Losing my mind, brain cell by brain cell

M has been transitioning from 2 naps/day to 1 nap/day, and even that 1 nap is pretty iffy. I hate to admit this but I have been using the car as a prop to get her to take a nap. That's what I did last week, and it looks like it will continue this week. :-(

So this around 3:15pm today, I decide it's time to take a drive to Ranch 99 in Daly City because I had to pick up some stuff. M had already taken a 30 min nap this morning, purely accidental when I dropped off my mom somewhere this morning, I really did not expect her to nap at that time. Anyways, I wanted M to take a little afternoon nap.... so I take the scenic route to Ranch 99. I take 280 south, then hop onto hwy 1 south, with the intention of getting onto Skyline (hwy 35) which will take me to Ranch 99. M fell had fallen asleep in the car by the time I reached the 280/1 junction, yay! When I reached Skyline, I have no idea why I thought I should take the "south" exit instead of the "north" exit.

As I was on the exit ramp to get onto hwy 35 south, I wondered, howcome there's this big roundabout loop? Well, this isn't a route I take very often (can't remember the last time I went that way) so I wasn't really familiar with how the ramp was supposed to work. So I got onto Skyline and was driving along. Hmmm... the scenery looks a little different. The lanes look a little different. Geez, I guess it has been a LONG time since I last drove on Skyline. Buildings on the right side looked different. Hmm... how come it's taking so long to reach Ranch 99? Then I look over to the left side and see houses! Hmm... don't remember the last time I saw houses in Pacific on the left side. That's odd! Then it hit me. I'm going south, and that's the wrong way!!! Ok, now where can I make a U-turn? I turn into Skyline College to make my turn, and then head back north. I feel so stupid...

I don't know why I thought I should take the hwy 35 south exit. Maybe because I knew I was supposed to drive downhill on Skyline, and I thought downhill=south. I just can't believe I made that mistake. I've definitely lost some brain cells since M was born...

Oh, M managed to nap for 40 minutes. I pulled into the parking lot and knitted while she napped. We did some quick shopping at Ranch 99, then stopped by Sheng Kee Bakery for a treat. She tried the egg custard tart for the first time. She loved it. After we got home, she saw me putting away the Curry Beef Horns and wanted a taste. So we shared one of these. She seemed to like it, although not as enthusiastic about it as the egg custart tart. I remember one of the best places for those egg custard tarts was Golden Gate Bakery on Grant Ave in Chinatown. I haven't gone there in a long time, too much effort to get there.

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Nordstroms Ladies Lounge

I always thought Nordstrom had the best Ladies Lounge for mothers of infants & toddlers. They always have a separate room with chairs and/or sofa, a nice quiet place where one can nurse their baby. And they have nice cushy changing tables which are so much better than the ubiquitous hard plastic ones you find everywhere else. My little girl hates the hard plastic changing tables. I think it's partly because she resists diaper changes, will try to sit up, then flop back down hitting her head against the plastic. So I try to go to a Nordstrom restroom if there is one at the mall.

All the Nordstroms I had been to before had a decent size lounge, and their signature cushy changing table. The Nordstrom in downtown San Francisco is the absolute best. It has a very spacious lounge, and a separate room for nursing where there are two(!) cushy changing tables with a sink between the two. Perfect! Somebody who has had kids must have helped design that one.

Well, a month ago, I discovered that not all Nordstroms are so well equipped. The Nordstrom at the Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo, CA has to be the worst. There is a small 2-seater sofa and a chair crammed into a small closet of a lounge. People are practically tripping over you as they walk past to the main restroom area. I went in search of a changing table and saw none by the sink area. So I assumed there must be one in the big handicap stall at the end. Waited, waited, waited until the person vacated the stall, walked over there and was shocked to find no changing table at all. No changing table anywhere! So I had to go back to the closet lounge and change my little girl on the sofa. Luckily nobody was sitting there. Although the sofa is cushy and my little girl didn't complain, I just can't imagine other people liking the sight of me, or anyone else for that matter, changing their baby's/toddler's diaper on a sofa where many people sit (even though I did place a receiving blanket on top of the sofa before setting down my little girl).

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A Great Deliverance

I finally decided to do it. I sauntered over to the building a few blocks away from home and finally applied for a new library card. It is my first card in decades! It's got a new look with white plastic instead of the green plastic card I had when I was a kid. I like the new look. I was never a big fan of anything viridescent unless it came on a Franklin. ;) Well, you'd think that I would bring home a plethora of books I'm interested in reading. Somehow that didn't quite happen. It wasn't intentional, however out of a total of 10 books borrowed (on various days), only 3 were for me. The rest were childrens books. It'll be nice when my little girl can get her own library card! :)

So yay! I have finished reading "A Great Deliverance" by Elizabeth George. It is a murder mystery. My first book read in 2006. Hmmm... we're halfway through May, not really a good start for the year, huh? I managed to catch some of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries on Mystery!. Now I'm working through the Elizabeth George novels that they are based on. I wanted to read the second book, "Payment in Blood", but it was unavailable at my local branch, so I picked up another book instead, "Deception on His Mind". You can see the front cover of the third book I checked out for myself in the photo above. Can you guess what it is? No, it is not an Elizabeth George novel...


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Look what I can do!

Here's a recent picture of M... :)

It sure does look like she's almost finished building the pyramid of blocks but she's actually saying, "Look what I can do! I can knock down this pyramid of blocks in one fell swoop!"

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Baby Friendly Restaurants

As we try to take M out to more restaurants, I am starting to note which places are more baby friendly. The trend is to go to less "fancy" restaurants, and more "chain" restaurants. Shopping mall food courts always work.

Barney's Gourmet Hamburger (on 24th St, San Francisco, CA; hopefully they'll renew their domain name which expired on 2/27/06)
Small restaurant with non-carpeted floors creats a relatively loud environment to mask out baby noises. Spicy curly fries are yummy.

BJ's Restaurant & Brewery (Tanforan Shopping Center in San Bruno or SSF; also located at Bridgepointe Shopping Center in San Mateo, CA , and Lahaina, Hawaii)
This place is famous for their Chicago style deep dish pizza. Yummy! The restaurant at Tanforan Shopping Center has music to mask out any loud baby sounds and the TV screens are a nice distraction for baby.

Elephant Bar Restaurant (Serramonte Shopping Center, Daly City, CA)
Predictable food in a wonderfully noisy enviroment (music & conversational white noise) that is perfect for drowning out baby/toddler noises.

Crepevine (on Burlingame Ave in Burlingame, CA)
Delicious crepes served with potatos & salad on the side. Music is fairly loud which drowns out baby noises. Baby changing station in restroom (one room). Lots of high chairs available.

Max's Opera Cafe (in Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, CA)
Decent food; you'll never leave hungry. Music drowns out baby noises.

Mimi's Cafe (in Bridgepointe Shopping Center in San Mateo, CA)
There's a lot of stuff on the walls for baby to look at. Moderate noise level, plus lots of patrons bring their babies/toddlers so it's not TOO quiet such that people will be bothered by baby noises. They offer a small plate of cheerios & crackers for babies/toddlers, and they have an activity place mat to keep toddlers occupied. Restaurant at Bridgepoint Shopping Center has a changing table in the handicap restroom stall.

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Snow in San Francisco!

Look at the snow in the picture above. There's snow on that car! This rarely happens in San Francisco... we received hail & snow in a big thunderstorm tonight at around 7 PM. The thunder was the loudest I had ever heard in many decades; it scared our baby girl who was getting a diaper change at the time. Poor girl, probably wondering what was going on. I don't blame her. I thought there was a big explosion in the neighborhood. Then I heard it again a couple more times (following big bright flashes of lighnting). Then it started to hail. They sounded like golf ball sized hail, but were probably smaller than that. :)

I have never seen so much snow in San Francisco. The last time I saw snow was when I was in New Hampshire. I don't mind the snow too much, however I can do without the thunderstorm and hail.

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New Toy!

We had been shopping around for a new digital camera since the one we had was flaky. Popup flash didn't always pop up. Camera froze up a few times, fortunately recovered by "rebooting" it. Possible Smartmedia card failure?

Well, about 3 weeks ago, the camera died for good. There was no reviving it at all. The thing will NOT turn on. The lens is still protruding and we can't get it back in.

So we did a little research on some websites: http://www.dpreview.com and http://www.imaging-resource.com/ , and http://www.dcresource.com being the main three. There is another one, but the URL escapes me at the moment. Go to http://www.pbase.com/ for a good place to look at pictures other people have taken with specific cameras.

We were leaning towards one of the small Canon Digital Elph series (SD450, SD500, SD550), and the Fuji FinePix F10, and later the F30. We needed a camera ASAP, so that nixed the F30 which comes out in a couple of months.

Would like a digital SLR type, to try to learn photography. Thought about the Nikon D70S & Canon Digital Rebel XT. But I don't think I'll have the time or energy for this right now.

We loved how small and sexy(!) the Canon SD450 camera was (plus it didn't hurt that we've played around with our inlaws' SD400). But we ultimately chose the Fuji F10 because we got the impression that it offered better image quality. We got the camera yesterday and we're still getting acquainted with it. It seems to take pretty good pictures without using the flash most of the time. I love the "natural light" mode. And the Macro mode seems better than our previous camera (Fuji FinePix F601 Zoom). We even took a picture in a pitch dark room and it came out bright as day! Cool! The camera starts up very fast! And it has a nice large 2.5" LCD.

Both these pictures were taken in Macro mode. The top one shows some veggies my MIL cooked. DH took the other picture by randomly choosing some mundane objects to see if he could make them look good. We can clearly read the the small text on the globe in the full size version of that picture!

There's a lot of photography info on Philip Greenspun's site. I find it inspirational to look at his photos. He has a section for learning photography.

Some other photography sites I like include FujiMugs and the DP Review Fujifilm Talk Forum.

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Dutailier choking hazard

I love my Dutailer glider chair and glider ottoman. I had always known that there was a danger with baby's fingers getting caught in the "swinging" parts that rock back and forth. I figured that baby would have to deal with it and learn not to get her fingers pinched, or more likely these days since she is crawling, get bopped in the head!

I recently discovered a choking hazard on the glider ottoman. I never expected this, especially on something that many nursing moms use. I have the nursing ottoman which has a nursing stool that pulls out for use while nursing. One day I found a small black piece of plastic on the carpet. I wondered where it came from. It looked like the two plastic pieces on the front end of the nursing stool, but I saw that those two pieces were still attached to the rod, so I was puzzled!

In the picture above, you can see what the rod looks like on the front end of the nursing stool. This rod rests on the floor when the nursing stool is in use. I placed a Sur La Table catalog underneath so that it is easier to see; it's hard to get a good look at it when it is resting directly on the carpet. I removed one of the plastic pieces so you can get a better look at what it looks like ... basically a small plastic cylinder with enough of a "slit" cut off so that you can snap it onto the rod. This plastic piece is about 1 inch long and 1/2 inch wide.

Here is another picture, where both pieces are attached to the rod:

In the picture below, you can see the rod on the back end of the nursing stool. I didn't even know there was one until I found this little black plastic piece on the carpet. This rod apparently latches onto the underside of of the nursing stool (as pictured below) to keep the ottoman stationary while using the nursing stool. Now I have periodically check to make sure that this plastic piece hasn't fallen onto the carpet. My baby has just started crawling and it is possible for her to stumble onto such a small 1 inch x 1/2 inch piece on the carpet. Anything this small is a chocking hazard for babies ... and you know how babies love to put things into their mouths. That would be horrible!

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We're in trouble now...

Yesterday evening we discovered that M had pulled herself up in her crib using the crib railing and was "standing" while supporting herself by the crib railing. Oh my... we're in trouble now. She'll be walking and running around in no time. We really need to babyproof the house...

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"Not my problem"

This was overheard from a couple standing behind us in line at Sheng Kee Bakery at Daly City a couple months ago.

We were standing in line waiting to pay. DH was wearing our little girl in the Baby Bjorn. The woman behind us saw our little girl and then made a comment to her husband about how she would love to have a baby girl. Her husband responded with, "Not my problem." Now having a bit of understanding about how Chinese gets translated into English, I interpreted this to mean that he thought it was not up to him to determine a baby's gender.

This remark may seem strange to anyone educated in the United States. It is a well known fact that males produce X chromosome sperm and Y chromosome sperm which determine the baby's gender; females only produce the X chromosome and thus have no influence over the baby's gender. There's a quick summary here.

I have observed that many Asian people, particularly those who were not educated in the United States or those who have not studied Biology, still believe that a baby's gender is determined by the female.

I have been asked whether there is anything a doctor can do about getting a boy baby. The simple answer is no. However you can increase your chances of getting the gender you want from companies such as Microsort. They sort sperm to give you a better chance of getting a particular gender, but they do not guarantee that you will get that gender. Do you really want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on all these procedures when you may not get the gender you want?

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Pulling up

Our little girl surprised us on Sunday by sitting up herself and pulling herself up by the crib railing. Fearing she would manage to get over the railing, we promptly lowered the crib mattress and also removed the Pack n Play basinet so that the playpen is at the lowest setting. It's a little awkward to put her down in the crib now, especially without waking her up. And now that she is lower, she can better see us sneaking in or out of her room. Her hearing is quite sharp; she can easily hear the door opening (scraping against the carpet) and will whip her head around to look in that direction.

We can see a little more of her two lower incisors. :)

She is having a hard time sitting still these days. She will roll over while we try to change her clothes and while we try to change her diaper. And when we put her down on the floor, she is already crawling away. We need to babyproof the house ASAP!!!

We got one of these shopping cart seat covers for her. It's nice and cushy, and makes us feel like she isn't touching the dirty shopping cart. Have you seen some of those shopping carts out there? Absolutely filthy! Well, a little false sense of cleanliness is better than none. :) She's still warming up to the whole idea of sitting up in the shopping cart. She seemed OK in it as long as she had something to chew on. We gave her a paper cup to chew on; this kept her entertained for a while.

She is outgrowing her infant carrier/car seat. She has already exceeded the length limit (26"), but not the weight limit (20 lbs). We have ordered a Britax Marathon in Luau print, which will arrive in about 6 weeks. Hope she can still use her infant carrier til then. She is not a happy camper in the car these days. We hope she will enjoy the roominess of the convertible car seat.

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Köhlr Baby sleep sack

M is growing. We received a medium size Köhlr Baby sleep sack from Priscilla when M was a newborn. We thought it was so large when we held it up, and we thought it would be a LONG time before M would fit into it. Well, we put her in it much sooner that we expected, and it fit OK even though it was a smidgen long. It kept her warm and safe at night. We put her in the sleep sack after she outgrew the Miracle Blanket, or rather, when she decided that she no longer wanted to be tightly swaddled with her arms at her side. The Miracle Blanket was a great product for keeping her arms still; back then she had little control over her arms, they'd flail about, she'd end up bonking herself and then wake up!

We just bought a Köhlr Baby sleep sack in large. I love the design & quality. The fleece is thick and very soft. I've seen the ubiquitous other brand sleep sacks at Babies/Toys-R-Us which are made of much thinner material; I can't imagine M being warm in any of those. Warmth is important to us because we live in a cooler area, in a house that tends to get cold in the middle of the night, and winter is coming.

Those Canadians make great things. We got some Canadian made body suits that are made of the softest cotton, they're even softer than the Carters cotton body suits we have (and Carters makes good stuff too). The four body suits we got were all white. I never thought they were too plain until one day while at the inlaws. We were going to change M out of her cute outfit and into something cooler so I grabbed this white body suit and proceeded to show it to my MIL to tell her how soft the cotton fabric was. At the sight of the bodysuit, and without even feeling the fabric, her reaction and comment indicated to me that she didn't like how it was all white. That's when I put this white body suit back and dug out a more colorful Carters body suit for M to wear instead. Mental note: appearance is everything ... now I have to remember to only pack colorful outfits when visiting the inlaws. That's not too difficult though since most of M's wardrobe is colorful, mostly pink, but sometimes yellow, green, red, purple. She has a few blue items, but they're obvious "girly" clothes (viz. dresses).

M is fitting into size 12 month clothes already. We started dressing her in 12 month footed sleepers and jumpsuits a few weeks ago. The footed sleepers are a smidgen long on her and she tends to get her legs stuck because she gets on all fours and tucks her legs under. Then we have to readjust her legs. Not cool when it happens in the middle of the night. I much prefer footless outfits. I'd rather put socks on her if it's colder. I've discovered that boy socks fit much better than girl socks. The boy socks we have are snugger around her leg and don't fall off as easily. Her girly socks can fall off within minutes of putting them on! You can see the socks here, the pink pair on the left are the girly socks and the white one on the right are the boy socks. I have girl socks in white, pink, purple, & blue. The boy socks only come in white; they are made with tighter ribbing which helps them stay on. M excels at kicking off the girly socks...

As for ribbing, I really hate doing K1P1 ribbing when I knit. That's the only kind of ribbing I've ever knitted, but I have the feeling I will hate doing any kind of ribbing. It's just tedious! Well, continous knitting (or purling) is also boring too.



No shoes for this girl yet. I figure she won't actually need them until she is walking. She's nowhere near walking yet ... she's still working on sitting up and crawling. She wants so much to crawl around. That girl can't sit still in my arms. She's sitting up pretty well these days, she just needs to work on getting into the sitting position on her own. Someone told me she put on Robeez slippers on her baby boy's feet to help keep his feet warm as well as keep his socks on. They have a lot of cute designs! Another place that sells baby shoes is Buskins, which is similar but not as many styles.

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Joe Z ... The Quintessential Waiter

After a painful 30 minute drive to Bridgepointe shopping center in San Mateo due to M's fussing the entire way (she absolutely hates the car seat), we managed to do a little shopping while M fidgeted & kicked in her Baby Bjorn. We picked up a bath toy for her, hoping that this will distract her enough to make it through her bath without getting too cranky.

We stopped by our favorite restaurant at Bridgepointe, Mimi's Cafe. There's enough stuff on the walls to keep M occupied while we hold her, and there's enough background noise for her to doze off if. This visit had to be the best ever...

We managed to get a roomy U shaped booth in the corner of the back room next to the emergency exit which provided extra room to park the stroller and not get in anyone's way. Our waiter, Joe Z, promptly showed up soon after we were seated to take our drink order (2 Iced Teas) and came back with 3 glasses. He was cool about giving us time to peruse the menu, and came back at the right time to take our order. DH ordered the Slow Roasted Turkey Breast dinner with the soup of the day, I ordered the French Quarter with cole slaw. Our waiter came back with DH's soup, plus an extra cup of soup for me. We got a huge basket of bread. M fell asleep on DH's shoulder, perfect timing, so he placed her in the stroller to take a nap. He came back at the right moment to refill our glasses of Iced Tea. That's always a plus; I've gone to so many places where they take forever to refill drinks or they forget entirely. The entrees arrived, yum! When we were finished, the waiter materialized with a box, some more Iced Tea, and the check. And before we could ask, he immediately noticed that we needed more boxes and mentioned that he would return with them. Every restaurant should clone this guy!!! He excelled at anticipating our needs and meeting them before we could ask; we never had to wait long for anything, never had to search for & flag him down. He was personable and efficient. I wonder if we'll get this guy the next time we dine here. It was the perfect dining experience. And to top off the visit, M woke up from her nap just before we were about ready to leave. Perfect timing.

The things you notice after having baby... during my last visit to the restroom at Mimi's Cafe, the door to the handicap stall was wide open and I noticed that there was a baby changing station mounted on the wall inside. Cool. That's always good to know. :-)

I'm also noticing handicap-friendly curbs and doors too. I find it amusing looking at the Macy's doors at the local mall. There are three sets of double doors; the center set has a handicap sticker on it. The only difference is that the door handle is lower, the handle on the left & right set of doors are higher. The "handicap" doors aren't automatic. I don't see how anyone in a wheelchair can get through these doors cuz they are heavy! And there is another set of doors to traverse through 10 feet past the outer set. Good thing the main mall entrance has one of those automatic doors, and so does the Nordstrom at the other end of the mall.

I see lots of people pushing their strollers up and down the escalators at the mall. It looks rather dangerous to me. I don't see myself doing that. Knowing my luck, the stroller will slip, falling down & hitting other people like bowling pins, and baby would scream her head off about the rough ride. I'm becoming better acquainted with the location of elevators at the local mall. Sure it takes longer, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

M is still riding around in her infant carrier which attaches to her stroller. She hates the infant carrier, I think she is starting to find it a bit too snug. Of course her favorite place is in my arms. :-) She's still a little small for sitting directly on the stroller.


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There be teeth!

We noticed a tooth poking through M's gums last weekend, it was her lower left incisor and it looked like a sliver of white. It was definitely a tooth, we could feel it, and we could hear it against the rattle she was chewing on.

This week we noticed a second tooth in the works ... her lower right incisor. Wow! Two teeth at the same time. This is exciting. Of course we're not thrilled about the teething pains and her resulting fussiness, but understand it is part of the process. Not to worry... we are armed with Hyland's Teething Tablets and a tube of Baby Orajel.


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M, in her knitted hat & baby blanket

Here is a picture of M taken on one of our walks in our perpetually cold neighborhood. She is wearing a hat I knit for her last month, and is covered with a baby blanket I knit for her in January.




She doesn't look too happy because she hates being in her infant carrier. I usually take her out for walks in her Baby Bjorn carrier, however it has gotten colder these days so I put her in the stroller instead so I can keep her warm under a blanket. She is going to outhrow this infant carrier soon, her head almost reaches the top. We will have to upgrade her to a convertible car seat. I'm thinking of the Britax Marathon which gets great reviews and supports up to 65 lbs which is a lot more than most other car seats. This means I'll get more mileage out of it. I'm hoping that she'll like the convertible car seat more since it should offer her more space. She probably finds the infant carrier too confining.

She loves to grab the hanging toys (snail, butterfly & turtle) attached to the infant carrier. She pulls on them and shoves them into her mouth. She shoves everything into her mouth! Sometimes she pulls on them enough for them to detach, and sometimes she flings it out(!) of the stroller where it lands no the sidewalk. :-( Her favorite toy is the butterfly, she seems to reach for this one more often than the other two.

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The crap I watch on Cable TV

I've caught lots of miscellaneous stuff on Cable TV in recent months. It helps to have Tivo. It's like having a VCR on steroids! :) Just tell Tivo to record stuff, and then watch & delete programs in any order I choose. Tivo has to be the best thing since sliced bread.

Some programs/movies I've caught lately:

Aristocrats (Masterpiece Theatre). This was fun, loved the costumes, etc. Did not like how they brought in a whole new set of people to portray older versions of the characters. I was left confused trying to figure out who was who.

He Knew He Was Right (Masterpiece Theatre). This seemed to drag, but I made it through to the end.

The Importance of Being Earnest. It seemed like the first time I've seen Rupert Everett, however I think the first time was in The Madness of King George, which I got on Laserdisc (remember those??) over a decade ago, I just don't recall the movie clearly. I'd rewatch it if somebody could figure out how to reconnect the LD player to that jumble of equipment by the TV. I later stumbled upon him in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (Mystery!). The Importance of Being Earnest is the second movie I've seen with Colin Firth, it was strange to see him in a romantic comedy after seeing him in Pride & Prejudice, a movie I have rewatched numerous times, where he has a very serious facial expression throughout most of the movie. I just finished watching the 1940 version starring Laurence Olivier. It was probably great for its time, but I was distracted by the costumes they wore in the movie (they seemed so wrong), and was it my imagination or did they speak very very fast? It's as though they did a super abridged & slightly tweaked verson, which didn't turn out short enough so they made the cast talk faster than normal. I understand there is a new version of Pride & Prejudice coming out on November 18, starring Keira Knightly. I am prepared to hate this version, but who knows, perhaps it will surprise me.

Citizen Kane was recently on TV. That was an interesting film, and of the better of the two 1940-ish movies I've seen recently.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries (Mystery!) I caught on TV. I've seen about 10 episodes; there are still a few more I need to catch. I understand that these are based on novels by Elizabeth George, starting with "A Great Deliverance". Another mystery series I like, although not as much as Inpsector Lynley, is Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (Mystery!).

That's just some of the stuff I've been watching on my own during the day. There's a whole different set of programs which I watch with DH: Las Vegas, NCIS, CSI, Battlestar Galactica, Cold Case, 24, American Idol & Naruto.

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What is this paper folding art?

Here are some pictures of the paper folding art that my MIL has recently gotten into. She learned to do this from someone in Taiwan. She cuts paper into smaller rectangles, then folds them into triangular shapes that get nested together to create shapes such as swans, baskets, strawberries, vases, etc. She likes to play around with different color combinations. She has several books with instructions on how to assemble these into different shapes. I have no idea what this art is called. The books she has are written in Chinese which I can't read... and even if I did, I probably wouldn't be able to translate it into the English equivalent.

When my MIL is not cutting paper into smaller rectangles & folding them, she spends her time doing cross-stitch. She makes lots of cute things to frame or for pillows, towels, bibs, clothing, and other items. I did a little bit of cross-stitch while I was in college. I never really got into it much, it is very hard on the eyes looking at all those tiny squares on the counted cross-stitch pattern. But I suppose I could do stamped cross-stitch instead...

Some people might argue that knitting is hard on the eyes... it really isn't too bad, and there's always the option of using lighter color yarn and thicker yarn. Stitches are harder to see on darker yarn. Good thing I don't knit with black yarn! I do have some black yarn in my stash, just haven't gotten around to using it. Although it is easier and quicker to knit with heavier weight yarn, I have found that I prefer to knit with fingerling, sport, or DK weight yarn. I've never knit with the thinnest weight, lace weight yarn, but would love to try knitting a lace shawl someday. Of course I envision myself getting the lace weight yarn all tangled up as I rewind the hank into a ball. One of these days I'll invest in the Mama Bear Yarn Swift and a ball winder. Knitting with fingerling weight yarn feels like it takes forever to knit anything ... it requires more number of stitches to get the same area of knitting. The heaviest weight yarn I will use is worsted weight, I don't really like knitting with anything thicker than this.

I've found that I prefer traditional yarns more than the novelty yarns (fun fur, eyelash, etc) which are the current fad. I find it very hard to see my stitches using these novelty yarns, this makes it very difficult to fix problems or recover from dropped stitches. I love superwash wool yarns because they are machine washable & dryable. Unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of these. After superwash wool, I prefer yarns of natural fibers, such as wool, alpaca, silk, etc. Of course these yarns tend to be hand wash, dry flat.

One of these days I will knit with mohair. I hear it is a pain to frog, so I'm in no hurry to give it a try. I'm just waiting to find the right variegated kid mohair yarn for a project I have in mind.


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Pass the cold virus around

I've been feeling a little off this week and it finally hit me that I have a cold. Must have gotten it from Marisa who got hers from daddy. We're just passing the cold virus around. :( So I'm suffering almost as much as Marisa is ... I just don't have to deal with teething pains. Marisa's cold is definitely taking a toll on me, I think part of it was from the lack of sleep since she can't seem to stay asleep at night with her cold & teething pains. Last night, I was awake soothing/walking her around for 4 hours during a 7 hour period (midnight to 7am), with the longest stretch being 2 AM to 4 AM. No wonder I'm exhausted and not recovering from this cold as quickly as I would like. I hope it'll be better tonight.

I have heard from other parents that when their kids get sick, the whole house gets sick along with them. I think there must be some truth to that! I'm sure all our immune systems will become much stronger over the coming years as a result.

Marisa's left lower incisor looks like it is coming out soon, we can see a sliver of white protruding from her swollen gums. And we can HEAR it clicking against her rattle too! She'll look so cute with her one tooth. :)

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Marisa's favorite toys

At 7 months, Marisa is experiencing teething pains and as a result drools a lot and loves putting things in her mouth. She'll grab anything within reach ... toy, bib, shirt collar, edge of crib mattress pad, towels, blankets, pillows, etc. She'll even try to reach out for your mug as you lift it to drink out of it, and she will try to pull it towards her mouth and lick the side. It's really cute.

Her favorite toy at the moment is a teething rattle. You can hold up one of her two other rattles and she will either be indifferent or not interested, however when you hold up her favorite rattle she will raise up her arms to reach out for it. It's really cute to watch her do this. She loves the soft liquid filled side, it helps with her teething pains. Sometimes she tries to stick the bulbous end in her mouth too. In either case, they are the quintessential medium for moving drool out of the mouth!



Her other favorite toy is a red one with plasting teething arches on its back. We got this one from Cheryl who has two kids of her own. Marisa loves gnawing on this one when her favorite rattle isn't in front of her. We try to rotate her toys so she doesn't get bored with the same one. This red one usually remains in her Pali Mia crib, along with a colorful clown which she used to love a few months ago but has shown little interest in lately.



Another toy she plays with is this pink bunny with star shaped rings. She got this from Vicki & Larry when they came to visit at the hospital. She loves to stick the stars in her mouth. If the stars aren't in her mouth, then it's one of the bunny ears. Poor bunny. The bunny usuallly stays in her Graco Pack n Play. She will sometimes (rare occasion) take mini naps in the playpen, she is more open to it during the early morning hours. Not as much luck during the day. Her favorite place to nap is in our arms, against our chest with her head resting on our shoulder. Her head has gotten much larger and heavier since birth.. our shoulder feels sore after she has been napping on it for nearly an hour.

Marisa's first cold

Boo hoo, Marisa has finally gotten her first cold and she is miserable. Fortunately it's only been less than a week and she is recovering nicely. She is still having some difficulties breathing (stuffy nose) which causes her to wake at night. I understand, I can't sleep with a stuffy nose either. Poor thing was feverish, tired, and out of sorts. She hasn't been her usual active playful self. Not much we could do but make her comfortable and wait it out. Too bad we can't explain to her why she feels the way she feels. I've been more exhausted as a result of her cold, waking up when she wakes up, holding her a lot more, walking her around while she tries to fall asleep. There will be lots of laundry to do after she recovers, runny nose, wet sneezes, and drool all over everything...

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