What is it about Whole Foods?

Today Mira and I went to Whole Foods to try and find some organic preservative-free hot dogs and some sugar-free freeze-dried fruit. (We found both! Aint Whole Foods grand?) Now let me preface this by saying that when Mira goes out, she gets noticed. It's just something about her. She's beautiful and smiles easily and does cute things like wave at people and then clap her hands when they wave back. Often when we go out and a Mira-admirer comes over to say hi, I'll stop my shopping for a minute, let Mira flirt a bit, say thank you for all the compliments she receives and then go on my way. But it seems like any time I go to Whole Foods we get mobbed. Is it a little-known fact that only baby lovers shop at Whole Foods? Today she literally drew a crowd. At one point there were no less than 5 people all standing around my shopping cart exclaiming about her teeth/eyes/cheeks/toes/smile/etc. Mira, of course, was eating it up. She'd smile and wave and hold her hands up high as if to say, "And now look what I'm doing. Aren't I amazing?" The crowd finally dispersed when they realized they were blocking the isle. I love that Mira has such an attractive personality, but sometimes I just want to do my shopping and get back home. It was past Mira's nap time and I knew we'd be facing a rough car ride home unless I could get out of there quickly. So eventually I started giving would-be admirers the cold shoulder. A quick "thanks" and not even stop walking. I kind of felt bad about it later... they just wanted to adore Mira, and I certainly can't blame them for that. But I was starting to get an idea of how celebrities feel with the paparazzi. Normally when we go out, we get a few hellos and a handful of compliments, but at Whole Foods it always seems like much more than usual. So what is it about Whole Foods? Are health nuts also baby nuts? Does organic food bring out the desire to procreate? Does farm-raised chicken smell like baby powder?

Dental hygiene

Mira now has seven teeth. Here she is showing them off.

So the pediatrician has suggested that we try letting her brush her teeth. She seems to really like it. We do it in the bath so that there's not any mess to clean up.

Feeding herself

Mira's gotten really good at finger foods. As a matter of fact, now that she knows she can feed herself, she's gotten really impatient with anyone else feeding her. If you hold a spoon up to her face, she's more likely to slap at it than to open her mouth. And she pushes things away from her face as a way of clearly indicating what she *does not* prefer. So now I've had to really brainstorm on finger foods. (Let me know if any of you have good suggestions about what makes good finger foods, cuz I need all the ideas I can get.) I think in this video she is eating cantaloupe.

A mom from one of my mom's clubs tipped me off to these sippy cups. They're called Tilty cups, and they are the only brand of sippy cup that Mira can actually do herself. The problem with most sippy cups is that she doesn't tip them up enough to get any water out. But Tilty cups are designed to help with this, so she doesn't have to tip the cup way up in order to drink.

The doctor has opened up her diet to most foods. The only thing she can't eat now is honey, nuts (including peanut butter), and anything too hard/crunchy/sharp for her to gum up. She has some teeth, but no molars for grinding, so all her food has to be relatively soft or something that will dissolve in her mouth or at least cut into pieces small enough to swallow whole. We're also limiting salt and sugar (as in, she can have some foods with small amounts of salt/sugar, but we're not specifically salting her foods or giving her sweets/desserts). She's still not really great with using utensils; she seems to think that their purpose is for banging things rather than for eating... oh well. So anyway, if anyone has ideas for soft finger foods, let me know.

Kissy

It's my own fault really. I've created my own prison. You see, months ago, when Mira started kissing Brian and me, I thought it was great. I thought, "That is so adorable. That's a behavior that I want to encourage." Silly me. But how was I to know the trouble a kiss could make? Or rather, a bunch of kisses, as the case may be... And therein lies the problem. Mira loves to kiss. I call it "kiss" but really, it's more of a gaping mouth pressed anywhere in the vicinity of a face. A little intimidating, if you don't know what she's doing. In any case, it's not just Brian and me anymore. Her new target: every baby at every play date. Which leaves me making the statement, "I hope no one is a germ-o-phobe, because Mira loves to kiss" at least three times a week (read, at every play date). This disclaimer has always been met with either dismissal ("I got over the germ thing a long time ago.") or acceptance ("It's so cute!"). But I always wonder if the other moms are just saying those things to avoid causing a fuss. I wonder if, inwardly, they are thinking, "Christ, that little smooch-happy freak is going to give my baby swine flu". I always thought that we'd escape the "little girl who chases kids down to kiss them" phase for at least a few years, but alas. I'm unprepared! What should I do? Should I continue to let her spread her disease-ridden saliva with abandon? Should I try to get her to only kiss family or to stop the behavior entirely? What do you think? (FYI, so far I've been letting her get in a kiss or two, but beyond that or if it appears that the other baby is getting frustrated with her being in their face, then I stop her and steer her toward another activity.)

