Rice Cereal

Hana has been eating a lot lately and we decided that it is time to start moving toward solid foods. So, tonight Hana enjoyed her first taste of rice cereal. here's some vid.:

Rice Cereal

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Here's another. In this one, Hana's co-star is dorky Daddy, who is totally enthralled with this new activity.


feeding baby

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the first real high chair

ever since we retired "the bucket" car seat, hana has been in a bit of a seat limbo. she hadn't been strong enough to sit in a shopping cart or a restaurant high chair by herself and she doesn't have the bucket to sit in either. so she was either in the bjorn or in a lap. now that she is more assertive about grabbing things she wants to see (heaven help you if you are eating a pork chop, ice cream, pie or drinking anything from a bottle, i.e. beer a.k.a. "mommy juice"), lap sitting during meals has become tedious.

but today, we have crossed over. alhtough, shockingly enough, we have no pictures of it, hana sat in her first restaurant high chair at brunch today. i think she kind of liked it because she only got restless to get out one time. we were able to put her back in it when our food came. we still had to slam our food down quickly lest we get caught luxuriating over pancakes (beligum chocolate and fresh raspberry to be precise - so you see how one can easily be lost in the flaps...) when hana decides to pitch a hissy fit because she's ready to go. if we take our time but ignore her, we'll be one of those parents... so for now, we'll be the kind that live in fear that our kid could lose it at any moment, and when that happens, no check could come fast enough. not to mention, that the crying could cause an embarrassing milk let-down leaving some curious stains in the boobal region of my shirt, particularly for those not in the know.

i know this public high chair phase will be over soon enough. when she starts to want to walk around, she will not be happy chillin' in a high chair, which could spell the end of restaurants until she's old enough to enjoy a kids menu (and by that i mean, not eat it). the no-restaurant thing is something we will have to adjust to gradually. and we can really only handle one major adjustment at a time. right now, we are still adapting to the idea of not seeing a movie in the theatre now the that the summer move season is upon us. we are often given to wistful reverie about the movies we'd see if we could be in some sort of child friendly luxury box in the theatre - sound proof to the other patrons but still movie theatre quality sound inside so it's worth the effort (and no doubt the expense). i suppose, we'll just have to build our own home theatre absent other options.

she recently started to take an interest in the cats. now when they come by, she pets them. it's sweet. she doesn't quite understand that although eyes are pretty, people don't necessarily want you to put your fingers in them. least of all cats. so this petting is a closely supervised activity.

she also seems to be going through yet another growth spurt. jon and i weighed her the other day and she's about 18 lbs now and about 28.5 inches long. all of the 6 month clothes look decidedly too small on her. but that doesn't stop us from still cramming her into them since there are so many of them she has only worn once or twice... but in general, she is at the precipice of busting out of anything that is 9 months size and most everything that doesn't look ridiculous is size 12 months.

perhaps the most fun thing i have noticed over the last couple of weeks is the emergence of her sense of humor. hana is proving to be a pretty silly baby. she's definately starting to do stuff for the laughs and looking for things to do that make her laugh. you can see it in some of the pictures, especially the one where she's wearing her stacker toy peices like water wings. when she's out in public, people comment that she seems like a really happy baby. i would have to agree.

(she has recently begun cuddling her "doll baby" too... very cute. she likes to suck on the little curls on her head. here, she is getting ready for an early evening nap on the couch.)

the river returns

hana is adujusting to daycare very well. she has already participated in a classmates birthday party. but unfortunately, she caught a runny nose that seems to ebb and flow as the weeks progress. jon has a cold now too so once again, between them there is a river of snot in my house and i'm pounding the airborne to prevent myself from getting sick. she is otherwise in good spirits and getting stronger at sitting up. she's not quite to the point where she can sit in a shopping cart by herself but i think we are very, very close.

it seems that in the past couple of weeks, hana also decided that bath time is super fun. she gets in the water and starts kicking like a flintstone running a car, breaking only to deliver the occaisional "whale tail slap" where she takes both legs and splashes and then rests briefly surveying the splash zone. it makes bath time much more fun for her parents now too.

Hana Bath Time

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HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

it's my first mother's day it has been a great weekend thus far. with the lake merritt run yesterday and dinner with friends and family last night it's already been and eventful weekend. this morning i got catch up on my blog and have breakfast in bed. later it's dinner with friends and family and a survivor finale party.

but the best part of this mother's day is that i finally get to celebrate it as a mother myself.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL US MOMS OUT THERE!!!

the lake merrit 6 hour event champion

after the 10K trail run in february, i decided that i would try and train for the lake merrit 6 hour event. you may be thinking that it doesn't take 6 hours to run lake merritt. true enough. so you may then be wondering why on earth anyone would want to run for 6 hours around the same loop. for that, i may never have a good enough answer. and if you think i'm crazy for wanting to run 6 hours around lake merritt, there were people signed up for the 12 hour event too.

