Movin' on up

It's been a busy, exhausting, and emotional 2 weeks since Peter's bike accident, and we're finally settling into our new digs downtown. With lots of help from family and friends, we found a nice 1-bedroom apartment in a high-rise near the Embarcadero with a view of surrounding parks, downtown buildings, and the Bay Bridge.

Dahlia is adapting well; she's been amazingly good natured during all this drama. She's a very happy girl and she's growing bigger every day. She had more vaccine shots this week and weighed in at 16 lbs, 12 oz. She's outgrown most of her 3-6 month clothes and has lots of new cute things from the 6-9 month bin.

Nana and little D in some of her new clothes.

We are so grateful to our parents for flying in to help us through this tough time. Dad and Gloria helped by babysitting Dahlia while I spent hours visiting Peter in the hospital last weekend, and helped us figure out what kind of living situation we needed to prepare for his release. Mom arrived this week and spent a day scouting corporate housing apartments, then helped me pack and schlep all our necessities to the new place in time for Peter's arrival. Peter's mom arrives tomorrow to stay with us and help care for Dahlia and Peter while I get my new work/commute routine figured out.

Poppa took this picture of Dahlia with her favorite lion.

We thank you all for all your support during this tough time. The past two weeks were intense but I think we're out of the woods and on the road to recovery. And we have a sweet downtown apartment in which to rest and recuperate. I think that one "silver lining" to all this is the chance to experience our city from a new neighborhood and perspective. It's so close to the Ferry Building that I was able to take Dahlia to the farmer's market yesterday morning for a quick hour before it got crowded. Bonus!

The view from our balcony at night. That's Three and Two Embarcadero Center.

Parrots from the famed "Parrots of Telegraph Hill" like to roost in the trees below our place. This one sat on our balcony for a few minutes today.

Back to work

Since our last post, I have returned to work after 5 1/2 months of maternity leave. It was such a wonderful, long time to spend getting to know Dahlia and learning about being a mother. Though I loved spending all that time with her, I'm glad to return to work and have a little more balance back in my life. She seems happy with our nanny and since we're doing a share care, she gets to spend her days with another baby girl, Muriel. She's napping better than ever, sleeping well at night, and is close to sitting up on her own. She's also showing signs of wanting to crawl, so there's that to look forward to (time to baby-proof the house!!). She's also quite big, probably over 16 lbs now; she'll be 5 months next week, on April 25th.

Back at work, I get to take 3 breaks every day to sit in a quiet, private room and pump breastmilk. I find it helps me produce more milk if I get inspired by looking at pictures of Dahlia, so I'm trying to take one every morning with my phone so I have something new to look at. This is one of those pictures.


Just before returning to work, my mom came to visit for a week, and we spent one sunny afternoon in Dolores Park eating lunch and playing with Dahlia. I took a short video of little D to show how much bigger she is, and to listen to her fun verbal noises.



Nana and Dahlia in Dolores Park:

Florida 2009 Slideshow

We've been ridiculously lax with the posting recently, but it's been a busy month. Here's a quick one from our recent adventure with the larger Butler family--including Grammy, Poppy, Uncle Chris, Aunt Wendy, and cousins Josie and Nick--to the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Mom, Dad, and Dahlia were lucky enough to stay with Grammy and Poppy in a beachfront condo for a week, replete with a patio for watching the sunset or watching the cousins in the pool as well as the absolutely essential AC and crib that helped us help Dahlia get a decent amount of sleep.

Chris, Wendy, Josie, and Nick stayed in a similar condo two floors down, and the kids had a plenty of fun getting spoiled by playing with the grandparents and, of course, lots of swimming in the pool. Here's a quick montage we threw together with some great photos from Amy and Aunt Wendy.

Videos of the motorboat mouth

Here are two videos to illustrate Peter's post below.


Motorboat mouth


Dahlia with Sophie the giraffe

And a bonus picture of Dahlia rocking tummy time. She's getting so good at it!

Bronx Cheer Bandit, or L'il Miss Motorboat Mouth

Little Ms. D takes a rest from her mouth farting.

So what's Dahlia been up to for the past month and a half?

Well, all sorts of stuff like learning how to roll over from her front to her back (the lazy baby's solution for getting around tummy time), going on fun trips around town and down to Southern California, getting two sets of vaccinations, celebrating her 3-month birthday, and grabbing stuff with her hands. We're also pretty sure that her teeth have started coming in, 'cause she drools like nobody's business.

One of the more amusing recent developments is Dahlia's habit of ending words or sentences by blowing bubbles with her lips, which makes a sound like a motorboat, or actually, more like a bronx cheer. (Some call them raspberries?)

Anyway, it's pretty funny to hear Dahlia respond to some of our questions with a grunt, gurgle, or squeak, followed by a fake fart sound and bubbles. A sample conversation:

"Hi, cutie. Aren't you a good girl?"

"Urgle blerg pbbbbbbbbbbbt."

"Do you want to see what mommy's doing?"

"Erra hoo pbbbbbbbbbt."

Maybe you have to be there. ;) We'll try to get it on video and post. I don't think it will last long.

Thank goodness for a daughter who likes to make fart sounds with her mouth. Hooray!

Videos of Dahlia making baby talk

Here are a couple of videos where I've tried to capture Dahlia talking. She sometimes really talks up a storm, in sentences, and with sounds like "oww", "ooh" and squeals.

Sorry we've been so lax about posting. We'll post more soon!

This first one is on the changing table. See how Dahlia loves holding onto those fish curtains.



This was taken later the same day, when Sarah and Lisa from Adobe came to visit, bearing a scrumptious dinner.

Dahlia talks ... on video

We're working on broadcasting our Webcam so that anyone can watch, but until then, Amy has been recording some videos for Facebook and YouTube. This one's not the greatest, but she's talking a little bit.