Guaranteed Mood Enhancer

Funniest thing ever

And, in case that wasn't enough, a few recent Stella photos....




All dressed up for Lucy's 1st birthday



Who's a girly girl? Kitty in a purse!



Going to the Children's Museum. Stella insisted on the red jacket.


Somebody has decided that in addition to their Soothies, they have a favorite blankie.



Green polka dot PJs and the panda hat



Just a happy Sunday morning. Yes, Stella is totally pinching my cheek.

Teething Pain for All of Us

This hasn't been the easiest week. Stella's teething again--molars this time, which seem to be exceptionally painful and troublesome. It makes sense--they are bigger and broader. So it's been a week of drooling, fretting, sleeping very poorly, and general unhappiness. Add two increasingly sleep-deprived parents to the mix, and you're looking at a worn out, less patient household.

But she is getting to be quite a walker:


Stella seemed to be on some kind of weird feedback loop--with each bite, she'd take a lap. Watch this video, then realize this was after about 7 laps and before another couple....

Now that Stella's walking, she has a little more post-bath naked time, wandering around between getting dried off and put into PJs.


Naked baby walking--we couldn't resist. It's so cute and ridiculous!


Her abandoned bath toys look so sad....

Tonight after her bath she came up to me resting on the couch (did I mention getting up every four hours last night?) and cuddled up on my chest, just like she did as a newborn. So despite my exhaustion, low patience and eagerness for her to get some much needed rest, it was a very sweet moment.


Seeing Stella like this reinforces just how much she's grown.

Happy Valentine's Day

Stella with one of her Valentines


The Valentine Ladybug

PS Stella is offically a walker!

Top 10 Ways Raising a Baby is like Travelling

As I type this entry, I realize I run the risk of sounding like an aging, paunchy former quarterback, reliving his high school glory days. This Sunday, Valentine's Day, marks the three year anniversary of our departure for our round the world trip. Three years (how is that possible?) since we left and we kicked off this blog. In some ways, it all still feels so immediate and relevant. In other ways, our life is so settled and changed that gallivanting around the world seems like a distant experience. Maybe some of these things help keep it closer even as it does grow more distant with time.


Leaving for our 7 month trip


Starting our adventure in parenting

In no particular order:

1. Different bathroom priorities.

In Bolivia and Eastern Europe, it was finding bathrooms you didn't have to pay for. In other places, it was just some basic--and fairly broadly defined--level of hygiene. Now it's about changing tables. Better yet, changing tables in the men's and women's room. Couch to sit on for nursing gets extra bonus points (go, Nordstrom!).

2. Different eating requirements

While travelling, it was often about finding food that wouldn't come back to haunt us later. Now, it's about high chairs, relatively friendly (or at least understanding) wait staff, and-oddly, and increasingly--some kinds of kids options. Stella eats enough now, that it's not even always enough to just feed her off of our plates!

3. Regular language barriers.

In Budapest, a nice woman who spoke Hungarian and German tried to help give us directions. Until after we were finished talking, I thought she was asking us for directions. Now, I get to interpret Stella's mouth rubbing: could mean she wants water, could be food, could be milk, could be soothie, could be something I can never quite figure out. And then there's the incredibly high-pitched squeal that we're trying hard to keep from meaning anything to discourage her from continuing making that noise.

4. Everything takes longer than expected.

In India, we'd rush to make a bus only to spend the next 2 hours circling around town picking up other passengers. Things are getting easier as Stella gets older, but everything takes me longer. Responding to emails. Getting to the post office. Going to the grocery store. Getting out the door.

5. Lots more regular exposure to bodily fluids.

Particulary in India, I could hardly turn around without seeing a man urinating on the street. Before Stella started eating real food, the diapers weren't so bad, but now they are pretty stinky and gross. And I got thrown up on three times during one particular illness.

6. Irregular sleeping patterns.

In Turkey and Egypt, it was night buses that made Tyler cranky and miserable. And, of course, there was just the jet lag from moving across time zones. Now it's Stella's occasional still-too-frequent middle of the night wakings that make us both a little crazy.

7. Harder to maintain usual grooming standards.

In the last year, I managed to get my haircut two times, and Tyler regular gets a little mountain-man-esque between trips to the barbershop. Not so different from our days in Tasmania and Kenya.

8. More opportunities to be present.

I'm a list-maker. I'm generally thinking ahead, thinking of what needs to be done, when we'll get certain things accomplished. This has it positive sides, but it also means that I can get so caught up in thinking ahead that I don't enjoy the moment I'm in. Travelling can often give you an opportunity to take stock, and see your world with new eyes. Stella forces me to slow down and be. To slow down and appreciate little things--the view outside the front window, the sound of the neighbor's dog barking, birds eating in the lawn.

9. More interactions with strangers/locals

Coming home from the trip, I remember feeling a little sad that we'd have less opportunity to talk to random people. Sure, part of it is just being out and about less and having a close circle of friends that we already don't get to see often enough--it just is less of a necessity and opportunity in life at home. But being pregnant and having a baby changes that. Stella will stare people down, and people are often just drawn to smile at babies, looking for a reaction. And people with babies will often at least exchange names, ages and a little bit of commiseration. It's nice to have that little connection with people.

10. Increasing savviness as time goes on

By the time Tyler and I were in Egypt, we were hip to the usual scams, not afraid to fight the crowds at the train station to try and buy tickets on our own rather than get stuck in some kind of tour or package deal. We knew what to look for in a hostel, a restaurant, how we wanted to spend our time. While Stella's ever changing, I do feel like I keep gaining confidence and comfort in my role as a parent. I'm learning her personality and needs and wants, and my own way of parenting. I still have days when my patience wears thin and I'm frustrated by not being able to be as efficient and productive as I might like, but it's easier and easier to get things done, have fun and spend quality time together.


Adventures still to come....

A Sometimes Walker

Stella still isn't consistently walking, but she is walking more often and for more steps....

Yes!

Our campaign of "yes" against the constant barrage of "no"s seems to have worked....

14 Months (and 7 days, if you want to be technical about it)

As Stella gets older, each month's passing isn't necessarily quite as momentous as during the first year, but she's still changing an awful lot. And, as this is her virtual baby book, I thought it a good time to take stock on where she's at these days.


Stella at 14 months!


It's pretty exciting!

Stella's generally a voracious eater. Most mornings, Tyler makes her 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal with blueberries--and she eats the entire thing! She also seems to have largely inherited Tyler's taste buds. Bring on the pickles, vinegar, things that are zesty and flavorful--curry, soy sauce, butter chicken, roasted pepper and tomato soup. I'm often surprised by what she likes. And sometimes by what she doesn't. She doesn't seem to be so much of a comfort food, mashed potatoes, mac 'n cheese kind of gal. She's also a bit of a fickle foodie. One week, she could eat peas and only peas. Next week, all she's into is trying to squish them between her fingers. Lately, broccoli, mango and beef tenderloin have topped the list, but it could all be different in a few days.

Stella still is largely happy to interact with the world while holding onto our fingers. She loves when we take her outside to walk around the block. When we went to the aquarium last week, she practically walked through the whole place holding my hand--clearly she's got some balance, leg strength and stamina. She could walk (and will take some steps or walk when she's sufficiently distracted), she just hasn't decided that she wants to yet. For now, when she wants to get somewhere, she'll reach for one of our fingers insistently. When we try to encourage to get around with her own steam (I mean, she could still crawl), she gets pretty frustrated. She doesn't want to crawl, but she doesn't want to walk alone. Sometimes, under duress, she'll do this funny thing where she'll walk while kneeling. I was so convinced she would be an early walker--just another way she's teaching me that I'm not really in charge. While sometimes I get a little impatient for her to start walking independently, I also am a little happy to not have to chase after her quite yet.


Stella's own special mode of transport, not crawling, not quite walking....

She's also at that fun age when she wants to mimic us and "help." If we give her trash, we'll walk (together) to the kitchen, then she'll open the cabinet, put it in the can, and close the door. Now, I know this will ultimately lead to her throwing all kinds of things away that don't really belong in the trash, but for now it's pretty darned cute. And she wants to help sweep, put her dish in the sink, and comb her hair (though she no longer wants to brush her teeth). Probably related to the trash thing, she's really into putting things into other things--toys into an old diaper wipes box, balls into an empty Kleenex box, and sometimes with toys that are actually meant to encourage such behavior. (I'm still waiting to see this manifest itself with putting clothes back in the dresser, or my shoes back in the closet after she's pulled them all out....)

Probably less fun but equally developmentally important is that she's increasingly stubborn and getting frustrated. There's lots of head shaking (even when she really means yes), frustrated noises, and the throwing herself down onto the ground--when we're lucky, this means stretching out on her belly and kicking her legs. When we're not, she throws all caution to the wind and throws her head back, which then gives her a legitimate reason to cry.


This does not illustrate the previous statement at all--it's just a cute picture of Stella and Tyler together. We tend not to take pictures during the mini-tantrums (though we do sometimes have to try hard not to laugh at her melodramatics).

What else? More hair--if still a bit short and straight on top and fluffy and curly in the back. More sounds--da and ma and a dog barking noise that sounds like a cross between bow-wow and woof ("bwu, bwu"). More teeth coming in on her bottom gum. And better sleeping--she's been consistently sleeping through the night, 12+ hours, to our relief, with the side effect of seeming to move to only one nap a day.


Becoming a better sleeper. I think she still likes that newborn feeling of being all cozy and confined--we often find her looking cramped in the corner end of her bed, with her head nestled into a corner.

She can (fairly reliably) get down off of the couch or the futon downstairs. Stella's also pretty obsessed with bellybuttons (or "oodle" in Bahasa Indonesia). She can find hers and is very amused to see other's. She still loves monkeys and kitties and the recycling/yard waste truck and guys. She's also probably inherited some of her parent's shyness--in large crowds, she'll definitely hang back and wait to get her bearings. Sometimes she'll do this thing in a new situation where she'll just freeze in place, standing stock still or once or twice even in mid-crawl. Other current activities and faves:


I don't know if when my sister-in-law Jeanne got Stella these sunglasses she realized how much Stella would like them!


Hipster Stella (and dad)



Always interested in the world outside--and tall enough to see out this window now.


Playing with the farm


Besides all the recent sickness, this is a pretty fun age. Stella's starting to seem more like a little girl than a baby, which is pretty amazing, considering what she was like a year ago. I'm still looking forward to being able to have conversations, but it's pretty cool to realize that she really is understanding what we say and to see her be a little scientist all the time, experimenting with how the world works and how she can have an impact on things. And she keeps our lives filled with lots of laughter:





Stella, we love you!