Monday, January 28, 2008

Separation Anxiety

Adelaide still has never met a stranger, but she's begun to fear being alone especially at night. As soon as I lay her down to change her nighttime diaper and put her in her pjs, she freaks out. There's wailing and screaming like she's in some major pain or something. I've found she does alot better when she gets some good one on one time with both Rocky and I before bed-- reading, playing, cuddling, singing, etc-- but without it the tears can last for a really long time.

She's doing Ok for naps and stuff right now (knock on wood) but I feel at a loss with what to do to help her sleep better. She's even woken up a few times in the middle of the night crying. She's put herself back to sleep after a minute or so though.

One up side in all this is that Adelaide is the most cuddly and sweet she's ever been. She loves to hug us often. Sometimes she'll just crawl up to me, want me to pick her up, hug her, and then put her right back down and to keep playing. It's not only us she wants to hug non-stop though. She's really into her stuffed animals right now. Rocky even handed her a Kleenex box while we were at HEB yesterday and she hugged that too.




Here's some shots from the last week or so.

Adelaide has been throwing everything out of her crib when she's angry. In the pic below you can see all her stuffed animals, blankets, and pillows out on the floor (note: some of the stuff down there is just mess from her room). The funniest part to me was that she somehow also managed to get her pants off and threw those out as well.

I love winter clothes-- hats, scarves, jackets, etc. Here's a picture of my 2 favorite people in some cozy winter duds.

Last Monday, Adelaide and I took a trip to the Austin Children's Museum. The museum is open exclusively to children until 3 on Monday mornings. Although we couldn't stay very long, we had a good time. Below Adelaide's checking out one of the fish aquariums.

The gigantic Light-Bright was her favorite thing we played with. She'd grab the pieces out of the bin at the bottom, put the germ infested pieces directly in her mouth, and then hand them to me to put in the holes.

We've totally made the transition from bottle to sippy cups this week. I figured why not do it before she gets attached to her bottles and then have to deal with trauma later. Adelaide acted like it was no big deal at all.

Saturday Rocky was working on his truck and I was doing stuff around the house so I just picked up a lunch special from the new pizza joint, Yaghi's. When I got home I gave Adelaide one bite of my cheese stick. She was hooked. She grabbed it out of my hand and finished the entire thing off. Then she polished off another one. I was shocked. Rocky said I shouldn't be shocked that a kid liked cheese pizza.

Yesterday Adelaide and I went to our library's lapsit. We'd only been once before when Adelaide was really little. She had a blast playing with all the toys, singing the songs, reading, and checking out the other kiddos. There were only 6 kids there so it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as the first time we went. Adelaide's awesome jacket is actually Rocky's from when he was a kid. It has "Rocky" embroidered on the front and "Conly" on the back. I love it!

First Few Steps!

I'm on the way out the door but couldn't resist posting that Adelaide just took her first few steps! She was holding on to one of the kitchen chairs. I squatted a couple feet away and called her name. She let go of the chair and wobbled over to me! I'm a proud mom. I was all dorky and teary eyed when it happened. Laugh all you want.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

I didn't read the manual

My friend emailed me this today. I wish I'd gotten it sooner.

Monday, January 14, 2008

The low down

There are so many new things going on each week, each day really, that I can't keep up and post about them all. So I thought I'd try to think about some of the things that you may find interesting, new things Adelaide's doing, and post it all together.

Hair color: Brown on the tips, blonde at the root with red tints throughout. (Try putting that on a passport application)
Eye color: still a gorgeous blue (go recessive genes!)
Teeth: she's gone from 0 teeth to 6 teeth in the past 3 months with 2 more on the way in right now.
Other random characteristics: she's really tall for her age which runs in the family, obviously.
Favorite books: Pat the Bunny (still), Goodnight Moon (still), and a couple new additions to the favs The Very Hungry Caterpillar (she just can't resist all the little holes in the book) and Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
Favorite toys and things to do: She loves walking and cruising right now. Being on all fours is a thing of the past. She probably spends about half of her day on her feet. She loves things with wheels-- a little red car Uncle Mike gave her Christmas, a play train we got her. She's just figured out how to actually push toys around on their wheels. She'll crawl around pushing the car. She likes putting things inside containers and then taking them back out. She still loves chasing the cats and harassing them. And my new favorite thing-- she loves being chased. I'll get down on my hands and knees with her and chase her around. She looks back over her shoulder and squeals and keeps on going.
Eating: The kid loves to eat! Cheerios, crackers, goldfish, avocado, cheese, yogurt, chunks of banana are some of her new big kid foods. She's also becoming quite the fan of beans and cheese; we're not quite as big fans cause of the repercussions. She's had a minor cold recently though which has affected her appetite; it's weird not seeing her gulp down bowl after bowl like there's no tomorrow.
Drinking: I didn't know this was a big deal but others seem to think so. . . Adelaide has been drinking out of a straw for months and prefers it to a regular sippy anyday. It was cool to get her a kid's cup at a restaurant the other day. I've started breaking her of the bottle this week. I figured I'd start now since she's not attached to her bottle. She seems to be doing just fine. She's so thrilled that she can do it all on her own.
Talking: Adelaide is talking up a storm these days. She's making more and more sounds that sound like words. The other day we were at our friends, the Jupes, house, and they were showing off their son Seth's new vocabulary. "Seth say, 'pickle'." He'd say pickle. "Seth say, 'dog'." He'd say dog. "Seth say, 'yellow'." Adelaide said yellow. No lie. It was awesome. She's gotten pretty good at mimicking our sounds when she wants to. The other day we were repeating the word "bear" and she kept saying what sounded like "bear."

Putting it to good use

My mom got Adelaide this great walker toy for Christmas. Adelaide has loved it since the day we got it, but I've never been brave enough to let her go on her own. That is,'til yesterday. I'm amazed.

Sticking with us



Adelaide's cold she got at DWC is still lingering on. (Above is a pic of her and her friend Emma Grace in our hotel room). Last week after we got back Rocky headed out of town for a camping trip with some friends from work and I stayed home with a not so well baby girl. [Note a tinge of bitterness I'm still working through]

She was still generally happy when awake and distracted but a nightmare when it came to napping or bedtime. She was snotty, coughing, not eating, not sleeping well, and then began vomiting. When she hit the third vomiting spell I decided to call the doctor. The nurse didn't know what it was either cause it was just random. She might vomit one day and skip the next. She told me to wait 'til Friday and if she still wasn't better to bring her in.

Well Friday hit and Thursday had been miserable so I called to set up an appointment first thing. The doctor of course said she seemed so happy and playful that she didn't seem sick at all (same thing I hear every time) but changed his tune when he checked her out.

Her left ear was all stopped up he said and on it's way to an ear infection. Her throat was all irritated and red. Her phlegm was so thick in her throat that it was causing her to gag and then proceed to vomit. He said everything was still clear (which as I'm learning is a big deal) but since it had been so long and she wasn't getting better he started her on a decongestant and antihistamine, Nalex. Picking up the prescription was a whole fiasco thanks to Walgreens, but that's a whole 'nother story. It wouldn't have normally been a big deal but everything was a big deal with Adelaide being so miserable and Rocky being gone.

She's been on the medicine since Friday and it really seems to be helping. She's sleeping better, not whining very much anymore, and is even getting her appetite back.

Another thing we discovered at the doctor visit is that Adelaide grew 3/4 of an inch since her visit 3 weeks ago. Talk about a growth spurt. She's now 29 inches tall which is sort of an unfortunate height because we're going to have to move her into her convertible car seat now. The infant car seat will have to move up to the attic. Our little girl is not quite so little anymore. I'm not looking forward to the switch not just for sentimental reasons but for practical ones as well. Adelaide has always been such an easy kid to move in the middle of the night-- plop her in her car seat, drive home, plop her into her bed, and she may never wake up at all. With the change we'll have to carry her to and from the car which I'm thinking isn't going to be quite as easy at least not the first few times.

Friday, January 04, 2008

DWC

We are currently at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas for the annual DWC (Dallas Winter Conference). There are about 800 students here plus CCC staff. I would love to tell you how it's all going but I haven't gotten to be involved with a whole bunch. Adelaide got a cold the second day we were here. She's snotty and fussy (for her). She's still coughing and has been since Thanksgiving. Child care doesn't really want her so we've been spending alot of time in the room. Luckily we're sharing a suite (instead of just room alone) with our friends the Eoffs. They've got a 13 month old (and one due in February-- yes, they're crazy!) so Adelaide's had a playmate even though she's not in childcare. Poor kiddo though, she's been having to sleep reclining in her stroller. She hasn't been sleeping great, usually waking at least once a night, and having a really hard time falling asleep. This year Rocky hasn't been as busy so that's been nice. Tonight we actually don't have anything to work on so we're going to dinner and hanging out. We've been here since the 30th and will head back to Austin on the 7th.