Brian got on a plane today to go to Qatar.  For the next 3 years, he will be working there for Northwestern University, doing similar work to what he did at WILL.  He is super-qualified for this job, and will doubtlessly do very well. I also believe and hope he will have a lot of fun.  He is hoping to learn Arabic, work on his writing, and just have a fun adventure.  I wish him well.

He left home at a little after noon.  For me, it was a really sad moment when I dropped him off at the subway station.  I cried.  I have enjoyed his friendship a lot, and I’m bummed out we won’t get to talk as often.  One of my favorite times of day is when I come back upstairs from putting Joy to bed, and Brian and I watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.  A lot of times, we chat during commercial breaks, and it’s just a great relaxing time of the day.

I’m most sad about the fact that Joy won’t have her papa around for so long.  It hurts the most when I think about how she looks at him.  She loves her papa.  

Brian is doing a very good thing.  I hope that the next three years are fun and wonderful for him.  I also hope that Joy and I have lots of fun, too.  If/when he comes back to the states, she will be 3, which is not a bad age to start getting to know her I think.  She’ll be talking and walking, and able to have fun adventures with him.  He can teach her checkers (then chess), arabic, baseball, improv and whatever else he has learned or loves to do.  

No new tooth (or teeth) yet.  Joy did seem to be experiencing some discomfort again today (witnessed by others and not just me), but baby orajel helped a lot.  I’ll keep on the lookout, and let you know when anything changes!

We went to a big family reunion of Brian’s today.  It was a bit overwhelming for me, because there were so many people, but they are really a bunch of nice folks.  It’s sort of weird, because I was concerned about Joy getting overwhelmed with so many people wanting to see her, but I feel like I kind of played this okay.  I kept an eye on her, and whenever she was showing tell-tale signs of having too much, I’d kind of take over.  By doing this, I managed to avoid any major fussiness.  I really do feel amazed by how much better I am at reading her signals than I used to be.  There were a lot of people there, and many of which who were dying to see her.  She’s been in big groups before, but not this large, and not so filled with people who all wanted to hold, touch or talk to her.  I do feel like it’s really important to allow babies their personal space, and listen to their cues of being overwhelmed.  I was worried about today for that reason, but like I said, I think it went really well.   She did fuss a little bit, but any time I saw that happening I worked on toning things back down, so everything stayed pretty even-keel.  

Next year will be a whole different scene, with her up on her feet, running around and actively interested in everyone and everything.  We might all have a hard time keeping up with her!!! 

Understandably, everyone loved Joy.  She’s quite lovable!  And, she really loved them back a lot.  She had one Great Aunt in particular who she really seemed to bond with.  For almost the entire day, she was smiling at everyone and laughing when they were being silly.  I’m glad that she has a big large family that loves her and is a part of her life.  Although both Joy and I are sleepy from a long day, I also feel very grateful for our blessings.  

Joy was fussy for much of the day today.  I feel like this is a little taste of what most other parents have to deal with most of the time.  Joy is so not fussy usually, that when she is, it really wears me out.  Man, I’m a lucky mama!

I’m still pretty sure this is teething pain.  She continues with the drooling, and the chewing of her fingers (or whatever comes near her mouth).  Baby Orajel seems to help some, and I’ve also been using a little baby tylenol.  Her cries really sound like pain cries (I recognize them from the sound she makes during vaccinations).  

If this is a tooth popping through, we should know within 4-5 days.  They say a tooth takes no longer than 7 days.  So, here’s waiting… (and I’ll try to actually get a picture posted once it pops through–I’m still really behind on all pics).

Sorry I’ve gotten a little behind!

Things that are going on:

Joy seems to still be getting bigger.  I just bought diapers for her, and was up to size 4 (which is for babies 22-35 pounds).   Technically, you would think size 3 would fit fine still, because that is for babies up to 28 pounds, and I know she’s not that big, but her size 3′s are getting too small.  One result of that is that they don’t close as well.  And, they leak more, as I realized when she peed on my leg a couple of days ago.  I think the reason that 3′s are too small is that they figure for poundage only, and not chunkiness.  She’s kind of chunky, so I guess that’s it.  What’s funny is that the picture on the box I got was of a crawling baby.  That means most babies her size are crawling.  She really is a big baby!

She’s continuing to laugh.  That’s great.  I love it.  And, physical comedy seems to be the trick.  Anything surprising or awkward seems to have a better chance.  Not only is her laugh delightful, but I think it’s also a sign of her mental development.  The fact that anything can surprise her seems to indicate that she has some sense of what is normal and what is not.  She is beginning to anticipate her environment, and therefore is aware of the unusual.

She may be teething.  She’s drooling a lot, and she seems to be slightly fussier than normal.  Also, instead of sucking on her fingers, like she usually does, now she chews on them.  Hopefully this process doesn’t cause her too much discomfort, but who knows, we may be seeing her first tooth soon!

Tomorrow, Joy and I will be taking a music class. To be precise, a Spanish music class.  I’m doing a work trade to pay for it.  It involves singing, instruments, movement, massage, mirror stuff, games and other things, all involving music and Spanish.  We are getting song books and CDs, I think in both English and Spanish, which means more songs we can sing in both languages.  I used to speak Spanish, but it’s pretty rusty now.  I hope to teach it to her along with English.  Children who learn more than one language from the beginning not only have more language ability as they get older, but they also do better in other subjects as well.  Music also has a similar boon.  Babies and children who listen to a lot of music do better in math, interestingly enough.  We already do quite a bit of musical stuff, but I’m happy for more ideas.  We’ll have fun with music while we are learning Spanish.  

