Waverly Pumpkin Smackdown 2007

Jefferson Hospital Halloween Party!

We were exciting to receive an invitation to the Jefferson Hospital NICU Halloween Party a few weeks ago. This past Saturday (10/29) we attended! Willa went as a caterpillar and Christie and I went as "ourselves." The place was alive with crazy kids - many of whom make this a bi-annual event. Apparently, we will be getting an invitation in the future since we are part of this club. The fare was interesting: candy corn, pretzels, mac & cheese, fried chicken, fruit and cheese, cider, french fries, Halloween cake (?) and donut holes. In an effort to be healthy, we picked at the veggie tray. Here are a few shots from the party!

Life imitating art; daddy imitating baby

BBC Charts

Some of Willa's favorite videos come from the BBC Chart.



Yes, I think it's that Alanis song.


Sugababes. This song is epic: hot girls striking poses with a rendevouz sub-story. Lots of texting as well (brits love text) Oh, and check out the vert when the guy (fit isn't he?) clears the cart at 2:12.


GREAT video for an absolutely awesome track.


The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division... Yes - GREAT GREAT band.

Best Gift Ever

We have on the calendar less than two months until Christmas. Many of you have not even begun shopping or perhaps due to unseasonable weather still think it is September. Never fear. I have the most amazing gift to present and suggest to you today.

Der Struwwelpeter

A children's book loved by many a frightened German toddler, I urge you to find and buy any version of this book available. Yes, it is on my Amazon wish list.

Links:
Struwwelpeter website: http://www.bobstaake.com/struwwelpeter
Buy it: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1560977027/ref=nosim/shagpad/

Happy Festivus!!!

Pears - big hit!

Our odyssey into the world of solid foods continues. Yesterday, I steamed and pureed a pear. I divided it up into four small portions, saving one for Willa to try last night. She gobbled it up and I felt bad that the rest were already frozen! Jump to this morning, when Valerie fed her the rest. I've never heard Willa make so much noise while eating, and never has her bib been so clean! She licked up all of that pear! We have a winner, folks.

So far, we've tried rice cereal, oat cereal with banana flakes, mashed banana, avocado, and pear. Tomorrow is the three day mark for pears, and provided she remains allergy-symptom free, we start something new tomorrow - the green beans are steaming now and will be pureed afterwards. That should be interesting...After the green beans will be sweet potatoes and squash. My drawer of frozen milk will slowly be replaced by frozen mini-muffin cubes of pureed fruits and veggies. By the time she graduates to solid, non-pureed food, I'll be ready for my future as a chef in the retirement home, where pureed and bland foods are hot items on the menu!

Oh, and the other side benefit to the introduction of more high-fiber foods? Willa is finally becoming more regular! Hooray, except when it's time to change those diapers...we don't have our camera at the moment so we won't have any pictures of pear delight (or potential green bean disaster) this week.

I covet this...

Markus found this witty, sometimes snarky, funny blog written by a stay-at-home dad; it's called daddytypes. I hadn't caught up with daddytypes in a while, so I was doing that today and I saw this:



Our Bugaboo is orange, and I really, really like it. But I've always had this thing for silver. I had silver - shiny, sparkly silver - loafers back in 8th grade. I'm telling you, I like silver. And now, they have a special edition silver Bugaboo in honor of Neiman Marcus' 100th anniversary. Damn them! I wish they could've done this a year ago and I could have my very own silver stroller! I'll just have to drool over this one.

Here's the post from Daddytypes, which is a good read:
daddytypes.com/2007/10/09/special_collection_metallic_silver_bugaboo_cameleon_at_neiman_freakin_marcus.php

New pictures!

I made three different posts with pictures today, so scroll down to see the various slideshows from the past two weeks. We still have lots of video to edit and will hopefully post some small snippets in the near future.

Willa is getting so big! I travelled for four days and I swear she looked different, and taller, when I got home. She laid in bed with us last night and we both commented on how small she once was, and how long she is now. I think she may grow to be a tall girl; when she outgrows her clothing, she outgrows the length. She never fills it out from the width/chubbiness perspective.

Feeding is going well. She likes cereal and bananas; we love watching her slurp off of the spoon. We tried avocado today, and she did well with that, too. I'll steam some pears later this weekend (after 3 days to make sure she doesn't have problems with the avocado), puree them with my hand blender, and see how she likes those. As someone who enjoys cooking, this is a whole new type of "cuisine" to try. I'm excited, and though I know we'll buy some jarred baby food, I'm hoping to make a lot of it myself. That way, we know what's in it and it'll be more nutritious for Willa. The cereal has also helped make her more regular, I think; we only had to wait 5 days instead of 2 weeks this time!

She's tried out her exersaucer to give her more practice with standing and weight-bearing. We have to put a phone book under it for her to stand on, since her feet can't reach the bottom yet. She loves to look at all the toys. She finally started batting at things, grabbing my hair, and is going to roll over any day now. And the laughs, oh the laughs! She has graduated from baby giggles to real laughs and huge grins. We love it! She's drooling a bunch, chewing on her fingers, and just in the last few days realized that her voice can be loud. So, we now have the pleasure of listening to baby screams of delight (hey, it beats screams of discomfort or unhappiness). We're really having a lot of fun, except the other night when she woke up every hour on the hour between 2 and 7. I was exhausted. We're still working on the sleep thing...

So that's about it. Oh, her Halloween costume arrived and Valerie put it on her the other day. It's adorable. I'll post pictures of that closer to the day - don't want to give it away before we have the chance to take her trick-or-treating! I ordered some soft blocks and beautiful wooden learning toys from a German toy company called Haba. The colors are so bright and vivid, I can't wait to see them in person. I'll take some pictures and post after they arrive.

I hear a screaming baby (not screams of delight this time) so I better go see if Daddy needs some relief.

Sunday brunch

On Sunday, we had some clothing to return. Markus was updating his fall wardrobe, and I was trying to do the same. I found some cute shirts, and they fit really well everywhere except across my chest...a side effect of the breastfeeding! I am looking forward to the day that I don't have to buy shirts an extra size larger just so I can button them across that area. I guess another option is to just walk around looking like the tramp mother of the neighborhood. After the returns, we walked to Cafe Apamate for brunch. This is a small Spanish cafe; they serve food that I remember from my time in Spain. They have great coffee, the vibe is cool, the staff is friendly, and of course the food is yummy. We shared a shot glass of almond-grape soup, Markus ordered a chorizo (blood sausage) bocato (sandwich) and I ordered a baguette slice topped with stewed eggplant, zucchini and onions topped with a poaced egg and pesto. It was delish! Willa was a very good girl, thanks to Valerie decorating the stroller with toys to keep the baby girl occupied. Here are some pictures of Willa hanging out:

Standing up

At Willa's last checkup, Dr. Berman said we could start doing some weight-bearing time with Willa. She loves to stand up, and is surprisingly strong for such a little girl! These photos were taken after her bath on Saturday night. Yes, that's what we do for a good time on Saturday nights now.

Lazy Saturday pictures

We have a slight backlog of pictures to post, so I figured I should get started. Here are some from the last weekend in September right before the heat wave. Willa loves to sit in her little seat - thanks to cousin Melina for passing it on!

Messy times begin

Willa's pediatrician told us we could introduce solids, so we gave it a try last Thursday night. She didn't make a huge mess or react horribly by spitting it at us, thankfully. She just wasn't quite sure what to do. Here are some highlights:

 

I see food on your finger.

 

Mommy tries to feed me, but I get distracted so easily.

 

Happy face

 

It's starting to get messy.

 

On the cheeks, nose, and chin - is anything in the mouth?

 

And now it's on the hands.

 

All clean!


We tried again Sunday without too much luck. Then, tonight, she got it. The little girl ate four small bowls of cereal! When she latches on for breastfeeding, her one opens really wide in excitement. She started doing the same thing as the spoon got closer to her mouth. It was really funny! She's been waking up 3-4 times a night (we'd gotten spoiled by her 5-7 hour stretches for a few weeks) so I'm hoping the cereal will help her stay full so she (and I) sleeps longer. In a few weeks, we get to start with fruits and some of the sweeter veggies. Life at dinnertime should be very interesting then!

Oh, she figured out how to do raspberries last Thursday, too. She's taken to blowing bubbles and making raspberry noises pretty much all the time. I told her to say good night to Daddy and she blew a raspberry. What a stinker! We have some video, so we'll try to post it. She makes us laugh all the time now. Life is good.