We found Paela a bigger sandbox to play in Saturday -- in Santa Cruz. She loved the beach! Loved, loved, loved it.
She got a huge smile when we plopped her in the sand, sand started filling her bucket handful by handful. She tasted a little, but it wasn't worth tasting more than that. She tried to stand up and walk, which was very tricky but she managed. read more »
For a nice afternoon treat, we took Paela to a park just south of the airport and watched planes fly over our heads. They were loud and Paela initially climbed into Rebecca's arms when they roared by, but by the end of the trip, she was making the sign for airplane when Rebecca's arms were full of other stuff. Along with the sign for airplane, she's also been signing "all done" and "up" for quite some time.
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We made it to the temple on Wednesday -- the first time since before Paela was born. It was nice to be able to go and reflect and learn together. Paela had fun with her Aunt Angela and cousin Thomas, though apparently she is still a little unsure about her Uncle Karl. He must be making funny faces at her behind our backs or something.
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Paela has been sleeping through the night for some months now. Except when we keep her out late -- then she wakes up a couple of times with what we've come to call her "nightmare" cries. She doesn't actually want anything when she wakes up, except to be held. And she used to not even want that, so I count us lucky that holding her now helps calm her so she can go back to sleep.
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We started the week off with a fat lip. Not me, not Wayne, and not Star cat. Poor Paela did something (we still aren't sure what, though we have theories) to her mouth within five seconds of us both turning the other way.
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After last week, we decided to get together more for lunches this week. It was a nice treat and we have learned to enjoy how close Rebecca works to home [like that was hard to do...]. Including that we found a new park around the corner from both her work and our apartment, we can make a trip of visiting Rebecca and swinging on the swing.
Paela survived her first day of church without a nap. Lucky for us it was only 2 hours long and she crashed on the trip home, but she managed to be a playful little baby with no fussing -- naps at church are increasingly difficult to obtain. read more »
It's been a busy week at work. We're coming out of beta use this week for our product, so there was lots of to-dos on my agenda every day. You would think we wouldn't be adding/changing functionality heavily right before going into general use...but we are. It has kept me busy in the evenings when Wayne would head off to campus to try and make a little progress on his projects.
We took a much needed break twice during the week. The first was for National Cheesecake day on Wednesday. We made a chocolate cheesecake and enticed Karl and Angela and Thomas to come over during the lunch hour. We decided we should have planned time for naps, and that we should play hookey like that in the middle of the day every day. read more »
It was our anniversary on Saturday. Our fifth.
In the morning, we drove up to Berkeley so I coud talk strategy with a colleague for my thesis projects. Paela and Rebecca came along for moral support -- and to get out of the house, I suppose. On our way back, we stopped at the mall to look for a video game (which we didn't find) and get pedicures. Paela was well-natured throughout the pampering process and I was just scared, but for my first pedicure, it was fun. read more »
Paela had her 9-month checkup today. Yay for a visit without shots! She enjoyed meeting the doctor and not having to sleep all day long to recover.
We're pretty sure they measured her height wrong -- we saw the measuring thing angled and her head not flush with the top of the table. But they marked her at whopping 29.75 inches (97th percentile) -- that would be a huge growth from her usual 75th percentile. The weight and head circumference are steadily growing: 19 pounds (50th percentile) and 45 cm circumference (75th percentile). Solid foods are doing her just as good as milk alone, I guess. She does love her avocado!
I'm impressed we got it all (mostly) done. In the same week, I had my entire family visiting, our team at work released the project we've been working on since January to beta testers, and we moved to a neighboring town. Not a small amount of stress, and at least some fun.
Paela's early-to-bed mentality made family togetherness a trick to figure out. We left earlier several nights, but later than Paela would have liked, just to have Paela fall asleep in the car after we'd driven 3-4 blocks. We moved bath time to the morning since she wasn't home for any sort of routine for days. And several nights Wayne was kind enough to hang out alone with the sleeping baby and our kitty for company while I went to hang out with the rest of my family. read more »
