sick

It’s been very, very busy. Sophia is good, Arica is good (but getting a cold) and work is good, so I’m good. But tired! I haven’t really had much chance to play with my birthday present.

Last night, just before I fell asleep, I realized that I usually distinguish between what I like and what is good. I think much of the last few Western generations do this when it comes to morality, but I wonder whether taking it as a default setting with respect to the quality of things (food, music, etc.) is common at all in cohorts older than my own. I’ll bet it isn’t. Here’s an example of a song that I like a lot, out of all proportion to how good I think it is. I think it’s fine. But I really like it.

Below are a few photos from a bath this afternoon. Sophia is sitting up well on her own now, which makes bath time a lot more fun for everyone (and a lot less work for Arica and me). Today she seemed to realize for the first time that water reacts very differently to patting than most things do. (See the black & white photo in this regard.)

The elevator is the place where our day care posts notices of contagious diseases, and Friday’s little surprise was croup. Saturday morning Sophia woke up with congestion, then spent most of the day sleeping and crying, all the while sounding like the end product of a half-century pack-a-day habit. Today was worse, though she seemed to turn a corner this evening. You can see in these pictures some puffiness on the left side of her face. I think this is the where she has just started sleeping on her stomach, plus being sick. It looks better this evening.

Is it wrong to dress your baby as a fashion disaster just for shits and giggles?

Absolutely not. Actually this wasn’t a plan. She looked pretty good without the hat and with a top on over the onesie, but after I took the top off, we realized that she looked like a retirement home dweller headed out for an afternoon at the par three. “Take a picture!” “Wait, grab the hat.”

Developments. Sg thinks everything is funny (except for the things that she thinks are awful, which include bulb syringes, tongue depressors and a bottle taken before she’s ready). If she notices that someone is paying attention to her, that gets a big smile. And she’s started to coo a bit.

As for milestones, certain pieces are falling in to place and sg is on the verge of discovering a whole new way to explore the world. I caught her this morning staring at her fist, and a little later on she successfully grabbed AT’s nose. She doesn’t know what to do with the things that she grabs, but I don’t think it’s my imagination that when her hand closes on something at arms length, her mouth opens. Also, the drooling has started. Pretty soon we’ll be putting random junk in the mouth.

Sg’s great-grandmother (my father’s mother) made her this quilt, which she seems to appreciate. A couple of other things to note about this picture: (i) sg has put on about 3 pounds since she left the hospital, and we are now getting “one last wear” out of the premie clothes; (ii) sg wears these great diapers that consist of artificial fiber covers (that don’t absorb moisture) and hemp and cotton inserts (that absorb a lot), which works really well, but they’re one-size-fits-all, and when she has them on under her clothes – especially at night, when she gets two inserts – she looks like a weeble.