Monkey See Monkey Do

Baby sticking out her tongue

A few days ago in the park, our baby fell, and got a mouth-full of sand. She was not hurt. My husband, who was with her at the time, decided to teach her a little trick to clean out her mouth. He showed her how to fill her mouth with water from her water bottle, then to spit. It worked. Within a few seconds, she had cleaned all of the sand out of her mouth. When they returned home from the park, my husband described the sand-in-the mouth incident, and I knew we were in trouble.

Now each time she drinks water, once she has had her fill, she leans forward, and spits on the ground. And then she laughs hysterically. For now I have decided that the best way to extinguish this behaviour is to ignore it. Only time will tell if this is a good strategy.

In other news, the Brat's sleep schedule is on course. In my last post, I wrote about how we had decided to discontinue her middle-of-the-night feed. She had slept through the night on the third try. Since publishing that post, she returned to her once-nightly wake-ups. But we persisted. And for three nights in a row this week, she made it through the night without waking up. More than one night in a row for the first time in her life! We were very proud...then the inevitable happened, and cold # 10 halted her streak. She must have woken up a dozen times last night. And so too was our bliss aborted...

Wish List

CC relaxes in the park

I have an extensive wish list. It is a list of things that I would like to get accomplished prior to baby #2's arrival. Although there are still 5 or 6 months to go, the wish list is long. Most of the items deal with baby #1. For instance, potty training is one of the items. However, my husband and I deemed the most important to be sleeping through the night. Because the only thing worse than one baby not sleeping through the night would be two babies not sleeping through the night.

We had planned on starting last month, but decided to delay the training until after our NYC trip. We aren't letting her cry it out, or anything that I deemed too unethical. We have simply decided to remove the nighttime feeding. Most of my friends are surprised that I still feed her in the middle of the night. The way I explain it it that it was simply a natural extension of her feeding schedule. Approximately 3 months ago, she herself started waking up less often (once instead of three times). It was a relief that she was only waking up once, and she would immediately fall asleep after drinking a bottle of milk. One wake-up, I could handle, so we continued this way.

Yet the prospect of two babies waking up in the middle of the night to be fed drove us to action. I fully realized that by feeding her in the middle of the night, I was rewarding her, and thus encouraging her to wake up. However, just as she had cut out the other nighttime feeds, I was hoping she would naturally cut this one out on her own. I have been waiting over three months...

Night # 1 went not so badly. She fell asleep around 9PM, woke up a little before 4 AM. My husband tried offering her some water, whereupon she shed a few tears (not more than 10 seconds) and then allowed herself to be slowly rocked back to sleep in my husbands arms. This took approximately 1.5 hours. She then woke up for good a little before 7AM.

Night # 2 was a slight improvement. She fell asleep shortly after 8PM, woke up a little after 1AM, and was rocked back to sleep after 1.5 hours. She did not cry. She then woke up at 6:30AM for good.

Night # 3 was what we were hoping for. She fell asleep at 8:40PM, and made it to 6:20AM the next morning without a peep. There was one false alarm in the middle of the night, but she must have been dreaming because she was sound asleep when I went to check on her.

I was shocked that it had been this easy. Had I known, I would have started the training months ago. Now if only she could keep this up... I am half expecting her to catch another cold virus any day now, and disrupt our new-found bliss.

Greetings from NYC

CC tries on mama's heels in a photo taken just prior to departing for NYC

I write these words from the business center in our New York City hotel lobby. The baby is back in Montreal, with her grandmother and her aunt. I was certainly less anxious this time around about leaving her behind. She had such a great time in May when my husband and I had attended a wedding in Toronto without her, so I knew she would be in good hands, and in a familiar environment. We have been coming to NYC over Labour Day weekend for three years now. Partially to attend the US Tennis Open, and in part to visit with some of our NY-based friends.

Last year, we had brought along the Brat. She was 6 months old, and leaving her behind was not a consideration as her main source of nourishment was breast milk. This year, we considered bringing her along. I found a kid-friendly hotel, and even mapped out all of our kid-centred activities; Central Park, the zoo, and various museums. And then I remembered what NYC was like...the crowds, the noisy, smoke-filled streets, and came to the conclusion that NYC is simply not toddler-friendly.

We have barely spent a full day here, and although NYC is vibrant, and very unique, I do not regret leaving our daughter in Montreal. She will doubtless enjoy her mini-visit with her relatives; and as for us, we have already gotten some much-needed rest. I started reading a new book on the flight over, something that I have not done in over a year and a half; my husband and I are once again having conversations not involving the baby; we slept in until almost 9 AM this morning! While I still constantly think of her, I am trying to take full advantage of what will probably be our last mini-vacation before Brat #2 comes along...And then realistically I can't imagine leaving two babies behind, so this will probably be our last mini-break in a very long time...

Who Needs a Thermometer?

CC having fun at the park

Who needs a thermometer when cranky is the new fever-gauge? At least for my baby.

We were at a local library this past Friday. The Brat was running around, gleefully pulling books from the racks, running up and down the stairs, all the while squealing with delight. Then suddenly she reached her arms up towards me, insisting that I pick her up, and instantly started whining. A quick feel of her skin temperature confirmed my suspicions; she was febrile.

Our baby had gotten her 18-month vaccinations this last Monday. I naively asked the paediatrician if this time around, I could expect less of a response (at 12 months, she had 72 hours of fever exactly 1 week after her vaccinations). On the contrary, she replied. Physiologically it makes sense that the response would be more intense the second time, and I knew that. It was just wishful thinking!

