more pleasant note, we celebrated nissa's actual birthday with a trip to the aquarium. we think nissa enjoyed seeing all the fish, turtles and frogs, especially since we have fish and a turtle at home. honestly, she probably enjoyed seeing all the people more than the critters. . . but we had a good time, so it was a success. we were even fortunate enough to run into an old friend who works there now, so we were able to see more (oceanarium and wild reef) than we had planned. we came home, had some chinese take out and called it a night. for dessert, nissa got an oreo, just to see what would happen. she didn't make nearly as big a mess as her uncle rick did so many years ago, but she wasn't exactly clean when she was done either. here's my birthday gal enjoying her oreo:

spoon!

yes, the tick would have been impressed last night. on a whim, i gave nissa a real spoon alongside her bowl of meatball soup (no broth, just veggies, noodles and broken up meatballs). she held the spoon in her left hand and ate with her right, but after a while, she managed to scoop up some food on the spoon and actually slurped up some items from the spoon. i was totally impressed. i was also impressed by how willingly nissa ate up the wilted spinach in her bowl. it was almost like she reached for it intentionally. i'm so glad she likes her veggies!

somewhere along the way nissa has gotten really good at standing up. i think it started a few weeks ago when i noticed she could get to standing from leaning on my knee (i was sitting cross-legged on the floor). that was impressive because previously she had to pull herself up from something higher, like the coffee table. now, she can pull herself up to standing without any assistance at all! she can even bend over and pick something up from the floor while standing. who am i kidding? she can do everything while standing- flail her arms, drink from her sippy, reach out for gibson, what ever! she's been so close to walking, it's ridiculous. not that i'm rushing her, but it's such an odd experience to see it in her face that she's thinking about it. . . then right when she should take a step, she gracefully drops down to all fours and crawls to her desired destination. yes, she'll walk with you if you hold her hands, will walk along furniture holding on with one hand, but no real walking yet. she's holding out until she can do it perfectly, i can just tell.

so this past weekend was the birthday party extravaganza to celebrate nissa's first 12 months on this wonderful world. my parents came in thursday night, we hung out a bit friday, then saturday adam's parents, aaron's family, my parents and rick's family all came over to have cake with nissa. we opened presents before cake (good idea, grandma g) and nissa was interested for about 30 seconds, but then lost interest as soon as the first toy was opened, then only had eyes for that and other toys around. we tried! i'm sure she'll be a little more interested come christmas. i baked a yellow cake with caramel cream cheese filling and mom decorated. we even cut it into the shape of a "1" to mark the big day. from the trimmings, we made nissa her own little cake with a "1" on it in frosting. nissa loved the attention and the singing, but never quite paid attention to the candle. she wasted no time digging into her cake, with the most effort put into pulling off the frosting. at one point she even pried off the top layer of the cake and had a chunk of the bottom layer in the other hand- it was quite the sight. she managed to get frosting in her hair and all over her clothes, but nothing a washcloth and gibson couldn't handle.

sunday was a slightly different story. we had our friends over sunday and it was something best described as "intense." we had about 24 people there, 9 of which were kids (all but one under 3). it was like a party we've had so many times, but with a much higher energy level and the need to watch where you stepped. i think the kids all enjoyed themselves, and maybe even the adults. nissa seemed to love having the company and having so many new people to interact with. at one point, she tried to climb up on a activity table our friend sarah brought (got all 4s up) and when i tried to remove her, she had a minor melt down. so after setting her down and she repeating the climb, i took her up to her room for a relaxing nursing session and diaper change. that definitely helped and we were ready for cake. i baked a banana cake, filled with bananas and banana pudding. i decorated this one myself, with the picture of a sock monkey, inspired by the too cute thank yous we bought from paper doll. (thanks stacey!) the cake was super tasty (from the tiny bite i had) and the inside and decoration earned lots of compliments. again, nissa reveled in the attention of being sung to and performing her messy cake eating for the room. it was odd how quickly people made their exits, without it being a big, obvious exit. it was amazing having our friends with us for the party, but it was a relief to have some relaxing quiet too. i'm still tired just thinking about it.

we took this picture ahead of time to serve as the image for the party on her evite, but it kinda sums up the experience- festive, but frustrating.

introducing. . . milk!

so, we gave nissa a cup of whole milk with dinner last night. she drank it up without pause, so i guess she likes it. was much more interested in the milk than the yummy stew, but what can you do? now the real test is today, to see how her diapers look.

nissa continues to test her standing skills (tempt fate) and taunt us into expecting steps. adam presumes she'll be like him- wait till she can do it easily before trying. apparently that's what he did as a toddler; he didn't take a few steps, he just started walking one day and never stopped.

tsapik!

grandma a (and maggie) have been playing patty cake with nissa since day one. nissa likes the singing, but never really liked having her hands clapped for her. just saturday, we noticed her clapping her hands together a little.

yesterday, when grandma a walked in, nissa started clapping her hands! it's pretty cool. here is the rhyme they say together:
tsapik tsapik tsirani, unem tatik ou papik. Tatiks chashe patrastum, papiks payte kotratum, isk yes nstats tsari tak nkarumem napastak.
[clap clap peachy, I have a grandma and a grandpa. My grandma is cooking dinner, my grandpa is chopping wood. but i am under a tree drawing a bunny.]

nissa is also just starting to get the hang of blowing kisses. that's something grandma g has been practicing with her. when we were talking by webcam on sunday, she kind of did it; i'll just have to practice some more.

but the strangest thing was what i saw nissa doing last night. i swear it looked like she was playing the piano on her gate. check it out (near the end):

adjusting

life with a baby is all about adjustments. adjusting your sleep habits, adjusting your expectations on personal hygiene, adjusting your house cleaning schedule, etc. my latest adjustment seems to be a bit of a milestone.

since nissa has been eating more and more solid foods, she's been eating less milk. i noticed it on weekends that i'd only nurse 4 or 5 times during the day, down from nearly 10 times a day when she was still a wee thing. i'm so excited, by the way, that i've been able to keep up my supply this whole time and breastfeed as long as i have; i think both of us are benefiting from it. anyways, less demand means fewer pumping sessions at work! so i'm down to one pump at noon and it feels great. i'm tentative about cutting back, but the supply seems to be holding steady, so that is reassuring.

i'm trying a little hard to adjust my activity levels. free time during the day is almost unheard of, so i'm trying to sneak in other ways to be active. i was not one of those breastfeeding moms that magically lost all kinds of weight by just nursing/pumping. i've lost about 5 pounds and have a good 15 more to go to get back to where i started, 25 more to get to where i'd like to be. of course, i'd do best if i had a regular schedule, but our lives right now won't allow for that, so i've got to make do with snatching up time where i can. one day i'll even get gibson out on walks on a semi-regular basis!

we've all had to adjust to nissa's increasing speed. nissa can get from one end of the room to the other in no time flat. just this week, she was behind the couch by adam, i got up to go to the bathroom and almost stepped on her coming around the couch. she had covered all that ground in a matter of seconds! last night adam thought she was behind him, only to discover her by me. part of me dreads her taking her first steps- if she moves fast now, what then?

speaking of walking, every day she gets a little closer to taking a step. nissa will stand, not holding onto anything, for growing lengths of time. she kind of bends her knees a little (reminds me of a sumo) but stands for so long!! just last night, though, i think she was giving serious consideration to taking a step. she got to standing between the coffee table and the couch and was reaching toward the couch, but it was just out of reach. you could see the little gears turning, her reaching just so, and i was just waiting for it. she eventually gave up and slowly, gracefully lowered herself to sitting. there's something she did NOT get from me- grace. hee hee.

lately i've been obsessed with this "o" face nissa has been making. sometimes she'll make "o" noises too, so i've been trying to focus that new skill into "what does santa say?" "ho ho ho". it just may work. unfortunately, though, i think it may be a face in response to some discomfort from her new teeth on top. she was making her face while crying last night (and refusing to sleep, of course), so i'm not sure. either way, it's super cute.

party girl

last night we went to our friends' house for a pumpkin carving party. nissa came along and it went pretty well, despite the combo of beer and carving. . .

we are constantly counting our lucky stars on how pleasant our little girl is. as it got later (bed time is usually 9 and we left about midnight) she got antsy, but nothing just letting her crawl around a bit didn't fix. she was probably just antsy from being held so long! she was curious about the kitty and the kitty handled the curiosity well, even letting nissa touch her face a little before relocating.

one of our fellow party goers commented to adam that he looks really happy. it was such a heart-warming comment and really opened my eyes to it- adam looks genuinely happy when he's around nissa (or even just talking about her, for that matter). adam's neutral face is very neutral, maybe even a little sad, so it's a significant thing for him to 'look' happy without laughing or anything obvious like that. it's a beautiful thing to see the joy that she brings to him. even just before the party, we got a little later start that we had planned because they were enjoying each other's company on the couch. i had put nissa on adam's belly on the couch to get some things together. nissa was very cuddly and playful and it was so sweet to see them just being daddy and baby together.

man, sometimes that kid is just too cute.

one "step" closer

adam claims to have seen nissa take a step, then either fall or choose to sit.

again, i haven't seen it, so i'm skeptical.

but last night we both witnessed something notable. we were downstairs on the couch and nissa climbed up to standing next to the coffee table. she reached over for her sippy (the non-handled one, i'm pleased to say, which she can maneuver just fine) and used both hands to take a sip. she stood the whole time (knees bent, but not squatting) and we both just stared for what seemed like forever. she put the cup back on the table then sat down and crawled off.

it was nothing if not impressive!

too cute with gibson

so yesterday after work, i let nissa roam the upstairs floors while i worked in the kitchen. she spent most of the time digging around her stuffed animal bin in her room:

but sometimes she'd wander out to explore. in her bin o' toys, there was gibson's old puppy kong. he likes to take it, chew it, then leave it somewhere for you to toss or otherwise give back to him. yesterday, when he'd leave it on the floor for something else, nissa would crawl over to it, sit down and pick it up, holding it out for gibson to take. she'd hold it in his general direction and everything. it was so amazing to watch her figure this out on her own: she knows it's for gibson and so she gives it to him. i'm so impressed.

i'm impressed too by our eating as a family the last few weeks. with nissa eating a meal at the same time as we eat dinner, i always try to eat with her. lately, though, we've been eating (the 3 of us) at the dining room table like a family. it's pretty nifty. i plan to instill good eating habits with nissa and i think eating as a family together will help make that happen. i have to say i LOVE the new "my little seat" i got for her for traveling. it's essentially a fabric booster seat that you tie onto a regular chair that, combined with a phone book or 2, serves as a high chair for nissa and she can sit right at the table. since it's fabric, it folds down into this tiny little package- great for traveling and easy to toss in the wash when it gets messy. with it set up in the dining room, she eats "with" us and i don't have to drag the high chair back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room. i love the high chair in the kitchen too much to leave it in the dining room full time.

i think it's cute how we assign/take credit for the little things that nissa does. adam claims her affinity for climbing the steps, since he was a climber as a child. i reluctantly take credit for her ability to keep going after bumping her head so many times (not the bumping, just the resilient nature to not let it phase her). we had to retire the bumbo for a recent evening of head bumps. she likes to climb into/around it, getting herself into some precarious positions. the other day she managed to do a face-plant out of it. she shook that off in a heartbeat and went right back to climbing on the bumbo. not 3 minutes later she got herself in a different awkward position that led to her falling backwards. this, she was not too fond of and started crying. amusingly enough, when she cries from falling, she does not want to be comforted with a hug or any such cuddly business; she usually cries more. i find picking her up, a quick consoling word or kiss then plunking her back down is the best course of action. she's quick to forget her bad experience by returning to climbing, walking, etc.

one other amusing thing of note: nissa has 2 toys she plays with, the walker toy (featured in another post) and a ball bopper. both have holes where the balls go. both end up stuck with random bits in them. for example, her walker toy has 3 balls and 3 shapes (flower, star, triangle). one day i couldn't find the triangle and looked all over for it. turns out it was stuck in the ball popper. it took some effort, but i got it out. another time i found my milk pads stuffed in the ball bopper because they were in a bin of clean laundry i was folding. once i found her fish teether wedged into the walker toy. that was tricky. it's gotten to the point that if we're looking for something, to check those two places.

scaled the steps!

so, while adam stepped away last night, nissa and i had an adventure. she, yet again, crawled off toward the back of the basement. instead of letting her get to the way back (she loves the dog's bowls) i directed her attention toward the stairs. with a little spotting, she climbed them all! it may be my imagination, but i like to think she enjoyed it and is appreciating the different perspective on places she usually sees from up high. we plan to baby-proof more of the house, so she has more room to roam. she sure does cover some ground when she wants to!

p.s. i've since video-ed her in action:

ugh. monday.

here i am at monday again. another weekend gone by too fast. it was fun, granted, and somewhat productive, but gone too fast.

we had the wonderful opportunity to host a surprise party for our friend karl saturday night. he turned 30 with little fanfare, so we helped his fiance host a party 2 weeks after the fact to change that. we had a modest crowd for the surprise (and he was surprised!) and a fair number of folks stop by throughout the evening, so it was a success. we even resurrected my 30th birthday party theme of "muppets and martinis" to rave reviews. we showed episodes of the muppet show and offered a menu of 6 or so different martinis based on characters (miss piggy was a cosmo, kermit was an appletini, sam the eagle was a classic martini). i was so impressed that our guests actually ventured out and tried some of the lesser-known ones, like fozzy's honey martini. we got lots of compliments on our home, our bar, our dog, even our baby. nissa stayed home that evening and hung out till about 11. she crawled around, ate fried rice and played with fabian and nancy, and otherwise enjoyed herself as much as a 10 month old can. i put her to bed, but about an hour later she was back up and crying, refusing to go back to bed. i brought her back downstairs and we hung out some more. she wasn't fussy and i was ok with having her up, but by 1:30 all of our guests had gone home. adam's convinced nissa's presence scared everyone off. i hope not, but wouldn't be surprised. she's a baby, she'll be fine. don't worry!

and she was fine. we all slept in till about noon and she took a solid 2.5 hour nap later that day and was in bed by 10 (a little late, but not bad), very close to her usual bed time. she wasn't cranky or tired either, much to our relief. nissa even showed off a new trick yesterday; almost scaring me half to death. while i was scrambling around trying to find my cell phone, i wasn't paying as close attention to her as i should. adam was helping me, so also not paying attention to nissa. after a few minutes i look around and see her standing on the first stair to go upstairs, reaching around to scale the next step. i was impressed and petrified at the same time, but i did my best to put on a happy face and fetch her from the stairs as quickly as i could manage. unfortunately, now the stairs are all she aims for if she's on the floor in the basement.

since nissa is so mobile lately, i think we're going to try and take advantage of the clean house and make more of the house available to her for maneuvering. sure, there's no way to 100% baby proof a house, but i think we can make a good effort and at least open up more of the upstairs to her, so she can roam about while i'm in the kitchen at least. we'll see.

a tangled skein. . .

i finished a very special project yesterday and i have a bit of yarn left. it's a super cool yarn and i can't wait to do something else with it, if only my lovely daughter hadn't done something with it already.

nissa has always been attracted to the little blue ball of yarn. she came with me to the store when we petted all different kinds of yarn and picked out the softest, coziest yarn we could find. she always likes to help me crochet or knit, and pull yarn out "for me" from the skein. last night though, was a doozie of a help session.

when i was waiting for the bus this morning, i decided on my next project for the yarn, but realized i needed to sort out the yarn a bit first. i sorted waiting 15 minutes for the bus (a long time to wait for a bus, by the way), i sorted while riding the bus for another 20 minutes, i sorted waiting for the train, then while riding the train for about 25 minutes. i even sorted walking to work (tricky, but i managed, with a growing trail almost dragging behind me). i sorted some more during my morning pump break (after working out first, of course). i plan to sort the rest in my afternoon pump break.

i'm not sure how nissa got the once-neat skein into the tangled mess that's occupied me so much today. a small part of me is annoyed that i have to take time away from knitting to detangle the yarn. but a much bigger part of me is amused to sort through the loops and twists created by an enthusiastic 10 month old. plus, there's a certain level of meditation-like concentration involved with detangling that i secretly enjoy. i get to enjoy it while fishing often, but adam and i haven't fished much this year.

i guess the key is to just enjoy the process!

