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Monday, December 22, 2008

xmas with the Lowes

Nana and Gumpa visit for xmas

Grandma Lowe (Nana) and Ron (Gumpa) came to town this past weekend to celebrate Xmas with Fay (and Fay's parents). We had a really great time and the feeling of xmas was enhanced by an enormous dumping of snow on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday we ventured out into the early snow to take Fay up to the Toys R Us in Times Square. Fay was amazed by the falling snow all around her (either that or her eyes were frozen open). And she loved Times Square. She kept pointing and grunting at all the lights. She liked Toys R Us a bit too...mostly the lighting fixtures and shiny things.

snow!

On Friday night the adults went out to dinner at Cookshop which was AMAZING. We all had nothing but good things to say about the food and the atmosphere was really festive for xmas. Fay spent the night sleeping. (at least until 4-5 am)

Actually, we attempted to switch Fay from two naps to one nap this weekend. On Friday Fay did not want to take her afternoon nap so we were able to put her to bed early (6pm) and she slept through to almost 6am. Since she was well rested with 12 hours of sleep, we were able to keep her up to 10am (normally she would take the first nap at 8am). She took a 2 hour nap and then stayed up until 6pm on Saturday night.

Everything seemed successful on Saturday and Sunday with the one nap schedule, but then last night I put her down at 6:45, hoping to move her back to a 7pm-7am routine and instead she woke up at 4am briefly and then 5am. She was exhausted but wouldn't sleep any longer, so today was a two nap day. We'll either fall back to the two nap routine now or alternate between one nap and two on different days. I read that this is a difficult transition.

I really just fear she will be crying out in the night and waking up at 5am when we are on vacation next week. So anything I can do to figure out her ideal sleeping schedule, I will do. Tonight I moved her bedtime back to 6:30.

...back to the weekend -- On Saturday we had brunch and opened presents at our apt. We got the tiniest little xmas tree for the occasion. It fits in a pot on the coffee table.

On Saturday afternoon we took a dare and attended a local theater's "act-a-long". This is where a small group of friends get together to draw acting parts to Its a Wonderful Life. Then they spontaneously put on a show with minimal props and no practice. We don't know the group really well -- we are patrons and friends of the theater while the majority of the gatherers were actors of the theater. So we didn't choose to take a part, but it was pretty fun to watch. I've actually never seen the movie, so it was a little challenging to follow along, but I managed to get the gist of it. The plot wasn't terribly complicated.

And that was it. Ryan and I took advantage of our out-of-towner-babysitters and went out to a movie on Saturday night. And then we said our goodbyes.

Now Ryan and I are preparing for our xmas trip to Jamaica. We leave on Dec 25th. We have booked a reservation at an all inclusive family resort in Runaway Bay. And the clincher that made us choose this particular resort is the inclusion of a "vacation nanny". I can't wait to see how that pans out. If I can actually read a book during the week I am on vacation I will have to give a big tip to our vacation nanny.

I also can't wait to see if Fay has warmed up to the idea of swimming and running her toes through the sand. She wasn't too keen on either last summer.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

5AM wake up

Fay has been waking up at 5am now for a couple weeks. 5am is just a *little* too early for mommy. The sun is not up, the world is quiet as little babies should be. Anything after 6am is acceptable. She's done this before, but in the past she has been cranky and it was fairly easy to feed her some milk and put her back to sleep. This time she is bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to start her day.

So after a couple attempts to change her bedtime to encourage a later wake up (the books say to move her bedtime earlier as she may be getting overtired and not sleeping well), we have started thinking that she may be transitioning from two naps to one.

Its hard for me to believe because she takes her naps pretty well, one at 8am and one at 2pm. Yesterday and today I'm trying to move her afternoon nap to 1:30 to see if she will get more tired with a longer afternoon. I also want to move her early nap later to see if it will soon become just one afternoon nap.

I'm a little hesitent to try moving the morning nap for a couple of reasons. 1) When you get up at 5AM, you are DREAMING of a little extra sleep by 8am, or at least a little down time while Fay sleeps. 2) With the holidays upon us, it would be nice to have a consistent schedule and not be messing around and experimenting with naptimes. My mom and Ron are in town this weekend, so I don't want to mess up our time together.

Guess I'll keep you posted. She just woke up from a very brief nap which started at 1:30. So hopefully she will be tired enough to sleep a full night tonight and push past the 5 am wakeup.


I would've tried it today but we were out last night

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

crazy growth spurt

Well, I can't imagine once Fay is a teenager and eating me out of house and home because I feel like thats what she is doing this week. Which is a bit of a surprise since last week I wrote a post called "hunger strike"

At first I thought it was the menu, but two days in a row Fay has left me scrounging for food in my to-go bag while eating lunch in the playroom.

She's had plenty of peanut butter before but never had a PB&J until this past Monday. Boy did she LOVE that sandwich. It was just adorable to see her taking bites off the sandwich. She didn't even mind the crust. And on Tuesday she ate an entire turkey/cream cheese sandwich along with other things.

She feels noticibly heavier and all of a sudden I'm noticing her clothes shrinking up. Luckily old navy is having a sale for the holidays and FREE shipping. Nice.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Santa!!

FDNY rescues Santa

Yesterday Fay and I and a couple other mom/babe pairs went to the annual "Santa Rescue" at the Firehouse museum in West Soho. The firemen pluck Santa off the roof of the firehouse and bring him down safely using the fire truck crane.

There was a big crowd of parents and kids watching the rescue and then we all headed inside the firehouse for some music and treats.

I had so much fun at this little event, mostly because Fay thouroughly enjoyed herself. She loved the music and all the kids running around. The only thing she didn't really like was Santa. I was hoping for a memorable photo of Fay's first encounter with Santa, and I think she really came through for me.

naughty or nice?

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Food update

which one of these don't belong

Last week was a tough week as far as feeding Fay went. But we also managed to hit a fun milestone as well -- Fay feeding herself with a spoon.

This came about through another little mommy/Fay fight. We were over at our friend Marci's apt (Marci has twin girls and lives in our building so its SUPER easy to visit one another especially when its cold out). I brought one of Fay's favorites for dinner since she hadn't really eaten well for 2-3 days. I offered her black beans mixed with banana and steamed carrots. She used to love carrots but now she will have nothing to do with them.

We went back and forth three times between her screaming at me in refusal and getting down to play. I tried feeding her with a spoon, I tried putting the beans/banana on a plate so she could grab it, I tried using my hands to offer it. Each time she would scream at me, arch her back and make her gesture that she was done eating and wanted to get down ( She has two "signs" now. She shakes her head for NO, and shakes her arm a special way for "all done").

Finally, I fed myself from Fay's spoon and she became interested. Actually I think she was just hungry and finally giving in. But also, she grabbed the spoon from me and stuck it in her mouth. So we continued with me putting food on the spoon and handing it to her and she bringing the food on the spoon to her mouth. Cool!

And she's been eating pretty well since. I'm not sure if I had a breakthrough with mommy not giving in to Fay's toddler wants, or if it was a combination of a lot of things -- like wanting to use the spoon, changing tastes....AND perhaps teething. During one of her many screams last week I finally saw the molar we've been waiting for. There is a little molar peeking through her gums, way in the back.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

hunger strike

I guess I've been waiting for the moment when mealtime would get *really* difficult with Fay. In my mind I've gone back and forth between thinking she's a pretty good eater and thinking she's stubborn and fickle about what she eats. This week has been particularly hard. She has started to reject the food that she has liked in the past.

Some of her favorites since the beginning of solids and finger foods are steamed carrots, peas, turkey with cream cheese sandwich bites. Also she loves chicken with rice and veggies. This week she has not wanted ANY of those. I've gone back and forth between offering pureed versions of these foods and hand held, and she is still not interested.

Yesterday she didn't eat anything but breakfast (french toast) and milk all day. She refused chicken and apples and any veges.

I'm not all together sure if she is changing her tastes and digging her heals in or if she is just too distracted by all there is to learn that she doesn't really want to eat at all unless its just DIVINE food.

Also, I definitely think her appetite has decreased.

Today we had a *pretty* successful meal for lunch. I made her quiche with broccoli. She ate it, which made me VERY happy since it has eggs and cheese for protein along with veges. But she really only had about 6 bites before she was done. She wanted to stop eating and play, but then later she wanted one more bite and several more ounces of milk. Milk is to Fay as crack is to some people.

So I'm not wailing in desperation just yet. I still have an in with eggs and bananas I think. Two days ago she loved my spinach, banana, cheerio, milk mixture.

And I bet I could mix just about anything with yogurt and get it in her mouth ( and keep it in her mouth, more importantly).

But she is definitely changing her eating habits and I just feel I have to be careful not to let her slide down the chicken nugget, mac & cheese, apple juice hole.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

sick babies

Sometimes I think the neighborhood mommies (including myself) are in denial about the current health state of their babies. Its sorta an unwritten rule that if your baby is sick you should not bring him/her to a baby gathering for fear passing on the germs to other babies.

But sometimes the urge to get out of the house with the baby is so strong, that you just cannot bear to quarantine the baby along with your sanity. So you go out, and you minimize the belief that your child is sick.

A couple days ago a mom friend of mine told a group that her baby had thrown up over thanksgiving. It was a one time occurence and the doc did not find anything wrong, so she figured it was bad milk or bad food that brought it on.

Then, two days later another mom had stories of a vomiting kiddo. This baby threw up two nights in a row, but was fine and seemingly healthy all day long.

I spent time with both these kids, being careful not to let Fay suck on shared toys. But ALAS! Fay woke up last night vomiting, and then again this morning.

So we have a baby flu on our hands. Also one mom has fallen ill as well. (Cross my fingers that I don't get the flu a second time this season).

In hindsight its seems pretty clear that these babies are all passing the vomit bug to one another. But I find it so funny that even something as extreme as food spewing from the mouth of babes would not make us think that our babies were sick. As we sit together sharing parenting tips and lamenting loss of sleep, we tell each other..."it must be something he ate"