eight months

Our little lady is 8 months old today!  It feels like she changed so much lately. This month we had to lower her crib to the lowest setting, she learned how to blow raspberries (she mimics us when we do it), and she sings along to her favorite nursery rhyme toy.  She's pulling herself up on everything, crawls half-standing, says 'da-da', and is just an absolute joy each and every day.

I'm happy to report that after 5 days of an inhaler and medicine for RSV at the beginning of the month, Allie has been perfectly healthy this month. She officially has 2 bottom teeth and she's constantly gnawing on something so I don't think it will be long before more push through.

Allie is wearing 6-12 month onesies and pants.  Size 3 diapers.  9 month PJs.  A couple of days ago, we both agreed that she has gotten leaner lately.  I think being so active is making her lose some baby pudge. 

Allie's beloved teething toy has gone missing but I luckily found a very similar silicone toy in San Francisco that seems to suffice.  (Update: I found the toy under the bed in a certain dog's mouth.  A replacement has been ordered.)

She loves sorting through things like our laundry, the magazine basket, her shoes and her toy bucket.  She'll be entertained for 15-20 minutes at a time...just sitting there...pulling things out, pulling things apart, trying to eat things...  She also is loving the spring door stops around the house.  I can sneak away for a quick second and know she's still in the same spot because the sound reverberates through the house.

Carson's mom stayed with us for a week and helped Allie recover from RSV.  I think it was really good for Allie to be at home that week and get 100% better and we are so thankful that Laurie was able to come stay with us.  

At daycare, they're trying to phase her out of her 3rd nap of the day.  She typically takes a short catnap and I really don't want her to drop it just yet.  If she doesn't take it, by the time I get her home and fed, she's absolutely exhausted and I don't get to spend hardly any time with her.  If she does take that 3rd nap, she still has enough energy to play around with us for about an hour after we get home.  Her schedule didn't change much from last month.  She is in bed every night by 7 and she wakes up between 6-7.  She nurses 4-5 times each day during the weekend and gets 2-3 meals.  We just recently introduced her to puffs and started giving her more of our food, like crackers and yogurt.

I almost ran completely out of milk in the freezer earlier this month when Allie was sick.  Around that same time, I got sick and everything just tanked.  I started eating steel cut oats every morning and had mother's milk tea for a couple of nights and noticed a big difference.  After our weekend in San Francisco, I still haven't gotten back up to where I was.  I'm hoping I can continue adding to the freezer stash these next couple of weeks so that I won't have to introduce formula when Carson and I are in Portland in May.

Lately I'm realize that I need to work on how I ask things and how I approach different situations especially when talking to/dealing with other mothers.  Sometimes genuine curiosity seems to come out as thought I think my child is better.  Nobody wants to be that person.

roadtrip (with baby) essentials

Preparing for travel with a baby is different every time.  If we went somewhere else next weekend, we would probably need different things than we did for this trip.  The things that entertain her, appease her, and comfort her change so quickly and often.  The trip to San Francisco is about 4 hours so we had to stop once each way to feed Allie.  These are some notable things that helped us out on the trip when she was 7 months old:

Regular Stroller--Though not great with hills, our regular stroller was great for walking around the city.  We knew we were better at breaking down the regular stroller quickly so hopping on a bus or a trolley was no big deal.

Jogging Stroller--Okay, I supposed two different types of strollers would be considered an essential but you definitely need at least one.  We knew wanted to run across the Golden Gate Bridge at some point on our trip so taking both of our strollers was necessary for our trip.  Our jogging stroller doesn't have nearly the coverage with its canopy as our regular stroller does.  Since we knew it was going to rain, we wanted to have both so we could keep Allie dry when we weren't doing anything super active.

Puffs--The day before we left town, our daycare provided suggested we started getting Allie to eat more finger foods.  When we arrived in town, one of our first stops was a baby boutique and they happened to have some puffs.  We bought an organic brand...I feel like there's a lot of controversy about the nutritional content of puffs but in my mind they're more for developing the proper movement of her hands and fingers rather than providing her nutrients.  

Plum Food Pouches with Spoon--These pouches are great for feeding solids when you're not at home.  I had no idea the screw-on spoon even existed until Carson and Laurie picked up some when we were en route to Santa Barbara one day.

Toys--Allie must be working on pushing through more teeth because she is constantly gnawing on something.  She especially loves these silicone teething toys.

San Francisco Weekend

Two weekends ago, Carson and I decided on a whim that we wanted to spend our anniversary weekend in San Francisco.  We packed up the car, took the day off of work, and headed to the bay!  There were very few things we felt like we HAD to see since we had already hit most of the major tourist spots on our trip two years ago. We spent our weekend bouncing around from place to place and had a wonderful time!

