mylène daily

Mylène is half a year old!! And here is a new picture with the zebra and an a wrap up of the developments of the past month.

-Talking: if you have listened to the recordings I put online about one week ago, you have a good idea of her current talking skills. Shiqi recently remarked that Mylène is the baby who talks the most and moves the least in the baby playing group (PEKiP course).
-Crying: Mylène is showing the first signs of being spoiled: she starts crying when you leave her on her own, and shows a big smile immediately after picking her up. Gotta do something about that.
-Laughing: that, she does often now (also to be heard on a previous post) and we cannot get enough of it.
-Moving: in this respect, Mylène developed a lot during the past month. She can roll-over from her back to her belly and from her belly to her back again. Rolling on the belly goes over the right side only, though. Furthermore, she is moving her legs much more, and is trying to grab anything that comes into reach. Changing diapers is getting a real nuisance, as she cannot lie still anymore!! It is very funny to see, how she moves her hands up and down from the wrist, when she is holding a small object, while looking at it. I will post a movie clip about this, shortly.
-Sleeping: no big changes here. Although, one thing did change. Mylène does not sleep so well in the car anymore.
-Eating: our little girl is offered a varied menu nowadays. There is mother milk for early in the morning (around 5:00 am), and right before going to bed at night (19:00), there is bottle milk (250 ml Alete or Beba H.A.2, three times per day) and a (bio) carrot-potatoe-beef-mix (190 ml Hipp jar) once per day (around 12:00). She seems to like anyting we give her, although she is a bit picky about when to eat.
-Observing: Mylène keeps a close eye on anything in her direct vicinity, and is especially interested if I brush my teeth, while she is lying on the diaper table, and Shiqi is changing her diapers. What we like to look at every day, is how she looks at the sleeves of her pyjama when there is a print on them.
-Hair: visibly growing, but the almost bold spot on the back of her head is still visible very well.
-Weight: approximately 8,8 kg
-Size of clothes: 68 or 74
-Other: we recently noticed, that Mylène is anticipating in some cases. For example, she already closes her eyes and puts up an ugly face, when moving a wet cloth in her direction ... she hates it, when her face is washed. More about this later.

It is amazing how much Mylène has learned during the past six months!!

These days, I feel an almost irresistable urge to record anything Mylène does, with pictures, videos, and sound. I think it is because she has come to a point now, at which you can really something with her: she looks at you, interacts, grabs, laughs, and "talks" with you. Playing with her, is really great at the moment!

Here are some recordings I made during the weekend ... with a mobile phone. Thanks for borrowing it to me, dad! Hope you have something from it, in this way, as well.


Recording 1
Recording 2
Recording 3

Last week, Shiqi started to feed Mylène with mashed carrot, besides the HA milk powder (we are now buying the HA-2 version, because we are hoping it will fill her up better, so she doesn't wake up at five in the morning anymore), and mother milk, which she still gets. The current schedule is: mother milk in the morning at 5:00 and 8:00, some carrot around 12:00 and immediately after that, a 250 ml bottle with HA milk, then another 250 ml bottle at 16:00 (which she never finishes, by the way), and before she goes to bed, some more mother milk, around 18:30. I have to add here, that the above is an idealised representation of reality. In fact, sometimes the feeding has to be split up into smaller portions so many times, that you get the feeling it takes all day.

The first carrot meal was no succcess: Mylène basically refused to swallow the stuff. As you can see on the picture, she was not all that happy with the new treat. But, on the second day, it went better already, and on the third better again. Maybe we will soon be able to substitute one HA milk meal with a portion of a vegetable-potatoe-meat-mix.

I am happy to be able to say, that the first three days that Mylène has been with Corinna went very very well. She seems to be very happy at the home of the family Osterkamp. Corinna even called here a showcase baby, so sweet she was! Needless to say how proud I was :-)
That was a good start, which helps us a lot in getting used to the new situation, and I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we feel very comfortable with it already. Shiqi was already complaining about work, even claiming that changing diapers might not even be worse than work. Did she really mean that? Probably not ... and even if she did .... we need your income, mum!!

One more day at work for me, and then the weekend already starts again. Time to catch up on some photo shooting of our little girl :-)

After a little over five months of being together with Mylène every day, Shiqi started working again today. So, for Mylène, a new period has started, during which she will spend three days per week with Corinna Osterkamp.

Yesterday evening, Shiqi and I were going through the planning for the day (especially the morning) and we realised how quickly those five months have past. I think Shiqi has really enjoyed those months, in which she could spend time with Mylène very intensively. No doubt, that will change from no on. And it is with that in mind, I think, that she started working again today with mixed emotions.

Luckily, we are very happy that we found such a lovely family that will take care of Mylène for three days a week. So we are confident that at least Mylène will have a very nice time. The big question of course is: can WE handle it?

And on this first day, many things went wrong ... of course. It started in the morning, after a night of continuously waking up, when Mylène finally slept deeply and did not want to wake up. When we finally woke her up, she was so disturbed, that she started crying and did not stop for about fifteen minutes. Before bringing her to Corinna, Shiqi could not convince Mylène to drink and even after trying at Corinna's place, Mylène refused.
The day at Corinna's place went very very well. During the day, we informed several times about the wellbeing of our little girl and were told that all went well (... perhaps they would have said the same, even if Mylène would be crying her eyes out ... I would, if I were them, haha).
I decided to go home a bit early, and around five thirty I was back in Warburg, and went shopping. It was snowing by then, and as I was strolling through the supermarket, Shiqi called me. She told me she was stuck in traffic, as a truck that could not move any further because of the snow, had blocked the way. Could I go and pick up Mylène? Of course, I thought. No problem.
Well, it turned out to be not so easy as I had hoped. On the way to the Scherfede (where the family Osterkamp lives) it started snowing heavily. I got through, but the biggest hurdle was still lying ahead of me, as the street in which they live, starts very very steeply uphill after a sharp curve. I took the curve, tried to gain speed, got up a bit, but then ... the wheels of my Smart for Two slipped, the ESP was activated, and the journey uphill came to a sudden end. Even more so, because also braking was no use anymore, I was sliding downhill slowly but gradually with no possibility to control the speed. Luckily, the steering still had an effect so I did manage to get down again safely, without ending up in somebody's garden. I parked the car, walked uphill, and in the end, arrived at the Osterkamps' where I found Mylène in an excellent mood, not showing any sign of relief to see me or enthousiasm to go home with me. After a short chat, Gerold brought me back to my car, and Mylène and I drove home together, where we also met Shiqi, who had also finally managed to get back safely again ... after a tiring first day and a 1,5 hour journey home.

Right now, both Mylène and Shiqi are sleeping, and I will follow their example soon. In a few hours, when we are all dreaming about the events of today, I am pretty sure that the one with a happy smile on her face will be Mylène. We still need some time to get over the first day of a new period.

After Mylène succeeded to roll from her back to her belly, we were wondering how long it would take her, to roll from her belly to her back again. Mylène obviously felt that rolling to one side was only half work, and put everything to it, to finish the job. And tadaaa ..... only two days later, I proudly present to you: Mylène is rolling from the belly to the back:

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