Lola the Destroyer

Lola's little hands operate like the claw. Anything within fourteen inches of her baby body is eligible to be knocked to the ground and, depending on her mood, possibly vomited upon.

A few days ago, as I walked down the hallway in our house with Lola seated on the side of my hip, I heard a thud. I looked over at her and she was proudly smiling at her accomplishment: a framed photo ripped off the wall and thrown to the ground.

Lola 1, Mommy 0.

Later, Josh told me about his trip to the video store. There, the claw managed to knock over a shelf of DVDs. As he bent down to pick them up, six more toppled onto his head.

Lola 2, Daddy 0.

This new feat should come as no surprise to us. Lately, we've marveled over her ability to lean back Matrix style while being held in our arms. She would stretch out one arm and we would cheer her on, amazed at how skillfully she balanced herself. She would smile and reach out again. Blindly, we praised her, while it was unbeknown to us that she was mastering the art of destruction.

It soon became clear that we needed a strategy to counter the claw. Luckily, while Josh and I are first-timers at this parenting game, others before us figured some of this out.



For example, those seats in the grocery store carts? They aren't for your convenience and that strap isn't for the baby's safety. THEY ARE MEANT TO CONTAIN THE CLAW. They know how these innocent-looking babes work. One minute they are babbling away, the next minute they destroy. Trust me, I know.

The Sippy Cup

Since we plan on giving Lola some solid foods in a few weeks, we decided to start teaching her how to drink water from a sippy cup.

We thought it would be best if we began this new adventure outside.



First, Josh helped her figure out how to hold onto the handles.



Then she reclined, because hey, it's sort of like a neon green and pink bottle. (As a side note, isn't it amazing that babies can drink while lying down? When do we lose this ability? Is it around the same time we can no longer stick our toes in our mouths?)



When Josh sat her up to drink from it "like a big girl," she had no interest in holding on to it herself.

As you can see, we were sucessful in emptying half of the cup's contents onto her shirt.

Then, I got to try. This time, I'm the one holding the cup while she focuses on mastering the drinking skill.

Note, now one side of her shirt is completely soaked.

But we'll keep working on it. Eventually, she will have to learn how to drink something other than breastmilk.

Baby Gear

When I was pregnant, I remember a friend bemoaning to me the ridiculous cost of baby gear. "Everything costs around $100," she said. "The swing. The playpen. The highchair. The exersaucer." I remember standing there, attempting to remember the word "exersaucer" since it was foreign to my pre-baby vocab, while also creating a list of items to add to my registry. If you have no idea what an exersaucer is, don't feel bad, I had to look it up too.

Now, fast forward to today. At this very moment, there is a swing, a jumperoo, a bouncer, a stroller, a carseat, and a playmat sitting in my living room. Don't worry, they aren't collecting dust. They are used, each one of them, just about every day. Case in point, here is Lola in the jumperoo:

(Blurry, of course, since she is so excited to not be lying on her back that she can't contain her urge to jump).

Sometimes I find myself laughing at our set-up, as we rotate Lola through the baby gear, moving her from one thing to the next as soon as she starts to express boredom (i.e. loud shrieking, somewhat comparable to a large tropical bird).

Don't worry, we don't use these items as babysitters, although they are convenient for times when one of can't hold her because well, we just can't (like when you're alone with her and you really have to pee, but you can't hold her and pee at the same time. Well, you probably could hold her and pee at the same time, but you don't want to take the risk of her very first childhood memory to be one where her mother is awkwardly holding her while peeing on the toilet). OK, I'm sure you get the idea.

But, my point is, there is SO much baby gear out there. And, I feel like we own most of it. Which is fine, but a part of me cringes when I think about how little we'll actually use all of it. Technically, all of the items described above will be moved to our garage in a matter of months. We will be lucky if we'll still use any of it by the time Lola turns one.

This is why I forgoed the purchase of a bumbo. A what? Yes, that is what it's called. A bumbo. Don't make the same mistake as me and call it a "bimbo." Yes, I really did call it a bimbo when I rang up Babies R Us to see if they had any in stock. I'm sure that made for a great story in the breakroom.

Once I saw how cute these little bumbo seats were, I totally wanted to splurge and buy one. I even looked at used ones on Craigslist. To be honest, had I thought about this bumbo thing earlier, I know I definitely would have purchased it. They are just so stinkin' cute. But, knowing Lola would probably only use the thing for a month or two, I mentally debated for about two weeks whether or not to buy one. Part of me wondered if she would be able to learn to sit on her own at the same pace as a baby who owned a bumbo. I certainly did not want Lola falling behind developmentally at the mere age of 3 and a half months.

But then I remembered that these bumbo things didn't exist when I was a baby and dammit, I'm a lawyer, so clearly, a bumbo isn't necessary in order to score a decent SAT score. That, and I decided we didn't have room for any more baby gear. I figured Lola would have to survive babyhood sans bumbo. Still neurotic that she would fall behind the sitting curve, I crafted a makeshift bumbo for her:

Honestly, I doubt she knows the difference. The next step is to teach her to match socks. :)

The Sling

Buying a sling has been on my To Do list for quite some time. I envisioned that with a sling, I could snuggle Lola in all hippy-like and multi-task my heart away. It took all that was in me to NOT purchase one while I was pregnant. I was told by multiple baby-wearing mamas that a sling purchase should be a post-birth purchase as some babies are picky about what type of sling they like. So, I held off - until yesterday.

Josh learned about a children's consignment store in our neighborhood and I couldn't resist checking out. I stopped by, just to window shop, but ended up purchasing a maya wrap ring sling.



Initially, we were a little nervous about putting Lola in it. The fact that the sling is only consists of fabric and a metal ring and she is an itty bitty vulnerable baby didn't seem like the greatest combination. So, while she was sleeping, we tested it out using Gizmo, our 11 pound chihuahua/dauschund.

















The next day, while Josh was at work, I put Lola in. I wasn't quite able to multi-task like I wanted to, but that had more to do with the fact that L was being so cute I sat around taking photos of her instead. :)