Crazy Busy Week!

Monday we had Katie over for a session, it went good. She is always so impressed with the progress holly is making. She asked if she could invite her supervisor to a meeting, as she want to meet Holly, from hearing Katie talk about her so much, Holly also does some things that are very out of the ordinary and her boss wanted to see them, some of it is related to her rotation, and how in one position she does really good, where in another she won’t me in the same way at all. Most of the rest of the day we took it easy, Holly was really worn out from playing with Katie.

Tuesday was a really fun day. We started out really early, Mommy getting up at 7:30, this was so I could be on the road by 9:15 to drive into San Francisco, we were meeting Tracey and Lucian at there Mother’s / Play Group. We got there just around 10 and met them in the lobby, there were a lot of Mom’s, some with babies that were 6-7 months and graduating from the group this week, and several with other’s that were itsy bitsy, one named Woody was 8 weeks old and he was very cute, another was 3 and ½ months old but she was already 17lbs. She wasn’t a chubby baby though, she was just very big, but proportionate, so long to fit her weight, I couldn’t believe she was less than 4 months old.

The group was very interesting, the first few minutes everyone quickly introduced themselves, and then the next 30 or so minutes we sang a lot of songs. Some of them were ones that I knew from swim class, and others were new. I was very excited to learn some new songs, others were classics like Row Row Your Boat, but there were new verses that I had never heard before, one about an alligator on the shore, and something else. It was cool, we also sang the mighty duke of york which I think Holly recognized from swim class, and I lifted her up and she liked be in the air.


There were a few of the other older babies who were just earning to crawl also, and it was fun watching them. After singing songs we went around the circle again to check in and see how people were doing. Many of the other moms are having sleeping issues, so I shared my night terror stories and got a lot of good advice, one mom suggested the chapter in the Ferber book on sleep terrors where it explains something called a confused state that is between sleeping and waking, and this is a bit more wild then night terrors, where you typically thrash around, which Holly was not doing.

I also got to talk with the other moms about the feeding issues I am having. One of the moms teaches / leads a feeding course and knew a lot about it and reminded me that for now the food is not about nutrition it is about the texture, taste, flavor, learning to swallow, and that I have plenty of time to get Holly to eat. This gave me a refreshed laid back perspective to not “try” so hard. If I give her 5 bites and she is done, I won’t spend 30 more minutes trying to get her to eat 5 more with trickery. But I will try again every day.

Overall the Group was really fun, and the facilitator gave me a list of groups through the community college system for 7-14 month olds, so I may try some other’s out. It was a little less discussion and collective sharing and problem solving then the group I am used to going to, but it was fun to do the song circle, When Tracey is back from Vancouver in January Lucian will be old enough to join us at my group so I will have to invite her.

After group we walked over to another building to check in at the breast feeding center, in the lactation office they had scales you could use to weight your baby. Lucian was 12lbs 10 ounces, and Holly was 16lbs and 1 ounce, with her cloths and diaper on, so it ended up being almost 3-5 ounces less then my scale at home, so I am worried it is really off.

After that we decided to go to Lunch. A place called Rigolo that is a few blocks from Tracey’s neighborhood. Holly was very tired from being up all morning so I drove the long way around to let her fall asleep in the car before I got there and she happily slept through lunch. I had a yummy ½ cheese pizza with some Parmesan cheese fries.



We stopped quickly at a Gymboree clothing store to see if they had any good sales, they had an adorable Ballerina tutu outfit and a wispy fairy dress, each was 60% off, but even at that price they were 12 and 18 dollars, which is more then I have ever paid for a single piece of clothing, and since they were not practical items I decided to pass.

After lunch we decided to walk around the neighborhood, a block up there was a store called Day One it’s a place where if you have a “membership” you qualify to attend all kinds of classes and workshops, but they also have some that are free. It was a pretty high end store a slight bit overpriced. They have this one thing called the orbit, which is a stroller that is over 1000$ when we were walking around we must have seen about 6 of them in the area, it was crazy.

We hung out there for a while in there glider chairs looking at the bookshelves and feeding the babies it was a nice relaxing break. It was cool and windy outside, but had been warm inside where it was crowded. There was a new mom’s group starting and there were a bunch of babies only 2-3 weeks old in attendance, they were so amazingly small, we talked to one whose baby was about 8 ½ lbs and she was so small, I don’t even remember and can’t fathom Holly being so little, it goes by so fast I want to burn every memory into my brain, and these blogs help with that, but I have such a bad memory that I forget things, and she is always the way she is in the present, and once she goes past that it is really hard for me to remember how she was before the present.

After that we walked another few blocks to a place called “The Right” Something.. Of I forgot…. It was a pretty cool store, I took a few pictures of Holly playing there, they had a lot of developmental toys, she enjoyed hanging out in a hotrod, and on a very cool rocking lion. They also had this thing that was like a bike / walker with wheels but a seat that was more secure then a bike, her little feet could not touch the ground so I could push her around the store, so as I went from isle to isle looking around she could come with me. After a while she decided she wanted her own control and figured out if she leaned all the way over to one side she could touch the ground there, and us her foot to push herself backwards away from me. She was quite proud of her discovery.

