Our Little Munchkin

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Completely true in my case. The way to a little baby's heart? Not entirely that far off, at least not for Kaylani.

Our little munchkin has been eating solid food for a long time now (which means more than half her life). And while there are some foods she likes (pasta, mac and cheese, french fries), there's only one that gets you straight to her heart: Munchkins. Maybe its the fact that she only gets one every now and then (or more likely the fact that they're made of pure sugar), but every time she has one, she's happy as can be.

The good thing about munchkins are that they're free...if you have a cute little girl with you at least. And if that same cute girl says "munchkin please" (albeit quietly most of the time because she's "so shy"), you sometimes get 2 munchkins. Actually, maybe that's the bad thing about them, or at least part of the bad thing. They're so addicting/good that Kaylani has learned that morning stops with Papa are usually to a place that carries munchkins. Ok, so its more like she knows first stop is always to Dunkin Donuts, so much so that she even recognizes the logo and/or the location (either that or she can read). So who am I to say no to her when she screams from the car "Dunkin Donuts! Papa coffee. Munchkin please!"

Since Kaylani is still teetering between single and double digit weight percentiles, a munchkin here or there is probably a good thing. A little extra weight couldn't hurt, and really, how bad could a lot of extra sugar really be for you anyways? For right now, I don't mind it so much. If it keeps her happy, then it keeps me happy. Plus, its damn cute to watch her ask for and then eat it too. And as an added bonus, any time she gets 2, one is always "for Papa." So for now, its munchkins for both of us, and at the same time, its going straight to our hearts.

What's on the menu?

Feeding Kaylani is no easy task. Not even just the feeding part...all aspects of it. We've gotta dance around, sing, rotate through toys or other distractions just to get her to eat. That part we're actually used to by now. The hard part now is picking her food each meal. It's just not easy anymore.

Before, we used to grab any jar (or two) of baby food and give it to her. Vegetable, fruit, meat...all didn't matter as long as we had our distraction toys ready. Nowadays, we're lucky if she finishes one jar of food before she decides she's done with pureed food on a spoon. Now she wants what we're eating, or at the very least, something not pureed. That's the hard part.

All 3 meals are difficult because we have to pick something that she can eat (which is basically anything that doesn't contain nuts, honey, or umm...some other stuff that our doctor told us that I can't remember right now). If I had to pick one, I'd probably say breakfast is the hardest meal. Not on the weekends, but during the week. On the weekends, I'm home and cook breakfast (either waffles or eggs). On the weekdays, Mommy used to just drink a fruit smoothie. Now she's gotta make pancakes, waffles, eggs, or something else that Kaylani can grab and feed herself. Baby (or regular) oatmeal just doesn't cut it.

Lunch is usually out, and that's when we've gotta buy something for ourselves that she'll eat too. Pizza? Sure. Sandiwch? Sure. Something with rice? That works too. But it's not always that easy, and definitely not always that clean. No more soup and salad (which surprisingly, both Mommy and I like to eat for lunch). No more other things that may contain nuts. No more fast food from McDonald's, Wendy's, or Burger King. No more anything that might not be the healthies for Kaylani (including pizza if it's 2 or 3 days in a row).

Dinner's the same way. Now, when Mommy plans out the night, we gotta keep Kaylani in mind. Will she eat steak? Sure, if it's good meat and not too chewy. What can we marinate this chicken in? Nothing that has nuts or honey. How about sweet plaintain? She might not like it. Breakfast for dinner? Great idea, but that takes away from one of our breakfast options. How about no dinner at all? Won't work because Kaylani's gotta munch on something!

It's funny because I really do think it's great that she'll eat whatever we eat. I'm hoping this carries on for the rest of her life because I think it's great not to carry around food just for her. But sometimes, just sometimes, I wish she would eat her food and that's it. Sure would make life a little bit easier now. But no one ever said having a baby was easy. And anyone who does say that, probably doesn't have kids.

The Sponge

It's been almost a full week since I started my new job. For the past 4 days, I've been acting as a sponge with all the information that's been thrown at me. I've come home every day exhausted at the amount of information my brain has had to take in. It's my job to retain all of that information, and hopefully be able to either hold it, or more importantly, spit it all back out when someone squeezes me (hmmm...that sounds weird, but you get the point). What dawned on me today is that this would be a lot easier if I was 11 months old.

During dinner, it dawned on me that Kaylani is the real sponge in the family. I sit at work and am asked to remember/learn things that have been in people's minds for 2 years or so. Kaylani sits anywhere and is being asked to do the same, but for things that people have in their minds for 20+ years! I have to remember things like who our target consumer is, or what's the next deadline for a website build, or what's my budget. Kaylani has to remember things like where's my head, how do I clap, and what the heck did I just eat. Sure they sound like the same, but for Kaylani, it's far more impressive for her to remember.

Actually, the most impressive part is how smart she is. Within the matter of a week, she's learned to put both hands on her head when we ask her "where's your head?" She's learned to feed herself with her own fork, or to put food in her mouth when we say "put the food in your mouth, not in your hair." She's even learned to touch our nose when we say "where's your nose?" (close enough). If you take her out of her high chair and say, "Kaylani, bath time!", she'll take off towards the stairs and head on up. If you put her on the floor of her room and say "bath time!" she'll run to the bath tub and stand up. She's learning so much each day that I'm surprised her sponge of a brain isn't full yet because mine's getting pretty close.

I only hope that Kaylani's sponge continues to get bigger and fuller because it just shows that she's healthy and developing. I'd wish the same for me, but you know what they say, you can't teach an old sponge new tricks. Well, something like that anyways.

SAHD Week: Day 3

Day 3 of this 5 part series I'm calling "SAHD Week" was our day "off." Now, all you parents out there know that once you have kids, there's no such thing as a day off. What I mean by a day off is that Kaylani has no scheduled classes (Monday and Wednesday's are her "off" days). These days are actually some of the hardest for Mommy. No classes mean you have to find your own ways to entertain Kaylani. Class typically take 45 minutes to an hour, plus the 15-30 minutes of driving time to and from means that 2 hours of the day is taken up with a class. Today, 2 hours of our day were "free." Here's how it went down.

We started the morning as usual around 7:30am. Mommy's still convinced that me showering at 6:45am on a work day makes Kaylani get up earlier. After 5 straight days me not getting up early for work and of Kaylani sleeping in (or being quiet in her crib) until 7:30am, I think she may be on to something. Anyways, we all had an awesome breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread/toast, and a piece of cheese, with Kaylani eating a whole egg, a whole piece of bread, and a whole piece of cheese (as part of our continued attempts at Operation Fat Baby). With the weather threatening to rain, we decided to skip a planned morning walk and head for a drive during nap time. How convenient!

We drove out to Crate & Barrel outlet and a showroom for one of the companies who gave us an estimate on our basement. After a 45 minute nap, and those 2 stops, we were ready for lunch and a trip to the mall so Mommy could find a dress for an upcoming wedding (more to come on that in a future post since Mommy and Kaylani are "abandoning" me for a week). At lunch, Kaylani sat with us and ate a half of a slice of pizza and half of a crust too. As you can see, we only feed Kaylani the healthiest of foods. Then, it was a quick trip to Princeton so Daddy could get his haircut, and then we were back home again. After an hour of playing and a yogurt snack (more food), Kaylani went down for a nap.

Nap time today lasted 2 shows, I mean an hour and a half, which was enough for Mommy and Daddy to watch 2 shows (90210 and Gossip Girl...only the best entertainment for us). When Kaylani got up, it was more playing in the playroom, then dinner (pasta with meat sauce), and now we just finished bedtime. Kaylani's out like a light already, which just goes to show just how tiring today was.

Maybe it was the fact that we were out and about for most of the day, or the fact that Kaylani slept for an hour and a half this afternoon, but today seemed like it flew by (which is a good thing). Or maybe it's that I'm getting used to this SAHD stuff. Or then again, maybe it's just that my first day back to work is quickly coming up. Whatever it is, I've got 2 more days to spend as a SAHD and I'm going to take full advantage of them. Tomorrow we've got Music Together class, and then maybe a trip to the zoo or the aquarium. Friday we've got Little Gym, and then who knows what else before dinner out. Part of me hopes they go by slowly, and the other part of me hopes they go by quickly. One thing I know is that come Monday, they'll definitely have gone by too quickly...for all of us.

Double Dipping

We can only teach Kaylani so much at one time. She has learned a lot already, but she's got so much to go before she'll be fully accepted into society. While she may be pretty darn cute, it's all an act. Underneath it all, she's a heathen. She's unfit for public restaurants. She could even be considered...disgusting. And all of this is within the safety of our own home. Imagine what would happen if we went out in public?

What I'm talking about is Kaylani's new love of double dipping. I guess the typical definition of double dipping doesn't really apply here since she's not biting a piece off of anything and then dipping the bitten edge back into something, but it's her own form of double dipping. Frankly, it's even grosser than the typical way. Let's walk through it using tonight's dinner as an example.

Tonight, Kaylani started off having split pea and carrot soup. Nothing too eventful happened during the 15 minutes and 17 toys it took us to get through 1/2 a jar. But when we switched to pieces of actual chicken, that's when it started. It was going well at first. We'd put down a small piece of chicken. She'd pick it up and put it her mouth. She'd chew on it for a bit, then swallow, and we'd start over again. But after about 8 or 9 pieces of chicken, she got tired. Or bored. Or just wanted to be gross.

After a few chews of her chicken, she would make some noises, move around a lot, stick her whole hand in her mouth, and then give one spit and out would come the remainder of a piece of chicken. Thankfully it landed on her table. After staring at it, and then up at us with a smile on her face, she'd move the chicken around, and then put it right back in her mouth. Gross! In fact, Mommy, who has a terrible gag reflex when she sees Kaylani gagging or spitting things up, couldn't even bare to watch. I personally thought she was being quite the conservationist (is that a word?). Gross, but quite conservative.

I guess we shouldn't complain because she's eating. Some day down the road we'll teach her table manners (or we'll learn not to give her big pieces of chicken). One way or another, we'll get her fit for the public eye. And to show you fit she is, here are some pictures from the last couple of days. I promise, there are no pieces of half eaten, regurgitated chicken. There are some great pictures from Little Gym, Kaylani's first trip on a fire truck, and a playdate she just had with her friend Aadi! Oh, and if you have an extra second, check out my latest Sports IllustraDad post at Dad-Blogs about an adorable little girl who ruined her Dad's lifelong dream of catching a foul ball, or my new fear for Kaylani's toddler years.

Trick, no Treat!

It's been challenging, to say the least, to get Kaylani to eat something other than baby food. In fact, it's been challenging to get her to eat at all. Before, we used to just have to act like a clown or rotate through 4 or 5 toys to get her to eat her food. Now, we have to resort to much dirtier tactics, for a much dirtier job. The only way to get her to eat lately is to flat out trick her.

After Kaylani eats a jar of baby food, we usually only get 1 shot to give her something different without any trickery (unless you count slipping in something different while she still thinks it's the same baby food as trickery). If we give her a different baby food from a jar, she may keep going if we rotate through some toys. But if it's real food, then her mouth locks down tighter than a breastfeeding baby latched on to her mom. And the only way we've found to get her to open up is by pretending to give her something she wants to eat (like Cheerios), or by prying her mouth open with a carjack.

Tonight, Mommy made Kaylani a butternut squash and turkey mix, a butternut squash, turkey, and pastina mix, and a bowl of pastina. We hoped that she would eat one of the three, but turns out the pastina was too hard to chew. That meant we were left with blended butternut squash and turkey. After 1 bite, Kaylani decided she'd had enough. But when we took the Cheerios out, all I had to do was hold up a Cheerio in front of her face to get her to open up. Since she can't feed herself yet, she waited for me to put the Cheerio in her mouth. Instead of Cheerio, she got a spoonful of butternut squash and turkey. Trickery successful!

After about 3 spoonfuls, she got a little bit smarter and started to hold my hand with the spoon. But after I switched hands and fed her with my left hand, she ate about 4 more spoonfuls of food before she lashed out for the Cheerio. Then, after getting an actual Cheerio (which she touched and played with to make sure it was an actual Cheerio), she ate a few more spoonfuls of food instead of the Cheerios that she wanted so badly. 15 spoonfuls in, or roughly 2.5oz of food later, she was all done. She was done being tricked.

It's probably unadvised to trick her to eat actual food, but it's the only way we can get her to eat. Hopefully after a few days of this food, she'll eat it willingly since that's how long it's taken usually. But if tricking her is what gets her to eat, then you might as well just call everyday Halloween. Except in this version of Halloween, there are no treats. Not for Kaylani at least.

What a mess!

Finding out she was pregnant? Scary. Realizing that we were going to be parents any day now? Frightening. Bringing Kaylani home for the first time? Nervewracking. Hearing her cry? Heartbreaking. Her first sickness or injury? Terrifying. Looking back, we were ready for all of that to happen. But none of that compares to what we're going through now. In fact, it's the stage of Kaylani's life that Mommy has been dreading for years. She's been through it with our nieces and nephews, and only barely survived those times. Now, it's time to just go for it. Time to just rip off the band-aid. It's time to...let Kaylani feed herself!

I'm not just talking about giving her Puffs or Cheerios (which she doesn't eat unless you feed it to her anyways). Those are easy to clean up when she throws them on the floor instead of her mouth. I'm talking about real food, laid out in front of her, waiting to be eaten. But instead of being eaten, it's being crushed, torn apart, squished, spread around, and then thrown onto the floor. Even worse, it's being used to coat Kaylani's little hands right before she rubs her face, pulls on her ear, or Mommy's absolute worst nightmere, play with her own hair.

The mess is just something that has to be dealt with. Unlike teething, or a cold, or a growth spurt, this mess is hear to stay for quite a long time. Optimistically, it'll be over a year from now, or when Kaylani turns 2 (or later) that she'll be able to feed herself cleanly. Until then, we'll have to keep Mommy's heart in check when Kaylani throws a pancake over her head, or dumps a bowl of eggs out onto her try (or the floor), or tosses a bowl of pureed something or other onto the floor.

Kaylani's doctor told us to not show any emotion (positive or negative) when Kaylani does anything with her food besides eat it because it will teach her that she can get a reaction out of us. While it's easy enough for Daddy to just keep smiling at Kaylani when she puts yogurt in her hair and on the floor, it's downright painful for Mommy. Every time it happens, Mommy mumbles something under her breath about the mess through her gritted teeth smile. For Daddy, it just adds to the excitement of Kaylani entering this new stage.

So we'll keep on giving Kaylani food to play with as part of Operation: Fat Baby, or what might be renamed as Operation: Mommy's Heart Attack. No matter what Mommy says, she loves it and it's all good. If you wanna see some of the mess, check out these pictures of Kaylani's feeding area. Be careful thought...it's not for the weak hearted!

Just like Mama

Today was Kaylani's 9 month checkup. It's almost 3 weeks after her actual 9 month birthday, but due to vacation schedules (ours and Kaylani's doctors), we had it now. We were actually okay with the delay since we though we could fatten Kaylani up a little bit more before her official weigh in. We were wrong.

At Kaylani's 6 month check in, she was 35th percentile in height, 21st percentile in weight. While that's not terrible (and percentiles are likely adjusted for bigger babies), we wanted her to be more closer to average. Well this month, Kaylani was way above average...in height. She measured in at 28.5" tall, or in the 76th percentile in height which is great. That means she'll be tall like her Mommy. On the other hand, she only weighs 15lbs 15oz, which is in the 5th percentile, or not even close to average. While percentiles don't mean anything really and Kaylani is perfectly healthy, she's still a skinny little girl, just like her Mommy.

Her doctor gave us strict orders to fatten her up (okay, they weren't so strict but she suggested we stuff her silly to put some meat on her bones). In addition to the 20-24oz of baby food she gets now, we're supposed to give her yogurts, cheese, cottage cheese, things with cheese melted on them, cottage cheese with melted cheese and yogurt drizzled on top, and pretty much any food that we're eating as long as it's not honey, chocolate, nuts, dairy, or a few other things that I can't think of right now. Sounds great! The question is whether or not she'll eat any of it.

Tonight we tried yogurt for the first time and she seemed to enjoy it (banana sweet potato yogurt from Sonia). She also had 4oz of her own baby food, and a piece of bread that she ripped into little pieces, smushed into balls, and threw on the floor while occasionally eating a bite here or there. Tomorrow we'll try yogurt again, maybe some cheese, and probably some cottage cheese too (gross). The best way to fatten her up would be to get her on formula, but since she's still not good friends with her bottle, I guess we'll just stuff her full of any food we can. And if that doesn't work, then I guess she'll just stay tall and skinny...just like her mama!

Learning from the past

Something about Kaylani was a little off last night and today. Last night, she nursed for a real long time before bed, slept for 7 straight hours, but then woke up and fell back asleep twice between the hours of 4am and 6am. Then, she was up at 7:30am for good, and didn't nap until around 4pm, no matter how hard Mommy tried. She didn't nap in the swing, in her arms, or even in the car. And when she finally did nap, it was only for 20 minutes.

Normally we'd think Kaylani was just being a pain, but she actually wasn't a pain today according to Mommy. She wasn't whining or crying, and wasn't overly attached to Mommy, but it was just a long day. There were no signs of new teeth coming out, and no fever to think she was getting sick. It wasn't until she ate up 6oz of food at dinner without a problem that we figured it out. Growth spurt. A quick Google search on growth spurts confirmed our suspicions. There is a 9 month growth spurt. And wouldn't you know it, Kaylani's 3 days away from her 9 month birthday.

They say the best way to make it through a growth spurt is to feed her more. That explains why Kaylani nursed for so long last night. It also explains why she polished off 8oz of food tonight (green bean casserole and apples), still had room to take in about 10 puffs, and drank an ounce or so of water all during dinner. It also explains why she woke up randomly through the night, and why she didn't want to nap during the day.

We were waiting for something like this to happen. Unlike the 3 month and 6 month growth spurts that snuck up on us, we knew this day would come at 9 months just based on the fact that things were going a little too well. She was starting to sleep for 10 hours at a time again and she was eating her food without fussing too much. Before we were the extremely experienced parents that we are now, we would think that she would last like that forever. Now, we're just enjoying it before it goes away. And all signs point to it going away soon.

Hopefully this growth spurt goes by quickly and we can get her back to her normal schedule. Some growth spurts only last a few days. Some last a week. Either way, I just hope it's gone in the next 10 days because that's when Daddy's 1 week vacation from work begins, and vacation with a growth spurt baby isn't what I'm looking forward to. So bring it on growth spurt! Now please?

What the?!?

There are certain things that just come out of your mouth instinctively. For example, if someone punches you, you say "ow." If someone is about to run across the street into traffic, you might yell "stop!" If you drive by a cow (or a horse or a goat), you'll say "mooooo" (no? just me?). If you see a bale of hay, you say "hey!" to get people to look (no? just me again?). Or if you look into your baby's diaper and see a lot of light brown that looks to be liquidy, you say "what the?!?!?"

Tonight, Kaylani's diaper gave us a "what the?!?!?" moment. We were getting Kaylani ready for bed when Mommy asked Daddy to look at something. Daddy, being as innocent as he is, went over to Mommy to take a look. That's when Mommy pulled the back of Kaylani's diaper away from her so Daddy could look down into the abyss. "What the?!?!?" was the first thing that came out of my mouth. Stepping back a step was the first movement I did. Of course Mommy didn't have a good answer to "what the?!?!?" and frankly, neither did Daddy. The more concerning part was that it was light brown, looked extremely liquidy, and there was a lot of it. The "there was a lot of it" part was definitely the most concerning.

According to Mommy, Kaylani made a short farting noise and then "that" happened. We tried to think of what could have been the cause. She did have Country Chicken Apple Compote (or something like this), and it sure did look like it was some sort of compote in her diaper, but that didn't make sense since this was Day 2 and her poop was normal before this. Maybe it was the Gerber Corn Puffs we gave her at Babies R' Us today, but that didn't make sense either because one puff (or 20) shouldn't have come out looking like 300 puffs mashed together. So we had no real cause, and just figured it was because she hadn't pooped in a good 24 hours and has been stuffed full of food since then.

Thinking back some more, it explained why she randomly started crying after dinner and before bedtime while she was playing with her bucket of blocks. At the time, it didn't make sense for her to make a really sad face and start crying when Mommy and Daddy clapped after she put a piece back in the bucket. Thinking she just didn't want us to clap, we let her keep playing on her own, but she kept making sad faces and crying. Turns out she didn't care if we clapped, except for the fact that it forced her to poop her own weight out at that very moment.

Anyways, after changing Kaylani on the floor with one leg over her chest to prevent her from moving (thanks for the advice WeaselMomma!), we examined her poop a little bit closer (one of the joys of parenting). Turns out it wasn't liquidy at all. It was just a lot of light brown poop that was smushed real flat (which I guess happens when she poops out a beer cans worth of poop and then sits on it and rolls on it for 10 minutes). Now she's nursing and just about ready for bed. I think Mommy put it best when she said "let's hope she doesn't poop like that while she's sleeping." Let's hope so indeed because frankly, I'm not sure the crib can support that amount of added weight.

Foodertainment

We've created a monster. In doing so, we've also managed to turn ourselves into a pair of clowns. "Do I look like a clown? Am I hear to entertain you?" Yes. The answer to both is yes. Luckily the monster only comes out twice a day (usually).

Feeding Kaylani is no easy chore. She used to just sit there and eat her 2 to 4 ounces of food peacefully without a fight. We wouldn't have to play any games, or sing any songs, or make any funny faces to get her to open her mouth. But now? Now it's a different story. We have to do all of those things plus react quickly when she talks in "plbbbbbts" and sends food back at us. Then there's the constant reaching down to pick up whatever toy she dropped while again avoiding food being spit at us.

We had a few tricks up our sleeve for the rough days. Mommy could sing "you are my sunshine" to Kaylani and usually she'd open up (after the entire song was done of course). Or we could give her one of the high chair attached toys and she'd usually open up. Sometimes I could just sit and smile at her and she'd eventually smile back (and open her mouth). But lately, we've had to be a bit more original.

Tonight it was just Daddy and Kaylani for dinner. Now Mommy goes through similar things, but I don't think she's quite the sucker that Daddy is. When Kaylani would stop eating, Daddy would go get something new to entertain her with. Here's what it took to get Kaylani to eat 5oz of food:

1. Let her play with the 2nd container of food while feeding her the first (4 spoon fulls)
   
2. Let her play with one of the high chair attachments (2 spoon fulls)
   
3. Make funny faces at her until she laughed and opened her mouth (1 spoon fulls)
   
4. Let her play with the 2nd high chair attachment (0 spoon fulls)
   
5. Let her play with the house phone (5 spoon fulls)
   
6. Get up and get a crab toy for her to play with (0 spoon fulls)
   
7. Get up and get a ball toy for her to play with (1 spoon fulls)
8. Get up and get her a hammer toy to play with (3 spoon fulls)
   
9. Try the house phone again (2 spoon fulls)
   
10. Make "ahhhhhhhhh" noises with my mouth wide open to get her to copy me (9 spoon fulls)
11. Get up and get the container of Veggie Puffs to play with (1 spoon fulls)
12. House phone (0 spoon fulls)
13. Hammer (0 spoon fulls)
14. "Ahhhhhh" noise (0 spoon fulls)

When she started to cry the last time I made the "ahhhhh" noise and threw the phone and the hammer to the floor, I decided she was done. We made it through 5 oz of food which was good enough. Sure we would love her to eat 6 oz at each meal, but it just wasn't happening. I'm not sure if we're teaching her bad habits by catering to her needs, but if we don't play the game, then she just sits there with her mouth wired shut. And while I'd love to teach her a lesson by not feeding her, that usually causes some concern when she wakes up in the middle of the night because she might be hungry.

