The almost crawler

Roxanne is still not crawling yet. I think she's getting closer though. She has started pushing herself backwards while on her tummy, but still not forwards. She is also capable of laying on her tummy and changing her orientation like the hand on a clock. Her favorite trick is to bounce and bounce on her bottom until she is flopped forward onto her belly. The good thing is that she likes to stay on her tummy now. She plays on her belly often now. She loves playing with the other babies at work. I sort of think of her as my co-worker now. She's adjusting really well and is on a great nap schedule.

Sunday we had our family birthday party for my mom. It was held at my aunt and uncle's country club in Gainesville and then over to their new house afterwards. Roxanne had a great time with her cousins. They really are taking an interest in her now. It's pretty cute watching them all interact. At one point, Roxanne flopped forward onto her tummy and then Chloe laid down with her in the same pose. Then the other three little girls scampered over and all laid next to each other. Of course, our camera battery was dead, so we didn't get it, but my sister took photos. So I'll mooch some and put them on our Flickr page.

Where to start...

I've waited a whole week to post again, and now I'm not sure exactly what to share. Lots of new things have happened. Roxanne is basically the most awesome baby ever. I'm a little biased, but still. She's been getting more and more fun for me and Justin. This weekend was more or less perfect. We went to the zoo on Saturday morning (it was free for Atlanta residents!) and we really had lots of fun. Of course, Roxanne was so focused on the kids and families at the zoo that she was sort of ignoring the animals. But we got to see a close up show with one of the elephants (Kelly) and her trainers and Roxanne watched Kelly pretty closely for about thirty percent of the time. The rest of the time she watched the kids around her. In the petting zoo, Roxanne and I found a friendly goat that let her pet him for a while. His name was Willow. He even gave her some goat kisses before walking off to find the hay. Justin got a little video of it, so I'll post it when I find a few billion hours to let it load on Flickr. After the zoo, we went to Ria's Bluebird in Grant Park for lunch, and it was really wonderful. It's a neat restaurant with a cool patio (covered) and they offer a side item of sliced avocado. So Roxanne was able to eat with us! She loves avocado.

This morning I gave Roxanne Teddy Puffs and banana pieces for breakfast. She loves that breakfast. The only problem is that she tends to be a greedy gus and tries to shove as many Teddy Puffs in her mouth as possible. It makes me nervous. The other night she stuck one in her nose. Justin and I thought it was the funniest thing ever but were unfortunately not able to get the camera in time. Too bad, since it was absolutely hysterical. That leads me to Roxanne's newest habit. Picking her nose. She does it constantly. She's even somehow learned to stick her finger in her nose and then her mouth. I don't understand how or why, but I swear I didn't teach her. And I'm fairly sure Justin didn't either. I haven't seen it yet, but Justin swears that she also has figured out how to put her big toe in her mouth and her second toe up her nose. She might be part monkey.

We went to my sister's today for a tea party/baby shower for my Aunt Ellen. It was really fun, and Roxanne got to see all of her cousins. They are fun to watch. She loves watching them play big girl games, and eventually, they all took an interest in Roxanne and set on her at once. I think it freaked her out just a bit, but she still liked it. She's kind of a ham. It was really a good time. Seeing everyone is always good, and then celebrating the arrival of a baby boy is extra fun! My Grandma and Aunt and Mom were totaling the number of years it's been in our family since a boy was born. By the time Ellen's boy is born, it will have been 101 years! My great-grandmother had a brother born in 1907, but that's it since then. I don't even know what we'll do with a boy. Picking out boy stuff was fun. Of course, as I type, Roxanne is snoozing in blue jammies. I couldn't help myself. Target had blue jammies with drum sets, flying v guitars, and music notes. How perfect is that?

Ok, sorry

I had vowed to try and keep up with my blog better, since I am trying to keep in mind that someday Roxanne might be interested in reading this, and the more the better... So there. But I'm going through this big adjustment, and it's been really kind of tiring! But things are great. I really am enjoying my new job. I've only had two days on my own, but things have been fine. There were one or two moments where all three babies were screaming, and I kind of thought "hmm, that's pretty serious," but it just doesn't go on for very long, and that kind of stress does not compare to the stress of billing time, answering phone calls, dealing with COPIOUS emails, etc. etc. etc. I guess for now, babies make great bosses. I hope to do this for at least a few years, since it's just a great situation. Roxanne and I are both having a lot of fun. OK, she really wants to type, so I'm going to humor her:
/l b m rtdrcdrivvb b xd bbbbbbbbm707

Alright. So Roxanne is really starting to seem more interested in crawling. Yesterday she started scooting backwards a little bit, but it wasn't really crawling. I've discovered that she hates laying on her tummy, but if she falls forward from a sitting position onto her tummy, she seems kind of proud. She loves watching the other babies, and she bounces up and down and waves her arm when they crawl around her. I can just hear her saying "wait for me guys!" I'm scared that both babies will start walking around the same time as Roxanne starts crawling. That will be a sight to see...

