Cherry Blossoms 2007

Compared to last year, our experience of Cherry Blossoms is a little below par. Last year, we went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. We went a little late in the season and still were very impressed. This year, we decided to go to Branch Brook Park in Newark for a change of pace. It had a good number of cherry blossom trees and I have read online reviews to say that it was a beautiful park.

Well, it was a beautiful park. We were one week late for the Festival but as far as blooms go, it was truly sad. Most have fallen off the tree but we didn't even see the cool carpet of pink petals. We didn't see much at all. We took a short walk but it was getting late and someone's sleep time was coming up. It would be hard for me to recommend this park but it seems interesting. It was large and well-maintained. I might return but with so many other gorgeous parks around, it is not very likely.

A picture of the daddy and his little girl.

WWTTON Awardee

What Will They Think Of Next? Really and for $35.

I actually think that this is just freaky. Just plain scary but it's out there. Maybe I am missing the point, but check it out and let me know.

g in her new hat

 

We went to the zoo this weekend to celebrate some of this beautiful summer weather. It was nice to visit the Prospect Park zoo again but it was a much better experience the last time. I guess since it was Earth Day, there were a lot more people there. The heat INSIDE the buildings didn't help things any either. I think the zoo decided to turn off the air conditioning for Earth Day also, which just made me want to highttail it out of the indoors as quickly as possible.

This time around we were prepared for the lack of food service by having a small picnic and meeting up with some other mommy and daddy friends. (NOTE: It was great to see everyone again and all the little ones. Hope to see everyone again soon!!!)

g had a wonderful time checking out all the animals. s was just happy to have caught a few zzz's in G's arms.

All in all, it was good experience. We were looking forward to checking out cherry blossoms at the Botanical Garden next door but it was getting late and s's bedtime was looming. So we left. However thefamilyM told us that the blossoms have not bloomed. So there might still be time in the next weeks for a visits. (Thanks, KM for the tip.)

g at the gym

This is one of g's new favorite places. She loves getting a work out.

A General update

The last few days have been a blur. Between work and home, there have been more than a few things to keep a mommy nutty and that's how I have managed to stay without fail. Gladly I have been given a day of reprieve in the form of a girl's night out which turned out to be fabulous (of course). I love my friends.

What else is going on with the FamilyC?

g has been expanding on her multilingual vocabulary. She has become amazingly adept at addressing the right people with the right set of words. I have begun to slowly start her "preschool" homeschool "program". Because she was born when she was, she would not have qualified for any public school in our area till next year. We could still get her into a school if we had been willing to shell out $$$ for it...NOT. So I had decided on teaching her myself. Someday soon I have to get myself around writing a curiculum for her, but for now, I have picked up some preschool books and go through them with her. She has the attention span of a flea but she gets most of it. She knows most of her letters and numbers. She knows her shapes and colors really well. She is really good with her scissors, so now we are working on precision. She has been using a pencil for a long time but I am trying to have her trace lines. To supplement all this edumacation, she also goes to the little gym with G once a week. During the summer, we'll try to take her to the pool once a week. Now I just have to figure out a way for her to get over her shyness.

s has been sleeping better (-relative term). She hasn't rolled over again since her second month. She loves both her jumperoo and exersaucer. She still HATES being on her tummy. Her intake has been growing and so has her cheeks. Next on the agenda is solids and an attempt to get her to crawl. Wish us luck.

Safer Baby bottles

Found quite a few alternatives for my Dr Brown dilemna.

Just thought I would pass this information

The document has recommendations on safer bottles to use that are easily purchased at the local baby stores or online.

There must be a lesson here

Too bad I am too blurry-eyed to see it. As feared, last night turned out to be a horrendous night for sleep. It was a record breaking evening AND early morning. Before last night, s would cry within an hour of falling asleep. She would cry loud and hard but after she is done, she sleeps. At every awakening after that, she would eat and then proceed to fall back asleep for at least 3 hours at a time, usually more. She has actually gone for 8 hours once. Last night she woke up almost every 2 hours starting at midnight. And today is a day that I needed to be able to focus.

I want to see every adversity as a way for the universe to teach me something. Right now I am having a difficult time putting two words together, so maybe I am just missing the lesson.

Sleep...everybody needs some sleep

Can someone please convince s of this? I don't seem to be conveying the information as clearly as I should or she is just not listening. Oh yeah...she is too busy screaming to be listening. I got a report from G that she hasn't been sleeping much today, in small 30 minute increments probably just enough to take the edge off her tiredness. Tonight's "adventure" is going to be truly interesting.

To top it all, g seems to be going a "meltdown" phase. She goes into meltdown mode in a flash. She could be happily playing one second and then a moment later be in the middle of the worst cry heard in the tri-state. It's so hard to see her in such a state.

