Only Monday?

I wouldn't say it doesn't feel like a Friday, but I'd swear it feels like a Thursday. At the very least, a Wednesday. But the calendar tells me it's only Monday, and Blogger tells me it's been many moons since I was last around here. I've got a quiet night so it's about high time I caught up.

The kitchen is coming along. At this point, we're just waiting for the countertops to be fabricated and installed - all the tear-out is done and the lighting is finished. I hear through the grapevine that the countertops will be in on Thursday, but last week it was supposed to be tomorrow, so I'm not hanging all my hopes on that. While I still don't have a working kitchen, at least I no longer have workmen in my house until Countertop Day.

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Julia is evening out a little bit. Her sleeping has gotten a bit better and the "tantrums" are calming down.

I have to put "tantrums" in quotes because they're truly just about 30 seconds of screaming and crying - not bad by toddler tantrum standards. I'm responding by getting physically accessible to her (getting down on her level, holding her, etc.), using very very short sentences to empathize with her ("Play with stove! I know! Fun stove buttons!"), then waiting for her to calm down a little and redirecting with an explanation as appropriate ("No stove. Stove hot - ow! Look! Phone buttons!"). It's roughly based on the Happiest Toddler On The Block book, and thus far it seems to be working alright. I like that I take the time to empathize and be emotionally available for her without compromising my position or authority. Do I have any idea if this is more effective than any other approach? Nope. Do I have the patience to do this every time she doesn't get her way? Absolutely not. My other tactic is to ignore her, which I do when I feel like screaming right back at her. But I'm trying. I'm also getting better at seeing a conflict before it happens and heading it off.

She's also been doing some adorable things lately:

• When she sees that I'm making her a bottle, she'll run to her room and lay down on her floor where we usually feed and change her. From a child who used to hate laying down, this is hilarious.
• She'll pick up her play phone and make this big fake laugh into it. "HAH HAH HAH!" Is that what I sound like? Yikes.
• When my phone rings, she always goes, "Dada!" because R is my most frequent caller and his picture pops up when he calls. 
• When we go somewhere in the car, I give her a book and she sits in her carseat and reads her book to me. I can often tell what she's looking at based on the sounds she makes, but it's looking back and seeing her reading quietly on her own that really warms my heart.
• Still very little in the way of actual talking, but she makes signs for food, water, basement, butterfly, gorilla, frog, help, please, airplane, cat, and cold. She knows a few more when I make them and she's understanding more each day, but between the signs she knows, and pointing and shaking her head "no," she can communicate pretty well.
• She still loves Scrappy. LOVES Scrappy. Loves to pat her, scratch her, hug her, kiss her, and bring her toys to play with. (Scrappy is a dear, patient dog who doesn't get enough credit in our house.)

Guess who was here first and who decided to join?

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Being pregnant sucks right now. I'm pretty pissed off about it. I'm happy about New Baby but the thought of being pregnant for ANOTHER FOURTEEN FIFTEEN WEEKS makes me cry inside. Nothing's physically wrong, and I remain grateful for that, but mentally this one has been tougher on me than Julia's, for a variety of mundane reasons.

And those are my major updates. More details, probably on all of those subjects, later this week.

Doctor Day

We survived another doctor's visit!

Vital stats are:

• Height - 29 inches, 44%
• Weight - 19 lbs, 8 oz, 16%
• Head - 17.9 inches, 52%

We think her weight is low because she's coming off of three weeks of illness, but the doctor did point out that neither Robert nor I is "stocky," so maybe the poor thing is destined to be slender. She did well with the general check-up and her milestones are good. Her gross motor skills are great, although her verbal skills are a little behind, I think. (Although maybe I'm not giving her enough credit - I did answer the phone tonight and before I could say anything, Julia goes, "Hi Da!" Awesome and heart-melting.) I do need to probably talk to her a little more throughout the day. (I try, but you know how hard it is to talk to someone unresponsive all day? Seriously it's mind-numbing tougher than you think.)

She got four shots today, poor babe. She also needs a blood draw. The tech at the office didn't feel comfortable trying on Julia so she's sending us off to Quest. Neither Robert nor I has ever had a good experience there so I'm pretty apprehensive but I don't know what choice we have. I'm debating letting Robert handle that appointment but I don't think I can live with myself if I chicken out like that. (Update - R won't take Julia by himself because he "doesn't like Quest." (The last time he went they were running late and rude.) So it looks like it's up to Mom.)

We got a prescription cream for her diaper rash (the doctor seemed skeptical that it was a yeast rash when I mentioned it to her but when she saw it she immediately agreed - score one for Mom!). And we got the green light to start her back on milk again whenever we like, although she mentioned that some GI illnesses can cause transient lactose intolerance so it would be wisest to wait about a week first. We were told to wean her from the bottle soon, which we were working on before she got sick. I'm not too stressed about this part but I would like to do it sometime in the next few months. The pedi also said we can wait on bringing her to the dentist; it just needs to be done sometime between one and three years. We also need to do another hearing test sometime in the next few months; we're not concerned but it's something worth doing just in case. I'm all for painless medical procedures.

She was a trooper, especially since the appointment went long and late and it was well past her bottle and nap time by the time we got out of there. No recent pics but here's an older one that makes me smile.

Just a few randoms...

Random facts about Julia right now:

• She loves pressing buttons. She loves putting our garage door up and down, and pressing elevator buttons. It makes me smile for now but I know we're in for like, ten more years of "Mommy let me press it let me press it!"
• We read together three times a day - before her two naps and before bedtime. She doesn't let me actually read, but she turns the pages very authoritatively and lifts flaps and sticks her fingers through the holes that the Very Hungry Caterpillar made in his three plums and four strawberries. She sits in my lap so calmly while we do this. It's such a lovely routine.
• She's still teething. That stray bottom incisor is in, and both her top two molars have come through a little, although not all the way (they're bigger than I thought they'd be!). I'm ready to sleep a whole night through.
• We're also weaning. This makes me sad but I seem to be losing my milk supply and she seems to be losing interest. We're still going strong on the first morning feeding but that's it. We're upping her whole milk and dropping a little bit of formula. It's going smoothly so far, after a few freak-outs on my end because I don't know what I'm doing or how to go about this process. 
• She got her very first pair of "real" shoes! They're adorable. Her favorite part was the Nordstrom balloon she got with them.
• She's putting things into things. I know that sounds lame, but it's so cool to see her trying to put things together instead of just destroydestroydestroy. Her attention span isn't great though, so mostly she just picks things up and puts them down elsewhere in our house. We have so. much. stuff. on the floor everywhere all the time now.
• She loves making noises. She likes the lion - "Raarrr," things that move or steer - "Brmm brmm," and doggies - "Oof oof!" She also yells, "DA!" when she's in a room with me, and looks over to the doorway, presumably hoping that R will come over. She yells "DA!" at the dog too though, so maybe it's all the same to her. 

And some random photos to go with the random facts:

Reading on her chair. This chair is a total hit with her!

Hangin' out in the backyard.

"Please Scrappy I would like to play with that too."

Caught this one at just the right moment! "No don't eat the stick!"

Mrs. Potato-Head eyes. She's totally got that concept.

Anything cuter than a baby in pajamas and Uggs?

A preview of photos to come... We did a photoshoot this weekend, and this is the one pic I was able to snap before this sticky mess crawled out of the picture.

And for me, today. A hot cup of tea and a thunderstorm.