labor day indeed

i spent the majority of the day getting ready for camping this coming weekend. since we leave friday, this will be the last free day i have to get things together. adam's been working straight since last tuesday. he'll be ready for camping for sure!

camping will be a weird experience, i think. first, we'll be going without nissa. that'll be 5 days without my little munchkin. the longest i've gone is for eric's wedding, when i left her at her morning feeding and didn't see her until the following afternoon. i'm trying not to dwell on the lack-of-nissa aspect too much, mostly to not get too upset about it. instead, i'm trying to focus on the fun vacation side of it. this has always been our yearly vacation and i need to keep enjoying at such. i deserve it! now if only i could get my mom on board with that concept, i'd be set. too bad she keeps focusing on the lack-of-nissa aspect exclusively. ugh. the other reason it'll be weird is a distinct lack of my/our friends attending. i still miss kate (last year just wasn't right with out her and walter) and now some of our usual attendees are not available. sometimes i wonder if "the weekend after labor day" is too confusing. it's pretty straight forward. oh well. again, just focusing on the vacation fun and hoping for decent weather.

nissa has been a little nut lately and i love it. she seems only content when she's on the floor playing with her toys, which usually means standing at the coffee table and alternating putting them on the table and taking them off. the occasional boogie to her walker toy song is always a treat. plus, she's cruising a bit more now, so walking is pretty eminent. she's found 2 new ways to express her happiness, and we get a good chuckle from them. some times she'll open her mouth really wide and kind of pant. other times, she'll scrunch up her face and make this silly face, like eating something sour. but it's all joy.



nissa was more or less cooperative in letting me pack up for camping. i pulled everything out onto the patio and i had her camped out in her pack n play at the top of the basement stairs, to keep her in the shade. she had her walker toy in there with her, so she was able to entertain herself pretty well. afterward we spent some time splashing in the pool, so it wasn't all work. we spent some time on the webcam with grandma, grandpa and uncle rick, then took a bath and went to bed. surprisingly she went down easily. lately she's been crying after i lay her down, for a few minutes. she usually quiets down and goes to sleep, but sometimes we do need to soothe her some.

this coming sunday is grandparent's day and i'm ready. then again, i was ready back in july, on behalf of me AND rick, but my knuckle headed brother forgot and got something else. that's what i get for planning ahead, i guess.

well, it's off to bed for me. gotta put in my 3 days before it's off to owasippee. man, i cant' wait!!

life on the outside

yesterday, nissa turned 41 weeks. this marks the official point that nissa has spent more time out here then on the inside, since she was born a day short of 41 weeks. adam didn't think it was a big deal, but i think it's an interesting milestone. so there.

lately i've been struggling keeping up with things and it is getting frustrating. i just put up pictures last night from the baptism and just made zucchini bread (i've had a gargantuan zucchini in the fridge for way too long and there's no good reason for it still being good). the house is not in as clean a state as i would prefer. i could go on for hours, but won't. i'm just glad i was able to sneak in this post and hope i can make it in one piece till friday, when i'll have an extra day off to catch up.

what concerns me is i've been slightly dizzy ever since 2 fridays ago when i missed work. i know i get dizzy spells when i'm stressed, but i've never had this prolonged background dizziness before. i've just been trying to push through it and accomplish what needs to be done, but i'm nervous it'll catch up with me too soon. we'll see, i guess.

live and learn

so yesterday, when changing nissa's diaper, i noticed some redness, so i decided to let her "air out" for a few minutes before putting on another diaper. i try to be sparing with diaper cream, so i wanted to know it was needed (and not just red from sitting funny) before applying. i stood nissa up in her crib, grabbed some dinner and sat down in the rocking chair across the way. a few bites in, i noticed nissa's eyes looked a little watery and she seemed to be really concentrating. then i heard a soft "thump" and i thought, no way! i put my plate down to look and sure enough, there was a little poop right there on the bed below her. i found it very comical. but things changed from comical to disgusting pretty quick, as the solid poop was followed by not so solid stuff, and in my scramble to clean up and reapply a diaper, more came, she finished and sat down and proceeded to run her fingers through it. argh!! so i scooped her up, wrapped her in a diaper then busted out the duck. bath time! but no sucking thumbs or washcloths this round. . . and that's why we keep 2 sheets for her bed.

on a less disgusting note, i noticed nissa is crawling on all fours now. she has always been able to, but tended to drop down to her forearms when she really wanted to cover some ground. she favors the upright position now. very cute. she's taken to crawling the length of the basement now. she'll stop and look back every once in a while; i guess to make sure i'm still there. i wonder what she'd do if i weren't? through the course of the ground she covered this weekend, she discovered gibson's bowls. first it was the food, which she flipped around a few times with her hand before grabbing a piece and bringing it to her mouth. yes, i stopped her before she could try it. then she found the water bowl, in which she splashed with both hands. gibson looked on, annoyed, so i picked her up and we left gibson in peace.

nissa has also become very adventurous in her climbing. she has always pulled up on the shelves at the end of the changing table. saturday she pulled up to the next shelf up, then was standing on the lower shelf. she was ready to keep going too! adam and grandma g seemed a bit exasperated by my letting her do this, but i was intrigued- i wanted to see how far she'd go. i had her spotted and the shelf supported. it was fine.

so i tried yesterday to practice "mama" with nissa. i used adam's method of pointing to her, "nissa", then to me, "mama". we did this a few times and when i stopped short of saying "mama" and pointing to myself, she said "dada". ha. she doesn't know him! she just knows what to say. i'll keep working on it, though.

hair!

my little girl is finally getting some hair; to the point that it's kinda curling up at her neck. it still doesn't seem like much, but looking back at older pictures, there's definitely more of a presence on that noggin of hers. it even gets food caught up in it when she grabs her ear in repose.

this morning she did something to remind me of her grandma- got her hair curled around her fingers. mom used to always twirl her hair in her fingers, but now that she wears her hair short, that's not really an option. it was a really neat thing to see.

on a side note, nissa doesn't just twirl her own hair. for a second time, she's gone after her cousin's hair. when we visited last weekend, nissa crawled right over to sarah and grabbed a handful. i pulled her hand away (after carefully extracting the hair, of course) only to have her go right back for it. this time she even made sarah cry. mean ol' cousin!

struggling at work

i know everyone who is employed by someone else will find themselves frustrated at one point or another. put another way, everywhere you go, there's bound to be an idiot that you have to tolerate, or at least someone making less-than-desirable decisions (that you like well enough) that you need to tolerate. how do we all make it through the day? do other people just have more enjoyable jobs that the trivialities seem less important?

i'm struggling right now with the plethora of poorly made decisions surrounding me at work and wondering how to cope. they run the gamut of big decisions to little decisions, higher ups and lowly nobodies. it's kinda giving me a headache.

i'd love to look for a new job, but where? sure, on paper i'm an adult now (married, home owner, parent, oh my!), but i feel as little as ever, wondering what i'll be when i grow up. is it possible to find a job that i enjoy doing, employing one of my enjoyable skills, that earns enough to pay the bills that linger in my mind, mocking my life-long goal of being a stay-at-home mom? or do i just find one that i can tolerate for now, to keep the bills at bay? i know i'm not living up to my potential professionally, but is that just a pipe dream anyways? sure it's nice to have savings, not need to "cut back" with the recession upon us. . . but is it worth it?

or am i taxing my mental well-being for the sake of taxing? do i need to just suck it up and put these thoughts out of my mind? or just the "stay at home" thoughts and pursue the "living up to my potential" thoughts? a combination of the two would be ideal, but then again, i think having a more challenging, worth-while job would help me get over going to work every morning. i wish i knew where to start. i need some fairy godmother-type person to wave her wand and make my path clear, since i am excellent at following directions (most days, at least). it doesn't have to be step by step, just a general direction would do. something to focus on, something to aim for, something beyond earning a paycheck.

there's gotta be something out there.

happiness is a warm, snuggly baby

that is the definition of happiness, but also of dread and loathing when your next stop is work. why can't we not be in a recession so i could just quit for a while? nissa is getting to be so much fun and though i do well during the week, the weekends have become chore marathons that involve ushering nissa from high chair, to jumperoo, to exersaucer. that's no way to live, when you're an adventurous little kid who loves to crawl and is learning to walk! we did spend some time playing and climbing, but that was when i was folding laundry. so all of the playing was really done by her. after a lame weekend like that, it's hard to go back to work. add in the fact that nissa was unusually cuddly this morning and i almost called off. to have her just so comfy on my chest that she drifts back off to sleep, it's heaven. she's gotten long enough that i have her straddle my lap (so i have my arms free to hug!) and her head is just at my chin- the perfect height for kissing. i hope the day goes quickly today.

gibson got a little cozy action with nissa over the weekend. nissa was doing her thing crawling around the basement and pulling up on the coffee table. gibson, in his usual style, laid down not too far away, exactly between nissa and i, parallel to the coffee table. hissa got her water cup down from the table, sat down and had a drink. gibson was right there, so she leaned back and got comfy. it was the cutest thing ever! sure, i would have loved to snap that precious moment, but i knew the moment i moved, one or both of them would move too, so i just sat back and enjoyed the view. i'm so glad they get along well, it makes my day.

i have to conclude today's post with exciting news- the big girl poop is back. we saw some friday night, saturday morning and this morning, so i hope it's starting a trend. so much easier to deal with. . .

catch up

so i was so excited at the beginning of the week that nissa had pooped twice solid- no more for the rest of the week. all runny and sticky. gross! i guess new poop isn't instant. . . i'm still hopeful.

upon further investigation i discovered nissa doesn't have one tooth, but two! two bottom teeth are there and equipped to chew on everything nissa can get in her mouth. rick's sofa cushions, aaron's leather couch, the wood coffee table at home, her own crib. nothing is safe any more. keep your hands away from the mouth!

nissa covers more chewing ground with her super speedy crawl. it's nothing fancy, but man does she go quick. plus, she's discovered a way to get from crawling to sitting. sanding to sitting too! i'm so proud. she has been able to hold herself up in a sitting position if we put her there, but now she can get there all on her own. now that she's got this skill down, i see her preferring to be in it to play with things and otherwise investigate.

the latest thing that bears investigation is the ball bopper. it's crazy! sure, it's a simple product, but it spews balls all over and gibson goes nuts over it and nissa just sits back and watches in amazement. it only took a couple of days for nissa to figure out how to hit the plunger to start the balls a-boppin'. i hope to catch the action on video, cuz i think it'll be priceless.

the definition of priceless is nissa's first words. adam's been practicing diligently to get nissa to say "dada" on purpose- referring to him. she's made the sound for a long time now (with mama, baba, shhhh, etc), but we need to work on getting her to employ those sounds. sure enough adam was practicing friday morning, pointing to himself "dada" pointing to nissa "nissa", back and forth several times and the last time he pointed to her, "nissa" he pointed to himself and paused and in a tiny whisper, "da da" came from nissa. i think that counts! a daddy's girl. i should have known. i just need to step up my practice. this whole "source of food" advantage will run out soon enough. . .

so last but not least, a side note. i was reading an article in the paper the other day about some homeless students who not only completed their high school educations, but did so with honors. it was really inspiring to hear about these students beating the odds, then kinda made me feel like a slacker. the most interesting aspect was that one of the students took the bus with me every morning! her and her girlfriend often took up several seats with their backpacks, much to my annoyance, until they departed at Lake View. knowing this individual's back story makes me proud to have "known" her and though i'll probably never see her again, i hope she keeps this strength and puts it to the best use of continuing to make her life wonderful.

big girl poop!

so, in the world of motherhood, you find elation in the mundane. yesterday was one of those times. i was changing nissa's diaper and had to call adam upstairs to witness: nissa had made a big girl poop. no runny, pasty, grainy yellowish mess, but brown and firm. i feel kinda foolish describing it here, but it was such a big difference, i feel it's necessary. she had another one this morning. we dumped it in the toilet, waved good bye and flushed it away. i just hope she keeps it up because this is a lot easier to work with!

speaking of mundane joys- nissa has 2 teeth in that little mouth of hers, not just one. they are both on the bottom and still flush with her gum line. but they are sharp little buggers and she insists on putting them to use. when i went in her room after her nap on saturday, she was standing in her crib, chewing away on the end of the bed. i seem to recall little toothmarks on my old headboard from my own chewing habits. . . nissa has taken to standing in her crib quite well. thank goodness grandma a recommended we lower the mattress when she did! most days now adam finds her standing when he gets up. sometimes yelling, sometimes not. but almost always standing.

the tricky part about all this standing is having somewhere to go after that. i happened to read a couple of weeks ago that most babies need help learning how to get down from that glorious standing position, something i had never thought about. but it wouldn't be the first time that we discover things out of order, or at least impartially. so having witnessed her go tumbling down from the precarious standing position more than once, then proceed to cry and cry, i thought i'd try to help. when she stood up, i took her hands away from her support and guided her onto her bum. we did it a few times, made it funny and enjoyable. did it a bit more briskly a few times to get her used to her new natural enemy, gravity. this weekend i was starting to see progress: she very tenuously attempts to lower herself down from standing. she kind of squats a little, but holds on for dear life with her hands until she's ready to commit to the drop. it's a big deal and i've been telling everyone about it! i'm so proud.

what i'm not proud of is how she treats her cousin. well, it's not all bad, but nissa still has an unfortunate attraction to her hair and is motivated to pull it. before doing so and making sarah cry, she did grab her leg and smile at her, so it wasn't all terrible. it's fascinating to watch them interact.

ambidextrous

i was noticing last night that nissa uses both hands to feed herself right now and i was kind of impressed. she favors her right hand usually, but last night it was pretty even between the two.

she favors her right hand when sucking her thumb, but tends to wave with her left. she uses both to bring balls into her toy, but has more success with her left. i want to say she tends to use her right hand to grab your face (charming little skill that is), but i'm not sure if that's true or if it is, if it's a function of how i tend to hold her and that's the hand that's free.

the books say kids don't favor a hand this early, but with the thumb sucking, i wasn't convinced. now i am!

tooth!!

last night i was encouraging nissa to walk (gulp) by holding her arms up in a standing position. (why, again, was this the first time i was doing this and adam has been doing so for what he makes out to be forever!?!?!?!) i was sitting on the floor, so my arms weren't that high and she proceeded to chomp on my finger. aside from having a startlingly strong bite, i noticed a bit more texture than the usual gummy softness. sure enough, there was a sliver of a tooth in there!

i thought she'd be a toothless wonder for ever!!

she had a fever last tuesday and wednesday evening, but nothing since. she's been somewhat cranky, but nothing too unexplainable, given some recent sleeping shifts. this explains everything.

now i'll get to find out first hand if a teething baby can nurse without too much discomfort for mom. fingers crossed. . .

up, up, and away

nissa has been pulling herself up on everything in the last few days. and not just pulling herself around, pulling herself up to her feet! she uses her toy, the brass kick rail on the bar, the foot rest on the bar stool, the coffee table, her crib. good thing we dropped her mattress down in the crib! i have the sneaking suspicion she's getting ready to walk soon. not that long ago, it was amazing that she pulled herself up to her knees. then she pulled up to her feet once or twice. now, walking in closer on her knees to easily pull up to her feet is old hat. i swear it's only been a few days!

adam and i have already discussed that since nissa would be crawling when we went camping, we'd leave her home with grandma and grandpa. BUT if she's walking. . . maybe she could come with us? that would be sooooo cool. the last trip kept me at camp more than usual because it was gibson's first trip and he didnt' like being left alone (i.e. not many fishing trips). so, if he's keeping me camp-bound anyways, why not have a toddler too? i shouldn't get my hopes up. one thing at a time.

speaking of up up and away will be nissa and i in september. ever since kate moved to jackson, WY last year, i've wanted to visit her. before, i was pregnant. but i diligently watched airfare for the prime moment to fly less expensively. the airfare came, and after getting my head on straight, i found dates that could work well. so now nissa and i fly direct chicago to jackson, friday to monday. i can't wait!

the other plans that finally got arranged last week were for nissa's baptism. not sure what the hang up was, but we have a date set for 8/22. we're still arranging for an invite list and dinner location, but at least we know when it will be.

