Monday at the Zoo

No, this does not refer to the crazy conditions in our house today. In fact, quite the opposite - Audrey has a bit of a cold so she's been napping a lot more than usual. But during her wake period this afternoon, we went over to our local zoo, which is located just across the street from our neighborhood. It was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the low 80's and a bit of a breeze. As a result, lots of animals were out. I think many are also fed about 2 pm, when we were there, so that helped too. Of course I did not bring my camera today (the otter picture is from an earlier zoo trip), but we saw:

• An elephant drinking (she tried the pool water, where ducks were swimming, spit it out and then went to where the water was flowing into the pool and drank from that spigot) and then giving herself a dust bath


• An ostrich complaining about something and a zebra coming over to find out what was going on


• Giraffes eating up close to the fence


• Tortoises eating and walking around


• The three gibbons right up at the front of their cage, interacting with visitors


• Two otters performing just for Audrey and I


• And finally, the lion, grooming himself around three feet from the glass, who, on seeing Audrey and I, walked around a small pool, came right up to the glass and squished his nose against it, approximately 3 inches from us!

All in all it was a great trip to the zoo, although I must admit to being a little panicked when the lion approached us. Even though I knew he couldn't get us, it seemed he was eyeing Audrey as a snack...or maybe he's just never seen a baby in a front carrier before.

Mother (and Father) and Child Reunion

Yesterday we had our reunion for our Bradley (childbirth) classes. Having spent 10 weeks together between April and June, and watched each other grow ever-more pregnant, the reunion gave us the opportunity to meet up again and see how everyone turned out. At 4 months, Audrey was one of the oldest babies - since the classes went until early June, the first babies were born mid-June and the last ones were born in early September. Not everyone came, of course, but we had a good time eating potluck food and taking many pictures of the babies. Here is one of the best ones - that's Charlie, Audrey and Abigail!

Video Sensation

So I recently took a few little videos with my camera. The taking of the videos was easy, but when I downloaded them the files were huge (50 MB for a 20-second video!). It took me a week or so, but finally I got on Paul's computer and used Windows Movie Maker to "refine" the movies, adding a title and transition, and most importantly, converting them into WMV files which were a LOT smaller than the AVI files. Then I sent them out - but unfortunately, both of the computers I watched them on had the sound turned off, so I didn't realize they had sound (and pretty silly sound, if I may say)of me saying "Audrey! Hey, Audrey!" and "Video of Audrey playing with a blanket" - nothing like stating the obvious :-) Anyway, now that I know how to shrink the files, I can make more interesting videos. Plus she's becoming more vocal too so maybe I can capture her "singing along" to Old MacDonald (she can say "E-I" and we're working on "E-I-E-I-O"). Watch this space for further developments.

Tag Blanket!

Yesterday Joanna sent Audrey a new toy. She apologized for it being late (for Audrey's birth and for my birthday) but I think it's right on time, since Audrey recently learned to grab and even more recently has been trying to put things in her mouth. The tag blanket is perfect for both of those pursuits, and as you can see from the photo, she is enjoying it already!

Fashion Plate

So Audrey hates putting on clothes if they have to go over her head, but she seems to really like "trying on" clothes. I put some piece of clothing over her to check how long/wide it is and to see if it might fit her now, and she flashes a huge smile. It always seems like she's saying "Look at how cute I am in THIS outfit, mom!" I didn't think I'd be able to get a picture of her smiling, but I did, so here she is "trying on" a green footed sleeper on Monday morning.

Leaps and Bounds

So over the weekend, Audrey learned to grab things. Paul has been working with her, showing her that her hands can close around various little hanging toys that she has, but it wasn't until Saturday that things seemed to "click." Paul and I had noticed that Audrey was now bored in her infant carrier. Every time we put her in it, she would "read" the warning on the side of the carrier about 20 times (when she's able to talk, I won't be at all surprised if her first words are "Warning! Advertencia!" since the label, advising us not to put the infant seat in the front seat of the car, is in both English and Spanish). Anyway, Paul hung a giraffe toy from the carrier canopy, figuring she'd look at it.

While we were in the car on Saturday, trundling from party (Happy 15th birthday, Nick) to party (Happy get-together at Lauren, Niel and Gavin's!) I had pulled the canopy all the way down to keep the sun from beating down on Audrey as we drove. I was talking to Paul, and noticed that the giraffe's head (which was all I could see of him, as his body and legs were under the canopy with Audrey) kept moving. I lifted the canopy, and saw that Audrey had grabbed the giraffe's leg and was repeatedly pulling on it, causing the head to bob under the canopy and then re-appear in my view.

Once she mastered this skill with the giraffe, she was quick to try it out on her new toy, the take-along arch (thanks Erica, Sammy and Nick, I think this was a gift from you). Paul clipped it to the boppy, so she could rest and look at - or grab - the toys as she rested there. So that's the picture. Audrey is grabbing the turtle, who is supposed to play three songs, but I can only get him to play one (part of "Pop Goes the Weasel", I think). Audrey managed to hit it in such a way as to get it to play another song, but I have no idea how she did it...I have experimented with hitting the turtle in multiple ways (much to the amusement of Audrey AND Paul) and it either stays silent, mocking me, or plays "Pop Goes the Weasel"...c'est la vie.

Separated at Birth

A few weeks after she was born, I discovered that Audrey has a twin. Okay, so he's not really her twin, but one day at breastfeeding support group, I met Gavin and his mom Lauren. Gavin was born at Tucson Medical Center, like Audrey, on June 30th. Audrey was born at 1:09 pm, Gavin at about 2:30 pm. To add to the links, Lauren's birthday is Sept 22, the same date as my parents' wedding anniversary. It seems fated that we will be friends!

All or Nothing

It seems like Audrey is an "all or nothing" girl. Maybe this is just a characteristic of all babies, I don't know. But it seems that she picks one activity and spends almost all of her day doing it. Some days it's eating. Those are very frustrating and tiring days for me, since I still harbor hopes of doing something besides feeding the baby. It doesn't have to be much, just a walk to the mailbox or getting on email briefly. But on those "feeding frenzy" days, those things don't really happen. Some days she sleeps. Like yesterday. Though I should enjoy this "free" time, and I kind of do, I am also thinking in the back of my mind "Is it okay for her to sleep this long during the day? Maybe I should wake her to feed her? Is she going to wake up at midnight and think it's morning? [Answers: Yes, I didn't, and She didn't.] Some days she's just awake. All day, practically, despite the fact that infants are supposed to get something like 10-14 hours of sleep per day. And I think, "What can I do with her to give her fodder for her developing brain?" Is it bad to let her stare at Headboard until she gets bored? Is it bad that I lie down next to her on the floor when she's on her playmat, and I almost fall asleep as she stares incessantly at the monkey? (she seems to like looking at other primates - her chimp friend Gregory, the monkey on her playmat, and of course Paul and I). I tried to read to her but she doesn't seem that interested - more interesting are outings where she gets to see other babies (I think this kid is an extrovert, despite having two introvert parents), so we've been going to some mom-baby groups. And trying to get out of the house at least once a day, even if it's just for a short errand. That's about it for today...back to baby care on this "awake" day!

The Many States of Audrey

People always told me that as a parent, you can determine what your kids want (mainly) by their cries, even if those cries sound the same to an outsider. It doesn't seem to be 100% true, but I have noticed that Audrey has several "states" that don't really overlap. A sampling:

1. Happy Audrey: We get this one a lot, and we are glad of it. She has three or four different smiles/happy faces that she uses, mostly for Paul and I (and of course Headboard - see post #1) but increasingly, she will use them on strangers, especially baby-related strangers (other moms, women who are running various mom and baby groups). Today at mom-baby group she was smiling at the group leader for several minutes. She is also starting to branch out into noises - ah and awk and woo and a few cries that sound like a pterodactyl that I can't quite tell if they are happy or leading up to crying


