the great diaper challenge

It took me half an hour to change Ellie's diaper this morning. How, you ask? First, as mentioned before, she can't sit still, so convincing her to lay on her back is a daunting task. I'll let her play with just about anything so I can take care of business. She loses interest in things pretty quickly, but a few past favorites have been her nasal spray, diaper cream, pig-duck toy, and bag of wipes. The current favorite is the clean diaper. Really, I think she's trying to figure out how to open it up and put it on by herself, she's just such a helper. Even with all those tricks, this morning was beyond beyond. I know I stopped and just sat for a few minutes, but I can't remember if I laughed or cried at the absurdity. Girl! You're seven months old! Slow your roll!

I put her down on the carpet (because the changing table is entirely too small and too high). She rolled over to her belly. I pulled her back. Repeated multiple times. Removed clothing and diaper. She rolled over to her belly. She peed on the rug (while singing, of course). I figured I might as well give her some diaper off time to see what she had in mind since the worst had already happened. She wiggled herself right over to Daddy's guitar to play with the strings. I finished wiping, applied dipe cream, then picked her up to reposition her on her back. She squirted out a poop! Luckily, she aimed for the diaper waiting for her, but still! Begin the whole process again. I put the diaper on her while she was squirming on her belly.

We've had lots of fun diaper off times this week. Last night, while she was walking around the house in nothing but her socks before bathtime, she peed on the hallway floor, on me, and again on the bathroom floor. The last shot included a stinky little squirt on the corner of the bathmat. (We needed a new one anyways!) The logic of "she just peed, so we should be good for a while," apparently doesn't apply.

things that are awesome

Alternative Title: sorry i never make time to blog, but let me update you on the awesomeness of our almost seven month old beauty.

• I know you want to ask if she's crawling, everyone does, but no--she's not crawling, she just thinks that she can walk. And she can. With the help of a well-balanced adult's sturdy pointer fingers. She finds them every chance she can. If she can't find a pair of willing fingers, she might try for some nearby furniture or other object, or she might just cry like a little baby. I'm experiencing my first "but mom, why can't I...?"
• She's decided that she wants to nurse sitting up. That's fine for bottles, but makes nursing from me a little more interesting. Plus, her increasing quest for independence makes her think that she can feed herself. (Again, works for the bottles, but makes nursing from me a little more interesting.)
  


• How many times have you seen a toddler running around, playing game after game, bouncing off the walls, and thought: I wish I could bottle that energy. ? Do you think we're in trouble if she's already inspiring those thoughts at this age? I tell you, the girl doesn't stop. We broke down and bought her one of those walk around things (super coops or tot wheels) and I think she'd be happy to stay in it forever. Crashing around our small house, maneuvering her way from the front door to the back door and back again (we think she is looking for more house... this can't be it, can it?), trying to improve her sprints down the hallway track; she's a wild woman. We have a few tricks to get some quiet time including guitar sing-alongs (really, she sings along!), reading her forever favorite book, Peek-a-Zoo, and... I think that's it. Sheesh, even diaper changes are a struggle.


• She's interacting more and more with her environment. This means fun-ness like banging things together, miming on the front window (she's stuck in a box!), and pushing buttons on toys as well as less fun things like trying to pull picture frames off of walls, and trying to figure out how to open drawers. She pretty much wants everything she can see, and especially wants anything that she sees that she's not supposed to have.

• She's got this super-cute, razor-sharp tooth that has inspired all kinds of fun play with drooling, sticking out her tongue, and blowing raspberries. She also squeals, shrieks and maaaaaaas like any great cheerleader, or... farm animal.
  

• She's having a harder and harder time sleeping well through the night. We had adjusted (as much as you can) to waking up every 3 hours to feed her, but now she seems to be waking up earlier and earlier after each feeding. I'm pretty sure she's not hungry, but feeding her is the easiest way to get us all back to snuggly-sleepyland as soon as possible. If she wakes up and refuses to melt back into sleep while we're still awake, she's usually privy to late night parties (activities have included dressing up like a Sugar Baby, walking laps around the coffee table, dancing with the stars, and pooping---and yes, the behaviorist in me knows this is pretty much the worst thing we can do if we want to teach her to sleep... that, and the feeding on demand, sleeping in our bed...eek, don't tell!) We're contemplating (and procrastinating about) sleep-training recommended by our pediatrician, and pretty much every baby book/resource/parent you talk to. We'll let you know if we get the courage to do it, and let you know how it goes. You might be able to guess how it's going by the depth and darkness of the bags under my eyes and the level of non-responsiveness from David.

