Mommy's toes

Remember my post about how Boba has a thing for Mommy's pedicured toes? Well, Daddy finally got a photo of her trying to crawl towards them...using my legs as a "bridge". Totally adorable. I don't quite understand the fascination although I think she must not realize that they are indeed attached to Mommy's body. I actually believe she regards my toes the way another baby might regard a cat or a puppy...sort of like another animate object that she needs to "explore".

She's just a funny baby. What can I say.

Fun with food!

"Yum Yum YUM!!!"

As mentioned in previous posts, we've introduced Boba to the wild and crazy world of solid foods. We're actually easing her into it very gradually; she's only had rice cereal thus far. But boy, is she loving it! At first she really wasn't sure what the heck we were trying to do to her...the look on her face when we'd nudge the spoon into her mouth was one of puzzlement and suspicion. Now, she will actually yell at you if you take too long to put the food in her mouth. Like mother, like daughter.

We're looking forward to introducing her to new flavors and tastes as she gets more and more adept at "chewing". (At this point it's still just "gumming".) Next item on the list is oatmeal, so nothing too exciting. But sometime next week we'll move on to vegetables! Yeah!

I'd like to point out that these photos were taken in the morning, which explains her devil-horned-hairdo. I do groom my baby; I swear I do. But at 7 a.m. on a Sunday, who really cares? Besides, Boba is one of those lucky few who looks adorable no matter what her hair looks like. Plus I think the cereal-around-the-mouth adds a nice touch to this new rumpled look. I can only imagine how creamed corn and strained carrots will look on her. Can't wait!

Sleep update: If it's not Boba...

....it's something else. Truly. Last night there was a car alarm in our complex that went off every half hour from 1 a.m. By 2:30 I'd had it, so I called our "Courtesy Patrol", who showed up at our door only to say that there was nothing he could do about it except file a report. Great. Then, Katrina woke up (probably because of the voices emanating from the front door). Luckily the car alarm was pretty faint-sounding from her room, so I managed to get her down again with little fanfare (though it still took an hour; I think she wanted to play). I realized then that the alarm was coming from behind our apartment, which explained why it was louder in our bedroom. (Jason, lucky bastard, was able to sleep through the intermittent blasts. It must be something in his DNA...the man could sleep through an elephant stampede.) So I decided to camp out in her room. Surprisingly, Katrina had few of the little baby outbursts she usually has in her sleep. So in all I think I got about 5 hours of sleep, total (2.5 before the car alarm, 2.5 after).

The other night it was a dog barking in the apartment below us. I think its owners were out and the poor pup was locked in the bathroom or something. It was whining and barking, whining and barking...for about 4 hours. I had given up at around 11:30 p.m. and decided to move to Katrina's room, but she was coughing and wheezing from her cold, poor thing, so it wasn't much of an improvement for me noise-wise. I think I got 4 hours of sleep that night.

Nightly disturbances were very common when we lived in New York, but back then we didn't have a baby, so it wasn't as much of a problem. I didn't think I'd have to deal with them again in the suburbs of San Diego, but it is an apartment complex after all...sigh...oh, how I long sometimes to live on a ranch with nothing but acres and acres of trees and hills surrounding us! The quiet must be intoxicating!

Meanwhile, Katrina has been sleeping quite well at night...if not through the night, then generally she'll do about an 8-hour stretch, wake up for about half an hour, and then go down again for 2 hours. At least there's that. Now if only the rest of the world would cooperate....!!

How true, how true

"The grinding fatigue of this first year is a gift from God. Without that slab of fatigue to jam into the cogs of time, life would go by so fast that we would lose our minds to an unceasing sense of cheated loss."

- Betsy Howie, author of "Callie's Tally: An Accounting of Baby's First Year (OR: What my daughter owes me)"

This is lifted off a great book that all new parents should check out. And how about that, huh? SO apropos to my previous post!

I'm gonna GITCHA!

Here I come!

I'm getting closer!

HERE I AM!!!!

