This week was about connecting with people. I figured out that one of the things I can learn while hanging out with A- is how to make friends, since it naturally immerses me in a world with other people, excuses to talk and get together, and common ground. A- gets jealous when I talk to my friends, so we'll probably need to practise with other parents before I get to hang out with childfree grown-ups.

We've also been dealing with more tantrums around overtiredness, bedtime resistance, and mealtime delaying tactics, probably exacerbated by teething pain. We're getting better at calmly setting limits and remaining empathetic. We're going to get through this.

• Kaizen
  • We decided to prioritize cooking fresh food often instead of bulk-cooking and reheating.
• Us
  • I broke my server during an upgrade, so I stayed up late getting nginx, PHP, passenger, rvm, and the right Ruby version working again.
• Field trip
  • What a full day! We went to music class. Then we visited Tita Joy (A- mostly played with J-‘s toys). Then off to the drop-in center, the dollar store, the organic food store, and the supermarket…
  • We went to a drop-in centre about an hour away by transit because it was open in the afternoon. A- liked the snacks and circle time songs. She also played with the dollhouse.
• Language
  • “What's the monkey doing? Not really a monkey.” A- now provides her own verbal footnotes!
  • “Today is experiment day!”
  • A- loved asking, “Ok Google, what's the weather for today?”
• Self-care and independence
  • The dentist reassured me that I don't need to worry about the bonding peeling away a little from her capped tooth. A- lay still enough for the dentist to “count her teeth” carefully. After the visit, she picked a ball from the toy bin.
• Eating
  • At school, A- ate lots of pear and Shreddies cereal.
  • W- made steamed fish and A- ate lots of it.
  • A- really liked chicken adobo. She ate basically a drumstick and a half.
• Social
  • We had Ewan, Hala, Jen, E-, and S- over for dinner. Chicken soup, pot roast, and pumpkin pie worked out wonderfully, even though the kids were all a little grumpy at various times.
  • We invited Melissa, H-, Barbara, and J- over for pumpkin pie. H- and J- mostly played with each other, and A- sat on my lap and asked me to read books to her. Still, a good first step!
  • When we visited Jen, Ewan, and E-, I cooked honey glazed wings, and they made tomato au gratin, sweet potato mash, and baked apples. A- liked playing with the owl puppet, so we borrowed it. This weekly rhythm of social interaction feels nice.
• Pretend
  • A- wanted to sleep on the folded up comfort (her “bassinet”). She asked for the gum massager (her “baby toy”) and chewed on that for a bit before going to sleep.
• Other
  • A- found the meh dai carrier and we tried it on. She's a little too big to safely or comfortably carry in it, I think.

Blog posts

• 2018-12-03 Emacs news

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