11 Months Today

Lily is 11 months old today.  I cannot believe that the next time I'll write about how old she is, she will be a year old.  No way.  She took her first steps a couple of days ago.  Today, she danced to music on her own for the first time.  I couldn't believe it when the music played and she started tapping her foot and wiggling her butt.  A few days ago, she also figured out that the thumping above her head was Mommy or Daddy getting home.  That was a day I dreaded, because I cherish the five minutes I would get to put the milk away, change, and use the bathroom.  This month, she has figured out how to walk up and down the stairs (with assistance).  She also started to cruise the furniture a few days ago without assistance.  She traveled on a plane for the first time, and had her first little bit of fresh-squeezed orange juice.  We bought her a first pair of shoes, which she has already run into the ground, and she's gotten to play on the play ground.  She's beginning to understand what we're saying.  She is in love with a few Sprout TV personalities, including Chicka, Elmo, Paddy, and Spartacus.  Her favorite foods right now are apples, bananas, pancakes, and sweet potatoes.

I Love-Hate Our Local Organic Market

I have been ruined by Whole Foods.  I really wish that I was one of those people that preferred to shop at a small, local grocer.  But, I'm not. I love that there are many different kinds of organic choices at Whole Foods.  Don't like these pickles?  Well, here are some other pickles.  Don't like this cut of meat?  Well, here are 17 other cuts of meat you might like, half of them grass-fed, of course.  Anything you fancy, you can buy a healthier version of it at Whole Foods.  Yet, even when we're eating very basic foods, we struggle to find the healthiest foods at this local organic market.  We still have to travel to Whole Foods to buy a bunch of stuff anyway.

When we moved into this house, a Whole Foods was supposed to be going in down the street.  That is, until one of the local municipalities decided to unnecessarily stall the process.  Good news yesterday that there was a ruling in the most recent set back. 

Why our local organic market drives me nuts:

1. The meat section smells a little rotten.  We've bought meat there that has gone bad within 12 hours before.  They don't carry whole chickens or organ meat, so we can't buy the healthiest foods there.  The meat selection is very poor. 
2. They only have one organic "no sulfite added" white wine, and it's one I don't like.  They don't carry chardonnay, and the pinot grigio they do have is green or pale yellow.  They have one bottle of golden yellow pinot grigio, which is one of the only bottles of wine in the place that doesn't make me sick. 
3. They were out of diapers sizes 3-5 for more than a month. That's basically a year range of diaper-aged kids for which they didn't have diapers.
4. I didn't even know they carried diapers for four months, because they were behind a pillar in between the bottled water and paper products.
5. They don't have any grass fed filets.  Most of their grass fed meat is from Australia, which has most likely been frozen.  I don't like my food to have been frozen.  And, I wan to eat local cows, preferably, but I'd even settle for cows that didn't have to cross an ocean.
6. ALL of their baked goods are vegan (save the breads).  As in, soy products are used and they are milk/butter/dairy free.  I don't eat vegan stuff.  I want real food!  I want cupcakes, cakes, and cookies made with real butter and real milk.
7. They don't stock up on the popular items.  If you're not in there on delivery day, you're not getting it for two weeks to a month.
8. They didn't have organic blueberries, so I was going to just suck up and buy the conventional.  But, there was a sign in front of the blueberries stating why you should only by organic blueberries.  There weren't signs in front of the other fruits.  Just the blueberries telling you that conventional blueberries had 50 different chemicals on them.  Yet, the store didn't have any organic blueberries nor did it appear there was an empty space for any on the shelf.
9. They stopped giving a military discount.  Let me tell you, 10% off of a bagillion is a lot of money.  Like a trillion dollars we were saving.  
10. People say Whole Foods is more expensive, but that's not true.  It's more expensive to shop at this organic market.  You have to do the math when it comes to how much you're getting for what you pay.  Sure, the organic meat costs the same, but I'm getting 1.3 lbs at Whole Foods for the same price.
11.  This is where I bought that horrible face wash that had parabens in it.  I complained to the manager, but it's still on the shelf!!!!
12. They routinely put out avocados and sometimes bananas that take more than a week to ripen.  I mean, if I wanted to wait until next week to eat my banana, I will buy it next week.  
13. I saw an employee take lettuce out of a retail plastic container and fill the bulk salad container.  If you're selling me bulk salad, I expect that you didn't get it out of a box. Some folks stay away from the pre-washed boxes and bags of salad because of bacteria.  It isn't clear that salad is not washed and prepared at the store.

Why I love our local organic market

1. The staff is awesome.
2. It's hardly ever packed.
3. They have raw cheese.
4. They have low-temp pasteurized, grass-fed, organic milk in glass containers. 
5. They give credit when you bring back the glass milk containers.
6. They have grass-fed ice cream!
7. They have hot, organic coffee.
8. They carry Bandit wine, which I like a lot! And my favorite champagne, though that now makes me sick.
9. They have these awesome gluten-free frozen pizzas.
10. They have many items from local farms.
11. They sell organic broccoli heads; at WF I usually have to buy the whole stalk and it's by the pound.
12. They carry organic peanut butter cups.
13. Thank goodness they carry beer and wine.  The Giant down the street doesn't have it!
14. The manager responded to my crazy email with some feedback.  And, they still haven't chased me out of the store, which I have been waiting for.
15. They remind me to bring my reusable bags, which I rarely remember to do.  I need to remember to do that.  Note to self.

Natural Cure for Ringworm

The ring on my hand
looked something like this

I thought it was washing my hands more and more that caused the skin to crack and peel.  Then, I noticed it.  This red ring on the bottom of my hand.  I knew instantly that I had somehow gotten ringworm.  I'm itching all over just writing about this!  But, where could I have gotten it from?  And I wash my hands like crazy.  This dry skin had been going on for weeks.  I hadn't been around pets before I got it.  People usually get it from pets.  Did I get it from a play date?  Maybe I got it at the gym the one time I was able to go.  The spots it developed in looked similar to where I would hold the elliptical.  Note to self: wipe down the elliptical before I use it, not just after.  Ugh.  That is, if I get to go to the gym again this year.  Lily's nap time  on a 2-nap schedule is right when I need to leave to hit the gym before work.

Not a parasite or worm, as the name suggests, ringworm is a fungus that is very contagious.  I kept my hand wrapped for while until I got it under control, threw every once-or-more-used towel in the house in the washer, washed the bed sheets, vacuumed, and mopped the floor.  It's characterized by itchy, flaking skin and eventually looks like a red ring.  It looked like it was cutting a hole in my skin. 

Tapering off after 2 days of treatment

The infection is gone, but my skin is still healing now.  I had immediately googled natural rememdies for ring worm, and I came up with this site that gave great ideas.

I tried:

• apple cider vinegar
• apple cider vinegar/salt compress
• tea tree oil

I also bought some garlic, but I didn't need it.  I started out with the vinegar/salt compress 2 times daily and swabbed tea tree oil several times a day.  That was working okay, but I felt like I was still battling the fungus.  Eventually, I switched to straight apple cider vinegar.  I dipped cotton balls in the vinegar and secured them to the infection with bandaids for anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes one to two times per day.  That worked like a charm.  BAM.  Take a dose of ACV you fungus!

Working on Her First Steps

So, I haven't blogged much recently, because Lily has become more dependent upon us for the past three months.  This has been a whine, and for the sake that this walking is supposed to be a positive experience, I've just kept my mouth shut.  It has a happy ending, so I can write about it now.  For about the past 2.5 months, I've been in denial that this is reality, but the last two weeks have just been marked with acceptance.  This acceptance comes on the end of a wonder week developmental period.  So, Lily is awake for approximately 10 hours per day.  On most days, for those 10 hours, she wants to walk all over the place.  This baby LOVES to walk.  And, that walking, because she can't do it on her own, has required us to be hunched over with this cute baby having a ninja grip on one or two of our fingers.  Our backs hurt.  If we tried to use our knees on the wood floor, our knees hurt.  This has been going on for three months.  Ten hours a day for three months.  My mom would take on six hours of the walking while I would take on four.  In my defense, I also have a fulltime job.  Daddy jumps in when he can.

I negotiate with her sometimes.  "Can Mommy just take a gulp of coffee while it's still warm before you drag me to the otherside of the room again?  Just one?  Please, stay here.  No, I just wanna--  Okay, you can have my other hand.  No, I just wanna get this mug.  Can we stay here for a minute?  Oh, all right.  I hope we come back to this mug soon before the coffee goes too bad to drink (again)."

This was supposedly the leap of sequences in which she can begin to understand and manage the flow of events and relationships over time.  The example that the Wonder Weeks app gives is putting the spoon into a bowl, scooping food, and putting that spoon with the food into her mouth.  We've recently seen this manifest in her excitement when we eat with silverware in front of her and her increasing desire to use that silverware.

But, we were hoping it would develop the walking.  You know, moving it along.  We waited.  She could sit up a little better. We waited more.  She could walk holding one hand pretty well.  And we waited.  That was about it for a week or so.  Then, over the weekend, she started to cruise,which is where babies move along  piece of furniture or other object.  She had been so reluctant to do this before that this was a miracle.  Today, I set bath toys along the tub and she moved back and forth on her own to knock them in the tub.

This is a snapshot of Lily learning to walk (what we could take pictures of!):

I was just starting to standy-uppy-pick-up-toy-while-held around July 4th!

Standing in crib early August

Local mom passed along her walker toy.  A hit!

No, no.  That's MY walker toy!

Bought me shoes, so I can now walk at the airport!

Walking at Grandma's in Texas!

Walking at my Aunt and Uncles in Texas!

Aunt Laura got me a walker for Texas, because I love to walk so much!

Walking while waiting for Tex-Mex food in Texas!

We walked in the Metro!

I decided to make the mile trek to the park via walking and the stroller and baby carrier.  Lily can't always make it a mile and back.  But, she loves the park.  Today, she held onto a red seat thing and she wanted to walk to the blue seat thing.  She made like she was gonna do it herself, but didn't.  I eventually offered my hand to help her walk over, because I was worried she'd let go and crack her head on something.  She was holding the blue seat and I had stepped a bit away to take a picture.  She took one look at me and took THREE unassisted steps towards me.  SHE TOOK HER FIRST STEPS TODAY!!! She is still mostly walking assisted with fingers, but she is getting more confident in her ability to get around.

And then there is today...

Right after Lily took her first steps to Mommy.

Breaking News and the TV Mom

We were on our way to a baby activity Monday morning when I heard about the shooting at the Navy Yard on the radio.  I immediately knew what this meant:

1. This would be a soul-breaking day too close to home.
2. I would be walking into wall-to-wall (no commercials) breaking news for hours and hours.
3. My bones would hurt when we're done.
4. I would not be able to get to work my normal route.  It goes right by the Navy Yard.
5. Traffic would be crazy.  I would need to leave early.
6. We would be fed something greasy and yummy.
7. I wouldn't be able to pump much. 
8. My boss would like to call me in early, but would not actually call, because it's difficult for Lily to be away from me for so long as it is.
9. I had forgotten that there would be no time to get snacks.  Damn it.  Tragic breaking news demands snacks.  Must feed soul sugar.

I decided we would go to the activity anyway and just stay for 30 minutes.  The staff apologized, because the performer would be a little late "due to, you know, the metro situation."   I clarified, "The shooting?"   There was only one other child running around on cushions very far from us.   I suppose I'm a realist.  It is what it is.  Not trying to shelter anyone from the reality of the world.  "Uh, yeah."  She nodded.  But, kids should be free to be kids and hot have to worry about adult problems, right?  I suppose that's what you get when your mom works in the news business.  I am starting to think that there can be a little too much real in reality.

Quickly slipping into "breaking news" mom, I noticed that I kept trying to pull Lily back to our table so that I could message people.  We only had a short time together, and I needed to put down my phone and enjoy this activity with her.  So, we danced, sang, listened to stories, and walked around.  Lily loved meeting new people, seeing babies and toddlers of all different developmental stages.

To change her diaper, we walked into the main room of the cafe, which was separated by swinging double doors, and the TV's were blaring the news.  The staff was watching some network.  Whatever it was, it wasn't my station.  I couldn't hide from the reality of what we do.  My adrenaline started to rise and I could feel my body move into breaking news mode.  Walking back into the activity, it was a little kid bubble that was sheltered from the reality of what was happening outside.  This was a happy place.  I wished we could stay and that what was happening wasn't happening.  But, I purposely parked in a 30 minute parking spot to make sure that we only stayed a little while.

I packed the baby up, to go coffee in hand, and we headed for home.  Enough time to nurse the baby, throw everything in the car and go.  The route that I normally take to work was shut down.  Helicopters were landing on the bridge from DC to VA.  So, I had to wind a bit through the city. There is no being late on a day like today.  My mom had asked if I would be home late.  This not being my first rodeo, I said nope, it will have winded down by quitting time.

I had heard in the car on the way to the activity that two people were presumed dead.  At the activity, I heard that four people were possibly dead.  At home, my mom said my station said three people were dead, but shortly after that, they were saying four.  These rising numbers and the delay in dissemination information in such a short period of time was telling.  This thing was far from over.  It was going to be a long day for everyone.

The shooting happened at 8:20am, and it was 11:10am when I walked into the News Transmission Control Room.  I deal with live shots via microwave, satellite, and fiber.  On days like this, lots of them.  We also work with LiveU, which is a multi-cell network transmitter that lets us get live from places we would have never gotten live from otherwise.  A busy day for one operator is typically three or more live shots.  At this point, there were six live shots with various reporters, interviews, and press conferences.  Three were LiveU (Navy Yard, Medstar Hosital, and Washington Hospital Center).  Two reporters were live near the Navy Yard via microwave.  One was live via satellite a little farther away from the Navy Yard.  Eventually, we would have set up seven microwave live shots (all in the direction of the Navy Yard), two LiveU's, and a satellite shot for the 5pm news. We usually pay for satellite time in 5-15 minute increments, which we have to call to book, but that shot was transmitting longer than my entire 8 hour shift.  It feels like one of those days where someone called and said just give us the window until further notice.

I wonder what Lily will think about my job in TV as she grows up.  After all, she grew from a little seed into a baby bean during a presidential election year.  I think a TV station is a pretty cool place to tour.  It's fast, exciting, and mysterious to the outside.  Like police officers and firefighters, we're the kind of people who don't evacuate.  We don't run from crazy shit--we run towards it. We ride towards the storm, instead of away from it.  What's that, a hurricane?  Let's get a hotel room to make sure that we're able to get on the air!  Every cell phone is now a potential live camera.  We're here no matter what, holiday, hurricanes, shootings, bombings, fire alarms, presidential inaugurations, marches on Washington, and all.

But on that crazy night, I drove by the Navy Yard on the way home.  I started to get excited about how I would get home to Lily more quickly today, since everyone stayed away.  Then, I realized the great traffic was due to the fact that 12 people were shot dead while they were doing what we do every day.  Just working.  My heart will be forever with them as I pass by.

Night Shift Ends

Here's the good from today:

• I got to sleep a little longer than Lily, because my mom took the baby when we woke up.
• Sean passed a certification exam than he's been stressing about. 
  
• Sean got home at around 11am, had nothing to do, so we got to make out in the living room for a few minutes.
• Sean got to play with Lily lots and lots.
• Lily and Daddy went on a walk.
  
• My mom and I started packing for the Texas trip, minimizing how much I freak out tomorrow.
• There were three adults to one baby, so no one felt like they were exhausted.
• Daddy got to take a nap.
• Lily took a 2nd nap before I left, so we used less milk.  This was unexpected, because she woke up so late in the day.
• The 2nd traffic back up dissipated before I hit it.
• I got to work 5 minutes early.
• I have left over Indian food in the fridge for dinner.

And, the bad from today:

• Lily was awake from 3am to 4:30am, even though I got into bed at 12:30am.
• The baby treated my boob like she was a gymnast at Cirque du Soleil this morning.  She was flipping and flopping all over the place with the boob in her mouth.
• Checked traffic during her 2nd nap, which was horrendous.  Even the back way to work was jacked.  I had to leave ASAP, which should have been easy.  Not today!  A 20 minute process turned into an upside down 45 minute process.
• I couldn't slip away from sleeping baby during her 2nd nap, because she was intent on using me as a pacifier.
• I almost slipped away the 5th time, but I was wearing a sweater that wound up under the sleeping baby. 
• From me trying too many times to slip away, Lily woke up.  This usually means a fussy day with Grandma and/or more milk.
• I was freaking out when I left, because of the blown nap and the bad traffic, so my last few minutes with Lily weren't good.  That means I'm super gonna miss her all day.
• Now stressed and rushing, I microwaved some pizza, instead of using the oven to warm it up.
• There was no time to stop and get snacks at the store.  I don't have a snack. Boohoo.
• I wanna go home.

My Advice for Fussy Baby Car Trips

1. Travel during naps.  There was a period where we couldn't get her to sleep in the car, but that is because she wasn't tired enough and we had to drop a nap.  Now, she is awake for 3 to 4 hour at a time, and if we need to go somewhere and its nap time, we throw everything in the car and go.  But, this was a lot easier with the infant car seat and snap 'n go than it is with the convertible car seat.

2. Blast the air.  Lily gets really hot, and it's not always obvious how warm it is in the back.  So, if you have a warm baby, too.  Try blasting the air.  And, we also sort of dress her down so that she's not sweating in the car seat.

3. White noise.  We turn on the static on the radio and turn it up when it's nap time and she's having trouble falling asleep.  We also have a white noise track (Baby Got Colic) on the amazon mp3 player.  We use the colic track when we're transferring her from the car to the snap n go or to the house.  But, she's been sleeping so well lately that we haven't had to. 

4. Take the route with the least stop lights.  If I want her to nap, I take the route that has the most movement and the least stop lights.  The stop lights are killer!  Actually, it's not just when I want her to nap, it's all the time!

5. Travel in pairs, one person sitting in back.  If possible, Sean and I travel together.  I sit in the back.  This to sing to her, play with her, feed her distract her, etc.  Even though Kelly Mom doesn't condone this, I boob her in the car if nothing else works. 

6. Sing to her.  We've gotten though so many car rides by singing our hearts out.  Sean's aunt recorded me singing on her smartphone and played it back for Lily, which put her to sleep the other day. Very cool. We need to try that.

7. Teether toys.  In the beginning, we could hand her a teether toy and be good for a little bit.  But now, she's not really interested in teether toys.

8. Food.  We find a favorite food that she can hold onto, and when she starts freaking out (i.e. as soon as she's in the car seat), we hand it to her. This has been bacon, turkey jerky, and apple slices lately.  This doesn't always work.  But, if she's sleepy and I hand her something to suck on, she'll pass out more easily.  Some parents are worried about choking, but Lily is fine.  If she's having trouble, I will pull over and get in the back seat.  But, this has really allowed us to get around a lot easier, and especially with me and her by ourselves.

9. Other toys.  I would bring a bunch of things in the diaper bag and just hand her different things as she dropped them or got fussy.  This worked for a few car trips.

10. Toys that are not toys.  Lately, she isn't putting everything in her mouth.  So when I'm alone, I hand her lots of different things (a new thing every time she starts to cry), which gives me a few minutes.  My floss, library card, mail, keys, etc.  This is when we're kinda at the end of our rope, and she's done.  Sometimes, she's kinda covered in a pile of stuff, but it gets us home!  LOL.

11. Pull the shade back so she can see out.  And, I use the mirror to see the sun in her face, so that I can pull the shade back.  I sometimes have to toss a blanket over the carrier if the sun is really horrible.

12. Check the diaper.  Lily is one of those babies who cannot stand a wet diaper.  So, I check/change her before a car ride. 

13. Stop the car.  If she won't stop crying/melting down or go to sleep, I will stop the car to check her diaper and nurse her. 

14. Roll the windows down.  Lily loves the fan in the nursery, and she fell asleep three times on Friday because I rolled the windows down a little.

Her Work is Important, Too

I have spent many days putting aside what Lily wants to do, because I have to get to work.  Because I'm an adult and she's a baby, so me getting ready for work generally takes precedence.  I have to take a shower, get dressed, put on makeup, make lunches and dinners for several days, pack my lunch, pack my pump bag, cook food for Lily for a few days, do the dishes, pick up the house, and whatever else needs to be done.

But, one day I realized that she's got major work to do, too.  She has to learn how to walk and get around, how to process, express, and understand her emotions, how to eat, how to communicate, and other very important things.  I could fill every moment in the morning with "getting ready for work".  So, it's very important to set as much time aside as possible for Lily to do the work that she needs to do.

Favorite Baby Smartphone Apps

We originally wanted to keep Lily away from all television and electronics, but that's futile.  First of all, she really doesn't like the TV to be on.  And, she wants to play with my phone quite a bit.  Mostly, it's a chew toy.  But, we decided to let her play with it after realizing that she can't get away from technology and maybe she could become really good at technology and do something amazing with it.  This guy had some good thoughts about technology and little ones that I agree with, though I also agree with the nervousness of his wife and mom.  I agree that boundaries and moderation are key.  So, a couple of times a week for a few minutes, we let her try to play a game on my smart phone. We're depending on them to be our ace in the hole when we fly to Texas soon.  It has been really cool to watch her press the screen intentionally to get a result.

There is also this whole natural perspective of trying to minimize the electronics in our lives.  Some folks do so much as to move very far away from civilization to remove themselves from electromagnetic radiation.  Sean and I are both technology addicts, so this is one crunchy place we fall short.  On the other side of it, we're encouraging her intellectual development, because tablets, phones, and computers are a major learning vehicle right now.

Here are some of our favorite baby game apps:

Baby Piano: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dokdoapps.mybabypiano
Baby Fireworks: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dokdoapps.mybabyfirework

Baby Paint: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kidokoinside.kidokobabypaintfree

Baby Drum: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dokdoapps.mybabydrum

Baby Phone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.penguinapps.android.babyphone