Taking Steps

Ignoring for a minute the symbolism of her pushing a shopping cart, there's something I really like about this picture. Molly has been actively turning objects into walkers. Pretty much anything more than a few inches high or less than 3' tall and movable. She's all about walking. She loved pushing this baby-sized shopping cart around at Habitot this morning. The only problem was that it actually has wheels, so, unlike the chair she pushes around at home, it moved relatively easily. Placing my hand on side not only gave it enough resistance that she could stay upright, but also steered it away from all the other toddlers storming the place.

In other news, Blogging Baby gave me yet another reason to be scared of sending Molly to school anywhere but our local public school. We've recently begun the process of figuring out when we have to figure out the preschool thing, and/or the kindergarten thing. According to some folks in order to get into a "good" preschool we should have started the interview process as soon as we conceived. Others would give you a little longer, say, once she's born. To settle the matter we went to the East Bay Mom's annual Preschool Fair. Yes, you heard right: Preschool Fair. And you thought they just did that for college. Ha!

To be honest, such things scare the poop out of me. For better or for worse my reaction to being told that I need to have Molly on several waiting lists already and start interviewing at preschools is basically that I don't want to be a part of a school that would require that of me. I believe (and hopefully I'm right!) that having such competitive preschool admissions does not necessarily mean that is the right preschool for us & for Molly. I feel like such schools set up an exclusivity that I'm just not interested in being a part of. And, seriously? How am I supposed to know what is going to be the right school for her when she's only 10 months old?

To add to that, I've started hearing stories of preschools kicking kids out for certain behavioral issues (like biting and not sitting still). No, I don't want my daughter to have to deal with major behavioral issues in other kids, but I also would hope that her school would be interested in actually dealing with those smaller issues rather than passing them off on someone else. Isn't that what school is for? For everyone to learn?

Anyhow, the good news is that we can all breath a sigh of relief and not worry about admissions or waiting lists for a little while longer. I think that it's great for folks who have it together to know what schools might appeal to them and start getting to know those schools. But, as the director of one school at the fair told me, it's still a little early. Most parents at her school start looking the winter before they plan on enrolling, with enrollment happening up through September.

I'm sure you're all relieved. And I'm sure you're all happy to see that our neighbors graciously lent us their camera for a day. :)

Baby Secrets

I caught Molly & the neighbor's baby discussing the location of the camera. I think they're holding it for ransom, but it's unclear what their demads are. (No more naps? No more diaper changes? Unlimited Pirate's Booty?) So, the camera is still on vacation.

Gee, Diapers?

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a sucker for trying new "gear", particularly baby gear, and particularly baby gear that's billed as being "green." My latest experiment is yet another diaper system.

First we used your basic "Chinese Prefold" cloth diapers with a diaper wrap. Actually, first we used the pampers that the hospital gave us, then we went on to the cloth. They were actually really easy when Molly was an infant. We were changing her constantly anyway, and we had the lovely diaper service (thanks everyone who contributed!). The wraps were easy enough, and the use of a Snappi Clip made holding the prefolds in place a breeze.

Then she started growing. In the beginning I was able to find an ample supply of the next-size-up wraps used. But apparently most folks give up on the cloth sometime around size M. (sizes go N, S, M, L, XL) I found a few L, but that was also around the time we decided to start washing our own. And then our neighbors offered to lend us three Fuzzi Bunz that they weren't using and that happened to be the right size.

That started us down the Fuzzi Bunz lane. They were soft & relatively easy to use, so I picked up a couple more. Plus, I'm a sucker for bright colors - and Fuzzi Bunz have got the colors! I think mostly I just wanted to see Molly in a bright orange diaper. What a sight!

