5 months old

California Academy of Sciences Grand Opening

On the roof of the California Academy of Sciences museum. It is a living roof with flowers on it. The plants help keep the building cool. The plants are native to San Francisco and will survive from rain water alone. The roof looks beautiful.


Video of Juniper and fish in aquarium:

Video of Jellyfish and Juniper watching:

We reunited with Bob outside after Juniper and I had our museum visit.

Juniper meets Uncle Morgan

Teeth picture

Her two bottom front teeth are in. Yes, she is crying in this picture. You can see her teeth easiest when she cries because when she smiles she tends to stick her tongue out. I promise I picked her up and soothed her as soon as I put the camera down.

Uncle Jason and Aunt Lee Lee with Juniper

Uncle Jason visits

We went on a walk along Ocean Beach. Here's Uncle Jason, me and Juniper standing above the ocean near the Cliff House in San Francisco.

Uncle Jason & Juni

Jen's brother Jason and his wife Lee Ann were in town from New Jersey. Here's a picture of Uncle Jason holding Juniper in the SF Botanical Garden. Photo by Aunt Lee Ann.

Sunday in Golden Gate Park

First carousel ride!

Saturday with Daddy and Grandmom

Rolling over

This morning Juniper rolled over from her belly to her back for the first time. (Previously she had only rolled from her back to her belly.) Grandmom and Daddy were watching her as she made this great achievement. I missed it, but I'm taking their word for it. I did see her big smile afterwards, so happy to be on her back again. Yay, Juni!

First visit to Twin Peaks

Grandmom is in town again! We went to the top of Twin Peaks and then for a stroll in Stonestown Galleria. Grandmom enjoyed pushing Juni around in the stroller. Juniper was in a great mood all day.

Foot meets mouth

Jen & Bob's 3 years wedding anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary and we took Juni with us out to dinner at my favorite restaurant in Oakland. On the drive there Juni fell asleep in the car so we sat in the car with her while she napped and then fed her before heading into the restaurant. We took turns holding her or playing with her while the other one ate. She was pretty happy to lay on a chair with a teething ring if one of us smiled at her or quietly sang a song to her. It was a nice family outing. (The waitress took the photo of the 3 of us.)

Visit with Aunt Susie

You can't really tell in this photo, but Susie has a baby in her belly and she's less than 3 weeks away from her due date!

Shopping in Berkeley

Eric & Jackie's new baby boy

Juniper shakes her rattle (video)

Uncle Zach gives Juni a lift

Out to dinner at Cafe Gratitude with our friends Zach and Christina. Juniper was a good sport about hanging out with us while we ate.

Juniper laughs when kissed (video)

Shedding and teething

She's losing her hair. All that hair she was born with, it is falling out bit by bit. I have to change her bassinet sheet every few days because it is filling up with hair as if a hairy pet was hanging out in there. Bob says that her hair color is looking lighter. I think it is because there is less hair there, and also because I've stopped putting oil on her scalp since her cradle cap is better. But it is true that when her new head of hair starts growing in, it could be a different color than what she was born with.

I can see another tooth rising up next to the one that is already out. Yesterday she was quite upset, and putting her fingers in her mouth in dispair. I broke down and tried drugging her... I gave her a dose of Tylenol at noon and at 4 pm. I'm not sure if it helped. Today she seems better, but I'm taking it easy and trying to respond to her needs quickly today. I feel bad for her that she is experiencing this teething pain at such a young age. However, in the past week I've spoken to two other moms who's children teethed early. One at 3 1/2 months! and the other at 4 1/2 months. One mom said that her daughter teethed early and then also lost her teeth earlier than her peers--at age 5 instead of 6. When I took Juniper to the doctor last week for her 4-months-old check-up, he said that it is early to be teething, and it usually doesn't happen until 8 months old. He wasn't worried about it, though. He said it is hereditary and asked me if I teethed early, too. Did I, mom? Oh, and she did bite me once while eating and I said "ow!" and pulled her off instinctively. That was over a week ago and it hasn't happened again since.

Watch me grow

Juniper is in the 90th percentile for height, and 50th for weight. That means that she is tall for her age compared to other 4-month-old girls, and her weight is average.

Bedtime routine

Tonight's routine went like this:

1. Bring Juni to bedroom, put her on changing pad with pacifier or giraffe toy to calm her if upset. Play relaxing lullaby music. Change into nighttime diaper and PJs.
2. Wash hands (with wet wash cloth), wash face, brush tooth and gums.
3. Put Juni in her bassinet with giraffe. Read her two books.
4. Swaddle her in blanket and move her to my lap on the yoga ball.
5. Bounce her and change the music to white noise, give pacifier as needed to help calm.
6. Give her a bottle of breastmilk. Burp.
7. Bounce with pacifier to sleep. Remove pacifier.
8. Put her in bassinet while still in light sleep, put my hands on her arms/shoulders and jiggle her gently until she settles.

Sleep! We started this routine tonight at about 7:30 and she was asleep by 8:15 pm. It is a work in progress. Tonight went well. We are happy.

Rolling onto her side

Every day this week she's been practicing rolling over onto her left side from her back. Today she made it almost all the way onto her belly. Her bottom half had flipped, so that her bottom was in the air, and her face and shoulders were facing down but her left arm was still under her. It is wonderful to watch her skills improve daily.

Update: a half hour after I posted this blog she figured out how to move her arm out of the way so that she fully turned over onto her belly. Here's a picture of her after the big achievement.

My heart belongs to Daddy

Aunt Kate visits

Spare any breast milk?

Our friends Kris and Ed were in town today from New York. We had a nice meal at Cafe Gratitude then went on a walk in Golden Gate Park. We walked around the Botanical Gardens and showed them the De Young museum building. On our walk back to our apartment, a woman approached me on the street saying she had a strange request. She saw me carrying Juniper and asked if I was breastfeeding. When I said yes, she said that breast milk can cure pink eye, and that her doctor told her to see if she could get a mom to donate some for her daughter who has pink eye (to put a few drops in the eye). She asked me to express some milk in cup for her, and I said sure. She suggested that I could go into the nearby restaurant's bathroom for privacy, but we were in a hurry to get Ed and Kris to the airport, so I said right here is fine. So on the sidewalk of 9th Avenue, Juni helped to get my milk to flow and then I hand expressed some milk into a little cup. The mom was very grateful and her daugher was there, too. We continued on our walk and commented on how it was a true San Francisco experience. A great memory for Ed and Kris to take with them back to Brooklyn.