Monaloca

At age three, Melina finally “gets” Christmas. The day we decorated our house she started asking, “Is it Christmas yet?” prompting a brief discussion of “Christmas” versus “Christmas time.” She took it to heart, and even told Dad “It’s Christmas time Daddy, not Christmas” when he tried to tell her it’s Christmas and Santa is watching her every move.

Luckily we have two advent calendars to help her count the days. Each morning Melina looks forward to opening the little advent drawer before she does anything else. The first few days she got coins or candy, so when on the third day she found only a small tangerine (stuck there in haste by yours truly) she literally burst into tears, her expectations dashed. Luckily a trade with Mama for a penny to put in her piggy bank made everything ok.

With the inside of our house fully “decked out” (as Melina likes to say, probably because that’s what I say) she’s turned to bugging Daddy to hang outside lights to compete with our neighbors, whose entire yard, trees, and front porch are lined with a blinking rainbow. I think Daddy missed the boat for this year but we’ll look forward to decking out our whole house next holiday season.

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Nothing like shiny holiday wrapping paper for motivation. Here she is!

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Nalani has turned half-toddler in the last month. She can make her way slowly around a room, and manages to get into anything in her path. She loves pulling things off the bottom of our coffee table (where we now store only big-piece puzzles and soft books), the bottom of our family room bookshelf (also replaced with nothing but board books), and before we moved them out of the way, the cables on Daddy’s record player in the corner of the room. Yup, so far we’re doing reactive baby-proofing.

Our little girl has just started forward crawling, and just a few steps at a time. But for the past few weeks she’s been able to move a couple steps backwards on all fours, push back up into sitting position, turn herself around, plop on all fours and start all over… or just roll. This gets her around a room pretty efficiently, but slowly enough that sometimes we forget she can do it and are surprised when we look over and she’s moved six feet. When we place her on a hard floor, she slides backwards quite quickly.

Nalani will play independently for up to an hour, which constantly amazes me. She’s starting to pull up, and regularly makes it to her knees where she’ll continue playing in a sort of squatting position. She turns herself on her belly in her crib (which is now at the lowest level) and prefers to sleep that way. She’s just started dropping toys repeatedly in order to see us play the pick-up game over and over again.

At mealtimes, she still loves baby carrots more than anything, plus any fruit, most veggies, smashed beans, orzo pasta, and little bits of “healthy” muffins. She now asks to be fed solids at both lunch and dinner time when she sees us eating. For some reason she’s not as interested in breakfast – yet. She also popped her second tooth – bottom right – about three weeks after the first.

While playing, grabbing and discovering new things, and moving around on the floor are her main interests these days, Nalani’s other favorites include watching or grabbing at the kitty cat (who so far has shown surprising patience with our littlest family member), laughing at her sis and bro, swinging at the park, other babies, looking at that baby in the mirror, snoozing in her stroller or Ergo, and quite simply being held. So far she goes to just about anyone, as long as Mom or Dad is near and voicing approval.

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Melina has been practicing hard for her preschool’s holiday show next week. She’s memorized two lines to recite from “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and loads of holiday songs for a singalong with all the families.

She also visited Santa yesterday, and for the first time since she was a baby didn’t burst into tears. She sat on Mommy’s lap next to Santa, and Mommy had to relay what she wants for Christmas (“Tinkerbell and pink things”) but she smiled the whole time and said “thank you” when handed a small candy cane.

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While heading to the park on a mellow Thanksgiving day, Joey and I asked the kids what they were thankful for. Kai told us: “I’m thankful for the earth for giving us life, and for two families.” Melina thought for a minute and said “I’m thankful for Halloween.” When we asked if there was anything else she added, “Thanksgiving. And I’m thankful for turkey.” Joey and I were both thankful for a low-key, low-stress holiday with all three kids at my parents’ house.

Grandma and Grandpa may not have seen having three kids in the house as low-stress, but they’d probably agree that it was great to spend three full days of unscheduled time together. On Friday we did make it to Happy Hollow park and zoo, where Kai and Melina had a blast on all the rides. Melina took her first whirl on a roller coaster and loved it. She was lucky enough to choose where she wanted to sit – and headed straight to the front car with a huge grin on her face that only grew during the course of the ride.

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Nalani has two big new moves this month. She started sitting up without safety bumpers (i.e., pillows) while in Hawaii. On our first trip to the beach she sat for a 30+ minute stretch without toppling in one direction or another. Even through a beach mat, her butt must have settled into the sand in a way that made her super stable. Ever since then I was able to set her down anywhere…. and still can, but perhaps not for long.

Without taking more than a week to relish her coveted new skill, Nalani started launching herself from sitting to an awkward all-fours (really, two arms, one foot, and one leg still pinned behind her) in preparation for crawling. She’s found she can reach otherwise unreachable toys (or in this morning’s case, the blunt scissors her sister left on the rug) this way, and she happily stays like this for quite awhile.

Eventually she’ll push herself back up to sitting or plop on her belly. She especially loves doing all this on the big quilt we set up for her in our new family room, where she also gets a kick out of pulling her own toys out of a basket. Amazingly, she’ll entertain herself for up to an hour.

I hope I won’t jinx it by writing it here, but Nalani has been a rockstar sleeper since a few days after our return from vacation. She mostly wakes just once each night, nurses, and goes back down til morn. She must really like the peace and quiet of her new room (and our new room, where she inevitably spends the latter half of the night or at least the early morn). On the flip side, she’s a horrible napper and only sleeps for more than a 20 minute stretch when in continual motion. This means a long stroller walk, long car ride, or hanging out in the Ergo on Joey or me. It’s not ideal, but since she’s been doing so well at night we’ll happily take it!

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We got back from Hawaii a little over a week ago and have loads of photos to share (take a look!). Seeing them now, they’re a little heavy with Nalani, but it was her first visit so who can blame us? She was certainly the easiest kid to travel with, too, and was quite content to sit for long stints on the beach, where the sand made a little mold around her butt preventing her from toppling over even once.

The rest of us had a grand time, too. Kai loved the water, and Melina loved rainbow shave ice and lots of Grandma time. She also claimed to like Samson the dog, but grew shy every time he was around. Neither kid enjoyed sharing a bed. They share a room fine at home but with bunk beds. One double bed proved to be a whole different experience.

Joey and I enjoyed visiting with his family, having impromptu potlucks, and especially loved seeing his sister Linda for the first time since our wedding. We wish we lived closer to everyone, or were able to visit more frequently. We’re already envisioning our next visit – before Nalani turns two and costs full plane fare!

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We returned from our Hawaiian vacation just in time to finish up Halloween costumes and head out on the annual candy parade. Kai joined us for an hour on Halloween eve, so we could trick-or-treat at a few houses on our new block. It was still early so we only caught a few people at home, but met a couple families, including one with a boy exactly Kai’s age.

Joey, the girls, and I then headed to our now-annual playgroup Halloween potluck at the Beeler’s. I’m not sure how much “real” food Melina ate, but she had a blast running from house to house with her friends. She and Emma kept saying “Let’s go to THIS house next!” after each candy score – they must have felt so empowered! And with good reason.

A bunch of the girls also spent a good 40 minutes pooling their candy then re-divvying, over and over.

Tonight the Great Pumpkin will visit our house to take all but three chosen pieces of candy for each kid, and will leave a special toy in the candy’s place. Thanks to Meghan for that grand idea.

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A few weeks ago our Pleasanton friends invited us to join them for a day of pumpkins and wine in the Livermore Valley. Pumpkin picking, a hay maze, and a big corn box (think sand box but with dried corn instead) in the morn, followed by a picnic lunch and winetasting at our favorite family-friendly vineyard, Boa Ventura.

We almost cancelled because of all the move craziness, but wisely opted for a full day of fun instead. We need to have the same attitude about our pre-planned trip to Hawaii at the end of the week. As my mom mentioned the other day, the boxes will still be here, waiting patiently to be unpacked when we return.

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I remember putting Melina down, still in her penguin costume, the night of her first Halloween. At exactly five months, her body was the perfect size: Solid enough to give a hard squeeze yet small enough to carry for hours. Now that Nalani’s reached that same size, I’m remembering how much more there is to enjoy about five-month-olds.

Our little girl has developed a sense of curiosity. Whether it’s how the Ergo strap tastes or what’s going on at the table she can’t quite see from her infant chair, she’ll let us know she wants to be in the know. We pulled out the exersaucer and she likes to bat at its toys for short spells of time, plus she still loves her play gym, winkel, and pink grab ball that Grandma made. She doesn’t use her binky much anymore, but favors her thumb or a teething toy. She also LOVES to talk, and makes all sorts of happy baby sounds at all times of day and night. Sometimes her 3am wakings are full of little more than coos and giggles.

At a yoga class the other day I sat her in front of me and was admittedly shocked to see her sit up, straight back, all on her own for more than a few minutes. She eventually slumped into the two-armed gorilla pose, but it won’t be long before she’s sitting on her own. Where did the time go and when did she learn to do that? (A testament to us being waaaay too busy!) She also loves to “stand” while we hold her arms, and wants desperately to be upright like the rest of us rather than flat on her back. But while there – or in her infant chair – she’ll gladly grab her toes in what the Berkeley yogis call “happy baby pose.”

Daddy indulged himself earlier this month and fed her a taste of avocado while we were at a restaurant. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. A few weeks later he decided to give her a small taste of banana and that went over much better, but she has yet to have her first “real” solid food meal. I’d been holding out til five months or when she started to grab at our food. She’s reached both milestones at about the same time.

I’m now back at work two days/week and Nalani has adapted amazingly well to daycare. It helps me that it’s just two days. Grandma and Grandpa also watch her once each week, when they all enjoy their regular walks by the new house and then to Sweet Adeline for yummy treats.

On the sleeping front, Nalani now starts off each night in her crib, in the room she shares with Kai and Melina. The transition was absolutely seamless. In fact, Melina and Kai seem to go down better now that Nalani’s in the room. (Who says we need a bigger house?) Of course the babe moves into our room after her first nightly feeding, mostly because we’re too tired and lazy to trek her back across the house. She had a month-long stretch of great sleep, waking just once in the early morn, but is now back to multiple night wakings. Growth spurt? Teething? Who knows. We just hope it ends soon.

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