November in Texas (We're back!)

Julia and I have been in Dallas the past week. It was a mini family reunion on my mom's side. It was lovely to see family I haven't seen in awhile (my cousins have gotten so old! when/how did that happen?!) and I'm really happy that Julia got to meet several family members whom she had never met before.

And of course, since it's Texas, we swim in November.

"Yeah I love Texas."

"I'm the queen of Texas."

"You requested an audience?"

"Finally. My subjects got me a hat for my delicate eyes."

The babe has not been feeling well. We're on day 17 of some major GI disturbances (I'll leave it at that for your imagination), plus some vomiting, a low-grade fever, and a side of uncharacteristic crankiness. At first I thought it was the transition to whole milk that preceded it, but she's been on the world's blandest diet sans milk for awhile now and no improvement. I've been holding out taking her to the doctor - she seemed to be getting better when we headed to TX for a week, and we just got back last night and are headed there on Monday anyways for her 12-month check-up. But, that's pending our next dirty diaper, so we'll see.

The awesome thing is, the dr's did say we should bring in a poop sample when we go in on Monday, but to please refrigerate it before the appointment. Gross! The things you do for your sick baby...

Petting Zoo?

So, I had two friends from high school come visit me this weekend, which was awesome! It was very cool to sit around and catch up. I love how we were able to go seamlessly from topic to topic - how ridiculous we were in middle school when we all met, what's going on in our lives now, and what we hope will happen far into the future.

I took everyone to Suson Park on Saturday, with promises of a petting zoo. Unfortunately, while there were rows of animals in stalls with "CAREFUL - WE BITE!" signs, there was no petting zoo. So we looked at some cows and horses and ducks, and we watched Julia play on the playground a little. (Fortunately, I think I salvaged the day for my friends with massages and tapas for dinner.)

I'm really thankful my friends made the trip out here, and I'm exhausted today, which I think is a sign of a weekend well-spent. :) (Well, that and maybe having a baby for the end of DST.) I also had book club today, which means I'm working on another book reviews post (working on = a list of titles on a post-it and thinking about it a little in my head). I also owe the internet some photos of our basement, which is coming along. I'm hoping if I put it up here, I'll follow through sometime this week.

The good thing about the "petting zoo" - lots of pics of Julia:

(K/ND: These are all mine - I'm saving yours for the next post. My family gets antsy if I have too many blog posts without baby photos so I'm going to dole them out slowly.)

Yes, that's a pink baseball cap with a "J" on it.

Not impressed by animals in stalls.

You wouldn't know it by her expression but she loved the swing.

Aww.

She spent a lot of the outing pretty unsure of things.

Thursday

What happened today:

We got carpet installed on our basement stairs, and the basement rugs delivered. Haven't set up the rugs yet but the stairs look really nice. Ironically, when they pulled up the icky old carpet that was there, they exposed these really lovely dark wood steps. We have a baby so I think we need carpet on our stairs regardless, but they would have looked just beautiful if we repainted them. Anyways, the stairs are now new and soft and fluffy and smell like new carpet which is kind of nice.

The carpet installer guys left our back gate open (the one that I always always always keep shut so I never even thought about it being open after they left) and Scrappy took a little walk today by herself. Thank goodness we have lovely neighbors with whom we're on great terms (and whose dogs fascinate Scrappy), because she went right over to their house. Our neighbor saw her and brought her back in the rain. Whew. Also made me glad that we have a "collar ALWAYS on except when she's in her crate" policy with Scrappy. At least she had her tags with our phone numbers. No one's going to approach a German Shepherd-looking dog without a collar on but a kind soul might scoop up one with tags. Put tags on your dogs, people! You never expect them to get loose!

We had put Julia to bed tonight, and about 45 minutes later she starts wailing. We're listening to the monitor to see if she calms down, and I'm heading out of the room to go re-settle her when R hears her go, "Ahhhhh" and get quiet. I guess she lost her blanket or her bunny, and all was well once she found them. It was cute.

Update on prepping for my friends this weekend: I did about 1/3 of my To-Do list so I have quite a bit more to do. But, I made plans and reservations for Saturday, so at least we'll have something to do. And I can get them out of the house so they're not appalled at how messy everything is all the time. I swear, every time Julia goes down for a nap, the place looks like a tornado hit it, and I do damage control and maybe one other thing and she's up again.

Here are some pics from this past weekend, of her on our deck playing with this big purple ball we have.They're all I've got at the moment.

"Can't. Quite. Get. A. Grip. On. This. Thing."

 

Yes, that's her dad throwing the ball at her/me. Yes, it hit both of us.

She knows that on the back of my camera there are buttons you can push and a screen to look at.

So now I get fewer backwards shots and more shots like this.

Only Monday?

I keep thinking today is Tuesday...


1. Basement progress is slow. It's taken us forever to deal with the baseboards, but I think we're finally ready to paint them. Fingers crossed we get this done before Thursday. I also bought new ceiling tiles today, so we're pretty committed to redoing the ceiling too. I'm hoping it's not going to be a big deal like I think it's not, but who would have thought we'd spend three nights on baseboards? This has been a frustrating project because we've done SO much work on it so far, but there's still so much to still be done. 

2. After another good night from Julia Saturday night, we had a TERRIBLE one last night. Up every hour, terrible naps today. I was sure to put her down by 7:30 today so hopefully things turn around. Or go back to normal. Or whatever. Just hoping we have a good night. I could use a few hours in a row. I think R and I are going to start sleeping in the guest room in shifts again. 

3. Julia now sleeps with a stuffed bunny and her soft blanket. When we go in to get her in the mornings or after a nap, she hands us the bunny, then the blanket, then she lifts her arms up to get picked up herself. It's adorable.

4. I have friends coming in to visit this weekend and I'm really excited! I need to plan some stuff for us to do. I think I'm not even sure what grown-ups do anymore because the first things that come to mind are visiting the zoo or a pumpkin patch. 

Antics from Julia this past weekend:

Inside the dog bed.

Dog Bed Skateboarding.

What's the plan here, dear?

Out of the dog bed and onto the fireplace. That makes Mommy feel good.

Oh... INTO the fireplace. Even better. Why don't you just chew on one of those wires while you're in there?

Oh, no. We have another plan.

"Ah! Your flash! You're illuminating my secret evil plan!"

"Bye Mom."

Dog bed in the bedroom, Julia looking for Daddy in the bathroom. THIS was the plan. Duh.

Six Things Saturday

I'm liking the numbered/bullet point blog posts.

1. We went to not one, but TWO costume parties today with Julia. Fortunately they were both after the afternoon nap, so we had to leave one early and arrive at the other late, but it worked out and we were all social troopers. It was also probably Julia's only chance this weekend to wear her Halloween costume since I don't think we'll be doing any trick-or-treating. (And we need to buy some candy for our own trick-or-treaters, since I ate the designated bag not once, but twice. Yep.) Julia is doing great with other kids, and it's neat to see how her approach to other children is changing. But, let's be honest, her favorite part is playing with someone else's toys. I have a few more ideas for her Christmas list now!

2. The reason we could do all that is because her sleep has gotten much better these past two days. She woke up at 6:30 this morning (!!!!!) and took two nice, normal naps without protest. Now her naps aren't long - 45 min in the morning and 90 min in the afternoon, but that seems to be her rhythm. It's nice when we're all in sync. The bad news is, she went to bed at 7:55 - later than the past two nights - tonight due to our social butterflyness today, so I don't know how well tomorrow morning is going to go. The good news is, it's my turn to sleep in so I won't be bearing the brunt of it if it goes terribly.

3. Our basement progress has stalled. We worked so hard to get the walls and floors finished before Julia's birthday party, and ever since then, we've totally forgotten about it. But, we have rugs and stairs-carpet coming on Thursday, so our my goal is to have the baseboards caulked and painted, along with all the rest of the trim, by then. If I'm awesome, I'll have the stairs walls painted too. Once we do that and get the rugs/carpet in, we might be able to start moving furniture down there. Unless, of course, we decide to fix up the ceilings. We'll see. For now it's just kind of a dumping ground for Julia's toys. She loves it, at least. Living in a house that's out of sorts kind of stresses me out.

4. Julia has 8/16 of her molar points in - we're making progress! Her nose is also doing a lot better and her bum is good enough that we're finally back into cloth diapers. Fingers crossed we don't regress, or if we do, it's not by too much.

5. Are leggings pants? I've always maintained that they're not, but I might be changing my mind. I have awesome black boots that look great with leggings, but I don't have tons of great-for-leggings tops. I tried a shorter shirt earlier this week, and it was weird. I felt all exposed but it was also pretty comfy and I'm really not sure how much I care. Hopefully everyone's looking at my awesome boots and not my butt.

6. And lately, I've been having enough trouble coming up with a decent-looking, comfortable outfit. I guess because this time last year, I had just had a baby and all I was wearing was sweats, and before that I was working. I guess I just don't have many SAHM-suited fall and winter clothing. Anyways, the end result is, I now wear the same outfit two days in a row. Isn't that gross? It takes me enough effort to put together a cute outfit that it's only worthwhile if I get two days' worth of wear out of it. I know. I know! It totally weirds me out too but I'm still doing it.

And I'll leave you with a few thoughts from Julia:

What she thought of the football performance today.

Touchdown? Oh. No. Not a touchdown.

Later in the day...

Not feeling the costume change.

Unsure about this whole puffy-ladybug thing.

"At least I'm not actively crying, alright?"

"Alright Dad. I've had enough. I'm going back to the car."

Mom steps in for a pep talk.
Doesn't my hair look good here? I blow-dried it today for the first time in probably four months.

And like the outfit? Good, because you'll be seeing it again tomorrow.

Finally happy, playing with someone else's todays.

Five Things Friday

I'm stealing this "Five Things Friday" from another blog I follow. I like the idea!

1. The princess slept until 5:59 this morning! I put her down last night at 7:30 instead of her usual 8 or 8:15. Didn't hear a peep out of her until this morning. I actually went to check on her around 4 AM just to make sure she was still breathing - haven't done that in awhile! I'm crossing my fingers for a repeat performance tonight. R slept in the guest room so he could get a good night's sleep in case everything went to hell in the early morning hours, so I think tonight it's my turn. Either way, I should sleep well tonight. Amazing how different that makes the day - we're BOTH happier! Thanks Marc!

2. We still haven't put our house back together from Julia's party. Basically, I shoved everything that could be classified as "clutter" into Robert's study, and shut the door. And I kind of like our house the way it is right now so I've been totally unmotivated to put anything back. We also have a garage full of basement overflow, since we've been making progress on the basement remodel. It's starting to stress me out, but it's a solid day's work, if not more, and I just don't know when I'm going to have a whole day without the little one "helping" me.

3. When Julia and I read her animal book, she can point out "mouse" to me now. Then she immediately puts her hands up to her lips every time. For "mouth" - get it? It cracks me up.

4. We're probably reaching the end of our nursing journey. She's still nursing once a day in the mornings, but this morning she was definitely still hungry when she was done. I think I'm going to try to merge our morning nursing session and our sit-down breakfast, and I can totally see her dropping this final nursing in the next week or two. It makes me sad. I thought I'd be happier about it. I'm glad we did what we could for as long as we did, but I also feel disappointed that I didn't do a "better" job (no or less formula, extended nursing, whatever else the hippies are advocating right now, etc.). Which I know is irrational, but I hear the end of nursing causes a bunch of hormonal changes so I'm just going to call "Hormones!" and leave it at that.

5. There's like a baseball game on or something lately. I ought to care more, but I just don't. I watched the early part of the game last night - the error-ridden innings - got pretty disgusted with everyone all around, and went to bed. Robert, on the other hand, watched every second of the game and ran around our family room at the end going, "Raaaaaah" like a crowd-cheer. Then people in our neighborhood set off fireworks. Awesome. I'm glad tonight's the last game.

And, since I enjoyed Photographic Memory Lane so much earlier this week, and I have no current photos for you, here's the little cupcake last November:

Counterpoint

I love her, I do, and I meant everything I wrote in my last post. But she is driving.me.bonkers. right now, to put it politely.

So, she's teething, which I've been talking about for the past six weeks or so. Her four molars are coming in, and I'm counting each molar as four, since there are four different points that break through the gums. Of the sixteen points we need, seven are through. So we've made significant progress, but they're obviously still bothering her. She also has a cold - or her nose is running like crazy because of the teething - and a subsequent diaper rash that is yeast-based and just won't go away (because of the teething, the cold, the ibuprofen we've been giving her for the teeth, or just for another unknown reason altogether).

None of these things are terrible - she seems pretty used to the teething and the diaper rash is persistent but under control - but she's waking up at 5:00 every morning. And not going back to sleep. She's tired and cranky, and she'll calm down in my arms when I walk her, but she howls when I put her back down in her crib, when I sit down in the rocker, or when I take her back to my bed. She wants to nurse, which I refuse to do until at least 6:00 in the morning. Then, lately, she'll often fall back asleep for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half, in my arms in my bed. This little taste of co-sleeping is adorable and lovely, but I don't want it to continue. We both sleep better when she's in her crib. And I don't want to be getting up at 5, fighting with her until 6, then nursing her and dozing off and on again until 7:30. I know it doesn't sound too terrible, especially to someone with a newborn, but her napping is all off too and I'm exhausted. She is too.

She's also been unusually clingy and whiney and needy lately. One day she was toddling around Target like she owned the place, tearing down displays and dragging five Halloween buckets around the aisles, and the next she totally lost it when I put her down in our back yard. She's not eating as well as she used to either. It's like an emotional regression over here.

This popped up about a day before her sleep all went to hell. Thankfully, someone recommended this book to me - The Wonder Weeks. The theory is that all babies go through somewhat predictable mental growth spurts, just as they do physical spurts, when they start to comprehend another level of complexity regarding the world around them. And, these mental leaps forward are preceded by or coincide with behavioral disturbances, as the babies' worlds suddenly become bigger, newer, and more overwhelming. It's written on a fairly simple level but I have noticed Julia's behavioral issues do seem to pop up right about when the book says they should. Basically, I keep it on my shelf, and when she's a bear for a few days in a row, I open it up and sure enough, it's time for the next freaking "Wonder Week."

Anyways, this is my long way of saying, she's been a pain in the butt lately. Fortunately, I'm finally a seasoned enough momma that I know - and can internalize - that it's just a temporary phase. But, we all need some sleep and I'll be really really happy when she comes out of this. I'm trying to be understanding and just roll with this - I busted out my sling for the first time in months - but I'm ready for my big girl to get back here.

Tonight, I followed Weissbluth's suggestions and put her to bed 45 minutes before her usual bedtime. She went right down without a fuss, so we'll see if it helps tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.