As I mentioned in Daphne's 5-month update, we took her on her first road trip to visit Grandpa Ron and Grandma Stephanie at their summer condo in Graeagle, about an hour north of the Truckee/Tahoe area. The five hour drive there went pretty well, with Daphne fussing for only the last 15 to 20 minutes. The drive back, on the Sunday after 4th of July, when everyone in Northern California was headed from that area back to Sacramento and the Bay Area, took about two hours longer and that's about how long Daphne screamed her little head off for mysterious reasons. The visit itself was predictably fairly unpleasant, though not at all the fault of our hosts; traveling with a baby is just like that and I had forgotten.
Minus one epic meltdown (and probably a couple of less epic ones), though, Eli did pretty well. Packing for the baby made me realize how easy traveling with him has become as far as stuff to take along and keeping him entertained in the car. While there we hiked to a river a couple of times, checked out the little town and pond, watched fireworks (just Neal and Elias), and played with their new puppy, Eli's favorite part of the trip.
We had one pretty mellow week after the 4th of July holiday before we started "learn to swim" lessons with Eli every morning for two weeks, meaning instead of dropping off at preschool then racing home in time for a morning nap for Daphne, she napped a little on the early side so we could make it to the 10 a.m. lessons and then dropped Eli off after. The first couple of lessons also coincided with another two-day period of solo parenting (the second of three business trips in about five weeks!). So that was a little hectic. But it was worth it since Eli seems to be really enjoying the water this summer. He can't exactly swim yet but he's so much more comfortable in the water than he was last summer.
Daphne, on the other hand, was not such a fan of the pool, which was a little surprising since she loves bathtime. I thought about doing the parent/tot lessons with her after the 6-month mark but with everything else going on, I think I'll wait until next spring/summer when she may be a little more enthusiastic. And I'm not exactly suit-ready, if you know what I mean!
The other big event of the month for Elias was his last days at preschool. Here he is on his first morning, nearly two years ago:
And here are a few images from his last day last Thursday, which also happened to be pajama day:
The wave! Eli has been waving goodbye to me essentially since beginning daycare at 19 months, when he'd sit at the window that looked out on the driveway and wave to me until I drove out of sight. He's waved goodbye to me from that glass door almost every day since his first day of preschool. I'm pretty certain we won't be able to keep up this tradition once he begins kindergarten. Sniff.
Ah, the monkey bars, installed last summer and easily Eli's favorite part of preschool.
And, you know, every playground.
I was a little misty on drop-off but not when I picked him up, oddly, maybe because his last day was a half-day and there weren't as many other parents picking up then. It felt a little anti-climactic, I guess. And not surprisingly, Elias doesn't seem sad at all but I'm sure, as he did with daycare, the preschool stories and memories will begin to come out over the next few months. He did almost immediately begin to ask about his good buddy, Max, and wondered when we'd see him again since they're going to different schools for kindergarten. So perhaps that part of the transition from preschool to big kid school is starting to set in. Anyway, we've had three playdates with Max since last week so I don't think he has anything to worry about in that sense. And we'll be back in about three years when Daphne's ready.
Speaking of Daphne, she had a pretty busy month as well! She seems more
interested in toys lately, which is nice. Of course I'm always sitting right there with her but it's nice to have something take the edge off a little. Previously it was like she was always just watching me, waiting for the next entertaining thing. It gets exhausting after a few hours. Not that I'm complaining...
She still needs a little support since she doesn't seem to remember that the nose dive forward or falling backward, even on carpet, doesn't feel so good, but she's sitting up pretty well these days.
We've eaten out at restaurants - something Elias seems to miss more than us! - a little more recently since she can now sit pretty comfortably in our portable booster seat. She gets a little fussy after a bit but we've already had five years of training so the transition from dining with one child to dining with two was much easier than the first time around.
Okay, so it's still a little early and it was a very gentle swing, but I couldn't resist giving the bucket swing a try at one of our recent trips to our local playground.
She's getting a little more hair on top, not enough to put in a barrette or anything but enough for a post-bathtime baby mohawk.
All this sitting up does seem to be helping out in the spit up department but she still gets me pretty good every couple of days.
Also sure to help over the next couple of months is the introduction of solid food. Around mid-July we started with rice cereal and have since introduced avocado (not a huge fan in this California girl but I'm sure she'll warm up to it as she gets older), sweet potato, apples, pears, bananas, mango, and peas.
Her favorite food so far seems to be peas, followed by apples.
I've made one puree (pear/banana) and mashed a little bit of fresh fruit but otherwise I've done mostly store-bought jars so far. Spoon-feeding seems particularly tedious this time around so I look forward to working up to more finger foods over the next couple of months.
Otherwise breastfeeding continues to go pretty well although I've had a mysterious on-again, off-again case of maybe a chronic plugged duct that goes to show even when it goes well, breastfeeding is hard work. It's kind of like sleep. Even "good sleepers" have their sleep regressions and flukey 5 a.m. wake-up calls and such. But we trudge on and I'm hoping to continue breastfeeding until she hits the one-year mark.
In addition to working on sitting up, Daphne's favorite activity seems to be floor time, when she can practice rolling to get to a toy (something Elias rarely did; he rolled but not really to move around). It would be convenient if she enjoyed some hands-free contraptions for longer than five minutes but this pre-crawling stuff is pretty fun to witness.
Despite being a chaotic month, as with Elias around this point, I do feel like we're starting to turn a little bit of a corner. Not that I didn't enjoy her first six months but I do feel like I'm managing this SAHM business a little better and enjoying our time together a little more. I have a feeling she's going to be a fun sidekick.
Happy half-birthday, baby girl!
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