Ah, success... it is so sweet and oatmeal'y.  :)  I can only predict that our kitchen floor (and walls) are going to get messier from this point onward.  (Permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7896137319451745204&hl=en)

       

 

Sophia isn't the only one eating new foods today.  We decided that we better get over the California State Fair before it was over, so we went this morning as soon as it opened.  We arrived around 10:30 am (85 degrees) and left about 2 hours later (100 degrees and still rising).  We sure crammed a lot in during those two hours... crammed a lot into our mouths, that is.  The Fair is home to a great many delicacies, you see... most of them deep-fried.  We started off with deep-fried Oreo cookies.  I moved on to a deep-fried corn dog.  Esen was sweet enough to get me the jumbo corn dog, but not the SUPER-jumbo corn dog.  He must know that I'm watching my weight.  :)  Esen insisted that we try some deep-fried pickles.  I would have gone for lots of other battered and deep-fried options (asparagus, avocado, artichokes, and other vegetables that don't begin with 'A'), but he insisted.  Eh, they were just ok.  Would have been a lot better in different batter... you know, something spicier and crispier.  We rounded things out with a little dessert... a battered and deep-fried Snickers Bar (on a stick, no less!).  And we didn't even come close to trying all the offerings.  There was an Elvis sandwhich (peanutbutter, bananas, and honey on bread... and then deep-fried), deep-fried coke (not exactly sure about this, but was told by a former student that we ran into that it was coke syrup battered and deep-fried... sounds like a logistical nightmare to me), deep-fried poptarts (only rumored, not seen), deep-fried Twinkies (tried previously and ruled-out), deep-fried cheesecake, and the list goes on.  All of these culinary delights as well as a couple of fun exhibits are documented in a little photo album to the right.  Enjoy!

Bath time is so fun... it's one of the few consistently enjoyable events of our day.  Even when Sophia's tired, she turns into a happy baby (temporarily) in her bath.  The splashing is really getting out of control, as the video below shows.  (Permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1226227548309043565&hl=en) 

    

 

Suzy, a real water-hater, sure stays clear of the kitchen when this is going on.  :)  It might just be time to move into the real bath tub.  That's going to be a lot harder on my back, so I've been putting it off as long as I can.  Perhaps we'll make the move once she's able to sit up better on her own.

We're all such seasoned veterans already.  Esen grabs Sophia's legs, I hold her upper body and tell her what's happening, the nurse stabs three little holes in her soft drumsticks and covers the holes with obscenely cheery bandaids.  Sophia cried (wouldn't you?!), but the tears were very brief.  There was a newborn wailing away like a goat in the room next to us.  I told Sophia to show that silly baby how the "big kids" handle themselves.  Apparently she responds well to challenge. 

 

Here are the latest stats on her growth:

Height:  28.5 inches (100th percentile)

Weight: 17 pounds, 10 ounces (90th percentile)

Head:   17 inches (75th percentile)

 

I think these percentiles are pretty much the same as last time.  The growth charts are in one of my books so Esen asked me to look up a few things when we got home.  Turns out she's as long as the average 12-month-old and as heavy as the average 8-month-old.  Guess that explains why she is wearing 9-month and 12-month sized clothes, huh?

 

The overall check-up was great.  They had us answer a questionnaire about developmental progress in the first 9 months and we checked off everything except sitting on her own, standing by holding on to furniture, and feeding herself.  I suspect those things aren't too far off.  The next visit will be such a breeze... no shots at the 9 month visit! 

 

Sophia and her baba are now sharing an afternoon nap.  Even Suzy is sleeping peacefully.  I thought about joining them, but it's kind of nice to enjoy a quiet house, too.  Shhhhhh....

The tools:  Organic brown rice cereal + breastmilk = rice cereal (looks more like gruel), bowl, incredibly small spoon with plastic coating that turns white if it touches something hot.

 

The players:  mommy, baby, photographer daddy.

 

The outcome:  On day #1, I'd say that she ingested *maybe* a spoonful.  This morning, on day #2, I got a bit more into her, but it was still not a big hit.  See pictures below for her reaction.

 

The lessons learned thus far:

1.  Buy more bibs

2.  Have wet washcloths (plural) handy

3.  If baby gets her hands on a fully-loaded spoon, the rice cereal will catapult back at you with alarming speed

4.  Make daddy feed baby

 

I've done a lot of reading on the subject of solid food.  Doctors estimate that babies and kids are such creatures of habit that they have to be exposed to something new about 12 times before you can rule it out as something they'll eat.  Interestingly, CNN recently featured an article that provides a reasonable biological argument for kids' fear of new foods (food neophobia)... http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/08/22/kids.foods.genes.reut/index.html.  I guess our evolutionary history is just a little slow and our reluctance to try new foods is a natural behavior aimed at keeping us alive.  The article is interesting because it cites a study of twins and their food preferences.  Wonder if Esen and Ilke have similar food dislikes.  Based on shared dining experiences, they sure seem to share the same zest for trying absolutely anything.

 

I think we'll be introducing a fruit next... something sweet to get her more interested in taking something off of a spoon.  Prunes have been recommended to keep her "regular", so I'll keep you all posted!

Sophia and her baba playing on the floor... enjoying the mirror and sharing a secret conversation in Turkish.  So cute.  She may not be crawling, but she's definitely mobile enough to go get something that catches her eye.  (Permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2548493927131656319&hl=en)

 

I thought she was a trooper for letting me pour water over her head, but I didn't expect this kind of tolerance!

(permanent link:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3002162430957508775&hl=en)

 

Think this kid is ready for some solid food?  I mean, she must be ready if she's trying to eat her sandals, right?  Friday is the scheduled big day... we're heading out to buy supplies this morning after her nap.  :)

8:30 am:

It has been exactly 10 minutes since Sophia left my arms.  I am now sitting in our house exactly 1 block away from where she is.  Is she screaming?  Is she watching the other kids play?  Is she crawling and talking yet?  Ok, probably not crawling and talking.  I feel a little sick to my stomach at the thought of her looking around the room for one of us.  Will she nap today?  Will she eat today?  Will I feel like a bad mother all day, not get any work done, and then feel worse because she was upset for no good reason?  I know this is good for her... socialization and stimulus and experience adapting to new situations.  Is this good for me?  Do I need practice being away from her?  I suppose I do.  I need to keep telling myself... I can always call and check on her, I can always visit her, I can always go get her early.

 

9:47 am:

I called to check on her about 15 minutes ago and got the answering machine.  What does that mean?  I was expecting the outgoing message to say, "I'm sorry, but we're too busy comforting a screaming baby to answer the phone."  Do they check messages during the day?  Should I call back in a while or wait for a return call?  Feeling more neurotic than before...

 

11:30am:

After talking to multiple sympathetic colleagues and relatives, I finally call the daycare provider again and receive a report on Sophia.  She just woke up from a 90 minute nap and they're preparing to feed her.  They commented on her super strength... apparently her desire to roll off the changing table rather than get a clean diaper was surprising and it was suggested that she has a future in gymnastics.  I hope that doesn't mean that she was able to successfully dismount from the changing table. 

 

I am beginning to think that I might make it past lunch for the first time all morning...

 

1:08 pm:

Went to lunch and was able to imagine that maybe they even were able to get Sophia to take her bottle.  They said they'd call if there was a problem and my phone didn't ring, so I suppose she's not starving.  Esen and I think we can last until 3:00.  We'll see.

 

1:56pm:

Is it 3:00 yet?

 

2:25pm:

Called the daycare to check on Sophia and got a great report.  Not only was she taking her afternoon nap, but she also drank her whole morning bottle without incident!  Amazing.  I've been fretting all day long and she's been just sailing through the day like she's been in daycare all her life.  Given this new information, we've decided to try to wait until 4pm to get her so that she has time to take another bottle and play a little.  God I miss her! 

 

4:15pm:

Safely back at home with our baby, who is enjoying some crazy Jumparoo time.  She is as happy and healthy as when we dropped her off this morning (no, Sally, they don't appear to have dropped her on her head even once) and now I feel just a bit foolish for all my worry.  She took two naps, drank two big bottles, and didn't scream her head off.  I call that an overwhelming success.  This gets easier, right?

 

Our trip to San Francisco was nice (except for a brief bout of stomach flu for me).  Sophia was all smiles despite her schedule being thrown to the wind and the grandparents certainly enjoyed her (see pictures below).  The hotel, which was on Nob Hill (the highest point in the city) came with a gorgeous view.  We're back in Sacramento now and trying to return to normal.  Sophia slept for 12 hours last night, so she's definitely just catching up.  I guess hotel cribs aren't as comfortable as hotel beds... she wasn't all that crazy about sleeping in either. 

 

Tomorrow is our little angel's first day of daycare, so everything will be different anyway.  I'm going to try to enjoy today with her and brace myself for letting go tomorrow.

I was playing with Sophia on a blanket this morning and she was doing the cutest pre-crawling moves... butt in the air, squirmy and wriggly leg movements, exasperated face... all trying to get to her pacifier which was just out of reach.  I immediately went for the camera, but she went all star-struck on me and just stared at the camera with her mouth open.  I'd post the video, but it is literally 2 minutes of her staring open-mouthed into the camera and barely moving a muscle.  She completely forgot about the pacifier. 

 

So, since I couldn't give you all a nice little video, I figured I'd post a few random pictures that have been taken recently but haven't made it to the blog.  I've got one of her in a little rose dress on a plain old day when we decided to perk up our mood by getting girly.  As you can see by her smile, the plan worked and we were both in a good mood quickly.  I've got one of her in a cute little t-shirt (that reads, "Everyone loves a brown-eyed girl"), although she was pretty fussy, so those big brown eyes were full of tears ready to fall at any moment.  And finally, I've got one of her in the bath.  She's a real sport about getting water dumped over her head.  I keep trying to make sure that she doesn't mind water in her face with the hope that it will make her like swimming.

 

We're off to San Francisco tomorrow for a long (cool!) weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Griffith.  I suspect a few pictures will be taken, so stay tuned...

1.  Sleeping in the wrong direction (cross-wise instead of length-wise).

2.  Sleeping in the wrong direction when clearly she doesn't FIT in that direction.

3.  Sleeping on her stomach (she's always put to bed on her back and it would be nice if she'd stay that way so I don't worry about her smothering).

4.  Sleeping in footie pajamas that are *not* soaked in poop down to her toes.  Ha! Ha! Ha!

 

THE RULE: Never wake up or argue with a sleeping baby even if you can make a list of reasons that she's doing it all wrong.  It's only the *sleeping* part of the above list that matters.

There are only a few things that occur consistently in Sophia's daily life.  You know what they are... eating, pooping, sleeping, crying (often in that order!).  Well, tonight we have set a new record.  In what category, you ask?!  Pooping of course!  Sophia had her bath, so she was all squeaky clean.  She had some nice milk.  She was having a little chill-out time before heading into her crib when I heard the "activity".  I quickly volunteered Esen to deal with it, but it became immediately evident once he picked her up that this was a two-person job.  The funny thing is, it was really more of a four-person job.  So, she was wearing footie pajamas and there was poop IN THE FOOTIE PART OF ONE LEG!  Stop for a second and picture that... picture a poop-soaked pair of pajamas... ALL THE WAY TO HER FEET!  And she isn't ill or anything.  I mean, she's got a little cold, but she's not feeling bad.  The diaper is the right size, it was on snugly, all seemed to be right in the world of poop protection and then WHAMMO.  In hindsight, I really should have taken a picture.  I've never seen (or imagined) anything like it.  Needless to say, I'm doing a load of laundry, but I should have just thrown the pajamas away.  So disgusting.  Esen is reading her bedtime stories as I type.  She must feel great after that, so hopefully she'll sleep well tonight.

 

In other (cleaner) news, Esen bought a new car today!!!!  Yeayyyy!!!  See pictures of the Mazdaspeed6 (with not one, but TWO, driving enthusiasts) below.  I'll give him a few days with this new baby, but I'm definitely dying to take it out for a spin myself.  I think we'll install the car seat in the new car tomorrow so that the three of us can go out for a proverbial Sunday drive.  Tighten your seatbelts!

All I want is for her to say "Mama" or something resembling an "m" sound.  Nope.  All we get with any regularity is "g".  "Gaa!  Guh!"  As you will see in the video below, my threats are not helping.  :)

  

(Permanent link:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2118218134550028997&hl=en) 

... and it's actually really nice here!  I thought we were getting such a treat by going to the coast this weekend, but the weather in Sacramento is remarkable, too!  The weekend was... hmmm... interesting.  A six-year-old and four more kids under the age of three... hmmm... yeah, there's a real down side to that kind of gathering when you have a baby.  Sophia certainly enjoyed watching them all, but it was basically impossible for her to sleep if they all were not sleeping.  That many kids are just toooooooo NOISY!!!!  Still, we enjoyed a couple of trips to the beach.  The first beach we went to had cool rocks and tide pools with all sorts of interesting little sea creatures.  The second beach we went to was more traditional with nice sand for playing in.  The weather was chilly (around low 60s), so we had Sophia bundled up pretty well in both places.  I've included the best handful of pictures below, but the whole lot can be viewed at http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=9aa8wca.cgtwxssi&x=0&y=ssv7pe.  Finally, this video takes the cake... clearly the sea air agrees with our pisces!  NOTE:  I've been having trouble getting videos to embed (not sure if it is the blog site or the site where I upload videos).  If you don't see a video right below this text, you can view it at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=878570738125048105&hl=en.

  

Normally I wouldn't be all that excited about being out of town this weekend (because, honestly, traveling with Sophia is not easy).  But we're headed to Half Moon Bay, which is a nice beachy area just south of San Francisco, and the temperature there is about 30 degrees cooler than it is in Sacramento right now.  What would you choose?  70 degrees on a beach or 100 degrees in the valley?  Exactly... us too.  We're staying in a huge rental house with three other couples and their kids (5 toddlers + Sophia).  These folks (one adult from each of the couples) are people that I'm doing research with and so this is a working "retreat".  I suspect that we'll sneak a few hours of work in, but that it will mostly be good food, good wine, and good fun.  We're back on Sunday and I'll be sure to post pictures of Sophia's first trip to the beach!

I always knew that I wanted to breastfeed Sophia.  I read books, Esen and I took a class, I went to a few La Leche meetings before I even had her, and talked to women I know who have breastfed their babies.  I also knew from a variety of friends and acquaintances that breastfeeding doesn't work out for everyone... every body and baby is different, every situation unique.  I feel really, really fortunate that it has gone so well for us both.

 

I don't talk about breastfeeding issues very much on the blog (because, afterall, isn't it sort of taboo to talk about your own boobs!?  especially with *MEN* reading?!?), but it has been an enormous part of my daily life now for more than five months and I have some thoughts I'd like to share.  Why now, you ask?  La Leche League is celebrating its 50th anniversary and I credit a lot of my positive experience with breastfeeding to the handful of La Leche women with whom I meet once a month.

 

Let's start with a little background, shall we?  Here's a news story on La Leche that I think is very interesting.  (The permanent link for this video, which is about 10 minutes long FYI, is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3-YGLnoELQ.  I'm having some trouble getting it to embed properly on the blog for some reason, so just go to YouTube to watch it if you don't see it below.)

                

 

I've always thought the name was a little strange, but at least I now know that it's because they weren't allowed to say "breast" on flyers advertising their meetings.  Boy times have changed, huh?

