Day 1: Meeting her Swiss cousins for the second time

I think this time she might remember them: Megâne, Maël, and Gilles were quickly enamored of their baby cousin, keeping her constantly entertained. That's Maël underneath the flower, making her laugh.

Our World Traveler

Fredo had another meeting in Switzerland, so we decided to take Angelina to visit her Swiss Family. It was a short trip - only 8 days actually IN Switzerland, but well worth it. Of course, our trips are never simple. So our careful planning to find a one-stop trip from SAT-GVA (not an easy task) was blown out the window when our flight from SAT was delayed. So we got rerouted through Houston and Amsterdam. But they couldn't give us boarding passes for the AMS-GVA leg, so we had to stand in the looooong line at the transfer desk once we got to AMS to get boarding passes, making us nearly miss our flight. We made it,but instead of arriving at 7 am like we hoped, and have some time to rest before lunch, we arrived after 11am totally zonked out.
Fortunately, Angelina's a great traveler and quickly made friends with the other kids while waiting in Houston.

And she got far more sleep than Mommy and Papa, but I'm not complaining.

Our brilliant but lazy daughter

Ok, so "lazy" may not be the right word. Angelina is 9 months today and is not crawling. (btw - that means she's been outside of me as long as she was inside me!) Given her issues at birth, I'm always just a bit nervous about her developmental milestones. She wasn't rolling over until recently, then she just attacked it with a vengeance. She sits up fine,but started a little late (7 months).
She also seemed really skinny, not gaining a lot of weight. She eats solids, but until recently wasn't that interested, and otherwise she's breastfed (and takes minimal by bottle at daycare - she likes it from the tap, apparently).

We had her second appointment with the developmental pediatrician. This is a follow-up from the NICU. I was a little anxious, worried she was delayed in development and also that the nutritionist would push formula (she seemed incredulous last time that she was only nursing). His verdict? She's super smart, she just can't be bothered to crawl. She puts the rings on the stick, she stacks the blocks (or tries to) - things she shouldn't be doing for awhile. She watched him for a minute then did the same. But crawling? She just gets pissed off if we leave her there for too long. He suggested putting a pillow between her and the toy, making her crawl over it. What did she do? After getting annoyed, she shoved the pillow out of the way and scooted on her belly to the toy.

hey, that's my kid, she'll find a way to do it, but don't force her to do something she doesn't want to do!

As for the nutritionist, she wasn't too bad. Angelina's gained a lot of weight in the past couple of weeks, so she's doing fine.

We're trendy and old fashioned at the same time, Part II

Babywearing, it's the "newest" fad.

Everyone's doing it. Well, typically more affluent, educated families. It's all the rage these days. Here Fredo is showing off ring sling.


What cracks me up is these are what peasant women around the world have been using for centuries. I first saw them in Kenya: Kikuyu or Masai women using a large swath of cloth to carry their babies on their backs. In Thailand, all the Karen women used their sarongs. Having watched them, I was all prepared to use one of my many sarongs to carry my new baby. I wasn't going to be a fool and spent US$40 or more on a stupid piece of cloth. Hah! Once Angelina was born, and I learned that tying the bloody thing required an experienced person to teach me, I said to heck with it and bought The New Native Baby Carrier (it's that red thing you see in all my pictures holding Angelina) and never looked back. Best $40 I ever spent. I'm always having people come up to me to ask where I got "that really neat baby carrier." But please don't tell me I'm "wearing" my baby! She's not a fashion accessory. I'm just carrying her. Like centuries of women did before me.

I still have my wonderful sarongs. One day I'll learn to tie them properly. For now they work well as blankets.

One door closes, a better one opens

At least that is what Fredo always says. He's usually right.

Last month our daycare provider told us her husband, and thus the whole family, was getting shipped off to Hawaii. I was so worried. The first 10 daycares I called either had just filled their infant spot, didn't take infants or had recently closed. I asked anyone and everyone. It's hard to find an infant place because there are strict rules on how many a daycare can take, and if they take infants have to have fewer older kids. I did find two centers that had one spot, but after visiting both, realized I much preferred the in-home setting.

So we finally found someone, off base but near it, who had a space. Actually, she wasn't looking to fill it, but some of her older kids were heading off to pre-K soon and she was going to start looking then, but said she'd take us earlier. So we went to meet her and were thrilled! Great house, really well laid out for kids. She's very focused on child development (as opposed to just providing oversight), so works with the kids a lot. You can easily tell how much she enjoys kids. Angelina took to her right away. We did a trial run of one hour last week and while Angelina was a bit nervous at first, she was happy as can be when I returned an hour later.

So next week we start there full time. I have a good feeling about it. I hope Angelina is happy there! To top it off, the babysitter speaks Spanish, so we told her to go ahead and speak Spanish to Angelina. Now she'll be trilingual!

Breastfeeding is good for baby's health

Unfortunately that doesn't hold true for mommy!

Angelina has had a couple of minor colds, and one that was a little bit worse, but generally she's been super healthy. She seemed to come through RSV season, Rotavirus season, and the big outbreak of norovirus we had unscathed (give me some wood to knock on). Me, on the other hand..... I have had a cold with mild flu symptoms (aches, chills, occasional fever) every 2 weeks since, well since Angelina went to daycare. I finally went to see a doctor as I was concerned I had an ear infection -(ears were hurting like hell). No ear infection, which is good, except, what the heck is wrong with me? I thought maybe allergies, but with the aches, chills, and super swollen lymph nodes, seems more like an infection. Why can't I fight it off? I get better after one week, only to get slammed again the following week.

What makes it more fun is I'm still giving talks all over the city about how to prevent flu, as I hack away coughing and speak through a stuffy nose....and tell people they should stay home from work when they're sick. At least I can demonstrate how to cough 'properly' (use your arm to cover your mouth, not your hand!)

The doctor concurred with my assessment - breastfeeding has probably kept Angelina healthy, but she's taking all MY antibodies! Oh well, this will be one of the many mommy martyr moments I can use on her later when other guilt isn't working ;-) (just kidding! I promise not to guilt my kid....)

It’s the Smile That Keeps Me Out of Trouble

Angelina has a little outfit (now too small) that says this.Oh, how true it is. When she’s up all night because she thinks it’s party time, or when she gets all cranky and we’re about to lose our minds because we haven’t slept in days, she smiles. We melt. We’re sold.

What I want to know is, will that still work when she’s 15 and stays out too late with some boy?

Dr. Jekell and Little Miss Hyde

That is our "Angel"

Saturday I decided to paint the entryway beadboard that's chipping lead paint (see
The Money Pit for more on THAT). Of course I couldn't do it with Angelina in the house, so our good friends Ann and Garth agreed to babysit. Angelina does fine with the babysitter, but lately she's had some stranger anxiety.
Though she knows Ann
and Garth, we don't see them as often as we'd like, so I was concerned she might not remember them. She is also back to not eating a whole lot from the bottle. On top of that I was 2 hours later than expected (figures...).So I was a little concerned she'd be screaming and hungry.

Nope! Unless they're only pretending she was an Angel.... they said she was Perfect! She napped 2x, 2 hours each. She didn't eat much but was happy as can be, played, smiled, no fuss.

I nursed her when I got there, she was fine. We get her home, she's cranky. Once it's bed time, try to put her to sleep. nope! Finally she goes out, only to wake an hour later. AND EVERY HOUR AFTER until 6am (or 7am if you changed your clocks) when I finally got up out of bed with her to just start the day. She wasn't horrible, but she was clearly tired. So by 9am with her rubbing her eyes, I try the nap thing - figuring she did 2 hrs yesterday, she really NEEDS that now. So does mommy. Does she nap? Noooooo. She's as wired as can be. We give up. Finally at 2:30pm she decides to nap for all of one hour. Why won't this kid sleep????

I confess I'm partly to blame...I had a coffee Saturday morning. I was so tired (the lack of sleep has been a common theme), and I figured I wouldn't be nursing her all day anyway, the caffeine would go out of my system. But I forgot my pump, and anyway didn't have time to pump due to the painting. I did try the manual pump a few times quickly, but obviously not enough. But she never naps for us, so it's not just the coffee. What trick does everyone else have that we don't have?!

For now, though, I guess I shouldn't complain so much. Since Ann and Garth think she's such an Angel, they've offered to babysit again.

Angelina is learning to love Thai food

No, I'm not feeding her Gai Phad Prik or Som Tum, at least not directly.



It's been three years now since I've been in Thailand. THREE YEARS. I can't believe it's been so long. A place that was such a major part of my life, and I haven't seen it in so long. I've been so nostalgic lately. This was perhaps induced by my friend Glen, who just went to Mae Sot to connect with the SMRU gang, in hopes of doing a med school rotation there. He rapidly fell in love with the place, just like I did. He even went on the Umphang trek, but didn't encounter quite as much mud as I had. And best of all, he met my old friend Kung (who's now a father himself)!

So, to make up for it, I've been eating Thai food. With a vengeance. The more I eat, the more I want. The spicier the better. I've tried a few Thai restaurants in San Antonio, all so-so. With mom here I finally decided we needed to try Thai Cafe - it's waaaay across town, in an area I never go, have no reason to be near really. But oh so worth the drive! Oh the Sum Tum!!!! I haven't had that since I left Thailand (even tho I have the container to make it, finding green papaya is not possible - the restaurant gets it from Houston). I just wanted to sit and listen to the staff speaking Thai. I realized how much I'd forgotten. Then the following week, I was in another area for a meeting, looking for a place to eat lunch, and stumbled upon Thai restaurant I'd never heard of. They had Khao Mun Gai. And it was GOOD. That same day I went back to the other restaurant and got 3 things for dinner for take away, which lasted us a few days. Then I went back again, and again. And will probably go again next week. Yes. I am addicted to GOOD Thai food. I need chiles (prik), ginger (king), fish sauce (nam pla), curry (gaeng) among other things.

As for our little munchkin? Well, since she's still nursing more times per day than I can count, she gets the Thai food indirectly. So far, she doesn't seem at all bothered by it, fortunately. I would rather have given up all dairy than to have to give up Thai food!

So I'll leave with some pictures of my days there, though the people in the photos are Karen, rather than Thai. They remind me of a special time.

That's a baby being weighed at WaleyKe. My midwife in San Antonio uses the same gadget to weigh babies. It works very well!


I made a new little friend, he's telling his mommy about the crazy lady taking pictures...


And Mawkerti

For more on those days, check out the archives January 2006.

And Kung, if you're reading, have a Beer Chang for me (and maybe a gin and tonic too).

We're trendy and old fashioned at the same time

Apparently it's all the rage now to use cloth diapers. Who'd have thought?! We're just cheap (and try to be ecologically minded at the same time). It's pretty funny to read about all the 'hip' parents using cloth diapers. Nanny - you hear that? You were "hip!"

But here's the twist, the old flat or prefold diapers are old fashioned. The hip mommas use 'pocket' diapers. At $15-25 a piece, however, that's sooooo not worth it. Prefolds aren't just your mother's prefold nappies though. Yes, cloth diapering has come a long way. No more pins. You can use snappis - elasticy thingies with 'teeth' to hold the diaper in place, but we don't bother. We just put a wrap around the diaper and that holds it in place.

Our friends are always so impressed, but really it's no big deal. You get past the ick factor super fast. I mean, it's icky no matter how you look at it, so it doesn't matter. Just rinse, toss in the bucket, toss in our super duper energy/water efficient front loading washer. Line dry. Presto. And what's best: cloth diapers rarely leak. We've had super blowouts with disposables (we use them sometimes when we take her out): Poop all the way up her back, all over her clothes. But with cloth? Hardly ever happens.

Who knew it could be so easy?
And if you don't know what I'm talking about, check out http://www.diaperpin.com

Ces yeux !

Even at a few days old, her eyes were amazing. They had this power to look into your soul. She didn't seem to be saying "pick me up mommy", she seemed to be saying "it's ok, mommy, I'm going to be alright."

They're so big and intense. Whether they're laughing, crying, or examining the world around her, they have this special power.

It's the first thing everyone comments about when they see her......

"Those eyes!"

Adventures with Food

Learning to sit up

Learning to sit up is fun! Around 5.5 months, Angelina began to sit up, but with help. By 6.5 months she could manage to stay up a bit longer:


But there was still a limit.....

Now at almost 8 months she's a Sitting Master.

Daycare woes

Since Sept 25, Angelina has been going to an in-home daycare on the Air Force Base where I work. Though at first I was a little hesitant leaving her at an in-home place (only one adult present), Frèdèric really preferred it to a center. We had interviewed the babysitter, spent some time at the house, and decided to go for it. Well, it's turned out better than I could have ever imagined. There are kids ranging in age from her 10 month old son to her 10 yr old daughter. All day she plays with the 10 month old, who teaches her all the tricks he's just learned, the 15 month old and the 2 2 yr olds who call her 'Ina". After school the two 5 yr olds are there to laugh and play with her. Angelina loves it, the interaction is great, her babysitter is wonderful, and I am just 2 minutes away.

Alas, they are a military family, and though they've spent all but 3 of their military years in San Antonio, her husband is being sent to Hawaii. Not so bad as Iraq, which was on the horizon if they didn't take this posting. No one can complain about Hawaii, really. And I'm glad for them it's not Iraq. But now I have to find another daycare provider! They leave in a month.

I've had a pit in my stomach since she told me Friday. I'm already missing them. Angelina is going through a bit of stranger anxiety right now, but she's just so so happy when she's there. I'm so nervous about her not settling in at another place. More importantly, it's hard to imagine another situation that's just as good.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Well, Nanny left and the good weather came out. This weekend was the first gorgeous weekend - 75F, perfectly sunny in forever. Ok, only maybe 2 months, and we've had occasional days of that so it's not like we're in the frozen north, but we're spoilt.

After Angelina took a very brief morning nap, we said "We need to go out and enjoy this instead of working on the house." So after nixing Government Canyon because it's near the "Helotes Mulch Fire" (more on that another day) and therefore too smokey, having never been to the San Antonio Zoo, we decided it was a good day to go. Apparently the rest of San Antonio's 1.5 million people had the same idea. We arrived to find every parking lot packed. Finally found a spot and walked over. The neat thing about our zoo is it's near a park and Japanese tea Gardens. It has a little old-fashioned train that runs around it. All in all it's a neat setting.

