Last night we went to the movies: a showing of WALL*E at the drive-in in San Jose. One of the women in Kristiana's Tuesday afternoon group does this with her child, and said it's a great way to get out of the house, catch a film, and have private space in which to nurse and change the baby. So we thought we'd try it.
The experience was mixed. There was nothing wrong with the idea, but there were a couple of problems with the execution. The first, and easiest to overcome, was that we'd depended on the theater's snack bar for Kristiana's dinner, and they turned out to be very slow and poorly organized. (I'd assumed they would have a spiffier operation, just as our indoor theaters now have espresso bars and gelato and so on.) Next time we'll know to pack our own food. The other problem was the sound, and that'll be tougher to deal with. They transmit over FM, which you can pick up with your car radio or with a portable, and in theory the sound should be very clean. In practice, though, there was a persistent low buzzing in the sound, which drove me bonkers, and there were other audio problems as well. Luckily WALL*E is not terribly dependent on dialogue, but we both wonder whether we'll be able to enjoy a movie that is; perhaps we'll have to wait until subtitled foreign films come to the drive-in.
Today was Chiara's eight-week pediatrician visit: the results can be summarized as, "perfect." Besides that, she is now 10 lbs 10 oz, and 23 1/2 inches. She had a series of four immunization injections, to which her response - I am paraphrasing a bit - was, "ow!!!!!!" But she quickly recovered, and before many minutes had fallen asleep.
This weekend we have a road trip to Monterey - just for the day on Saturday - and on Sunday another outdoor jazz concert.
And lastly, the photo-update computer is back at last, and all the photos shot while it was away have now been uploaded to the photo-sharing site.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
This week's minor updates
Just a few notes, since we haven't posted anything recently and haven't put up new pictures. We've been radio-silent on the Chiara front for a whole week now, and that's unheard-of!
Chiara is doing great. She continues to grow - she was very nearly 2 lbs over her birth weight as of yesterday - and is on the verge of outgrowing the first of her baby clothes. That's sort of exciting; it really feels like some kind of milestone.
We have a whole slew of 3-month sized outfits ready for her, and she has in fact started wearing some of the less-loose ones already. She's a tall girl, our little 8-week-0ld (as of this coming Friday).
She's paying a lot of attention to us both - she will look into our eyes for as long as we want, and often will look where we look, if we look away. Smile at her and she smiles back. Seeing her face brighten as she catches you smiling at her, well, it's the best thing ever. She's experimenting with the sounds she can make, too. Besides the usual cooing and mewing she has a sort of "wa-hooo!" sound that is unbelievably cute and endearing. We're trying to capture a recording of it but haven't managed yet.
Among the classes we've taken at Day One recently are sign language for babies, and infant massage. It turns out that young children - much older than ours, usually 8 months or more - can be taught both to understand sign language and to sign back. It's a way for them to communicate their needs even before they've learned to speak. We're taking the classes now so we'll be that much more ready and fluent as she gets old enough to begin to understand. Baby Sign Language is just American Sign Language, but as taught to parents, i.e., focusing on the vocabulary relevant to dealing with a baby. Kristiana already has a grounding in ASL, but it's all new to me; my vocabulary doesn't yet go too much beyond "hungry," "milk," "more," "finished" and "sleep."
Infant massage, according to some studies in one of the books I've been reading (I've forgotten which), actually has some correlation with certain developmental milestones and physical skills. And that sounds great to us, but in all honesty there's an immediate benefit which is much more compelling to us right now. Chiara seems to have passed the age where she regularly spits up milk. Hurrah, you might say. But instead of spitting up when she has swallowed air or has a gas bubble, she now gets uncomfortable and cries. It's misery for her, and for us. We've found that some of the infant massage moves are effective for giving her relief when the usual burping back-pat and back-squeeze don't do the trick. New parents, learn infant massage: the day will come when you'll do anything for one more trick in your bag of things to try when your baby's crying.
Our photo-posting computer is still in the shop, but I'm pretty hopeful that it will be back by the end of the week. They're waiting for a part which was shown as in-transit on Monday, and after that the repair should be a matter of minutes. Once the computer's back, we'll have a fair chunk of new pictures posted on the photo-sharing site.
Chiara is doing great. She continues to grow - she was very nearly 2 lbs over her birth weight as of yesterday - and is on the verge of outgrowing the first of her baby clothes. That's sort of exciting; it really feels like some kind of milestone.
We have a whole slew of 3-month sized outfits ready for her, and she has in fact started wearing some of the less-loose ones already. She's a tall girl, our little 8-week-0ld (as of this coming Friday).
She's paying a lot of attention to us both - she will look into our eyes for as long as we want, and often will look where we look, if we look away. Smile at her and she smiles back. Seeing her face brighten as she catches you smiling at her, well, it's the best thing ever. She's experimenting with the sounds she can make, too. Besides the usual cooing and mewing she has a sort of "wa-hooo!" sound that is unbelievably cute and endearing. We're trying to capture a recording of it but haven't managed yet.
Among the classes we've taken at Day One recently are sign language for babies, and infant massage. It turns out that young children - much older than ours, usually 8 months or more - can be taught both to understand sign language and to sign back. It's a way for them to communicate their needs even before they've learned to speak. We're taking the classes now so we'll be that much more ready and fluent as she gets old enough to begin to understand. Baby Sign Language is just American Sign Language, but as taught to parents, i.e., focusing on the vocabulary relevant to dealing with a baby. Kristiana already has a grounding in ASL, but it's all new to me; my vocabulary doesn't yet go too much beyond "hungry," "milk," "more," "finished" and "sleep."
Infant massage, according to some studies in one of the books I've been reading (I've forgotten which), actually has some correlation with certain developmental milestones and physical skills. And that sounds great to us, but in all honesty there's an immediate benefit which is much more compelling to us right now. Chiara seems to have passed the age where she regularly spits up milk. Hurrah, you might say. But instead of spitting up when she has swallowed air or has a gas bubble, she now gets uncomfortable and cries. It's misery for her, and for us. We've found that some of the infant massage moves are effective for giving her relief when the usual burping back-pat and back-squeeze don't do the trick. New parents, learn infant massage: the day will come when you'll do anything for one more trick in your bag of things to try when your baby's crying.
Our photo-posting computer is still in the shop, but I'm pretty hopeful that it will be back by the end of the week. They're waiting for a part which was shown as in-transit on Monday, and after that the repair should be a matter of minutes. Once the computer's back, we'll have a fair chunk of new pictures posted on the photo-sharing site.
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