Lilly, a future Apple consumer

Lilly enjoys playing on my MacBook Pro. She also enjoys two of the Apps on her dad's iPad (he's got a toddler jukebox, think Row, Row Row Your Boat, Miss Mary Mack, and ABC, among others, and a picture scratch off). So I feel like she's going to be an Apple user and not a PC user. She loves skyping with her grandparents as well as friends Jamey, Michele, and Emma in California. She loves to lay on her belly, as seen in the picture, and play with the keys, scratch the computer, and touch the touchpad. She does things on the touchpad that I don't even do or know how to do! She can pull up all the applications running. She can mute the conversation (and she normally does this every other day). And she loves just touching (lightly banging) on the keys.

Turning a Corner

We've turned a corner with JCC babysitting. Lilly is beginning to take to it, and doesn't cry for that long, less than 15 minutes definitely!, when I drop her off there. She's recognizing Cory, the JCC babysitter, as well as the room. I think she's definitely learning the routine, or at least what to do when she gets there. Not a whole lot of interest in the other children at babysitting, it seems she only has eyes for Cory or what's playing on the TV (usually Nick JR or PBS kids). Yesterday, she didn't fuss when I dropped her off. And she played and played before Cory said she got tired and a little cranky. Cory went to place her in the car seat carrier, so she could sleep, but Lilly couldn't get comfortable. So Cory picked her up and held her and Lilly immediately fell asleep on her. It was such a sweet sight to see when I came in from working out. It's great to see that Lilly has taken to Cory and vice versa. Definitely a relief, and I don't have to be on the lookout for the front desk people while on the treadmill or the Elliptical. Definitely can relax some of the nerves. Let's hope she keeps it that way!

Out More

Here's a picture from Monday. We'd been out and about and Lilly fell asleep in her car seat. It's great. I feed her, and then we head out the door. Whether its to visit friends, which is what we did today, shop, which is also what we did today, or parenting class, or just walk, the outings tire her out, and by the time we head back, either in car or foot, she's either on the verge of dreamland or already going there. She's adapting to the car seat and finds it ok to sleep in. Monday afternoon she took a two hour snooze, all snug as a bug in a rug (well car seat). And now she's into the beginning of hour 2 of her afternoon nap. I'm so glad she's finally taken to (or at least learned to) sleep in her seat!

Constipation, Constipation!

So the past week we've (or at least Lilly physically) has been dealing with constipation. We've talked to the doctors and gotten a slew of instructions, and we've laid off the solids, especially bananas. She's back to strictly milk during the day and formula at night, while we get her stomach issues settled. It's heartbreaking to see her get all red in the face, grunt, strain, and then nothing comes out. Or a pellet. And it's hard and it looks like its so painful. Because then she cries and goes through the whole sequence again. Well, yesterday she was given prune juice. I tried to trick her, by giving it to her first, in a bottle, and she took maybe a few sips before she was like, gross, what is this? I then switched to breastmilk, which she at first refused, thinking it was going to be the prune but nope. She greedily took it down. I then tried to go back to the prune but she swatted her hand and said NO! We're stocked, we got the glycerin suppostories, full prune juice bottle, and boxes of apples juice. Karo Syrup is next. But luckily last night, before bath time she went through two painful cycles and then finally pooped and it was soft! So today she'll get some apple juice to keep her digestive system on track and hopefully this weekend we'll go back to solids. There's sweet potato puree and pea puree waiting for her!

Apples, JCC babysitting not so much

Yesterday I steamed a Red Delicious Apple and then pureed it. I thought Lilly would want a taste so I put a little bit on my finger and gave it to her. She ate it up, but boy did she give me, a "Gross!" face. So I didn't push it, I put the apple puree in the fridge, knowing I would give it to her tomorrow. So that's exactly what I did. Instead of mashing up a banana, I poured some of the puree into a bowl. I served that along with a bowl of oatmeal. I started with the apples but after the first bite, I got the same "Gross" face. Same thing with the second bite. So I moved to the oatmeal, which she greedily ate up. She sucked that bowl down, and I even gave her another 1/2 of helping.

But boy did she not like the apple. Check out the video. You can see her facial expressions.

