Elise's Morning Song

Every morning I sing Elise a wake up good morning song. I've been doing it for a while. I love how she almost always laughs or smiles when I sing it to her. She starts her day off with a happy attitude; she hardly ever wakes up crying.

To the tune of "Happy Birthday" I sing:

Good morning to you!
Good morning to you!
Good morning sweet baby,
Good morning to you!

One day Elise will be a teenager and I'll go in her room and sing her that song to wake her up for school and she'll tell me to shut up and roll over and put the pillow over her head. But for now, my Baby Baby enjoys our silly morning ritual and so do I.

Third Time's a Charm!

You'll never guess what Elise ate for dinner tonight. Green beans!

After her first two tastes (and rejections) of green beans, I thought it was practically a lost cause. I mean, she REALLY hated them. But I figured that it couldn't hurt to try again, so tonight I mixed in lots of rice cereal and milk and offered her some greenie beanies.

Chomp!

Ate 'em right up! Then I made her some more, mixed with yellow squash.

Chomp!

So, it just took a few tries. Yay for Baby Baby!

Also, she started eating oatmeal yesterday. I made Elise some baby oatmeal by taking whole grain rolled oats (not the quick cook or instant kind, but the regular old-fashioned oatmeal) and turned it to powder in my coffee grinder. That way, when I cooked it there were no big chunks. You just have to stir, stir, stir to avoid clumps while it's cooking.

Elise likes oatmeal! She's such a good eater.

Chomp

How do I know that Elise is still my Baby Beastie? Because when she bit my finger the other day and I yelled, "OUCH!!!" she laughed. Evil. (Of course, that's what I get for putting my finger in her mouth to feel her teeth.)

Tooth #2

Elise's second tooth is already making an appearance. Two teeth, just like that. Both are bottom front.

Everyone, please say a little prayer for my nipples. Thank you.

Our Second Foster Son

Our second foster son, "Bo," is Foster Son from earlier posts. He is the foster child that has been with us the longest. Aurelius was with us for one week, but Bo was with us for one year. Bo was a part of our family. He went to all of our events-- holidays, wedding receptions, baby showers. He was with us for my entire pregnancy and the first couple of months of Elise's life. We miss him.

Bo was often very difficult. He could be so good and sweet, or completely out of control. He yelled, hit, spit, kicked, threw things-- you name it. He was 3 years old, so even at his worst he was fairly easily contained. But it was a huge emotional stress on us when Bo was being bad.

His behavior improved dramatically while he was with us because we were strict, consistent, and gave him lots of postitve reinforcement. Husband and I learned so much from our experience with Bo. We refined our parenting techniques and learned how to work together.

Bo was a really funny kid, and what I remember most about him now that he's gone are some of the funny things that he's said. Like the time he insisted that I show him where we put the batteries in for the chair at the dinner table. He refused to believe that chairs don't use batteries.

Bo went back to live with his mother at the end of the year with us. She got her life straightened out and was able to get him back. That's the best thing that can happen for a foster kid. I hope that Bo's mom's life stays on the right path. I hope that he gets to grow up with the stability and positive influences that he deserves. That all kids deserve.

The Swarm

Today when we were out Elise got swarmed by three little girls. They looked 7, 8, and 9-ish. The girls wanted to "pet" the baby. And they did. They pet her hair and her arms and they lifted up her dress and looked at her belly.

Little girls are weird. Was I weird like that? Probably not. I was around littler kids often enough that I don't remember being fascinated by them. In fact, I probably had the opposite reaction. More of a "hide before someone makes me change its diaper or look after it" sort of reaction.

One thing that I hear a lot from little girls is, "I like your baby!" It's equal parts cute and strange. I think what they usually mean is more along the lines of "I like that there is a baby right here for me to look at" and has not so much to do with Elise as an individual. I like your baby. Do they look at other babies and think, "I don't like that one"?

Today, Elise was asleep in her stroller and a little boy coming the other direction said, "That baby's not real." His mom assured him that Elise is a real baby. But she DOES look like a little doll when she's sleeping. I can see where the confusion came from.

Elise Is Riding the Chew-Chew Train to Toofie-town!