We also started experimenting with the various "eco-groovy" disposables out there. Depending on what your issues are, there are various disposables that try to deal with it. There's Tushies that doesn't use any gel; 7th Generation that doesn't use any chlorine; and Nature Boy & Girl that seem to have some sort of corn-based outer something or other. 7th Gen & NB&G both use the "dreaded" gel. For the uninitiated, (or rather I should say for the folks who don't live in the Bay Area) there's a swirling debate in the natural parenting worlds about the dangers of the so-called gel. The "gel" is a "super-absorber" that diaper companies put in their diapers to suck up that liquid.

So, for the last few months we've been using a little of this, and a little of that, with a few Huggies and Pampers thrown in for fun. A few weeks back, though, Zach saw mention of a New! Diapering! System! that's trying to make it's way in the American market amongst the eco set. I read about it, was intrigued, but left it at that. I need to show some restraint, right? No need to order yet another diapering system just yet.

And then there it was. Mary & I were walking down the aisle in Whole Foods and sticking out on a special display case was the upcoming revolution in diapers: a gDiaper starter set. What is this revolutionary new product? It's a flushable, disposable, reusable, platypus. No, seriously, it's actually a kind of neat idea. There's a wrap, like usual, and then a "disposable" insert that actually can be ripped open after use & dumped into the toilet. Fancy. The say it can also be composted (sans poop). As one commenter noted: she wants to do the right thing, but that's awfully hard in a small NYC apartment with no washer or dryer.

And the best part? It comes in four fantastically fun colors (including bright orange). Okay. That's not really the best part. But it's pretty good. We've only used the gDiaper a few times - I'm a little reluctant to introduce yet another system for the babysitter to use - but it's been pretty painless dumping the stuff in the toilet. The only problem is that we have these really awful, wimpy toilets. Now we just need to get a nice Toto to go with the system. I hear they really pack a punch. ;)

Yes. I really did just write eight paragraphs about diapers. I really did.

(Note: unfortunately our camera has gone missing. Perhaps it's on a vacation in the tropics, recovering from several months of very intense work (I suppose photographing Berkeley's most beautiful baby can be difficult) , or maybe it's just under that big pile of stuff that's all over the house. Either way, that means we don't have any new photos to share. I'm sure we will figure something out soon! Sorry about that.)

Nona's craft project

Nona came to visit this weekend and spent a lot of quality time with Molly. She did the morning babysitting (while Zach & I got to sleep in!) and they hung out during the day, too, while I worked, ran errands, etc. Molly had a really really great time, especially because Nona let her do fun things like play in the sink and with the baby in the mirror. No pictures of Nona this time. She was too busy behind the camera to let us get ahold of it. ;)

But our BIG exciting project over the weekend was [drumroll please]...


a family picture book! (using directions courtesy of Mr. DeGroof via Daddytypes) Now Molly will have fun recognizing all her relatives, no matter how close or far away they live.

Cute

Yes, she is.

And, of course, scientists have something to say about why we think so.

... As a species whose youngest members are so pathetically helpless they cannot lift their heads to suckle without adult supervision, human beings must be wired to respond quickly and gamely to any and all signs of infantile desire...

Also interesting (but not related to Molly!):

...The human cuteness detector is set so low, researchers said, that it deems cute practically anything remotely resembling a human baby or a part thereof, and so it ends up including the young of almost every mammalian species; fuzzy-headed birds like Japanese cranes; woolly bear caterpillars; a bobbing balloon; even a colon, hyphen and closed parenthesis typed in succession...

...At the same time ... the rapidity and promiscuity of the cute response makes the impulse suspect, readily overridden by the angry sense that one is being exploited or deceived. "Cute cuts through all layers of meaning and says, Let's not worry about complexities, just love me," said Dutton, who is writing a book about Darwinian aesthetics. "That's where the sense of cheapness can come from, and the feeling of being manipulated or taken for a sucker that leads many to reject cuteness as low or shallow.".

Molly, don't worry, no one feels exploited or deceived by your extreme cuteness.

5/6th of 1 year

Last night Molly celebrated her 5/6th of 1 year birthday. It was wild. You should have been there. There was some excessive (milk) drinking that led to, well, pants on the head. She's a crazy one, that Molly!