 

The leaders representing La Leche and the other members of the group (at least those I've encountered) have generally been well-informed, supportive, inclusive of working mothers, encouraging, and open-minded.  La Leche has a bad image as a group of breastfeeding nazis that wants you to nurse your kid until he/she is 4 and I just haven't found these things to be true.  There are women at the meetings who are stay-at-home moms, there are women who are still breastfeeding toddlers, and there are also working moms and those who are supplementing with formula.  While I often meet women making choices different than those I have made or will likely make in the future, I haven't encountered the kind of closed-mindedness that people seem to fear from this group.  I have never witnessed a meeting leader being judgmental at all... they all genuinely want to help improve the experience between mother and baby, regardless of exactly how that is defined.  For me, the crucial part (and this was mentioned on the video) is being PHYSICALLY AROUND other nursing mothers.  There's just no substitute for watching how others do it.  For example, in the beginning, I was so concerned about being discreet... not wanting to flash strangers (or friends and family!), but not wanting to have to sneak off to a private room 8 times a day to feed my baby.  There are women who had expert tricks for being discreet and still others who encouraged me not to care quite so much... both perspectives helped immensely.  I continue to attend the meetings and find it reassuring that I will be able to continue to ask for advice in this group.

 

Now that Sophia is a little older (nearly 5 1/2 months!) and I am headed back to teaching in about a month, I am getting a number of inquiries about my plans for breastfeeding and introducing *real* food.  I'd like to share what I'm thinking on these topics, so that everyone understands the path that we've decided to (try to) follow.  Pediatricians now recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and to keep breastfeeding through the first 12 months.  This is a lot longer than what many people are used to and a lot longer than many people find possible/practical for a variety of reasons.  One of the primary reasons to continue breastfeeding after six months (and the most convincing to me anyway) is that the introduction of solid foods is a fairly slow process that can involve a substantial interruption to the baby's nutrition.  Right now, Sophia is getting the perfect nutrition.  I honestly believe there is nothing better for her than breast milk.  As we introduce her to solid foods, we will do it slowly enough to reduce the risk of allergic reactions (doctors say to wait 4-5 days after introducing each new food to make sure there is no reaction).  Thus, it will take a while before her food diet consists of enough items that she gets balanced nutrition.  This doesn't take into account the fact that some kids are picky eaters, so we might also be constrained by *what* she is willing to eat, particularly early on.  During this period of time when she is experimenting with new foods and adding to her repertoire, the continued breastfeeding insures that she will continue to get all the nutritional stuff that she needs.  This *really* takes the pressure off of us and her regarding solid foods... we can all sit back and enjoy this new stage without freaking out about whether she's getting enough of this or too much of that.  While she's still getting breast milk, it just doesn't matter all that much.  So, my goal is to keep up the breastfeeding and take my cues from Sophia.  Most babies give pretty clear signs that they're ready to stop and I'm happy to make the adjustments necessary to listen to her.  My job and lifestyle allow it, so why not.

 

In addition to all the stuff above, I love breastfeeding her.  I love the closeness and being able to provide for her on this most basic level.  It was very difficult for the first couple of months and has been incredibly rewarding ever since.  I hit this "sweet spot" around 3.5 - 4 months where she finally really knew how to do it and I finally really felt comfortable with my role as a breastfeeding mother.  I'm in no hurry to give that up, especially given that it's consistent with what my doctors are telling me to do.  I just want to always do what is best for Sophia and my heart tells me this is it.

 

When I asked for advice about introducing solids at my last La Leche meeting, the words that seemed the wisest to me encouraged us to approach food as something fun and exciting and non-stressful.  I can't wait to start to sharing some of the feeding experience with Esen (although his persistence with the bottle has meant that he's really been sharing this for a month or more).  I can't wait to learn about her likes and dislikes.  I can't wait to see her covered in food and laughing as Suzy licks it off.  I'm pretty sure that Suzy is looking forward to that, too.