She's Got Hands!

Mali's latest trick is that she's discovered her hands. They're in her mouth constantly, creating drool puddles down her clothes, so the daycare has kept her in bibs all week to keep her from having to sit in wet dresses. My favorite, though, is when she clasps her hands together. Her little fingers grip each other and pull at each other like she's worrying over something. Adorable and tiny! She can also keep a pretty good grip on her paci.

Dinner tonight was a fun experiment at recreating a festival dish we first had at a local music festival. Atomic corn dogs. You remove the stick from a corn dog and split them open. A ribbon of mustard, a healthy topping of slaw and Siracha hot sauce to taste makes a spicy, yummy treat. Daniel George restaurant in Mountain Brook came up with these. We also made one of our low-carb favorites as a side - turnip fries. They taste, oddly enough, like onion rings.

A Question of Parenting

I've been reluctant to leave Mali with babysitters/family on weekend nights these past several weeks that I've been back at work because I feel like I get to see her for too short a time during the day as it is. That will change soon though, since I've turned in my notice at work and have taken a freelance position where I can work from home! But, in the meantime, we've been choosing our weekend activities based on whether or not we can bring a baby. This gets a little tricky since she's generally very good, and places that might be questionable seem totally reasonable since she's happy wherever she is. Last night we'd made plans to meet a friend at a, well, bar for around 6:30. It technically is a restaurant, but since they're known for their expansive beer selection (and we're into that sort of thing) I tend to think of it in those terms first before I think food. We'd had some storms come through, and so we got off to a later start than we'd originally planned. First problem. But, I fed Mali at home just before we left, and I had a bottle defrosted for later since I knew I'd have a beer or two, so timing seemed to be working out fine. We sat down just after a party of 12 though, so the restaurant's already notoriously laid back service slowed down to a ridiculous crawl. Second problem. But, Mali was fascinated by the porch fans, and the couple next to us oohed and ahhed over her so much they got nostalgic for their 7-year old twins at home and spent the rest of their time looking at pictures of them on their phone. We were "the couple with the baby," and lots of servers came by to meet her, and that seemed okay. But 9:00 p.m. rolled around and we were just served our food, and Mali, understandably, was starting to get fussy and tired. Third problem. Luckily our friend has kids, and sine he wasn't eating he offered to hold Mali, and she was out within minutes. We finished our meal, another giant party sat down, and we ordered our last beer with our check. The baby was asleep, totally fine and safe. But the place was starting to get crowded with the just-there-for-drinks set, and I was starting to feel like an irresponsible mommy. I think part of the problem was context. Partying 20-somethings and sleeping babies don't mix. We weren't doing anything wrong, technically, but it sure felt like it. And it's not as if people were giving us dirty looks. This was just me feeling awkward. We didn't have a whiny two-year old we were forcing to stay up past her bedtime because we wanted to stay out. Mali could not have cared less where she was sleeping. She was warm and clothed and taken care of. We weren't drinking in excess, so all of us were safe on the drive home. We were just enjoying a rather late dinner with a friend ... in a bar. I should probably just appreciate how portable she is at this stage and not worry, but I don't want to accidentally do something harmful to my child because I'm blase about bringing her wherever we go. I guess this is the balancing act of parenting. Maybe we are horrible, but it didn't feel that way, just awkwardly timed. Either being a parent doesn't have to mean I change who I am and what I enjoy, or I'm still naive and selfish and I'll find out the hard way. All I know is that I love my baby and would never do anything intentionally to harm her, but I still feel like apologizing to the world for having her out last night. Mommy guilt, I guess.

P.S. This rare lily bloomed in front of our house this week. Beautiful, huh?

Beach Baby

This past weekend we took Mali on her first ever road trip to the beach. We drove down after work on Thursday, which worked really well, and that meant we got to spend a whole extra half day enjoying the sun. My mom, brother, sister in-law and their two kids had been down there all week, and unfortunately everyone but my mom had to leave the morning after we got there. But my dad joined us the next day, so we still had plenty of fun.





My general philosophy with baby stuff is to try and get by with as little as possible (which sometimes works better than others), but I think we packed the perfect amount for taking a three-month old to the beach. The one indispensable item was the baby tent my brother and sister in-law left down there for us. It kept Mali shaded and off the sand, and she loved napping in it while the waves crashed nearby. 60 spf sunscreen and giant umbrellas helped too. Friday was Mali's three-month birthday, and to celebrate she got to stick her toes in the sand and sit in the surf. She wasn't too sure about the cold waves at first, but she liked the feel of sand in her toes I think. What she liked even better was the pool. After lunch, and more sunscreen, we splashed and bobbed in the pool until it was nap time.






