back among the living

I feel like I've missed a week. Last week was spent almost entirely at home because first my little one was sick and then I caught it from her and was out of commission for a few days myself. I'm finally feeling a little more normal today and may even venture out to the grocery store this afternoon if I have time....currently there's apple pie baking in the oven (a surprise for my husband), so I can't go until that's done, but by then my little smiley girl may not be so smiley anymore and won't do well at the grocery. We'll have to see how that all goes. I may have to wait on the grocery store trip, though it will probably be postponed until Wednesday since tomorrow's outing is a trip to the pediatrician for her 6 month visit (more shots....yuck!!!!), and she'll likely need a long afternoon nap to sleep off the shots. Thus, no grocery store, in all likelyhood. But even if I don't get to go, at least I'm feeling better and have gotten some things accomplished today.

Still no teeth popping through those little gums. You'd think with all of this teething, there would be teeth, but no. She's still waking up in the middle of the night--I don't know if it's seeking comfort for the pain, seeking food, or just seeking company. Letting her cry is so hard, but last night, since I had taken cough medicine that knocked me out, I went to check on her, let her cry, closed both of our doors so I couldn't hear her very well, and fell back asleep. I had only meant to let her cry for an hour (torture when I have to listen to it--I feel like such a horrible mommy), but because I fell asleep, after an hour and fifteen minutes my husband said, "Oh my gosh, how long has she been crying like that?" I realized that I had let her go past what I had planned. Then I really felt like a horrible mommy. I went in and fed her after that, thankful that she still wanted to look at me after that!

picture day!

She turned 6 months old on Monday. SIX MONTHS!! It's hard to believe she's been with us for a whole half of a year. The time has gone fast. I'm trying to savor every minute and not let the sleepless nights and frustrating moments wish her childhood away.

So I took her to get her 6 month pictures taken today at a new place in town. It's a chain that a friend told me about in her hometown in Illinois. They didn't have one here, but they have one up where my parents live, so I was going to take her up there, but then I found out they just opened one here two weeks ago! Awesome! I was really happy with the job they did. They took tons of pictures and they let you change their outfits. It's a nice place.

So in this picture she's wearing the pinafore that my mom wore in her 6 month pictures and I wore in my 6 month picture, so now she's wearing it in her six month picture! Let's hope I can keep it nice for her daughter's 6 month picture!

I also had her in a pink and white sailor dress with lacy socks and black patent leather shoes. I loved those too, but only got it in a wallet size. When I scan it it's way too small to see, so I can't put it on here. Maybe I can work with it and try to figure out how to make it look bigger, but until I do, you'll just have to enjoy this picture. It was quite a chore to get her to smile, but we managed to get a few of her smiling.

sleep

Finally...she slept through the night again last night. Hallelujah!

I, however, couldn't fall asleep until after 2:30 AM, which is completely ridiculous. I have no idea why, because I'm totally sleep deprived and all day long that's all I want to do is sleep. So even though she slept, I'm still exhausted...but at least we're moving in the right direction and ONE of us is sleeping!

Just a picture of her on the changing table, just because.....

big girl bath!

Teething continues to take its toll on a tired Mommy, but I don't want to write about that....let's write about something happier.

Since she's sitting up now, we've moved up to the big girl bathtub! No longer will she be laying in the little baby bathtub in the sink. She has the whole big bathtub to explore now. Before this, she wasn't ever sure that she liked baths, but she has quickly changed her mind. Water to kick and splash? Toys? Sitting up? All at the same time??? Could life get any better? (Well, maybe if there was a bottle of formula involved, but you can't have everything).

Here she is wondering if this bath thing is really all it's cracked up to be....

...and then she found the toys to play with......












...and realized that big girl baths are the best things since....(I can't say sliced bread because she's never had it...) ....since sweet potatoes! (her favorite food, I think).

teething is torture

It's been a rough few days in our house. Teething has begun, and she's been one fussy girl. Today was better than yesterday, but sleeping through the night is definitely a thing of the past now that she's teething. She's up two and three times a night. I'm tired!

Baby Orajel works wonders, I've discovered. I need to thank the person that invented it. Unfortunately it doesn't last too long because she licks it all off.

That's all I have time for. She just woke up and is crabby. What happened to my happy little girl??

sitting up!

