Baby on the Move

Ah, Father's Day. A day to celebrate 50% of the reason we each exist... typically with some sort of tongue-in-cheek card that says "thanks, Dad, for not killing me when I was a kid" in not as many words.
But for me, I'm going to choose another route- giving a big public shout-out to the two men in my life that have helped make me who I am today. And probably embarrassing them in the process, because I'm good at doing that.
Starting with... my own dad. I certainly wouldn't be where I am today without him. My dad has always been my rock, my guidance, and my biggest cheerleader. He taught me the importance of hard work, determination, and never giving up and is the main reason I've never been a quitter. I used to roll my eyes when he'd dole out life lessons via stories about his employees at work, yet I always remembered those lessons and stories in the end. Behind the eye rolling, I knew he was telling me those things because he wanted me to be successful as an adult. I always liked to make him proud of me (and still do)- I think if you work hard at anything- especially parenting- you should be able to take some pride in the end result, am I right? I also remember lying in bed, crying my eyes out because of the cruel world that so strongly hates preteen girls (what I get to look forward to with my own daughter some day) and having my dad kneel beside my bed and listen to my whining. Looking back, I realize that he put aside his only free time to be there for me when I needed him the most. I'm sure he was exhausted from working long hours but he never let on to that, and it's those gestures that stuck with me and made me feel important and loved. So, Dad- I love you more than words can express and thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for every single thing you've ever done. And every single thing you've ever taught me. And for always believing in me and pushing me to be the best I can be.
And then there's hubby... this year is his first "real" father's day. I knew he'd be a good father to our child, but had no idea how easily he'd take to his new role. Seeing how strongly and deeply he loves our little girl makes my heart feel like it's going to explode into a million awesome pieces. I'm so happy that Emma gets to have a great role model in her life, just like I did- my dad always treated my mom with respect and modeled for me how a man is supposed to treat a woman. And Emma will grow up in the same way, and I couldn't be happier about that. She'll get to be daddy's little girl forever... she loves him so much, and so do I. We're both very lucky girls... she's the only one who gets to call him daddy, and I'm the only one who gets to call him my husband. :)

Ok, enough with the cheese. On to the cheeseball.

My life is over. It's been a great ride so far, but it's over now... because my crazy baby can crawl. As if it wasn't scary enough that she can crawl, she also doesn't have enough sense to know that she can't pull herself up to standing on certain objects like... I don't know... walls. Wicker baskets. The blanket hanging off the side of the bed. Silly baby...
This whole thing started yesterday when she was able to crawl forward about half of a body length before her "stanky leg," as we call it, would get in the way. She's so good at getting herself up to sitting by straightening out one leg and using it for leverage, that her leg automatically straightens while she's trying to crawl and thrusts her into a sitting position against her wishes. Thus, the stanky leg. I was on the house phone (yep, I am one of the few people my age with a house phone. And it's cordless too, because I'm cool like that) this evening and knew the crazy baby would want to play with it, so I put it on the floor way out of her reach- maybe about 3 feet away. And wouldn't you know it, she crawled right after it. And because I was so excited about her crawling for the first time, I quickly moved the phone further out of her reach and made her crawl farther. I'm going to give her a complex if I keep doing that stuff to her ;) Anyways, I shouted to hubby to come watch our amazing mobile child, and with some coaxing, she did it again.
So there you have it: the baby can crawl. My life is over. The end.
Other developments:
Pulling herself to standing in her pack n play. That started earlier this week... on Thursday (6/13) I think.
Some serious baby gibberish. It's far beyond babbling, as she's using inflection now and narrates her whole day. Sometimes I swear she's telling me a story, yelling at me in disgust, or asking me questions.
Taking steps! Her little feet are finally lifting up while she's standing and she's on her way to cruising on furniture, once she gets her sea legs.
Playing games. She'll hold out the strap of her changing pad so that her daddy can pretend to chomp on it, then she'll giggle and hold it out for him again.
Sharing. Awwwww... she offers to share her food sometimes. She'll hold it out in her hand and wait for you to pretend to eat it. Except her rice rusks (formerly "death cookies" but now she can eat them just fine) because she wouldn't share those with the Pope. Mostly because she's a baby and she doesn't know who the Pope is.
Stacking- definitely her most advanced skill. She has these little bowls that stack, snap together, etc. and there are tons of things you can do with them. They're in all different colors and graduated sizes, and she has enjoyed playing with them in different capacities as she's gotten older. Now, she'll take a bowl and stack it inside another one, then pick those two up and try to stack them in another bowl. She still looks drunk while she's doing it, though.