Baby's first tooth!

I thought teething would be worse. Maybe it gets worse. Maybe her other teeth will be more painful. But this first one didn't seem like much of a big deal at all. The past few nights Elise has been waking up around 11pm, fussing a bit, and then after I feed her, going back to sleep for the night. I broke my "no feedings between 9pm and 5am" policy because I could tell that something was really bothering her. I thought that maybe she was going through a growth spurt or maybe she had a mild sickness. Nope! She was teething!

So today after Elise's afternoon nap, I felt along her gums on a whim and discovered the hard little bump of an erupted tooth. Bottom right front.

God, she's growing up so fast.

I love her so much.

Oh, also today, Elise had her first serving of yellow squash. She liked it well enough and ate it all. Yellow squash is pretty watery after it's been frozen, so I had to thicken it up with some rice cereal. She's such a good eater!

Now that she's having two meals a day, she's starting to breastfeed a little less. My boobies feel fuller now, as they are trying to adjust to less demand. It's slightly uncomfortable sometimes. Not so bad as the engorged feeling that I had when my milk was first coming in, but I can tell that my body is changing yet again to accomodate my baby's needs.

I just hope she doesn't start biting my boobies.

The Tale of Elisey Baby

Today I read Elise "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter. While I think the message (listen to your mother) was lost her, she did love the pictures.

Elise has 30-some books. That sounds like a good amount until you realize that it takes about 5 minutes to read most of them. "The Rainbow Fish" starts to lose its charm at the 500th reading.

I've been reading magazine articles and websites to her. Trying to expose her to new words. I think that's a better plan than those Baby Einstein videos.

Baby's First Breakfast

Elise had her first breakfast this morning. She's a really good eater, so Husband and I decided we'd start giving her two meals a day.

I made her some rice cereal with breastmilk. Cereal seems like an appropriate breakfast food, right? She gobbled it up. She didn't eat as much as she does at dinnertime, but I kind of expected that would be the case.

My freezer is filling up with baby food. It's definitely time to start giving her more meals, otherwise I'll run out of space for my mommy food.

Post-Pregnant Body and Elise's Favorite Baby Food

One pound to go until I'm back to my pre-pregnant weight! Woo hoo! Six and a half months after delivery and only one pound to go. I'm sure it would have come off a lot quicker if I exercised more regularly... but I'm happy that the weight came off either way.

Husband and I have committed to regular walks around the neighborhood as of late. It's nice how the neighbors coo over Elise.

I still have a bit of a dark line above my belly button. I don't think that's going away. And my umbilical hernia still isn't healed.

But did I mention ONE pound!? And that's probably all breastmilk. That's what I'm telling myself, anyhow.

Oh, and also, Elise has a new favorite baby food. Apples and bananas mixed together. She gobbled it. Super loved it.

Do you know that song "I love to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas..."? That was Elise's dinner song tonight.

Today I made Elise some butternut squash baby food. I cut a squash in half lenghtwise, scooped out the seeds, put it in a baking pan with a couple of inches of water in the bottom and with the cut part facing down, and baked it at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. Then I scooped out the "meat" and pureed it. It smelled good. I hope she likes it when it's time to give it to her.

I don't think anything will compare to those apples and bananas, though.

Baby's First Applesauce

Elise ate her first applesauce today. Yum yum yum. She made a face at first, but then she ate it right up. Who doesn't like applesauce?

I like my applesauce cold. I remember the first time it was served to me warm. I was elementary school aged and we were at a restaurant-- I think it was some kind of steakhouse type of place. I ordered applesauce and it was brought heated up and it BLEW MY MIND. Why would anyone want to heat it, I'd wondered. I thought it was gross. I didn't eat it.

I heated Elise's applesauce tonight. Does that make me some sort of hypocrite? Probably. I'll make up for it when you're bigger, Elisey-poo, by sprinkling lots of cinnamon in and serving it ice-cold. Yum yum yum.

You Must Think I Was Born Yesterday

Elise was not so easily fooled by stirring some sweet potato in with her green beans. Even when there was a LOT more sweet potato than green bean, Elise acted like we'd just tried to feed her a spoonful of dog poo.

