April 2006 Archives

I joined a mom's group here in town based on a passing reference from a client. This client invited me out with her playgroup moms for dinner last week. As one normally does, I chatted with one of the women I sat next to during dinner. Today I got an email from her about the playgroup (she is our playgroup coordinator) and I saw her last name: the same name as one of Craig's former classmates that we knew was in our area. So I asked her her husband's name and sure enough, she is married to Craig's friend Matt from college and we're all going out for dinner tonight.

This just seems so random & crazy to me. We knew Matt was married and in our city but that was the extent of it. Turns out they live maybe five miles or so from us and our kids are going to be in a playgroup together.

I have pressed "publish" at Lulu.com! I think my book should be here in about 1.5 weeks which is just a little longer than it took me to make it. If I do another one, I definitely want to find a program other than Word to work in though as it was a major pain with styles. I knew that going in though, so at least I wasn't surprised! As promised, I will report back when it arrives.

Anna's hair gets curly in the back after a particularly sweaty nap/humid day outside.

One thing led to another yesterday and suddenly Anna & I were walking all the way to the park (and back). I let her swing for a while figuring her legs would be super tired and I assumed I would carry her home. I carried her a total of about 30 feet. I told her to ask me if she wanted to be carried/wanted help and few times she stopped and signed "please" so I picked her up but then she instantly wanted down and to walk.

She did hold onto one of my fingers the whole way, but I think it was more for emotional support than anything else (she's going through a phase where she gets upset if I leave the room, prefers to hold my hand over Craig's, etc.). She has been walking unassisted more and more each day so I'm sure that kind of independence is a little scary at times.

This week we've been trying out the one-nap thing and I'd say it is definitely going well. Anna goes to bed around 7:30 PM and she sleeps in until 8:30 or 9 AM! Then she takes a three hour nap starting around 1 PM. This has mean all sorts of productivity for me (in the book-making department, anyway--I just have December-March to complete right now) since I've been getting up at 6:30 when Craig gets out of the shower.

I can tell that Anna gets a little fussy mid-late morning but I'm sure this is part of the adjustment period. Before she was taking a short nap or no-nap in the morning and then her afternoon nap was only an hour or hour-and-a-half.

This is great timing since I just found out about a mom's group in town that is all about arranging playgroups (they have a moms-night-out, book club, and other stuff, too). We will start going to a playgroup next week and I'm interested to see how Anna does. James & Claire came over yesterday and Anna was a little skeptical about having to share her toys (she had no problem going to their house and using theirs though!).

Photo by Craig

I was doing a bit of weeding in the front yard tonight and Anna was practicing walking through the grass with Craig. She saw the Crape Myrtle and decided she would have more fun to hanging on it. She must have walked around and held on to this tree for ten minutes or so. Pretty convenient for us--she even bent down and picked a couple of dollar weeds for me!

New Spoken Words: ear, tent, train, slide

I was too slow to get to the Y to sign up for swimming lessons next month so we have to wait until June. But, we bought a little pool for the backyard to tide us over until then and as you can see, Anna loves it!

New Spoken Word: pool

I am working on making a book out of the blog content from Anna's First Year blog (with the first chapter being the pregnancy). If it goes well, I will tackle my South Korea Journal as well. I am doing this first book with Lulu.com so I'm hoping the photos print well and that it is what I'm expecting. I will be sure to report back when I get the final version in my hands!

Anna likes to push the laundry baskets around on laundry day. She still doesn't know how to steer this or her walker and I'm not sure how to teach her though!

I've been trying to get a picture of Anna doing this for a couple of weeks now. I caught her doing it in her crib when she wasn't napping in the morning and then it was a favored position to try to get to sleep while experiencing jet lag in Paris. So, I'm not sure if it's just a fun position or if it has something to do with her feeling a little sleepy; perhaps it is a little bit of both.

I had to include this photo because it so cute to me when she crosses her legs!

Anna really enjoyed playing with the pot & pan I bought for her at Target last night. It was just about the only toy we played with today! We used the nice wooden fruits & vegetables Anita bought her in Paris to cook our "meal."

New Spoken Words: doll, home, cold, girl

New Signed Words: milk, cooking

I got this table at the used-kid-stuff store today when we went in to look for some sandals. I couldn't resist it since I am on a wood-toy kick, wishing I had less plastic in the house.

She is doing such a good job eating off of a plate now. Next we need to tackle the spoon.

