So cute I can't even stand it..

I can't believe how much Paige is starting to understand and be aware of things. Last night she was acting like a puppy, that is the only think I can compare it to. You know when dogs do something again and again for treats? Well, while I was sitting on the couch, Paige was standing in front of me, holding onto the couch. She let go and was just standing there with her palms facing outwards towards me for balance. So we went YAAAAa!!! and clapped. She eventually lost balance and put her hands down on the couch again. A few seconds later she would do the same thing. we would say yYAAAAAaa and clap. She did this again and again probably about 10 times. Sometimes she would even do a little pivot turn as if she was going to try to walk in the opposite direction! when she would do this she would wipe out completely on the floor. She would then crawl back to the couch, stand up, and do it again. By the end she was standing on her own and clapping. She could probably only get in 2 claps before she would need to put her hands down to steady herself, since it wasn't as easy to balance and clap. I just can't believe how insanely cute she looks with her hands out, a serious look on her face seeking approval, and tiny little wobbles as she is steadying herself.

I have realized that shopping for a baby girl is difficult--there is waaaaaay too much selection. You know how you go to the store to shop for yourself and you might see 2 items that you like, if you even find anything that fits properly? Well, with Paige, I look in the store and I could really get anything for her, and all of it fits. Everything is ridiculously cute, it's just a matter of matching things that you already have, and not going crazy. I have bought most of Paige's forseeable summer wardrobe. I guess we'll see how dirty she gets and what she likes wearing. She has:

5 onesies
3 t-shirts
2 tracksuits
1 water-resistant jacket
1 bathing suit
1 dress
1 terry cloth bathing suit coverup dress/normal dress
1 sailor suit
2 sun hats
3 shorts
and, hhmm, 5 pairs of pants...ok, but 2 of these are 18 month leggings that she wears now, so they fit now as pants all scrunched up, but will probably fit until she is 2, just under dresses.

It's funny because some of the stuff was in her closet since she was born. At the time it seemed so huge, so I didn't even imagine that it would fit now, but it will definitely fit by July. I think it seems like there are a lot of clothes, but once she starts playing in the grass, I'm assuming that some stuff will get stained. Already one of the onesies has food stains on it.

Can't wait till I can shop for our cruise...the stuff from last summer is maternity, and the summer before that I was a size XS....not going to happen by this summer...so I need everything new! woohoo! I won't go crazy, but I will need a few things anyway..

New Achievments

1. Paige can stand up for about 15 seconds on average. She uses her arms to balance herself if she wobbles at all.

2. She randomly finds her walker and starts walking away.

3. She can now dance on cue: "Paige, dance dance!" and she moves side to side, or if on all 4's, apparently she moves back and forth--she did this last night.

4.Toast has become another food option. If you give her a half piece of toast she will rip off tiny pieces with her 2 teeth.

Ouch

I just glanced at myself in the mirror as I was putting Paige's last bottle of the night in the warmer and I thought, "what the heck is that all over my face??" I had Paige's FOOD ALL OVER MY FACE! Little splatters of food mainly on my nose. Lately, she likes to spit out her food. Most of the time I take it to mean that she is finished, but sometimes she seems to do it for fun. Also, she does it when she tastes meat or carrots which she hates--but those are always accompanied by a disgusted expression.

I probably didn't notice that there was food all over my face or bother to wipe it off when it happened since I had another one of those, "OMG, I just hurt my child" moments. I had heated up some cereal for Paige and then gave it a (apparently) crappy stir. I tested it with my finger like I always do, and then gave Paige a spoonful. One look at her face and I knew I had just burned her (or close). I must have taken a spoonful from a hot section. As soon as the food hit her tongue, she kept her mouth wide open with her tongue sticking out, she started shaking and crying. I scraped the food off as quick as I could, then I gave her a drink of my water. She was fine, but once again I felt awful! Add that to the list of bad things I have done. It could have been way worse, and now I will be over cautious I guess. As a treat after the incident, I let her play with her sippy cup without the membrane in it, so she could drink the water really fast (which she loves). She got the water all over herself which she thought was hilarious, so obviously, I hadn't really hurt her, just shocked her.

Paige says hi

I was able to get a video of Paige saying hi very clearly. I put together a few clips of her using her walker, crawling really fast and then saying hi. She says hi 2 x actually. The second time is the best.

Bed and Breakfast

It seems we have started to run a B&B. Here is a picture of us with our "tenants". Jen and James were here last week which overlapped with Tyson arriving late Sunday night. I haven't had a chance to blog since the computer is in the guest room. Or, more aptly, there is a bed in the computer room (when you have 7 computers this is what happens).

