More of the same

What's been going on? Well, let's see...

Avocado is Petra's favorite food (after mother's milk that is). She just scarfs it down, leaning out with her mouth open for every bite. Much better than the zucchini, applesauce, peaches, or sweet potatoes that she has had so far. Tomorrow we might try some rice cereal. So far she is like her parents, and will eat anything. Usually she insists on gumming some of whatever we are eating for dinner (pea greens tonight). Just count those rolls of fat and you'll see she isn't starving.

Petra had the excitement of seeing her first fender bender in Westwood yesterday. A bump, a screech of tires, a short chain reaction of crashing bumpers. What fun. I think she hardly noticed. She is very interested in cars though, I think because they are moving and noisy whenever we take our walks. She's already asked for the car keys (well, grabbed maybe).

Petra did the LA Marathon this weekend. Well, she watched it at least. she liked seeing all the people out, and being adored by them all. Even after running 15 miles people had enough breath to say "you have a beautiful child" to us as they passed. Aww, so sweet.

Petra is also a regular at the Sierra Bonita cafe. We went twice this week, with daddy getting espresso and a cookie, and Petra getting avocado. She loves playing on the couch and watching the ceiling fan spin.

We've also started sucking on the pacifier occasionally. It's more playing than anything else at the moment, but it sometimes help her get to sleep if she is cranky (not that she is ever cranky...).

And so ends another exciting week.

Fear!

This week we began looking in earnest for child care (well, OK, we REALLY were looking in LA). The UCLA child care coordinator (UCLACCC) had assured us that pretty much any kind of child care costs about the same, so we decided to try the nanny route for the first year- lots of attention for Petra, without the confusion of too many other kids. The UCLACCC recommended a referral service, so we called and were immediately matched with a lovely woman from Belize. But slipped somewhere into that call was the small bomb of $10-$12/hr for 45 hours per week. I'll give you a few seconds to do the math. Time's up, pencils down: $23,400-$28,080 (not including Social Security and Medicare taxes). Ooops, had to call and cancel that appointment. HOPEFULLY, the UCLACCC was on crack and child care can be had for less. Of course, she said she didn't know of any family care providers west of Century City or so, so we were on our own.

Next up Family day care (in someone's home). The UCLACCC had one name to recommend for us, and we visited there. Nice enough person I suppose, but there was nothing that struck me as "this is the place," and there were a few things that bothered me. The good (?!) news was family care here would ONLY be $210 a week. I also had a word of mouth reccomendation for another home, so we made an appointment (and what a deal, only $200 a week). But neither place was what you might remotely consider convenient (we'd have to buy a second car to manage it), so the next step was taking the LA County list of state licensed family day care providers and trying to find out where they are (they provide only zip code and phone number, not a whole lot to go on). Googling like mad I was able to identify 6 providers either in our neighborhood or 1/2 way between home and work. 2 were actually very nearby- just around the corner in one case. I called them all and left messages, and got 2 calls back: One saying I had the wrong number, the other from the center around the corner. She had one space open, and would take a 6 month old (which some will not). I made an appointment for the next day.

And thank goodness! Not only is it just around the corner, but the woman is very nice, and had a good rapport with the kids she had (and played well with Petra). She had even had the child care in mind when putting an addition on the house years ago, so the setup is great for kids. This place really felt good to me, and only charged $125 a week! I ran home and told mommy she had to come and see. The only hitch is the hours are 8-6, and we work 8-5, so there will have to be a little shifting of schedules, not much though. So, long story only pretty long, Petra has a place in a good home child care center starting April 18th (her 6 month birthday), and we won't lose the house trying to pay for it. Despite all the anxiety about child care, we were incredibly lucky, finding someone great so quickly!

Push-ups

As if sitting up were not enough, Petra has started doing push-ups (at least when forced to lie on her tummy). We're getting closer to mobility every day. Yikes!

We added sweet potatoes to the "solid" food repertoire today. We'll see how that "goes" over the next couple of days. My goal is to have her on enchiladas by June!

We went to a going away party for our good friends Patti and Andy (packing up and moving to Portland). Their 11 month old son Noah was thrilled to see Petra, and couldn't stop touching her (is she real?). Petra was a bit excited to see Noah and other kids there, and latched on to one boys hair and wouldn't let go! Seeing Noah was a bit of a wake up call for us- he's 6 months older than Petra, and crawling around like crazy and standing himself up (though not quite walking yet). It shows us just how close we are to the total chaos of having a self-motivated baby in the house!

My back has been killing me lately from carrying our nearly-17 pound baby everywhere in the Bjorn, so this weekend we popped into REI and bought a Kelty-kids backpack to carry her around in. We took a short walk to test it out, and she seems to like being up so high (a few inches above my head). If the weather is nice next weekend we'll go for a good hike!

Photo-palooza

Sorry it has been a while since the photo album has been updated. I've just added a few dozen glorious images of our little darling for you to coo over. The link to the photo album is here.

Buzz

Petra had her first Peet's coffee the other day, and has been buzzing ever since. Well, OK, really she just played with the cup after mommy had an iced espresso, but it was still fun (and she probably got some caffeine via mommy anyway). Please note in the picture she is holding the cup all by herself. She also holds her own bottles when daddy is feeding her (not always at precisely the right angle, but she certainly has the right idea). She's also been sipping water out of a sippy cup, and this week we began introducing her to solid foods (if you can call baby food solid). We knew it was time when she kept grabbing our food out of our hands and shoving it into her mouth. Some calabasitas from Loteria Grill went down her throat before we had a chance to stop her (and they came out whole from the other end). She was sucking dried apricots to within an inch of their little lives, so we gave her some peaches for the last couple of days, and it seems to be going well. Zucchini is next!

We went to UCLA today to attend a childcare orientation (short answer: tough). Petra was a big hit, as was the stroller. One woman said she thought she had researched every possible stroller for her 5 month old, and was not happy she hadn't found the Zapp. Another guy came up with a story of longing for his Quinny back in Europe. Once again, the Quinny rules!

Speaking of Buzzes, I saw another Quinny (the Buzz)/Maxi-Cosi combo heading for Farmer's market, and a Quinny 4xl there. I've only seen 5 Quinny's ever (2 are ours), and all have been at or near the Farmer's market! We are such the trendsetters!