We picked up a new toy for Maile on Tuesday and I think it’s safe to say it might be her favorite yet – its a jumper. You hook it up to the door frame, Maile sits in it and bounces around. You are supposed to adjust it so the tips of her feet just touch the ground.
Maile LOVES the jumper – she pretty much took right to it, although as you can see below, she seems to be figuring it out a bit more on Day 2.
The first video captures Maile’s first try at the jumper:
And the second video is on day 2:
And yes, the title of this post is in reference to the breakdancing movies of the early 80’s Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2 – Electric Boogaloo. True story – Breakin’ 2 was the first movie Auntie Elyssa ever saw in a movie theater. Why does this matter? Because it gives me an excuse to include this:
(Click here for the first video. Click here for the second video. And here for the Youtube video.)
(And for those who are curious, the bouncer we bought is the Graco Bumper Jumper.)
Maile girl is starting to lay the hints down pretty strongly that she is ready to graduate from just breast milk and get some read food introduced into her diet!
We’ve had a rough couple of days with Maile girl. For some reason that has not yet been made clear, she decided over the weekend that she didn’t really like sleeping or napping any more. That isn’t to say she wasn’t tired – by all appearances, she was exhausted, but every time we went to put her down she completely freaked out. What made this all the more troubling for us was that Maile doesn’t typically freak out like this.
We thought she might be sick, but she doesn’t have a temperature and is showing no outward signs of being ill (no cough, no runny nose, etc.) She was eating fine and when it wasn’t nap time, she was playful and her normal self. We even saw some friends on Sunday and they can attest she was her normal chill and adorable self.
Things culminated on Sunday night when she woke up at 1 AM and went absolutely bonkers. She really was crying in a way that sounded like she was in pain and no matter what we did she kept at it. (Again, all very strange behavior for our girl.) It was not a “hey-daddy-I-don’t-feel-like-sleeping” whimper – it was more of a “for-the-love-of-all-that-you-hold-dear-please-stop-cutting-my-fingers-off” wail. We couldn’t calm her down and after 30-40 minutes decided to bring her to the emergency room to get her checked out. Better safe than sorry they say. Of course, as soon as we arrived at the ER, she turned into an angel again, cooing and making goo goo eyes at the doctor. The doctor did confirm that all appeared well (no ear infection or breathing trouble or anything like that). So I guess Chris and I have earned our “new parent freak out visit to the ER” merit badge…
Today was a bit better, but Maile still is fighting sleep. It’s clear that the lack of sleep is taking its toll and Maile has now developed a split personality. Luckily, in this day and age it was easy for me to capture this phenomenon on camera. Without further ado, I present Dr. Jekyll & Ms. Maile…
(Dad note: I took some artistic liberty and made Dr. Jekyll the “bad” character even though in the original, he is in fact the “normal” one. Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Maile just sounded better than the other way around…)
Daddy went to a conference last week and he got a real neat gift – a netbook. What’s a netbook? Well, its basically a full powered computer just in a smaller size casing – or as daddy explained, a “Maile”-sized casing. It’s perfect for me! I was getting tired of the big keys on daddy’s keyboard (and truth be told, I think daddy was getting tired of me banging on them when we worked together). These keys are nice and small for my tiny fingers. On Saturday, Daddy showed me how to use my new computer – he said I was a very fast learner…
Daddy showing me how my new Maile computer works...
Oh, so I press these buttons and then the letters show up on the screen? Cool!
Now if only I knew how to spell... Hmm...
Yes daddy, I promise, I'll only use this to write my blog - I won't go to any G-rated web sites...
Our little girl turned 4 months old today! On one hand, time flies – and on the other, hard to remember our lives pre-Maile. We took her to the doctor today and she is doing great – once again I nailed the “how much does Maile weigh” guessing game. Chris guessed 15 lb 2 oz, the nurse guessed 14 lb 8 oz and I guessed 15 lb 4 oz. I nailed it right on the nose! (In fairness the nurse doesn’t watch Maile drain her milk bottles…) The doctor gave us the okay to start introducing rice cereal in the near future – Maile licked her lips in anticipation.
In terms of what else Maile is up to… she probably sleeps through the night 70% of the time. (The other 30% though can get interesting to say the least…) She’s doing a better job calming herself, but she doesn’t fully go to sleep on her own – we’ll often have to give her a pacifier and then she’ll go to sleep. She still doesn’t love naps – she fights them, but once she goes down, she typically stays down for 45 minutes or so. She is (almost) rolling over – it really feels like it might be any day now. She is getting a little more fussy around strangers (Chris read that this is a phase she’ll go through around 4 months) – but she loves her nanny, Megan. She smiles every morning when she arrives. Speaking of smiles, she definitely recognizes Chris and I fully now – she lights up when we walk in the room or come home from work.
(Speaking of Chris/Mommy – I’d be remiss if I didn’t add what an amazing mom she is. I know a lot of you who read this are far away and don’t see the day to day, but its been amazing to watch Chris take to motherhood over the past 4 months. She is definitely a natural and Maile (especially) and I are very lucky indeed!)
I think that mostly covers it – it’s been an amazing 4 months so far!
It’s getting a bit chilly in San Francisco now, so we bought Maile some new pants last weekend. Mommy quickly realized that these black ones fit a little snug and make Maile look like one of Beyonce’s single ladies… of course, Daddy decided to run with it…
(Dad note: I mean what did you expect me to do? We have some work to do on the dance moves. We only practiced twice before this video and Maile had trouble picking up the twisting of the hand move. She’s showing promise though – we’ll get this one down soon.)
(Dad note: We recorded this because Mommy claims Maile was sitting up by herself just before this video was shot – at least for a couple seconds. She’s definitely getting stronger, but she’s not quite there yet.)
