Day Two Hundred and Fifty-Nine

Waving

Notes for today:

• Milo often burps after nursing, and the burp can come anywhere from immediately to 5 minutes later. It’s usually a little, baby burp. But this morning it was a true belch. She crawled away from me, toward Chase, who was getting ready to head out for work. As she crawled she let it rip, and it stopped us in our tracks. We gave her a bit attagirl, and she smiled.

• Today and yesterday were both 3-nap days, for some reason. She has gone down for naps easily and gotten good rest. So, at least her daytime sleep is not an issue lately.

• We went for another stroll in the stroller today, and Milo was cool as a cucumber the whole time. There was no crying or fussing or leaning forward and scaring me. Just relaxation and observation.

• We decided to give Milo peanut butter for the first time, in a small amount. Chase put a little bit on his finger and let her lick it off. She seemed to like it well enough, and so far there are no side effects. I really hope she likes nut butters.

• Milo started waving tonight!! We were so ridiculously excited about this! We’ve been trying to teach her to wave for a little while, mostly so that she can wave to Chase when he leaves for work. But tonight, out of nowhere, she just started waving after we read her a book. Is that really how it works? She just demonstrates a new skill like that without any warning? We’re still uncertain whether it’s waving or an attempt at some other sign, but right now we’re calling it waving, and we’re super excited.

Other Notes:

• It has become easier to make Milo laugh, though there’s still no real consistency to it. Sometimes she laughs when I pretend to bite her fingers, sometimes not. She almost always laughs when we do pretty eyes at her. Lately the thing she likes is when we pretend that her feet are really stinky; we slowly put her foot to our nose, then let out a loud WOOOO and say “so stinky!” She can’t get enough. And neither can we.

• She now knows what it means when I sit her in my lap and put my hand on my shirt. She gets so eager to nurse, sometimes it’s comical. Yesterday she tried to latch on through my dress.

• Sophie is finally learning to run away when she sees Milo approaching or hears her squeals nearby. It’s been tough. For quite a while, Sophie would just lay there and Milo would latch on with those somehow-always-wet hands. And Milo’s got quite the grip! But now Sophie gets out of the way pretty quickly. And she’s learning not to lay on the edge of the bed anymore, too. Smart cat.

• Milo quite often walks or crawls out of her socks during the day. I’m always noticing her with only one sock on and then roaming around the living room to find the other. A few times, Milo has crawled out of her socks while sleeping, which is impressive.

Look at me!

Tonight I attracted Milo to my lap by hanging a lanyard around my neck. She crawled to me and then on me and then began grasping at and chewing on every piece of it she could get. It was nice.

But then Misty — who had been across the room — sat down next to me and began to show me something on her laptop. Milo laughed and giggled at her mom’s arrival, and when that wasn’t enough to get mom’s attention, she did something new. She actually figured out where Misty was gazing and leaned in to block her field of view! It’s like when I’m typing and our cat tries to sit on the keyboard… except when Milo does it, evidently, she stares you straight in the face and smiles.

We melted, of course.

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-Eight

Wednesday

Notes:

• Today was our second trip to music class. Milo was very quiet and observant, and she pretty much sat in my lap the whole time. She likes the singing and dancing and moving around. Some babies tried to climb on us, but she also tried to climb on others, so it’s all good. Overall, it’s a super fun class and it’s making me want to get her some baby instruments.

• I’ve been reading a lot about art/craft stuff and am inspired to make art with Milo ASAP. I can’t wait to get into our house and make a little art space where she and I can be creative and get messy!

• The house purchase is nearly final. We got the appraisal, which was the final thing that could have prevented us from owning this place. So it looks like the house is OURS!!

• Milo has learned to grab on to our legs when we stand up, which basically renders us immobile. Today, though, I decided to try and keep walking. This resulted in Milo walking with me as I very slowly made my way across the living room. It was adorable and I laughed and wanted to cry because of how cute she is.

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-Seven

Tornado

Today Milo found the place where we keep our clothes. She gleefully pulled everything out of one drawer, looking at me each time she pulled something out. She squealed and giggled. Our living room looks like tornado rolled through.

Also, Milo has become a pro at getting into the tight spaces in our living room. I put all sorts of stuff in front of the radiator, and she just climbs right over or around it. I also put stuff in front of the book shelf, and she shimmies and stoops until she’s right in front of the books and pulls them out. As usual, she looks at me proudly every time she reaches a forbidden destination.

In soon-to-be-walking news, she’s so confident now, it’s crazy. She pushes the walkers with one hand, stands unassisted for a few seconds at a time. She likes to stand with her butt up against stuff, not holding on to anything. Sometimes she’ll just lean on me when she’s eating her teething cracker and just hum while chewing.

Notes:

• The baby gate is pretty much permanently installed on the living room entry way. Chase tied a shoe to it so that she has something to play with while she stands there. She stands there a lot, especially if I’ve left the room to use the restroom or grab something from the kitchen.

• Milo still hates diaper changes sometimes and tries to wiggle away. Today was a screaming diaper change, and I hated it.

• One of her favorite activities is flipping her walkers over; she doesn’t know how (or care?) to flip them back.

• Milo gets under the exersaucer pretty consistently but has a lot of trouble getting out. She gets under there because sometimes it’s the only route to the bookshelf.

• We gave her a dipping spoon and allowed her to try feeding herself, and she seemed to like it; she feeds herself sometimes, but it’s very messy. Also, she can’t figure out her new sippy cup. We’ll keep trying, though.

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-Six

First Tooth

This afternoon, as I routinely do, I stuck my finger in Milo’s mouth to feel around for a tooth, and today I FOUND ONE!! It’s barely out of the gums, but it’s definitely there. It feels like a little razor blade in there! I know we’re going to have to work some things out re: breastfeeding, but right now it’s just a happy day.

Other than that, we stayed around the house today and had another easy dinner of leftovers.

Notes:

• I’m pretty sure Milo going to be walking soon. She is very controlled when standing, especially when she kneels from standing. She can do it without holding on to anything. I’m consistently impressed by this.

• Milo regularly pulls everything out of drawers now and off of chairs. We keep a bag of clothes she’s outgrown in a bag in the corner with the intention of selling them on craigslist, but I haven’t gotten around to it. Today she pulled everything out of the bag, then picked up the bag and looked at me, proud.

Things I don’t want to forget:

• the way she turns around to look at me when she’s playing, just checking to see if I’m still there and still paying attention to her. It melts me.

• when nursing her before naps or bed, she still feels around on my arm or chest, and when she’s done and I take her off the breast, she immediately starts to turn over, like she’s rolling over to fall asleep. I still love nursing this girl.

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-Five

Playground

I’ve been wanting to go out to a real breakfast for a while, so we headed to Brenda’s shortly after they opened this morning. They had my favorite item today: fried chicken benedict. Chase and I both got it, and we both had some left over to take home for later!

Milo is getting good at eating food with us. Today we ordered her a scrambled egg, and she ate a good portion of it while we ate our breakfasts. I’m a little afraid that feeding her table food might be limiting the amount of baby food she wants to eat. But we’ll keep trying to find a balance.

In the afternoon, we went to the park and Milo had her first playground visit. We were super excited to get her on the baby swing and for Chase to take her down the slide. Milo, however, was pretty stern about it. She smiled a bit, but mostly she was skeptical and had a serious expression.

While at the park, we also sat out a blanket and fed Milo some baby food out of one of those pouches. I tried this yesterday, as well, and she really liked it. She just ate and ate the food (it was kale, peas, and apples), but I’m not sure whether she liked the food or if she just liked chewing on the spout. Either way, she got a good serving of food.

The afternoon was pretty laid back; Milo got more clothes all over the place and took a short nap. Chase and I watched some tv and did some internetting. Dinner was easy: rotisserie chicken with mac n cheese and green beans. I love weekends.

Chase also got to talk to his man island friends, and it looks like they’re very close to a reunion in a few weeks, which is exciting. We love those guys, and I can’t wait to introduce them to our girl (someday).

Notes:

• When eating out, Milo likes to turn around in the high chair and stare at people, but mostly people are ok with it since she’s cute.

• I’m still going to bed super early because Milo wakes pretty often at night. Not sure what to do about it except let it play itself out.

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-Four

Saturday

We decided it was high time to get some errands taken care of, so we set out pretty early. First thing was a trip to Target for some contact lens solution. After that, we took Milo over to her doctor’s office to get a flu shot. She got one with her 6mo appointment, and they told us to go back in a month or the second. Oops. She handled it like a champ, though. I was seriously impressed - they gave her the shot and she didn’t make a sound. No tears. It was as though she didn’t even realize they gave her a shot. She’s my hero.

