I have been exercising

Thanks to friends who have been motivating me, I have been getting some exercise! We have been walking all the way up Divisadero from the Marina toward Pacific Heights--a series of big, big hills--pushing our strollers; walking to Broadway and Lyon, where the Lyon Street steps begin; and going up and down the Lyon Street steps (and whatever the INCREDIBLY steep steps are called that go down from THERE), wearing the babies in carriers. And mine is over 17 pounds. I just had to post these pictures (taken by Ann, thank you thank you) of the view from the steps and of our two daughters...enjoying some refreshing water after their exhausting trek up and down the steps.

Teething baby

Today I said to Mark, "Her personality has become just a complete butthole."

My head enjoys abuse

The theme song to the sitcom "One Day at a Time," starring Bonnie Franklin, Mackenzie Phillips, and Valerie Bertinell, contains the lyrics, "So while you're here, enjoy the view / Keep on doing what you do/ Hold on tight, we'll muddle through / One day at a time." At least, I'm pretty sure those are the lyrics.

I thought I'd share that when I was a kid watching this sitcom, I thought the line was, "So while your head enjoys abuse/Keep on doing what you do." I still think of that line every time I sing the theme song to "One Day at a Time"--which is, you guessed it, frighteningly often.

First haircut

Daisy got a haircut today and wept bitterly. It was sad. But they gave me the snipped-off hair to save in an envelope, and they took her picture for their wall. They got a shot of her post-crying, at least, not mid-crying. I liked the big thick swath of hair down the middle of her forehead, but so far I also like the haircut. We agreed she looks like Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby. (Well--except for not having the blond hair and blue eyes.)

We let Daisy cry herself back to sleep tonight. It was awful, awful, awful. I had gotten her to sleep at 7:30, but she was awake and screaming at 8:10. I felt at the end of my resources. What always happens is that one of us goes in, rocks her, and tries to put her down; she screams; we rock her again for a long time, try to put her down, and she screams; and the whole process goes on and on, sometimes for two hours or more. It is not good for any of us, this cycle. So we let her cry this time, despite the agonizing heartbreak. She cried for 40 minutes. Then, everything was quiet. I hope she is okay in there. My poor sweetie.

Brief Update

It seems like I don't have much time to write blog posts lately, but I at least wanted to write a brief update before I leave for my parents' house this weekend. We had a great time seeing friends in Seattle. We saw Chris and Erin and their brand new charmer, Leo, Vade and Stephanie and their due-date twin of Daisy, the charismatic Ona, and Amy and David and Adele, who is so well-spoken that I kept forgetting she wasn't even three yet. It is such a meaningful thing to me to see old friends and their kids that I don't know how to put it into words without getting trite. These are people that I've known for so many years, and in completely different times of our lives (times when it seemed unimaginable we'd ever be parents). Things are very different now, of course, and there are certain things that don't happen now when we get together, but I kept thinking, "I like things now. I like the way they are right now." And, "I like being a grownup." I'm sure I won't feel that way all the time, and I'm not trying to say I don't have any youth left in me, but I like the fact that the responsibility button is now pretty much turned on in my head all the time, blinking quietly in the background regardless of what I'm doing. I like being Daisy's mama. I hope I don't make anyone throw up with this post.

The amount of driving we did was rather insane. Seattle is about 14 hours from San Francisco by car, and we had divided up the driving into seven-hour segments. So, on the first day, we drove 7 hours and spent the night in Grants Pass. Next morning, we drove another 7 hours to Seattle. We spent 3 nights at Chris and Erin's (who are, I have to say, the kindest people in the world to have hosted us that whole time, while caring for their new baby), and then did the whole thing over again. Counting traffic and other delays, Daisy probably spent about 30 hours in the car over a period of 5 days. That's a crazy thing to do to an 11-month-old, but she handled it beautifully. Needless to say, there are certain baby CDs that we heard so many times in the car that the thought of hearing them again makes me want to jump off a cliff; but that is a small price to pay for your baby being so patient and enduring on a car trip you signed her up for without her knowledge or permission. I think she enjoyed Seattle, though. She liked being around the other kids and was perfectly cheerful the whole time we were there, except at night (hahahahaaha). She did win the battle of wills on that one and succeeded in sleeping just one night in her Pack and Play. The other nights, she started out in the Pack and Play but ended up in bed with us later. Did I mention she was also recovering from being sick the whole time we were there and had terrible struggles breathing at night? She was a trooper.

There is a lot more I could say about Seattle, and I dearly hope it would have been less trite than what I've written so far, but I have to go now. More soon.

Road trip

Hi all: Mark, Daisy, and I are leaving on a brief road trip tomorrow! We're going to Seattle and should be home by Saturday or Sunday, depending on how travel with Daisy goes. It's all a big experiment. If we're out of touch for awhile, that's why. Talk to you all soon!

Lesson learned

That lesson is: do not take Daisy to the doctor's office again unless she really, really needs it. She was getting better, but they still wanted to see her, so we brought her in. There were a million coughing, sneezing, sickly children in the waiting room. The next day, she was much, much worse. In fact she has been sicker than I have ever seen her.

Yuck.

Night from hell

I posted a few days ago about the 30-second temper tantrum; well, now I've had the 12-hour, all-night torture session and I must be on my way to developing that thicker skin I was talking about. Daisy is sick and has a terrible cough at night, so hopefully this is a passing thing-- otherwise, we're all in some deep trouble. I got her to sleep, but she woke up screaming and crying when I placed her in the crib. I got her back to sleep, but then the crying started again when she went in the crib. We let her cry for intervals in between, but more than 20 minutes of it seems too much when she is sick. This went on and on pretty much all night. I don't know--it's all kind of a blur. She had been sleeping 11 or 12 straight hours before this. One should always be humble and never assume it's all figured out. Must remember that.

I have a new cell phone

That's right! I have a new cell phone. Same number. You can call me on it, until the next time I post to my blog saying I've either lost or destroyed my phone.

I should post something

At ten months, Daisy had what I would call her first temper tantrum today. It was over a teething biscuit I'm not sure I should have given her. She adored it. She clutched it in her hands and teethed avidly on it. When it had mostly melted away, I thought it was best I take it away--it was getting too small and might be a choking hazard. Daisy had a fit like I've never seen her have before. She turned red and shook (okay, I've seen that before), and she cried loudly with tears rolling down her face! We were horrified. "We are never giving her another one of those," Mark said grimly. Both of us were traumatized.

Later, we discussed the event. I asked Mark how long the tantrum had lasted. "Thirty seconds?" he guessed. I don't think it was even quite that long.

I have a feeling we're going to have to grow thicker skins sometime between now and Daisy's terrible twos.