Big Week For Tiny One

Ada had an exciting week -- her first week with her sitter, Risoris, her first Halloween, her first viewing of Japanese chrysanthemums. All memories I'm sure she'll cherish. This was my first week back at work, although I just went in 3 days. It went pretty well. Ada seemed calm and happy after her days with Risoris, which was great to see.

Risoris does a great job with Ada --- she has a lovely mix of sweetness and competence.


I suspect the only real conflict they have is over tummy time. Ada hates it but she's getting a flat spot on the back of her head so she has to do it. She protests strongly, although below she's just gotten resigned to the fact that no one is going to turn her over.

Sit Up Straight, You!

Ada's in a funny transition right now. She's still pretty small -- not yet 12 lbs -- but is starting to get a lot more muscle control. She can hold her head up, sit up straight (with support) and will sort of stand up if you support her. It's amazing to watch her take control over her body and make actual voluntary gestures, like turning and reaching. She takes these things very seriously, as you can see in her pensive gaze below:

Stroller Derby

This weekend we took Ada to meet Stamos, the son of our friends Christos and Elena. Stamos was very enthusiastic about Ada but she pretended not to notice him... or maybe she's just a baby and so doesn't really interact with anyone yet. Argh! The tempation to make some totally-not-funny joke about playing hard to get with the boys was almost irresistible. Why do we think it's funny to pretend babies are grownups?

Finally!

Finally back in action! Here's Ada in her mini-spacesuit I mentioned a few days ago:


It's hard to see what I'm talking about in the picture but take my word for it that it looks like something Woody Allen wore in Sleeper.

Still Broken

Hi, Folks. It looks like blogger is still having image upload problems. Hopefully they'll resolve this quickly! Grrr! In the meantime, I can upload videos, so here's a new one. Here Ada's smiling demurely, raising her eyebrow and sticking out her tongue. Oh, the excitement!

Please Stand By

It looks like blogspot is having some trouble at the moment -- I can't post pictures. Hmmm. Anyway, I was going to post a picture of Ada in a white jump suit with little feet that made me ponder wardrobe choices for sci-fi movies. Have you ever noticed that costume designers suggest "it's the future" by putting their characters in white jumpsuits... just like babies! Do you think that that says something optimistic about how sweet and innocent we'll all be in the future. We won't even need separates!

Anyway, the picture is super-cute -- I'll post it when I can.

More Cuddliness

Another addition to our arsenal of warm stuff -- this fleece bundle-y thing is super cozy. I put it on her car seat this morning and she looked so incredibly cute I had to snap a picture or twenty. There's a sort of sleigh ride on the Russian steppes feeling to the car seat now. Considering that it's about 60 degrees outside, perhaps it's overkill?

She's really doing so well these days. She wakes up smiling and stays pretty cheerful most of the day. She does get fussy but it's almost always something pretty obvious -- "feed me!" or "I'm tired!" She's got simple needs. Lucky us. I can't wait for her to start talking but I also know that that means that she'll be upset about much more complicated things -- things that I will be much less able to solve. "The girl in my class is mean to me" or "I hate algebra" -- a whole world of angst to look forward to. It's actually a really good thing that they start out being so straightforward... it's sort of like jazz -- you only improvise once you've got the basic tune down perfectly. Her simple needs give you time to learn the basic tune before you have to get all fancy.