Jessi sent over a few of the pictures that she had already post processed for us to have a look at, and this one is one of our favorites. We have a walk-through closet on the way to our en-suite that has mirrored doors, which is a magical place for a little 8-month old – she adores spending time there and playing with her reflection, so this makes an excellent place to take pictures. At just over 8 months, Portia has turned into a little busy bee that has learned to stand and will spend hours working her way around the furniture and anything she can lean against, as you can see from this picture.

We are super proud of our extremely happy little girl, although mummy and daddy to sometimes wish that she would crawl a little longer before taking her first steps, sigh…

Please visit Jessi’s blog to see more of Portia as well as the rest of her work. We would both strongly recommend contacting her if you would like to have pictures taken, she has a wonderful eye and a great way with the little ones.

And a quick plug for Jessi, if you like her work, fan her on Facebook, so you know where to look when you need a photographer…

The post Some new Professional Pictures of Portia appeared first on Portia’s Portal.

Height: 71.5 cm (28.1″)
Weight: 9.78kg (21lbs 8oz)

The post Stats Update: December 15, 2009 appeared first on Portia’s Portal.

I can hardly believe it. After a very stressful night of Portia waking up every hour and a half and nursing a bit and then sleeping for another hour and a half, Portia’s first tooth pushed its way through her tender gums.

From stories of first teeth that I have read, it is a trying time where the baby screams, becomes feverish and does not sleep, but aside from the waking every 90 minutes, P displayed none of those things. She never had a fever, and wasn’t really that fussy. So you can imagine my surprise the following morning, when I felt a razor sharp little growth on the bottom as she tried to “yarm” my finger. For the rest of the day, she carefully managed to gnaw on every toy, until she could feel the impact her new tooth had on her “yarming” abilities.

The impact it had on me was one of fear. “She is going to want to nurse soon”, I thought, as a tiny sweat broke out on my brow. “It won’t be that bad”, I told myself. In the distance I heard the ‘squeak, squeak”, as Portia navigated her tooth stub over Sophie.

When the time came, it wasn’t that bad, in fact I didn’t feel a thing. A sigh of relief escaped from my mouth, until I realized that when she is feeding, her tongue covers the bottom tooth dagger and protects my “delicate areas” from looking like a cherry jelly bean that got caught in a SlapChop (Vince never mentioned that one)!

Stay tuned for the next chapter in this saga…”Do Top Teeth = Weaning?”

The post Portia’s First Tooth!!! appeared first on Portia’s Portal.

Interesting Factoid: apparently when you are pregnant, a lot of the iron you take in goes right into the baby to create a store as they do not get a lot of iron from breast milk. As they approach 4–6 months, these iron stores are almost depleted.

So, after some research into what to do, I decided to forgo the rice cereal, and start P with some actual fruits and veggies. I settled on the tastiest one of them all, (well out of the recommended starting veggies and fruits) the SWEET POTATO!

I gathered all the necessary provisions, including: soft plastic spoons, a blender, a high chair (amazing $20 Craigslist find), Sophie (P’s best friend), some bibs and last but not least… A SWEET POTATO!

P’s first introduction to eating something other than breast milk, her hands, Sophie, or random dangly toys, was to be strapped into her new high chair. It is a Fisher Price Healthy Start high chair that I am so pleased to say I got used bypassing the usual approximate $100 price tag. I strapped her in and clicked on the tray and watched the smile on Portia’s face grow! She has never been so high in her life… she could see out the window to watch the construction men across the street, she could see into the kitchen through the pass through to find out what mommy was doing, she could even stare at the dining room floor, but from farther away!

I figured I would just boil the sweet potato and then blend it up to a smooth consistency. I would eat it… but would she? Well, she was definitely interested, that’s for sure. She wanted to grab the spoon and grab the bowl. But then, she realized the food was headed towards her mouth. She got ultra excited, until that first taste. She pulled an “ewwww” face and shuddered. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Then she opened her mouth for more. Made the same shudder. Opened. Shuddered. Opened. Shuddered. You get the picture. She made it through about two ounces of sweet potato!

Overall, she loved her first eating experience (all but the actual food I think). After a couple of days of this, we are on to either avocado or banana. I will decide when I see what difference the sweet potatoes made to her diapers.

The post Portia’s First Solid Food (Besides Sophie, That Is!) appeared first on Portia’s Portal.

Weight: 9140g (20lbs, 2 oz)
Height: 71.5cm (28″)
Head Circumference: 43.3cm (17″)

Her doctor said she is still above the 97^th percentile for growth, but that she is following her own growth arc. Apparently this means, that instead of being a “fat baby”, she is just a younger “tall woman”, if that makes sense.

And as promised, a new picture of her growth, based on the “Conan-o-meter”.

I would say she is 1.2 Conans long!

The post Stats Update: November 2, 2009 appeared first on Portia’s Portal.

