19 Months!

A few things about Ida:

Still small. She's still not forward facing in her carseat. Ours has a 22lb minimum to face forward and Ida has been hovering just under and just over 20 lbs. We got a stern talking to from one of the pediatricians (not our regular guy) and have been adding tons of butter and oil to everything she eats. She's just SUPER active and probably burns it all off as she puts it on.

She's got lots of new words and phrases, mostly related to food, animals, and body parts. She says "igotcha", "idunno","goce" (gross),"howyou" (how are you), and "thanks".

She's learned "me" and "mine" but loves to share. She wants to do everything by herself these days.

She's very particular about what she wears and is actually pretty good at accessorizing. The other day CP put her in a denim dress and tried to put on some navy socks, but Ida protested. She wanted the pink socks, which she paired with a pink barrette and her "puhse."

Here she is wearing my socks (with help from her friend Tin) and galoshes.


Her new favorite activity is hanging from a bar at the park. And climbing up the slides.

Practicing for sullen teenagerhood.


She loves spending time with her cousins.

She is very affectionate. The other day, she was the first one to wake up and she demanded "a kiss...a kiss" from her sleeping parents. She hugs, kisses, laughs and dances when she's happy.

Favorite foods: balki (broccoli), papas, rice, beans, peas, mame (edamame), gapes (grapes), m m m (m&ms), cheese, and pasta.

Favorite favorite: still elmo, always elmo

IRX at 18 Months

Have I mentioned lately how much I love IRX? I think I'm feeling it today because she and CP left for Washington DC yesterday. I'll be meeting them out there on Saturday to go out to Virginia with her dad and family.

She's just a great kid and more and more her personality is showing. I mean, she's always had the same personality, but it's getting more and more developed and nuanced. She is fearless. She never scared of going down head first on a slide. She is not afraid to explore unfamiliar places. She loves with all her heart and will show affection when she's happy. Luckily, she's a very affectionate kid. Days are filled with kisses and hugs.

Days are also filled with dancing. There's a dance she does when she's excited to eat. And then the dance she does when she's excited to go outside. And the dancing she does for fun. And singing. She can sing her ABCs (thank you, TV) although you can't really make out any of the letters except G. She sings the songs she learned from her music class. She just sings.

She's a sweet and caring child. If she hears one of us say "ow" or hears a loud crashing sound she will ask "you okay? you okay?" until we confirm that, yes, we are okay. Of course, she will sometimes purposely throw something at us, say "uh oh..you okay?"

Her latest things that I love include asking people "how u?" which she got from our neighbor. Sometimes we wake up early and sit on the porch and look at the disgusting, ugly pigeons that congregate in our yard every morning and she will say, "hi birds how u?" Same to the neighbors dog. But not the neighbors. And hand shakes. And cheers-ing everything she eats or drinks. She loves carrying a purse. The other day, a woman almost ran her over with a shopping cart and she looked at her and said, "ohmygod". Hasn't said it since.

Finally, my baby has learned to pose for the camera. Unfortunately, we can never get her to do anything on video. Should could be singing for 5 minutes but as soon as she senses the camera is on, she stops. Anyway, here she is saying "cheese".

IRX is a year and a half today. This realization is stunning, exciting, sad...

Recently, we've had a few flashbacks from the past that remind me how little she used to be and how much she has grown in a very short period of time. We attended the premiere of a movie she shot last summer, appearing in the part of "baby." Of course, I am infinitely biased, but she was very good. That is my professional opinion as an actress and a director, and also my gooey melting mother's opinion as well. She was cute, cried on cue, stopped on cue. Possibly sound editing had a lot to do with this, but like to think not. And oh - she was amazingly and impossibly small, a BABY. Now, even though I call her my baby, in reality she is a toddler - an insanely active, reckless, constantly in motion toddler, basically a kid, and practically a teenager!

I've also been trying to sort through all of the photographs I've taken of her in the past year and a half. So far, I've gone from 3500 to 2500, which is no small task - especially when each photo brings me back to the day it was taken, to my memories of what she sounded like, acted like, looked like then. Facial expressions she only made for a while... Facial expressions she makes now, with words attached to them. I see pictures and video of her struggling to roll over, and remember how much time I spent trying to get her to do it how proud of her I was when she did. And then I think of this morning, when she busted her chin climbing over a chair. Or yesterday, when she climbed onto the windowsill and stood there, surveying the room.

Meanwhile, we have a new niece. At two weeks old, she seems like a (gorgeous) creature from another planet - incredible and tiny and alien. She was a pound bigger than IRX was when she was born, and yet - how can it be that IRX was ever that little? It happens so fast. And yet, when I see her next to her cousin P-LO, who is three, she seems so young. Just a baby, really. My baby.

Teeeeeth

After months of no new teeth (she has 8 now), IRX is cutting 3 teeth! Poor thing, she's super crabby and biting her mama while nursing. She was banished from nursing after 4 incidents of biting and responding by running around the house until almost 10pm, all sweaty and with a glazed look in her eyes.

Don't know if it's because her nap schedule was compromised, she missed her afternoon nap and we put her down at 7pm, hoping she'd sleep through the night, but that was just a dream we had. It didn't work out that way. She finally fell asleep, in my arms, watching Maisy (don't judge, I can't lactate, I have nothing to offer and it was the only way to calm her down).

I hope the teeth come in quickly and that there aren't anymore for awhile.