On Thursday she could sit for about a minute. But when she got to Grandma's house on Friday, she sat up all by herself for 15 or 20 minutes at a time! Now it's all she wants to do. She's pretty good at it, and doesn't fall over too often. It makes it a lot easier for her to play with toys by herself because she can hold them in her lap or have them right in front of her on the floor. She doesn't have to have Mommy always dangling them over her while she's on her back like before.

And she's pushing up much higher than before, too. I'd better watch out...she'll be figuring out how to get those knees under her pretty soon and start to MOVE! Then watch out....here comes trouble. Here she is pushing WAY up while playing with one of her favorite playmates, Grandma! If you look closely you'll see a bow in her hair--I FINALLY found some bows that stay in her hair, after a 5 1/2 month quest to find one!! I'll post one another time where you can see it better.

And this is just a recent picture that I thought was cute. She's playing in her exersaucer...another one of her favorite things to do to pass the time.

green beans

For all of you who were waiting on pins and needles to find out, the green beans seemed to be a hit last night. She made a strange face with the first couple of bites, but then she kept opening her mouth for more.

Today's adventure was a trip to JoAnn's to buy supplies to make a grocery cart cover. (So when the baby sits in a grocery cart, she's not getting another baby's yucky germs). I had the fabric already, I just needed some other odds and ends. I'm making this up myself, following a loose description of how to do it that I found on the internet. So this afternoon I made a pattern out of tissue paper and cut out the fabric. Now I'm in a dilemma about how to sew it together, because I'm trying to put batting on the inside to make it softer, but am running into problems. I think it's time for a call to Mom, the sewing expert who taught me everything I know.

Anyway, that's what's up here. My dear daughter is currently waking up from a nap--I hear her starting to stir through the monitor down here. Usually she talks to herself for awhile, stares at the blinds and so forth, and then I go get her. That's where I'll be heading in a few minutes, unless, by some stroke of luck, she decides to go back to sleep (which does happen on occasion, but sadly, not often enough).

a swallow study

Today I had to take out little girl to have a swallow study done. She's had eating issues since the very beginning, and at first it was diagnosed as reflux, but then it started looking like more of a swallowing problem, so the pediatrician wanted her to have this test done. They feed the baby barium in a bottle and then watch her swallow it on a screen that looks like an x-ray, but the picture is moving instead of still like an x-ray. They had me feed her, but she started crying right away and wouldn't eat. They then had me give her her regular bottle, which she ate fine, and then switch it really quickly with the barium bottle, but she was too smart for that. She figured that out and started crying again. At one point they let me take her out of the chair where she was strapped in, to calm her down, but then I had to put her back and try again. It wasn't very successful.

But I guess they were able to see enough of the barium go down to see that she swallows okay. Then I got her out of the chair and took her to another room and they let me feed her the regular bottle the normal way, and they watched. The occupational therapist showed me a different way to hold her head that might help some. We'll see with time, I guess.

So the whole thing was pretty inconclusive, but they didn't see any major problems, so that's good. Actually, she's been doing better in the last month, so I wasn't expecting them to find anything (it just took me this long to get in for an appointment!!!).

That was the excitment in our world today. Oh, and tonight she's trying green beans for the first time. It's the first non-sweet thing she'll be eating, so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully there won't be green goo everywhere!

ready for bed

I just had to share this picture from a few nights ago. I've started putting her in sleepers again, instead of just onesies, to sleep, since it's getting cooler at night. So I pulled this one out that had been her cousin's. Then I remembered it had a hat with it, so I just had to see how it looked. I had to take a picture because it was just too funny. She didn't sleep with it on, which is probably a good thing because I would've laughed anytime I looked in on her, and would've woken her up!

Not too much going on here--her two bottom teeth are close to coming in. You can see them and kind of feel them. She's been fussing more, so I'm wondering if that's why. She's now added pears to her eating repertoire, though I'm not sure she likes them. She likes them mixed with her oatmeal, but doesn't seem to like them much by themselves. Next I think I'll try green beans. I haven't decided yet.

Two hour naps are a thing of the past....that was just a fluke, I guess. We're back to the forty five minute nap again. It's hard to get much done during the day when she's only asleep for 45 minutes a couple of times a day. Oh well. I'm trying to remember that these days go by so fast and I just want to soak it all in and not worry about getting things done. She's too precious at this stage to be worrying about those things.

two hour naps

The last two days she has taken a two hour nap in the morning. In fact, right now she's still asleep and has been for almost two and a half hours! This is GREAT, except that I'm always expecting her to wake up, so I don't do anything I'd like to get done, because I'm afraid I'll be in the middle of it when she wakes up and needs me. Maybe if this becomes more consistent I can stop this constant expecting.

She slept through the night for a week straight, but last night the streak ended. She woke up at 3:45. Oh well--I was sure it was too good to be true, anyway. I hope it's still coming close to being regular, though.

She hasn't learned any new tricks lately, though she's perfecting her jumping skills, her vocal abilities, and her turning from back to tummy. She's a happy girl.

five months old

Here's our smiley girl. She's been a good girl: sleeping through the night, eating well, happy when she's awake....we couldn't ask for much more. This is her five month old picture in the chair that we've taken it in every month. Her head got cut off a bit because in order to get her to smile I have to take my head away from the viewfinder and make my mouth really big and say, "AAAAHHHHH" and then she smiles! The things we do to make children laugh....

Today she ate a new food...bananas! I had planned on doing carrots, but a friend told me if you do all orange things at once, they turn orange! So since she's been doing sweet potatoes, and carrots is another orange food, I decided on bananas instead. She loved them.

She's busy playing peekaboo with Daddy at the moment. What a good dad he is.

she can jump!

For almost 2 months now we've been putting her in her jumpster in the doorway...and for two months she's sat there doing nothing but staring. She's always enjoyed it, probably because it's a new perspective, but she's never been interested in jumping. Somehow, today, that all changed. I put her in there while I was working in the kitchen and all of a sudden I heard a bouncing noise. I looked over and she was jumping! It started out only a few jumps at a time, but later I put her in again, and as the day went on, she jumped progressively longer and longer. She loved it!! She sat in there for about 30 minutes--longer than she'll do ANYTHING at one time, besides sleep (and that's usually only for 45!) Here's proof...though it was hard to catch her in mid-air. You'll just have to trust me, I guess.

This is my polite, well-mannered little girl, daintily eating her breakfast of oatmeal a few days ago....

sweet potatoes for our sweet pea

She's joined the ranks of the spoon-eating population again. After starting rice cereal several weeks ago, we stopped soon after because she wasn't eating it. She'd turn away, arch her back, and just generally showed her displeasure at eating rice cereal. I thought she just wasn't ready for solids. Maybe I was wrong. Yesterday I made my first of many batches of homemade baby food--sweet potatoes. I'd never bought sweet potatoes in my life. The only time I've ever had them is at thanksgiving, and then it's only one small one on my plate to TRY to like them. But I bought them, peeled and cooked them, pureed them, and froze them in ice cube trays. I had two servings leftover that wouldn't fit in the ice cube tray, so I decided to try to give her one of them, even though she wasn't eating cereal well, and all the books say to do that first before fruits or vegetables. Well, my mom reminded me that I have a mind of my own and I don't need to do just what the books say, so I made an executive mothering decision, and tried the sweet potatoes. She loved them!! She opened her mouth when she saw the spoon coming, didn't spit them out, didn't make any faces, and ate the whole entire portion!

I decided to buy baby oatmeal and try that as cereal instead of the rice. So today, since the sweet potatoes went so well, I decided to try oatmeal. More success! She loved it--she talked all through her meal--something she only does when she's happy. She opened up for every bite and ate two tablespoons full--she never even took ONE tablespoon of rice cereal. Maybe she just isn't a rice cereal lover. (Her daddy doesn't like rice chex cereal--maybe she got that gene!!)

She's sleeping better, eating better..... things are on the up and up. Now if I could just figure out what schedule she's following............because it certainly isn't mine! She's doing a good job, but just isn't very consistent.

laptops are dangerous

My mom just gave me a laptop with a wireless card........that means I can get on the internet from anywhere in the house...... Uh oh.... Very dangerous. I'm not going to ever get anything done again!! Do you know how tempting it is to sit here in the living room while my little one is playing by herself and surf around? Or when my husband is watching pre season football to check my email for the zillionth time that day? Dangerous, I tell you.... No more going upstairs away from the family to get online--now it's just too convenient!! Someone please give me some self control.

