Melia and Daddy Talking

This is just too cute...

Swimming and Cheering on Mama

Little Miss Melia went to swim class last Friday for the first time! Oh my, she l00ked so cute in her little bikini! It was too much. She had a blast and couldn't stop splashing around. One time she splashed herself so much that she started coughing- but she recovered nicely. Apparently the American Red Cross says no dunking kids in the water until they are at least 1 yr. old so she will just have to wait.





Feet. She found her feet. It is all about the feet. Feet when she wakes up, feet when she eats, feet for breakfast.



On Sunday I once again ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon. But the best part was the new addition to my cheering squad...you guessed it, the 25inch beauty. It was the best! Jill made the coolest sign: one side said "Run your buns off" and had a picture of a hamburger bun; the other said "Run Baby Run" and had a huge picture of Melia. It was so great! Very inspirational. Thanks Jill! And thanks to the cheering squad for coming out at the butt crack of dawn.

4 months already

Wow, I can't believe Melia is going to be 4 months old on Friday. Can you? She is growing up so fast. She is in that inbetween stage where she constantly needs to be entertained but doesn't quite have the eye-hand coordination to do it on her own. We had to get creative and find some new toys for her to play with. She loves the Mozart Music Cube, her new exersaucer, and her jumper. She also found her feet, which must taste good as they are often found in her mouth. We are also starting baby sign! Milk, blanket, eat...basic essentials! What else- she can't sleep without her little flannel blanket that Auntie Katrina made for her. She sucks her left thumb and then pulls the blanket up to her face with her right hand. She is also grabbing for toys when her hands aren't in her mouth and she laughs and sings and blows bubbles all the time. And anyday a tooth will arrive. Oh boy!

Today we went to storytime at the Berkeley library. It was so much fun! Here is a picture of her friends...

And here is Melia...

Little Ballerina

Oh me, oh my. What a cutie-pie.

Melia and her friends went to Sears to have their pictures taken. Imagine trying to organize 10 infants all at one time. Oh me, oh my. It was a bit chaotic. But they were so cute! First they were shot in their street clothes, and then in their costumes. What cutie-pies!

On Saturday we went down to Carmel for a wedding. Melia looked so cute! She was dressed in a beautiful white sundress that Ryan's friend Terrina sent over from Bangladesh, and some little pink tights. During the ceremony Melia's tummy began to gurgle and then suddenly there was an explosion! In her diaper! Oh shit. Literally. It was all over my hands, my dress, and her tights. It wasn't pretty. Her tights weren't pretty. Poor Ryan was ready to gag from the smell. I think she smelled like flowers. :-)

Sunday we took our little ballerina to the Pumpkin Patch. It was a gorgeous day and we had a blast!

Rolling Over

Ryan's brother Lance flew up from San Diego this past weekend to meet Melia. We had a great time and Melia really seemed to love her Uncle Lance. These pictures were taken at our favorite breakfast spot, Cock A Doodle Cafe in Oakland.

I can't believe that Melia rolled over while on her belly! Can you? Where does the time go. She has also learned to utilize her vocal chords. Her favorite thing is waking up at 4am and talking and singing VERY LOUD. Like we wouldn't hear her!

My mom's group had a potluck yesterday at another mom's house. Melia and her friend Melina were next to each other and started to have the cutest conversation. Click on the arrow at the bottom left of the video and be sure to turn up your volume (ignore the adults talking in the background).

The loud one is Melia. :-)

This and That

Nipple Wars
Melia's newest game is "Nipple Tug-of War." Open mouth, grab on nipple, suck some milk, turn head, take nipple with, smile, repeat. She thinks this is a riot. Playing with her food already. Oh joy!

Bye Bye Paci
Melia is no longer taking the pacifier- it is ALL about the left thumb. She is really good at using it to comfort herself. She hasn't quite figured out what to do with the rest of the fingers: sometimes they are across her nose, sometimes they are in her eye. But the thumb knows right where to go! I think she will be a lefty as I did this when I was her age.

Yucky Cold
Oh snot; oh snot extractor. Goin' on day 12 now. She is really building her immune system! We saw the doctor today, her lungs and ears look perfect so she is on the mend...all 13 lb 12 oz of her!

Sit Ups
Melia LOVES to be pulled up from a laying position to a sitting position. She actually "asks" for it by pulling her head up. It is too cute!

Spitting Game
I tought Melia to do raspberries, only her tongue doesn't stick out. Maybe it should be called a blueberry. I think that this, along with Nipple Wars, is her favorite thing to do right now. She is very good at it too! But the drool...oh the drool that comes with blueberries.

