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!

Hee Hee, Ha Ha -- Remi's First Giggle

Okay, maybe it's not technically her first, since she has long giggled in her sleep, but it was her first awake giggle. Just a little chuckle that made my day.

We were playing with a bunny hand puppet passed on to Remi from Emlyn. I've done it before -- put the puppet on my hand and played with Rem. She's fascinated by it, watching the bunny's head, holding the bunny's hand, following the floppy ears. But today was special, because today the bunny made her giggle.

There hasn't been a repeat performance yet (though you can bet that as soon as Drake got home we had that puppet out). But it's only a matter of time. She's a happy baby, full of smiles, who will no doubt fill our home with laughter for years to come.

From 4 to 94: Remi's SoCal Tour

I thought it was supposed to be soooo easy to travel with a baby. That they sleep all the time, no problem taking a long drive, blah, blah, blah. I don't know -- i guess it's all relative. Like, it's much easier at 2-1/2 months than it will be at 1 year. And it wasn't so bad, it's just that of course Remi didn't want to sit in a car seat for 7 hours straight. Who can blame her?

But we made it from Oakland to LA with minimal pain, just in time to attend cousin Emlyn's 4th birthday party. What a great time! All the family was in attendance, plus pre-school and neighborhood friends. While Emlyn enjoyed her bouncy house, Remi made the rounds of available arms to hold her, transport her, and cater to her every wish and desire. A good time was had by all, until...

Illness struck the Frederick household, spreading quickly from one family member to another. As Head Servant to the Grand Poobah I cared for her, washed my hands incessantly, and somehow managed to keep her happy and healthy. Thank god. But it did slow our trip down, as we thought it prudent to delay our visit to the Great Grandmas until good health had been re-established.

But visit we did, albeit a day late. First stop: Great-Grandma Deane. She'd been anticipating our visit for months, and was thrilled to meet her latest grandchild. After they got to know each other, on we went to Joshua Tree. We spent the night with Chris, then traveled over to Indio to meet Great Grandma Vivian (also known as GiGi). At 94, she's the oldest to Remi's youngest. What a Kodak moment!

Unfortunately for us, we packed ourselves up the very next morning for a 12 hour drive back to Oakland, making it back just in time for Halloween trick or treaters -- Remi's very first Halloween! But that's a-whole-nother subject...

(Photos in this post from top to bottom: Angie, David and Remi; G-Grandma Deane, Dylan and Remi; Chris, G-Grandma Vivian and Remi. View all pics from Emlyn's B-day trip.)

The Mud Hut

For the most part, I'm doing okay with the interupted sleep thing. Even though I am a person who, before motherhood, slept a minimum of 9 hours a night. Even though I am, shall we say, of advanced maternal age and, in all fairness, I deserve more sleep at this stage of life, not less.

Chalk it up to The Poobah getting up earlier these last few days. Combine that with the fact that she still refuses to go to bed before, say, 11 or 12 PM. And that, in the 7 hour stretch between 11 and 6, she gets up at least twice for an hour each turn to eat. So on my approximately 5 hours per night sleep-deprived brain I visited, this morning, what can only be termed The Mud Hut.

Double strength coffee.

That's right. I made coffee this morning with not 6 but 12 heaping scoops of fully caffeinated Peet's coarse grind Organic blend beans. In my french press. Which makes strong coffee to begin with.

None of this on purpose, you understand.

But I might have noticed something terribly awry when I poured in water and the grounds bubbled up. I might have noticed something amiss when I stirred the pot and met resistance in the consistency of the brew. Or perhaps when I tasted it and suffered an instant rush to the head from what should have been my usual wake-up cup.

But no, I just added more sugar and took another sip. Wincing at the bitterness of it all.

(Photos from top to bottom: Dylan and Remi; Drake and Remi)