The Battle of the Bottle Continues; SiliBaby Scolds Me
The bottle still isn't going well at all. The last three feedings have resulted in various shades of meltdowns.
The third of those last three was this morning. 75 to 90 minutes of screaming, flailing, and crying. Finally, I gave up, and brought her to SiliMommy. At least SiliBaby loves being with SiliMommy, so I reckon that's a silver lining.
At any rate, safely ensconced in SiliMommy's embrace, SiliBaby shot me a dirty look, and emphatically said, "EH" (like the "e" in "egg").
There can be no doubt but that I was scolded. All for trying to give her delicious milk.
It turns out to be true: A parent's work is, indeed, thankless.
A Fuzz...Fussy Peach
SiliBaby's middle name is derived from the Japanese word for "peach." We therefore sometimes call her "Peach" or related nicknames.
Lately, the baby has been very fussy and screamy. About which SiliMommy remarked: "She's not a fuzzy peach--she's a fussy peach!"
Hitting the bottle: a rough night
Tonight was my fourth attempt to feed SiliBaby by bottle. Only the 2nd time has gone any semblance of well. Tonight, though, was by far the most aggravating time I've had with her.
She wanted nothing to do with the bottle, and just screamed and screamed and screamed. As I
noted the other day, her crying is really getting very loud and piteous: it's no longer just generic baby crying, but it really sounds like: "Oh, woe is me--I'm being persecuted so horribly." This is even more frustrating when you consider that the only "persecution" going on is feeding her Mommy's milk (if from a silicone nipple). My biggest fear, of course, is that these traumatic experiences will come to deform her feelings toward Daddy, if at the very deepest, most subconscious level.
Apart from this longer-term worry, it's really just the volume and shrillness of the screaming that get to me. I have, in general, a problem with loud noises to begin with. And the fact that she screams with her head on my shoulder (i.e., right next to my ear) doesn't help.
Anyway, there's no choice but for her and me to get this feeding thing down together. All I can do for now is head out to Walgreen's, buy a pair of earplugs, and try and take the edge off the noise.
I am devious
When Obaasan was here in January, she SiliMommy, and I watched a Japanese TV program about an old, terminally sick woman who came to America (from Japan) to find her daughter. The daughter had emigrated here many years ago, and lost touch with her mother. The mother came to look for her, that she might see her one last time before she dies.
The mom's journey was underwritten by a TV program, which documented it. (I suppose nowadays, one might call it a reality show.) The mother flew between LA, Vegas, the SF Bay area (if memory serves), and Washington state before finally finding her daughter.* All paid for by the TV show.
I turned to Obaasan, and told her: "See? You should have just called up that show, and said you hadn't heard from your daughter, who's been in America for ten years. You could have gotten them to pay for this trip. What's more, you could have visited a other few cities until you 'remembered' that she's here in Silicon Valley!"
I am clearly a genius.
* the daughter was a piece of work. the weeping old lady asked her, "why didn't you ever get in touch with me?" the daughter replied, 'i was busy.'"
Scheduled Maintenance
This morning, we went to the pediatrician for a routine checkup, and also SiliBaby's first shots!
She weighed in at 10 lbs., 1 oz., and is now 22 inches long, putting her in the 45th and 55th percentiles, respectively. Last time we saw the doctor, she said that SiliBaby was a little bit undersized, though still within normal range. Today, she pronounced herself quite happy with SiliBaby's growth, noting that mom is producing good milk, and the baby's percentile scores are with respect to white people, not Asians (who tend to be smaller).
She also had her first vaccinations today. An oral for rotovirus, and injections for things including pseudococcus, polio, and hepatitis B. The needles were quite longer than SiliMommy and I had expected, and she (the baby) cried quite a bit when she was stuck.
The screaming wasn't as bad, though, as we had feared; a friend of mine told me that it was the worst screaming she'd ever heard from her kids. This wasn't the worst we'd heard. Also, she quieted down fairly quickly, which was a pleasant surprise (especially given her moodiness in the last few days).
