Went to Mexico, came back with chatty Spanish speakers

Well, I can't say they're both talking in Spanish all the time, but I can say that Carolina's resistance has lessened. Playing with her (mostly) bilingual cousins made her want to talk in Spanish more. 

The baby also picked up more. He now will greet people with an "hola", instead of "hello." He's also gotten a little better at walking by himself instead if needing to be carried everywhere. 

He's got three new teeth coming in. And has a cold. I think there's some infection since the mucus is thick and yellow. But no fever so nothing big. 

Carolina really enjoyed visiting the family. I have to say, for first time, since my very first visit to vallarta, I had a really good time as well. It made me think I could live there. It's still too violent and corrupt, on an individual's level, for me, and I don't believe the educational system, or a culture for pursuing learning, is in place but it was nice. 

What I like about it for the children is that there is trustworthy, loving family in many places. Extended family are friends and the culture tolerates whatever a kid is going to do. It's really much more relaxed, not lazy. 

I really liked the weather, too. Secretly, I'm getting sick of the cold. Although I find it reassuring that it gets cold and snowy. It's not Christmas without the cold and snow. For me, it's really not. It never feels like Christmas when we're there. Plus all their holiday songs aren't mine and tv shows aren't either. The little cultural cues that tell me it's Christmas are missing. 

But, for the kids, who don't have those in place, it's great. It's running outside without shoes and having a great time with fewer restrictions. Eating cookies and candies, and believing that Mexicans are friendly, fun, loving people. My kids have no idea that Mexicans are viewed in a negative way in the States. So, for me, it's really interesting, and a bit of a relief, to see Carolina embrace it all so freely. 

I love my papa; Can I hug frosty?

After her nap today, Carolina stood up and said, "Look, mommy. Picture of papa!" and in fact there was in the hallway outside her room. She then looks at me and says, "I love papa" and gave me a huge hug. I'm supposing that was really for him but he's at home and we're still visiting abuela.

Every night she's asked to go home and often during the day for papa.

While watching Frosty for the hundredth time, and it might actually be 100 times by now, she asked if she could hug Frosty. So we'll have to do that when it snows as she's also been asking for her "Carolina snow boots. Big boots." and those are at home, too. Along with any possibility of snow.

A nice thing is that I'm now "allowed" to speak Spanish to her and to others as well as she wants to watch her Mickey DVDs here in Spanish. I guess Spanish isn't so bad after all.

Every kid she's played with has had a cold, so...

Yup, now she's sick, too. The past two nights she's had a terrible cough. No fever or much mucus but a croup-like cough. So we're taking her to the doctor today to see if he can determine what she's got.

Like with food and naps and sleep and how carefully they're watched at the park, here it's different with kids and their colds. If we were at home, we'd have seen almost no one with a child this past week as at home no one would have taken their kid put with as much snot, coughing and sneezing as they all had. But the parents did, and the kids had fun playing.

Anyway, now she's got a cough that woke her up and hurt enough at 4am she was up until 6am. At least she wanted to go back to sleep in her crib. Means she was serious about wanting to go back to sleep.

The good thing is she's in a good mood and no other symptoms.

Maybe this is why she started asking to go home to "Carolina's big house" in new york. At first we though she wanted to leave Guanajuato and go to see Abuela, who didn't come with us on the day trip. And then though she wanted to go to her little play house in their back garden. But when we got home to Abuela's house, she started crying a lot. Demanding to go home. So we understood.

Then we had a Skype call yesterday with my parents and she got upset since she wanted to be at their place since they had new presents for her from a family friend.

I'm not sure what to tell her as she gets more upset when I say we'll go soon. As her papa is going home tomorrow very early, before she's awake. And we are here another 5 days. And then a night at my folks'.

I'm a bit nervous.

Slowly Party

The other day, I mentioned there was going to be a party after papa arrived in Mexico with other kids. A first birthday party of a friend's son. And she asked if she could go to (what sounded like) a "slowly party". It was definitely an "oh" and "lee" sound after a mushed up sound. So she seemed to like that I said "slowly".

She couldn't tell me what a slowly party was but apparently anything that's like a birthday party is now a slowly party.

For Christmas, Niño Dios brought her a full set of Disney princesses and a tutu (among many other things). She is, unsurprisingly, in love with her tutu. It took a bit of negotiating to get her to take it off (from over her pjs), to go to church and then take a nap.

