Leaves!

This morning we went with friends to the Bolz Conservatory at Olbrich Botanical Gardens here in town--it's got birds and tropical butterflies, but I figured that primarily AJ would be into it for the leaves.  She loves leaves.

I guess butterflies are kind of like brightly colored leaves that move even if it's not windy, so she probably liked them, too.  She definitely liked the waterfall.

(The mark on her leg is not baby leprosy.  It is a butterfly stamp indicating that she has admission to the conservatory, although since admission is free for children under 2 it seems kind of superfluous.)

They don't really allow strollers in the conservatory so it's a good thing I brought the front carrier, but I got pretty tired.  Looking forward to when she learns to walk.

The nursing necklace

I didn't really blog about it much here, but AJ spent two months on a nursing strike (I hate this term, because it's not like they're NEGOTIATING, but that's what they call it), from three months to five months.  She would take the breast when she woke up from a deep sleep, so in the middle of the night (if she woke up at all during the night--she sometimes doesn't), and first thing in the morning, but other than that, she'd basically scream and try to hurl herself bodily away from me.  It was awful, and pretty much none of the general literature accounts for the fact that a baby that young would even GO on a nursing strike (although apparently I did at TWO months), so a lot of the advice on how to deal with it was impossible (for example: she wasn't even capable of taking a spoon or a sippy cup; bottles were pretty much our only alternative feeding option), and the rest of it was useless anyway because none of it made any damn difference.  I got pretty sick of the Lactation Clinic consultants telling me to "cuddle her more."

Then we went to a specialist recommended by our awesome GP, who talked to me for like five minutes, diagnosed the problem as boredom, and told me to make sure AJ faced in for bottles (thus not getting a good view with them) and to wear a necklace of toys when breastfeeding to keep her attention.

This pretty much ended the "strike" immediately.

She's still very easily distracted, but that's very different from the shrieking and trying to launch herself off my chest.  She needs the necklace to focus on a full feeding about half the time, but sometimes can even get a full feeding in a pretty distracting environment without it--I had forgotten to put it in the diaper bag when I took her downtown to run an errand on Friday, but still managed to get her to nurse at a coffee shop.

Saturday at the park we had it, though, and we got some pictures, which I mainly wanted to share because let's face it, it's pretty hilarious looking:

It's made from some cheap links we got at Target, along with a set of three cheap toys meant to be attached to the bar over a stroller or car seat (also from Target).  One of them has a chime in it (the specialist specifically recommended something that made noise), and that was AJ's favorite for some time, but lately she seems really into the ladybug.  That leaf she's grabbing here crinkles, and she does love crinkly things.  (She got a crinkly toy purse from her great aunt recently and she goes WILD over it.)

Here you can see the chime (black and white stripes); the bug under it is a butterfly, I think.  The third toy is a bee with a rattle.  I include this photo mainly so you can see how big she's getting!  Look at her!  Giant baby!

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.

Mother, Baby, & Cow

On Saturday (July 21st), we went to the Epicnic at Don's work (or as I liked to call it, the "epicniciknikpicarchaeopteryx").  There was a lot of cool stuff that I am sure AJ will love when she is a couple of years older, like GIANT BOUNCY CASTLES.

There is a ton of cool art on the Epic campus, and the Epicnic was in an area that I hadn't really seen before, so I was pleased to discover that Epic has, of all 101 the CowParade art cows, the one possibly best suited to be my Patronus:

My only regret is that I did not go with the green tank top.  Ah, well.

Rolling champ

In case you were wondering, though, she is totally a rolling champ now.  She can't really do forward motion (she can scoot backwards on her stomach, as well as pivot efficiently), but she rolls from back to front AND front to back now without any problems:

Art for babies

Years ago, a friend of mine did this pop art print based on a photo self-portrait of mine:

It hangs on our living room wall, next to another print she did in the same style from one of her own photo self-portraits.  Every time I carry AJ into the living room, she stares at it.

At first I thought it was just the contrast in the image, but when I turn her toward the other print (which is black and yellow and white), she actually turns her head to continue looking at the one of me.

It's pretty gratifying, I admit.

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.

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.

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.

More gripping!

As you can see, AJ is gripping things pretty well now.  She grabs fabric pretty frequently (often my clothes when she's nursing, or her blanket in the stroller).  Here she's holding onto a burp cloth.  When we gave her one of the toys that attaches to her motion gym last night, she had some fun lifting it up and down.  Well, she lifted it up and down.  And she didn't hate it.  That's pretty good, right?

How much do I love baby dresses?

A LOT.











This outfit is a 3-6 month size (11 weeks today!), but the tag said that meant 12-17 pounds (why can't more baby clothes put poundage on the label?), and AJ is probably about 12 pounds now. Anyway, the dress and bloomers both seem to fit fine. Who knew seersucker was such a popular fabric for babies? I think she has at least three little dress/bloomer sets made out of it.

Smiles!

My parents came to visit last weekend and we were finally able to document some of AJ's social smiles with Mama Lu and Big Allen:







She also smirks:




Yesterday I swear she spent like two minutes making a toothless baby trollface at me before accepting her binky and going to sleep.

Lately it seems like, when she's over-tired and freaking out about it, she needs to be swaddled and then just stuck in her bassinet.  If I try to sway with her, she doesn't settle down, but if I wrap her up and put her in the bassinet with the binky, she pretty quickly sacks out.  I feel weirdly guilty about it, like I should be doing more, even though doing more demonstrably doesn't work and it's not like I'm leaving her crying.

She's making a lot of noises now--even her cries are more varied, but obviously I prefer the cooing and gurgling and whatnot when she's not having a meltdown about something.  She also seems to tolerate tummy time longer, and can move around a bit more.  Here she is on the quilt that her Gramma B. made her, with Dee Dee the Dragon:



AND, she's interested in looking around now (and has developed her eyeballs to the point that she can actually see things, I assume), so she's gotten into assisted sitting. Sometimes when she's fussing, she just wants to be positioned so that she's sitting with us but has a good view of the room. Maybe she just doesn't want her back to the door.