Memorial Day Weekend FUN!

Wow. So what didn't we do this past Memorial Day weekend?

First of all, Darren's parents (AKA Gammy & Pop) came over Friday afternoon. They were preparing to babysit Kora while Daddy and Mommy went to a wedding. It was the FIRST time we ever left Kora, so you can imagine our hesitation and anticipation. I think Kora knew something was up because she was awfully clingy all day. We snuck out at about 5:15. The wedding was a lot of fun (thanks Katrina & Linc!) and we got home around 9:30 to Kora sitting on Gammy's lap playing. Apparently Kora gave them a bit of trouble and cried and screamed for about 45 minutes while they tried to put her to bed. As soon as they brought her downstairs, she stopped. Sigh. As soon as she saw me, of course she started crying. So here I am trying to undo my dress while carrying her upstairs. I nursed her to sleep and she actually had a record sleep time of 3 hours! Unfortunately that has yet to be repeated.

By the way, I know many of you just read that and gasped. Yes, she is 7 1/2 months old now and pretty much wakes up every 1 -2 hours between 9PM and 8AM. It hasn't been a problem until recently when I started working again. We're going to work with her over the next few months to get her to sleep longer stretches at night. We refuse to let her 'cry it out'. Instead we have a book called "The No Cry Sleep Solution" which takes longer, but is much more our style.

Saturday afternoon we picked up Minh-An's sister, Julie, at the airport. We hadn't seen Julie since Christmas. We then immediately got on MARTA (the public transportation here) and went to Piedmont Park, where the Atlanta Jazz Festival was going on. As a New Orleans Jazz Fest devotee, I knew I was going to be a bit disappointed, but it was still pretty fun. And free! We saw Esperanza Spalding, an amazing bass player and singer that I actually saw in New Orleans last year.

Beautiful midtown Atlanta skyline from Piedmont Park

Sunday was a big day. Because we missed New Orleans Jazz Fest this year, we told ourselves we would put some Festy music on Pandora, cook some Fest food, and have people who are into Jazz Fest over for the afternoon. In preparation for this event, Darren ordered 75 pounds of live crawfish. Yes. 75 pounds of live crawfish. They were delivered via FedEx on Saturday (I didn't know you could do this!), so Darren was in charge of keeping them alive until Sunday. This consisted of hosing them off periodically, and keeping them on ice.

Speaking of which, I learned a very important lesson about eating crawfish. Apparently you're not supposed to eat them if the tail is straight. Good advice. A bad crawfish can linger in your mouth for hours. I know from experience.

Back to our Fest Party...Mike Brisson and Andrew Swagler showed up early to help set things up. It was such a nice, overcast day that we decided to set the table up in the backyard. We put some fans up to keep the mosquitos away. Guests started showing up around 12:30. Besides the crawfish boil, Darren made his awesome gumbo. Everybody brought their beer of choice, and Mike brought over his homemade ice cream, in the festive flavor of bourbon pecan. Yum!

Trying to juggle Kora and a crawfish

Sorting through the live and dead crawfish

Julie and Andrew relaxing after the big feast

Monday was pretty relaxing. However, we did make Crawfish Monica (or a cheap knockoff of the Jazz Fest original) for dinner Monday night, and we had the Brissons over again. And again with the delicious homemade ice cream.

On Tuesday we went to the zoo for the first time! Darren and I went ahead and purchased annual tickets because we figure we'll be going quite a bit over the next year with Kora. It sure is nice living so close to the zoo and the aquarium. Zoo Atlanta is actually pretty nice. There was a nice bonus as the gorillas just had a baby about a week ago. We got to see the mama gorilla cuddling and nursing her baby. So sweet. The petting zoo is great, too. Kora was really interested in all of the animals, and touched a goat.

Rowwwrrr! What a cute lioness

Julie left Tuesday afternoon, and we've been in recovery mode since. What a great weekend!

She may have blonde hair and blue eyes...

but my baby girl is Asian through and through! Here she is eating some sweet potato off my chopsticks.

Kora eating with chopsticks from Minh-An Pence on Vimeo.

Kora sharing a pear with daddy

sharing a pear with daddy from Minh-An Pence on Vimeo.

two!

I realized that we had not written about this.

One of Kora's teeth poked out on May 4th. Well, it now has a partner! Four days later, her other bottom tooth poked out! She has two visible teeth on her bottom gum. No wonder she's been a bit fussy lately!

Got a photo to prove it!

Baby Led Weaning, or How to Introduce Foods to Your Baby in a Fun Way

Now that Kora is over six months old, the question many people ask is, "has she started solids yet?". Well, the answer is yes and no. Yes she's had some solids. No, not the kind (or way) most people think.

We are using the "Baby Led Weaning" approach. It allows us to let her eat pretty much what we're eating with her own hands. For example, last night we had a stir-fried squid dish (thanks honey it was yummy!) and some stir-fried bok choy. We sat Kora in her little booster seat and put a piece of bok choy on her tray. She picked it up, tasted it with her tongue, and started sucking on it. When she was done (bored) with one piece, we would give her another. We can tell she is done by the way she dramatically tosses it away.

This method allows her to go at her own pace, exploring the foods that she sees us eating, and swallow some of it (which we find out a day later). It's non stressful for her and for us. We're able to all eat at the table and eat our own food. Darren and I actually have conversations at the table!

ooh look! something orange. i wonder what it is...

oh, yum.

She has gagged a few times, but the gag reflex in babies is close to their mouths, so they very rarely choke. Of course, we keep an eye on her at all times.

To date, she has had apples, boiled carrot sticks, boiled green beans, bok choy, lettuce, avocado, and Japanese sweet potato. It can get pretty messy, but it's so much fun. Plus, I think Kody is starting to like her more since he found out she'll drop food.

Why won't you paparazzi let me eat in peace!

Now to answer the question on everyone's mind: Are you going to feed her rice cereal? The truth is, I don't know! I bought a box just in case, but I haven't felt the urge to give her any, especially now that I hear the whole sleeping longer on rice cereal is just a myth. As she eats more foods I'll update the blog.

My First Mother's Day and the Aquarium

This past weekend was Mother's Day. My first one. Sometimes I still can't believe I am a mom and responsible for this cute tiny thing. I feel like a kid myself usually!

My mom was in town. Not for Mother's Day; it was actually a coincidence! She was here to meet Kora. More on that later.

Daddy and Kora let me sleep in (actually they almost always do this for me), then D fixed mom and me a wonderful breakfast sandwich with fried egg, arugula and prociutto on ciabatta. Yum! Daddy and Kora made me a beautiful card with my favorite flower, the zinnia, and Kora even signed her name (I think it was her name...maybe she wrote I love you, it's hard to tell). For dinner he made lamb shanks over orzo. Man it was so good. He knows the way to my heart. I don't need gifts...just feed me!

So my mom was in town this weekend. Kora took to her right away and they played and laughed. On Monday we went to the Georgia Aquarium. As much as I rag on Atlanta, I do really like the aquarium and it's only 10 minutes away. D and I went ahead an bought annual passes so that we can take Kora over the next year as often as we want. Kora had a ball as you can see from the pictures.

One thing...everybody assumed Kora was a boy because she was wearing navy blue. They didn't even ask, they just automatically assumed! One woman even commented on how handsome she is. Really people? Does blue automatically mean boy?

Playing with Kora on the changing table

I haven't had time to post something new so here is yet another video from our Oz trip. This was taken in a public baby changing station in a downtown Melbourne building.

Kora on the changing table from Minh-An Pence on Vimeo.