in all seriousness, the purpose of these timed style events is to give opportunities for people to try for different kinds of goals. for example, when i first registered, i looked at this run as an opportunity to try and get back into marathon shape and run 20 miles in 6 hours. in february, this goal seemed SO far away since those 6.2 miles KICKED MY BUTT. but the lake merritt path is flat and only 3.1 miles long. with 2 aid stations, there will be aid about every 1.5 miles so i don't really have to carry anything. and i can see my crew and the baby at every loop. for a long run, that's pretty unheard of. for others, if they want to attempt an ultramarathon distance (anything over 26.2 miles) but find the combination of tough terrain and stringent time cut offs too much pressure, this is a good opportunity. and the bonus is that no matter what happens, it will be over in 6 hours (or 12 hours if that's what you signed up for). for those of us who have birthed a child, you know that you can stand high levels of discomfort for at least 6 hours, so why not? but chances are, you might even have a good day and have fun for a large part of the day.

going into this event, i was definately nervous. my first few training runs were rough. my body was not quite used to running yet so everything hurt pretty much the whole time we were out there. not fun. but after a couple of weeks, my training runs where great. however, they were relatively short. i had hoped to train up to 4 hours runs before i began my taper before the event(for those not familiar, you do your longest training runs a couple of weeks for the event and then taper off in miles/time right before to give the body a chance to rest up for the big day). but i was only ever able to peak at 2.5 hours. although i was feeling good (it helps to run on hilly terrain like mt. diablo) my confidence as a little shaky because i wasn't sure how i'd feel after about 3 hours.

so i revised my goals. my first goal was to be able to keep moving for 6 hours (without the benefit of wheels). after that, my second goal was to do 6 laps in 6 hours. each lap is 3.1 miles. and then my third, pie-in-the-sky goal was to do 20 miles. but, hoenstly, i didn't really think i could do the 20 miles.

so i started and the first lap went well but felt long and i found myself thinking "do i really have to run this all day?!" in the second lap, i felt painful blisters forming on my feet. this made me panic a little bit because i still had about 5 hours of running left and my feet hurt already. dealing with pain is one thing. but when one is hurting, one tends to change their running gait which is very, very bad because it leads to more serious injury. so i spent the whole 2nd lap really trying to focus on my form so i didn't really hurt myself. thankfully this and every lap after felt much shorter. before starting on my 3rd lap, i had to take a fairly long break to have nadia (our fabulous crew) tape my feet. this kept the blisters from getting worse. and i changed my socks - the guilty party in the blister debacle. nad's parting words of advice for that lap were to "trust the tape. let it do it's job". this felt a littel obe one kanobi to me (especially from her) but she was actually right. it took a few minutes to get used to the feeling of the tape but i just tried to run like normal. if she hadn't said that, i probably would have been less sure and ended up limping... all bad. i was able to run my 3rd lap as well. i realized that running the same loop was actually fun because familiar terrain, you know what's ahead. this allowed me to relax and have fun and not worry about the what surpise wall like hill may lay ahead or how long it will be before the next aid station. i finished those first 9+ miles/3 laps in decent time because was able to run pretty much the whole time. that felt like an achievement in and of itself since i hadn't run that far since the marathon of 2006 (my training runs never even covered that much mileage). in the time that i was getting worked on, jenny (party of 5!) was blazing the trail and managed to lap me. the next couple of laps were slow going for both of us. after running 4 laps straight, jen's knee was bothering her. since my feet were giving me the business, we decided to walk and catch up on gossip (we agree, paris hilton should have to serve at least 2-3 weeks in jail). i started my 6th lap with about 90 minutes to go and i started to worry that i wouldn't meet my 6 lap goal since we'd been moving kind of slow. so i picked up the pace a little bit and started running again. while i didn't run the whole way around, i did manage to make it around in just under an hour. once i met my 6 lap goal, i thought that i would love to try for my 20 mile goal. i had a little less than a 1/2 hour to do it but i would give it a shot. for the last hour of the run, they have us take a shorter loop so we can continue to add distance without taking the whole long loop. so i was able to muscle out 2 of the .7 mile loops.

we all know that math is not my strong suit so when i finished, i was happy with my accomplishment but i didn't think that i actually made the 20 mile mark. so imagine my surprise when once of the race directors told me that she was pretty sure i did do 20 miles. in fact, i completed 20.2 miles!!! and i almost fainted when they announced me the FIRST PLACE female winner for my age group! me?! slow poke pettigrew?! FIRST PLACE!!!!!! and jenny (party of 5!) won the first place overall female finisher!!!! and glenda (nadia's mom) won first place for her age division as well!!!! so basically, 3 of the 4 first place prizes ( a coffee mug that says your division and "First Place" right on it!) arrived in the same car! the 4th prize went to a woman in a different age class that came late and left early after completing 10K (or 6.2 miles) so we never even saw her. it does not take away from my victory at all that there was no second place. the way i see it, we were the only (4) women out there hangin' with the men. the second placers were sooo intimidated, they didn't even show up!!!!

i must say, that while my 800 mg ibuprofen lasted, i had quite the swagger. i may try to fashion some sort of blingy gold chain to wear my first place coffee mug around my neck. if that's not possible, then i will simply take as many beverages as possible from my first place coffee mug, which shall henceforth be referred to as the "chalice of excellence" (using a triumphant announcer style voice and echo-o-o). i was so pleased with my prize that i told a bunch of perfect strangers about it. if you would like to sip a beverage from my chalice of excellence-ence-ence, you contact me to set up an appointment.

Editor's Note: i am well aware that none of these pictures are of the actual event. i believe there will be photographic evidence of this accomplishment at some point. when i have those pictures, i'll post 'em. in the meantime, feel free to gaze upon the child.

5 months - back to work

hana started daycare this week (i call it "school" - seems better to me somehow) because i have returned to work. i must admit that the build up to the return to work was way, WAY worse than the actual return. i'd feared that i would have an "ugly cry"-style break down as i left the house on monday. but none of that really happened. monday morning we were all so rushed that it didn't really sink in until i was sitting in traffic. and even then i was just a little pouty and moist in the eye... fortunately, i had already scheduled the starbucks run with friends so they helped ease the re-entry.

as many of you know, hana is going to school at the daycare center in jon's office, in hayward, CA. jon and i both work for the county and even though i am not stationed in that office, i am there a couple of times a week(usually bothering jon during my down time -- me: "whatcha' doooin?" jon: "work". i'm sure he's glad i have someone else to bother now). since jon will be taking her into daycare everyday, i was spared the actual hand-off of hana to someone else for the day. that was a big tear saver. i think the handoff is the most traumatic part for women. men seem hard-wired to not have an emotional reaction to leaving a child to go to work (or, as it turns out, collecting details about the baby's day).

once i got to work, my boss was thoughful enough to not schedule me for anything so that i would have a chance to settle in again (and in case i didn't come back). in fact, she didn't tell anyone else i was coming back either so that i would'nt be scheduled without her knoweldge. that was really helpful. but while i was sifting through my 1300+ emails that accumulated during my absence, i kept thinking about how i used to check email while at was at home with hana on my lap. and then i starting missing her and it made me only want to do those work tasks that i can't do with hana with me. so i volunteered for a meeting, in the hayward office of course. so on my first day back to work,i not only got to dust off the cobwebs of my facilitation skills, i got go hold hana and feed her and then pick her up from school (since i was done before jon) and take her home. in fact this week, i worked out of that office on 3 days. on thursday, i never even had to pump because i was able to just go and feed her everytime.! i even got to put her down for her nap once this week. it's really the best of both worlds. i really like what i do (facilitating meetings with families, community service providers and staff) and i got spend time with hana.

the only time i really felt sad this week was friday night. after all week of being able to spend time with her, friday, i didn't see her at all after i left the house in the morning. and when i arrived home that evening, jon and hana were'nt there yet. so the house was empty (save for the cats who naturally, couldn't care less) and that was a surpirsingly big bummer. i suppose in the future, i will look forward to an empty house, but i'm not there yet.

hana has taken to daycare very well although it has been an adjustment. she ate plenty but not her usual thanksgiving-sized feedings for the first few days. i guess she was thinking "this bottle is fine but i'll hold out until mommy comes". the daycare staff didn't really seem to notice the dip. and who would? not many babies (or toddlers for that matter) pack it away like hana can. when i did come, sometimes the daycare people would say, she's not hungry because she'd eaten an hour ago, and meanwhile hana's unbuttoning my blouse and nuzzling in for a meal (they usually reply with "...oh."). but by friday, i think she showed them how much she can really eat (she ate 30 oz at daycare alone, in addition to the big morning feeding before work and the 2 feedings before bed totalling about another 22 oz - that's my girl).

in order to get her used to the idea of the daycare, we did a little transition. i went with her for about an hour one day last week. and then on the friday jon took her in the morning (like a dress rehearsal for the new morning routine) and i picked her up mid day. she was there for 5 hours and slept for 3 of them. the daycare people found this surprising after i'd explained to them that she doesn't nap very much during the day because of her desire to socialize. i'm sure the teacher was thinking that i just wasn't trying hard enough after the 3 hour nap she had last friday. but come monday, she only took two 30 minute naps, and the rest of the week followed with several "snaps" (short naps). she didn't seem over tired or fussy. she just really likes the other kids and doesn't want to miss anything. so my little snapper showed them that the honeymoon is over, especially because she was teething a lot this week. nevertheless, she seems comforatable and has a good time there and the staff there love her.

overall, we are all still adjusting but i think it's going well. next week, i may be a snivelling idiot, we'll just have to wait and see.