The Price of Groceries
We took SiliBaby to Costco for the first time, last Sunday.
The cashier, a cute, 20-ish girl who looked too young to have kids yet, cooed and pronounced SiliBaby adorable.
"Do you really think so?" I asked, my voice mischevous. "Would you like her?"
"Yeah!" the girl responded, excited.
"Enough to trade her for some groceries?" (This actually wouldn't have done us much good, as the net result would have been trading the baby for baby-related products.)
Her (male) coworker interjected: "$100 worth."
I replied, "Well, we're not buying that much, so can we get the difference in cash?"
Just then, she finished ringing us up, and the total actually came to $103.77. So, to get the groceries, we would have had to give them not only the baby, but $3.77 in cash, as well.
Babies sure aren't worth what they used to be! (Although $10/lb. is still pretty respectable, as a trip to your local butcher will attest.)
Recent Milestones!
In the continuing Babymania that has prevailed in these parts, SiliMommy and I completely forgot to note two milestones.
She marked her 10-year anniversary in the US on February 27. And, March 1 was the 14th anniversary of the first time we went out.
We will try to be better about noticing our 10-year wedding anniversary, which bookends the month, falling on the 31st.
Some things of note:
On Saturday, we went to San Jose Japantown to
purchase a doll display for Girl's Day. Not finding anything we liked (or could afford), we ended up buying a pretty nice one at the crockery store inside the local Japanese supermarket.
This is it. (Click on the picture to see it bigger.)
(nb: the pug floating in the background is a magnet on our fridge, and not part of the display...)
In other news, SiliBaby seems to have entered a new behavioral phase in the last couple of days. She's been crying more lustily than ever, and somehow sounds as if she's crying because she genuinely has something to cry over. Supporting this hypothesis is the fact that I saw her cry tears for the first time yesterday. I'd never even really thought about it, but most, if not all, of her crying up until now has been more screaming than crying, per se. (FWIW, SiliMommy claims to have seen tears before.)
On a separate topic: our angelic dog seems to be tarnishing his halo lately. SiliPug is possibly getting rebellious.
As his day ends, with the conclusion of his nighttime walk, I command him: "Bedtime!" Or I don't even need to say that; I just point, and he scampers into his crate.
Now, he's stopped cooperating. Instead, he darts under SiliBaby's cosleeper (a bassinet attached to the bed), and then crawls under the bed. He's also increasingly assertive about wanting to decide the course of our walks.
Perhaps this is all coincidence, not conspiracy. But the owner of our step-pug tells us that their pug's rebellion started when their own baby reached about 6 weeks (and the dog got it through its thick, puggy skull that the baby wasn't going anywhere--it was there to stay).
Girls' Day!
In Japan, March 3 of every year is "Girl's Day." Families celebrate by setting up an elaborate doll display called
hina kazari.It just dawned on me that we should have one, and in time for the big day! I have absolutely no conception of where to get one in America, and at a reasonable price. SiliMommy, who feels that we don't really need one at all, just showed me an ad for Toys 'R' Us Japan, which is peddling them for $500 to $1k. She thinks we may be able to get an inexpensive set at the local Japanese shopping center, though.
Here is an example of a very nice one. SiliMommy estimates it at about $2.5K. (Click on it to see it bigger.)
You and Me and ABC Makes 3, Baby
I'm in the process of creating a very simple PowerPoint as an educational aid for SiliBaby. (Props go to my buddy R. for this idea!) A screenshot from it appears below.
Tonight, we tried it out together. Of course, she's not really terribly engaged with it yet, but she does look at it some...I sing her the alphabet song, and page forward in time with the music.
Two notable things happened. The first time through the song, she reacted to the letter "W," making a "wuh" type of cooing sound. A perfect W sound!
Then, I tried for us to go back through the song, thinking of things that start with each letter (per the screenshot). The bad news is that she started crying as soon as we got to "C."
The good news is that "crying" is a pretty good "C" word.
It's Official: SiliBaby is a human being!
Her Social Security card finally arrived today! Woot!!
