Halloween, Part 2

Today was Halloween party #2. The party started at 3:30pm so I figured that since "no-nap Stella" would probably not sleep this afternoon, we'd arrive on time. Wrong! The one day that I want to get out early, she decides (after some protest) that she would actually like to take her afternoon nap. Finally, at 3:15pm, I woke her up and off we went. Dan and I both agreed that the event was very well done. The food was good, the room was well decorated, and the drinks delivery was "ok" (which is good for HK). This definitely was not Dan's cup of tea but he did have a good time. I didn't take many photos because we had a professional photographer there who took a ton. I'll post those on Picasa probably next week some time. The first photo we took was of all the dads lined up with the babies. There were so many that they all could not fit in one photo! This clearly was an event for the mothers that get together every Thursday, and more often if we can. Stella and I are just lucky that everyone likes to meet in the IFC mall that is attached to our hotel. People text us if they are killing time in the mall and we can meet them in minutes.

Stella was VERY well behaved. She got a little bit fussy a few times because it was loud and there were so many people. She does like to grab other babies, but we were cautious about this today as we forgot to clip her nails before we left. In the photo above, Stella is grabbing at Max the zebra. She likes him a lot and is always making a go for his feet. Jack may have some competition! Anyway, Max's mom also came dressed as a zebra so we all cracked up when Max's dad came dressed as a game hunter. Stella was so overwhelmed that of course she was starving toward the end of the party, but her head kept whipping around as she was trying to drink her bottle. Too much going on! We came home and she scarfed down some dinner. We played with her a bit and then she was so wiped out she fell asleep while drinking her bed time bottle. Believe me, that is rare!!!

Cat Woman: The Hero Who Never Sleeps

Today, Stella went to her first Halloween party. The Four Seasons Hotel Apartments had a kids party on the 59th floor. They invited orphaned kids from a charity called Mother's Choice. There was a chocolate fondue fountain, tons of candy, and a magician that performed tricks in English and Cantonese. He also tied animal balloons which Stella was mesmerized by. She wanted one so badly but I was afraid she'd pop it. I'd hold her while her arms were spinning, legs kicking and eyes bugging out of her head as she tried to grab them away from the other kids. They also had plastic pumpkins full of candy for the kids. We let Stella play with one and she loved that too. We thought she wouldn't be at all interested in the event and in the beginning she was more interested in the middle-aged metro guys in Speedos at the pool, which is also on the 59th floor. Unlike the magician, they are not available for children's parties. Dan had me add that last bit in.

Dan then went to the gym. After spending about an hour at the party, I took Stella down to the spa to show the girls her costume. They all loved it!

Tomorrow we have another Halloween party to go to. This one is with all of her friends. There will be about 20 babies with their parents. It's at a Chicago-themed restaurant called Dan Ryans which specializes in serving what amounts to a caricature of American food: hamburgers, fries, nachos and Sizzler-style steaks, all in portions intended to amaze non-Americans. We have the back room and, thankfully, they serve drinks. The entire restaurant is overly decorated for Halloween which is why it makes a good location. There will be a professional photographer also!

The Hero Who Never Sleeps has decided that she doesn't want to take afternoon naps anymore. She'd rather have another meal instead. This is a huge problem because she's overtired and is sleeping poorly at night. She's eating a ton too. She had finger food for the first time today which she ate with a little bit of success. My baby bulletin said that since she's attempting to feed herself with a spoon, she's ready to learn how to pick up food and eat it. She's not ready for the cheerios they suggested so I cut up a very ripe banana into small pieces. The side benefit to finger food is that it's distracted her from performing her "gravity experiments." She likes to throw her dishes and spoons on the floor. Dan gets tired of picking them up.

Sitting Pretty

The latest innovation is that she can sit up on her own. We still watch her because she sometimes topples backward and then cries. For the most part, she can stay upright. I also read that an important milestone is for her to be able to reach out and grab things from the sitting position. She does that all of the time. In fact, the other day she reached so far that she did her first face plant. I didn't react quickly enough to catch her. After the initial shock wore off, she couldn't decide if she should cry or not. We've wisened up to this trick so if we just keep smiling and laughing, she won't cry. She'll look at us immediately to interpret our reaction. If we hesitate or look worried, then on go the waterworks.

