Uh uh

Roxanne is learning to say "uh-oh," but she hasn't quite gotten there. Instead, she's been babbling the phrase "uh-uh" over and over again but with the same intonation as "uh-oh." As a result, I've been saying "uh-oh" constantly in order to try and coax her into getting it right. It occurs to me that it's kind of silly for me to do so, since I'm probably not helping her learn the proper context. Like, we don't say "uh-oh" while getting out of the car, or petting the dog or eating food off the floor. The last one might count, but not in a for real way. More in the mommy way, since I'm the one who knows that eating off the floor is "uh-oh." Roxanne seems to think that it's totally fine to eat off the floor. It seems like most new things that Roxanne picks up are super duper fun for about a week, and she does them constantly, then she goes on hiatus with it. I'm hoping that the constant raspberry blowing ends soon. It's kind of awful. The clapping is back in vogue, and that's awesome. I get an applause when I do things like open the box of Cheerios or clean up some toys. Then there are the facial expressions. She went through a phase of scrunchy faces mixed with snorting. Now she's sticking out her bottom jaw and showing her bottom teeth all the time. It's a really funny face that reminds me of an old man going "shucks." Roxanne is such a charmer.

Naked Lunch

I have finally discovered the advantages to letting Roxanne eat wearing nothing but her diaper during meals. She can get pretty messy, and it's almost impossible to keep up with her in terms of clean clothes. Especially since we have to go down to the creepy basement of our apartment complex to do the wash. Usually I put it off until Roxanne is wearing onesies that just barely snap under the crotch and pop open when you pick her up. Consequently, I have become a big fan of separates. I try to get her shirts and pants, so that she gets more wear out of everything. But I digress. Today was avocado day, and it's always a BIG mess. By the end of lunch, Roxanne looked like Kermit or maybe one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She was green from her forehead to her belly button. And as I cleaned her up in the sink, I realized that even the back of her neck was green. I know that I could just leave her shirt on and give her a bib, but she hates bibs, and makes a big show of arching her back and pulling them down when I put them on. And while I hate giving into tantrums, it's really just as easy to let her eat in the buff. She seems to enjoy the sound it makes when she pats her tummy with her palm, which is a vast improvement over her usual routine of banging both hands onto the tray of her high chair and sending all of the little bits and pieces of food to the far corners of the dining area.

Just another day at the zoo

Yesterday we took Roxanne to the zoo. Now that I bit the bullet and joined, I hope to go as often as possible. It's really nice to feel like we can go for just little visits whenever we feel like and it, and there's no looming "we have to get our money's worth" thing. So we basically headed straight to the kids' stuff after taking short breaks at the tiger and elephant exhibits. We went to the petting zoo, but it was a little bit of a bust. There were a lot of older kids and they were very pushy, and all of the animals were laying around. We tried to interest Roxanne in petting a sheep and a baby goat, but she was only vaguely interested. Overall, she still seems to prefer to watch the big kids.

We did take her on the carousel. I went ahead and bought the "ten for ten dollars" pass that gives you ten rides for $10, as opposed to paying $3 per ride. If we weren't members, I wouldn't have done it, but I figure we can burn through ten rides pretty quickly. The carousel was the first stop. When I first plopped Roxanne onto the seat, she was terrified. She didn't cry, but she leaned off of the animal and buried her face in my shoulder. I left her on the seat but snuggled her up and wrapped my arms around her and tried to be very enthusiastic about the monkey that she was sitting on. And sure enough, once the ride started, she loved it! I still held her very very tight, but every time her monkey started going up, her little face just lit up and she kicked her feet a little. It was really fun.

After the carousel, we hustled her onto the train, and this time Justin and I both took her. It took FOREVER for the train to take off, and Roxanne started freaking out. She was hot, tired, overstimulated, and frustrated because she wanted to nurse and didn't understand why I wouldn't let her. It's hard to explain concepts like modesty to an eight month old. As she got progressively more and more worked up, my husband and I did the natural thing; we turned on each other. I kept telling him to just get out his keys and let her play with them, since my keys are typically like a hypnotic toy for Roxanne. But Justin insisted it was a ridiculously bad idea to give her his keys on a moving vehicle, especially since she loves to throw things these days. As we politely snapped at each other, I heard a child a few rows back asking his dad "why is that baby screaming?" and his answer: "little babies can't tell their parents what's wrong, so they just cry." The mama bear in me wanted to turn around and launch into an explanation about how I knew exactly what was wrong with her, but because of how people in America are totally freaked out by breastfeeding I had to listen to her cry and try to distract her with my digital camera, the ride pass, my hair, the kids in front of me, etc. etc. Fortunately, the ride started moving, and Roxanne calmed down and actually enjoyed herself. And I calmed down, realizing that it is in fact probably a bad idea to give a baby keys on a moving ride, and that I am not really an activist when it comes to breastfeeding in public, I just hate listening to my baby cry. And that I should pay closer attention to her feeding schedule while planning out rides at the zoo. In a few short months, Roxanne will probably be drinking cow's milk, and these kinds of issues will be a thing of the past. Where did my tiny baby go? And where did this almost-toddler come from?