Sleeping has improved in the last couple of days for our little girl. Keeping her up longer seems to help a ton! She took a long morning nap the last two mornings and slept last night from 8 pm until 5:30 am!! That's a record, I think! Afternoon naps still need some work, but I'll take baby steps....she is a baby, afterall.

Sorry there are no pictures lately. I was going to take some today, but when I brought the camera bag downstairs, the camera wasn't in it, and I didn't feel like going back upstairs to find the camera. So I used the video camera instead, which WAS in the camera bag. She was talking up a storm anyway, so it was nice to get it on camera. She's making more sounds now--kind of a "g" sound, as she blows saliva bubbles and tries to contort her mouth into new and interesting positions. She's so funny to watch.

I just realized that I haven't told you all how smart my daughter is. Whenever we pick her up and carry her anywhere NEAR the stairs, she starts to cry, because she's learned that going upstairs equals going to bed. Today, Grandma, who was here visiting, was going to take her for a walk, so she went out to the front door to go outside. Well, the front door is right by the stairs, so she immediately started fussing. I started laughing, because I knew she would do that, and it's just so funny that she has already made that association. My mom, who's been skeptical since I've told her about her doing this, said, "I can't believe she's figured that out." Just goes to show you....she's genius material! :)

Well, my laptop must be put away for the night, or I'll never go to bed!

odds and ends

Not too much going on in the world of Weed these days.... just taking care of everything around here. The little one has had a cold for the last several days, and that has made things a little harder than usual. She hasn't been sleeping very well during the day, I'm guessing because she can't breathe so well. It's getting better, and her mood has been good most of the time, but she's still not sleeping!! That makes life more difficult for Mommy. I've been reading on the babywhisper.com to try and figure out how to stop these 45 minute naps that keep happening. It suggested to keep her up longer, so I've been doing that. Sometimes it's helped, sometimes not. We'll see if any of the other things work on a regular basis, too.

Today we FINALLY got her nursery done!!! Yeah, I know what you're thinking: she's almost 5 months old, and her nursery is just getting finished?? The answer is yes. It's a long story that most of you probably know, about how we had to wait and wait and wait for her crib to come in, and then it never did, so nothing else got done, because the stain color all depended on the crib color, so then we had to buy a new crib, but she was already born by then, so there was no time to get the other things finished.... Anyway, blah blah blah....enough excuses. It's finally done. We'll take some pictures and I'll put them on here (well, except the wall that has her name on it in wooden letters, since I don't want her name on here!!--you can just imagine that wall. I'll show you the other ones). It'll have to be another day though, because we haven't taken any yet, and she's sleeping right now, and I'm not about to interrupt that..........

no news is good news

I really don't have any news...but I know people check here and hope to see something new, so I thought I'd satisfy you by writing at least a little something.

She's had a cold the last few days. One day was particularly bad, when she just sounded horrible, like she couldn't breathe at all. She's still congested, but it's much better, and thankfully she's remained in a pretty good mood throughout the sickness, except for a few hours in the evenings, but who knows if that's caused by the cold or just her normal fussiness.

Grandma came for a few days, so that was lots of fun. We're sad that she just left, but now it's nap time--always a happy time for Mommy, anyway! Let's hope this is a longer one than she's been taking lately!

Is it really August?

Sorry, no pictures or funny stories about the little one today.... I'm feeling reflective....

I was in the store today watching families shop for school supplies and it dawned on me that it's the end of August. School starts this week. Every August for the last 27 years of my life I've been busy getting ready to go back to school, first as a student and then as a teacher. This year, it's August, but I'm not getting ready to go back. It's a very odd feeling. Usually I'm busy reading teaching magazines and scouring websites for new ideas about activities to do the first week of school. I'm going to the teacher stores and stocking up on posters, bulletin board borders, name tags, and other sorts of classroom necessities. I'm having nightmares about my students being out of control or not being able to find my classroom. I'm tired from moving desks in my classroom, trying to decide how to arrange it to be functional, yet different than what I've done before.

This year I'm not doing any of those things.