Another language I want to teach Joy is American Sign Language.  What I’ve learned is that babies can learn to start signing as soon as 5-6 months.  The most common signs to teach babies are the words for milk, hungry, ouch, mom, etc.  The advantage of teaching a child simple sign language is that they can communicate with you clearly with signs long before they can use oral language.  Anything to make things smoother in the baby-adult communication department is great with me!  Also, being Brian is hoping to learn Arabic when he is in Qatar, maybe he can teach it to her when he comes back.  We would have a multi-lingual child!!!  Cool, huh?

Until now, the only physical objects that Joy was interested in were her mobile, and her activity center, with it’s dangly toys.  Today Joy showed a little more interested in toys.  

She has a great set of soft blocks, and today I pulled them out just to look at them a little more.  She certainly doesn’t have the coordination yet to be picking up or stacking them, but I realized that these particular blocks have more going for them than just stacking!  A lot of them have little noises they make, too.  One block in particular caught Joy’s interest.  When you touch it, it makes a funny crinkly sound.  I held it up for Joy to check out, and she kept on running her hand over and over it, making the noise.  She seemed really intrigued, so this is definitely something we will explore further!

Today, Joy received some great new books.  One from Grandma Paris, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” with star pictures that spin behind the pictures when you twirl a wheel.  So much fun!!  I enjoy looking at this one, even without Joy.  Also, Joy’s Uncle Dave and Aunt Heather sent some books in the mail, too.  They are amazing!  They sent me a collection of books including a Sesame Beginnings “Baby’s First Board Books” (a set of four adorable stories), a book of stories by E.B. White, including Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and the Trumpet of the Swan, a DVD of “baby’s animals” with flashcards, and activity tips for parents, and “Ten Friendly Fireflies,” a Light-up Counting book.  So far, the Fireflies book is Joy’s favorite of all of her books.  It’s the only one she sits and stares at, because of the bright lights in it.  As she gets a little older, though, I know she’ll mature into the older books, first with the other board books, and then someday to the longer books like Charlotte’s Web.  For now, though, bright lights interest her more than pretty colors or even a great story.

Joy really has a nice little collection going, which is great!  I’m so excited!  Yay for reading!  My mom read to me a lot when I was little, and talked to me a lot too, both of which helped build my language skills.  I learned how to read early, and still have a love of reading now.  I really think that reading is one of the best skills you can give a kid.  A kid who loves learning, and reading, is a kid who has tons of possibilities available for the direction of her life.  Possibility is one of the greatest things I can give Joy, and I hope I am able to do so effectively.

I was wrong about how far Joy is off of the growth chart.  She is not, as I said before, nearly as big as a one-year old.  She is quite big for her age, however.  I was right about that.

The doc says she is healthy, which is great.  She got a couple more shots, which sucked.  She also bumped her head, but the good thing about that is it happened right in front of the pediatrician, who was much less freaked out about it than I was.  The doc checked for signs of a concussion, but Joy was fine.  I had taken one of my hands off of her for a second, and she had taken a dive for the counter which was maybe a foot and a half to our right.  It happened so fast, I couldn’t catch her. She cried really hard, which the doctor said was more from fear than pain, and she got a little blue bruise on her head, which went away pretty quickly.  This is the first time Joy has ever hit her head before, and the doc informed me that it won’t be the last.  I was much harder on myself about it than the doc was, which is probably affirming.

Today, I found out why the rain isn’t fun when you have a new baby.  I went to the library today to pick up a few books I had on hold, and had to juggle Joy, an umbrella, a bag of books, and keys.  Craziness!

Also, Joy got weighed today.  20 pounds, 4 ounces!  That means I need to change her car seat.  I’m going to change it from the “infant” seat to the “toddler” seat!  I have the world’s youngest toddler, I guess.  Good thing I have a convertible seat!  Also, I think this makes the juggling task a little more impressive!

In the last couple of weeks, I have noticed Joy noticing and using her hands.  She may have discovered them before this, but it’s just lately I have noticed her actively using them.

All of the baby literature talks about babies grabbing for toys once they understand what their hands are. She doesn’t do this.  She’s not really a material girl.  She doesn’t love toys (except her mobile).  However, she does use her hands.  She rubs her eyes and sucks on her fist.  She uses them to grab fabrics, to touch my skin, and grab my hair.  She also often uses one hand to play with her other hand.  This has the tendency to either make her look very polite (hands folded quietly in lap like a lady) or super-evil (think Mr. Burns on the Simpsons).

At some point, I’m sure she will start grabbing things.  I think the reason she doesn’t do that yet is because of this whole Attachment parenting thing I’m doing.  She likes people more than physical things, which I think is quite alright.  One fun thing I’ve been doing is playing with her hands, playing with the fingers, and letting her play with my fingers.  It’s a neat, simple little interactive thing that feels very special.

One funny thing about all this development is that she’s clueless about her thumbs (which is very normal for her age).  She knows they exist, but I think she sort of thinks of them as defective fingers.  Sometimes, she tries to straighten them out in line with her fingers for reaching, but of course, they are not as long.  They simply don’t work the same way, and she has yet to see the advantage in this.  Often, she just curls them up out of they way, which looks sort of odd and funny.  So far, fingers are fun, and thumbs are dumb.