We'll see if she will put on her Christmas dress and not insist on the tutu.

I'll post a photo of her in pjs and tutu soon.

Packing to go home. Are we ready?

Well, yes, for the most part we are all looking forward to our own beds and some sleep. We will probably all miss not having friends and family close by. People we like to see most days of the week. It's what Papa misses most about living in Mexico:

Calling a friend: You around? Great. See you in 10 mins.

Can't do that in New York. Everyone is always so busy you have to schedule something a week or few in advance. And all our closest friends live at least 30-45 mins away. When at home that sounds fine and normal. Here, it sound ludicrous. Of course Celaya isn't NYC. And that's why I want to go home.

Miss C has been having a lot of travel to deal with. Mostly it's fine but then we get the occasional "too many changes at once mommy!" trip. Our first night in Leon she REFUSED to go to bed. She was up, an hour after me, until midnight. And then woke up at 6.30/7am.

Different house, different crib, no curtains on the windows, no door. Too much activity for my curious babe to be able to resist. Next afternoon she passed put in the car. So we drove around for an hour until she woke up. Figured she needed SOME sleep. Ha. Mommy and Papa needed more...

I think she is going to miss her Abuelos. In particular her Abuela. They had a very good day together a few weeks ago when we both went out during the day. She asks for Abuela in the morning and Abuela is always around. Ah well...

Went to the DF... there were no naps and a stomach bug

Three days in Mexico City and I got a stomach bug while Miss C just had one 1-hour nap on day two. It was a good visit overall. We stayed at a really nice hotel, Hotel Nikko Mexico. A Japanese/JAL chain. Went to Chapultapec park and then Zocolo the next day. It was short not just because of it being only 3 days but my stomach bug cut the last morning short. We didn't go see the ruins just outside the city. Next time...

Pretty sure she thinks we live here now

We were at the hotel in Guanajuato, Quinta Las Acacias, and it was nice and is very well designed.

While C was taking a bath she asked for her towel. Her new way of telling me she's done. And I brought over one of their luxe white towels to the jacuzzi where C was. She insisted no, she wanted her blue towel. My surfeit have blue towels in the bathroom we use at the house. "Nooo. Blue! Tau-wul, bluuuu" No, there's only white towels here. Bluuuuuu.

Eventually she got out and we used the white towel.

Then she started to ask for Abuela. Then David. Then Papa and Abuelo. Abuela and Papa a few times. Is was taking photos outside and we were at the hotel. Not Celaya.

I'm not sure if these little trips are a good idea or not. Or if it matters either way. But there's something about the way she's adapted that makes me think she believes we live here now.

I think she's going to be bored and sad when we first go home. Or maybe she will love her bed and be ok. I've no idea. It'll be interesting.

If I had pursued and taken that college job in Korea, she would have adapted to being a little Korean kid pretty quickly. Faster than us, I can tell. Maybe we should have done that.

I'm reading The Help and it's very good. Thanks, Jee, for the recommendation.

Eating better, feeling better

So I've only time for a short post. Little Miss C is doing better. She will finish her antibiotics run on Monday and it's already proving to be worthwhile. It's an absolute "friega" to prepare and dispense. Why on earth they give it to you dry powder to boil water and prepare, and then the dispenser dropper is an absolute pain (actually hurts to use it unless you're wicked strong). But, and this is a huge but, she's not had any side effects like the last time she had two different antibiotics at home.

It may be that last time she was given penicillin first and we now know she's allergic. And she's older, bigger and heavier. Not sure. This one, klaricid, isn't available stateside. Ah well...

We are going to "the ranch" this afternoon, after naptime, to meet up with Ismael's college friends. Tomorrow is the same location for a Perez family meal. Then some other family meal on friday at the house. Then something family on Saturday at the house or his grandmothers, then Easter Sunday somewhere with the orozco families.

I don't have enough dressy clothes to wear something different each day for me nor carolina, but we will make do.


PS I'm still reading this and I HIGHLY recommend it: Water for Elephants

Up all night? It's a cold.

Putting together very obvious clues, slowly, made me wonder how I got this far as a mother. It was all so obvious and yet I was confused until this morning that Carolina has a cold.

She's felt warm to me for two days and was REALLY whiny yesterday. But it wasn't until she didn't sleep most of the night and banged her head against the crib mattress that I knew something was up. She sounded like she was having trouble breathing but not too badly. Finally this morning I took her temperature and it was shy of 102 degrees. Not a fever exactly but not well either.

