Half a year old!

Only slightly assisted sitting:

And here she is looking less evil:

These were actually taken yesterday morning when we went to the park, and TECHNICALLY AJ turned six months old today, but we really only got one photo today, with Instagram shortly after we got up this morning:

AJ enjoys sitting on Daddy.  I particularly like how his knees form a sort of throne here.

She also briefly enjoyed the baby swing at the park yesterday, but then it became a little too scary.  She's not quite big enough.

Her very favorite game is one we learned from Mama Lu, wherein I bounce her on my knees with accompanying narration:

"This is the way the ladies ride: trot, trot, trot, trot!" (measured up and down bouncing)
"This is the way the hoydens ride: gallop-y, gallop-y, gallop-y, gallop-y!" (frantic up and down bouncing)
"This is the way the farm girls ride: higgle-dee, piggle-dee, higgle-dee, piggle-dee!" (slight up and down bouncing with side-to-side swaying)


(The narration has been slightly modified.  I also call the baby bunny in The Runaway Bunny "she," and while I was pleased that ONE of the six pirates in This Is Not My Pirate was identified with a feminine pronoun, I edited our copy with a sharpie to bring the ratio to 1:1.)

It really was beautiful at the park, and the lake didn't even stink, which is honestly noteworthy.

Photo dump

Lately I've been very into Instagram, the app for filtering camera phone photos.  Of course, it was recently acquired by Facebook and rumor has it that they plan to shut it down, but that seems excessively stupid even for Facebook.  We'll see.

Many whiny elitists complain about Instagram filters "ruining" photos, but in my opinion, they generally improve on camera phone pictures, at least those taken without a flash, by letting you mess with color and contrast in predictable ways.  Since I only have an iPhone 3GS, I don't have a flash, and I also like the borders that accompany some of the filters.

My most common Instagram subject is actually probably other people's yards; since I spend so much time walking AJ in her stroller outside to get her to sleep, I need something to alleviate the monotony.  But I also take a lot of pictures of AJ, so this week I made a 5x7 collage of some of my favorites to put in one of the frames I picked up at Hobby Lobby last month:

Larger versions of some of them:

AJ making her dead mouse face after gorging herself (May 31, 2012)

AJ in her cradle swing with the star light mobile & Ginger, her WisCon monster (June 8, 2012)

Sleepy baby (May 11, 2012)

What my friend Travis refers to as her "President Baby" pose.

I also framed two photos of AJ with us:

 

AJ & Daddy (June 10, 2012)--I love how he's reaching out of the frame beseechingly.  AJ gets the lip-grabbing tendencies from my side, specifically Auntie Niz.

AJ & me (June 2, 2012)--AJ is in one of the outfits that Gramma B gave her, which is in heavy rotation because a) it is very stylish and b) in the last couple of weeks, AJ has gotten very short-tempered about having things pulled down over her head, and it snaps up the front.

Back! With interesting photos of the Forevertron.

Deb reminds me that it's been over three weeks since our last post.  AJ has not been sleeping for more than about 40 minutes at a time during the day, which has really cut into my ability to do pretty much anything.  We're hopeful that this will turn around soon--at least, we have amassed a small library of used books about baby sleep, including the ambitiously titled The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems.  Probably the author meant "baby-related problems," but still.

The nursing strike seems to be mostly over (knock on wood).  It lasted, all told, almost exactly a month.  I made no progress whatsoever on ending it until last week, when I decided to ignore the people at the Lactation Clinic, and then it was basically finished overnight.  Lesson learned.

We haven't been out much because of the nursing strike*, but right before Memorial Day/WisCon**, we did have a nice visit to the Forevertron a couple of weeks ago with some friends from near and far.  AJ enjoyed being out and about in the front carrier, although I'm not sure she really appreciates art yet. (Forevertron is a big steampunk sculpture garden near Baraboo, WI.)



The central group of sculptures.

Don & AJ command the troops.

Don, AJ, and Chris

Don & AJ pilot the death ray.



Giant metal spider!

Froggy band.

Sun hat from Gramma B.


