again, thank you, new york!

I am yet again glad to live in a large city with good public transportation, filled with otherwise friendly people. Carolina being entertained, even for a few, brief moments, is so very much appreciated by me. Especially on days when she's otherwise about to be at the end of her rope and we're 3 stops from home, it's lovely to have a complete stranger start to make faces, clap, wave or just make noises at her. Distract her from her teething pain or boredom or impending-sleep agitation. THANK YOU!!!!

She's really working on figuring out how to stand up from a dead sit and walk. She's cruising everywhere and she's gotten taller. Every time I realize she's gotten taller she's either standing under the kitchen table or next to the couch and I can see that her hands and head are now reaching higher and about to hit something that before was MUCH taller than she was.

Along with this growth, I believe, is the recent smattering of long naps. I keep waking her up early from her morning nap to go to a music class or some other thing we have. She gets at least an hour but she clearly could use some more. So I've been protecting her afternoon nap as much as I can.

I even left her with a babysitter twice this week. Two different women came over to babysit her. It went really well. The first two days I left her and she cried while I walked out the door. I just had to leave and make it quick. By the 3rd day, I was actually wishing I had the money for a sitter again since it was SO NICE to get out of the apartment and not have to worry about her being hungry, tired or entertained. Even though I was waiting in doctor's offices for appointments, but whatever.

Now, don't get me wrong. I do really enjoy traveling around with my little Monkey. In fact, she was great when we went in the boiling heat (because I thought that was a good idea for some reason) in her baby carrier to the Union Square Greenmarket this past wednesday. We got some SUPER tasty apple and lemon juice from the Red Jacket Orchards stand. I'm really looking forward to going back tomorrow to get the BIG liter bottle this time. Carolina enjoys waving and clapping at the stall owners and I like checking out the produce. Tomorrow it's supposed to downpour, so maybe not...

We're waiting for Papa to come home on Saturday night from his most recent business trip. Thankfully, she hasn't noticed that he's not come home during her bathtime and isn't there in the morning when she first wakes up after I change her diaper, like he usually is. So, she hasn't been complaining and we have been having a very good time indeed.

One of the local moms moved away yesterday which was a bummer since I liked her a lot and her son and Carolina are the same age by about a week, have been 'friends' since they were about 5 months old. That'll teach me to be friendly with people in the neighborhood ;)

She's still loving the blueberries and has started to indulge in strawberries. I bought a bunch at the local farmer's market and then I noticed she was getting little pimples on her face, neck and then one on her ear. It went away after about an hour and the one on her ear which had gotten pretty darn red went away overnight after I put on hydrocortizone for babies. It might have gone away without the cream. Who knows. So we have to avoid strawberries for a few weeks and then re-introduce them to see if it was heat rash (since it's been damn hot and we only got her an A/C for her room the last of the 2 hot days) or food rash.

Carolina at the park

As I may have mentioned, we go to the park almost daily. She really enjoys "walking" up and down the stairs to the entrance of the slide. What's funny about it is how much she reminds me of my sister, who also was a big fan of walking up and down a few stairs, and how Carolina likes to take each step one giant leg up at a time. Like she can't be bothered to take two smaller, more her-size steps, she MUST do it one leap at a time and quickly. Just like learning how to crawl, she wasn't the first baby of her age group to do it but she was the fastest. Same here, she's about the last of the babies of May (in our group) to start walking on her own, but she's doing it much faster when she holds on than any of the others.

I think we're about to start another round of teething since yesterday and today she's started to gnaw on just about everything and shoves her fingers in the back of her mouth. I still can't see or feel any new teeth but I'm fairly certain there are molars growing under the surface. The lower, right side of her jaw feels a bit flatter than the other back parts of her jaw so perhaps there is a tooth taking its time under there.

She's also been grabbing at the back of her neck and around her ears, which she only does when she's teething. Should be fun since we're planning a car trip to Maryland to visit some of our family this weekend. Is normally a 4 hour, non-stop trip -- but after going with Miss Carolina to Vallarta from Celaya (a 9 hour trip in the car), I think this should be fine. Teething and all.

Let's see how she does sleeping through (or not) the night. I'm really curious since this will be her first trip after having slept through the entire night, consistently, for about a month. Of course there were a few nights when she awoke before 5am very hungry and I had to give her a bottle, and a handful where she yells out for a few minutes then falls back to sleep.

Last time we stayed at my parents place for a week she had only slept through the night for a week at home, so that she was waking up A LOT at their place might be just her old habit since we weren't at home. I'm hoping that we have better luck this time with her sleeping. Ojalá que sí tengamos buena suerte con sueños.

Either way, it'll just be 2 nights at my cousin's house and gratefully, the baby will have her own room. Sweet!! Daddy will probably not come but since grandma and grandpa are staying at a local motel, there are two bedrooms at one of my cousin's homes that are free for the baby and I to use. Woo hoo!!

Things recently

Recently we've made a habit of going to the park after nap #2, which generally ends about 3pm. So the moms and babies in our "group" have a standing meeting time at the park from 3-5pm, and Carolina has decided that she loves the slide. I haven't been brave enough to trust her balance ability to go down herself but she likes it when we slide down together.

And as long as she has some kind of shoes on, I let her "walk" wherever she wants. Much to the pain of my lower back. I just hold her hands and she walks quickly up and down the steps to the slide.

I've also gone out for a mommy-drink night, which was fun. Some of the moms I like best are about to move out of the neighborhood. Ah, well, what can you do...

I think Carolina is going to be walking by the time she's 13 months old.

Her birthday is in 2 weeks and I'm happily preparing her first birthday party. It's going to be a riff off the traditional korean first birthday celebration, with American and Mexican touches to make it our own -- featuring Dora the Explorer since Carolina claps and smiles when she's on TV. Cute!

I'm still immensely grateful she sleeps through the night now and only gets up before 6am on the rare occasion. I do my best to fill her with food all day long so she doesn't get up early from hunger.

We read her Tigger's Breakfast book when she's not very hungry and won't take more food but I know she's hungry enough to eat more if I distract her. And when all else fails, put frozen blueberries in it and clap and smile and say "Yeaaaaay, Carolina, Yeaaaaaay!" She smiles, claps and eats. Too funny.