We had a fine Christmas around here. We went to my dad's side of the family's big Christmas Eve shindig. Some of my cousins are starting to have kids too so there's little ones running around again. This makes all of my great-aunts very happy and they do much gushing over the babies. Zoë got a pile of stuff. Scott and I got a few things. My mom got her all the colors of the John Lennon pattern Carter's sleepers with the blankets to match. She got some money from her great-Grandpa Art that we used to buy her some board books. She also received: A soft, floppy bear; clothes, more plush toys, blocks spelling out her name, a winnie-the-pooh jack in the box and a A.A. Milne poetry collection. We got to see my aunt, uncle and cousins from Colorado and it's always good to catch up with them. Christmas day was spent down at my grandfather's house. It's always hard to be there when we're all together since my grandmother died. You open drawers in the bathroom and all her make-up is still there. Her room is all the same except her clothes are gone. She had a big collection of glass paperweights that is still on display and her needlepoint is framed and hanging up everywhere. It made me sad.

On a happier note. Zoë has started to suck her thumb. She prefers her left thumb but tends to switch throughout the day. She can roll from her back to her side with no trouble at all. She's been eating less during the day but that may be because her nose is still stuffed up. A few times a day I spray saline into her nostrils and use a bulb syringe to pull the goo out. You can imagine how well this goes over. She screams. But she breathes better afterwards so we continue doing it. I'm going to call the doctor's office tomorrow and ask if they think I should bring her in.

Here's the funny adventure we had to close out the year: Scott and I have been wanting to put in vertical blinds in our living room. The sliding glass door in there faces south and we get a lot of sun. It makes the room hot and after ten or so you can't sit in the recliner with the baby. So, you move over to the couch and as it gets later in the day the sun chases you down to the far end of the sofa where to huddle until four in the afternoon. We didn't measure the slider. Is it six or eight feet wide? We guessed six. We were wrong. Back to the store they go. We got the eight foot ones home. Then we had to find the level and a pencil. The only pencil we could find was a Cross mechanical pencil. Then we had to charge the drill. The instructions that came with the blinds weren't the clearest I've ever seen. We got the holes drilled and the drywall anchors installed to hang up the track. The brackets were to far apart. Okay, pull those out and reset them. We got the track up and I went to hang the slats. We didn't measure how long the slats were as compared to how tall the window is. The result? I had to cut three inches off the bottom of the slats so they would hang right. Of course I was in a weird mood and decided to document this whole procedure with our video camera. If you ever come over I'll show you. It's pretty funny.
posted by Amanda Snyder at 11:32 PM

The three of us went to a party at our friends John and Stephanie's on the 22nd. Lots of our friends were there and a fine time was had a by all.
I told my girlfriends, "Now that I stay home with the baby I sit home and think up witty things to say for when I do see people. That's why I have to have an online journal so that I don't forget all the witty things I think of to say when I don't see anybody but Scott or my mom or Kathye for a few days. As a matter of fact, if you read my journal online then you don't really have to talk to me because anything I'm going to say that's worth knowing about I'm going to put online. Now I've got this life imitates art imitates life imitates art thing going on....... What were we talking about?"

Off to celebrate Zoë's first Christmas! Watch this space for lots of pics!

Happy Christmas everyone!
posted by Amanda Snyder at 12:30 PM

I miss my grandmother.
posted by Amanda Snyder at 6:06 AM

Well, we've had a bad couple of days around here. Scott brought home a cold. The baby got the sniffles. I caught the cold. Whenever I get sick I break out in hives. I have a seven year history of giant hives. Giant. As in big as a dinner plate. I made an appointment to see the Physician's Assitant at our new doctors office today at 11:30. At 12:00 I asked if they needed any information from me or my insurance card or anything. At 12:30 they took my co-pay. About this same time the P.A's son was dropped of by his dad and the reception staff had to look after him. I went back to an exam room at 1 o'clock. I said "Look, I have giant hives and anti-histimanes don't work for me. I need steroids." She said "You can't nurse while you take this." I said, "I know that. I'm in quite a lot of pain and my arms are so swollen I can't pick the baby up. We've talked about this." So, Zoë has to have formula for today and tomorrow. Just from a few feedings am I ever more appreciative of our success at breast feeding! She's doing fine taking a bottle although she's not thrilled to take it from me and has to be really hungry. Sigh.....
posted by Amanda Snyder at 4:33 PM

Zoë and I went to my godmother's Christmas Tea today. I heard Scott say to the baby before we left "Now Zoë there are going to be lots of ladies there today who are going to want to put their big magenta lips on your face. But don't worry. They mean you no harm. It's just their form of greeting." We got to see lots of women that I hadn't seen in years and Zoë was a big hit. I put her in her purple velvet Christmas dress for the first 45 minutes or so and then changed her into something more comfortable for the other hour and a half we were there.

I have a cold, Zoë is congested and Scott is getting over his sinus blockage. We are drowing in used tissues.
posted by Amanda Snyder at 9:05 PM

Wow, Zoë's first Christmas is just about a week away! How exciting! We've been getting packages in the mail and through my parents. Today two big boxes came from Scott parents. Two little gifts for Scott and I and the rest for Zoë. Hee hee!

