LJ interests meme

Every tenth interest:

breathing: I added this to my interests list in May of 2003, when I developed an innocent-appearing cough with shortness of breath that spiraled into an ER visit, a couple of weeks of utter debility, and the occasional need for an inhaler for almost a year afterward.

dogs: Of all the things that I want and don't have, a dog tops the list. For a few years, curiousangel and I had a subscription to Bark magazine, even though we didn't own a dog. I'm kind of sorry that we let it lapse.

garlic and rosemary fries: From The Brewer's Art, our neighborhood brewpub. The garlic and rosemary fries on the pub menu, studded with big pieces of garlic and redolent with fresh rosemary, are the reason why it took us two years to get past the bar and into the restaurant.

irish wolfhounds: This is the kind of dog I'd like to have. They're so massive, and so gentle.

lois mcmaster bujold: My favorite author. I discovered her Vorkosigan series at a time when I was working to come to terms with a self-identity as a disabled person.[1] Miles Vorkosigan was exactly the right person to know.

pamela dean: Pamela writes exactly the kind of books I want to read. I am a big fan of the Scribblies in general, but Pamela's the one I'd most like to know better in person.

purple orchid cream of crab soup: From the restaurant, or as reproduced in therealjae's kitchen. Sooooouuuuup.

science fiction conventions: I enjoy them, but I haven't been to enough of them. I've just registered for Capclave, which should help. The best con I've ever been to was Minicon 2002 - I've always wanted to go back, and it's never worked out.

the cuteness of jae: Surely this interest needs no explanation. I copied the wording from minnaleigh, but I developed the interest all on my own. After Jae hit me over the head with a metaphorical two-by-four.

wine: I am not well-educated about wines, but I love to drink them. I have a glass of wine with dinner nearly every day - generally inexpensive South American reds: malbecs, carmineres, merlots.



[1] I was much more disabled, at that point, than anyone here has ever seen me. In case you're thinking that that was excessive or inappropriate.

Developmental update.

Alex is five months old, and has definitely become a grown-up baby.



Her world is expanding rapidly. No longer content with the toys I spread around her on the floor, she rolls over onto her side, grabs the edge of the toy basket, and gropes the toys inside. When I leave the room, she calls out to me indignantly - not crying, but demanding my presence. She understands that things could be other than how they are, and tries to change them.

She handles objects with such facility - grabs them one-handed, guides them into her mouth, holds them out at arm's length to get a better view, transfers them easily from one hand to the other. She's started shaking and banging her rattles, instead of just chewing on them. She can do pretty much anything she wants to with a toy. I don't remember when that happened! It's been at least a month. She's also beginning to learn how to turn pages in a board book. (I have to start them for her.)

She loves, adores, is desperately crazy about rhymes. What a sad fate for a Mommy who's never liked poetry. I ordered A.A. Milne's Now We Are Six and When We Were Very Young for her and picked out the poems with good strong rhythms and rhymes. The first time she heard "James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George DuPree..." she burst out laughing. She still grins every time she hears it, and "Nanny let my beetle out," and "Round about and round about I go," and "Christopher Robin had wheezles and sneezles." She's recently also started to pay more attention to the pictures in her storybooks, but the rhythm and rhyme of the words still gets most of her interest. We look forward to the Friday morning "Mother Goose on the Loose" program all week - I get a special delighted wide-mouthed grin when I break out the library songs midweek.

She likes peek-a-boo, both in "where's Alex" form and in "where's Mama" form. The best is when I cover her up and she uncovers herself, although sometimes she can barely wait for me to ask "Where's Alex?"

She can sit supported on her hands, at least for a minute or two. Then she faceplants. When I'm cradling her in my arms, she can just about pull herself into a sitting position on my lap. Sitting will clearly be the next major milestone, and it's coming soon.

She's tall, and heavy. Her hair is long and thick enough that we can put barettes in it.

She rolls from her back to her tummy, especially as a way of reaching something that's a bit too far away. Once she's on her tummy, she rescues the arm trapped underneath her and props herself up on her elbows - if there's a toy she wanted to capture - or her hands, if she wants to be taller. Sadly, she has completely forgotten how to turn over from tummy to back, so a dozen times a day she needs to be rescued.

After a few rocky tries, she has thrown herself wholeheartedly into the pursuit of rice cereal. When it's time for her daily bowl of cereal, she waves her arms, bangs her hands against the highchair tray, grabs for the spoon, flings herself forward, and opens her mouth enthusiastically. As you might guess, this makes feeding a challenge - but it's so much fun that I don't care. Early experiments in solid food have much more to do with exploration and familiarization than they do with nutrition.

Sleeping, these days, is less fun. For her first ten days in the crib she woke up every 1.5-2 hours, all night. Gradually, it became easier to soothe her while standing cribside instead of picking her up for some of those wakings, although she still needed to be picked up and held 3-4 times a night. In the last three days, she's worked her way down to two wakings per night. That sounds encouraging, right? Except that the second waking (the first is all business - gulp down a bottle and right back to sleep) has been stretching out for an hour or longer. This morning we were up from 4:15 to 5:45. She's clearly still tired, rubbing her eyes and fussing. I've occasionally tried giving up and bringing her downstairs to play at 5:30am, and she's always miserable until I can get her down for a long nap in the sling. But for some reason, she's determined to be awake well before dawn.

It's pretty fun to be her mom right now (except for, say, 4am-7am). Her mental wheels are turning all the time, and it's exciting to watch her make a connection for the first time, or figure out how to manage some new experience. She's a very happy little girl - we spend a lot of time grinning and laughing together. And either she's started to be more affectionate, or her newfound independence makes her affectionate moments stand out more. Probably the latter. Now that she's spending most of her awake time on the floor, rolling around and playing with toys, it adds extra sweetness to the times that - without being sleepy or hungry - she just wants to be cuddled and held. Now that she likes to hold her whole body upright when she's carried, bracing against my shoulder with her arms outstretched, it adds extra sweetness to the times that she leans in close and drops her head against my shoulder.

She's a good baby.