Pictures of Adelaida

I haven't been able to come up with any really clever blog ideas this weekend, so decided to simply post several pictures of Adelaida from the past month. After all, I know that's what my faithful readers want!

She got all dressed up for Memorial Day and Dale helped her stand up on our patio table.


Adelaida has started grabbing at her feet, especially during diaper changes, and has removed her socks a couple of times.


Adelaida loves to hang upside down by her feet and look at her daddy's face. I think Dale kind of enjoys it too.


I got to go swimming with Adelaida at her last lesson. We had so much fun in the water!


Adelaida had fun playing in the grass at the Botanical Gardens earlier in May.


She's a messy eater, but Adelaida really enjoys feeding herself!


Adelaida's first baseball game was on a chilly night, but her daddy kept her warm with her blanket.

A future programmer?

Adelaida likes to stand up. She's happier standing than in just about any other position, including sitting, lying down, tummy time, and even being carried. She likes to stand while holding on to Adelaida-sized furniture, but unfortunately isn't stable enough to stand by herself yet, so letting her stand requires constant attention from me or Dale.

A couple of days ago, Dale was holding Adelaida in his lap while trying to get some work done on his laptop. She started getting fussy, so he let her stand up in front of his chair. Adelaida immediately started hammering away at his keyboard, looking very pleased with herself.

Adelaida added some jibberish to the email Dale was in the middle of writing, but fortunately she didn't hit "send."

Five months and counting

Yesterday was Adelaida's five-month-birthday. It was a pretty good day for her -- she wore her prettiest little dress for pictures at school, learned about the color red and practiced wiggling her toes at school, took a long nap in the afternoon, then spent the evening with her Momma and Daddy, who set up her "big girl" highchair at the table and fed her pear, avocado, and broccoli.

She's definitely growing -- I had to adjust her Johnny Jumper to be a bit higher off the ground so she could stand up in it better, and she certainly seems to be getting heavier every time I pick her up!

As part of our birthday anniversary ritual, here are several pictures of Adelaida as she has grown over the past five months. It isn't obvious from the pictures that her body is getting much longer, but her hair is definitely getting longer!

Five months old:


Four months old:


Three months old:


Two months old:


One month old:


Four days old:


And here's a bonus picture of Adelaida at five months old, sitting up by herself and contemplating the familiar Pink Panther. Adelaida and Pink Panther are alike in many ways: they are both about two feet long, they both have stuff sticking out of their heads (Pink Pather's tag and Adelaida's hair), and they both sit up about equally well (in that they both fall over sometimes when you aren't looking!).

Going to school

Since before Adelaida was born, I've been planning to put her in daycare and continue working while she's an infant, although the exact details of this plan have changed somewhat over time.

We looked at several daycare facilities before Adelaida was born and learned that none of the large, accredited daycare facilities accept children younger than six weeks old. If we really wanted her in daycare before six weeks, we could use a private in-home daycare, but we thought it would probably be good for me to stay home with Adelaida for a while anyway, so we found a great daycare (really more of a "school" for babies) and planned to start her in school around February 1.

Then Adelaida was born, and the thought of letting someone else care for her was just too much! So, we immediately called the school and changed her start date to April 1, so I'd be able to stay home with her for three and a half months. (I use the term "stay at home" loosely, as Adelaida and I have rarely stayed at home. Instead, she joins me wherever I'm going. Starting about the time she was a month old, we've gone out almost every day. Sometimes we just go to the grocery store or meet other moms and babies for a walk in Albuquerque; other days she goes to work with me for six or eight hours and plays at my desk while I work.)

At the end of March, I was scheduled to present my chemistry research at a national chemistry conference in Salt Lake City, so was working a lot in February and March to prepare for this presentation. Working so much meant that I wasn't able to spend as much quality time with Adelaida as I would have liked, so we decided to delay her school once again, until May 1, so I'd have a relatively stress-free month with Adelaida before going back to work.

May 1st was a Friday, and rather than actually leave her at school that day, I decided instead to take her to school and spend some time with her there, playing with the toys and checking out her school crib. We spent about two hours there, met her teachers and got to know the school room a little better, then Adelaida and I both left together.

That Sunday evening, I prepared everything I'd need to leave my little girl at school for a whole day. Sunday night, Adelaida woke up several times during the night coughing. Monday morning, she had a coughing fit that lasted several minutes and sounded awful. Rather than taking her to school, I took her to the doctor; she had croup and was ordered to stay out of school for five days.

I knew that kids who are in daycare have more illness than kids that don't go to daycare, but I had expected that she wouldn't get sick until she'd actually been in school for at least one day!

Anyway, we stayed home together all of her first week of school. I don't think Adelaida actually had croup; I think she just had a bad cold (which she gave to me, so we were both sick together). She's still congested and coughing, but she has been going to school for the past two weeks.

We're starting with about three days a week of school, and will slowly work our way up to full-time. The school is great -- they do a lot of activities with the babies and Adelaida seems to enjoy it. The only problem we're having right now is that Adelaida doesn't sleep very much at school-- usually less than an hour of sleep in a six- or eight-hour day (she sleeps about four hours in eight when she's at home with me!). But, she does sleep a lot in the evenings after we pick her up from school. Unfortunately, that means I don't get to spend as much time with her as I'd like!

The Balloon Game

One of the best ways we've found to keep Adelaida occupied is with "The Balloon Game." The balloon game was designed by our neighbor Carmen, who shared the game with us when Adelaida was about two months old. Carmen had used the balloon game with her kids and introduced the game to Adelaida while watching her for me one afternoon.

The balloon game is best played by children who are not yet sitting up by themselves. To play, Adelaida lays down on her back and we tie the ribbon of a helium-filled mylar balloon to one of her appendages -- we first tied the balloon to her ankle, then later expanded to her wrist. When she sees the balloon floating above her, she looks at it and is happy, and when Adelaida is happy, she moves her hands and feet. Moving her feet causes the balloon to move, making her even happier. And thus begins a positive feedback loop!

This was a wonderful activity for her from about two months to about four months -- when she was younger than two months she didn't grasp the cause and effect concept of the balloon moving, and starting at about four months she really doesn't like to lay down on her back anymore; she's much happier sitting up. But for most of March and April, the balloon game was quite a favorite with Adelaida, and with me -- Adelaida was content to lay on the floor so many times while I made dinner or washed dishes or did laundry!

Swimming Baby

Wanting to expose Adelaida to all the wonderful things in life, we decided to sign her up for swimming lessons. You might ask what a four-month-old learns in swimming lessons; after two lessons, we're still trying to figure that out as well. Personally, I think the lessons are designed to teach the parent rather than the baby.

The lessons are "parent-tot" lessons, which in our case has meant "father-daughter" lessons.

The lessons are every Sunday for three weeks, and we've completed two lessons already. We arrive at the pool about forty-five minutes before the lessons begin (because everything takes longer with a baby!), changed Adelaida into her swimming diapers, put her bathing suit on her, slather sunblock on her little arms, legs, chest, back, neck, and face, nurse her, and finally start thinking about getting into the water. All of that for a 30-minute lesson that sometimes ends five or ten minutes early if Adelaida starts getting fussy in the water!

We bought the smallest size swimming diapers that are made; they are designed for babies between 16 and 26 pounds. Adelaida just reached 12 1/2 pounds (and we're quite proud of that extra 1/2 pound!), so they're a little big for her. OK, they are a lot big for her! Her adorable little bathing suit is pink with polka-dots and has roses across the front. (It is a 3-6 month size and is far from aerodynamic on her skinny little body.)

Once they get in the water, the instructor rotates from one parent-tot pair to another, suggesting different activities for the parent to do to the tot. The lessons are for kids up to 36 months old, and Adelaida is of course the youngest one there, but there are three other kids in the 6-to-9-month range, so she's not the youngest by much. The older kids in the class practice kicking their legs and reaching toward the instructor with one hand and then the other (freestyle stroke). Adelaida really just practices getting wet!

The first day of swimming lessons, Adelaida was doing really well and was just as happy as could be in the water. (Actually, we aren't entirely sure she was aware of being in the water, but she was pretty happy being in her Daddy's arms!) She enjoyed looking at the other babies and at least once splashed everyone around her (although I'm pretty sure this was an accident) and startled herself in the process. The instructor showed Dale how to make her hold her breath and suggested the Dale dunk her underwater. He did, and she did great!



Adelaida also practiced floating on her back (really hard with a buoyant diaper and a dense head), moving through the water with her Daddy, and "jumping" out of the pool in her Daddy's arms. The lessons have been great and we're looking forward to the next (and last) lesson on Sunday. After the lessons are over, we may go to the pool a couple of times this summer to keep Adelaida familiar with the water.

Becoming Mobile

Adelaida spends a lot of time in her crib. We generally place her in her crib on her back, in the center of the crib, with her body parallel to the sides of the crib.

We are amazed at all the different positions we find her in when we get her out of the crib.

She was two months old here, and we were still swaddling her at night. She somehow wriggled out of the yellow blanket we swaddled her in and rotated her body about 45 degrees in the crib.


Here's another picture from February; the first time we found her with her legs through the sides of the crib. She was sleeping through the night at this point. We woke up one morning and hadn't heard anything from her, so eventually went into her room to get her out of bed. She was just lying in the crib with her legs hanging out, perfectly happy!


In March, we started letting Adelaida sleep with a small blanket and her stuffed polar bear, Snuffles Junior. The blanket sometimes stays on her body, but more commonly ends up over her head. On this day, she also had her yellow duckie blanket with her, and ended up with the blanket on her body where it was supposed to be, the duckie above her head, and Snuffles Junior on her chest. She was determined to win the staring contest with Snuffles Junior!


This picture is from April. With the warm weather, Adelaida started wearing fewer onesies and more sundresses, which are much easier for her to pull up to her mouth and suck on. I'm pretty sure she had been sucking on her dress before she fell asleep in this picture.


We continue to be amazed at the positions Adelaida gets herself into in her crib. At least so far she has remained in her crib, lying down, on her back. I'm sure one day we will walk into her room and find her standing in her crib, or (even worse) sitting on the floor playing contentedly when we had put her to sleep in her crib!

Eating

In preparation for the inevitable day when Adelaida would expand her diet beyond breastmilk, we have made a special place at our table for Adelaida. For the past few weeks, while Dale and I ate our meals, Adelaida would sit in her BebePod chair, situated on our kitchen table, and watch us eat. I got out a few plastic-coated baby spoons and let her play with them, and she was very skilled at getting the spoon in her mouth -- sometimes the spoon bowl end and sometimes the handle end.

She seems equally happy using her left hand and her right hand and even chews and sucks on the spoon while it is in her mouth. Despite her apparent readiness to begin eating, I was hesitant to introduce Adelaida to solid foods, preferring instead to remain her only source of nourishment, for at least another eight or ten years!

Last weekend, however, Dale and I were preparing butternut squash for ourselves and Dale convinced me to set aside a small portion for Adelaida, just to see how she liked it. So, we steamed up some butternut squash, mashed it with a fork, and prepared to begin feeding our baby adult food. My heart sank when she took the first bite, moved it around in her mouth, swallowed, and opened her mouth for more. She liked it, and so we set about on a whole new phase of life with a baby.

In the past week and a half, we've fed Adelaida real food every day, beginning with the butternut squash and adding avocado last weekend. She still enjoys eating, but does require her food smashed up quite a bit -- she spits out the large chunks of avocado if they aren't pureed enough.

Each feeding time is a combination of us feeding Adelaida and her feeding herself with the spoon. In fact, she's much more likely to open her mouth if she "helps" by holding onto the spoon while I guide it into her mouth.



Our plans right now are to skip the small jars of pureed baby food and the rice cereal (I've tried both and wasn't very impressed with the taste!) and feed Adelaida pure foods that we would otherwise eat ourselves. We steam the foods that need it (butternut squash, and in the future apples, sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, rice) and simply mash foods that don't need to be steamed (avocado, and in the future bananas, yogurt). We're going to try to add one new food to her diet each week while continuing to feed her the foods she has already eaten, so are feeding her both butternut squash and avocado this week.

The pictures here are from Adelaida's first attempt at food. On the second day we fed her, we added a bib!

... And standing up, assisted

Finding her balance has not only helped Adelaida learn to sit up by herself, it has also made her much more eager to stand! Since she was born, she has enjoyed standing up on Dale's or my (or Nonna's) lap, first with us holding her body for support and more recently with us providing her with a stable finger or two to hold while standing.

Since she is able to stand quite well while holding on to my fingers, about a week ago I tried to stand her up in front of a steady piece of furniture to see if she'd stand while holding on to it. She didn't grasp either the concept of holding on to something to help her stand or the furniture she was standing near. I concluded that she wasn't ready for that yet and didn't think much more about it.

We continued to let her stand with our help, as well as both in an over-the-door-jamb jumper and in a MegaSaucer activity center. She enjoys both of those toys and has become more interested in moving her legs and feet while in them.

Then, yesterday, we were downstairs and she was tired of playing with her balloon and tired of laying on her fish play mat, so I attempted to have her stand again. And it worked! I placed her in front of a child-sized chair (part of a table-and-chairs set that GG got for Adelaida) and put a toy on the chair for her to look at. I had to make sure her feet were positioned appropriately (perpendicular to the chair edge and not to close together) and that she was just close enough to the chair to lean against it without falling into it, and she used her hands to balance herself. She stood against the chair several times, for up to about thirty seconds each time before looking up at me or Dale and simultaneously tumbling to the ground. We got a video of her standing (sorry it's sideways; I couldn't figure out how to change that). If the video doesn't work for you, you can see it at our Flickr page (link on the right).



Although having Adelaida learn to stand by herself is very exciting, it is also a little bit frightening. After all, teething and crawling and running around and going to school and dating all follow standing, and I'm just not sure I'm ready for her to date yet. Perhaps I should be content to let her lie on her back and look up at the toys attached to her turtle play mat, and coo and smile occasionally, and let her remain a baby forever. Of course, seeing her do new things is pretty exciting too!

Sitting up, unassisted ...

Adelaida has been sitting up for quite a while, mostly in her BebePod chair, propped up by pillows, or on our laps. She seems to enjoy sitting up, and can play with stuffed animals and reach for toys on her play mat while she is sitting up. A few weeks ago, we noticed her balance was improving and experimented with having her sit up without support. The first time we tried this, she sat up for about three seconds before toppling over, and I was so proud of her!!! Since that first time, she has been improving every day and can now sit up by herself for over a minute before getting a very-close-up view of the floor.

She is not able to get into the sitting position herself yet, so we have to position her, making sure her legs aren't crossed and can provide a good base for her, and making sure she isn't leaning too far back. But once she is in that position, she can grab toys from the floor in front of her, can look around, and can sit by herself for quite a while without toppling over.

Here are some pictures to chronicle her progression in sitting up:

A very early picture of Adelaida in her BebePod chair, when she was about two months old


Propped between the pillows of the couch, when she was about three months old


Sitting up in the boppy pillow, when she was about three-and-a-half months old


The very first picture I took of her sitting unassisted, leaning forward on her arms like a gorilla, at about four months old


A more recent picture of Adelaida sitting up, at about four-and-a-half months old (she's starting to lean over here, but righted herself without any assistance)