Not sure what to do about this since we've already started down this path, but at least she's eating right? That's the main part. After all, I am a clown, and I am here to entertain her. Oh, and if you want some entertainment, check out my latest Sports IllustraDad column over at Dad-Blogs. This post we look at the sad, sad, sad story of Big Papi and the life of lies he led in Boston. Very sad. I'm heartbroken about it. Really.

Christmas in July!

I've been hearing a lot of Christmas in July sales going on lately. Our local Macy's even has inflatable Christmas trees adorning the front of their entrance. I used to think that all of this was just another marketing gimmick, but now, I'm not so sure. It kinda felt like Christmas in July today.

For starters, Kaylani woke up nice and early as if it was Christmas morning and she was too excited to sleep in anymore. The first time she got up was around 11pm, likely because she sensed that Santa was going to touch down on the roof any minute. And instead of just lying there awake, she did what any excited kid trapped in her crib would do...she flopped over on her belly and started crawling around while looking for a way out. After being flipped back over (by Daddy...not Santa) and falling back asleep, she made it all the way until 2am before she was on her belly again. Around 5:30am, she had enough and she was determined to sneak out through the corner of her crib. After being unsuccessful for 30 minutes, she called for Mommy and Daddy to come get her so she could see what Santa brought her.

Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for Kaylani), Santa missed our house last night, so Christmas in July was not going to involve any presents at home. Instead, we packed her up and hit the road at 7am so she could nap (in the car of course) before swim class. After a nice 45 minute nap, and a quick nursing, it was into the pool we went. This time, Kaylani received a present from Daddy...in the form of another underwater dunking. The first one went better than last week, and the 2nd time was definitely much better. We didn't take any video so you'll have to take my word for it...as cruel as it sounds.

Next on our day of activity was Sloan's 2 year birthday party at The Harrison's. This is where it really felt like Christmas in July. Not only did Kaylani get presents from Santa Danika (2 more of Darby/Sloan's toys), but she also got something even better...her first pony ride! After all of the other kids who actually knew what was going on got a turn, Kaylani plopped herself on the pony and went for a walk around the yard. She laughed, she rode, she kept leaning forward to see if the pony would go any faster like her buggy. And to top it all off, she got to play in a sandbox for the very first time too.

But our day didn't end there. During a trip to the mall, Kaylani got a few new outfits from Gymboree, and then at Babies R' Us, she got her next presents in the form of a new pajamas, an inflatable duck bath thing, and the biggest present of all...meat! Yeah, you heard that right. We've decided Kaylani's done enough of the veggies and fruits, and we're moving on to meat. We stocked up on sweet potato chicken, vegetable turkey dinner, and country chicken apple something (can't remember the last one exactly). We also bought a few new foods like pumpkin apple, sweet potato cinnamon, and green bean casserole for good measure because we obviously don't have enough food.

Then we sped home, took Kaylani for a ride in her "broom broom buggy", or "vroom vroom buggy" in English, and finally spent some time at home. For dinner, we cracked into the sweet potato chicken and she ate it all up with little problem (only time will tell what it "looks" like on the way out). Then, Daddy got a little light-headed blowing up the duck bath, and we threw her in that too! She also seemed to like that too, with the only problem being she keeps trying to climb out of the damn duck (no real need to say "damn" there, but it just fit).

Anyways, our long Saturday is finally over and Kaylani is passed out in her crib. Mommy and Daddy are pretty beat too, and lucky have 0 plans for Sunday. Maybe we'll sleep in...or maybe we'll wake up at 6am and hang out with Kaylani all day again. Either way, it's 8pm on a Saturday night which means it's time to get this party started ready for bed. In keeping with the whole Christmas in July thing, here are some pictures from today and the last couple of days for you. Merry Christmas (in July)!

Food Emporium

Months ago, we bought a Beaba Baby Cook so we could start making Kaylani's food out of fresh fruits and vegetables instead of buying endless jars of baby food that took up space in our cabinet. In addition to saving over $150 in jarred food costs, we also thought that Kaylani wasn't eating any of her fruits because she didn't like all of the added preservatives, etc that they put in canned/packaged baby food. In fact, we swore off of fruits all together after she started puking them up shortly after. So to date, we've made 64oz of food for Kaylani, of which she's only eaten 32oz of, none of which have been fruits.

We still plan on using the Baby Cook eventually, but we've decided to push ahead with different foods, despite the warnings from Kaylani's nurse. So far, I'd say she's starting to get the hang of it. She's now mastered apples, bananas, peaches, pears, apricot, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, mangos, and prunes in addition to all of her vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, and green beans. She's also eating brown rice, lentils, potatoes, and oatmeal mixed in with each of those. Oh, and of course none of this is homemade. Instead she's been feasting on a variety of Earth's Best, Gerber, and Gerber Organics. As Dora says, "Mmmmm mmmmm delicioso!"

Now, the problem with Kaylani liking all these types of food is that Mommy and Daddy are of the "club store" principle when it comes to food purchases. Instead of buying a few days or a weeks worth of anything at a time, we tend to stock up wherever we are just in case. One week, Target will have a great selection of food and we'll buy 10 different packs to last us a week. And if Babies R' Us also happens to have a great selection when we're there, we'll buy 10 more, even if it's on the same day. And then to top things off, if Stop & Shop or Wegman's has different ones or some more of her staple foods, we'll buy them there too.

Right now, we have over a month's worth of food for Kaylani if she continues to eat 4oz (1 package) of food for lunch and another for dinner. We recently moved it from a small shelf in our pantry to a giant basket because we were it was out of control. At this point, I'm not even convinced Kaylani can eat all of this food. She hasn't even tried it all yet. In fact, I think we might have more food than any of the stores we normally shop at now. It's ridiculous.

We're just going to keep plugging away over here. I hate to see what happens once Kaylani gets into the Stage 3 foods, like meats and pastas. I'm guessing our pediatrician will give us the green light at her 9 month appointment, but until then, it's fruits, vegetables, repeat. Turns out the only way any machine could save us over $150 is if it was a credit card shredder. That way we wouldn't be able to buy ridiculously priced mixed drink blenders baby food processors. Oh well, maybe we'll make her homemade food again some day. You know, like when she's 80 and needs her food blended into a fine mush in order to eat it. Or maybe Kaylani will use it for us. That sounds much more reasonable.

Anyways, check out pictures from the last couple of days. You can see Kaylani and Aidan in the pool, and Kaylani in her brand new Gymboree tunnel! Good times!

Orange you glad we had carrots?

We've had 2 successful road trips in the last 2 days. First, we made it the 4.5 hour drive up to Boston with Kaylani sleeping the entire time on Wednesday night. Then, we made it 2 hours to Cape Cod on Thursday with Kaylani again sleeping the entire time. And to top it all off, she even slept 9 hours in a new place, in a ridiculously narrow metal crib, right next to us! So far, she's been everything we could have hoped for, and maybe even just a little bit more.

The odd part is that the "little bit more" she might be is orange. After spending some time in the morning with Titi Glenda yesterday, she asked if we were feeding Kaylani a lot of carrots and sweet potatoes. Besides the fact that my first reaction was "gee, I guess Titi Glenda doesn't read my blog," my second reaction was "umm...yeah. Why?" And that's when she said something that boggled my mind.

"She looks kinda orange. That usually happens when they eat a lot of orange foods like carrots."

Whaaaaaat? Really? I mean, she eats lots of green beans and peas too, but I wouldn't call her green. After doing a bit of research google search, apparently there's something called "carotenemia" which is "a medical term for a condition that causes the skin to turn orange-ish due to increased blood carotene levels." And wouldn't you know it, carrots, sweet potatoes, and winter squash (or 75% of her foods) are high in beta-carotene which cause her to turn orange.

So now that I was ready to accept the fact that Titi Glenda was right and not just spouting out some ridiculous old wives' tale, I had to accept the fact that I didn't notice. Now, my first excuse (for those who know me, I'm full of excuses) was that I see her everyday so I can't notice slight changes in skin tone, but when Mommy heard, she jumped onboard and said "you know, I was thinking the same thing the other week!" I, of course, called BS, but that's besides the point. My second excuse was that she's not orange, she's just got a suntan because we don't put suntan lotion on her. After I got dirty stares, I quickly backed out of that one with a "just kidding" and a smile (we really do put suntan lotion her).

The morale of the story is that I'm going to have to start paying even more attention to Kaylani. In all fairness, I've never been called a detail oriented person, at least not when it comes to people. I'm also the same guy who stared at Mommy for about 5 minutes before I realized that she chopped off 6" from her hair last year. In any case, it doesn't change the fact that I'm her Dad and I should know every little thing about her. I'd recommend that all of you do the same with your children so you don't feel as "uninformed" as I did. Orange you glad I wrote this post?

Now go check out Dad-Blogs for some great Fatherhood Friday posts! It wouldn't be Friday without it!

We need foodvice!

We've been pretty excited about moving Kaylani through foods for awhile now. And once we got our Beaba we were ready to cook and puree all types of food. The last piece of the equation was getting the fresh fruit, so with apples from Wegman's, we were ready to go. Or were we?

Yesterday was Kaylani's gaggy day. She gagged on the Veggie Puff, and then again on the fresh apple puree that Mommy made for her. Not to be dissuaded, Mommy mixed the leftover apple puree in with Kaylani's oatmeal this morning to make a delicious apple oatmeal cereal. According to Mommy, the apple was so light that it wasn't even tastable within the oatmeal, and for the most part, Kaylani ate it like she normally would. The first few bites went fine, then about halfway through she would get a little whiny. The halfway point this morning was a little bit more than whiny though.

The worst thing in the world to experience is watching Kaylani gag. If you watched yesterday's video, then you know what her face looks like, and it's not something Mommy (or I) like to deal with. But today, Kaylani went beyond gagging into what Mommy describes as full on choking. After finally getting her out of her highchair (which required moving the seat back and getting the tray out of the way), Kaylani rescued herself...by throwing up all over the place. Not spitting up. Throwing up.

It went everywhere (so I'm told). On the floor, on the highchair, on the kitchen table, on her highchair toys, and on Mommy through the pleasant path down her arm. I won't be able to do it any justice since I wasn't there, but it was warm and not nice smelling. Luckily Mommy's natural reaction was to clean Kaylani up instead of throwing up herself which is what it typically would have been. And after everything was back to normal, Mommy made the call to the pediatrician.

The phone nurse told us that we should slow down Kaylani's intake of new foods. Any food we give her should be Level 1 (basic foods) and we should give her a spoonful or two a day so she gets used to it. We should stay away from foods like berries (or things with little seeds), avocados, yogurt, corn, and meats until Kaylani hits the 9 month mark.

