margaretyagan

I got up a bit before 6:00 today and talked to myself for about half an hour or so until Dad came in to get me around 6:15.  We had a pretty fun time playing and I was a bit surprised when Dad got breakfast started at 7:00 instead of 7:30, like usual.

Unfortunately I wasn’t as quite as I could have been (especially as I was rejecting the polenta!) and Mom got up around 7:15.  I figured out that the reason I had an early breakfast was because Dad and I were going to the store (again, even though we already went yesterday!).  So, we headed out to Dominick’s, in the snow!  Mom thought I should have been wearing a hat, but Dad said my hood was enough.

The snow was so pretty in the Dominick’s parking lot that we stood in the snow and waved to the flakes as they fell on us!  We only needed a few things from the store today so it went really quickly.  I was very popular with the staff again today — even though I almost shoplifted a pack of paper bowls!

On our way home the snow started coming down even harder.  We stopped at the gas station to fill up the car for Mom and then made a surprise store at a bakery I had never been to before (neither had Dad!): Red Hen Bread.

Oh, here’s a video from yesterday that didn’t make it into yesterday’s post:

We got home in time to get some good play time in with Mom before my nap.  When I woke up Mom was straightening up the house and Dad was in the kitchen, so I figured something might be up.  While Mom was up in my room getting me clothes that actually matched (Dad!) I had my first of three head injuries of the day.  I lost my balance while standing up and fell face first into the couch — and got some kind of whiplash — before bouncing off the couch, and hitting the back of my head against the hardwood floor (I just barely missed my foam mat!).  I screamed like crazy and Dad even said “Oh God!”  Mom came running down the stairs and they both tried to distract me.

Finally, at 11:00, I figured out why today’s schedule seemed to strange: our friends Kurt and Charu came over for brunch!  We usually meet friends at Moonshine for brunch, but today they came over which meant we would get to play and not just eat.

Dad was taking a while to get the food ready, so I got a head start.  Charu and Kurt thought it was funny that I turned everything into finger food — even broccoli risotto!  Finally we all sat down to eat. Charu and Kurt also thought it was funny to say “where’s your head?” and get me to touch my head with hands full of food!

Charu was especially fun to play with.  She was scooting all over the floor with me!   I got my second and third head injuries of the day while they were here. While Mom was still sitting at the table, I decided to start running while holding her hand.   Apparently she wasn’t holding on to me, and when I let go of her, I pretty much ran straight into the floor!  More crying, more distracting.   A bit later on, I was trying to climb up to sit on Mom’s lap and I slipped and banged my head on her chair.  So, not only was my head full of the food I was eating, I also had three injuries by the time they left!

But, there was a particular bring spot — also involving my head.  While Charu was talking to me about my head, I actually looked at her and said “head!”  Charu and Dad immediately looked at each other in disbelief!  Charu was so proud that she got me to say a brand new word — and expand my vocabulary by 25%!

After Charu and Kurt left, I went down to the office to play with Dad while Mom got some work done.  It was so cold down there — luckily I had a fleece vest on to keep me warm.  I almost pulled two speakers on my head, but I dodged them (or, more accurately, they dodged me).  We headed back upstairs where I rejected my bottle, ate half an avocado for my afternoon snack, and then took a short nap.  (Too bad it was such a short nap, as Mom and Dad took their own nap while I was sleeping!)

I woke up and had a pretty uneventful evening, except for dinner.  I threw a huge fit at dinner and rejected pretty much everything Mom and Dad tried to feed me.  In particular, I refused to eat either the chicken (with butternut squash), the polenta (leftover from breakfast?  Come on!), or the asparagus.  I was happy to eat the tropical smoothie, fresh strawberries, and of course, my favorite: peas.  I even drank some prune juice.  I could tell Mom and (especially) Dad were getting pretty frustrated.  On the other hand, it was pretty cool that I got to eat an adult food (asparagus frittata) because I had already had every single ingredient in it!

I rejected my evening bottle all together and then finally went to sleep around 7:30.

I got up with Dad this morning, and as soon as I had breakfast, we took off for the grocery store.  Unfortunately, we were too loud and Mom woke up before we could sneak out the door.

We had an especially fun trip to Dominick’s — I was in a very gregarious mood and so many people stopped to talk to me!  The woman at the deli counter was even nice enough to give me a free slice of cheese.  Yum!