After that, we got our girl a nap. When she woke up, we went to get a power of attorney notarized and grab lunch before setting out for Ikea. Milo had lots of avocado at the burger place, and it came straight off our burgers, so there was extra burgery, bacony flavor on it. Yum!

The main goal of going to Ikea was to get a new, sturdier floor lamp. Milo has taken to crawling over to the floor lamp, standing up while holding on to it, and then shaking the hell out of it. Shaking things while standing up is her newest thing. Things she likes to shake: the baby gate, the crib, and the lamp. The lamp is the least sturdiest of these, and she’s toppled it over several times.

While at Ikea, we ended up buying two table lamps to replace the floor lamp, a new baby towel for our girl, a new stuffed animal, some finger puppets, a rattle, and some cookies. I could shop in Ikea for days and not get sick of it.

After Ikea, we stopped off at Homeroom to pick up some mac n cheese, as is kind of a tradition every time we go to Oakland. We didn’t end up eating it, though, because Chase - Mr. Eat-the-oldest-thing-in-the-fridge-first - made us eat leftover French onion soup for dinner instead. What a butthole.

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-Three

Climber

Quick note:

Today, Milo climbed up on a stool on her own for the very first time. We keep a stool at the foot of the bed so that Sophie has an easier time jumping up there. When preparing for Milo, we decided that an easy storage solution was to put the bed on risers and store boxes under. It worked out great, but Sophie is old and needed a little help with the jump.

Milo loves that stool now that she’s mobile. She daily goes over to it, pushes it around like a walker or just flips it over and marvels at her own strength. Today, though, she figured out how to get a leg up there. Then she figured out how to get her other leg up there. Then she figured out that she was on top of it.

Then she saw Sophie laying right there on the edge of the bed right in front of her. She squealed with joy and latched those sweaty, slobbery hands right on that cat. Sophie let out her meek little meow (she’s not a loud meower, even when facing imminent danger), and I rushed over. Well, I took a photo and then rushed over.

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-Two

Food

Notes:

• I had my phone interview today, so Chase stayed home in the morning. He went to the coffee shop to do some work until it was time for my interview, and then he took Milo out for lunch while I talked on the phone.

• The interview took over an hour and it was really good. It looks like I have a job starting in August. Now we just have to figure out our timeline.

• We went to the food trucks in the evening, and Milo was great while we were out. I’ve been quite wary of the food trucks since I got food poisoning a while ago, but I just avoid that one truck and things are ok.

• We have been giving Milo food from our plates more often now, and she seems to like it a lot. I’m still a bit hesitant to give her too much because I really want her to eat mostly baby food, but it’s good to introduce her to more tastes, I guess. So far, she’s had: chicken salad (eggs), potatoes, grilled cheese, cheese, broccoli, carrots, edamame, biscuit, eggs. Probably more that I can’t remember.

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-One

4/20

Today is April 20, which is a national pot smoking holiday. Somehow, every year I forget what day it is when this happens. And every year I end up on Haight street, the Mecca of pot smoking.

Milo hasn’t been taking long naps, so today when she was still asleep at 11, nearing 2 hours, I let her keep sleeping. Of course, that meant that when she finally woke up, we were incredibly late for music class. We didn’t get out the door until 11:30, which is when class begins. So we skipped it and walked around instead.

That’s how I ended up on Haight. I decided to walk around in the park and meander over to Haight for lunch. As usual when this happens, I looked around at all the people and their edibles and the drug dealers curbside, and I thought, “Is there some kind of festival that I didn’t know about?” It wasn’t until I rounded McDonald’s and noticed a) the roped off parking lot, b) the line out the door, and c) the port-o-potties in the parking lot that I figured it out: Oh, it’s weed day! I’m so dumb sometimes. We went immediately home.

Milo was very interested in everything, though. I had her in the stroller again, and she just sat back and took it all in. I tried to keep her away from all the smoke, but on 4-20, that’s kind of hard to do.

In the afternoon, it was madness. The sirens were nonstop, and there was (of course) a helicopter circling. Not sure whether the helicopter was a news or police chopper, but it was out there. Also, even though we live on a kind of side street that doesn’t get heavy traffic, there were lots and lots of cars out on it today.

