Baby Daddy

For 2 glorious weeks I get to be Stay at home Daddy again. Daycare is on vacation, so I am too. My goal for these weeks is to have Petra walking by the end. I don't think I'll be having any problem- she'll already take the odd step herself, and cruises around like crazy barely touching anything.

We certainly had a busy first day. We played and read at home a bit before walking out to get Daddy's hair cut. She snoozed the whole way, and didn't cry when she woke up at the barber. Then off to the park where she played in the sand, rode the swing and the merry-go-round, and crawled up and down stairs. Then she slept for the walk home and stayed conked out for another hour at home. Good baby!

Then off to meet Mommy for lunch. Everyone at UCLA was happy to see her, since it's been about 3 months since we last visited. We had a good visit, then went off to the play area at Westwood Pavillion (mall). As before, Petra loved it there, playing amongst the swarming throng of rugrats. One little boy adopted her and was never far from her side. Another baby had a good conversation of "aaahs" and "baaa baaa baas." We ended up staying there for two hours, long enough that when Mommy got off work she just met us and we all rode home together. Petra snoozed the whole way- she played too much and napped too little today. All Daddy's fault!

This weekend we went to Farmer's Market to get some tasty Huevos con Calabasitas for Petra. She just loves the food at Loteria Grill (and so do we). While waiting for the food, Petra took off on her own to explore one of the tschochke shops at the market- wind chimes drew her like a moth to a candle. She has no qualms at all about crawling off to explore on her own. Such a brave baby!

I've been working on getting Petra to sleep in her crib at night. I lull her to sleep in my arms (sometimes fighting her squirming and crying, but rarely for long), then put her down in her crib. She invariably starts crying and trying to get up, but usually some shushing and belly patting gets her back to sleep quickly. She now stays there until 1-2 in the morning, at which time she wakes up and won't go back to sleep without Mommy by her side. I'm sure as we work on it we'll get her to sleep longer and longer. I do get frustrated though in the middle of the night when she finally decides that she's not having any more of Daddy putting her down. The screaming and flailing (painful thrashing- she's a big strong girl now) wear me down quickly (and she probably knows this). We'll keep trying though.

Petra's had a cold the last few days. Snot production is at maximum, making it hard for her to breathe at night (and contributing to shorter times in the crib). She absolutely HATES the snot sucker, and screams hyterically when it is used on her (and who can blame her- try vacuuming out your own nostrils), but there isn't any way she can sleep with her nose clogged so badly. So, I just do it when she's already hysterical for Mommy, so the screaming is no worse one way or another, and Daddy is already the bad guy. Sigh.

Moving Out

And it is definitely Petra doing the moving! A scorching hot weekend left us heading to the mall in search of air conditioning. We ended up at Westside Pavillion (not our favorite (?!) mall) because they have a play area near the food court. Large plastic foam food and 1 million running jumping screaming little kids. Petra absolutely loved it! She crawled right out into the middle of the scrum, sat down and started clapping her hands. She instantly had dozens of little friends. Every now and then she'd look to the sidelines to make sure Mommy or Daddy were still around, smile, and then go shuffling off in search of more action. The picture shows her coming through the tunnel, which she discovered and explored on her own (second time through it she crawled right over another kid who wasn't moving fast enough). She just had a grand time, and was adored by everyone (even other kids' grandparents- while the kids were right there!). We eventually had to leave because Petra was threatened- some other mom said "Watch out or I'm going to pick her up and squeeze her to death." She meant it in a good way, I'm sure.

Petra wasn't feeling well yesterday- she had a bit of a fever when we picked her up for her 9 month doctor's appointment (she's 3/4-years old already!), and was pretty cranky all night. But by morning she was pretty much back to normal. Such a good strong baby.

And, did I mention big? She was well quantified at Kaiser, weighing in at 22lbs 12oz, and 28 inches long. That puts her in the 95th Percintile for both height and weight (Though her BMI is coming down now as she grows up tall). We have such a big strong baby!

2, 4, 6, 8, This is how we masticate!

And then there were six! Petra popped in two more upper incisors on Monday, just after Grandma left. Her smile is growing every day! The teeth are coming in handy for all the eating she is doing- everything we send to daycare gets eaten, no leftovers! She was chomping tortellini like they were going out of style! Of course, pairing this love for all things chewable with her love for sticking out her tongue (see previous post) makes for quite the train wreck! We can't stop giggling when she does it though, which just encourages her to do more.

This chomping may be dangerous for others- Vanna, our ancient cat that is still oblivous to Petra, was scrounging for food under the same table as Petra, and Petra grabbed her tail and gave it a good squeeze. Next up- biting!

The picture here has nothing to do with biting, but it is damn cute!

Moving on

Grandma Kate came to visit for the weekend, so Petra was pretty busy. Saturday morning our little lab rat was a research subject for a study at the USC Language Development Lab. She watched blinking lights and listened to sounds while the grad student recorded where her attention went. She was a good little lab rat! We then popped out to Peet's in Pasadena (long way to go for coffee, but Daddy needed to pick up a new router to replace the one that was stolen). While Grandma had a latte, Petra crawled around chasing pigeons and getting VERY dirty. She was also adored by loving crowds, of course! After the afternoon nap we went to Santa Monica for a walk along the beach and some pictures with grandma.

Sunday Grandma baby sat for an hour while we ran some errands, and Petra climbed onto her lap and took a nap for more than half an hour. After lunch (and Italy's defeat of France in the World Cup), we went to the Hammer Museum at UCLA to see a great exhibition on the Societe Anonyme. It seems like just yesterday that Petra was just starting to crawl (it was really June 2nd), and already she has just taken off. She is crawling everywhere, and not particularly worried if Daddy and Mommy are left behind when she does it. At the Hammer, Petra just took off crawling. She explored the bookstore, she met new friends, she chased down women who were cooing at her from across the plaza. We couldn't get her to hold still!
Petra also decided that she is just about ready to walk. She squats and stands (and claps her hands). She cruises from one support to another, even if she can't really hang on to both at the same time. She'll reach out to her next support and take a step to get to it without touching anything. Now that she is more comfortable with her crawling and standing, she is very content to play on her own for quite a while without demanding our attention (though she always has it!). It's fun to watch her cruise around and play, smiling, giggling, and clapping her hands as she discovers new things (about the world and about herself). I love this baby!

Stairway to Heaven

Or at least up to the couch. Petra is getting more mobile by the moment, and she has decided that two dimensions (crawling on the floor) are not enough- she wants 3-D! She's already tried pull-ups on the edge of the table, and now she has discovered that if the stool is next to the bench, and the bench is next to the couch, they work as a perfect set of stairs that can be easily climbed! Up she goes! We are SOOOO in trouble now! We can't keep the floor childproof, how are we going to manage everything that she could possibly climb up to? And she isn't even walking yet!

Uppers!

Photographic evidence of Petra's new teeth! She actually has a VERY cute toothy little grin now (at least when viewed from the right angle- preferably upside down!). The 4 day weekend at home with her has been wonderful, which makes it that much harder to go to work tomorrow. Of course, the good news is that she has been waking us up about 6am every morning, so the alarm going off won't be a surprise.