Today, we started feeding her solid food at lunch. She's just hungry constantly and despite nursing about 3 times between noon and 5pm, she was still cranky and visibly hungry. Today her afternoon nap was peaceful and long which is a good sign. Dan fed her for the first time today, unsupervised by me. I go to the gym or run errands at lunch. He said he never realized how she got so messy until he did the feeding himself. Ha.

Her friends are a bunch of budding overachievers so to keep her on par, I bought a baby sign language book. We had lunch the other day with one of my friends and her 5-month-old who is in a playgroup already learning songs in french, ballet and swimming. I figure we're slacking. I keep forgetting to make the signs for this and that but the one she really likes is "all done." That's one thing I would like to know, as it's for when she's full. Around 9 months, supposedly, babies can start to sign back to let you know if they want milk, more food, diaper change, and more. Dan and I are skeptical about that. She clearly understands when we say her name, "drink" and "up" (when we warn her we're going to pick her up, she'll now lift up her arms). She likes "hello" but I don't know if she knows what it means. She understands "cado" (as in avocado!) which cracks us up. She doesn't at all understand "no" because we never say it to her. She doesn't do anything bad yet except for chew on her Metamucil Wagon. Which, by the way, is not operational at the moment because she took a ginormous poo in it that blasted through her diaper and ruined the bottom tarp which kept it from being a walker. Walkers are no-no's these days.

We'll do Mandarin playgroup and some other right brain learning playgroup when we get back in January. Both are at our club and virtually free. It gets us out of the house too.

Stella + Cold = Insomniac

We had an ok start to Dan's birthday weekend. Friday was a public holiday so he had the day off. He woke up not feeling well (very, very tired) but we went to Jimmy's Kitchen for his birthday lunch anyway. He felt much better after moving around a little bit (I had been experiencing a minor mono relapse since Tuesday, so he'd been trying to pitch in a bit more). Stella was very well behaved and the staff kept her busy while we ate. There was a small window behind our table where the maitre d' stood. He waved to her and tapped the glass, etc. He even offered to hold her while we ate, but I was just about done anyway.

She was a little bit fussy later in the day, but we thought it was because of her shots. Then she started coughing, got a stuffed up nose and vomited up green beans for the first time in a while. Dan swore up and down that she was not sick and that I was being a hypochondriac. She had a horrible night of sleep and woke up the next morning with a runny nose that was like a faucet. It ran non-stop all day. Shockingly, she was in a pretty good mood unless we tried to get her to nap. She also has developed this thing where if she cries or gets remotely upset, she vomits. I read it's because of all the mucous which she vomited up a few times after coughing. So, keeping the crying to a minimum when she feels sick is a challenge. This leads to Dan and I hanging over her crib for hours and hours trying to get her to sleep. As a chronic sinusitis sufferer, I get where she's at. She will not lie flat and every time she she sucks on her fingers (which is how she falls asleep) she blows snot bubbles which then cause her to wake up and cry. And on and on and on. I can't aspirate it out. That's never worked for her and I've spent about $100 USD on various nasal aspirators.

So, forgive me for the typos because I'm not at all "with it" today. She will not sleep. She was wide awake until well after midnight last night and then woke up every 60-90 minutes until 7:45am.

To make matters worse, the night before last, I had a spoonful of sweet potatoes headed for her mouth. She jerked her head downward, her nose went straight into the spoon and because she was surprised, she inhaled quickly. A ton of orange boogers and a lot of crying followed.

She seems to be on the mend today. Let's hope so!!!

Baby Got Back (Junk in the Trunk, Part 3)

19lbs 10 oz! Hope everyone is lifting weights because she's heavy now. We went to the doctor today. The wait was a bit long but it's worth it. I ran into my friend Shannon there who is seeing Dr Ghosh, my Ob/Gyn who is in the same office. We always run into someone we know there!