Boba has been attempting to crawl a lot lately. She does the rocking-back-and-forth-on-all-fours thing, and usually I place a toy a little beyond her reach to encourage her to move forward. That or I'll kneel a couple of feet away from her (since, after all, reaching Mommy is infinitely more rewarding than reaching a stupid rattle). She hasn't actually moved forward yet (though the special effects I have employed above make it look like she's comin' for ya, doesn't it??), but I imagine the time for her to do so is very near.

Sometimes I long for these milestones to arrive quickly. ("Where the heck is that first tooth anyway?", or, "Why doesn't she just move already?") But then with every milestone, ironically, I do feel a little sadness, because it's just another hint that this little baby is growing up. When she was just a newborn people would frequently tell me, "They grow up so fast!!" In my sleep-deprived haze I tended not to believe them, thinking instead,"Then why does it sometimes feel like the hours are just dragging by???" Now that she's older I see exactly what they meant. Little differences (like how she's now too big for her changing table, which used to cradle her perfectly) to the big ones (switching her wardrobe from 3-6 months to 6-9 months - major overhaul!) tell me that time is flying by.

So as Boba finds her way into the world of mobility, I will continue to bask in the joy of her discovery. She has shown that she will meet her milestones on her own sweet time. And I'm happy to just enjoy the view.

Naked!

Awww...isn't she cute? (I know, I know, I keep repeating myself!) It's kind of a blurry shot but it's so adorable nonetheless. Mommy just finds Boba absolutely irresistable. And how's this for the icing on the cake...she slept through the night last night! Yee-ha! (Now if only I could fall asleep early enough to reap the benefits of these nights...)

You can't see them here but one of the things I love about Boba is her feet. They are so cute. I guess all babies' feet are cute. Hers are just so DARLING!!!

A fun afternoon with Nancy & Bill

For our family and friends, there are two reasons to come visit us. One, to see beautiful San Diego. Two, to see beautiful Katrina "Boba" Heil. And recently, we had two visitors who came all the way from Hinsdale, IL, to visit our lovely city and to hang out with the beauteous Boba. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bill are some of the coolest folks in the world. Here are some shots of that day:

Boba was quite the performer and demonstrated for them her vast repertoire of sounds ("ma-ma-ma-ma" and "ah-bwah" and "gheeee", in addition to screams and giggles). She also showed off abundant grins and smiles. Yes, she has acquired the theatre gene from her parents; no doubt about it.

Then, after lunch with N&B, she promptly crashed out in the car for an hour. All that fun wore her out! Thanks, Nancy and Bill, for showing Boba (and her parents) a good time that afternoon!

The Legend of FLAMBO

To all of you who have been asking about this....thank you for your patience! It took some time to find a photograph of your humble blogger that would work for the purposes of this post; in other words, I wanted to find a picture where the resemblance between Flambo and Boba is obvious. Well, as it happens, Boba only looks a little bit like me. I wouldn't say she looks much like her Daddy either, but if you really looked closely at her, then at me, you might say she takes after me more, but...well...see for yourself:

The Original Flambo

Cute, right? I think that's what I was trying to signal with my fingers...."C" for "Cute".

Anyway, here's the story. (Joji and Miko, feel free to add your version of this in the comments section!) When I was a baby, my brothers would ooh and ahh over me so much that they started talking to me in their own unique version of babytalk. And, at the time, they were watching a cartoon called "My Favorite Martian", which had a dog named "Okie Dokie". So they began to call me "Okie Dokie"...which somehow became "Bokie"...which somehow became "Flambokie". (Huh?) I know, I know, one of my brothers should explain this better, I still don't understand the progression but that's how they always described it. Anyhow, "Flambokie" stuck, and to this day they only call me "Flam" or "Flambo" because if they call me "Kim" it feels very weird. Doesn't matter that we are all now in our thirties and Miko is even pushing forty. (Sorry, Mik.) We have the kind of sibling relationship where we all just "froze" at certain ages: me at 3 years, Joji at 8 years, and Miko at 11 years. I swear, that's how we all behave when we're together. We just get silly.

