It was a very low key Christmas with just the three of us (and the cat). On Christmas Eve, we gave her an engraved ornament. I hope to continue the tradition each year. It had her name, the year, and the saying "You are the best Christmas gift". Because she is. I wish my past self could have peaked in the window on Christmas Eve, and seen the three of us (with the cat) snuggled together on the couch with the glow of the Christmas tree in our eyes. I did get misty-eyed a few times, out of sheer happiness.
Corinne must have been excited for Santa, because she woke at 12a, 2a, 3a, 5a, 7a, finally getting up for the day at 10:30a. Momma did not get a silent night.
And then the gift opening began. I must admit, it went a lot faster with only three of us, as opposed to the whole family, as we've done in years past.
The cat not only got a catnip toy, some kitten treats, and cat food can lids, she got to play in lots of boxes. Cat heaven!
Thanks to Amazon, gifts arrived from distant family member, so I wrapped M's presents, and he wrapped mine:
Corinne took a nice nap in her swing in the early evening, giving M and I a chance to have a nice quiet Christmas dinner of filet mignon, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, and Christmas candy.
We Facetimed with my family, and talked to M's family:
And then settled down on the couch for some Christmas TV. Yes, that is a bottle of beer on the cat's head. She's a talented (and useful) feline.
Likes: Petting (grabbing) the cat's fur, 5 minutes worth of Sesame Street, sitting in the Bebe Pod watching mom make dinner, feet, the Christmas tree lights, chicken, oatmeal, squash, laughing, seeing how loud her voice can get
Dislikes: Peas, pacifiers, getting put IN the carseat, being ignored, anything more than 5 minutes of Sesame Street
Weight: about 13 pounds Height: Dunno, but she is 100% in 6 month clothing now. The 3 month sizes are too short. The next box of diapers will be size 3.
Mom's dislikes: the new "oatmeal/solid food" farts and diaper smells. Holy hell, it smells awful. I may have dry heaved at 3a this morning during a diaper change. I now understand why people say "breastmilk poop doesn't stink". Not because it doesn't stink, but because compared to the oatmeal/solid food poop, it smells like roses.
Since the mall Santa is riddled with toddler cold and flu germs, I figured we were out this year in regards to meeting (and having pictures taken with) Santa.
However, an opportunity presented itself: Neighborhood Santa! Which meant that I could be one of the first ones there, it wouldn't be crazy busy, and I could take as many pictures as I wanted, free of charge.
So, Corinne suited up (with a pretty velvet dress) and off we went. Since Santa was free and relatively germ free, these aren't the best photos, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.
Within the last few weeks, I have tried giving Corinne bites of mashed up food. I would put a little on my finger, and then stick my finger in her mouth. For the most part, the food is just spit right back out again. However, today at the grocery store, a box of infant oatmeal caught my eye. It was less than two bucks, so I figured, what the hell, we have nothing to lose. It had a fair amount of iron, which, according to the pediatrician she needs lots of.
Infant oatmeal, and a drooling infant:
The instructions on the box said 1tsp of oatmeal mixed with 5tsps of breastmilk/formula. Uh, no. I am not wasting breastmilk on something she had a high likelihood of spitting right back out. So, I mixed it with prepared formula. I thought it would be more oatmeal-ish in texture. But it wasn't. The dry oatmeal in the box more resembled almost see through flakes (like how eggwhite flakes up when it dries on the counter). In additional, if I were to mix it according to the instructions, it would be super thin in consistency. After mixing, I was hoping for more like an oatmeal gruel consistency. So, I decided to tweak the recipe. I took a tablespoon of oatmeal (flakes?) and mixed it with a tablespoon of prepared formula. It was still watery-ish, but at least it could hold its own on a spoon.
A spoon. Humph.
Utensils are on Corinne's Christmas wish list, but it's not Christmas yet. Now to find a utensil to deliver said oatmeal gruel. Our regular silverware was probably too big for her, and she may be turned off by having metal in her mouth, so I decided to get a plastic spoon instead. I open up the pantry to find one, and lo and behold, there was a bag of teeny tiny plastic spoons (I think they came with pudding cups back in the day). Eureka! The black hole that is the pantry provides!
I made myself some dinner, then Corinne and I sat down at the table. Her, with her watery oatmeal gruel, and me, with my chicken salad sandwich with tomato soup...yum. She decided that the leftover Halloween candy looked the best of all (can't fault that logic):
To understand this next section, I need to take you back to 1985. I was 4 or 5 at the time and they were handing out snacks in kindergarten. We all lined up according to our last name and waited to receive our snack. In this case, a frozen fudge pop. Apparently, health did not much matter in the mid 80's. The girl to my left, who also had a last name that started with a "B", got her fudge pop and dove in. Within 30 seconds, it was all over her face. Maybe she thought that the fudge pop made a better exfoliating cleanser than a food? Who knows, but the end result was that she had a hard time connecting the fudge pop with her mouth, and the idea of using a napkin or washing her face afterwards was a foreign concept. I was totally grossed out. I distinctly remember thinking "Dude, that is effin' gross. Learn to use an effin' napkin or learn how to eat." But I'm sure my thoughts were a bit more "G" rated and did not contain as many "effin's". I thought it was just the fudge pop. Nope. Each time food was handed out, I had to sit right next to the fudge pop chick. And each time, without fail, she managed to get more on her face and hands than in her mouth. It didn't matter what she was eating. It could have been bread and she would still have it smeared all over her face within 30 seconds. The grossest part is that she would then walk around, for the rest of the day with food all over her face. I spent the better part of my kindergarten year being grossed out by "fudge pop chick".
Ever since then, I get easily skeeved out by babies with food on their face. Since the majority of people my age are having kids, my Facebook feed to filled to the brim with baby pictures. Lots of these pictures involve the baby's looking like they had their head and chest dunked in pureed peas. My visual sense is repeatedly accosted many times a week by over sharing parents. I don't know what compels people to think that their baby covered in pureed food is so cute or endearing that it needs to be shared with the facebook world, but it seems like a lot of people think this way. I will give a pass for the first birthday smash cake photos. But any other food is just plain gross.
I was hoping that when it was MY own kid covered in food, it would be cute. But it's not. It's still rather nasty looking. I did take some pictures and will post them here. And only here. My co-workers/high school/college friends do not need to log into their Facebook only to be brutally molested by the image of a food covered baby (no matter how cute the baby in question is).
You have been warned...
Then she put her hands in her mouth, further spreading the oatmeal everywhere. I may have sat there with a look of horror upon my face:
The post feeding episode carnage:
I'm glad I tried it when she was hungry, as she ended up eating most of it. So, I'm going to call it a success. We might even try it again tomorrow.
I tried taking a video. Our Ruebenesque-feline used to not be able to jump up on the table or counter from the floor. But now with her new lithe body, compliments of the vet-ordered diet, combined with a "Dear God, Woman, feed me NOWWWWW!" demeanor, she can easy jump onto the table and counters in search of food. Hence the reason why the cat makes a cameo:
