Showing posts with label gym. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gym. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

A fun summer day

Carolina woke up at 6am this morning, but clearly still tired. I think it's the molars coming in (ugh) that woke her up early. So got her fed and ready to go to the baby gym for 9am on the east side. After "open gym" for 30 minutes there was a class so we had to leave. I was walking along 57th St toward the westside so I could go shopping at Whole Foods for her fruits and veggies before heading home.

Got on the M57 bus, gave her the morning bottle, and got off at Central Park since I realized she was too tired to go to the store. I was going to go later in the afternoon and do a quick walk in the park with her before heading home. I figured she'd want to nap about 11 instead of 12.

Well she decided she wanted to sleep at 10, while I just started to walk into the park entrance. It wasn't worth going home, and it wasn't TOO hot. So I found a patch of grass and sat down. Then I laid down since it was too uncomfortable to sit. I rested too, but didn't fall asleep. 45 minutes later she was up and much happier.

I had not brought her shoes (yes, I forgot - again!) since she was only going to the gym, so I only had her socks. I let her walk around in the park. Super dirty socks, now, and all. She was happy. Had some water and a teething cracker, then headed over to Whole Foods.

Called Papa and we met him near Columbus Circle for lunch outside. She wandered around and went up to many people and smiled.


She's now dancing to Dora the Explorer "We did it" song. Hilarious.

Whenever the next nap is, I'm looking forward to it. I need a bit of a rest. I walked everywhere with her in the baby carrier since it's NOT easy to get to Lex & 59th during rush hour with a stroller. Besides, I have NO idea how to get from the N train to the street at Lex without climbing a LOT of stairs. *Sigh* this city is not baby or old person (or handicapped) friendly.  It's primarily for the youthful, fit and well-off. Glad I'm still the first two of those ;)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

She's a great dancer, and likes to play with other kids

Two things I learned about Carolina this week are:
1. She likes to dance, and has a good sense of rhythm. She prefers music with a Latin beat. Seriously. (Our first indication was a trip to Vallarta in Feb 2009 before she was born, and we were in the Cuban restaurant where they play really great music. She was kicking me like never before. She was our 'tiny dancer'.) She was rocking out to a Ricky Martin song today at the local Gymboree.

2. She likes to play with other kids. Now I knew this already but I had no idea how much now. We've just started a discount/trial month at a Gymboree on the UES (got it through groupon.com. She's in a play/movement class once a week on an afternoon and we go to the gym when they have 'open' sessions twice a week in the early morning. During today's open gym, she was so very very disappointed when we had to leave. She was playing 'catch' with an older boy by rolling the ball between them. She was very interested in playing with a 4-year-old girl who was running around, throwing herself on the mats, and jumping up and down. Carolina tried to keep up with her for a bit, then looked at me a little confused. I smiled and said "Go ahead. Keep going." And she smiled and kept trying to keep up, but she couldn't.

She climbed on everything and was seemingly very proud of herself for being so independent. I have to say, I was impressed. I try to usually keep back and let her do her own thing when I can. She almost didn't need me at all. Woo hoo!

Food, these days, is another matter. Her pickiness continues. I've been given some very helpful advice to give her what she likes and wants, instead of what I want her to eat. This has turned out to be surprisingly healthy, for the most part. Yesterday she ate her first (whole) navel orange, and today her first (entire) peach.

Today at lunch after her nap was pretty funny. She took a few bites of the cod I was eating, then didn't want that. I gave her a bunch of peeled grapes cut up from her snack before nap and after about 10 of those, she was done. So she was pointing to the blueberry muffins on the table, which are next to the peaches I just bought yesterday. I decided to give her a peach instead of the muffin she wanted. She cried, very loudly, with tears when I put a few small cut up pieces of peach on her high chair tray. Carried on like it was the end of her little life.

At one point she threw her head back and opened her mouth widely while wailing, and I put a piece of peach in there. She closed her mouth as she brought her head down and had no choice but to taste the peach. She stopped crying immediately, made a few contentious noises and then ate it. And grabbed the rest on the tray with gusto. She then pointed to the counter where the rest of the peach was and started to make a fuss that she wanted more. This resulted in her eating the ENTIRE peach.

The crying and carrying on is exhausting for me to listen to but, really, I'm glad we now have more food on her "approved" list, which includes:

1. blueberries
2. hummus
3. spanakopita (Greek spinach pie)
4. raspberries
5. peaches
6. grapes, green ones
7. cherry/grape tomatoes (although they frustrate her since she can't eat the skin but she loves the taste and that they are juicy in her mouth.)
8. rice crackers (the Mum Mum kind)
9. Graham crackers
10. broccoli (sometimes)
11. caesar salad dressing (not a meal but as a topping. I hate giving her this one since it's so salt/fatty so I don't unless I'm desperate.)
12. squash/zucchini (sometimes, and only with something else like spanakopita or hummus)
13. navel oranges
14. strawberries (but they seem to give her less than a handful of  little pimples on her face every time)
15. Berry flavored "fiddlesticks" (rice crackers in a stick form she can easily hold)
16. Cheerios cereal
17. Life cereal


Of course there's cake and apple/cherry/blueberry/orange juices on the list but above is what I can get her to eat. MOSTLY without fuss.

With fuss, recently, there's chicken, fish, beef. I'm working on getting eggs into the list and watching her face breakout/not since earlier in the year she loved eggs but they gave her the same thing that strawberries seemed to. I'll try it again.

And in terms of naps, she's almost solidly a 12pm-2pm girl. Sometimes takes until closer to 12.30 and sometimes only until 1.30pm but I can mostly get her to take her nap on schedule, which is nice. For me.