Ringworm

Little Zoe has been waging war against one of the scourges of babyhood-ringworm.

While sounding rather ominous, ringworm is a fungal infection, easily caught and very difficult to get rid of. Due to her constant hand sucking and scratching with sharp little fingernails, Zoe has created an ideal environment for ringworm, a nice wet warm section of sensitive cheek. We did manage to successfully treat one side, only to have the ringworm migrate over to the other cheek. This has been very frustrating for her parents, (Zoe herself shows little distress in the matter). We have been applying antifungal cream to her face religiously at night and when possible in the morning during naptime (as naptime often does not actually exist we are a bit more sporadic). To improve the time her medicine actually stays on her face before being rubbed off and most likely eaten, we resorted to our old standby- the ever-versatile sock treatment. Zoe becomes quite perplexed when her hands are placed in socks and her fingers are thus unaccessible for sucking. Score Parents 1 Ringworm 0.

Zoe-Rolly polly

Zoe has been practicing and practicing and has managed to perfect the back to tummy 180. After much frustration and numerous false starts (179 degree roll, awkwardly pinned arms requiring immediate parental intervention, bizarre pretzel twists with her upper body stuck to the ground and her little legs flailing) Zoe has become a master at the frontside flip. She has even started to enjoy tummy time and now grins proudly at us, at least for a little while until she realizes that she can't actually reverse her 180 and she is stuck on her stomach.

Today, I am proud to announce, Zoe has completed her first 360! She rolls adeptly onto her tummy and then starts to rock back and forth until she manages to gather enough momentum to propel herself over once again onto her back. Her success rate is not too high, but she did perform this feat TWICE today.

Here is a series of pictures on the 180, the 360 feat has not yet been captured on film.

Zoe update

I have been very remiss about updating my blog. However, with the recent rash of serious health problems and potentially even DEATH due to overblogging, I think I can be excused!

A whirlwind update-
1) Zoe happily drinks from her bottle. At first it was only the Magical Adiri Bottles with their uncanny resemblance to a silicon breast filled with actual breast milk, but now she will drink from any bottle and copious amounts any type of formula. I am pleased to report that Zoe is pursuing her goal of becoming the fattest baby in the world, able to crush the other babies in her pursuit of more milk.
2) Max survived a month off of work taking care of Zozo. He was almost as sad as I was to have to return to work and leave Zoe in the care of my mom, dad, and stepmom.
3) Zoe has started daycare and after 3 weeks of "transition" has adjusted well. She does cry when she sees other babies getting bottles if she is not being fed at the same time, but otherwise she is doing very well.
4) Zoe has learned to turn over. This is big news for us. Last week Zoe flipped over from her back onto her tummy. Max had put her down in her crib with the mobile on in a last ditch effort to finish making dinner. I heard a higher pitched and more angry yowl than usual and saw the poor little imp wedged up against the wooden slats of her crib on her tummy! She has since become very adept at flipping from her back onto her tummy, but unfortunately no progress flipping back. And since Zoe hates being on her tummy this causes a fair amount of angry baby crying, followed by parental intervention (flipping her over onto her back), quickly followed by a Zoe flip onto her tummy, and more baby consternation. The cause and effect idea has not quite sunk in yet I guess (or maybe it has-flip over, cry, parent flips baby back, well she has us trained!).
5) Zoe eats "solids" aka cereals and mushed up bananas. Feeding a baby is a messy process involving both feeder and feedee becoming coated in sticky baby food and best done right before bathtime.

Back to Work

I have been very remiss about posting because I started back to work a couple of weeks ago. I had envisioned my husband arriving at my work with a screaming baby, the two of them outside my window (unfortunately I don't actually have an office window, but my fantasies have a little poetic license as well)crying for me to come out. I was quite prepared to quit my job and stay home with the imp. The main reason for this fear was Zoe's stubborn refusal to take a bottle. Of course all the advice I received involved "when she's hungry enough she will take it." This I countered with a article I read in the NY Times about an illegal immigrant mother who was separated from her breast feeding baby. The baby did not eat for 3 DAYS and only started taking the bottle after the woman's sister fed her expressed milk from her mother. There was no way I was going to let Zozo go three days without eating. I also figured the pressure of a crying hungry baby on my husband would be enough to render him a sobbing shell of his former self. But I was wrong....

Day 1 I woke up at 5:30 fed the imp and came to work. Every 15 minutes I feverishly checked my phone, waiting for the call. At around 9am I received an e-mail telling me Zozo had taken her bottle (2oz., with only minimal Daddy dancing, handwaving, and singing). This routine progressed throughout the day. Max had risen to the occasion beautifully. My fears of this


were replaced by the reality of a happy well fed baby and a husband and father bonding with his impishly cute daughter.

Eureka!

Eureka! Sand Dunes that is. On the outskirts of Death Valley are 650+ft. sand dunes. We took a morning trip up there after stuffing Zoe into her snuggle suit, digging out the purple safari style sun hat, and locating the baby sunglasses. As Zoe has a tiny little nose with no real bridge, the baby sunglasses would work their way down her face or rotate by themselves, offering rather poor protection from the sun of Death Valley.


Max engineered a makeshift tent to protect Zoe from the incoming rays. Strangely, she did not seem to appreciate his efforts and was quite angry during our dune jumping. Another few years before she can jump along with us, I think she felt rather left out so our trip to the dunes was a quick up and down. Next time we will try for the highest point.