*Let me just say that I hate this practice of referring to babies refusing to do things (eat, nap, etc.) as "strikes."  A strike is a negotiating tool, and babies do not negotiate.  They can barely express their demands.

**The world's first and largest feminist science fiction convention, which convenes in Madison every year over Memorial Day weekend.

More laughter: bigger, better, louder

Don took AJ out for a walk this evening and apparently she found having her diaper changed beforehand absolutely hilarious, which made Don laugh, which only increased the hilarity of the situation.  This laugh is much louder and prolonged compared to her first laugh last week; we think she was mimicking Don.

Mothers Day (a day late)

A belated happy Mothers Day to all the other mothers out there!

The semester ended last week, but AJ also went on a nursing strike (that's seriously what they call it when they start refusing the boob--in my opinion, it's a terrible analogy, since it's not like she's NEGOTIATING for anything), so I've been very busy trying to get her back ON the boob.  Also I still have 30 final papers to grade.

Fortunately, Don's mother came to help out while he was out of town on business last week (it was an eventful week), and Don was back in time for Mothers Day, so we've been having some nice family time even though I have to pump, like, every two hours.

 

Me & AJ on Mothers Day morning.  AJ was quite fetching in a dress that Mama Lu bought for her on her last visit.  I am still wearing all my maternity loungewear.

 

Me & AJ next to the hospital-grade breast pump that we rented to try to boost my supply while she's "striking."

Daddy & AJ--still no photos of AJ's emerging dimples, but you can see where she gets them, at least.  Notice the first diaper change here.

AJ & Gramma B, and evidence of the second diaper change.  AJ grins and smirks a lot now, but the hand clasping is new.  Sometimes she just sits in the stroller WRINGING them now, or lifts them up while still interlocked like she's beseeching me for something.

Patty cake with Daddy & Gramma B. 

It took three or four tries before Gramma B could make it through the rhyme and remember to say "A" for "Andromeda"--all four of her kids have "D" names, so she kept being tripped up by maternal autopilot.

I'll have to do an Instagram post soon, as I got some very cute pictures of Daddy & AJ with my phone today.  I don't care what people say, I LIKE putting faddish filters on my mobile phone pics.

AJ's second laugh!

(And her third, fourth, and possibly fifth...)

AJ has been making sort of happy gibbering sounds mixed with heavy breathing for a couple of weeks now, but this afternoon playing with Daddy, she produced what I think was her first actual laugh.  I grabbed the camera and captured some subsequent laughter, although I think the first, undocumented laugh was probably the loudest (as you can see here, Daddy basically gets diminishing laughter returns as he goes--apparently she is sophisticated in her sense of humor):

You can't see it here, of course, but I think she has also developed a dimple on her right cheek!  I noticed it when we went for a walk after this and she was grinning up at us from the stroller.  I'm stoked--I was a little bummed that she looked so much like Don yet didn't have dimples, but I guess they take awhile to develop (makes sense; the cheeks fill out a lot).

She's also drooling a TON lately, as you can see in this photo from tummy time:

Apparently this might be related to teething, though it's still unlikely that we'll see teeth before around six months (thank god).  But anyway, it's pretty common for 3-month-olds to start drooling a lot.  Time to dig out all those bibs...

14 weeks old

AJ is 14 weeks old today!  On April 29th, a friend of mine in the department had her baby--exactly three months to the day after AJ was born.  We'll have to celebrate their quarter/half birthdays in July.

AJ is a champ with Daddy

Tummy time on the rainbow quilt


She got tired of tummy time, so then we had motion gym back time.


After a wardrobe change.


It was very difficult to get her to look at the camera.


More back time--she's winding up to swat the monkey astronaut here


More tummy time! She's getting very good at lifting her head.

The dino sleeper is from the lot of dinosaur clothes that Mama Lu gave us at my hometown baby shower.  It's super cute--I especially appreciate that along with stegosaurus and T-Rex, it features the less well-known diplodocus and spinosaurus.  Rather ambitiously for a 3-6 month size piece of clothing, it has treads on the feet.

AJ has not rolled over that we know of since her debut, but definitely scooches around (possibly faster on her back, actually).  She seems to be mostly interested in grasping right now; yesterday, she started grabbing her foot while I was changing her, and has done it pretty much every time I've changed her since.  It's like she's upped the difficulty level.

I read that you can't really tell if a baby will be right or left-handed until into toddlerhood, but it seems like right now, she can do a lot more with her right hand.  We're trying to put interesting stuff to her left to encourage her to use that side more.

Quarter-birthday

That's right: AJ is exactly three months old today.  She can still wear 3mo size clothing if it doesn't have legs (see her Old Navy Aquarius onesie below), but she's also wearing a lot of 6mo size stuff now.  She grabs stuff and she is VERY vocal.

Look, Daddy shaved.

She got tired of wiggling around trying to get closer to Dee Dee the Dragon, so she just grabbed the quilt and yanked.  Crude but effective... she's obviously a genius.

She had a big day today!  The tummy time pictured above followed an outing to Daddy's work, which was very exciting; she got to ride facing out in the front carrier for the very first time, and there was a lot of cool stuff to look at:

 

The passage from Andromeda Building to Heaven Building.

The photo of the Andromeda Galaxy in the tunnel.  We should totally get a framed print of this.

Auntie Hannie, AJ, and me in Heaven Building.  I only wish I knew what AJ was staring at with such determination.

The Mothers' Room in Heaven Building--definitely the coolest one we saw today.

Now with gripping action!

Fun times playing in the motion gym with Mommy, Daddy (who has now announced a preference for the title "Da-doo"), and Aguirre:

I think I understand now why my mother humorously claimed that my first words were "Aguirre, wrath of God."  A lot of that baby babble definitely contains the syllabic building blocks for "Aguirre."

Not so much rolling today, but she did a lot of gripping, including actually grabbing Marina the Mermaid and waving her around. She is a super strong baby:

 
Here she grips my finger and sort of cradles Marina against her side.
Talking to Aguirre.

As you can see, she's wearing a black onesie that says "Benevolent Dictator" across the chest, along with a pair of rainbow-striped thigh-high socks.  Both items came from Zulily.

Fashion Friday: Week 12

Me: These cargo pants will go nicely with that onesie. ...They will! Don't make that face! 

Don: Oh, no, they'll go great... just, WHY DOES SHE HAVE CARGO PANTS? WHAT DOES SHE NEED WITH POCKETS?

Me: Are you serious? THEY'RE ADORABLE.


 I took like ten photos while he was holding her up.  This was the only time she looked anywhere near the camera.
 Partially strapped in for a walk.
 Despite the look on her face, he's actually giving it back.
Bundled up for her walk.  This is a great blanket for tucking her in, because it's big enough that you can really pin her arms down.


Cargo pants & onesie by Old Navy
Socks handmade by Gail
Hat handmade by Auntie Hannie
Blanket from Peggy

Dance, puppet, dance!

So for some reason the sound on this is REALLY faint, but if you turn it all the way up you can hear Don singing "YMCA," or at least, as much of "YMCA" as he actually knows. We should really just figure out how to edit in the professional track.

Family resemblance

People keep saying that AJ looks like her daddy, and I believe them, but mainly because so many of them are saying it. I just don't see a lot of resemblance between babies and adults. But I was editing some photos in Picasa this evening and Don pointed out a baby photo of him that I scanned in awhile back, and sure enough, there is a clear resemblance:




Daddy as a baby



AJ earlier today

I feel like their faces/heads are different shapes, although I'm not sure how old Don was when that photo was taken, which could make a big difference. [ETA: Gramma B. says he was about six months in that photo, so her head may come to more closely approximate his; who knows?] Their hair seems to be almost exactly the same color, though, and they have very similar smiles--except that it doesn't look like AJ got the dimples.

Speaking of hair, people kept commenting on AJ's hair being red when they saw photos, and it definitely looks red in photos, but we didn't think it was ACTUALLY red at all--except that now that we can go outside more, I think it does have pretty strong reddish highlights in natural light. Which is actually similar to my natural color.

I also think AJ got my eyelashes:




I mean, I know I'm her mother, but those ARE exceptionally beautiful baby eyelashes, right?