Tatum's First Christmas

Ah, Baby's first Christmas. It was one year ago on Christmas Eve when I first felt Tatum move in my belly. This year she moved through the day without notice of it's uniqueness, but this will change as the years pass by. For our Christmas Tree, I adopted a Deodar Cedar from our nursery and brought it home last weekend. We decorated it with lights, a red feather boa, a lace bow and an ornament celebrating Tatum's first Christmas. Christmas Eve was spent working. Tatum's daycare was closed, so she helped me at the nursery. She had a hard time napping, so we called it an early day and went to Whole Foods to pick up goodies for a special Christmas Dinner. On Christmas morning we opened gifts. Andrew got a home brew kit, I got a bike seat for Tatum, and Tatum received a helmet. Don't worry, we won't mix the drinking with the biking.

We spent Christmas day with the Cohen's celebrating our second annual "Jewbuhmas" gathering - a collection of Jewish and Buddhist friends gathering on Christmas (by collection I mean the Cohens and Shearers). We spend the day in our pajamas eating, drinking, laughing, watching movies, and rejoicing. We hope that your Christmas too was filled with love, family, and laughter.

Tatum at Seven Months

Each day her smiles grows more contagious. These photos were taken December 20th when Tatum turned 7 months. My oh my time does go by. No teeth yet, but we did have our sixth month check-up (yes, I'm a month behind). Tatum has grown to 25 1/2 inches and weighs 18.5 lbs. She's about in the 60th percentile or thereabouts. She was wonderfully even tempered when it came to her immunizations during this visit. She received two shots in the right thigh and one in the left. She wailed when the inch-long needles punctured her soft skin; but was instantly soothed by my picking her up. I was prepared to provide her the ultimate pain relieving source, my breast, but she didn't even need it. Turns out me, just me, was enough.

Shearer Famous BBQ

What makes it famous is the fun.... enjoy the pics from our post Thanksgiving party. This is a very delayed posting.
Left: Children's Play Space

Left: The mommas - this is the first time this has ever happened at one of our BBQs - at last the next generation has arrived!

Below: the men handle the meat

Above: enjoying the fire after the babes go down and the tequila comes out.

Holiday Travels Home

We jetsetted again and took off for another whirl wind trip of NC during the second week of December- visiting family and friends in Asheville; driving across the state to spend a few days on the Shearer Adventure, and ending up with a few holiday celebrations in Charlotte at both of our sisters' homes.

This time more than the last I feared the plane trip. Last time we traveled to NC Tatum was three months old. She seemed to sleep better then and was definitely not as involved with her surroundings. Now at nearly seven months Tatum sleeps, but not without a few minutes of whining and if there are folks around to flirt with, there's no way this babe is going down. So I was nervous and fearful. Oh - there's just nothing like wasting time fretting over fears of a situation not yet encountered. And fortunate for us and our fellow travelers, we did not have to encounter "it". On the first flight we were given an extra seat and were able to bring the car seat aboard. On the second leg we were on a small commuter jet and were not as lucky. BUT we had the trusty night cap - a tight fitting cap that covers Tatum's eyes when she is unable to shut herself down. This was the perfect trick for a peaceful trip. The hat allows cuts her visual field and thereby allows her to get the sleep she needs but attention from strangers prevents. Tatum needed this sleep aid when she was younger, but I had not needed to use it in months. However, when we were leaving at 4:30am I grabbed it just in case. Let's just call that a mother's miracle of intuition.

We stayed with our cousins Amy, Kyle and baby James in Burnsville. We were able to make it into Asheville for the day on Sunday and meet up with Jen and Andy and the boys who were on their way to the Polar Express. We shared lunch at the famed Asheville Pizza and Brew Company (where Andrew and I have a pizza named after us called The Shear Delight). Tatum showed off her new sitting skills by hanging out in a high chair - another first experience that was repeated throughout our travels).



On Monday we enjoyed our cross the state journey away from the balmy 24 degree weather in the mountains to the sunny skies of 60 degree weather on the coast. Last time we were on the Shearer Adventure Tatum slept with us; but this time she slept in a pack-n-play in the captains quarters. She took naps down in our room - all of which we had to wake her up from. I guess it was the rocking of the boat, but Tatum ended up taking 2 and 3 hour naps. During our stay, Mimi and Boo treated us old folks to a night of our own by taking care of Tatum while we shared our first dinner out alone. Andrew and I walked to the end of the dock where we enjoyed a meal and a bottle of wine. It was special to share in a simple pleasure again.



On Thursday we stopped through Southern Pines on our way to Charlotte so that Tatum could meet her Grandma T and visit with the Hillgroves.


