material girl.7

Props to Gran who discovered this secret source for extra cute (but not too cutesie or babyish) stockings. She ordered 3 different ones so we get to be surprised when we come for Christmas. Yippee for surprises! and Gran!



Simultaneously we also ordered a stocking for Addie from Garnet Hill. As my Mom said, I'm sure she'll have enough loot to fill both of them. We had the polar bear stocking monogrammed "adelaide". Sometimes I think we should try to call her Adelaide because I really do love it, but Addie seems to have stuck. I suppose she can change it in high school when she wants to appear sophisticated or something. In the meantime, Miss Addie is going to be a very lucky little girl this Christmas.

Can't wait for Santa!

Check out Ellen Today on NBC

If you get a chance to see Ellen today you might catch me dancing or clapping like a mad women. I was in the studio audience for the taping Tuesday evening sitting on the aisle 3rd row up. I'm in a maroon sweater and my friend Andrea is in a white turtleneck sweater. We missed the 12 Days of Christmas giveway by 1 day. Sniff sniff on our bad timing but it was still fun.

I have our DVR set to record so I can be sure to be mortified (but secretly thrilled) that I might be on TV.

More about this post-airing. I heart Ellen.

hunt for the perfect stocking

I'm trying to find the perfect christmas stocking for Addie - something that I can say later to her, "We gave you this stocking on your very first Christmas." And darn it if I can't find anything I like. I even tried Lillian Vernon in a moment of desperation. Gasp! I've also contemplated making one for Addie, but who am I kidding? I can't sew nor do I have the time to boil old wool sweaters to make a felt stocking even though Martha has instructions and a template on her website. I'm just hoping that somehow we can get out Christmas cards this year.

Any suggestions on where I can find the perfect stocking?

6 month stats

This morning we found ourselves back in the doctor's office bolstering ourselves against another round of immunizations. Didn't we just do this? Sorry Moms, but this is one of those things that definitely does not get easier with time; just the opposite. We have a new pediatrician since commuting to Santa Monica during rush hour was becoming a joke. Let's face it. We don't live on the West Side anymore so let's just get a grip on this. We liked our other pediatrician but Dr. G. is groovy too. He likes to chat a lot more and ask questions like, "Is there any part of your daughter's body that concerns you?" We also got a lesson on how to identify a ruptured appendix. Did you know that if the pain is on the lower right abdomen right above the hip that it's probably not indigestion and could signal the need for an emergency appendectomy? Maybe everyone else already knows this which reminds me that I really should take an infant CPR class especially since Addie can grab and eat anything within a split second.

So, here’s the scoop. She went from being smack dab in the middle at birth (50^th percentile) to being super tall and slight somewhere in her first few months and is now tiny and tiny. She’s 14 lbs 12.5 oz, (18^th percentile) and 25.5 inches (22^nd percentile). I guess this makes sense since I’m certainly no giant in the stature department. She really feels giant though. Cap and I can't stop commenting to each other how shocked we are at her size. She seems huge!

She’s finally graduated to the #2 diaper (without a scale at home this has become our general weight benchmark) and is still fitting smartly in her 3-6 month clothes. She has gobs of pretty summer dresses that she hasn’t worn because even in LA it’s still fall and just a wee bit too cold for sleeveless and legless clothes especially during the week when she’s in daycare. On the weekends if it’s sunny and we’re outside I try to rotate her through the more summery outfits. Maybe I could go for a sort of layered grunge look and have her wear long johns under her baby doll dresses.

Here’s a photo of Miss Addie in the morning. Cap likes to take every one of her toys and pile them around her like she’s holding court to an entire entourage of stuffed animals-in-waiting. You’ll probably see a lot of these pajamas too because she has 3 sets of the same kind thanks to a sale at Baby Gap.

Turkey and Cupcakes

Addie had back-to-back celebrations this week. Thursday was her first Thanksgiving and Friday was her 6-month birthday both of which involved lots of eating on the part of her parents.

Grandpa Mit, Great Aunt Marcia, Great Grandma Vede and our friend Sara came to our house for dinner. We brined, spice-buttered and roasted a 22-pound organic bird to celebrate. Cap and I only eat turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas, typically being pescatarians the rest of the year. I wanted to make this turkey exception last, and 22 pounds for 6 people made that wish come true, ad nauseam.

On Friday, we took to our favorite park and the swing sets to celebrate the Big 0.5 complete with leftover turkey sandwiches and carrot cake cupcakes. I took 229 photos which is ridiculous I realize but it's really hard to resist she's so darn cute and fun. Don't worry, I managed to get it down to under 75 for the photo album.



We have a lot to be thankful for this year with such an amazing daughter. Happy Birthday little Addie-cake!

A Message of Thanksgiving

Addie's now baba-ing her way through every conversation, and my does she have some things to say, like ...
Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

On the Swings at Roxbury Park

Like her pal Jake, Addie is nutto for the swings. We hung out at Roxbury Park this afternoon so I could work on my photography class assignment. We had a picnic, Cap snapped a lot of photos of the munchkin while I did my homework and then we adjourned to the swings.



Look how much fun she is having! You want to explode with joy watching her. I felt very Mom-like taking her to the playground with all of the other parents. She was definitely the youngest one but she certainly enjoyed herself, as did Cap and I. You can check out more photos here.

Correction

I thought I should set the record straight. Addie's Night of Sleeplessness was not about the teething but about the snotty nose. She slept well the next night and the rest of the week as her cold subsided. I think this is rather good news because she has another 18 teeth to contend with.

Can you see them poking out along the bottom? They have just broken the surface.

where's the baby?

Can you spot a little Addie somewhere in this chaos?


There she is!

This is why I don't take Addie to work. There is no where to put her. And I can't get any work done and neither can anyone else. Still, I thought I'd give it a try on Friday afternoon. She played in her little blue bed, drooled on a few coworkers, refused to nap, drank a bottle, and banged away at my keyboard.

material girl.6

Back to patterns. You know I love them. And cowboy stuff. So you can imagine I go ga-ga for cowboy prints. You may not know that I'm a fan of English designer Cath Kidston (hint hint. I have my eye on her cowboy mugs for myself). I still haven't made a field trip to her store in Brentwood, but it's on my list. I'd love to see this cowboy fabric on a cozy chair in a nursery, although not Addie's fictional nursery because it doesn't work with the Pink Palace. Cath Kidston also makes a delightful fabric and wallpaper with giraffes and elephants that is sub-continent colonial cute.

Calling All Angels

Cap loves this photo from our hike and thought I should have used it in my post yesterday. Cap is in New York all week and has got to be missing his little angel.

Addie gives her Papa a big hug, a toothy smile and can't wait to see him.

A Hike in Franklin Canyon

Sunday was warm and clear so we took to the hills - Beverly Hills. I was pleasantly surprised to learn you can go hiking just 15 minutes from our house in Beverly Hills no less. I had to shoot some slide film for my photography class, a technical assignment about depth of field, but we also brought our trusty point and shoot along as well because I haven't had much luck with my slides to date. In the first assignment my slides were so over exposed that many were just white light. Then for the second assignment I must have loaded my film wrong because they came back all black. I'm hoping this time I'll be able to see the images. Fingers crossed.

I love watching Addie be curious and excited by the world around her. Everything must be viewed and then stuffed into her mouth for further testing and exploration. She truly savors nature.

Addie seems eager to try solid food as she looks longingly at everything we eat. Many babies start as early as 4 months but our pediatrician recommended we introduce solid food closer to 6 unless we were really eager. Stinkier poo? I think we can wait. There is also a history of food allergies in the family so I'd rather err on the side of caution. I think she's ready now and we have a box of organic rice cereal ready to go.

Check out a few more photos from our romp around the lake.

She Got Teefs

Where to start? It's been more than a few days since I've had a chance to blog between our first babysitter, photography class and a work trip to San Francisco. I was gone less then 48 hours in SF and Addie has two teeth coming in! You can feel their razor edges and get a peek occasionally when she isn’t sticking out her tongue, which is rare.

Last night was rough though; up every few hours to an hysterical baby who we were only able to sooth by feeding her. We've had this recurring problem with her bottle where she somehow punches in the nipple dousing herself with 4-6 ounces of formula. Poor gal soaked her pjs, the bed, and her swaddling blanket at 3 am. On top of this, she has a cold and Cap had valiantly been suctioning snot out her nose all night long. With all the extra liquid she downed, she also woke up with an overflowing diaper that saturated her second set of pjs and a second set of sheets. She boycotted her morning nap so around noon I took her out in the stroller where she finally slept while I went shopping.

The good news is that I have two new pairs of shoes, and she’s sleeping in her crib these days. I never thought we would have kept her in the bassinet for this long. Before she was born, I had this sleep plan in my head where she’d sleep in our bed for 2 weeks and then we’d move her into the crib. Instead, she never slept in our bed (except a few hours on rare occasions) but instead has been in her bassinet for almost 6 months despite the fact she’s too long for it and her head was poking through the fabric. When I went back to work at 3 months, I was selfish with my sleep and was afraid to disrupt a pattern that seemed to be working. Well, here we are, up again throughout the night suctioning snot.

In other news, we are close to the demise of breastfeeding. Ever since I went back to work it has been downhill. My body has revolted against me, and I have just come to accept that I can’t do both. I can’t work and breastfeed full time. I don’t like it but it’s the way it is. Thank goodness for formula otherwise I’d have to quit my job. Addie doesn’t seem to mind at all and I’m still trying to feed her in the morning and evening even though she still needs a bottle afterwards. I guess a tiny bit is better than nothing. I am, however, enjoying the freedom. I no longer have to sequester myself away in a frigid room at work to pump 3 times a day to only eek out 3 ounces out of the 18 she needs. I can, for instance, drink a liter of cold beer in Malibu at noon on a warm Saturday without feeling guilty.

(the above photo is from our trip to the LA Zoo last weekend with pals Sara F., Jamie, Chria and Munchkin Clara)

I Voted

I'm sure Addie is a young democrat in the making.

It's crazy warm in LA - high of 87 today - as we ceremoniously took ourselves to the Freda Mohr Senior Center to cast our ballot against Arnold. There are a zillion confusing propositions so we had to do some cramming last night and bring along our sample ballot. Is making the voting process so confusing aiding democracy? I think not.

Sunday Morning

She is so cute when she holds her bottle.

Addie the Octopus

As you can see, Addie is the cutest octopus under the sea. Pine Scented Car Air Freshner was, in fact, the winner by popular vote. However, I invoked the Mommy Amendment allowing us to make the final decision despite the poll. Parenting is not a democracy. Thank you to everyone who voted as it was endlessly entertaining to check the results. There is always next year for the air freshner although I'm thinking asparagus.



Halloween evening, despite some heinous West Hollywood Parade traffic, we drove to Jonathan and Jeannine's house with our homemade pumpkin bread for some picture taking madness with Addie the Octopus, Jake as Charlie Brown and cuddly white Clara bear. Addie tried to maul poor, unsuspecting Charlie Brown. She's completely crazy for anything yellow. Her taste has improved greatly though as she was shlurping on a bag of yellow pampers a few weeks ago. When we were at the aquarium in Chicago, she was transfixed by all of the different yellow fish. Of course, yellow is very trendy these days so it's hardly surprising she's honed in on it in particular. As both Jeannine and Jamie have eloquently shared, we all had a grand ole time and the three kiddos together were just too cute.