It took Anna three nights in Paris to get back to sleeping all night and just two nights back in Houston. However, she is still acting tired during the day and she has been super clingy (cries if I leave her line of sight) since Wednesday afternoon. This makes me wonder if it's not jetlag but maybe she's teething?

Before our trip I could have easily stopped putting Anna down for a morning nap: she wasn't taking it. I would still put her in her crib for an hour and some days were quieter than others (but never crying) so I figured she was still getting some rest. This week she is actually taking the nap but her afternoon nap is going to pot--the same thing that was happening shortly before her birthday. So, I'm going to keep the morning nap to 1 hour minimum to (hopefully) get more than an hour out of her in the afternoon. If that doesn't work, we're switching to one afternoon nap because she is getting way too tired in the evenings when she wakes up at 2 (and yes, I did try a different naptime in the afternoon and that was worse).

After MOPS book club fell through in February, my neighbor invited to me to another book club right here in our neighborhood--even better! We are reading The Great Gatsby. Something I know I've read before but really don't remember the details. Thirty pages into it, I already know I like it so much more than the other book I've read this year... Two people that I've mentioned this book to in the past few days have both noted that they didn't like it and wondered what all of the fuss was about.

Anna thought it was hilarious that Craig & I were tossing a bag back and forth to each other. Video by Anita.

[Watch video of Anna giggling in our apartment in Paris!]

Anna started saying "ca-ca" for "cracker" on our trip; this is her first attempt to make two-syllable words come out of her mouth. She will also, when prompted, sign "more, please" which is a very nice phrase to see/hear!

She wants to know what everything is and points at it all so I'll probably have to stop tracking her vocabulary soon!

New Spoken Words: eye, egg, trash, horse, bath, o (as in o-shaped cereal), carpet, pillow, cow, frog

Anna acted like she always eats her meals in business class. Such a little lady!

Anna enjoyed hanging out in the bassinet on the trip home, but did not want to sleep in it.

We were ready about an hour before our van driver arrived so Craig & Anita ran out for pastries while Anna & I played in the apartment. We were able to wait for our plane in the first class lounge since we had first class seats on the way home. This was great because our flight was delayed two hours and I know our wait was much more comfortable than it would have been if we were out with the "heathens" in the main terminal.

Anna fell asleep (in my arms) shortly before we took off and slept for about 1.5 hours. Then fell asleep again for two hours at 9:45 PM Paris time. From 6:45-9:45 she was restful but not sleeping. She got several compliments this time on her traveling. She waited patiently while we got our bags and went through customs, rode on the van to get our car, and then even stayed awake and was chatty pleasant all the way home. [She went to bed easily although I heard her a few times in the night (not for more than one minute each time) and she did wake at 5 AM although I was able to convince her to sleep in until 7:15 or so on Tuesday morning.]

I am so impressed with how well Anna did on this trip, it just amazes me the more I think about it. She was such a good traveler--the kind of kid-traveler you would wish for but would never in your wildest dreams expect to see! Of course this gets me itching to take more trips so we'll see if we can tag along on any more of Craig's business trips and/or plan another vacation for the three of us sometime soon!

At the market.

The only high chair we used while in Paris, at Hotel Lutetia for brunch. Photo by Craig.

We had planned to go to a big flea market today, but after working out the details around Anna's nap schedule, we decided it wasn't worth the trek since we wouldn't have much time to spend there. This is something I'd like to do when Anna is older and I certainly plan on going back to Paris again someday so I'm not too disappointed.

Instead we went to a food market, played at a park for a while, and then had a fancy brunch. We got to hear the bells at Notre Dame ringing several times during the day. It was so pretty and, again, made me so glad we stayed where we did! After Anna's nap, I stayed a the apartment by myself to pack up our stuff so that the morning wouldn't be such a rush to get everything together.

Waiting for the subway.

End of the kiss.

We wanted to check out a Parisian department store (where department stores were born!) but the first (La Samaritaine) was closed "for security reasons" so we got on the subway and went to Le Bon Marche. While there we ate some lunch and then walked back to the apartment through some misting/rain.

Craig stayed at the apartment while Anna napped and Anita & I headed over to Angelina for some famous chocolat chaud. This place was not advertised as being kid-friendly so I wanted to take Anita there without Anna. I think Anna could handle it when she is about eight. Anyway, the tearoom was really fancy and we split three pastries. I got the chocolat africain and Anita got a cafe viennoise. It was all super rich and decadent and we were lucky we got there when we did, we barely had to wait, but by the time we were to be seated (and on our way out) there were lines almost to the door!

