TGIF

Fridays don't mean a whole lot to Radha right now since she doesn't work...unless you count "working" herself into a fuss.  Radha's weekend is off to a fresh start as we gave her another overdue bath last night.

She almost seemed to like it at first, a big improvement over her last bathing experience.  But, eventually when her hair had to get washed, she broke down and cried quite a bit.  The rewards are worth it though and she forgave us after a while.

Radha is still a bit modest for bath pictures, so in lieu of that we offer these other photos. Happy Friday!

Grandpa Cody's Visit

We said goodbye to Grandpa Cody this morning after a nice long visit.  Grandpa Cody drove all the way from Illinois out to visit us because he hates flying and loves road trips in his Prius.

We had a relaxing visit mostly hanging around the house, but we managed a walk on the Eastbank Esplanade, a walk up to Alberta Park and around the neighborhood, and watched the documentary King Corn (highly recommended!).

On my dad's last night in town Grandma Sood was nice enough to come over to keep him company and help babysit, giving Ro and I our first baby-free dinner outing (thanks Grandma Sood!)

Let's Get Physical

Radha has shown some pretty impressive moves the past two weeks.  

She has gained quite a bit of head control, both starting to lift her head up on her own (less "floppy head syndrome") and moving her head nearly 180 degrees from left to right.  She's also stretching out her legs straight more often and reaching her arms out for objects more too.  She likes to try to grab the rings in her bouncy chair (with a little help from her mom sometimes).  

Grandpa Cody, Terri's dad, visited this past week and helped with Radha's "exercises."  It gave tummy time coaches a break and allowed Grandpa Cody to spend time with his granddaughter. 

cupcakes & community

Although Radha isn't walking or crawling yet, we can already picture her playing on the cool new playground at our local park.

Sunday we walked just a few blocks over to the Sabin HydroPark and Community Gardens re-opening event.  The City has spent the past year or so revamping the park, which has 

mostly been known for its two giant water towers and a hangout for teenagers at night.  The Portland Water Bureau worked together with the Parks & Recreation Department, as well as our neighborhood association (Sabin) and committed neighbors to clean up the park and really make it attractive and usable again.  The park now has a cool new play structure, new swings, new picnic benches, fresh mulch, more accessible, and more and improved community garden plots.

One 

of the City 

commissioners was there to give kudos to City employees and kick off the re-opening.  But, let's

be honest.  We also went because of the promise of a "community cupcake potluck."  

Who doesn't 

like cupcakes?  Granted, having a barely month-old-baby doesn't give us much time to bake so we brought some tasty but store bought mini-

cupcakes.  They weren't as pretty as some of the big homemade ones that other neighbors brought, but oh well, they were still tasty! 

Radha didn't get to enjoy the cupcakes but she did enjoy some shade with her dad on the very hot 95+ degree day.  

 

Family Ties

Radha had another milestone family visit last week, as my sister from Iowa flew out to stay with us for a couple days.

Apparently Danelle brought the Midwest heat with her, as us Portlanders experienced a very odd May warm spell of temps in the mid-90s during her visit.  Before the heat was unbearable though, Danelle was a huge help to us around the house.  She volunteered to mow the front and back yard and pulled up an incredible amount of weeds from the back (6+ yard debris 

bags full now going out tomorrow!).  Inside the house she had a blast getting to know her niece, learning about the joys of "tummy time", playing with Radha in her bouncer chair, and also experiencing the not-as-fun things like dirty diapers and long crying spells while giving me some down time.

Ro, Danelle, and I also experienced another milestone...our first dinner

 

outing with Radha!  The timing worked out one night to head down the street to the nearest sushi restaurant and Radha slept the whole way through dinner.   I managed to make dinner another 

night (trying to get back into normal cooking routine) and another night we ventured out to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Wong's King.  Radha was less excited about that outing, but we managed to enjoy most of our dinner before Radha and I excused ourselves to the lobby while she wailed up a storm.  Wong's is a big place and very family-friendly luckily, but we still felt a little self-conscious as the volume of her crying intensified ("People are staring at us!" "Should we leave or wait it out?")  I'm sure all parents get used to this eventually, but we're still figuring these things out.  

Friday I took Danelle to the airport, which was the first solo trip with Radha and I in my car.  It was a smooth, relatively quick outing, but sad as none of us wanted to say goodbye to Aunt Danelle.  :(  We look forward to visiting her in Iowa in the near future, going on boat rides on the Mississippi River, and showing Radha some of her Midwest roots.  Until then, Radha has many places and things to experience in Oregon and some more growing up to do.  :)

Baby as accessory

Generally, I don't want to fall in the trap of making my child a political/lifestyle accessory, but sometimes it's too hard to resist.  She just looks so cute in this outfit (thanks, Geeta bhua).   Of course, dressing her like this probably means that her teenage rebellion will be joining the Young Republicans!! We would like to go to the Obama rally today, but Radha is still a little too small to be spending too much time in the hot sun away from home.  Instead, we are going to the opening of a new playground in the neighborhood.  The city converted what was basically a water tower for the neighborhood into a really nice playground/community garden.  I hope Radha will be getting plenty of time at the playground down the road.

First Mother's Day

Today Ro goes back to work after three weeks off.  None of us are very excited about this, but it was inevitable.  Mookie expressed her feelings on the subject by throwing up on the rug in our bedroom, in not one spot, but two.  Just for good measure.

I'm already breaking new records on my quickest shower as we juggle watching Radha while getting back into our normal weekday routines.  As she gets older and we get more confident with knowing her cries, movements, and expressions I know this will get easier, but in the meantime it's a delicate juggling act.

Yesterday was Mother's Day, the first parental celebration in our household.  I celebrated by not leaving the house, watching a Paula Deen (of Food Network) DVD about barbecue, enjoying a visit with Babaji and Grandma Sood, reading the Sunday paper (over the course of the day), and take-out of fish and chips.  Several family members and friends called to wish me a Happy (first) Mother's Day and Radha (with help from her dad) gave me a very cute card and surprise photo of her and I sleeping on the couch together.  I love napping with her.

How Time Flies

The past two and a half weeks have been a blur.  This isn't because of the pain medication I was taking, but because our sense of time is completely off.

There is no longer wake-up, shower, eat breakfast, go to work, lunch, more work, go home, dinner, TV/read/computer/talk/occasional exercise, and go to bed.  Repeat.   Right now life resolves around the new little (but quickly growing!) being in our household.  Radha doesn't know how to tell time yet and doesn't know how much her mom has lived the past 33 years by a schedule of some sort.  There isn't a schedule anymore...and this isn't entirely a bad thing either. But being someone who likes her day neatly scheduled, organized, filed, cleaned...becoming a parent is gradually teaching me to let go of some of these things, learn to be more flexible, not care about the bits of cat food under the counter or the many other random, non-important things that I may have fretted about pre-baby.  Every day I feel like Radha learns more about the world as do we.

A few days ago Radha had her two week check-up at the pediatrician.  

I'm happy to report that she is doing wonderfully and weighed in at 8 lbs 3 oz.  Unless something else

comes up 

before then (cross our fingers), she won't need to go back until she's two months.  Luckily we really like our pediatrician a lot and although Radha doesn't like getting put into her car seat, she loves riding in the car and looking at the trees and surroundings on the ride (see pic

ture).  I can't wait until we are feeling more comfortable to take her out and about to fun outings other than the doctor!

Next week Radha's Aunt Danelle will be visiting.  This will be her first visit from the Wiley side of the family.  They can't wait to meet each other and I can't wait until Radha gets older so we can take her out on Aunt Danelle's boat on the Mississippi and enjoy some Midwest summer days like her mom grew up with.  After all, Radha is a native Oregonian/Portlander...she'll need to be exposed to other climates that have all four seasons eventually!

One last bit...Radha is now "official" and legal.  We received her county birth certificate and social security card in the mail this week.  She's the real deal.

Great Weekend!

Getting bigger every day!  Looks like she's ready to smile!

Tummy time with Grandma.

In the sling.

We have been really enjoying ourselves since the last post!  Radha is eating and sleeping like a champ, T is healing more every day, and we are starting to re-expand our little world and get back to a more permanent mode of operation.  After one failed attempt, we managed to get Radha in a sling and take her out for a walk to enjoy the amazing weather we've had lately.  We may be ready in the next little while to take her to a restaurant, or to actually drive to a destination other than the doctor's office!  We've also give her tummy time a bit, which she seems to be enjoying.

 

 

 

Last weekend, Radha got to spend lots of time with her aunts on Ro's side (we call them bhuas), and her grandparents (who we call Babaji and Grandma).  She loved all the attention, and of course stopped fussing the second they arrived, only to start again as soon as they left!!