My Sunday morning checklist

1) Give Yiyi and Uncle Piao a huge morning grin.
2) Give Yiyi such good snuggles that she let me watch Ni Hao Kai Lan on her laptop.
3) Skype with Grandpa, Grandma, and Yiyi Sam in Singapore. Show them how I roll around my PeaPod and drool all over my toys.
4) Happily let Uncle Piao take many, many, many photos of me. The morning sun flatters my good side, I think.
5) Make a face when Mama tried to feed me this thing called puffs. Whatever they are, they taste weird... If I didn't know better-- and I don't-- I'd say that taste like Styrofoam...
6) Clock in some quality play time with Daddy while Mama brought Yiy and Uncle Piao to Kerrytown for more Zingerman's and a quick stop at Hollander's. I was not pleased that they left me out of the fun. What rain? Sophie Yew's made of sterner stuff ok...
7) Let Yiyi feed me the lunch of constipated champions- pureed prunes with rice cereal. Mama was worried that I didn't give her a poopy diaper yesterday so she decided to give me some prunes. Man, did she totally regret that decision later today. Four times over. Ha! Take that, Mama... that's for leaving me behind when you guys went to Kerrytown.
8) Smile. A LOT.


1. Sunday morning fun with Yiyi, 2. Guess who loves prunes?, 3. So full of smiles!, 4. More Yiyi, more!!

Welcome to Ann Arbor, Yiyi and Uncle Piao!

[click for full effect]

It was as if she recognized them both from when we were home for Christmas. Either that or our daughter's just a most social baby. My sister and Piao would like to think the former of course, but either way, Sophie flashed them her largest, most radiant smiles ever when they hopped off the train from Chicago yesterday. And it's been nothing but more smiles and laughs since then :) They're both here for the next 10 days and if the past two days are any indication, I think they're both in for 10 days of much Sophie love! We're talking early morning snuggles, peekaboo smiles, and toothless gummy grins every time they look at her... Our daughter is thrilled that her aunt and uncle are here to visit, and she's sure letting them know it!

More photos here.

Sophie's Nest

It counts as officially our best purchase for Sophie ever. In the past 7 months, several things have come close as lifesavers- our Moby wrap, the Bumbo, our Stokke highchair, etc. But in just two days, the Kidco PeaPod has usurped the place of everything else to become Sophie's all time favorite item in this house. We had bought it meaning for it to be a place she can sleep safely when we travel but it has turned into an excellent play area for her in the house. We lined it with her quilt, put some of her favorite toys in there, and voila! It's like her own little fun house! We call it Sophie's Nest- like a little birdie, she can sit in there and nibble on all her beloved toys and roll around without fear of getting hurt. Just look at how happy she is in there:


And if we have to run to the kitchen or the bathroom for a second, we just zip the Pod up and Sophie's safely ensconced inside and we don't have to worry about her rolling off her mat and hitting herself on our hardwood floor. For some strange reason, Sophie actually LOVES it when we zip it up- we think she thinks it's some variation on peek-a-boo that she adores so much :)


In fact, Sophie loves it so much that this afternoon, she managed to entertain herself in there for a full 15 minutes while Jude and I sneaked in some work next to her. I know that doesn't sound like a lot of time, but in the world of a 7-month old, it's phenomenal. She didn't make a squeak and was content just exploring her toys and looking around the Pod. I can't describe how happy we are at the purchase but more importantly, how happy Sophie is in it. Our princess has finally found her castle :)

And here to do her floor routine...

Every time Sophie does this, I feel like I should hold up a card that says "10!" and give her an Olympic-worthy applause. Sometimes, I think she expects me to. Often, I do... :)

Sophie, swing, spring, sunshine

We reckon Sophie has missed the sunshine these past winter months. What say you? :)

Unlike her mother...

** (March 14) Update: We tried again this morning with some banana mashed together. Success! She finished EVERYTHING up and came close to licking both the spoon and bowl :) Next time though, we go plain avocado...

Sophie does not like avocado. You should have seen her- mouth clammed shut, face scrunched into incredulous disbelief that her parents would venture to feed her something of such foreign texture, and gag reflex operated at optimum throttle, threatening to barf out what little avocado she did take in all the way back at us.

I'm sorry, Sophie. Mama will not be deterred. Tomorrow, we try again.

Her t-shirt tells it like it is

Happy 7-month old birthday, punkin'!

This post has nothing to do with Sophie

The Oscars are tomorrow and for the first time in the history of this blog, I will not be posting my predictions for the winners. Due in part to a certain someone someone who this post is not about, with the exception of Avatar and Up, we have not seen anything else that's being nominated in the major categories. Which is an even bigger deal when you consider that this year, they've expanded the list of Best Film nominees to ten, which means instead of having seen two-fifths of the nominees, we now have only seen a fifth. And that's not counting the movies nominated for acting awards like Crazy Heart and Invictus.

But I'll still watch it on TV- if nothing else to see what everyone's wearing and watch Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin co-host the show. No one has ever come close to my dear Billy Crystal when it comes to hosting the Oscars, but I like Alec Baldwin well enough and he might be a sharper, pricklier foil to Steven Martin who can sometimes be a little over the top with the slapstick.