Yesterday Scott and I put an outfit on Zoë that was passed on to us from our good friends the Garcias. Their daughter Hailey is five months older than Zoë so quite a bit of clothing comes our way. Many thanks Alisa and Luis! Anyway, we put this outfit on her with a little tam o'shanter and she looked so adorable we went to the mall to show her off. We had nothing to do there. We just wanted to share our adorable baby with the world. Many grandmas wave and say hi. It's amazing how perfect strangers will just walk up and talk to you about the baby.

I was in Wal-Mart with Zoë a few nights ago. I was unloading the cart onto the conveyer belt and when I turned around this little girl of about 6 was touching Zoë's face and saying "Hi baby. Hi baby." Part of me wanted to snatch her hands away but then I thought "well, damage is done." and just moved the cart forward.

We had friends over to decorate our tree on the 15th and had a grand time! We have a whole bunch of ornaments and each one has a separate memory. These are the ones we bought our first holiday in Illinois. Scott got these when he lived in Korea. My mother-in-law sent these. My mom gave us this one. Susan sent us this Tigger. John and Stephanie gave us this snowball. Beckett and Paul gave us the one shaped like a pickle. I won this wooden sleigh in a drawing our apartment rental office had when we lived in Upland.

I had an hour of panic when I opened the box our fake tree is in and discovered we had no tree stand. Uhhhhhh......
I went to Wal-Mart. They were sold out. I went to Lowes. They were sold out. I went to Sav-On drug store. They had several and I got one there. I also had purchased a video of a fire in a fireplace. Not surprisingly, this was the hit of the party. Some parts of the fire we enjoyed so much we rewound and watched them again! Ha ha!
posted by Amanda Snyder at 9:29 PM

As I have said in the past. Zoë is a spitting up kinda baby. Two days ago I was all ready to go out when the baby threw up on my jeans. I had this conversation with myself:

I need to change. Well, maybe not. I mean, it IS just breast milk and it doesn't smell THAT bad. Besides, I have a baby with me. People would expect me to reek of baby spew. Then again, I've been wearing these pants for a couple days now. Did she spit up on these before? I don't remember. What's clean? Nothing. What smells the least? Okay, this'll work. Where's a blouse? This one? No, that one itches. THIS one.

45 minutes later I actually left the house.

My mom and I get into these weird conversations now that I have a child of my own. We had this exchange the same day as the above conversation I had with myself:

Mom to the baby: Let's look at these socks and what they're doing to your legs. Now, look. Your little ankles are corrugated and that's not good. Let's take these nasty things off. Amanda, these socks are too tight on her little legs.

Me: It's too cold to go without socks. If she didn't have any socks on you'd yell at me for it being too cold and needing socks. I can't win for losing here.

Mom: But look, her ankles are wrinkled. We'll stretch these out won't we Zoë?

Me: Okay.

On a different note. I had my first beverage mishap in my new car. There's a drive through Starbucks on the way to my friend Kathye's house. I drove through today and got my decaf mocha Frapuccino. I put in the drink holder. I made a left onto the 60 freeway. My drink fell out onto it's top. The straw punched through the bottom of the cup. I then had a cup with a hole in the top and the bottom. I managed to get the full cup into my litter bag, When I pulled off to go to Kathye's I pulled into a gas station and got my lidded plastic bottle out and turned the Frapuccino cup into it. With the hole in the bottom it was kind of like a Frapuccino dispenser, oozing out into the big plasic glass. Luckily only a couple tablespoons actually spilled but now my car smells like a giant mocha. Great, like my Starbucks habit isn't bad enough.
posted by Amanda Snyder at 11:33 PM

Zoë is a very vocal baby. She's always making noise, talking baby talk, squealing. It seems to me that she's doing this running commentary. Stream of consciousness babytalk. A mini James Joyce if you will.

Last night Zoë conked out about 7:30 while I was holding her in the recliner. Scott and I went upstairs to go to bed at about 11:00. I changed her diaper for the night and she screamed about that. We got into bed and suddenly she was wide awake and squwaking at the ceiling fan. Not hungry or anything. Just making these high pitched squeals of glee. You know when you smile and then inhale over your vocal chords? That high G sound? That's what Zoë sounded like last night.

She waves her arms and kicks her legs and chews on her fist and blows spit bubbles. She like to go out but doesn't like being put into her car seat. She usually falls asleep in the car but seems to resent being strapped in. She cried when you first put her in, then she'll babble for a little bit and then start yawning. Now, if someone is in the backseat with her she'll talk to them and not cry. Maybe she get lonely back there with no one to talk to . Hmmmm.

posted by Amanda Snyder at 7:57 AM

Okay, this is too funny to not share. The City of Claremont is offering a class in Understanding British Humor. I thought "Oh how funny. I'll go take this one time class and see what they have to say about Monty Python." Nope, this is a TEN WEEK course. Sheesh. How hard is it to get Benny Hill and Mr. Bean? Besides, it would interfere with my Absolutly Fabulous watching schedule. hee hee!