We went to brunch at Agnes and Muriel's in Midtown yesterday, and they brought Roxanne a special bowl of bananas. She loved it! She's eating some things diced up now, since Ben does, and it's just easy. So now she is eating diced avocados and diced peaches and bananas. Everything else is still baby food. Some days she seems more interested in milk and doesn't really want anything to do with solid food but other days she is a great little eater. I took a CPR class on Saturday, so I feel a lot more comfortable with letting her eat some table food. I'm still trying to avoid processed foods, and no dairy or anything, but I need to start some bread products I think. Justin got some nectarines and a zucchini for me to make her some baby food with, but I haven't had a chance to do it yet. Sometimes I really miss the days when I was her sole food source. It was kind of a lot easier... But as we get closer and closer to toddlerdom, I am just thankful that I have this chance to see her all the time. It's amazing.

First Day of Freedom

Today Roxanne and I have the day off. Tomorrow we start our new job!

Leaving my old job is a really big relief, but I will also miss all of my friends there. Some of us went out for dinner on Friday night, and then I actually went to a BAR (gasp) with some of them while Justin took Roxanne home. I had a strict curfew of 11:00, but I still had a good time. I had been hoping to leave work by 4:30 on Friday, but didn't end up making it out until almost 6:00, and I still didn't finish everything I needed to. Oh well. I gave it my best shot!

Saturday we went to a gallery called White Space with my grandparents who had read about the exhibit in the AJC. It was really cool. The gallery is basically in a converted barn behind a house in Inman Park. There were 3 artists with pieces there, and they were all unique. One artist did these super cool mixed media pieces that revolve around fifties style advertising of food products. The other was a photographer who photographs mostly "country" images, like silos and pie-eating contests. The third artist had quilts. They were old "trash quilts" that she has salvaged from yard sales, thrift stores, etc. and embroidered writing onto them. They were really not like anything I've seen before. After that, we went to Parrish in Inman Park for an early dinner. The food was good, and it was wonderful to be with my grandparents, but the layout is confusing and the staff was not very nice. Maybe it's better for people without kids... But we still had a good time once we finally figured out where to order our food from.

On Sunday we ran errands, and Roxanne did some fun new firsts. She ate her first jarred baby food, out of necessity. We were at Whole Foods and decided to head to Lenox afterwards, so I got some organic baby food to feed her in the car. She loved it! I also got her some Teddy Puffs, which are sort of an organic version of the Gerber Graduates puffy things. I was petrified to give them to her, since they are basically the same consistency as Cheerios, but she did really well! I gave her half of one and then tried to show her how to chew, and she actually mimicked me until she got it down with no problems. I only gave her two more because I was still paranoid, but we'll see... We weren't at Lenox very long, I just wanted to get a few basic casual things for my new job, since I only own one pair of jeans and then a pair of maternity cargo shorts... And I found the perfect stuff at Old Navy. I feel very prepared. At least as far as my clothes go...

We went to the park on Sunday afternoon, and Roxanne got to swing, seesaw, and sit on the slide. I tried to hold her as I stood next to her and let her slide down, but her fat little feet were planted so firmly that I couldn't get her to move. She did like the swing and the seesaw. Then we walked around, and I was clapping and singing to Roxanne, when she started clapping! She's been cultivating the skill since then, and now she actually makes a little sound when she does it. She seems to be very proud of herself.

In running errands today, I think I might see if I can find The No Cry Sleep Solution book at Borders. I've been hearing a lot of good things about it, and it has over 600 positive reviews on Amazon. It's supposed to be a gentler way to help your baby sleep on their own and for longer periods. Just in the last few days Roxanne has been refusing to sleep and I can tell that she's overtired. It's time to get serious about her sleeping patterns. I know she's teething, since she's been drooling up a storm, and that doesn't help anything, but still, I think this book looks good.

We hope everyone is doing great! We are very happy in our house, and I'm just so relieved to be with Roxanne now. Full time! We are going to go to Andrea's today to drop off a little gift and take some photos. I think it will tough to say goodbye, but I can't explain how happy I am about everything.

Whoa...

So it's obviously hard to decipher, but we're pretty sure that Roxanne JUST said her first real word. She was laying with me on the bed a minute ago, and Justin came up behind her and touched her back and said hello. She whipped her head back and did a full body roll towards him and literally yelled "Dada!" when she saw him. And like I said, I'm sure it could have been a coincidence, but it really seemed like she was calling Justin dada. It was really an exciting and special moment. Even if it was a coincidence.