After we finished — we had an especially short list this week, for some reason — we headed back home.  The three of us spent a lot of time playing together.  Here’s some proof:

I took a good nap in the morning and then at lunch had cow’s milk for the first time ever!  (Well, Dad snuck me a few tablespoons last month, but that’s top secret.)  Of course, I’ve also had cheese and yogurt, but never before gotten to drink it right out of the cup.  Despite the games I played knocking the cup over, I really like the milk and I drank all four ounces.

The afternoon featured yet another first, as Mom and Dad left me alone with Rachel — my first time alone with babysitter!    I sat down for my afternoon snack just as Mom and Dad left, so I was too distracted by my blueberry parfait to notice that they were leaving.  Then it was time for my bottle and then my nap!  Rachel seemed said that I’d be asleep for a bit part of her time with me!  I got up after an hour and greeted Rachel with a huge poop to change!  After I was clean I was ready to play and we had a really fun time together.  Mom & Dad got back around 5:30 and I played with them until dinner.  After dinner we went down to the office to play until Mom gave me my bath and I went to sleep!

Breaking News: My morning bottle has been canceled!  After my aggressive boycots all week, Mom didn’t even try giving me my bottle before she left for work today.  I  told you that I’m calling the shots around here!

I had a great morning with Nana, even drinking 4 ounces of formula with breakfast.  I had a really fun time playing and reading books all morning until my nap time.   I slept without any fuss — which is now the norm, especially in the morning — for well over two hours.

My afternoon was even more exciting than usual because when I got up from my second nap, Mom was home early!   We spent a bunch of time playing in my room, which is something that I just don’t do enough of.

I have a new favorite stuffed animal: a huge, enormous, floppy, pillow-like dog that Mom’s friend Molly gave me!  Mom makes it run around and chase me and kiss me, which I love.  We also played with a rabbit and I can correctly  answer the question, “What does a rabbit do?”  “Hop, Hop” (so, this is definitely my forth word, and I’ve been saying it for a while, now…but it’s quite convenient that it’s so phonetically similar to my very first word: “up”).

I also explored my huge walk-in closet today and took as many things as I could reach on the various shelves and threw them on the floor – just like I do with the bibs in the kitchen.

I had a good dinner, drank some formula, and headed to bed.

Mom tried to give me a bottle this morning.  Tried and failed, that is.   Nana tried to give me the formula with my breakfast out of  a sippy cup, but I didn’t go for that, either.  Eventually I relented and drank half a bottle.

Not much else to report today.  I was a lot more vocal than usual, repeating my three words (up, bye-bye, mama) quite a bit.  I also stood more often and for longer periods of time — I even took three steps three different times, equally my previous record.

At dinner, Mom managed to get me to eat my least favorite food in the whole world: spinach!  I would only eat it when she fed it to me with her fingers (I sure wasn’t going to feed that stuff to myself!) and when she alternated it with bites of food I actually like.   Even though I gave in on the spinach, I held strong on rejecting any formula.  So there.

I woke up just after 6:00 and was a bit more tired that usual — of course, that  didn’t stop me from eating a huge breakfast!  I slept very quickly at 9:00 and woke up rested and much happier!

After lunch, Nana and I decided that we had to get out of the house — and we weren’t going to let frigid temperatures and a little snow stop us!  Wicker Park was so fun.  The dogs were especially active today — maybe they were just trying to stay warm!  I am so looking forward to the warmer weather when we come to  the park every single day!

This afternoon, instead of just getting a bottle before my nap, Nana expanded it to a bigger snack that included some solid food, too.  I was so excited about getting to be outside and a bit thrown off by the new food schedule that I didn’t fall asleep quite as fast as usual.  By 4:15 I was pooped and slept until about 5:20.

Mom got home and fed me dinner, which included some formula in a sippy cup — yet another innovation!  Apparently I’m getting a head start on all of the transitions coming my way in March!

I got up with Mom @ 5:50 and drank an impressive 3 ounces of my bottle.  I was in a great mood (and was especially photogenic!) this morning.  I got two new foods today!  At breakfast I had a tropical smoothie, which was new, but didn’t count as new because I had already had all of the ingredients, separately.

I also discovered a new favorite book today: Where is Baby’s Belly Button?.  Nana read it to me three times in a row after breakfast, and many more times throughout the day!

My morning nap routine is really working well.  I tend to play in my crib for 20-30 minutes before falling asleep.  I woke up in a great mood and celebrated by correctly identifying a yellow circle.  Apparently that’s a big deal!

Lunch was crazy.  Another not new new food: veggie  fritters. Huh?  Yeah, veggie fritters.  These are pan fried patties made up of sweet potato, zucchini, eggs, and corn meal.  I can’t say that I loved it, but it was a totally new texture for me, which was fun.

I had no interest in my afternoon bottle, drinking just about three ounces.  Hey guys, I’m almost a year old — you have to treat me like a big girl!

I woke up this morning closer to my usual time — 6:15.  Dad got me out of my crib and instead of heading downstairs like we usually do, he was actually getting dressed and ready like Mom usually does!  We got downstairs and played for a bit until Nana came and Dad ran out the door for a couple meetings he had to go to.

I loved the strawberry oatmeal and read a bunch of books with Nana before my morning nap.  I fell asleep without a fuss and  napped for about 90 minutes.  I got up and ate a ton!  Nana fed me so much food — all of my lunch and even a little extra!  I got to eat three fresh strawberries for dessert.  So yummy!  Speaking of food, here’s a video of me at Moonshine yesterday:

I was in a really great mood all day today.  I was really playful and fun and didn’t cry at all.  I could tell that Nana really enjoyed that I was so happy.  I didn’t really drink much of my bottle, but I sure did sleep well.  I went to bed around 3:45 and didn’t wake up until 6:00!  Mom was just getting home from work and Dad brought me downstairs, where Mom fed me dinner.  It was mostly finger foods (peas, my favorite!) and the last of my avocado and cream cheese puree.

Mom, Dad, and I went down to the office and played around on the carpet until 7:00.  Mom and Dad debated whether I needed a bath (as usual, she said yes and he said no).  Dad compromised by giving me a shampoo-only.  Dad tried to get me to sleep without a pacifier but of course that experiment lasted about 10 seconds, and I fell asleep instantly thereafter.

Even though I got to bed on time last night, I slept in until about 7:15 this morning.  Well, actually, I was up around 5:45, but somehow Dad decided he’d let me babble for a while in my crib and I ended up falling back asleep.  When I got up, Dad whisked me downstairs and put me right into my high chair for breakfast.

My new food is strawberries — supposedly the most allergenic of the berry family.  All mixed up in my oatmeal, they were really good!  I gobbled down my oatmeal and then I played with Dad.  Well, we didn’t play all that much — really we cleaned up the house so that Mom would feel welcomed back from her trip to Tampa.

I had my bottle at 9:30 and took my nap.  I got up at 11:00 and Dad lifted me out of my crib and almost in one fell swoop had me in my coat and out the door.  We went to our favorite brunch place, Moonshine, with Jen and her friend from high school (in Belgium!).  Dad had brought my food, of course, but he let me eat the strawberry garnish from his flapjacks and even asked Jen if I could eat hers.  I love that my diet is slowly creeping into restaurant food!  (Oh, and there’s video evidence coming in the next post!)

We left brunch early (Jen and Nate were still reminiscing) and we took off for the airport to get Mom!  We were a few minutes late (well, she was early) and when we got there she sat in the back seat with me!

We got home and I played with Mom and Dad — we all had so much fun!  Then they tried to trick me!  When it was nap time, they gave me a bogus pacifier!  They had cut 1/4 inch of the end of the pacifier off — the theory being that they would wean me gradually. Hahahahahahahaha!  Do they think I was born yesterday?  I’m 11 months old!  I didn’t fall for that.  I screamed and screamed and screamed until finally I got my old pacifier back and went right to sleep.

When I got up, Jen was getting ready to leave so I said goodbye and Dad gave her a ride to her hotel.  Mom and I played and had a great time.  I ate all of my dinner and Dad got home just in time to see me stand for 58 seconds (my new record), take one step, and fall on my booty.

Well, since I went to bed so late last night, I wasn’t surprised to sleep in until about 7:15 this morning.  Dad always complains that he never gets to sleep in past 7.  Well, no more complaining!

Since I usually have a bottle when I get up and breakfast at 7:30, we were in a bit of a pickle.  Dad decided to skip the bottle and keep breakfast at the right time.  So, we went downstairs and Dad got my food ready.  I ate really well, especially the hard-boiled egg, which I love.

It had snowed so much overnight, but that didn’t stop us from heading out on our weekly grocery trip.  Our first stop was Whole Foods.  I was in a great mood and almost everything we bought there was for me!  Then we went to Dominick’s and I was really friendly and sociable with everyone I met.  We made a quick pit stop at home to pick up a few things — Dad left me alone in the car while he ran inside!  Mom would NOT have allowed that!