In the evening, Chase and I decided to go out for dessert at BiRite, and we had to walk to and from because the traffic was so bad the bus could’t get through. That’s crazy. It was really nice to walk around as a family and just talk for a while, though. Chase helped prepare me for the phone interview tomorrow, which was really nice.

Notes:

• Since Milo has been waking up more at night, I’ve been going to bed super early for a while. Most nights I’m in bed by 9:30 so that I can get some sleep before she wakes up for the first time.

• When Milo gets really excited about something, she does a little bounce that is super cute. She will stand and hold on and just bounce up and down, and that’s how we know she’s having fun. Usually this happens when she’s gotten her hands on something she’s not supposed to, like a phone.

Day Two Hundred and Fifty

Tuesday

Notes:

• Milo stood on her own for about 2 seconds and nearly took a step, though it was kind of accidental. She was standing and then reached for something, so she kind of fell to the side with her foot landing first. Still, I was a little excited.

• She had 3 naps today, and it wasn’t too difficult to get her down for any of them, so I call that a win.

• Milo ate baby food and two crackers, so that was pretty good. I gave her sweet baby food - pear, carrot, apricot - for the first time. She liked it.

• We ordered little dipper spoons so that she can experiment with feeding herself. Also ordered spillproof baby cups, so maybe she can begin drinking more water.

• Lots of fussing today, so I spent a lot of time on the floor with my girl trying to calm her and play with her. She likes it when I lay down and she can crawl all over me. It slightly terrifies me because she likes to grab my hair or wave (sometimes hard) toys around near my head. But it’s an easy way to play with her.

• Chase has been taking care of house stuff, and he’s doing a really thorough job. We are very close to owning our own home, and we’re super excited! (Buying a house is a lot of work)

• Job interview (phone) set for Thursday. I can’t even begin to describe how much anxiety I have thinking about returning to work and being separated from Milo. It’s a lot.

Day Two Hundred and Forty-Nine

Strollin

For some reason, Mondays aren’t too bad anymore. I’ve noticed that the past few Mondays haven’t really felt miserable, which is a nice change. Milo and I just hung out and played a bit. She spent time pushing her walker around. She even flipped it over and inspected the wheels. She got a little frustrated when it was flipped over, but she was eager to get those wheels in her mouth.

Milo has begun to get frustrated when she can’t do things or have things. For instance, when we take things away from her, she’ll cry. When she flipped the walker over and then wanted to flip it right side up again, she cried. She’ll often get over it quickly, but I’m still a little uncertain about how much I should help her when she fusses like this.

Naps have been difficult. She’s in a phase where she’s probably transitioning to only 2 naps per day most days, but some days she still needs 3. So it’s hard to get her to sleep a lot of the time, even if she’s really sleepy. Today, she was up from 3-8, so bed time was sort of easy but also difficult because she was so fussed.

We took a trip to the grocery store today, and Milo was pretty good in the stroller. She wanted to get out while we were going down the street, but she eventually sat back and held on to her toys while we strolled. I’m still uneasy using the stroller because it’s not as natural as just walking around with her in the ergo. It can be difficult to get down the stairs and get her set up in the stroller (we keep it in the lobby), and it’s even harder to get everything settled when we get back to the building with groceries. But hopefully I can work it out because she’s getting pretty heavy to be in the ergo all the time.

Day Two Hundred and Forty-Eight

Sunday

Another bad night. So this morning, Chase took Milo out of the apartment to the park so that I could get a lot of extra sleep because I felt like I slept not at all last night. It was nice to get some rest, though it’s still weird to be away from Milo. The apartment just felt so cold and empty with both of them gone. But the sleep was good.

We had scheduled a make-up music class (we missed one the week we were in Texas), but I cancelled it because of my lack of sleep. I’m eager for Chase to get to see the kids in that class and hear all of the cute songs. So we’ll (hopefully) reschedule soon.

In the afternoon, we took a trip to target to get a couple of things, mainly a new bin for her toys. We have a soft basket for them now, but it’s too small, and Milo basically destroyed it when by trying to stand up while holding on to it. So we needed something slightly bigger and with hard sides. I also got her a couple of new onesies since she’s outgrown her 6mo clothes.

We often sit Milo in the cart while we shop at grocery stores or target, and we did so today. Today was the first time she tried to stand up in the seat. She turned herself all the way around and knelt in the seat. Eventually, we had to take her out of the seat because it became unsafe.