Not a great title, I know; but it is completely appropriate to my last week or so. My darling daughter...ahem...has apparently decided that if she doesn't like a food item that we have given her (even if it is something she has previously LOVED) she will make herself gag and puke it up all over. Ew. It took us a couple of days to figure this out...we thought she just had a stomach bug at first (and maybe she did the first time...), but she has since shown that she will try to gag herself into making it all come back up if she doesn't like it. I blame my Aunt for this twist in the genetics. My aunt used to do that too; she puked her eggs on the camp counselor that made her eat them. What a lovely thing to look forward to. Not.
The ____insert bad words here____ cats haven't been helping either. They, of course, had to make splotchy spots on my mother in laws carpet while we were there for 6 weeks. They have puked at LEAST 4 times since we have moved into our new apartment. We have been here a week. One week. ONE! GAH!The other day the cat puked somewhere in the apartment and when I went to get my daughter at 7:30 in the morning...I accidentally stepped in cat yak, tracked it all through the apartment and discovered it was on her baby quilt. So...an HOUR later the carpets are all clean, the quilt has been rinsed, I've been showered, and the __________ cat yaks on the carpet again. Does anyone else hear the crack of thunder and see the dark purple red thundercloud in the room? Anyone?
But wait...it gets better. This morning my daughter was having some bowel movement issues and so we put her in the tub knowing she would probably poop in it, but that was the point. I was prepared for that part. I wasn't prepared to have to shampoo the carpets for the small cat pee spot my lovely darling cats decided to leave in the door to our bedroom.
One day without having to scrub something...please? It's all I ask.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Stir Crazy
I love my in-laws. I love their new house. I love to visit them and stay for a few days or even a week....
It's now been close to 5 weeks. I'm done. I want to go home. I want to have a home to go to, and I'm just biting at my nails for next week when we get the keys to our apartment and we can move in. Don't get me wrong, it's been really nice having grandma and grandpa time (and a break for the parents). It's just time to go home. I'm used to having a way to say, "I need private time...AWAY from everyone." It's hard to do that in a house where you are a guest and no space is really "your" space. Makes it really hard for me to relax. It probably doesn't help that all those happy endorphins that are put out by breast feeding are going away because my daughter is, essentially, weaned. I'm sure that is part of what is making me a bit crabby. She has also decided that she doesn't want anyone to sing to her when she's going to bed. That kills me. I love singing to her and I have some great bedtime songs. She is very gentle about it, but she'll just stick her hand across your mouth when you sing to her now. Makes me feel like I'm losing another connection to her. I waver between an intense desire to keep her as my dependent 'baby' and wanting her desperately to get independent enough to play by herself or play more interactive games with me.
Damn, but I forgot how hard growing up can be.
It's now been close to 5 weeks. I'm done. I want to go home. I want to have a home to go to, and I'm just biting at my nails for next week when we get the keys to our apartment and we can move in. Don't get me wrong, it's been really nice having grandma and grandpa time (and a break for the parents). It's just time to go home. I'm used to having a way to say, "I need private time...AWAY from everyone." It's hard to do that in a house where you are a guest and no space is really "your" space. Makes it really hard for me to relax. It probably doesn't help that all those happy endorphins that are put out by breast feeding are going away because my daughter is, essentially, weaned. I'm sure that is part of what is making me a bit crabby. She has also decided that she doesn't want anyone to sing to her when she's going to bed. That kills me. I love singing to her and I have some great bedtime songs. She is very gentle about it, but she'll just stick her hand across your mouth when you sing to her now. Makes me feel like I'm losing another connection to her. I waver between an intense desire to keep her as my dependent 'baby' and wanting her desperately to get independent enough to play by herself or play more interactive games with me.
Damn, but I forgot how hard growing up can be.
My Wild Child
My Darling Daughter aka "Wild Child"
You are such a wonder to me, both what I expected and not anything I expected at the same time. You are so independent it frightens me. Once you feel you have mastered something you want to do it all by yourself; whether you have truly mastered it or not. You fell down a flight of stairs this past weekend and scared the crap out of your father and I. You run up to dogs which have thankfully greeted you with wagging tails and lolling tongues. You aren't phased by being hissed at by a cat or having a dog bark near you. You are just so smart. You figured out how to open up the 'booby trapped' cabinets. Friends of ours wedged a spoon into the handles to keep it closed and you looked at it for a couple of seconds, wiggled the spoon, then pulled it straight out, dumped it on the floor, and opened the cabinet. Cabinet Proofing a big Zero, my daughter 1. The other toddlers in the room (three of them) never figured it out, they pulled on the handles saw the cabinet wouldn't open and walked away. You are single-minded when you have a goal in mind. I hope that in the future you are able to keep that with you, but not make the mistake of being blind to all that is going on around you.
