Eleventh Week

We are done with formal weekly photos since I am returning to work soon (don’t worry about second child syndrome; Jameson only had 10 weekly photos too), but I will document these weeks where I have time.

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We just loved having the family home for our 4 day holiday weekend. Dad took off work on Friday for the Thomas the Train outing, and Coraline was just an angel the entire time. Saturday we enjoyed a visit from Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Melissa for Dad’s birthday, and it is always nice to have another pair of arms holding and occupying her for a little while.

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Sunday of course was our visit with JP & Lisa and Jonathan and Coraline enjoyed being outside on the cool day. I’m sad that she won’t be able to spend as much time outside once she starts daycare.

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Coraline is still taking 30 minute naps but is happy between so I try not to worry about it much. About once a day I try to take her out for errands long enough for her to sleep a little more.

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I washed her 6 month clothes, which was weird because she’s not even 3 months old yet. I have a lot of sleepers that we’re not using yet because she still likes being swaddled, so at night she’s typically just in a onesie and swaddled that she throws her arms out of.

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Bottle feeding is still unsuccessful. She no longer screams since we found that she is okay with the latex nipples on Playtex bottles. She particularly likes the fast flow though and doesn’t suck much, maybe a half ounce per bottle.

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Coraline loves bath time until we have to get her out and she’s cold. She has a little cradle cap and dry skin but baby acne is mostly gone.

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The other day after bath Jameson spontaneously did “this little piggy” on her toes and hands which was so cute. They are getting along so well and she enjoys watching him.

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8 Weeks Old

This week with Coraline was better than the last. She is spending a lot more time “talking” and cheerful when she is awake. We are still working on nap times, but thankfully she seems to enjoy sleeping in her stroller outside, and that is how she napped most of the weekend.

She likes to eat her hands, but still hasn’t quite figured out how to use that to soothe herself. In fact, she breaks out of the swaddle one to three times at night (yes, through tight velcro!) and cries only after she doesn’t find her hands satisfactory.

Jameson was home for this photo shoot because Great Aunt Carol and I took them to the zoo! It was a great trip.

We’ve found cleaning her little neck rolls to be more challenging than we realized, and I have to make much more conscious effort with it since the skin under there is irritated right now. The woes of chubby babies! The bigger she gets, the more we think she might actually look somewhat like me.

This week she started looking upwards instead of letting her head just fall to the side. She enjoys looking at the ceiling fans and in particular her mobile over the changing table!



Coraline and I took a couple self portraits on the porch; we are really enjoying the porch in the front and the swing in the back depending on where the sun is during the day. She loves to sit upright with her back patted, or over the shoulder where she can look around.

We also enjoyed the pleasure of a little visit from Great Aunt Carol again; it is nice to have an hour or so of not holding a baby, as cute as she is.

I successfully went to two more lunches without having an awake baby, but I have found that I need to rock her the entire time or she wakes up! The movement seems to be necessary, but as long as I get a one-handed meal then we are good. It has been nice to feel confident going out again after our rough week or so where she wouldn’t nap.

Now, if only we could get her to take that bottle… we are still working on it without success and I just bought a couple more. We have tried mOmma, Medela Calma, Breastflow, Tommee Tippee. The only one she will take an once from is the mOmma one. I haveĀ  just purchased Playtex and Dr Browns to try next. My original focus was to get bottles that encouraged breastfeeding with wider bases and specific technologies, but at this point, I would like her to take anything. Wish us luck!

 

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4 Weeks Old

She’ll be a month old on Saturday when we’ll get to start the first of her monthly photos. Can you believe it!?

Coraline is turning out to be a very mellow baby pretty consistently (it doesn’t seem like it’s just a fluke of newborn-ness right now).

The only exception is when she gets tired. If you let her get over tired, it becomes pretty difficult to get her to go to sleep, and she usually needs to suck.

At the first sign of fussiness now, I will try her in another position in case she is bored, and if she doesn’t settle, I’ll begin swaying her to sleep. She really only gets fussy when she is tired or very hungry, and sometimes just bored. And even hunger she will grunt for a while as a warning before the all-out-yelling begins.

This week I really felt like I am understanding her wants and needs better and our days have run very smoothly recently. More smoothly, I think, than they did with Jameson.

Some differences, which make it really clear how different babies really can be:

  • Jameson always seemed bored, like he needed a lot of stimulation and activity. I was thankful for daycare for this reason; so far, Coraline doesn’t seem to need this same kind of stimulation. She likes to look at faces a lot, and observing the world around her seems enough, for now. I’m guessing she may smile sooner than he did, but we’ll see!
  • Coraline doesn’t take a pacifier (we’ve tried four), and has a big preference for breastfeeding. She had her first bottle which went well, but the two we gave her since then she hasn’t taken, which makes me nervous. The key seems to be that she is confusing us between when she is hungry and when she is overtired and just wants to suckle herself to sleep. Jameson was always a bit of a struggle with breastfeeding (especially at her age now), and took pacifiers and bottles easily.
  • She doesn’t seem to spit up as much as Jameson did.

  • Coraline is a very loud sleeper, grunting and whining a lot. She is fine though without vibration or a pacifier once asleep.
  • She likes the swing! Hurray for a baby who likes the swing!
  • Jameson pooped once every 5 days or so (this is a normal, though not very common, occurrence with breastfed babies). Coraline is of the much more common several-times-a-day pooper (though thankfully not often at night). Consequently, while he seemed frequently gassy, Coraline doesn’t often.
  • She likes to be on her belly. Jameson used to hate to be on his belly, unless he was completely and totally already asleep. She seems to find it comforting.

And similarities: Coraline and Jameson both seem to be pretty good sleepers at this age, getting up between one and two times a night, most often just once. They like to be swaddled too! And obviously, they look very similar, especially when I put her in some of the gender neutral sleepers (heck, even some of the boy outfits too!). She is more filled out than he was, but many features are similar.

She has good head control already, which I credit to being at a higher birth weight and overall more mass to support that head! It probably helps that she likes to be on her belly, so we put her in that position more, too.

This week she also started to coo every once in a while (maybe a couple times a day). I tried to get it on video, but once I brought the camera out, she sneezed and started crying. A sign of things to come?

Jameson continues to be an excellent big brother. Last night, she was crying on her playmat while Brian and I finished eating quickly. Jameson, already finished, got a book and went over to her, trying to read to her. It was very sweet; when it didn’t work, he yelled to us that she was crying.

Whenever she cries, he tells us that she needs a diaper change. He likes to say “ewww stinky” when we do change her diaper; meanwhile laughing with pride at his own accomplishments on the potty. Kids are funny!

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Coraline’s First Week

We all enjoyed Coraline’s first week at home, but I am getting antsy to get out some more and hope the weather turns around soon so we can all go on walks together in the evenings.

Coraline as I’ve mentioned seems pretty laid back. So far, she hasn’t taken to the pacifier but its still early. Mostly, shes pretty content while awake. She is usually awake for a couple hours at a time, and gets frustrated when she can’t fall asleep or when she is really hungry or cold. She smacks her lips and makes little baby grunts at night when she’s hungry, which I awaken to, for now, since she’s right next to our bed in the bassinet.

My mom came up on Sunday through Friday last week, which was convenient and enjoyable, especially for providing a little extra entertainment for Jameson while he was home from school ill. Coraline wore her green for St. Patrick’s Day most of the day, before she had an accident!

My mom also helped me take newborn photos of Coraline, who only really messed on the blankets once (but it was a big one! Thankfully mom got the stain out!) She didn’t want to fall asleep, no matter how hard I tried! She was just like Jameson, wanting to stay awake for her official photo shoot. I only got to use the new backdrop stand a little, but it seemed to work really well. I was happy with how her photos came out, and have already ordered her announcements.

It is a good thing we moved so quickly on her newborn photos, since she gets bigger by the day. She was back up and over her birthweight at 4 and a half days old (7 pounds, 3 ounces) and she matches Jameson’s weight at one month old of 7 pounds 6 ounces at one week.

Coraline had her first tummy time, but she was so exhausted from her photo shoot earlier that she passed out right there.

I love her little swirl of hair on the back of her head. She also has a birthmark on the back of her head there and on her forehead and eyelids which will all disappear by one year old. The sweet little eyelid marks are cute though, and I wouldn’t mind if they stayed. Her forehead mark is only apparent when she gets angry for the most part, but it is a pleasant reminder that even though she has a lot of similar features to Jameson, she is her own sweet little person.

Brian also was home from work all last week. We aren’t able to have him home extra like we had off for Jameson, so we are disappointed he has to go back today. Although, Jameson thrives on routine, so it will be good to return to that normal time of getting up and going to school.

She eats really well, which is such a wonderful difference from our first, and she was a little greedy the first few days of life which means my supply is still adjusting to her demand, but it hasn’t been too bad.

Coraline did not enjoy her first bath, but I did better with her second one keeping her warm with water down her back and wash cloth over her chest. It was almost as if I had forgotten how to bathe a newborn (I really had). Her cord still hasn’t entirely fallen off yet, but its still quite a bit easier than dealing with vasoline and a circumcision!

We also got to visit her Great Aunt Carol and meet my cousin Carrie who was in town. It was a lot of activity for our little one week old!

It was our second outing, after the doctors, to go visit Great Aunt Carol, who just had hip surgery. She loved seeing Coraline, and even put her to sleep without a rocking chair or swaying. She has the baby touch!

We were sad to say goodbye to Meemaw on Friday, but we’ll see her again this weekend for Easter, and Coraline will get to meet her Aunt Holly too! The time, as ever, goes quickly.

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Twenty-Two

Yesterday, I took these photos while we were home sick. Jameson had a fever on Monday and came home around noon. The child barely seemed to register his illness until the fever resurgence in the evening. It quickly responded to Advil, and Tuesday he was entirely fever-free.

Brian and I alternated watching him in the morning and evening, which worked out really well. Jameson had a nice long nap, and so my afternoon shift was relatively short. And he woke up and took these wonderful, genuine photos for me.

He knew what I wanted when I asked him for photos, climbing up in his chair without prompting, and then climbing back down to help me pick out the blocks. We talked about the letters I was looking for, and he repeated after me, though the blocks he picked out were not correct. The school has told us he recognized all the first letters they are teaching him though!

When I plopped him up on his chair, the first look he gave me was this:

Worried about the photo shoot now, I stretched myself into ridiculous-ness and started enunciating vowels funny as I said “Meeeester Penguiiinnnn” in reference to the previous day’s play with a penguin stuffed animal. Success in 10 photos or less!

This month, we introduced him to the potty at home instead of just at daycare. We purchased him his frog potty on 10/5, and he was so excited about it that he threw a fit when we told him he needed to get off and get his pjs on. On 10/7, just two days after bringing home the chair, he told us he had to go (he already had). He now frequently will tell us when he has already gone potty and wants to go sit on it, but it’s already too late!

I consider this all great success, and consistency will help him get familiar with it. I frequently will go potty sitting next to him (he asks me to, just like when he brushes his teeth). I am conveniently pregnant and can pee on command, so that works out well.

He got his very first terrible diaper rash the other week when he actually pooed overnight but never called out for us to change him. When I think back, I don’t think he has ever gone overnight before that, even as an infant. Luckily with regular cream he was back to normal within 3 days.

Eating has become entertaining. Sometimes when I ask Jameson to try things he dislikes before getting more of his favorites, he will lick them or put them in his mouth for a moment before spitting them into his bib pockets.

He is enjoying condiments like ketchup in particular (by the spoonful). Whatever condiments mom and dad has, he wants too. With a little Nature’s Seasons, he actually ate cauliflower one evening. However, bbq sauce on McDonald’s chicken nuggets he just licked up.

He particularly enjoys kielbasa when it comes to meat, and he reminds me of Brian by eating edges like crust off bread before the inside.

Sometimes we talk about a baby being in mommy’s belly (and food in daddy’s and his own belly). He doesn’t get it, but he thinks baby is a fun word to say, and asks to watch videos of babies (aka himself on the ipad or my childhood videos on TV) frequently.

New words and phrases this month include: “stars”, “no touch” and “thank you”. At school on Grandparents Day, grandma told us that he yelled out “heart!” when identifying the shape.

He did get his very first bite at school a couple days ago on his upper arm, but none of teachers caught it when it happened. I noticed it while bathing him on Monday night. It didn’t break skin so I’m not too worried about it. He has bit other children on rare occasions, which were usually related to teething. His room doesn’t seem to have any major issues.

When we build towers now, if he doesn’t like how we’ve built it, he will remove the blocks and place them how he likes. I enjoy watching his mind work.

Jameson is a big helper too. We started letting him unload his dishes from the dishwasher by putting his stepping stool next to it. He puts them in the lazy susan with all his other plastic ware, but the cabinet gets pretty messy now. I hope it continues to encourage chores and helpfulness! He likes to “wash” dishes now too while I am at the sink, so I give him some already dirty plastic dishes to wash on the floor in a container of water and mild soap.

He continues to try to learn how to jump with a crouch and a big step. He hasn’t gotten the hang of it yet, though he has been trying for weeks. One of these days it’ll click and he’ll be launching both feet off the floor!

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19 Months And Counting

This month, we didn’t have a whole lot of great photos to choose from. Jameson was pretty excited about the blocks!

I started writing down the many new things we observed during the month because I couldn’t remember them all the end! This month, his grandma taught him that grunting is necessary for getting lids on and off; so while he learned how to screw and unscrew lids, he will grunt and groan while doing it. Likewise, he likes to squeeze his food between his fingers, and that deserves a grunt too while his little fist shakes with the effort.

Speaking of food, he consistently eats broccoli (he once at all the broccoli out of the mixed vegetable steam fresh bag), cheese, and most any pasta (not rice or tortellini). Many other foods are hit or miss depending on the day, even fruit was a miss on rare occasions.

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He can click his tongue now in addition to these new words: Buckle, Poop, Pee, Moo, Baa, Ee ee ee (the sound the monkey makes, according to grandma), EE ii ee ii oh, Water, Weener, Elmo (pronounced melmo), Duck, Bib, and all of these are used still pretty inconsistently except for Buckle, Bib and Elmo.

Jameson is also making up entire sentences. Babble babble more babble ma mo babble? Whatever you say, Jameson! We have heard his first two word sentences. First was “bye bye doggie” at 18 months, and recently “no no doggie” when she was trying to lick his ears.

“More please” is pretty seamless now; he says “Mo” and signs the word for “please” pretty consistently. “Thank you” is also becoming more frequent though only on request, but it is also a sign.

Lest you think that all is well and communication easy for him, he frequently gets frustrated that he can’t express himself, most often surrounding food. Whining at the pantry is a favorite past-time before dinner as we list through his various snack options (and he doesn’t really understand the word snack).

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While I try to limit the snacking to just half a bag of animal crackers (his current favorite) before dinner (and try to suggest blueberries often as an alternative), one night it was so bad I allowed him to pick out his meal in the fridge. He chose a leftover grilled cheesy bratwurst (I doubt he knew that it was more than a hot dog!) and a yogurt. He ate them both, no complaints.

Bed time: Though he doesn’t do a great job, we do let him brush his own teeth. On the days he doesn’t want to, I force it. I’ve become an expert at holding the face properly so that I can brush his teeth. He is thrilled that he can do this himself though, reaching his toothbrush into the water (later, we will concentrate more on water conservation, haha)!

On the other end of the spectrum, diaper changes are much less fun, often with him screaming the entire time unless we’ve given him sufficient distraction, like a particular book, the buckle on the table, or mobile remote; whatever it is, he needs to pick it out.

