Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The fifth tooth

While charting the slow unsteady progress of the mound on the lower right, a tooth popped out on the upper left. I swear, yesterday there wasn't so much as a bump and today -- voila! -- a tooth. I knew from the sudden appearance of drool globs that she was teething, and from her sudden clamping down that a tooth was eminent, I just guessed the wrong one.
On related teething news, yesterday Yelena demonstrated some cognitive powers. (Houston, we have cognition.) In the afternoon she had clamped down while nursing, a big no no around here. (Not so into the nipple pain. Why anyone would pierce them is beyond my imaginative masochism threshold.) When this happens I deny her privilege. I said to her, "Yelena, if you want to bite, bite Bear," and handed her the bear that shares sleeptime with her. So she gnawed on him a little and returned to me with a very wide open mouth. Last night we were nursing and she suddenly released my breast, reached to her other side, yanked Bear around, shoved his paw in her mouth and chewed away for a minute before turning back to me to gently nurse.
Now if I can only get her to understand the word, "In."

Monday, August 28, 2006

Nap time

Bathing beauty


I had to post a head shot, lest I get arrested, but here is my slippery seal.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Move over pita

Today we met Uncle Eric for lunch. Apparently the only thing yummier than veggie booty is veggie booty with a glob of babaganosh.

Channeling Dr. Evil?

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Stand and Deliver

No major milestones or anecdotes recently. Just much cuteness. Yelena did take a number of steps alternating feet while holding my hands today -- only she took them backwards. Moony.

Although other people seem to think it’s a terrible deficiency, either explicitly stating it or by their squinty eyes and raised brows, Eli and I aren’t too concerned about Yelena’s lack of mobility, except when we second guess ourselves. Everyone has an opinion on this and, boy, they do share it. Fortunately most of my friends, being intelligent people, are of the mindset of when-she’s-ready-to-walk-she’ll-walk and think it’s not a big deal. Everyone else either falls into the squinty eyed “your baby must be totally retarded” camp or the sign of genius camp.

From the former, in addition to implying that my daughter is developmentally deficient, in contrast to their own ‘normal’ crawling child, there is often the implication that my parenting is deficient. Either that I don’t spend enough time working with her on skills or that I spend too much time coddling her, thus preventing her from developing them. If I had a buck for every person who suggests, “Have you tried putting her toys out of reach?” I could afford a chauffeur so she’d never have to move at all. (The answer: she finds something else to do. Like play with the mat or the carpet or her hands or her hair or vocalize or watch the always exciting cat channel. There must really be something wrong with a baby who can entertain herself without crawling up the ceiling.) I actually had a stranger infer that my extended breastfeeding was linked to her not moving. (“She’s not crawling or walking? Are you still breastfeeding? Ahhhh.”)

From the latter, I have heard dozens of stories about how their brother/uncle/friend’s daughter didn’t walk until 16/20/24 months and now they’re a neurosurgeon/concert pianist/head of an Ivy League history department. Of course, I like these better, but am not going to take this anecdotal evidence as a sign of brilliance. Dr. Sears explicitly states that first steps are absolutely no indicator of intelligence later in life. If it were, there’d be a lot more smart people out there, wouldn’t there? Dr. Sears also mentions that babies with easier temperaments tend to be late walkers, and Yelena certainly has an easy temperament.

With all this in mind, Yelena had a physical therapy evaluation yesterday. The pediatrician had mentioned physical therapy as an option (her words were, “I love physical therapists! Even if you don’t need them you go away with all these fun things to do.”) and, since it’s not invasive and we’ve got flex spending we decided to take her in for an evaluation.

In the therapists’ collective opinion, Yelena is a beautiful sitter and a strong stander, she just doesn’t move. No duh. (We’re working on some exercises and going in once a week for four weeks to see what happens.) They stressed that she is developmentally delayed by her immobility, which I didn’t question at the time but should have, since most kids walk between 9 to 16 months. When I asked if there was something “wrong” (and I made the little quotey signs) with her they said I’d have to check with a neurologist to rule anything out. I know they have to say shit like that to cover their backs, but it really bothered me. Part of me got really defensive: nothing is wrong with my child; many of my friends’ children were late walkers and are all bright and well-adjusted – and no one was telling them their children were developmentally delayed. Another part of me got really freaked out: am I so arrogant that I think that there could be nothing wrong with my child?

Unless other triggers arise, I don’t think there is anything wrong. A friend, who was running the office of the premier child developmental specialist in Chicago and seen hundreds of children, reassured me today. She also pointed out that some children are so smart that hitting these milestones are beneath them. Again, I don’t want to use this as a sign of giftedness but, considering Yelena is an incredibly engaged and responsive child, it is a more likely explanation for her atypical behavior than that there is something neurologically wrong. From first-hand experience, I know that gifted children develop at a different pace and don’t necessarily excel in standard settings. I am going to continue to do what I do with my baby, give her love, give her stimulus and respond to her cues. And everyone can just kiss Yelena’s cute baby tushie.

