Breastmilk popsicle for the baby

Week 148 motherhood of 2 year 10 month old and 7 month old: 

• July 17:  The baby turns 7 month old this week!  She’s been starting to teeth.  We noticed that she was fussing a little more than usual lately.  Grandma was the first one to discover that she has a pointy little tooth starting to come out from her bottom gum.  I washed my hand and stuck it in there and lo and behold, I felt it!  No wonder because she’s been biting down on me sometimes and it hurts.  I’ve had to tell her, “No, it hurts”.  She stares at me when I tell her it hurts.  I know she’ll eventually understand.
• She’s been a champ with the baby led weaning so far.  She grabs and holds the foods in her little hands so well.  This week, she tried shrimp, spinach, omelette, maple beans (when we were out for brunch — her first brunch with us where she got to eat too!  She was anticipating and looking at us), beet hummus (she didn’t like this one; it was too sour), chicken drumstick (she holds the bone so well), asparagus, and blueberries (I smooshed the berries without skin into the Num num spoon for her).
• When we were at a Chinese grocery store this week, I was holding the toddler’s hand (she was pulling the small grocery trolley in the other) and an elderly lady commented something like “oh, she’s so cute” and patted her on her head.  What the heck?  I said, “Don’t touch her head!”  The lady immediately said “Oh, sorry, sorry”.  I said “people are sensitive to these things these days”.  She apologized once again.  Geez.  (All of this was done in Cantonese.)  I don’t understand the reason why anyone needs to feel the need to pat or touch a child out in public just because they think the child is cute.  The child is not your personal property.  And haven’t you learned anything after the COVID era?  Don’t touch others.  Keep your hands to yourself.  I’m so glad that I spoke up.  I really hope she realizes and doesn’t do this in the future.  It’s like no one would think to randomly touch someone else on the street just because they think they look good or cute.  Just because it’s a child, it doesn’t mean you can touch them.  They have their own personal boundaries and preferences too.
• Because of the baby’s teething, DH made frozen treats for the baby this week too!  I had some extra breastmilk from my haakaa that the toddler somehow didn’t want to drink this week (she happily drank all of it previously, so I’m not sure why she changed her mind all of a sudden this week) and we had some soft silicone molds, so DH poured the breastmilk into it to make a little donut-shaped breastmilk popsicle for the baby.  She loved it!  When cut in half, it was molded perfectly with grooves for her to hold on to and chew on.  I am in disbelief at how good she is at holding food items and bringing them to her mouth to eat.  She is so good at it!
• When she was gnawing on a stalk of asparagus this week during dinner, she held it perfectly and knew to put one end of it into her mouth.  She sucked on it well to get the asparagus juice.  This girl loves to eat and I love watching her learn.
• This week, the toddler tried “bubble tea” for the first time too.  It wasn’t tea, but it was an avocado-mango smoothie with fruit bits and “crystal jellies” in it.  I got it as part of the contents in a TGTG surprise bag and immediately knew it was a suitable drink for the toddler (the other two were actual teas and of course not suitable for her).  The toddler had trouble sucking up the jellies up the straw into her mouth.  She could only taste the avocado-mango smoothie part.  I guess she doesn’t know how to suck strongly enough to get the jellies, which is actually okay because I don’t want her to choke either if she doesn’t know how to stop the jellies in her mouth.
• Because of all the solid foods that the baby has been eating lately (she gets baby oatmeal as a staple each day for sure.  We’ve been giving her peanut butter in the mornings as an easy breakfast spoon too), her poo is turning more solid as well.  No more easy “sweet-smelling” yellow poos.  Now her poos are more brown and sticky/mushy.  Ah, the end of the babyhood chapter soon.  How did it go by so quickly?!  It really did feel like I blinked and she’s already 7 months… 😭  On the one hand, I like more freedom from not having to hold her and feed her all the time, but it means she will never be this small again.