This month, in a very anticlimactic way, we stopped bottles. Now, we read about 10 books at night instead of 1 to allow him time to drink his milk. It takes him longer, but he falls asleep without issue. Except for naps, which he has refused on rare occasions. This makes me nervous that we will lose naps in the near future, but so far, so okay.

 

Overall, discipline is still pretty light. We say no sternly (and fairly frequently), and physically stop him from whatever he is doing wrong. It’s typically just because something is dangerous. If it’s excessive (like biting, which only seems to happen during teething — but for some reason happened twice this weekend in excitement!), then we put him in a corner. But we don’t otherwise restrain him, so he quickly gets over it and moves on. I wonder when we might have to bring out a timeout chair, or a gated area, but for now, he is listening okay most of the time. He actually doesn’t try to run away outside often anymore if we tell him no.

If he gets himself too worked up over something (like wanting a snack, and not taking our no for an answer) and tries to throw a mini tantrum (mini because he is so careful and funny about it), then we take him into the bathroom with the lights off and shut the door (with us there holding him). Usually that’s enough to snap him out of it, which is all that’s needed and a moment of quiet.

Jameson is a little helper, both at home and at daycare. His teachers comment how he is the only one who will help pick up toys (and we only reinforce this lesson every once in a while at home, so I am excited to see that he seems to come by this naturally; I will take no credit for it). At home, he will help me put away the dishes (I let him, yes, but take the breakables from him pretty quick. He has yet to drop anything).

He also threw a pair of shorts in the washer. Yesterday, his teacher told me that he wanted to help check for messy diapers and tried to lift one of the boys who can’t walk yet out of the wagon. Recently, he held one of the new kids’ hand and walked him around the room, like he was showing him around.

 

It’s been such fun watching him grow, but I can’t believe that next month we’ll hit a big 2-0.

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Weekend Roundup

Last weekend was a mishmash of awesome.

We bought new furniture for our office on Friday which actually has some storage; it was on clearance and we’ve been researching for months. It was ideal, and I’m excited to share pictures once the room is in better shape after the furniture arrives.

Saturday we went to the farmer’s market, stopped at the Heritage Festival for a little (it was sweltering), and went back home to the air conditioning. Later, Jameson loved watching dad mow the lawn and at the end got to ride into the shed with him.

(Yes, this is our backyard right now)

We got to see fireworks Saturday night from our porch again like last year, but better!

Saturday night, we gave Jameson a sippy cup instead of his bottle. His last bottle (sniff sniff) was Friday, July 6.

He didn’t even question it; I was shocked, since he knows the word for bottle and seemed very attached to it. Instead, we read about 6 more books because he drinks so slow. He also doesn’t settle down as much, but he’s happy enough to go into his crib just the same.

Sunday, we traumatized Jameson leaving him at childcare at church. Major stranger fear. The rest of the day, he insisted on being right by our side. Also, he didn’t nap.

Since he didn’t nap, we did face time with grandma and grandpa on my new ipad. Jameson was great, he had lots of smiles (not shown here) and he even blew kisses goodbye.

Later after receiving some good news, we went over to his other grandma and grandpa’s for dinner. He was tired, but that didn’t stop him from collecting rocks, sticks and pinecones outside and being very insistent about what he wanted to eat (berries and watermelon, plus some hot dog!)

I call that a successful weekend!

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Eating Habits of a Toddler

Yesterday, I was excited to try a new recipe (yes, I don’t do the cooking usually, but I can bake and do so on occasion. Rare occasions.)

The recipe was for cheesy zucchini biscuits, and I was hoping that Jameson would actually take to them and in doing so, happen to ingest some zucchini along with it.

Instead of the warm, cheesy, zucchini goodness, or the perfectly moist baked pork chops, or even the fresh buttered green beans (he ate a little of one of those raw just minutes before, but cooked is not as good. apparently)… yes, instead, Jameson insisted that we definitely had something else for him to eat.

It happened that we sometimes held back the mac and cheese or other excellent treat for Jameson while he wailed at his vegetables and meat. We stopped doing this a couple weeks ago, because it wasn’t working, obviously. He never wants to eat his meat unless its bologna or sometimes hot dog, and only occasionally wants to eat broccoli or peas.

Jameson was convinced that we had something else up our sleeves.

I wheeled him around in the highchair to see everything on and around the stove. The only thing he wanted was a whole slab of pork chop, which I know better than to give him.

Back to the table, screaming away… Brian and I just tried to eat the rest of our dinner. Meanwhile, Jameson is now reaching for Brian’s slab of pork chop which he just got from the stove. We offer Jameson the rest of his own pork chop instead, which is half a slab from the cutting board.

No dice.

The pork chop on the stove, whole and untouched, is WAY better than cutting board pork chop.

I decide to get sneaky and get up for seconds myself, quickly taking the cutting board pork chop on my own plate and prepare to eat it. Jameson at this point it near inconsolable, so I unbuckled him and put him on my lap. He immediately gets quiet, grabs mine his pork chop and gnaws away at it.

Yes, that is probably a strained smile on my face, the weird top teeth only grin.

He ate a quarter of a whole pork chop, or nearly half of that piece in his hand. I can’t figure out this kid who hates pork and chicken…

 

P.S. Jameson has increased his repertoire of songs to include” ee i ee i oh” from Old McDonald’s Farm, and making the rain sign for Itsy Bitsy Spider along with his “baby” in Baby Beluga. I also heard him say a distinct “beep beep” the other day, imitating one of his toys.

He is doing all kinds of imitating. Like grabbing at my boobies after Brian did (that is the last time that will happen. In front of him). And also saying a lot of words, like “water” last night, and Brian’s favorite. “Weener”. Way to go Jameson.

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Popsicle Summer

It’s only June and the grass is already dried out and sharp. We have gotten some early hot, dry weather this season!

But, it’s perfect for popsicles:

I attended a free Lightroom webinar session a couple weeks ago and got a few tips and tricks from it. It was mostly an intro course, but I felt like I learned somewhat. At the end, they had a discount code for their shop at Pretty Presets (it was a free webinar remember).

My photos in the evening are mostly outside now. And since I take a lot of evening photos because I work most days, I felt like it was a smart investment to purchase some sunlight and color enhancing and adjusting presets for Lightroom.

I went ahead and purchased their Spring Color, Flare & Haze Collection, and I’m really happy with it. The key to presets though is knowing how to tweak them to your needs, which they showed in the webinar. I’ve never used the gradient adjustments in Lightroom, so this has opened up a whole new world.

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Sour Face

We still have problems getting Jameson to eat what we consider to be “enough”. I’m starting to think that maybe that’s just our perception and he’s eating plenty for his size. I wonder how much the daycare gives him at lunch when they say he eats “all”.

Maybe it’s just us?

He definitely has foods though that he won’t touch now unless they look more like what mom and dad are eating. For example, hot dogs are only eaten when they are sliced like skinny carrot sticks, rather than chopped up.

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(You like the tongue wagging out like a dog in that video? Brian is doing that in the background, Jameson is just imitating him)

 

Yesterday, he insisted on a whole mushroom rather than one cut in half. Just in half, but it wasn’t good enough. Although pasta in any form is always good.

I can say though that even if he doesn’t seem to eat enough by my standards, he is pretty good about trying new things. Even if they come right back out.

Last week, Brian made a sausage that he cooked with onions. The sausage was fabulous, but the onions? Notsomuch. Even I didn’t eat them, and I eat most anything.

This is Jameson’s uh-ohhhhhhh face (he knocked over his juice, which is always fun). Can you anticipate what’s coming?

Yes, Jameson grabbed a very peppery onion and put it in his mouth.

It took almost 10 minutes to really calm him down. We had to take him outside for a popsicle, since he refused to eat or drink anything else after that.

All DONE!

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