Halloween!

Lulu and I went to a Halloween party this afternoon with her other friends from playgroup. Anderson and his parents, Tracy and Kevan, were kind enough to host. All the kids were dressed up in their Halloween costumes (so much cuteness!) and had a good time playing with each other. And for a change, the dads tagged along, too, so it was nice getting to meet everyone's significant other.

Apologies for the poor photography--my subjects weren't into standing still!




The highlight of the party was getting everyone lined up on the couch for a couple of cute photos...unfortunately, I wasn't able to make my way *around* the couch to get a great shot, but here's the best I got:


We had a lion, dinosaur, a frog, two elephants, a dalmatian puppy, a dragon, two monkeys and a zebra. A veritable zoo!




And then it was meltdown time!

Just monkeyin' around, Mom...

Lulu in her Halloween costume. On the bright side, she's not flinging poo or biting anyone!

Flu

Lulu had her seasonal flu vaccine this morning. She took that shot in the thigh like a champ. The nurse had me hold her hands, in case she tried to grab at the syringe, but Lulu just looked up at her when the nurse jabbed her in the thigh like, "Is that all you've got, lady? Bring it on!"

No crying, no whimpering, no tears. I zipped up her pajamas (hey, it was early!) and she was good to go! Still no side effects, no fever, etc.

Way to go, Lulu!

Hiking with Daddy

We went up to Grass Valley last weekend and went hiking. We stopped for a break halfway through. I think Lulu enjoyed the scenery, don't you?




And then someone got tired, very, very tired!

update.

So, I am happy to report that Lulu woke up in a better mood this afternoon after sleeping on my chest/lap for about an hour and a half. She has a mildly croupy cough and some congestion, but still no fever or difficulty breathing. So, I think we will probably dose her up again this evening at bedtime and keep an eye on her until her doctor's appt on Thurs morning.

In the meantime, we shared last night's leftovers for dinner: swiss chard risotto. Lulu had hers with some kidney beans mixed into the mix, and she seemed to eat pretty well. She also had some cut up grapes, pomegranate seeds, bunny grahams, and raspberries (no, no, she's not spoiled!) and drank quite a bit of water.

After going to Target to stock up on children's ibuprofen and diapers (size 4 for those of you who care), we are now currently enjoying playing in the living room. I air-popped some popcorn and Lulu has been sharing with me (heavily supervised so she only eats one piece at a time) while she plays with her toys. We have also enjoyed "reading" Goodnight, Little Bear (the cloth book with the miniature teddy bear), but I suspect someone is about to get cranky again, so I think I need to pay more attention to her (in an attempt to head off any potential unpleasantness)...

Here's hoping Daddy gets home soon!

Sitting in the dark and other thoughts...

Someone is very tired but not sleeping. I have her in the blue sling, leaning on my chest while I sit in the rocking chair in the nursery with the shades drawn and the stereo quietly playing the swedish lullaby that I happen to like in an endless repeat. The only way that she’ll be quiet is if she’s lying against my chest or my shoulder. If I get up or make any move to put her in the crib, she’s instantly awake and crying. And the other rooms of the house have too much light—if I try to go in them, then she pushes against my chest and wants to see what’s going on around her. When we got home from the gym, I tried putting her down to nap in her crib about 10:45am, then I took a shower and got dressed. As soon as I walked toward the nursery, I could hear her crying in her crib (that was at 11:20am).

This is after our rough night last night. Lulu was tired and cranky from the time I picked her up at daycare until bedtime. Even bathtime didn't distract her from her unhappiness. We took her temperature, but she wasn't running a fever, so we chalked it up to teething. She was cranky enough that we gave her some children's tylenol last night at bedtime, but that didn't keep her from biting me (twice--once on each boob). Walter put her to sleep after that...until midnight when she woke up and was still unhappy. I got up to nurse her back to sleep but that didn't work very well until we gave her a second dose of tylenol (previously unheard of in this household). She woke up in a fragile mood this morning--she was happy as long as something unexpected (like me walking out of the room) didn't happen. So, I was hoping that a nice, long nap this morning would help her feel better.

Instead, I guess I have an unexpected opportunity to practice mindful meditation in the dark to the accompaniment of a lullaby of heavy breathing.

More practice feeding herself. I discovered she's better at it when she has TWO spoons--one in each hand. She uses the right hand to bang around in the bowl and the left had to actually feed herself, so I still don't know which hand she's going to end up favoring...place your bets now, folks!



And a few still shots...

Frustration

So, Lulu and I took a walk this afternoon--she headed straight out the front door, down the front walk, turned left on the sidewalk and walked purposively toward the corner of Sesame Street and Pasadena Avenue. I thought at first that she was headed to Melissa, Tim, and Jimbo's house, but she followed the curve of the sidewalk and kept waddling in front of me. She stumbled a couple of times, fell down, picked herself up and kept going like a woman on a mission. I just followed behind her, wondering where she was going and admiring the determination on display.

Turns out that she made a beeline for the gate into the park. Lulu walked right up to the gate, grabbed the bars in both hands and rattled the locked gate back and forth. She lifted up her foot, like she does when she's trying to climb onto our bed, and even examined the hinges and the lock. She rattled and rattled!

I must confess I was fascinated by watching her frustration and her trying to figure out how to open the gate. I was so proud, watching her figure it out for herself. Eventually, she turned to me for help, but I couldn't help her (because I hadn't brought the key). So, I did what any mother would do--I squatted down to her level and sympathized with her frustration, then I picked her up and tried to distract her by carrying her away and getting her to look at something new. So, I walked to the end of the parking lot and put her down. As soon as her feet touched the ground, Louisa started waddling back over to the gate and rattling it again. I called her name and she turned around smiled at me (but she wouldn't waddle back over to me). So, I brought her back to the other end of the parking lot and she started closely examining a bush instead...and trying to eat the berries.

And then she led me back home...

Mail

In the package from Oma and Opa, there were also two wrapped presents for Lulu. We waited for Daddy to get home from DC though before we opened them:




And inside were books! Very, very cute books with neat graphic, bold colors and pictures.








And Lulu enjoyed sharing them with Daddy and making him read with her.




Danke, Oma und Opa!

Pull Toys!

Lulu got a package from her Oma and Opa, filled to the brim with her daddy's old pull toys! She had a great time with them and instantly figured out what the string was for:



As you can tell by the video, she really enjoyed the train!





Good thing we have those tile floors, huh?

Empress's New Clothes

We also took advantage of the weather yesterday to do a little "light" shopping:



Lulu got some outfits with pants because her 12 month-size pants are starting to look a little snug (but I can still pass them off as leggings...sort of!) I started to get these in 24 month-size, but I decided that by then, she'll probably want short sleeves, not long sleeves anyway. So, these are 18 month-size instead.



And a couple of cute dresses with matching bloomers to cover her diapers (per daycare's instructions):



Cute, huh?

Here you go, Nanny

By popular demand, some recent photos (snapped this morning at breakfast):



Someone woke up in a good mood this morning! Her mother and Umau did, too! (mostly because Lulu slept in until about 8:15am)



Louisa had a good breakfast of nursing followed by some fresh raspberries, banana mixed with hot cereal and yogurt, and some puffed corn cereal. These photos are of her eating the puffed corn cereal...




Then someone got a bright idea....




Uh-oh.

Punkin Patch

Walter and I figured this might be the closest we get Lulu to a pumpkin patch this fall, so here are your gratuitous autumnal photos with hay bales and pumpkins...courtesy of Whole Foods.

Face Painting...

...it's not just for clowns, y'all!

Oktoberfest!

We all went to the Sacramento TurnVerein's Oktoberfest celebration this past weekend. We met up with friends and enjoyed the Deutsche Kultur in the Biergarten outside.


We enjoyed Oktoberfest bier and wurst while Lulu enjoyed pita chips, hummus, and grapes.




I dressed Lulu up in one of her daddy's outfits that I thought looked appropriately germanic and Walter wore his lederhosen. As you can see, Lulu had a good time!


Who knows? Maybe next year, she can be one of the Schuhplatter dancers!

BowWow Bowl

So for his first birthday, I gave my nephew a bowl that looks like a cow with a spoon that makes the bowl moo when you put the spoon in the bowl. It's one of those first feeding things that encourages kids to use utensils, etc. It was stinkin' cute (if I do say so myself) and I was really excited this past April when I got the bowl from my brother...sans spoon. So, I did an internet search and found a company in Hong Kong (the original Chinese manufacturer, I think?) that still sells the bowl six years later and ordered one. It was on backorder for a while, but it finally arrived yesterday and Lulu gave it a whirl this morning.

I ordered the bowl that looks like a dog (sort of) and goes "bow-wow" or "woof" when you put the spoon in it. And best of all, the spoon works with the original cow bowl, too, so now Lulu has TWO talking food bowls! I put a little yogurt in the dog bowl this morning and gave her the spoon...here are the results:



And a few still pictures, too:




I love the yogurt dripping off her chin on that last one!