And to appease the masses, cute pix:

Halloween

Word recognition

Today Mira shocked me. I was shocked. Stunned. And also very proud.

I was in the shower this morning, listening to the radio. (Note: radio, so no visual que, all auditory.) Mira was playing with some toys on the floor of the bathroom. A commercial came on the radio and in this commercial a woman was practicing her chicken dance so she said "beaks beaks beaks, wings wings wings, clap clap clap." Immediately Mira dropped her toy and clapped. At first I thought, "WHOA! Did she just do what I think she did?" And then I thought, "It was probably just coincidence." So I shrugged it off and went on my day.

Then in the afternoon, we went to a play date. At the play date the ladies were talking about which words their babies recognize and I said that it was probably just a coincidence, but Mira did this thing this morning, and as I was describing what she did, I got to the part in the commercial where the lady says "clap clap clap" and AS IF ON QUE, Mira sits up and claps. Needless to say, I didn't even have to finish my story for the ladies. They all pointed at her and gasped. It was one of those Mommy moments that you never want to forget.

Random cute videos

We recently got Mira a toy xylophone. This is the first time she ever played with it.

We decided to let Mira try to feed herself some mango with a spoon. What a mess! I had to take the highchair into the backyard to hose down while Brian took Mira up for a bath.

Mira started doing this thing where she looks at you sideways. I think it started as a way to change her visual perspective on things, but now she just does it because she knows we think it's cute.

Mira has just learned to wave. I think she got the idea from one of the girls in her playgroup who was practicing her wave at our last gathering.

Stair Master

This one was taken last week:

Then these two this week:

It reminds me of....

Donkey: You handle the dragon. I'll handle the stairs. I'll find those stairs. I'll whip their butt too. Those stairs won't know which way they're going. Don't mess with me. I'm the stair master. I've mastered the stairs. I wish I had a step right here. I'd step all over it.

Pulling up

We had to get a bumper on the coffee table. Mira is now able to pull herself up to stand without any assistance.

More on Kronk.

So here is the reason that Kronk has been more irritated with Mira lately:

She really gets around fast. So she's interacting with him that much more. I think I've figured out the problem with Kronk, though. Kronk has had knee surgery on both his back legs. As a result he has chronic pain due to arthritis. The two times that Kronk has growled at Mira, it was when he was sleeping and she awakened him by touching him near his back legs. So I think Kronk was protecting his knees. As my mom pointed out, if Mira was a puppy, she would understand Kronk's growl to mean "don't do that" and she would learn to be careful around Kronk's knees. But Mira doesn't understand what his growls mean, so I have to teach her. Anyway, in the few days since his last episode, Mira and I have spent some time every day on the floor next to Kronk, with me petting Kronk and telling him he is a good dog and Mira just hanging out nearby, occasionally petting Kronk too when he will allow it. If he decides he won't tolerate it, he goes away and I tell him he is a good dog for doing that too because I always want him to feel like he can get away and I want to let him know that the right response is to just go away, not to growl. The other thing I've been doing is when Mira is on the floor and Kronk is lying down near by, as soon as I see Mira heading his way, I call out to Kronk and tell him "Look out Kronk, here comes the baby." He will usually then get up and move away from her and I tell him good dog. That way, he is never surprised by her, which I think was part of the problem. Lastly, any time that I want to let Mira play on the floor and I'm not monitoring the situation 100% (like when I step into the bathroom or go over to do the dishes or something) I make Kronk leave the room entirely. That way, Mira's interactions with Kronk are never unsupervised. So anyway, I think the situation is manageable, I'll just have to keep on top of it. Kronk has always been 100% fine with slightly older kids, so I'm holding out hope that he and Mira will eventually learn how to play together.