Her nose has been very runny today and her appetite has decreased. I know it's teeth. This "cold" I've seen before.

Her last front, bottom canine tooth broke through two days ago and this might be the result of the last set of molars. She has the bottom two threatening to break through but still haven't.

I was at least prepared with her thermometer, vicks vapor rub, Tylenol and nose aspirator thingy.

We are going to Tia Gaby's for lunch after her nap. Ah, her nap that started with intense screaming when I put her in the bath to wash out the sand. I've no idea why she did but ismael could hear it three floors down and across the pool. Even with the ocean being "loud" today. Yup.

Still, though, she had a fun morning on the beach.

Tomorrow we leave the beach very early and head back. 8 hours in the car. Yup yup yup.

20 months and it's getting interesting

The last month has been busy. I've gotten a bunch of colds and we went on vacation to visit the family in Vallarta. It was a lot of fun at the beach, and Carolina didn't seem to mind trading playing in the snow (she calls it "no") with sand. She and her cousin had a lot of fun together and it was nice to be away. The 2 hour plane delay home wasn't much fun but it was mostly fine since she got her own seat (hooray for missing passengers) and they gave everyone free DirecTV as compensation for the delay. She was EXHAUSTED once we got to my parents' place.

She made 'friends' at the hotel because she spent most of each meal at the restaurant running around all the tables like she was in a sprint race. I was glad there were other adults in the family to take turns :)

There wasn't much sleeping at night but there was a lot less headaches as she's able to handle being awake longer during the day without good naps for a week. We also visited friends in Houston and it was her first time sleeping on a blowup bed instead of a crib. Surprisingly went well, although I think more than 2 nights on that and it would have gotten a little tricky with the head banging since the 2nd night was more active than the first.

There's been a lot more "No!" going on in our home. Not snow but actually saying 'no', and belligerent protestation. I suppose that's how it goes as we get closer to 2-3 years old. I'm amused and frustrated by her looking at me, smiling broadly (not sinisterly) and continuing to do what I just said 'No' to. I don't know why I find it funny, but in a way I do, so it makes it hard to sound all stern. We did try a few time outs. It had some effect but really, if she doesn't get to go outside and work out the energy she's got, then 'no' or 'yes' are irrelevant.

It's nearly her naptime and I'm hoping to get some rest so I can finally kick this cold!

It's too cold for the park, but the need to get outside is strong

As my little Jedi has the force with her, which is to say she needs NEEDS to run outside, I've been getting her warmly dressed and taking her outside without the stroller. She basically takes off like a bat out of hell down the sidewalk.

I actually have to run/walk quickly to keep up, and need to be there before she hits the corner. She somehow doesn't have the desire to run into the street (phew) but she'll take the corner and keep going if I don't keep up. She also will take off her gloves and push back her hood when she starts to get either too warm or bored or tired. I can't tell which it is. I just know that when she either slows down and/or starts to fidget with her outfit, it's time to pick her up and walk home.

Of course, while she's in mid-steam she takes a moment to say "Hi" and/or "Bye" to whoever we're passing on the sidewalk. Usually it's just a lot of "Bye" but some people get a "Hi" also.

Earlier this week, there was a woman walking with a stroller and two grade school children towards us -- they were very well bundled up. Carolina points towards the woman and says, "Papa!" I said, "No, that's not Papa. Papa is at work at the office in Manhattan." She then says, "LoLa!" (which is how she says Abuela) and I laughed and said, "No, Abuela is in Vallarta with Abuelo and Gaby." She says "Lolo?" (for Abuelo) The woman has by now walked past us, and I say, "No Abuelo is in Vallarta, too. They are all in Mexico. It is very far away from here and warm." Carolina then yells, "LoLAAAAAAA!"

I laughed very much. I wasn't sure if it was out of desperation to see Abuela or that she understood they were far away, and so she needed to yell so they could hear her. Either way, it was funny.

Of course it was followed up by me scooping her up, because it was cold, and taking her home. That was greeted by a lot of screaming and crying, because of course she wanted to run more even though she had already started walking slowly and clearly tired. Anyway....

After yesterday's checkup where she got a flu shot AND TB shot, she was VERY uncomfortable and had a fever of nearly 104 last night. It was great that Aunt Jee came for a visit to give her a great distraction! Today is better but not nearly all better. Hopefully tomorrow is!

