(no subject)

[rivka]

Starting about an hour after bedtime last night, Alex woke up howling. Usually when she wakes up at night she gives a couple of isolated calls or sobs, and then starts crying in earnest if I haven't gotten to her yet. These weren't like that - they were instant hard sobs. She fell back asleep with a little TLC, but then shortly afterward she woke up howling again. And again.

I finally took her into bed with me, but neither one of us got much sleep. By morning it was clear that she was sick. Coughing, sneezing, raspy breathing, runny nose. I canceled our weekly date for infant story hour and lunch with Emily and Zoe, reluctantly - I look forward to it all week, and I know that Emily does too. (Alex seems to enjoy it quite a bit as well.) But I couldn't inflict my germy kid on all the other story hour families. We stayed home and napped a lot, instead.

After the midday nap Alex started to get irritable and fussy. The day was sunny and mild, so I decided that it wouldn't do her any harm to take her out in the stroller for a while. She gets bored sitting around the house all day - I know the feeling - and can often be cheered out of a bad mood with a walk. We went down to the wonderful new wine shop that's opened up in our neighborhood and bought a couple of bottles of (as always) South American reds. Then we went to a sandwich shop to get some lunch to carry home.

You know, I know that cities are supposed to be anonymous and lonely, and that if you want social connections with your neighbors you're supposed to move to a small town. But my neighborhood is the opposite of that. I know more of my neighbors than I did when we lived in Iowa City or in the suburbs here. People spend a lot of time standing on the sidewalk chatting. On our walk today, we met one of the Egyptian cooks at our favorite pizza place. He was crouched outside the back door smoking, and had a big smile and greeting for Alex. Then I had a pleasant chat with the wine store proprietor about malbecs. On our way to the lunch place, Alex's attention was caught by a tattoo artist sitting on the front steps of his shop. I don't think she's ever seen anyone that heavily tattooed before. We stopped to look, and he told her she had beautiful eyes. As we walked past the hair salon, the manicurist waved at me through the window. I ran into a neighbor, and we speculated about what was going to be done to the house on the corner, which has just been covered with scaffolding. I feel like the people in my neighborhood connect with each other, I guess I'm trying to say, even when it's just in trivial ways. I love it.

Despite feeling under the weather, Alex has spent all day moving from a sitting position to a hands-and-knees crawling position. Then she doesn't know what to do next.

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Poor Alex; being sick is miserable even when you have enough experience to understand it.

And I'm glad you like your neighborhood. You're a lot more social than I am :-).

[rivka.livejournal.com]

You're a lot more social than I am :-).

This, I hope, is not news. ;-)

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

No, not particularly :-).

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Poor l'il Alex. I hope she feels better soon.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Despite feeling under the weather, Alex has spent all day moving from a sitting position to a hands-and-knees crawling position. Then she doesn't know what to do next.

I am sure you know enough to not be in too much of a hurry for her to start crawling. Because when she does, it'll be ooooh boy, Katie bar the door. Parenthood will suddenly feel very different when your child now has the capability of escaping from you.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I am living in terror of the day she starts crawling. Terror and denial - we still haven't childproofed the living room.

Get well soon Alex, too

[ailbhe]

Augh! Not childproofed? Bad Mama!

Sorry, couldn't resist. Actually, it's incredibly cute when you call "Come here baby girl," and she gleefully crawls over and cuddles you. That bit was lovely.

And the rest - well, we liked our Baby Dan fence. We childproofed *half* the living room, and fenced the rest off. radegund has done similarly; they call the side with the white sofa and the TV the DMZ. Linnea has just got responsible enough that we don't need to fence off the bookcases and record player.

Re: Get well soon Alex, too

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's incredibly cute when you call "Come here baby girl," and she gleefully crawls over and cuddles you. That bit was lovely.


Already the way she lifts her arms to be picked up just makes my heart melt.

The other insanely cute thing she's doing right now: she wants to pick up toys from the floor while she's being supported in a standing position. If she falls down in the attempt, which inevitably happens, she doesn't want to pick the toy up from her new position sitting on the floor. Oh, no. She has to stand back up again and THEN reach for the toy.

[selki.livejournal.com]

This was so nice to read, thank you!

[lyrical1.livejournal.com]

I was in that wine shop last week and enjoyed it very much. I was visiting with friends and they know the women that own it. I will make it back!

[ladyvonkulp.livejournal.com]

Alex has spent all day moving from a sitting position to a hands-and-knees crawling position. Then she doesn't know what to do next.

Kate (7 mos) is at exactly the same stage. I watched her all afternoon *almost* crawling. She does this great downward dog position, then looks like she's ready to do pushups. She's got a great backward scoot!

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

Actually, some kids have sleep interruptions related to developmental milestones; Squeaky didn't sleep super well when she was learning to crawl or when she was learning to walk, or learning to stand up. But I've got a whole list of blameable items to shift around on, so who knows.

Squeaky and I walked a couple blocks to the new Natural Foods store near the house. She ran into her sitter's neice and her godfather (recognizing him before I could) and I ran into a classmate from high school (21 years ago!) and a coworker from college (15+ years ago). Not bad in a metro area of +1 million.