fun times

we were fortunate to have my parents in this weekend to help celebrate sarah's first birthday. hooray! while they were here, we got to spend lots of time together, so that was wonderful.

friday they watched nissa while adam and i went to work. from what i hear, they really got to experience a wide variety of nissa-isms, so that was cool. the highlight of the day for me was when we were all visiting together and nissa discovered going down the slide sitting up. previously, she would slide down on her belly feet first. nissa was so excited she ran the climb-slide circuit at least 20 times, actually working up a sweat when she was done. she would get ready to go, then "hey" to get everyone's attention, then we'd all "weeeee" together as she slid down. it was tons of fun.

saturday we got together at uncle george's. nissa went NUTS over their three dogs, bubba, gabby and elwood. all night she said "puppy" and chased after them. she had to have said "puppy" at least 300 times. at least. she would follow them up and down the stairs, around the dining room, under the tables. she even gave them hugs and kisses. when she wasn't showering the puppies with attention, she was going up and down the steps to the family room. the highlight of the evening was nissa's acrobatics. in true nissa style, she followed one of the puppies onto the cement mantle in the family room. she laid down up there and sat for a while, even "smelling" the silk flowers in a vase. when she went to get down, from a standing position, it looked like she mis-judged something and ended up doing a somersault off of the mantle, onto elwood's bed directly below, ending up on her back, spread eagle. it was over before anyone could really react, and just about everyone was watching and then silent in awe of the sight. it was totally bizarre, and after a few seconds, nissa got right back up and carried on with the next puppy harassment effort, with out hardly missing a beat. at the end of the evening, i'd almost guess the dogs had just about as much fun as she did, but they were definitely tired when we left. you'd think nissa would have been tired too, but oh no. we left around 11, she was up the whole ride home, then went to bed around midnight. yowsa.

sunday was the main event, sarah's luau. i wore the hawaiian dress i got from my old roommate amy and a pikake maile headband. nissa sported the yellow dress from grandparents g, a kukui nut lei and fake yellow plumeria in her hair. adam even wore his authentic red dirt shirt, when he made his appearance after work.

rick and lisa decorated their basement to the nines, transforming it into a very festive luau locale.

sarah was adorable and almost kinda quiet, taking in the whole day. she enjoyed her cake in an appropriately messy fashion and even took an interest in some of her gifts.

as the party was winding down, nissa took it upon herself to head upstairs; she was generously spotted by one of sarah's relatives. i followed her upstairs and watched her go straight to wrigley's cage to say hello (something she had done several times that day already). when i wasn't looking, she actually came to the door of the cage and set little wrigley free! we couldn't believe it. in hind sight, we were all so amazed that she figured out how to open the cage latch (she had never been exposed to it before) that the proper scolding did not take place. hmm. we'll have to remember that for the next time we visit uncle rick. but seriously. what a clever little stinker. at the end of the evening, my parents and my family stuck around to help clean up and just visiting. nissa was obsessed with the balloons, a word she can kind of say too. she'd grab them, sometimes two at a time, pull them to a new location then let go. she kinda played with sarah too, but not always in the nicest way. one time she seemed to run sarah over with her new play grocery cart. we're still working on interaction. the cutest thing was when nissa went up to a sitting sarah and took her hand and seemed to want to get her to walk with her. the only problem was sarah can't walk, and nissa just managed to yank her over, eventually causing sarah to clunk her head on the hard basement floor. it was cute that she seemed to have good intentions, but sarah wasn't too keen on the result. at the end of the day, we spent some quality time with family and we enjoyed every minute. can't wait till the next party!

oh, my poor baby

so my dear daughter somewhat takes after her mommy, with her frequency of injuries. bumps, bruises and spills are frequent. i'd like to think they're more attributable to her age, but maybe not. she is also blessed with my sturdy noggin, so at least the head bumps do not cause much frustration, if at all. i'm at least glad for that.