Lusting to be elsewhere

I think it's getting time to leave NYC. I'm at the end of my tolerance for people in cars, with bad taste in music, playing it super-extra loudly and parking in front of my building. And car alarms all night. And drunk people at night. And the 7 train at my window. And no grass to sit on. 

There are just so many inconsiderate people, everywhere. I think leaving the city means having to put up with fewer proportionately.

Miss C still has her ear infection but the new antibiotic seems to be somewhat better. Still a little hyped up in the morning after I give it to her. I've also been giving her Tylenol, twice a day since yesterday. For some reason I think it helps a little. I could be wrong. At least she told me she needed at nap today at 11am and let me put her down awake by 11.15. The last week she was having a hell of a time relaxing.

Not her fault. Those ears be killing her comfort.

I've been more protective of her nap than usual. Not going to playmates that would interfere or taking her into the city. Not until this ear business is over. She sleeps at least two hours at naptime. No way I'm interfering with that rest if it helps get her better.

She has been, also, very stressed and picky about eating. Dinner in particular. I cant't figure out why. Tonight I'm going to start dinner at 5.30 instead of 6 or 6.30, and make sure there is a new book to read to her during it. Last four nights have required me playing Tinkerbell movie preview in order to calm her down and eat. Something.

Meanwhile, I daydream about eating the omakase at Jewel Bako, knowing full well I can't get that outside NYC, or another large, expensive city with Japanese residents. There are desperately lacking decent sushi, forget omakase, in Leon. I hear there is some in Monterrey but there's zero chance I'll move there until after the narcotrafficos clear out.

Blah blah blah

15 months and going...

It's been quite a while since I posted something. The summer was brutally hot and humid and we spent a lot of our days in the park or avoiding outside, depending on how the weather was.

We just returned from a week in Mexico visiting Abuelos y familia. It took her about 4 days to really get comfortable with the family since she hadn't seen them since March and, surprisingly, warmed up to Tio David pretty quickly. I guess since he was willing to hold her hands up and down the stairs (her favorite activity after watching Dora), he won that spot in her heart :) All considered, she was pretty good on the planes there with me and then on the way back with both of us.

I was recently talking with a friend of mine who has an 8 month old about what foods I was giving at that time. It made me realize I forgot and how quickly these little ones change. So I'm going to write down what we do now, for future reference:

She's on one nap a day and is usually from 11/12pm for 1-2 hours. She went to sleep at 10.30am on Tuesday (after the extra-long day on Monday getting home with a serious delay at Houston) and didn't get up until 2.30pm. Very unusual but expected. She's usually desperate for sleep by about 6.30/7pm, mostly since she's walking EVERYWHERE and loves going up and down stairs. While in Mexico I didn't force her to go to sleep at her usual time, in case she wanted to stay up to play with her cousins. Nope, she's like a clock... Was ready for bed at about 7pm CST.

She has gotten much pickier about her food and likes more variety in her diet, and more sweets. She's crazy about pizzelle that my mom makes. Since the past few weeks she's been super-hungry, I was feeding her more since she's just finished a growth spurt. But it's mostly like this:

Get up for breakfast. Cereal with milk, toast, eggs (with cheese usually)
Go to the park, snack (like "healthy" cookies or crackers like Hot Kid Organic Baby Mum-Mum Original Rice Rusks) on the way back or substantial snack (more like lunch #1) like grapes, peaches, grape tomatoes, blueberries once we're home.
Nap
Lunch #2. Usually largest meal of the day includes some kind of meat, veg or fruit and pasta or rice. Cheese, sometimes. Sometimes it's just cheese, and sometimes it's just an endless array of fruit. Other days it's more balanced. I've learned to go with it and fight her less. Much easier on us both.
Park.
Snack on way home
Dinner. Like lunch but smaller, unless she's really hungry that day.
Bath, Dora, book, bottle, bed.

My mother-in-law insisted that I give her 3 bottles a day, maybe 4. She said the baby needs it. I said I don't think so and that eating real food is more filling. I gave it a try mid-week while in Mexico, to be polite while we were there, but she was waking up early in the morning and crying out more at night. I'm really really not sure why the change but we fed her a bottle when she did get up at 4am. That didn't help her go back to sleep right away, but she would finish it. I'm doubtful it was waking up because she was hungry but I went back to our normal routine when we came home just the same. I think it was more anxiety that she was waking up with. Her cries were more like scared/stressed than hungry.

