The last time I checked, I'm still breathing. Whew. I really thought I wouldn't make it to see the other side of these last few weeks... this bumpy road is far from over but at least I'm moving forward. And there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm not completely certain that it's not a train.
And it's not Emma causing all of this madness. No, no. That kid has been great lately (and THERE we go! Jinxed it. YES.) up until today, when she turned into a grump again. She's been sleeping through the night (11-12.5 hours straight) for a few weeks now. Jinxed that too. And she's fallen into a pretty decent routine during the day of naps and feeding, even at the in-laws' house.
The madness is from work and moving. UGH, God. Why in the world did I decide to move while I have an eight-month-old goober and a recent promotion? The good news is that eventually I'll be all unpacked and settled into this house and I'll have more than one worker on my team, so I can get rid of my ever-growing caseload and be a real supervisor. Eventually.
One year ago, I was pregnant, living in H-town, and working in B-ville as an adoptions case manager. Now, I'm a mommy, living in the S-to-the-H-town, and an adoptions supervisor in the West Pizzle. Crazy how things change so quickly...
I did realize that we had close to 2300 square feet worth of crap in a 1350ish square foot house. When we were in the process of moving, I envisioned this new house being really empty and bare and that we'd have lots of unused space and room to fill the house with more crap. Nope. Wrong. The new house is surprisingly full-ish and I can't figure out how we fit everything in the old house. The difference is that now, I can do cartwheels in my living room (and my closet too!) without destroying things and breaking bones. And Emma will have plenty of room to run around and cause a ruckus, when the time comes for her to run.
Ok, ok. Emma stuff:
TEMPER TANTRUMS. Omg, it has begun- this kid can go from happy to super angry in a flash if we walk away from her, put her down, or take away something she wants. Hooray. Yippee. The fun part of parenting... sometimes it's kind of cute, but you can't reason with an eight-month-old so it's mostly frustrating. What the heck do you do? I calmly tell her no and then smile to reassure her that everything is ok, but she doesn't understand and just continues to grump at me. Because she doesn't understand. Sometimes I just pick her up, but that's a bad habit I don't want to start. Ah, delicate balances. The other day, I tried to give her the sippy cup after her nap instead of her bottle, but she chewed on it a few times and decided that it was no bueno and began swatting it away with her hands and throwing a fit. I replaced the sippy spout with a bottle nipple and tried giving it to her again, but she was convinced it was a trick and that it was a sippy cup in disguise, because she swatted it away again, all the while grumping, yelling, crying, kicking, and flailing. It was really extreme. I finally managed to get the darned thing in her mouth and once she realized it was a nipple, everything in her little world turned to sunshine and rainbows and she happily took the bottle. Silly baby.
She can feed herself now :( That makes me sad because I enjoy sitting down and holding her while she makes those sweet little noises as she eats. But it's also great for the mornings when I'm trying to get ready to fly out the door (I'm becoming chronically late in the morning, more on that in a moment) because she can feed herself in her bouncy seat while I load up the car and attempt to guzzle some coffee so I don't crash my car on the way to work.
There are definitely some Murphy's Laws of parenting. Like, if I need to be somewhere to meet with my mom so she can watch the baby, or I need to be at a meeting/court/etc., the baby will poop just as I'm about to leave the house. And I can't leave her in a poopy diaper in the car, especially now that my drive to the in-laws' house is about 30 minutes and the drive to meet my mom is about 45, because the poor kid shouldn't be sitting in poo in a car seat for that long. Oh, and I also don't want my car to smell like a dumpster the whole way, either. But regardless, something will happen that will make me rush out the door at the last minute. And that something is usually some kind of bodily function (from the baby, of course).
SITTING. Finally! Hooray baby girl! She mastered rolling from tummy to back about a month ago and now has gone on to bigger and better things. It really didn't take her long to go from needing some support while sitting to needing no support at all. Just a pillow behind her in case she falls (thanks to Sherb, the genius who clearly has more parenting experience than I do. Because I figured she was doing fine sitting on her own and stood up from sitting behind her, only for her to fling herself backward and slam her head on the carpeted floor. Many tears ensued and I felt like a horrible mommy!). Today, she spent some quality time in her pack-n-play with some toys and sat all by herself and played like a big girl.
I realized something. I used to watch videos of people's kids that they posted on Facebook and I used to think that's cute and all, but it's just your kid sitting in a pack-n-play with some toys. Now I get it. Just a few short months ago, she was literally a blob of burping, farting, pooping, eating, crying baby that would stare at the ceiling and go cross-eyed at random times. Now, she's sitting. In a pack-n-play. Playing with toys. In my mind, this kid is Leonardo Da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa. In reality, she's a shreiking, smiling, wobbling little goober chewing on the hand of her Cat in the Hat stuffed animal. I love that little goober. And her big open-mouthed kisses.
Oh, and she can give high-fives. Without even looking. She's still a pro with her hands... so maybe she'll be the next Leonardo Da Vinci. I just hope she doesn't end up with a beard...
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