Boys, Boys, and more Boys

What would you expect from a post with a title like this? Why, a post about Jessica, of course!

So, if you recall, a few weeks back, I posted about Jessica having a boyfriend two weeks after moving here and Derek feeling a need to shop for an axe. Well, two weeks after he asked her to go out with him, he tells her that they probably should break it off. Derek insists that they were never boyfriend/girlfriend since they never even went on one date. Did I mention that 2 other boys asked Jessica out that same day that Nick did? (yes, his name's Nick) She's quite the popular young lady, as evidenced by the non-stop texting she does on her phone. (A topic for another day)

Well, within a week of the breakup, she started to get asked out by a small handful of boys (one repeat and a couple of new boys in the mix). One of these boys is James, who happens to be friends with Nick. Nick is a sophomore, but James... James is a SENIOR. Now, Jessica insists that James is NOT her boyfriend, but admits that he's probably more of a boyfriend than Nick ever was. (How weird is that?) He's been over here twice after school already, gotten Jessica to play video games (which she's never cared much for before) and he bought her an afternoon snack at (are you ready for this?) Taco Bell (*swoon*). Ok, I'm being a little facetious, but maybe it's just lingering bitterness from dating guys in my youth that generally had less spending money than I did. I seem to recall paying for more meals/snacks than being recipients of them.

Now, don't get me wrong. James is a rather nice person and is very polite for his generation, but he has one bad habit, which is the sole reason for Derek not allowing Jessica to have James as her boyfriend. He smokes. (blech) We've been told by both of them that he is in the process of quitting, but until he is "quitted" of it, no boyfriend/girlfriend status is allowed and no kissing!

James, after hearing about the whole axe bit, has been a bit nervous about meeting Derek. So their first meeting was a pleasant surprise for both. Last week, when I had a dental appointment for my crown prep work, I brought the baby with me to the dentist office, where Derek came by to pick her up and brought her back home. Jessica, who forgot I wouldn't be home, comes in with James and the following conversation ensues:

Jessica (from the front door, down the stairs): Hi, Ivy!
Derek (a la Mrs. Doubtfire): Hellooooo!
Jessica: Oh!.. Hi, Dad! I've got a surprise for you!
Derek: It's not some idiot boy, is it?
(I could feel James' cringe all the way down at the dentist's office)
Jessica: Yeah.... not an idiot...
Derek (cheerily): Perfect!

Lovely first impressions all around, no? At the end of the day, Derek said that he liked the boy, but that the whole smoking bit was a deal breaker. James thought Derek was pretty cool, and really wanted Derek's approval, but was rather confused about how to address him. He asked Jessica , "Do I call him Mr Taylor? Derek? Brother Taylor?" Derek told Jessica that he can use his title from his days working at Edmark... Lord High Master of All Technology.

How long has THAT been there?

How could I have not noticed it before? Does this make me a bad, inattentive mom? She's 6 months old and I'm just now noticing this? What am I talking about? I'm talking about this:


My little girl has a BIRTHMARK. I've undressed her and dressed her and bathed her how many times, and only discovered it this week. Granted, it's not very dark and when it comes to baths and doffing/donning clothing, she is rather squirmy. It was a challenge to even get this shot of her elbow. (don't look at my hand. yes, I know I could use a manicure... just stop looking there)

Now I feel like I have to check other areas for possible birthmarks or other things. What kind of things? I don't know... just to see if there is anything else I could have possibly missed. You know, behind the left knee or between her toes or in the little folds of her inner thighs. She has these chubby little thighs, but the little rolls of chubbiness don't go all the way around her thighs. They just confine themselves to the inner portions of her leg. But they could STILL be hiding something.

I feel like I'm supposed to know every little thing about her, and this just throws me for a loop. Does anyone have a magnifying glass that I can borrow?

What's the order again?

I've always thought the order was supposed to be roll over, sit/crawl, stand, walk, and then run. Apparently no one bothered to tell Juliana how the early parts go. She can roll over from front to back and back to front, but never really cared to do it much... not even to maneuver herself closer to things. As of two days ago, she will crawl about two steps at a time between rest breaks. The "rest" usually entails her laying on her stomach, yelling "UNHHHH!" and arching her back so that her legs and arms are outstretched and off the floor. Sort of like flying... only not.

So, by no stretch of the imagination has she mastered crawling. She's pretty good at sitting unsupported. No longer holding onto her feet for support, she can sit alone for a good minute before drifting off to the side like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. and then within 10 seconds of that, she'll roll to the floor.

For the past two months, however, she will grab our fingers and tense up her arms/shoulders so that we can pull her up to a sitting or standing position. She loves to stand... and jump... and be lifted high up in the air. I think she likes height... as much height as possible, even if it's just an inch or two. She even prefers to stand on her tiptoes. (I'm trying to encourage her to stand on her heels, since I have tight achilles' tendons and don't want her to have the same challenges I do with ankle flexibility) I suspect that if she doesn't turn out naturally tall, that she'll be addicted to high-heeled shoes. Not unlike her Sahm-Yi. Who knows... she might turn out tall like her Daddy and STILL be addicted to high heels.

Anyhow, the point of this post is that after a run to the store for diapers and baby food, I sat her on the floor while I put some things away. I turned around and saw this:


But once she saw the flash from the camera she wouldn't take her eyes off the camera. She seemed to want to grab it with her left hand (of course, it is the farthest one from the camera), so I grabbed her right hand to help her steady herself.

I've noticed that she likes to grab things more often with her left hand than her right, so she might very well turn out to be a southpaw. Did you hear that Kou-Fu? (Pronounced Coe-Fu --- that's how Juliana will be addressing my brother)

And, yes, that is Tyra on the TV in the background. Jessica likes to watch America's Next Top Model reruns.

While we were out, we stopped by Daddy's office for a visit during the lunch hour. She's always so happy to see Daddy.



Like the glasses on him? These are an older frame, since the earpiece of his rimless ones he normally wears have fatigued and snapped yesterday. When he first dug these glasses out, Juliana was so confused. He had to put on/take off the glasses a few times in front of her before she would smile again. After wearing rimless glasses for the past few years, it's odd to see such defined frames on his face. I call this his Clark Kent look. The other pair of glasses will be fixed in a couple of days, and then all will be back to normal.

Food, Water, Teeth and... Hacking?

One week into the solid foods, and things are progressing rather well. She's still only eating rice cereal, but I think we'll be feeding her oatmeal for the next week. The pediatrician recommends that we keep her on grains for the first couple of weeks to make sure that Juliana's not having any problems getting the food through her system... specifically constipation. Did I just say that? Oh dear... I can just hear my sister now: "Ewwww, Ivy's talking about gross bodily functions on the internet!" So as to not dwell on this topic too long, I'll just say "So far, so good. 'Nuff said".

Since she's not going to be introduced to any fun colorful foods like sweet peas or carrots for another week or so, I didn't want to make you wait that long without any pictures of food on her face. I thought I would post some pictures of Juliana enjoying some of her first experiences with food.

"Do I have stuff on my face?"

"This stuff is GREAT!" (Hire me for commercials)

In addition to table foods, we've started to introduce her to sippy cups. She gets the hang of it, when she is reclined, as you can see:

"You say you call this 'water'?"

But when I tried to give it to her when she was upright....

"This looks familiar. I think I know what I have to do."

"I put my mouth on this part, but it's not working."

I'm sure she'll get the hang of it soon enough.

One of Juliana's latest hobbies is to sit at the computer and bang away on the keyboard. Now, originally it was on the multiple user login screen, and she just played on the keyboard while I was chatting on the phone. I looked away from the screen for a second and when I looked back, this is what I saw.

"Isn't this my login screen? I know my name starts with J and ends with an A"

Close, dear, but that's your sister's account. Wait, what? You knew all along that it was your sister's account? 'Leet Hackzor skillz?' What?!? Hmmm... I can see we are going to have to sit down and talk about respecting other people's privacy, young lady.

Ok, so I've covered the Food, Water and Hacking portions of the post. You would think that the "Teeth" portion would pertain to Juliana, too, what with the whole teething bit, but (alas) no. Some time last week, I developed some sensitivity on my lower back left molar (tooth #19 for those of you in the know). As it turns out there is a crack going over the outside rear cusp and now I have to get a crown. This will be taking place on Tuesday afternoon, and right now, I'm just glad I don't have to have a root canal. But it's kind of ironic... for the time being, both Juliana and I are restricted to soft foods that aren't too hot or too cold.

At least I get a broader range of foods to select from.

The shots heard 'round the town

Today, Juliana had her 6 month well-child checkup. This meant that she had her next round of shots and, boy, did she howl. Her whole head went scarlet red, which is no easy feat. Two shots in her left leg and one shot in her right. Poor little girl :( Luckily, she has no shots scheduled for her next well-child checkup (9 months).

I was too busy holding her hands for the shots, so couldn't get her picture at that time. But it was not very unlike this one:


But redder... kind of like this:

Ok, not really, but it did go bright red and it made me feel really, really bad for her.

And she's not wearing any pants, because the waistband going over the thighs for diaper changes made her frown.

Six months already?

As of today, Juliana is 6 months old! Can you believe it? I can't... it doesn't feel like 6 months since I gave birth... 6 months since I stopped working... 6 months since my world got turned upside down... 6 months since I last had a full night's sleep. Oh, you get the idea. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I just adore this little girl.

So to celebrate, we introduced Juliana to her first bit of solid food. We sat her in the high chair and fed her some rice cereal. Alright, it's nothing too exciting, but all the things I've been reading on the internet say to hold off on a bunch of different foods if there is a high chance of allergic reactions. Which there could be, since she does have a bad case of eczema. So no foods like corn yet, no eggs, no nuts (of course), etcetera, until her digestive system is more mature. I would have taken a picture of all the food being pushed out of her mouth, but the stuff looked so much like spit-up, that it just wouldn't have been a pleasant picture. She actually found the stuff interesting and leaned forward with an open mouth as soon as I picked up her spoon. And when I would stop to take a bite of my own dinner, she fussed to be fed some more. Like I've said before, I think we have a little girl who enjoys her food.

I promise I'll take a picture of her first vegetable foodstuff... something along the lines of carrots, peas or sweet potatoes. Any of those should provide a colorful portrait. (Ha ha... get it? Ok, I can sense your groans across the internet, but this is what happens when you don't get a full night's sleep in half a year)

Monoxidil anyone?

Ok, I don't think I'll need anything as extreme as Monoxidil or Rogaine, but Ugh! They said it could happen and I thought I was prepared for it, but now that I'm going through it, I'm not digging this hair loss thing. My head is shedding enough hair for 3 people... 3 times over, and frankly, I wish it were over already.

For those of you not having had anything to do with pregnancies and childbirth yet, here's a recap:
The average human sheds around 100 hairs a day. In her third trimester, a pregnant woman stops shedding hair and it continues to grow (thanks to the increased estrogen in her system). Post-pregnancy, it all catches up as the hormone levels return to normal. (usually 3-6 months after the birth). It may take a couple of hair growth cycles (up to several years) before your texture completely returns to normal, especially if you wear your hair long (like I currently do). Yippee...

I'll abstain from posting any pictures of loose hair on the site, so as not to disturb anyone's sensibilities. However, I think it may be time to go with a shorter, more layered hairstyle. If I remember to bring the camera, I'll try to get some before and after shots taken. When this will be will depend on when my stylist is available. Hopefully it won't be too long a wait, as the hair that is growing in, seems to want to grow straight up and out. Darn that zappy Asian hair!

***update: I have an appointment for 4/5/08, but they'll call if there are any cancellations in the meantime.

Birthclass reunion

This past weekend, Derek and I took Juliana to a reunion of the couples and their babies from our Childbirth prep classes. It was pretty amazing to see how all the couples' babies have grown. Juliana was the fifth baby born of the 10 babies. We had one reunion at the end of November already, 6 weeks after the last due date of the group. At the last reunion, we found out that our instructor was expecting her 4th child and she delivered 2 days before this reunion!


Not everyone was able to make it this time, which is why you don't see 10 babies in this photo. Brett took this picture of Juliana on her hands and knees.


All the other babies were sitting up and pushing up off their chests, but none of the others there were up to their knees yet. Early on, people were saying we'd have an early walker on our hands, and this seems to reinforce the fact.

Other big developments for the week: Juliana is starting to repeat some more sounds/basic words. This week, she has said "Ba-ba" which is Chinese for Dad.