Zoe went to the doctor on the 28th of November and is 24 inches long and weighs just under 15 pounds. Whoo. She also got four, count 'em, four shots. She cried. I cried. I'm not super impressed with this pediatrician so I'm going to give it one more shot to see if they were just haveing an off day. I'm fully prepared to switch docs if I still feel uncomfortable.

Okay, she's giving her daddy a bad time because he has no breasts I'd better go.
posted by Amanda Snyder at 9:19 AM

Zoe and I have taken to going to Starbucks in downtown Claremont a couple times a week. We pop in whenever we're going to be out running errands so I can get an iced mocha for the road. This is kind of odd for me. Scott and I both grew up in the area. When I was in high school I spend a lot of time in Claremont. The Village, as downtown is known, hasn't changed much since I was small. It's a university town with lots of stuff for students. Coffee, food, music etc. Since I used to hang out in the Village in my late teens and when Scott and I were first married it feels strange to me to take my child there. Like I'm going to run into my old boyfriend Wally or see Kristi working at Shrimps or see the same guys working the counter at Rhino records, although I doubt any of them would tell me to come to their gigs anymore.

Zoe is pretty popular with the older coffee crowd and we're always being talked to by men and women alike. How old is she? Isn't she pretty? Is she well behaved? The baristas ususally say "I made sure it's decaf!" when I pick up my mocha.

We were there earlier this week in the afternoon and I had this emotionally weird experience. I'm standing in line. There's a girl standing in line in front of me. Very well dressed in a casual way. Dark flared jeans, black cowl neck sweater, platform boots and a carfully matched bag. She had red hair that was well done and lots of silver jewelry. I thought "Wow, she looks like me when I was seventeen." as I'm standing there holding my baby. She ordered her latte and when the barista asked her name (they do this so you know for sure a drink is yours) her name was Amanda. I almost ran out of the cafe it freaked me out so.

Wow.....

posted by Amanda Snyder at 12:54 PM

Welp, we bought a new car. We had to because the back window of the Rocky broke out. Huh? You say. Here's the story.

We have this little mini Jeep-like car called a Daihatsu Rocky. We bought it in Seattle when we first moved there as Scott couldn't ride his motorcycle in the rain. We would all fit into it and the stroller would go into the small back cargo area. The stroller went in one way and one way only. When you popped it in you had to push the door shut real hard to keep the stroller in place and still be able to latch the door. It was sort of like closing the door on an overly full closet. We came out of the BC Cafe in Claremont and the stroller wasn't in the correct way. I pushed real hard and SMASH! The back window broke out.

The restaurant was close enough to our house that I could walk home with the baby. We called mobile glass repair to discover that the window is a dealer item. Uh, Daihatsu hasn't sold cars in the US since 1992. Replacement glass not available. Our choices are: buy a soft top and continue to use the Rocky, get a piece of glass custom cut and continue to use the Rocky, buy a new car. We bought a new car.

I'd done some research and I already knew I wanted to look at Honda CRVs and Toyota Rav4s. We headed to the Honda dealer a mile from our house. This was a Monday so we'd missed the weekend but that's fine with me. It was much quieter and everyone was more laid back. Not worried about making weekend quota or anything like that. They had one CRV in the model I was interested in. The one with ABS brakes but not leather seats. Leather seats bug me. They get hot and then you stick to them. This forces you to get seat covers so what was the point of getting leather in the first place? I digress as usual.

I drove it around the block, made a couple illegal full circles in the middle of streets and made sure the stroller would fit. We went in to find out about payments.

The guy we were dealing with has been salesman of the month for five months this year. He said he was Persian. I knew he meant Middle Eastern but didn't pry. The guy who did our final financing paperwork told us the following story about Jimmy: He's from Afghanistan. He was fighting against the Soviets when he was captured by the Taliban and forced to fight the Afghans. He and another guy were going to escape one night and Jimmy was saying "Let's go tomorrow let's go tomorrow" and this other man kept saying "we need to go NOW" They fled up the hill next to the camp they were in and when they were at the top the camp was bombed.

Makes my petty problems look, well, petty.

Anyway, the payments were more than we were expecting but we can still afford it and I couldn't continue to wrestle the baby in and out of the Saturn. Besides, we now didn't have a car that all of us could fit in. You see, in order to get the baby seat in the back seat of the Saturn I had to move the passenger seat almost all the way up. This left almost 6 full inches of space to put your legs. Also, how was Scott supposed to drive to work in Santa Monica with no window? This way, he could drive the Saturn and not have to deal with a clutch on the commute.

An hour later I drove the CRV off the lot.

Scott said "Wow, you bought that car like you were a man."

I love my new car. It's electric blue. I found an antenna ball shaped like a blue flower with a pink center. It's got power windows and locks and a million little cubby holes to hold things like change and packs of gum. It has cup holders for my venti decaf iced mochas. Six in fact. Underneath the cargo space in back there's another space where the spare would usually go. This space is just more storage as the spare is on the back tailgate. However, they've put a fold up picnic table over said storage space. Hee hee! I can see it now. Friends moaning "Oh if we only had a table!" and I can say "But wait! I DO have a table!" and save the day.

posted by Amanda Snyder at 6:19 AM