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.

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.

Rollin' fool baby

As you may recall, just under a month ago, AJ rolled over for the first time (tummy to back)--and promptly forgot all about it in favor of grabbing stuff.

Well, it's only been four days since her first back-to-tummy roll, but she pretty much does it non-stop now.  Changing her diaper has hit a whole new difficulty level.

She also rolls tummy-to-back, but not as easily, or at least not as frequently.  You can pretty much expect that if you lie her down on her back, though, she will end up on her tummy.  Unless I have the camera ready; then, she dallies.  But I finally got a decent video of her rolling this afternoon:



She also rolled right off the space gym mat:



She might be getting a big head.  Look at her, all high and mighty in her new booster seat command center:



She really likes the command center (it looks like she's commanding a spaceship, doesn't it?).  We got it because she loves sitting but can't really do it unassisted yet, and the seat has an insert for babies that can't sit up by themselves.  She's into it.

Rolling!  She's a genius baby.  I am kind of afraid of when she'll be crawling by.

Achievement unlocked: back-to-front roll!

Sadly, we don't have any photos, but tonight in the space gym AJ rolled from her back onto her stomach, without even pulling on the arches!  According to our baby book, babies typically don't do this until 5-6 months, so it's pretty impressive at 15 weeks and 5 days.

Obviously, she is a genius baby.

(This brings her up to a grand total of two rolls ever, one front-to-back, one back-to-front.  She's mostly into jamming as much of her hand as possible into her mouth right now.)

There should be some fun new photos soon; we just got a booster seat with an insert for younger babies who can't really sit upright on their own, and a saucer of toys that go around it.  It makes her look like she's commanding a baby starship.

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.