Paige has been pretty easy to transport around town lately when we have gone out as a team. She is really good in her stroller and will play with toys and just look around contently. We were able to take her to the zoo on Monday. She didn't look overly excited, but you could tell she was looking at the animals with slight amusement and interest.

Having so many visitors has been really great for Paige. It seems to keep her in good spirits a lot longer than when I am just alone with her all day. With all of the extra people around talking to her, Paige has begun to say "hi" and "hello". I am not convinced she understands it, and probably most people will not believe me, but if you ask anyone who has stayed here, she has definitely said "hi" a bunch of times. Jen, James, Tyson, Grandpa, Grandma, Amanda, and Greg have all heard it. She will definitely not do it all the time, and it is normally after a 5 second delay after someone else says it, but she definitely has said it a lot, and usually when someone walks into the room. The "hello" was only said in imitation.

She has also begun to wave on occasion and go from crawling to sitting. When she is cruising along she can easily get down onto her bum or all 4's without completely wiping out or crying for help. What a productive week! Also, she is sleeping through the night every night (except last night--who cares).

We will be going to a birthday party tonight--a first for Paige, so she will have to wear a party dress. It is for a little boy on our street who is turning 1. I am hoping that she will have a nap before we leave so I have put her in her crib, but usually this is futile. Lately she loves going in her crib, and can amuse herself just by holding onto the crib bars and cruising along the perimeter for up to 20 minutes. Yesterday she was able to play and then lie down for a nap all on her own. I was shocked and impressed. I am hoping for the same today.

A few random samples...

is this for real?

Ok, Paige just sleeps through the night now for the most part. The whole family is sleeping, and everyone is happy. ahhh bumper pads...why didn't we have you for the past, oh, 4 months (!!!!!!!)..I think part of this is that her soothers can't fall out of the crib, so she can find them in the middle of the night. She can pop those suckers in like nobody's business.

Paige woke up early and then decided she was tired again so I put her back in bed. I feel like lying on the couch with my coffee. I better do that before she wakes up, so I have no time to say anything else. Oh..we had professional photos done in our house yesterday. Hopefully later today I can post some.

um, hello.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Paige's sleeping has been so bad that I had a thought. All she does all night long is bash herself into the one corner of the crib. I thought what if we put the bumper pads in just to see! You may recall that I thought about doing this, oh, about 6 months ago??!

All we have ever been told at prenatal class, the hospital, from the public health nurse, and in every Canadian book, and SIDS article is that bumper pads should not be used. I have been looking just now and it even says that if you do choose to put bumper pads in the crib that they must be removed once the child can sit up. They make them sound so dangerous and scary and unsafe that no one in their right mind would endanger their child that way.

Well, I did. AND IT WORKED!! OMG, I put the bumper pads in last night just to see what happened. Trust me, I was nervous and went into her room twice to check on her. She only woke up ONCE...not 5, 6, 7 times, but once. When I went in there last night she was still in the center of the crib, ok fine. Went in there at 6:30, and no joke she was up against the usual corner, but WITH HER BLANKETS COMPLETELY OVER HER HEAD!!! Woops! Hmm, that could be a bit dangerous. I moved the blankets away and was happy to see that her nose or mouth wasn't squashed up against the side as they warn about. She woke up about 5 minutes after that probably because i woke her up, but she is sound asleep now.

I am a bit worried though about what she will do when she wakes up for the day. Normally she wakes up slowly then crawls around the crib or stands up. Last night when we showed her the bumpers it was obvious she thought it was something she could climb on. I am sort of worried that she will try to climb on it and slip--she won't fall out of the crib, there is no way..the mattress is down too low--but she could slip her legs through the bars or something, I don't know.

Anyway, in researching this, I talked to a couple of people and posted my dilemma on a message board. Right away about 3 people wrote back saying they had the same exact problem and that they had put the bumper pads "back" in. I assume from this that they are from the US and had the bumpers in to begin with but took them out at the suggested time, and they reinstalled them later when this problem started. I suppose last night could be an isolated night, and tonight she could wake up a million times. I somehow doubt it though when I actually saw the top of her head squished up against the side and she was sound asleep (and breathing). Hmm, I wish I didn't have to worry about this because I definitely don't like doing things that are not recommended. What would you do?? On all counts the bumper pads are supposed to be out no matter what at this age and stage.