last night my kiddo suffered her first "significant" walking accident. i remember when she first started standing, she pulled herself up on her walker toy and then fell over like a board. . . that freaked her out a bit (i'm guessing because of the very sudden change in position). she got over that quickly enough, so that spills didn't upset her as much. yesterday, however, was a bit traumatic. i didn't witness the fall, but heard it and saw the aftermath. she was walking down the sidewalk in the yard when i heard her fall. this is a common occurrence and she usually gets right back up without incident. but when i turned around to check on her, i noticed her right hand was caught underneath her, not out front with her left hand, so i suspected right away that she had a tougher fall than usual. my suspicion was confirmed as she let out quite the cry immediately after. from what i can guess, she bumped her top lip and nose on the sidewalk (ouch) and cut the inside of her top lip on her teeth (they are awfully sharp).

it was a little intimidating to pick up my little gal to have her mouth all bloody from her cut. i can't imagine how scary it was for her. lucky for both of us that this is the height of trauma she's experienced so far. needless to say this cut bubble time short for the day.

poor gal got worse before she got better when she was playing with a suitcase on the porch. she decided to try and open it and pushed it up, but it came back down and she caught it in the lip again. nissa just can't win.

the interesting moral to this lesson came when we wanted to check out her cut. we hadn't actually looked into her mouth before that, so when we checked her top lip, we couldn't tell if there was something worse wrong. dealing with a squirmy baby didn't help either. once she's feeling 100%, i think we should both thoroughly investigate our child to be ready for next time. we learned to do that in puppy class. . . why didn't we think about that for nissa? live and learn.

it is done

saturday night was the last night i nursed nissa before bed. i obviously have mixed emotions about it, but mostly i'm happy about what a smooth transition it was. nissa had been shortening her nursing session gradually over a long time and i saw the end coming. saturday she nursed for all of 5-10 seconds and was done. i knew that was the sign that we were done with that chapter of our relationship.

as it turns out, the bracelet (one of several, this the most recent) i wore to track sides fell of as i mowed the lawn saturday during the day and i didn't notice until after it had been mowed. i salvaged about half of the beads, the rest are lost in the grass. needless to say i have a whole new appreciation for the sharpness of those blades! i guess it was a sign- the reminder was lost on the day that i no longer needed it.

i am in awe by how i experienced this whole process. at first, i didn't think i'd make it at all, with sore (and bleeding!) nipples and stressed more than necessary, both loving and dreading the time spent (love=with nissa, dread=quarantined from the rest of the world). then we settled into a good rhythm that easily took on pumping. i felt like we could nurse/pump forever and couldn't imagine how to even think about weaning. as nissa got older and ate more table foods, especially as she began to drink cow's milk, her mother's milk demands became less and less. i easily dropped a pumping session here and there; excited when i got down to one a day. even before then, i was able to continue a ridiculous pumping schedule as long as i needed to, till i felt like i couldn't pull it off any longer, then dropped a pump and was OK. i assumed it would all work out, just not as easily as it has. i was bummed to phase out the morning sessions, but relieved to have my mornings back to myself. i would have held onto the evening sessions longer if i could, but nissa made it easy and stress free. now i feel like we've concluding things in a mutually beneficial way, before it got awkward or needing extra work.

so last night we followed our routine of pjs and teeth brushing. i cradled her as if to lay her down into her crib and nissa was not interested. so i brought her close and sat down on the rocking chair. we just sat, doing what we usually do after nursing (nissa playing with my face, giving hugs, squirming around) and then tried to lay her down again. she went down without incident and slept through the night. whew.

what a week!

well, not the whole week, but the last few days of this week have been quite interesting. flash back to wednesday. adam and i were watching tv, winding down before nissa's bedtime and nissa wandered over to the computer. then we hear the windows noise for a piece of hardware being disconnected. "oh great, nissa unplugged the hard drive!" adam says. i look over and i see the ipod usb cord in her hand and when i come over, i notice she has it (had it) in her mouth. i'm pretty sure she had it in her mouth completely and it somehow closed the circuit and the computer thought SHE was a new device being plugged in! there were no other things unplugged and there was a warning message in the system tray that software could not be found for the new hardware that was attached. HA! nissa tried plugging herself in. i just hope she didn't get hurt too bad by the likely electric shock that accompanied the tone we heard. she didn't seem too upset or bothered. . . .

then thursday i had a long day at work: 4 presentations in a row from prospective vendors. sitting around in a warm room trying to pay attention can really make one tired. when i got home i wanted to stay outside with nissa and gibson and blow some bubbles. it's one of nissa's favorite things to do. so we were blowing bubbles, nissa squealing and reaching out or them, gibson really getting into chasing them down. gibson jumped up after one and came down on top of the planter holder by the stairs. to everyone's surprise, he got a couple of toes stuck in the leg, where 2 sections come to a point. . . so the more he pushed down and struggled, the more stuck he became. he cried like i never heard him cry before and i was frantic to help. keeping an eye on nissa to make sure she kept her distance, i set down the bubbles and tried to help gibson get free. i reached down and gibson bit my left had. ouch. i tried a slightly different approach and he bit my right hand. double ouch. neither were hard bites, more like how someone would squeeze your hand if they were in pain, but he just happened to be squeezing with his mouth and he has sharp teeth. . . by this time our neighbor craig and his friend jennifer came out to see what was going on. craig asked if i needed help and i said yes, so when he came around i asked him to pick up nissa. as he was coming around the open bottle of bubbles spilled and nissa started crying. she had been fine up until this point. then jennifer came around and took nissa so craig could be free to help me help gibson. i suggested me grabbing gibs into a headlock and have craig pull the stand off, but crag was concerned about me loosing my grip- a valid concern. i decided to call adam for advice and while i was on the phone with him gibson had broken off the leg of the stand he was stuck in (it had wedged into the stair rail) then began thrashing. just as he looked like he was about to fall down the stairs, he managed to pop his foot free. he was fine, nissa was fine, i had a minor scrape on my left hand (though sore) and a puncture on my right index, but was otherwise fine. i was beat.

i stayed up a little that night (after a long rest on the couch) to prep for the next day, especially since i could sleep in (till 830, compared to my usual 500). feeling better about the state of the house, i went to bed. then a little after 500 nissa woke up thoroughly pissed off. i got up, got her a snack and we went downstairs to watch some tv. an hour later, she had sat quietly sucking her thumb, i tried to put her to bed with no luck. we had a bottle, no luck. we tried some more tv, tried to put her down again at 700, no luck. by this point i had accepted my sleepless fate and hung out. i had breakfast, we went outside to blow bubbles, we exercised and played in the basement. eventually we got ready to go to class.

class was good. during the group time nissa "participated" for 2/3rds of the time, standing by the teacher. she even clapped after a few songs (with everyone else). she even tried to interact with some of the other kids, which i'm excited about. each week is a little better. now we'll see if i can get us into a summer class!

this morning, as i vainly attempted to sneak around the house to jot down some notes before a work out, nissa started her lazy cry (the "i can hear you" cry) so i was doomed to have company. i prepped a quick snack for us both and we headed down stairs. i popped in an aerobics work out and nissa danced along for some of it. she even did some squats with me. the most challenging part was keeping up while holding her. . . it wasn't ideal, but i can take comfort in the higher intensity factor. it was fun and tiring, the way a work out should be.

speaking of working out, i'm glad to say i rode by bike to the el tues, wed and fri. it's a quiet ride going there and i've found a nice side street path to get me back home out of traffic. so i get some exercise in and in about the same time i'd spend on the bus anyways (and way less time compared to bussing it in cubs traffic).

a little disappointed

so, i'm a little disappointed by the class we've been taking at the park. granted, it's only been 2 weeks, but it's not living up to my expectations. well, the class itself is wonderful and beyond my expectations, really. what i was hoping for was an opportunity to meet other moms and maybe make a friend. i may have made a friend (fingers crossed!) but i'm kinda disappointed by how many nannies there are at the class. i suppose it makes sense to have the nanny take the kid to a class to have something to do. . . just the concept of a nanny is so different from what i'd expect for anyone i know or anyone in the neighborhood.

at least this second time around nissa had a better time. there were fewer tantrums (though that single ball rolling around got her close several times). while we had group play time, nissa sat close in the boat. she didn't actually participate, but she sat and watched, which i think is progress.

