Just a girl in a swing

Car Seat on a Boat

When I was pregnant, and we decided to move onto the boat and get serious about our cruising saving and plans, I did a lot of research about cruising with kids.  I bought every book I could find on the subject.  There seemed to be some general consensus that installing a car seat on the boat somewhere safe was a good option when you needed to put the baby down and do some sailing.  So, it only took us 7 months to make it happen, but we took our first sail with the car seat!  

I bought an extra, used, inexpensive infant car seat base that Yemaya's car seat clicks right into.  Ari installed two mounting rings that car seat LATCH systems can clip right into (so it will be good for the next car seat size up too).  Ari clipped the base in and snugged it down tight.  We plopped the car seat in and buckled Yemaya in safe.  

The sail took place a little late in the day, and Yemaya was not in the best of moods, but she was safe.  I hung some nice toys for her, but she really prefers the vang and cunningham lines.  I'm fairly sure that the fancy lines Ari bought are not organic cotton, but Yemaya does love sucking on them.  As we tacked up the estuary I played down below with the baby.  When we turned around and headed downwind, the wind was getting lighter and Ari wanted to put up the geniker.  So into the car seat Yemaya went.  We sailed nicely downwind for a bit as we watched the container ships and tug boats moving around.  And as it always happens, as we sail by, the container ships get ready to move.  Oakland is, after all, one of the busiest ports on the West Coast.  At that moment it was nice to have two hands on deck.  Not absolutely necessary, but nice to have the baby down below and safe so we could move to one side and take the geniker down, while the container ship was turned and pushed out to the Bay.  Yemaya cried a bit, but I sang to her, and she was fine.

I spent some time feeding her and playing with her down below before we docked.  But then, back in her car seat, grumpy and tired, for a quick moment while I helped with docking.  Again, we sang to her to calm her down and keep her happy.  I wondered if anyone heard us and was curious as to why the small boat was docking to "Itsy, Bitsy Spider" and "Five Little Ducks."  In case there are other sailing parents out there, I have used "Five Little Ducks" on two different crying children on sailboats and both times it worked like magic.  Not sure why, but a good one to know in an emergency.  http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/f005.html

In general, the car seat was great.  Yemaya was a little over tired from a busy weekend, so she did not show her love for the car seat set up, but I think it will grow on her.  Now we just have to get the same set up going for Macha.  After that, the next baby safety project is a harness and tether for when she is walking or crawling above deck (which requires both learning to crawl/walk, and for the rain to stop).

A while back, before the baby, I summed up everything I had learned from my reading about cruising with babies and kids.  If any of you out there have more suggestions or stories to share I'd love to hear them.  http://sv-macha.blogspot.com/2009/04/baby-aboard.html

Wet cockpit

Q: Where do you put a baby to play outside when the cockpit is wet?

A: In the baby bath tub of course.

Just out for a sail with a baby

Ari and I took a quick sail on the Tuna with the baby after work. It
was a wonderful sunny day, and isn't that why we (he) bought it after
all. But right now, sailing with the baby means that one of us is
watching her and one of us is single handing the boat.


We hope to make a way to put her car seat in so we can strap her down
when needed, and perhaps I will figure out some other method of
containing her safely. But for now, when the winds get light and Ari
wants to hoist the geniker, and then the winds get lighter and he rows
a little with the geniker still up, this is what you end up with.  Notice the line in his mouth!

It was a really great family sail.  Yemaya loved every minute of it.  I'm not sure she knew what was going on, but she loved cuddling with mom and dad, rolling over onto the sail bags, and flashlights and shadow puppets after sunset.  Hopefully, with the winter rains coming to an end soon, and longer days, there will be many more sails on the Tuna at sunset before returning home to Macha to tuck the little one in for the night.

Boat Projects with Babies

Today I tried to finish a project while alone with the baby.  The project is a baby gate of sorts to keep her confined into a safe space on the boat.  It is only a rectangular piece of fabric with six snaps on it, but it has taken me many days.  First I cut and sewed a piece that turned out to be one inch too small because I forgot to add one inch when I was cutting for the seams.  Then I remeasured and cut another piece of fabric.  That fabric has now been sitting around for a few days waiting for the right moment.  Which occurred at nap time today!

I quickly sewed some seams and then "whahhhhhh".  My darling baby slept for exactly 30 minutes today!  But, it is not all bad, because I broke out the bouncy swing.  That gave me at least 10 more minutes of banging and drilling to put a few snaps in place.  Of course she poops while in there and needs a total outfit change and is not really interested in going back in to the chair.  I tried putting her in the safe bed to play, but that just made her mad.  I tried playing with her and she cried, I tried ignoring her and she cried.  I finally fed her some rice cereal, and gave her a few new toys.  5 more minutes, one more snap.  More crying, more breast feeding.  More toys and crying, and at last four hours, and three days of work, after I began my one hour project it is done!  She now will be safe and confined for at least a few months until she becomes smart enough to escape from this as well.

Yemaya plays drums

Yemaya Eats Squash

Yemaya's first drawing

With the help of cousins Z and S, Yemaya was able to make her first drawing. She is very advanced!

The joys of travel

Here you can see what I like to call "My dad let me pee all over my
clothes, and then I pooped in the baby bjorn and had a major blow out,
and mom only packed one extra outfit, airport tee shirt." The smallest
shirts they had were 2x, but the yellow one at least fit over her
head. The very cute Canada shirt has the smallest head hole I have
ever seen. Ari couldn't believe there was not some kind of
standardization for these kind of things.

Visiting the cousins

Up here in Canada we have been spending many busy days with the Paynes.  Yemaya is not used to all the noise and busy bodies here, so she naps more than usual.  Sometime she cries and if we walk her into a quite room she is happy again.  She is a little spoiled by her quiet life in California.

Last night we had our first experience with a vomiting infant.  Despite the fact that she is quite the spitter-upper, I was horrified by the amount of vomit all over me.  My sister in law agrees that child spit up soaked through to your underwear is the worst!  She seems to be recovering well, and we only had to wet vac the carpet and couch so far.  Luckily anything that Yemaya could slime up, one of her cousins has probably slimed before.

Long trip north

Well, we made our 14 hour trek to visit family in Canada and for
Yemaya to see her native land. It was long and Ari and I watched
movies instead of sleeping on the plane. By the time we got to the
train station Ari could hardly see straight. I however was still awake
like a champ. By Christmas day we were almost back to normal. Ari set
his alarm so not miss all the little ones fun. The next morning the
whole house was up at six with Ari's alarm. Good thing we didn't all
sleep through.

I said I would never

I used to see parents give their keys to children to play with, and
for what ever reason I thought that there was something bad about
that. Well, now that I have a baby and want to eat lunch without
anyone in my lap, I have changed my mind. Of course, letting a child
play with my iPhone... I don't know about that. Owen "helping" me make
a video of Yemaya was just good sense. And Yemaya is too small to hold
the phone anyways.

The Yellow Sweater

The legend has it that this sweater took nearly 30 years to complete.  The design is fancy and intricate and the acrylic yarn was hard to come by, but it was the ribbon detailing that really took the last 29 years or so.  But at last my mother finished it at Thanksgiving and my daughter will now been seen in a sweater meant for the previous generation of Finger girls.  We have some ideas of putting her in a green outfit underneath and making her look like a flower.  The first fitting did not go so well, but she has since been able to wear it without crying.

Why is she crying?

The other day she was screaming in the car the whole way from the store home.  She was fed and changed, so I had no idea what was wrong...until I went to get her and saw this...

I would be mad too if I puked all over myself.  I made the photo nice and big so you can see the detail.

Photos and more soon about all our adventures in Denver (if my sister Kate ever emails me some pics).

This one's for Deirdre

Deirdre has the best taste in clothes!  And she hasn't even spit up on it yet.

She reads

Yemaya at the Claremont Hotel

She loved the king sized bed and had a very relaxing day at the spa.  She said she is happy to return anytime.  

Baby Monkey

Well in case you missed it the first time around... Yemaya was a monkey and Ari and I were on Safari.  We went on a Halloween Parade with Deirdre, Naomi and her family.  Yemaya missed out on most of it because she apparently thinks her Halloween costume is for sleeping.

 

Pumpkin Patch

We went to buy a BIG genoa sail last weekend.  Pictures to follow once we get it up. There have been strong winds for a few days, so that will have to wait. 

On the way I saw a sign for the pumpkin patch, and I love Halloween!  So we stopped in to see the world record corn maze, and it was decimated by a previous storm.  We did how ever see many pumpkins bigger than Yemaya.

Cute hands

Yemaya can do all sorts of things with her hands now. She can get her
thumb in her mouth, put toys in her mouth and hold on to her parents
shirts. She likes to feel Ari's beard when he gets her in the mornings.