the cuckoo's nest

i'm sure every parent thinks their kid is ahead of the curve in one way or another - or in every way - but seriously, violet is strong. she can bear an amazing amount of weight on her legs already, and her neck strength is getting better everyday. her arm strength, however, is pretty wimpy due to our very wimpy tummy time sessions - we're trying, but it's trying. last week was an unfortunate sleep week because she was busting out of every swaddle i tried, and i am not shy about pulling those things tight. "snug" is the preferred word, i believe. the double burrito (kevin's idea - a second light blanket, held down by her body weight, over the first wrap) held us over for a couple of weeks, but that ended with more blankets creeping up over her face. i spent all week either watching her, then re-swaddling all night if it came too loose, or waking up in a panic that she'd suffocated. at first i thought maybe she just didn't need/want the swaddle anymore, but after a few hours of fits and fuss, i pinned her arms to her sides with my hands, and she fell instantly asleep.

enter the miracle blanket, which those in the know will recognize as the baby straitjacket. i made an emergency run to the pump station on saturday to pick one up, and we have all been sleeping well since. "well" being relative of course - a solid 4-hour stretch at least, occasionally a little more. i've got to get a back-up because you know just when we're at our most tired, she'll poop on this one. they recommend using it until 3-4 months, and i'm praying she doesn't figure out how to worm out of this one before then because i'm pretty sure the MB is the end of the road.

in other news, violet's latest obsession is her hands. i tried to get a stealth shot of her examining them. if she notices me, her attention turns. yes, i'm THAT interesting. not the best work, but you get the idea:



by the way, she's in her favorite hang-out spot - the raised p n' p changing table. "of course the most dangerous place we put her down is what she likes best," kevin said.

on friday, violet was a trooper at her two-month appointment, weighing in at 10 lbs, 2 oz and recovering from the pain of the inoculation in seconds by clamping down on the boob again. she is still measuring in the 25th-ish percentile for everything, but the pediatrician said she'd gained enough weight - the low end (according to the internet, not the doc, who vaguely answers "it's fine" to anything i ask and then has the nerve to act like i should be pleased!), but enough. i'm not necessarily assuaged, but he did tell me to stop waking her up to feed, which i have, save for the 11pm-ish one.

we ventured out on monday to visit my office to great success, save for some crying in the car, and we just got back from my little valley girl's first official trip over the hill on laurel canyon. since kevin works on actual thanksgiving day (and we head for a saturday holiday gathering in san diego), i picked up dinner from joan's on third for kevin and i for tomorrow night: oven roasted carrots; sauteed green beans with shallots and hazelnuts; farro with butternut squash and feta; roasted brussel sprouts with dates, manchego, and almonds; and a chocolate cupcake, a spice cupcake, and rugelach. can you tell that i'm excited?

look who's excited about the OT win this past sunday. thanks and love to aunt erica and uncle mike for the duds!

night owl

i can't stand the cuteness.

in hopes of getting a leap on the myriad of potential sleep issues, i've been reading some of the popular child sleep books - ferber, weissbluth, mindell - and realized that even at eight weeks, we keep violet up too late. well, she's not really up - she nods off in my arms, usually in the sling, at which point we eat some form of microwaved dinner and leftover halloween candy - and then we wake her up to feed around 11 or 11:30pm when we go to bed. we've been lucky in that she then sleeps a good bit. still, i'm paranoid that if i don't feed her often enough, she won't gain the proper amount of weight and/or my milk supply will wane, so i think i wake her up too often to feed, but thankfully we have her two month check-up on friday, so hopefully the weigh-in will assuage my fears (so that i can find something new and exciting to obsess over!). i'm also paranoid that i'm screwing up her sleep schedule by waking her up all the time. in the night, she seriously chows down but hardly even opens her eyes, like a sleepwalking stoner. while the books have some really helpful common ground, the differences seriously char my already fried brain. i can't make heads or tails of if and when i'm supposed to put her down, get her up, follow her lead, get her on a schedule, move her from our room to the crib, and so on. why is there so much conflicting advice among the experts? why can't nine out of ten agree, like they do about toothbrushes? i still can't get violet to nap in the crib during the day, though she sleeps like a champ in slings, arms, and laps.

this past weekend i got my hair done for the first time in almost a year, leaving kevin for his longest solo stretch with violet yet. i was terrified that she'd protest the bottle and scream for an hour (as she has done on occasion since the bottle's debut), but daddy and daughter had no issues. the outing was a nice step towards feeling a bit more like my old self, even on a day like today when it's almost noon and i'm still in milk-stained pjs with a baby asleep in the crook of my arm. how i love her warm little body cuddled against me. the past two nights she has gone down in her bed for the first stretch of sleep while we eat dinner, and it already feels like i'm missing a limb.

monkey

i really wanted violet to be a monkey for halloween, because that's what we call her, but we got two cute pumpkin outfits as gifts, so i couldn't really justify buying a costume that probably wouldn't fit a newborn well anyway. luckily kevin came home from his latest babies r us run with some monkey footie pjs. she's into them. she's also smiling - and dare i say even giggling? - and interacting now, featured here having a chat with the pinwheels on her crib bumper.

violet: do you like milk too?

pinwheel: ...



kevin bought about fifteen bags of candy, and we had about fifteen trick or treaters. i was disappointed, as i'd been hoping for more. i think we're just one street off the beaten path. our neighbor got some 300 kids! violet had complaints of her own. she does not abide wearing pumpkin caps, at least not for more than two quick pictures.