October 2009 Archives
Laila went on the swings 
, played in the park 
, danced to Dixieland 
, and had a good walk in the stroller 
today.
Laila loves when her grandma visits — plenty of pinches! And yummy breakfast, too:
.
Laila has also eaten pumpkin,peas, oatmeal, bananas,and applesauce.
Laila was licking her bowl (of peas!) clean after a satisfying meal of peas! She started off with a grimace (see the video from a few days ago) and wound up licking the bowl! Next stop: pumpkin (and, if that does not work out, carrots).
At music class today.
We looked up, and then we looked down.
Laila laughing, originally uploaded by Salim Virji.
It's hard to beat!
Laila trying peas for the first time, originally uploaded by Salim Virji.
This morning, Laila tried a few bites of mushy peas and found that she prefers the taste of bananas. She expressed distaste and shook her head when we gave her spoonfuls of the peas! She was delighted to have the bananas, and grimaced when we tried to sneak more peas in between bites of banana.
Today we took a trip to Brooklyn: we began on the 
F train from the Lower East Side to Park Slope, but found out (after we entered Brooklyn, while the train waited at the York St platform) that the service had a bus bridge from Jay Street to Church Street — including the 15th Street/Prospect Park stop which was our destination. We disembarked at 
the Borough Hall station, and caught a local bus. Laila had a lot of fun looking around on the bus and thwacking the blue plastic seats. This was her first bus ride! The conductor was irritable because we brought a full-size stroller (we claimed ignorance of the bus diversion), but we became irritable because the bus driver quickly got lost somewhere underneath the Culver viaduct. A few U-turns along the scenic Gowanus later, a passenger interceded and began giving directions. We (well, Anna and Salim) reached the limit of our bus tolerance as we crossed 4th Avenue, and pressed the tape to get off at 7th. Happily, this was quite close to a rather tasty doughnut shop, and a decent coffee shop, and a place where we procured bagels. We then perambulated in Propsect Park 
while Laila napped, and then caught a train to Manhattan. 
Laila has long held a fascination with the cat, who is always just out of reach (wisely so: she grabs fistfuls of hair, Anna's and Salim's, and loves to pull hard. And the cat cannot grow hair any longer.) Today she came within an inch of successfully pulling his tail.
But she came only within an inch, and could not quite reach him. In this photograph, you can see the spreading bald spot along his spine. As his summer coat falls out, no new hair is growing in its place. He likes curling up under the blankets on our bed.
Laila excitedly bounces up and down in her high chair, and grabs at the spoon to draw it into her mouth. She enjoys having solid food! She really enjoys sharing it, too: with her chin, her eyebrows, the bib, the high chair, even the floor! So far she has eaten
- applesauce
- oatmeal with bananas and breastmilk
Laila began eating a few days ago : her first meals had banana mashed in with a little of her mother's milk. She was puzzled by the taste at first, and we needed to work on our timing, but by the second day of bananas-and-milk she showed interest in the food and the taste, and by today she was positively delighted to eat!
She smacks her hands on the high-chair and cranes towards the spoon-ful of food. If we take our eyes off her for even a moment she will grab the spoon and commandeer it towards her mouth. She enjoys the rubberized end of the spoon, which must feel good against her gums. Some of the food winds up in her mouth, and she pushes it around with her tongue; some winds up on her chin, her bib, in her eyebrows, her hair …
Tomorrow we start on apples; we picked up several varieties of apple from the market on Sunday, and made applesauce with local Macoun apples today. We will all have some applesauce for breakfast!
Around this same smiley time, Laila sneezed:
Laila in music class: Jumpin' Jive, originally uploaded by Salim Virji.
Laila's music class at the Y is full of sound and activity. Today everyone got into the action with the "jump" part of the refrain to a popular song.
At her six months (and eleven days) appointment, Laila weighed in at 16 pounds, 14 ounces (7.65 kg), and measured 26 inches (66 cm); her cranial circumference is 42.5 cm.
She received four immunization shots: Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis (DTaP); Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib); the Pneumococcal conjugate; and the seasonal (not "swine") 'flu shot.
The exciting part of the appointment was discussing her mobility! and her new diet of solid foods! We will begin mushing bananas and apples for her, and applying them in three- or four-day stretches. At two meals each day, we will give Laila a few spoonfuls of the fruit du jour, and see how she enjoys it (and whether we can successfully navigate the spoon into her mouth). Before that, we must pick up some supplies: bibs! spoons! tarpaulins for the floor! …
Previously, at four months, Laila weighed 15 pounds, 5 ounces (more than one stone! just under 7 kg!), and measured 25 inches (63.5 cm); her cranial circumference was 41cm. Compare to her three-month checkup (and two-months, and one-month, and at birth).