Love,
Your mother
You are such a wonder to me, both what I expected and not anything I expected at the same time. You are so independent it frightens me. Once you feel you have mastered something you want to do it all by yourself; whether you have truly mastered it or not. You fell down a flight of stairs this past weekend and scared the crap out of your father and I. You run up to dogs which have thankfully greeted you with wagging tails and lolling tongues. You aren't phased by being hissed at by a cat or having a dog bark near you. You are just so smart. You figured out how to open up the 'booby trapped' cabinets. Friends of ours wedged a spoon into the handles to keep it closed and you looked at it for a couple of seconds, wiggled the spoon, then pulled it straight out, dumped it on the floor, and opened the cabinet. Cabinet Proofing a big Zero, my daughter 1. The other toddlers in the room (three of them) never figured it out, they pulled on the handles saw the cabinet wouldn't open and walked away. You are single-minded when you have a goal in mind. I hope that in the future you are able to keep that with you, but not make the mistake of being blind to all that is going on around you.
Love,
Your mother
Monday, July 5, 2010
Month of Milestones
It's been a very busy couple of weeks in our household. First off, we moved out of New Mexico and into our temporary location in Colorado. Thank goodness for "Hoodwinked," if not for that movie we would NEVER have gotten everything packed in time. Of course, I'm still an anal retentive cleaning person and was cleaning until nearly 2 am the night before we left and still was cleaning the next morning, courtesy of our cats puking on the carpets, the freshly shampooed carpets, during the night....have I mentioned they are for sale? Needless to say, I was a rampaging wacko and decided to drive one car by myself so as not to piss everyone around me off. It was a good decision and 3 hours down the road I was finally not annoyed with everyone around me. Three hours, a thunderstorm, and torrential downpour later and there was a lovely glass of wine in my hand and Grandma was entertaining the baby.
My daughter has been "cruising" on the furniture for months now. She started pulling herself up to furniture the moment she started walking and we were actually expecting her to walk much sooner. However, my daughter seems to be a perfectionist and started walking 3 days after Father's Day and 1 day before my birthday. It was a very nice present to see her zooming around on her chubby little legs. She is very proud of herself, but it has made traveling more difficult. She wants to walk everywhere and she no longer wants to hold your hand. Independent little thing wants to do it all by herself.
We are visiting my family in Alaska this week and the airplane ride was...interesting. We took a red eye because we thought she would pass out on the way up and stay asleep the whole trip. Which might have happened if the little girl sitting next to us would have let her sleep when I said, (Repeatedly)"I think we're going to try to let her sleep now..." and variations. She finally switched seats with her mother; who then turned on the seat light and proceeded to knit for an hour. I was a little pissy. It was past midnight and here she is knitting away all the while a child next to her is whimpering with exhaustion. To give her credit she didn't care that my daughter was making noises or occasionally kicking her...but she didn't turn out the light for a long time. So, a brief note to travelers...I have the right to be on this plane with a child. I also have a right to politely ask your older child to stop playing with my baby, and I have a right to politely ask you to turn off your light. Sigh...
I have a few friends who are pregnant or just had a baby and many of them are breastfeeding (YEAH!!), and they are all figuring out what is going to work best for them in terms of pumping, how long to nurse, when to introduce the bottle...etc. I said I would nurse my daughter until she was ready to stop or until she was about two. I nursed for a long time so I was very surprised when my daughter decided to just stop. She had been decreasing her demands for nursing gradually, but one day she just didn't request it at all. She would sign "milk" and I'd show her her milk cup, which she would snatch out of my hands and start drinking out of. That was that.
She's learning new signs too, which I love. She just started really picking them up when she turned a year. We had been signing with her for months, but she just kind of looked at us like we were crazy, then while in Toronto for a wedding she signed, "more milk, more milk" and then "all done/finished" when she had had enough. We were all a little bug-eyed at that one. She now signs: milk, all done/finished, food, please (still working on it a bit, she says it on someone else), change (new and learning it now), again, more, want, thank you (new and still learning)
She says: Puppy, baby, momma, dadda, and (sometimes) thank you
It's been a crazy month and it's only going to get more crazy as she starts to color with crayons, learns more signs, wants us to read her stories, and listens to music and dances.
My daughter has been "cruising" on the furniture for months now. She started pulling herself up to furniture the moment she started walking and we were actually expecting her to walk much sooner. However, my daughter seems to be a perfectionist and started walking 3 days after Father's Day and 1 day before my birthday. It was a very nice present to see her zooming around on her chubby little legs. She is very proud of herself, but it has made traveling more difficult. She wants to walk everywhere and she no longer wants to hold your hand. Independent little thing wants to do it all by herself.
We are visiting my family in Alaska this week and the airplane ride was...interesting. We took a red eye because we thought she would pass out on the way up and stay asleep the whole trip. Which might have happened if the little girl sitting next to us would have let her sleep when I said, (Repeatedly)"I think we're going to try to let her sleep now..." and variations. She finally switched seats with her mother; who then turned on the seat light and proceeded to knit for an hour. I was a little pissy. It was past midnight and here she is knitting away all the while a child next to her is whimpering with exhaustion. To give her credit she didn't care that my daughter was making noises or occasionally kicking her...but she didn't turn out the light for a long time. So, a brief note to travelers...I have the right to be on this plane with a child. I also have a right to politely ask your older child to stop playing with my baby, and I have a right to politely ask you to turn off your light. Sigh...
I have a few friends who are pregnant or just had a baby and many of them are breastfeeding (YEAH!!), and they are all figuring out what is going to work best for them in terms of pumping, how long to nurse, when to introduce the bottle...etc. I said I would nurse my daughter until she was ready to stop or until she was about two. I nursed for a long time so I was very surprised when my daughter decided to just stop. She had been decreasing her demands for nursing gradually, but one day she just didn't request it at all. She would sign "milk" and I'd show her her milk cup, which she would snatch out of my hands and start drinking out of. That was that.
She's learning new signs too, which I love. She just started really picking them up when she turned a year. We had been signing with her for months, but she just kind of looked at us like we were crazy, then while in Toronto for a wedding she signed, "more milk, more milk" and then "all done/finished" when she had had enough. We were all a little bug-eyed at that one. She now signs: milk, all done/finished, food, please (still working on it a bit, she says it on someone else), change (new and learning it now), again, more, want, thank you (new and still learning)
She says: Puppy, baby, momma, dadda, and (sometimes) thank you
It's been a crazy month and it's only going to get more crazy as she starts to color with crayons, learns more signs, wants us to read her stories, and listens to music and dances.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
The Daunting Task
My husband and I are trying to get my daughter to sleep on her own in her own crib (or pack and play since we aren't in our new place yet). I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!! We are essentially taking a very secure and happy baby and placing her in a space she is uncomfortable with and insecure in and making her stay there until she falls asleep (a FITFUL sleep) from utter exhaustion. This is normal? This is humane behavior? What the....argh! There are not words to describe the utter horror and panic on my daughter's face. I honestly feel it is cruel and unusual punishment, and I feel like the ultimate betrayer of trust and love. Our daughter does not understand why we are sticking her in that pack and play and she doesn't understand why we won't pick her up. I'm very VERY unhappy about this. She is too young to understand and already going through an insecure phase with moving and everything else. But...... If we don't do this now, then when? We cannot have her in bed with us, or even in the same room with us, forever; nor do we want to. There HAS to be another way to do this!
"Civilized" societies put their children in their own beds and, sometimes, in their own rooms from day one. Ripped from the womb that has housed, cherished, and nurtured them as well as all the sounds and warmth associated with it, and stuck in a pen. A padded pen with weird objects floating over head....yeah, seems perfectly natural to me.
I'll say it. I am PROUD to be a mom who has had her daughter secure and safely in bed with her parents. The family bed. Now...I'm not saying that I want it forever, I don't. At some point our daughter needs to go in her own space and into her own room. I do want my bed back. However, it has been a wonderful experience to have that little body snuggled up close to me (and occasionally kicking me) during the night. I sleep better with her in bed with me than I do when she's in her crib or her pack and play. I think I am having trouble letting go of the experience, because if she's in her own bed, if she's in her own room...then she isn't really a baby-baby anymore. She'll be my little girl toddler....and I'm holding onto the baby for all I'm worth right now. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe she senses I want to hold onto it more too. I don't know....but I think that there has to be a better way...
"Civilized" societies put their children in their own beds and, sometimes, in their own rooms from day one. Ripped from the womb that has housed, cherished, and nurtured them as well as all the sounds and warmth associated with it, and stuck in a pen. A padded pen with weird objects floating over head....yeah, seems perfectly natural to me.
I'll say it. I am PROUD to be a mom who has had her daughter secure and safely in bed with her parents. The family bed. Now...I'm not saying that I want it forever, I don't. At some point our daughter needs to go in her own space and into her own room. I do want my bed back. However, it has been a wonderful experience to have that little body snuggled up close to me (and occasionally kicking me) during the night. I sleep better with her in bed with me than I do when she's in her crib or her pack and play. I think I am having trouble letting go of the experience, because if she's in her own bed, if she's in her own room...then she isn't really a baby-baby anymore. She'll be my little girl toddler....and I'm holding onto the baby for all I'm worth right now. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe she senses I want to hold onto it more too. I don't know....but I think that there has to be a better way...
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Constipation....
What a lovely topic, I know, but it is one we have just recently experienced with our daughter. We just recently spent an entire day moving, and so driving, to our new summer location before we move to our more permanent location. Between spending 7-8 hours sitting in a car and eating many solids like cheerios, gold fish, milk, cheese, and some of mommy's (my) sandwich our daughter got a little constipated....the poor baby!! It was an awful experience to see my daughter straining and straining (and screaming and SCREAMING) to get out a very large, hard, poop. She did end up passing it without help; as we were pulling in to the Urgent Care parking lot. About 30 minutes later and we were out of there with instructions to give her juice (which she hates), prunes (which she loves), and nothing but water, fruit juice, and fruit for 24 hours. Good thing she likes grapes and cherries, and prunes in applesauce.
Throughout this whole experience my husband and I were talking, at length, about poo. It's completely deranged how much a parent will get involved in their child's bowel movements...and talk about it. We ask each other "What did it look like? Was it hard or soft? Did it have food bits in it?" I am being completely serious. I thought being pregnant was bad for the talks about mucus, pregnancy gas, constipation, heartburn, and other bodily functions...but having a baby has made it infinitely worse. If the poor kid could only understand what we were talking about she would be red with embarrassment.
Or maybe not.
Throughout this whole experience my husband and I were talking, at length, about poo. It's completely deranged how much a parent will get involved in their child's bowel movements...and talk about it. We ask each other "What did it look like? Was it hard or soft? Did it have food bits in it?" I am being completely serious. I thought being pregnant was bad for the talks about mucus, pregnancy gas, constipation, heartburn, and other bodily functions...but having a baby has made it infinitely worse. If the poor kid could only understand what we were talking about she would be red with embarrassment.
Or maybe not.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Songs in my head
I have been going to sleep with Beyonce's "Single Ladies" song stuck in my head for the last 3 days, ever since my husband played it for our daughter to see if she would dance to it. (She did and it was VERY cute, but that's BESIDE the point) Have you ever tried to sleep with a catchy song like that in your head? I just feel like bouncing, and I catch my feet twitching! Good thing we had our POD arrive today for our big move. I spent much of today hauling boxes down the stairs into the POD and all in the 98 degree heat. YUCK! But I'll sleep well tonight. Thank goodness for "Hoodwinked!" If it weren't for that movie I think my husband and I would have had a VERY cranky daughter today. The "goody two shoes" mommy in me is going 'Oh dear, oh dear, she didn't get a lot of stimulation today! Oh no, watching that much TV is bad for her.' The "practical" mommy in me is going 'So what?! It's not like she watches TV all day EVERY day, but you need to get some stuff done and she is happy in her bouncy chair and entertained by the movie. Move on, deal with it, and PACK the POD!!!' "Practical" Mommy won this round; although I MIGHT have dreams about "livin' like the bandit" tonight..."with a ring on it." Or as my husband just said "All the single critters." Oi!
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