Anita & Anna shared a crepe for dinner and Craig and I went out for Raclette after Anna went to bed (Craig had a delicious tarteiflette that we would like to try to make sometime!).

Anna has gotten to the point (yesterday, actually) where she would cry for about 30 seconds when we would lay her down for a nap or bed and then we wouldn't hear from her until morning. (Just like at home except at home she doesn't typically cry at all.)

Walking to the Eiffel Tower.

Walking back to our apartment, near Place St. Michel.

Craig was finally done with his class yesterday so we decided to head out to the Eiffel Tower today. In hindsight we should have taken the subway there and walked back, but we ended up walking to the tower and taking the Batobus back ("bateau" is boat in French, so it was the "boat-bus"). This ended up being a pretty nice way to get back, so it all worked out in the end!

We decided to start some laundry while Anna took her nap, but we weren't sure how to run the washer and the clothes took about four hours to wash! There wasn't a dryer in the apartment so we had to drip-dry everything in the shower (they provided a rack) for lack of space.

While Anna napped, Craig & Anita went to the Saint Chapelle Cathedral (my feet were starting to hurt, so I volunteered to stay with Anna and rest a bit) and then we went out to dinner (finally all four of us ate at the same time--we hadn't been able to do that the other nights because of Craig's class). After dinner, Craig & Anita put Anna to bed while I walked around and took pictures on my own. I went back to the apartment to get Craig and we went to the internet cafe and then got some ice cream while we walked around some more.

L'Arc de Triomphe.

Another view of the Louvre. Photo by Anita.

We hopped on the subway this morning to check out the Arc de Triomphe. We had a late breakfast at a place with a great view of the Arc and Anna really loved one of the pastries with strawberries on it--she just couldn't get enough of it!

We walked down the Champs-Elysees toward the Louvre with one stop off at Au Nain Bleu, which wasn't worth the trip (Au Nain Bleu was made to sound interesting & special in my guidebook (Paris with Kids by Valerie Gwinner, otherwise highly recommended) but everything was super expensive or the same stuff we have at home).

Anyway, we went to the Tuileries and I wanted to get Anna out of the stroller to stretch her legs. What better place than the Tuileries? We stopped near a little pond that had some ducks in it (her favorite!) and we took a walk around. Then Nana had a turn and Anna decided that this was the moment in time where she would start to walk on her own! How exciting! Of course I have about one million pictures of her doing this, but I'll spare you and just post a few. This is also the time when I took Anna's pacifier out of her mouth for the rest of her trip (wake-time only, of course she still had it at nap & bedtimes!).

After Anna's legs were too tired to continue, we walked up to the pyramid at the Louvre and looked down then walked back to our apartment along the Seine. Anna took a nap, then we checked out the park, and then she ate her cheese & egg crepe that she was super excited to eat (she watched the man make it and then she had to wait until we walked back to our apartment (about 10 doors down) and up the elevator (six floors) to eat it.

Anna had a little harder time getting to sleep tonight, but I think it was because her restless time moved to her bedtime. Once she was asleep, she slept all night and I woke her at 9 AM on Friday morning.

Sleeping in in the baby-cot.

On the slide. Photo by Anita.

Anita, Anna, & I slept in this morning and went out for pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) and chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) [Anita had cafe noir]. We decided to stick relatively close to our apartment today and take it sort of easy to get Anna adjusted to Paris-time and our sightseeing schedule. The park at the Jardin Luxembourg wasn't what I was hoping (the playground equipment was all for older kids and the carousel wasn't open, I assume because it was the middle of the week).

So we strolled through the gardens and then made our way up to what we thought was going to be an open-air market but just turned out to be a cool little pedestrian street with some shopping. We found a grocery store and stocked up on Anna-friendly things like yogurt and fruit. Anna actually slept in her stroller which I was surprised/pleased with. (This was one of the worries I had pre-trip that Anna wouldn't be able to sleep in her stroller if she needed to because it doesn't recline. However, the reason I bought the stroller that doesn't recline was because I don't normally encourage napping anywhere but her crib! This was the only nap she took in her stroller and that was fine, the rest of her naps were taken in the apartment.)

We stopped at a cafe to eat lunch outside and Anna enjoyed watching all of the cars, buses, bikes, etc. go by. After lunch we went back to the apartment so Anna could nap. After that, we stopped at the park across the street so she could ride a cat and go down the slide. She really liked the cat and was a little annoyed when I told her it was time to go.

We walked over to try to go to Sainte Chapelle but we were one minute too late for the last entry to the church. I bought Anna a slice of pizza for dinner and then Craig & I went out to bring back dinner for the adults after Anna went to bed. I had a really awesome sandwich (by mistake, Craig actually ordered it but I claimed it after the first taste) that was called Panini Montagnard (goat cheese, tomato, and another soft cheese--Craig might know what kind-- on some tasty bread).

Anna went to bed easily again tonight and her 1.5 hours of restlessness moved earlier, to 10 PM. We just put her in the bed with us for this time until we felt like she might go to sleep in the crib again, then she slept all night until 9 AM again!

Anna checking out the bassinet on the 777, it was longer than we were told it would be, but it was just too narrow for Anna to get truly comfy. Photo by Anita.

At the Moulin Rouge. Photo by Craig.

Our flight to Paris left at 6:40 PM Monday and I was interested/anxious to see how Anna did on the nine-hour flight and just reminded myself that it was "just" nine hours, and it couldn't last forever no matter how bad it got.

Lucky for us, the flight was pretty empty so Anita, Anna, & I had the bulkhead row to ourselves. Anna just fit in the bassinet but probably only slept for about 1.5 hours total in it, the rest of the time I held her and I don't think I got much sleep at all. Anna finally fell asleep around 9:40 PM (two hours later than her normal bedtime) and slept pretty well until about 12 AM when she had a pretty major freak-out that lasted about forty minutes (not non-stop crying, but she was definitely unsettled). We gave her some Mylicon and that seemed to help calm her down.

It was great to have the row to ourselves though and Anna was able to sit in the middle seat when she was awake and eat her breakfast & other meals on her own very comfortably with the tray right there for her. This flight actually seemed like a lot less work than the flights to and from San Francisco last month.

Anna woke up for the day when the flight attendants turned on the lights in the cabin for "breakfast" and she was actually in a pretty good mood for the rest of the flight. She got a compliment from a fellow passenger which was really nice to hear that other people were impressed with her traveling skills.

The highlight of this part of our trip was when the French customs officer said "Anna" ("Ah-nah") and got a big smile on his face as he peeked over the window at her.

Since we used Craig's miles to book our tickets we had elite priority on our bags so they were among the first to come off of the plane (thanks, Craig!) and our driver was waiting for us outside customs. Getting the van instead of taking the subway was really the way to go for us with all of our assorted luggage so I'm happy we did that.

Our driver pointed out buildings of interest on our drive into Paris and Anna slept in her carseat to the apartment. The driver carried all of our things up to the apartment and showed us a few features of the apartment. It was small, but we knew that ahead of time and after a few days I got used to the size and since the location was so fabulous and we didn't actually spend that much time inside the apartment, it was just perfect! I am so happy that we stayed there!

Anita, Anna, & I unpacked a bit and set up Anna's "baby cot" (a long, skinny version of our pack n' play), then went down to find a Tabac to purchase a phone card and then we took a (short) walk to the Notre Dame Cathedral while we waited for Craig to get back from his class.

Anita & Craig had dinner and watched the show at the Moulin Rouge while I stayed at the apartment with Anna the first night. Anna went to sleep right away at 7:20 PM (she was exhausted!) but woke about 40 minutes after and was upset and needed Mylicon & Tylenol before she calmed down and slept again.

At about midnight (and about the time Craig & Anita came back), Anna started acting restless and like she was trying to get comfortable and sleep but just couldn't get there. This lasted about 1.5 to 2 hours. (I'm not sure because we didn't have a clock with a light in our room.) Other than that, she slept great and actually slept until 9 AM Wednesday morning.

When I go into Anna's room in the morning or after a nap whe will typically be lying still if she is awake but as soon as she hears me enter the room, she gets into a mad scramble on all fours and starts grabbing all of her pacifiers and crawling all over her crib. It reminds me of when you're taking a nap and the phone rings and the caller asks "were you sleeping?" and you always reply "no!"

Since Anna stopped nursing last month she has wanted to cuddle when she wakes up. This week it has turned into a frantic need to read a book when she wakes up. She signs "book" over and over as soon as I pick her up out of the crib. It's too bad, I liked the cuddling! But, we are enjoying some more of her books now and I'm glad she seems to like reading so much. She is asking to read more than just Goodnight Moon at night, too. I'm limiting it to three books for now (including Goodnight Moon).

