Here we go ’round the merry-go-round

Tonight Baby B and I went to Gattitown for a small gathering to celebrate The Best Friend’s 30th birthday (her husband wanted to plan something that still reminded her that she doesn’t have to be a grown-up even though she’s 30), and we had a wonderful time. The Husband was supposed to go, too, but he came down with some kind of stomach bug and had to stay home. But we didn’t let that stop us. Oh, no! We first enjoyed a pizza and salad bar buffet, and Baby B did a good job of eating the foods I chose for her (even if she was a bit messy).

Then it was time for fun on the midway. Baby B was mesmerized by all the flashing neon lights and noises coming from the games. The first thing she was drawn to was the Star Wars Trilogy game, which she sat down at and pounded all the buttons while enjoying the music. (The Geeky Husband was very amused by this when I told him.) She kept pointing at the big carousel in the front of the midway, so we went to let her ride that with The Best Friend, and she had a good time. Next came some skeeball, which she enjoyed observing, but she really liked watching me play air hockey, trying to follow the fast-moving puck each play. She got to ride in a little Baby B-sized car that moved back and forth, then we let her play the kids’ basketball game. She didn’t come close to making a goal, but that wasn’t the point with her! She was so happy just to get to throw it! (Balls are one of her favorite toys right now. We went to a bookstore on Sunday that has THOUSANDS of books, and what did we leave there with? A ball.)

Every time we’d walk through the center of the midway, she’d point up at the carousel and say an emphatic, insistent “Unh!” (This is her new thing that she does all the time when she wants something. At least the pointing is very helpful to figuring out what she wants.) So another ride on the carousel she got, this time with me. Before leaving, The Best Friend and her husband played a water shooting game and won a stuffed turtle, which they kindly gave to Baby B. Despite my recent post about her not really liking stuff animals, she’s taken a definite interest in them during the past week or so (she likes the dog we let her sleep with), and she got so excited when hugging the turtle. She loved him so much that she held onto him the whole time we drove home (usually she’ll throw whatever toy she has on the floor within minutes of starting the car ride), and she wanted to sleep with him tonight. She got to bed about an hour and a half late, but she had a great time and collapsed into bed very happy. I suspect she’s dreaming about carousel rides as I type this.

Turning the corner

Ever since Baby B took her first steps a couple weeks ago, she’s been practicing some each day, but we usually had to initiate it by standing her up and telling her to walk. She would take maybe five or six steps, then drop to her knees and continue on her way crawling. We just kept practicing every night with her, and we knew that they were encouraging her at daycare, too.

Something clicked with Baby B overnight on Friday night, and she woke up Saturday morning and almost immediately began using walking as her primary form of mobility, crossing the length of the house more times than I can remember. Sometimes she’d still drop to her knees–always controlled and deliberate–but she’d get herself right back up again and continue, which isn’t something she would have done before. At first she was still kind of careful with it, walking like a Baby Frankenstein Monster and unable to navigate corners, changes in flooring, or obstacles on the floor very well.

So it was fantastic to see just how much improvement she made during our time home over the weekend. By the end, she was turning corners like a pro, stooping to pick up her toys mid-walk, carrying BIG toys with her (at one point, she had two big toys–one in each hand), and stepping over or around things in her way on the floor. In fact, she improved so much that she was even walking while in her sleep sack at night, which seriously limits the range of motion of her legs. In an instant, we watched our baby girl turn into a genuine toddler, not just based on age but also toddling ability. I almost don’t even recognize her sometimes when she’s walking across the house, always a few steps ahead of me and eager to get where she’s going. She looks so proud of herself–and she should be! I know I am. 🙂

Wean, wean, wean, all the way home

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been struggling with how to end the nursing process with Baby B. I felt pretty strongly that I didn’t want to nurse an older toddler, and I knew that she wouldn’t have a problem adjusting to no nursing, but there was still that emotional attachment for me. Fact is, I loved breastfeeding. Not in that freaky “OMG, everyone should breastfeed or else they’re poisoning their kids with formula” kind of way, but just in a way that was satisfactory to me. I liked knowing that she depended on me for her nourishment. I liked the alone time we got together. I liked that sometimes it forced me to sit down and take a break from other things. I liked that it was inexpensive. I liked that it was convenient. So even though she was down to just one morning nursing session per day, I still had a hard time figuring out how to give it up.

I had to get up early this morning and take The Dog to the groomers. I left a little before 7:30 a.m. and knew that Baby B would wake up before 8 and 8:30 a.m. I had a couple errands to do before I came home, so I knew I wouldn’t be home until probably 9 a.m. This wasn’t the original plan, but the whole time I was out, I was trying to convince myself to let this be it, let this be the opportunity to give up nursing. We made it to 14 months, and anything beyond a full year was icing on the cake for me. I thought this way might be best, because I was afraid if I set a certain date for ending nursing that I’d be too emotional during the last session, knowing that it was the final one.

So I got home and The Husband and Baby B were up already. He started to say something about me feeding her, and I told him about how I’d thought all the way home about this maybe being a good time to stop nursing. As he has been throughout this whole process, he was supportive of the decision and he instead fed Baby B some peach oatmeal for breakfast. I did my best to keep myself occupied and just not think about it, and I did fine.

I’m confident this is the right decision for me, but I know it might be hard in the next few weeks. I think part of it is that breastfeeding was truly one of the hardest, most challenging things I’ve ever done (especially for the first month or so, then with the added element of pumping at work), but to last as long as I did…well, that’s one of the things I’m most proud of in my life. I know I’ve done a good thing for Baby B, and that’s the bottom line in all of this. No regrets here.

You snooze, you (don’t) lose

Baby B has one of the Fisher Price Aquariums in her crib, and we have it set to play wave sounds whenever the button is pushed (which she can do herself). When we wake her up on weekday mornings, she’s a little slow get moving. She’ll stretch a bit, squint her eyes, lift her head to look at us, then dramatically throw her head back on the crib mattress in protest. Last week, she did this whole charade, except she sat upright after doing her stretches. She reached up to turn on the wave sounds, then collapsed back into the bed in a heap. It was funny because it reminded me of an adult reaching for their alarm clock and hitting the snooze button to catch a few more precious moments of sleep.

She did nearly the same thing earlier in the week when I was home with her. I heard her moving around a little through the monitor and was thinking she was going to want to get up. She let out literally just two cries, then I heard a “SMACK!” followed by the serene wave sounds and no baby cries.

I love that she seems to love sleep as much as I do.

Wordless Wednesday: Let sleeping children lie in funny positions

For more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here.

Recovery, discovering holes, these shoes were made for walking, and dance dance revolution

Baby B seems to be doing much better overall. She’s got a ton of gunk in her chest, but her breathing is fine and she’s been acting pretty normal all day. I stayed home with her this morning, and I was very fortunate that she decided to sleep until 10:30 a.m., which gave me a chance to nap a little in the living room before tackling the day. (And the best part is that not only did she sleep in significantly, but she still took a 2+ hour nap and went to bed on time a little after 8 p.m. I love this kid.) The Husband came home at lunch and took over baby-care duties so I could go to work for the afternoon and get a few things done. At this point, we’re unsure if we’re going to keep her home again tomorrow, but if we do, then I’ll go to work in the morning and will take the afternoon shift at home.

**********

About a week ago, Baby B learned that her index finger fits just perfectly into each of her nostrils. *sigh* I don’t know why, but I didn’t see that coming quite yet. Part of me is a little amused and find it the tiniest bit funny, and I also realize that she really doesn’t know what she’s doing or why it’s socially unacceptable–but that’s exactly the reason we need to discourage it now and teach her what’s right and wrong to do. Ideally I’d like to take the “ignore it and don’t draw attention to it” approach, because I know a lot of times when you draw attention to something they shouldn’t be doing, it makes them want to do it even more. So far that approach hasn’t worked, so we’ve had to take the “say ‘uh-uh’ and move her hand away” approach, which I hope works better.

**********

And speaking of sticking things into body holes (don’t be scared despite that intro), Baby B decided it was a good idea to put things in her ear at dinner tonight. She started first with the leaf of the Brussels sprout we gave her, then followed up her performance with a few baked beans. Um, I guess it’s better than making herself throw up? (Which she hasn’t done in a few weeks, by the way.) Oh, the things they tend to leave out of parenting books.

**********

We’ve fallen into the camp that believes that babies don’t really need shoes until they’re walking. In fact, Baby B didn’t even own shoes until she was about 8 or 9 months old, and we only got those because that’s when the weather started turning cold and she doesn’t keep socks on unless she has shoes on. With her in the beginning stages of real walking on her own, we decided to take her to get some good walking shoes. I knew just the place we were going to take her, too.

There’s a local children’s shoe store here (you may know it if you’ve ever lived here in town), where my parents took me when I was little. It’s been around since the 1950s, and it’s known for the “talking tree” they have. (I was always amazed by the talking tree. I never got that it was just one of the workers on a microphone out of my direct line of sight. Well, I never got it until after we stopped going there, anyway.) They don’t sell in bulk, and they sell mostly name brands, so I knew we wouldn’t be getting a good deal necessarily, but it was important to me to support a local business that I had fond memories of, and I also wanted to work with someone who knew how to fit young children for shoes since we really don’t have that experience.

So we headed to The Store With the Talking Tree on Saturday afternoon to have Baby B fitted for shoes. The smallest size they had in stock was a size 3, but those fit with room to grow. We went with Perfection by Jumping Jacks, a classic-looking baby walking shoe that has some good ankle support, a flexible sole, and made of good-quality materials. The price was a little (okay, a lot) steeper than I’d originally planned to pay, but we decided to take a chance on it. I came home and did a web search for the shoe, and I’ve seen nothing but rave reviews about it, so I feel pretty good about the decision. She hasn’t worn them much yet since she’s only been at daycare for a half-day so far this week (she goes barefoot at home), but so far she seems to do pretty well in them.

**********

It’s so fun to watch the evolution of Baby B’s dancing. She definitely gets that dancing is what you do when music comes on (we have it on probably 90% of the time when she’s awake–and all night when she’s asleep). At first her “dancing” was just bouncing up and down, but it was always when the music came on. From there, it progressed to a sort of Stevie Wonder side-to-side whole-body sway. Her most recent version of dancing includes holding her arms out from her body with her wrists pointed up (sort of making a low V with her arms), and she does her own little version of The Twist, turning her upper body side to side while keeping her lower body in place. It cracks me up every time. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

Pneu week, pneu illness

Baby B had a clear runny nose over the weekend, and I kept my fingers crossed that it wasn’t going to go into anything, but you already know how this story goes.  She had a very slight rasp in her chest when she left for daycare this morning, but we were still hoping for the best.  I got the phone call around 12:30 p.m. from daycare, saying that after lunch she took a quick downturn.  She didn’t have a fever, but she had fast, labored breathing and a cough.  They know what she was like when she’s had RSV and pneumonia before, and those hit fast, too, so they wanted to call and let me know.  They said I didn’t have to pick her up, but thought it was a good idea to keep an eye on her.  I finished up our issue (it was a deadline day) and left during my lunch break to check on her and would decide then whether to take her to the doctor. 

I got there and she was up and playing on her cot during their naptime. (They said she slept for about 30 minutes and didn’t want to lie down after that because it made her cough worse.)  I decided it was probably a good idea to go ahead and take her home and call the doctor.  We couldn’t get in until 4:30, so I gave her a treatment of albuterol, which seemed to help her pretty quickly and lasted for about an hour.  She played with the dog and acted pretty okay, but it wore off a little before 3:30, and I wanted to give her more, but I also needed the doctor to hear her lungs correctly, so I decided it was best to hold off on another dose.

The nurse did an RSV test since it sounded quite a bit like that (I thought so too), but that came back negative.  The doctor then suspected bacterial pneumonia, but she wanted to have an x-ray done to take a look at what was going on there.  She said it was perfect because she was on call tonight, so she’d just have radiology e-mail her the pics and she’d give me a call tonight so we wouldn’t have to wait until tomorrow. So we went down to radiology to have her x-rays done, then left the hospital around 5:30 p.m.

Baby B and I got home and we ate dinner, and she was pretty fussy the whole time, though she did eat a decent amount.  We gave her a bath, and that perked her up since she got to play with her new light-up bath toys.  We did our regular bedtime routine, and she seemed like she was doing better after getting just one dose of antibiotics and another albuterol puff.  The doctor called during storytime, and she said she will get an official radiology report in the morning, but she saw a patch of bacterial pneumonia on the right lung, so we’ll treat with the antibiotics.

The good news is that her ears/tubes look perfect.  Whew.

So we’ll keep her home on Tuesday for sure (ug!! one of these weeks I’ll not have to take time off, right?) and see how she feels on Wednesday. She’s been quick to recover from this before, so I’m hoping that’s the case here, too.

Oh yeah, and when I had her there, I asked to have her weighed, and she came in at 21 pounds, 2 ounces. Still itty-bitty. 🙂

Happy Easter!

She no lovey

First of all, I just want to establish that I hate the word “lovey” to describe a child’s comfort/security object. Loathe it. Despise it. But I’ll use it here just to keep things simple and because pretty much any parent knows what I’m talking about when I say lovey. Just know that I do not regularly support use of this word.

Many parenting books extoll the benefits of giving your child a lovey, which is usually a blanket, stuffed animal, or other object they use to help comfort themselves, typically when the baby is stressed and especially when their usual comforts (Mom and Dad) aren’t nearby. I’ve read that one of the best ways to get a child to accept a lovey is to keep it near them during their happy times (like, when they’re nursing, or just content in the swing) and they’ll come to associate that object with being comforted.

We wanted to do this early on since we thought it’d be a good idea for her to have a security object during those times when she didn’t want to be separated from us at night. We knew we didn’t want to give it to her during the night quite yet (we took the “no objects in the crib until 1 year old” thing very seriously), but we figured we’d at least let her become accustomed to something early so she would want it in her crib once she was allowed.

We tried a variety of different objects over the past year, but at least so far, she hasn’t grown a security attachment to any of her toys or blankets. In fact, she’s not even really all that crazy about stuffed animals in general, in turns out. (What kid doesn’t like stuffed animals?! Seriously!) She’s like, “Yeah, um, k, that’s nice. Definitely soft. But where are my blocks? I’ve got stuff to DO, people!!”

We won’t specifically encourage her to take on a lovey at this point, but we also won’t discourage her, either, if she chooses something she wants to use. In a way, I’m kind of glad she hasn’t grown an attachment to anything so far. It saves us from having to retrieve the item after she throws it from her crib (especially overnight) and has a fit wanting it back. We don’t have to worry about such an item getting lost or ruined, or forgetting it when we go out. (Which, incidentally, are the exact reasons I’m very glad that Baby B gave up the pacifier on her own at 4 months.) We’re very, very fortunate that Baby B is able to soothe herself well on her own, and I definitely hope that continues.

A tree and its acorn?

The Husband’s dad (so, Baby B’s paternal grandfather) has had everyone tell him that this picture below of him as a six-month-old looks quite a bit like Baby B. So I pulled one of Baby B’s pictures from that same age to see if I could see any similiarities. There are obviously better pictures of her, but I was trying to find one where she was generally positioned the same way as him.

What do you think? Is it a match? Or not quite? I can definitely see some similarities, and she certainly looks more like him as a baby than she looks like The Husband did as a baby. Of course we would love her no matter what, but I have to admit that the “who does she look like?” game never gets old.

Quick medical updates

*Baby B’s rash is completely gone now. The peak of it seemed to be on Tuesday when I kept her home, and it was pretty faint when she returned to daycare on Wednesday (you could see it if you knew it was there, but I doubt you could see it otherwise). Today I couldn’t ever tell it was there.

*My elbow and upper thigh are almost completely better now after the fall a couple weeks ago.  A faint bruise lingers on my thigh, but I don’t have much pain in either place now…usually just if I put too much pressure in the wrong spot.

Wordless Wednesday: Snowstorm watch

For more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here.

Rash call to the doctor

Well, I think we’ve finally got an answer for what that fever over the weekend was all about. Last night during Baby B’s bath, I noticed that her trunk had a very light rash on it…not enough to really get worried about yet, but enough that I wanted to keep an eye on it.

This morning when I was nursing her, I noticed that she had what looked like the same rash on her forehead along her hairline, and her scalp was almost a solid red. I looked at her trunk when it was time to take her out of her sleep sack, and the rash on her belly and back had become more pronounced, looking mostly like this photo. I knew I needed to take her to the doctor, so I called when the office opened at 7:30 a.m. and was able to get her in at 8:15. By the time we got to the pediatrician, her forehead and scalp looked mostly better but her trunk was still rashy.

The doctor asked about her progression of symptoms and then diagnosed her with viral exanthem (fancy name for a generic viral rash). This usually starts with a mid- to high fever that goes away usually after a couple of days, then after the fever has been gone for a couple of days, the rash appears.  Pretty by the book, it seems.  The good news is that the rash doesn’t seem to bother her in terms of itching (though she’s quite irritable and gets frustrated very easily) and he said she’s probably not contagious because her fever has been gone for more than 48 hours.  I asked if I could take her to daycare today, and he said that would not be a problem, but I decided to keep her home just in case…plus it’s going to look better on us if we keep her home for this one day instead of rushing her back with a rash.  (Though, with her irritability today, I don’t know how she’d do there, so it’s best to keep her home.) The bad news is that because it’s viral, there’s no treatment we can do.

Another day, another ailment. *sigh* Well, the one good thing to come out of this is that he said her ears look nice and healthy.  [chuckles] At least that’s not something we have to deal with on top of this!

Population: +1

It is my fantastic honor to announce the birth of my good friend Serenity’s St. Patrick’s Day baby, born healthy by c-section this evening at 8:55 p.m. Mom and baby are doing well, and details are included in my updates on her blog at http://serenitynowinfertile.wordpress.com. Please head on over there and offer your congrats and encouragement as she takes on this new role as a mom!

I cannot convey just how happy I am for her and newly expanded family. I cannot wait to visit you guys in a couple of months!! 🙂

The adventures of Bedtime Girl

When you picture a young child’s bedtime story, you may picture mom in a rocking chair with the baby snuggled on Mom’s lap, pointing at pictures and enjoying the story being told. The room may be dimly lit, and there may be soft music playing, creating a serene environment perfect before turning in for the night.

That scene does not play out at our house.

We make a few books part of Baby B’s regular bedtime routine, just before it’s time for her to turn in. Much as I’d love for her to be sitting in my lap during storytime, that is the last thing she wants to do. Instead, storytime at our house looks like this: One of us sitting on the futon in her room reading a book out loud, with Baby B climbing off the futon, climbing back up the futon, climbing back down the futon, going over to her bookshelf to pull off books and thumb through them herself, climbing back on the futon, going over to the blinds and trying to pull on them before we stop her, pouncing on one of the cats, and trying to open her dresser drawers. The other parent makes sure she stays safe and doesn’t get into things she shouldn’t.

She has such an adventurous/explorer personality that sitting still is not her thing. (That’s another reason her teachers knew she wasn’t feeling well yesterday…she sat on one of the teacher’s laps for several minutes, and they definitely took note that it was unlike her.) So, that carries over to our bedtime story, as well. She loves her books, but becuase of her independent nature, she’d rather look at them on her own. I dream of one day getting to snuggle with her and reading her books as she follows along, but for now, she’s content to continue exploring her world, so I’m not going to force her to sit at this point. The good thing is that despite all this activity, she still goes to sleep nearly instantly as soon as we put her in the crib, so she’s still able to wind herself down just fine.

Friday fever

One of these days, I’m going to have a whole week where I don’t have to take time off work because of a Baby B illness, Baby B’s doctor’s appointments, or a weather-related daycare closing. I really don’t remember the last time that happened, but that week was not this week.

On Thursday morning, I took her to the ENT doctor for her surgery follow-up, and he said everything looked good. She also had a hearing test while there, which she passed just fine. He gave us the clearance to get her ears wet (the tubes are the water-friendly kind, but he wanted us to wait until after the follow-up), and said he wants to see us four times a year (with the changing of the seasons), including hearing tests for two of those visits each year. That seems a bit excessive to me since there have been no signs of any problems (beyond the ear infections, I mean), but I figure we’ll go with that schedule for the next year since ear infections tend to peak in the second year and see how that goes.

This afternoon, my cell phone rang and I saw that it was the daycare. We sent Baby B to school today perfectly healthy, so I was quite surprised to have them tell me she had a fever of 102.5 and a slight runny nose, so I had to pick her up. Thankfully we were in good shape at work, so it wasn’t that big a deal. Getting that call on a Friday is difficult because I have to make the decision on whether to call the doctor. I don’t want to call if it’s not a big deal and they can’t do anything about it, but I also don’t want her to get worse and then have to make a trip to the ER since the pediatrician’s office isn’t open over the weekend. I chose not to call the doctor because her symptoms really didn’t seem that bad. I briefly thought it might be a teething thing since she’s currently (finally!) cutting tooth #7, but the fever seems a bit high for it to be that.

We got home around 4 p.m. and spent the next two hours with her being fussy-grumpsy as I call it. At a couple of points she was all-out crying for no obvious reason, but for the most part, she was just whining the whole time. I’d given her some Tylenol for her fever and gave her a snack, but nothing I did would make her happy. Frustrating to say the least, especially since this is so rare for her to act like this. As soon as The Husband got home (with dinner and ear infection antibiotics [just in case] in tow) at 6 p.m., she was all smiles and seemed to forget she was sick. Figures.

She acted just fine through dinner, except she fell asleep while eating her grilled cheese sandwich. She’s only done that one other time while eating, and it was just as hilarious this time as when it happened the first time. It seemed that she was genuinely sleepy, though, and I don’t think it was because of feeling sick since she seemed mostly better by then. We did a bath as usual, then bedtime stories, and she was acting completely normal by the time she went to bed. No trouble getting to sleep, either. Hopefully this is just something minor that she’ll fight off quickly. In a way it stinks for her to be sick over the weekend just because we may not be able to do the things we had planned, but if she does remain sick, at least that’s less time we have to take off work.

Cruisin’ for a bruisin’

Thanks to those of you who commented after my fall with Baby B last week. She never showed any signs of being permanently damaged from it, and I’m pretty sure I’ll end up uncrippled, as well. After it first happened, it felt like my elbow was the worst injury between that and the upper thigh, but when I woke up on Saturday morning, it was definitely the thigh that was worse. A bruise didn’t show up for a few days since it was so deep, but it was nice and pretty when it did surface (see below). (Incidentally, I used to call those purple-y and deep blue bruises “cow bruises” when I was little because of the stamp they used to put on steaks/other beef sold in the grocery store. I used to think it was a bruise on the cow and didn’t realize it was a stamp, thus my term cow bruise, which I still say to this day.) My elbow ended up with a bruise, as well, but it didn’t show up nearly as much as the one on my leg. Almost a week later, my elbow is still pretty sore if I put any weight on it (even just sitting at my desk and resting my elbow on my chair armrest), and I have trouble lying on my right side in bed at night because of the leg bruise. But overall it’s much better than it was last week.

Wordless Wednesday: First time walking!

For more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here.

Walking the walk (for realsies!)

Pretty much ever since Baby B was 9 or 10 months old and started using the walk ‘n ride at daycare, everyone has been saying to us, “Oh, she’s going to be walking so soon!” We were very excited for this milestone, as it’s a big one, but weeks and then months passed and still nothing. I knew she was still well within the range of normal for this milestone, so I tried not to think about it too much, but mostly it was just frustrating to hear everyone else saying how soon it would be and then come up empty week after week. She became good at walking while holding onto just one of our hands, but she never became brave enough to try it on her own. I’ve said for a while that when she took her first steps, she was going to pretty much take off instead of it being just one or two wobbly steps.

I was pretty much right!

This evening after dinner, we were playing with Baby B on the floor in the living room before it was time for bed. She showed some signs of wanting to stand on her own, which she really hadn’t done all that much, so we let her do that and didn’t really expect her to take off–but she did! She walked about five or six steps back and forth between me and The Husband countless times, diving into our arms excitedly at the end of each turn. After a while, we stood up and decided to see how far she’d walk if one of us wasn’t right in front of her, and one time she took 8 steps, and another time she took 10 steps, pausing at times to maintain her balance before carefully proceeding further.

We made our way to the bedroom so we could get her dressed for bed, and the walking thing was so exciting that The Husband and I plopped down in the floor, about 4 feet from each other, and had her walk between us again. This time she really surprised us because she left my arms, starting walking toward The Husband, then pivoted 180 degrees so that she came right back to me, slowly, but without losing her balance.

I was able to take a short video of her second set of steps (the first caught us by surprise, so I didn’t have my camera on, though thankfully it was nearby), so I’ll be posting that tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday. (The video is only about 9 or 10 seconds because at the time, she would only walk toward me, so it was hard to film her while also having my arms ready to catch her hug bomb. But I got it all the same. 🙂 )

Mother Noose

I know that a lot of stories are meant to weave a tale that essentially scares a child into behaving properly, but boy do the Mother Goose stories take the cake in this category. Apparently I’ve learned very watered-down versions of the stories over the years, but a glance at The Real Mother Goose is quite eye-opening.

The Bird Scarer
Away, birds, away!
Take a little and leave a little,
And do not come again;
For if you do,
I will shoot you through,
And there will be an end of you.

Cry, Baby
Cry, baby, cry,
Put your finger in your eye,
And tell your mother it wasn’t I.

Goosey, Goosey, Gander
Goosey, goosey, gander,
Whither dost thou wander?
Upstairs and downstairs
And in my lady’s chamber.

There I met an old man
Who wouldn’t say his prayers;
I took him by the left leg,
And threw him down the stairs.

Little Polly Flinders
Little Polly Flinders
Sat among the cinders
Warming her pretty toes;
Her mother came and caught her,
Whipped her little daughter
For spoiling her nice new clothes.

There Was an Old Woman
There was an woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children
She didn’t know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread.
She whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

Circle of life

I’m not really that much of a Disney person, but one of my all-time favorite movies (probably top 3) is The Lion King, and the opening to that movie with “Circle of Life” is hands down the best opening of any movie I can ever recall seeing. It’s so powerful, and it’s always given me chills and put me on the verge of tears. After reading the book version we have for Baby B the other night for her bedtime story, I was in the mood to watch the movie, so we put it in after lunch today.

I hadn’t remembered how long it’d been since I’d seen it, but I quickly realized it was the first time I’d watched it since having Baby B, and seeing the presentation of this new life sent me over the edge. I wasn’t just crying. I was bawling. We’re talking full-on tears and getting choked up in between laughing at myself for doing this and saying, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” I certainly didn’t expect this reaction, but watching how excited this community was for the arrival of little Simba reminded me just how greatly anticipated Baby B’s arrival was for us, and I was flooded with emotion at the thought. I’ll never lose sight of how grateful we are to have such a wonderful daughter in our lives.

Snow fall

As a big winter storm approached our area, I learned late this morning that our county’s public schools were dismissing two hours early and our daycare was closing at 3 p.m., so I had to arrange to leave work early to pick up Baby B. Thankfully we were in pretty good shape with the magazine, so I left around 2:45 p.m. to get her. I had such a good time when I got there because Baby B took me all around the room, showing me the rocking horse, the play pyramid, a big stuffed bear/rug thing, and several learning toys. She’d crawl excitedly to the next thing, look back at me and wanting me to follow, then show me what she does with each item.

We went home and had a nice afternoon together, filled with plenty of silly time, chasing each other, and taking the pens out of the holder and putting them back in (over and over and over). At one point she started getting a little fussy, so I decided to go into the kitchen to refill her sippy cup with water. I forgot that the entrance to the kitchen, which is right by the garage door, was wet from where I’d come in from throwing down salt outside, and I slipped and fell while holding Baby B.

It was a pretty bad and scary fall. I was holding Baby B on my right hip, and I fell as I was making the right turn into the kitchen, so my momentum was such that I kept going to the right, falling with Baby B headed toward the tile floor first. Instinct kicked in and I did everything I could to keep from dropping her. My right outer upper thigh (around the saddlebag area) hit the floor first, followed quickly (and sharply) by my right elbow. The pain was intense and almost blinding, but I also had to think about protecting Baby B in the split second that all this happened. I tried to make sure her head didn’t hit the ground, and I was mostly successful in that goal. I don’t remember exactly how it went, but my right arm, which was wrapped around her, took most of the blow. Her head did touch the floor after I was completely on the ground and my body shifted itself into a different position, but at least it wasn’t a direct hit, which is mostly what I was trying to avoid.

My pain instantly went away as my concern turned to making sure Baby B was okay. She was crying intensely, probably more from the scare of it than from any sort of pain. That nearly made me cry, but I worked on comforting her and making sure she was acting normal in order to rule out some sort of concussion. She cried for only about 2 or 3 minutes and quickly got back to acting like herself with plenty of giggles. Needless to say, I was relieved. After I saw that she was okay and I probably didn’t need to make an emergency room trip, the pain of my fall came rushing back.

My outer thigh is very sore, but there isn’t a bruise and it generally just hurts if I put too much pressure on it (I suspect I’ll be sleeping on my left side tonight). My elbow isn’t quite as good. I don’t think it’s broken, but it’s discolored, a little swollen, and pretty painful when I move it, and resting my elbow on a table isn’t possible without a blinding pain present. I suspect it’ll be fine in a couple of days, but it’s an inconvenience at the moment. The good news is that Baby B seems to be just fine from the incident. It’s a little scary to think about how bad it could’ve been if I’d let go of her during my fall, but I can’t let myself think about that. The good news is that instinct kicked in and it turned out well.

It’s like this and like that and like this and uh

*I’m pretty sure that the child locks on our bathroom and kitchen cabinets fool me 98% of the time.

*I’m glad to report that Baby B’s eating has been much better since I dropped the nursing session right before bed. There are some things she’ll still refuse to try, but she’ll actually give more things a chance now and she hasn’t made herself throw up. Thankfully she loved the tomato basil tofu, and she’s really enjoyed peanut butter on crackers and peanut butter sandwiches, so those both make me happy. She also gobbles up fruit like she’s afraid we’re going to take it away from her.

*I am so, so glad we don’t have to deal with a pacifier when I hear Baby B’s daycare teacher talking about the trouble she has with the other toddlers and their pacis.

*Baby B’s teacher said yesterday, “I just can’t believe how active she is for her age! She’s not hyper, just very, very active and wanting to be involved in what others are doing.” Very true.

*Baby B is a biter, and I’m hoping we can get this stopped before it becomes an issue. She mostly does it with us at home (do you know how much it hurts to have your cheek bitten? or your stomach fat?) and we try to catch her before she even does it (you can generally tell when she’s leaning in to do it). Her teacher told me that a couple days ago, she nipped her friend Big Buddy on the hand when Big Buddy thrust it in front of her face. They said it’s the first time they’ve seen her do it, but I’m hoping this is not a new trend. A kid isn’t thrown out of daycare on a first offense, and the teachers and director will make every effort to discourage the child from biting, but it is something that she could technically be thrown out for.

*Baby B loves to give us zerberts on our bellies, and she has the sound down so perfectly that if my eyes were closed, I’d never know it wasn’t a real fart sound. She does this and then giggles right before doing it again.

*Baby B is fascinated with The Husband’s nipples when it’s his turn in the bath. She’ll reach up and pinch them (ha! finally she’s doing it not just to me!) and then look at him all confused as if to say, “But why don’t they work?” She’s tried to latch on once or twice while The Husband squirmed away, which of course had me cracking up.

Wordless Wednesday: I had the weirdest dream that I fell asleep in my highchair

For more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here.

The games kids play

When I picked up Baby B from daycare yesterday, I found out that they took advantage of the nice day (in the low 70s) and went outside for some playtime on the playground. This was the first time Baby B had gone out there, so I asked how she did. They have one of those little plastic cars (the kind that’s red with a yellow roof–I know you know the type I mean), and for the first part of playtime, she sat inside there with her elbow resting on the window of the car and her hand against her head, just watching everyone else play, probably to get a sense of what to do. They said she then came out of there and went right for the little baby slide, climbing up (oh yeah, we’ve got a climber for sure) the tiny slide and then sliding down with a squeal. Oh, what I would’ve given to see that!

**********

When I picked her up yesterday, her back was to me when I came into the room, so I stood at the door and watched her play for a few minutes. I love doing that, watching her play like that when she doesn’t know I’m there, so I do it every chance I have. We don’t get much time like that at home since she still needs to be in sight when playing, so at daycare is the perfect chance for that.

Anyway, she finally saw me, and usually she comes crawling over to me excitedly so I can pick her up. But this time, she started crawling away from me excitedly. I laughed and asked, “Where are you going?” She went straight for the back corner of the room, where the daycare had set up a new pyramid play center (pictured here, though ours doesn’t have the mirrors) that they’d just gotten over the weekend. She took two steps up the slide and plopped her butt down so she could slide down it. The grin on her face couldn’t have been any bigger as she bounced up and down when she got to the bottom.

**********

I love the little “games” that Baby B makes up on her own. This is one she does in the bath from time to time, and I’ll do my best to describe it. We’ll run the bath water to rinse her using a cup. We fill up the cup and while it’s still under the faucet, Baby B will put in her little bath-toy fish in the cup and push it down. We’ll pour the water on her, fish and all, and she’ll pick up the fish. We refill the cup and she does the same thing, and if she doesn’t put the fish in the cup under the running water, she makes a special point to do it as soon as the cup comes toward her. Before we pour the water, she’ll take the fish out, put it back in, push it down, take it out, and put it back in. Then we pour the water and fish on her, and the whole thing starts over again. It sounds pretty dumb to narrate the whole thing here, now that I’ve got it all written out, but trust me when I say it’s amusing to watch. Well, amusing for her parents, at least.

**********

Another new game for her is playing with pillows. She loves to rearrange the pillows on either our bed or the futon in her room, and she stacks them up like blocks and then dives into them. Earlier tonight, she stacked two pillows on The Dog and then went headfirst into all of it. I swear The Dog puts up with so much (trust me…he loves it!). The funny part is that I’ve always had quite an affinity for pillows, so she’s definitely showing signs of being my daughter with this new game.

Monitor mornings

For the most part, we have to wake up Baby B in the mornings, so she really doesn’t have all that much time to play in her crib by herself. But sometimes on weekend mornings she’ll wake up before us (usually around 8 or 8:30, so we’re very thankful we can sleep in a little) and will entertain herself for anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes before crying for us to come get her up. I love those mornings, getting to listen on the baby monitor to her coos, squeals, and “talks” as she plays with the crib aquarium.

It’s those mornings that I would love to have a video baby monitor so we can watch what she’s doing, but I hesitate to get one because there’s only one on the market that’s digital, and that one hasn’t gotten good reviews. It doesn’t bother me as much to have a regular monitor that isn’t digital, but it really makes me uncomfortable to think that someone could watch our baby if our signal crossed with theirs, so I think that digital protection is a must before I’d buy a video monitor. It’s a little disappointing that video monitor manufacturers have not realized this yet.