fabulous food finds

so the last two days have been interesting in the food department. wednesday nissa tried extra firm tofu rolled in graham cracker crumbs. she loved to pick up the little cubes and from what i can tell, got the majority of them in her mouth. unfortunately, they are not as sturdy as the cherrios we've had to date, so if nissa misses her mouth, it's a bit more messy because the little cubes crumble under the pressure of her modified pincer grip. the best part was she loved to eat them! she was enthusiastic when i offered them directly into her mouth and was eager to get them in on her own too. plus, the tofu did not give her gas, as it does her father.

last night we ventured into the world of meat. i had roasted a chicken and took some breast meat to grind up for her. man, that food mill comes in handy! the resulting grind was dry and crumbly, making it hard to spoon feed and not all that tasty. on it's own, the chicken was rather moist. . . i guess the grinding took it's toll. i took a chance and stirred in some olive oil and it worked like a charm. the oil seemed to bring out the chicken flavor and made it easier to work with on the spoon. nissa seemed to enjoy the chicken, though it ended up all over the place. i'm curious to see how things work out on the back end.

in general, nissa doesn't eat all that much when we "eat" and i'm not sure if i need to change that. she can't be eating more than an ounce or two in a sitting and i think eating is still a novelty for her. she usually doesn't stick with it for very long before loosing interest. i doubt she's full because soon afterwards she's demanding to nurse. i've been letting her call the shots so far and i'm not sure when i need to start stepping in and making sure more solids get eaten. i'll have to ask around and get some opinions. she seems to be happy and healthy otherwise and sleeping well. i think i should check her weight.

playing with. . . toys!?

so far, nissa has had more fun playing with boxes than actual toys. she'll chew on her diapers instead of a teether.

but i pulled out the walker toy the other day, intended for 9 months and up, and she loves it. she'll crawl to "chase" one of the balls along the floor (when she grabs for it, she ends up pushing it away, or does she do it on purpose?). she'll pull the lever to make it play the stupid song. but the most exciting thing she does is take the balls and other shapes and put them right in the hole at the top. she did this for the first time a few days ago and i was so impressed. the lights light up, the little tune sounds and she reaches for another. when did she get so coordinated? surely this is some type of milestone? it's just so cool. i'm working on showing her which shapes go in which hole, but those don't make sounds or light up, so there's a lot less motivation there.


nissa's other neat trick is to climb up the toy. if i hold it still, she'll pull herself up to kneeling from her stomach, then inch in her knees. if she's really feeling tough, she'll keep pulling until she's standing. she's already taken a tumble from this position, but still goes back, so i feel less guilty for letting her fall [and bawl hysterically :(]. the other day she kept pulling, stepping on the wheels for more height, so she could chew on the red handlebar. it was so cute to watch her work so hard to get into such a precarious position. she seemed happy up there, though.


when the day is done, nissa's gotten an excellent work out and i know she'll love to climb when she's bigger (just like me!). when she's tired and ready for bed, sometimes she'll scream, but usually she sucks her thumb and folds her ear. i like the latter much better.

independence day - sarah's baptism

i'm a week past due in writing and it's killing me. i'm not sure where the time goes, but it goes quickly and the last 2 weeks have brought some fun and exciting stuff, so i need to get it down now while i'm thinking of it. funny enough, yesterday scott asked me how i get anything done with such a cute baby. my response- i don't. and it's true. when i get home, it's make dinner and eat. then hang out with nissa till she goes to bed at 9. then i'm so tired from the day i use that last hour to relax and try very diligently to get to bed by 10. it's usually later than that, but i'm still getting by ok on sleep, and there's always the weekends.

so last weekend, saturday was independence day. i had friday off, so in the morning nissa, gibson and i went to the dog beach. gibson had a great time chasing tennis balls and other dogs. nissa loved watching all the doggy antics. near the end of the visit, gibson went off to handle his business. when i went to pick up after him, i noticed his poop looked funny, so i went in for a closer inspection. sure enough, there were dollar bills in his poop! i could see a $20 and $1, so i scooped it up and called adam to share the amusing news and get his opinion on keeping or dumping. of course, he said to keep it (eeewwww) and so i did. we enjoyed ourselves on the beach a while longer, then headed home to do some stuff around the house. fast forward 4 days (really eewwww) to when i actually got around to sorting through the poop. while gross, i'm glad for 2 things- adam's suggestion and latex gloves. it turns out there was $58 in mixed bills in that pile!! i've since washed the bits in the sink twice and taped them together. i'm hoping the bank will provide replacement bills for all but one, since i have less than 51% of that one.

the 4th was one of the more fun days we've had in a while. nissa and i got up and hung out for a bit before packing into the van to visit lisa's family for a bbq. the weather was dreary, but the tail on the sling proved handy during the walk from the car. nissa got to meet katie & freddy's dog mimi, whom ended up more scared of nissa than nissa of mimi. you can truly tell which babies are used to being around dogs. we spent the majority of our time there tucked away in the 3rd bedroom, avoiding the chaos that was the rest of lisa's family. to be fair, it's mostly chaotic because of all the little girls and i did follow lisa into the room. she was hiding too. we took advantage of the room's crib to take some super cute pictures of the cousins in their coordinating outfits. accidentally coordinating- i have to say. each got their outfits from different people, but we did choose to have them wear them that day. here is one of my favorites from the "shoot":


after a nice afternoon of chatting, nissa and i headed home to check in with gibson, then head right back out to evanston. we took the el there, so we could get a ride back with adam. we got there a bit early, but it worked out just fine. the commute was interesting, with everyone wanting to say hello to this cutie of mine. i nursed her on the first train, changed her diaper on the second, so we arrived prepared. we were ready when the fireworks started and nissa loved them. she spent part of the time sitting on daddy's shoulders, the rest of the time on my lap laying down. it was past her bed time, after all. she watched wide-eyed and captivated the entire time, barely flinching from the occasional boom. she even giggled every once in a while. it wasn't until the next day that i even considered that she might not have enjoyed the fireworks. my kid is so cool!

sunday we hung out around the house again. i pulled some weeds and set up the sprinkler. nissa and i ran through it a few times to cool off. i think i enjoyed it more than she did. but she looked super cute in her new suit!

the weekend was highlighted by nissa sporting the new wool soakers i crocheted for her. i finally got around to finishing then lanolizing them, which takes some time. i'm proud to say they work great! when nissa has a wet diaper, you can tell if you're holding her, but it's not wet. it's weird, but kinda neat. only problem is when they get poopy. my 2 meager efforts so far haven't worked well, so i'm waiting for some wool wash to work some magic so i can get them back into rotation.

nissa is pulling herself up on things, but wasn't pulling quite up to her feet yet. until last night! while holding down the new walker toy she's been enjoying, she managed to climb up the front by pulling herself up and impressively coordinating those little knees to walk herself closer to the toy. she pulled up all the way to her feet and stood for several seconds before tipping over, landing on her back and screaming hysterically. (chalk that one up to yet another bad mommy moment!) last night i left her sitting up facing the bars in her crib and she pulled herself up to almost standing a few times. she fell backward from sitting and screamed hysterically yet again. i guess falling backward is really scary and i need to help out in preventing that more. she got up to kneeling a few nights ago (more of a genuflecting position with one foot flat) and though i was all impressed, adam insisted she does that all the time. he says that a lot, now that i think about it, and it's a bit irritating. i spend just as much time, if not more, with nissa, why does she seem to do all the cool stuff when he's around???

anyways. she crawls well, but still pretty low to the ground. she can really bolt when she wants to; usually toward something i DONT want her to have. like cords, the vertical fan that could fall on her, playstation controllers, all the good stuff.

i hear she holds her bottle, but i nurse her when i'm home, so i haven't seen that in action. it's that much more of a feat since we're using glass and it's so heavy!

every diaper change is a wrestling match and if i don't distract her well enough, i've mastered the art of applying a cloth diaper butt-side-up. some days are trickier than others. my best distraction so far is taking one of her toys and chewing on it myself. i kind of "growl" while doing it and show my teeth and nissa finds it completely hilarious. i try to save that move for when i'm really not up for the challenge of a full match. . . who knows how much longer it'll work!

she is developing a love for solids and really, i mean really, enjoyed some spaghetti and jarred sauce the other day. she's never taken to something on a spoon quite so enthusiastically and it was super cool. conversely, we tried carrots the other day and they were a no go. she enjoyed picking up little carrot rounds, but she never got them down. i tried milled carrots and after 2 spoon fulls, she refused to take any more. oh well. i froze the rest for a rainy day.

nissa continues to love gibson, and most other dogs as well. she smiles huge when he comes in the room and always wants to touch him. too bad that usually means pulling his hair out. :(

this weekend my parents were it town, so they stopped by saturday morning. we got to show off all the cool new things nissa can do. it was short, but good. i was hoping to get out to visit our friends dann and erica, but adam hasn't been feeling well, so nissa and i stayed home to keep him company.

yesterday was sarah's baptism and it was beautiful. 3 different babies were being baptized and they barely made a peep! i was so impressed. after the ceremony we took lots of pictures, then we were off to rick and lisa's house for lunch. with all the family, it was a bit cozy in the basement, but everyone seemed to be well fed and enjoying the visit, so i think rick and lisa did a wonderful job. i know they were a bit stressed, but everything turned out great and their efforts were worth the money they saved. nissa was a big hit yet again, waving at everyone and willingly went from person to person. she got a bit fussy after arriving at rick and lisa's but that was remedied by some time in the sling.

finger foods

last night we officially made our foray into the world of finger foods. nissa has enjoyed cheerios before, but last night she really did well getting them from table to mouth. sometimes it meant putting nearly her whole hand in her mouth, sometimes it meant getting a little help from her other hand. . . but most all of the cheerios put out made it in. gibson took care of the rest :D

nissa hasn't perfected the pincer grip yet, so she spends most of her time pointing diligently with both hands. that little index finger will curl around and get something, or in the case of cheerios, pick them up with sticky-power. the big success was getting banana bits in the mouth. they're super slippery on their own, but once in her mouth, they run the risk of slipping out. after a few tries most bits stayed put.

what frustrates adam and i alike is her insistence on being with me when i'm in the room. she can't hang out with daddy if i'm right there. she cries and fusses and reaches out for me. it's cute for a second, but really frustrating for adam. although last night i think she was fussing out of tiredness mostly, but still.

i know there was something else i wanted to write about, but it's just not coming to me. yes, the dreaded baby-brain persists and will be the death of me. i've found little ways to cope, but every day i find some other little thing i've forgotten. i'm sure by the time i get my brain back it'll be time to have another baby and i'll be doomed.

travel success

this past weekend we drove to detroit (ok, technically dearborn) to celebrate with adam's cousin for having graduated from high school. nissa went up with grandma and grandpa a on friday, then drove home with us on sunday. we brought gibson with us too.

the party was fun, we had a good time visiting with everyone and the weather was very pleasant. we stayed the night at grandma margaret's and even got to hang out with auntie shakey too.

nissa and gibson were both well received and it is very heartwarming to be complimented on the disposition of both of our "kids." gibson especially, since we've put so much time and effort into him so far. the cutest moment was on our way home, nissa was sleeping in her carseat and gibson laid across the seat with his chin resting across her feet. i tried to get a picture but the camera was unavailable and the iphone too sensitive to snap a picture with so much movement. it was really cute.

singing

nissa is finding new ways to communicate every day. nissa sings to herself all the time, sometimes quite loudly. she's most musical in the car, i think because she's bored. we're trying to get her to wave hello and good bye, but i'm not always sure she does it on purpose when she does it on cue. she does wave (with her hand, but also her whole arm some times) so we try to put the words to the action, then try to ask for it later. worked well for gibson. . . .

she says "ma ma" and "da da" but definitely not on purpose. she sings "da da da" when she's happy and kind of moans "ma ma ma" when she's tired and/or hungry. i know she's not really corresponding her sounds to much of anything, but it's funny to think she's happy with daddy and only wants mommy when she needs something. it's probably just a window into the future. we'll see.

she army crawls like a champ, but will occasionally get up on all 4s and rock. she also will push up onto her feet, kinda like a downward dog yoga move, but that always ends up in a face plant. it's amazing to watch her move around, experimenting with her movements and grabbing things, trying to find just the right way to maneuver herself to grab that next toy or find a comfy position. i just hope she doesn't acquire her mom's tendency to bump her head on everything. she's knocked herself a few times (not too hard, of course), but i'm willing to chalk it up to being a new crawler for now. for now.

she's addictingly fun to be around and i love every minute.

new foods

last week was an adventure in new foods for nissa. we tried asparagus, nectarine, cherries, strawberries and more asparagus. the week was rounded out with some avacado and banana. so far she's eaten them all. some she's more interested in than others, but no outright objections. she continues to improve in using her sippy cup. i try to give it to her after eating, to kind of wash things down, and she seems to enjoy banging it as much as she enjoys drinking from it.

nissa is continuing to impress us with her speed on the floor. she's still doing her military crawl, but she can really cover some ground when she wants to. and she's developed that unfortunate baby habit of being attracted to cords. ugh. recently, nissa has also been doing this balancing on her hip thing, where she looks like she's doing a leg workout with jane fonda. i can only presume it's a precursor to her sitting up. i tried imitating her and i am NOT strong enough to pull it off. maybe that's what we need to do: instead of the gym, just roll around and imitate a 7 month old baby. nissa has way more relative core and arm strength than i do, so i think i may give it a try.

oh, on the food note, nissa tried pilaf for the first time on monday and i'm proud to say she loved it. we put it through the food mill first, of course, and it was a little on the dry and sticky side, but she loved it. i made adam come up and take pictures. it was fun.

on a side note, we've been experiencing some challenges with the stuff in our lives right now. our back door lock doesn't always work. the back porch door lock is finicky. the kitchen light has 3 out of 4 lights because the 4th cause the fuse to blow. the phone line sometimes chooses not to work. the jeep has a new problem every day. our pc has issues, compounded by issues. ugh. i could go on and on. but, as adam pointed out, we have our health, our happiness, our family and a beautiful daughter that eats and sleeps well, causing us no difficulty whatsoever. we just have to focus on the positive, no matter how negative all the little things get.

flippin' out

both nissa and i, that is. saturday morning i was getting ready, so i plopped nissa down into her bumbo on the floor in the bedroom. she was playing with her plush radio toy (it resembles a radio, plays 2 short songs if you push on the front). since the bathroom is immediately adjacent to the bedroom, i went in there to brush my teeth, leaving nissa where she was. i heard a soft thump and assumed she chucked her radio toy, which makes sense because of the little battery pack. then it occurred to me that maybe i should grab her a 2nd toy option just in case. i get back to the bedroom (granted i've been gone for maybe 20 seconds) and she's on the floor on her tummy NEXT TO the bumbo, feeling around the dusty hairballs that have gathered under our nightstand. i suspect she stretched out (she's been working on that skill for a while now) reached the nightstand and used that to pull herself out. i'm glad it was a non-eventful experience, but a definite red flag that i can't just leave nissa alone in previously safe spots (on the floor, in the bumbo, in the pack n play, on the changing table) because she'll just crawl away!

even diaper changes are becoming more of a wrestling match. in a split second after her diaper is removed she's flipped onto her tummy, pulled herself to the end of the table and is pulling on the wire shelving unit next to it. she even got herself so close so as to suck on the one shelf. i don't have enough arms to get the new diaper on her!

while i'm here, i'm pleased to report green beans are a success. plus, nissa's really getting the hang of opening up her mouth for the spoon and actually swallowing most of what i offer. she's only eating maybe a teaspoon of food, but i appreciate her efforts.

accident prone

i've been accident prone all my life. falling up stairs, running into poles while bike riding, tripping over nothing walking down the street. i've got all kinds of fun scars and dents to show for it. but now i'm feeling guilty for roping my daughter into my mess.

since she's been born i've not protected her from an incoming projectile, clipped her skin to draw blood while clipping her nails, gotten her lip caught in her carseat buckle, bitten her finger (she put it in there, after all, and i didn't bite her hard), bumped her head countless times and now, given her a paper cut with the window shade. the last one and the lip one have a common theme- nissa putting her mouth on everything. i mean everything. but still, as the parent, i'm supposed to protect my child, not make it worse :(. last night she was playing with the window shade by her changing table. we try to leave it up high enough so she can't reach it, but recently i could see our neighbor at his kitchen sink, so i decided to give nissa a little privacy (and spare him the view of the dirty diaper). this time it was so low she could get the corner of it into her mouth. well, i let her go at it for a while, then when i extracted it from her tight little grip (i thought carefully), she starts bawling and i see a little paper-cut-type cut from the corner of her mouth across her cheek. oh, the horror of being a terrible mother. i put some lanolin on it to help it heal (and protect it from the inevitable moisture from thumb sucking). nissa woke up a couple of times in the night crying; i can only imagine it was because she was having nightmares about the shade cut.