Road Trip
I went up to Mendocino last weekend for a women's business retreat and brought Melia with me. Although the car ride was fantastic (it was about 4 hours), she did feel a bit out of sorts once we were there. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. At least it was good to know that she does well with distances.

(Melia pulled the towel over her eyes all on her own.)

Sucking out 3 month old green boogers

Oh boy, Melia has a nasty cold. Right now her best friend is "the bulb." The bulb is a bulbous syringe that, when stuffed up the nose, sucks out the snot. This isn't fun. I tried it. Although my nose didn't have stuff in it. But it still felt wierd.

The newest addition to our household is a jumper! Yes, now that Melia can hold her head up and has graduated to being a 3-month old we figured it was time to get jumpin'! She LOVES her new jumper.

1) Beautiful eyes

2) Having fun in the jumper with Abby

3) Being the best girl while mommy and daddy celebrate their 3rd anniversary

4) Abby cuddling with Melia's toy

Ok, Ok! Hold yer horses!

Sheesh! I'm a few days late with the post and everyone makes a stink about it! Well here ya go!

What is it about strangers wanting to touch Melia? On Sunday my office participated in the Solano Stroll, a local street festival. I brought Melia with me and made a onesie for her that said "Looking to buy or sell a house? Talk to my mommy." It was soooo cute- she was a hit!

The problem was that everyone who thought it was cute wanted to pinch her cheeks or touch her hand. This is so annoying. I felt like I needed to carry a bottle of hand sanitizer with me. I found myself having to back away alot to keep people from touching her. Her next onesie will read "I vomit on strangers who try to touch me."

Christmas in September? It is at the Smitty household. Well, sorta. See, Melia is growing so fast that she is outgrowing her clothes. She has the cutest Christmas pj's that we thought would fit her in December. Nope, they fit her in September. I look at this the same way as China- why only bring out the good stuff on holidays? Maybe I will pull out my Christmas jammies too. And make some cookies to leave for Santa. And milk...with one ice cube.

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Lots of pictures this week...enjoy!

1) Baby Yoga- way cool!
2) Sucking my thumb, helps me sleep
3) Solano Stroll- cuddles with Mommy!
4) Hangin' with Isabella- legs in the air
5) Picnic at the park w/friends- legs in the air...again!

All hands on deck

All Hands on Deck

Week 11- it's all about the hands: will they fit in Melia's mouth as they are or will she simply have to shove them in? Perhaps a finger or two will suffice.

RECIPE: combine one part hand with one part mouth and get two parts drool. All over the place. On her nose, on her neck, on her clothes. Enter the bib. To catch the drool. To catch the spit up. To keep her clothes clean. Thanks be to the almighty bib.

Be sure to look at the picture below of Melia sucking her thumb to sleep.

Labor Day BBQ

One of the moms in my moms group hosted a BBQ yesterday- there were about 10 babies there, and their parents too. Ryan was hilarious- he had never seen anything like he. "Is this all they do?" he asked. "They just lay there?" Well of course! Isn't that all she does at home? As they were laying there Ryan blurts out "Melia looks ethnic!" The only other newborn he has seen lately is a mixed baby so this was his first experience seeing Melia with other babies. He realized that her skin is darker and because she has his sleepy eyes, she does look "ethnic." People often think Ryan is part Asian so I guess this would make sense that he feels this way. Here is a picture of Melia and her friend Joey. What do you think?

Sleepy Baby

Melia loves to sleep! Here are a few favorite sleeping positions.

Would LOVE some sleep :-) Not at 10 weeks!

Hum to the tune of the Beastie Boys "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn..."

"No...sleep...in the El-C!"

Melia has decided that 3am is her new wake up time. She has never woken up at such a god-awful hour. 4am, yes. But never before. It seems that her midgnight feeding is no longer holding her over. This does not make me happy. Not at all.

I guess that would make sense considering she is growing like crazy. She is in the 75th percentile all-around.

Weight: 11lb 15.6oz

Height: 23 in

Head: 15-1/2 in

Ryan did the nicest thing for me. On Friday night he stayed up with her all night- I didn't even know until I woke up at 6:30 cuz my boobs were ready to explode. But I slept for almost 8 hours straight! So I guess there is SOME sleep to be had in the El-C afterall. Thanks, hon!

Melia had her first shots on Friday. Ugh! We prepared for the worst, and ended up with the best scenario possible. On the suggestion of other moms, we gave her some Tylenol beforehand. While the needle was going in, she began to wail. We only gave her two shots so it didn't take long. As soon as I picked her up she stopped crying. By the time we were in the hallway she was smiling. We were shocked! And she didn't even sleep much the rest of the day. Later that night she did seem a bit fussy so we gave her a little Tylenol and all was good.

