Lulu, nine months old

Lulu at nine months
Our little baby is now nine months old, meaning she’s been out as long as she was in.
And for most of those nine months, she has been on the road. ‘Una vida sobre ruedas’, like in the Pedro Almodovar movie ‘Carne Tremula’ when the protagonist – born on a city bus to a prostitute – wins a lifetime of free public transit in Madrid.

We hope she isn’t mad at us later for going on this big trip too early for her to have any memories – “But you’ve already been to Disneyland, Lulu”, we might say. Will she be a gypsy or a homebody?

Up until now, she’s been pretty patient.

But now this girl is on the move, and carseats are nothing but a hindrance.

So we do the best we can, finding ways to set her free in campgrounds, our tiny Airstream, The Venetian in Las Vegas (where every single person in a Japanese tour group took photos and videos of her crawling around), and the front seat of the car – while it is parked, of course – the steering wheel is a great way to practice standing.

Lulu lets us know when she’s mad, or teething (usually, these days), or just wants to make sure we know she’s there. Whereas Sophia’s scream was comparable to a fax machine, Lulu’s has been confused with the whistle of a boiling kettle. It’s amusing, unless it hits your eardrum at a certain angle.

There had been some concern that with Sophia as a sister, Lulu might appear in comparison to be a bit of a wallflower. Not so. She is ready for life and demands to participate in it, ASAP.

The girls are interacting more and more, really becoming friends and fellow extroverts. They are extra sweet to watch in the morning, when they are bright-eyed and entertaining each other…with the rest of us having to caffeinate to gear up for the day.

The girl can eat. Everything in sight, all the time. We are being a bit naughty, letting her taste things like ice cream, but it seems so unfair to let her watch the rest of us enjoy nice things.

Unfortunately for me, she has no idea what to do with a bottle, or a sippy cup. But normal cups and mugs work fine, so we’ll have to work with that.

Lulu is Not Blonde, but has hair that is light brown and slightly wavy with olive-y skin. She will be more like Daniel.

Despite that, though, Lulu is very much a mama’s girl. I think it will be a shock for us both when I go back to work.

She has spent her entire life with her entire nuclear family. We hope that compensates for her slightly strange upbringing so far.

I certainly can’t complain, it’s been so nice to be a stay-at-home mom, even if our home has been on wheels.

Bathing baby

Here is a photo of our Lovely Lulu in the bath. Yes, she still **just** fits in the sink of the Airstream's amazingly feature-filled bathroom, which sits across the back of the trailer.

Daniel thinks it's not good use of space, and spends hours daydreaming of converting it into a bedroom, but for now it is intact and works a charm for bathing a 7-month old baby.

Lulu's half-birthday

Lulu is now six months old.
So we had to have a party.
As soon as we arrived at the KOA in Crescent City, California, we all dressed for dinner: Sophia in her favorite dress (a gift from Cesar), Lulu in a dress given to her by Shelly, Daniel in his black velvet dinner jacket and me in my orange sequin-stripe tunic. And all of us adorned with jewelry and hairclips.
Accompanied by BBC Radio 2 on the computer, we sang and danced, ate penne with broccoli, parmesan and pinenuts, salad with avocado, tomato, albacore tuna, sweet onion and butterbeans, and drank delicious California syrah (lemonade for Sophia).
Lulu had stage 2 organic summer vegetable babyfood from Safeway.
It was fun.

Halloween in Vancouver

Trick-or-treat
One of Harald’s coups was arranging a Halloween Experience for Sophia (and Lulu). Sophia loves dressing-up nearly as much as her mother does, and had been excited about Halloween for at least a month. Americans get way more excited about Halloween than people of other nations, so we had to take advantage on this trip.
It turns out Canadians are pro-Halloween as well.
When Daniel enquired about Halloween activities by phone the week before we arrived, Harald said there was a place in town where shops offered trick-or-treating for kids.
So down to Yaletown we went, the afternoon of the 31st. It’s a pretty trendy neighborhood, which must have one of the highest hair salons per capita in the world.
The kids were out in droves, accompanied by their parents and even some grandparents. The best costume we saw was a young Michael Jackson, complete with jheri-curl, single white glove and boom-box.
Sophia went as a friendly witch (costume hasily bought from a supermarket in Washington state the day before, I’m ashamed to say. Lulu was a very unscary dragon, in an outfit given to us by Daniel’s sister Emma a few years ago.
Daniel and I, pathetically, went only as enthusiastic parents. Harald, amazingly again, was just as into it – even though his own son was away – and took Sophia into several of the participating stores.
It was a huge success. Sophia collected unimaginable amounts of candy, and best of all, she was allowed to eat it. Well, some of it.

Liability Spring

When Lulu was born, we couldn’t believe how calm, quiet and content she was. To get her to sleep, all you had to do was put her down. Even in utero, she was extremely chilled out.

Over the last few weeks, there has been a dramatic change.

Lest we worry she might be a wallflower, she has honed an un-ignorable raspy, growling cry that rises in pitch and volume when attention is needed.

Her interest in the world around her has gone from silent observation to smash-and-grab: a lightning-like speed in knocking over the hottest, messiest food; gnawing on the least kid-friendly non-food items (plastic, diapers, paper, cables); and banging on our few valuable belongings (laptop, glasses, camera).

And finally, she is returning Sophia’s King Kong-like affections.

We are starting to wonder what’s going to happen when she can sit up on her own – or worse still, crawl.

This might be what other parents of young children meant when they said we were very brave to embark on such a long trip.

Lulu’s first swim

For one reason or another, we hadn’t been able to take Lulu for a swim – pools are chlorinated, lakes are often too cold and the midday sun too strong.
So we were delighted when we got to Thermopolis, Wyoming, which advertises itself as the ‘World’s Largest Hot Spring”.
Our RV park, the Fountain of Youth, had its own pools – three of them, each progressively hotter, with the last one ending in a orange glowing mini volcano-like mound (the spring). These pools were in fact larger than the town’s own facilities, two of which had slides and spas, with the third one offering a free 20-minute soak. This was because the chiefs of the Arapaho and Shoshone tribes sold the land including Thermopolis to the US government under the provision that baths would continue to be available free of charge to the public.
So, back to Fountain of Youth.
It was a freezing cold Saturday night, and we arrived just before complete darkness fell. We debated whether to jump straight into the pools, or to have a beer and snacks. Swimming won.
Lulu loved it – the first pool was at almost the same temperature as her (most) nightly bath, and once she adjusted, she was able to move to the second one. She kicked and cooed and smiled, possibly remembering the joys of the womb…albeit a sulfur-scented one.
We hung out with other RV park residents – some of whom drank light beer from insulated can holders - chatting through the steam rising up from the water about places of origin and also the oncoming snowstorm.
At home among strangers, we rejoiced as the full moon, Jupiter and a gigantic Big Dipper made themselves known in the clear Autumn sky. Then, relaxing further, we listened as the camp’s owner, Ron Foote, sang and strummed his evening songs.

So, we remained in Thermopolis for three days and three nights, waiting out the cold front before crossing the Rockies. Day and night, we ran shivering in the snow and sleet between electric heater in the Airstream towards the embrace of the hot pools. Not bad.