Overall I'd say the trip was a success. Mali liked all the new sights and sounds, and she loved spending time with Nonni and Pop Pop. Plus, she got to celebrate Father's Day with her daddy this morning.

Kick Party

Mali seems to have discovered her hands in the past week. She's constantly playing with them and sucking on them. Her feet are next, I'm sure, because one of her favorite things to do is kick and kick and kick. We need to take some more video of her in the bath because that's when her kicking is the funniest. She gets so excited to be in the warm water that she practically wiggles herself out of the tub. This morning while I was getting ready and Mali was hanging out in bed with James, he told me they were having a kick party. I thought he said keg party, which was very confusing, but kick party sounds about right!

So one of the other things I wanted to do with this blog was to share some of the yummy things we make to eat around here. Last night was a winner. We roasted chicken leg quarters with rosemary, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. Then we stuffed halved zucchini (from our friends Valerie and Greg's garden) with ricotta cheese, bread crumbs, more garlic, Italian seasonings and baked those. Yum! The last bit was one of my favorite easy side dishes. You just drain and rinse a can of chickpeas, put them in a hot pan to "toast" them and season them up with black pepper and Parmesan. It looks pretty, doesn't it?

Belly Button

This first week back at work has been both more difficult and not as bad as I expected. I didn't cry the whole first day. I just cried after we put Mali to bed because I missed her. I guess not seeing her all day and being extra tired just caught up with me. The great thing about these past two days has been that I've managed to go see Mali at my aunt's house during lunch, and I've gotten to feed her.

I'm fairly sure she's just as happy as before I started working because she's still all smiles. But she has developed a new behavior that's a little worrisome. I hope it doesn't foretell similar bad behavior when she's grown! Of course, we could also blame the heat, but for whatever reason Mali's decided she needs to show a little more skin. If she's in a shirt or dress (rather than a onesie) her hands are grabbing at the hem and pulling up, showing off her belly button. At least one of us still has a cute one!

Tummy Trouble

A big part of being a new mom is worry, worry, worry. Some of the things I worry about the most are whether or not I'm reading to Mali enough (she likes Russian literature), if I'm giving her enough tummy time to strengthen her muscles (probably not, it makes her fussy) and if she's cooing and oohing enough yet (she's more of a squeaker and hooter). Yesterday I discovered a trick for better tummy time! Her play mat came with a kidney-bean shaped bolster pillow that I hadn't put to use yet, but propped up on this cutie and distracted by some HGTV we've got a winner.

Speaking of tummies, we had an appointment at the Pediatric Gastroenterologist this morning to check on a small "diaper issue" Mali's been having. I'd stopped eating dairy to try and help it, but that didn't seem to be working 100%. Our pediatrician's next suggestion was this referral, and I was glad they could see us before I go back to work tomorrow. Luckily, it's no big deal, just a symptom of an immature digestive system that she'll grow out of and that the doctor isn't worried by right now, especially since she's eating breast milk.The doctor was great, really friendly, and he and his nurse practitioner made me laugh by how much they were cheerleading breastfeeding. Go us! If Mali were formula fed we'd have to use special expensive formula, but since she's not we don't have to make any changes. And I can eat dairy again!

I've had a request for more shots of my new haircut, so here goes. I'm still getting used to it, but man is it easy :)

Rock Star

We had a blast this morning at Mali's photo shoot with Allison Carpenter. Allison was a lot of fun to work with, really creative and she made us all feel very comfortable. I can't wait to share photos when we get them! Mali did really great. We started just after she ate her breakfast, so she was sweet and happy. She posed in a basket and on her tummy in a couple of ruffled diaper covers. Once she got fussy we did some shots in silhouette with James and I holding her. The last setup was pretty awesome. It took a while to make it work because we had to let Mali eat again to get her happy, but I think it was 100% worth it. I'll just say that she was definitely our little rock star. And you might be able to see a little preview on Facebook.

It's still ridiculously hot here, so we've spent the rest of the afternoon napping on the couch. She doesn't look like she has a problem with that, does she?

You can see Allison's work on her website: www.allisoncarpenterphotography.com

Welcome!

As of yesterday, Ms. Mali is 11 weeks old. Which means I'm headed back to work next week. I'm going to miss my little nugget for sure! So I thought I'd start this blog to capture all the precious moments and share them with friends and family.

Today was a big day. I got a drastic haircut. James's sister, brother in-law and niece are coming to spend the night with us and meet Mali. And Baby B (one of her many nicknames and the inspiration for the blog title) has been SUPER smiley all day long. She's laughed at her daddy a few times already, but she's smiling more and more. The best smiles are when we get her up in the morning and she looks up from her giant crib with an even more giant smile, so happy to see us. We haven't had much success capturing this cuteness on camera yet, but we're hoping to have better luck with our professional photo session this weekend.