Month: June 2006

I like recording these firsts. The other night when Leilani was eating rice, she was also chewing on my finger and I noticed her gums felt different. When we tried to look into her mouth, we could tell her gums were a bit red, but she got fussy so we couldn’t get a good look at them. That was probably a sign itself, in addition to all the drooling. Today, we got a good look and could see the gums parting and definitely feel hard teeth underneath.

She drooled a lot several months ago, and my wife lost a bet that Leilani would get teeth early. But since she has actually been less fussy lately we weren’t expecting teeth. Everybody says teething is so painful, and after the early colic, we were afraid she (and we) would be miserable. Some of our neighbors that we don’t know at all have a baby that we never heard until recently, and we assumed that he was teething. But Leilani is showing no signs of discomfort from the teething, which is a small miracle in our eyes (and ears).

Mommy adds: Leilani was not only brave when teething, she also got her first vaccination today, and did not cry at all. We are so proud of her!

No I will not show you my teeth!

With a lot of patience…

I don’t know if this one is ever mentioned in the baby books, but tonight, Leilani managed to feed herself from my plate.

We’ve mentioned before how interested she is in our food when she sits on our laps during meals. She will grab plates and silverware or anything she can reach on the table. She obviously can tell we are eating, especially now that we feed her 2 to 3 meals per day from her own bowl with a spoon. She also likes to grab food and squish it in her hands whenever we’re not paying enough attention.

Today, my wife went shopping with Leilani and bought herself an ice cream bar (since she made her diet public, I can say that here :-). Apparently, Leilani kept reaching for it and trying to grab it, and Mommy had a hard time holding her and eating the ice cream. We knew it was coming, but it’s finally here: one side effect of having a child is that we have to eat more healthy if we want her to eat well.

But until tonight, Leilani had never grabbed food and put it in her mouth to eat it. She was sitting on my lap and reached for my plate as usual. Since I had white rice facing her, I figured it would be easy enough to clean up if she played with it, and it would be safe for her to swallow if she got some in her mouth. But instead of playing with it or squishing it, she consciously picked up a clump, mostly with her fingers instead of her palm, quicly moved it to her mouth and ate it, even licking her fingers to get more grains of the sticky rice. She repeated it a few more times and seemed to like eating rice, until she got bored and just spread it all over.

I used to make really great Thai curry. Everybody loved it. Well, some complained it was too hot. So I used a little less spice. And I didn’t like all the saturated fats, so I replaced part of the coconut cream with soy milk. And Leilani gets gassy if I eat broccoli… Out. Julian doesn’t want to eat mushrooms, onions and garlic. That’s pretty sad, but I left them out too. And I forgot to buy carrots. So anyway. I made an extra mild version of what was left of my curry for Laura who is pregnant, and was pretty embarassed to serve it. Nobody complained, and it was edable, but… Next curry will be back to normal.

Leilani can’t write yet, but she wants me to tell Grandma how much she loves the quilt:

You can tell she really likes because she was really smiling a lot when we took the pictures.

Another Thank You goes to Carl and Ann Morahan, Leilani’s great-great aunt and uncle once removed (if that’s not right, please correct me), for the beautiful lilac dress. It is light and easy to put on, and most important Leilani likes it, and she is very opinionated about clothes…

In the end, she even sat on all fours, and stayed that way after we let go. That’s only the second time that Andy sees her doing that. It won’t be long before she’s crawling.

One of my dearest relatives asked me about my fitness levels. (not in a comment on the blog though…got more comments there from Brasil and Japan than all family combined :-()

A month ago I happily blogged about my new shoes, stroller and motivation… Soooo. Did it work? Kind of. I jogged today and took the metrics (running for almost 2 miles before needing a walking break, slightly over 5 mph / 12 minute miles – the metric metrics are 3 km in 22 min) … my performance has slightly improved, and my weight now hovers around 148 – 2 pounds less than when I started. That was the good news.

The bad news is, it is not easy getting up and out with Leilani: There is a short window of oportunity, if I start running past 7:00am it gets too hot, and Leilani is not allowed to get up before it is light outside (parental self defense, because if it is dark she has no way of telling if it is 3:00am or 5:30am). Once we are up she needs to go potty – and that takes up to 10 minutes, and both need to get dressed and ready…

But that is not all. Both of us need to be in a fairly good mood, painfree, having had enough sleep (that’s relative). And then there is the motivation factor, all might be perfect, and I could still be lazy. And the weather – no running in the rain with a baby. In the end, we manage to get out about twice a week.

Unfortunately there are further hurdles once we hit the road. Sometimes Leilani gets bored or antsy in the stroller and wants to be carried, sometimes the sun is out (and very low) and shines in her face. We start out by running north (yes, sun is rising NE) and west as far as possible, while the sun is behind the clouds – and turn around right away when it comes out… But I still get in 1 or 2 miles almost every time, and then some walking and carrying the baby – that’s called a cool down and the idiot’s running guide says it’s a good thing.

The next obstacle is stretching. Often I have to disturb Andy and ask him to hold the baby, because with my feet and ankles not stretching is not an option. By then the baby might want to eat, and I am sweaty, stinky and want a shower. Today she played with her blocks while I stretched and then we showered together – she kind of liked it, except when the water was turned on too much and hits her on the back, and I have to remember not to use the peppermint soap. Other times she wants a nap, and I have to lay down with her on the bed (and wash the sheets the same day).

Update 2 days later: Today I tried running again and did not do as well. 100% humidity made me drip with sweat and run much slower, the sun came out 1 minute after we started, and black clouds were looming over Nounou. Still ran a mile and walked almost another one, and got home 5 minutes before the rain started…