At Stella's 4 month shots in the U.S., she screamed her head off for 20 minutes before we could even collect our things to get out of the exam room. The nurse there gave her the shots and it was a frustrating, drawn out process. Dr. Thondup is the king of shots. He had me carry her upright with her head on my shoulder. I backed her up to him so she didn't see him. He pulled down her pants, slightly undid her diaper and gave her the shots...quickly. What a difference. Her first shot she didn't even feel, but then she cried for about 10 seconds after the Prevnar shot because I think it has a pretty big needle. As she started to cry, he flung open the door to his office. He said that way she'd know it was all over. The second he did that, she stopped crying. Babies are smart, he always reminds us.

Dr. Thondup said he could tell by Stella's expression that her next big obstacle is "stranger danger." Dan liked the term. But it's very, very true. She isn't all that great with new people unless we're holding her. Anyway, she's doing fine. Her weight is in the 90th percentile and she's also 27.5 inches long which is the 97th percentile. At least she's back on the grid. I thought she was probably longer because her 6-12 month onesies are showing stress at the neckline which means they are getting too short. She can start eating chicken next month. Dark meat only, Dan jokes. She'll then go to three meals a day. That's going to be hard as it's quite time consuming to feed her solids as it is. And, she is a complete mess. Last night, somehow her bangs got plastered to her forehead with cereal and I cleaned green beans out of her nose and ear canal.

She was all smiles in the taxi on the way home. She's napping now and then we'll go to coffee with her friends later.

"The Mayor" Politely Disagrees With Mother That Fruit Tastes Good

Stella has decided that she doesn't like fruit. No bananas, apples and especially no pears. She hates pears. She used to tolerate banana and apple but lately they've been denied entry. I think she's just learning about her preferences. She "prefers" (Dan might say "demands") avocado, rice cereal w/milk only, sweet potato and green beans. That's it, lately. We tried peaches with little success. I may be able to sneak them into her cereal as I did that this morning and she ate it. That is, until she wisens up to the jig.

"Mayor McCheese" has now been lovingly shortened by Dan to just "The Mayor." He says "The Mayor" rules her town with an iron fist and that he's basically "just livin' in it."

Sleeping is back to "normal" for the time being. I'm pretty sure she slept on her stomach last night for 9 hours straight because she was in exactly the same place at 5:30am as she was at 8pm last night. I fed her at 5:30am and put her back to bed until a little after 8am and she was in the same spot, on her stomach. She was not at all ready to get up and a little ticked about it.

She is also definitely teething because she chomps down on everything. I can't get her to take a bottle normally because she clamps down on the nipple instead of the drinking milk. We desperately need to work that out before we get on the plane because the seats are narrowish in Cathay  Pacific business class and Stella is much longer than she was on the way over. Nursing her on the plane is gong to be a nightmare. Dan is laughing that her seat cost the firm $5500 USD.

6 month vaccinations are tomorrow at 1pm. I'm not looking forward to them but we're all wondering how much she weighs. Her friend, Nana, who is a smaller baby is actually eating as much, if not more than Stella. That makes me feel better. A lot of her friends are also not sleeping or napping nearly as well as she is either. We'll probably have to skip the Thursday coffee with her friends as I'm expecting her to be a crankasaurus after the appointment.

Fishy

It's Sunday here. I went to the gym this morning and then the 3 of us went to lunch at Caffe Vergnano in the mall. We get takeaway from there several times a week because it's really good, healthy, reasonably priced and very stoller-friendly, most importantly. And, I always seem to run into my friends there.

Anyway, we came home and then Stella faked taking a nap. I'm pretty sure she just rolled around her crib for an hour, clearly overstimulated from being out at lunch time. We later took her to the pool. Dan got in and swore up and down that the water was too cold. I think he must only go in pools in Mexico and Hawaii because it was NOT cold. The thermometer said the outside temperature was 85 degrees at 4pm. She loved it. She was tired, but wanted to swim around. Then Dan got cold and yanked her out before she was ready. Good one, Dad.

For some reason she cracks up when I call her a fishy. She likes certain words. Cheese is another word she thinks is hysterical along with "Chunky Monkey" and "Wassup!!!!!!!" from that old Budweiser commercial. The latter causes spastic laughter.

I also learned that I can't wear earrings if I want her to eat. I bought some chandelier type earrings that I put on before we went to lunch. I woke her up from her nap and rushed to feed her so we could get going. No way, Jose. The earrings were way too interesting and she couldn't focus on anything else. I took them off and then it was over. The feeding window had closed by then--it's a very small window lately. As Dan says, she can probably afford to miss a meal anyway. He's calling her "Mayor McCheese" lately. Mayor McCheese is the mayor of McDonaldland who has an enormous cheeseburger for a head.