Oh well. We'll try again later.

Future Husband, Green Beans, Crawling

Today was a big day for Baby Baby. Not only did she spend the day playing with her future husband, but she ate green beans for the first time and she crawled for the first time ever.

Green beans were a big thumbs down. She literally gagged. I read that you have to introduce foods 4 or 5 times before kids will like some flavors, so we'll try again soon. Maybe we'll give her green beans and sweet potatoes mixed together tomorrow. For tonight we just let her have some nanacado instead.

I think Elise was showing off for her Baby Husband when she started crawling today. She only gave one little shuffle at a time, but she did it twice so it wasn't just a fluke. So exciting!

Love At First Sight

Elise met her future husband in person for the first time today. I think it went well. They even held hands. :)

Spill Contained

I managed to avoid a BP spill today! I had to change several diapers in a fairly short period of time, but no baby poo escaped. Yay!

The second I noticed Elise pausing during playtime, I thought, "Here it comes!" Then she got this look on her face like she was trying to solve a really hard math problem, so I snatched her up and she farted the whole way to the changing table.

When I opened her diaper it looked like someone had spooned mashed sweet potatoes down her pants. Seriously. It looked the exact same as it did going in. Did her body even process it? It was like she was one of those baby dolls that you feed water and two seconds later the water leaks into the diaper. Straight through. Except that the last time she'd eaten solid food was, like, 18 hours before that-- so I guess her body did SOMETHING with all of that food.

I changed her diaper, dressed her, then repeated a few minutes afterward. Several algebraic equations later Elise was done and I didn't even have to rinse out any onesies or wipe poo off of anyone's elbows today.

The Latest

Elise is averaging one BP spill per day. I hope this ends soon. Today it not only exploded out the top of her diaper, it ran down her leg and puddled on the floor. Nasty.

Tonight while Elise was eating dinner she said "da da da da da da..." Very exciting. Husband heard her, too.

What else? My sister's baby is flopping all around in her tummy. My brother-in-law even felt the baby kick today. I think she's about 18 weeks along now. Both of us felt our babies moving around kind of early. A small trade off for all of that horrible morning sickness.

Mommy's Little Sweet Potato

Elise had sweet potato for the first time tonight. She liked it! She even blew sweet potato spit all over Daddy, she was so happy and having so much fun.

I made a lot of sweet potato baby food because I figured Elise would like it. I think that most babies like sweet potato.

I took 5 sweet potatoes, washed them, poked them with a fork, wrapped them in tin foil, and baked them at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes. When they were done, I took off the skins and pureed them. I froze most of the puree, but for the bit Elise had tonight, I thinned it with breast milk.

Now, there's something very strange that happens with kids' faces and certain light colored foods. I've observed this with the foster kids, too. After a meal, all little kids need to be wiped down, hands and face. With foods like spaghetti sauce, you can see perfectly where the mess is. Foods like sweet potato, you wipe and wipe and under artificial lighting it looks like you got it all. Then you take the kid outside into the sunlight and BAM! Suddenly you can see little smears of food still rimming the nostrils, wiped through the eyebrows, dabbed on the earlobes. When this happens I get all self-conscious and think that I look like a horrible mother. My baby looks messy and not properly cared for. If it's just a little bit of food I do the whole lick my finger and rub spit on the kid's face bit. But if it's a lot of food, I stop short of cleaning the kid's face like a momma cat and just get to baby wipes or a sink as quickly as possible, feeling slightly mortified the whole way there.


Obviously, this happened tonight. We went out after dinner and as I was taking her out of the car I was like, "Oh my god. Elise's nostrils are orange." So, lesson learned, sweet potato mess can sneak up on you.

Come On Baby, Do the Locomotion

Elise is SO close to crawling. She can get up on her hands and knees. She can move her arms forward. She can move her legs forward. She just hasn't figured out yet how to do it all together.

She'll get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth, back and forth. Sometimes she'll roll over onto a stuffed animal and when she gets up on her hands and knees the animal is underneath of her. Then she starts rocking and it looks like she's some little dog, humping its own toy. It's pretty funny.

It's amazing how much babies change in just 6 months. From helpless blob to shameless toy humper. Crazy.

Kiss-iversary

Husband and I celebrated 8 years of togetherness tonight. 8 years!

We went (with Elise, of course) to the Melting Pot restaurant. In all my 31 years, despite the many high school proms, graduations, nice dates, etc that I experienced, I'd never been to a Melting Pot. It was really nice. Husband even had flowers put on the table for when we arrived.

Quote of the evening: "Bring me your funniest prostitute!" I refuse to give any context. Just know that it was said.

Spoke Too Soon

We had another BP (baby poo) spill this morning. I guess the rice cereal only delayed the inevitable.

Well, her little digestive system will figure it out eventually. I had no idea how much solid food would impact my sweet Beastie. :(

Rice Cereal

Baby Baby had her first rice cereal tonight. She LOVED it. I even had to make extra because she was still hungry after her first serving.

Bananas are probably her least favorite of the foods she's tried so far. She hasn't rejected anything, but it takes her longest to eat the bananas. Baby Baby is much more enthusiastic about avocado and rice cereal.

I want to give her tummy a little break from the bananas, anyhow. Tomorrow she'll try avocado and rice cereal together. I think that those massive butt explosions WERE from the bananas. No butt explosion tonight.

She pooped in the potty tonight and they were like tiny little people poops. Not runny like baby poops. That rice cereal sure firmed things up. Weird.

Two For Two

Second massive butt explosion in two days. Poo everywhere. I'm glad that we're doing rice cereal tomorrow, because that's supposed to slow things down a bit. If not, we'll have to call up BP and ask them exactly how that whole "top kill" thing was meant to work. We've got a major leak in the poop chute and no formal contingency plan for such an event.

Banana Farts

Bananas are making Elise fart.

I read that as babies are eating new foods, it can take their digestive systems a little while to get all of the good bacteria and whatnot built up. They can be "sensitive" to some foods for a while, as everything is developing. Bananas have a lot of carbohydrates, which can lead to a lot of farts.

I fed Elise nanacado again tonight, but I made it with more 'cado than 'nana so that her tummy could have a little bit of a break but still be exposed to the banana. She had one major shit-up-the-back poo after dinner but other than that, her tummy seems to be dealing with the banana better tonight than last night.

Part of me feels almost bad, giving her food and messing everything up in her tummy. Can't she just drink breast milk until she's, like, three years old and can have a semi-rational conversation and understand that I'm not trying to screw up her day or make her feel sick?

She loves eating, though. Gobbles it right down. She's probably actually unphased by all of the extra pooping and extra farting. I'm probably over-analysing it. Here's me: "Oh my god! Poor baby! Non-stop farting! And how is it even possible that she had that much poop IN her?! She must feel awful! This is terrible! TERRIBLE!" And here is what Elise is probably thinking: "Aaahhhhhhhhh! That felt good!"

Banana Baby Food

Elise had bananas for the first time yesterday. I mashed some banana up with breast milk. She didn't take to it quite as quickly as the avocado. Kind of made a face at first. But then she ate just fine. I think that the bananas had a stronger, sweeter smell and taste than the avocado so maybe that's why she reacted differently.

Tonight she had avocado-banana-milk mush. She seemed to like it well enough. Ate a lot. So now she has 3 meal options: banana, avocado, or nanacado. Every new food we add will open up exponentially more options for her. How exciting! Math AND food!

Husband likes that she's eating solid food now because that means that he can help feed her. Thus far, I've been her only food supply and we haven't had any need to use bottles, so she just drinks from the spigot, so to speak. But with the solids, Husband sits and feeds her while I get grown up dinner together. It's nice. He gets baby bonding time and I get to be responsible for no one but myself for a little bit. Everyone wins.

6 Month Check-up

Elise had her 6 month check-up today. 4 shots in her thighs and 1 dose of yucky tasting vaccine in her mouth. Poor baby. It just kills me the way she cries so hard that she turns red and shakes when they give her the shots.

She did better this time than she did for her 2 month and 4 month shots, though. She didn't need any baby Tylenol. She woke up from her post-doctor's office nap pretty fussy, but she nursed and then she was okay. Big girl!

Today she was 15 lbs 9 oz (45th percentile) and 25 1/2 inches long (45th percentile).

6 Months Old!

As your Daddy said today, "Happy half birthday Elise!!!"

I can't believe how much she's changed in six months. My little Beastie. My Baby Baby. She's still absolutely perfect.

It sounds so trite, but it really is true that you have no idea how much you're capable of loving someone until you have kids. It's different than any other kind of love and it's a million times deeper.

I love being Elise's mommy.

If I ever got a neck tattoo, it would be of "Elise" witten over and over again in the shape of a heart and there would be a drawing of a little cartoon monster baby beastie inside the heart with a goofy tongue-hanging-out smile like Elise does. THAT is how much I love Elise. Hardcore neck tattoo love. Grrrrr.

Baby Baby Update

Elise is a wonderful eater. Loves loves loves avacado. Tomorrow she'll try banana. I read that bananas constipate some babies, so I'll have to be on my guard. The avocado makes her extra poopy, so maybe if I mix avocado and banana they'll cancel each other out. Yep. I'm sure that's the way it will work out in real life.

I didn't mention it before, but Elise's trip to the dairy farm was her first time out of state. Elise has been in TWO states now. I know that she's too young to remember this trip, but I really hope to be able to take her lots of different places as she grows older. I love to travel and I hope she will, too. Also, I still owe her a trip to Disney, which I promised her in an earlier blog post if she would come out of my vagina. She kept her end of the bargain so I will keep mine.

What else? Oh! She's learned how to wah-wah. That's what I call it. She goes "aaaaaaahhhhhh," makes her hands into little fists, and then punches herself in the mouth so that the sound becomes "waaaah waaaah waaaah." Previously, I would flutter my hand over her mouth, but now she can do it on her own.

Elise is so awesome. I can't believe that she'll be 6 months old tomorrow!

Our First Foster Child

We had our first foster care placement during May 2009, before I got pregnant. It was a respite care placement-- the little boy was only with us for 1 week while his regular foster mom went out of town.

I can't use the foster kids' real names, so I'll make up names for them. I'll name them like hurricanes, each one getting the next letter of the alphabet. And I'll pick names that I like but will never get to use on my own children, for whatever reason.

So the first little dude I will call Aurelius. He was beautiful. And cute as a button. Aurelius was 11 months old when he came to stay with us. Great baby-- slept through the night, good eater, happy. He was a really good first foster care placement for us. We knew exactly how long he would be with us, and it was a short time, so we didn't get too attached but we still had to learn to say goodbye.

Aurelius went to day care and the first day we went to pick him up, I was given a slip that said his snot was green that day and he couldn't come back to school for two days. Might give the other kids an infection or whatever. Damn it! First day of being a foster parent and I have to call out of work the next day! Fortunately, that was on a Thurday so I only had to miss Friday and not a second day of work, too.

During the week that he was with us, Aurelius decided to let go of furniture and start walking. That was cool. I think that the cats inspired him to want to move around faster.

We still think about the little guy. We bumped into him and his foster mom a few times at different foster parent meetings and functions. Last we heard, a cousin was going to adopt him. We heard that at Christmas-time and the last time we saw his foster mom, a few months ago, Aurelius wasn't with her. So I hope the adoption worked out for him.

Aurelius was our first chance to parent together. It was fun. Husband and I make a good team.

Avocado Poops

Elise had her first post-solid-food poop this morning. It was in the toilet (yay for EC!), so I didn't get to see it up close. It DID seem a bit more solid than normal, though. Husband changed her first poopy diaper today and he said that he could smell avocado. Avocado poops!

She had more avocado for dinner tonight. Still loving it. She ate a little bit more than yesterday.

Then after dinner Elise had a major poo that leaked out her diaper and all over Husband's pants. I heard him yelling in the living room while I was in the kitchen cooking-- curry, nonetheless. Curry and baby poo can look a LOT alike, given the proper context. Incidents like this lead me to believe that perhaps Elise has a highly developed sense of potty humor.

Solids!

Elise ate her first solid food today!

