The Kitty Whisperer

Baby F. has had lots of adventures lately. The warm weather, or at least the non-rainy, non-frigid weather, has finally arrived in our neck of the woods, so we’ve taken to going out almost every weekend and exploring different new places for her.

Not that she needs to go outside to have any adventures though.

Seeing as she has her own little urban jungle right inside our apartment. Well, maybe she doesn’t have that many gigantic canopied trees to swing from, but she does have a bunch of jungle cats.

Oscar trying to nuzzle a bunny

We have three kitties. In descending order of well, size, there’s Oscar, the orange fatty, Franny, the black and white neurotic, and Polly, the tortoiseshell pygmy of the family.  They all have very distinctive personalities but they all love the heck out of us including Baby F.

They were fascinated by her from the day she came into our apartment, sneaking into her room to look at her, timidly going up to her to smell her and running to her room whenever she’d cry. Yep, they’d run into the room, not out. One might say they were checking on her, if one was feeling so inclined :o)

She for the most part, mostly ignored them at first. I swear it seemed as if they were somehow transparent during her first few months. Even after she could focus her eyes well enough to recognize Mama and Papa-in-Training and certainly Vóvó and Vôvô, still there was no sign of awareness that there were three curious furry creatures running about nearby.

But that’s all changed now.

She knows they’re there.
She knows... and she stalks them.

She’s taken to chasing them around when the mood strikes her, like when they’re just walking by, or trying to nap, or trying to eat, you know, constantly.

I might have touched upon her first word being ‘gato’ or cat in Portuguese. She also says ‘cat’, so is now fully bilingual ;o) What I haven’t mentioned is how she’ll use it as a mantra: ‘gato, gato, gato, gato, gato’. Which I’m sure is not at all disconcerting for the cats – to suddenly look up and see a very fast crawling miniature human coming at them while shrieking ‘GATO!!!’ at them.

She’s also come to be quite boorish when it comes to the kitties, I mean, besides the whole charging them at full speed while screaming like a banshee thing. She’s taken to watching them eat. And then afterwards tries to eat their food. Yep, doesn’t want to eat her own food, but stale leftover cat food? Yum!

Franny catching some zzzzz's in Baby F.'s rocking chair

This past week we had this great little happening:

Scene: Kitchen floor, box of recyclables full of folded up cardboard boxes and paper odds and ends.  Amongst them is a folded up ‘empty’ bag of kitty vittles.

      Baby F: [grabs folded bag and takes it out of the box]

      Papa-in-Training: [casually grabs bag out of hand of baby, but succeeds in upturning it, emptying
      its’ ‘empty’ contents] Crap!
      Baby F: [proceeds to start grabbing various bits of dry cat food from floor]
      Papa: Don’t eat that! [as he removes small tidbit from her hand]
      Mama-in-Training: She’s chewing on something!
      Papa: [removes vittles from inside baby’s mouth]
      Baby F.: [immediately puts another one in mouth]

      [Repeat infinitum until all tidbits have been quickly swept up]

She’s also come in very handy in cleaning up after them.

We just purchased a vacuum cleaner after much research and advice – we thought we could keep the place clean with only a broom and mop (we have laminate flooring and tiles), but 3 cats and a baby have proved to be our undoing. But if we had a couple more babies around like F. we probably wouldn’t have needed to buy one. 
Because she will pick up everything from the floor! The tiniest, most microscopic thing, like for example, a bit of clean litter left behind, will be expertly and minutely picked up by her very precise finger movements. Sigh.

She’s also somehow managed to develop perfect timing and will scare the begeesus out of the cats…on purpose. Earlier in the month, while sitting on my lap on the living room couch, she waited until Polly was walking right next to my legs, underneath her, to let out a big YELP! thereby making the poor cat jump out of her skin and take off running.