Here's a photo of Uncle Miko and Uncle Joji (with my nephew Joaquin), the two reasons why this blog is called "Flamboba":

My brothers are AWESOME!!! Thanks, guys, for blessing me with a cool nickname and an even cooler childhood!

(For those of you who are clawing at the walls from Boba-photo-deprivation, relax - I will post new photos very soon!)

Three weird (cute) things about Boba

(This was meant to be my original post, but I had to rant and rave about the last couple of days; hence the post below this one. Make sure to read it...one has to be reminded once in a while about the struggle that is childrearing!)

"Weird? I think UNIQUE is the word you're looking for...."

Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Her laugh, while totally adorable and irresistable, sounds curiously like that of King Kong's (in the Peter Jackson version).
2. She will stop crying if Mommy repeats the sound, "KRRRAAAA" over and over again. (Yes, it sounds sort of like a crow.)
3. And finally....she has a TOE FETISH!!! (This is truly a weird one...she has piles and piles of toys and yet her most beloved source of fascination is feet. Not just any feet; they have to be manicured, and therefore, Mommy's and Lola's tend to be her favorites.)

There you have it, folks, three quirks of Boba's developing personality. And please...no dirty comments about what they might evolve into!!!

It's a good thing she's cute...

...because boy, oh boy, the past few days have been tough. Mommy has been averaging about 4-5 hours of sleep a night, usually broken in two chunks. Sigh. It's been worse, but when she's been dangling the "sleeping-through-the-night" phenomenon right in front of our noses (she does it! she doesn't do it! she does it again!), it's just very very frustrating. Plus lately she's been so crabby...teething? Growth spurt? Or just your standard baby histrionics? Who knows. All I can say is my back is killing me from constantly carrying her around. Last night I developed an ache on my left side since she decided the only way she would sleep was by clinging to me, so I slept with her lying on my left arm, her arms wrapped around my torso (as much as they could be, anyway) so that her face was pretty much buried in my chest. It sounds cute, but it doesn't make for comfortable sleep for Mommy.

Now, it's very possible that the reason why she's so fussy at night is because we've taken away her swaddle, i.e., her "baby straitjacket". For those of you knowing parents, we've been wrapping her in a homemade "Miracle Blanket" (Houdini couldn't get out of that thing) since she was about 2 weeks old. It worked like a dream very early on. But lately she's been trying to wriggle out of it with dangerous abandon; oftentimes we'll find her flipped on her stomach, facing 180 degrees away from her original position, and still completely swaddled. You can imagine all the nightmare scenarios we've thought of, so, on the recommendation of our pediatrician, we've begun to put her to sleep sans swaddle. It has not been an easy transition, and so I'm beginning to question our decision. But then again, we're going to have to retire the swaddle at some point anyway, so why not now? Argh. These are the things that keep me up at night. This and a six-month-old baby screaming for Mommy to get her.

But enough whining. Like I said, she's cute, and man, talk about evolution at its finest. Baby cuteness ensures that parents will do anything for them! My heart just leaps when she smiles at me after, oh, a minute or two of not seeing me. It's indescribable. I'm ready to scale walls after one of her smiles, I swear. (But I'm too tired to scale walls!)

How does one resist THIS???!?!?

Fellow parents, or even just people who can reassure me, post me a comment to let me know I'm not alone with this parenthood insanity!

"Cutest Baby Ever"

Jason likes to call Boba the "Cutest Baby Ever". Now, of course I agree with him, but let's just take a (brief) moment here to acknowledge that Jason and I may be just slightly biased.

...Bias acknowledged.

That said, let's move on. Katrina is the cutest baby ever. And I think we, as parents, are fully entitled to feel that way. Which is why, while watching the Today show this morning, which featured a segment on parents who brag too much about their kids, I felt somewhat confused.

"What??!? I shouldn't brag about how wonderful Katrina is??? But, but,...but she's the cutest baby ever!!"