In the midst of all this, I am trying to find some calm. It's been really hard to muster the patience to deal with the meltdowns on very little sleep. However I realize confronting the meltdown with a meltdown results in madness. So I take a deep breath.

Consistency just bit the dust

I am blogging this as s is talking to herself over the intercom. Yes, the official time is 10:00 PM and she is awake. Tonight started as many other nights. She was tired when I got home. So after spending our quality minutes together, I started her nighttime routine which consists of the wipe down (too tired for a shower today), a song and nursing. She fell asleep quickly. I left her room and expected a cry around the 20 minute mark (strangely she has been crying out/waking up around 20 minutes into her sleep). That didn't occur. So I thought that I was in the clear. I was so very wrong!!!

She woke up at the 2 hour mark frantically crying. I tried to keep out. I tried for an hour and she cried for an hour (well, almost an hour). I finally thought that maybe she was just hungry. So I went in to feed her. She ate only 2 oz and nursed a little. She was already falling back asleep until she realized it. Somehow she forced herself to wake. She started to look around, coo, talk, etc. That was the precise moment when I realized that I should have stuck to my own rules about consistency. With a heavy sigh, I rocked her for a few minutes, burp her a little more and kissed her little head. I laid her in bed and left the room.

For the last 30 minutes, she was just cooing and talking. Then finally in the last 3 minutes, she has restarted the frantic crying. It is going to be another long night.

Bisphenol A

There has been a lot of talk about dangerous baby bottles containing Bisphenol A. The studies has been around for years and I am not sure why it has become critical in the last few months. Of course, s's fancy schmancy Dr. Brown bottles were indicted in the list of "bad" bottles, but I am not sure if I should get nutty and buy all new bottles for her. There is a risk for cancer and since the chemical mimics estrogen, a greater impact on reproductive organs.

There now is a rash of "alternatives" to these baby bottles as result of all the news going around. I am sure they have been around for a while but have now been achieving greater visibility. One such bottle is Born Free (found on the web and at Whole Foods), but at almost $10 a bottle, is it really worth it?

Why do I even ask the question when there is a risk for cancer? Well, a simple google search will yield many other studies refuting the studies being quoted in news stories. So who is a parent to believe? Can I afford to be laid back or do I sound the alarm? What would you do?

Happy Easter Everybody!!!

The Family C went to an Easter Egg Hunt over the weekend. Lots of fun. g found a couple of eggs with the help of her daddy.

NJ Children's "Museum" - a review

We had gone to the NJ Children's Museum because I had found out that there was a kiddie carnival. As winter finally melts into spring, the weather has gotten better but I still had a touch of cabin fever. I was really excited to go since the flyer seems to promise games and lots of activities for the kids.

It is an ok place for kids since most kids especially of g's age would just be glad with being to get out and run around. However the place looks worn, REALLY WORN. I think we have read in one of the brochures that the place was founded in 1988 and it seems like no improvements have been done since then. I put the word "museum" in quotation marks because there really isn't anything that makes it a museum. Well, maybe the display about animals and different parts of the animals might qualify. However even that display is not kid-friendly. The buttons on the panel that would light up pictures of the animals are really too stiff for the kid to press.

The rest of the place was an assembly of mismatched toys, a castle with a toy dragon, a cowboy theme area with stuffed horses and a mechanised horse, a "grocery" store, a music corner with a piano and drums and a small coral for little kids to toddle around in. There were "costumes" for kids to play dress-up in. The black duct tape abounds. Wear and tear is very obvious in some parts.

We had read some previous reviews that the bathroom was horrible. The bathroom was ok, not the worst I have seen definitely. The changing area though is another matter. This might have been just that day but the sink was backed up and there were all sorts of floaties in the water. I didn't want to find out what they were.

I would have been able to look beyond all of this had this been a cheap experience. If I only paid, let's say $5 for adults and free for the kids, I could say that it was a good place for the kids to blow off steam. However we paid $10 a person. The only one who got in for free was s. So $30 had really raised my expectations.

This place is definitely a PASS from my point of view.

Our friends, theFamilyM might have some other perspective. So if you are still interested, you should drop them a note.

s mug shot

Now this is a mug shot if there ever is one. The official passport photo. s is going places soon.

A little progress

It is slow going at the FamilyC Institute for Better Sleeping. We have started this process 2 weeks ago and have not been as consistent as we should have been. It has been getting a little better. There has been less crying from both baby and mommy. It has been really stressful for me the past few weeks as evidence by the lack of postings to the site. Work has really ramped up. This is the worst possible time. I am trying to get s settled, trying to get g potty trained and trying to keep my job all in the same breath. G's work has also ramped up that he is staying later and later.

I hate doing this training on my own. when we did training with g, even my mom and dad were present. Of course, my dad still registers his opposition to the whole process. We were all pacing in our own individual little circles as g was screaming her brains out. With some luck, she has kept most of her brains and is doing really well with sleeping today. She goes down easily at night after her bath, story and songs. Sometimes she sleeps immediately. Sometimes she talks to herself, recounting her many "adventures" to her entourage of stuffed animals and imaginary friends.