Polly checking out her new crib

Yet somehow they love her and watch out for her, with Oscar offering up his belly for a cuddle and nuzzling her with his head, while Polly tries to entice her into playing with her. Franny…well, he’s a bit wearier – I chuck that up to him having been a street cat in his early life. But given the right circumstances, i.e. he didn’t notice ;o) , he’ll let her pet him. Of course, the whole petting thing is still a bit of a struggle, as Baby F. thinks it entails pulling on their fur really hard…but then again, that’s what she does to us as well, so at least we’re all on equal footing ;o)

It’s great to see them with her though, just a couple more members of our family :o)

An apple a day and all that...

I didn't want this to turn into a weekly diary. I mean, the definition of a diary is right in the word: diary = daily.
But...

Well, I guess life gets in the way, etc, etc. Which I hate really. Just a bunch of excuses. You either do it or you don't. The whole purpose of this is to keep a record of baby F.'s early life and how I'm handling it. If I'm writing it down a week after it happened, then I'm not really giving an accurate representation and then what's the point.

So my new school year resolution (does anyone else - without kids and out of school - still think of September as a new beginning?) is to well, actually write on here daily. Even if just a short note. Because that is after all the point of this exercise ;o)

F. was in top form yesterday. Me, not so much. Been feeling a little strange and so asked her Vôvô to come on over and keep both of us company. Just wanted another adult around.
Vôvô duly came by in the afternoon and both baby and moi were happy. Moi for knowing that there was someone there to watch F. if I should feel more poorly and F. because, well, isn't it obvious?

Vôvô!!!

Vôvô dotes madly upon baby F. and she dotes right back. They have silly conversations about her being the queen of babies and him being a mere ogre and serf-like creature (I am not making this up) :o)

And she smiles and babbles like mad at all the attention given to her, 'cause let's face it, I'm not speaking to her about serfs and queens 24/7 like Vôvô does.

So, my physical day not so great, but mine and F.'s overall day was pretty fab.

And last week, Thursday to be precise, we went to her monthly doc visit. Which went well...and not so well.

She's fine. That part was the well part. Developing as she should, growing like a weed - 18 lbs and counting, at a little less than 7 months at the time of her visit and with a head circumference in the 97th+ percentile. For those without wee babes, that means that her head is bigger than 97+ percent of babies her age. We'd never had the + before, but hey, she does have a huge head. Then again so do her parents, so not really a surprise there ;o)

And her hearing is great as well. We had some doubts because the hospital where she was born was unable to get an accurate result when they measured her soon after birth and I thought maybe she wasn't responding as well as she should to our voices. So the doctor had told me during the previous visit to remind them to do the test this time. So again, all good there.

The not so well part comes with everything else regarding the visit.

Now, we don't make appointments at the last minute. So far, we've been lucky and have only had to see F.'s doctor for wellness visits - shots and the like. So all our appointments are made a month in advance. Yet again and again, F. and I (and usually her Vôvô too) will sit there for 90+ minutes waiting to be seen. This is understandable if emergencies have come in, but when you look around and see a whole bunch of healthy kids there for their wellness visits too...
Well, that's when you start to get annoyed. What is the point of making appointments when it all ends up being first come, first served?

And then as if all that waiting wasn't enough, they expect me to undress F. in the consultation room and keep her undressed for far too long while either a Physician's Aide or the doctor finally remembers she's there.
I was particularly put off by the fact that a family that arrived after us, ended up being seen before baby F. They  (3 kids) were called right after F., but because the Aide ended up being super slow with her measurements, they ended up being seen (all 3!) by the doctor before us.
Grrrrr!
Was so mad.

Plus I'm starting to wonder if maybe I need to find a new doctor for F. The mother and daughter practice she now goes to are professional enough, but I don't get any warm fuzzies from them, and well, I kind of want that from a pediatrician. I want to feel like they really like children and I'm not getting that vibe. And maybe it's just my first time mama's nerves, but I usually end up feeling like I'm bothering them when I ask my monthly visit questions. I'm not one of these mamas who's calling up their pediatrician for every little thing their baby does. That's perfectly fine for those that do, but it's just not something I do. Which makes me feel even stranger when I get dismissive responses to little questions that I might have. So I'm taking some notes and if both the ridiculous waiting *and* dismissiveness keep on happening, then maybe it'll be time to move on to a new doc.

More on last week, to come...

Tea Party Time! ...in no way associated with ridiculous GOP movement :P

Phew!
Last few days have either been busy or tiring...or both.

Sunday was spent preparing for my little Tea party on Monday. Or rather, most of the day was 'wasted' away doing god-knows-what-else and then the evening and early hours were frittered away in baking and sandwich preparation.

And for some reason, my usual OK luck with baking seemed to depart, leaving behind flattened, holey cupcakes and unfluffy sponge cake. I think in the end, they both worked out and were quite yummy - the boy and I have been munching on the leftovers :o)

So here are some of the results of moi staying up til 2 am on Sunday...

Whole Wheat bread with Basil and Garlic Flavored Goat Cheese and thinly sliced Ham - These disappeared completely :o)

Flat and holey chocolate cupcakes baked from scratch...frosting, not so much ;o)

Traditional British Sponge...which wasn't so spongy. And with apple preserves filling instead of raspberry,
'cause all my jams decided to die on me, i.e. had expired :o(

And my lovely Cranberry-Orange Scones!
Which for some reason i always make extra small. I never seem to think the batter will yield a lot.
I'll have to remember that next time.

The baby mostly behaved on Sunday, allowing me the freedom to make these goodies. But then again, I started so late, that she was almost down for the evening by that time. Her Papa was kind enough to bathe F. and give her her last bottle of the day. Then again, he's usually the one who bathes her and gives her last bottle, so no biggie there.

Monday morning was spent running around attempting to get the apartment in a less than shambolic state so that two small children and an adult woman would not run away screaming upon entering the place. I think I managed it OK, with a few things swept under the metaphorical rug ;o)

Little sidenote: my mother apparently used to literally do this when she was a teenager, and lived with her sister in some rented rooms - would sweep the dirt under their real rugs :D

Baby was pretty agreeable during that hurried (and sleep-deprived) morning and was the model of mellowness once our Tea party guests arrived... Which means that then ppl won't believe me when I say she's part-pterodactyl :P

I think as usual, she was simply stunned by looking at other children, even if they're older than her. The same happens when I take her for her monthly doctor visits. She'll just stare and stare in wonder that there are other creatures smaller than Mama and Papa and Vóvó and Vôvô (that's grandma and grandpa in Portuguese) in the world.

Once she can actually sit up on her own, I'll see if I can wrestle up some baby playdates, so she can get used to other kiddies.

Food and fun was had at our little tea party - though not a lot of tea.
Note to self: have lemonade on hand instead and call it tea ;o)

And prezzies were exchanged.
I have the bad habit of hoarding gifts waaaay past their due date. Exhibit A: gave my friend her Christmas gift this Monday (sheepish grin).
Sometimes I forget to give someone their gift, sometimes it's delayed because I decided to make something (most common reason). It's definitely something I have to work on. Then again, isn't it fun to get a birthday gift out of the blue, i.e. 3 months after your actual birthday?

Surprise!

No?
Er, my bad (second sheepish grin).

Speaking of gifts, this here is something I've been working on for a while. My little friend's birthday was in May, so yeah, a little while ;o)

Little Treasure Box. E. likes butterflies so i thought she might like this.
I only noticed after i photographed it that some of the butterflies end up looking 3D. Pleased about that.

And this is one of the drawers. Seeing as it's meant to keep treasures,
i thought I'd line each one individually with different color felt for an extra little pop.

I could've still worked on it a bit more, but I felt if I didn't give it to E. this week, that it'd end up being here until her next birthday ;o)

I'll catch up with the rest of the week so far, in the next post.