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Ella's 2-month checkup at the doctor's office

13lbs, 13oz. (this is about 6.26 kg).
24.5" (about 62cm).
Ella is heavier and taller than more than 95% of the babies her age. the doctor said she's just perfect!
for the first time we heard what it sounds like when Ella is in real pain - she got some vaccinations by injections, and her screams were heartbreaking :( she calmed down pretty fast and fell asleep on my shoulder, then slept in the car till we got back home.
now she's talking to her starfish again, seems like she mostly forgot all about it.

(the blue thing on her thigh is a snoopy band aid they put on her after pricking her with the needle :( brave little munchkin!)

daycare on the horizon

we had a meeting with a potential day-care a couple of days ago. the place is in Hyde Park, just a few minutes from work - so we can drop her off before going to work and pick her up on the way home, and also come and visit her if we feel like during the day.

the care-taker seemed like a warm, child-loving person. she has 6-8 kids that she looks after with her assistant. besides the usual activities (nap times, snack times, playing, books, music...) they take them out to the park, and the older kids get to go to the museums, aquarium, zoo...
we're still trying to decide when to start daycare. for now we take turn watching over the little munchkin, each of us trying to allow the other at least a few effective hours of work each day. we'll probably start gradually, 1-2 times a week at first, and then gradually work up to full time.

one issue that i had was that the person who is the main care-taker of the little ones (like Ella) speaks only spanish, and i was worried that hearing three languages on a daily basis will be too confusing for her.
i asked some parents of bilingual kids, and almost everybody says that a third language shouldn't be confusing, because infants learn language through an entirely different process than adults. she will learn that "Mayim" "aqua" and "water" are just three ways of describing the same thing, much like "pretty" and "beautiful" are two different words with similar meaning.
what do you think?

in the clear

we called the doctor's office about Ella's rash/baby-acne, and they sent us to get some ointment to put on her face. while she didn't like the actual application of the ointment, she did like the end result - her face cleared and stopped being itchy almost right away, and now, only 3 days later, it seems to be all clear. hooray for modern medicine!
the moral of this little story: call the doctor, even when the baby-instruction-book says that "it's normal and there's nothing to do about it".

before	after

breakthroughs

we had two major breakthroughs yesterday.
in the effort to keep baby happy and content, we've started to run out of ideas. there's a good number of things she likes doing (besides eating, which is #1): staring at our faces, sitting on her bouncer and playing with us, or looking at her aquarium on her own, looking at her mobile, or sitting in her bouncer half asleep while ben's foot is in charge of the bouncing... but she would only do any of those for a limited amount of time, and then she gets bored, and starts to cry expecting us to solve her discomfort or entertain her otherwise (see baby loop post...).
when everything else fails, ben just holds her upright, facing forward, and walks around with her so she can "look at stuff". if you don't have a baby around, try holding a 12lb (5-6 kg) bag of potatoes like that for a while. it's a muscle builder.

well, FINALLY, Ella warmed up to her swing, which puts another weapon in our arsenal.*

and yesterday while shopping at Meijer's, and Ella wanted to be held and look at us and wouldn't agree to stay in the stroller, she finally warmed up to the baby carrier. (we did use it once before when she was too little to argue). now that she can hole her head, she can face forward and look around, and she likes it much more. and we like it much more, because it's easier on our backs and arms :)

* if anyone is looking for a good useful present for us, a battery charger (that takes all sizes of batteries) is a good idea. both the swing and the bouncer are battery-operated ;)

sleeeeeep

if you need something to help you sleep more calmly, here:

Phil's new home

Phil the philodendron has outgrown his home, and it's time to help him move to a new, larger apartment :)


(before)


the roots have completely filled the old pot. definitely time to move out! scrooge is trying to help of course.

after: Phil is happy in his new stylish pot.

i also gave him a little bit of a haircut, because he's trying to make his way down the hall to our bedroom with his long tentacles :P