Unrelated note: I waited till yesterday to try to feed Paige the "8 month +" food (still pureed but with slight chunks of vegetables or fruits in them). I was trying to feed her some beef somethingorother when she started choking! Anyway, long story short, she projectile vomited all over herself and the kitchen. I felt AWFUL! So she is going to stick to the 6 month food. Her little body has been concentrating on crawling and climbing, and is not ready for these foods yet, thank you very much.

After this post I'll probably be arrested.

Fast-Crawl baby complete with bobble head action and clapping motion

The Grandma came and went. It was a quick visit, but fun for all! Poor Grandma Val came right in the middle of a snow storm. We have raved for years about how great Ontario winters are compared to Alberta ones, so we had it coming. Luckily we were still able to get out to Paige's last swimming lesson (where she got her first certificate)--but barely, since the roads were not ploughed and it was a bit chaotic on the roads. It made for a nice and pleasant swimming pool though.



Paige has just started to do a few things. It seems she has replaced "the face" with the bobble head. I wasn't sure before, so I didn't say anything, but when Paige hears music she likes to bobble her head back and forth. Not sure where she got this one from. Sometimes it is in corelation to nothing though, and she will just be crawling along and will bobble her head. I only thought this morning how she barely did "the face" all weekend, but constantly had her little head moving. She has also started to understand waving, and puts her hand up sometimes.


We also witnessed super fast cruising this weekend. Her cruising has been pretty timid and slow up until this point, but one time she just got up and inch, inch, inch, she was moving along quite a bit quicker than usual to get something on the couch. I think it is because it was in all one motion--hands up, onto knees, standing, inch, inch, inch. Like when you sit down at the piano and can just start playing a song without the music--if you look at the music, it screws you up.

Boy am I clever. I have a theory about Paige's sleeping. The first night that Grandma Val was here, unfortunately Paige had the worst sleep since...ever. To be honest, her sleeps have been pretty brutal. But yesterday, I weighed her and she was 21.5 lbs. That means she had gained a pound and a half in about 3 weeks. I think she has gone through a growth spurt! That might account for her generally fussy nature as well. She has also grown out of most of her sleepers. I am wondering if she will grow a little in height too. If she is going to walk at 9 months like her mommy, I think she needs to be a bit taller. I have never seen a baby walking that is as short as Paige.

Grandma's on her way!

On Monday, Mike's mom (Grandma Val) told us that she would be in town on the weekend! She is here right now for some meetings, but will be staying with us on the weekend. Paige should be getting excited!

Today I managed to capture the face that I was talking about:

Last night we bundled Paige up and attempted to take her out in my old baby sled. We thought it would be perfect since we were snowed in all day, and the streets still hadn't been ploughed. Well, as soon as we stuffed her in the sled out on the street, she was terrified!

Poor little girl. We were thinking that she was probably pretty confused being pulled along so low to the ground. We ended up walking around the block carrying her and dragging an empty sled. People were shovelling their driveways and probably thought that we were nuts.

I have had to do a bit more rearranging and putting away of things. Paige is constantly bonking her head on things. She went through a few days where she barely hurt herself at all, which can be attributed to her increasingly better climbing skills. But now she is trying to climb up straight objects, like the corner of the wall, or the leg of a table, rather than grabbing the edge of a shelf or something. So now she slips sometimes while she is attempting these little maneuvers. She hit her head really bad today, and I feel really bad. It's not that I don't watch her, but sometimes you just have to let her try new things otherwise she gets really fussy and bored. I take it that we need to get her a couple of big toys that she can pull herself up on...like one of those activity tables, or the little walker thing I was talking about getting...anything that is safer. Now I can think like a baby and predict what she is thinking of climbing up on, like her friend Amy, for instance.

A new game for Paige to play is to take out all of the DVD's from the second shelf and then play with them. I figure we will let her do this until she becomes bored of it, rather than constantly pull her away. Realistically we will have to move this bookshelf before she gets big enough to tip it over.

I am finding myself having less and less time to myself now. I can't go on the computer anymore unless Paige is sleeping. She used to like her playpen, but now she gets mad in it if she is in it for more than 2 minutes. It works wonders when I need to go grab her bottle or a coffee or something though (oh right--that no coffee thing lasted for 24 hours). Because I realized I can't leave her alone for even 30 seconds if I run really, really fast down the stairs to get a bottle because she will make her way over and stand against the baby gate! What a little scammer! I mean, if I tried to sneak down quietly while she was occupied I am sure she would be ok, but still. Basically, I can't do very much unless she is sleeping anymore. Luckily she has a couple of decent naps during the day...making up for the less than decent nighttime...but I digress...