We headed over to Nana and Grandpa’s!  Now, my schedule was already screwed up food-wise, but now my nap got messed up, too.  I couldn’t fall asleep at my grandparents’ house, even though Nana made me a really comfy bed.  I didn’t have my pacifier and there was just too much going on to sleep through it all!  So, after Dad was “in bed” with me for 15 minutes and I was showing no signs of sleeping, he finally relented and we went into the living room.  I mostly hung out with Grandpa while Nana and Dad were in the kitchen.

One of the things we brought with us was an awesome high chair / booster chair.  Even though it wasn’t really lunch time for me, I got to sit at the table and nibble on some rice and some apple.  All of a sudden, Dad realized that it was 11:45 and we had an appointment at 12:00 — with a babysitter!  He jumped up and we were out the door in a couple minutes and eventually made it home exactly at noon.  The only problem was that I had fallen asleep in the car on the way over.

So, Dad unloaded the groceries from the car and then left me in the car alone to get a few more minutes of sleep — twenty more minutes, to be exact!  Again, I don’t think Mom would have allowed this!  at 12:20 he got me out of the car and I woke up.  When I got upstairs Jen was around, as was Rachel — a baby sitter I first met last weekend!  This was her first time babysitting me and Dad was around to help familiarize her with my various idiosyncrasies.

First was lunch.  Well, I put on quite a show — of refusing to eat!  I just wasn’t interested in much of anything.  But hey, my schedule was screwed up!  After Dad gave up, Rachel played with me for three hours. We read books, sang, played music, walked around, looked out the window, and put blocks on each other’s head!   She was so worried that I fall down the two steps from the kitchen to the living room…At 3:30 Dad gave me my bottle and then Rachel witnessed the pre-nap routine before taking off.

I got up around 5:00 and soon thereafter had a really messy poop.  It took Dad three diapers to eventually get me cleaned up — and that was after some of it got on my onesie.  Dad was so frazzled that he didn’t even bother to get me another shirt for the rest of the night –that’s why I’m topless!

Dinner was great.  I made up for my poor showing at lunch by eating everything I was supposed to have eaten at lunch and at dinner.  I think Dad cheated yesterday, by the way, by introducing cherries into my diet.  Apparently he doesn’t count finger foods the same he does the food he cooks.  Anyway, here’s a pretty long video of me playing with my cherries.  To get you to watch the whole thing, I’ll tell you that I may have said my third word ever at the end of the video.  Does it count?  You decide!

After dinner, Dad played with me and eventually Jen came back from her walk. I played with the lion and Dad grilled me on the blocks I’m supposed to be learning! At 7:00 we headed upstairs. If Mom were around, I’m 100% sure that she would have insisted on my getting a bath today. Not Dad, though! We read Goodnight Moon and I was off to sleep in no time.

I woke up this morning with Mom and was excited to play with her before she had to leave for work.  Dad was so sleep, but got up and played with me.  He took today off from work, so we got a lot of quality time in.

We played all morning.  Dad seemed a bit disappointed that I had forgotten a few of the blocks that he had taught me last weekend.  Breakfast was pretty uneventful.  I started showing signs of being sleepy around 8:40, but he started hiding from me all around the house and I got a second wind as I found him each and every time.  At 9:00 I went up and took my morning nap.

I slept really well, until about 11:00.  Dad came up and, after changing me, starting taking my crib apart!  He lowered my mattress down to the lowest level so now I can barely even peer over the top!  I definitely can’t fall out now, though, so hopefully that will make Nana feel better putting to sleep in there.

When I got downstairs, there was a new friend waiting for me!  Dad’s friend Jennifer from college is staying with us for the weekend.  She was really friendly and has long hair that I’m so tempted to pull!  I had lunch and then went back to playing around with Dad.  Around 1:30 he seemed to be getting a bit bored, so we went downstairs and had a lot of fun playing peek-a-boo with the sheets and pillowcases that were just laying on the futon.  I also discovered that Mom & Dad have diwali sticks laying around — and I had a lot of fun with them.

My afternoon bottle and nap were pretty uneventful.  Mom got home early, though only because she had to catch a flight to Tampa for the weekend!  Dad and I decided to drive her to the airport — despite the rush hour traffic — so that we could spend more time with her.  The traffic there was terrible, but it wasn’t so bad coming back.

I gave Dad a really hard time when it came to dinner, though.  I really hated the confetti slaw, and wouldn’t even eat a single bite of it.  I absolutely love peas, though.  I think they might have surpassed carrots as my favorite finger food!

Unfortunately, though, the trip to Midway meant that I ended up missing my bedtime — I didn’t go to sleep until about 7:45!