First Week of Daycare

Alice attended her first week of daycare this past week. She attends the Stepping Stone daycare located near our house. Dad and I were hesitant at first to leave our one and only daughter in the care of strangers, but the teachers in Alice's class seem to be very nice people. Alice's teachers' names are Cindy, Laura and Rosa. Stepping Stone has a higher teacher to infant ratio than other daycares, which is one of the reasons we liked them so much. They also teach the babies infant sign language. This weeks word was "more". Alice is to young to get much out of the sign language lesson, but I'm glad they will be teaching it as she grows.

To ease both me and Alice into this new routine, we took her to daycare a little later then most and picked her up earlier so she was there only 1/2 days to start. She never cried when I left her, and she was always content when I picked her up. Since she is so young, hopefully this will become routine and we never have a problem with separation anxiety.

Alice's teacher Cindy was very impressed with Alice's ability to have a 'conversation'. She also says that Alice is very interested in looking around the room and watching what all is going on. She has picked Laura as her favorite teacher to feed her. She is (of course) the cutest baby in the class and one of the youngest as of now.

When we go to pick her up, we get a daily log of Alice's activities...when and how much she ate, when and how long she slept, and a list of all diaper changes.

Her nap times have increased daily so she is getting use to the typical 'noise' of the classroom and getting in good long naps. Her crib has pictures of mom and dad so she can see us even when we aren't there.

All in all, I'm happy with the experience so far. Having confidence in the care she is recieving makes going back to work at least bareable.

Crib Activities

On the advice of my cousin Cynthia, I bought the book "the no-cry sleep solution". One suggestion was to make the crib a fun place to be, so this week we started play sessions in Alices' crib.

One thing she loves in her crib is the Rainforest waterfall. It lights up, plays music and the little characters move. This can keep her entranced for up to 10 minutes. I'd like to take a moment and thank the lovely lady who gave Alice this super cool crib toy - Thanks Rami.

We are still working on getting Alice to sleep in her crib. We are starting with naps - she is actually napping in her crib as I write this (YEAH), and hopefully we can move on towards getting her to sleep in her crib through the night. I'll keep you posted!

More Visitors

The past couple of weeks have brought a few more visitors to see Alice.

Grandfather Meadows

Great-Grandparents

Aunt Pam

Aunt Sissy

The Oscar Goes to: Lights and a Fan

I tried to feed baby this morning, but she couldn't concentrate on eating... She kept moving her eyes and then her head to the object of distraction. The fan. The lights. She is mesmerized by the lights and fan. I made sweet noises and funny faces but nothing was interesting enough to keep her focused. She wouldn't eat. We moved her to her mom's angle, so she could look at her fan and lights while eating. She ate fine after that.

In an attempt to better understand my daughter, I wanted to get a picture of what she was seeing. What was she so enthralled with? While her mom was holding her I put the camera behind her head and took a picture.

This is Alice's perspective:

Knuckle Sandwich

I've been waiting for Alice to start doing things with intent.

This week, she discovered her fists with her mouth. She can almost fit her entire fist into her mouth. She will even try to fit both fists in at the same time....silly girl!

Night time feedings

Alice eats about every 3 hours. This means that she typically wakes up to eat at 12:00am, 3:00am and 6:00am. It is fairly dark in our bedroom, but we leave the bathroom light on with the door cracked so we are able to see pretty well.
Although I am tired, I still enjoy her night time feedings. Sometimes she is active...kicking, waving and making noises, which I'm sure wakes up her daddy. Othertimes, she lies there placidly with her hands clasped together across her chest. Regardless of her feeding style, I love to look at her face and see her black button eyes staring up at me.

2 Month Apointment

Today Alice went to the pediatrician for her 2 month appointment. She has grown and extra inch this month making her 22 3/4" long and weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs 3.5 oz. She definately has this growing thing down!

Unfortunately this was also her big vaccine appointment. She got 4 shots and one oral. Two shots on each thigh. Daddy was brave to try and calm Alice while the mean ol' nurse stuck needles into my baby! I couldn't watch and sat in my chair watching Larry's back until the ordeal was over. The nurse put bright round band-aids over the injection sites, but it didn't make me like her any more. Alice cried, but not as vehemently as she had at the last appointment when she got her first shot.

In the car she promptly fell alseep - traumatized from the experience, and then took a nap with me in the TV room when we got home. Hopefully all is already forgotten by Alice, but definately won't be forgotten by her parents.

2 Month Stats:

Length - 22 3/4" (75th percentile)

Weight - 10 lbs 3.5 oz. (40th percentile)

Head - 39.6" (60th percentile)

More "I'm so cute"

Alice is 7 weeks old in these pics

Alice learns to talk

Alice has begun to talk to her toy during her morning diaper change....too cute!

Alice's Cute Personality

No story here, just two pictures that really show off Alice's super cute personality.

Happy Alice:

Coy Alice: