Hungry Jack

"Gobble it down and the plate comes back for a Hungry Jack..." Dan always sings that song to Stella when she's eating a bunch. I guess she might have been hungry since she slept almost 12 hours straight last night for the first time in a few weeks. That, plus an earlier bedtime, helped.

I Belong at the Zoo...

...The San Diego Zoo I think that's how the jingle went on the commercials aired when I was little. Anyway, we went to the zoo with Grandpa Tom on Wednesday. It was a lot of fun. Our first stop was the petting zoo, my personal favorite. It was after lunch so most of the animals were in their "do not touch" zone which is an area that the keepers chain off. The animals can duck under the chain if they want to get away from the riff raff. And, the big pig wasn't out, which was a disappointment. Well, he's not that big but Stella would have loved to have pet him. Maybe next time. I decided in advance that I wasn't going to be germaphobic and that I would let her pet the animals. I've read a lot about how you should never let your kid into petting zoos. But you read a lot about what you should and shouldn't do lately and a lot of it is contradictory. I know I went in them as a kid and it would be cruel to let Stella in there and not be able to pet. I had baby antibacterial wipes with me anyway as they are a must in Hong Kong. Plus, she likes to lick floors and that's got to be right up there with animal dung if you think about it.

It was interesting that there were 2 goats she really liked. Her head would whip around to follow whatever they were doing. The one in the middle photo was her favorite, definitely. She seemed to like any animal she could see, and wasn't that interested in the ones behind the glass probably due to the distortion. Thank goodness the panda was also a very big hit.

She is having some sleeping difficulty lately. I think she's overtired because her naps have shortened too much during the day. She never sleeps well when she's overtired. I also dug into my books again to see if there was any other explanation. They suggest that perhaps she's not getting enough to eat! So we added an afternoon snack in today that she wasn't too interested in. She ate a little bit. I also shoved as much food down her as I could today, even hand feeding her apples I had baked the night before. She probably ate 2 whole apples today in addition to what she normally eats. It's 9:15pm as I type this and she's been asleep for 90 minutes without waking. That's 30 minutes longer than the last few days so we'll see how it goes. I also put her to bed about 30 minutes earlier. Hard to believe 30 minutes makes a difference but it really does sometimes. She's just so active and I can tell her brain is spinning constantly. She wants to get up, crawl and do whatever it is that she wants to do.

Dear Norton Rose...

Enough said.............

Thanksgiving, Jasmine Chicken Luau and Other Topics of Interest

Our house is bigger and still very disorganized from the remodel, therefore, I'm finding myself with very little computer time. We had a fun Thanksgiving. Stella took a nap exactly when we were all eating dinner and she was very well behaved, though overstimulated. Dan and I sure paid the price for the upheaval later. For the next few days Stella proceeded to wake up at night every hour or two. I thought I was going to die. After Dan left, I let her cry it out for the next 4 (maybe more, it's all a blur), miserable days. And then she snapped back in to reality and started sleeping for 10-12 hour stretches again. She does wake up every night at some point but after about 10 minutes or so she settles herself back to sleep. Part of the problem was that around Thanksgiving time, she started to sit up in her crib. She'd just sit there and cry until I went in to get her. No mas, Senorita...well unless she's having a complete meltdown, but the sky had better be falling at that point.

Dan thinks it's hysterical that her new favorite baby food item is called "Jasmine Chicken Luau" thanks to the folks at the Healthy Times Organic Baby Food Company. I just bought out the entire stock at Henry's which of course the cashier noticed. It tastes like apricots which is odd because she hates most fruit. The ingredients are chicken, rice, apples and peaches. She's also settled back in to her 6-7 jar a day habit plus copious amounts of cereal, avocado, sweet potato, Gerber Puffs and other finger foods.

Stella hasn't shown that much interest in the Christmas tree yet. She got all dressed up in her Christmas garb to go get it and I was bummed I forgot to bring my camera to the tree lot. I put her in the baby carrier and we walked around looking for the right tree. She was more interested in the owner's dogs though, which seemed normal given her genes. But I haven't had a second to decorate the tree yet so we'll see how she is with all of the nice glass ornaments...ugh. It's a near perfect tree, if I do say so myself.

Been running around ragged. I miss the hotel.