2. Screaming Audrey: Don't like this one. It's not just crying, but full-out, turning purple, choking-on-her-own-cry screaming. Doesn't happen too often, and is usually fixable by nursing except for one night last week when it went on for 1.5 hours and was only cured by the resolution of her gastrointestinal problems


3. Crying Audrey: Ranges from the occasional cry when I am out of sight (hey mom, over here!) to a continual, mid-range cry that sounds like "lie, lie, lie." I try not to take this as a judgement on my parenting (example: Kay: "I'll be right there to feed you, Audrey, I just need to get a glass of water..." Audrey: Lie, lie, lie!)


4. Grumbly Audrey: Usually happens as she's waking up. Not crying per se, but little grumbling sounds that foreshadow crying if something is not changed. I actually like this state - I call her "grumbly baby" which has a nice ring to it ("Aw, grumbly baby...")


5. Silent Audrey: Sometimes means she is gearing up to cry, sometimes means she has her fist in her mouth and wants to eat, sometimes means she is resigned that whatever we are doing with her/showing her is kind of boring (if she even knows what boredom is) and sometimes is just a transition state - it could [hopefully] break into Happy Audrey as soon as she smiles at mommy or daddy

Baby's-eye view

This morning Audrey was lying on our bed after being fed, staring at the window behind our headboard. At least I think it was the window. Given her fascination with Headboard (see previous post) it could be that she was communing with "Big Headboard." Who knows. Anyway, I got down at her level on the bed and tried to take a picture of what she could see. When I did that, I found myself looking at a very striking set of shadows created by the iron work outside our window - with the morning light coming from the east, the iron bars made three heart shapes against the illuminated green curtains. That piece of window looks a lot more interesting from a baby's-eye view, and if she hadn't been so enraptured by it, I would have missed it.

Audrey the Furniture Whisperer

So I'm sitting here in the nursery with my fussy baby. Or, she was fussy until I put her on the changing table. Don't get me wrong, she really dislikes getting her diaper changed. But lying on the table...she loves it. We have a "Rail Rider" which for the uninitiated is a plastic tray with a waterproof pad in it that fits over the crib rails. So the Rail Rider puts the baby almost level with the object of her affection - the end of the crib, colloquially known in our house as "Headboard."

Audrey LOVES to "talk" to Headboard. Despite the fact that she is a mere 5 1/2 weeks old, she communicates with Headboard in every way she is able: she smiles, makes sounds, waves her arms, and kicks her legs, sometimes all at once, to convey to Headboard some mysterious content. We have tried to duplicate her view to see what she might be so excited about, but to no avail. Paul thought it might be the contrast between the crib slats (dark, then light from the window behind). But she seems just as excited about Headboard after dark, when that "contrast" explanation wouldn't hold. Plus she seems to be looking at the solid part of the headboard, not the slatted part, for all we can tell.

Headboard can keep Audrey occupied for 10 minutes - an eternity in baby time. He (or she, I suppose) can make her forget that before we came into the nursery, she was demanding to be fed (even though she just finished eating for 30+ minutes). One of Paul's theories about Headboard is that her guardian angel hangs out there, and that's who she's communicating with when we lie her on the changing table. I kind of like that explanation, and have taken to sometimes putting words in her mouth when she starts communing with Headboard. Like, "Oh, Headboard, it's been a rough morning - I wanted to eat all the time and mommy tired to only feed me every hour instead of every five minutes. And then I filled up my diaper and had to get my diaper AND my onesie changed! I think only you understand where I'm coming from, Headboard."

Sounds from Audrey - the last one sounded like "Whoo!" I think Headboard is expanding her "vocabulary" - and definitely strengthening her legs, since kicking her legs is a big part of talking to Headboard. She may be tiring of Headboard's company, since she's been "talking" the whole time I've been typing this. But who knows. Whether it's contrast/light patterns or her guardian angel, Headboard is special to Audrey, so viva Headboard!