While teething, as I've mentioned before, she's been a blueberry-a-holic. This week, since her 4th molar finally broke through. She's less obsessed with frozen blueberries. She wouldn't eat a frozen one since Monday when it broke through. Yesterday I got her to have some but only after I defrosted them a little.

This is good news as although it means frozen blueberries might be off the go-to list for a while, at least she's been less cranky from the teething. Phew!

So now she has 12 teeth: four top/front, four bottom/front, four molars. I don't know when the others are supposed to come in but I don't care. She's happy, I'm happy.

She's also started to be more shy around strangers. And is less willing to go in the park without me if other kids are around. Just the past 2 weeks, around when she turned 15 months. Something clicked in her head and something changed. I'm assuming this is a new change that is part of the growing cycle. It's curious. she's also having temper tantrums. They're not terrible and not very often, but they're there and they are definite. I ignore her for the most part -- just make sure she doesn't smack her head on the floor or ground as she's doing it. And then when it's done, I go "all done?" And she gets up and we move on.

I've wanted to get her into more classes, the Gymboree ones are great and the equipment is really super. But they're very, very expensive. So, we go to the public park. Not the nice, private one with the grass -- the city ones with the rubber "floors" and sprinklers and slides and stairs and swings. They do the trick. It gets a bit boring but at least we have 2 to choose from that are within 10-15 blocks of the apartment.

12 hour nights, new teeth, no boobs -- it's been a busy few weeks

Our trip to Mexico was mostly work, work, work. We were at the beach for a few days, and even have photos of Carolina's first encounter with crawling on (and eating) sand! But mostly we worked.

Cut to the chase, Carolina ended up staying up until about 9.30-10pm three nights in a row. The last two, we went out to dinner at a local restaurant, then dinner at his aunt's house, and then we flew home and arrived in NYC at 8pm. So she was forced to be extremely overtired, take a 3rd nap, be awoken about 7pm and stay up late. She was a little 'crazy pants' but it wasn't impossible. She then slept like a bear the following 3-4 days and nights at home. And her "going to bed" time has been moved from 5.30/6pm to closer to 7pm.

It was recommended to me to convince her to stay up until 8pm, but I don't have the tolerance to listen to her cry for an hour just to prove a point. Plus, I look forward to her going to sleep some days when it's a really 'whiny' day. If and when she changes her mind and she wants to stay up later, I'm all for it.

During the trip, because of our schedules and how tired we were, I ended up weening her off the last night feed to a bottle. So by the time we got to the beach, she was no longer breastfeeding at night and only one feed every other day during the day. By the time we got home, she was on every other day and last week I pushed it to every 48 hours. So she's been 2 days without anything, and I think my body is preparing to stop. It's just in 'holding pattern' right now.

Plus her 4th and 5th teeth (top) are totally in and she looks super cute.

The first time we noticed she could wave "hello" or "good bye" was Sunday, March 14th at Bruno's baptism in Leon. I was taking her for a walk since she was tired but couldn't fall asleep in the stroller and as I was walking away, with Carolina over my shoulder, her father waved goodbye to her and she waved back. She's been practicing on nearly everyone she sees since.

The first time we noticed she could clap was during dinner on Thursday, March 25th. I had been clapping for her earlier in the week and started to clap again. Like, "Yea, Carolina, good job using your teeth to bite food." And she started to clap too. It was really cute. Later that night, after she went to bed, Kari came over. We had a birthday fruit tart for me, and I made a wish "that Carolina will sleep through the night before her first birthday."

Later that night... she slept from just before 7pm until about 7am. She cried out 2 or 3 times during the early morning hours but stopped before we got the bottle ready. So the following night, we had the water in the bottle and the forumla measured out like usual but didn't get up since she cried out very briefly and quietly again. Third night, same thing. I'm considering this a 'new chapter' in her sleeping.

She might decide in a few days that we really do have to go in there to feed her or she super pooped and we MUST change her. Okay, that's fair.

Tomorrow she'll be 10 months old. So a few days shy of the 10 month mark and we have sleeping through the night. Not the 'official' definition of 5 hour stretches, but the real deal.

I'm still prepared for it to go away. And it's not as restful as I imagined. But man, it's nice not to have to feed her and get out of bed 2-3 times a night. We still both wake ourselves up to see what time it is and see if we can hear her. Still fear we will miss hearing her in need. But, seriously, that's not going to happen. She makes the tiniest noise and I'm up like an Army Sergent at dawn.

