Last day of freedom

Today is my last day home with Petra and Alison. Tomorrow I go back to work. Between the 2 weeks off, leaving Petra, and daylight savings, it's looking to be the Monday from hell. I hope I can make it through the day without seeing my baby! Alison promised to email and send pictures if anything exciting happened. We need to try out the iChat videoconferencing too!

Today was a nice day, if too short. We went to Farmer's Market again with friends for brunch, and to show Petra off a bit more. Back home, we lounged in the back yard, ate delicious pumpkin spice cake that Alison made (nesting anyone?), and feasted on lamb stew that I made for dinner. Only Petra's traumatic bathtime put a damper on the evening (oh, and that whole going-back-to-work-tomorrow thing).

I'm still paranoid about the bench theft (and it turns out they stole the sleighbells we had on the front door as well!). I've rigged the iSight camera to record the gate and send me updates if anyone tries to come in, but that shotgun thing is sounding better and better!

Travelling

Petra continues to be the perfect baby. She slept well during the night (4 hours straight at one point), had breakfast with mommy, then slept while we all walked to the Sierra Bonita cafe for brunch. She was snoozy and cute the entire time, and didn't start to melt down until the last couple of blocks on the walk back. Such a darling!

Gramma Kate then took care of Petra for an hour so Alison and I could run a couple of errands (vote NO on all those pesky special election "propositions"). She was a darling for gramma even!

The minor milestone of the day: While on her stomach (on top of mommy), Petra raised her head an inch or so, if only for a second. Soon she'll be walking, and dating! Yikes!

Meet the 'rents

Petra got to meet her first grandparent today- Gramma Kate. She came down for the weekend to meet her new granddaughter and help get ready for the back-to-work routine. Now, let's not have the other siblings feeling bad by saying just how perfect gramma thinks Petra is. I'm sure she says those things about all the grand-sprogs.

We had a nice little visit to the Farmer's Market where Petra was the queen of the parade in her Quinny Zapp and Maxi-Cosi. At least 4 times people were exclaiming about the "really cool" "high-tech" "beautiful" stroller, and everyone had to come take a look. At which point they'd exclaim about the beautiful baby (strollers are first of course). As always, Petra was perfectly behaved, sleeping the entire outing, and not making a peep (a poop on the other hand...).

Petra Pictures Galore

I'm posting an electronic album of Petra pictures, as promised. The link is: http://rilindst.bol.ucla.edu/PetraPics/PetraPics.html (I've added the link to the Blog sidebar)

The pictures are 640x480, pretty big, but not really big enough for printing. If you want prints of any particular picture let me know and I can get you the original for Yahoo Photos (or any other photo service).

I'll update these pages every few days.

Thief!

The big news today is hardly Petra related. The bench on our front porch was stolen while we were napping with Petra! We have some suspicions: They are tearing up our street to put in new water mains, and the bench disappeared while the street was still closed off, and just about when the workers packed up to go home. You can see scratches on the sidewalk where they dragged it to the alley to load it onto a truck (this, despite the closed off street). I think one of the workmen took a liking to it and decided to take it home with him. The worst part is, we heard it happen, but with the other construction noise, we didn't realize it was our bench being hauled away, just something metallic clanking around. I feel violated, and a little freaked out. I don't like the idea of Alison home alone all day with people like that around. Maybe it is time to get that shotgun for home defense? Safer than a swimming pool with a baby in the house!

But, back to Petra. She, of course, is still a darling. She is so good to let us nap whenever we want! Only the occasional meltdown that requires either mommy's milk or daddy's finger to shut her up.

Chester appears to be somewhat more accepting of Petra now. At least he has co-opted her stroller and crib for his personal use! He still won't come near her though.

Into the fray

I couldn't go too long without jumping into the whole Huggies vs. Pampers debate, could I? Before Petra arrived we picked up a zillion (well, 1 bag of a zillion) Huggies. "Such a deal" we thought, in that big Midwestern way. At the hospital, the room was stocked with Pampers swaddlers, and they sent us home with about a week's worth of those. Having the Pampers on hand, and being used to them, they seemed perfectly acceptable. We had no serious containment breaches (other than those caused by daddy's learning curve) in the first week (I partly credit this little internal gasket seal they have- pretty spiffy). Then last night, we ran out of Pampers and started using the Huggies. Uh Oh!

First off, the Huggies don't seem to fit as well (they are the smallest infant size)- they hang WAY down, and have lots of extra paper sticking out everywhere. All this extra material doesn't help at all- instant containment breach, very serious! Both out the back, and out the leg holes. Pretty obvious that if you can see the baby's private parts through the gaps, they won't do a very good job catching anything coming out of them. Even worse, she managed to take a pee right out one of those leg holes WITHOUT EVEN TOUCHING THE DIAPER!

So, first thing this morning, we were off to Tarzhay to pick up some more Pampers. Maybe after she grows (!) a bit more she will fit them better, and we can try again, but for now my money (literally) is on Pampers swaddlers!!

Nap Time

Yesterday, B-day, was just a bit much for everyone. We decided to do much less today, and, best of all, take a nap. Success! Except for a couple of phone calls (aren't there always?), we had a good hour lie down. We've turned Alison's worry into a positive!

