Field Day

Yesterday's post made it clear that we're suffering a little cabin fever, so we set out after lunch today for a walk in the field behind the barn.

Winter of Our Discontent

I'm still trying to catch a shot of Betty standing without support, but she hasn't tried it again lately.

I wish there were something fun to report, but it was a pretty blah day. Date night got cancelled. I cleaned out the fridge. Steele has the family cold. Tessa's living outside thanks to another run in with a skunk. Only Betty is immune to the winter doldrums.

C is for Cookie

Papa Joe has been promising (threatening?) to feed Betty Oreos since the day she was born. (I really mean that--he was talking about it in the hospital). Unlike the unfortunate Train Incident, this time I think his schemes to spoil the grandbabies might work out. As far as I know, Betty has never in her life seen or tasted a cookie. She's never seen Cookie Monster on TV. She has no idea that cookies exist. And yet somehow, when Steele got out his Oreos for a snack, she was transfixed. I went upstairs to get the camera, and when I came back down she was still gazing longingly at this cookie. The conversation that followed went something like this.

Me: you know, you're supposed to model good eating behaviors.

Steele: you told me already.

Me: so you should eat lentil soup for a snack [I was eating lentil soup. It's delicious.]

Steele: I'm not going to eat lentil soup.

It's official. I'm outnumbered.

Bargain Shopper

Look at the gleam in her eye after she found that coupon in my purse. Apparently Betty gets as excited about savings as I do. $1.00 off Craisins? Whoo-hoo! Let's hit the Food Lion!

I Want Candy

We had a qualified victory in the eating department this week. Yesterday Betty ate yogurt for the first time and loved it, and tonight she ate Gerber Puffs. I'm a little ambivalent about these victories. While I'm glad to see Betty eating anything, and I'm especially glad that she is picking up solid food and chewing it, I'm also a little concerned about how much straight sugar these foods contain. Don't let the claims on the packaging fool you. Gerber Puffs are candy. Did you ever eat one? They taste exactly like Smarties. They're really well-designed though. Not only do they dissolve as soon as they go in the mouth, they stick to gooey hands. They're the training wheels of food. I'm hoping to trade them in for real Cheerios soon, but I fear that Betty's sweet tooth is going to be a formidable opponent.

Gender Bender

Part of the fun of having a girl is all the cute clothes and shoes little girls get to wear. (And I cannot wait to play Barbies with Betty. And My Little Pony.) As a Very Serious feminist scholar I sometimes feel a little guilty about all the pink and purple we choose for Betty but OMG squeeeeeeee have you seen the cute girl stuff in the Land of Nod catalogue????

In addition to being dressed in pink 85% of the time, Betty is also very small. And yet, somehow, she is constantly being mistaken for a boy. It happened a lot on our Christmas break travels, and it happens every time we take her to the Farmville WalMart. It happened today. Some middle-aged man, well dressed, apparently in full possession of all his marbles, walked up to us and said, "Is it a boy or a girl?" And then patted Betty on the head and said how cute she was. I might not think twice about this if it were a rare occurrence, or if Betty were wearing her Carolina T-shirt or something. But she was dressed in the outfit you see here: pink shirt, sparkly ruffled skirt, and pink bunny slippers.

Pack Your Knives and Go

A few years ago Steele was eating 4 eggs a day (yes, 28 eggs a week) until one friend bluntly informed him "you're going to die." Perhaps Betty likes eggs too we thought. We decided to let her give them a try, now that she's old enough. As it turns out, Betty did not enjoy eggs (mashed hard boiled egg yolk, mixed with a little formula). In fact, she gagged so hard she threw up the other parts of her breakfast too. Betty is a harsher food critic than even Tom Colicchio of Top Chef.

Here she is, exhausted, at the end of a long hard day of playing. Don't worry Betty. Cereal for breakfast tomorrow.

Simple Pleasures

It was another nice day, so we went to campus again for a walk. Betty has fun riding in the stroller that came free with our nursery furniture. Her expensive "travel system" is gathering dust out on the porch.

Sultan of Swing

Today it was in the mid-fifties, so we took Betty to the playground at the campus church. She was able to sit in the baby swing all by herself (instead of just on my lap like last time) and she seemed to have a lot of fun! Her day sort of went downhill from there. When we got home we tried the new eating plan I've devised, where we give her food first and then her bottle. This proved very upsetting, so we're going to shelve that plan for a week or so and try again later. According to Babycenter.com, Betty should already be eating finger foods. Of course these are the same experts who tell me that maybe, just maybe, Betty might be able to stand up in her crib.

Dirt Devil

Here's a picture of post-daycare, post-supper, pre-bath Betty. Dirty baby! She usually comes home from daycare pretty grimy. We like the place we're sending her. I think the problem is just that she's into everything, and feeding her is like trying to hit a moving target. I promise, shortly after this photo was taken she got a bath.

All U Can Eat

I'll spare you the details of the side effects of the amoxicillan. We tried a new antibiotic starting today, and I hope it proves to be a little gentler. In any case, she only has 4 more days of it. Let's hope the ears are cleared up and her system can get back to normal. It's not been fun for anyone. As a result of a messed up feeding schedule, today I gave Betty her babyfood before her bottle and she actually ate some! And then tonight at supper she again had food before bottle and she ate a whole container of peas! It's the first time she's ever finished it in one sitting! Yay Betty! We'll see how this works out, but I think we may do food first, then bottle for the main daytime feedings.

In Other Words

Words Betty definitely knows: "Betty," "Tessa," "duck" (in reference to one specific duck, not the entire Anatidae family), "bye bye" (as an indication that something is about to happen in the vicinity of the stairs, though she may not know it means leaving), and "No" (though she doesn't obey it). Words Betty might know: "Mommy," "Daddy," "bottle," "diaper change," "nap," and "socky." Words Tessa definitely knows: "Tessa," "No ma'am," "outside," "bunny," "mousie," "supper," "treat," "ride," "walk," "sit," and "lie down."

So far Tessa is still winning, but not by much. I expect Betty's passive vocabulary to overtake the dog's in a matter of weeks, if not days.

LOL

I haz a bole!












Noooo they be stealin mah bole!













I haz a mad.












Bored/Confused by this overplayed internet meme? It could be worse. I could have posted about the interesting effects of antibiotics on intestinal flora.

Stand in the Place Where You Live

For a few blissful months, Betty got up around 8:00. Lately she's been getting up closer to 7:00. This past weekend she had us worried that she was going to start getting up at 6:00. Well, today she slept til 9:00! As she did when she was gearing up to roll over, Betty needed that extra sleep for a new upgrade she was installing. Tonight she stood up alone and without support! I'll try to get a pic in the next few days, but right now she needs me as a spotter.

My Funny Valentine

Here is Betty gazing over at her Valentine, Tessa. Originally, I had planned to get a pair of angel wings and dress Betty up as cupid for Valentine's Day. The dissertation defense, frigid weather, and Betty's various colds got in the way of this plan, however, and I never got around to it. Never fear Betty...you'll make a great leperchaun!

Til the Medicine Takes

Betty likes the amoxicillan well enough, so she's on the road to recovery. I have no idea how badly her ears hurt, but I do know her new teeth are bothering her, and she definitely responded to the Tylenol we gave her this afternoon. Here she is, mid-tickle. The new teeth are on the bottom, on either side of the already sprouted ones. You can maybe even see them if you click on the photo.

All Ears

One downside to blogging is that not only do you put your idiocy on display for the world to see, you create an archival record of it.

By bedtime last night it was obvious that Betty was getting sick "again." She had a runny nose and was fussier than usual. She had a slight fever of 98.9 (being my offspring, her normal body temp hovers around a reptilian 97). Last night she woke up once coughing and barfed a little, but this morning she seemed in good spirits and her temp was still only 98.9 so we sent her to school. They called about an hour later to say that her temp was 101.7 and to come get her. Steele took her to the doctor, and it turns out she has an ear infection in both ears.

How could we have known? Well, according to babycenter: The easiest way to tell if your baby has an ear infection (also known as acute otitis media) — or any other illness, for that matter — is a change in his mood. If he turns fussy, or starts crying more than usual, you should be on the lookout for a problem. If he develops a fever (whether slight or high) you have another big clue. Ear infections tend to strike after a common cold or sinus infection, so keep that in mind too.

If you've read the Daily Betty lately, then you understand why I feel like an idiot right now--blogging about a cold that lingers on, an unusually whiny baby, and field trips in the the snow.

I should have known. In my defense, it appears that in addition to reptilian blood, Betty has also inherited from me a stoic attitude toward ear pain. My childhood was marked by one ear infection after another, and I still remember the taste of amoxicillan, but my mom claims that I never showed any outward signs of pain. This is likely the first of many bottles of bubblegum flavored medicine in our fridge. I just hope I catch it earlier next time. Meanwhile, here's a pic of Betty scouring our bookshelves for parenting guides. I think she wants to bookmark the important sections, like "How to Know Your Child Has an Earache, Idiots."

P.S. She also has a new cold. And it looks like she's got another tooth coming in. Poor Betty!

Fresh Air

Somehow Tessa's shock collar got lost a while back, and it has doubtless been buried in the snow. It took a while, but she has figured out that her boundary has become permeable, and has now taken to dropping in unannounced on Tray. The new collar came this afternoon, but not before I'd bundled Betty up and taken her outside while I walked the dog.