I Did not Do this on the Airplane

Soooo.... we woke up before the sun came up and Stella had no idea what was going on. We got on the Airport Express in her new "airport stroller" and off we went. We checked in at Cathay Pacific. She screamed her head off in the security line, as people are known to do. But, we made it to the lounge with plenty of time for me to feed her breakfast and wolf down a bit of my own. We boarded the plane and the flight attendant politely asked, "Mrs Dillon, are we waiting for your husband???" to which I replied, "No that seat is for my baby..." I nearly cried that my camera battery had run dead because Stella looked so funny sitting in her giant business class seat with all of her toys spread around her. She was an angel on that flight. Though I did give her Calpol before takeoff hoping it would knock her out. It did for about 20 minutes. Then she suddenly woke up in that "I want to rock right now.....hit it!!!" kind of mode. But, it didn't matter. She watched Mulan while I watched Knocked Up. I even ate lunch and had a few glasses of wine. She was completely fine, but who wouldn't be in business class on a Cathay Pacific 747?

Then, we arrived in Tokyo. We switched to Japan Airlines as they were willing to provide a toddler type car seat for her from NRT-LAX which, I think, now that we've been through the drill, isn't "required" as I was told. The lounge was fantastic. They had highchairs and unbelievably good Japanese food. We basically hung out for 3 hours (I requested a long layover so I could feed her with no rush). The highlight for Stella was this booster seat type thing attached to the wall in the bathroom stalls. It's clearly for mothers traveling alone who need a place to put their kid when going to the bathroom. I love Japanese heated toilets but this contraption that I stuffed her in was the bomb. I handed her a toilet seat cover and she literally laughed her head off. It was funny.

Then we got on the JAL plane. I love their business class because it has shiatsu massagers in the seats and more room than Cathay Pacific, though the flight entertainment is far inferior. Anyway, Stella's seat this time had a car seat which she hated. She refused to sit in it which made for a miserable flight. Her seat served as expensive toy storage. She was tired, I was tired. She got super cranky. She fussed a little, but most of the time I had to hold her face up to the Disney channel and keep rewinding this one Mickey Mouse cartoon which was the only one that held her attention. Miserable. The one drawback to business class is the distance between the seat and the TV so I was literally on the edge of my seat. She desperately tried to sleep on my chest, straddling my legs with hers but we were both so uncomfortable. It was awful. Though the food was good and the staff was super nice. They kept bringing her toys every few hours and even made her fresh mashed veggies. I felt badly that I didn't let her eat them because I had no idea what they were. I hope that I can request no car seat on the flight back. Cathay wouldn't let us fly long haul without me hauling on a heavy convertible car seat which I just couldn't do by myself.

We made it to LAX, tired. Mom and Dad picked us up and at about Oceanside we hit traffic. Stella hates traffic. She screamed her head off so hysterically that she gave herself a nose bleed and we had to pull off to a random gas station on Leucadia Blvd. And then the next week or so she had jet lag and had no idea where she was. That was fun...not.

Goin' Back to Cali

Please do this on the airplane.

Snaggletooth Isn't a Baby Anymore

This hairdo is much better, we think. Her hair gets so nappy that we're trying to get it to look cute without cutting it really short. We still have to use "the eating headband" because she gets a ton of food in her long sideburns.

The offending tooth is no longer a hole as you can see actual white. It's sharp as a knife, believe me. And it's coming in crooked (not that baby teeth matter), which is no shock as Dan and I don't have the cleanest dental records. We figured even before she was born, she's destined for some severe orthodontia. The other bottom tooth is on it's way as it's crater has formed. She won't let you get in there to inspect but she was screaming with laughter all day today (see photos) so when she opened her mouth wide I tried to have a look. She's a very, very good baby during the day so we really can't complain about anything...during the day. She is really funny, very interactive and a pleasure to be around. However...

We did some controlled crying last night to try to get her to regain her ability to self-soothe at night. As annoying as the process is, it does work though we are sympathetic because we know her teeth are bothering her. Someone told us that it will take another good year and a half, maybe more, for her to get the rest of her baby teeth so she'd better learn to deal which is easier said than done. We babied her when she was sick so we got completely off track in the soothing department. She's smart and knows now that she can get whatever she wants if she whimpers. I'm in for a hell of a week when we land in CA.

She also has decided that she's no baby. She does not like being held in a cradle position. She doesn't like her sippy cups and goes straight for a regular cup. It's very cute to see her attempt to drink like an adult. She does not like being burped, but rather will sit herself upright if she needs to burp and gets annoyed if you try to force it out. She also wants adult food...badly.

She'd better behave like an adult on the airplane!