dad stroller mom shots chocolate applesauce

Whew - it's been a long time since my last post! Every time I've been on the computer since then, I've been obsessed with something else (more on this later)...

After our lovely breakfast (and tortillaflake) at Stacks (right on, Kelly), we went to go pick up my dad at Hal's house in Santa Rosa. He is out visiting for spring break, and he drove the Tiger van out to his brother's house and parked it there. Then we go and get him, and he doesn't have to worry about trying to find somewhere in the city to park the behemoth. This time, unlike all the previous times Dad and Charli have been around each other, Dad was NOT SICK! Hooray! He got to hold Charli right after we got there, no goofy disposable masks necessary!

I had wanted to leave for Santa Rosa early and drop by Citikids on the way, to look at strollers (this was the aforementioned obsession). However, I took too long researching and we ran out of time to stop, so we just didn't go. I will post the entire stroller saga in another entry - it's just too much to go into here. Summary: Days later, we have a new stroller. I love it. Everyone else is appalled, and you will be too.

After we got the stroller, Mom came out. Poor Mom - her alarm didn't go off the previous morning, and she was so worried about missing her flight, which left at o'early thirty, that she stayed up all night. She's just out for a couple of days, and then she and Dad are driving back to Colorado together, and she was very worried about missing ANY time with Charli. We very much appreciate her sacrifice! Seems to me they should both have flown, and then they could have had an additional day (for mom) or two (for dad) with Charli, but perhaps I am too focused on a single objective...

As soon as Mom got here, we all went to the mother's group together, and then Mom and Dad came with me to Charli's 4 month checkup. Which involved 4 more shots. Poor girl - she is always in such a good mood before we go to the doctor. She never knows what she is in for. *sniff* But, I took a page from Kelly's notebook, and I took the children's tylenol with me to the appointment and gave it to her right before they gave her the shots. Dad could still hear her screaming from the waiting room, but she recovered quickly, and she remained happy throughout the rest of the day. These pictures are both from after the appointment. She weighs 12lbs 7oz and is 24" long. The doctor says she is doing great, but I am convinced she is not getting enough to eat - she is always hungry in the evenings, and I have to feed her constantly it seems, and I feel like I have no milk because she's eating all the time. Where is my fat baby? She is now in the 25th percentile for weight and height! So, I asked the doctor if we could start on a little bit of solid food, like applesauce, and he said yes.

Interlude: Before we could implement that applesauce thing, we stopped at CocoaBella on the way home for hot chocolate. I'm happy to report that Charli is perfectly normal as far as chocolate goes. :)

Once we got home, we cooked up some applesauce (from organic apples from Bi-Rite). I wanted to start with applesauce because she still loves apples best - although now I know I could have started her on chocolate as well. A few days earlier I had given her a big piece of apple to suck on, and she was really really liking it, until she realized she couldn't really get anything out of it. She would jam it into her mouth (well, she pushed my hand holding the apple really hard into her mouth), lick it and gum it for a few seconds very enthusiastically, and then get mad and cry and push it away. She did this several times, until I felt so bad I just took the apple away and fed her instead. But anyway, it's official: on Thursday, March 20, 2008, Charli had her first solid food, applesauce, and she liked it and ate it all!