An all new video wherein Ronin has a second encounter with a yam. As you can see she still hasn’t quite figured out how to deal with “solids.”

Ronin had her six-month checkup and shots the other day. She was really good and showed off all her milestones for the doctor. The shots were horrible as usual and Dora the nurse again traumatized the three of us with her breezy sense of incompetence. Ronin crashed out the moment we got home, slept for an amazing hour and a half, and woke up crying. She didn’t stop until we put her to bed early. She hasn’t stopped yet. Oh, I’m kidding, sort of. She has been seriously cranky the past four days and yesterday evening/last night/this morning was horrible. I can’t figure out if it has to do with the shots still or something else. Everyone says (everyone = strangers off the street), “OH, she’s teething! Aren’t you? Yes you ARE!” because she likes to chew and slobber on stuff. Of course, I’m all, “She didn’t just agree with you, she doesn’t even speak English.” But I do check on a near-hourly basis to see if emerging dental action is the cause of her beastly temper, but no, nothing there but a bunch of squishy gums. And slobber.

(Stats: 17 pounds, 26.25 inches long, 17-inch head circ. Big girl! All around 60th-ish percentile.)

Three days ago we were thinking we maybe should get a stroller and now we have two of them. Stroller number one is a BOB we got used off Craigslist (we are officially yuppies starting NOW) and the other we found in the trash (dumpster-diving yuppies!). I like to think the free dumpster stroller sort of takes the edge off the super-fancy BOB but unless I put a bumper sticker on the BOB that says “My other stroller I got out of the trash,” I don’t suppose anyone will actually realize that I’m not just another suburban mom walking around with her bright red $300* jogging stroller but in fact, like some kind of dangerously hip crime-fighting super-anime ninja** in disguise.

Of course we didn’t set out to get the BOB stroller, not that I didn’t know they existed, but I considered them to be the ultimate in dorky jock extravagance. I mean, you can get a NEW jogging stroller for less than $100 and why buy new when you can get one even cheaper from Craigslist. Here’s where we went astray. 1) Accidentally touched a BOB stroller in a bike shop we were browsing while waiting for our Lebanese takeout. 2) Put Ronin in it and pushed her around in circles, “DANG this is nice.” 3) Started searching Craigslist for a used stroller; boggled minds at the confounding range in prices and the god-awful photos people take of the zillions of brands and models. 4) Went to Babies R Us to actually look at all the brands in person. Except Babies R Us is a horrid store so evil that despite 13 square acres of baby merchandise, you still can’t find anything you actually want. Also, can I just say now that if you EVER hear me suggesting, “Why don’t we just go to Babies R Us to look at all the models so we have something to compare when we’re browsing Craigslist,” smack me a good one. 5) We hated every single stroller in Babies R Us. 6) We started browsing BOBs used on Craigslist (it’s all downhill from here). 7) Justified ourselves thinking that if we could just get a really great deal on a used (but in essentially brand-new condition and not last-year’s model either) BOB, we could sell it again when we’re through for what we paid for it. 8) It’s red.

* That’s what they cost NEW. Not used off Craigslist haha, whew! But ours looks brand new so everyone must think I bought it new and spent $300 on a stroller for god’s sake. Can you tell I am nursing something of a complex about this? Give me a couple of weeks for my eyes to adjust to the red and my sensitive nerves to settle.

** Oh I’m kidding! I’m not really very hip.

ps – Stroller number two is a lightweight umbrella stroller which folds up into a tidy, um, umbrella-like shape.

pps – We don’t have a photo of the Contraption yet.. I’ll try to get one today.

Clackamas River, Oregon

Fish Creek Trail

On the trail with Cheyenne, Hans and the cougar bait.

Pup Creek Falls (about 200 feet)

Ronin did pretty well on the hike. Although she did throw a fit about 3 miles in that made us seriously consider turning back. Of course, turning back would have been pointless since we were hours from the car. We pushed on for the last half mile or so and the falls made it all worth it. The first hour we didn’t make very good time because we were stuffing ourselves silly on berries. There were blackberries, thimble berries, salmon berries, and black caps. Yum yum. Ronin didn’t get any but Otto must have eaten his body weight. We also packed in banh mi for everyone.

Before heading back to the city I took a nice invigorating dip in the icy cold river. Hans and Cheyenne were too chicken to join me but I wanted to show off my new blue bikini.

Butterfly wings. Clackamas River, Oregon.

[Ro likes to pull up grass, examine it closely, then put it in her mouth (I pull it out because grass is a Stage II food).]

Well, I meant to post this a week ago but it didn’t happen. The big news today is Ronin is sick. First cold. POOR BABY. (And these past few days I’ve been sick.) She seems confused mostly, and is coughing all over the place. There doesn’t seem to be all that much we can do except watch her and keep her comfortable, encourage her to sleep. I brought her in the bathroom when Joshua took a shower to breathe in the steam. We planned to go on a hike to a waterfall today and are still going to go; we figure she will be happiest outside in the woods anyway if she is of the cranky disposition today (and it is definitely looking like today is brought to you by CRANKY). I’m packing the infant tylenol and a nose bulb in case things get dicey on the trail.

Ronin is six months old, give or take a week; my excuse for not posting this promptly on the 13th is because we were actually in a place where there was NO internet. At all. Not even a weak wifi signal from the neighbors. (Also, I’m a slacker.) This past six months, unlike most other six-month periods of my life, has been both very long and yet incredibly short. Pregnancy was like that too. I felt like the time flew by but when I thought specifically of a certain week, it was, GOD, AGES ago. I watched some early videos of her from the first weeks and watched her wiggle like an uncoordinated amoeba. In six more months I’ll have a (um) vocal walking (or close to it) mini-Godzilla on my hands.

Regarding the solids thing, I think I have to admit to myself that Ronin hates food. And by association, all spoons. We have been trying at least once per day to try to get her used to it but as soon as she sees the spoon or suspects something is amiss, she arches her back and starts whining. Or rather, humming in a whiny way because she will not open her mouth at this point. Of course, initially I gave her the spoon to play with but she regards it with suspicion; on occasion she will chew on the handle part. She puts it in her mouth, pulls it out, then makes a sour face like there was food on it and slowly rolls her gums around. It’s pretty hilarious.

Lately, I have used a folded up piece of Mojo bar wrapper to feed her (with marginal success). Naturally, all age-inappropriate foods are of high interest to Ronin and in particular, bars of any type. So I got the idea to scrape a bit of rice up on the edge of the bar wrapper and she ate it like no problem (although she did seem surprised that something stayed in her mouth after the crinkly thing went out). She ate with the wrapper twice more and then I ran out of Mojo bars.

In other news, she went on a six-day poop strike last week. We were a bundle of frayed nerve endings by the end of it but it ended far less spectacularly than I had imagined. Now I’m less alarmed when she misses a few days.