Finally Anna is listening to me at the top of the stairs when I ask her to turn around to come down. It is so cute! Half of the time she turns way too early and turns around again or she turns too far and starts going sideways. I still don't trust her going down by herself, but at least she is practicing now where she wasn't really interested in going down before. She doesn't listen very well at the top of the slide, however and I still need to physically turn her around so she goes down feet-first.

She has taken a few more steps on her own (she doesn't feel brave enough most of the time, though). She took a few steps from our bathroom to the stairs yesterday and then this morning she took a few (conscious effort!) steps toward a book she wanted to read.

New Spoken Words: plane*, plate, baaa (as in a sheep says "baaa")

*We have had a lot of (annoying!) flight traffic over our house since about the week before we left for San Francisco which is why there seems to be an interest in planes.

I was surprised that Anna didn't even attempt to take off her sunglasses today (we haven't put them on her since summer). I guess her eyes were relieved!

The past few days at the park all Anna wants to do is swing while holding on to two pinecones. If I can convince her to get down and walk it is to go on a pinecone hunt. It makes it easier for me, I suppose, but there is no adventure in standing and pushing her on the swing for 10 minutes at a time.

New spoken* word: toes, pinecone

*yes, spoken, not yelled today!

OK, really, I don't understand why she is so loud. Anyone who knows us knows that we are quiet people. I hope this passes soon because she really seems to be getting louder each day. I almost felt like I needed to leave Target this afternoon it was so out of hand; she almost lept out of the cart when she saw a bin of balls (BA! BA! BA! BA! BA! BA!).

New YELLED! Words: Heart, hot, bob (as in "the red, red, robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' along")

I decided to buy Anna some drinkable yogurt (YoBaby) last week and she loves it. Little does she know that I've been mixing in some whole milk in the yogurt the past two days and she still loves it. I'm hoping to keep increasing the milk contents each day until she is drinking mostly milk. I feel kind of sneaky, but I think in this case the ends justify the means. For now I am still calling it "yogurt" for fear that she'll reject it if I call it "milk." (Like the time I made homemade macaroni & cheese and called it "macaroni & cheese" and she looked at me like I was trying to feed her poison until I called it "pasta" and then she thought it looked pretty good!)

I thought I'd take Anna to the park where I take a lot of my clients because there is a shot I really like in the trees, but Anna wasn't cooperating with me (as you can see in the above photos!). I think I need to bring Craig next time because it really is more difficult to take a picture of your own child. She just wanted to walk, not sit and take pictures. I understand that and we walked more than sat, but she has truly mastered looking anywhere but the camera. She was pleased with the ducks that came by to see if we had food, however, so at least the trip to the park wasn't a total bust for her. I also got a grumpy-shot of her flashing her teeth. She has six now!

Please someone tell me that my child will one day be able to use an "indoor" voice sometime soon in her young life. Anna yells everything she says and I think she's getting louder each day. It is not an angry-yell, it's just an announcement-yell, but it can get loud.

The other thing that is currently driving me nuts is that she still swipes (or drops, but never throws) a good amount of food onto the floor. And she'll do it while she's still eating (although usually not at full-pace). At what age do I start enforcing a "you're done eating when you start swiping/dropping food on the floor" rule? She's gotten a lot better about keeping her cup on the table, but she does still have her moments.

New Spoken (YELLED!) Words: jeans, pop (as in "pop goes the weasel")

New Signed Words: happy, please, duck*

*duck & keys are the only words that she speaks and signs.

[Since I wrote this, Anna has stopped with the excessive swiping/dropping of her food (she's still doing it, but sweeping up after mealtimes is significantly less intense). -Becky 4/6/06]

Anna took her first steps this weekend! Of course she did it with Craig at the park, not with me, but she did it again for the camera tonight: Watch the video here. She is getting more independent! She will now also walk holding just one of our hands more than holding both (she'll hold both if she's tired). I am interested to see how this progresses. She still stands for just short intervals, so although it is exciting, she is being cautious (which I highly approve of!).

I went on my first weekend away by myself since (technically) before I got pregnant with Anna. It was strange and good all at the same time. Of course I missed Anna, but it wasn't like I thought it would be. I think it was timed perfectly where I was just really comfortable with leaving her for a couple of days. From what it sounds like, Craig had a good, but tiring, time with her.

I went to Pennsylvania to meet several women that I've been talking to online since October 2003. We met on BabyCenter's message boards then and then sometime last year we moved over to a private board on Yahoo! We threw a surprise baby shower for one of the girls (and she was surprised!) and we all had a great time getting to finally meet each other.