Looking Back: Out of Asia

Ok, this post is a bit after the fact, but in October we went to Portland, Oregon, USA (USA! USA!). Mother had a conference there, Ara went following her food source, and father went to carry spears and watch World Series of Poker on ESPN. Luckily, Portland is located on the same coast as much of Ara's extended family, so the conditions were right for some first meetings. We flew for 5 hours to Tokyo, and then another 9 to Portland. Yes, you can fly from Tokyo to Portland. As a veteran of air travel, Ara had no trouble with a slightly longer flight. Her only condition was that she be held by someone standing up the entire time. Luckily there was a good spot in the back where other parents were doing the same thing. One set of parents dead set against enjoying life had 3 kids under 5. The flight attendants alternated between being friendly and reminding us that the fasten seat belt sign was on (it never actually goes off) and that we were responsible if anything went wrong. Seven (!) people from Ara's grand-generation came from BC and California to see the little monster in action. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh were replaced with clothing, blankets, and little shoes. Farmar and Brian met us at the airport and whisked us off to their Hotel where Heather waited. For an hour or so Ara entertained the room with her cooing and smiles. It was very festive. Grandfather arrived a few hours later to see Ara sleep. When she woke a few hours later the whole scene was repeated. That night we feasted on seafood at a nice spacious American restaurant. Ara was very good and only had to be taken outside screaming once. We all took a turn holding her so the others could eat. Maybe she fell asleep at some point. A day or two later, Mother was in the swing of the conference and Gordon, Mark, and Donna arrived. More first meetings, more laughing, and more photos. Ara never really got the hang of sleeping during the night, so we didn't force it. We just stayed up all night long in our hotel room, keeping her entertained and watching HBO. When she got fussy, we headed down to the enormous lobby and walked up and down the halls. During these lobby sessions, Elisa pioneered the side shuffle toward the mirror which made Ara laugh really hard for the first time. It was the perfect joke as it combined two of Ara's favourite humour (too much canadian spelling?) elements: depth perception and movement. In order to get any sleep at all, we got into a good routine where dad bundled Ara up and stuffed a bag full of provisions and marched her over to the extended family hotel for playtime and a nap. After a few hours of sleep and an hour of World Series of Poker, dad would join the party while mom went to work the conference. After a few days, the service was enhanced and farmar collected her from our hotel. Of course she slept like a baby (hah!) once she got there making it look easy. At the end of the week, mother had finished doing her thing and farmar took us to the airport. Another exhausting 15 hours of flying later we were home! All in all, the whole thing was immensely successful and a good time was had by all. Portland ended up being as good a meeing place as any. People there were very friendly and intelligent, and the air was clean and crisp. I didn't get much of a sense of the place, but I think I can summarize it by saying that there is a high hipster per capita ratio, one gigantic bookstore, and a collection of bridges that they may or may not take pride in. Also they have very coordinated traffic signals. J-walking is nearly impossible. I wouldn't even try it if I were you. Nope, don't do it. Not recommended... Where will Ara go next?

Girl, You Couldn't Get Much Higher

Solid Foods have begun. Actually, they began a little while ago, with me, my mom, and Ryan all crouching around a disgusted Ara on the floor of the living room, trying to entice her with increasingly sugary morsels. We started out with the recommended Rice Cereal (organic of course!). We had heard wonderful stories from two women in the "neighborhood" (read: communist block apartment complex). They both claimed that the addition of a little baby rice to their childrens' diets resulted in a shift from 2 hour sleeps to EIGHT HOUR SLEEPS! So we were pretty excited. They both said their kids gulped down the baby rice (or as the scottish of the two put it, beebee rayce) and then conked out for hours. Well, Ara did neither of these. She DESPISED the beebee rayce, and then slept worse than ever before. So much for silver bullets filled with beebee rayce. Finally, however, we reasoned that there were more reasons than just Ara's sleep patterns for starting her on solid foods in earnest. We had to admit that, while convenient, it was unlikely that Ara would continue to drink from bottles into her 20's. Also, she was starting to reject the bottle, and do fake chewing a lot. But even still, the beebee rayce was going NOWHERE! We then tried beebee oatmeal, but still nothing. Then banana! Re-Jected! Finally, in a fit of teething, screaming madness, we tried maple-flavored teething biscuit! And we had success. Ara was totally happy with the teething biscuit. She could hold it herself, and slam it into her mouth, drool all over it, and best yet, chew it! But man cannot live on teething biscuit alone, so eventually we mixed teething biscuit with oatmeal (melting the biscuit to make the whole thing taste mapley) and voila! We had a child who actually likes oatmeal! (she still can't stand beebee rayce though). So, as we progressed from sloppy to sloppier, we realized that the hover wasn't going to work. To feed her on the living room floor we had to prop her up on the sheepskin, cover it with protective muslins, and then hope that she could sit up unsupported long enough to get her food down (and by "down" I mean "everywhere within a metre radius"). This was a messy business. Finally, we had to admit the wisdom in yet another conventional baby item, and came to terms with the fact that highchairs were not just a marketing ploy. Out we went, now with another grandmother (Farmar - the grandmother formerly known as "Syd") and grandfather (Opa!!) on a death march to find the perfect highchair. Well - there are LOTS of varieties of high chairs out there in the world, and nearly all of them are either incredibly ugly, or wildly expensive (though tasteful to a degree only attainable by the Danes or Swedes), or totally impractical (a high chair with no little table? With no safety harness?? WITH NO CHAIR??!!). Just when we thought all was lost, we found, to our surprise, a wooden (for the yuppy in us), practical (has both a table, AND a safety harness), inexpensive (for the chepos in us), high chair that converts - get this - into a little table and chair for later use (for the ever-diminishing sensible in us). What's more, it had a whimsical animal (cow? giraffe??) for a back cushion. So Farmar and I wrestled the high chair home, while daddy and Opa partied it up in Lan Kwai Fong watching the premiership in an "Irish" pub owned by an Aussie. We were actually kind of nervous about how Ara would take to her new piece of furniture. We'd bought her a chair in the past: a Chicco Rocker, which was more stylish than babyish, even we had to admit. We also had to admit that she's just not that into it. As in, she wants out of it! Invariably. So it was with bated breath that we observed Ara's first few minutes in the high-chair. Amazingly, she LOVED it!! She banged her toys on the little table, just like we'd hoped she would, and then dutifully spat out an entire meal while laughing her head off.

Serious Play

SO - Ara has always been a serious player, and this was still the case when she headed over to the playground with Gramma for some time on the swings and ... zebra? As you can see, she was highly contemplative in both these activities, and was not quite sure what to make of either one. I think she felt this was a time for serenity and, perhaps, to continue her ever-difficult struggle to attain enlightnment.

搖擺的小您 Oh swinging baby
不坐高在椅子笑 You sit high on the zebra
的問題小心 No laughing matter

Ara and her Four Legged Friends... (+ snakes)

I'm not sure if we've mentioned this widely, but for some reason, Ara is completely obsessed with our cat (Mia, AKA The Meeps, AKA The Kiffin). Every time Mia walks by, Ara's face lights up, and she starts trying to walk (no - you didn't miss an update, Ara can't actually walk yet, but this doesn't stop her from trying) towards the kiffin (see how useful that one is?) to play with her! We found this intriguing, not only because, of course, everything our goddess child does seems, to us, to be divinely inspired, but also because it suggests that even before Ara understands who mommy and daddy are, and what food is, and that muslins do NOT taste good, she DOES understand that cats are nice! How shocking! Is this innate? Hard to say, but it would seem so! Some of Ara's first real smiles were inspired by the sight of the meeps. Unfortunately, the feeling is not mutual, and as soon as Mia realizes that she's being stalked, very slowly, by a tiny human, she high-tails it (literally, in this case) out of reach. Note the non-plussed kitty in the photos on the right. So anyway - based on this evident love of animals, we decided to take Ara to the "zoo"! I say "zoo" and not Zoo, because this is a tiny selection of cages in the heart of downtown (sorry, "Central") Hong Kong, where hilarious animals are on display. These include the scary boa constricter, a tiny crocodile, a group of exciting Lemurs, our personal favorite the Lesser Mouse Deer (more mouse than deer, hence aptly named, shown second photo down, less than a foot in length) and a pair of orangutans that lead most people to say "What The Hell Is That Thing??" (see odd photo on left for evidence). After an arduous hike up what can only be described as a mountain, we finally arrived at the zoo - sweaty and ornery. But Ara's delight over all around her lifted our mood, and soon we were ZOOming around (ha ha ha!) looking at everything. But: when I say "all around her", I mean "ALL". In descending order, Ara was completely taken in by: railings, gravel, other children, leaves, people trying to make her laugh. Nowhere on that list appears: The Boa Constrictor, The Crocodile, The Lemurs, The Lesser Mouse Deer, or The Disturbing Orangutan. Ah well. Kind of a positive actually, I mean, how often can you actually do something for the first time more than once?? So, spent from our ambitious travel, we rocked it First Class on the way home. Ara was almost all tuckered out, but managed to do some serious playing and with her reflection, and some (enchanting to us, alarming to others) high-pitched "vocalizing" before falling asleep in her new hoodie. An Urban Traveller is born.

Sitting Pretty at 6 Months!

Can you even believe that our little Ara turned 6-months old yesterday!? It's amazing how far we've come: through the "loud" first 6 weeks, then through the serious next 2 months, and finally the jovial last 2.5 months. In this time, Little Ara has travelled to two countries other than her native Hong Kong (world powers USA & Japan), and has mastered the art of flipping over, passing objects between her hands, fine motor control with thumb and forefinger, blowing bubbles, gurgling (melodically) and of course, eating toes. We were, however, a little concerned about her sitting. It really didn't look like she was going to catch up to mommy, who (as shown in hipster 70's photo on left) did manage "all by herself" sitting at 6 months (nearly to the day). That was on an Easter visit to my grandmother's house. Imagine how proud she was that I reached this milestone thanks to her intervention! Well, it seems like grandmotherly visits are the catalyst to uprightness, because lo and behold, two days after my mom's arrival, and just two hours before the 6-monthiversary of Ara's birth, she achieved Alone Sitting! As with flipping over, Ara just needed the right motivation. And what was that motivation? Once again, taking after mommy, it was Ara's new found love for technology, specifically, Digital Cameras. Ara was hanging out, leaning back against me, when grandpa-Essy held the camera out in front of her. Would you believe she sat right up, using her arms for balance when she threatened to topple over, and then tried to grab the camera for herself! Up to this point, Ara had been comfortable enough when propped in a sitting position, with her arms suggestively placed in front of her for balance. But up until last night, she was content to let her arms slowly but surely bend, and would lower herself face-down (in an enviable yogic forward bend) onto her mat and start licking it! Either that, or she would overcompensate for her descent, and would frantically arch her back so that she fell backwards instead! But no more! Now she's busy practicing all the things a baby can do from a seated position, including reaching for something placed right in front of her without losing balance. This usually involves a comic amount of arm flapping, as though she's trying to achieve flight in order to maintain her seat! Keep trying to soar, little one!

Ara of Dune: She IS the Quizatz Haderach

Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before the shock of motherhood wore off, and poor Ara was doomed to become the victim of my extensive fashion experimentation. I suppose it all began with Halloween, that fateful day, when the sewing machine was dusted off for the sake of floral adornment. In my search for said machine, I ran across, you guessed it, my old knitting needles, and became ever so slightly obsessed with Getting Ara Ready For Winter. This of course involved a very determined trip to the local mall (home to 2 million people, or something like that) to try to convey the words "NATURAL FIBRES" to the cantonese-only, acrylic-clad but good-hearted sales women. Finally, they got it ("Ah so! WOOLY!! WOOLY!!!!") and they directed me towards, if not the purest stuff in the store, definitely the most expensive. What you see above is without a doubt the priciest single foot-square of knitted material ever produced, but which I am proud to say is "Mostly Merino! Cashmere! Hai Ya!". The styling of the arms, in case you're interested, was somewhat unplanned, but seemed appropriate once they'd got going. They're futuristic sleeves for a futuristic baby! Okay, so she looks like something out of a Frank Herbert novel, but she still manages to keep it real, and stay down to earth. Sadly, this little number will probably have been outgrown by the time that it's cold enough to wear it, but I'm sure, as past experience tells me, this is just the first of a number of insane sweaters that dear Ara can look forward to covering in goat-milk. [PS: The little circle-bandaid on her thigh is the last reminder of her latest set of innoculations, obtained during a visit to the new (better) doctor, who claims that she is "Very Aware!" and "Incredibly Strong" for her age! That's our girl!]

Halloween I

Around 5PM, we realised that we were about to miss Ara's Very First Halloween!! So, like all good parents, we left the baby with the nanny, and rushed to the store to buy tiny candies to help rot the teeth of the neighborhood kids. All the while we brainstormed about how we could dress poor Ara up to welcome the ghoulish young'uns. "A Lima Bean?" "A Businessman??" "A Fake Burberry Bag??". We finally settled on the one thing I felt I could make in a reasonable amount of time (10 mins): A flower. Awwwwww!! So, after some frantic sewing, and some yelps from Ara (who had NOT napped well that afternoon), we received our first spooky callers: a surgeon, a bat, a princess, about 5 pirates, and a "japanese girl". Ara was so freaked out that she puked on her petals. Time for bed! Later, after our little flower had wilted for the evening, more "grown up" and judicious spirits graced our hallowed .. um .. stairwell: a rocker (not right for our band, most probably), captain jack sparrow (as androgynous as the original), a very laid back pair of Scream ghosts who showed definite lack of commitment to murdering teens, but who knew to take the toblerone over the fruit&nut, and a couple of nerdy and ungrateful ghosts who surveyed our chocolate offerings and opted to decline. Definitely the best visitor of the night was a tiny little boy from a neighboring communist apartment block. He was obviously in a pillow case, with a face cut out, and ruffles at the bottom. After much prodding, and many sadistic demands and manipulative bargains from us such as "tell us what you are, and we'll give you candy!" his mother saved the day: "I'm a Running Pillow!", she said, while the little one nodded solemnly. Of COURSE you are darling! It made sense once she'd said it.

Domo Ara-gato

	High Flyin' The morning started out well. Initially, darling Ara was enchanted by all the wonderousness of air-travel. The stewardesses were totally in love with her, and all was going well. She slept most of the way through the flight! The fun didn't really begin until it was time to land, and the wee one had to be strapped in with a special seatbelt designed, it seems, to tax the patience of even the best fed baby. For a while, she was placatable with clicking sounds, and then with the engaging and unattainable items from the duty free magazine, but finally, after a full 30 mins of sitting next to (but not at) the gate, the wailing began. The formerly friendly stewardesses, strapped well into their nearby jumpseats, quickly started averting their eyes, and finally adopted a blank stare to try to distance themselves from the cause of the problem. All our appeals for taking her out of the seatbelt prematurely were met with derision. So the wailing continued. We tried not to notice the angry looks of the co-passengers as they "deplaned" before us. But all this pain was quickly forgotten as it became clear that our "with child" status got us to the front of all immigration and customs lines! What a bonus! Plus, we wound up immigrating into Tokyo right next to (we're really really sure of this) Rap artist, Chingy, and his posse (he was rolling with his moms, it must be known)
	Overstimulated In Shibuya For the first two nights of our stay in Tokyo, we rested our heads at the Sakura Fleur hotel in Shibyua, which was, tantalizingly, right across the street from a (closed exactly when we were able to shop there) Lululemon store. Shibuya is an exciting district, and is mental overload for even the most seasoned traveller. Needless to say, Ara was shocked to the point of hysteria. Her little eyes were so wide open that we honestly thought she may blow apart any second. It was in Shibuya that Ara began what is now her commonplace "groan herself to sleep" practice. Not the best. They say that experience ages a person (do they? well they do now). That was certainly the case for Ara in Shibuya. She went there a baby, and came out ... well ... a very slightly larger, more mentally active baby. During our day, there, however, we were whisked to University of Tokyo for my workshop, where poor Ryan was held captive as breastfeeding facilitator. During this time, he spotted the famed 'painted radio' (shown left). As for dinners, which we were quite excited about, our two nights in Shibuya were dubious in their culinary distinction. Night one, to try to calm a freezing baby (who knew Tokyo would be quite that cold?) we fled to our hotel room with microwaved mini-meals from AM/PM in tow. Night two, after running screaming (literally) from a delightful "sit on the floor and wish you'd done more yoga" izakaya, we found solice at McDonalds. The next morning we did manage to actually sit down to eat somewhere: we dined on pancakes at a "Family Restaraunt", with bottomless lattes (LOVE Tokyo!) and "solid food" (read: jello capsules) for baby.
	Moving On to the Imperial Palace The last night of our stay we were in the imperial palace. I was workshopping once again (but at a different location, hence the move of hotels) and Ryan was free to wander the grounds of the palace. Interestingly, he chose to wander the perimeter instead, and wound up once again exhausting Ara to the point of her falling asleep in the Bjorn. Unfortunately, this did not translate to a happy baby in the evening, and we were forced to flee another very cool izakaya due to screams so blood curdling and eerily well timed you'd think Ara was an activist against the inhumanity of Kobe Beef.
	The Last Morning Finally, it was time for me to do a little sightseeing. We wandered a little around the area of our hotel, and sipped coffee on the remarkably chilled out streets of Tokyo. Little one napped comfortably during all this in the sling.
	Bus Of Shame So, the bus ride started out well, with little one still happy from a lovely morning of slinging and bjorning. She seemed almost too happy, to be perfectly honest. And that's when we knew, this was the calm before the storm. Once again, Ara's timing was impeccable - she chose the very middle of the bus ride to the airport to break her four-day stretch of poolessness. As soon as it started, Ryan and I began negotiations about who would be the one to deal with our now very chilled out baby. Heroically, I stepped up to the .. um .. plate. If you've ever changed a baby in a bus toilet, then you know the hell I went through. Insufficient lighting, insane swaying, loud noises (causing Ara to attempt to flip over in what can only be assumed to be a baby defense mechanism), and No Change Table. Amazingly, I affected an on-lap-change with complete absence of diaper breach. The rest of the trip went wonderfully well. We met very nice people on the plane ride back, and arrived at Hong Kong with a happy little world traveller.

Flipping Out!

Alas, the age of carefree child abandonment is over: Ara is flipping over! It started slowly, with grunts and cries, and gradually built to a constant obsession with no longer being in the orientation in which she was put down. In the beginning, the big barrier seemed to be her right arm. She could get half way over, but what to do with that arm was a huge problem! But for us it was a blessing. We could glance away, hands-free, and not worry too much. "Oh - she'll never get over - look at that arm! She's going nowhere!" And there she would be - right arm extended awkwardly across her chest while she tried to reach over with her left arm and grab at something to pull her over the rest of the way. But then, one fateful day, she figured out that the key is to pull her arm in, and THEN flip. She doesn't really need her arms to flip. The whole thing depends on her enormously (and prematurely) strong neck. She actually hoists herself over by pushing her head back as far as it will go, and then writing around, worm-like. Unfortunately, her freedom of movement is once again curtailing our efforts to keep her TV-free. We used to be able to keep the TV out of eyeshot by lying her down, facing us. But then she realised she could turn, and tummy-time her way to technicolor bliss. Incredible, since tummy-time used to be a source of stress for her, and incredible whining would insue. Not now! Now, tummy-time is the gateway to moving pictures and hours of entertainment. As you can see above, Ara flips over, only to express consternation over Gilby's delivery of the tough news to a rocker hopeful. Rock on Storm! You'll always be right for OUR band.

Hoopsketball!

The other day, Ara made her debut on the basketball scene, in a mosquito-ridden, sunset outing to one of the more scenic basketball courts on earth. Ara hung out, made some noise, and watched daddy attempt to reclaim is youth. Her expression was doubtful through the whole thing. While her turn around jump shot still needs work, it's fair to say she's got dribbling down pat.

TV: On?

According to Christakis et al, early childhood television viewing is linked to ADHD at age 7. This is further backed up by studies that indicate that viewing at 0-years can cause delayed development of the cerebral cortex (and, I'm guessing, cause -- yup -- ADHD!). All of this should lead scientific minded parents like us to not allow our beautiful, unblemished child to be exposed to the flashy shots, the quick transitions, and the harmful frames per second that could in any way hamper her maturation into the Super Being that we know she will someday become (and is!) Lesson? No TV for Ara! One problem: SHE LIKES IT! I'd been told when I was pregnant that if you sing a song to the baby in utero, or read it (her!) a book the baby will calm to those same sounds once born. Well, Ara started out life in the womb being exposed to such hits as Weeds, The Entourage, Big Love, daily Daily Shows and Colbert Reports, and let's not forget, seasons upon seasons of Will & Grace. So guess what calms her down now? Yup: Theme songs. As soon as the tinny piano of W&G issues forth from the laptop (watched on fully-paid-for DVD, of course!) little Ara stops her whimpering, and quiets right down! This was fine at first. Even a nice feature! "Oh - how nice! Songs that will calm the screaming howling baby!". I made sure that she didn't look at the screen, because, knowing what I know, how could I consider myself a responsible parent if I didn't? Positioning her away from the screen was easy enough - we'd prop her on our laps, and away we'd go - into television bliss. Alas, one day the theme songs stopped working. Ara was no longer quieted by the gentle strains of "Little Boxes" or even "God Only Knows" (a real favorite!). This was chalked up to "development", since it seems that every day, something that had worked as a soothing mechanism, magically stops working (much to our chagrin) But then, during a particularly exciting episode of Rock Star: Supernova, Ara started fussing loudly. (by "fussing loudly" I mean wailing at the top of her lungs) This is a show that we watch live, so no pausing was possible; immediate action was required! We initiated the "burp hold", in which we grab Ara around her tummy, and face her out from us while "enthusiastically" bouncing her up and down. This is a stationary version of the "burp walk" which is more effective, because it keeps her both distracted (changing scenery!) and also burps her at the same time. But obviously, moving around and watching Rock Star at the same time is completely impossible, so the lesser version had to be used. As soon as we got her in the usually insufficient hold, she stopped fussing. It was miraculous. Plus, supreme Rocker, Ryan Star (the "dark horse") was delivering a riveting version of the previously uninteresting Stones hit "Paint it Black" (I can't beLIEVE Gilby, Tommy and Jason didn't like it more - Navarro: I'm with you! What a REVEAL!) We were captivated! So, it was a good few performances before we realised why things had become so peaceful and quiet: Ara was Watching TV! We tried turning her around during the commercials, but it was clear: if we wanted to watch Rockstar, she was going to have to watch it too. And so, for our own petty and evil reasons, we jeopardised our child's cognitive development. "But just this once" we promised. Since then, we tried watching TV with her turned around facing us, but now that Ara's got almost full control of her head, she realised that she could simply crane her neck and watch over her shoulder! She can also tip her head backwards to watch upside down! This girl is willing to go to great acrobatic lengths to get her hit! (Please note that us not watching TV in solidatiry with our tv-t-totaller baby is not an option) Part of me doesn't believe in this whole ADHD being caused by TV thing. Of course, stats don't lie, but I know that if TV was so deadly for babies, then I'd be doing a lot worse in life! My first phrase was, after all, "TV: On?" So, maybe I'll have to put up with my daughter following in my footsteps as a hyper TV addict. But we may have to put her in detox after all, if not for her mental development, then for her emotional state. Ara got upset WAY out of proportion when Alison was kicked off Project Runway, and is having quite a difficult time putting up with the political debate caused by the imminent christening of the Steven Colbert Hid in Hungary (17-million votes, one cast by Ara!). No. It won't do. So no more TV for little Ara. Until she turns 3. And then it's all TV, all the time! Don't worry sweetee - we'll tape all the back eps for you!

Stand Up, Baby, Stand Up!

Alright alright. As you can see, Ara isn't exactly standing up On Her Own. But this is her current latest trick: Fussing irritatedly while (seemingly) comfortably seated, and then, using my (or Ryan's or May's) hands for balance (and balance alone! I swear!), hoisting herself into a standing position. Her look once she gets to the top is serious and concentrated, but the ceasation of fussing indicates a mood-improvement at the very least. She LOVES it up there!! Her version of standing is quite hilarious though - it's like she's not quite sure how to use her feet for all this. As you can see (shown on right), her feet are often oddly positioned so that she's almost standing on their tops, and her toes are kind of "engaged" during the whole affair. And all this despite May's encouragement and insistent cries of "Flat your Feet! FLAT YOUR FEET!!!" While this all seems quite exciting, and further convinces us that Ara is a Super Baby, it is also somewhat worrisome. It suggests that Ara will, indeed, walk before she can crawl. This is completely our fault. ALL the good parenting books have the slogan "Back to Sleep; Tummy to Play" emblazoned on them. Otherwise, they say, babies will balk at the tummy position, and will never actually get the hang of crawling! They'll just do what Ara is doing, which is start sitting, then standing, then walking! Of course, as someone with a mile-wide competitive streak, this seemed good to me! What a thing to be able to say about your kid, while beaming with sinful pride? Well, that was my attitude until Grandma-Syd pointed out that the right-left coordination involved in learning to crawl was actually a pretty important developmental step. Of course, the books don't mention that. But unless you're putting your child at risk by slathering her nails with lead paint, they don't see very many things as real threats developmentally. I had to admit, upon reflection, that crawling did seem like a nice thing to be able to do. And THEN I recalled the Poisonwood Bible, in which a twin has psychologically-induced paralysis due to, and listen closely here people, Never Having Crawled As A Child! So, I recognize that Barbara Kingsolver isn't the authority on child development, even if the book DID manage to make it onto Opera's book list. But it still kind of has me spooked. So why have we not been giving our child the chance to go through this important developmental phase? Well ... simply put .. she really HATES being on her tummy! At all! Ever!! It's not that she's not able to do good stuff when she's down there. She can do the mini-pushups that are required for her age (even though she refused to demonstrate this while on display for the pediatrician. Performance anxiety??) and can heave her head and chest to a 45-degree angle with the floor. But the whole time she's doing it she's SCREAMING! And for those of you who have not had the pleasure of hearing Ara in full voice, this girl can BELT. I swear, people in Shanghai know when tummy time has come around. So, maybe we'll stuff our ears with cotton, and try to get her more into tummy time. But for now, it's quiet standing room only!!

Cien Dias de Ara

In Chinese Custom, the 100th day is a Big Deal. I've tried to find out why, but so far, have only managed to get knowing looks and "Well ... it's an old custom" out of anyone. Here's what I've found on-line:

On the hundredth day some Chinese families host another celebration. Friends and family bring fish and chicken to the child's home. When the chicken is cooked, the tongue is rubbed on the baby's lips to make the child a good talker. And the baby's paternal grandfather may present the baby with a rocking chair.

Well ... alas, in these days of bird flu and political correctness, we have had no chickens, hence no tongues, hence no tongue rubbing. I guess that means that Ara won't be a good talker. That's certainly been true so far! Her vocabulary to date merely consists of a complicated and intricate collection of Ooh's Gooh's Gaa's and WHOOOO's! And then lately "GHGHGHGHGH!!!!" while blowing bubbles. Perhaps these will someday evolve into actual words, and perchance even sentences. But to date, there is no indication of this.

And sadly, Chinese Custom #2 has already been slightly preempted: Ara already has a rocking chair! Of course, perhaps the paternal grandfather is supposed to send a rocking chair for ME (feel free!), but if it's truly a chair for Ara, then a trip to the Chicco store a while back rendered that 100-day ritual about 30 days too late.

According to the zoo with the pandas, the 100th day is the day when the baby can finally be named. Up until this point, the Chinese might have been referring to the baby with her "milk name", the name that is used to fool evil spirits. Apparently there are many name changes through life for more or less this purpose. Well, Ara has been called Ara since day one, so hopefully the evil spirits will just look the other way on this one too.

The cynical basis for the 100-day naming ritual is that giving a name to a baby may seem karmically presumptuous, and may cause spirits to reclaim the baby to the spirit world. After the 100th day, the baby is strong enough to survive, and so naming it, and making it part of this world, is fair game.

So - I guess we've really been tempting fate. Ara seems none the wiser, thankfully. Happy Hundreth Day sweetee!! Glad you made it!!

Looking Back: Ara's First Date!

A couple of weeks ago, Ara went on her First Date with her little friend Jackson! This was not the first time that Ara and Jackson had shared space, since they met while in utero, and exutro (but in sleepeo) a couple of times. But, this was the very first time they have actually interacted! It was incredibly exciting. Jackson is twice Ara's age, and is leading the way in many things, including such great hits as toe eating, sitting up (unpropped!), rolling over, and gorgeous giggles. He was quite the role model! The day also included other firsts, including First Time In Overpriced Stroller (all of 4 minutes was spent in the precious object, making each stroll cost roughly 100Euros so far), and Out In Public (albeit in the comfort of the Tung Chung rec centre). Ara hung out and watched her parents play ping pong, and at one point got SO excited that she puked everywhere! Nice going baby! The pressures of table tennis sometimes make me nauseous too. The last excitement was Breastfeeding In Public. Okay - we were in a glassed in ping pong area, and there was almost no way anyone could see, but still - this was Ara's very first time eating in front of strangers. She did remarkably well! AND she saved the second vomit for Kim and Jeff's place! Nice for them! Next date: Swimming!

Lap-Sitting; Laughing

Well, it's true - the growth spurt is definitely in full swing. Ara's eating a tonne (well, at least, it SEEMS like she is...) and is now, get this, full on laughing! Like, real belly laughs! Of course, we didn't manage to catch that on camera, because as soon as she sees that lense extend in her direction, Ara becomes Little Miss Serious. But believe me. She's officially a laugher now. Video soon to come... Also (and this really is quite exciting), I managed to compute with Ara Right On My Lap this morning! Of course, she isn't totally sitting up on her own, but she also isn't flopping all over the place! This is a whole new Ara-feature! An exciting world of ara-oriented computing is on the horizon!

Happy Birthday Syd!

Coming Out!

This week has been quite a doozie. Yesterday, we went out to central. And when I say "out", I mean "OUT". As in, Out Of The Sling! Formerly, excursions to Central had always involved insane marathon sling naps for Ara, where we had managed, somehow, to get all the way from The Cloister to downtown, have manic coffee, and then get back, without the little one making a peep! But, now that Ara is nearing the 100-day mark, we decided that it was time to try the next phase. An Awake Ara Outing. As you know, we'd already managed to do this at the Chung Chi staff club, but honestly, having her out in a noisy chinese restaurant was small potatos in comparison to going to the expat enclave and threatening to be those annoying parents who think their child's shreaking is no big deal. I remember all too well how much I loathed people who brought small children into adult spaces. And now I am that person! Good god. So off we went. The idea was that the commutes would be done with her sleeping, and the awake time would be us bjorning around central. Little did we realize how exhausting the whole thing would be. Here's how it actually went: NT->Central: Ara asleep (this part was according to plan) IFC for coffee: Why is Ara still sleeping? Princes building for forced breastfeeding: She'll never sleep tonight if she goes on like this! (how unfortunately precient) Okay - what the hell to do with her now? Walk around Princes building where we meet a lovely little family with their baby Nicole. Nicole, who was 6 months old, and incredibly silent. We felt quite smug that Ara was smiling and batting at her while Nicole just sort of stared at her. This soon turned to envy as Ara's adorable social smiles and coos turned to shrieks and agitation. New scenery was obviously required. Eighth beverage of the day consumed at Mix until 2 hours later: why is Ara not sleepy??!! Ara finally asleep -- we head to Page One where I find a New Kate Atkinson novel! I did a little dance, I'm not too proud to say. Yes, right in the Page One. Central->Kowloon Tong: Ara asleep (what a good baby) Kowloon Tong->University: Ara Awake! On The Train! This was most exciting and nerve wracking. And it elicited more overt stares than even Ara in the sling! People were totally enchanted, which was cute, until the vomiting began. Now, after that amazing day of inadequate naps and lots to see you'd probably assume that she'd sleep like a log. Not So! I fear that we jetissoned her into one of the famed "mental growth spurts", because we woke up this morning and lo and behold, she now needs to be actively entertained. Rattles work, pictures work, smiles work. But, if you'll notice, ALL of these require a considerable amount of energy, which neither I nor Ryan had, considering Ara slept all of 5 hours last night in lovely compact 1.5 hour segments. Other amazing feats this week included mini-situps (shown left) and Feet Discovery! Oh, she'd seen her feet before, but never actually reached out and grabbed them. Way to Go!

May 15th: Dawn of a New Ara!

At 7:43 PM (what a civilized time), May 15th 2006, our beautiful wonderful daughter Ara was born. She eased her way into this world after hours of not so bad contractions, and then 45 minutes of near hilarious pushing. All this was helped along by the most amazing midwife, Sylvie, without whom, none of this would have been possible. The able obstetrician, Rob Dawkins, was almost an afterthought, and pranced in, wearing dapper white, to help with the cleanup, and some of the heavy lifting. Beautiful Ara gurgled a little with her first cries, but was mainly calm and wise looking, just kind of peering at us, and taking it all in. We then spent four wonderful nights at Matilda hospital on the amazing Peak in Hong Kong. I have to say, that this was probably like staying in the best (and most expensive!) hotels: constant room service and babysitting, and gorgeous views. It was a lovely way to ease into parenthood. (maybe even too lovely - we had No Idea how hard it would be without the staff of 30 that Matilda provided!) The night nurse, Juliana, was amazing, and taught us the importance of cuddles and burps. Of course, she said that Ara was her Favorite Baby, but I bet she says that to all the moms!

Sleepless in Hong Kong

Just when you get your horse used to living on nothing, it up and dies on you. So was the tale last night, as I endured a DISTURBING night of lack of sleep. Little sleepy one (shown left) was unfortunately NOT that sleepy last night (and, horribly, the night before), awakening no less than 5 times. Not to eat, necessarily, but just to make her discomfort generally known. Actually, she only woke once to eat (well, twice, if you count the 5:45 hell wakeup). She woke up twice because of temperature issues (damn our communist air conditioner!), once because the cat was being loud (mom - do you want the cat back??) another time because she'd broken out of her supposed Miracle Swaddle Blanket, for which we paid a small fortune(shown here). What's worse, is that this all comes after a wonderful 3 week stretch of single-wakeups (one 6hr stretch, followed by one 4hr stretch - not bad, eh?), during which time I was lulled into a false sense of security and "my baby sleeps through the night" smugness. The "does your baby sleep through the night" question is really the hot topic here. It's the question I'm most regularly asked by the locals, who seem to be sleep obsessed. "You have to train your baby!" seems to be the consensus. I'm honestly not sure how to do that. Some suggest that giving water instead of milk in the middle of the night is the way to go. Others suggest simply ignoring her cries, and letting her just go and go until she pukes and passes out. Believe me - that second option has sounded good at times, but evidence has shown that this baby has an INFINITE amount of energy for crying, and I'm pretty sure that after an hour or so, I'd give in and feed her. Who wouldn't? And the water thing might work for some people, but I'm still breastfeeding, and trying to keep a good supply going, so skipping out on one feed a night is not on. Also, most of these times, she's not waking to eat anyway! Just to fuss! So how exactly I implement a training program in there, is unclear. My absolute favorite suggestion is to "Leave the baby with the Amah - let her deal with it!". (For those of you not Hong Kong locals, "Amah" is the cantonese word for "Domestic Helper", or, what is commonly the case, "Surrogate Mother".) I guess I would get more sleep if I relinquished my nighttime parenting duties ... Hmm... The only thing that saved me last night was that Ryan managed to completely take over at 5:45 for the last wake-up. He put the baby in the sling (Our Amah, May, HATES the sling, and blames it for all of Ara's sleep issues -- which, incidentally, were nonexistant before she stopped sleeping in the sling... but I digress...) and managed to keep her happy while I slept until 8. For that, I will be forever grateful. After that terrible night, the only thing I was able to do was heave myself out of bed, and watch Rockstar:Supernova, which, I'm sad to say, was dissapointing. I will say little else, for those of you reading this before the show airs in your timezone. Suffice it to say, Delana's Got To Go. Rob Zombie is NOT right for Our Band. Why they like her is beyond me.

Ara's First Post!

Today is Ara's 3-monthiversary, and she's finally on the web! Soon, we'll go back and fill in some details of earlier days. Today has been a big day for Ara! She's been out for a mosquito inundated walk (somehow mommy is the only target?!) and had a soap-free, oily bath (dry skin be gone!). Calls from both grandmothers came in (thanks guys), and in-crib napping was finally accomplished! This week has also been exciting, and involved new stuff - the highlight has to be lunch at Chung Chi Staff Club with dad (or grandpa, I guess). This was the first time that she was actually out in the world, publically, and available for unsolicited touching. She got LOTS of it. The waitresses, previously only having been able to peer in at her in her protective sling, were losing it with excitement. The entire wait staff seemed so distracted by her that it actually took quite some time for us actually to get them to believe we wanted to eat. Luckily, Ara's excessive vomiting managed to convince them that this wasn't a public viewing. Way to go!