more acceptable...

For some reason, as I mentioned in a previous post, turtle = terror. This sorta-lady-bug contraption was much more acceptable for her and she enjoyed her day in the pool.

Huh...well this isn't that bad...
(And yes, eye spy David's thingie)

You know...you could have just bought this thing in the first place...

What did I tell you? Now you listened and I loved it.

toofers...

"Aaawww...she's so cute." "Does she have any teeth yet?"
"No."
"Wow...almost ten months and no teeth...huh."
"Nope, no teeth, but I like her toothless grin."

So goes the conversation. But alas, it's time to say goodbye to that adorable toothless grin. During a hissy fit after she finished her Stage 3 corn and rice concoction, Jamie noticed something in her mouth. No, it wasn't a stray piece of rice that she forgot to chew and swallow. It was a tiny speck of something on her gums. He asks me to look at it, and if that's what it looks like when teeth come in.

Not being a dental student or pediatrician, I had no real education in what new baby teeth look like, but in my inexperienced opinion, it appeared that there was a tooth coming in. A small little white blip on her bottom gum - indented a tad. Yes - I believe in fact we have what Jamie and I call "toofers". "Where are your toofers?", we'd ask her. Now she can respond, "Right here...goodness...now get me some pain meds and leave me be." Someone had told me that, if adults had to teeth, they couldn't bear the pain. I can't tell if it hurts her, which probably means it doesn't, thank the powers that be. I should shut up lest I jinx it.

Crawling...teeth...she's just throwing everything in all at once this month. Walking and talking too? That's pushing it!

with a little incentive...

Alexis has been doing her very best to move to where it is that she wants to go. There's tipping, twisting, pulling, etc, but for some reason there was no crawling. She was doing some Downward Dog yoga poses - head on the floor, arms straight, legs straight. That's no way to get somewhere little girl.

At 9.5 months, there had to be a way to get her moving. We recently introduced the little cheese poofs and rice crackers to her. While they're a disgusting mess when she eats them (cookie water dripping down her shirt, smooshy cracker bits all over her hands), she loves them and is content munching away. I realized that I might be able to harness her insatiable appetite to get what I wanted.

Crouched on the floor, I held out her cheese poof, essentially bribing her to come to me. And wouldn't you know, she took a few "steps" on her hands and knees. Tah dah - a little poof goes a long way. Unfortunately, it seemed that the crawling was a blip and it ended there.

Monday, at Goddard, I shared this momentous occasion. Short of crumbling cookies all over the floor and hoping she moves, I asked that they work with her to see if we could have a repeat performance. End of day, I returned to day care and asked how she did. Apparently, her small move the night before must have inspired her. I was told that at one point in the morning, a little red ball rolled away from her, and, deciding that the red ball was the most important toy in the room, she proceeded to skitter across the floor on her hands and knees. Miss Bethany told me that after that, she was crawling everywhere.

I was so excited to get her home and watch her new skills. We put her down, took a few steps back, and begged her to come to us. Nothing. Did they lie to me?? Babies make liars out of you, that's for sure. The whole evening passed with no crawling. I imagine that she needs to be much more self-sufficient at day care. At home, she has us trained. There, she's on her own.

I'll have to call Jamie and ask for an update. While I'm excited for this new stage, with it come new responsibilities, especially because she easily pulls herself up if she's next to something sturdy. We'll need to walk the baby safety aisle and pick up all things safety. We'll need to move Jamie's collectibles to higher ground. We'll need to put up the baby gates we'd originally purchased for the dogs. Floors will need to be cleaned much more regularly. Dog food will need to be monitored. And so on and so forth.

I'll make sure to take some pictures to post. I'll especially need to capture Downward Dog. Stay tuned!

daddy day...

Yesterday was Jamie's first father's day. Just as we didn't do much for me for mother's day, yesterday wasn't all that eventful either. Alexis had decided that I desperately needed a Wii game as my gift on mother's day, she decided that Jamie needed My Bloody Valentine 3D. She has great taste. A nice big breakfast from scratch and some great dinner at my parent's house sealed the deal.

I'm enamored with the Jamie / Alexis relationship. Men with babies are too cute, and make that baby a girl, and the moosh factor is even bigger. Jamie does just about everything in life better then me (really, he does), and there are definitely things that Jamie does with Alexis where I just can't compete. The way she laughs when he tumbles her over and blows on her belly, the way she giggles when Jamie tosses her around, the way he makes her smile when he walks in and gives her a big happy face...those are all things where I can't compete. I can try, but I just won't win.

So Happy Father's Day to my dear hubby who has been doing such a fabulous job with his little girl. : ) We love you!

give it up...

I enjoy being mom. Such a blunt statement. I guess it's a given? Pop her out and love her and love the act of loving her? And I do - I absolutely adore this pudgy lump which is my daughter. And the role of mom? I like it too. I knew that I would never be obsessive super-mom, but I can hang.

My goal as mom has always been to tell the straight truth about this thing called motherhood (and have made every attempt to share those truth-isms on this blog). Just as I am comfortable saying that someone else could have gladly kept her from 0-3 months and then returned her to me, I'm also ok with saying that there are days where I would be more then happy to drop her off somewhere and pretend that we don't have her. And I don't just mean having a break. I mean that I actually want to forget that I'm a parent for a bit and take time back to when it was just me and my husband with less cares in the world. Call the Bad-mom police if you want to, but you know you've thought it before too.

What's a bit ironic is that the things that I think I want to do where it seems that baby is interfering - they're things we didn't really do before we had her. For example, I was thinking the other day, "Man, I could stand to get in shape...maybe Jamie and I can run together, but how's that going to work with the baby?" Who am I kidding? I don't run...never did, never will, and especially can't with Jamie since his athletic ability is exponentially higher then mine and I'd end up trailing along in panting despair anyway. I guess it's the whole concept that, though I wouldn't want to run with Jamie anyway, it's the fact that I don't really even have the option.

Before anyone gets worried, don's misread this as me becoming disgruntled over motherhood and griping away to anyone that will listen. It's simply that I've truly recognized the overwhelming feeling, at times, where I can distinctly remember how things were when it was me, Jamie, and our pups.

Different then? Yes. Bad now? No. Just different, period. It's nice that we have family babysitters galore. Jamie and I can drop her off and slip back into our old world. And, in addition to getting things done and hanging out in peace, we can do all the things that couples do when they're home all alone...... ; )

new pictures...

Can stand in her crib now and lick away at the rail...

She likes to show us her bottom gums...


There's the big beautiful smile...

Guess she can't be cute all of the time...

This doesn't go on Parent magazine

i win...

Some people say that every mom will think that their child is the most beautiful child in the world. But my mom has said that she can't see that being true. I agree...every mom loves their child more then any other one in the world, but some parents can't be so delusional as to think that they're leprechaun of a child is the pageant winner. But this comes from a mom that has a child that receives compliments on a regular basis. How's that go again? Oh yeah, "Oh my gosh she's beautiful...absolutely beautiful" or "Aww, did you see that baby we just passed?"

Beauty and cuteness aside (it's all in the eye of the beholder anyway, right?), I think temperament is something different all together. While all moms might look at their child and think they belong on the next cover of Parent (even if it would drop subscription rates to a record low and bring in tons of letters to the editor), I don't think parents can deny the way their children behave..... Wait a second - yes, they can.

There are parents crazy enough to think that their child got a D because it's the teacher's fault. If I got a D (this honor student will remind everyone that that may have only happened once, and I blame Jamie for derailing me with his 16 year old swagger) then it was MY fault, not Mr Somethingorother. Lied about where I was going for the night? My fault, not society's. Ugh - now I'm disgusted by what I'm writing and have to pet my pug to make things all better.

The whole point of this post (which didn't go where I thought it would), was that, when I picked Alexis up the other day, I was told "You know, Alexis has become a favorite around here. Teachers from other rooms stop by just to say hi to her." I'll gloat for a second. That being said, I asked if she was moving around alot (aka pulling up, etc). "Honest answer? Not really." Apparently she's so sweet that she's content just sitting there taking everything in. Baby comes and grabs her toy? Ok - I'll watch you play. Someone drops their toy near her? I'll reach for it...it'll do. Content babies don't really have a huge drive to move - why go over there when the sky is blue and the sun is shining right here?

So for the moment, I will revel in the thought that my child really might be able to be on the cover of Parents magazine. I'll bathe in the glory of having a baby that people want to purposely see and complement on her sweetness. My child may grow up to be a funny looking terror, so I'll make sure to love every second of this.

checklist please...

A three day trip to DC for work at the end of last week and a stomach bug yesterday has completely derailed my blogging - deepest apologies.

Yesterday, Jamie took the little miss to her pediatrician appointment. Together we had formulated a list of questions. How much should she be eating? How many ounces of formula? What can/should she be eating now? What about water and juice? And how about her fingernails...they're awfully ridged...is that ok? And her one eye can be super runny and a bit goopy at times. What's that all about?

When Jamie returned, I was holed up in bed, praying my ailment would pass (and praying that it wasn't contagious, lest he need to turn around and go right back to the doctor). Though standing made me feel super-yucky, I immediately got up to hear all of the exciting tid-bits of baby information.

Continuing to stay at the top of the growth charts, she's holding on to that 95th percentile across the board - height, weight, and noggin'. With two tall parents that were pudgy babies, it's to be expected. She had one shot and I was told she was a trooper. They also pricked her heal to extract some blood for blood-work, and Jamie said she barely cared. But what about all of our questions?

Apparently, as Jamie started down the list of "here's what she eats now...how many calories or ounces should we be looking for", Dr. Klein stopped him. She explained that there is no right or wrong. Alexis is a healthy baby - what we're doing is working just fine. Try introducing a bit of this and a bit of that and follow your gut. She shared that her one child, after a few bites, would clamp his mouth shut and be done with it. Her other child would eat and eat and eat until you would think he'd pop but would always want more. That would be Alexis.

I want answers! I get it, and it makes total sense. I'm not angry about it. But I am a checklist person. Before traveling, I write down everything we need, even if it's terribly obvious. When driving somewhere new, I bring detailed directions along and check them obsessively to make sure I'm prepared for the next turn. I want to know what to do and when to do it. But alas - babies just don't fit into checklists.

In the beginning, I was told that babies will tell you when they're sick or when they're hungry or what have you. And we've seen that firsthand. I was strong-willed and left the baby books behind - they couldn't make up their minds anyway. The only checklist we could live by was early on when she was screaming. Diaper? Check. Hungry? Check. Tired? Check. None of the above - good luck.

It's obvious to me that children don't fit a checklist. Even up until the point where they move out, they'll never follow documented rules. I need to get used to flexibility and trial and error now. It'll only get more complex with age!

that confirms it...

Let's revisit the turtle. We were at my parent's house yesterday, and while the pool was a chilly 76 degrees, we were hanging out around the pool, enjoying the sun and cursing the intermittent clouds. Alexis was sitting on the end of the pool, one hand grasping the same metal railing she'd been dancing on the weekend before, one toe stretched far out enough to fling water around.

Omi suggests, "Go get the turtle...I'm curious". A novel idea - let's figure out whether it was the pool or the turtle. I approached with the big, green, smiling turtle and set it down next to her. Her eyes got big, she kicked her feet a bit and raised her hands, and then her face got red and she started to cry.

I knew this cry - it was the "I'm afraid get me out of this situation" cry. She'd had the same melt-down the first time she was in the tub and I had the water running. We've gotten past that one, but I'm not sure we'll get past the turtle. Omi picked her up, I took the turtle away, and lo and behold, pleasant Alexis returned.

I've set out to find a non-descript pool float. Target has one that appears to be an inflatable ring with a fabric seat (which I figure would be more comfortable then plastic leg holes). I see no faces on the picture online. There is nothing sticking up from it. There is a canopy, necessary for today's evil sun rays. I intend to look today and purchase if it seems up to par.

Short of getting her a bathing suit with a built in floaty, she'll need to learn to love some sort of seated floating device, lest she be required to learn to swim immediately. As old-timers say, "Throw her in...she'll learn."