First Christmas

Petra celebrated her first Xmas today (of course, she wouldn't do it next Tuesday or anything). Piles of presents from her far flung admirerers- fancy toys from Babystyle and Haba, puppets, clothes and books. And apparently more are in in the mail. Alison dressed her up in her cute little snowflake outfit (because it was a chilly 68 degrees or so today, and because the first outfit died in a poopsplosion). Of course, the parents primeval got the best present- Petra herself (oh, and cozy slippers for daddy).

All the new loot is just in time too. Petra is already growing out of some of her 0-3 month clothes (and some of the 3-6 are looking a little short too!). At this rate, she's all set for tennis or basketball! Of course, it means we'll be spending that much more on disposable clothing! More cheap onesies with iron-on decals!

Petra's been a good baby today, four hour nap, short videoconference with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, then a walk and another nap. What more can you ask for from a baby!

Happy Bath!

Another milestone! Petra's bath tonight was completely trauma free! We did without the sling in the tub, and I think that helped by making her feel less constrained. She was fine sitting in the water, and splashing about. She didn't even mind when I washed her head and face, usually the trigger for screaming bloody murder. I used the sprayer in the sink to rinse her off, and she was OK with that, though she watched it VERY warily. Next time we're taking her into the shower! (kidding....sort of).

Out of Reach

Actually, things are starting to be in reach for Petra. She's started to reach out for things, and not just thrashing wildly (and "accidently" throwing daddy's glasses across the room). She's reached out for mommy, and grabbed the ear on the lamb rattle mommy was shaking (shaking the rattle, not the baby). Such a good little baby. Add this to the fists in the mouth, and she is becoming quite dextrous. The jury is still out on whether she's right, left, or ambi (see the whorl talk in the Monkeyblog).

Petra also took a nap in her crib! It took feeding, playing, burping, changing, singing and a mobile, but she napped for about an hour! Of course, we weren't able to replicate this, so it may just be a fluke (or is that intelligent design?). We feel a little guilty every time we resort to the swing to get her to nap. Why we feel guilty I don't know, the swing is pretty comfy, and the music it plays is quite catchy!

Trauma

Today was pretty traumatic for little (or not so little) Petra. She had her 2 month (and 1 day) check-up. She is a whopping 12lbs, 15.8oz. I won the betting pool with my 13lb guess- only off by .2oz! The highly inaccurate measurement was 22.5in. The visit started out poorly though- Kaiser decided this was an urgent care visit (scheduled 6 weeks ago mind you!), and charged us $10 (instead of a free well-baby visit). Petra was well of course, but this visit included 3 shots! Poor baby! One of them tends to make the baby a bit feverish and fussy, so she wasn't in a good mood the rest of the afternoon.

We went to mommy's office party for 2 hours later in the day. Petra was fussy going, but slept in the car, and was happy baby for the coworkers. They all thought she was adorable, and she was sweet, smiling, and talky for them. We had to take her out of her holiday costume because she was overheating in her little stripy leggings (possibly due to the shot as well). She definitely has mommy's metabolism- never cold, always hot (in more ways than one).

Mohawk

Petra has already become quite the little punk. In addition to her Dead Kennedys onesie, she has this great little mohawk going! We figured the fauxhawk was the best she'd manage because of her whorls, but we're still a little surprised at just how nicely it is shaping up! Next weekend we are definitely going out with the 'hawk gelled up and the onesie!

Petra was singing christmas carols with mommy today. Daddy tried and it made Petra cry. I have that pesky hereditary tone-deafness that makes the whole family useless when it comes to the production of anything resembling music. I'll have to stick with iTunes for her.

I started passing out Petra photo Xmas cards today, and there was a trail of squeals behind me as I made the rounds. Everyone thinks she is just TOOOO cute. Before you know it she'll be on Cute Overload.

Fisticuffs

Petra turned 8 (weeks) old today, and continues to break the curve on being the little genius baby. Not only is she sucking her fist to stay calm, but she is starting to watch her own hands. Just give her some pencils and she'll stay busy for hours (to paraphrase Kliban).

She sat in my lap for about 15 minutes tonight gnawing on the knuckle of my thumb, happy as a clam (which I've also had gnaw on me, as far as clams gnaw). We also had a lovely little conversation, of which I understood not a syllable (if aoaay is a syllable).

Time flies

Now that Petra is starting high school, I should have a little more time to devote to the blog.