Our experiment in country living has had its ups (peace and quiet) and downs (bugs!!!), and one thing my inner city slicker misses is sidewalks. Instead of taking Betty with us in her stroller as I walked the dog, Betty sat in it on the front porch, covered in a blanket, like some 19th-century English invalid out taking the air. Meanwhile Tessa and I tramped back and forth in the mud and snow.

Party Pooper

The internet was too slow for me to post this pic last night, and along with it I was going to post about how I didn't really have anything to post about. One thing I should probably have learned from some of the other mommy blogs I read is that posting about how you have nothing to post about almost guarantees that you will soon have some sort of unpleasant mess on your hands. Here's another post that's not for the queasy.

Some background: Betty is finally eating food. Yay! She will actually open her mouth in anticipation of sweet potatoes or oatmeal. Also, Betty's cold finally got around to me, just in time for my dissertation defense, and now my sinuses are totally plugged. I can't smell anything. This may actually be a good thing. You can probably guess where this is going.

So this morning Betty, unbenownst to me thanks to my plugged up sniffer, filled her diaper to the brim. (Funny how that happens once a human starts ingesting food). It was the poop to end all poops.

Normally when there is a poopy diaper, I get my work station prepared in advance: cloth dipe under the baby, wipes prepared and in arm's reach, outfit carefully removed. Well, today, I didn't know what awaited me in the diaper, and so I just treated it like any old pre-nap pee pee diaper change and was totally unprepared for the mess that burst forth when I took off the dipe.

The worst part was the slapstick comedy routine that followed: Betty would stick one hand in her poop, I would clean that hand on its way to her mouth while she stuck the other hand in poop. Rinse. Repeat. I finally pinned her arms down, cleaned the source of the poop, cleaned her hands, stripped all her clothes off, stripped the cover off the changing pad, and then cleaned her again and put on fresh pj's. And then I did laundry. Betty, meanwhile, cried and cried at the indignity of it all, and who can blame her. Now she's asleep--just in time for the propane truck to come refill our tank. This is all to your benefit, dear readers, because in the future I will never even think about posting that there's nothing to post about.

Unfriending

Betty paid a visit to some old friends today, and devoured them one by one.

Shaping Up

Betty has a definite favorite when it comes to the various shapes in her wooden shape sorter toy. She likes the blue oval, and will dig through the others trying to find it. I am amazed at the memory and motor skills it takes to do this, but a bit worried that she has chosen the darker blue as a favorite over the more aesthetically pleasing Carolina blue shapes.

Parchman Farm

I'm back home (no thanks to West Virginia and its utter lack of snow plows and salt) and amazed at how much Betty seems to have changed in the short time I was gone. She's standing better, her coordination is improved, and she just looks...worldlier. She's also a lot whinier. I have a feeling yet another of my "My child will never..." pronouncements is going to go down the tubes. All the dirty looks I've given the moms of whiny babies in airplanes, restaurants, and movie theaters are going to come back to haunt me I fear. More on this developing story later I'm sure.

But maybe Betty is just singing the blues. Here she is banging her cup against the prison bars. I find this appropriate since I'll be teaching my students tomorrow about prison work songs.

Snowpocalypse 2010!

Betty and I celebrated Verna's successful defense by trying not to skid all over the roadways and then hunkering down as the power failed. Good times I suppose, but we're happy to be safe and snug at home. Now if only Mommy were here too...

Here's Betty yesterday afternoon figuring the ice-to-rain ratio of the ubiquitous Virginian "wintery mix."

In unrelated news, Betty is eight months old today! We're celebrating by enjoying the fact that the power is back and we have running water.

Evil Twin

Thanks to the 2 feet of snow currently dumping on VA, I suspect Steele doesn't have internet access tonight, so there's probably no Daily Betty.

So allow me to post a pic of the other baby I birthed this year.

Thanks everyone, for the good wishes. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

You're Doing It Wrong

Verna left this afternoon to head north to defend her dissertation, and that's left Betty and me with absolutely no clue about anything. Here we are trying to figure out how the sippy cup works. I lost the instruction manual for this thing a week ago, and now neither of us can figure it out.

Good luck tomorrow morning, Mommy! We love you!

Story Hour

We used to read to Betty all the time, back when she was a captive audience. These days, she can't sit still long enough to hear a story, and she just wants to eat the book anyway. She is fascinated by books though. One of her favorite activities is taking books off shelves, as she is preparing to do in this pic. Some kids enjoy cuddly pj's and a nice quiet storytime after their baths. Betty enjoys streaking and making a mess.

Thrill of the Chase

Betty loves it when you chase her. She doesn't quite understand, however, that you can catch her in one big step. She always stops and turns on her side and looks to make sure you are following, or perhaps to give you a chance to catch her. Then she laughs, rolls, and crawls away as fast as she can. Yes, it is adorable.

Wife of Bath

Here's a glimpse at Betty's top front teeth. Reminds me of someone... "Gat-tothed was she, soothly for to seye."