• So is having a 7 month old all awesome-ness? Absolutely. It is beyond cool to see the new things she's experimenting with everyday and to see a little more of what our future will be like with a growing Ellie C.
  

Sweet dreams!

gratitude, germs, growing teeth

Every day for the past 4 weeks, someone in our babysitter's family has been sick. Fevers, nausea, coughing, oozing eyes. Gross. We kept Ellie home the whole time, and, with the help of grandparents, understanding employers and coworkers, and complete abandon for any normal sense of daily life, we made it work.

The first day home was too much fun. All day I kept thinking, "I'm not sick, Ellie's not sick, but I still can't go to work!" It was so much better than staying home when you actually are sick, and even so much better than staying home when you're pretending you are sick (because those days are filled with worry... that you might (1.) get caught or (2.) get hit by a bad case of karma and find yourself actually sick/with a broken down car/etc.) As day after day passed, I felt more exhausted by the demands piling up at work and the number of favors we had called in. It was an awesome time for Ellie to spend with her grandparents (plus extra time with her super fun parents). Taking her back to Laura's was bittersweet. Ellie was excited to see her (which, OMG, what a relief) and I guess it was nice to be at meetings today without trying to entertain Little Miss Independent who wants to be walking around and eating everything she can't. (shoes? really?)

The newest problem in our little world is that Ellie's teeth have finally decided to make an appearance, leaving us with a slobbering, snotting, and very-fast-to-scream-and-cry-infant. Is it just her teeth or is she getting sick? How are we supposed to figure this out since the little one can't talk? Moms? Not only is she crabby, but I'm crabby, too; with an upset stomach, sore throat, and achy body. Blah.

You might think it's crazy that I'm surprised (again) by how much this little babe has changed my life. The extra care and attention that she needs always takes priority in my mind, but it's a struggle to balance that, while trying to work and maintain the rest of our life. It's so much more of a struggle right now, with all these germs floating around. It's only October. How many more months until spring and good health? Eek. I feel like a bad employee (barely working, very unfocused), an unhealthy person (so much fast food, why do we have a gym membership?), and a shell of the old me. I guess the most important part right now is that I don't feel like a bad mom. Mostly, I think Ellie agrees with me.

participation challenge 1: family traditions

When we were growing up we had a lot of silly traditions. A few that I think of often: Saturday morning chores (complete with personalized task lists by kid), a kid-of-the-week award, being allowed to pick out whatever candy we wanted from the hospital gift-shop after a doctor appointment, "blowing out" the red light on the video camera to turn it off, and our parents singing "who's got the power?!" after we finished watching TV shows and it was time to go to bed. Other traditions related to our birthdays: being able to pick the dinner we wanted and the style of cake that Nanny would make, singing an extra verse on the end of the happy birthday song, and everyone in the family having a tootsie pop (on your real birthday) or a dum-dum lollipop (on your half birthday).

Miss Ellise is a few days shy of the biggest day of her life so far... she's about to celebrate her first half birthday. It has me thinking about what kinds of traditions we should start so when she's out on her own, she can think back fondly of the quirky things that only happened in our family. I can't figure out if these things happen on their own (over time, because it's not like Ellie will remember this one anyways), or if parents decide to plan special things. We've already decided on a few special things that we'll do on all of our birthdays (you'll have to wait til April to hear about those), but I really think celebrating a half-birthday, even with something as small as dum-dum lollipops held up by a wooden bear is super awesome.

So, if you're out there (and I know a few of you are), you can help our family get creative by clicking on the Post a Comment link and explaining some of your favorite childhood traditions. For parents--how did your family traditions start? Did they just sort of happen or did you make a decision to do something silly/special/awesome? In a few days I'll let you know how we marked this spectacular day in baby girl's life.

this is how ellie and i entertained ourselves while waiting for grandpa and daddy to finish their triathlon.

shake it fast!

I've loved dancing for as long as I can remember. I remember when my parents gave me a leotard and tights for Christmas along with my first ever ballet class at the Cleveland School of Dance. Before that, my sister, cousins, friends and I would "choreograph" (read: talk about) dances and shows and perform them on the "stage" (read: bench) in nanny and papa's basement. Thinking back on it now I feel like I was probably always the one that instigated this and dragged others with me. We played "Burnin' Down the House," and "Mousercize" records on their record player and thought we were so freaking cool.

I remember my awesome outfit for the jazz routine in my first recital. There's still a picture of it floating around somewhere. Hot pink. Rainbow Sequins. Silver shoes. Sequin Headband. Hawt.

I remember playing my dad's Cathy Dennis "Move to This" CD over and over again in the living room to practice my moves.

I can still remember so many dances from all my years of classes and cheerleading... to Big Band, Rusted Root, 2 guys banging on pots, pans, and tables (seriously), rainforest sounds, Coolio, U2, REO Speedwagon, the Beastie Boys. Wearing bleach-stained unitards, chevron pants, ballet skirts that my mom sewed for me, anything that my (eccentric) dance teacher could find in bulk at the thrift store.

That was such a big part of my life. I bet my mom and dad can remember a lot of what I'm talking about. I even sucked both of them into dancing at one point or another (mom, just for a class I think; dad, for multiple rehearsals and a public performance!)

Stopping dancing (in high school, when I decided the weekly classes and rehearsals took too much time away from friends and boyfriends) is probably one of the only things I regret in my life. Since I stopped formally dancing, my personal career has continued. Sophomore year of college my roommate and our closest friends choreographed a dance for... ourselves... because... we were bored? and rehearsed for hours a night until the person beneath us complained. In addition to David's and my sometimes nightly dance parties in our living room, I also convinced him to perform a choreographed first dance at our wedding. I convinced a team at work that we should make a video for one of our clients with all of the popular dances commonly done at weddings so that they could practice and participate with their family. Dancing when I was pregnant with Ellie was the thing that made me happiest and made us laugh the most. Really, a pregnant woman dancing is a w e s o m e. In the first few weeks when Ellie was only happy if she was being bounced around, we learned that putting on music and bouncing to the beat makes it so much more tolerable, fun even. You should try it--feeling grumpy? Stuck doing something that you don't want to do? Click this link and shake it fast. You'll feel better.

I hope Ellie loves to dance. I hope she'll ask me to make up shows with her. Maybe she won't want to take classes, but she'll be expected to participate in family dance parties. And hopefully she'll teach me how to dougie.

tummy time in months

As her half birthday approaches, I can't stop myself from looking and thinking back to the beginning. It's unbelievable how much she's changed and how much she's changed my life.

Click on the picture to make it bigger so you can really appreciate her beauty :)

smorgasbord

I didn't forget about this place, but I haven't found the time (or motivation) to hang around here. A few quick updates and a super cute pic of the girl:

• Everyone tells you they grow up so fast, but it's unbelievable to see it happen. It took so long for her to grow and develop during the 40 long weeks of pregnancy, and I didn't realize all the craziness and change that would happen in just the first few months of her life. I can't wait to order invites to her first birthday party. (what up, tiny prints?!)
  
• She's over 5 months old, has her very own high-chair (thanks to a well-planned ebay purchase by dad) and is slightly obsessed with any food that is in her reach. Actually, she's pretty much obsessed with any object that is in or out of her reach and is letting us know by attempting to dive-bomb off our laps in the direction of everything she sees. She's enjoyed avocado and sweet potato meals and thinks both are finger foods.
• She's getting pretty good at sitting up on her own (unless she's practicing her aforementioned dive-bomb technique) and figured out how to roll all the way around which makes her much more mobile than we are ready for. I'm excited for all that is to come, but can't believe our little girl might be thinking about crawling and walking soon?!

• She loves Alden, her feet, when people cough, the remote control, jumping (like crazy!) in her jumperoo, standing up in her walker, napping in our bed, peeing with her diaper off, and clawing the crap out of our faces in the morning.
• David and I are still a little lost and more exhausted/disheveled than I'd like to admit, but I wouldn't change anything. Life is wonderful!