17 Months!

The other day, I called IRX a baby and my sister corrected me, said she was a toddler and it hit me. Whoa, she's a toddler! She's a walking, talking, singing, dancing toddler! I didn't listen when people said the time would fly by. It totally flies by.

New words: broccoli (balki, which she LOVES and asks for ALL THE TIME), cookie (another new favorite, but she says it like Cookie Monster does), robot (bobot - she puts a "b" in front of everything lately, like biaper and bapple), go, bird, ice, ca-te (aguacate) and a whole mess of words why can't decipher and feel bad we can't decipher because she says them with such urgency and confidence.

Her Zadie came to visit over Memorial Day and we took Ida to her first baseball game (but not her first sport game, that honor has been taken by the Bulls). In true Cubs fashion, the were losing 5-0 within the first 10 minutes. I guess this is an early glimpse into the heartbreak/disappointment of being a Cubs fan, if Ida decides that's where her loyalty lie.




It was a gorgeous day for a game though and Wrigley is a great place to watch a game. Being a kid has it's benefits. A nice usher brought Ida a ball, said it was because she was the youngest person in his section.


I think it's safe to say that summer is here in Chicago. I think the last time I got hopeful and finally took down the rest of the plastic (in May!) we had a cold snap. But corn is good again, so that means summer, right?


Summer in Chicago can't be beat and so far IRX has gone to a concert in the park (and another one next week) and various neighborhood festivals, like when her Uncle Tom came to visit. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of them:

The warm weather is here, which is good because Robobebe was going STIR CRAZY inside! She's a super active kid, and loves running around after dogs, cats, and bubbles.

Here she is discovering her first puddle:

IRX and Rain from coya paz on Vimeo.

And here she is discovering her first Cadbury egg:


















And here she is relaxing with a drink at the bar. She's watching the game. Really.



















I bought her a baby pool today, so more summer pictures to come!

Spring Update

I haven't posted since February? The last time I posted, Ida wasn't walking yet. Now she is full-on running. She cannot be contained. She cannot be stopped. One day, we were at the airport, waiting out a delay, and she took off. From our arms to some stranger's lap. And she has not stopped since.

irx runs from on Vimeo.

Going out to eat has gotten tricky since all she wants to do is explore. And she is a terror at Target and the grocery store (I lost her for about 5 seconds at a computer store, which seemed like 5 days). But everything else is more fun. Going to the park, going for walks, her music/dance class.




She's a daredevil, not scared of anything (except trees, for some reason). She loves dogs and cats and going down the slide. Her new thing is going down the slide head first.



Probably the biggest change is her ability to communicate. She has about 25-30 words, 3 signs (more, milk, please), and she is very resourceful in the way she communicates. She can say "book" but if she wants you to read to her she takes your hand and puts the book in it.

She knows how to fake laugh, which she will do when a group of adults is laughing, but she's recently learned how to fake cry, telenovela style (hmmm...I wonder where she picked that up). She's very affectionate, always doling out kisses and hugs, for her mama, her toys, and picture of babies.

February Update

When IRX was 4 months old and starting on solid foods, we tried to teach her the sign for "more" to no avail. We kept using it until we gave up, maybe 4-5 months later. Well, all of a sudden, a few weeks ago, she learned that she could get things if she asked for them and now signs "more" all the time (I think she thinks it means "eat"). Unfortunately for CP, it's always for more breastmilk. We've been trying to teach her the sign for milk and please, but she just stares at us blankly and furiously signs "more."

Not much going on otherwise. Lots of snow, but now as much as our east coast friends. Ida is somewhat interested in snow, but being a Chicago January baby, she just loves being in the cold. The first step out the door always produces a gasp and a smile.



She's also been sick off and on for the past 3 weeks. First it was a cold, which everyone in the house caught and then a stomach thing that has been going around. CP dubbed Feb 14th St. Vomitines's Day. Now she has an eye infection, which prevented her from going to her friend Harold's pool party.

Even though she took her first steps almost a month ago, she's still not interested in walking. Although we've been taking her to a music and movement class and most of the kids are mobile and more and more she's standing up by herself for long periods of time. She's just too scared to move her feet. We've been encouraging her to walk holding only one of our hands (and not two) which has been going well. Although, if we're both holding on to her hands, she runs. So my prediction is she will go from crawling to running.





Having some formatting issues. Here are some miscellaneous pics: hanging out with Sabina, kicking back with a bagel.

Our Little Tiny

IRX had her 1 year check up today and she continues to be our tiny (with a big head): 17 lbs, 7 oz and 29 inches with a head size of 45.5 cm. Small but with a double chin and big belly.

Baby's Got a New Pair of Shoes!

IRX's new shoes, on deep deep discount. To paraphrase AshmanLisAshman, I could die. Baby shoes are definitely my weakness.

Ida Turns 1!

IRX's first birthday and we couldn't be more proud of the little person she is at this moment: loving, caring, silly, and fun. A wild child. Full of life.

Her birthday proper was almost derailed when CP tried to bake a cake and then ran out of time, so they scooped me up from work on Friday and we went to WF and picked up a cake. I was tempted by the mini tarts, mini pies, and mini eclairs, but we were there to pick up a cake. You only turn 1 once.
What's going on?

Hesitant. Memories of Mamas shouting "Ida, no!" running through her head.

Okay, no one is stopping me...


Going for it!



Can't eat anymore. I've loosened my diaper. Maybe if I move around a little...



All that exercise has made me hungry.


They don't call it a "smash" cake for nothing.