All About Abby Cate

Now that Brett has started working on the development team at the online music site, Pandora, he is just a 10 minute drive from our house.

Abby and I met up with Brett for lunch today at WholeFoods in downtown Oakland and then strolled over to Lake Merritt. Abby turns 8 weeks on Sunday and is very aware of her surroundings these days. She loves taking it all in from the safe vantage point of Daddy's arms.

It was a perfect day for a photo shoot, and luckily Abby was looking mighty cute in her new "Baby Legs" (Brett strongly believes that pants are highly overrated for babies that poop and pee a lot), her snuggly pink bear hat from Great Uncle Bob and Great Aunt Jane, and her Home Grown onesie from Court's friend Leiha.

On Sunday, March 9th Abby was invited to a breakfast date with Jeremy Ruiz. Brett and I and Jeremy's parents, Cymbre and John, went along as chaperones to make sure things didn't get out of hand.

Jeremy is a real big boy now at 7 months old and actually has a defined nap time of 9:15 (hoping this will rub off on Abby!). Therefore, we all met up for the early bird breakfast at 8 AM. With the added challenge of Daylight Savings, it was a miracle that we all made it! Getting Abby to places on any schedule other than her own can be a bit challenging at times. She was being a "fussy eater" at our house in the morning, but seemed perfectly content to "eat on the run," starting in our parked car and then literally as I was walking into the restaurant. This was all made possible by a little sheet of fabric called the "Bebe Au Lait" or nicknamed the "hooter hider" and the fact that we were in Berkeley. As Cymbre commented, "hey, if you can't do it here, I don't know where you could!"

We met up at a popular Berkeley breakfast spot called Rick and Ann's, where we fit in perfectly since a munchkin in tow is pretty much a requirement at this spot.

Jeremy and Abby had a fun time checking each other out and Abby even shared her pacifier with Jeremy. She can't wait until she is bigger so they can really play together!

I am suddenly starting to understand what my parents meant when they said I "cried for the first 9 months." Right back at ya, Court!

While Little Miss Abby is cute as can be, let's just say that there are times when she is, well ... not so cute ...! But really, we feel bad for her because her fussiness seems to come from gas and those times when overtired meets overhungry ... can we say meltdown?

Thus, Brett and I have spent many an hour trying all sorts of tricks to calm Little Miss Fussy. Here we demonstrate the tummy hold, the exercise ball bounce, the jiggle and "shush, shush, shush," and the baby bath - highly effective until she has to get out (waaaah!).

We are also trying to work on putting her down for official naps during the daytime so that we can hopefully ward off some of the madness at night. Please feel free to share your baby soothing secrets with us novice parents!

After 6 weeks of being cooped up in our home, Brett, Abby and I were ready to venture out for a night on the town ... well, at least a few hours.

We ventured out to Cato's Alehouse in Oakland, equipped with diaper bag and freshly pumped milk in a bottle for Abby so that Court could enjoy a real beer at a real restaurant!!!

Prepared for the worst, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Abby slept almost the entire time! Given that one of the "white noise" tracks on Abby's favorite CD, "For Crying Out Loud" is called "restaurant noise," I suppose the busy pub noises must have soothed her to sleep.

The other big development this week was that when we visited Abby's pediatrician, he diagnosed her "baby acne" as actually cradle cap on her face! The good news was that it was treatable and after a couple days of California Baby's Calendula Cream (which as a bonus smells really good), Abby's face cleared up!