Sunday Night - Asleep at the Wheel

We went back to the Folklife Festival tonight. We still haven't found Hoover's so we had Vietnamese food. I figured it was from Houston but it was actually a local Thai place that was asked to do it. In fact the cashier asked me if there are really a lot of Vietnamese in Texas. I told him about the great Vietnamese food in Houston and about the shrimp boat workers in Galveston but he still seemed skeptical. The festival resumes later in the week so we'll try then to find Hoover's. Tonight's entertainment was Asleep at the Wheel. Georgie loved it, especially Take Me Back to Tulsa.

Not the show we saw, but the same song.

Learning to sit

New Tricks

It's hard not to post every time Georgie does something new -- which seems to be every day now. Two days ago, she rolled from back to tummy. Yesterday she seemed to be experimenting with screaming/laughing. Several times, including when we were outside at the Mall, she shrieked ... I think because she was excited. And yesterday when I was holding her facing outward, she was straining her head, trying to be as forward as possible, to look inside a green cloth bag. Hard to describe, but very cute and funny. So fun to see her figuring things out and being curious about the people and things around her.

Back to Texas Again!

We were just in Texas last week and already we sort of went back today. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is going on right now. Every year they highlight 2-3 world cultures. This year it's NASA, Bhutan, and....Texas. How random and exciting. Tonight we went to see Joe Ely and Joel Guzman play. We were also hoping to try some Texas food and see some of the displays but a thunderstorm got in the way. We are going to try again tomorrow. One of my favorite Austin restaurants -- Hoover's -- is supposed to be there. Sunday night Asleep at the Wheel is playing and we are hoping to see that too.

Every year there's a different theme at the festival. This is probably the only time it will ever be Texas.

Hard to tell here but when we got there we could tell that a storm was going to interrupt our plans. We decided to wait it out in the National Museum of Natural History.

This dingo is trying to eat our baby.

Hey, I have one of those!

Our stroller has a special compartment for Shiner Bock.

I'm ready to rock.

From left -- Joel Guzman, Joe Ely, Lloyd Maines. They started late so we had to miss the end of their set, but what we heard was great. And it's officially Georgie's first concert!

Feet!

Lately Georgie's been having a lot of fun with her feet.

We fill up the sink partway with water, sit her on the edge of it, and she splashes. It was so fun to watch her figure this out, that she can cause the splashes with her feet and legs. She's very focused on it when she does it. She sometimes uses both legs at a time, sometimes one. Sometimes she holds one leg above the water, knee bent and in trigger position, before splashing.

Also, tonight in the bath she was grabbing her right foot and sometimes a toe or two and trying to bring it to her mouth. Her head was as far forward as she could get it, and she was raising both feet as close to her mouth as she could, while grabbing at her ankles, feet, and toes. Very cute.

Plane Ride

Georgie did pretty well on the plane rides ... just one rough landing. People even complimented us, on flights there and back, on how well she did.

In this picture you can also see that she has some thick remaining birth hair in back. Aaron says it looks like Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein.

Georgie's dinner outfit

We went to King William last night and had dinner at La Focaccia. I guess I didn't take any pictures while we were there but here's one of Georgie's dinner outfit. Dinner was nice. I had Snapper Romana. Nikki had a big grilled chicken salad. The piano player (or actually a funny synthesizer and drum machine player) who used to play at Luigi's was playing there. I had wanted to take Nikki to Luigi's while we were here but we noticed it was closed when we drove down San Pedro Saturday. Actually it wasn't closed, it was ironically re-opened as a second location of La Focaccia. Anyway, I'm glad they kept the energetic old French piano player employed. Georgie liked the music except when it got really carnival-y.

Georgie in the Alamo City

It's Georgie's first trip outside of DC! We left Friday afternoon for San Antonio and are staying until Tuesday morning. Georgie did incredibly well on her first airplane ride. We only ran into trouble in the last 20 minutes or so of the last leg, at which time she was completely miserable and inconsolable. It was hard to take but probably better than her being generally unhappy the whole time. We got in late Friday night but still had some time to visit with the grandparents. Georgie is amazed at how much there is to look at in their house.

Saturday we got up and bummed around some of San Antonio's inner neighborhoods, including the Deco District around Fredricksburg Road which has seen a real comeback the last few years. We then went downtown to my favorite restaurant -- an old German deli called Schilo's. They make their own root beer and have the best split pea soup on the planet. I told Nikki that and she ordered the vegetable soup anyway and then regretted it.

We then went over to Rivercenter Mall and Dillards (which is in the old Joske's building). Georgie needed a little nap and she took it in the Bjorn. Then she got the grand tour of the Menger Hotel. By then we were all pretty tuckered out so we came back, had naps, woke for steaks, then went back to sleep for the night. Ah, vacation.

