Category Archives: Food and drink
Jelly Puzzle
Favorite things: Months 13-16
It’s been a while since we posted a list of Suzianne’s favorite things. Here’s a grouping of her go-to books, foods and toys over the past few months:
Books. The good old fashioned board kind. Since she could sit up on her own, she’s had a thing for pulling every book off the shelf and wading in a pool of cardboard. These are her favorites. Note: if you buy these, you’ll be reading them over and over again. Unless you hide them under the ottoman like we do. So, don’t blame me–you’ve been warned.
- Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton
- I Took the Moon for a Walk, by Carolyn Curtis
- Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann
- Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
- Princess Baby On The Go, by Karen Katz
- All of these books by Leslie Patricelli, but especially Tubby and Potty.
But wait! Where is MY favorite book, Llama, Llama, Red Pajama? Yeah, so, she could not care less about that book. It breaks my heart, since reading that book to her while making her sit awkwardly in a Bumbo is basically the only reason I had a baby and of course my child hates both of those things. (geez)
Food. Unless she’s teething, this child will pack away the food. She’s especially fond of red foods, like watermelon, tomatoes, red bell peppers, strawberries and cherries.
Even as easy-going eater, she still goes through picky phases. For three days, the only thing she’d eat was this banana pouch and cheddar bunnies. Also, every now and then, she’ll refuse to eat cheese unless it is sliced in a certain way. Last week, she wouldn’t eat a green bean with strings hanging off of it. So, daddy picked off all the strings for her, naturally.
When my foodie turns fickle, I always giggle/cry and think about this hilarious/true/depressing Honest Toddler post. As a friend of mine commented on Facebook last week, it’s amazing how universal this behavior is. Continue reading
10 months!
This month, Suzianne shed her infant-ness and became a little person.
She was quite busy during her 10th month on Earth, breaking in three new teeth and discovering many new things about herself. This month, Suzianne:
Found her voice (it’s loud) and began communicating her preferences–via high-pitch squeals–for fun things like daddy, Melissa-the-awesome-nanny, chasing Georgia, Bluegrass music, bath time, Vegas showgirls and guacamole:
Oh, and she’s got some dislikes, too, such as getting dressed, teething, having her fingernails trimmed, and new toys that make too much noise:
She also hates Santa:
This month, she’s started to realize her physical abilities like crawling! and standing with assistance!, as well as limitations, like standing on her own.
Ooo! We even had our first projectile vomiting episode! Lucky for us, it was following a very scary choking episode (She turned purple, ya’ll. It was horrible. But she’s clearly got a rockstar esophagus that knows how to take care of business.) at a nice restaurant in San Diego in front of lots of strangers; lucky for you, I did not get a photo of it. BUT I do have this five minutes later picture, where Suzianne is the happiest baby on the block and could not care less that our table, her stroller and her daddy’s jacket now smell like throw up:
The best part about month 10 is Suzianne’s self-established sleeping routine. She now puts herself to sleep for her 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. naps. Even better: she puts herself to sleep each night at 7 p.m. and sleeps (most nights) until 6 a.m. It’s LOVELY and worth every one of those heartbreaking four or five nights of “crying it out.”
Suzianne continues to be a very chill child who is always happy, unless she’s tired, teething or hungry. Or hungry, but refusing to eat. Or has had the iPhone she was about to eat taken away from her. Or thinks you are trying trick her into taking a nap. She’s also very smart and observant like her father. And a very chatty, loud-talking, crazy person, like me.
Now that my hormones have leveled out, I can honestly say being Suzianne’s momma is a privilege and joy–and I’m thankful for every single moment.
Watch her grow! Take a scroll through the Month-by-Month archives.
Does your baby need to poop?
If your baby isn’t as regular as you’d like, stock up on wipes, then, feed her this:
…and take cover.
Seriously.
Things I thought would never happen: bottle holding
I’m not one to get all hung up on the exact timing of developmental milestones, but there are some things I swear I thought Suzianne would just never do. For instance, there was a six week period where I was convinced I’d be holding my daughter’s bottle at her first prom.
When most other babies are at least attempting to hold their own bottles, our girl was doing this:
A few weeks later, it was more like “Momma, I guess I could hold my own bottle, but feeding me is pretty much your only job, amiright? I respect you too much to take that from you.”
Thanks, baby.
Seriously? You will grab and hold a milk-free foot up to your mouth, but you won’t hold a bottle when you are hungry? SMH.
And then, one morning just before she turned 7 months old, she snatched it from me. Almost as if to say, “Geez, woman, just give it to me already so I can show you how this is supposed to be done.” Of course, I ran and grabbed my phone to document the miracle, in case it never happened again:
One month later:
Now, at nine months, she’s straight-up multitasking. This is how I found her this morning: jamming out to Pandora Toddler Tunes Radio with her rattle, making scream noises at the dog, while downing six ounces of Similac.
So, don’t worry, new momma. Your baby refusing to do X,Y or Z might not have anything to do with proper development. She may just be stubborn.
Suzianne’s first food review.
Since Mommy is a slacker, it’s Daddy’s turn.
Suzianne started “eating” (eating is a relative term. Wearing, spitting, drooling could also be substituted here) stage 1 food recently and here are her votes:
Peas: Meh. She’ll eat them but not that enthused.
Apples: OMG Yesyesyesyes. Please more now.
Pears: See Apples.
Sweet potatoes: Mostly positive. Don’t overdo it.
Bananas (or Nanners in the Newman household): She’ll eat them but doesn’t go crazy like Apples and Pears.
Green Beans: Green Beans are verboten for the near future. Remember the “beans, beans are good for your heart” song? Yes you do. Anyway, it’s real and it kept little Z up all night making noises from everywhere humans can make noises. And she was screaming. So yeah, this is a thumbs down.
Carrots: She likes these but she has to be nakey nakey to eat these or they stain whatever she’s wearing.
Bacon: Come on. I didn’t really feed her bacon…yet.
I’ve been mixing up the brands on these and don’t really see a difference in how much she likes one over another brand of the same food. I should pay more attention to that, though. I’ve been purchasing Gerber, Earth’s Best, O Organics (Safeway’s organic food), and Plum Organics. Also, we tried rice cereal:
Not interested.
She’s very advanced
One thing I love about Dave is now genuinely fascinated he is by Suzianne’s developmental milestones. I share his enthusiasm. Each new thing she does is a full-out Team Newman celebration. However, I am realistic about her understanding and motivation for some lesser “advancements.”
Take this action, for example:
Mmmm. Why, thank you for the milk, mother.
If you are Dave: this is a photo of your BRILLIANT SPAWN daintily tapping at the corners of her mouth after a delicious meal.
If you are me: this is a photo of Suzianne attempting to stuff a burp cloth into her slobbery pie hole. And she’s doing this only because she recently figured out how to grab things and smack herself in the face with them.
Every time Suzianne smushes something against her face after her bottle, Dave beams with paternal pride and exclaims, “Look, baby! Suzianne is wiping her mouth!”
I love this child and all that, but I’m not buying it.
Father’s Day with Burt, Beer and BBQ
We had a wonderful Father’s Day! Special shout out to Suzianne for allowing us to sleep til 8 a.m., and power-napping from 1-3 p.m. while we drove around town looking at pretty houses. Some highlights:
There were matching shirts (sorta):
Did you know that Ralph Lauren has like 75 shades of pink shirts for dudes and like 12 shades of pink outfits for babies, and that none of them match? This is the best I could do:
There was BBQ:
And of course, there was that great Father’s Day tradition of gathering the family around the Xbox to watch Smokey and the Bandit:
Wait. What? I don’t know. It’s Dave’s favorite move ever. Suzianne is a big Burt Reynolds fan, so it all works out:
I wish I could adequately explain how awesome it is watching Dave and Suzianne together. He’s a fabulous father. A kind, fun, loving daddy who brings instant joy to our baby’s face.
From her first day on this Earth, he’s been committed to giving her the very best. I can tell by the way he looks at her–and the time he spends with her–that he loves Suzianne more than he’s ever loved anyone. Sometimes, I think his heart might burst.
I’m a lucky gal; so is Suzianne.
We love you, Newman!
How to get rid of cradle cap
My girl has had a stubborn case of cradle cap. Folks said it would go away on it’s own, but it just seemed to get worse each week. And you know I’m not one to sit around and wait.
Yesterday, I’d had enough, so I asked a few folks and the Internet what I should do about it. The overwhelming consensus: olive oil and a toothbrush.
I dabbled some oil on her head and eyebrows, waited a few minutes and began rubbing the problem areas with an extra soft toothbrush:
The scales started to pull away from her little head! Added benefit: she smelled like dinner:
After a couple of minutes, I wiped the scales away with a warm washcloth. And what do you know? Her head was virtually scale-free:
Of course, I have no clue if this stuff comes back after a while or what. But this method seems to be working for now!*
*Always consult your pediatrician before attempting to remove cradle cap from your infant with a method you read about on some random gal’s blog. I’m kind of a big deal, but I’m no doctor.