Baby Business

Everybody needs a job. I've gone back to work, Drake went back to work long ago, even Petey has a job ("Cleanup, aisle 3, kitchen spill"). And then there's the baby.

We let her freeload for a while. You know, just to get her feet wet and figure out this world outside the womb. But hey, she's 5 months old now -- you don't get a free ride forever, kid. We had to use tough love. Now, every day, we send her to The Office.

Oh, she was resistant at first. I mean, she's had it pretty good -- gets carried wherever she wants to go, fed on demand, washed without lifting a finger. It was a sweet ride. But once she tried The Office she was hooked.

It's all Baby Business, all the time.

Remi Finds Her Feet

It's hard to believe she's 5 months old already, and discovering her lower extremities! Yay for Remi!

Off to Work I Go

Drake is not happy about me going back to work. For that matter, neither is Remi. And can you blame her? I'm most of what her short little life has been about. Until now.

So off I go at 11 pm, confident that Drake and Remi will sort things out. And then 9 hours later in I walk, "Hello! How're things!"

"There's no time to chat," Drake replies urgently. "Take the baby."

The room is a disaster. Diapers and changing pads strewn about the floor, comforter and sheets in a tangled mess. A near empty bottle peeks out from beneath a pillow, and Drake's hair stands out from her head on all sides. My mouth falls open, Drake is at wits' end, and the baby, well... she has no pants, and a big grin on her face.

It would appear that Drake was more traumatized by my absence than Remi was.

Of course, I eventually got the whole story. How Remi had no patience for the time it took to heat a bottle. How she took one look at the bottle and let out a scream of refusal. How she was still hungry after the first bottle, so Drake quickly put together a 2nd one out of the fridge, didn't even take the time to heat it, but apparently didn't screw the lid on all the way, either, thereby causing cold milk to pour all over the Poobah. So then she had a cold, wet, hungry, screaming baby who needed an outfit change.

And of course there's a part of me that thinks the whole thing is pretty funny. Though I know it wasn't at all funny at 2 am.

P.S. There is no way I am allowed to publish a picture of Drake and her hair, so this post shall remain photo-less.

Baby's 1st Christmas

It's Christmas morning. Baby's 1st Christmas. The cameras are at the ready, the Flip recorder is rolling. And The Poobah... slept.

And slept.

And slept.

We opened the gifts without her. Ostensibly because Emlyn is only 4 and couldn't wait. But at least in part, too, because we are practical adults who realize that it's much easier to get down to business when there's not a baby in your lap. A baby who, let's face it, doesn't much care at this age about the whole celebration.

So we had our coffee in peace, and oohed and ahed over Remi's gifts on her behalf. And later, we took her out to see Christmas lights, which were, after all, far more her speed. She thought they were pretty fascinating. She also thought Emlyn was pretty fascinating: someone closer to her size, who acted silly and did a chicken dance and fell to the floor repeatedly. Behaviour worthy of quite a few giggles -- the sight and sound of which was probably the best gift of all.

Adventures in Rice Cereal

A few weeks back, we started Remi on rice cereal, just figuring we'd start getting her used to the experience. So here and there we'd suit her up in a bib, stir up some cereal, and away we'd go.

But then, a few days ago, we were out for burritos. She was sitting in my lap, and next I know, she's got hold of the guacamole cup. We thought that was pretty funny, that maybe she'll grow up to love Mexican food as much as we do. And then we went on about our day. Until that evening, when we were having soup for dinner...

Again, she was sitting in my lap (she is, after all, the Grand Poobah, She Who Must Be Humored and Obeyed). Next thing I know she's got hold of my soup bowl and soup (fortunately not very hot soup) is dribbling down the tablecloth, down my leg, off her hand. So now we're realizing, this child is hungry.

We've stepped up the rice cereal offerings, though I can't say there's much intake there. I'm not sure she even likes it, given the faces she makes when she takes a bite. But last night, when she started gazing intently at my dinner bowl, I had the sense to do two things: first, move it out of her reach; and second, feed her from her own bowl, so she could join us in the dinner ritual. Now if only we could teach her better table manners...

Up, Up and Away: First Flight

Remi took her first flight for the Thanksgiving holiday: a trip to Denver to meet Drake's side of the family. What a great little traveler! Our flight on the way there was over an hour delayed, but she just lay on the floor at the airport (on a blanket) and played with her toys.

Grandma and Grandpa Lovato were thrilled to meet the baby, and Remi took to them right away. Grandpa taught Rem how to watch TV, and Grandma took her to the store for a Christmas sleeper and a whole new slew of toys (which she loves).

We took a trip up to the mountains to visit Drake's brother's family, and that's where the competition began: cousin Megan and Grandpa Lovato played steal the baby, while cousin Davis just did his best to clown around and make Remi laugh. With all the family around, I don't think the Poobah's feet touched the ground once all week!

As if meeting a whole new family of relatives weren't enough, we took the Remster for her all important first meeting with Santa. First we prepared her with a big plastic Santa at home. And then, it was off to the mall. Remi did great: she wouldn't smile in Santa's lap, but she didn't cry, either.

Caught on Tape: Giggles 'n Roll

Now that the Remster has learned to giggle, she actually does it fairly often. In this little video clip, she was looking at the kitchen overhead light and just giggling away. I simply HAD to catch it on video, so I ran to get the Flip and prayed that she would do it again when we got back. And she was kind enough to oblige.

The next clip is from October 21st, which is the first day Remi rolled over. She did it several times on that day, and hasn't been too keen to do it since. All in good time, I suppose.

Other than giggling away, she's just been up to her usual baby business. We're taking her to Denver for T-day so she'll have her first plane trip to blog about soon. We'll keep you posted!