ga ga ga

...her new noise. She got the G noise and constantly makes a ga ga ga ga ga noise. Its so cute!!

I think we're making progress

Ok, I think I've got more of a feel for this napping thing. My last post was more of a vent. I talked to a friend of mine yesterday whose daughter is a few months older than Violet. She said that when she moved from 2 naps to 1 a day, she made it around 1 pm but initially struggled to get that far in the day like I was having trouble with. I tried but Violet couldn't seem to make it that far after waking up so early...around 7 am. So, when she gets tired and whiney at 10 am, I make her a snack, sit down, and read some books or involve her 1 on 1, keep her engaged, and get through the melting down stage. She seems to do pretty good, then before you know it, its noon, so that means lunchtime, then I brush her teeth and then put her down for a nap. I've done that for the last 2 days and its working great! She slept at 1 pm two days ago until 3 pm, then today she went down at 12:40 pm and slept until 2:30 ish. That gives me a 2 hr time window during Violet's nap! I hope we can keep this up. She goes to bed around 8:00...that is a good time. About nursing, we're doing good. I've gotten her down to nursing just once in the morning when she wakes up, then once again later on in the evening sometime before she goes to bed. She is really into food, which is great. She will eat a big bowl of oatmeal and 1/2 a banana (maybe a whole one!) for breakfast, then have some cheese for a snack, then eat some chicken/potato/veggie "thoup" that I made her (she loves it!), then maybe a few crackers, drink some milk, then eat whatever I have for dinner along with me...maybe a burrito, some white beans, or fruit. Lots o' poo in one day for a little squirt! I plan on keeping the 2 times a day nursing until she wants to stop. I'm going to miss it a lot!

bananas?

Violet is into bananas again. Hmmm...I wonder how long this'll last! She ate a whole banana today after eating some potato fries for dinner. Her newest little saying is copying me and Dave when we kiss her. We make it a big deal to say "muuhhhAHHHHH" and she copies us by saying "mmmmmmmMAAA" . Its so cute!!

naps...blah

We don't have a nap schedule anymore. She usually wakes up at 8:00, then goes down for a morning nap sometime around 10 am but only sleeps for a half hour. She'll take a longer afternoon nap, but I have no idea what time or how long for. This lack of schedule is annoying!

she's finally on the mend, i'm going downhill

Well, Violet is now feeling better. I just noticed that my last post was Feb 5...and today's the 18th. She was sick forever, it seemed like. Today her nose finally stopped running. We went through so many boxes of kleenex, and the edges of her nostrils are scabby and rough from all the wiping. Poor kid. Her cough is lingering, but she's finally better. I have flu symptoms. I've got the chills, hot flashes, a fever, body aches, head aches, and my throat is very sore. Dave took Violet out to the pharmacy together (to give me a break) to get me some oscillococcinum and some other meds to take care of the flu symptoms. It so far is helping a little. I am going to start baking for Cup of Joe. I am excited and a little nervous. We'll see how it goes...the owner calls me tomorrow to let me know which day I'll be baking for.

sometimes...

Sometimes the days with Violet get long. She is so sick right now. Well, not SO sick, but an annoying sick. She's got a runny nose that needs wiping every 4 seconds it seems like, and she keeps coughing. When I hold her I can hear and feel the wetness in her chest. If she could blow her nose really hard and cough really hard, I feel like she could blow the cold right out the door, but its slowly dripping away and its dragging on me. She just walks, constantly....everywhere. She'll drag a toy with her somewhere, then leave it there, then go get it, then bring it over to me, then want it back, then go get something else, and the cycle starts over. I feel like I am feeding her 24/7. She nurses in the morning, then an hour later she eats some sort of breakfast. I give her all sorts of things...fresh fruit, cereal, cereal bars, toast (not all at once!) and she sortof picks and chooses what she wants to eat. I never feel like she gets a decent amount of food in her. For lunch, I bring out a few things and she takes a couple bites...again...I never feel like she eats a whole lot. I don't even know how much she's supposed to be eating in one day. I'm in the weird mix of nursing and giving her food....and its confusing. She likes noodles. A lot. And cheese. I made a chicken noodle soup tonight, and she wolfed down all the egg noodles she could find, and I gave her a couple carrots and celery and a little shred of chicken, and it went in the mouth and promptly back out. I think she sees the bite of food on the fork, and decides to put it in her mouth just so she can spit it out. No need to push it away with her hands...just use the tongue. She's learned that the red bib she's got catches everything she spits out, so I guess its always there for later. Sometimes I clean out whats caught and put it back on her tray...and she rarely notices the difference. I just started whole milk this week. Her first sip was out of the straw cup that she's had water in for the last few months. She was fully expecting water, but got a gulp of the milk, took one weird look at the cup, and pushed it away. She did drink another sip, then pushed it away...like she likes it, but decides she doesn't want it at the same time. As Violet was whining tonight ... I looked at her slobbery nose and sighed. I got sick of her and felt bad about it, because I know these days of her being so young are numbered. Dave said to me like "ya know, if you had my perspective on things, I'm not sure you'd feel the way you do..." and of course, my first inside reaction was to get upset...because I felt like he was telling me something I already realized. Of course I know...my job is draining and gets old, and the whining and cranky sick Violet days seem very long...and he did say that he recognizes that and there's room in my day to feel exhausted...but at that time I just wanted him to let me be exhausted.

Violet exploring snow - pics

Violet's left handprint

pics of exploring snow

Violet explores snow for the first time - comments

Last week I took Violet outside on the deck to explore snow for the first time. Now that she’s walking steadily, I thought, why not? So I bundled her up in her new birthday boots, coat and hat. It was a fairly mild day outside so I left her hands bare so she could touch the snow. She seemed happy to be outside. Her attitude was very mellow and concentrative. She methodically plunked from place to place on the deck, like a little wanderer, stopping to look at things that interested her. She squatted down to poke the snow, then sat to stay a little longer and figure it out. She picked up a chunk, squashed it between her fingers then looked confused. She found a little ball of snow and stuck it in her mouth, then promptly spit it out. Violet’s method of “spitting” something out is to stick her tongue out as far as it’ll go and hope it falls off. That made me giggle. She found a tiny little twig with a ball of snow on the end. She carefully pinched it and walked over to me and gave it to me. At one point she walked over to the sliding glass door and peered inside at the dog. I asked her who was inside, and she quietly peeped “Abuuhhhh” (the dog’s name is Abby). I asked her to say it again and she said a little louder “Abuuhhh”. She definitely knows the dog’s name. We stayed outside until her little cheeks got red. Her purple pants were dirty from sitting in wet, dirty snow. I thought her hands were getting cold so we came inside. I am pretty sure she had fun. We tried going outside again a few days later, but I had the 2nd layer of her coat on which is stiffer, and the sleeves are so long they covered her hands. She kept tripping on the driveway and accidentally did a face plant in the gravel near the driveway and got sand and mud all over her face. Needless to say, she wasn’t too happy about that, so we came inside and wiped her face off. That time wasn’t the most fun, but we’ll do it again! Its nice that she’s walking all over now … I don’t have to carry her everywhere.