We stayed the weekend in Charlotte enjoying the company of our families. Julie and Craig's kids Nicolas (3) and Sophia (18 months) enjoyed spending more time with their only cousin Tatum. We celebrated Christmas with our annual trip to Kybutos and returned home to open presents. Tatum was a party pooper and crashed out early before opening a single gift.

On Saturday we moved over to the Littles. Drew and Ethan (4) were thrilled to have us visit. Drew welcomed Tatum by reading a book to her and Ethan gave her one of his bears. Lala came to town and we were able to spend time together as a big family. On Sunday morning we had breakfast with Santa. Just in time, ten days before Christmas, Tatum was able to meet Santa



We returned after a long travel day. Again, Tatum was awesome on the flight home proving that she's a happy traveler, for the most part.

A bit more on the solids issue...

So, as I posted weeks ago, Tatum began solids. She was way past her sixth month birthday by the time I stopped dragging my feet and took the inevitable step forward into the world of solids. For whatever reason, in the craziness of my universe (aka my mind), I saw starting solids like standing on one side of the Grand Canyon, the easy sure-footed breast milk side, and the other side of solids a world of treachery away. Like any expedition, I felt that I needed to be prepared with the essentials before beginning: and the first essential being knowledge. In this "new age" where we mother our children three time zones away from our own mothers, receiving the preferred method of hand holding advice is nearly impossible. Most of my knowledge of being a parent comes through the help of books, blogs, and both solicited and unsolicited advice taken in person, on the telephone and via internet. Oh and least I forget my intuition and invention. So, I phoned my sister who's married to a pediatrician and she told me what she did: start with cereal. I read the internet whose advise was to start with vegetables. And I talked with friends who started with making their own baby food. I found a great resource on the internet that satisfied my need to be held by the hand through this process: http://freshbaby.com/. Fresh Baby provided a starter kit to make fresh baby food at home in less than thirty minutes a week - for this working mom I felt like I found the ideal solution. So I ordered the starters kit which said to take a week to come. Goodness, a week; in a week Tatum will be six and a half months old.... In the end, or rather in the beginning, I looked at my calendar and realized that if I kept collecting information and waiting for the right time for me to begin making Tatum's baby food we'd be celebrating her first birthday while I was still collecting recipes and advice. So I bit the bullet and Tatum and I walked up to Target for a solids' shopping spree: spoons, bowls, and organic rice cereal. When we got home I mixed the rice with the breast milk and sat Tatum in her Bumpo. When I offered her the first bite she opened her mouth wide and grabbed the spoon! Whoa, this child was definitely ready for solids. She ate like a little princess, opening her mouth for each bite. I thought "have you done this before? have they been sneaking food to you at daycare?" The answer is no, she was just ready to eat. To this day, when she eats from her spoon she takes the bites in and then groans "mmmmm" while swallowing, reminding me that she was more than ready to begin this new phase: it's her mom that wasn't.

While on our trip to NC I purchased organic sweet potatoes and peas to vary her diet. Below is her first bite of sweet potatoes. Note, we were on the Shearer Adventure boat in Southport, so that's why I am dubbing as her highchair. Again, "mmmmm" she said as she ate them. The journey now begins through the adventures of tasting and experiencing foods:

The Fresh Baby kit came and I'll be the first to say that I could have made her food without this; but I refused and I'd still recommend it to new moms. It is convenient to have the reference and recipe book in one as well as the freezer containers with lids that the kit provides. So last night we bought organic apples and I prepared them for Tatum. The texture of apples is so different from the sweet potatoes and rice cereal she's experienced. When she tasted the apples she grimaced like I fed her worms. The apples were sweet, so I think it's the texture that got her. We'll keep trying and I'll keep posting the results here.

!!SOLIDS!!

"What am I doing Here?"

"I think I could get used to this."

"Yes, I do like this."

Tatum's First Feeding November 28th, 2008

Tatum's New Ride

Yes, another day and another amazing change - Tatum can be strapped into the grocery cart. This makes shopping way easier than lugging the carseat into the store and attaching it to the cart. And Tatum never really went for that anyways. So, I should say instead, this is way easier than carrying her around the store while trying to hold groceries.

We live within walking distance to most of our groceries and errands, so we still use the Bjorn and the stroller as the primary holder of Tatum, but this is my new favorite way to shop. I considered walking home with the cart like most folks do here in LA; but I've never been like most folks.

This particular picture was taken at Costco on Saturday while we were shopping for goodies for our BBQ and bonfire fall gathering. Those pics to post soon (my famous last blogging words).