Post Disney withdrawal...

I posted this picture before. It's Paige just as we arrived at the Toronto airport, excited to leave for Orlando, but not really knowing what would really await us at our destination. I love this picture as it reminds me of what it felt like to finally be leaving on our vacation after months of anticipation and anxiety. Our vacation was underway! As much as we had prepared Paige and talked about Disney and showed her pictures and videos of rides, she had no idea what kind of Disney overload was about to hit her.

As you know, we had a fantastic time. No need to reiterate that. But now we are left with a slight issue. It is hard to explain to a kid that we aren't going back any time soon. She asks to go back to Disney pretty much daily. She talks about the rides she will go on next time. She asks exactly when we will be going back and enquires as to whether next year is "the day after this day". She does get it in a way. She knows that it takes 3 hours to get there by plane and that we need a ticket to get on a plane. She knows that it costs money. But still....what does that mean to an almost 4 year old?

The weather here is cold. Paige notices the weather is cold and says with giddy excitement..."it's warm in Disneyworld!! (insert squeal and jumping here). I think she's hoping to convince us to go back.

Sometimes Paige says "People are in the Haunted Mansion right now!". She takes after me as I always think about things like that...what people are enjoying after we leave. It's especially gut wrencing coming home from a cruise and walking through the cruise terminal seeing the next lot of people ready for their 1 week vacation.

Sometimes I feed into it and say with equally giddy excitement..."I can't wait till we go back again!!". It's always tough to come back to regular life. Luckily when you're a kid, everything is exciting and every day is a vacation.

Troublemaker...

The problem with shoes...

Rose had begun to take her slippers and socks off when we went out. I thought shoes would be better as they are harder to take off. She quickly figured out the velcro however, and takes off both shoes and socks and chews on her shoes in the car.

Smiles!

I couldn't resist the perfect lighting for a perfect little girl. As you can see, her hair is growing! And you can see 5 of her 7 teeth in the first photo.

Almost walking...

Rose is cruising along all of the time now. She only crawls when she wants to get somewhere quick. The rest of the time she's cruising along the furniture, or pushing a craft table chair around. The weather is getting somewhat warmer and it will be nice to go to the park soon...this requires Rose to have some sort of solid footwear in order to cruise around the park or hold my hands to walk. I brought her to Kinder Soles to get her first pair. I wasn't sure what kind to get, but the lady said that she could do with real shoes as she is on her feet over 75% of the time, and they will probably last around 3 months...in which time she'll definitely be walking. Of course she doesn't need to wear shoes all the time, but she can benefit from wearing them if we're outside, etc. And since she's on her feet a lot at home she can wear the shoes for a bit to get used to them.

She is so close to walking. She can fully walk just holding onto one of my fingers for balance. She just needs the confidence to do it on her own. She knows that she can crawl really fast, so she will just drop to her knees and crawl rather then attempt to transition between 2 close objects. I wouldn't be surprised though if she took a few steps any day now. Paige was already walking at this exact same age. I think walking would initially slow Rose down, which is why she prefers to crawl super-fast to keep up with Paige!

As an aside note, proper walking shoes from a kids store aren't cheap! Mike's first shoes were $10ish apparently for good ones, and, well, Rose's were a lot more than that! Seems crazy, but I have always splurged on quality shoes thinking that it is a good thing to spend the extra money on. I hope so.

Free years old.

Paige has always been really good at pronouncing her words. She can now say "th" sounds in the middle or end of words..."Anthony", "Elizabeth", etc. She still says she's "free years old" though. She was really excited when she said "Anthony" properly. She doesn't know an Anthony, but he's a member of the singing group, The Wiggles, who she loves...Anthony is her favourite Wiggle she says.

The Backyardigans sing a song that says "We're going to Mars! We're going to Mars!", and she is convinced it is "We're going to Marth! We're going to Marth!" I keep telling her it's not right, but she doesn't believe me. She sounds like she has a lisp.

I think she has most of her sounds down pat... although sometimes she's not sure if something has a v or b sound. She still says "Bacuum" instead of vacuum. And she really tries hard to say "three".

Awake training for Mommies...

I already forwarded this to a lot of people, but thought I would post it here anyway (also so I can have quick reference for a good laugh).

Dear Fellow Babies,

OK, here’s my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 5 months. The first few months were great – I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, around the clock. Then something happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse.

I’ve talked to other babies, and it seems like its pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 5-6 months. Here’s the thing: these Mommies don’t really need to sleep. It’s just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep – they just don’t need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:

Night 1 – cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it’s hard. It’s hard to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it’s for her own good.

Night 2 – cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3 – every hour.

Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don’t give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I know it’s hard! But she really does not need the sleep; she is just resisting the change.. If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it.

The other night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up with:

-My sleep sack tickled my foot.
-I felt a wrinkle under the sheet.
-My mobile made a shadow on the wall.
-I burped, and it tasted like rice cereal. I hadn’t eaten rice cereal since breakfast, what’s up with that?
-The dog said “ruff”. I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL.
-Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room.
-Too hot, too cold, just right – doesn’t matter! Keep crying!!
-I had drooled so much my sheets were damp and I didn’t like it touching me.
-I decided I was sick of all the pink in my room so I cried.

It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mommies’ internal clocks.

Sometimes my Mommy will call for reinforcements by sending in Daddy. Don’t worry Daddies are not set up for not needing sleep the way Mommies are. They can only handle a few pats and shhing before they declare defeat and send in the Mommy.

Also, be wary of the sleep sheep with rain noises. I like to give Mommy false hope that listening to the rain puts me to sleep sometimes I pretend to close my eyes and be asleep and then wait until I know Mommy is settling back to sleep to spring a surprise cry attack. If she doesn’t get to me fast enough I follow up with my fake cough and gag noise that always has her running to the crib. At some point I am positive she will start to realize that she really doesn’t really need sleep.

P.S. Don’t let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out.

Trust me.

Sincerely,
Baby J

Source: http://www.babysleepsite.com/awake-training-for-parents/

More amazing iPhone app fun....

Wordless Wednesday...

First birthday fast approaching...

Unbelievable. My little baby is fast approaching toddlerhood. She cruises around all of the furniture, can climb up the stairs, often gets into mischief, and practices walking with her walker. She is not far off from walking on her own. I am really really finding it difficult to cook a meal or even eat my own lunch. She doesn't want to be confined to her highchair, so if I'm eating I have to feed her simultaneously or give her finger foods to keep her from getting into danger on the floor. Her favourite place downstairs is standing up at the craft table. Upstairs--Paige's room or exploring. She doesn't actually play with her toys anymore.

I'm mentally planning her first birthday, and have a beautiful girly outfit planned for her. Her birthday falls on Easter Sunday, which is a bit awkward, but that just means we'll have a weekend of fun! The plan is to go to the Springridge Easter festival. Fun for the whole family.

I thought I'd feel sad that she was getting older, but as busy as I am I can't imagine entertaining a "lump" baby anymore. She continues to be overly sensitive, crying at the slightest bump or fall, and adventurous--exploring all cupboards, drawers, and examining everything. She still wants only mommy when she's tired. She's way better with food, but we're still not into complex meals and combinations of food. No meat yet, and foods with multiple textures cause her to gag. She can eat full cheerios with her fingers, but don't expect her to eat a purree with a few chunks in it. She accidentally ate a mini oreo cookie though when we were in Florida. It was on the floor and we caught her with a mouth full of mushed up black cookie. I don't think we'll ever switch her to a bottle. There's no point. When she begins cow's milk, we'll just start to introduce it in a sippy cup. One less transition.

I'm not sure if Rose says "mama" and "dada", or if it's just well-timed babbling. It often seems to be said at the correct time, and other times I hear her saying it randomly. She is waving, clapping, and starting to point.

Something hard to believe is the fact that she has 7 teeth. She got the first 2 when she was 4 months, and then popped out 5 in a 3 week span before we left for our vacation. You can imagine the sleepless nights and pain this caused everyone involved. She has now turned into a biter, so you'd better watch out!

At this point she still takes 2 naps...9:45 and 3:00. The morning one is often longer than the afternoon one, and it lasts until 11:00 (I often have to wake her up at this point to go pick up Paige--it begins at 9:45 as we have returned from dropping off paige). She sleeps at night from about 8 until 7:30, waking up once or twice to eat. Maybe she's not hungry, but she's usually sitting or standing with her eyes open, and feeding her is the fastest way for both of us to get back to sleep!

I've obviously spent way less time chronicalling every one of her developments, as opposed to Paige's growing up. I feel guilty, of course, but also attribute it to the fact that I am more confident and don't feel the need to debate and ponder things online. It's weird though. I am just amazed with every new step as when it happened with Paige. I just don't always have time to put thought into blog.

This Rose "overview" was inspired by her turning 10 months yesterday. Wow. Unbelievable.