And I tried a different time to take her to the JCC. Yesterday we went from 8-9AM, and she did ok. She cried for a bit but did well with Cory. So today, I wanted to try a new time. I've noticed on the sign in sheets that they are not a whole lot kids that come to the afternoon session, so I made a reservation for 4:30, and brought her. From the get go, she was not too happy. When I left her, she started to cry. And that's the worst, I know I need to go, that she'll learn and that she is fine, but to leave her when she is in someone else's arms and crying, it's hard.

But I went anyway. I was on the Elliptical for about two minutes when the receptionist came up to tell me that Lilly was gagging, and they were concerned. She's started with these new sounds and one is a gagging type sound, so I wasn't too concerned, but I went down with her and checked out Lilly. She was fine, smiling and in the babysitter's arms. So I went back upstairs. I was on my 29th minutes, back on the Elliptical, when the receptionist came up again and found. Lilly just wouldn't stop crying, they tried to feed her, but she was not happy.

So I went down with her, heard Lilly as I rounded the corner to the babysitting room and saw that she was working herself up. So I got her, held her, and she quieted down. The two helped me pack up, and then Lilly and I walked to the car. (this was after at least 5 apologies to all people concerned). She braved the cold real well, but was just overtired and a little hungry. We ended up bathing her early, feeding her early, and she went to bed early. So not sure what time will work, I think going at 4:30 might be too late for her. So we'll stick to the 8AM time. We've got a reservation for Friday. Maybe she's more like her mom and is a morning person...time will tell.

6 month stats

I'm only two weeks late in releasing the 6 month stats. Albeit, we didn't go to the doctor until last Wednesday but she turned six months two weeks ago today. Hard to believe that it's been six months. Feels like it's gone by in the blink of an eye but on the other hand it hasn't. She's grown. She's laughed. She's definitely eating and drinking. Her front two teeth are coming in and she has taken to biting down on things, bottle nipples, my nipples, fingers, etc. She's testing out her chompers! And let me tell you, they work. They will be sharp and aid her in chewing her food and biting others.

We took her to see Dr. G last Wednesday for her 6 month check up, and she's doing well. In the picture, Mark and Lilly are standing by the scale, in the baby room of the doctor's office. Lilly got two shots and took them like a champ. She also weighs 18 lbs 13 ounces (still in the 90th-95th percentile) and is up an inch, and now is 26 1/2 inches (75th percentile). She's in 6-9 month clothes. My bag of small fitting clothes keeps getting bigger and bigger - I'm due to start another bag.

But she's starting to blow 'raspberries' so lot's of noise and spit. Luckily no blowing raspberries while eating yet. So no projectile food! Her routine napping schedule is off, sometimes she'll sleep 30 minutes, other times she'll sleep 1-2 hours. With her napping schedule so irregular, she usually finds herself exhausted at the end of the day. Yesterday she barely napped and was wiped out by her bath, so she was quite cranky until we put her down to sleep. And for those first few hours, she barely moved. Now she's taking a much longer nap - 1 hour! - and I can hear her stirring, so I better get ready. In just two weeks and some days, we'll be celebrating her 7 month birthday!

New Foods

Lilly has progressed from rice cereal to other foods. She's tackled oatmeal, which she likes a lot more than rice cereal. And she loves carrots, bananas, and sweet potatoes. She did enjoy peas, but she readily ate the orange veggies and yellow fruit up. Each get's all over her mouth, hands, clothes, and our hands and clothes, but she so enjoys it. The close up photo was taken Sunday during her 'lunch' of sweet potato and oatmeal. At her six month check up, Dr. G said we would want to move towards three meals a day with her. Right now it's a second breakfast and first lunch. But I bought a Beaba baby cooker, it steams meats, fruits and veggies and then it can also puree them. It's a small, ingenious appliance and its pretty cool, it's green! So I've been making the fruits and veggies, Regina suggested I let Lilly try the Gerber banana puree, and boy did she NOT like it! So we will stick with fresh bananas. I made a sweet potato puree and now I've got an apple steaming, so I can make an apple puree. I hope she likes it.

We've read that its best to start with either a cereal or vegetables as they can become accustomed to the sweet taste and not want eat anything that wasn't sweet. We asked Dr. G about this and she said pretty much there wasn't anything to it. Let her eat what she wants to eat and when she wants to eat. So not worrying about fruits before vegetables or vice versa. Here's hoping she likes apples. If not that, then we'll move onto something else, perhaps green beans.