So we made our way over to the entrance to find massive lines. After waiting awhile we decide we want to get year memberships, but that's another line. So we move over there. No kidding, we waited ONE HOUR. I swear they were doing background checks, I can't believe it took so long. Fortunately it was in the shade, and Angelina was happy as a clam flirting with everyone around her. The two kids next to us (about 5 and 6) were not so happy, but Angelina's smile seemed to cheer them up.

We finally made it into the Zoo, and Angelina was enthralled. She adores dogs and cats (though Chakapu's opinion on that matter is still not clear). I'm not sure she realized the cheetah was anything more than a big version of Chakapu.... she seemed pretty interested in all the animals, until of course it was time to nurse and nap. It's a nice zoo, we're looking forward to exploring other parts of it.

The best part of the day? Having Mommy and Papa at her service!

2AM is NOT Party time!

Well, that's what *I* say. A little Miss somebody thinks it is. For some reason the last few nights, Angelina has been falling asleep at her usual 7ish, woken up at 10pm to nurse, as usual, and again at 2am-ish (I don't see the clock, but that's my estimate) to nurse, as usual. Then she's wide eyed as can be. No crying, since Mommy and Papa are right next to her, just rolling and laughing and wanting to play. Leaving her in her crib doesn't help, as then she can't see us and she *does* cry. I try to not engage her, not look her in the eyes, just rub her gently, say 'shhhh'. Nope. She's ready to party.

When she's 18 and living on her own and wants to party at 2am, I won't say a word. But at 8 months old, it's NOT party time! Frèdèric reminded me of a onesie we saw that said "Party at 2Am, BYOB - bring your own bottle." Perhaps Angelina took that to heart.

Maybe Nanny taught her this

Nanny was here for 10 days, and once she left, Angelina has been doing this hand flip thing (very hard to get in a picture). I think she's waving "bye-bye', but sometimes it's like "get away from me." Now she just does it whenever she gets excited.

Medicinal Beer

Getting ready to leave for this conference, I had to make sure I had enough milk frozen. As it happens, the 2 weeks before I just wasn't producing much, at least not for the pump. Angelina seemed satisfied, but I needed my stash.

Months ago I was told to eat oatmeal frequently to keep my milk supply up. However it didn't seem to be working lately. I dtink Mother's Milk tea daily (a combo of blessed thistle, fenugreek, fennel, and a few other things). I like it, but it has no effect. Then I remembered beer. I had avoided it for awhile because the one time I'd had it, Angelina had horrible gas. I decided to try it again, but limit to one per night.

Well, 4 nights of stout (not all Guinness), and the milk was overflowing!

Hooray for beer!

First time away from my angel

I had to go to a conference last week, sort of last minute. It was at a fancy resort in Orlando, FL. Mom was going to come with me if I brought Angelina along. But Fredo said he could manage alone with her for the 2.5 days (including 3 evenings, I returned about 11pm on the 3rd night). Now, he's perfectly competent, Angelina is very happy with him, should be no problem. But here's the catch - she still nurses to sleep every night, nurses 3+ times per night, and takes bare minimum by bottle during the day, saving it up for when mommy is home.

Clearly, I had reason to worry. But he convinced me, I had enough milk stashed in the freezer, and off I went on Sunday afternoon. In the end, it was harder on me than on them! I was a wreck the hours before leaving, but tried not to show Angelina how I felt. I was fighting back tears at the airport.

Though I've left her at daycare, I've never left her overnight. She sleeps with us, so at night is only a few inches from me all night long. I thought I'd relish 2 full nights in a big king bed all too myself. Hah! Something was missing. I couldn't sleep. I had to get up to pump anyway. And though Frederic says she missed me (he missed me, since he had to get up for those night feedings, including warming the bottles), she not only did fine, she started doubling the amount of milk she took by bottle at daycare.

In the end, I'm glad I went, it was a worthwhile meeting. But I sure won't be going away again soon. Angelina can handle it fine, but mommy can't!

Introducing....

a TOOTH!
Yes, Angelina's pearly whites - well, one of them - have made their way to the surface. It's just barely poking out. So far it doesn't hurt *me*, but maybe I'll worry when there's a second one. She had a bought of wakefulness this weekend. Wouldn't sleep to save her life, but wasn't particularly cranky, the stuff I'd have expected with teething. I hope that's it and she naps this weekend!

And to add to the fun, she can sit up now. She's been able to sit for awhile, with help. Lately she's maanaged to stay up for a few minutes before she finally crashes over.

sniff sniff. She's growing up. What's next, cars and boys?

pictures to come...