The 7 month old celebration cake

• I can easily trim her fingernails.  She lets me and doesn’t struggle or cry.  She’s just a wonderful baby.
• When we put her in the high chair and put the plastic bib on her, she starts chewing and gnawing on it.  If you don’t give her something to eat, she waits and anticipates.
• The toddler still gets jealous of the baby and doesn’t let her play with her toys and only lets her play with certain toys (the baby ones).  How are some siblings so lovey-dovey when they are born but some are so clingy and bossy like this one? 🤷‍♀️
• I attended a friend’s bridal shower this weekend and it was the first time since the secondborn was born that I got to leave the house by myself and attend an event.  I planned it out by keeping the baby awake (not feeding her too early) until it was time for me to leave by nursing her to sleep and then rolling off the bed and getting ready and leaving the house.  It worked.  However, the baby woke up about an hour after I left her.  It wasn’t as long of a nap as she usually might take with me next to her, but it was all good.  DH and grandma played with her and fed her frozen banana popsicles (DH made frozen baby oatmeal pops for her too).  The bridal shower was 3 hours and while I could have come home early at the 2-hour mark when it was finished, the baby was fine so I took my sweet time too.  When I walked into the house, she actually didn’t recognize me because I wasn’t in my usual house clothes lol.  She looked at me peculiarly and like she didn’t recognize me haha.
• The baby has started to sit up this week too!  DH was the one who discovered it and told me.  She can sit quite stable by her own for a while.  Of course, we have to be next to her in case she falls over (which she does).  She does the same thing her sister did when she first started sitting which is leaning forward.  I still can’t find the turquoise pillow that we used to use to prop up the older sister… where is it?
• The toddler can dress herself and find clothes herself to wear all the time now.  She also likes to have her diaper changed more frequently than before.  It’s because she realizes that it’s wet and she wants to change it.  However, she still isn’t consistent enough to want to use the potty for pee or poo.
• The toddler really likes to dress and diaper her stuffed animals too.  She takes the baby’s size 2 diapers and put them on.  After “changing” them, she rolls the diapers up and puts them in her toy kitchen.  I opened the cabinet of the kitchen the other day when I was trying to clean things up and found three “used” diapers there.  Lol… I had to unroll them and put them back in our diaper bag so we could use them for the baby.
• The toddler has taken a liking to eating peanut butter by the spoonful too.  She sees her baby sister eating them, so she wants to follow her too.
• July 18:  We attended another Creative Chefs EarlyON class today.  Yay!  This one was in Aurora and the kids had guacamole and chips.  We’ve been to this location once before for “Sensory Sensations”.
  • The facilitators didn’t instruct the kids on what to do and how to do it.  They had everything laid out on the table already, but I had to ask them “what are we making today?” in order to know what was on the menu.  They had halved portions of avocado, small tomatoes, lemon wedges, and “Tostitos Scoops!” tortilla chips prepared on the tables.  There were small cutting boards with plastic utensils at each chair.  The kids were to smash the avocado, cut the tomatoes, and dip the chips into them to eat.  It wasn’t very obvious because the scoops chips looked like it was better suited to be filled with the avocado and tomatoes instead, which is what the toddler ended up doing.  I showed her how to slice a tomato using the plastic knife and she was then able to do it too (yay for learning new skills!).
  • The toddler loves eating crunchy things so the tortilla chips were right up her alley.  There were much fewer kids than I expected even though the reservation was completely full on the calendar.  I wonder if some families just didn’t show up?
• The facilitators joined the table and created their own guacamole dips to eat too.
• The baby was quite tired and slept on the car ride to the EarlyON class but still woke up to join the fun.  She doesn’t like to miss out.  She played with some rattle toys and people-watched.
• The toddler really enjoys playing the bead maze toys.  She likes maneuvering the beads one by one through the maze.
• After the class, we visited a playground which had an adjoining splash pad at the Town Park Playground.  The toddler enjoyed watching me get into and swing on the donut swing, walking the trembling bridge, and we took off her socks and shoes so she could walk around the splash pad and get her hands wet.  I was surprised at how quickly the soles of her feet dried.  We were able to put her socks and shoes back on after.
• Life is manageable with 2 kids now.  It’s much easier to bring out the baby.  I can just nurse her anywhere.  I have been able to blog some non-motherhood posts as well when everyone is asleep.  I also took on yet another audio transcription job too (been procrastinating on it though…)
• The baby had some steamed cucumber to chew on for dinner.  She wasn’t a fan.  It’s probably because it’s flavourless.  She enjoyed some baby oatmeal and store-bought hummus as usual.  She loved the breastmilk popsicle too.  It melts so easily in her hands.
• The toddler eats so well these days.  She eats a varied amount of carbs, meats (fish and chicken usually), veg, lots of fruits, and assorted pastries that I bring home because of my TGTG hauls 😆😆.  We have been eating so well this year because of TGTG.  We get to try so many different foods!
• I felt around and looked at the baby’s mouth tonight.  I saw the little white spot where her bottom tooth is coming in.  This little chomper is what hurts me when she bites down when nursing.