an imperfect portrayal or representation
sunnidae's moblog holds photos from my mobile phone camera, most of which are aimed at Jacqui.
I know I haven't updated jacqui-the.com in a very long time, and eventually I will. This is just easier for now. :)
posted by jouette at 10:38 AM
Her brown eyes are wise; she watches and learns. She notices. Her hands are made for exploring, feeling, manipulating. (They've been doing that since before she even appeared outside of my belly.) Her little legs don't hold her upright for walking yet, but they propel her across the floor at a pretty fast clip.
Today is March 17, 2005, and Jacqueline Kai The is one year old.
Her most-used syllable is "ah". She points: "ah?" "Button," I tell her. "Ah!" "Button!" "Ah!" "Button!" An onlooker would either be amused or irritated by the repetition ... I never find it unpleasant. She calls me "mamamama" in her hopeful little voice, and I call her "JacquiJacquiJacqui" and give her hugs and kisses and Cheerios.
She wants to know everything. Today we stood at the window and watched a squirrel eating birdseed for about fifteen minutes. I got bored before she did; I pulled her down from the window ledge, but she stayed over there watching, holding herself up to see, for another ten minutes.
She seems to mostly be done with her stranger-anxiety. When we visited with Geoff's relatives this past weekend, she immediately fell in love with her grandfather and grandmother. She sat on the floor playing with Grandpa for hours; she held up her arms for Grandma to pick her up. Grandma even gave her a bath in the kitchen sink, and Jacqui didn't mind at all.
She naps more often lately -- today she slept for almost two hours in the middle of the day. And she's been sleeping six or seven hours in a row, when she's not teething. Currently, she's teething. A fourth top tooth popped through while we were across the border, and so both of her new top teeth are working their way through at once. We've had some sadness during the past couple of days but teething cookies, baby orajel, and baby tylenol are all her friends.
She hasn't got much use for chew toys, unless they belong to the puppies, and those are the toys she can't have.
She's still nursing three or four times a day, more for comfort than nourishment I think, because of those teeth. I try to stretch the time; I try for three, rather than four. But when she's so sad with her hands in her mouth and nothing is helping, and she looks at me with those hurting brown eyes and says "mamamamama?" and holds her arms up to me and clings to my neck and burrows into my chest ... well, what can you do? It's comfort, and that's what I'm here for.
Weaning will be easier once we start her on whole milk. She loves cheese, yogurt, eggs, peas, spinach, pesto, noodles ... in fact, anything on my plate is what she'd love to have on her tray. She's still enthralled with the tiny sweet roundness of her Cheerios, and the teething cookies she loves best are the ones that leave brown goo all over her face and hands. I haven't gotten a good photo of that yet, but she certainly is something to see.
Geoff and I like to play "remember when" games. "Remember when she hated the bathtub?" "Remember when she could only lie on her back and wave her arms at us?" "Remember when she slept all night for those three or four months?" "Remember when we brought her home from the hospital and she seemed so big in my arms, but really she was so tiny, and we just didn't know it?"
That's the one, right there. She was 8 pounds and 10 ounces when she was born. Five days later, she was 8 pounds even. Today she weighs about 23 pounds -- almost three times her coming-home weight -- and she's no longer "long"; now she's "tall." And she IS tall -- almost 30". (These are estimates; her next doctor visit will happen on the 22nd.)
I've been home with her for a year now. I wouldn't trade places with anybody; I wouldn't give this up for the world. I'm so grateful to have her, to be able to spend this time with her, to watch her and help her and love her. And this is where I have to tell you that I *couldn't* do this without Geoff. He works so hard to keep us happy and fed and mostly sane. He's my buddy, who's been through so much with me, and when I look at him and ask if he's still happy with me after all these years, he says yes -- and then he tells me it hasn't been so very long, you know.
I love Geoff, and he will always be my best friend, my confidant, my dancing partner, my love.
And Jacqui holds my heart in her eyes and her hands, and every smile is a heartbeat. She and her daddy have given me the most amazing year of my life.
posted by jouette at 12:39 AM
Jacqui spent an hour on Thursday morning kicking the back of an airplane seat that held a federal marshall. She was in her car-seat, singing and waving and kicking, for the duration of the flight from DC's National Airport to Toronto. Our flight was mostly empty, which surprised me after the nightmarish check-in lines -- we're never flying USAirways again, unless it's for free. We made it into line at 7am for a 9:30 flight; we didn't reach the counter until 8:40 because they kept pulling people out of line who had gotten there LATE and there were only two working computers.
However, we made it to Toronto without incident and then spent a long weekend showing off Jacqui to Geoff's family. Everyone seemed to have a most wonderful time! We spent Thursday evening in Keswick with Geoff's aunt and grandmother; on Friday we drove to Grafton to visit with his mom and dad at his other aunt and uncle's house -- some cousins were around, too; and on Saturday evening we drove back to Toronto. The photo I posted last night was taken at a pasta bar on Saturday night.
Sunday was a slow no-agenda wander-around-the-city day. We rode the subway, we found a comic shop and a used CD store, we walked until our feet fell off. Jacqui had an excellent time, bundled in her pink snowsuit and alternating between her stroller (referred to as a "trolley" by the hotel bellman and as a "carriage" by the subway lady) and our arms. She even wore her little pink mittens without complaint. We spent Sunday evening with Geoff's brother and his girlfriend and then on Monday afternoon we flew home.
I wanted to write down an overview of the trip; more detail will follow with photos soonish.
posted by jouette at 8:32 AM
My SqueakyBird currently sings along to the new Pyrates Royale cd, in her own fashion. She particularly likes The Brigantine -- spooky! Essiquibo River also inspires babysong.
I love this album *best* so far. It's been on repeat in my livingroom cd player for the past three days. :)
posted by jouette at 12:43 PM
As of yesterday, this baby is now the Five-Toothed SqueakyBird. Her third top-tooth showed up with great fanfare and even a few fireworks. Once we were over the drama and the nap which followed, we headed out to her Grandma's house to show off the shiny (and sharp!) whiteness of her teeth.
She had a wonderful time (she always does), and then she slept NEARLY all night, which is an improvement over the past few weeks.
Tonight we went out to dinner with a couple of friends, which was the perfect moment for Jacqui to try out some new behaviours. I was feeding her peas-and-rice, and said "mmmm-HMMM" to her when she took a bite. Her voice is so much like mine that when she parrotted "mmmm-HMMM" back, it sounded almost like I'd repeated myself! Her other trick was cute in an entirely different way: she smashed rice into her hair. She's been noticing her head lately, and she pulls at her hair, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before she wondered what her hair would feel like with food in it.
When dessert came, she didn't want a bite of my banana unless she could hold it. Geoff's face was priceless when I finally gave it to her and said, "Okay, here. Put it in your hair." (She didn't -- she stuffed it in her mouth, just like I KNEW SHE WOULD.)
posted by jouette at 11:36 PM