We're trying a new nighttime routine to try and help Roxanne start sleeping in the crib, and the pattern we are trying involves nursing, then reading a book, then rocking her in the glider with a lullaby. I try to have Justin rock her, since when I rock her she just seems to want to eat. It works pretty well, and we are trying to give her one of her lovies to hold during this nighttime routine. I had picked out one that is a monkey (with a head and a blanket body) and we've been using that for about a week. However, tonight she peed on it. She pretty much pees once for every two times she gets a diaper change. So fortunately, we have some back-up lovies, (two) and I tried to let her pick between them. That means that she has had both of them for a while.

But as I type, she is asleep with Justin and is only holding one. Our new secret is to put her in her crib on her belly. She really stays asleep better that way, even though I know that ALL of the baby literature tries to tell you that it's the worst thing ever. Our babysitter swears by putting babies to sleep on their belly, as does my mom. For now, I put her in the crib on her belly and she stays asleep for about an hour and a half, and then we end up rocking some more and I put her back in the crib on her back. Then she wakes up again sometime around 1:00am and in my sleepy stupor, I end up keeping her in bed with me for the rest of the night. And as much as everyone tells me I should not let Roxanne rule the night, I am happy with the way things are, and I'm not worried about it. We'll get where we need to be eventually. And for now, at least Justin and I have a couple of hours every night to hang out and talk and watch TV, etc. with no baby around. And I still get my little baby snuggler for half of the night. Pretty soon she won't want anything to do with me, so I might as well take advantage of the cuddling while I can.

Duh

I forgot, Justin and I just had our second wedding anniversary! It was July 22. We did go out for dinner on a date and had lots of fun. Of course, we spent most of our time talking about Roxanne. But it was very fun. We went to P'Cheen in Inman Park and acted like grown-ups.

This weekend went by really fast. My mom watched Roxanne with some help from my sister Leah and her friend. Justin got the day to himself (although I know he missed Roxanne). We all went to dinner at Fickle Pickle in Historic Roswell. Roxanne was a little bit of a banshee. She's getting a little harder to take out to restaurants because she is such a mess. She throws everything off the table. It's amusing, but vaguely stressful. On Saturday we went to a party, and Roxanne got to hang out with Griffin again. They were really cute together. And today we went to our friend Ariel's condo in Sandy Springs/Roswell area and went swimming. Roxanne really enjoyed herself this time. She splashed and splashed and actually went most of the way in the water. I eased her into it pretty slowly, and I think that's why it clicked. She kept staring at the water with this crazy level of intensity and reaching one of her chubby little hands and trying to grab it. She was getting confused when the water splashed her face, and I think that freaked her out, but she didn't cry. It really wore her out, and she took a long nap on Justin in a lounge chair. We went to dinner at Greenwoods in Historic Roswell with Ariel and Luke, and it was delicious. I would highly recommend it. The building it's in is really neat, and the food was wonderful.

I got to do a lot of swimming at Ariel's pool, and it was nice, but now I'm sore again. I decided to try and start working out a little every day to help get more energy for keeping up with 3 babies, and Saturday morning was the first day going for a short jog/walk. Good grief I'm out of shape. My legs are hurting! But I'm going to try and stick to it. Too bad I hate working out... Maybe I can absorb some of Justin's determination and ability to go to the gym every day...ugh. Plus, I'm five pounds from my pre-baby weight, but I want to lose 30 more...double ugh.

Winding down...?

So let me think of what's new... I am really excited to be leaving my job, but these last couple of weeks are really stressful. Everyone keeps going out of town and my co-workers are all quitting. Some friends and I counted how many people have left since I started (almost two years ago) and we got to 60. Our entire group is around 100 people... In any case, I'm really relieved to be getting out. I've been researching about being a nanny, and trying to figure out taxes and other key details. I'm really excited. I'm hoping to get back together with the families this week or next to meet Maddie and her parents and go over some more details about the schedules and feeding habits, etc. etc. Roxanne seems to be getting off of her schedule since her daddy has been keeping her. She has him wrapped around her little finger. She seems to nap and eat whenever she feels like it. But I think overall, they are doing pretty well together. Justin's better able to feed her solid food than I am. We've started on sweet potatoes, which are the first things I've made with the new Cuisinart. With one large sweet potato, I was able to make two full trays of baby food. It was really fun and easy. Next week I want to make pears and apples. I also want to try avocado, which apparently Roxanne can have now. I really love the baby food cookbook we have. It's super easy and has lots of good information about what to feed and when. I'm still confused about when I can start doing things like Cheerios, so I think I will wait until her next doctor's appointment and I get clearance to give them to her. In the mean time, I've got a set of fruit and vegetables I can give. She's finally getting much better about eating solids. I"m looking forward to spending more time with her and keeping up on her development. I hope I'll get to see her first steps, and the first time she crawls, and she'll still get to be around other babies. I am hoping this will be the perfect situation. So far, it has clicked well. I will be making almost the same amount of money (my pay now minus child care costs) and I will be salaried, with paid vacation and sick days. But for this week, Roxanne and her Daddy are best friends.