The advice sounded fine and might make sense, but the problem is it is contrary to what our normal pediatrician told us. At our 6 month appointment, she told us to work our way through the cereals (done), then green/orange veggies (done), and then fruits. Going back to level 1 veggies means we'll be stuck on green beans, peas, carrots, squash, and sweet potato for another 2 months. It also means that we'll be working through apples, bananas, and peaches slowly for the next 2 months too.

Maybe going slowly through food is the right approach, but that's where we're confused. We think she's ready for next level veggies (like corn-squash combos, or vegetable mixes) because she eats her veggies with no problems, and we even thought she was ready for food mixed with yogurt. Most of our friends were right at or well past those stages at Kaylani's age. Or more specifically, they're all well past those stages before their baby turned 9 months. So why are we being held back?

I guess I can see the argument that if she's throwing up something as basic as level 1 fruits, then maybe she should slow down. The problem is I'm not convinced the phone nurse came to that conclusion. I think that the phone nurse is from the school of thought that says babies shouldn't try food until 9 months. The problem is we're from the school of thought where babies should start trying food at 4-5 months. Plus, Kaylani will be 7 months in a week, so isn't she old enough now?

So what do we do? Anyone have any advice? Been through the same thing? Going through the same thing? I did a quick Google search and can't really find anything on babies being allergic to fruit other than the people who say food shouldn't be started until much later. For now, I guess we'll revert back to our staple foods. It just seems wrong to go against what the nurse says. Even if we don't necessarily agree.

I've got you Beaba!

Kaylani shops at nicer places than we do. It sounds pretty impossible since we're the ones who technically control where she shops, but those were the words that came out of my mouth when Mommy told me she wanted to buy Kaylani a baby food blender from Williams Sonoma. To be fair, we've shopped at Williams Sonoma before, but we normally just buy a can of (overpriced) blueberry waffle mix and call it a day. But that's pretty much the extent of our Williams Sonoma shopping. That all changed when Mommy sent me this email:

Cool! Watch the video!

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/e203/index.cfm?pkey=xsrd0m1|16|||0|||||||baby%20food%20processor&cm_src=SCH

And here's my reply:

$150??? It better grow food too!

That's right. We were now in the market for a $150 baby food blender. Gone were the days of shopping for regular $20 blenders, or normal blenders that weren't lined with gold (what else would make a blender cost so much?). But after watching the video and realizing just how much time and effort it could end up saving us, we went ahead and bought it (from Amazon.com of course). And after our first use of it tonight, I can honestly say that I'd sacrifice a finger for this product.

We haven't even used the Beaba Babycook machine in all its glory yet, but it's pretty amazing. Not only does it blend food into a nice smooth puree, but it also steam cooks any of the foods we want to make for Kaylani before blending it. It's a one stop baby meal maker! We started off slowly with the machine by using it to blend avocado, which is probably the easiest thing we could have ever done. Most people I know just mash avocados with a fork, but when in Rome, or when you have a Beaba Babycook machine, I say puree.

I kinda felt like Tim "the Toolman" Taylor because all of this was "more power" than what we really needed, but I have a feeling this thing is going to come in handy. But convenience doesn't come without a price. Good blenders have sharp blades, and for $150, it has a REALLY sharp blade. Unfortunately I found that out firsthand...literally. While cleaning the chamber, I ran my finger against the blade and cut myself pretty good. Mommy kinda freaked out, but I'm okay. Nothing that a really tight Band-aid wouldn't fix.

So we're 1 day into making our own baby food. First comes avocado, next comes the WORLD...of fruits and vegetables. Soon enough we'll be steaming and blending our way through grains, meats, frozen drinks, and all types of fun stuff. But for now, we'll take it slow. Especially when it comes to the cleaning part.

If you're in the market, I highly recommend picking one up if you can afford to shell out $150. But if you're looking for something cheaper, I offer you these free pictures of Kaylani over the last couple of days. Enjoy, but watch out. You never know when a sharp edge will sneak up on you. Oh, and happy official Fatherhood Friday. In case you're late to the party, you get a two-fer here at Daddy Diaries since yesterday's post was my actual FF post. For everyone else, don't forget to check out Dad-Blogs for more!

Part Baby, Part Monkey

I've always wanted a pet monkey. I thought it would be so cool to have a little monkey who could sit on my shoulder and walk around with me. Maybe someone who could teach me how to climb a tree, or just hang around. Funny enough, Mommy always wanted a monkey too. Her godmother was even going to get her one, but she got a puppy instead. Sadly, we never did get that pet monkey, but today, Kaylani played the role of monkey just for a little bit.

Before Daddy got home, there was a bit of monkey business going on in the house. Kaylani didn't really feel like taking her afternoon nap or being left alone, so Mommy started to go a bit bananas by the end of the day. It was hard to be upset with her for not napping since she slept for 11 hours last night, and then took a 2 hour nap this morning, but still, fussy baby and no nap makes for a bananas Mommy.

The real monkey part actually came at dinner time when we gave Kaylani real banana. She hasn't seemed to like baby bananas in a jar much, but we got the tip to try real banana mashed up real good to get rid of the acidy flavor. After letting Kaylani try and peel and eat a whole banana (and fail at it), Mommy mashed up a banana real good for dinner and Kaylani ate it all up. She ate an entire mashed banana without even flinching. Well, maybe pooping, but not flinching at the food. I'm pretty sure she would have eaten another one if we let her too but we're going to wait and see how she reacts to her first banana.

It probably doesn't sound that exciting that she ate a whole banana instead of half a jar of baby banana, but it's the first "homemade" food that she's had from us. Maybe now we'll move towards making our own food like a couple of our friends. Or maybe we'll just keep giving her mashed banana since its ridiculously easy to make and doesn't even require a blender. Like everything else that we do for Kaylani, we'll just stick with what's working for now. I'm sure our little monkey will let us know when she's ready for something else anyways.

Go Green!

Everyone's going green nowadays. From bigger things like hybrid cars down to smaller things like using less paper, everyone is doing their part to go green for the environment. Well Kaylani's decided to go green too, except it has absolutely nothing to do with the environment.

We made the switch from sweet peas to green beans tonight, and it couldn't have come a minute too soon. Judging from Kaylani's appetite the last 3 days, she hasn't been the biggest fan of sweet peas, and I can't say I blame her. Her sweet peas tasted like crap. Have you tasted sweet peas baby food? It tastes like raw, mashed up sweet peas. I barely eat them cooked, let alone raw and there's a reason why. And not only that, but it made her actually crap. Remember that whole Hershey Kiss thing? Yeah, forget about that. It was more like mini Twix bars. Luckily there were no little peas in there...or at least none that we could see.

Needless to say, the green beans were a welcome change. You can tell Kaylani liked them more too because she didn't make that scrunched up, disgusted face when we gave her a spoonful of green beans. In fact, she liked green beans so much that we couldn't feed her fast enough. And do you know what happens when you try and feed a hungry baby faster? Yep...you get a mess.

So Kaylani went green tonight from head to toe. Actually, Kaylani only went green around her mouth, and maybe a bit up her nose (or were those mocos/boogers? Hard to say...). But Kaylani did her part to get others to go green with her. Going green is about spreading the word, and when Kaylani sneezed with a mouth full of food, she spread the word alright. She spread it in a very green way.

Now it's time for her to go to bed. We're hoping she ate enough green beans and is nursing well enough right now so she'll actually sleep 11 hours. We're also hoping that it was the sweet peas fault that she cried from 12-1am last night. It just goes to show that nothing good comes from eating peas. But, to do my part in going green, I've posted new digital pictures of Kaylani from the last handful of days so check them out. There's her first sweet peas, her first green beans, her sitting up for roughly 10 seconds, Mia, and much much more. But please consider the environment before you decide to print one of those pictures. Thanks!

Foot Feeding

When I wrote yesterday that we were going to start giving Kaylani 3 meals a day, I didn't realize that she would take her own steps towards making sure that happened. She ate 1/4 cup of oatmeal this morning, a 1/3 of a cup of oatmeal and carrots for lunch (kinda), and 4oz of sweet potatoes for dinner, but that wasn't quite enough. Maybe it was because she puked up her lunch afterwards (we're blaming the shots...or the fact that oatmeal and carrots is gross), or maybe she just wanted more to eat.

We've always known her to nibble on things like her toys, her hand, us, or whatever, but tonight was something completely different. While we were getting her ready for bed, she decided to eat her foot. Not just grab it, but eat it. All of it. She got so much of her foot in her mouth that I figured I should charge her for a $5 foot long from Subway (which would also end up saving our favorite TV show "Chuck"). But besides the poor Daddy jokes, I was pretty amazed that she could get that much of her foot in her mouth.

When she's older, she'll realize that putting her foot in her mouth won't be a good thing. If she's as talkative and sarcastic as Daddy, hopefully she'll learn that lesson earlier so she doesn't end up putting her foot in her mouth. But for now, we'll still count it as being cute. Well, I actually think it's kinda gross because feet are gross, but that's just me. And when it comes down to it, nothing Kaylani does can really be counted as gross because she's so damned adorable (even if she does have Hershey Kiss shaped poop).

And to prove it to you, here are a few pictures from this week. Hopefully feet don't gross you out like they do me. But if they do, then don't focus on those pictures. Instead, just look at the rest of the pictures of my little girl. I know I will.

Doctor Says

Today was Kaylani's 6 month checkup. Sure, she's not 6 months yet, but we had it anyways. Overall, the doctor said everything looked good,which is always a good sign. She now weighs 14lbs, which puts her in the 21st percentile. She's 27" tall, which is in the 35th percentile. Her head is 17" round, which is in the 26th percentile. What's all of that mean? It means she's a skinny little tall girl. At least that's what I took out of it.

Her height and weight measurements weren't what we went for (well, not the whole reason). We found a few other important things, like she has no signs of teeth yet and that she's developmentally on track with her rolling, feet grabbing/eating, grabbing in general, "standing", and sitting (as limited as it may be). But the 2 other things that the doctor said were what we really took away from the appointment.

The first was food. Since she's in the 21st percentile in weight, we got the go ahead to move to 3 solid feedings a day (in addition to 5 breastfeedings a day). Up until now, we've been giving her a 1/4 cup of oatmeal at lunch and then 2oz of vegetables at night. Well starting tomorrow, we'll be moving to a little less than a 1/4 cup of oatmeal at lunch, a 1/4 cup of oatmeal and veggies at lunch, and then 5oz of a different/new vegetable for dinner. It's going to be a race now to see if I can lose more weight than Kaylani can gain. It'll be close.

The other thing that the doctor told us was that we had her full permission to begin ferberizing Kaylani when she doesn't sleep. Sounds mean, but what that actually means is that we need to let her cry at night for however long it takes for her to get back to sleeping 10-12 hours straight through. Since she used to be able to do it and just hasn't been doing it lately, it means that she's capable of lasting 10-12 hours without nursing. The hard part will be seeing if we can do it. It's a battle of wills according to our doctor, and I'm not sure our wills are strong enough.

Letting her cry sounds easy enough, but when it's the middle of the night and she's crying, that means one of us has to stay up and make sure that she's actually okay and just crying for the sake of crying. Shutting off the monitor(s) sounds easy enough, but given how tired we are, we may just sleep through any type of cry and miss out on something important or urgent, which is not really an option.

The other otpion is for 1 of us to stay awake with her while she's crying. The problem with that is it means one of us will suffer through the next day. And it's really a coin flip to see if a tired Mommy home with Kaylani is worse than a tired Daddy in the office. Anyways, I guess we'll deal with that starting tomorrow because tonight doesn't count with Kaylani getting 2 shots today (which she did great at and only cried for a minute after the 2nd one). Stay tuned to see how this one turns out.