100 days of crying

Our friend Nancy (who knows a thing or two about children) told us about how some cultures (I believe they are east Asian) call the first few months of a baby's life "The 100 Days of Crying." Apparently, the baby isn't quite ready to be a real human and therefore cries a lot during the first 100 days.

And sometimes, even "a lot" of crying is a major understatement.

Well, today Catherine is 100 days old. And the crying has all but vanished.

She actually stopped the mindless fussiness about a week ago. This coincided with other exciting things - use of the hands, gratuitous smiling, even some giggling.

Yep, this is going to be fun.

And incidentally, Nancy also believes she sees a lot of Jenny in these most recent pictures. Which I think is great, because Jenny is a whole better looking than I am.

Another snow day

So more pics of the Bean!

With Granny, laughing and eating:




Those big blue eyes, ever-alert and taking it all in:

In the carrier

She's got hands

So now she's got hands. Or she always did, but now she knows she's got them and she definitely wants to use them. If a toy or our hands are held in front of her, she reaches for them (in her disjointed way), grabs hold, and gives a smile. She particularly loves grabbing mom's shirt while being fed.

We got a new baby carrier, too. We were using an older Bjorn, but it was hard to get her in and out and even harder to adjust it to fit me or Jenny, depending on the user. Since she was enjoying the Bjorn so much, we decided to get a newer, more adjustable, and more comfortable carrier. The choices were many and most were expensive... we went with the Lascal M1 (no pics with her in it yet, but here it is).
On saturday morning, it was really warm here (+5C), so I strapped her in and took her down to Local Jo's coffee shop. It was an unqualified success. She loved it. She's really going to enjoy going for walks in this thing when the weather turns warmer.

"Zzzzzzzz":


I tried to grade some tests:


In her nightie:

Smiley baby:

Playing with Grampy:


In this video, she practices one of her new skills. She likes to grab hold of my hands and then pull herself towards me. Here it is:

Three months old today

...where does the time go?

Weekends with Catherine

It's dad's turn to get in on the action. Here's what went down this weekend:

On saturday, Ellie watched some hockey with me.


On sunday morning, we woke the baby up and played with her. First, it was almost-tummy time.


Then it was for-real tummy time. She doesn't like this as much.


Maybe you'd rather read a book?



"But dad, I'm hungry!"


"Actually, I think I'd prefer to see what's going on over here."


Ellie had to crash out from all the action. Notice how she's sleeping like an actual human - head on pillow, remote within reach.



And the highlight of every day with Catherine is getting her out of bed in the morning.

Daytime sleep training

Quickly:

things are good here.

Bean continues to learn about her hands. She can kinda-sorta reach for stuff, but doesn't really know what she's doing yet. Her grip is good, though.

Jenny's big focus right now is daytime nap training. Bean likes to be bounced to sleep but as she's getting heavier (or Jenny's getting weaker) this is wearing mom out. So the short-term goal is more napping on her own, and longer naps of more quality.

Night sleeping continues to go well. She's pretty much a 6pm to 6am girl with a couple of wakups in between. Consequently, I don't see her much in the evenings but the mornings rock. She wakes up and just lies in bed, cooing and gurgling, playing her own little games. Then we when go in to say hello, we get ear-to-ear smiles. Good times.

Now on to the pics:

Sing-a-long time

The new thing for CC now is singing along with mom.

When Jenny gets her ready for bed and sings in her ear, bean grunts, groans, and coos right along with the song.

Wicked.

And if you listen hard enough to the video, you'll hear Ellie and Rex wrestling.

Sorry about the poor quality.

Tummy time!

Ellie and Me

Jenny and I went on our 2nd date since CC was born. Today, it was to see Marley and Me.

The movie encapsulated a lot of what we - and other new parents - are going through. And it was a real tear-jerker at the end.

Sharing your life with a dog is a wonderful experience. I am not comparing it to having a child - they are totally separate things, and both are awesome.

However, dog owners know that having a dog in your life is something special, something that brings such love and joy and requires so little (comparatively speaking) effort on our parts.

I had read Marley and Me before we saw the movie, and it is a humorous and easy read - a great book. But for my money, the best book about a dog out there (and one of the best books I've ever read) is a book called Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote.

It is the definitive account of a man's love for his dog, it's a beautifully written story, and it's a must-read for any dog owner.

So while this blog is about our daughter, we should also appreciate one great dog: Ellie.

Squeals of delight in the morning

Sleep update

So lately Bean has had trouble napping during the day. She'll go for 40 minutes and then wake up because there's always something more exciting to do. She's always been an excellent night sleeper (12 hours, with 2-3 wakups of 10 minutes each), but her day naps have been getting worse.

Today, though, she's a champ. She's been going for 3 hours now, and - get this - she rolled onto her stomach on her own.

This is obviously a first. We were initially worried (because we're oversensitive to SIDS risks), but she seems to be loving it. 3 hours' worth of loving, in fact.

We're actually trying to get out for some errands, but we can't interrupt this awesomeness.

Getting vocal

Catherine loves to look at your face - into your eyes - and interact with you. It's really the coolest development yet for this young lady.

She is also discovering her hands, too. She and I have been working on getting her to grip my thumbs.

Jenny, however, grabs her hands and brushes them up against her face. This sends the bean into a happy state (we think we got our first laughs today). She also loves to chat with Jenny during the process.

Here's a video of CC having a great discussion with her mom: