seven months old

Iris turned seven months old on Veteran's Day. She is doing everything a seven-month-old is supposed to do: sitting up by herself, drooling all the time (see the spittle on the chin below), increasing the volume of her vocalizations, and developing separation anxiety. Her favorite foods are oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and peas. I have finally started using cloth diapers, something I had planned to do since the beginning. All her medical issues grounded that plan because I somehow found dealing with cloth diapers to be very stressful. 

My dad is in town for a conference this week so we met him downtown yesterday and watched him give his talk. I know nothing about plasma physics but basically understood his talk to express that his model was better at explaining a reaction than another model. Dad was very happy to show off his granddaughter to his other physicist friends and colleagues and Iris was very happy to have the social interaction. She was also very interested in Granddad's name tag.

And here is yet another photo of her, in case you haven't figured out how she looks these days. She looks way too skinny for my liking in this photo but at least she's happy. Iris won't take a bottle so I am trying to get her to learn how to drink from a cup. This is a slow going process but I think she'll get the hang of it in a few months.

I signed her up for daycare today -- she won't start until late February/early March. It's a for-profit center. I am uneasy about sending her to a for-profit daycare, but I'll write more about that later. Despite my reservations, it seems to be a great place and it is close to Evan's work so he can deliver her.

a welcome respite

Living in Denver has its perks. One of them is being close to the mountains and another is being close to New Mexico. Evan's job also has its perks. One of them is a company vacation to the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs [incidentally featured in Act Three of This American Life's episode 459: What Kind of Country Is This?].

 

In addition to getting to meet a lot of Evan's co-workers, my dad drove up to help watch Iris. 

Evan, Dad, and Iris heading back to the room.

 Having him there was very helpful not only because he cared for Iris but also because he served as the weekend photographer. 

Dad getting ready to take a few photos of the mountains

Iris did well the entire weekend [with the exception of a difficult drive on Friday]. We took her with us to eat a couple times and she was very well behaved and refrained from testing out her vocal cords.

4 months old

Iris is 4 months old as of Sunday. She's definitely growing and gaining weight but still so darn skinny. She eats plenty but I wish she were a bit fatter.

Baby Iris at 4 months

Her favorite things to do these days are: to practice standing and sitting up; to put hands in mouth; to figure out the thumb sucking thing; to flail her right arm up and down when excited; to kick a lot; and to go on walks in the stroller. Oh, and to vocalize: