Evening Parade

Lydia Violet attends the Evening Parade at the Marine Barracks at 8th & I streets in Washington, D.C.

1st Metro Ride (outside the womb)

Today L°VE took her first ante-womb ride. Of course she rode the Metro with me all the time to work while I was pregnant. As you can see, today she was just as oblivious as she would have been then.

Girlie Girl

Thanks to Dima's friend Mark and his wife Dominique, Lydia Violet has come in to a load of new clothes. Here she's wearing her new pink headband. Thanks Mark and Dominique!

Learning Self Reliance

Lydia takes a crack at feeding herself. Not really. But it looks funny.

Back from Down the Shore

I have no idea if that's the way I'm supposed to say it... "Down the Shore" I know but I'm not sure when it's "Down the Shore," just "the Shore" or when you're supposed to say "the Jersey Shore." None the less we are back and we had an excellent time chillin' out with the White side of the family.

Lydia had many firsts over the weekend. First beach (Shore) experience, first Safari, first roadtrip, etc. All in all it was nice to get away. Now I'm catching up on my Internet withdrawl when I should be in bed. In fact that's where I'm headed. Right now. Later.

She missed it again!

Then the giraffe walked right by our car. Within inches! See the two legs through the window? Lydia Violet missed that too.

Up close and personal

A giraffe checks out the visitors and their cars.

Baby's 1st Safari

Lydia sleeps through her first safari adventure at Six Flags in NJ. See the elephant in the background?

Dinner at Klein's

Just got home from dinner: Jen, Uncle Steve, L°VE & Dima.

Chillin' at the Shore

L°VE taking a siesta Sunday afternoon at the beach in New Jersey. Agh the good life.

Wii Tournie

Cousin Mark & Dima race cows on the Wii while Jen feeds Lydia Violet with one hand & blogs with the other.

Sweet Girl

Baby's First Beach

Papa & Lydia Violet soak up some sun. No worries. Other than this she under the umbrella with SPF 50 on.

Forgotten Update

A pic of Lydia Violet getting burped after a feeding. She's giving her best effort in that area lately. She had her 1 mo. Dr. Appt. on Wed. & she's still gaining. 9 lbs. 12 ozs. And 22 inches. Wow! That means she's grown 2 inches in 6 weeks! The Dr. Said she's in the 70th percentile for height & the 50th for weight. You go girl!

Roadside Emergency

On the way to the shore Lydia Violet had a diaper emergency so we pulled over and changed her on Dima's trunk in the parking lot of the Country House restaurant. There's a first time for everything.

Biggiemoat

Lydia takes a ride on Mama's hippo. Giddy-up! (Biggiemoat means hippo in Russian.) Doesn't this look like a picture out of a 70s textbook? Or Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom?

happy birthday

With 2 minutes still left in the day Lydia Violet says happy birthday to her Poppy Tom. Happy Birthday!

mystery solved

The last couple of days were tough. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I got a total of about 40 minutes sleep. Lydia Violet was CRANKY and uninterested in sleeping. You'd think then that she would have crashed yesterday. Nope. She dozed, but in general remained cranky and wide awake. Dima came home, took over and then sent me to bed. I woke up to find that he had slept with her in the basement and let me get a full night's sleep. My hero. He also confirmed as I had suspected that Lydia had been working up to another massive poop. His supervisor, Kate, had suggested pumping her legs, as opposed to the q-tip method. Well that worked! A little aerobic workout and she did her business. Suddenly Lydia isn't cranky and as of this moment she is fast asleep.

Another milestone... she no longer craves the swaddle.

Got Milk?

premature apology

My dad pointed out yesterday that an eighteen year old Lydia might not be amused by my musings on her diaper contents. Lydia Violet, for that I apologize ahead of time for my previous posts and, I'm sure, posts to come. When you're a mother you will understand.

Lesson Learned

Our friend Hillary told me weeks ago not to let one failure dictate how we interact with Lydia moving forward. In other words, just because she doesn't like something one time doesn't mean she won't like it the next time. Well, case in point, today I put her back in the swing that she has hated every single time I've put her in it up to now. She liked it. So lesson learned. Though now she's crying about being in the swing, so... I have to go.

Soothing Lavender

Lydia Violet slept 6 hours straight last night! Ahhhhhh... Even though I was getting up at 4 a.m. to feed her that 6 hours of sleep was so wonderful. We gave her her first tub bath last night (pictures to come) and I used soothing lavender baby bath. Well it must have worked! Maybe I'll bathe her every night!

Sleeping Beauty

Yes. She's sleeping again. This time Lydia Violet takes a nap in a babydoll bed at Serge and Katia's house.

First Ride in the Baby Bjorn

Looks like little L°VE is still a bit small for her Bjorn.

the straight poop

Well it happened! An unassisted poop. We took a short trip to Home Depot to get some shades and screws and Lydia Violet was cranky the whole time. She was not cold, hot or hungry so I was at a loss as to how to console her. Then, when we got home and did finally eat, her good friend Melba Toast couldn't get enough of smelling L.V.'s butt. I took it as a signal to change her diaper but, honestly, I wasn't expecting a poopy one. It'd just been so long. Well, was I surprised. It was an award winner. I was tempted to save it for Dima to check out when he got home. That's how amazing it was. (Of course I didn't.) I think that poor L°VE probably lost about half of her newly gained 21 ounces in the process. Maybe more. I didn't realize one little baby could store that much waste. So, she's probably not pushing 9 pounds anymore but she's working at it.

Now, let's reflect on this topic—poop—and why I seem so ready to detail it on this blog... I can't really explain it. I don't believe I was one to discuss poop so readily prior to this... being a mother. (Though my friends may dispute that.) Perhaps it reflects the nature of my day to day lately, which literally consists of rounds of eat, sleep, poop (or at least the anticipation of poop).

At any rate, I'm pleased as punch that L°VE has finally cleared her system. Her little belly is no longer distended and she is at this moment sleeping soundly. I think the whole thing wore her out. She is sacked out now. Let's all cross our fingers that there will be no repeat performance.

Call Me

We're at the tasting for the catering of Lydia's christening and she is passed out. Notice her little hand though. She's sending a message to all her friends: Call me.

she ain't heavy, she's my daughter

Another revelation from our visit to the doctor yesterday, Lydia has gained 21 ozs. in the last week and a half! For a girl that was having trouble with weight gain that is stupendous progress. Her cheeks fuller and the little wrinkles on her legs are starting to fill out. She's well on her way to being rolly-polly. As a result she's back in her gdiapers today! Woohoo!

the time is ticking away

Lydia Violet is sleeping in today so I'm taking this rare chance to catch up on the blog.

She had her one month birthday 3 days ago. I can't believe it's been a month already. Seriously. It feels like just last week we were checking into the hospital. (Though Dima says that, for him, the birth seems like years ago.)

Yesterday we were able to get a last minute doctor's appointment to check in on a few things: 1) Lydia has not had an "unassisted" poop in a week. 2) We've been discussing with the doctor whether or not she has reflux, and 3) her baby acne, to me, was starting to look more like hives than baby pimples.

So, you say, what do I mean my "unassisted" poop? Well last Thursday she stopped dirtying her diaper. Cold turkey. We missed the call in time at the pediatrician on Saturday, so by Sunday morning when we still hadn't had to change a poopy diaper we called and asked what was up. The doctor said it was normal but we could "help" her out if we wanted with a little rectal stimulation.

Now, let me take a time out here and say, here's an example of something you never envisioned talking about, let alone doing. Rectal stimulation on your infant child so they can have a bowel movement. Dima and I have become intimately attuned to Lydia's gastrointestinal tract in the last 34 days. Dealing with, I'm sure he would agree, things that we hadn't ever imagined until now. And this is not to say I haven't changed a messy diaper in my time (though Dima had not), but somehow when it's your own kid and you're getting into things like "rectal stimulation," it's totally different.

