Four Months and Growing STRONG

Well, Berit has made it four months without being eaten by German Shepherds or abandoned on the side of the road by her parents.  We are both very glad about this since she's become a lot of fun.  It is hard to remember when she didn't have a very demanding opinion on something.  I can already see what her teen years will be like...


She is in the 75th percentile for her height and weight: proof that exclusively breastfed babies don't starve!  I am pretty darn proud of myself for that.  Actually proud of all of us.  She is a stupendous eater, although the reverse cycling can be exhausting, and Pete is a saint for packing her up for downtown field trips every day he is off work.  We expect we are looking at a future basketball, rock climbing, muy thai fighting, running superstar.  Certainly she will love snow, the outdoors and her GSDs.  She now regularly works out in her johnny jump up and einstein saucer, growing those porkpie thighs into legs of steel.  If only I could say the same about myself...

She has found her hands, sometimes just a thumb but usually more and she has "floating" teeth which are causing her some discomfort as they rise and sink without cracking through her gums.  

Lately her favorite thing is upside down. I can't blame her as the change of perspective would do us all good.  It's particularly entertaining when she whips her head back to expose me while nursing.  What a kid!

Good chubby thighs on those strong legs.  We think she will walk without crawling:
why waste time when there are things to explore?

Berit does a superb job of getting ready with momma in the morning. The typical routine is to start with the bouncy chair in the bathroom while I shower, then the Bear showers, then I get her dressed, then I get dressed and she eats and off we go.  Here she is with Auntie Bre Bre's wonderful blanket, waiting to go to nursery school.

She loves her johnny jump up so much!  Lingo appreciates the convenience for diaper checks.

Could she be any cuter??

Oh wait, yes she could!

Raising Bears

There will be more stories soon -- again, sorry not to stay current. I am back working, pumping twice a day plus feeding the kid at lunch.  There have been some great moments, like traveling for work and pumping in the courthouse parking lot or spending a quiet hour in the kids corner at the public library, choking down Sarah Palin's literary atrocity and nursing the sweet daughter.  And bad times too, like leaving for work after the first full-on baby vomit, cutting her nail short enough to draw blood and leaving daycare with her in tears after a rough night.  But we are all adjusting.  And if these pictures tell the story, I'd say that adjustment is going quite well.

In one of her wool soakers; I knit a lot of these
in my final months of pregnancy

With our wonderful neighbor, Pat

Pat and the kids -- the furry ones did not want to share her attention with Bear!

Berit works on sitting

She continues to be expressive: more targeted yelling, lots of coos and babbling. 

I just know she is thinking "seriously, mom? stop."

She already hates laundry

Her baby goggles finally fit, she loves them.
And to think, Pete made fun of me when I bought them!

2011 Arrives

For New Year's Eve, Berit and I drove to Grand Marais (on our own!) to celebrate Auntie BreBre's birthday and meet Miss Hiver (Auntie Brienne's new little one)

We had a great time visiting and love Dan and Bre's new home.  Wonderful bed and breakfast luxuries!

Dan and the Bear

Bre finds a new position for a happy baby!

It also meant I got to replace the traumatic memory of the last time I took Berit on a road trip alone.  That venture in mid-October ended with us pulled off the expressway, both sobbing and three frantic dogs waiting to be rescued by Grandma Val and Aunt Krista.  Such a disaster...

All the travel and celebrations made for one tired Bear

Berit had New Year's Day dinner at Sara's Table

This trip was excellent, despite bad roads and failing windshield wipers, the kid did terrific.

Cousins!

Our babysitters get diaper training from Aunt Jenny

Berit and Elizabeth

Berit and Madeline

Berit's First Christmas

I have to apologize for being so delinquent on the blog. I guess it is a sign of the future. Bear is now very social, going out to dinner and talking on the phone.  She is squirmy and not content unless you are engaging with her, blowing bubbles and getting her to test out her snorts and (almost) giggle.  I hear that the older they get the more they move and the more fun they are.  That is certainly the case here.  This is of course an improvement over the days when the colic got the best of all of us.

Christmas was on the road, on the road, on the road.  First to Mound, then to Hovland, then to Two Harbors.  Berit did amazing!  She was a terrific traveler, even after she caught a nasty cold from her papa.

Uncle Woody with Berit Christmas morning

Bear in Grandpa Doug's big bear hands 

Now we know who Berit gets her funny faces from...

New Family Portrait

Christmas evening

Berit is three months long!

These pictures were taken one day late.  The 22nd was one of the bad days for the Bear.  Fortunately they are getting fewer and farther between...

Lingo cold noses the baby 

Berit thinks these monthly sizing photos are getting ridiculous

In fact she's had enough posing

But first, Berit demonstrates her height.

I've never tasted so much breastmilk and other daddy moments

Full disclosure: I screwed up and forgot to post this entry from December 18th!

With Pete taking leave for December and me back in the office, the baby feeding has been revised.  The night before returning to work I made the mistake of reading about too much lipase resulting in unpalatable breastmilk.  Berit had been declining the bottle and I was trying to reassure Pete that this happens and she wouldn't starve because I needed a paycheck.  Lipase is an enzyme which occurs naturally and some women have more than others.  It isn't bad for anyone from what I've read, but it makes your milk taste soapy or metallic after being expressed unless you scald it before refrigerating or freezing, and frankly, most babies probably object to soapy milk.  (Lipase aids in digestion and basically "eats" the fat, making milk taste bad.)  I read too much.  I stayed up for hours, counting my frozen stash and thawing and sniffing and tasting, terrified that all of my work in creating a bank of milk was a waste and that my daughter could only be nursed fresh milk (what working mother could ever pump and scald milk all day long?)  It was just another thing for me to lose my shit over and sure enough I did.

When I went to work I still wasn't certain what would happen with the bottle and the milk and the lipase.  Upon returning home after the second day of work, Pete says, "I've tasted more breastmilk in the last two days than I ever thought I would."  Ah, the joys of parenthood.