Yummy toes

These little pink feet. I want to eat them.

I bite his toes and kiss his heels.

I run the arches across my lips. So soft and warm.

They are so very scrumptious. Even if they are a bit clammy sometimes.

Are you lookin' at me?

It's funny how some days seem to go by without much to make them stand out. The other day I realized I hadn't spoken out loud for 3 hours. Feeding, changing diapers, rocking to sleep, scrambling for a shower, the usual.



Other days seem to fly by with one new discovery after another. A week or so ago the boys really started to pay attention to each other. They stare, they smile, they talk.

They are both developing such unique personalities.



Yesterday we took a walk thru target with him in a carrier and he was so excited on the toy aisle. He smiled, waved his arms and kicked his legs.

He's learning to control his giant noggin which is awesome.



Later in the day we did some more tummy time on the couch. He started to lean to the side so I transferred him to the floor....

and he rolled over.

My baby. My little Peanut.

He moved all by himself. Not just moving of the limbs or accidentally falling over. He moved his entire little body into a different position in a different space.

Talk about spontaneous clapping! I think he might be gifted. You see, there is some advantage to having a head in the 75th percentile. The weight helps you gain the momentum you need to flip over.

He even did it a couple times for grandma and showed off to daddy too.

Peanut also gave me attitude today. I was trying to get him to take his binky before we got in the car but he clearly didn't want it. He spit it out, gave an angry grunt and actually glared out me. Then I grounded him for life.

~sigh~
Pretty soon we'll be shipping him off to college.

Not all gentleman prefer blondes

I need blonde volunteers to start stopping by our apartment. Apparently Peanut doesn't see enough blondes.

My sister Debbie is blonde and her hair down right freaked him out.



She did get a smile out of him a couple of times but then he would look up and stare at her hair.



What is that on your head? Why do you look so different?



I don't think I like that.

This was followed by crying. Actual crying with a real tear that rolled down his chubby cheek.

Apparently my child has been too sheltered and we need to spend more time with Auntie Debbie. After he gets used to her hair he can find another reason to be terrified of her :)

A little laughter

As much as I hate to admit it, B is totally Peanut's favorite. He completely lights up when he sees his daddy.

I love way Peanut talks and laughs with him.

I also love the way B is a total and complete dork with Peanut.

A binky and some duct tape

Peanut isn't all that attached to the binky but we almost always use it when it's time for bed or a nap. It's really fantastic as it works almost immediately. The binky goes in and the eyes begin to droop.

We also use it when we put him in the dreaded Torture Device otherwise known as The Car Seat.

Except Peanut hasn't mastered the art of keeping it in his mouth. He sucks for a while, gets distracted it falls out of his mouth. Or he is chewing on it. Or he has discovered his tongue and their just isn't room for both the tongue and the binky.

All of this would be fine if he didn't actually want you to hold the binky is his mouth for him. You could also just put it back every other minute if you like.

Over and over and over. Once he falls asleep or settles down and the binky falls out it's not an issue but until then...

I was thinking of using some kind of duct tape to secure it to his face.

Don't tell social services.

Baby Sleep Methods

Another hot topic seems to be having a baby that sleeps thru the night and all the various ways to get that.

The one thing I've realized about parenting books is that they all seem to think that whatever method they have is the only one to follow. It could drive a person insane trying to guess which is right and which is wrong.

The only thing left to do is figure out which is right for you and which is wrong for you.

Oddly it doesn't seem to be something that parents often talk about. It might be because people do feel so strongly about the various methods.



Ferber, Baby Wise, Sears, Pantley, Sleepeasy, Weissbluth, Karp, Mindell, Nighttime Parenting, and so on and so forth.

Let them cry it out so they don't require having you soothe them to sleep. Don't give them any "crutches" or they will become needy, spoiled beings. Don't let your baby cry it out or they will become evil, untrusting beings. Sleep with your child, don't sleep with your child, sleep with them in the room, get them in their own room ASAP. Rock your child to sleep, don't rock your child to sleep.

Are you tired yet? Of course you are... everyone but the children are ready to go to sleep.



So heres the deal in the clapping household. We're completely guilty of using any and all crutches to get Peanut to sleep. I rock him, nurse him, give him a pacifier or any combination of. He used to wake the minute we put him down in the bassinet (which is right by my side of the bed) so I started using a heating pad to warm the sheets before I put him down. It worked and he stays asleep. Oh and the Sleep Sheep, gotta love that.

Don't forget the ceremonial sleep dance done every first Thursday following every other full moon. I've found if this very helpful.

When he cries I pick him up. Actually when he cries at night it's just to eat and then he goes back to sleep. At what point do you stop feeding in the middle of the night anyway? Is this totally going to bite me in the arse later? Probably.

On Christmas day he slept for 4 1/2 hours straight and I was excited. Every day after that he started sleeping longer and longer until we worked our way up to a consistent 7 hours a night. A few days of that and we actually had one 8 hour night. For some reason the last couple of nights he has been waking up every 3 or 4 hours but I expected him to go thru different phases of sleep patterns.

As is, we don't have much of a schedule. He doesn't go to sleep at a particular time each night. Sometimes he is wide awake until late and sometimes I couldn't keep him awake if I tried. I know we need to get into more of a groove and am undecided on where to go from here.

What about your experiences? Did you use a particular sleep method? Did you try a sleep method? Did your kids sleep well? Were your kids on a schedule? At what age were they on a schedule?

Do tell :)

Xino Restaurant, Santa Monica

The day I was due with Peanut without even a hint of a contraction, B and I ventured to Santa Monica to Xino Restaurant.

We got there and it was absolutely gorgeous out. I pulled out my camera to discover my low battery warning was on so I took photos sparingly.

Several of our friends make up the chef team and we'd been looking forward to dining there.

Left to right you see Wagyu beef tartare on lotus chips, Crisp pork belly and congee (or Jook as we call it is a rice porridge), Sui Mai (a kind of pork dumpling) and Lo Bak Go (a cake made out of daikon with pork).

Really fantastic and apparently they have top secret recipes which is always intriguing. They specialize in dim sum which they serve daily until 4 pm.



Chef Curtis went a little crazy and we ended up with enough food for 8 people. Really though B always orders twice the amount of food than we can eat because he wants the leftovers.

On the far side you see their Salt & Pepper Crab and in the front is the Clay Pot Chicken. This chicken is sooo flavorful with pieces of chicken, mixed mushrooms, lup cheong (chinese sausage, it's more firm, less fatty and sweeter than American sausage) and those rectangles on top with the purple lines are slices of taro. All of this is in a really fantastic coconut sauce. It would be hard for me to go back and not order this again.



The Salt & Pepper crab is made from fresh (as in live) Dungeness crab that has been lightly battered and fried up in a wok with some garlic. The whole thing is sprinkled with salt and pepper.

I love eating crab with B because he gives me the easy pieces and likes to work on getting every bit of meat out of the smaller pieces. If you are a crab fan than you will love this dish. Simple and perfect.



The Curry spiced seafood fried rice was different than any fried rice I've had. This is not just a side dish. It had crab, shrimp and sea bass in it. Unique and definitely worth ordering.

In front is the a spicy braised eggplant with beef. The sauce has chili, hoisin, a good amount of garlic and was just rich enough. The beef was very tender and eggplant perfectly cooked.

I'm getting so hungry thinking about this food.



Xino is located on the 3rd floor of the new Santa Monica shopping center right next to the promenade. The next time we go I'll be sure to take photos of the restaurant itself and the beautiful veranda.

I'm hoping we'll be heading there soon...