Playdates and Monkey Business

Yes, Michelle has graduated to full-on Monkey status. Last night she crawled over the Io's food bowl (The water bowl, or indoor splashing puddle, was moved out of reach), banged her mouth on it, screamed, got over it, crawled to the couch, pulled herself up to a stand, fell over, banged her head on the corner of the doorway, screamed, all just before attempting to put her to bed. This was her this morning when I came back in the room after getting rid of a dirty diaper. Yes, very proud of herself.

Now is that about the cutest pile of cheeks you have ever seen? We will miss our playdates wih Teagan when we move, but we are bound to have many new friends and playdates in Salt Lake City. I am completely jealous of the fact that Teagan is a month older than Michelle and NOT crawling yet. It was hilarious to watch. It's like she is totally capable of it but just chooses not to do it. Michelle would crawl over, Teagan would grab her face, Michelle would pout, Teagan would laugh and grab her face again, and Michelle would look at me like "What is this micro-person DOING to me?" THE SAME THING YOU DO TO YOUR MOMMY ALL THE TIME, SILLY! Lesson learned: paybacks are a bitch!

I think it's safe to say that Michelle will gladly join her mommy on the roller-coasters and tilt-a-whirls one day.

Big moves!

What can I say, every woman needs to carry her purse around.

It's hard work being a baby!

Really, I can handle the chuck-it...REALLY!

A quick post. The rain is back today but we took advantage of the lovely spring sunshine yesterday afternoon and grabbed some vitamin D. Michelle thought she'd give the chuck-it a try. Io is always happy to give anyone a turn so when he saw her with the chuck-it, I guess he assumed it was her turn to throw the ball!

8 Months Old

It seems like this last week has just been infant development on steroids! In one week, Michelle went from a very limited army crawl to cruising around the entire house on all fours. Yesterday, just because she wanted to feel super accomplished before her 8 month birthday, she pulled herself up to a stand at the fireplace...with absolutely NO HELP from me. While reading a magazine, I could see her working on it in the corner of my eye and then, with a grunt, presto! STANDING!

For Michelle's 8 month birthday, we also moved her to her OWN ROOM. Yes, it may seem a little silly considering we only have 1 more month here but here's the deal. We tried an experiment last night after 2 very rough nights of "no booby in bed" and removed the cow (me) from the farm (our bedroom). I slept in the guest room with the baby monitor and Barry slept down in our room with Michelle in her crib. Michelle woke up ONCE. That's right. After months of waking every 2-3 hours and noshing on my boobs all night long, she woke up at 12:30. I went downstairs and nursed her, put her back in her crib and headed back to the guest room. She did not wake again until 5:00. I couldn't believe it! I nursed her and then because she seemed sleepy and I missed Barry's warm body, we all cuddled in bed and Michelle slept until almost 7:00...she SLEPT next to me WITHOUT A BOOB IN HER MOUTH! So that's how we concluded that everyone was ready for Michelle to have her own room. We moved her crib while she was napping in her car seat and when she woke up I put her in her crib to check it out and the cutest thing happened: she started playing in her crib like "What a wonderful place you made for me Mommy!" So we'll see how tonight goes.

Something New Every Day

1. Has now mastered the pincher claw and effectively brings small items mouth.

I thought this was amazing yesterday morning when she picked up smashed blueberries and hit the target, her mouth. I didn't enjoy this skill quite so much yesterday afternoon when she found an object (a piece of foil...after I vacuumed AND inspected the play area for small bite-size objects). This object found it's way into Michelle's mouth and caused a choking incident. Yes. My daughter choked. Yes, I saved my daughter's life with a series of back blows dislodging the object. She screamed at first which alerted me, probably because the object HURT...I am not sure what she was expecting it to feel like, I mean, it was a piece of foil! So I picked her up and then she started sputtering and gasping and STOPPED crying which I knew was trouble. Can I just say FOR THE RECORD that Michelle was in my direct line of site, 4 feet away from me. Back blows everyone. Any parent of a small child, I want you to sign up for a CPR class TODAY. If it has been 2 years, it's time to renew.

2. Crawling

Need I say more? Goodbye to "Oh, I'll just leave her on the floor in the living room while I go check email..."

"Danger" Meets More Milestones

And this is just one of the amazing things Michelle mastered this week. I swear it happened overnight. One day, can't even hold a sippy cup, the next day, she's a freakin' master!!! At lunch and dinner, Michelle demonstrated the fine motor skill of the pincher grasp, picking up sticky rice and black beans and shoving them into her mouth...well...okay, there were more misses than hits when it came to actually finding the mouth-hole, but she definitely gets an A for effort. The crawling is still a work in progress though she is now officially Army Crawling. This has made a huge difference in her mobility and thus a less frustrated baby. However, as can be expected with her increased mobility, her separation anxiety has ramped up too. Not all the time, but sometimes she just totally freaks out when I walk into the other room! Of course, this too shall pass. And though I know I am just hearing what I WANT to hear, I swear to God, this kid has said "Dog-gy" (or Dad-dy) over a half a dozen times.

We have also nicknamed Michelle "Danger". I swear, she looks for the most dangerous thing and tries to grab it, put it in her mouth, or bring it down on her head. "Oh look! It's a weighted exercise ball. Let me roll that on my fingers. Oh look! It's a cupboard door. Let me smash my fingers in it. Oh look! It's a candle. Let me burn myself with it. Oh look! It's the sharp edge of the fireplace, let me bang my head into it. Oh look! It's an electrical outlet. I wonder what would happen if I stuck something in it. Oh look! It's an object the perfect size to occlude my airway. Let me put that in my mouth! Oh look!...." Of course, we are conscientious of her thought processes and have therefore thwarted any catastrophes. It is inevitable that one day she will have big learning boo boos, but I would rather those NOT wind us up in the ER!

Published!

Here is the link to the current issue of Midwifery Today containing our birth story! You can't read it online yet, but you can purchase the current issue through the website.

http://www.midwiferytoday.com/magazine/Issue93.asp

Park Swing!

Michelle's first experience in a park swing. Super fun!

Interpreter please?

Michelle has graciously passed her cold onto me. And the week has completely sucked for sleep. Since Michelle woke up babbling at 4:30 yesterday, we tried for a later bedtime last night: 7:30 instead of 6:30. Would this be the magic trick that would give us an extra hour of sleep? In short, NO. Note: keeping babies up past their bedtime does NOT mean they will wake up later. She woke up about an hour after she went down, SCREAMING. Since she has been fighting this cold, I have been on constant alert to the possible development of an ear infection (or ear "attection" as I once called it). So I picked her up, she didn't seem TOO upset so I nursed her and she fell asleep on the boob. I placed her back into her crib where her little hands gathered behind her head in her usual "ready to sleep" pose. Maybe 5 minutes later, SCREAMING again. This time I think, "Maybe I will let her fuss it out a little..." But something was different about this cry and it was escalating BIG time. I don't think it was more than 3 minutes later (which feels like 30 when you are listening to your baby cry) that I went down and got her. By now, she was hyperventilating from crying so hard and very difficult to calm down. Of course, I am convinced at this point that in those 3 minutes, her cold has erupted into a volcanic ear infection. So I give her some Tylenol and put her on the boob but she is still fussy. Then I think, maybe I should check her diaper. Now, one might think that this would be one of the first things you would check when your child wakens at night at an odd interval, but for starters, Michelle typically couldn't care less about a wet diaper or a load of crap in her pants and since the activity of diaper changing tends to elicit a stimulated child, we try to avoid this at bedtime. But, I check. And there it is. A pile of turd the size of a golfball. It wasn't one of those soft ones either that conforms nicely to the curves of her bum. I mean, it probably felt literally like there was a golf ball in her ass crack. So the final interpretation of her desperate scream and hyperventilation...."GODDAMMIT MOTHER!!! I HAVE A F---ING LOAD OF SHIT IN MY PANTS! WOULD YOU LIKE TO SLEEP WITH A LOAD OF SHIT IN YOUR PANTS? NO! SO WILL YOU DO ME A SOLID AND GET THIS GOLF-BALL SIZE TURD OUT OF MY ASS CRACK???" And I did. And then commenced a litany of guilty, bad-mommy thoughts, complete with tears of course. As I now sat in the big brown nursing recliner with Michelle on my left boob gazing into my eyes with her big blue doe-eyed tear-stained eyes, I explained to her my faults. "Mommy is so sorry. She is trying very hard to understand you. Sometimes she doesn't get it on the first try, but she will always keep trying until she gets it right. I love you, my sweet love."

On a lighter note, it occurred to me yesterday while she was playing on the floor that she is officially babbling. She has been talking in squeals and screeches for months, but all of a sudden, yesterday, or maybe that's just when I paid attention to it, her squeals morphed into a string of continuous consonants and vowel sounds: da da da ba guh guh beuah beuah agggh mmah mmah mbah. Interpreter please?

Daddy at swim lessons

Despite fighting a few sniffles, Michelle performed like a champ in swim lessons yesterday. Barry had the day off so he got to jump in the pool this time and sing splishy splashy songs with all the other mommy/baby pairs (GASP, Barry singing???). Prior to yesterday, there were a couple of daddy's that were coming with their little girls but wouldn't you know it, yesterday the mommies came instead which meant Barry was the only daddy in class. I think it was good for him!