Category: baby

Ella Shrieks

Ella has started stretching her vocal cords, and I’m afraid we may be ending the era of N-crying. N-crying is the muffled almost cute crying she does now, as named by my parents. This new sound is cute at first, but when she started doing it at 1:30am, you really jump in to action. No more changing diapers in a near-sleep state.

Nice Timeline…

But it’s a little unrealistic. I was just looking back at the list of things I’d hoped to get done last week while home with Ella. I only crossed about half of them, but blame most of that on the car breaking down on Monday. Sadly, I crossed off most of the easy tasks. Dang.

Stretch

We just switched Ella’s sleepers (jammies) from the 3 month size to the 6 month size. This morning we realized she’s already as long as her 6 month size too. The sleeper is (well, was) an eerie whiter-than-white terry-cloth number. For some reason I’m more comfortable putting my own child in something that has been worn already and proven it won’t, I dunno, bleach the skin.

Flurry

If one were to look at the periodicity of posts lately, they’d probably notice long stretches with nothing, a flurry of posts, then nothing again. I feel like I should apologize, but that’s just the midwest in me.

Mom’s back to work now too, so Ella is spending her days (long ones, at that) with my parents. This is wonderful, and I love them and can’t imagine anyone better for my daughter. It’s also saddening because it’s time that we’re not spending with her, and going back to work has been the hardest part so far. (I didn’t have to carry her for 10 months)

I took the day off and wanted to go to a Mommy Matinee with Ella, but got overwhelmed with a case of the too muches. Instead of seeing Jackass 2, we hung out on the couch, made noises, fended of pets, and read statistics. Ella’s swing seat was starting to get a little sluggish, so after 3 hours of reading, we walked over to get some batteries and grabbed a glass of Brother Thelonius during the break in the rain. Ella is getting big enough that she hung her head out of the sling the entire walk and seemed to really enjoy the crimson leaves, the chaos of the grocery store, and the shadows at Concordia Ale House. I paid up front so when she started pooping, we were able to beat a hasty, if stinky retreat.

Sorry pumpkin, daddy forgot the lyrics

I’m finding that I’ve forgotten 95% of all the song lyrics I ever knew. I’ve discovered this because I get 4-5 words into a chorus singing to Ella when I have to pause, then start making up lyrics, usually involving Ella, poo, diapers, and daddy’s crappy memory. Michelle’s never too far away and will offer a word or two after watching me toil. She remembers lyrics.

I suspect my lyrical memory has been degraded because of my change in musical tastes. Michelle offered that maybe the beer made me forget, but I suspect its the absense of lyrics in most of my music. Here’s a simple diagram of music tastes. The saddest thing? The lyrics I remember best without cues from the song? Weird Al and Jungle Book.
Music Timeline

Stupid Baby Tricks

I suppose “stupid father tricks” would be more accurate, but I took this photo of Ella’s giant foot stepping on Cody, WY where I grew up. I picked up the extruded plastic topo map at the FOG map sale.
Ella Steps on Cody,WY

Garlic

There will be no more intentional over-use of garlic in our meals for the next 6-12 months. While the perfectly roasted cloves were great at the time, often two cloves per bite, they unleashed 3 layers of wrath. Two of the layers of wrath aren’t that important and would be obvious to most folks, but the third layer of wrath came in the form of a daughter who would not sleep. The funk made its way into her foodstream and upset her cute little tummy. It wasn’t until well in to the morning that things got back to equilibrium and she was able to sleep. Baby farts are cuter though.

7 weeks

Ella just turned 7 weeks old. She’s growing and changing so quickly. Having to leave her in the mornings is a raw deal because she’s so damn cute. I’m told that shortly after I leave she can get difficult though, and likes to spit up and poo on things. She’s holding her head up some, smiling some, and has some pretty wild vocalizations.

Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Hilly. She slept the whole time, which worked fine since it was raining, but I imagine future trips will be more exciting. I guess she is a little young for squash.