Now it's s' turn. Her crying has definitely been shorter in length but it seems a little more pathetic to me. While g's was loud and angry, s seems to be wondering why we are doing this to her. That is partially why I hate doing this alone. My resolve to go through with it gets tested every night. Having someone else there makes the decision easier. Hence the inconsistencies persist. I have resolved though that there will be no more deviation, because that just prolongs this process needlessly.

Her sleep has gotten a lot better since I have been a little more consistent. More needs to be done though in that regard. I only wish that the next I report on this will be a post to say that s has slept easily and quietly through the night.

(By the way, technically s does sleep through the night because the technical definition of sleeping through the night for babies is 5 hours straight. Personally I would like to gather up all the moms and dads of kids who only sleep 5 hours to collectively paddle the one who came up with this definition.)

And the Oscar goes to....

I am amazed at the g's development in the last few weeks. She has gone from monosyllabic responses to full sentences to full stories. She is beginning to synthesize information in her head and not just regurgitate what she has heard. Her verbal skills are great despite having multiple languages to keep up with. There is one development that has come up in recent weeks that I am not exactly thrilled about.

She has developed a flair for drama. Sadly this does not refer to creative play, but rather her ability to cry ... no, WAIL at the drop of a hat. She has enormous physical control of her tear ducts as well. She can be activated by a tap on the head or a word that displeases her. She is now the one that must not be tangled with. I know that this is probably still a reaction to her new baby sister and how she is often shushed when S is sleeping, but WOW I didn't quite expect this reaction.

Often I have become so attuned to her that I can see it coming and when it does show up, it is hard for me to keep a straight face because it is ridiculous in a way. However a straight face is what I keep. Quite often though I would be saying this in my head, "and the Oscar goes to..."

Sleep training #6

It is day #6 of the sleep training and all is quiet in the house. Well, not all. s made a few peeps every hour but nothing compared to the earth shattering screams of the first few days. I think it is a form of torture to have a mother listen to her baby cry incessantly and not do anything to appease her.

For the last few days, I have looked at her many times during the day searching for psychological damage like I would diaper rash. As if it would somehow surface on her cheek and I could rub some ointment on it.

There is no way to really know what is really right because there is no way to raise the same child twice. So in this case, I will just have to suffer this uncertainty.

The setup

These are the setup shots before we got the s' first sitting pose.

First sit

Ok...although this lasted only a few seconds before she did a face plant, it was a bona fide sit.

S at 4 months

 

The day has arrived. A day I was hoping I didn't have to go through with s. When s was but a wee little peapod, she was a big sleepy head. I was so thoroughly concerned. Rightly so, she slept through all her feedings landing us in the hospital for dehydration. So I fussed and worried and wondered. Is everything ok with my little one? Well, she taught me a thing or two since then. In a matter of one month, she went from eating 5-7 ounces during the daytime to 15. This jump happened in a day or 2. That was great because I was this close to buying a scale on eBay so I could weigh her accurately daily.

She finally woke up. Yes, indeed, many of you have heard of my many woes about her sleeplessness. Just when I thought a little co-sleeping would do the trick, she changed the rules of the game. She went from sleeping 5 hours to 4 to 3, and finally we got to waking up every hour. For the last 10 days, she has been waking within minutes of being put down. So after a few false starts, tonight we will begin our sleep training which will consist of her crying it out. She is finally settled now after almost an hour and a half of on-and-off crying. It is sad to hear her begging to be carried. I know that I could nurse her and she would peacefully drop off in my arms, but she would wake within a few minutes and the cycle will once again begin. She's not hungry though. She nurses for comfort.

We sleep trained g in the same way and despite the success that proved to be, I can't shake the feeling that somehow crying shouldn't be part of how a baby needs to sleep. I feel guilty. I wonder if I did the right thing or if I am doing the right thing. I wonder what I could have done differently. Did I try to wake her a little too much when she was a sleepy head?

For those somehow thinking that I am taking a "shortcut", far from it. Those who have done this will very quickly attest that this can be a long journey. In actual calendar days, it can take a while, days at the very least and sometimes weeks, for all this to take. Through all this, I sit outside her door pulling whatever remains of my mane out, thinking that there might be some other way, maybe there is still that one other thing that I haven't done that could have possibly made this all unnecessary. The doubt about the right-ness of this decision will persist in my mind.

g in a duet

I love this new video of g. She is doing a duet with her nanny. g is the only one who seems to know all the languages spoken in our house and here she is doing a mandarin song (sounds like a commie marching song to me). The song has to do with a friend, saluting a friend and shaking hand...something like that. The poem during the second half of the video has something to do with a rabbit.

Enjoy.