This time around, the baby was her usual self for about 24 hours after her vaccinations, and then her temperature rapidly increased. We are now 5 days and counting of fever, and the subsequent crankiness and decreased appetite. Around the clock acetaminophen and ibuprofen have been controlling her temperature, but Friday morning I decided to withhold a dose to verify whether or not the medication would be necessary...And cranky was back!

Thankfully she won't need anymore vaccinations for another 21/2 years. In the interim, baby Brat #2 will no doubt keep us busy...

Speechless in Montreal

She couldn't decide between the two...

Every month since baby #1's birth, I have been receiving e-mail notices from Babycenter.  These notices deal with such topics as the baby's physical development, age-appropriate issues, and milestones. Up until now, baby #1 has been well ahead of the pack for physical development, and most milestones. She crawled early, walked early, and much to our dismay also climbed before the average tot. Speaking, however, is another issue.

Our baby turns 18 months this week, and this month's notice dealt with speech. By 18 months, the notice suggested that "She is using one or more words and knows what they mean. She'll even practise inflection, raising her tone when asking a question, saying "Up-py?" when she wants to be carried, for example. She's realizing the importance of talking and how powerful it is to be able to communicate her needs. Between 18 and 24 months, her vocabulary may include as many as 200 words, many of which are nouns. Between 18 and 20 months, children learn words at a rate of 10 or more a day. Some learn new words every 90 minutes, so watch your language. She'll even string two words together, making basic sentences such as "Carry me."  "


While our baby appears to understand several hundred words, and follows complex commands, she does not say much. "Papa" and "mama" have been the only words in her repertoire for the last 6 months. I am not too worried, as it is a well known fact that infants that are exposed to more than one language tend to speak later than the average toddler (and our baby has been regularly exposed to both english and french). Additionally, her father began speaking at 2 years of age; and so far she has taken after him in every respect.

What I find curious is that she has begun to make animal sounds before human ones. Each time we come across a dog, she makes a very good dog-panting imitation. The other animal sound that she has mastered is that of the monkey. While we do not run into too many of those, anytime I read her a book involving a monkey, she makes a very funny "eah eah eah" sound.

One of my friends suggested teaching my baby baby sign language. Is that similar to american sign language?, I asked. Apparently not; it is a sign language of its own. Rather than learn a new language, I have decided to stick with french and english. I am sure that within 6 months, I will be complaining on my blog about how she won't stop talking...

Our Tennis Staycation

What our baby thought about the staycation

What a novel idea, I thought, when I first heard the neologism for a stay-at-home vacation. You save on transport, lodging and food, and get to take in local attractions. We opted for a staycation this week as it coincided with Montreal's Rogers Cup. We had purchased tickets for every session well in advance. The only limiting factor was the Brat.

While the baby seems to enjoy swinging a tennis racquet, and even attempts to hit her nerf balls on occasion, spectating is a different story. We took her last year to this same tennis tournament when she was barely 6 months old. She behaved for relatively short periods of time, but we did not want to risk disturbing the players on Centre Court (for which we had tickets). I remember thinking last year that this year would be much easier. She could sit on our lap at centre court, we would explain the game to her, and she would be so enthralled as to quietly watch the matches. What was I thinking?!

We didn't even attempt to bring her along this year. We knew from the outset that she was too active to sit still for any length of time. Additionally, the weather was not cooperating. At the beginning of the week, the temperatures were too hot to have her sit outdoors, and by mid-week pouring rain had postponed a few of the matches.

In the end, my husband and I alternated caring for her and attending the tournament. Mostly, my husband attended during the day, while he watched her at home in the evening. This definitely defeated the purpose of us attending together, but like real vacations, nothing guarantees success.

The semi-finals and finals will take place this Saturday and Sunday, and my mother and sister have generously offered to watch her while we attend. Perhaps there is still hope that this staycation will be salvaged... or perhaps the next time we organize a staycation, the Brat comes first!

Sibling Rivalry

CC looking cool (she placed the hat this way herself)

I am not exactly sure in what context it was first brought up. My older sister, along with her husband and two young sons were visiting last summer from Macau. Perhaps it was after an incident between her two boys. My sister reminded me of our sibling rivalry growing up. What rivalry? I asked. Although we were not best friends growing up, I could not recall any rivalry between the two of us. I could not remember one instance of competing for our parents' attention. I will not deny that I had have a competitive nature; I wanted to win at every game or sport we played, and later on in school, I competed against other students for top marks. However, competing for our parents' attention, I do not recall; although it is possible that my sister remembered our very early years. The preschool period remains a bit of a blur in my mind.

In recent weeks, I have wondered many times how our baby (now almost 18 months) would respond to a sibling. Even though we are very attentive parents, she nonetheless regularly seeks out our attention. For instance, if we stop playing with her, however briefly, to do such things as go to the washroom, she will immediately do something to grab our attention. For instance, she may climb up on the dining room table, or open forbidden drawers. We have come to the conclusion that she would not take well to a sibling.

The other day, we showed her ultrasound images of her future sibling. We announced to her that her sibling (gender to be determined) would arrive approximately two years after her birth, and that she still had about 28 weeks or so to get used to the idea.

The Brat seemed completely unimpressed. Bring on the competition...

Future Rival