I'll be rooting for The Hurt Locker for the win (or maybe an upset by Quentin Tarantino with Inglorious Basterds) for no other reason than it would mean Avatar not winning. I mean, I enjoyed it for what it was-- really good popcorn entertainment-- but I didn't think it was Oscar-worthy the way say, No Country for Old Men or The English Patient, or Schindler's List.

Will you be wasting three and a half hours of your Sunday night watching the Oscars and who do you think will win?

Fright

Sophie is allergic to yogurt :(

She proved herself to be truly her father's daughter-- allergies and all-- when she gave me what was the fright of my life yesterday morning. As she closes in on her seventh month birthday, I thought it might be a good time to introduce her to yogurt. It has a nice amount of digestible protein and good fats that Sophie needs right now and many of my mommy friends started their babies on yogurt at around this time too. So we bought a half-dozen pack of the much-loved YoBaby organic plain yogurt by Stonyfield Farms and I added in my own pureed pears for Sophie's breakfast yesterday. Within 10 minutes of her first spoon, everywhere on her body that came into contact with the yogurt-- her entire face, neck, and hands (because she's fond of grabbing her food-stained bib and then rubbing her face with her hands...)-- broke out into hives! Blotchy, puffy hives :( I nearly passed out! I don't think I've ever been that panicked. Ever. It was terrifying...

So I called the doctor's office and while the nurse was asking me all these questions about Sophie's breathing and whether she was turning blue (what?? she'll turn blue?? why am I still on the phone with you??), all I wanted to do was whisk her to the clinic as soon as I could. In the end, they said to bring her in (was there even a question??) and I was out the door in under two minutes. If I hadn't looked at the mirror from the corner of my eye and realized how I was dressed, I would have walked out of the door in my PJs... Thankfully, by the time we got to the pediatrician's, the hives had subsided quite a bit. But there was still enough residual puffiness for the doctor to give her a dose of Benadryl and check her breathing and oxygen saturation. Everything looked fine and the doctor gave us the OK to go home for the day. We got a referral to an allergist so we can ascertain what it was specifically in the yogurt that caused the reaction- whether it was the cultures in the yogurt, the cow's milk, or some chemical in the processing.

Through this entire epic drama, Sophie was plain oblivious- she just sat in her play area, chewed on her teether and watched me go manic on the phone with the nurses, starred at me wide-eyed and curious when I bundled her up in a hurry to the doctor's, and while we were there, took time to smile and flirt with everyone who would give her the time of day... She probably had no clue what all the crazy fuss was about. And that was one of two things I was grateful for yesterday- that she wasn't in any pain or discomfort, and that her reaction was only superficial and didn't involve her respiratory system in any way. I wouldn't know what to do if she went into a full-on anaphylactic shock. Oh god, I can't even begin to imagine :(

So there, from now on, I'm going to go easy on this whole introducing new foods thing- we were back to good 'ol carrots and bananas today. Nothing exciting for Sophie for a while. I was going to start adding spices like cinnamon and cumin into her fruit and veggie purees this week, but I think until we see the allergist and determine her allergy profile, bland and simple's going to be the name of the game...

"Palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss..."**

It's amazing what a moment of inspiration and an iPhone can capture. While we were waiting for the nurses before Sophie's 6-month shots, we randomly took this photo on Jude's iPhone as Sophie was pressing herself up against the window. We just used the regular camera function, no fancy app and we didn't even tweak the photo after. We love how it came out- the effect of the reflection and how it almost seems as if Sophie's palms are illuminated, almost glowing. It also captures our daughter's cheekiness and need to put everything into her mouth (or close to it anyway...) to a T. Yup, this is Sophie in a nutshell :)


Anyways, I was so proud of our serendipitous photographic accomplishment that on a whim, I entered the photo in the Parents.com photo competition. I'm not really sure how it works or even what the prize is- I think it's either a shot at the cover or a year's supply of diapers or something (we'll take the diapers please, thank you very much...). I had totally forgotten about it until they sent me an email this afternoon to say that the photo's been selected to be in the running to become a weekly winner on Parents.com Photo Faves! Again, I'm not sure what that entails, but as long as it involves winning some baby necessity or a Target/ Babies R' Us gift card, I'm hoping we win! Help us keep our daughter's butt clean and dry with all that potential free dipes and wipes and vote here!

** For those of you so inclined-- I'm talking specifically to you Lit-geeks out there who should be able to do this even if you were unconscious- you know who you are...-- you can guess where this quote comes from :)

Feed thyself

Sophie grabbed the spoon out of her bowl when I was in the middle of feeding her yesterday. I don't think she necessarily knows what to do with it yet but she definitely associates it with delivering food into her mouth. And so we thought to nurture this latent independence to feed herself by offering her some banana in the Munchkin food feeder we had bought from Target a while ago. It's a marvelous little invention: it looks like a teether but is actually a mesh bag into which you can put pieces of fruit or veggie. Give it to baby and watch her chew on the mesh bag as the food comes through in a smooth digestible mush. No worries about choking! I had Sophie occupied for a good 10 minutes purposefully chewing on her new snack vessel...