Instead I'm busy reading parenting magazines and scouring websites for new ideas about how to get an infant to sleep through the night and eat her cereal. I'm going to baby stores and stocking up on formula, diapers, wipes, and other sorts of baby necessities. I'm having nightmares about my daughter being kidnapped or not being able to find her. I'm tired from doing laundry, washing bottles, changing diapers, and cleaning up drool and spit-up.

And I wouldn't change a single thing.

Yes, it's strange to not be getting ready for school to start, but I have very little desire to be there, as much as I've loved it. I know I'll miss my old students. I know I'll miss my wonderful colleagues. I know I'll miss interacting with different people on a daily basis. But oh, the things I would miss if I did go back.......

...Wide-eyed, full-faced grins that couldn't get any bigger when I kiss her little tummy
...Loud squeals of delight when I put her underneath a mirror where she can smile as she looks up at herself
...More loud squeals as she watches her mobile go 'round and 'round
...Cute little smiles and chubby kicking legs when she sees me come into her room to get her up after a nap
...and more and more and more and more and more

Sometimes I'm envious of my friends who work and get to be out in the world, having adult conversation, getting a break from their little ones, making a contribution to the world, but more often than not, I'm sad for them and what they're missing. I know they wish with all of their hearts that they could be at home, too. So when I sometimes get sad about what I might be missing by teaching, or get frustrated that she's fussy or won't sleep and I just need a break, I remember how thankful I am to have this chance to be at home to raise our little girl. No school, or Fortune 500 company, for that matter, could pay me enough to miss this. I'm so very grateful.

growing up

My baby girl is growing up....she's now eating from a spoon like a grown up. Well, not quite. She's chewing on a spoon while rice cereal flows down her chin, not really like a grown up at all! But she's on her way to eating like a grown up.

We just tried the cereal for the first time this weekend. She seemed to like the experience, except she got tired of sitting in the high chair about halfway through her meal and decided to fuss, arch her back, and try to grab the spoon with every bite. This resulted in the cereal spilling off the spoon before it even made it to her mouth. We decided to stop and try again another time. At least she got a little practice and it wasn't a horrible experience. She didn't smile at the taste, but she didn't make any bad faces, either, so it must've been tolerable.

And another momentous occasion occurred this weekend; she discovered her feet! She's now reaching down and grabbing her feet, sticking them up in the air and staring at them, and moving them every which way, just because she can.

She's growing up. I'm happy everytime she does something new, but already nostalgic about my sweet, little, helpless newborn who is now definitely an infant, slowly learning about the world around her. She's infinitely happier and more content now, which is much easier on Mom and Dad, but I already miss those first days.

sleep, blessed sleep!

Yesterday's doctor's appointment was painful (for both of us). She got 4 shots in the legs. I was watching her play happily with a toy while laying on the exam table, while she was oblivious to the fact that the nurse was preparing the needles right next to her. As the first needle went in, her face went from relaxed and happy to beet red and a trembling lower lip, while her throat tried to let out a scream, but it was such a loud scream that she couldn't even get it out right away. She screamed and screamed while the remaining needles went in and as I scooped her up and shushed her in her ear, patting her back and bouncing her up and down on my shoulder. Eventually she calmed down and I fed her, which also helped calm her, but boy, was it a traumatic few minutes.

But on to the good news....last night, as a result of the shots, she slept from 9 pm until 6:45 this morning!!! She has NEVER slept that long. I woke up once, at 3 something, and checked on her, but otherwise I slept all night long...what joy!

The moral of the story: seeing your child get shots is a difficult process, but the results are priceless--

big smiles!

Pictures...as promised.......

For four months we've tried to get a good picture of her smiling. She always turns the smiles off as soon as the camera comes out. But today when I started taking her four month pictures in the "birthday chair" where we've been taking her picture every month so far, she turned the smiles on and kept them on. Of course the drool machine was on in full force too, but it just adds to the charm of the pictures. It's how she always looks anyway!!

This was taken a few days ago--the first time we sat her in her high chair. We'll be starting cereal next week, most likely (provided the doctor okays it tomorrow at her appointment), so we wanted to get her used to it, so she's been sitting in it when we eat dinner. She looks bored out of her mind, but at least she stays quiet when she's in it!