Hunkered down with holy text

Yelena is asleep, Eli is in Idaho, Theo is howling and I am reading Rabbi Soloveitchik all by my lonesome. Why, oh why, did I agree to re-do the High Holiday reading booklet? I could be reading another Michael Malone book.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Autogiggle

Yelena cracked herself up today. I was at dance class, but Eli reports that he was playing guitar for her and heard her giggling like crazy. He looked down and she had a stuffed bear between her legs and was kicking her legs, making it move. Its dancing was apparently hysterical to her. We make her laugh, but this was the first time one of us witnessed her humoring herself.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

More from the Dept. of Cute

Dept. of Cute

Push and shove

Saturday, Yelena had her first experience as a victim of senseless violence. She was pushed by a 16 month old for no reason other than her mere existence. It was also the first time I ever saw her look angry. Puzzled, startled, scared, even disgust, I've seen, but this was a mixture of all four with a narrowing of the eyes and a modicum of fury.
I was borrowing books from a rabbi (who will go nameless, since it would be vindictive if someone Googled him and read my opinion of his lax parenting skills). We were perusing the shelves, so I put Yelena down in the middle of his office, offered her a toy car and a baseball to play with and she was quite content. Rabbi's toddler grew rapidly bored with yanking sacred texts off the shelves and throwing them aggressively to the ground and toddled over to Yelena. I was keeping the corner of my eye on them (Rabbi wasn't). Other babies and toddlers have been clumsy around her, usually out of interest or even affection, so I thought best not to leave them totally unattended. No other child had ever been mean, though.
We adults were talking when I witnessed toddler hellion suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, push Yelena in the middle of her face: once, twice. Yelena almost lost her balance but caught it and her dark eyes flashed anger. Instinctively, I used my deep-reprimand-the-cats-voice and yelled, "No! Back off! Leave her alone!" I said to Rabbi, "Oh, sorry I yelled at your kid, but Yelena's never been pushed before." He very half-heartedly told his kid to come here and not push. As I picked up Yelena, I asked if his son was a pusher. No, he was usually being pushed around by his three older sisters. I guess he found someone smaller than him to shove around. Bully.
I am still upset by this, because Rabbi didn't offer much in the way of an apology. Maybe he is used to Baby Lord of the Flies, but I'm not and don't really find it acceptable. I'm sure things like this will continue to happen as my daughter gets older -- sometimes in the presence of helpful adults, sometime neglectful adults, sometimes by herself -- but I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon or for another adult to be so blasse about it. It's not that I expected any major action -- the kid is only 16 months, afterall -- but something more than a half-assed rebuke and a quarter-assed apology. Call me over-protective, but I don't think 1 year is old enough to have to start dealing with bullying.
This was also surprising as I typically find parents very watchful and conscientious. In class or playgroup other kids have tried to use her as architecture to pull up on or have been a little too eager in their explorations of her hair or face, but their parents have always intervened or cautioned, "Gentle."
In much cuter interactions, last week in playgroup there was a new 14 month old towhead whose parents are from Germany. He kept toddling up to Yelena, crouching down and giving her really sweet gentle hugs, even snuggling his head on her. Ah, the irony that our little Jewish girl gets cuddled by the German boy and beaten up by the rabbi's kid.

Check up

I've been too busy reading Michael Malone novels (Uncivil Seasons, Time's Witness and First Lady) to post. Sorry.
The little sweetums had her 1 year check up on Monday. Weighed in at 22 lbs., 6 oz. putting her back near the 75th percentile; almost 29", so just shy of the 50th percentile in height; and 44.75 cm. head circumference, so still a very large 90th percentile head. All else went well, she didn't have an adverse reaction, other than needle tears, to her immunizations (MMR and chicken pox).
Her other top front tooth is visible.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Tubeless

Cheru got his feeding tube out on Friday! It was in seven weeks, but not used the past two weeks. The vet popped it out, no sedation, no stiches. There's a hole on the side of his stomach. The vet said it would close up in three or so days and, lo, it pretty much has. He's still wearing a sweater until it heals completely, but we're glad to have a cat without any extra piping.

I'm so glad my kitty is alive and well.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Cake vs. champers


Yelena was rather wary of her first candle. Thank God I do not have a baby pyromaniac. (Yup, that's a Hanukah candle. Bad mother that I am, I forgot to pick up birthday candles or a cute little candle with a "1" on it. Reserve the therapist's couch now. At least I baked the cupcakes myself.)




Yelena was a bit puzzled at first, but ultimately enjoyed about a half of her cupcake. I had imagined a blissed out sugar frenzy, but she took it in stride, possibly because she had a big meal beforehand. She appeared to like the cake part (orange) better than the frosting (cream cheese), but neither 1/10th as much as the few spoonfuls of raspberry sorbet I slipped her the week before.
Yelena, however, adored her first taste of champagne. And her second. And her third. First birthday bubbly was not on the program. But she kept reaching for my flute with her mouth open wide. No bottle, straight from breast to flute. Cheers!

Friday, August 04, 2006

Happy Birthday, Yelena!


Yes, this post is back dated. I am full of cheat. These pictures were genuinely taken on the morning of Yelena's first birthday, my beautiful birthday babe still in her jammies.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Camera no longer obscura

The digital camera has been found! Tony was right, we had a poltergeist infestation. But I trickst those tricksy devils, I did.
I told Eli that as soon as we went out to buy a new one the missing camera would be found. We combed our entire house, all our bags, etc. We were so dilligent I even organized all my drawers and swept the dust rhinos out from under the beds. Today we finally decided we needed to get a new camera so we could take pictures of Yelena's first birthday. I went to the mall (always a mistake) down Touhy since the Pentax website listed a camera store location. (I must confess, my choice to stick with Pentax had less to do with brand loyalty and more to do with my reluctance to install new software.) Alas, the camera store was no longer there.
Apparently the poltergeists, or gremlins, or household deer, are only in our house and not in our car, since they only heard our conversation about breaking down and getting a new one and not our phone conversation about the store being dark. At playgroup, I couldn't find my keys (had fallen in the sofa cushions after a kid was playing with them, lest you think I am completely absent minded). I reached in a tiny pocket in my purse I swear Eli and I checked half a dozen times and pulled out the camera.
Here is one of the photos the poltergeists, or gremlins, or those little Calvinoesque household creatures from Invisible Cities was hoarding these past weeks.