12 weeks

I think the reason I am shocked every time Grace reaches a time milestone, like 12 weeks, is that with a baby, one becomes acutely aware of how quickly time passes. These moments of babyhood are precious as Gracie rapidly grows and changes. I thought I would remember all the little details of her being a newborn, but already some things are fading so I started a sort of journal. I'm planning to do a baby book, but we'll see how it goes since I still haven't made a wedding album... and the blog is certainly a good chronicle of her development. However, this journal, which I'm going to try hard to keep up, should be a good way to keep track of all the random things that don't get posted. Not that I have ever been good with journals, but here's hoping that some day in the future I'll have something to share with her that tells her how scared we were when we brought her home and how she transformed our lives with a difficult to describe and overwhelming love.

And then, yesterday afternoon, this whole passage of time thing hit me from another angle. We went with another mom and baby to one of those wonderful little roadside summer ice cream stands on the north shore. We were waiting in line (or "on line" as they say out here) behind a huge crowd of elderly men and women on what appeared to be a field trip from an assisted living facility. After the last gentleman ordered he turned around and saw the two little ones sleeping in their carseats and exclaimed, "I can't believe I was ever that little! 96 years ago!"

So here we are at twelve weeks. The end of the "fourth trimester" and oh what a difference 12 weeks makes. This morning at 5am I was feeding Grace and marveling at the long baby stretched all across my lap, her pudgy little legs hanging off the edge of the chair. She laughed on Monday and it was spectacular. We sat laughing at each other for a few minutes, until I was laughing so hard I was crying (or maybe I was crying anyway?). I have been trying crazy antics and songs all week to amuse her enough to get her to do it again, but no dice except one little courtesy 'heh' yesterday.

She continues to sleep beautifully and has even slept late a few mornings this week. She loves to ride in the moby with her head out and the wind ruffling her hair. Often when she smiles, she gets so excited that she kicks and wiggles her whole body - whole body smiles, we call them. She loves to stand, with help, and is talking like crazy. She gets a kick out of having "conversations" and her favorite sound to make seems to be a "ggggg", which we naturally take as a sign of her superior intellect, knowing G is for Grace.

Here she is this morning at the park. She liked the swing!
A few new pix posted.

Overheard

Last night Grace and I were coming down Beacon Hill on the way home from a walk, and I saw a big cluster of middle aged guys standing at the corner. They were quite burly, having a loud conversation in thick Italian accents, and smoking. As we passed, I heard one man say, "Michelle Obama shops at Target; she said she does!" and another replied "Yea, and Jacqueline Onassis was born with a sliver spoon in her mouth."

Another lesson for me in assumptions... I was sure they were talking Red Sox or something I didn't want to overhear.

Welcome to the world!

Welcome Bjorn! And huge congratulations to Megan and Lars on your new baby boy! BBJ, we are so glad you're here and can't wait to meet you... and we're starting out impressed that you were born on your due date. Plus, your mom and I are going to look fabulous in our matching outfits at your wedding to Gracie. Has your dad taken you X-treme hiking in the hospital stairwell yet or were you busy getting fitted for ice climbing gear?

Hard to please

I went to sleep in Boston and woke up in Florida. It has been so hot and humid. Having spent two summers in DC and vacationed in Florida in July and August several times, I know it's not really that bad here, but I'm still going to complain. Last night we went for a walk at 6:15 and it was 85 degrees. Going outside is like stepping into a sauna. The apartment is consistently 75 degrees or more. Yes, I was not long ago complaining about how cold it was here and I knew then I would soon complain about the heat. And come November, December, January, February, March, I will whine about it being below freezing every day with a windchill near zero and mountains of snow. Because that's how I roll.

I am wondering why exactly I felt such an urgent need to leave the arguably perfect climate of coastal San Diego. 68 in the winter, 78 in the summer and cool ocean breezes.

California Dreamin'

The Beach Boys played a concert at the river on Saturday night so of course we had to go (they did this the first summer we lived here also and it was a blast). I admit I was a little worried about screwing up Gracie's evening routine since it has been going so well, but we cannot live in fear, right? Well, she was a champ. Of course, she stayed awake the entire time, but went to sleep no problem when we got home. We shouldn't have been surprised she stayed awake - baby girl loves music.

The Esplanade was jammed and Grace (in the moby) and I almost got in a fight. Well, not really, but I did try to instigate! Some jerk was trying barrel through the crowd (I hate when people do that in a crowd - we're all trying to move, but it's packed; you're not special, jerk). I was starting to tell him just that, thinking Gracie in her carrier and mean ballerina shirt would intimidate, when a security guard grabbed him by the shirt and told him, approximately, to cool it. He didn't but at least he quit yelling and just stuck with the shoving. Grrr.

Anyway - had a great picnic, people watched, gorgeous sunset over Cambridge, and they played all the goodies - Surfin' Safari, California Girls, California Dreamin', and Kokomo. I used to listen to my parents' BB records ENDLESSLY and had a dance for every song. Fave line? Of course, 'and the Northern girls, with the way they kiss, they keep their boyfriends warm at night!' although I found the words extremely embarrassing at 9 years old. My first concert was the Beach Boys with my dad at the Puyallup Fair (five points if you can pronounce that and you aren't from WA) when I was 9 or 10. We explained to Grace that, come February, "California Dreamin' on such a winter's day!" would become the family anthem...

You ate all the cannoli?

Jess visited this morning on her way through town, and we went to the North End for breakfast. That is, a breakfast of pastries. Gracie woke up to discover we hadn't saved her any and was a little confused.

And here she is showing off her special Pacific Northwest Ballet outfit from GoGo (that's what we're calling my mom until she settles on a better alternative... long story, but the alternative was Nana Barbie - ask google about that one, not me).

P.S. Don't tell Steve I put the headband on her!

11 weeks

Grace's new favorite thing is "airplane". You can't really tell how big her grin gets because the camera still distracts her, but you do get a sense of the gallons of drool we're seeing these days. I wouldn't have thought to try this with such a young baby, but one of the email newsletter things I get said it was a good one to try. So I did, and the spam was right.

And here's Gracie living the city life this morning. It wasn't her first subway ride, but I keep forgetting to take pictures of her on the T.

Waiting at Porter.

On the Red Line.

Bookshelf: Opting In

I just finished Opting In by Amy Richards. Richards also coauthored Manifesta, which I think was intended to be a feminist manifesto for my generation. I read part of it, but didn't finish it. Opting In is supposed to explore women's choices and feelings surrounding motherhood from a contemporary feminist perspective. I wanted to like it, I really did. Instead, I kept finding myself aggravated with the circular logic, hypocrisy, and plain ignorance (i.e. quoting someone else who referred to hospitalists as "specialists in nothing" without learning or explaining that they are actually board certified internists who focus on inpatient medicine; but i digress!). She criticizes two writers I like - Lisa Belkin and Caitlin Flanagan - but to me, makes the same "mistakes" she would fault them for. Her conclusions are in no way systematic and the "evidence" is anecdotal. Anecdotal evidence is fine; just don't use it while criticizing others for doing the same and acknowledge it's limitations. Further, I found it a little hard to find the point. A lot of important points are raised, but I didn't find them integrated in a coherent narrative or argument. She would probably suggest that my frustration with the book is a sign of my ambivalence about feminism. She may be right, but it's just that attitude, which seemed to pervade the book, that annoyed me. Nevertheless, I'm glad I read it - it broadened my perspective. And in fact, it reminded me that when I hung out with a stay at home dad last week not to fetishize his experience or ask him how hard it is for his wife to be away from the baby since I probably wouldn't ask that of any of my mom-friends. So, I guess the book made me a better person.

Weekenders

What a weekend!

On Saturday Grace and I went to the Cape to celebrate Margaret's birthday. It was gorgeous and loads of fun. Gracie had her first visit to the beach and even dipped her toes in the (cold) water! Yes, I feel a bit like a traitor that her first ocean encounter was with the Atlantic. More pix here.


And then. And then! Steve had a day off!!! He worked everyday for the last three weeks so it was thrilling! We just bummed around the city - church, park, lunch, ice cream - fabulous. And, he has Sundays off for the rest of the summer.
Took a little video, too! Unfortunately, the sound is really quiet so you'll need your speaker volume all the way up (and then you'll have to rest your ear on your speaker), but we're having a fascinating conversation if you can't tell.

10 weeks

10 hours. Grace went ten (10!!!) hours without eating last night. I, of course, woke up 4 times to check on her. Okay, now pretend you didn't read that. Motherhood is bringing out my rather extreme tendency toward superstition.

In other news, Gracie Mae has suddenly become a spectacular baby. She has been napping (fell asleep on the floor at my aunt's while we had lunch, fell asleep on my bed a few times, fell asleep on her play mat, stayed asleep in her crib when I put her down, and is now napping in her bassinet). When she's awake, she's all smiles and chatting/cooing up a storm. Sure, she has her moments. If she's exhausted or really hungry, she cries (but I whine under those conditions, so I think she can be forgiven). And sometimes she really wails. But all in all, she's adorable and sweet and funny and has been sleeping "through the night" (i.e. over 5-6 hours - what jerk came up with that definition, anyway?) for over three weeks. If things keep up, we might make it after all. Now, I understand that babies often backslide just when you have them figured out. So that's why I'm going to continue crossing my fingers, leaping over cracks in the sidewalk, wearing garlic around my neck, and being shocked every time she sleeps 6 hours.

I haven't had a chance to take a 10 week picture (and forgot this morning when she was playing with the boys, which was my plan), so I'll post this now and add pictures over the weekend.

High school style

Okay, so I didn't hate hate high school, but I didn't love it. It wasn't a horrendously awful experience, but it was aggravating. So I skipped. A lot. As in A LOT. I don't think Andrea and I attended a full week of classes at any point during our senior year, possibly junior year, too. There were better things to do. At home. At Mt. Baker. At coffee shops. In Seattle. In Canada. In other words, I couldn't have made this video. Nevertheless, it's a fun little blast from the past. Weirdly, though, the young teachers now look kinda old. In fact, I only recognized maybe three of the teachers. So the kid can't rhyme, but he's trying.

Just Gracie being Gracie

Here she is, just hanging around. This may not be the most action packed video ever, but we'll cut her some slack since she's just nine weeks old. And her grandparents will like it.

Summer weekends

Tall ships in the harbor for Sail Boston.

Babies in sunhats.

Stone fruit.

Posted a few more pictures.

Bookshelf: Wild Swans

I finally finished Wild Swans last weekend and the book was amazing. It took forever to read only because it's very dense and I was essentially reading a page at a time. Not a reflection on the book. It is a memoir about three generations of Chinese women in the twentieth century, from the pre-World War II period through Kuomintang rule to the eventual rise of the Communist Party. The woman who wrote the book was the third generation and her parents were both Party officials. The experiences of the family in Mao's China, especially during the Cultural Revolution, were fascinating and horrifying. It was particularly interesting because I read Life and Death In Shanghai several years ago, and Wild Swans offers a different perspective on many of the same events and similar experiences. An excellent history lesson and a profoundly moving tale of family, loyalty, and courage. Read it.

Magic

When I was putting Grace in the car for some errands this morning I leaned over and kissed her forehead. And she smiled. When it happened again at our next stop, I decided I didn't have to assume it was chance.

I wonder if the stress of being the cutest, smartest and sweetest baby in the world ever gets to her.

Two months old

Here she is, two months old. Similar sentiments of shock as expressed previously. In a word - WOW.

At her two month appointment Monday, Grace was in the 86th percentile for height! I had just been looking at her that morning and thinking she looked awfully long. Everything else seems to be going well. Eating and sleeping well, although naps aren't really her thing. I'm just going to go with the flow on napping for a while because the doc says her catnaps will gradually consolidate into longer naps.

Last week, I discovered that shopping for toys for Gracie could rival my shoes/bags/clothes obsession. There are so many cool toys! It's a good thing we're moving and want to avoid acquiring too much more stuff or I'd go nuts. I did, however, get her an activity mat, which has a mesmerizing octopus and a mirror, and a couple of Whoozit thingies. Almost as cool as her hands.

The orca from Mark and Lindee is fun to look at during tummy time.

She's working so hard to get her thumb to her mouth.

More photos for July.

Breaking the seal

T.V.

We have successfully avoided daytime television so far, even with the hideous amount of rain we've had lately. However, I admit it. We are watching Michael Jackson's funeral. Okay, Grace is actually staring at her octopus. But, it's raining again and there was a spectacular diaper blowout (her clothes, my clothes) at mom/baby group this morning. And, Grace is having a 'sick day' due to her shots yesterday, so I'm giving us a pass. I just have to avoid finding out when Ellen is on. Once I know, I will have to put this baby on a schedule so I can ensure we're here to see it. That's just how it with Ellen between the dancing and the teasers.

Seriously, though did I just hear Brian or Lester say that there has never been so many media vehicles in one place? That is absurd. MJ rocked (ha!), but still...

Update: Okay, seriously. Kobe and Magic? Nice. It looks like Kobe might have a secret newborn at home because he keeps swaying. Maybe the Times should hire me to liveblog.

War wounds

Check out those band aids! One on each thigh - three shots and one oral vaccine. Grace was a trooper. Her face turned an unbelievable shade of hot pink and she cried a cry I hadn't yet heard, but she settled down after a bit. And while I was waiting to make her next appointment, she spit out her binky and grinned. I don't think she realizes there are more shots at the next appointment.

Eight weeks

Gasp. In a few days, we'll have a two month old. Not a newborn. I think this means I gotta get it together - I don't know that mothers of eight week old babies have the same free pass for being discombobulated that mothers of newborns do. People no longer whisper "Oh, a teeny one" when they see Grace in her stroller. But they do comment on her cheeks. So do the astronauts that can see them from space.

I've learned a few things in the past eight (!) weeks:
- Babies are loud sleepers: turn the volume on the monitor down.
- I call her binky her precious, but really I should call it my precious.
- I don't really miss being pregnant. I have a few friends who did, and I thought I might. Instead, I say bring on the soft cheese, liquor, sushi and cookie dough. I might, however, miss being preggers if I had been able to sleep then.
- Tired babies scream.
- Rested babies smile.
- It's a lie that breastfed babies' poop doesn't smell. A big lie.
- On breastfeeding: everyone said it is "so hard". In my experience, it's not so much hard as a major commitment. (Soapbox: it's an outrage that everyone runs around saying "breast is best", but we have no serious family policy in this country to support it.) But you can eat SO MUCH while breastfeeding. You can eat MORE THAN WHEN YOU'RE PREGNANT!
- You do need some newborn size clothes after all.
- We are very lucky in terms of night sleep. We try not to talk about it in case someone notices and changes her behavior for kicks.
- We do not have a serious napper. Girl wants to be entertained.
- Reading with a sleeping baby in your lap is heaven.

Grace helping her dad get ready for work this morning.

The skeptic.

Baby feet.