So I defrosted the frozen teething ring and Astrid seems to like it much better at room temperature.
There are little grooves in the plastic (i.e., lines, spirals, triangles, crisscrosses, curvy lines) for tactile fun.
The photos and news coverage I've been seeing of the wreckage caused by Hurricane Katrina look like the apocalypse. It's being touted as the nation's "deadliest natural disaster since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake."
to the city for another 3 months.
Jordan Barnes, a 1-week-old, sleeps with residents and visitors in an exhibition center at the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown New Orleans, Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. The hotel had a mandatory evacuation of all rooms due to windows breaking because of the hurricane. Barnes staying at the hotel with his parents, Martin and Nektar Barnes, and brother Martin Jr., 2, all from New Orleans. (AP Photo/The Palm Beach Post, Gary Coronado)
Here's Astrid with her Godmother Jill. I'm so glad Astrid has a Godmother like Jill who enjoys spending time with her and who takes great care of her (so her parents can venture out to concerts and movies from time to time knowing that she's in good hands), and we can share the joy of our little one together.
Uwe noticed them for the first time today. Astrid's new teeth! She has 2 bottom teeth coming in. We both could hardly believe it. She just turned 4 months old! Good news is that she didn't seem to have any fussiness or teething pain. 
I gave her a frozen teething ring today but Astrid didn't seem to like the cold. I'm going to defrost it and see if she prefers chewing on it when it's at room temperature with just water inside it.
Today was another scorcher in LA. The barometer was pushing up to 100 degrees for most of the day.
In the evening we had some friends over for dinner (Aaron, Leslie, and their 3 year old son Beck). Later on our friend John also joined us. We all sat out on our balcony and the evening temperature was perfect.
I can't believe:
There's also the Kool-Aid commercial with literally a guy dressed up as a pitcher filled with red punch. If I really think back this stuff was 99.99 percent sugar and so bad for us, but I still enjoyed watching the commercial and remembering how I loved watching the Kool-Aid Man crash through walls to the kids on the the other side all drinking Kool-Aid.
Uwe and I were looking at digital photos of Astrid the other day. We went back and viewed photos taken on the day she was born and the first few months of her life. We almost can't believe she was that tiny. She looks so different now in terms of features and size. It's only been 4 months but Uwe and I both already look back at our experience with fondness. Thinking back, that warm wave of nostalgia just washed right over us and brought smiles to our faces.
The makers of Brooks running shoes has a cute 90 second cartoon depicting "life". (Life of a runner of course.) Creative advertising.For Astrid's evening bath, we both took a plunge in the tub. Instead of a chore..."I have to bathe Astrid tonight"...it turned into some nice bonding time between us.
I noticed our reflection in the bathtub drain lever, so I took some photos. All the droplets of water you see are from Astrid splashing.
Our extra deep Kohler bathtub is like a swimming pool for Astrid. She splashes and kicks her legs out like a little frog. It's adorable to watch.
Now that she can hold her head up it's much easier for me to hold her securely and maneuver around with her.
I think Astrid will really enjoy the "Mommy & Me" swimming classes. The minimum age requirement for the classes is 6 months so we have to wait 2 more months.
Astrid's all clean and ready for dinner and then off to Lala Land.
Flickr has a feature for creating a magazine cover from a photo. 
Here's Astrid clean and happy on her changing table after her evening bath. For the first time tonight I bathed her right before feeding her and putting her to bed. Normally we bathe her in the afternoon because of the summer heat, but bathing her right before I put her down to sleep in the evening will establish more of a sleeping routine. First bath, then bottle, then bed.
Here is a photo of Astrid waiting patiently in the dentist's office waiting room. She doesn't have any teeth to be cleaned yet, but at least she got to meet her future dentist Dr. Shamsian.
Afterwards we went to Griffith Park and headed straight for the playground. This time I had my camera and got some fun photos of Astrid on the swing.
As you can see it didn't take too long for Astrid to catch on..."Alright! I like this swinging business mommy!"
I like these baby swings. They offer more support for babies. Astrid can even lay back and the swing cradles her little body. 
"Weeeee!" Do you see Astrid's big smile? What you can't see is the even bigger smile on my face. It was a lot of fun pushing Astrid on the swing and sharing her excitement. 
The playground was packed with families. During the summer since we have longer daylight, parents can take their kids to the park after work and still enjoy the day.
Astrid and I were happy that Uwe got to enjoy some time with us at the park. Fifi and Fido...too cute.
We'd had enough sun so we headed for the carousel. This time since Uwe was with us, we bought tickets (Astrid was free) and all went for a ride. Here is a photo of Uwe and Astrid standing in front of the carousel's organ. The ceramic dolls move.
We all sat in a sleigh on the carousel and even though the organ music was pretty loud, Astrid did really well sitting on my lap and we all enjoyed the ride. When the carousel started slowing down Uwe, a kid at heart, exclaimed, "Awww...it's over already?!"
Having a kid gives you an excuse to play and to relive your childhood. Although you don't get much sleep as a parent and it might give you some gray hairs, living in the moment and sharing the joy of your child keeps you young at heart.
Here is Astrid all dressed up and ready for our walk around the Rose Bowl today. Even though it was a hot summer afternoon I dressed Astrid in pants and matching socks (check them out...instead of polka dots, they have polka squares...total baby socks. When she gets older she's going to say, "I can't believe my mom dressed me up in those funky clown socks." But hey, when can she ever wear socks like these? Or ever let me dress her up in them? So take advantage while we can!), so that she won't get a sunburn.
The Rose Bowl is located in Pasadena, California. Although it's known mainly for the New Year's Day football game, it's also the home to UCLA football and has also hosted five NFL Super Bowl Games, the 1994 Men's World Cup, and the 1999 Women's World Cup, and has a Fourth of July fireworks celebration each year, and a bi-monthly flea market. There's also a country club located adjacent to it with an exclusive golf course. The 3 mile plus walking path around the bowl and golf course is always bustling with people walking, running, rollerblading, and bicycling.
During our walk Astrid kept pulling on her left sock. If you look at this photo you can see her left sock is a lot bigger than her right sock. That's because her sock is all stretched out. She ate her lunch on the golf course across from the 16th hole, in the shade, under a large sycamore tree.
The golf course has a fence around it but has lots of gates that are open for golf carts to zoom in and out. One open gate had two benches next to a tree in the shade. That's the spot I picked to feed Astrid. She ate while I watched the golfers.
Uwe and I took golf lessons and played for a bit but I never really caught the golf bug. I mean it can be fun but you have to walk in the hot sun and chase this little ball around and just keep hitting it. I always feel like, "How many holes are left? Let's hurry up so we can go." But today as I was watching those golf carts zoom by I thought to myself, "Now there's a way to play a game of golf." One old guy had a large cooler attached to the back of his cart. It was one of those coolers you see the football players pour onto their coaches, loaded with Gaterade, after winning a Superbowl championship. Nice. He saw me feeding Astrid and stopped to asked me, "Would you like a glass of ice water?" And then there were the 2 couples each driving around in their own golf cart laughing and drinking cocktails between holes. I may have to try that and see if that makes the game of golf a lot more enjoyable.
The squirrels were also out in full force today. It was sweet to see them chasing one another and barking. I kept pointing them out to Astrid and saying "squirrel." But of course she was preoccupied with pulling on her polka square clown sock, so she may not have been paying attention.
Speaking of squirrels...
When I was 5 months pregnant Uwe and I went to New York. We both wanted to be in a city where it snowed for Christmas and what better place than New York? So one day we went to Central Park and it was the first time I had seen the lake frozen into ice and there was an ice rink. I had visions of "Love Story" in my mind and I really wanted to go ice skating but the line was ridiculous. It was like a 2 hour wait. So instead we walked around the park and I got a pretzel and started feeding the squirrels. They are so friendly and all you have to do is hold out food and they come to you and eat right out of your hand. I had a big chunk of pretzel left and it became the running joke. Uwe kept trying to get me to throw it away but I kept it in case I saw another squirrel. Well wouldn't you know that after our trip and flight back to LA I reached in my jacket pocket and guess what I felt? Yep, that pretzel piece. It was hard as a rock. I couldn't resist. I turned to Uwe and held it out to him and asked, "Would you like a piece of pretzel?"
Getting back to our walk around the Rose Bowl...
Astrid enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells and of course pulling on her sock, while I broke a sweat and got a nice workout pushing the stroller arond the Bowl for 3 miles.
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