Another long weekend

Today was Ramy's 9/80 day, so we get another long weekend together. He hasn't worked a full week since just after Christmas, I think! It's great. I was off with Rebecca yesterday, since UofR was on Spring Break, so that was great. She went with me to Loma Linda on Wednesday and helped me provide and receive supervision. Yesterday we went to the park. Last night, Ramy had his first degree ceremony for induction as a Knight of Columbus, so Rebecca and I stayed at home and watched Meet the Parents and Lipstick Jungle. Somehow in playing with her, I hit my head on the corner of the end table and almost knocked myself unconscious. So that was pretty exciting. This morning, Rebecca and I went to music class. She got to play with three kinds of drums, wood blocks, and the zylophones and music sticks. Plus they also did a few songs where they use little crocodile figurines and sing songs about a crocodile named Pete ("Pete with the beautiful teeth"), which I find a bit bizarre. Regardless, Rebecca loved it. A little boy named Rayan tried to take Rebecca's Pete the Crocodile away from her, and she promptly jerked it back from him. Oh dear...but at least I don't have to worry she won't know how to stand up for herself.

Fingerpainting!

Here are a couple of pics of Rebecca fingerpainting for the first time - what a masterpiece!

12 month appointment update

We went this morning for Rebecca's 12-month well-baby check-up with Dr. Jeng. Although her pediatrician's office has separate waiting rooms for sick and well children, there were apparently a lot of sick well babies, because even in the well waiting room, there was a lot of coughing, sneezing, and snotty noses. I would have liked to have put up a Lysol barrier shield around us, but that wasn't available to me. I settled for keeping Rebecca in my lap where the only thing she could touch was me, sitting as far away from other people as possible, and wiping her face and hands with a Hands&Face wipe as soon as we got into the exam room and again after we got out of the doctor's office. Paranoid much?

Anyway, Rebecca weighs 17 lbs, 4 oz. and measured at 28 1/4 inches tall. That puts her still at about the 5th percentile for weight, but at the 30th percentile for height! She's ahead of the game in terms of all of her milestones, but particularly so with her fine motor skills. Dr. Jeng was still unable to hear her heart murmur, but Rebecca was totally uncooperative in that process, and I'm sure all he heard through the stethescope was Her Royal Annoyedness voicing her displeasure about being restrained. Her ears have cleared up, thankfully. He is concerned about her repeated ear infections, but she doesn't really meet criteria for referral to an ENT. The most aggressive for ear tubes for repeated ear infections seems to be after 4 infections in 6 months or 6 infections in 12 months, and she isn't there yet. He wants to re-evaluate it in three months and see if she's had more infections. Dr. Jeng does think that she has some allergy issues, which is probably why she makes that adenoid-y kind of noise. Otherwise, he prounounced her completely perfect. She got three shots - the varicella (chicken pox), pneumococcal #4, and Hepatitis A. She will get the MMR, DTaP, and another Hib at her 15 month checkup.

True to form, Rebecca seems no worse for wear after her shots. She's been a happy kid ever since. She and I ate lunch at Panera Bread, and she discovered the great joy of jumping on the bed and falling back against a bunch of pillows this afternoon. She looks around in the guest room for Grammy every time we go in! When Ramy came home, we all went to the park. Rebecca rode her little car, and then she had fun swinging in the baby swing, and she didn't want to leave even though it was getting dark. She has eaten really well the last couple of days and has gone back to eating things from a spoon again - hurray!

Music class

Rebecca and I started the winter session of the Kids Love Music class yesterday. She was slow to warm up and sat in my lap the first few minutes, but then she got into it and was dancing and singing and playing her little wooden sticks. She was actually the youngest in this class, but she was also the loudest! We'll be going every Friday for the next six weeks, and then there is another session that starts after that. She'll also be starting classes at Little Gym at the beginning of April, so she'll have that on Mondays and her music classes on Fridays.

Ramy was off yesterday, so we went to breakfast at Mimi's and last night we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Brea. Afterward, we walked around in the mall. I scored great deals at Gymboree during their Baby Sale, and I got a bunch of new things for Rebecca. In addition to the sale, I had a 20% off coupon, plus I got Gymbucks. She has at least 3 outfits from each of their collections I think. I was tempted at Janie and Jack, but I had seen a sneak preview of a new line not out yet, so I'm holding off. We also got some Sees candy.

Today, my mom and I planted flowers in my yard and we ate dinner at BJ's Pizza and Brewery. My mom is going to be leaving tomorrow to go back to TN. Rebecca is definitely going to be missing her Grammy, and I'll be missing my mom. As a testament to what a good in-law she is, Ramy will also miss her! But then it will be less than 3 weeks until we go to TN for Easter, and we all have tons to do in the meantime to keep us busy.

New words and another ear infection

We've been having a lot of fun having Grammy (my mom) here these last two weeks, and we'll be missing her when she goes back to Tennessee on Sunday. Rebecca has enjoyed having lots of Grammy hugs, kisses, and being rocked, not to mention just a little more adoration. While all animals are "diggy" (dog), Rebecca is trying to say "Syddie" (Sydney). She loves the dogs, and she colludes with them to toss her food off the highchair to them.

Last weekend, we had a nice four day weekend together. On Friday, we had breakfast at Mimi's Cafe and then hit the road to L.A. We went to a fabulous store called Surfas in Culver City. I've been wanting to go for a long time, because it is called the "chef's paradise." You can get all kinds of gourmet stuff, plus every kind of pan, serving dish, cooking utensil, pan, cake decorating tip, cookbook, you name it there. They also have a nice cafe where they make all kinds of yummy stuff. Then we went over to the L.A. Farmer's Market. Why it is called that, I have no idea, because there is little produce for sale there. Instead, there are dozens of food booths, plus places to buy fresh meats, seafoods, cheeses, etc. We ate lunch there. Around it is an outdoor mall called the Grove. They have one of the American Girl Doll Places (there are 3 in the country), where little girls can not only buy all the American Girl dolls and accoutrements, but the dolls can also get their hair done there and go into the hospital to be fixed. Rebecca ended up falling in love with an American Girl Bitty Baby, whose name is Lucy. Lucy gets lots of love, kisses, and pats on the head from Rebecca. That night, we stayed in L.A. and ate dinner at my favorite Italian place - Louise's Trattoria. Then we went up to the Griffith Park Observatory to look at the lights of Los Angeles. The observatory has been closed for the last five years to be completely remodeled, so it was the first time I've ever been able to go in the observatory itself.

Saturday, Rebecca woke up in a really cranky mood and was crying a lot. Totally unlike herself. Then we realized she was slapping at the back of her head and pulling on her ears. So we went to the doctor and discovered that she has another double ear infection - one had some discharge and the other was just beginning. So she's now on a week's worth of amoxicillan. I'm a little concerned that it isn't helping though - she is still pulling at her ears and needs Motrin in the evenings. We go to see Dr. Jeng for Rebecca's 12-month well baby visit and shots on Monday, so we'll see what he says. I think he will probably refer us to an ENT for an evaluation for tubes. I'm concerned about the ear infections, because they are painful of course, plus I don't like the possibility of antibiotic resistance, but I'm more concerned about the effects of chronic fluid in her ears on her language acquisition and speech development. Saturday afternoon, we went to Rachel and Ashley's birthday party, and Rebecca had a blast seeing her little friends and just being with all the other little kids. She especially loved climbing on the stuff there for the littlest kids and sliding down the baby slides. I can tell she is going to be fearless - she wasn't the least bit afraid of any of it and probably wouldn't have been afraid on the stuff for older kids.

Sunday, we went to mass and did a lot of relaxing at home. Sunday night, my mom kept Rebecca so that Ramy and I could go out on a romantic date for a belated Valentine's (when you're married, it doesn't matter if you wait to go out for V-day on a weekend). We went to the Melting Pot in Pasadena and had a really great date. Monday, Rebecca, mom, and I went to Victoria Gardens to shop. My mom stayed with Rebecca on Tuesday and yesterday, and she'll keep her this afternoon while I'm at work.

My friend Julie found out that she is having a baby girl! Baby Adelaide, Miriam, or Charlotte is due in July, so that's awesome. I talked to Nanny Rebecca on Tuesday, and she is recovering well. We expect her to be back with us the first week of March. Next week, Ramy will be off with Rebecca on Tuesday, and then I'm taking her to Loma Linda with me on Wednesday, and I'll be home on Thursday.

I've decided to do very little clinical stuff next year. I'm hoping to be staffing the new Chino campus of Chaffey College's student counseling center, and I'll probably supervise students in the LLU clinic on their assessments. I'm going to focus on getting my dissertation done, applying for internship, and spending time with Rebecca.

Happy birthday, Rachel and Ashley

Today we went to Rachel's 5th and Ashley's 3rd birthday party at "Jumpin' and Jammin'" in Santa Anita. Although she was one of the youngest there, Rebecca had as much fun as any of the other kids! She enjoyed cake and juice and then loved climbing and sliding. Here are some pics:

Birthday update

It's been a long time coming, but finally I'm getting around to posting about Rebecca's birthday. I did, however, put up a slideshow of some of the pictures from her party. It was a wonderful day! Gorgeous southern California day - much more like May than February - in fact, it was so warm (around 80°) and sunny that we had to change Rebecca out of her corduroy birthday outfit Grammy had made her and into a capri pants outfit (luckily Mommy and Grammy had just been shopping at Janie and Jack the day before, so we were prepared!). Myrna and Jessica came by early to help us take stuff to the park and to get ready. They put up the banner, got the decorations up and, and started setting things out, and then they ran around and picked up the Filipino food and the pizza. Vincent came over to help as well. He and Ramy picked up all the rented tables and chairs, the helium tank, etc. and hauled it to the park. English Springs Park is really lovely. Unfortunately, you can't drive into the park, and there is only a small parking lot. Otherwise, you have street parking, and regardless, you have to haul everything in.

Rebecca had a great time being the center of attention and getting to ride all over the park in her little push car. There were about 40 people there, and she got lots of great presents. We had four kinds of pizza, a fruit tray with dip, a veggie platter with two kinds of dip, a cheese arrangement in pineapple, lumpia, beef skewers, pancit, fried bananas, and some other Filipino stuff that I can't remember. Rebecca had her first taste of the sweet stuff. When it came time to do her cake, she was into being sung to and enjoyed sticking her fingers into her cake, but she wouldn't taste it at first. After I gave her a bite from a fork, she thought it was pretty cool. She didn't have much to do with the cake though - after all, that much sugar is completely foreign to her! After that, she played some more and got passed around. Then we knew she was hungry, so Grammy held her while I gave her a few bites of food. After about 5 bites, she leaned back, turned her head toward Grammy and just went to sleep! She said partying was very taxing!

It was a perfect day, just as it was a year before when she was born (plus about 50 degrees, and no epidural needed!). She has gotten in her top two teeth now, and she loves to clap her hands, snap her fingers, cluck her tongue, wave, point to things when she wants to know what they are, make faces, mimic us when we sneeze or cough, and dance. She loves to move to music (we're not sure where she got that)! We're starting her new music class next week, so I know she'll love it. Every time she hears music, she either bounces up and down or sways back and forth. She has 5 words now - "mama," "dada," "doggie," "grammy," and "yay."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love to all from Rebecca (and the rest of us!)

Yay! I get to go on a Valentine's date! Since my mom is here visiting, she is going to keep Rebecca so Ramy and I can go out and celebrate Valentine's Day. We're going to the Melting Pot in Pasadena. Also, my sweet Valentine gave me flowers (red gerberas and red tulips, plus winterberries -- no roses, since I hate them and they bring bad luck - so glad he remembered that).

Grammy's here!

My mom arrived last night just before 7:00 p.m. Rebecca missed her afternoon nap yesterday, then she and I went to Ash Wednesday mass, and then we got Ramy and ran out the door to pick up my mom, stopping for dinner at the Olive Garden. Despite all this bustle, Rebecca was WIRED! She was very happy to see "Ga-Gee" (Gaggy?) and also very happy to be the center of everyone's attention (when is she ever not?). I thought Ramy and I would never get her to sleep last night. Even after Ramy was in bed, Rebecca was still trying to tickle his neck to wake him up.

Easy week

We had a good weekend, although we didn't do anything very exciting (as usual!). Yesterday, Ramy watched the SuperBowl and I got some stuff done around the house. This should be a prety easy week for us. I have a mid-term in my Psychopharmacology class tomorrow, but that's about it. Ramy's not in trial and doesn't have any coming up soon. I wonder if he'll get the news about his transfer this week. I hope so; I know he is anxious to be out of trials. My mom arrives on Wednesday. Wednesday is also Ash Wednesday, so we'll be going to church before we go pick her up at the airport.

As you can see, one of Rebecca's most favorite things is to get into daddy's wallet, pull out all his cash, credit cards, drivers' license and bar card, and strew them everywhere. We caught her in the act!

To work with Daddy

Poor Ramy had to go to work on his 9/80 day, because his jury was still deliberating. So Rebecca and I went to work with him. As it turned out, the jury finally came back with a verdict and we were out of there by 11:00. Rebecca thought she should be able to run the courtroom, and she started chanting "Da-Da! Da-Da!", so she and I hung out in the jury room and just outside the courtroom while the verdict was actually read. But we got to eavesdrop on the jurors, which was pretty fun. Ramy was pretty sure it was a loser of a case, so he figured it was going to come back with a guilty verdict really quickly. As it was, the jury came back with guilty verdicts on two of the six charges and hung on the other 4. So Ramy's client went from looking at 25 years to a maximum of 10 years, so it is still a favorable outcome, especially considering that Ramy had pretty much no defense. I think part of it may have been that he was way hotter than the D.A.

So we got to go to lunch at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, then we went to visit Ramy's dad, and I did some running around for Rebecca's party stuff. I've made about half of the froggie lollipops, and they are cooling, so I still have another 35 to go. Ramy's napping after his hard day at work ;-)

Here's a pic of Ramiro P. Cisneros, Esq., orating. Okay, it's a pic of him at the ruins of the Roman Senate from our Italy trip.