Our next excursion was to the hotsprings around Bishop. We had been planning on visiting the hot springs for a number of years, so to make it all the more relaxing we ended up waiting until we had a baby to actual locate them. There are consequences to procrastination.... We first tried the Keough Hot Springs since it is a true "facility" with multiple pools. I think I was lulled by our trip to Japan and the Japanese version of hotsprings - beautiful rustic pools of varying temperature in harmony with the natural surroundings. The Keough version was a tepid swimming pool with lane markers, children in water wings, and a few old women standing in the shallow end waiting for the water aerobics to start. A secondary pool was slightly warmer but only 6 inches deep. We opted out of paying $8 each and went in search of something better. After deciding against a nearby spring due to the presence of a suspicious looking van and howling dog, we stumbled on this -







An isolated spring in a snowy field, a properly rustic setting, and a sweeping view of the mountains. After changing another sullied outfit of Zoe's, we started our hike to the spring. Placing Zoe in her bouncy seat on the snow and bundling her up after a quick snack (I can now add a hot spring to the "places I have nursed" list) we took turns amusing the imp and luxuriating in the hot water. The water was too hot for the imp, but perfect for us. Poor Zoe was left out once again and used her baby wiles (angry screaming) to convince us to leave. A brief, but lovely dip in the hot springs around Bishop.

Zoe after a hard day in the snuggle suit.

Sleepover with Zoe

Zoe got to share the bed with her parents. She took to this quite easily and while she can't actually roll over, she did somehow manage to wiggle her way further and further onto the bed. We both were so concerned about squishing her that in order to maintain a foot buffer zone we were relegated to about a quarter of the king sized bed. By the morning, we were pushed over to one side, I was crammed against Max while he was perched rather precariously at the edge of the bed. Cozy, but not terribly comfortable.

We got off to a slow start in the morning, no one having slept particularly well with the possible exception of the imp (although she did get up for a few middle of the night and early morning feedings and diaper changes, no sleeping through the night for her on this trip!). The vicious swings in temperature during the night with the accompanying cacophony of the heating unit did not help matters any. Max attempted a little "bricolage" by stuffing tissues in the gap between the heater and the outside wall. While not terribly effective it did lend a somewhat festive look to the heater with the white puffs of tissue jutting out rather artistically.

After another feeding and changing we were off to the petroglyphs, indian rock art that dots the volcanic tuff around Bishop. We bundled the little one up in her teddy bear snuggle suit (which is more like a stuffed sausage suit since she is so big now!) and were off. Max snapped some photos of Zoe and turned to be and declared "Zoe is the Chosen One." As her mother I already knew this.



We even managed to get a little climbing in during the afternoon. Slogging a 16lb. baby up a steep rocky trail can be a challenge but we weathered it well. Zoe expanded her irresistibility to the animal kingdom as the crag dogs sniffed at her and followed us, abandoning their masters. Upon turning his back for a "few seconds" Max allowed a black and white husky to get a few licks in.



Post climbing, the tired family is ready to head back to the luxury of the Vagabond Inn.

Zoe goes to Bishop

As a last hurrah before returning to work, we took a road trip to Bishop for some climbing and sightseeing. We headed out Monday morning after a rocky start of desperate packing/repacking of the adventure Subi. As always, we learned a few important lessons, namely 1) packing tape does not stick to the crash pad and is thus insufficient to make the various straps adhere to the each other and prevent flopping 2) packing tape sticks very well to the roof of the adventure Subi and can be difficult to remove 3) manual shaking of the same toy in Zoe's face for 8 hours will amuse her 4) manual shaking of the same toy in Zoe's face for 8 hours will cause carpal tunnel syndrome and an irrational hatred of yellow bird on the part of the shaker (me). Max was great and did all the driving, only letting his impatience get the best of him towards the last leg before Bishop. The constant stream of slow SUV's had taken their toll and so he decided to flash his brights at an SUV sitting in the passing lane, pass "agressively" on the right hand side, and then move "agressively" into the left hand lane in front of the offending SUV. As it was dark, he didn't bother to do his usual hand gestures, and as it was cold he did not roll down the window to offer any pithy words to the SUV driver. After speeding away Max noticed flashing lights in the rear view. Yes, the offending SUV was an unmarked police car. Very bad for us, so I knew that the big guns were necessary (that being figurative as a gun battle and ensuing blood bath would have ruined our trip). I casually pulled the bonnet of Zoe's car seat back to reveal the little imp and started shaking yellow bird to keep Zozo happy and extra cute. The police officer was surprisingly nice, only cautioning Max. (Max is still flabbergasted that the police officer didn't give us a ticket, but I know it's the Power of Zoe and her cheeks of Irresistible Cuteness.)

After the run in with the police Max strictly adhered to the speed limit the rest of the way, all the while glancing suspiciously at all American SUV's as potential unmarked police cars. We finally arrived in Bishop and after checking into the Vagabond Motel, went to dinner at Las Palmas, a Mexican restaurant in town. Zoe became "La Preciosa" to our waitress and reveled in the attention of staff and customers. While she may be very difficult about taking her own bottle, she was mesmerized by my Corona.

Zoe, covetously eying my beer.

No beer for babies, what do you think this is, France?