Oh my gosh! I swear Melia laughed during her bath today. Twice! I don't know what age babies are supposed to start laughing...but she did!!

Here is something super-kewl: Melia just loves to stare at her mama's artwork! I take her around the house to look at the different paintings, she stares intently, smiles, and then talks to the painting! It never fails and is sure to put her in a good mood each time. If I slip in a 2-D photo, she doesn't even look twice at it. But when I show her a painting, she smiles. I wonder if other baby's would respond the same way.

Okeedokee. Time for me to have some ice cream (ice cream produces milk, right?).

Click here to see a video of Melia and Mommy chatting it up in the morning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSAjqMsvAmg

Wowzers- she's 9 weeks already

We had a very busy week!

On Friday my mom's group met for lunch at Kirin in Berkeley. Melia LOVES her friends! She really seems to enjoy hanging out with them, although while lunching she slept the entire time.

My dad and Marcia drove down from Idaho on Saturday, as did my sister Amy and her fiance, Henry. Amy and Henry leave tomorrow. On Sunday we went to Tiburon and ate at Sam's...Mmmmmm...Sam's.

On Monday Melia took her first BART ride into the City! Melia did great. I was a bit paranoid going under the water (and equalizing ears) so I just made sure Melia was sucking on a pacifier- it worked. She met her first schizophrenic! But he pretty much kept to himself.

Here is a picture of Melia raising up the roof.

8 Weeks! How the days fly by...

Melia and I went for our first run this week with Bob. Wait- who is this mysterious new man in our lives? Bob isn't a man- BOB is the coolest jogging stroller around! Yah yah, so what if she wasn't quite old enough to go in it. She has superior neck-strength so I thought: "Why not? Let's try it out." She LOVED it! She smiled and smiled.

Our little girl is doing great! She is doing much better with tummy time and will now lie on her tummy for about a minute before wanting to get up. On Monday she began lifting her head while on her tummy- woohoo! What else? Melia loves to be out and about- between moms groups, shopping and visiting the office, we are rarely bored!

People keep telling us we look awfully rested for having a 2 month old. Most nights we get a decent amount of sleep. And last night she began her own bedtime routine! We put her in the little bassinet about 10pm and she puts herself to sleep. We just did it again tonight, and she did the same thing! She wakes up around 12 or 12:30am and Ryan gives her a bottle. Then around 1am Ryan rolls her into the bedroom where she will sleep until 5am or so. Then we get up, I feed her, and last night I put her back to bed (usually we lay on the couch) and she slept until 7:30am. Hopefully this will keep up and she will begin to sleep even longer.

PICTURES:

1) Naked laughing

2) Don't I look cute?

3) Melia's first luau! Don't you just LOVE the sandals?

4) Attached to mommy

7 weeks! Melia has a lot of gas but it doesn't stink

So when I was 7 weeks pregnant, I had a lot of gas, but it didn't stink. Now my daughter has the same. I can't believe the amount of noises that come out of something so small and so cute.

Melia is growing so much! I just packed away the first bag of clothes that no longer fit. Yikes! She will be 2 months next week. Holy crap! She is weighing in at about 12 pounds now, smiles daily, and has superior neck strength- we rarely have to hold her head. She also looks like she is ready to roll over and is starting to grasp things in her hand. Her eyes are totally funky right now- her right is a blue-gray and her left is literally half blue and half brown. Way cool! She also has icky cradle cap- but I am always picking at it...we are such monkeys. Time is going by too fast for me. Any tips on how to slow it down??

Favorite baby gadget of the week: my new auto bottle warmer. I just used it for the first time today and boy did it come in handy! She and I are always on the go so this really helped out.

Question: Truth time. Am I considered a bad mom if I am not a fan of breastfeeding? Most moms say how wonderful it is. I find it to be very distracting and feel guilty about feeling this way.

I went to the gym this week for the first time since Melia was born! It was so funny- while pregnant my heart rate could not go over 140, which for me was a walk. When I went to the gym, it was 10 minutes before I realized I didn't have to stop at 140! It felt so good to get back to the gym.

All-in-all, this mom-thing is pretty cool and I can't imagine my life without her.

Here is a sneak-peek at what we did this week.


1) I just took a bath. Boy am I happy! And look at my curls!
2) Daddy and Melia at Ghiradelli
3) Look! I can sit up!
4) My first nap in my crib. Mommy invited a couple of friends to watch over me.