How good is too good?

Petra is such a wonderfully well behaved girl that now Alison is getting a bit nervous (and making me so). Petra is more than willing to take naps for a couple of hours at a time, and isn't particularly easy to wake up. She responds when you try, but would clearly rather stay asleep (I think it's laziness she's inherited from me). With some tickling and a diaper change (I'll never eat mustard again), she is her fine cheerful self (and usually hungry by then as well). The AAP says this is not uncommon, and that we just need to be sure to wake her up and feed her regularly, even if she'd rather sleep. And if it keeps up, ask the pediatrician.

So, we'll keep on. Hopefully we'll worry this wonderful habit out of her before too long!

Happy B-Day

The "B" here has two meanings- Birthday and Bureaucracy. Petra is one week old today (and made sure we were awake to share it with her at the exact moment it arrived), and we celebrated by taking her on her first trip through the bureaucracies that make our lives so pleasant. First was enrollment in all the various benefit packages at UCLA (e.g. we now have to pay more each month), and a visit to Alison's office to show off Petra to all the cow-orkers. Then, a delightful visit to the Social Security Administration to apply for a SSN for Petra.

Ahh, the federal government. They have an office in an office complex, but were too cheap to pay for parking, so the entrance to the complex has a "no social security parking" sign on it. Street parking it is (luckily, this isn't an issue in Culver City). Next was a door with the right address, but a sign saying "not social security", and no direction beyond that. Three doors down is a small locked door that IS social security, but they have to buzz you in, and there is no way to know that (the door is smoked so you can't see the guard inside either). Walk in, the guard says take a number and sit down. No way of knowing how far along they are on the numbers. No apparent activity behind the "service" windows. It didn't take too long though, and other than wanting two forms of ID for a newborn (?!? Luckily an immunization record with just a handwritten last name (though not Petra's) was sufficient) we didn't have any problems.

So, Petra 1 (week). Bureaucracy zero. We win! And she was such a darling the entire time. Hardly even able to get her to open her eyes for the cow-orkers! She even let us stop at Peet's for much needed espresso and coffee beans. She is such a sweetie!

(Pic is Petra in Alison's boss' office- Boss was out at a meeting and didn't get to see her).

Picture of the day

Such a good sleepy girl!

Almost Normal

That is the perfect description of the day. We had meals, did laundry, ran errands, and ate lunch at the La Brea tar pits. The only thing different (and special) was having Petra with us (very well behaved!). Maybe we are starting to get used to this whole parenting thing?

Petra continues to be a darling. She only gets fussy and cries if she isn't fed on time (whatever time that may be). Otherwise she snoozes, squirms, and looks at EVERYTHING with fascination. Now that we've discovered how easily she sleeps in the stroller and the swing, we've even got a little time when we have both hands free. Hurray!

All washed up

Such a busy day should aways end with a nice relaxing bath. Preferably one that ends with screaming, pooping, and peeing. Petra really enjoyed (not) her first bath at home this evening. Not too difficult on my part. I just had to scrub and ignore the screaming and squirming like I'm killing her. Everything is nice and clean now, and she is having a conciliatory meal with mommy.

Speaking of conciliation and meals- Alison and I actually had a sit down dinner for two tonight. We parked Petra in the Maxi-Cosi on the stroller, and she kept quiet most of the meal. The one time she did start howling, one circuit of the kitchen-breakfast nook-dining room and she went back to sleep. I'm sending the Maxi-Cosi people flowers!

That Lo-Res Beauty

Here's that picture of Petra I tried to send from the delivery room just minutes after she was born.

World Traveller (Pic of the day)

There she was, reading Sunset to plan her next trip, and she just conked out. I suppose if you count 6 blocks or so as the "world", she is a world traveller. And a very good one too (read: asleep).

Major milestones of the day: squirming up the bed to get to mommy to feed. Squirming her self over from her back to her side for same. Squirming is one of her great skills, and we hope to find a profitable market for it so she can take care of us in our old(er) age.

Picture of the day

Sometimes being a baby requires great concentration. Or is she just taking a poop?

Petra's big adventure

Wow, what an exciting day of milestones (well, exciting for a 5 day old). Petra experienced her first California earthquake today: a 3.1 shock near Santa Monica. I doubt she felt a thing on mommy's lap, but it rattled the windows.

As if the apocalypse isn't enough, Petra also went for a walk in her fancy Quinny Zapp stroller, with the Maxi-Cosi seat attached. Many a passer-by commented on how cute she is (Petra, not the stroller).

Gotta run now, diaper calls!

[Update- Make that 2 earthquakes! Another 3.0 in the same spot. Is our baby a sign of the apocalypse?]

My how things have changed

Now that Petra is Petra, it just doesn't seem right to resign her to the blogosphere as the Monkey. She may still be our Monkey, but she deserves a blogspace of her own. Therefore, we have created Petra's new blog, Petra-fied, devoted to the experiences living with our little monkey, uh, I mean baby.

Don't you just hate it when you finally get a blog bookmarked, and they go and change it on you? The Monkeyblog will now just stay as an archive of life leading up to Petra's arrival, and the first week. Everything in the future on our little girl will be in Petra-fied, so bookmark away!