Sleep: I thought I was done-zo this week. She had been sleeping like such a champ for months and I was fully used to getting a good night's sleep every night and then BAM. Sleep regression. I remembered reading about how babies have sleep difficulties when they reach big milestones, like sitting up, because they like to practice their new skills all day and night. But I had no idea that it actually translates into screaming bedtime baby and night waking. And it couldn't have come at much worse of a time, either. Luckily, she has only had two nights of night-waking and a handful of nights of not wanting to go to bed. She would flip herself onto her tummy, sit herself up, then try to pull herself up on the side of her crib. When that didn't work, she'd get frustrated and cry. I'd put her on her back, and she'd repeat the whole thing. One night, I finally had to just stick my hand in the crib for her to play with (her lovey lost it's pizzazz, apparently) until she was sleepy enough for me to sneak out without her having a fit. Sheesh. After that night, we haven't had any more issues, but as always, that's subject to change.
Night two of night-wakings, though, was one of those "I-learned-that-the-hard-way" types of nights. I tend to learn things the hard way pretty frequently. This week's lesson: don't check on the baby in the middle of the night unless you really think something is wrong. She woke up and I heard her grunting, so I checked the monitor and saw that she was on her tummy. I gave her a few minutes and the grunting subsided, but I couldn't see her because the crib rail was blocking my view of her from the monitor. I could, however, see her arm and her hand and it appeared that she had fallen back asleep on her tummy. So I went to check on her, because she hasn't slept on her tummy since she was on the heart monitor and I am still a nut case about SIDS. Of course her bedroom door made a bunch of noise when I started opening it. So I stood there for a few moments, then peeked in and saw her lying on her tummy. I crept over to her crib, where I could see that her eyes were clearly open and quickly learned that she has really good peripheral vision. She picked up her head, and I backed out of her room, hoping she'd think I was a figment of her baby imagination. Nope. She proceeded to get really pissed so I had to make up a bottle and get her back into bed. Ugh.
That was really the difficult part of the whole thing- she would get really upset and start crying, but holding her didn't soothe her and only got her more awake. So bottle and rocking is the only way to get her back into bed, and I was hoping I wasn't setting up a bad habit. But she's done well since then, so we'll see what happens.
A lot has changed over the last two weeks- we had to move the baby monitor camera up onto the wall from it's former spot on the crib rail. We took her to the zoo last weekend and she adamantly refused to nap after we got back in the afternoon. She sat herself up in the crib and saw the camera. All I saw on the monitor was a big, close-up baby face, a fat hand, and then the carpet. She knocked the camera down twice before I wised up and moved it, but then we couldn't see her. So we hung it on the wall, where it has stayed. She's also now napping for 1.5 hour increments twice a day, which is a half hour shorter per nap than how she had been napping about two weeks ago. That actually happened quite suddenly.

Food: Still my biggest source of confusion and frustration. She eats baby puffs like a champ and is still really picky about her baby food/purees. She would eat yogurt all day every day if I'd let her. And anything mildly thick, lumpy, or textured makes her instantly gag and turn away her head. We've tried Cheerios, but those make her gag too. I can thicken her purees with cereal and she does fine with that, but anything else is a big fat no. *sigh* anyone have tips for a seriously gaggy baby? I don't want to battle a food aversion! And I'm tired of wasting so much baby food, and don't have the time or energy to make my own.

She still initiates kisses and it's the darned cutest thing ever. I caught her asking for kisses from the puppy today, too... for such an independent, non-snuggly child, she certainly loves kisses. Funny... mommy loves kisses too ;)

So one year ago today, I was in the hospital. Yep- it's been an entire year since my life changed so dramatically. I went to the doctor one day, and came home four weeks later as a mom with no baby in my arms. And here I am a year later- new house, new job, and a cheesy goober of a baby that is kind of a jerk to me at times. Ok... most of the time. She bites, slaps, kicks, and goobers all over me all day long. It's ok, though. I'll get her back some day!