Avocado

Ruby’s culinary journey is progressing admirably.  She’s now got four foods under her belt: apples, bananas, rice, and avocado.  She’s particularly fond of bananas and avocado.  When I eat an apple, I give her the apple core to lick and suck afterwards.  And on our recent hike, she enjoyed eroding the end of a banana.

Her food-consuming skills have also improved to the point where she’s eating enough that she’s almost able to replace a milk meal.  She opens her mouth to receive the spoon, usually doesn’t extrude the contents back out again, and probably consumes about 1/3 of a cup over the course of a meal.  She also takes water from her sippy cup.

Now that Ruby’s food is acting as food, and not just a fun little learning activity for all parties involved, we need to start paying attention to nutrition.  As her repertoire expands I’ll have more options available to make sure she’s getting the vitamins, iron, and protein that she’s not getting from her current table foods.  I’m looking forward to adding a more wholesome grain than brown rice to her mix, some protein (beans? chicken?) and green vegetables (spinach!).  That should cover all the bases.

Of course, she’s still getting five square meals of breastmilk (or formula, occasionally) every day, so we don’t have to worry about tinkering with her nutrition too much for the time being.

  • Categorized in food

Table Food!

We’ve been at the “pretty soon now” stage for feeding table food to Ruby for the past few weeks. After checking a garden book we realized that the tsugaru apples in our backyard were ripe in “late august”. So, today was the day!

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Ruby picked the apple and I diced, steamed, and mashed it. Kate squeezed in some breastmilk to thin it out a bit. We sat Ruby in her high chair and gave her a spoonful. She really seemed to enjoy it! It’s actually hard to say since so much ended up elsewhere than her mouth, but she was definitely reaching for the spoon and wanting more. She probably ate a half-tablespoon or so before getting tired of it.

Here’s the movie (17MB)!

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Kate Adds: Steve also experienced a first last night: his first time feeding a baby!

Last Night Wasn’t All Bad

Despite the feeding-related difficulties last night, there was a bright spot as well. Ruby finally began showing visual interest in books!

Not only that, but she concentrated her unusually long attention span on a cardboard book (Sometimes I Like To Curl Up In A Ball) for maybe 15 minutes straight. She flipped the pages back and forth as well as she could, given her dexterity level. She looked with interest at the pictures, and was quietly intent the whole time.

Enjoy a short video of Ruby reading her first book…

da da da da da

According to the linguist who gave a presentation to our parents group, babble is defined as a series of short consonant-vowel sounds repeated over and over: “da da da”, “ba ba ba”, etc. And, also according to the linguist, it is the single most important milestone in speech development. Babbling typically starts around 7 months (Ruby is 5.25 months), but there’s a wide range that is normal.

Today, Ruby started saying “da da da da da da” while lying on her blanket! Kate was home from work so we both got to enjoy it. She did it many times, with four or five “da”s in each string. So, we are declaring today as Ruby’s official “first babble” day.

And no, we’re not counting “dada” as her first word because:

  • a) as far as she knows, my name is “Papa”, and
  • b) she wasn’t using the word in context — she was just babbling.

State of the Baby Addendum

  • Ruby is very comfortable in water. She always enjoys her baths (unless it’s too late and she’s really tired). Today, we took her in a swimming pool for the second time, and she took it in stride. Her feet kicked under her the whole time, and she stayed calm, even when her mean parents dipped her face in the water.
  • Speaking of kicking, it’s worth noting that Ruby kicks her legs probably 70-80% of the time she’s awake. The vigor of the kicking varies, from upset to apathetic.  She doesn’t kick when in a sling (but does in the Baby Bjorn), when asleep (usually), and when holding her toes.

State of the Baby

Ruby is now 5 months and 3 days (a little more than 22 weeks) old.  This is what she is like:

  • At her most recent doctor’s appointment (9 days ago) she weighed 14 lbs 1 oz, was 23.5 inches long, and her head was 40.5 cm around.  She is short for her age, but her weight is average.
  • Her hair is getting thicker on top.  There are a few long hairs that stick out here and there, but mostly she’s got some dense, inch-long fur on top.  The color is blond, with very golden highlights when the sun hits it.  She still has a bald spot on the back of her head from lying down so much.
  • Her eyes are bluish-gray, and appear to be heading towards green (or brown?).  The outside of the iris is dark blue, and the insides are pale blue-green-grey.
  • Her skin is clear, for the most part, although she now scratches herself on the face occasionally and gets the odd pimple.  She has a few patches of mild eczema that flare up every now and then, and she has stork bites on the back of her head.rainbow-legs.jpg
  • Just a few days ago she started turning from back to stomach.  She does this by kicking her legs up, flopping onto her side, and then rolling over from there.  Once on her stomach, she’ll plant her hands and lift up her head and shoulders to take a look around.  She’ll also suddenly collapse, throwing her arms backwards and planting her face into the ground.  This doesn’t seem to make her very happy, but she’ll usually recover and lift her head up again.  Depending on her mood, she’ll spend up to ten minutes on her stomach before getting frustrated and demanding rescue.
  • She’s getting very accurate at reaching for toys.  Occasionally she’ll wave her hands in a vague manner before she grabs something she’s interested in, but mostly she’ll grab it on the first try.  She’ll occasionally reach for toys that are nearby inside of waiting for us to hold them in front of her.
  • She enjoys shaking her toys to see if they rattle.  Rattling toys then get shaken up and down, and she’ll occasionally whack herself in the head with them.  Eventually, though, all objects Must Be Eaten.
  • She’s very active at looking for things to keep her interest.  When we’re holding her upright she’ll swing her head and shoulders back and forth, looking for something interesting.  This also leads to her bonking her forehead into our faces a lot (it hurts us more than her).
  • Sometimes when we put her on her back, she’ll lift up her head like she’s doing abdominal crunches.  She seems to be preferring to spend less time on her back in general.
  • She can now sit by herself in her high chair.  This makes meals a lot easier for us, since she enjoys playing with toys that we put on the tray in front of her.  Restaurant high chairs are a little big for her, but we use them anyway, maybe with an extra blanket thrown in behind her.  They don’t come with trays full of toys, though, so they’re not as much fun.
  • Ruby is still eating breast milk exclusively.  We’re planning on starting her on table food some time in September. 
  • Ruby goes to sleep between 8pm and 9pm every night, and wakes up between 7am and 8am, with one early morning feeding between 4am and 5am.
  • Ruby is slowly progressing towards fewer, larger meals and fewer, longer naps.  A “typical” eating/sleeping schedule looks like this:
    • 4:30am: early morning feeding from Kate, then right back to sleep.
    • 7am: Kate wakes her up for her breakfast
    • 9am: morning nap for 45 mins to 1 hour.
    • 10am: first bottle, about 6oz
    • 12pm: midday nap for 30 mins
    • 1pm: second bottle, about 5oz
    • 2pm: maybe another 30 minute nap
    • 4pm: third bottle, about 3oz
    • 4:30pm: afternoon nap for about 45 minutes.
    • 5:30pm: Kate feeds her
    • 7pm: sometimes Kate feeds her again, depending how early the previous meal was. 
    • 8:30pm: Kate feeds her and puts her to bed.
  • I bring Ruby in to see her Mom at work three days each week, usually around 10:30 am.
  • Ruby uses her soother whenever she’s upset and when she’s falling asleep.  Although it is still attached to her clothing on a fairly constant basis, she’s been using it less lately.
  • Her mood tends to start off bright and then end fussy.  It’s a steady decline throughout the day, although she perks up after each nap.  This decline isn’t much fun for Kate, as she comes home from work to be with Ruby when the baby is at her worst.
  • Ruby has been a little less smiley lately.  It used to be that mornings were guaranteed to be full of smiles, but now she’ll occasionally wake up in an apathetic mood.
  • She’s pooping only every few days now.  She set a record last week by going 6 days between poops.  That seemed to bother her parents more than her.
  • No teeth are in sight, but she’s still got all of the symptoms of teething.  She’ll spend hours drooling, sucking, and chewing on her fingers or whatever else is handy.  When she’s really teething hard, she’ll lunge at an object with her mouth and pull her whole body inwards towards her mouth.
  • She loves naked time.  She spends 30 minutes to an hour naked in the backyard every day, and spends the whole time holding her toes and looking at the trees.
  • She hasn’t been doing much jogging for the past few weeks, since we had a heatwave that kept her Papa from venturing outdoors, and then he pulled his hamstring playing soccer.
  • She loves to spend time walking around with her parents in her sling.  Her Papa takes her to the grocery store and for walks around various parks.
  • Kate and I still take her to restaurants without too much concern, although we now try to err towards noisier restaurants.  The dinner hour is also her worst time of day, so Kate often spends a good portion of the meal standing and bouncing with the baby.
  • She’ll laugh when she’s tickled.  I’ll often lean over her and make a long, rising “aaaa…” sound while I slowly lean in.  Then I’ll chew on her belly, and this will make her laugh.  Or shriek.  Sometimes she’ll start shrieking (not in a bad way) before I get anywhere near her.
  • She has a distinct “hey, I want some attention” call that often starts with a cough, like she’s clearing her throat.
  • Sometimes (every day or so) she’ll wake up from one of her naps in tears.  When she’s crying for a non-fussy reason, she’ll stick out her lower lip and give us a giant frown.  It is incredibly cute, in a heartbreaking kind of way.
  • Sometimes she’ll get chatty and start making random vowel sounds.  She’s not officially “babbling” yet.
  • Lately she’s been sticking her tongue out and blowing, like she’s trying to blow a raspberry but hasn’t figured it out yet.

Official Rollover

IMGP1158.JPGShe just did it three times in a row, so I’m officially declaring that Ruby can turn over from her back to her stomach by herself.  She does this by lifting her legs in the air, flopping over to her side, and then rolling from there.

This is nominally good news, but unfortunately Ruby isn’t happy being on her stomach once she gets there.  This means I have to rescue her from her floundering much more frequently.  Eventually, though, she’ll learn to be comfortable on her stomach — especially now that she’ll be spending even more time on it.

 

Park Pictures and an Observation

Ruby, Steve, and I attended the 30th birthday / “Thank God Andreas isn’t dead” party on Saturday at Seward Park. (The latter is a reference to a recent bike accident.) An acquaintance of mine from Jobster, Ben, was quite taken with Ruby and snapped a ton of pictures. He posted the best ones on his flickr account.

Here’s one of my favorites:

I also wanted to note that I’ve been astounded lately at Ruby’s patience. We’re discovering that she often just lies awake in bed after waking up, rather than calling for us right away. She’ll just lay there and look around at the patterned fabrics (sarong, stripey thing on ceiling) and think her thoughts. Sometimes she’ll occupy herself by trying to catch hold of her feet. She can do this for a long time before getting bored.