the third time she woke up at 4:30 am, she did something too adorable for words. i picked her up to comfort her and she laid her head on my chest. after a few minutes when she calmed down, she pushed back, pulled the collar of my v-neck tee and opened her mouth! i can take a hint. so after a quick diaper change (that was filled with crying) i nursed nissa. adam came in just as i was starting to feed her and asked why i was feeding her then (since i was due to get up and feed her at 6am). i told him she was hungry and explained what she did and he shrugged and agreed. i didn't realize nissa had put that much together already. she finds new ways to amaze me every day.

productive evening

it started when annette called to say that she'd be dropping off nissa, instead of me going to pick her up. i made good time getting home and the weather was nice, so i decided to mow the back lawn. poop up, lawn cut (and trimmed); check! i watered the plants and planted the pea plant and strawberry, even tossed in the bee balm. check! nissa came home and i finished up in the yard with some watering and distributing the lawn clippings, even tossing the frisbee with gibson a bit. check! inside i made dinner, learned how much of a mess a single wedge of orange can make. check! busted out the food grinder and prepped some beautifully green green beans. check! they looked good, but nissa was full (?) from the orange, so we didn't get too far. i emptied the dishwasher and cleaned the remaining dishes. check! gave nissa a bath to get the orange bits out of her hair, hands and neck. even got to experience the extra sticky and oddly textured poopy diaper! check! spent some time crawling around with nissa and put her to bed. check! the kitchen is recovered from the orange, i'm ready for tomorrow and finishing up a load of diapers.


here she is after the orange. you can't tell this small, but there is orange bits in her hair and on the chair. and yes, her shirt is orange somehow. . . maybe she rubbed it on her?!?!?

haven't had an evening this productive in a while. i think it's because adam isn't here. oh well. i love it none the less.

dang crib mobile!

who would have thought a crib mobile, intended for a crib with a baby in it, would cause my baby so much grief. i have the thing mounted on the side rail, in the ideal spot for nissa to view it from her usual sleeping position (or is she purposely sleeping underneath it? hmmm). i also have the bumper tucked in between the mattress and the rails so she doesn't wedge her arms or legs in between (though she does manage to get her appendages out above the bumper). thus, with the bumper lower, it does not cover the base of the mobile. so, when my little angel wakes up from her tummy sleep in her corner and does her usual push-up, she cracks her head against the protruding plastic for a truly rude awakening. she starts crying, i come running and a few snuggly minutes later the thumb is being sucked, the left ear is being folded and all is right with the world again.

so, in my morning spark of insight (pretty sure this is why she's been waking up from naps screaming her head off), i had another idea. i took one of her burping diapers with an extra absorbent center panel (i.e. extra padded) and wrapped it around the base of the mobile and tied it with string (being sure to crop the ends close, of course). now, should she push up again near by the mobile, it should be more of a mild annoyance then a heart-wrenching scream type situation. here's hoping.

last night nissa did one of the cutest things yet. i was milling around her room to get ready for today (packing up diapers mostly) and left her in her crib. i was at the changing table and looked over to see her laying on her stomach facing me, leaning on top of the bumper to fold it over and looking at me between the bars with a grin on her face. it was too cute! then, as soon as she saw me see her, she turned around and played with her doll. how can one little 6 month old girl be this cute?

i forgot to mention this earlier when talking about nissa's food exploits. one day last week we tried to give nissa some la croix (carbonated water) from a shot glass (great small size). it was too precious. she was first intrigued by the effervescence in her nose as we raised the "glass" to her mouth. then as we poured, she made the most disgusted face to date. adam was so amused by it he tried it again later in the week to show his parents. ah, using children as amusement. . .

what a week!

i've been meaning to post because there's so much to say, but the time gets away from me so quickly. and it kills me how much i find myself saying that.

my parents spent the week with us while adam's schedule is crazy prepping for summer. in that time nissa's gotten better at solids (still far from mastering, though), embraced the sippy cup and its contents (water) and started to "crawl". i use quotes because she does this military-esque scoot powered by pulling with her arms, with her little feet trying to help, but not really. i got some nice video of her in action, just gotta find the time to get the video from the camera onto the computer. i have seen her push up on all fours in the morning, but she rarely gets there when we're on the floor playing and those legs don't always seem to help.

so solids have been coming along nicely. banana seems to be a consistent hit. i tried potato with yogurt with mixed results. pears were a bust (both jarred and home poached). cream of wheat was a no-go. citrus fruits are surprisingly popular, especially oranges. i have some steamed green beans waiting in the wings, but i'm not too hopeful. but lemon bar filling was WAY too tasty. we offered it to her last night from our fingertips and she almost took off my dad's finger with enthusiasm!

nissa's been full of funny surprises lately. one night last week during dinner, she really got my dad. she was leaning over her bumbo, away from him, and when he leaned in to see what she was looking at, she reached back and snatched his glasses from his face. didn't have to look back or anything- she was like a ninja! while her cousin sarah was over last monday, she was having a bit of a time relaxing. i was holding sarah to try to give her parents a chance to eat. i held her near nissa so she could see her cousin and nissa got all excited, waved her arms, panted with a big grin and almost seemed to try to cheer her up. it was great. nissa had a similar reaction to going to the dog beach. she literally squealed as we walked up and she wiggled the entire time watching the dogs run and splash. man is she fun.

ok, well i think that covers the basics for now. i just wish i could spend more time with her. . .

bananas, gardening

so i started this post almost 2 weeks ago, and i'm finishing it now. the generic title is all i had to start with, but i know exactly what i wanted to say. at least it's not as old as the still-open post about nissa's arrival. man, i need to wrap that up!

anyways. after avacado we tried banana and it went OK. nothing spectacular, but she didn't seem to hate them either. (only food she's not liked so far is pears. don't know what it is about pears, but she is NOT a fan.)

gardening was the real adventure. i decided i really needed to get down to business and get some plants in the ground. i tried the exersaucer method again, which worked for a few minutes. then i pulled out a blanket for her to lay on next to me. nissa was having none of it. but gibson did enjoy the softer alternative to laying on the plain ol' grass. so, fed up with the fussing, but determined to get something done, i picked up nissa, held her on my lap and worked in my garden one handed. i'd occasionally chew on her teether for a laugh, and had to rotate around some awkward positions (sitting up, laying across my lap on her tummy, leaning over the side to keep an eye on gibson), but otherwise managed to finish weeding the bed so it was ready for plants. i had to accept that working slower was better than not working at all and that i had to get a bit more creative on how i accomplished my tasks with nissa involved. i can't wait till she's older and can "help" more than just keep my lap warm, but i'll take this in the interim.

adventures in baby feeding

well, i had some moments of bravery this weekend and it was quite the adventure. we tried avocado on friday, which after about 10 minutes she gagged on it. not sure if it was the avocado per se, but something made her gag. she didn't seem to dislike it. then sunday we tried some mashed red potato from my potato salad. the potato went down ok, but she spit up all night afterward, so she either didn't like the potato, or something i ate. i took pictures sunday, though i think her green mouth would have been more interesting. we may try more avocado today, or maybe some banana. the doctor suggested feeding the same thing a few days in a row, but i can't seem to be able to commit to that. maybe i should.

we got a sippy cup too, but i'm not sure that's going all that well. it has handles and a soft spout, so the design is an ideal transition from the bottle. i put some water into it and gave it to nissa. i helped her out and she got the mechanics of it, but when that water got in her mouth, she made the most disgusted face. i assumed it may be a disappointment with the water, so i tried some breastmilk yesterday. she made a comparable (though less intense) face. i tried a sip myself and it tasted like bile. . . completely grossed me out. i'm not sure what's going on there, but i spilled it out. i'll keep trying the water once in a while, i think. i tried offering her my water bottle, but that just meant the whole top of the bottle being in her mouth and water pouring down the front of her. i tried with a shot glass, but while she didn't make the disgusted face like with the sippy, she didn't get much swallowed- which is the goal.