my crazy little kid

and by crazy, i mean crazy smart and crazy unexpected. nissa pulled a little bit of both at the dinner table last night. adam came home in time for dinner so we all ate together at the table. adam and i were talking about how he and nissa were practicing her words in the morning. . . socks, shoes, ball. i asked if she remembered "feet" and nissa says "feet!" then, to both of our amusement and surprise, nissa pulled her left food up to the table. "yes," i said "feet. good job!" then she proceeded to yank of her sock to show us her feet. we both got a good laugh out of that one. not only is she paying attention to everything we're saying, she's learning her words too. she even knew it enough to repeat it when i asked her about her feet while on webcam with grandpa g. nissa usually doesn't repeat performances by request, but she did this time and it was awesome.

the night before nissa continued to enjoy exploring the kitchen. i found her climbing up on the wire shelves by the fridge at one point (feet on the bottom, hands on the top, still pulling to go higher). her go-to spot is the butcher block still. that day she was interested in the pots - standing in them and eventually sitting in them. what a nut!





nissa made a bit of an impression at our first moms pops and tots class at welles park last week. there are a bunch of toys laid out that the kids can play with before/during class. nissa was exploring a teeter totter by climbing onto the middle and trying to go from there. one mom commented that she seems to be a climber, to which i responded "yes, all the time, and on everything!" she further commented that nissa's like a boy with all the climbing. didn't my mom just say that a few days before? too funny. yes, my child enjoys climbing and within reason, i allow it. i don't necessarily encourage it, but i do try to make sure she's safe.

the class experience overall was interesting. we got there very early 1) because i thought the class started at 9 instead of 930 and 2) because i was super nervous about how long it would take to get ready and park and such, so we were there at 8:40 (and that was with taking our time at home). i know this aspect will go better next week. as a result of us being very early, we spent some quality time in the playground, which nissa seemed to enjoy. we got to see lots of puppies and squirrels and even some other kids around her age in the park. she climbed up a simple portion of the equipment to get to a slide that i'd help her down. nissa even liked being in the swing for a while (she did NOT enjoy the swing last fall). we did have some trickiness with her wanting to climb UP the slide, but we can work on that. we also had some difficulty with a ball someone brought. for nissa, a ball is for hugging. for other kids, it's for so much more. so when nissa's hugging was confronted by another kid wanting to play with her, she didn't know what to do. throwing and catching were not going over well. i thanked the girl and her mom for her efforts and we moved on. in class, nissa enjoyed an old-school rocking horse and a play boat the most. she did get a little possessive, but i think she'll get the hang of it eventually. but because she hadn't slept nearly enough, she was quite crabby, so my suggestions of taking turns were met with bouts of screaming and limpness. i'd be able to calm her down eventually, but it was a bit embarrassing go have the crabbiest kid for most of the class time. i'm sure it'll get better with time and the class sounds like a lot of fun. i'm looking forward to getting to know some fellow moms!

bubbles

the last few days have gotten warm again, so i wanted to get outside with nissa and gibson to enjoy it. we're talking 70s warm, which is fleeting this time of year, but no less wonderful.

i busted out the bubbles to wonderful reviews from both of them. it was a bit tricky since the balmy weather was paired up with gusty winds, but we managed just fine. gibson loves to chase down the bubbles and eat them. some he'll even jump up to get and it's quite the show of athleticism.

nissa was mostly just oohs and aahs over the bubbles. she liked when they floated near her, but didn't quite understand them. it was too windy for her to go after them too much. i even experimented with letting her blow the bubbles and she did marvelously. i'd demonstrated with a "here, blow, like this" and since she does blow and whistle a little, it was easy for her to understand. when she did blow on command, she'd get a little spurt of tiny bubbles, which got an enthusiastic 'ooh'. if her enthusiasm carried, she'd want to take the wand from my hand and either pop the soap film or put the wand in her mouth to "blow." if she cooperated to let me hold the wand, we had success.

i only wish i had a third person or, at least, a third arm to photograph this abundance of cuteness. alas, i have neither (good thing on the arm, to be sure) so we'll have to wait until another day for the photo op. i'm just glad to have found something we can all do together that really wears out gibson.