April 2005 Archives

After several weekends of swearing we had to get a high chair, we finally took a trip to the new Babies R Us down in Marin City. It was a lot nicer than the Toys R Us or Baby Depots we've been to, mostly due to the fact that it's less than a month old and still well stocked. They had a great selection of high chairs, and we ended up getting their 'New Parents Top Pick' (a helpful feature when you're faced with rows of similar-looking, expensive items!) rather than the one we had researched and decided upon.

The 'Top Pick' was nearly identical to the one we researched, except you could remove and wash the seat cover (the one complaint people had made about the other chair.) It also has a removable, compartmentalized tray that goes into the dishwasher, an interactive toy with numbers and letters that fits into the tray area, and was $60 cheaper than the other one. For anyone out there shopping for high chairs, this was the Evenflo Discovery.

The only downside to the trip was that Eula didn't like sharing the back of the wagon with the new purchase, especially when it decided to tip over on her when I cornered too quickly getting on the freeway. She survived though (did I mention how amazingly light the new high chair is?), and only shivered most of the way home as she stared down her enemy.

The chair was pretty easy to assemble, even the second time around when I mistakenly put the front legs on backwards. Sophie really seemed to enjoy her perch both in the kitchen as we made dinner and at the dining table while we ate. Afterwards we relaxed on the couch and got some fun pictures of her smiles.

We love and miss you guys, can't wait to get together for our next wine-and-cheese evening at home or winery tour! I bet someone walks away with a membership again...

Hope your anniversary is wonderful!

A very Happy Birthday to Aunt Kathie! We hope you had a wonderful birthday and did something very fun! We love you lots!

Happy Birthday Aunt Connie! We hope you had a wonderful day even with the rain! Seems like we are sharing our weather with you. We love and miss you.

My "little" brother Cy turns 22 today. Happy happy bday little bro! I managed to get him on the phone this morning as he was driving into Texas where he will be working for the next 4 weeks.

This morning we took Sophie and Eula on a walk downtown, to get coffee from Brandie's favorite (Starbucks). It was a little windy, but otherwise beautiful. We had nice time looking at the houses and all the spring flowers. Sophie slept most of the way, and Eula behaved herself for the most part. Eliot stayed home to catch up on his sunbathing.

Today Jake and I celebrate three wonderful years together as husband and wife. I couldn't imagine a more romantic, supportive and exciting relationship. We are partners in every way and as we always say, it feels as though we have invented love for the first time.

Happy Anniversary, my wonderful husband. Here is to many, many more.

Last night we gave Sophie rice cereal for the first time, following the instructions on the packaging for "first feedings". It was very watery, nearly the consistency of formula, but we tried using the spoon anyway (and of course videotaped the whole thing - thanks again Sarah & Anthony!). She looked very confused but ended up eating quite a bit: before too long however we resorted to the usual bottle of formula and then polished her off with the rest of the cereal in a bottle.

Despite all that fun, she still managed to wake up several times in the middle of the night, and was as hungry as usual! The next myth to bust is whether not sleeping through the night is related to breast milk - we'll let you know!

Two of our favorite North Carolinans got engaged! We're very happy for you both, congratulations guys. Someday we'll actually be able to talk on the phone and get some details!

Well the checkup went great: Sophie is 13 lbs 14 oz, 25 inches long, and I forget the head measurement. The doctor says we can start introducing solid foods before her next visit if we want, there seems to be quite a strategy to it all. Unfortunately she says the whole "sleeping through the night" solid food thing is just an old wives' tale, but I'm still willing to give it a try!

We also found out yesterday that Sophie had turned over from her back onto her tummy last week at daycare! What a kick in the pants for it to have happened and not know about it. That's exactly the kind of thing we were afraid of missing out on with daycare. We still haven't witnessed it ourselves though, so it'll be great when it does happen.

Sophie also got four shots today, which made mom cry! Drop her a line to help her out if you can, thanks!

On Tuesday Sophie turns four months! She has a doctor's appointment the same day, so we'll get some new stats on her height and weight. It could be just the kind of smoke daycare folks give to new parents, but all the caregivers say she's very strong and interactive for her age. She likes tummy time (face down on her boppy pillow, supervised of course) and seems on the verge of turning over. She's capable of throwing a decent fit (Friday night is a recent example, we stayed out past her bedtime and she woke up instead of sleeping through as we'd hoped), but most of the time is very happy, smiling and "talking".

She's able to sit facing forward in the Bjorn now, and really seems to enjoy being able to look around when we take walks. Lately it's been very blustery though, which she doesn't like so much (it seems to take her breath away, she looks very stunned when the wind blows in her face).

We're hoping the doctor greenlights solid food (a little bit of rice cereal mixed into her bottle at night) at her next visit, as the thought of sleeping a full night is very attractive. We're also starting to think about baby-proofing the house, something we haven't devoted much time to yet.