Today we mostly hung around the house. We had breakfast tacos this morning. We had a light lunch and are soon going out to dinner. We've been spending a lot of time outdoors and the heat is surprisingly far from unbearable. My parents' house gets a very nice breeze almost around the clock so unless the sun is beating straight down it's very nice out there. That's all for now. Here are some photos of the trip so far:

Me at Schilo's

Nana and Georgie at Schilo's

Nikki at Schilo's

Rolling Over

Georgie rolled over this morning -- tummy to back. Very exciting. She's been trying to roll from back to stomach, but rolls on to her side and then is so pleased with the new perspective she just hangs out on her side for a while.

Carriers, Cars, and Planes

We test drove our new Beco carrier this morning on a walk to Target. Georgie liked being in the carrier at first, but then she got tired and didn't like it. We can use it this carrier even when she's a toddler, and we can carry her on our backs in it. We've been looking for a carrier that had back support, and were deciding between this and the Ergo ... but this one had a nice design on it, whereas the Ergo is more plain. You can't see the design in this picture, but it's honeycomb with 2 red bees on it. So it has a nice design but Georgie doesn't love it.

In other exciting baby transporting news ... we had a few successful car rides this week. On Tuesday, Georgie and I went out for lunch and to look at trees and flowers at Dupont Circle. Yesterday we went to Whole Foods. I timed it so we left right after a nap for these rides, so she was alert and looking at toys on the way to these places, then we stayed out until it was about time for another nap, and she fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Finally, our first plane trip is tomorrow. We're excited to go to Texas but ... curious ... about how the plane trip will go.

Father's Day Weekend, Day 2

So today I was going to cook pancakes and bacon for Aaron. I started cooking but needed to feed Georgie, so then Aaron finished. Then he made sushi for us later in the day while I took a nap. He told me he actually wanted to make the pancakes, and he loved making the sushi. So he cooked his own meals today, of all days! Regardless, I think he spent the day just as he wanted to:



Georgie debuted this hat on the front lawn today... One of our neighbors asked if it was a gift -- Nope! We picked it out ourselves!




I took Georgie to Rock Creek Park this evening for a walk while Aaron slept. Here's a picture -- I finally got her full smile, almost, with my cell phone, though, and with my finger in the frame and part of her head cut off.


Finally -- Happy Father's Day to my dad, my brother, and my father-in-law! We hope you all enjoyed the day.

First Father's Day

Well, it's my first father's day. Nikki asked me what I wanted to do today and, after thinking about it for awhile, I decided that it would be a real treat to go out to a restaurant and have a beer with dinner. With the exception of my brother's birthday dinner at Dogfish Head when my family was here I haven't done that in quite some time.

I didn't really care what restaurant we went to but I might not have immediately thought of going to a chain tex-mex place in a strip mall a mere week before going to San Antonio. An impending rain storm and fussing baby helped inspire me though. So we went to the Don Pablo's at Potomac Yards in Alexandria.

My intention was to get a beer but as we got closer and closer to the front door I realized that I had to have a top shelf margarita. It was made with some fancy 1880-something or other tequila and Grand Marnier. I also got a mixed fajita platter. It was only a half notch or so above Chili's but it was still really a treat. We almost never go out to eat here (and when we do it's Chipotle) so just about any food we don't cook seems fancy.

I hear rumors that there are still presents to open but it was nice enough just to get to go out for a funny little meal with my new family. Now I'm just waiting till it's late enough to go to bed so I can sleep off my 32 oz. margarita. I think we've decided that from now on our Father's Day tradition in fajitas and ritas. Hopefully next year we'll do it somewhere a little more authentic, if you know what I mean.

One other note: I was taking Georgine for her morning walk around the block today when a kind of cracked-out lady yelled "Awww, Hey Fatso!" I think she was talking about Georgie but you never know.

3-Month Review

First, I think Georgie might have strawberry blond or red hair. Her birth hair was a reddish brown, and we thought her hair hair was coming in as blond. Now it's looking reddish. This might be a trick of blond underneath what's remaining of her birth hair, though. I'm pretty obsessed with what color her hair will be. It's fun.

Second, I can't believe our little Georgine is already 3 months old! It's gone by so quickly, too quickly. I feel like she'll be a baby forever, but I know she'll soon be looking more and more like a little girl.

So, I thought I'd write a little about how she's changed over these 3 months and about parenting these past 3 months.

The first month was actually a lot easier than I was preparing for. Just like my mom promised me, what she did was eat and sleep this month. When she cried, it was easy to figure out what she needed: to eat. She didn't (and still doesn't) cry when she has dirty diapers. The most difficult part of these first couple weeks was feeling better after my c-section.

The second month was more challenging, because she started crying at night. Late into the night. We finally figured out that it was because she was tired, or overtired, and was having trouble settling down. Her nervous system was overloaded. So she would cry late into the night, didn't want to play or just stay up, actually wanted to sleep, but just couldn't. Or didn't know that's what she needed. We got the book and video Happiest Baby on the Block, and it worked wonders! We started swaddling consistently, shushing, gently jiggling, and recognizing that her fussing was because of being tired, as near as we could figure out. There's also a kind of creepy soundtrack in the video, supposed to emulate womb sounds but sounds weirdly industrial ... but the first night we played it loudly while she was swaddled she fell asleep within about 45 seconds and was out for the night. It hasn't worked that well since, but it does still work. She also was having what we think were gas pains this month -- a lot of grunting and fussing, seemingly because of the grunting. Mylocon seemed to work a little, maybe; gripe water also maybe did ... but mostly she just needed to grow out of it. She held her head up, high, and propped herself up with her arms more this month. She also started smiling socially this month -- what a joy! It melts my heart.