This however, did not stop people, otherwise healthy with NO underlying conditions of any sort from queue-jumping when the clinics opened for the first time. This apparently cause some very hurt feelings and from what I hear a bit of anger. Maybe I am out of sync with how serious this is, as I never thought of trying to pass myself off as a pregnant woman or elderly man in order to qualify.

It does scare me that people are dying from this flu, and dying quickly from most reports, but people also die from a lot of other illnesses everyday. As it stands right now, no one in our household is able to get the vaccine until the final week (yes, even Portia as she is a month short of qualifying for the next group). I am not sure if they think that six month olds have an impressive social life that requires getting a vaccine, where as five month olds are home bodies? Should I stop going out? Should I make Portia wear a mask? Should I proceed to order that family-sized allergen free bubble?

I think I will follow common sense, and wash my hands often, and not visit friends who are sick, etc. (Sorry guys, no chicken soup from me)

In the end, it may not matter if I think I should get the vaccine or not, as Glaxo Smith Kline has now said they have not been able to produce it as fast as they originally thought, which means they will have to delay immunizing people until the vaccine is available. They now say by Christmas they hope to have everyone done.

I know Portia would be fine with not getting this vaccine if it was up to her, she is tired of the jabs in her leg… poor little girl.

*I will keep you updated about our quest and if we end up getting it (the vaccine or the Flu).

The post H1N1, Anyone? appeared first on Portia’s Portal.

How not to wash your baby…

Bookmark them and read them when your baby is being rather trying to return you to your sanity.

The post Hilarious Baby Warning Labels appeared first on Portia’s Portal.

I set it up. Strapped her in. And waited for delight!

No delight.

Unfortunately, since Portia had never been in a Jolly Jumper, she had no idea how to work one. So mommy (I have no actual name anymore) starts bouncing around in front of her so she might get a hint how to use this marvelous contraption.

Still no bounce.

I then decide to gently bounce the chain connecting her to the frame in an up and down motion.

Still no bounce.

As I am trying to figure out how she will be able to figure it out, I hear the “ca-ching ca-ching” of the spring as she bounced! I turned around and found the bounce initiator…Conan the cat!

She gets so excited when she sees the cat, she naturally started to move, and then bounce, and now there is no turning back! She loves it. Oh, the people who invented the Jolly Jumper are near and dear to my heart. She now spends quite near to half her waking day in the Jolly Jumper, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing…

Conan thinks, "Portia is at perfect petting height"!

She gets so tired, but then gets mad when we take her out of it. I am sure this obsession will last for only one or two months, but that is one or two months that I will have a perma-smile on my face.

The post Jolly Jumper’s Rock!! appeared first on Portia’s Portal.

Apparently, the videos I have long thought to be intellectual development tools for early baby education and super intelligence have been exposed as the mindless videos they are. For some reason, although TV has long been thought of as a no-no for babies, toddlers and anyone else who is trying to expand their brain, the Baby Einstein brand has been largely exempt from criticism for their line of DVDs.

I must admit, I fell into their marketing scheme and was more than pleasantly surprised when gifted with a Baby’s First Moves DVD. I thought that as smart as Portia clearly was already (with parents like us), she is going to be gifted beyond reproach with the help of this DVD.

Well, much like when I ask her why she has so much gas, she stared blankly at the screen as the colours and shapes danced before her eyes. Even then, I was convinced that she is subliminally learning something to delight us with at a slightly older age.

Then, I read this…

http://www.babyeinstein.com

Apparently, the claims of higher intelligence are “misleading” and “exaggerated”, and NO TV is good for kids under two years. So along with Baby Einstein, I guess there will be no more Sid the Science Kid, Super Why or Curious George for Portia. And when she is old enough and asks me about what she used to do for fun when she was a baby, I will say “You played with clay” and completely ignore all references to the bad mom I have been for letting her indulge in TV.

So, for those of you in the US (which does not include me), who would like to be insignificantly compensated for the months of believing your child would be the one to solve world hunger, you can now return your DVDs (up to a maximum of four) and receive a refund of $15.99 each.

And in six to eight weeks, when your refund cheque arrives, you can take that money and apply it to something to counteract the effects of those DVDs…lots of bibs!

The post Baby Get Dummer Watching Baby Einstein? appeared first on Portia’s Portal.

Then I started to notice that you could gradually see more and more of her scalp. Max’s theory was that she had the same amount of hair, but it was spread over an ever bigger head. Then the back-of-head bald spot developed. So out came the selection of hats, so as not to embarrass her in public (kids can be so cruel).

Well, now the inevitable has happened, she has started to lose large amounts of her hair. That wouldn’t be so bad, but it all seems to be from one side of her head.

The other side still has enough hair to curl whimsically around her ear.

Maybe this will start a new trend in baby hair design (or heaven forbid in ADULT hair design).

Here are some pictures, but please, no pointing and laughing.

The post New in Baby Hairstyle Trends? appeared first on Portia’s Portal.