more shots :(

so yesterday was nissa's 6 month check up. she weighed in at 14lbs 10oz (with diaper, so probably a few oz less) and measured up at 25in. our little girl is growing so much! plus, she's met all the milestones the doctor asked about (rolling both ways, sitting up with assistance, grasping with her hands, babbling, etc) so she passed with flying colors. then came the shots. nissa was fine till then. but, fortunately the doctor administered them both quickly, so the extra traumatic part went fast. then we walked over to the mirror and nissa was all giggles (some sobs, but mostly giggles). thank goodness she still can get distracted with that cute baby in the mirror!

unfortunately the rest of the day she was sleepy, hungry and cranky. she'd go from quiet to bawling out of nowhere throughout the rest of the day, so i guess the shots were getting to her. at least there's no more for 6 months. unless the doc gets that missing vax in. . . stupid pharmaceutical companies not keeping my doc's office stocked!!

so wiley already

my daughter is one of the most amusing people i know. when she got up yesterday, she'd pause nursing to stick her tongue out at me. when i was taking her weekly picture, she sang to me the entire time "da da da da da." yesterday afternoon when i was trying to change her diaper on the floor, she wouldn't stop rolling onto her stomach and trying to get away. last night, when adam went to check in on her before coming to bed, she woke up and started crying. he picked her up twice, but the third time he just left the room and no sooner did he close the door did she stop crying. how does someone that little know to be that clever?



nissa tried that with me yesterday in the garden. i was hoping to plant some veggies that we bought from the store, but if i got more than three feet away, she started crying. i got 2 out of 6 tomato plants in, so that's something. part of me knows that everything takes longer with nissa around, but another part of me wants to just get stuff done already. i'm a "do-er" and it pains me to have so much to do around the house. i'm trying to just take it slow and relax, but it's challenging. i just need to focus on how much i love spending time with nissa and remember stuff will get done when it gets done.

SIX months?!?!?!?

where has the time gone? my little baby girl is 6 months already. at first, all the major fun milestones seemed so far away because they didn't happen till 6 months- but now here we are! solids, crawling, first words, oh my!

well, it's not going too fast, at least. she's very mobile on her own: she rolls front and back and manages to scoot short distances to put things into her mouth. yesterday, in the jumperoo and exersaucer she bounced and bounced. i took her feet out of the sleeper and the extra traction from bare feet really helped. i think she's starting to get the hang of the idea that she can have an impact on her world and she can move herself around. it's really neat to watch.

we're waiting to meet with the doctor on thursday to talk about solids. i've tried giving her random things along the way, with little success. my most recent attempt was some mashed apple from an apple pie. i put some on my finger and put it in her mouth and she just kind of puckered and squinted- like someone eating a lemon. in hindsight i wonder if she would have the same reaction if i offered the food on a spoon. . . that she was reacting to my finger tasting weird, not the food itself. oh well. next time.

nissa likes to sing, but no real words yet. it almost sounded like she said "gig" yesterday. it was that much more amusing because she was wearing her "future rock star" sleeper. she almost seemed to imitate me a little too (so far i've been the one imitating her). but i can say she's understanding words a little. the only words i know she knows are "sit up"- when she's on her back (usually on the changing table) i'll grab her hands and say "sit up" and she'll scrunch her face and her torso and pull herself up. it's cute to see the effort she puts forth, but amazing to think she's starting to understand things on her own. so smart!

the funniest thing right now is that nissa has discovered her tongue. she sticks it out like gene simmons. . . and then some. yesterday, when adam was holding her, she'd stick it out every time she saw me (since i usually walk around to do stuff while adam holds her). she's really into her tongue and moving it all different ways. i think it may be a sign that she's getting ready to eat food. . .? in the mean time, it's hilarious to watch and i'm trying to get some good pictures of it. here she is in her high chair:



gibson's right under her cleaning up. she had pulled one of her clever "lean over to spit up" moves- so the arm and footrest all have spit up on them (and the floor too). who knew just how handy a dog could be when you have a baby?

hooray ring

so i noticed yesterday that my nissa-ring was fitting kind of loose, so i changed fingers. but, that put it on my left index finger and i've noticed i really don't like having the ring there. so last night, i pulled out my wedding rings and my band fits! well, with a little encouragement it fits, but not too snug either.

the scale hasn't budged, but the pants and ring are a good sign of things reorganizing in favor of me being slimmer. i'll take it!

first mother's day!

i have to say being a mom on mother's day is pretty gosh darn cool. i got some happy wishes from random employees, then even a carnation when i stopped for coffee. though the coffee stop was a mixed blessing, since i'm pretty sure by the shakes i got that it wasn't decaf like i asked for. when you go for over a year without caffeine, your body tends to notice.

but the caffeine boost came in handy while cleaning the house and otherwise getting ready for company. nissa and i made cards for the grandmas (both our hands were black!) and while she napped, i got the house ready. adam came home in time to make burgers and grill veggies for dinner. he even brought home some flowers! they were beautiful!

one of the best gifts was aaron and adam finishing up the installation on the dishwasher. turns out the technician was a bit creative on his interpretation of our current set up and it wasn't THAT far off. it took a bit longer than planned when the electric was set up for hard-wiring and we had an outlet, but nothing the old dishwasher's cord couldn't fix.

i only hope i can make father's day as much of a treat for adam. . .

rollin' rollin' rollin'

so, last night, i finally got to see it for myself. kinda. i laid nissa on the floor on her back on a blanket and went to put her diapers in the dryer. when i came back, she was 95% rolled over onto her tummy. she did a breakdancing move kicking her feet up, then managed to get her arm out from under her and was 100% over. when i came back i asked adam, "did you do this?" cuz he tried to pull that on me before. but he didn't and i'm so excited. adam swears she's been rolling back to tummy for a while now, and now i believe him. not that i doubted him necessarily, it's just good to see it with my own eyes. well, see the evidence that it happened at least. in short order she rolled back onto her back, but it was still really neat to see.

we went to see rick, lisa and sarah on tuesday to make them dinner. it was a bit of an adventure getting out there because we got a later start than we had intended because we were waiting for the dishwasher to be delivered and installed. too bad they came at 4:15 (the latest possible time) only to not be able to install it due to our water connections not being up to code. grrrr. when things don't get finished when we plan for them, they tend not to get finished for a while. i really hope this is an exception to that rule, but i'm not hopeful. let's see how long that new dishwasher sits on the back porch. . . ugh.

anyways, in honor of the fake-y holiday cinco de mayo (celebrating a minor mexican battle success), we made chicken tacos, red rice, beans, virgin strawberry margaritas and a stab at churros y chocolate. everything was great, in my humble opinion, except for the churros. . . i tried to take prepared crescent roll dough and sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon, but i WAY overcooked them, so they were a slightly burnt and too dry conveyance for eating the chocolate. mmmm chocolate. i used sweetened condensed milk and it was soooo good. we had a good visit and accomplished the goals we had come for: distract and feed rick and lisa and leave their kitchen the way we found it (despite the adventurous cooking). rick and lisa are doing such a great job, but still kinda doubting themselves, so we tried hard to remind them to focus on the little victories. there was a lot of comparing notes, but mostly assuring rick and lisa that it does get easier, but there are always challenges, even with an easy going kid like nissa.

like the last few nights nissa has been waking up after sleeping 2 or 3 hours. she cries and cries, but with some quality daddy time, gets soothed back to sleep. last night was the first night it woke me up. i feel terribly guilty that it doesn't wake me up, but very grateful to adam for being such an awesome daddy and taking care of it so well. i'm frustrated that we don't know what's causing her sleeping to be disrupted; adam and i will have to brainstorm tonight on it.

so i was looking at pictures i took at rick's (all of nissa, embarrassingly enough) and was struck by the one expression that bares a striking resemblance to a picture i took recently. . .



so, part of the reason we only took pictures of nissa is because we spent the majority of our time cooking and cleaning (we made a bit of a mess). sarah also spent a lot of the time feeding and sleeping in her bassinet, so there weren't many photo ops. i'm not complaining, because that's her job to do those things, just justifying the complete lack of photos of the new comer(adam gave me grief already).
regular
resemblance