By the beginning of the third month, she was over the late night fussing and grunting, smiling a lot, and was just generally more aware of her surroundings. As I wrote about below, she also started to really like independent time. She's even grabbed some toys hanging from her little gym. She puts her hands in her mouth a lot -- at first we thought she was trying to find her thumb, and it might be that a little, but I think she was trying to use her fingers as little teethers. She does seem to be aware of her hands and her feet. And she loves looking in the mirror; sometimes she turns her head to the side to see what's behind the cute little baby staring back at her. She also kicks her legs when she gets excited ... at least I think that's what's going on. She loves the toy monkeys hanging from the lamps on our walls (the tacky fake gold and fake crystal lamps wired to our walls actually look better decorated with toy monkeys), and she kicks when I bring her over to look at them.

She's so much fun. I love being a mom more than I ever imagined. And I love watching Aaron the Papa.

Finally -- the Giraffe teether came in the mail today, and she loves it! So above are her 3-month birthday pictures, cold and all. She's even smiling in the last 2.

3 months old ... and sick!

Georgie caught my cold. She was really fussy and couldn't be put down all night, was sneezing, coughing a little, and has a runny nose today. She's still in pretty good spirits; there are still some smiles, she still loves my "oops!" face, but she certainly doesn't want to practice standing or some other more physical things. So she gets a break from tummy time today!! She's not learning a good lesson about birthdays, so far they mean vaccines and sickness. Oh, we're postponing today's appointment (which was a shot-only appt) until next week or possibly early the following week, depending on how long it takes her to get over this. Our doctor thought this was a good idea, too, and brought it up in fact, when I called to say Georgine was sick. We love this doctor.

Here are a few pictures from 2 days ago. She does like tummy time more now, and likes independent time more too -- sitting in the recliner, laying in her gym and looking up at toys, etc. We treated the first 3 months of her life as the 'fourth trimester,' like a lot of parents do ... lots of holding, focusing on bonding, feeding on demand, following her natural sleep-wake cycle rather than scheduling her (with the exception of helping her get her days and nights straight), and so on. And in the past 2 weeks or so, she's signalled that she's ready for a change, not by fussing more or anything like that, just by being able to sit longer by herself and seeming very content and interested in her independent time. From this, then, her routine evolves (and is evolving). We know routines are important, and we're following what works best for her. And after that exposition, the pictures:

Teether

It's looking like Georgie is in the first throes of teething. The last few days she has been really fussy and only a toy or finger in her mouth seems to abate it. Last week we ordered a French toy called Sophie the Giraffe, which is supposed to be made of all-natural, non-toxic rubber. We are generally wary of plastic toys (read: toys made in China), but it seems especially important to be cautious if it is something primarily designed to be chewed on.

I ordered Sophie from a diaper store called Cotton Babies. This was last week, when we thought we were really thinking ahead to order teething toys. The next day they told me they were back-ordered. I figured we had time so I decided to just wait. They went ahead and charged me for the thing anyway, despite not giving me an answer as to when they expected them in. Well Nikki called them today and got the run-around so we went ahead and ordered it from somewhere else. In the meantime I next-day-aired (yes, that's a verb) a wooden chew toy from Amazon. Hopefully she'll like that in the interim.

Additionally, Nikki is sick and I seem to have lost my daytime sleeping ability. Needless to say, we are not a family in the best shape right now.

Hmmm, I don't want to end on a downer -- the apartment it down to nearly 65% humidity! So we've got that going for us...

June 9th

Swampy

It's been terribly humid outside lately and that has carried over to the indoors. I'm sure living in a basement doesn't help. It's gotten to the point that our carpet feels damp so we decided to buy a dehumidifier. Target had one on sale that would be more than adequate for our square footage. I just brought it home and plugged it in so we'll see how it does. According to our hygrometer, it's currently 80% rel. humidity in here. This seemed like a silly purchase for the sort time we're here but we have made home ownership our primary goal in life right now and this will be very useful when we are homeowners. I will update this at the needle falls on the hygrometer.

*June 9th, 3pm -- we are down to about 70% humidity now and I've removed at least two gallons of water.

Back to the NMAI

We went back to the National Museum of the American Indian, this time just to meet a friend of Nikki's for lunch. We learned an important parenting lesson -- bring the stroller; double check that it's in the car. We forgot both it and the bjorn so we ended up carrying Georgie the whole time, first in her car seat and then in our arms. She didn't seem to mind, and even fell asleep facing out while I was holding her. She did end up getting a little fussy though and we cut our visit a bit short.

The cafe there is quickly becoming our favorite restaurant in town. Nikki had the salmon with berry glaze, wild greens, jicama salad, and a wild rice salad. I had a trout sandwich, fry bread, and some roasted squash.