High Maintenance

Because we're sleep deprived again, we decided to rant a little bit. Here are some of the things currently driving us crazy.

1. It takes 6 spoons to feed Stella. It's probably because we only have 6 spoons for her. She's decided that she must hold a spoon while eating and then she, of course, throws it on the floor every once in a while. We give her new spoons, because she sticks them in her mouth. The books say to let her play with the utensils. They don't have the kind here that have cords on them that suction to the table.
2. She will not eat in public. We were at the weekly coffee with her friends yesterday and all of her friends were taking bottles or breastfeeding. Stella is so high strung that she will do neither and starve herself. She's too busy checking out the scenery. Then, she'll cry because she's hungry and we'll leave after I try furiously to feed her because I don't get out much.
3. She will not drink milk if there is noise. Noise is too interesting. Dan has to sit quietly on the sofa and not move if we're nursing in the other room. If one hardwood floor board creaks, she bolts up and starts looking around.
4. She doesn't like being left with Dan. Dan calls her a "skirt grabber." It was cute, at first, but her separation anxiety has become a real problem. I have to go to the dermatologist today and am dreading it. I get punished somehow later. She doesn't even like me going into the next room.
5. She's starving. We have no idea how this is possible! She woke up starving last night at 10pm and 3am. Maybe this is her 6 month growth spurt, but I thought that was a few weeks ago. She just keeps eating more and more food. Dan said she's the type to cruise the kitchen for leftovers in the middle of the night. But, then again, that's what he does.
6. She's night waking again as I described in #5. She also isn't napping well because of the separation anxiety. The morning nap is fine and she'll fuss a little bit at the 2pm nap but forget about the 5pm nap. She still needs the 5pm one though, because she's a wreck if she skips it.
7. She only likes her diaper changed when she's lying on her stomach. We'll roll her back over and she'll cry but it just doesn't work to do it the other way. I have learned to put the diaper on backward but that obviously doesn't work if there's poo in it! This started a few days ago.
8. She hates having her nails cut, as I've mentioned before.
9. She will not nap on the go. Forget about it.

All in all, she's still pretty darn cute. It's hard to get or stay mad when she's giggling all the time. The books say that babies like her are smarter than the rest, but we'll see! We predict she's going to start really crawling (not the army crawl with her stomach on the ground, which she can do) in about a week. She also has a tooth peeking out. But, not the 2 lower teeth that most babies get first. Of course, she has an upper incisor poking through because nothing about her is "normal."

Sold!

No, not Stella. Though there was a time when Dan said if someone walked in with a suitcase full of $500,000 cash, he'd hand over Stella without hesitation. That was in the hospital, and since then the value increases almost every time I ask how much the suitcase would need to have in it. A few weeks later it was $1 million, then $5 million and now, exactly 6 months later to the day, it's at about $20 million. But, I haven't asked him in a few weeks if that number has gone up or down. If she gets an "F" for behavior, the number drops. :)

So, we're getting rid of the things she doesn't need anymore. She never liked this swing. Because this swing sells in HK for 2.5 times what it costs in the US, I sold it here used for a bit more than we paid for it. I was a little sad to see it go since we have so many photos of her in it, but in almost all of them she's pretty unhappy. I don't think she liked being so close to the floor. She loves her La Jolla swing. We also just sold the vibrating bouncer that she hated...she really hated that thing! A lot of her clothes and other odds and ends are going to an orphanage in Southern China. One of my friends has a colleague who takes these things up there with his church once a quarter. I'm sure that orphanage is chock full of little girls.

This photo was taken the first day home from the hospital. She looks thrilled, doesn't she?

Junk In The Trunk, Part 2

The high chair arrived today. It took me about 20 minutes to put it together. It would have been less had it not been for the fact that I had to remove part of the infant support system, because her stomach is too big. She sits up well enough to not need it, thankfully. It didn't occur to me to try to jamb her in the high chair at the store, because the age range is from 6 months to adult. I'm hoping that from now on she grows longer and not outward, otherwise we may have to put this high chair in the closet for a while! Once she can sit up completely on her own she won't need the waist support and all problems will be solved. She loves sitting in it, like a big girl. And then she ate her dinner like a big girl--rice cereal, banana and tasteless green beans. She loves green beans.

I made a serious error of not letting her eat until she was full last night. The quantity she took down scared me so I cut her off. I also left her with Dan for 90 minutes (which she hates) while I went to get foot reflexology, finally. Then, she punished me by waking up at 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30 to eat.

Funny

Stella and I went downstairs to the grocery store to get her some sweet potatoes for dinner. We came back upstairs and I pulled her stroller in front of the refrigerator so that I could unload the groceries before unloading her. The middle shelf on the refrigerator door was loose and came flying off when I tried to put something in it. It crashed on to the floor with a huge boom and out rolled several glass jars, along with a can of dry English mustard that exploded all of the place. I thought "oh $%^&!!!" and before I could get upset she busted up laughing. She giggles a lot but this was the first full fledged laughing explosion. She thought the whole thing was hysterical. And, she laughed the entire time I was on the floor cleaning it all up.

Tales From The Crib

It's been a pretty uneventful weekend. Dan's friend Neil and his girlfriend (or girl that is a friend...we don't know which exactly) were in town. We took Stella to meet them for lunch. She and I went back home for her 2pm nap and then rejoined the group downstairs in the Blue Bar at 4pm. She was really well behaved and not the only baby in the bar, for once.

She's been sleeping pretty well and does not cry at all going down for naps, except occasionally at the 5pm-ish nap. Sometimes, she has a look of relief when I finally put her in her crib as if she's saying, "Geez, lady it's about time you put me down." She's become an expert in crib gymnastics. We don't know how she does it but she's never where we put her to begin with. The photo above was her favorite sleeping position for a while so we moved the SIDS sensor up. It was constantly going off because she was out of range. The sensor is a flat 12"x12" square that you put in the middle of the crib. Then, of course, right when we did that, she started wedging herself at the other end of the crib. Last night, she set off her SIDS monitor so I went to check on her and turn the alarm off. She was snoring, on her side, smashed in a fetal position against the other end of the crib and didn't hear a thing. Of course, she was perpendicular like in this photo. She has also taken to sleeping on her stomach which is a problem because she can't, or doesn't want to, flip herself from her stomach to her back. She'll just cry until we come in and flip her over. I can't describe some of the positions she gets herself into very well. They don't look very comfortable though.

I also know that someday she's going to be the type to climb/fall out of her crib and I'm not looking forward to it.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Disco Inferno, indeed. We took the ferry from Central to Discovery Bay (known to the locals as "Disco Bay") to visit Stella's friend, Pia. Well, there turned out to be 13 babies, their mothers and two brave fathers along for the ride. We ate at a place called Zaks, which is on the beach there. Disco Bay is where people live if they want to get away from city life. It's much quieter and has a pretty nice beach. It kind of reminded me of Orange County coastal, a little bit.

My friend, Coco, had onesies made for everyone with their names, birthdays and order of birth on them. Stella is #3 in this group and, not surprisingly, has hulked out of her onesie already so she couldn't wear it. She is the largest by far though Clara, who is next to her, isn't that far behind. This made me feel better. Clara is 3 days younger than Stella. Today, there was one boy, Ethan, who is in the blue onesie. Most everyone I know here has girls.

Stella was so overstimulated that, despite many attempts by me, she could not wind down remotely enough to take her 2pm nap. She was just too hyper to nap in her stroller and finally crashed out after we got home around 5pm, though she slept 5-10 minutes on the ferry. I suspected that would happen. She was very well behaved, but it would have been miles better if she would have napped as ALL of the other babies did. She has a habit of grabbing the other babies' hair, arms, fingers, toes, clothing, hair ribbons, and she has no concept of how hard she's pulling. It's usually pretty darn hard. None of the other babies seem to do that! So, I have a mild panic attack when we're sitting close to people also because her nails are dagger-sharp even though I cut and file them pretty much every day. They grow so fast! All of those babies have live-in helpers that seem to be able to keep their nails under control. I have no idea how they do it.

