All about Baby
Every so often, in an attempt to keep all my good memories from our time in Basel fresh in my mind, I look back at the archives of this blog to see what I was doing one year ago today, or two years ago today, etc. As I was doing that the other day, I realized how much the content of this blog has changed over the past several months. We originally set up the blog when we moved to Basel as a way to keep our friends and family informed about our travel and Swiss expat experiences. It became something somewhat different over time as we got wrapped up in the expat blogging world. Then we moved back to the US, and we wondered if we would keep it going. It's still here, and while we sometimes write about our reentry into the US, more than anything we find ourselves posting about Baby. That's to be expected, I suppose. As much as I would love to still be writing about our daytrips into the Alsace, or a quick weekend trip we took to the mountains, or our beach vacation in Thailand, our lives have changed drastically over the past year. Kirk's life is primarily about work and Baby, and my life is all about Baby (because that's also my work).
So for those of you who are still reading our blog despite it no longer being about life as an expat, here's what's going on in my world these days. Let me tell you about a few of Baby's current likes:
Books. A few months ago, at her 15 month check-up, Baby's pediatrician asked if I read to her every day. My reply was something like this: "I probably read about 100 books to her a day". Of course, she thought I was kidding, but I wasn't. She can't get enough of books. I can't tell you how many hours I spend each day sitting with her in my lap of the glider chair reading to her. If she wakes in the middle of the night, she asks for books. She wants a book at the dinner table with her while she eats. We go to the library at least once a week, not to mention a weekly visit (at least) to a book store. She LOVES books!
The letter "B". She's just starting to show an interest in learning her letters. For some reason, she has taken a real liking to "B". She finds it everywhere. It also happens to be true that many of her favorite words begin with B... baby, book, ball, bye-bye, bink, blanket, buckle, button...
Sheep and bink. These two travel in tandem. Sheep is her adopted security animal. She chose it as her favorite "crib guy" (a bunch of small stuff toys that I leave in her crib) several months ago and hasn't let go since. Of course she chose the expensive German one that I had to order online from a company that imports German toys so that I could have a spare hidden in my dresser drawer in case of emergency. Originally, Baby was only allowed to have sheep and bink when in bed, while getting ready for bed, and just after having woken up (while reading books in my lap). Then she discovered how to pull them out of the crib herself, so now she may also have them while playing upstairs. But that's it! As a side note, this Baby decided only at 10 or 11 months that she would like pacifier. I tried desperately when she was younger to get her to take one-- ANYTHING to soothe her other than me-- but she always refused. Now she doesn't want to let it out of her mouth.
The Wiggles. This is bordering on an obsession. She asks to watch the Wiggles constantly. Good thing I like it too, otherwise I'd be losing my mind. Then again, I love all things Aussie so of course I chose to introduce her to this program.
Football. Don't ask me how it started, but every morning during breakfast, Baby insists that I show her all the pictures in the sports page of the newspaper. She especially loves football, and claps when she sees it (in pictures or on TV). We've been trying to present other sports to her (eg. basketball) in preparation for the day in the very near future when football will no longer appear daily in the paper.
PetSmart. Somedays we don't have an activity or playdate planned, but I always know I can count on PetSmart for a fun outing. For her, it's like going to the zoo. She sees birds, hamsters/gerbils/guinea pigs, cats, fish, and sometimes even some dogs, and then talks about it for days. She especially likes imitating the gerbils running on their spinning wheels.
Hambugers. This girl takes after her mother and likes the meat. Everytime we drive past a McDonald's (and that's quite often), she points and says: "hamburger" (in her own way). How sad is that?! It's not that we go that often, but if I'm totally desperate to get her to eat something I know I can swing through the drive through, order a plain (boring) hamburger and it's all good.
Thai food. Thankfully, McDonald's is not Baby's favorite restaurant. She loves to go out for Thai food and eat noodles and rice and chicken. We're glad about that because we also love Thai food and go out to our favorite neighborhood Thai place almost every weekend. Maybe she loves it so much because we went to Thailand twice while she was a baby in my tummy!
So for those of you who are still reading our blog despite it no longer being about life as an expat, here's what's going on in my world these days. Let me tell you about a few of Baby's current likes:
Books. A few months ago, at her 15 month check-up, Baby's pediatrician asked if I read to her every day. My reply was something like this: "I probably read about 100 books to her a day". Of course, she thought I was kidding, but I wasn't. She can't get enough of books. I can't tell you how many hours I spend each day sitting with her in my lap of the glider chair reading to her. If she wakes in the middle of the night, she asks for books. She wants a book at the dinner table with her while she eats. We go to the library at least once a week, not to mention a weekly visit (at least) to a book store. She LOVES books!
The letter "B". She's just starting to show an interest in learning her letters. For some reason, she has taken a real liking to "B". She finds it everywhere. It also happens to be true that many of her favorite words begin with B... baby, book, ball, bye-bye, bink, blanket, buckle, button...
Sheep and bink. These two travel in tandem. Sheep is her adopted security animal. She chose it as her favorite "crib guy" (a bunch of small stuff toys that I leave in her crib) several months ago and hasn't let go since. Of course she chose the expensive German one that I had to order online from a company that imports German toys so that I could have a spare hidden in my dresser drawer in case of emergency. Originally, Baby was only allowed to have sheep and bink when in bed, while getting ready for bed, and just after having woken up (while reading books in my lap). Then she discovered how to pull them out of the crib herself, so now she may also have them while playing upstairs. But that's it! As a side note, this Baby decided only at 10 or 11 months that she would like pacifier. I tried desperately when she was younger to get her to take one-- ANYTHING to soothe her other than me-- but she always refused. Now she doesn't want to let it out of her mouth.
The Wiggles. This is bordering on an obsession. She asks to watch the Wiggles constantly. Good thing I like it too, otherwise I'd be losing my mind. Then again, I love all things Aussie so of course I chose to introduce her to this program.
Football. Don't ask me how it started, but every morning during breakfast, Baby insists that I show her all the pictures in the sports page of the newspaper. She especially loves football, and claps when she sees it (in pictures or on TV). We've been trying to present other sports to her (eg. basketball) in preparation for the day in the very near future when football will no longer appear daily in the paper.
PetSmart. Somedays we don't have an activity or playdate planned, but I always know I can count on PetSmart for a fun outing. For her, it's like going to the zoo. She sees birds, hamsters/gerbils/guinea pigs, cats, fish, and sometimes even some dogs, and then talks about it for days. She especially likes imitating the gerbils running on their spinning wheels.
Hambugers. This girl takes after her mother and likes the meat. Everytime we drive past a McDonald's (and that's quite often), she points and says: "hamburger" (in her own way). How sad is that?! It's not that we go that often, but if I'm totally desperate to get her to eat something I know I can swing through the drive through, order a plain (boring) hamburger and it's all good.
Thai food. Thankfully, McDonald's is not Baby's favorite restaurant. She loves to go out for Thai food and eat noodles and rice and chicken. We're glad about that because we also love Thai food and go out to our favorite neighborhood Thai place almost every weekend. Maybe she loves it so much because we went to Thailand twice while she was a baby in my tummy!
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