So back to the story. Essentially we needed to give her poor little butt a jump start, which in the medical sense means a q-tip to the rectum. Poor girl. But it worked and surprisingly, she didn't seem to bothered by it. Since then and after a few more "assists" she's been able to clear her system, which is good, since she was looking a little distended.

The reflux is another matter and according to the doctor totally unrelated. Just imagine a tiny baby, unable to speak, experiencing heartburn every time she eats. It's horrible. And Lydia let's us know exactly how horrible she feels. Wailing, arching and puking. Poor, poor girl. Well yesterday she got her very first prescription: baby Zantac. She has to take it 3 times a day and it seems to be working thus far, but man does it taste nasty. At least that's what the look on her face tells me when I squirt it in her little mouth. Bleck!

The baby acne? Normal. But I wasn't REALLY concerned about that as much as I was taking an opportunity to ask a professional while I was paying my co-pay.

Anyway, I hear her now. "I'm hungry!" her screams are telling me. Gotta run...

Papa's Girl

Leisurely lunch at Black Market Bistro in Garret Park. It's Lydia Violet's one month birthday!

P.S.

My new last name is NOT Grizzarkhov. It's both my maiden name and Dima's last name together. Just wanted to make that clear.

the name game

Well. The deed is done. I have officially applied for a new social security card with my new name. My married name. I couldn't bring myself to give up any of my other names though. I just didn't want to give up my middle for my maiden name, so I added Dima's last name to mine. I am NOT hyphenated however. Essentially I am Jennifer Grizzarkhov now, just all spelled out.

Style Star

Lydia Violet sports her new stylish outfit. I sewed on a flower from a piece of large patterned, floral fabric I have. So cute!

The Grand Poo-Bear

Snoozing after the morning feeding. Zzzzzzzzzzzz...

coffee break

Half-caf medium americano and a bit reading while the wee one snoozes. A nice break for mom.

Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

L°VE getting fed by mama at Montgomery Mall. We went for a walk at the Mall since it's much too hot and humid to walk outside. Plus, the noise and commotion is great tolerance training for L°VE.

Lydia Meets Her TNC Family

Teresa, Carmen & Luciana ooo & ahhhh over Lydia. (Audrey is hiding behind Teresa.)

finishing lunch

Squirmy, squirmy...

Meeting the Purveyors of the Vortex

Marina & Katya Cavanaugh visit for the first time. (Not pictured, Robin.)

White Noise

Lydia loves the sound of the vacuum cleaner. It's a sure fire way to get her to conk out.

But as we learned ahead of time from our good friends Claire and Ed, you can't run your vacuum cleaner to make the baby fall asleep all the time. You'll wear the belt out. So... we did what they did, we bought a vacuum cleaner CD. This is ingenious! And since we've now been telling other friends about it they are all confirming that they too knew the secret.

In fact right now I am blogging and LºVE (Lydia Violet Ekzarkhov) is in her co-sleeper dreaming of the vacuum clearner induced womb. I think that Melba might like it too, because she's laying here on the desk with her head next to the baby monitor sacked out.

We also bought dishwasher and rain and thunder. Thus far the vacuum is helping me relax too and therefore fall asleep faster, which is a must, I'm finding when you're on a 3 hour feeding schedule.

First Day at Home Alone

It's just after 9am and Dima has left for work. Lydia Violet and I are starting our first day alone together.

So much has happened in the last 2 and a half weeks. I certainly haven't been able to keep up with it here on the blog. The most we've been able to muster as we get used to our new schedule is a few random posts and a constant stream of photos from our phones. And already, LºVE (Lydia Violet Ekzarkhov) has changed so much.

Today her Poppy, Tom, is coming for lunch. We also have a weigh-in at the doctor to see how she's packing on the ounces. We're feeling pretty good about it, but only the scale will tell.

Other than that we'll be doing some organizing and some sleeping. I have vowed to practice the art of nap-taking this week. It's apparently not something I'm very good at. Who would have known?