Just kidding. Yes, it's been a week since I posted. I feel bad about that. Deeply. But then again, I've been spending time with Petra, so how can that be bad? Right now she is with mommy in bed having a post-meltdown feed which will hopefully transform her into a nice sleepy baby.

Petra is growing like a weed. Some of her sleepers are already getting to be too short for her (luckily there are a couple with open feet for her toes to stick out of). We have tons more, but I'm shocked at how fast she is growing (but not dismayed). Milestones this week include learning to suck on her own fist to quiet herself, which, at least occasionally, can head off a meltdown. Hurray!

She is also quite the happy baby. She loves to have long conversations with us that usually run something like "aaayooooaaayyyy"? "aaaayyyoooooaaaayyy!" "aayyy!." These are often accompanied by a little squirmy dance, whirling fists and a huge smile. Daddy is thinking he might need to trade his glasses for contacts, they've been knocked off his face so many times!

Petra's stocking is hung by the chimney with care, and I've already been filling it with chewable wooden toys from Haba in Germany. Very nice rings and clicky balls that I'm sure she will love playing with. Didn't I say we shouldn't get presents for Petra this year, because she already has received so much? oh well, my bad. But how can you resist toys for your little girl?

Thanks to a post on Daddy-blog "Sweet Juniper" (via Daddytypes), I've got a new hobby: Making stylish onesies for Petra with iron on inkjet transfers. Seeing as this is the golden age of RIAA cease and desist orders, I'm not sure I should even mention that I'm doing this, but let's hope that Shepard Fairey is more forgiving than RIAA and the MPAA, and won't sue me for making an Obey giant onesie! Because she is the chosen one, we've also pillaged Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Dead Kennedys? Let's just say that without me being clueless about them, Petra may never have arrived! All in all, this transfer paper stuff is just too much fun!


And on a final note for today, my coworker points out that daddy's picture on the blog is identical in pose to this one of Petra. Like daddy like baby?

Buzz and Buzz

I suppose that I should confess. When we take Petra to the Farmer's Market, we aren't REALLY going for the fantastic mexican food at Loteria Grill, and the great jelly donuts at Bob's Doughnuts & Coffee, or chicken & waffles at Kokomo. We really go to show off our stroller! This weekend, for example, within seconds of arriving someone was stopping traffic saying to a friend "Did you see the cool stroller?" Not a trip goes by when the Quinny Zapp isn't ogled heavily. I suppose we could pretend that it's really just the attention that it draws to Petra that is important, but we'd be lying to ourselves.

The big news at the market Sunday was a Quinny Buzz spotting. Someone had one with the Dreami sleep cot attached. We made a point of sashaying past them, so they could see the Zapp and strike up a conversation (they picked theirs up in London). We'd been ogling the Buzz on the internet ourselves, but now that I've seen one in real life, I don't think I want one- it's a HUGE beast! Check out this Flickr photoset of someone trying to get it into their trunk. I think we'll stick with the nice compact Zapp!

Feed me!

Daddy can do it! No longer will we live under the tyranny of the boob! Daddy can do anything mommy can, I am all powerful!




Well, maybe there will still be a bit of boob tyranny. Mommy was sweet enought to pump a couple little bottles of milk so I could try feeding Petra. We need to get her used to the bottle before I become stay-at-home-daddy in a month. Petra had no problem with it of course. She was more than happy to snork down an ounce of milk from the bottle, even if it was daddy serving it up. I did get that loving stare in the eyes as she ate, so I'm feeling pretty happy about the whole thing.


Another first this week was Petra discovering that she can suck on her fist. It isn't quite boob or bottle, but it helps her calm down if she is starting to freak out. Anything that keeps her calm and quiet is good by me! She was even sucking her thumb for a while. Before long she'll be a buck-tooth beauty!




As I mentioned earlier, Petra is smiling and talking (-ish) quite a bit now. She loves to laugh and play a bit after a good nap and snack.

And she has quite a bit to smile about too. Christmas is coming, and she is going to get plenty of loot. She got her Hanna Andersson stocking on Tuesday, along with a VERY cute Dala horse sweater and a little jungle jacket. I got the biggest sizes avaialble, so she'll be set for a couple of years before she needs new ones! She also received a lovely hand knit blanked from Gina and Guillermo, a hawaiian print dress from Sonja, and an Oscar the grouch puppet from her aunt & uncle the big time movie editors. She's going to need a trailer or storage unit to hold all her stuff soon!