When she was hanging out in the Hotrod a little boy around 22 months named Shane came to hang out with her, he toddled over and held her hand and played with the horn and flag on the car. She really liked the company. They had a bunch of “little chef” toys little stoves and pots and pans, they were very cute. Down the street from there was another store called the Ark which was beautiful, I went to one on 4th street a few weeks ago with Tracey, but this location was much better, the inside was all dark woods and it was actually shaped like an ark. In the back there was a reading room that has some very cool books.

On the way back to the cars we stopped at a place called music Together, where they have group classes of children appreciation and play. I asked them how early they start and they said they have a baby class that is from 6 weeks to about 10 months, and then you graduate into the toddler class. She implied that I could call and set up a time to come and do a free preview of the classes, which I think would be a lot of fun, even if we don’t sign up I would get a ton of ideas.

It was getting late and Holly was pretty sleepy again so we walked back to the car and then Holly was fast asleep. There was a bit of traffic getting back over the bridge, maybe about an hour, but Holly slept the entire way and I chatted with Joel’s Mom for a while, and then later my mom. Once we got back home we headed over to the voting polls and Holly was super popular, everyone wanted to hold her and say Hi to her, and they gave her an I Voted Sticker, and she had fun waiting for me to finish voting. Here in California there are a ton of measures on the Ballot, so it was long and two pages.

We went to pick up Daddy from work, as it was almost 6:30 by then, it was a bit early, but he went in early this morning. We stopped at home for a few more minutes then headed next door to Lawrence’s house for an election party and pot luck. We met a ton of our neighbors, and a number of parents of kids who go to school with Lawrence’s children at Walden. There was a 13 month old sky who was pretty adorable, she was climbing and walking all over, there was a 22 month old little boy and a three year old, then a few toddlers and a bunch of older kids.

It was a very full house with so much food, and everyone flipping through the channels watching the election updates. It was a great night and we headed home just after Obama’s speech, Holly was getting tired and it was time to put her to bed. I was pretty tired myself from the early morning, and also was fast asleep before I knew it.

Wednesday was a Lazy day, I wasn’t feeling great so we stayed in the house most of the day. We had to wake up early for Holly’s 6 month review, she had Leela her case worker over, and both Sally and Katie. It was a bit overwhelming for holly to have so many people here. We went through Katie’s report and updated Holly’s goal’s for her 1 year birthday, and then we went through Sally’s report reviewing her 6 and 12 month goals, Holly has completed almost all of her goals for 6 months, but a few she has not and they are being rolled over into the next report.

She is for example not quite pulling herself to stand yet, but she is technically, just not well, and she has little balance or understanding that she has to hold on once she gets there, so a goal like that has a rating of some progress but not completed. Overall it was pretty painless, we all agreed on her progress and her new goals.

Once Leela and Katie left after about an hour we finished Holly’s session with Sally, and decided to tape her back again, to see if it helps with the crawling. I think I want to buy a play mat for the living room, it is a better surface for her to crawl and walk on but won’t hurt when she falls. Right now I have quilts which slide and are not very stable, which I think inhibits her progress.

Since she worked so hard in the morning, we took several naps and had a laid back day. In the late afternoon we went out to pick up our weekly veggie box, the weather was cold and breezy, and it was nice to get outside for a bit.

Thursday was a fun day, I didn’t wake up early enough to make it to my mother’s group, and didn’t want to pay to go to Kindergym, so we had a quiet morning, but after Holly’s nap we decided to go out. I needed to run to Babies-r-Us to get some travel formula packets, but they were out. The store was a mess they were remodeling and most of the shelves were in disarray. After that I went to Michaels to pick up a gift. Then we headed to Walgreens, they have chucks, and I was so excited to see they also had the formula packets I was looking for.

Once I was done with the errands I headed over to Tumble and Tea, for some lunch and playtime with Holly, She fell asleep in the car on the way over, so slept while I was eating, but then woke up in time to play with some of the other babies. There was one 5 month old little boy name Ruddy, and there was an 11 month old girl name Mikela. But her favorite new friend was a 4 year old named Lily. Lily loves babies, and helped me feed Holly, and cuddled and played with her for quite a bit while I chatted with her mom.

While playing, Holly was doing an amazing job at pulling herself up, she is practically standing. She just doesn’t know what to do once she gets there. She is doing so amazingly, I can’t believe how fast she is growing up. At the store there was a 5 day old baby and she looked so small, I swore she must have been only 5 lbs, then someone asked how big she was, and her mom said she was 8lbs 8ounces, much bigger then Holly was when she was born, and I did a double take, I can’t even imagine Holly being so small, she is like a bean sprout, the time goes by so quickly. In a few days she will be 8 months old, and in December when we are in Florida, she will be as old as the time I was pregnant, twice her age from birth to conception, the human animal is an amazing creature.

This week Holly has been eating prunes, I think she kind of likes them. A few times for a few bites she has actually opened her mouth for the food. She does it for the first few bites but then she is done. I am able to sneak in a few more bites and she likes them better then the sweet peas for example, but she is still very limited in her desire to eat.