So Many Firsts

Little Miss had two major firsts this week. She is not only now an Interstate traveler; she is also a consumer of solid food.

On the first point, we traveled north to Iowa and Moonshot’s parents this past weekend. Four and a half hours there and the same back…nine hours strapped into a car seat for a little girl who had never been in the car longer than half an hour. The potential for frustration (on her part and ours) was high. I’m proud to say, however, that she complained less than her Daddy did. Slept the whole way there and half the way back. And when she did wake up, she gibbered to herself happily as she played with her toys. I hadn’t even dared to wish for such a positive result; would have felt greedy wishing for such a turnout. Luckily, she seems to have higher expectations of herself than I do.

She dealt with the new environment with her usual calm curiosity. She was pleased to look out new windows and thrilled to meet a new doggie. And although she seems genuinely excited to be back in her own home on Sunday night, she never complained as her routine was jostled about for the trip. She was clearly born for the road. And this is a good thing since her grandparents live in opposite directions. The upcoming holiday travel schedule will give her many more opportunities to impress us with her love of the open road…starting this afternoon with a trip down to Grandma MoMa’s.

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Monday night brought Norah and rice cereal together for the first time. She’d been having difficulties holding down enough formula to satisfy her for long periods. Because of this, we found ourselves feeding her more often as she got older, a trend we had not expected. She had no problem sleeping through the night, but during her wakeful hours she demanded a bottle every three hours. We’d been trying, in good “first time parent” fashion, to stick to the book for her advancement. We weren’t supposed to start the cereal until after her 4-month check-up in a couple weeks. However, it was clear by her physical development that she was ready for something more substantial and clear from her newfound interest in our food that she would be generally agreeable to a step forward in her diet. We called her pediatrician and were instantly given the go ahead. Silly first timers…we should have called weeks ago.

Since we finally made the decision on a Monday, it meant Uncle Jet could take part in the festivities. He comes over on Mondays to watch Heroes with us. It’s a new tradition these last few weeks…a good excuse for him to show up and spend time with Norah and us and a pretty fun show to boot. Anyway, I was very happy that he was able to be there for the first spoon-fed bite.

Norah greeted the first spoonful with pure joy. She grinned ear to ear as pasty gruel was loaded into her mouth. Having watched Superfly and Mr. Chubbers go through this process, I knew this was unusual and again started wondering just how easy our daughter could possibly make this child rearing thing. However, when it became clear to young Jolly Green that we were going to keep shoveling this stuff at her…she became less enthused. At first she squirmed, then she fussed, then she screamed. However, she quickly learned that this left her mouth open. Within a minute, she had taught herself a new technique…the closed-mouth cry. Her little jaw would open, but her lips would stretch closed to ward off any further attacks by spoon. The cry was muffled and outrageously cute. We decided to call the feeding a success even though she had probably only swallowed half a spoonful of cereal…and even that on accident. We didn’t want to torment the poor girl with the spoon so much that she got upset at the sight of the torture device. She finished her feeding with a bottle that she savored more than usual. Having seen the alternative, her she suddenly stared at her bottle with newfound appreciation “Oh, Bottle, I’ll never take you for granted again!”

Last night was her second experiment with the spoon and she did even better. She swallowed a little over a spoon and a half and never got overly upset. She’ll have this down in no time.

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One final update. We had our first meeting with Parent’s As Teachers last night. If you have small children and are unfamiliar with this organization, they are well worth looking up. I know they boast a nationwide presence, but I have no idea how visible they are in other cities. Here in their city of origin, however, they are omnipresent. And well they should be, it’s just a wonderful organization. They are a group of volunteers who make routine visits to your home and just check in on your baby’s progress. Let you know what they should be working on, give you tips for dealing with issues you may be having, and generally serve as an on-the-scene consultant. It’s a free service and I have no idea why someone would opt not to take them up on their offer. Our pediatrician can measure Norah’s physical development, but she’ll probably never see Norah in her home setting. She’s not as interested in our parenting technique or making suggestions for getting Norah to sleep easier. Our pediatrician will never walk our house with us and help us catch baby-proofing concerns that we would have overlooked on our own. Like I said, I think it’s just a great deal and I’m very proud that my city can claim it as something we offered to the country. (Sadly, they don’t seem to have grown into Canada yet…sorry to my northern friends. Hopefully you guys have something similar)

This first meeting was not as informative as I think future meetings will be. At this stage of her growth, Norah doesn’t have any behavioral issues we’re working on; her size and strength means she’s advancing quickly through her physical checkpoints; and her requirements are pretty straightforward for Moonshot and me. Basically, The PAT lady just kept praising Norah and us for doing so well and we were all pleased to receive the praise. She’ll be coming back in two months and I think that meeting will be more informative since Norah will be doing even more by that point. And as she adds versatility and variability to her little arsenal, our range of parental responses must grow accordingly. I, for one, am glad to know that Parents as Teachers will be swinging by periodically to help us beef up our responses. Even if we manage to stay one step ahead of them and all they ever do is come out an tell us how awesome all three of us are…well…I’ll go right ahead and pencil that onto my calendar. I mean, I could listen to people praise my daughter all day.