Fun with Paper

Have you seen the YouTube video of the kid ripping paper?

I totally tried it with Eva.  She didn't really get it, but she seemed to enjoy munching on it instead.

 We also made her a wig.  I was getting a little bored of her bald head.

I don't think she appreciated her new hairstyle too much.

Eva's Two New Skills

Eva has two new skills.

First Skill: She has learned utter amazement and the corresponding facial expressions.  This may not seem like a big deal, but that face shows up all the time lately.  Milo barks, Eva's amazed.  Mommy shows her flowers, Eva's amazed.  A mirror, Eva's amazed.  Ribbons, Eva's amazed.

And last week was: Fish, Eva's amazed.

To be fair, I had the same look on my face most of the time.  Those aquariums were AWESOME!  If you have a kid, live in Houston, and don't want to pay $12 to look at fish, visit Fish Gallery.  They have beautiful displays and leather couches for chillaxing.

Second Skill: Eva can sit unsupported.  Yay!

Of course, she seems to believe sitting unsupported is the best way to make out with Milo.

The skill she STILL hasn't learned?  Rolling over.  I think I need to enroll her in classes.

The Sleepy Pictures

I'm not great about keeping a naptime.  Because so many people advocate baby-led nursing, I've decided to try baby-led napping.  Of course, all that really means is letting Eva get tired enough that she gets fussy and then randomly passes out.  

Case in point:

Yes, she's adorable.

Passover Seder was more like Mommy-is-forcably-keeping-you-awake sleeping.  We only stayed until 7:15pm, well before most Seders even begin, but it was already 45 minutes past her normal bedtime and she was nearly falling asleep at the table.

See those precious drooping eyelids?  But hey, we got a picture of her first Seder, so mission accomplished and move on!

A Playroom with Personality

As some of you know, one of my many incarnations in the past few years was as an affordable interior re-designer.  You know, use that you have and add a few inexpensive items to make the space more complete.

I've wanted to make the sunroom feel like a real room for a while, but I never knew what I wanted to do with it.  I needed a pull out sofa for guests, but I always thought I'd turn the room into an office for Yaniv.  Once Eva arrived, bringing with her a million toys because I can't help myself, I realized the real purpose of the room should be a playroom.

And our journey began...

The playroom was painted purple and carpeted when we bought the house in 2008.  It was a sunporch that had been walled in sometime before, but it really wasn't integrated with the rest of the house.  There was a window between the family room and the sunroom, and the door connecting the rooms was an exterior style door.

In 2009, we finished our remodel.  We removed the window and replaced it with a sliding glass door, walling in the old door.  We laid travertine stone flooring and painted the walls a light beige.  A few small changes made the room feel new.  However, I still had no purpose for the room.  These picture are from just after it was finished and we were using it as a transition space from the pool to the indoors.  We also used the room as my office for most of 2010.

This is the floor plan I kept obsessing over.  Half the room would be a small pull out sofa, and the other half would be for the playthings.

I wanted the room to be playful so it would be a good PLAYroom.  I also wanted it to be neutral enough to mature with Eva.  Had to have the sofa bed, and I wanted a rug with a thick enough pile Eva could topple over on it and not get hurt.

And how we actually use the sofa side:

What we bought:

• Ikea Lack End Table - $8
• Ikea Pink Flower Poster - $10
• Ikea Decorative Pillow - $12
• Ikea Lack Coffee Table - $25
• Ikea Malm Wall Shelving - $40 (3 pieces)
• WalMart Zebra Hometrends Rug - $124
• Ikea Solsta Sofa - $148
• (Everything else was already in the room or items we repurposed for the room.)

Total: $358

He Found Them

Yes, you read that right.  Yaniv found my uber-tasty cookies.  Not by reading my blog, but by sitting in my pumping chair and using my laptop.

:/

That's my serious emoticon.  Seriously annoyed.

Long time, no see.

It's been a while since I've updated.  It's not that I'm not on the computer - I have basically lived on the computer for the past 3 weeks.  Just not in a happy way.

I've hit a bump in the breastfeeding road.  Low supply led to pumping and bottle feeding led to Eva refusing to breast feed led to OMG-I-have-no-time-because-I'm-ALWAYS-pumping.   I've finally created a decent schedule, so I'm getting a life back, but since I'm so committed to making sure Eva gets only breast milk until 6 months, I have another 32 days of heck ahead of me.  Of course, it's heck with a cute smile!

I'd like to thank my friend, Sara, for her invaluable advice and support.  Also, I found a GREAT baby board on BabyCenter.com with wonderful ladies who all pump at work.  They know I'm a SAHM, and I haven't been kicked off yet!

I wish there was more to update, but we haven't done a lot.  I've started going to Tot Shabbat at the JCC down the road, which is really fun because Eva LOVES music.  And we met friends for lunch a few days ago.  But otherwise, life is pretty much filled with pumping, baby groups, and sleeping.

I'm going to make a test right now to see if Yaniv reads my blog.  See, I've become a master baker in the past few months, and tonight Yaniv wanted some of my uber-tasty cookies.  I, however, hid them.  (And yes, we are bad Jews who eat super leavened bread during Passover.)  Now, I hid them under my chair in Eva's playroom, but he will only know that if he reads my blog.  Otherwise, I have a perfect hiding place he will never find.  Moo-hahhahaha.

I shall leave you with pictures of our beautiful family.

Tuesdays with Babies

My title is supposed to be a pun on Tuesdays with Maury, but as that's not sure a popular novel anymore, I'm not sure anyone would catch on...

But seriously, every other Tuesday I have another baby group for Eva to play with.  It's a larger and more varied group than Wednesday, but still feel intimate and friendly.  I've actually met some really amazing women, and hopefully Eva will make some real baby friends once she more aware of others.

We went to the Ima Hogg mansion at Bayou Bend a few weeks ago.  Erica, the group leader, was smart enough to bring along blankets so the babies could play with each other for a while.  The flowers weren't in bloom any longer, but it was a beautiful day.

 Before we left, we lined everyone up and took a group picture (of everyone who came... we were missing ~3 mommies and their kiddos).  It's so fun seeing how much the babies have already grown in the past three months.  I can't wait to look back at these pictures in a few years and realize the remarkable changes that happen while life runs its course.

Eva's First Bite

For about 2 weeks we've been dealing with Eva constantly grabbing our food.  Today I ate a peanut butter sandwich and spent most of the time avoiding her little claw of death.  We started a bottle and had about 1oz left, and I decided rather than throwing it out, we should make Eva's first taste of solid food.

I mixed rice cereal with breast milk (a 1:20 ratio), and yelled for Yaniv to film our experience and take photos.  He was just as excited as I was, so he came running!

I wasn't sure how she'd take the first spoon fed meal, but she LOVED it.  And she stayed clean, so Mommy was extra proud.  I've never seen a baby understand the concept of opening wide for the spoon and then keeping most of the food inside her mouth so well.  She's a food genius.  She gets it from Yaniv and I - we're both big eaters!

First Date Night (the unpublished drafts!)

Another half-written post... I don't know how I do this!  Anyhow, it's from about a month ago.  Enjoy!

Okay, so this is a little overdue as our first date night was 3 weeks ago (edit: actually ~7 weeks!), but I wanted to post a picture and let everyone know that, yes, we do get out of the house for a few hours alone sometimes.

The night of our first date we went to a party in Bellaire.  The host actually had llamas in his backyard!  

Always room for one more...

Every time I am ready to congratulate myself for finally reaching a place with Eva where I'm comfortable and not worried, something new comes up.  I think it's half new-mom-syndrome, half bad luck.

So here's the deal: Eva hasn't gained weight in about 3 weeks.  She's not losing weight, but she's not gaining, either.  It's as if she decided that she doubled her birth weight two months early, so she's done.  The thing is, I wouldn't even know the issue exists except we have an AMAZING baby scale that is perfectly accurate to 0.5 ounces, which of course I'm checking every day now.  Sometimes every feed.  Jeeze.

But she doesn't seem malnourished.  She active, playful, funny, sleeps well, and is actually LESS fussy than before.  Does she look anything other than her normal self??  Minus some plumpness...

Anyhow, the doctor thinks my supply is low, which makes sense because Eva has been battling allergies, a cough, fever from shots, etc... for about a month now, so she probably didn't feel great about eating.  Now that her appetite is back, I just don't have enough for her.  Way to make a mommy feel like crud, Eva.

I rented a hospital grade pump for a few weeks, and I'm having to drink like a fish (water, not wine), actually make time to eat, try to get Eva to take a bottle, and pump after every feeding.

That means my day basically looks like this:

• Wake up
• Nurse (15 minutes)
• Pump (20 minutes)
• Bottle (15 minutes)
• Wash dishes (5 minutes)
• Play (30-60 minutes)
• Nurse (5 minutes)
• Nap

And that cycle repeats 8 times during the day, 2 times at night.  OMG I need a life.  Hopefully my supply will come back in the next week and I can leave the house without freaking out that I have to be back in 60 minutes!