New Hat

New Hat
Originally uploaded by audcrane.

One of the new hats we bought with G'Dauntie Kelly. Just too cute...

Sleepless Nights, Desperate Parents

Clementine has been waking up every 1 or 1 1/2 hours all night long for the past... 3? 4? 5? nights. She shows no symptoms of teething, so we don't know what's going on. Other moms tell me that they experienced something similar around 5 months, so we're just hanging on by our fingernails. It's deeply exhausting.

We went to the zoo on Saturday with Chris and Zachary, and to the movies on Monday. War of the Worlds... this kind of movie is much more disturbing when you're a parent. I guess kids do make you old. Or me, at least. Happily, Clementine is perfecting her raspberries and made loud "Phhhhhhhhhht" sounds during the scary parts. She's pretty funny.

At the zoo she sucked on a piece of cataloupe and at home yesterday she sucked on a piece of apple. She seemed to really like both. A lot. She's psyched that solid food is coming up soon. I think we'll just put plastic over everything and leave the house like that for the next 4 or 5 years.

How Big is Your Baby?

Well, we made it through all the birthday fun n' games with only one migraine and one trip to the emergency room.

Actually, it was a really nice week -- lots of breakfast in bed, dining at Chez Spencer with Matt, Kerry, Chris, Jenifer and Zachary, a massage, and lots of happy phone calls.

One of those was from Jessica Valley, who's sorting through Kenna's clothes and wanted to know how big Clemetine is. Thought this little video might help. :)

Splashing

Went to the movies tonight in Oakland - "Baby Brigade". Beer, pizza, and we could bring Clementine. Saw Batman Begins. Quite good, I think the best Batman movie so far.

Anyway, came home and took a bath. Splashing is too cute not to share...

A Real $#!% Storm

So I came home today to hear Ryan upstairs, saying, "Uh oh! Uh oh! Uh oh! UH OH!" I thought he was just playing. But when I got upstairs, I found him holding Clementine in the bathtub. She was naked from the waist down and covered in... shall we just call it peanut butter?

She was having "naked time", which means lying on the bed without a diaper on a waterproof pad. We figure it's probably a drag to have a diaper on all the time and nice to be naked every once in a while. She had managed to scoot her important bits (for this story) OFF the waterproof pad, and then to make peanut butter. A lot of peanut butter. From what I saw, she was there long enough to make a pretty good-sized smear of peanut-butter-puddle.

Ryan found her and carried her (dripping) little naked self to the bathtub where she stood, posed like the Venus de Milo, only with her arms. And covered--and I mean covered--in peanut butter. From her belly button to her ankles, front and back.

The cleanup was extensive, first dumping water on her from a pitcher, then squirting her with a water bottle (peanut butter is fairly persistent) and finally after it seemed to be rinsed off, filling up the bath tub and getting in with her. Wow.

The fun part, as I mentioned earlier, about baths now is that she started to pick up on repetitive motion a few weeks ago. About 2 weeks ago her arms started moving back and forth. This means rattles work, baths are fun because she can splash in them, and someday she'll be able to throw.

Then last week she picked up repetitive motion with her mouth. So she can do lots of "Da-da-da-da-da-da-da" and "Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma", but mostly "Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya." I wonder if it's coincidental that she's also more interested in food, and that the pediatrician tells us that she can have "solid" food in about a month. (Augh! The mess!) At any rate, it's really cute, so I thought I'd share this video instead of the peanut butter one. :)

A Little Off

I haven't posted lately mostly because Clementine has been a little off the last few days... Lots of crying, much less smiling, and she wants to nurse all the time, including all night long. Combine this with my train wreck of a week at work and 2 11-hour days (so far), and we find ourselves stretched a little thin. Ryan is both Clementine's and my saving grace, remaining calm with hints of cheerfulness even, and somehow gracefully dealing with my schedule, preparing for an interview, and managing all the cooking and cleaning while hanging out with a crying baby all day. If you see him (or talk to him), pat him on the back. He rocks.

Pulling Hair is Funny

Gduncle Dan and Gdauntie Kelly came to visit us over the weekend. We went up to Sonoma on Sunday to see Daniel do the Vine Man. Which was inspiring, in a nauseating kind of way. The people who do these are really amazing; you can see how hard they're working, especially the ones who want to "finish strong". Dan came in with blisters that basically cover the entire bottom of his feet. He's really tough. I would have been sitting down crying about 20 minutes into the bike ride, much less 70 miles (!) later.

Anyway, Clementine is learning how to laugh, and coincidentally learning to pull hair. These turn out to be complimentary. Little video: