Fay's Birthday Party

We had Fay's birthday party on Saturday. I believe Fay had an AWESOME time. Sometimes she gets skittish around other babies or adults and needs her mom to hold her and create a little safety zone. But she seemed quite comfortable being at home with all the visitors. She was playing and smiling and crawling around. She also LUUUUVVVVED the mini-pumpkin pies. I think she had three. Whipped cream wasn't bad either.



We were indoors due to rain. Ryan and I were concerned that it would get too crowded and overwhelming with all the adults and kiddos in our living room. But I think it turned out to be quite comfortable. There were people on the balcony - which helped with the extra space. And there were a handful of friends that couldn't make it because they were out of town or had other engagements. So I think the number of people was perfect. We had about 24 adults and 13 kids.

We had a great weekend with the Grandmas too. On Friday we all went to the Essex Market cafe to get yelled at and harassed by the servers. They are known for being a bit surly, but I felt like they wanted to throw down at one point. They were miffed at us because we came in with a party of four but then ran into our neighborhood friend Dia and turned into a party of 5. Plus, I immediately split my plate with Dia because it was too much for me. The server came over and said we broke their only two rules: 1) you cannot have a party larger than four and 2) everyone has to order something. So Dia got a menu and looked it over. When the server came back to take her order he just about exploded when she asked for it TO-GO. He thought that was not at all rule compliant.

Ryan and I got to go out BOTH nights this weekend. On Friday we went to a Broadway show with the grandmas and on Saturday the grandmas babysat while we went out for a nice dinner.

The whole weekend was quite a success and now I am enjoying having a Fay nap time where I neither have to knit nor cook. In preparation for the party I knitted about 20 finger puppets to give as favors. I was in crunch mode by the end trying to make enough. But I think they went over well. I'll have to dig up a photo of them -- I think my mom took one.

Happy ONE YEAR Birthday Fay!

I can hardly believe its been a whole year since Fay pushed her way out of my body. All day I've been thinking about the Birth day and all of the past year. I went through all of my photos of Fay from last year because I am making a photo album to put out for her birthday party on Saturday. And it was so fun to see the changes in her face and development. The first week photos are just amazing. You can see a little bit of Fay's face in this squishy new born face.

I really wish Fay could know that its her birthday! I kept telling her but I don't think she quite got it. :) So, instead, I just made sure we did all the things Fay would want to do. We ate her favorite foods: french toast with berries, chicken and rice with veggies, eggs and spinach. Yum!



We started off the morning opening a present from Great Aunt Karen. The paper and ribbon was especially fun. And the sweater was sooooo cute. I had a hard time getting a good photo of the front -- it has a reindeer with little bells that hang off the sweater. I should mention that Fay had some particularly good bed head for her birthday. I guess that means she got a good night sleep.



After nap and lunch we went to the Seward playroom and played with baby Maurice and all the marvelous toys. Fay had a grand grand time in the playroom. She was very independent and did a lot of exploring on her own.

After the 2nd nap we did some laundry (oops! thats not fun on a birthday). We did the laundry because we had received some new/used sleepwear for Fay that I wanted to wash first. So, Fay did get some good stuff out of the deal -- she got new jammies to wear on the first night of her second year.



Daddy came home early from work, so Fay had a great time playing with him before bed.

Overall a great great birthday. There was no cake, but we will have a party on Saturday with some pumpkin pie. Since this is mommy's favorite, I'm sure Fay will like it too. :)

Fay's Grandma Sandy comes to town tonight and her Grandma Jan comes tomorrow. On Saturday we will throw a little party for our friends and Fay's baby friends.

Communication breakthrough

So Fay and I had a memorable moment last week. Fay LUVS to climb on the playground structures. She can't walk yet, so its the perfect thing for her to crawl up on her hands an knees. She gets up high, and she clearly has a sense of accomplishment and independence. I've been trying to teach Fay how to descend the stairs "feet first". So she either has to turn around and go back the way she came, or she has to sit on her butt and put her feet on the stairs. The front way is really for things like the slide. I don't think it would work for stairs at this point.

Well, I've been teaching this to her for over 2 weeks. At first she got annoyed that I wasn't helping her down by picking her up or giving her my fingers for balance. Then, she tolerated me turning her body around and putting her feet on the lower stair. BUT, last week, on Tuesday I believe, she turned around all on her own and backed down a stair!

Not only is this exciting because descending stairs correctly is a really good thing ( I don't have to worry about heights quite as much, not to mention Fay sitting on the couch), but its also proof that she understands me when I try to teach her things.

Obviously she has learned other things from me, but this one was really the first things I repeatedly, diligently tried to teach her and.....saw results!

Some of the other things I'm repeatedly, diligently, trying to teach her but have seen not much progress.....

1. Say Dada, or Daddy
2. Clap her hands
3. High Five ( She may or may not do this, she does like to raise her hand when I raise mine)
4. Wave bye, bye.

Then there are the things that she learned by herself....

1. She pushes her arms through the sleeves once I get a new shirt over her head.
2. Pulls up on my legs and rubs her mouth back and forth on my leg to indicate hunger or thirst (like rooting).
3. Raises one hand and does a Miss America type wave when she wants someone's attention from across the room

I should mention her recent progress towards walking. Right now Fay is an excellent furniture cruiser. She can walk her way from one piece of furniture to the next. Although she would much prefer to use mommy's fingers to help her walk around the room.
Last week she started consistently letting go of the furniture with both hands and standing in place. At first it seemed as if she forgot to hold on and just didn't fall, until realizing the she was standing at which time she would gingerly lower herself to the ground. But now I think she is more comfortable with the idea of standing, and intentionally lets go. For instances, if she's holding a toy and wants to hold it with both hands while standing.

Fay's new hat

It got really chilly last week and Fay doesn't have a winter hat yet this season, so I decided I would knit her one. It took me a lot longer than I expected. Normally hats knit up pretty quickly because they are knit in the round and are never really that complicated. Well, the thing that complicated Fay's hat is that its circumference is fairly small. Too small for circular needles, so I had to knit it using 4 double pointed needles. The reason that takes longer is you have to continuously, TEDIOUSLY transfer the yarn from needle to needle as you knit around each row. ugh.

 

So I think it took me over a week of evening knitting. I finished it last night. It turned out beautifully, though it is a little big. Thats ok, better too big than too small. She can grow into it and I can roll it over until then.

Fay doesn't quite love it yet, as you can see from the photo. But I'm sure she'll cherish it some day! :)

rash

We went to the doctor yesterday to check out Fay's rash. I took a photo of it, but it was really hard to capture. Its a blotchy redness all over her trunk. Its not raised/bumpy. Its just red.

Fay's pediatrician is across the street from our apt. Convenience was a big part of our selection. :) Unfortunately, yesterday was Yum Kippur and our doctor was not working. Nor would she be working until Sunday. So I had to go to the alternate doctor which was way up on 23rd street (two buses away).

The doctor was very nice. I read his card while I was waiting and saw that he got his license in 2004, so he was rather young. Its funny when the doctors start becoming younger than yourself. As you grow up, doctors are such a figure of authority and respect. And then they get younger and younger relative to yourself. But then this is Fay's doctor, so he is much older than her!

Fay was none too happy to be examined...poked, prodded, undressed. But the verdict was a good one. The doctor said she does not have a fever or ear infection. The rash is probably just from a virus and she should recover on her own in a couple days.

Ryan and I think that perhaps she got a mini version of our flu, since she had that flu shot a couple months ago.

This morning she is sleeping a TON. She woke up at 6 to nurse a little and went right back to sleep and is STILL asleep at 8:30. Thats over 13 hours. Hopefully the rest will help her get rid of the rash.

CRANKY! and CLINGY!

A couple of unwelcome personality traits have crept into Fay's daily demeanor over the past week or two.

First she has become a bit of a clingy mama's girl. And she does not like it when strangers (or friends!) say hi to her. She likes to cry at people when they say hello. This happens..in the elevator, in the stroller, at the playground. Wherever!

Also she's been waking up SUPER CRANKY. She'll look excited for me to pick her up but then when I do, she'll fuss and cry and arch her back!

The first clingy behavior, I've been attributing to her age. I've read that kids can be wary of strangers, and attached to mama during this age. Plus some of my mom friends with babies of similar age have said their kids are doing some of the same.

I wasn't sure what was up with the crankiness until yesterday Fay would eat almost nothing that I put before her. Now I'm starting to think she is going through some painful teething. She woke up a couple nights ago almost inconsolable for about 30 min. I gave her some Tylenol, which hopefully helped because she finally went back to sleep.

I just read that clingy behavior can sometimes be attributed to teething as well. Thats funny. And my hunch is that they just occur around the same age, because I can't think of why the two would be behaviorally related.

Now Fay has a rash on her trunk. Not a raised rash, so its not from drool. But I wonder if it is a heat rash, if she has a fever. I'm thinking of dashing over to the doctor when she wakes up just to see if its nothing to worry about. Hopefully she'll say, thats from teething!

cooking for baby

I've been experimenting with different foods and recipes for Fay. Fay is not necessarily a picky eater, but she does know what she likes. And she has a preference towards feeding herself instead of being spoon fed. This makes things difficult since it introduces different shapes and textures which Fay may not like or be familiar with even if she likes the taste. For example, she loves the taste of pureed green beans. But she will not eat a whole steamed green bean. I've only tried twice, so they are not out of the question ( I read somewhere you have to try foods 20 times or so before a baby/toddler will like them)

I love this website called weelicious. She has a ton of recipes and ideas for baby and toddler food. Some are as easy as berry topping on french toast. And some seem a little exotic like "Cur-wee".



I've tried the french toast idea and Fay looooooved it (see photo above!). I think it is her new favorite breakfast. I also tried the baked apple for breakfast, which is now a weekly staple. I use it on my running days...Fay and I go out jogging for a 1/2 hour while the apple bakes and Voila! When we return breakfast is served.

Today I tried the Cur-wee recipe

I was so excited to try this on Fay because it seems like perfect finger food. And the sauce is not spicy, its just a nice unique flavor.

Well, the verdict is in and Fay hated it. She took a couple bites, spit them out, and then just cried when I approached her with a handful or bowlful of cur-wee. Ahhhh, Sigh. I will try it on her again tonight. But I'm not optimistic that it will be a winner today.

Its so hard to try new things on your baby/toddler because if you go through any effort and they hate it, you really aren't rewarded for the effort or the imagination. I could have just steamed up some carrots and Fay would've had a much lovelier lunch (through her eyes). But I'll keep trying. I want to get a long list of foods that she likes so I have a thick baby idea/recipe box to turn to.

The flu strikes at Fay's home

Its Sunday night. Ryan is asleep, but before drifting off he named this weekend "the worst weekend ever".

On Thursday night I had what I thought was the beginning symptoms of a cold. I had a sore throat. So on Friday I took some zinc medicine which is supposed to reduce the symptoms of a cold. It seemed to work fairly well. I was feeling ok as Ryan and I headed out to a play on Friday night. But I started to feel extremely tired and congested 1/2 way through the play and we ended up leaving early. We grabbed some food and by the time I got home my stomach was feeling ill. I started to think I had food poisoning *on top* of getting a cold. What luck!

The next morning I woke up with Fay at 6am and started nursing her (I'm still nursing mornings and nights). Well about two suckles in I started to wretch. Let me tell you. That is a horrible feeling to have your baby in your arms and have your stomach turn against you...totally out of control. I was afraid I would loose it all over my nursing couch. So I ran Fay into our bedroom and laid her with Ryan, then ran out to the porcelain god.

So Ryan took care of Fay all morning, until I peeked out around 10am. I was starting to think this might be the flu because my body started to ache and I was alternating between feeling super hot and having the chills. I think I was out of bed for about a half hour before I had to go back. My limbs aaaaaached!

I was able to get a little food down at about 4pm and stay out of bed for a while. Fay and I caught up on some missed time but I was afraid of getting her sick so I didn't want to get too close. I was pretty weak and could barely hold her for more than a couple minutes.

I kept thinking, I am sooo glad this happened on a weekend. I don't know how I could have cared for Fay if I'd been sick while Ryan was at work. I haven't had a flu like this since I was a little kid.

I went to bed at 8pm on Saturday night with some pain medication in my belly for the wicked headache that rounded off the flu symptoms.

I slept really well and got a full 10 hours of sleep....EXCEPT....for the times I was awakened by Ryan getting up to worship his own porcelain god.

So, Sunday was Ryan's flu day. We were quite the pair. I can only hope that Fay's flu day is not tomorrow, nor any day this week. But I was reminded by a mother in the neighborhood that a flu shot is part of the 9 month shots. So hopefully she is somewhat covered.