Our first stop when we arrived on Friday was the Palace of Fine Arts.  Pictures of this place just don't do it justice.  It really is beautiful and huge.  Fun fact: it's one of the few remaining structures from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.  We had to look it up because we had no idea what it was.  On our way back to the hotel, we walked down Union Street and stopped in some shops.  My favorite baby stores were Giggle and Sprout.  California baby boutiques are all full of green toys and gadgets and extremely overpriced strollers and cribs.  I could spend hours perusing.  We like to try to find the most outrageous items in the stores...one time Carson found a car push toy that could fit in your palm for about $60.  For dinner that night, we split some tapas, paella and a pitcher of sangria at a Spanish restaurant by our hotel.  

Saturday morning we woke up and rode the trolley to the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market.  It was hands down the best farmer's market we've ever been to.  We probably should have bought breakfast but instead we started the day with an Aztec Spiced Chocolate Macaron from Tout Sweet and it was literally one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted.  I wish we would have gotten a dozen to snack on for the rest of the trip...or day.  The produce for sale looked wonderful and all of the food smelled delicious.  The next vendor that caught our attention was Little Apple Granola.  Seriously the best granola I've ever had...and the caramels they make are so so so good.  Be prepared family...there's a chance you'll get some of this for Christmas.

After the Farmer's Market, we headed to the Exploratorium at Pier 15.  I would not recommend the Exploratorium unless you have small children.  We actually got a discount when we mentioned we were visiting for our anniversary, but we still didn't particularly enjoy it.  It was PACKED with children and strollers but the concept was kind of cool.  All of the exhibits are made by people who are trying to make science very visual, hands on and easy to understand for children.  Carson probably enjoyed it more than I did because that's what he's into science-y/engineer-y gadgets and whatnot.  I did enjoy the light exhibits.  If you do go, make sure you pack snacks because granola bars cost $3.  Learned that one the hard way.  

Next stop was Union Square to do some shopping.  It was packed and we had a difficult time maneuvering around with the stroller.  Shopping with a stroller means lots of elevators and lots of time spent searching for elevators.  We eventually hopped on a bus and headed to The Mission District...a very "transitional" neighborhood.  There was a lot more activity and a lot less tourists in that part of town.  The restaurants and bars we passed were packed and it was mid-afternoon.  If we didn't have Allie, we probably would have hung out a bit longer and had a beer.  Instead we got some boba tea and started heading back.  We made a quick pit stop at the Boudin by Fisherman's Wharf and split a clam chowder bread bowl.  They totally charge more if you eat in the restaurant rather than the downstairs cafe.

Sunday morning, we left the hotel at 7 AM and began the 3 mile walk to the Golden Gate Bridge (it didn't cross our minds to drive).  We ran across the bridge through the wind and rain and then walked all the way back to the hotel.  It was drizzling at least a little bit the whole time and after 3 hours of those conditions, we were drenched.  We ran/walked over 9 miles that morning and I'm still feeling it days later.  When we got back to the hotel, we all took warm showers--even little Allie Faye.

It was so good to get away for a little bit.  Sometimes I wonder if I could handle living in a big city like that.  It definitely has a certain appeal to it...but weekend trips to experience it is totally fine by me for now.  I would say the only thing that we did differently because we had Allie was less walking through neighborhoods (because pushing the strollers through the hills did not sound appealing) and obviously much less alcohol.

Tips for San Francisco:

• Wear comfy shoes! I'm finally figuring this out. I wore tennis shoes the whole weekend and still ended up with blisters just because of the amount of walking we did.  It never fails.  But, I was much better off than I was in Seattle last year.
• Just buy a rain jacket if you think it might rain.  It will.  And you might as well be prepared.
• Beware of the homeless people-- they're a lot bolder in San Francisco.  I heard one woman blatantly ask a man to buy her some food in Union Square.  One morning, I walked out of the hotel lobby with an extra donut on my plate and a homeless man very nicely asked for it. I let him have it...otherwise I would have felt like a fatty.  In Chipotle we saw a petite Asian man throw a homeless man out who walked in, grabbed a cup out of the trash, and started filling it up with soda from the fountain.
• Fisherman's Wharf is overrated.  Go explore the neighborhoods!
• Walk/Run/Drive over the Golden Gate Bridge.  SOOO many people offered to take our picture for us!  They were so nice on the bridge.  
• Dress in layers.  The weather can be nuts.  Saturday was our craziest day.  Overcast and chilly in the morning, sunny and hot at noon, rainy mid-afternoon.  We typically had Allie in 3 layers but we still got judge-y looks from passersby.  Whatevs...
• Buy a pass for public transit.  It's not terribly sketchy and it's good to use to see more of the city if you're pressed for time.