Outings

Last Sunday, Mather attended her first playgroup. I joined Golden Gate Mothers Group a few months ago. One of their services is organizing playgroups. Although Mather can't really "play" with other kids yet, it's a nice opportunity to get together with other moms. There are nine people in my group. We are all working moms with babies born between October 1st and November 20th. Mather had a great time playing with all of the host-baby's toys. And some kids actually "played"...

Today, Mather took her first trip to the beach. We've had glorious weather the past few days. The beach seemed like a great place to eat lunch and have Mather work on her sitting skills. I took so many fabulous pictures (if I do say so myself) that we've placed them into a Web Album for you to enjoy. I'd recommend running a slideshow.

Breaking Her Fast

Focus. Determination. The Will of a Champion. The Desire to Eat.

I present to you...Mather's first meals.



Run time - 1:40

Cereal and Rugby

Another eventful day! I haven't had two consecutive days off of work since the 24th-25th of March. Weekends are cool. Miss Magoo ate her first "solid" food today - rice cereal made with breastmilk. We made it pretty runny for the morning feeding and then thickened it a bit more for the evening feeding. Dan, Grandma Julie and I each took a turn feeding her. She seemed to like it any way she could get it...

Feeding herself from day one, what a pro!

After the morning chow-down, Mather got a bit of playtime...

Chillin' with a full belly!

Then we picked up Grandmather from the airport and headed out to Treasure Island for rugby. Mather watched from the sidelines while her Dad played. We had lunch at the clubhouse and hung around for the headline match-up between SFGG and Belmont Shore.

Hangin' with Dad in the clubhouse. Mom went with the rugby theme on top, but had to girl-it-up with pink pants.

After the games, we headed back home for the evening. Mather had another taste of the good stuff, this time Grandmather helped with the feeding...

Next up, video footage of the first feedings... too cute!

Maternity Leave, continued

Today was my first day at home alone with Mather since January. I am taking Mondays and Fridays off from work for the next 7 weeks. When I was originally on maternity leave immediately after Mather's birth, my salary was covered by state disability insurance. Now I am taking advantage of California's Paid Family Leave program.

It was a wonderful day, quite different from my first maternity leave. Mather is SO much better at entertaining herself now. There was maybe a total of 3 minutes of crying all day. Whereas, in the early months, she would often cry whenever she wasn't being held.

This morning, we attended a demonstration children's music class. Mather enjoyed herself. She watched attentively at the teacher and the other kids. She giggled when I used her belly as a drum and she let me tap a tambourine on her feet. However, I think we'll wait until she can crawl and interact a bit a more before enrolling her in a 10-week semester. She was much more interested in chewing on the egg shakers, rather than actually shaking them...

We took a long afternoon siesta together, then we headed off to Babies R Us to get Mather a highchair. It's actually more like a booster seat, it attaches to a normal dining chair - that way we don't have to make room for another piece of furniture in our tiny apartment. She seemed to enjoy it...

Thanks to Jaye Shupin for the suction-cup toys.

We'll get to see the chair in action tomorrow when Mather gets her first taste of rice cereal. We had to start feeding her solid food eventually. Otherwise, she might have eaten her feet...

Last Day of Paternity Leave

Music is an interesting gatekeeper in life. I remember different periods through the filter of a song I was listening to. When I remember being a morose teen reading Kerouac, I hear Pearl Jam's "Immortality" in my head; when I think of Emily and I riding a train through the Welsh countryside I recall R.E.M.'s Driver 8. I read Lemony Snicket to a soundtrack by the Postal Service and I clearly remember the Belle & Sebastian song that was playing when Emily's labor started to get complicated.

One thing Mather and I have been able to bond to was music. I love to sing along to my favorite bands and Mather always loves to listen (no, seriously, she smiles and pays attention). It is fortunate that Mather is so young. In her five and a half months of life she's only been exposed to a handful of singers. She does not yet realize that I am in fact a terrible singer. A terrible singer.

Tuesday was Emily's tax deadline and my last day of paternity leave. That night we had tickets to see the Shins, one of my five favorite bands (with my mom signed on as Mathersitter). In the late afternoon before the concert, Mather was getting fidgety and upset. I put a mix of Shins songs on the stereo and sang along to keep her calm. I continued singing while giving her a bottle of milk and rocking her to sleep -- for the last time during my leave. Wednesday would bring daycare and a return to the office.

With her eyes fluttering open and closed, she finally drifted to sleep during the beautiful and melancholy A Comet Appears. It's now only a day later, but I realize already that this is the song that will linger in my memory -- I will always associate it with my leave, and our time bonding. While the lyrics are quite sad, the melody is uplifting. I admit that I shed a couple tears when the Shins performed it live later that evening.

It is a bittersweet feeling to go back to work. I love my colleagues and the work we do, but I enjoyed the rhythm of our days at home.

Good times together.

100th Post!

This is our one-hundreth post on the blog... yee-haw! Here's a taste of what is new in Mather's world:

Mather is working on her sitting skills. While she used to just fold in half when placed down in a sitting posture, she will stop herself with her hands now. We encourage the new pose by placing her blocks in front of her for support. She's still pretty far from a self-supported big-girl sit, but she's getting more comfortable with the idea.

As tax season inches towards its mighty climax (April 17th here we come!) I missed my first bed-time with Mather last night. It was tough. Fortunately, I left work early enough today to enjoy a little cuddle time before I put Mather to bed. I'm a happy momma now...

Once the big day is past, I will enjoy 4-day weekends with Mather for a couple months. She will be in daycare Tuesday-Thursday. I'm starting to plan for all the fun things we will do. Solid food and baby sign language, here we come!

Tasty Toes

Mather has officially discovered that her feet are a part of her. She's been chewing on her own hands for quite a while now so it is no surprise that she sees her feet as a potential meal. Chow down!

She also asked that I show everyone her new hat! With the sun out, we've got to protect her skin!

Smile!

5th Lunaversary with Grandpa

Mather celebrated her fifth lunaversary this past weekend with her Grandpa!

Grandpa Cary and Sheryl were in town with Grand-Uncle Steven and Joan. We took the little one to three new restaurants, and she did great (for the most part). The waitress at dinner on Friday night showed us a great setup for the carseat on the reverse end of those traditional wooden restaurant highchairs. We could scoot Mather right up to the table and she could see everything.

On Saturday, while I worked (tax season, ya know) Dan met up with everyone for brunch before they headed up to Sonoma.

I take my coffee black. I'll have two eggs over-easy, pancakes, bacon and toast. Or, maybe I'll just have another bottle, but this time Grandpa can feed it to me instead of Dad...

Then Sheryl can show me what's goin' on around the restaurant...

On Sunday, we met for Dim-Sum brunch. Unfortunately, Mather hadn't taken a very long morning nap so she got a little fussy. Joan came to the rescue and danced Mather around the restaurant...

Mather is wearing one of MY dresses, from when I was a baby. My Mom saved a couple of her favorites from my childhood that I can now share with Mather, pretty cool.

To celebrate this lunar milestone, Miss Magoo got a set of foam blocks which she LOVES playing with...

HAPPY 5TH LUNAVERSARY!!