Tried on my old jeans this morning.  My pre-pregnant carefree jeans of yore.  Gap long and lean size 8 (no stretch, though).  I could pull them all the way up, but couldn't quite zip them.  Still - when I first tried them I couldn't even get them all the way up.  Now those aren't the "goal" jeans, as I used to live in Gap long and lean size 6, plus a pair of Guess stretch jeans without a tag I bought at the super Goodwill in Texas on Lake Austin Blvd that carries all the designer labels.  They cost me $10 and may be the awesomest pair of jeans in the history of jeansly existence.  Forget Syms or Marshalls or designer remainder sales - the real bargains are at Goodwill on Lake Austin Blvd.  It's probably worth the plane ticket to shop there.

One day I'll wear those jeans again.  Not today, but maybe in another couple of months?  

 ***

Baby sleep update - I no longer have any compunctions about letting the little princess "cry-it-out" a little.  Mostly because she has gotten to the point where when she needs sleep and she can't quite go to sleep, she will cry inconsolably no matter what (unless you pick her up and walk around with her).  And even if you pick her up and walk around with her, she'll just start crying again once you put her down.  So our choices are to continuously walk with her for her three hours of naps a day and her 11 hours of sleeping at night, or let her "cry-it-out" for 10 minutes (mostly for her naps - she's pretty good at going to sleep at night without too much blubbering, and if she wakes up once I feed her, right back to sleep, and if she wakes up twice we ignore her, and she goes back to sleep).  Option B is better for everyone - we all get more sleep.

However, I wouldn't go back in time and have her "cry-it-out" when she was younger.  She just needed more help getting to sleep on her own back then, and I don't regret the time I spent or the lost sleep helping her out.  That's "sleep training" too, in a way. 

***

I'm psyched about the coming week - next weekend is my Saturday that I don't work, followed by a Monday Memorial Day where the office is closed!  Then I work three days and go off on vacation.  Woo hoo.  It's been kind of a crunch the past couple of weeks, so it will be good to have some extra time off.

Posted by bisous at 10:52 AM EDT

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We took Bisousette to a party in the South End today.  The South End is one of those places in Boston where 10 years ago you needed a flak jacket, and today you can't walk five yards without tripping over a purebred dog in Burberry walking with his designer jeans-clad master.   Anyway, Bisousette had quite a lot of fun in the city, what with all the looking around she could do.  Then she got to the party, and right away she got presents!  Robeez!  The coolest baby shoes ever, so I'm told. 

 

Yes, she has a red mark on her forehead (from bumping something at the party) and a bruise to the far left of her cheek (her right cheek) from a fall against a corner on Mother's Day.  (She bit her lip a bit at the same time, K&T - yay for toddling.  And after-the-fact bumpers on the corners of the coffee table).   

The Robeez don't quite fit yet, but Bisousette really only cares about the orange tag on top, which she chewed on for the next ten minutes after receiving her gift.   

She spent the rest of the time being handed from one party guest to another.  She was the middle of three babies at the party (all progeny of psychiatrists in my residency class), and sometimes she didn't get exactly what she wanted exactly when she wanted it, at which point she cries.  But I put this picture in because it shows her green eyes:

Awwww.  

I must admit to loving shirts on babies, not just onesies, because then their little tummies poke out.

That's her pointing finger.  The one she chastises people and cats with, and the one she waves bye-bye with.   It's also her pea-squashing finger at mealtimes.  I believe this child is going to be right-handed.  Which is all right and perfect and wonderful, though as a lefty, it would have been nice to have another one around.  

But forget about the finger - look at the belly!  I just want to blow raspberries in it.   

I also accidentally fed the baby scallops (probably not the best idea, given the incidence of shellfish allergies) because I thought the scallop cake was a plain old fish cake.  But she seemed to get through just fine without any anaphylaxis and whatnot. She eats strawberry yogurt without issues, so I guess she's not a very allergic kid.  Cross fingers. 

Later, after a wardrobe change for the drive home.  Bisousette completely terrorized a poor little boy a month older than she is.  He's the same boy she went all chimpanzee-like on at our informal superbowl party this February.   She was trying to feed him, I suppose, but she made him cry.  It's all very cute, but impossible to show the photos without exposing the other baby's face too much.  He went to his mama's lap, and she was nice enough to smile at little Bisousette.

She smiled back!  We don't have too many pictures of Bisousette in full grin, mostly because she is too distracted and interested by the camera when it comes out.  But she's a cutie!  With lots of impressive teeth, according to the other parents there.  Somehow the teeth make her look 5 months older than she really is.  How fast they grow...

Posted by bisous at 10:27 PM EDT

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Last night I had an opportunity to go to a swanky sushi restaurant in town and eat on someone else's tab.  The menu had items involving fake alligator (eels!  They were substituting eels for aligators! why?), all sorts of different roe and caviar, truffles, and spectacular suishi and sashimi goodness. We ate lots and lots and lots of sushi.  Plate after expensive elegant plate came to our table, and by the end of the evening, I felt like I was about 6 months pregnant again.  But it had been so long since I went to a sophisticated city restaurant for dinner.  I can't even remember the last time.  Gah!

And when I got home, to the husband watching "The Colbert Report" and the baby in her crib sleeping happily on her face, feet tucked beneath her knees and butt in the air, I endured the slow progress of all that seafood and rice moving through my digestive tract.  The tummy gurgled and roiled.  The intestines expressed their displeasure.  More than once I considered emergency upchucking (which is what usually happens to me after a lovely rich expensive dinner - never on purpose, but I don't think my guts can handle a foodie-style feast.  I think the relatively low fat sushi saved me from a similar fate last night).  By this morning, I never wanted to eat anything ever again.  

Well, some pear white tea and a bit of cereal has made me feel better.  I did run yesterday, but today I'm definitely going for some DDR or something to burn off 1/10th of the sushi extravaganza last night.  My goodness.

Posted by bisous at 11:32 AM EDT

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It came upon us suddenly, somehow, though the supply in the freezer dwindled and dwindled over the past two months.  But we have no more frozen milk, and I have a 10 month old who equates formula with an exorcism.  Also, I'm pumping almost the same times I always did, but since she eats so much more solid food, instead of the 8-9 oz I used to get before, it is only 4-5 oz.  That means she barely has any milk during the day.  Of course, for month 3-6 she also had barely any milk during days I worked (being the cute little bottle-rejector she always was), but I also worked far fewer days a week.  How bad bad bad is it really to feed cows' milk before 12 months?  I was reading that her intestines could bleed.  But truly, how bad is it?  As a supplement to the milk bar while I'm not home?  

Posted by bisous at 3:41 PM EDT

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... her monthday was yesterday, but things were busy, as Mondays often are.  I've pretty much blogged about all the cool things she does, but one of the changes for the past month has been an exceptional record of sleeping through the night.  I'd say 2 out of 3 nights she sleeps from 7:30 pm to 6:15 am without any intervention.  The other 1/3 of the time she needs one feed in the middle of the night, and tends to go back to sleep without much problem.  Of course last night was an exception, and it took two feedings, a diaper change, and some tylenol to get her back to sleep.  Teething?  Her unhappy screams sounded a little different than her "I'm tired and I WANNA SLEEP" fussies, which is why I changed up the approach.

Fortunately, when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she tends to sleep about 45 minutes longer in the morning.  

She's also napping 100% in her crib when I take care of her.  No swing chair at all.  I can't tell you what the nanny and Mr. Bisous do - sometimes I just don't want to know (I think it is swing chair, swing chair, swing chair, swing chair, which is a problem, because she is only a few pounds from the upper weight limit, and she is so tall that she really doesn't fit it anyway.)  Lalalalala - I'm not going to worry about it, because she naps in the crib on my days with her - lalalalalalala.

I have been taking the week off from real cardio, what with my super tiredness at the end of last week and over the weekend.  Also I've been eating bad carbs in the evening sometimes, because I am HUNGRY.  Still doing piddly weights, and I've lost another pound as of this morning's weigh-in.  I think that is 7 pounds total so far, after a month.  Not too bad.  I was hoping for 10, but I'm not going to scoff at 7.  Now I just need to lose.... 19 more?  Sigh. Well, to get to pre-preg weight it is only 5-6 more. Press onward.

Posted by bisous at 10:32 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 05/13/2008 10:34 AM EDT

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Yay!  I hope all you mothers out there have your feet up and are halfway through your third mimosa.  Me, I'm teetotaling my way through a marathon weekend with the baby, as Mr. Bisous is working his second 12 hour shift in two days.  He did take me out to the Olive Garden on Friday (I know, but it is  family friendly.  I haven't been there is a zillion years - probably since college, when the unlimited salad and breadsticks meant you could gorge on a college budget).  The salad and breadsticks taste exactly the same!  It was family friendly, and the waitress did not bat an eye at the peas and bits of fettucini Bisousette left on the floor.  Still, next time we go out (next mother's day, probably), we're definitely going to the Cheesecake Factory.  

Her new thing is to go up the stairs.  Once she figured out one step she toddled right up to the top (I was right behind her, of course).  This morning was her fourth or fifth trip, and she was so proud of herself she crawled up to my bedroom mirror and went right to her reflection and kissed it.

 I ran and grabbed the camera, and she was still banging her hands against her reflection and huffing and puffing fog onto the glass. 

But then she saw me with the camera and gave me a look...

Apparently self-congratulatory mirror kissing is a private moment.

Posted by bisous at 3:18 PM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 05/11/2008 3:25 PM EDT

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Back when Bisousette was just born, her papa began calling her "baboo" for no particular reason.  Her nickname has been shortened to "Boo," but then usually lengthened to "Little Boo" or "Baby Boo."  To other babies her age, she grins and smiles and charms like crazy.  Also to waitresses and grocery store clerks and whatnot.

She is very tall now, but skinny, so the nine month clothes still kinda fit, except the arms are pitifully short, and the 12 month onesies are just beginning to be difficult to snap.  She's still difficult to get a picture of, as once she sees the camera come out she wants to grab it, unless she is otherwise occupied, so I still get a lot of scary monster close up pictures that look like this one:

But normally she is not so frightening a creature.  She's pulling up on everything, especially mama and papa, and Mr. Bisous said just yesterday; "I like it how when she wants to be picked up now, she will meet you halfway."

The down side to all this mobility is that she pulls up on anything and everything, including the high chair on the slippy hard kitchen floor, and her papa's guitar (her FAVORITE thing to bang on now) on its wobbly guitar stand in the living room.

She also is less enamoured of crawling than she used to be, and after a monthlong period of never much wanting to be held (put me DOWN so I can CRAWL wee hoo!!) , now she is back to wanting to be carried again.  

Given that she gets heavier every single day, and is really too tall for the Baby Bjorn (sob), I went back to the good ole Maya wrap sling.  Now that she can sit on my hip with her legs on either side, the sling holds her like a champ, and it takes a good long time (maybe an hour?) before it wears me out to hold her this way.  (Seriously, I can scour an entire department store with her hanging out on my hip, and she's happy to be at adult height, as usual).

Her favorite way to experience the awesome exersaucer is from the outside now:

You can see Mercury in the background, and his water dish up dead center of the coffee table where certain baby Bisousettes cannot reach.  Yet.  Mr. Bisous thought we might temporarily rename the cats, as it may take a while for Baby Boo to say "Mercury" and "Callisto."  He thought they could be named "Yoo yoo" and "Dodo."  (Then he looked at Mercury, a cat known for running into things and ignoring the house rules of no cats on the kitchen counters and said "You're Dodo.")

 But I don't know if we have to do all that.  For now they are "kitty," or as Bisousette says, "HIYA!" whenever she sees them.  

Despite her crankitude when she is tired, she really is a good girl.  She now knows not to touch various nightlights and outlets and power cords and plants.  Though she is sorely tempted every time she passes one.  Most of the time she will stare at it, reach for it, then shake her head no (as we have said no no no no no when she reaches for them), and moves along.  It's very cute.  

Now I'm not entirely sure what she will look like when she gets older.  One never knows.  But here's a cute new look for her:

She has seven teeth now - four across the top, and three on the bottom, with the eighth coming in any moment now.  She hasn't bitten me in a long time, so among the many travails of breastfeeding, biting isn't too much of an issue, in my experience, except for once or twice (as regular readers will recall) when those top chompers come in.  Youch.  

Posted by bisous at 11:06 AM EDT

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Yesterday I came home, worked out, and then sat around watching the Top Chef season one marathon until the baby came home.  (All right, I also got some other stuff done, because it's pretty much my only daylight time at home during the week without the baby, and now that Mr. Bisous is back at work these are desperate hours, so yeah, there was some household windexing and a trip to Target for essentials and whatnot, but then serious laziness ensued. ) Then I entertained her for a few hours before she went to bed (early, because shoe shopping will wear a kiddo right out).  And watched the rest of the first season, which I hadn't seen before, though I know who won from watching Top Chef All Stars and other reunion incarnations of that show. 

Now I am seriously behind on my TV watching.  I don't know how this came to pass - I usually only follow one or two shows the whole week, and that's usually something on HBO that only has 13 episodes every two years, or Battlestar Galactica.  But then I followed the siren song of Project Runway to the other Bravo reality shows (Top Chef, Step it Up and Dance, Workout), plus the Colbert Report and the Daily Show, and now the strike is over and 30 Rock is back on (I'm too far behind on Ugly Betty so I'll wait for the DVD).  Not to mention all those silly Gordon Ramsay reality shows (the man has half a dozen of them between the BBC and Fox), then there is Nigella and Jamie Oliver and MEIN GODT (I don't know German but maybe that is right?  Mein Gohdt?  Je ne sais pas.)  I'm watching a lot of TV.  It doesn't help that the fabulous weather seems to occur on days I work, and the rainy crappy weather happens on my Fridays and Sundays off.   

If I don't stop watching so much reality TV on cable, Bisousette's first word will be motherf**BLEEP.   

She's become very picky about what she eats from - she'll take a spoon only if she is very hungry.  Otherwise things have to be put in her mouth by her own hands (takes VERY LONG, and Mama's got to find out who made it to the next round of Hell's Kitchen!), or sometimes she will eat from my hands on a food item spoon - a grape section smeared with applesauce or prunes, or a cheerio dipped in oatmeal or peas.  Depending on her mood, she'll pretty much eat anything, as long as it is presented properly.  Must be all the Top Chef.

Posted by bisous at 10:23 AM EDT

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The problem with twittering is that now I think of entries in very small bites.  Less than 150 character bites.

The problem with having a naturally thin husband is that he will go to the grocery store and buy pie and doritos without your consent when you are trying to cut evening carbs.  

The problem with DDR is that you will always want to do it for cardio, even when it is a gorgeous day, and you have no excuse but to go outside for a nice run.

The problem with having a really cute baby is that her nanny will want to take her shoe shopping with her.

****

I missed a day of blogging and did a sort of non-blog on Wednesday, but lots is going on.  The baby is talking up a storm of babble.  This morning she told me all about the butterflies on the wallpaper in her nursery next to her changing table.   This afternoon she regailed me with tales of her mighty crawling exploits and napping marathons.  She's also cruising the furniture, and since she is on two feet so much (but not walking yet), she seems more like a very tiny little girl than a large baby.

There are so many issues with breastfeeding.  Bisousette had her first formula yesterday, with the expected results (HATE.  ICK.  YUCK.  FOUL.)  We have maybe 30 oz of frozen left (she goes through that quickly since we mix it up with her cereal), and the fresh supply I pump at work is dwindling rapidly as she eats less milk, and did I mention I hate pumping?  she's hit or miss with the yobaby yogurt, and it's not so much the cereal I'm worried about, but that she will have enough to drink during the day for the next two months before she can have cow's milk.  Anyway.  We got a six-pack of enfamil from the hospital, and a couple of cannisters of powdered similac in the mail...I have my doubts that they will ever be palatable for her.

I'm digging the new season of Workout.  Never thought I would say this, but I think Jackie was out of line, and Brian Peeler had every right to be ballistic!  That show hardly ever shows anyone actually working out, but I can't watch it without picking up some weights and doing my sets.  Go Workout.

My size 12 black trousers, the first trousers bought post-baby, are falling off of me, and brought a lot of comments today at work.  Looks like it is time they were retired.  Whew. I've got some 10s (fit okay, but loose) and 8s (fit okay, but tight) in the closet, ready to get back to my 6/8 real work clothes - the kind you dry clean - in another 5-10 pounds.  Bad bad junk food and pie that Mr. Bisous brought home on Wednesday!

Posted by bisous at 1:15 PM EDT

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I've decided to skip my workout today.  I'm blitzed (in a European theatre of war way, not a happy 21st birthday kind of way), beaten, battered.  Not sure why, but I didn't sleep well last night, though the baby slept very well.  Good for her.  I'm plain wore out.  Tuckered.  Tired.  My right leg hurts, and I can't stop yawning, and my hair is starting to fall out again.  I'm not really pushing myself that hard, though sometimes I'm not the best judge of that. 

So for the next two hours, prior to my having to leave for work until the late evening, I'm going to sit on the couch with a blankie over my legs, sip tea, and watch horrible television. 

Posted by bisous at 9:53 AM EDT

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