I suddenly felt like this blog (yes, the one you are reading right now) was some kind of gross imposition on my family and friends. I mean, I know that people can choose to read this or not, but I started to question whether my blogging intent was really just to "keep people informed" of Katrina's progress, rather than to shamelessly laud her many assets and accomplishments to as vast an audience as I could possibly reach.

But then I took a deep breath and thought, She's just a baby. And silently I promised myself I would never become one of those mothers who paraded their little girls around in beauty pageants, or even one of those people who have the "My child is an honor student in _____ Elementary School" bumper sticker on the back of their cars. Not because there's something inherently wrong with those things (okay, debatable), but because my love for Boba is such that all I need is a little daily reflection. Hence, the blog.

Indeed, I believe my little baby girl is perfect. As I should. But if I shared every little truth about life with Boba on this blog...trust me...some of you may swear off ever having children. Because parenthood is one of the most difficult things you'll ever do. I say that now and I'm only six months into it. (Jason shudders when he realizes that one day she'll actually be a teenager.)

Boba is, I would imagine, as much a baby as babies get. She gets fussy, she cries for seemingly no reason at times, she wakes us up in the middle of the night, she freaks out with strangers, she hates her car seat...and a whole lot of other other things that drive me batty. But then she does other stuff that makes all those things feel like a cakewalk. Like, for instance, she smiles. Or she reaches out and touches my face. Or the way she plays with her feet while she's nursing.

So you see,...she is perfect.

It's that simple. Plus, she's ours. Jason's and mine. That alone is good enough to make her the "cutest baby ever", I think. And bragging rights aside...thank god there are people in this world who think this of their children! We should all be so lucky that we start off in life surrounded by people who think we can do no wrong.

So I'm going to happily continue this blog, praising to high heavens about how wonderful she is. And let my disclaimer be that I know, secretly, that we as parents are all in this together: We all have, and have been at one time, "the cutest baby ever"!

Half a Year of Boba

Happy 6-month Birthday, Katrina!!!

Boba turned six months-old yesterday, January 10th! That's right...we've had the joy of the Boba for half a year now. Here is a quick list of some things she can do now that she's practically a grown-up:

• She can sit on her own for as long as she likes
• She can pick things up at will and transfer them from one hand to another
• She can "kiss" (well, actually gnaw) Mommy & Daddy's face
• She can hold herself up by her arms while on her tummy
• She can giggle and laugh for long stretches of time
• She can eat solids

That's a big one. She had her first big bottle of milk mixed with rice cereal last night...6 oz....and somehow it managed to keep her down for a full night! That's right, to celebrate her six month birthday, she generously allowed Mommy (who crashed yesterday due to lack of sleep and jet lag) a full night's rest. Hopefully the solids are the trick...but one never knows.

Boba can do many more things that awe and delight us, but I won't bore you with the entire list. Suffice it to say this little girl is growing every day...healthy and thriving!

Happy Birthday Boba!

Mommy's home!

Hooray!

Ahhh...the sheer bliss (and relief) of being reunited with your baby after being away for six days. Glorious! I think Katrina was just as happy to see me, although I'm not sure she knows exactly why, not having noticed my absence much in the first place. (Daddy does claim that she seemed to be "searching" for something the last couple of days before I returned.) However, she has been especially clingy since I got back, so I'm wondering whether somewhere in the back of her psyche my absence registered as abandonment. (Oh, the guilt!) Well, that's the good thing about taking trips like these so early in her life...whatever damage it inflicted surely won't be remembered! (One hopes.)

In any case, the trip to the Philippines was well worth it, even if I suffered major separation anxiety pretty much throughout. My brother Miko and new wife Anne threw the wedding bash of the decade, complete with a ten-minute fireworks display, twelve-piece salsa band, and a wedding movie to boot! That's right, a MOVIE of the wedding, edited and with a soundtrack and everything, projected on TWO large screens for all guests to enjoy. Just breathtaking! I wish I had pictures, but I didn't have my camera on me...bleah. Oh well, one of these days I'll post a link to a photo album. In the meantime you can check out some pics on Uncle Joji's website.

While I was away, Daddy did an AWESOME job of taking care of Boba. She did develop another cold, however, which has lingered on to this day...not fun...but Daddy took it all in stride. He also had help from his folks, who I would like to extend my utmost gratitude for helping out in my absence:

Thanks, Grandma Julie and Poppy!

Anyway, Jason and I put away all the Christmas decorations last night as Boba looked on with mild curiousity. This year, surprisingly, I was not as sad to see the holidays go by. Perhaps because they were just so exhausting this year. Or maybe because "life as usual" means resuming the happiest days of my life...with our beautiful baby, my gorgeous and wonderful husband, and my highly-fulfilling job (I'm not kidding), living day after blissful day in lovely San Diego. Ahhhh....Happy New Year!

"Hee hee...we're happy now!"

Boba's Bald Spot

Daddy wants me to write about Katrina's bald spot. Not sure why...perhaps because he wants to highlight the fact that there is only one member of this little family who is balding! (Go Daddy!)

The Bald & The Beautiful

Katrina was born with copious amounts of hair. But for the past few months now, her usually-lustrous mane has been thinning somewhat right in the center of the back of her head. The result: an impressive mullet from the front, and Danny DeVito from the back. If babies were born with any sense of vanity, this would be a issue, but as blissfully oblivious as they are to their own cuteness, it really doesn't present much of a problem. Besides, I'm told that it grows back as soon as they start sitting up more often, which, as you all may remember from my previous post, Boba has started doing quite regularly!

So the bald spot may be disappearing soon enough!

In any case, I thought it might be nice to show some more cute photos of this lovely little girl, who, by the way, has still successfully avoided the flu virus...today is Day 5 and my pediatrician told me that if she makes it this far without getting sick, chances are good that she'll escape it altogether! YAHOO!

She's just cute, ain't she?

Anyway, note to readers....Mommy is taking a week-long trip to the Philippines so the blog will be left alone until then. I'm sure you'll be reading all about how I suffered separation anxiety from my baby. I'm still terrified by how much I'm actually going to miss this little girl. Please feel free to call Jason once in while to check on how they're doing!

Until then....

HAPPY HAPPY 2006!!!!

A Holiday to Remember

Whew. Where to begin. Remember my last post, when I was all sweet and poignant and actually looking forward to Christmas? Well, let me just say that this was not quite the holiday I thought it would be.

First off....poor Daddy! Jason was struck with a flu-like virus on Christmas morning. That's right, after a relatively uneventful (save the closing of his show) Christmas eve, where Mommy and Daddy happily chatted by the Christmas tree while Boba snoozed in her crib, Jason had a series of chills & sweats, not to mention all-over achiness and fatigue. NOT FUN. I let him sleep in for another two hours, and he was actually okay after that (see above photo - yes, I know he is in the act of exposing Boba to the flu virus, don't get me started), but then we had to cut present-opening short so that he could get back in bed. Meanwhile, we were halfway through Katrina's MOUNTAINOUS pile of presents from her grandparents, and Mommy was trying to bake a ham in the oven and struggling to make some kind of a festive meal. (The rice pilaf was completed, but the green-bean casserole was a no-go.) Throw in Katrina's constant crying for Mommy to hold her, and wham - we had ourselves our first "memorable" Christmas. And not necessarily memorable in a good way.

But, of course, through it all Katrina was a real trouper. She hasn't shown any signs of illness yet (we're on Day 3 of exposure and I've got my fingers crossed), and she's still smiling away like a pro. Aside from this new phase (I hope it's a phase) where she screams when Mommy is out of her sight, she's still a relatively easygoing and happy baby. And as always, she is as cute as can be!

So, Mommy was on 24-hr baby duty for the last 3 days, which means I am pretty exhausted myself. Ironically, though I'm back at work I actually feel as though I'm "off" my real day job. In a few days I fly off to the Philippines, and while in the past I used to see the 20-hr journey as tedious and tiring, I now see it as a welcome reprieve from my day-to-day grind. Not that Mommyhood is all hard work, but, let's face it - it's still HARD. I'm hoping that by then Jason will be recovered so that he can take over parenting full-time. He's only contagious until tomorrow anyway, so I think it will all work out. (He has since been quarantined to my parents' house - thank god for having family nearby! Although I have to say, my parents are in the Philippines now and I MISS THEM VERY MUCH!!!)

Okay, Christmas was not all bad. Grandma Robin was here, which made everything much more joyful. Here are a few shots from that day:

Boba doing her Jack Nicholson impression

Kissing a new toy - right before she stuffs it in her mouth

Whooping it up with Grandma Robin

Well, needless to say, Boba still had a heck of a Christmas!

"Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!"

Christmas through Boba's eyes

We have a lot of friends, Jason and I, who had their first child this year. So all of you fellow new parents get to enjoy the wonderful event that is : BABY'S FIRST CHRISTMAS. (Or Hannukah, or Kwanzaa, as the case may be.)

As the saying (read: cliche) goes: "Having a baby changes everything." And that is even an understatement. But, all sleep deprivation and poopy diapers and crying spells aside, one of the most beautiful things about having a baby is being able to experience everything for the first time with them. I mean, all of a sudden, a walk through the park is no ordinary walk; it's the first time Boba sees leaves! And hears a dog bark! And feels the wind! And so on so forth. I mean, it's all just kinda life-affirming, you know?

So, the glitz and glamour of the Christmas season are no exception. And somehow, the fact that she has no idea that all the gifts under the tree are for her makes this season even more precious. We can enjoy the purity of Christmas, as opposed to the whacked-out chaos of commercialism it's become. And, the great thing is, we can start creating our own family traditions, like, oh, I don't know....drinking hot chocolate first thing on Christmas morning! Or, or,...only openings presents wrapped in RED paper first! Or, sleeping in until 10 o'clock!

(Okay, so that WON'T be a tradition for at least a couple of years. Just a guess.)

Well, this Christmas is always going to be special to Jason and me, because it's our first with our baby girl. What could be better?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU AND YOURS!!!

Sitting Pretty

A couple of days ago, Jason propped Katrina up on her play blanket in a sitting position, and I parked myself right next to her, ready to catch her in case she fell. She sat...and sat...and sat. Before I knew it, a few minutes had passed and she hadn't fallen yet. Then I realized...oh my goodness...Katrina's sitting!

This just opens up a whole new world of possibilities! Prior to this development, Katrina was getting very frustrated with just lying down all the time, and whenever she would flip over on her stomach she would grunt as if to say, "That's it? I don't actually go anywhere when I do that?" Now, even though she is still immobile, she at least has a panoramic view of whatever's around her, and she can reach her toys with a bit more ease. Still, she occasionally has her doubts about this newfound freedom:

But most of the time she's just happy to stuff something in her mouth. She's teething, after all.

Oh, and another thing...

...I've changed the settings on my blog so that ANYONE can comment, not just fellow bloggers. So, comment away!

Two new posts below. Yee-hah!

Sunday is FOOTBALL DAY!!!

Every Sunday morning during football season, Boba is parked on Daddy's knee watching two games at once: the one on television and the one on his computer. (Daddy is a Fantasy Football junkie, so there ya go.) She actually seems to enjoy it. I encourage this kind of Daddy-Daughter bonding since I would like her to enjoy watching sports as much as she would watching, say, the Food Network (Mommy's favorite TV fare).

Boba watching the Chargers kick the Colts' collective butt....YEAH!!!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Poppy!

Katrina sends lots of hugs and kisses over to Coshocton, OH, for her Poppy Tom's birthday. She would like to apologize for the tardiness of her greeting, but she explains that she was held all day at a photo shoot where she had to demonstrate some silly games. She tried to cut it short but her agent wouldn't let her.

So, Poppy (not Poopy)...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR POPPY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

1-month old Boba and one of her two favorite grandfathers