I'm Healthy

Aoife went for her "6 month" check up today at Kiwi. I picked her up from Maria's and we strolled through the rain to the office. I was excited to find out how much she weighs now and how long she is. After I got her undressed, she peed right on the table! I felt a little embarrassed, but the nurse cleaned it up quickly enough for me. Aoife now weighs 17lbs and 1 oz! That's three more pounds than last time. She now is 27.5 inches long which is one and a half inches longer. So, her weight has actually caught up with her height and she is an average size for a boy her age and very large for a girl! It took us a long time to see the doctor but Aoife kept herself busy with books and with looking around. The doctor said she is in great health just a little too much wax in the ears, but that's actually not a bad thing for her. The doctor said she was a very curious baby compared to other....which on one hand right now makes me feel good, but maybe I'll be feeling differently when she's crawling around. The nurse came in after the doctor and gave Aoife her shots. Aoife did NOT like that one bit. Her cry was of shock and dismay which broke my heart, but she got over it pretty fast. Aoife fell asleep in her carrier on the way home.

Fall is here!

The weather has started to turn very cold, and everyone is getting ready for Halloween. It is also time to get Aoife new warm clothes. We have gone through pretty much all of the clothes that family has given to us as gifts, and now we seem to have nothing warm for her. We went to a used store to get a few new outfits. We got a lot of really cute ones which she'll be photographed more in during the next few months. The winter clothes tend to make her look more grown up compared to summer clothes which show off more of the baby chub and skin. She seems even more chunky in these warm clothes.

Aoife is getting stronger and stronger as each week goes by. One favorite thing she loves now is to stand or kneel up against me and chew on my cheek. I blow bubbles on her cheek and she tries to this back. She is so mobile when she is on my lap She's able to pull herself up and scrunch down again. She flips from her front to her back and pulls up again. She really loves being close to me on my lap which is shocking since she had spent a few months where she didn't like me to hold her all that much. We spend a lot of time on the floor where she plays between my legs. She also likes to play with me after she wakes up. We spend about half an hour on the bed "wrestling" with each other before she needs to eat. I'm so glad that she is trusting in me more and is becoming more engaged with everything. She also lets me comfort and console her when she feels unsafe which never happened when she was younger.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Aoife. She LOVES pets especially dogs. She is absolutely curious about Mr. Puck. He seems to be warming up a lot to her. He comes and stays at home longer now and really doesn't mind it when Aoife touches him. Aoife is really gentle when touching him. It's as if she seems to know that he likes to be pet gentle. She used to grab his hair and yank it, but now she just puts her hand out and allows puck to run his fur against her; she loves this sensation. She also loves animal noises. I have a little farm book for her where i make lots of different noises and she loves listening to them. Maybe it's natural for most kids to like animals, but I think she has a special place in her heart for them already.

Wills Blessing Ceremony

Today, we went to a birthing ceremony for baby Will who is the son of one of the couples we had birthing classes with, Jennifer and Eric. Jennifer and Eric were so nice to us during birthing classes and would religiously offer us a rise home after the birthing classes where we would have wonderful conversations. The ceremony was beautiful. There were blessings from the Jewish side of the family and also blessing from the Northern California "new age" people that they have grown to love here. Will is surrounded by a huge loving family of friends from all walks of life, and I sometimes feel bad that Aoife doesn't have that in her life right now. We also met up with other parents from our birthing class and Aoife got along really well with one of the boys, Ian. They loved touching each other and drooling over each other. Below is a sequence of pictures of the two of them playing. Poor Aoife got clobbered by him!!! It was so much fun to watch Aoife interact with another baby. She has become so social now, and just loves being with other babies.







When we started to leave, we noticed that both babies left a trail of drool on the floor!

My hair is a comin in

Aoife's hair is starting to get thicker! I'm so excited. It seems to be an auburn color. Her hair is very fine and I'm pretty sure that it's going to be curly. I'm so glad that I have had this time to get to connect with Aoife again. We have had fun going places, sleeping with each other, and playing games. She is physically becoming more solid now that she is eating solids. She's also starting to move her limbs more and when she gets excited while she's sitting up she rapidly moves her legs back and forth the way a dog would wag its tail. She is doing well on her belly. She doesn't get as fussy about being on it anymore, and is able to arch her back very well when she pushes up; however, she's not moving back or forth yet. She just lays there sometimes and flails in a frustrated way thinking that that is going to propel her somehow. Poor Aoife!

Tilden Park

It has been beautiful weather and I wanted to go be in nature for a day, so we took Aoife to the petting Zoo at Tilden park. We had a little picnic and napped together in the sun. Aoife then enjoyed me reading her farm animal book to her while she lay on her stomach. She spent some time in the grass and really enjoyed the texture. After the old man woke up, we went to the farm. It was pretty late and most of the animals were in bed, but she did have time to watch a cow and her calf. Aoife liked watching the cows tail swish. We then headed up to the goats. The goats were not very fond of us because we didn't have any food for them. We also visited the black sheep. Aoife seemed to enjoy her time there, and I can't wait to bring her back again when she's able to run around and lead us to which animals she wants to see.

Here's a picture of Aoife sitting in the trunk of the car.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

We went to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival this year again. It is a bluegrass festival that is held for free at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Thousands of people attend it for it is very popular here; the whole thing is privately funded by Warren Hellman. There are five big stages and also many independent musicians playing all over the park This year had a great lineup for Sunday, but we knew it would be too crowded for us so we went on Saturday. It was fun to rent the car for the weekend and drive into San Francisco. Aoife behaved very well in the car and I didn't have to sit in the back with her which is nice for me.
We decided to stay at the porch stage for the whole time because of it's small and there were a few other babies there. Aoife seemed to really enjoy the whole atmosphere. She loved watching the people walk around, and her favorite was to watch a dog who was sitting in front of us. We gave Aoife a little tambourine to play while she was listening to the music. All the people were laughing at the sight of her playing her tambourine while she kept a serious concentrated expression on her face.