We were worried that it was going to rain today, but the weather cleared up and it was pretty hot. I didn't eat much as she kept trying to grab my sandwich, salad, Diet Coke, and basically whatever else she figured out was supposed to go in my mouth. She also took a giant, borderline embarrassing poo while we were in the restaurant. Lovely.

Pimp My Ride

Stella already has a pretty flash set of wheels, but had been eyeing the toys on the stroller bars of passers-by. Luckily, in order to get the VIP card that would allow a 10% discount on the new high chair (see "Junk in the Trunk" below), I had to spend about an extra $15 USD. These toys will come in very handy when we take an adventure on Thursday to see Stella's friend, Pia, in Discovery Bay. None of us have ever been there. It's about a 30 minute ferry ride on one of the bigger ferry boats. We're going with 8 of Stella's friends and their moms. Should be fun...I hope. As long as Stella can nap in her flash wheels, we'll be fine. We'll be gone almost all day.

The high chair is getting delivered on Tuesday so only one more week of squeezing into the Bumbo.

Junk In The Trunk

Here is how our day goes typically:
8:00am: Stella wakes up. We usually have to go in and wake her up which is Dan's favorite part of the day. Payback, he says.
8:30am-9am: Breakfast. Milk first, then put in Bumbo for solid food. Today she ate a little rice cereal, slice of avocado, and a jar of apples. We have to give the avocado last when she's full otherwise she'll demand more.
9:00am-10am: I eat breakfast and Dan goes to work. Stella gets changed out of her soiled clothes and put in her Metamucil wagon to keep her upright for about 15 minutes. Then we play on her mat or whatever.
10am-noon: Stella sleeps, then has milk.
Noon-2pm: Awake time. Sometimes we go out to lunch or Dan watches her so I can go out.
2pm-3:30pm: Stella sleeps, then has milk.
3:30-5:30pm: Stella and I hit the mall or run errands. We always leave the hotel at this time so they can clean our room. Last weekend, we went swimming.
5:30-6pm: Stella naps.
6pm-6:30: Stella eats dinner. Last night she had milk first, then ate 1/2 banana, 3/4 jar of pears and rice cereal. Then, she had milk after.
6:30pm-8pm: Stella goes in the Metamucil wagon while Dan and I eat. Then, we play with her.
8pm: Bath time.
8:30: Bottle and bed.

There's not a lot of free time for Dan and I as when she sleeps we're doing laundry, showering, and taking care of other necessities. Yes, she eats a lot but our midwife and books say it's important to let her decide when to stop eating. She used to eat more, actually.

Anyway, her rear and thighs are too big for the Bumbo now so during our mall time today we're going to get her a big girl high chair. We need a special space saving kind called a Stokke Tripp Trapp. It allows her to eat directly at the table. I have to yank the Bumbo off of her when I try to lift her out. I hope they can deliver it quickly.

Thanks To Mao, Stella Gets Avocado For Breakfast

First of all, the majority of Stella's friends here in HK had blogs started on their behalf well before they were born. We just were a little slow on the uptake. We've become busy and can't email Stella's fans regarding her daily activities like we should, so we've relented and will try to post updates every once in a while.

It's National Day today, which celebrates the founding of the People's Repulic of China. It's Monday, so Dan and most of HK has the day off. It's a big family day with an enormous and lengthy fireworks show in the harbour at 9pm. I wasn't going to give Stella avocado this morning as, frankly, she's just eaten too much of it lately and I feel she should learn to like other food. For those of you that don' t know, she just loves it. She bounces up and down in her Bumbo when she sees it on the spoon and gulps it down so quickly that she stores it up in her cheeks, rather than swallowing it right away. Anyway, she got a small slice since Dan thought that because it's National Day, she's entitled.

She's also recently learned a new "trick." If we accidentally put her Metamucil wagon (see photo) too close to the dresser, she'll open the drawers and throw my shirts on the floor. She sort of knows she's not supposed to do this. We can tell by her expression. The walker is dubbed "Metamucil wagon" by Dan because she will poo if she's in it. And, today she did her first adult like solid poo...3 times. Disgusting.

Otherwise a pretty lazy day. She was pretty well behaved for the most part.