Friday, November 19, 2010

The rain is finally coming in, and it sounds delightful on the window. I love this time of year, and have started to pull my winter clothes from the box in the closet (and clear away the maternity clothes! Good riddance!) Hooray! It's Thanksgiving time and I have so much to be thankful for! Mostly? For my fantastic husband. I've been a real pain lately and he puts up with my insanity and takes such great care of me and Molly.

I finally got my riding gear out and took the SV back out on the road for my first time in a few months. Then again this morning to ride to my dentist in San Francisco (yep, my dentist is THAT good, totally worth the ride) I wasn't sure about being off the bike for so long, but you truly don't forget... it felt fantastic to be back on my bike, almost like I'm a real person a little bit, and not just a really terrible nanny/cow. (now if only I could remember where I put the DRZ registration so I could ride it too)


Oh, right, and then Molly!

She's six weeks! And according to the sleep books we've been reading, the crying is supposed to end at six weeks! So tomorrow, we expect to sleep in and, after waffles, enjoy our now completely sweet and quiet baby. Whew! Those first few weeks were tough! Good thing she won't cry anymore!

Especially since we are planning on dumping her at the grandparents' house for babysitting while we go to the opera this weekend. I'm sure she wouldn't fuss for grandma and grandpa!

She weighed in on Wednesday morning at 10 pounds, 8.6 oz. The baby sitting next to us in the group was the same weight, but she was 13 weeks old. My girl is a porker. oink oink.

In the past week, she has been practicing her spit-up technique, which is always followed by a look of satisfaction (almost even a smile?):
From 2010.10 Molly


Crying a whole bunch because her life is hell:
From 2010.10 Molly

(notice Aunt Jennifer's smirk in the background)

suffering through stupid outfits:
From 2010.10 Molly

(which she actually wore in public!)

expressing her continued distaste for baths:
From 2010.10 Molly


and swapping tall tales by the fire over a beer with her dad:
From 2010.10 Molly

Friday, November 12, 2010

Today we celebrated Molly's fifth week birthday by taking a spontaneous trip to the coast!
I had a bra-fitting appointment this morning and selfishly made Paul drive me there with baby in tow. (I should have just ridden my bike over by myself and left them alone, but I've become so spoiled and accustomed to going everywhere together) Which ended up being perfect because while I was chatting with the woman helping me, she mentioned that it was a nice day and she was telling her husband they should drive to Half Moon Bay after her last appointment.

I said. What a fantastic idea, I'll see you there!

The weather was perfect today for Molly's first trip to the coast. She slept in the Maya ring sling (thanks Gregg!) while we mosied around Half Moon Bay and ate pumpkin ice cream. Then we headed out to take Molly to the beach for the first time. She totally loved the beach! If by "loved" you mean "didn't notice" because she was sleeping in the sling...
From 2010.10 Molly


From 2010.10 Molly


From 2010.10 Molly




And because I didn't get to this earlier, here are some photos from Molly's angsty teenage bad-haircut phase she went through a few days back:
From 2010.10 Molly


From 2010.10 Molly


You can see in that picture, Molly was pandering to me with her choice of outfit. Sometimes she panders to Paul with an "I (heart) Daddy" outfit, like when she wants her dad to make waffles for me. But she'd better get her pandering in fast, because she is outgrowing all of the newborn stuff now. We've got her in big girl clothes now! Big, 0-3 month girl clothes, that is. She is mammoth.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Yesterday, Molly hit the big FOUR! Four weeks old!
Wednesday morning I weighed her in at 9 pounds, 6.1 ounces. I suppose I should stop telling her she's a porker, because apparently, it made her bulimic. Spitting up is the new game, and last night she shattered all of her previous records with an impressive explosion at Paul's mom's house. Everyone was duly impressed with the swath of destruction and artful placement.

About a week ago, we noticed she was tracking more with her eyes and turning her head to follow things. In particular, she LOVES the bird painting Paul painted for her, and will stare at that whenever it is nearby.

Yesterday, I watched her and said she looked like she was thinking about smiling soon. This morning, she finally had a quiet wakeful periods that was not screaming and fussing, and worked on that smile. It is faintly there and Paul and I both saw it, so I'm not crazy. I think that business about "firsts" with babies is a bit silly-- first word, first smile... I think a lot of those are gradients instead of binaries (where in the baby babble do you decide she said a word and meant it, instead of just part of the chatter?), and she is definitely developing her smile. It will be adorable, of course. Maybe she'll be showing it off by the time Grandma and Grandpa Turner come to visit next week?

She's not sleeping as reliably when we take her out anymore, which is a mixed blessing. It was nice while it lasted to know we could eat out or go somewhere with little chance of a total public meltdown, but I think this wakefulness comes along with her growing awareness of social cues and interactions and this big outside world. Which I'm hoping means? Interactive baby, coming soon! She actually responded to little toys and things and appeared to have a little fun with us this morning. So yay.

She's growing so fast-- her hands are so big! And she's already starting to stretch out some of the newborn-sized clothes. And diapers. They are starting to seem a little tight to put on. But wait, didn't we JUST buy those diapers?!? So today we went to Tiny Tots and bought a stack of the next size up. They look HUGE, like we could swaddle her in them, but grow she must!

On Tuesday, we took Molly to vote! Well, they gave her a sticker anyway. Unfortunately, a bunch of other dumbasses voted too, so we did not get our way on a lot of stuff. (come ON people! think of all the tax revenue we could have brought in with legalized marijuana! And, $18 is too much for a beautiful state park system??? Voters passed a bunch of bonds in SC county but rejected all parcel taxes. Right, because you can just keep borrowing as long as no one ever has to pay more taxes.) Molly was not please with those races-- she said, and I quote "LEHLUHLEH." Which is her way of crying. Fiscal stupidity and prohibition laws make her sad.

Not much other news around here. We are struggling just to get through the days and especially the nights. We are slowly getting tasks crossed off our lists. Tonight is 529 account night. WHY SO COMPLICATED????

From 2010.10 Molly

Monday, November 01, 2010

Every Day is Halloween

Halloween came and went this year, and I never even got to have candy corn. Dammit.

Friday, Paul's mom came over with Bear, bringing dinner and lots of good quality grandma time

From 2010.10 Molly


Bear helped out:
From 2010.10 Molly


Jennifer came over Friday night later to stay up all night partying with Molly while Paul and I slept. ZZZZZZZ...

And then Saturday morning, we took advantage of Sunnyvale's biggest event of the year: Howloween Pet Parade!
This year we only saw one chicken, but! But there were goats! THREE of them!
From 2010.10.30 Sunnyvale Howloween Pet Parade


After the parade and some time at the local brewery, we geared up for our first big outing! OK, every outing gets a little bigger as we test our readiness and tolerance for bigger situations. We headed up to Alameda to see friends who have a BIG Halloween obsession and the house decorations to match. "Decorations" doesn't really do it justice. Anyway, we piled into the car and spent our evening with them and other friends on their back patio. It was delightful! We saw friends! We felt a little human! We stayed out late enough that I turned into a pumpkin. On the way back we learned that while Molly will almost always fall asleep for the car ride, she will not sleep if hungry. So we had to stop in, ummm, I don't know, let's say Union City? The East Bay is all a blur to me from (whatever is just south of) Oakland down to Milpitas.

Sunday we had trick-or-treaters, which was fun. The littlest kids were scared to come on the porch, due to our decorations. Some of them forgot they had to knock or ring the doorbell and would just stand outside yelling "Trick or Treat!!!!!" at the top of their lungs until we realized they were indeed at our house waiting for us to open the door. Two little girls sang a song on our doorstep, and a bunch of lazy-ass teenagers showed up without costumes to get candy. Next year, we are going to have two bowls of candy, clearly marked "Good costume" with the good candy and "Crappy costume" with the cheap shitty candy. I really don't think people with facial hair should be trick-or-treating, but if they are, they better damn well wear a costume. Kids these days! Get off my lawn.

I mean, hell, even my 3-week-old pulled herself together a costume!

From 2010.10 Molly


mmm.... burrito...