Husband, Elise, and I met up with some family and went to a botanical garden and then had lunch. We decided to celebrate Elise's 6 month birthday a few days early so that more people could join in. I mixed breast milk with mashed up avocado and Elise ate like a champ. She sucked it right off the spoon and went back for more. And more. And more.

She ate more than I thought she would. She did such a good job! She seemed to like the avocado and I think that mixing it with milk helped the taste seem familiar to her.

Soooo, she'll have avocado with dinner for the next three nights, then we'll try banana. And then I can make banana-avocado-milk mush! This is so exciting!

She hasn't pooed since she ate. Will it be different? Green like the avocado? I don't know! I'll report back...

Spoons, Goats, Tattoos

I've been letting Elise hold and bite on baby spoons, to get her used to them before her first solid-food feeding. She loooooooves them.

So then I got the bright idea of putting some breast milk on a spoon, to see what she does. She drank it off the spoon, but then held the milk at the front of her mouth and looked at me like, "Now what?!" She swallowed it eventually. Silly girl.

Solids should be interesting.

Oh! Also, I milked a goat today. Husband, Elise, and I went to a dairy farm and I got to milk a goat. Different than hand expressing breast milk, in case you were wondering.

The highlight of the dairy farm trip, though, was seeing this hipster, who was there with his wife and child, turn and reveal his hammer and sickle NECK TATTOO. That is some serious devotion to the good ol' USSR. Good god. I thought I was there to see the animals... turns out that the people were just as interesting to look at.

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Another almost-match for adoption. This time Husband vetoed it. I'm sad. So close. So close.

Baked Potato Baby Food

Another attempt at mommy-made baby food. We had baked potatoes for dinner tonight, so I threw an extra tater in the oven and saved it for Elise.

Not sure how well this will turn out. I took the skin (my favorite part!) off of Elise's potato and put it in the blender with some freshly expressed breast milk. I read that you can't refreeze breast milk ever for any reason, so I couldn't use any of the milk I already had in the freezer to make the potatoes since I would be freezing the pureed potatoes for later. Anyway, the texture of the pureed baked potato was weird-- kind if thick-- so when I thaw it, I think that I'll have to mix it with a lot more milk. Or some water. But I'll probably use milk since white potatoes are already kind of lacking in the vitamins and nutrients department.

Husband didn't understand at first why I would even WANT to make Elise white potato baby food. White potatoes just aren't as good for you as lots of other vegetables. But 1) I want Elise to be exposed to all kinds of healthy food and 2) I was already making us potatoes, so I might as well make her some, too.

I left the butter, sour cream, and fake bacon strips out, though. Sorry, Elise.

Yellow Squash Baby Food

Made some yellow squash baby food tonight. I consider this the least successful of my baby food ventures so far.

I took two yellow squash and peeled them, sliced them, steamed them, and put them through my baby food hand grinder. I peeled them because I read that the peel is hardest for babies to digest and that they might have trouble with it until they are about 8 months old. I'm sure that the peel must be where most of the vitamins and nutrients are... I'll leave the peel on next yellow squash baby food batch.

Two yellow squash doesn't make very much baby food, FYI. That is another failing of my work tonight. I'll use at least 4 squash to make a batch of baby food in the future.

I'm trying to learn to enjoy the process of the things that I do and not just the end result. I think I'll be happier if I can learn to enjoy the process, too. So, with that in mind, it's OKAY that the squash didn't turn out quite as I expected. I LEARNED from the experience and everything will be even BETTER next time. (Blah blah blah bullshit bullshit... I hate it when things aren't perfect the first time through and I am often discouraged from doing it again if the result is too different from my expectations... BUT! sometimes you have to trick yourself into a better way of thinking. And I will keep lying to myself about how much I enjoy the process of making baby food for as long as necessary... or until Elise is on to finger foods.)

So, we've got applesauce, green beans, yellow squash, avocado and banana can be mashed up on the spot, and the rice cereal we have is instant. I want to make carrots, too, but I read that they don't freeze well, so I'll have to make those within a few days of feeding them to Elise. That should be about a month's worth of variety.

Next, Elise gets to EAT all of my great food!