9 month checkup: healthy, happy nap-misser

Well, today was a "fun" day of missing out on an otherwise stalwart first, morning nap. So without that, I got Carolina and went on the subway to her pediatrician's office for a 10am checkup. At nine months old she is:
16lbs 3oz (bottom 8%)
27.25" long (bottom 25%)
and I forget her head circumference but it's the bottom 25% also

So, par for the course. Her ezcema on her arms is okay, but hasn't gone away and she has a new little one on her left leg. It doesn't seem to bother her, and her pediatrician gave me some probiotics for her and recommended I also try fish oil.

Her doctor also was surprised at how slowly I've been going with introducing more food. So she was very encouraging for me to give Carolina ALL the veggies we normally eat and introduce a lot more protein. That's probably why she's waking up 3x a night, sucking down 6oz of formula, which is a lot for her. She's growing, she's more active during the day, and she's hungry. And whatever I've been giving her, isn't substantial enough even though it fills her belly.

So far she likes turkey if there's plenty of carrots and squash mixed in. Is not a fan of pork or beef, but I should try to mix in more veggies.

We'll be leaving for Mexico on Thursday. I'm sure her Abuelos will be pleased as punch to see her, and feed her new foods. She loves, loves chayote -- and I haven't bought any here and steamed and mashed it up. But they have it in the Gerber jars there. We'll probably give her some meats while we're there. Plus her Abuela stocked up, as usual, on her favorite foods and diapers. So very grateful we don't have to carry all of that with us!

Today, I also took Carolina to the park to meet up with some of the other babies. She was very happy to be there. When we left, she was hiccuping on the way home. So I fed her the bottle and she passed out asleep. I have to go to a funeral tonight, so when Ismael gets home he'll wake her up and get her ready for bed. Should be any minute now...

Gotta go get ready in appropriate clothes!

snow, in all day, boogers and poop

I'd like to give another shout out to the strangers in new york who continually entertain and engage with Carolina on the bus and subway. Really. I find out some of the most interesting things from total strangers because I'm traveling with Carolina. She's quite the social butterfly.

We've been inside all day. She's just about to get up from her 3rd nap. I can hear her moving around and rattling her 'baby' doll.

With this stuffy/runny nose this week (glad the fever is gone) and uber-teething with 4 upper teeth threatening to come down, she's been up 3x a night and takes 3 naps a day. So after a month of solid effort to get her to wake up less frequently during the night, we're right back where we started.

We had a glimmer of hope this morning when she missed her 4am wakeup, but then she started crying at 5.30am When I went in at a little after 6am, and YES it was still dark out, she hadn't even pooped. Lord knows why she thought she needed to be up that early. The full-on poop came hours later. Which required a complete change of clothes, bed and baby's hair needing to be washed. Oh yeah...

Anyway, after these teeth come in, like last time, I'm hoping for a reprieve. And back to waking up just once a night.

You know what's going to happen. She'll be back to it for like 2 days and then we leave for a week in Mexico with a lot of travel while we're there and she'll be up every 2 hours since we'll be sleeping in the same room. Actually, it'll probably be a surprise whatever happens.

I'm looking forward to going to a friend's house after Carolina is asleep one night soon. See how she responds to daddy bringing her a bottle when she wakes up, and she's expecting the boob. She normally isn't receptive to it AT ALL. So should be interesting for daddy. Good man!

It was all going surprisingly well when it changed

So we went to a friend's house last weekend and it went surprisingly well with Carolina. She napped, TWICE!, for an hour each time in a room she'd never been in before. Man that was great. She was pleasant and enjoyed being around people. I left, surprised and hopeful, that meant our flight on Friday morning would go swimmingly well. Or at least better than I had previously expected.

Then last night happened. Poor thing is really in pain from teething. Those blasted teeth just won't pop through the skin. They keep threatening. She's been basically moaning in pain (and yes, I've given her everything I can aside from a baby-sized shot of whiskey) since last night. She slept for 3 hours, then 2 then up every 90 minutes. Then about 4am and before 5am, got up twice.

Ismael tried to calm her down, I tried to boob-calm her. Yeah, not much. More pain medicine. Yeah...

So about 5.30am I stayed in her room with her on the spare bed in there. I got her to relax and fall asleep and kept popping the chupon in her mouth when it would fall out and she'd try to crawl away. Until it fell out for good and she was asleep. She woke up about 7.30am and looked worse for wear -- but as always, did her best to smile.

She was up for almost 2 hours, as usual, then an almost 2 hour nap. Had trouble with falling asleep for nap #2 and is still sleeping but for only about 20 minutes so far. She already yelled out in a bit of pain since falling asleep.

So we're nearly done packing. Weighed the suitcases and aren't in danger of exceeding the 1 checked bag of 50lbs or less. And I'll be armed with everything I can think of to help her get through the flight.

I've already had one nightmare about the TSA person telling me I can't keep the bottle of Tylenol I have. And I have some good telling off lines in my dream, of course I can't remember the snappy comebacks while awake. But I'll throw out everything we have that remotely resembles liquid as long as I keep the infant Tylenol. Because, seriously, the homeopathic stuff is helpful to a point but I'm not sure it isn't the cause of some recent bouts of "constipation" she's had. And when she's really going for it, the stuff she likes least (Tylenol and baby Orajel) are the things that make her stop hurting fastest. Or at least stop crying, screaming or moaning.

I keep thinking she's experienced the worst of it, and it'll pass soon. And then another day comes and she gets pain she hasn't had before.

At least I'm over my cold. If I was sick AND she was teething AND we were on a flight when she was at her worst, I don't think I could handle it as well as not being sick.

All that aside, I think as usual she will surprise me on how she does on the flights. It might be better or worse, but it'll certainly be different than I can imagine. It always is...

Now I just have to remember to pack the passports and we'll be all set.

But on a happier note, my little Carolina was having a wonderful time yesterday afternoon with some other babies in the neighborhood at a mom's house near us. There were about 6 of them at a playdate. She was the smallest and youngest, but she sat up for about 15 minutes (first time ever!) because the other ones were sitting and crawling and I could tell she was very calmly showing them she could do it too.

As you can see in the photo, she was really sitting in a 'good girl' pose. Super cute! Sometimes she REALLY reminds me of my sister. This photo is one of those times.

After this picture, she let me know she wanted to stand up. So I helped her. She then "walked" towards one of the other little boys who was standing on his own. He leaned towards her, she put out her hand, he put out his hand and then they held hands in mid air for a second. He started 'talking' to her and she made just one little noise. But otherwise, she was totally silent. She's really more of an observer, so I was impressed that she was making 'contact'.

Thanksgiving in NJ and the holiday weekend

We went to my parents place for Thanksgiving. It was just the 5 of us since Diana is in LA, and only dinner (well, lunch) for 4 since Carolina doesn't eat Thanksgiving food yet.

Miss Carolina wasn't really into sleeping in a bed that wasn't hers. She did nap, sort of. Then went to sleep around normal time, but after waking up twice inside of 5 hours, she decided she wanted to stay awake. So we took turns going to put the chupon back in her mouth and try to get her to fall asleep over the next hour to hour and a half. Sometime around 2am she fell asleep, for 5 hours. Phew... At least there was some decent sleep even if the three of us were totally tired the next day. But it was different, and a little better in some way, than the month before when we stayed over without Ismael over Halloween.

As Julia says, in a few months it'll be different. Not necessarily better, might be, but definitely different.

I'm completely expecting that when we get to Mexico for two weeks, it'll be different in ways I can't imagine now and then when we return it'll be different again.

At least, every month, it is different. Mostly for the better as far as I am concerned.

Today is her 6 month 'birthday'. Hooray!

Carolina has taken to sucking in her bottom lip. I think she feels the little teeth coming up. It's a little strange to see her like that since it really does change her face and she's not smiling or talking when she does it. She was pretty silent that way yesterday on the way back from Target. The entire bus ride.

Speaking of Target. We bought some diapers there. Not Target brand, I'm not ready to try store brands yet. But we bought a HUGE case of Pampers from Toys R Us, which I love (Pampers not TRU), and they smelled kind of funny. And when she peed in them they smelled almost like paint thinner or paint. It was the kind of smell that goes to the back of your throat and gives you a headache behind your eyes. Or at least did me. So I wrote to Pampers, they're looking into it. We may get our money back. I hope so, those huge boxes of diapers are kind of expensive even though they are cheaper per diaper.

In the meantime we've tried Luvs (not too much of a fan but willing to finish using the pack) and just bought Huggies without fragrance and organic cotton. I honestly was more interested in the lack of scent than anything else. Why baby diapers MUST come with some fragrance, I'm not sure. I know it's to mask the pee or poop smell, but the mix of "baby powder fresh" and pee or poop is actually headache-inducing. At least for me.

So we'll keep trying out different brands in case the Pampers saga doesn't end the way I hope.

And we're about to start introducing formula. SLOWLY...

A nighttime bottle has gone disastrously so far, but we'll keep at it. Sometimes. It's hard to hear her cry so heartily and earnestly and know that I could just feed her myself and she'd be fed and asleep inside of 6 minutes. So I need to get determined about it and just do it.

Ok, she's up again.

4 month check up and ear piercing

We're about to go to the pediatrician... get her 4 month checkup, immunizations (4 shots like at the 2 month visit) and her ears pierced.

I'm having a minor anxiety attack about subjecting her to all this pain.

Let's see how it goes...


3 hrs later:
holy effing sh*^ that was awful. Never go to a pediatrician who isn't totally awesome about ear piercing. She was hysterical. Hysterical for almost an hour. It wasn't the actual piercing but the holding her down to do it. And he wasn't as comfortable doing it as he had made it sound. Never again. Only with a baby ear piercing specialist. And one ear is totally off. So I'm taking that one out tomorrow to heal and she can have it repierced in December while in Mexico. We should have done that from the beginning. Waited for Mexico where they do it to newborns all the time. That was traumatic. Now my poor kid is upset all day and will only nap on me. I'm so annoyed. If I didn't know her ear will close up quickly or that an ear piercing specialist said to take out the "wrong one" I would leave it in to avoid more trauma.

She was so thoroughly terrified. I had to hold down her arms and my dad her legs and the doctor her head. Utterly too much. Never again.

Vacation went surprisingly well, being home however...

One day and night at grandpa's apartment followed by three days and two nights at the beach went surprisingly well. Gratefully the hotel room had very dark curtains so Carolina was able to sleep well. And we were mostly able to keep her nap and sleep schedule. She basically slept all day on Monday at home as she recovered from being tired from the weekend.

I just hope she forgives me for her first experience with ocean water. Which was freezing. And I asked her dad to put her feet in. And she sooner than immediately screamed. Screamed!! And didn't stop for about 10 minutes. See the photo (on the left) I took thinking she'd be smiling. Stupid mommy, really. And then later that day when she's tired but not having a fit. Notice the pink sweatshirt. It's from 1976. It was mommy's. Aunt Diana found it in our old closet and Grandma Carmela brought it to the beach. Hooray! That plus socks made Carolina's cold feet much happier!

The car ride there and back was okay. She wasn't a fan of the car seat, 'natch. She fussed and we made a few, brief stops along the way to stretch, change diaper, feed and walk around outside. But 3+ hours in the car is definitely her max. The whole trip was about 4+ hours with all the stops. and the traffic we hit on the way home took am extra hour that I would have gladly paid to avoid. Let's just say we ran out of milk in a bottle and when going over the GWB, she woke up with 10-20 mins left until Queens without traffic, more traffic on the FDR and I bought us about 10 mins of not crying by giving her a bottle of cold water. This distracted her but she was still crying when we pulled up and I rushed inside to feed her.


All in all it made me VERY hopeful for our two week trip to Mexico at Christmas.

Yesterday, however, was a different matter. She hardly napped. Nursed for a few minutes every hour but it felt like constantly. I was exhausted by 3pm. I had to keep walking outside around 2pm so she would (finally) sleep a little. She slept for only 30 mins but that's better than nothing. I ended up walking for 90 minutes outside. Mostly up and down our block wher the light breeze hit her head just as she likes it. I even had to ask Ismael to come home early since I was worn out by her. She was very clingy too. Maybe just one of her 'crazy' days.

Her poop has been greenish and on the sticky side for nearly a week. I'd be more worried except mine is too. I think it's the lack of fruit and veg while on vacation. Or maybe I'm a bit sick. I ate granola last week. Found a new one without nuts. Very yummy. But sometimes oats tear up my stomach. So that could be a contributing factor.

I'd call her pediatricians office but the doctor that does the callbacks usually is glib and gives me no information I couldn't get online or figure out myself. She really irritates me. Next month we start with a new doctor who is in network. I hope it works out since paying $200-500 per visit is murder on the wallet. Especially since insurance reimburses what amounts to around 30%. So many pediatricians in the city don't take insuranace. Not sure if the Obama plan would make a difference but having a baby is bloody expensive.

I hope today is a better nap day for my shorty.