The Curio Hut and Mystery Emporium

Coral and I stopped by Arwen’s last Sunday for about an hour.
I just want to report that in that hour, she:

• tasted Ann Marie’s wine
• grabbed Arwen’s pizza before anyone could stop her
• shredded several napkins
• (un)sorted the paper plates
• open and closed several tupperware units
• shut off the video to the TV/entertainment system
• turned off the automatic power supply unit for the apartment (the thing that provides backup electricity in case the power goes out) so that the entire apartment shut down

This is one reason we left after an hour. Not just because she was tired and needed a nap, but because I was tired.
I think the more people see what Coral’s all about, the more they understand…

I love this little person. She’s so funny. It’s a fun age, even when she wants to have her way more and more. Now that she’s been mobile for a while, but she still has giant baby cheeks, she feels more and more like a toy human and it’s so cute. When she tries to say words with her baby way, I just want to eat her up, yum! Even just the way she says the letter “Q”: “kiiiieeeeeeeeuuuwwww?” gives me cavities.

I swear she must have around 70 words now. The doctor was even impressed at her 15-month checkup. I guess I could go back through this blog and count but whatever, it’s impressive to me. Here are her latest words:

1. “Pee-puhw”=People
2. “Co”=Coat
3. “Naaayww”=Nail
4. Tree (pretty close to the real thing)
5. Wall
6. “Tihrr-tuwww”=Turtle
7. “Cahw”=Car, which makes it hard to tell apart from “cow”
8. “Sheeeeeeeuwww”=Seal
9. “AhhHHHHHHHHHhhhhhHH, shi-en”=Siren (she makes the sound of the siren along with the word)
10. “Baa”=sheep
11. “Ah-fohhhh”=Aquaphor, the ointment we use on her
12. Boo!
13. “Sheeeee-shaaawwww”=Seesaw
14. “Ahn-joooooo”=Orange Juice
15. “Ahhhhm”=Open, and I know you think I’m making things up but that’s what she says when she wants me to open the closet door, after I told her to say “open”
16. “E-eee”=Ernie, from Sesame Street
17. “Heeeahhgo”=Here ya go, too cute!
18. “Nai-naiii”=night-night, which can be used at night or any sleepy time

She learned where her knees, elbows, and neck are, and can recognize most of the animals on the See and Say toy. If I say “let’s go to the window and see if Daddy’s home/see if the moon is out/watch the garbage man” she runs to the window to look, so she must understand something in that phrasing.

During my whole sickness thing a couple weeks ago, I didn’t pump much. I didn’t have the energy and I was taking so much stuff that even though it was all “safe for nursing,” I dumped it as a precaution. As a consequence, we just nurse in the mornings and sometimes I pump at night, but half the time I skip it. I can tell–we’ll be weaned definitely before two if not by 18 months. I was hoping to make it to 18 months but if we were to stop/I didn’t produce any more by 17 months, I suppose I could accept it. I miss it already, though. Such a cuddly, quiet time.

We’ve been cloth diapering more now that we have the washer, and most of the weekend diapers are either cloth or the gDiaper hybrid. Weeknights, we mostly use cloth, too, since it leaks less than the disposables. As a result, we’re only having to order a case of disposables every other month and are averaging 3-4 a day, which really is all at daycare. I feel pretty good about that. The more exciting thing (no kidding, Deb) is that Coral has really begun saying “poo-poo” more often before she really does poop. It’s nice to have a heads-up (especially since she can poo up to 4 times a day)! And I think it means that toilet training will be easy. I mean, if she’s already telling us at 16 months, maybe we can try to potty train before 2 years. That would be great news if we enroll her in preschool. That’s a whole ‘nuther story I don’t feel like getting into. Nothing’s secret; I’m just too tired.

Coral’s been sleeping better lately. Maybe a month ago when I reported her sleep average was low, she was going through some developmental step or bad teething that wrecked her sleep. Lately, she’s been averaging 12 hours a day which for her is good. Maybe we’re seeing precursors of her moving to one nap a day, too. Today she napped almost 2 hours in the morning and skipped her afternoon nap. Then at night she went to bed with no struggle whatsoever. Actually, the past month or more, we’ve just set her in the crib and said “night-night” or “bye bye” and after talking to herself and fussing for a while, she will go to sleep on her own. It’s been nice! I hope she keeps it up, though I know that as soon as I publish this she’ll have some kind of sleep disturbance. And then she’s been sleeping till 6am or later, which is great. The only notable exception was this morning, when she was up at 5am because her diaper leaked and her whole onesie was wet, so she must have been unhappy.

Not too much else is different from a few weeks ago. Just that every few days I notice another behavior that seems more grown up, whether it’s communication or playing games or organizing toys or whatever. Such a neat period of discovery for her and for the parents.

Like, so, okay, Coral’s pretty sharp. We knew she knew some letters of the alphabet. But today, we found out she knew a lot more than we realized. The daycare lady, Gilda, does flashcards and I guess the kids must like it. We started out asking her to show us the letters on her floor mat in her bedroom. We asked the ones we know she knows. Then I randomly started asking some more. As far as we know, Coral knows: A B C E G I M O P Q T X Y
What is that…about half the letters.
Of course, that’s uppercase only.
And there’s not a lot you can do with just knowing which letters are which.
But hunh, we were impressed. Go Gilda!

I saw a headline in a magazine at the hippie store checkout line about the high rate of unnecessary c-sections in the US. Of course this caught my eye. I only had a minute and didn’t buy the magazine, but the term “unnecesarean” got me interested.

I googled around and found the site that must have been mentioned in the aritcle. http://www.theunnecesarean.com/the-unnecesarean/

More and more, I think of a possible next child. Don’t get your panties in a bunch, I said it’s just an idea. But along with that idea comes of course the shadow of my traumatic birth story. Will that repeat? Can I deliver normally? I hope so. I don’t want to go through all the drama again. I want to go in and have a baby pop out maybe 5 hours later. That would be fine. And before I get pregnant again, I’m going to read that website front to back, back to front. SO MANY WOMEN with so many c-sections, and strongarmed into doing so. I didn’t feel strongarmed, but in retrospect, I do wonder what else could have been tried. Maybe I’ll stay home longer next time and labor longer at home. I certainly will want to know whether the baby is face up before going into labor, and not find out during labor.

Moms have submitted their birth stories to the site. Maybe I will, too. The first story there right now had a few lines that echo exactly what I feel: “And yes, I know that I’m extremely blessed and I should be thankful that I had healthy babies… but there’s this part of me that always feels cheated.” Exactly.

If there is to be a #2, I’ll hope to do it VBAC and go in more informed as to the position. I’ll try to keep walking longer instead of lying down, which I remember being the only position I could stand after a long time. But maybe I could have pushed further. I don’t know. We’ll have to see… This is all just hypothetical at the moment. We’ll have to get a sofa and carpet in the living room and unpack all the boxes first!

2010 has come in like a demon, nevermind a lion.

This isn’t meant to be an entertaining post, mostly a record so I don’t forget the details if I need to look them up later. So feel free to ignore.

At the end of 2009, I had a clogged milk duct leading to mastitis and a round of antibiotics which led to some other feminine issues having to do with eating more yogurt and probiotics, if you catch my drift.

Early 2010 saw Coral having some weird issues like puffy, itchy, gunky eyes after playing with a friend’s cat, and it seemed to morph into a cold of some sort. Plus she has a few light red bumps on her back which I forgot to mention to the doctor b/c all her other symptoms seem to have cleared up, and she grabbed my iPod where my list of issues to discuss with the doctor was.

Shortly after Coral got sick, Michael and I came down with something flu-like, perhaps the seasonal flu, perhaps strep. I had it worse than Michael. My symptoms last Sunday were sore throat, exhaustion, chills, aches, fever. The chills, aches, and fever abated (perhaps b/c of ibuprofen I took) and the wicked, unbelievable sore throat remained for 4 days. I could barely eat or swallow saliva to coat my raw, dry throat. A couple days later, my left eye started oozing this gunk, then stopped. Later, my right eye did, too. The oozing has stopped in both eyes, but they’re oddly sore. Also, I thought I felt something going into my lungs and had a few productive coughs, but nothing much else. Only today, Friday, am I able to swallow without noticing too much, though there is definitely still rawness and dryness there, and I feel something at the edge of my ears inside the throat. The exhaustion lasted a few days and went away. My cough developed a couple days ago. It’s an intermittent cough, the kind of tickle cough that gets in the way of speaking.

When I saw my doctor on Tue she said my throat was red but didn’t look bacterial and my body would fight it on its own. I regret not asking for a strep test anyway b/c I found out from a coworker only today that kids under a certain age don’t have developed tonsils and can pass on strep to parents without showing symptoms themselves. Now that I’m recovering, I don’t know if there’s any point to insisting on a test for both of us. If it comes back positive then what–a course of antibiotics for both of us (all of us, actually, since Michael had a mild case of what I had)? I could see doing that to prevent rheumatic fever, but the flip side is unnecessarily taking antibiotics, which you don’t want to do either.

Anyway, here’s everything I took to help deal with the pain:

• lozenges, regular and medicated
• antihistamines
• ibuprofen/acetaminophen
• warm salt water gargle
• teas with honey and lemon, ginger brew
• chloraseptic
• ice cream
• a prescription to keep the coughing down
• vitamins/Emergen-C
• Sambucus black elderberry syrup
• zinc and echinacea sore throat spray
• homeopathic sore throat tablets

Seriously, I tried everything. Say what you will, but the hippie stuff seems to be doing the most good.

It’s been a tough week, trying to work through the sickness (you can take sick time at work, but at a startup that has a release scheduled with you holding up the release, there’s only so much resting you can do) and be a mom. I’m afraid I haven’t been a mom this week. I took Coral to daycare each weekday morning, then worked, from home much of the week, and hid in the bedroom when Michael brought Coral home so I could work. Otherwise, she would want to play with me, which of course I wanted, but couldn’t do since my illness was slowing my brain down enough as it was. I really want to get past this illness and return to being a proper mother. And wife, and employee.

The past couple months is the sickest I’ve been in years and I want it to stop. 2010 better not continue like this!

I worry about not seeing my child enough.

During a typical work weekday, here’s what Coral does with which people:

Notice the giant slice at daycare and the tiny slices with Mom, Dad, or both.

If you look at a whole week including weekends, then it’s not as bad:

The time with parents is more than the time at daycare overall, which is encouraging. But gosh. That’s a lot of time for a person not even 2 years old to be with people who aren’t her parents.

I’m not complaining. I know it has to be this way. I’m just saying I wish I could have dinner with my girl and tuck her in bed every night. But it just doesn’t work that way. I have to be satisfied with weekends and a few minutes 2 days a week. I guess I just hope that parents who have the luxury of spending more time with their kids realize what they have and what they’re giving to their kids that I can’t, and appreciate it.

Coral went to sleep last night at 8:10 and woke up at 6:20. That’s 10 hours and 10 minutes in a row, which rarely happens. Feelin’ groovy! Plus she napped around 2.5 hrs at daycare yesterday so it was a 12+ hr day, which she really needs. Huzzah!

Words
Some new words and ones I’ve forgotten to note before:

1. “Dowa”=towel
2. “Toes”
3. “Uck”=hug, and then she comes over and hugs me!
4. “Kwacka”=cracker
5. “Chee”=cheese. Can’t believe I forgot this one and the previous one in the last post. Cheese and crackers, that’s my girl!
6. “Mowww”=mouth
7. “Cow”
8. “Berrr”=bird
9. “Two”=any number
10. “Gee-dah”=Gilda, the daycare lady

She can point out arms and has known feet for a while. Not sure about legs, hmmm.

She’s just so funny when she wants something–that desperate, hiccupy laugh, if you can call it that, which borders on crying when you correctly identify something she wants, as if she must have it now or she simply will swoon!

Intake
Milk intake concerned me for a little while since we only nurse 1-3 times a day now and she hasn’t been keen on whole (cow’s) milk and sometimes would reject a bottle of formula. But somewhere in there–for the record, between 14 and 15 months–the shift from formula to cow’s milk just happened. Suddenly, she’s been accepting some nice, warm whole milk both at home and at daycare. She’ll down 4 oz in one go and sometimes ask for more. Perhaps I should get bigger bottles now, like the other kids have. Hmmm. She’ll take a bottle typically before naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, maybe one at night. For instance, today, we nursed upon waking, then she had a bottle around 10 and one around 5. When I offered to nurse before bedtime, she didn’t want it. If she gets say 5 oz from me with each feeding and let’s say 5 oz of cow’s milk with each bottle, then she gets around 15-20 oz of milk a day. Sounds pretty much on track, as I’ve read/heard 16-24 oz of whole milk a day is appropriate at this age, and I think you can include breastmilk together with that total. Right???

Oh and she’s eating a variety of table foods. She gets such nice, homecooked meals at daycare that our simple foods pale in comparison. Several times throughout the day on the weekends, she’ll ask, “Gee-dah?” and shake the gate. Seems like she wants to go to daycare and have Gilda’s yummy food and play with her friends and the multitude of toys! Hah. I tell her, “Sorry, you’re stuck with us today.” Still, we try to do alright by her: fruit (grapes and bananas are a hit though we try to get some fiber-heavy pears in there, too, and apples if we’re desperate); veggies (she’s into peas and corn, beets, broccoli, and cooked carrots); dairy (cream cheese, plain yogurt and sometimes a taste of our sugary adult yogurts, and how could she not love cheese, being my girl?); protein (eggs of all kinds, seasoned tofu and chicken, beef, turkey, dumplings, occasionally fish, even sausages at Gilda’s, hummus on bread, and sometimes beans in her mac and cheese); and a bevy of carbolicious breads, pasta, crackers, cereal. I just try to make the starches vaguely nutritious like whole grain or high fiber or whatever.

Output
Whoa. Stink City. Every poo is a special surprise.

As far as pee goes, she’s been wetting through her night diaper (a disposable) for weeks now. We’ve taken to layering a cloth diaper on her tummy between the sposie and her undershirt and most times it soaks up the excess. But ironically, after some experimentation, I found the diaper that works best at night for her is a cloth diaper, the BumGenius 3.0, with its patented wetness stopping waistband! Who knew all the technology that goes into these things. I’m getting a half dozen more and we’ll be able to wash those instead of her pajamas and sleepsacks. We’ve been cloth diapering Coral more often now that we have a washer anyway, so this works out well.

Play
One of Coral’s new fun games that makes her giggle and laugh out loud is to walk up a few feet away from me on the sidewalk, turn around, and run into my arms, letting gravity speed her up. Oh the giggles and guffaws! She loves it so much, it makes me giddy. Sure, I realize it’s slightly unsafe as it is a hill and it is hard pavement. But I only let her go a few feet and she’s pretty good with walking and running so my philosophy is to let her push her skills and learn faster as long as I’m there to catch her.

That being said, Coral slipped in the bedroom while we were playing hide and seek 2 days ago and got her first tooth-related boo-boo. She bumped her mouth when she fell and cut her lip a bit. Tears! Wailing! And then she got over it. Plus she heals ultra-fast what with her youth and all. It’s probably totally healed now, if I look at it. Oh to be a child.

Yesterday we went to one of the local parks that we hadn’t visited yet. She was enthralled by the guys playing one-on-one basketball and shooting hoops. There were many cries of, “BAWW!” and “WOWWW!” It would make her smile to see someone shoot at the basket–so cute. She kept running out to play with them and I had to keep pulling her back, hah. We watched people playing tennis, too. For a little while, we actually played on the playground part, scrambling around on the sand, which was new to her. I loved seeing her amazed face as the sand grains dripped through my fingers, and the way she learned to brush her hands clean like I did. We crawled around on the play structures and practically wore my knees out (my fault–I invited her to follow me up on the darn thing). It was somewhat nervewracking to keep a hold on her up there, and I’m sure it’s not meant for 15-month-olds OR 36-year-olds, but I was guarding her at every step, literally, and I’m not that heavy that I’d break the thing. I figure she’s a daredevil anyway and she’s going to be doing this without me before I know it so I may as well make sure she gets acquainted with it safely with me there.

As a grand finale, we hit the swing, and wouldn’t you know it–she wanted to get out, like she did once before. What’s up with that?!

Then we went down to the lower level grassy area, which I thought would be good practice because the ground is slightly bumpy. In retrospect, I suppose she could have twisted an ankle or something like that, but she did surprisingly well on the grass (as she did the sand, too) and was running around–no falls. For whatever reason, the edges that slope down are a magnet to her–everywhere she shouldn’t be, right? So I had to herd her to the middle like a sheep dog. I chased her and she giggled and laughed. Speaking of dogs, a dog and its owner showed up and the dog darted around, running free with all her might, and kind of startled Coral with its energy. Still, she seemed well-behaved when the owner called her so I didn’t act scared in front of Coral since I didn’t want her to be scared of dogs. We just huddled and observed, and I asked the owner if Coral could pet the doggie, which was fine with him. So I showed Coral how to hold your hand out to the doggie and she got to stroke her a few times.

When not running around, she likes throwing and kicking the balls, playing with her giant legos and blocks, hugging her dolls, going “WHEEEE!” on her rocking horse, and reading books. Oh dear, she made a new and dangerous (of course) game on her rocking horse: she sits side-saddle and leans backwards, expecting me to catch her. It makes her giggle so much but man, is she a danger baby! It started when she accidentally tipped backwards and I caught her. Right away she did it again and again. Of course, I can’t not catch her to teach her a lesson. All I could do is say no and take away the horse and I guess I was weakened by her cute laugh and just didn’t feel like it. I suppose if it continues to be a problem we’ll deal with it. But what a girl…

She still loves her books and is particularly interested in ABC books. She seems to want to read, and she lets us know that she sees writing with “EEE, O-O-O, EEE, O-O-O.” Every number is now “two.” One is “two.” Two is “two.” Three is “two,” and so on. She cracks me up.

Sleep
Coral averages 11 hours a day: a couple hours during the day for naps and 9-ish hours at night. Some days it’s closer to 10 hours a day, others it’s closer to 12. This is very below the recommended amount of 13 hours a day for her age. Some big kids get more sleep than that. That’s our baby. She’s always been active and sleeping below the recommended amounts (even in the womb, I believe!). I wish she would sleep more but she’s up between 5 and 6 every day regardless of whether there’s light or not. And some days, typically on weekends when she’s home with us, she skips her afternoon nap and doesn’t go to bed any sooner. Perhaps she’s overtired which makes it harder to get to sleep. Other times, we drag her where we need to go on weekends, and it cuts into her sleep time. Maybe we’re making things worse by doing that and not being more regular with naptime. I’m absolutely sure there’s a million and one tricks we can try. But given her natural inclinations, it’s just not one of my top things to fix right now. At least she goes to sleep on her own at daycare, and at home, it’s usually not as difficult as it used to be. I think this weekend was a little whinier than usual since it’s the first work week after vacation and I’m working 5 days a week for 5 weeks so she only sees me on weekday mornings (which is kind of sad). As I get home from work late at night, it doesn’t make for great family time, but hey, that’s life in SF when you gotta pay the mortgage and you arrive at work when I do, and you have a commute. It’s simply impossible to have much time both in the morning and at night AND clean your house with that situation. At least I see her for several hours in the morning and on weekends.

Speaking of sleep, good night!

At 14.5 months, Coral’s got some new words. I love her little voice and her funny babyspeak! It’s funny how I thought I’d never be able to understand a baby, having heard other parents interpret their kids’ babble. But now I see how it works. It’s just organic, and you can only understand your own baby.

1. “Taw” = star. She’s excited about stars.
2. “Munh” = moon. If Coral’s excited about stars, she’s ga-ga for the moon. She’s become a moon addict! Everywhere in every book, she looks for the moon and proclaims its presence. At any point in the day, she asks whether the moon is in the sky. And when it’s shining brightly, we hear a big “WWOWWW!”
3. “Muh” = more. This is often difficult to tell apart from moon.
4. “EEEE” = orange. I don’t know how or why, but that’s what she means. Must have been that some time when I fed her oranges, I said the name was “orange,” and all she could say was EEE. She asks for it by name now.
5. “Bee” = beet OR bear OR bee, depending on context–seriously, no joke. You can tell what she means because either we’ll have beets and she’ll ask for them at a meal, or we’re reading a book and she points to the animal, either a bee or a bear.
6. “Poo” = spoon, which Coral brandishes in her high chair as she says it.
7. “Waywayway” = wait. This is because I always say “Wait wait wait!” while she’s running away. When I tell her to wait for something she wants, however, she is actually pretty good at waiting a few moments.
8. “Owowow” = out. This is because I always say “Out out out!” when she goes into the bathroom without one of us (yes we need to fix the doorknobs because they don’t close properly and she can walk in whenever she wants).
9. “Zhzhzhzhzhzoo” = shoe. This one makes me laugh.
10. “Eeeahhww” = ear. She likes to grab your ear, then jerk your head around to grab the other ear.
11. “Beep beep” = her bellybutton, which she pokes as she says it.
12. “Guh” = girl. She does know she’s a girl.
13. “Wower” = flower. We’ve asked her enough times in enough books and pointed them out on enough walks that she gets what they are.
14. “Ti te” = thank you. This seems like a stretch, but I’m convinced that’s what it is. She only says it when one would say thank you, and she says it with the same inflection one uses to say it.
15. “Bye” She doesn’t always say hi or bye at the right times, but she knows it’s a greeting of some sort and that you wave your hand when you say it.
16. “Mommy” = mommy, that’s right! Finally.

She understands more, especially animals like cow, kitty cat, mouse, ducky, gorilla, elephant, lion, giraffe. She knows where her chin, cheek, forehead, eyebrow, and shoulders are. When I tell her to pick something up, she usually will, and when I say she can go down the stairs, she rushes to the top of the stairs. Because of our hardwood floors, we tell her she can only have the sippy cup of water in the kitchen, and either she drinks in the kitchen or she puts the sippy cup down, and she understands though she doesn’t obey half the time. It’s almost a game to her to try to walk off without us noticing!

When I ask her what the name of her new big, fluffy doggie is, she replies, “Mimi.” Of course, when I ask her what her new baby’s name is (a Cabbage Patch Kid she got for Christmas), her name is also Mimi. Too cute!

Phrases I don’t understand include “Hiiii bee ba bee ba bee ba bee ba” and “Ga GAI, ga GAI!” (often coupled with arms above the head). I have no clue. Apparently this is her secret language with her friend Kate at daycare.

It cracks me up that every time she sees her Uncle Steve’s photo in this photo book, she vehemently waves hello to him and almost yells, “HI! HI!” Just his photo. Go figure!

Coral can messily feed herself yogurt with a spoon. Her grasping technique is very…unique…since she holds it at the very end like a stick shift and points the spoon toward herself. But hey, whatever works.

More toys are interesting to her, like the shape sorter, in which she can successfully sort stars. She puts things in bins in addition to taking them out, and has even stacked a few blocks before smashing them to the ground. We throw the ball to each other (for all of two minutes till she gets bored) and we play hide and seek, sort of, where she “hides” behind our bed and we “hide” on the other side and she runs toward our side screaming with laughter. Standing at the clear plastic stair barrier and issuing a breathy series of “Hi,” sometimes smushing her face on the plastic, is another favorite activity. I don’t understand it but it cracks me up.

Little girl is very generous. She likes to give me her blankie when I go in in the morning. It’s like a gift, and I have to accept it, at which point she claps. Such a sweet little routine.

хотелско обзавеждане

You are in our thoughts this holiday season! Every year I think of all the amazing people we’ve met, separately and as a couple, from childhood all the way to this year, and it boggles the mind. I wish I could have a makeshift city for a month with all the people I want to keep in touch with, and we could have a good time! Alas, we are scattered…but we think of you!

Merry Christmas everyone!

It started a few hours ago with wanting to put a widget on the side of my blog that shows the history of my Facebook status updates, because those are, in a sense, a mini-blog. It made sense to show those on our real blog and have everything in one place.

After hours of searching, I haven’t found any way to do what I wanted, mainly because Facebook has apparently taken away the RSS feed of each person’s own status updates. No way to get at it. Oh well.

In the process, though, a lead that I was following prompted me to update my version of Wordpress, which made me update the database version, followed by updating to a new theme for the blog that had the features I thought I needed. Like I said, in the end, there doesn’t seem to be a way to do what I want, but at least the blog has gotten a facelift and some old links and plugins have been cleared out. And, Coral’s in the header. It’s a good thing.

UPDATE: Not 20 minutes after writing that, I found a website that showed how to get my Facebook status RSS feed, yay! Now my latest 10 FB statuses are on the right under the recent posts. Huzzah.

Talk about the short attention span age. I just haven’t kept up with the updates, either writing mine or reading others’. Anything longer than 20 seconds per item feels taxing, like my mind just can’t cope. That’s why I like Facebook status updates so much–they’re nice and bite-sized and I can process a lot, passively, in a short amount of time. Every time I think about writing a blog post, I just get so overwhelmed. It’s been a busy 2009–busy to me, if not to the outside observer–even if my life consists entirely of family, house, and work with lots of stability and little to no drama outside the scope of those three items. So expounding on the things I feel like documenting just paralyze me. In the spirit of brevity, then, here are my latest updates and thoughts in Facebook status format.

• Deb is impressed with the dramatic nature of toilet accoutrement naming such as ROLLMASTR. There were two other names she forgot, which were equally impressive and missing vowels.
• Deb had a great massage today and wonderful girls’ night tonight.
• Deb and Coral need to be in Redwood City by 10am for Coral’s swine flu booster shot, followed by trips to Home Depot and Bed Bath and Beyond for house stuff, and baths need to happen in the morning. Exciting. Wish us luck.
• Deb is less worried about Coral since she has eaten sufficient quantities and nursed alright since the end of last week, but C’s appetite is still not quite back to normal.
• Deb is misty-eyed at the prospect of the end of nursing, which could happen in the coming months, as Coral hasn’t wanted to nurse at night for several days. Such a sweet mom-baby bond. The little girl is growing up.
• Deb is more and more in awe of life, the universe, and everything with each passing year, for things both bad and good that happen to people.
• Deb will be glad when the house gets more organized and we one day have furniture in the living room.
• Deb and Michael have been without TV for four weeks now and are actually doing fine, despite missing a few favorites like Fringe and House. Given there’s no living room furniture and the last Netflix DVD hasn’t been watched in a month, seems like there’s no hurry to either figure out the antenna or get cable. There’s plenty to do around here.
• Deb emptied one box into the filing cabinet tonight while cleaning out the old stuff, and bade farewell to many fond memories captured in credit card statements, receipts, and other financial documents, stuff going back all the way to college. Who knew dry financial papers could hold so much history and nostalgia?
• Deb needs to remember to put out the trash and recyclables tomorrow morning before the doctor’s appointment. All this new homeowner stuff!
• Deb is trying to figure out the bare minimum holiday decor that she can get away with. Seems like we should put up decorations since we own a home and have a little kid, but we’ve never bothered before, and that sounds le hard. The Christmas Tree In a Box kit, a wreath for the door, and a few lights might do the trick.
• Deb is enjoying the freedom to bring Coral to daycare at any time, now that she’s going four days a week, as well as the simplicity and continuity of childcare, but is not a huge fan of the drive, which undoes the benefits of having moved farther south.
• Has never been up this early this consistently for this long in her life. Coral awakes between 5:30 and 6:30 am every day regardless of her bedtime which means–hoorah, her parents are up! And she doesn’t go back down for at least three hours. Kinda looking forward to the teenage years when I’ll have to drag her out of bed.
• Deb both adores and is exhausted by her little toddler munchkin, who turns 14 months in one day.
• Deb should sing and play more music around Coral.
• Deb can see how, by 23 months, you’d be ready to say the kid’s age by years instead of months. She already has to stop and think about the 14 months. It will be easier to say “2 years” or “2-and-a-half years.”
• Deb loves that Coral has added “ear” to her vocabulary and seems to understand phrases like “go down the stairs,” “where’s the X?” (where X could be horse, cow, birdie, belly button, tummy, hair, etc.), and “is Coral hungry?” in response to which she walks to her high chair if she is.
• Deb has to chuckle when Coral pulls the “fake cry” of doom and terror when she doesn’t get her way, and reverts back to a happy baby as soon as she gets what she wants or is distracted.
• Deb is okay with being Stern Mommy and trying to make her face serious and eyes really big, just like her mom used to do. She’s also begun taking things away from Coral when Coral doesn’t stop being naughty, and believes it will be for the best.
• Deb would like to wake up in her old body from 2007, which was 8 lbs lighter, had tight abs (heck, had any abs), no pain in her lower back or forearms, and a right hand free of laundry-and-washing-induced eczema. Maybe some can be reclaimed in 2010, after some actual exercising…Stay tuned.
• Deb melts for Coral’s kisses, which are few and far between, but absolutely wonderful.
• Deb is entertained by funny Coral.
• Deb is amazed how her baby went from not caring at all about books to picking out her favorites and asking her and Michael to read them over and over and over and over again, all in the span of maybe a month. Good Night Moon, Goodnight Gorilla, Colors, and the Elmo Flap Book Library are currently in heavy rotation.
• Deb has such a backlog of photos and videos from 2 baby birthday parties, Thanksgiving, and more, that it’s not even funny.
• Deb enjoys Michael’s homemade chicken soup.
• Deb is alllllmost done with The Windup Bird Chronicle and can’t wait to see how it wraps up. She has borrowed two more Murakami books on CD for her commute over the next few weeks.
• Deb also borrowed The Happiest Toddler on the Block and is anxious to view it and reap its wisdom which will certainly yield a joyous and harmonious home…yeah right!
• Deb wishes everyone a Happy Hanukkah.
• Deb hasn’t begun Christmas shopping, unless you count the Freecycle toys that will be Coral’s gifts and the ones her siblings organized. It sounds le hard.
• Deb is grateful for her life and friends and family. Daily life isn’t easy with a commute, two parents having to work, a new house, a baby, and no relatives in the area, but she recognizes it’s way easier than many other people’s lives and that the things she has are a blessing.

Coral is starting to talk. It’s so cute to hear her little voice speak gibberish mixed with real words. At 13.5 months, here’s what she says and for the most part, understands:

1. Dada: meaning Daddy or anything good/interesting, such as a doggie or bird
2. Baba: meaning mama
3. Behbeeee: baby, usually tapping herself
4. Baww: ball
5. Wwwowwww! Whoa!
6. Whoawhoawhoa: Row, row, row, your boat = push her around in the plastic tub and sing the song
7. Wheeeee! (on the rocking horse)
8. Da!: That!
9. No. No, no, no, no.
10. O-w-w-w-w-w-w: O’s, as in Joe’s O’s, the Trader Joe’s version of Cheerios
11. Wawa: water
12. Bahbwww: bubble, meaning blow bubbles
13. Hai: hi
14. Hewo: hello
15. Aaaiiiii: eye
16. Noh: nose
17. Wishhhh: wash
18. ZhzhzhzhzlLO-WAH: lotion (yes, really)
19. Mmmmmmmm!
20. Uh-oh!: I dropped something
21. Weewee: reading
22. Eeeaeeeao-o-o-oh: E-I-E-I-O from Old MacDonald
23. Ap-pohw: apple
24. Bwwwwwah: balloon

I’m pretty sure I’ve heard her try to say “Hi Watermelon” to my stuffed dragon, Watermelon.

And this is what she understands but can’t say:

1. Push car (one of her toys)
2. Ducky (the duck hand puppet she loves), Violet (the purple puppy talking doll), Watermelon, Specules, Totoro–all stuffed animals
3. Rocking horse
4. Bird, birdie
5. Dog, doggie
6. Clock
7. Cheese
8. Clap
9. Bang bang: banging two things together or running the push car into something
10. Shakey shakey
11. Sit, Stand
12. Spin
13. Dancing
14. Music: press the piano keys to play the song
15. Come, get, give, put
16. Push, pull
17. Peekaboo
18. On, off: can turn lights on and off
19. Up, down
20. Blow: she knows how to blow her nose by closing one nostril or having us do it
21. Big hugs: hug whatever’s presented to her including stuffed animals and other babies
22. Kisses: give a slobbery, open-mouthed kiss to whatever’s presented to her (not always met with success)
23. Over Coral’s head: putting on or taking off a shirt
24. Pants
25. Left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg: when dressing or undressing
26. Toes, ear, tummy, head
27. Diaper (how do I know she knows? because it sends her into a tizzy as she hates to be changed now)
28. Tattoo: looks at a person’s lower back because that’s where mine is
29. Milk
30. Zip up Coral’s sleepsack
31. High chair
32. Not for eating! (usually ignored)
33. No bang-bang (referring to toys on glass, also usually ignored)
34. Shoes and socks

And maybe she knows wash, rinse, brush teeth?

Well, Coral is almost one year old. I can’t believe it. More on that at some point, when I get up the courage to share what she’s like these days (which is basically completely adorable and smart and very active).

In the meantime, I’ve been reflecting on what a crazy year it’s been. Not tsunami/hurricane/lose-all-possessions crazy, nothing that bad. But so tiring, and so many changes for us and the people in our lives. Some good changes, some sad changes.

One in particular was the passing of my friend Michelle’s mom, from Alzheimer’s. A year ago next Monday is the first anniversary of her passing. It was quite ridiculous, Michael and me attempting and failing to be supportive with a new baby in our lives (and not an easy baby in the beginning!), and Michelle trying to be happy for us and to understand why we weren’t be there for her when the pillar of her upbringing had just passed away. It was a rough year for both of us.

A year later, a lot of things are better, but Barbara de Grasse still occupies my thoughts. I didn’t know her. I only met her once when Alzheimer’s had already taken over. But I know a lot about her when she was still herself, and what she meant to Michelle, both in tough times and good times. That’s why I’m walking with Michelle on Saturday 10/10 in the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk on Treasure Island. My goal is to raise $200 and friends and family have already donated $80. If 12 more friends could donate $10 each, I’d make my goal. If anyone can spare a few bucks, I sure would appreciate it. The page to donate is here: http://bit.ly/bpjoO

Thanks for reading, and more on Coral soon!

When we nurse, she’s taken to squishing my nose, at which point I say, “Nose”; pushing on my lips, at which point I say, “Lips”; and sticking her finger through to my teeth, at which I say, “Teeth.” And she repeats and repeats and repeats, all while looking up at me with intense, brown eyes.

She’s a good eater, in general. She’ll neatly eat what we spoon to her, and she’s learned how to get finger foods like Cheerios, bits of pasta and vegetables and egg yolk into her mouth. As she reaches most successfully with her right hand, I’m beginning to think she’ll be a rightie. When she misses, it is pretty funny. She’ll look down and around. Meanwhile, the bit might be stuck to her face or bib. So cute. And she’s begun to share her food. In the last week or so, she’s started extending her arm at me, indicating she wants to feed me a Cheerio. It’s so sweet! Sometimes I do let her put it in my mouth (or rather, I take it from her with my teeth since she doesn’t understand letting go yet). Other times I say,”Oh, no thanks–it’s for Coral!” and gesture to her. More often than not, she’ll then go ahead and eat it. Awwww.

Coral has a drinking problem–specifically, she hasn’t gotten the hang of drinking from a cup or sippy cup. She can drink better from the sippy, but she still gets overly enthusiastic and makes herself choke on the water, resulting in lots of gagging, coughing, and sputtering. Ah, Coral.

She is pretty generous with her kisses. If we tell her to kiss someone, she opens her mouth and plants a slobbering “kiss” on the person’s cheek. I usually ask for a kiss first thing in the morning and before I go to work. It’s a wonderful feeling.

I’ve taught her to shake hands. I’ll say, “Shake hands!” and she extends her right hand, which I vigorously shake while saying,”Nice to meet you!” It usually gets a smile.