Thankful

We have a lot of things to be thankful for this holiday season.

I am thankful for my health and the health of those I love. I have been blessed with a wonderful child who loves to explore the world. Even when that means cutting her finger and bleeding for a long time and scaring me into thinking it is never going to stop and who knew a child could bleed so much and not care whether they are bleeding and what is it about blood that makes a child want to finger paint with it?

And food. WOW AM I GOOD AT EATING. I ate so much that I thought my stomach was going to split open. I have never eaten so much in my life. But then... i figure... i deserve it since i am up most of the night "cuddling and nursing" my child who can't seem to let herself go back to sleep on her own. It is amazing to me how much milk a 23 pound child can drink in one NIGHT. You would think with her two new molars that I discovered on Friday that she would eat more solid food, but evidently, it is more fun to NURSE ALL NIGHT LONG. Who knows maybe she is getting more teeth?!

Anyway, I am thankful for things to baby proof your home because the last thing you want to do is walk in and see your daughter's hand in the toilet. Or..Wait... The last thing you want to see is one of your child's hands in a toilet that hasn't been flushed and the other in her mouth helping her steady the wet toilet paper while she sucks it. We are now thankful for toilet locks and baby gates to keep peanut from fake drinking out of the laundry bottle.

I am thankful for energy to keep up with my young one. I am thankful for friends to share joys and tears with. I am thankful for warmth in the winter. I am thankful that I do not fear for my life. I am thankful I face decisions on which house to buy, not if I can buy a house. I am thankful for my dog. I am thankful for my mother who cleans and cleans and cleans. I am thankful for my father who does what I ask him to. I am thankful for my husband who is a great father and friend. I am thankful for Peanut who I call hurricane who I call turbo because she is a ball of energy and I love her so.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Peanut in the great outdoors: now with 100% more Daisy!

Here is a very rough draft of video. it shows her laughing, crawling around being crazy, and talking talking talking. I thought I was making 4 small movies, not 1 large one. So... if you aren't family, you might just want to skip watching the video. Since we are just learning to use the software, we had to add the flower and music. Hopefully, the next video won't have all of that.

The Big D

We spent the week in Dallas. I had training for my NEW JOB, and since I am not ready to cut the cord yet, mom and Mr. T. each were with us part of the week. It worked out really well. I think that both mom and Mr. T had a nice relaxing time. It wasn't ideal for them because peanut is back to two naps a day so that is at least 3 hours during the day chained to the room, but everyone seemed to survive really well. We brought along lamby so she slept like a champ. (which reminds me that I accidentally destroyed lamby yesterday by washing it in the washer. I think it being old and not well taken care of had something to do with it. We still have another lamby, but it is at daycare.)

Peanut made lots of friends. She is a very engaging child. She looks right at people and smiles. If they aren't looking at her, she says "hey" (or baby talk for hey) and points at them (not really at them really but more off to the left because she doesn't straighten her wrist when she points) By then she usually gets their attention, which makes her happy.

One thing I did learn on this trip was NEVER BE LATE WITH A MEAL. And really, she doesn't understand that we are lost because stupid google maps doesn't give good directions. She just wants to eat. She had an all out screaming fit one night when dinner was an hour late. No number of cookies (teething biscuits) and muffins would cut it for her. She wanted dried peas and cheerios, and she wanted them NOW. I actually stopped the car to pull her out of her car seat because I thought she was going to choke because she was yelling with so much force. I would rather that not happen again.

We are getting our Christmas shopping and cards done early this year. I really want to get it all out of the way so I am not rushing off to the post office mid January sending out the Australians their gifts. Mom took family pictures for us and these photos were the best. The ones of peanut are really nice too.

SWEET

Conversation at lunch today.

"Peanut really liked that brownie you gave her"

"What brownie?"

"You know, the one you put in her bag."

"Oh that is where my brownies went. I was looking for those." Collecting all the bits of brownie off of the highchair. Having visions of her yeast outbreak going haywire.

"Yay, I thought it was weird that you didn't pack her yogurt today because of the sugar but packed a brownie. I thought it must be a health food brownie or something."

I hope she enjoyed it because she won't be getting them again for a while.

I took a lamb's skin to daycare today and peanut took a 2 hour morning nap and an 1.5 hour afternoon nap. YAY for LAMBY.

Love Letter to a 10-month Old

Dear Peanut,

Today you turn 10 months old. I have to say that this month has been the month you have started to assert yourself as your own person. It makes me proud and a little sad all at the same time. You are my perfect baby. I don't want to let you go, but I am so curious to see how you change over the coming months (years).

Physically you have changed a lot. I don't think you have gained much weight, but you are definitely taller. You are finally growing some hair and are starting to look more like a toddler than a infant.

What has amazed me the most about this month is your vocabulary. Last night as I was putting you to bed I told you "Night. Night." Back to me you said "nigh. nigh." It was sweet and touching. I am pretty sure you were just parroting me, but it is still nice. This afternoon when I was cooking dinner, you crawled up to me and pulled up on my pants saying "mama mama". I love to hear you call me mama. I am letting myself believe that you know it is me.

Your crawling and resulting curiosity amaze me. When I am cooking, I give you free run of the kitchen and dining room. You love to pull up on the bookshelf and pull books off. Then you crawl under the table and torture the dog. Then you go over to your chair, pull up and eat whatever happens to be left in the foot portion. Then you are off again to pull up on the trash. Then over to cabinet that I keep the canning jars in. When you get here, you usually sit down for a minute and pull some jars out and fake drink with the jars. Then you are off again to explore the world some more.

It amazes me to see you around other kids. Yesterday we went and saw Ms. Fasu and you totally bullied her. If she had something in her hand that you wanted, you took it from her. She is pretty laid back and didn't seem to care, but it makes me wonder if you are going to be a dominate personality. I don't think you would have tolerated something being taken from you like she did. But then, we went to Fay's house. You were crawling around after her and her dad, laughing and smiling the whole time. When she knocked you over, you didn't seem to care. I wonder how physical of a person you are going to be.

You amaze me. It seems like every day you do and try something new. It is fun to explore the world with you. Lately you have become a big mama’s girl. When people come toward you, you stick your head in my neck and act shy. I love it. I love that you think so much of me because I know that you will never again think I am so important.

And that is fair enough, because I will always have these memories.

I love you more than you will ever know,
Your mum.

Everyone Loves

A Sleeping Baby




And Batman

Yeast - The Source of all our Troubles

I have been having breast pain and bleeding nipples (nice, I know), but I thought it was just that peanut was teething and giving me a little nip every now and again. Meanwhile, Peanut has had this diaper rash that wouldn't go away. Then, her diaper rash got markedly worse over a period of two or three days. I decided to take her to the doctor because no amount of diaper ointment was curing it. At around the same time, my breasts went from being cracked to me pumping blood and having to dump my milk. The shooting pain while breastfeeding got very intense while both pumping and feeding. It hurt so much I thought I was going to throw up.

It seems that we have Thrush, a yeast infection in peanuts mouth and on my breasts. It has also gotten on her diaper area leaving her with a nasty looking rash. Hopefully, it is all clearing up. We are on about three different types of ointments. Her diaper rash looks better already. My pain is decreasing as the day goes on. HURRAY FOR MEDICINE.

Other than that we had a good week. Mom and Dad came down to visit. It is the first time they have been down since they went on their road trip. They babysat on Friday, so we didn't have to send Peanut to daycare. We also got to go on another date. This time, we went out to eat and I got to enjoy a meal without someone needing something from me.

Peanut is really working more and more on standing. If you set her down, she will stand for about 5 or 10 seconds before she sits down. I see her take her hands away from things to test standing on her own. It usually isn't more than a couple of seconds, but it is neat to see her try. I am ready for her to start walking. She is already very mobile, so I think walking would actually be easier on me because then she isn't using her hands on so many different surfaces that may not always be the cleanest. Plus it will be nice to set her down someplace and have her stand there while I do tasks with my hands.

I also think she is dropping her morning nap. After I feed her in the morning, I usually lay her back down to sleep. In all she is sleeping about 11.5 to 12 hours at night then is getting anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours of naps a day. She is still refusing to sleep at daycare, but maybe when we start the new daycare it will be different. She will be forced to take a nap because there will be nothing else to do.

Halloween was fun. I took her up to work to show them the World's Cutest Lobster. I also took her around to the neighbors. Brooke got me thinking about trick or treating being like begging, so I took candy with me and did a candy swap with people.

Peanut is pretty consistently saying mama, dada, daisy, and bye. Anything that is fuzzy and brown is Daisy. She says mama when she wants milk or me at school. I am starting to think she is getting that I am mama and Mr. T. is dada. She definitely knows the Daisy part. When she hears Daisy walk into the room, she says Daisy. It is so strange to hear my little one talk. This morning it sounded like she was trying to say “Here, Daisy”. She said, “Eaaaar, Daaaaizyyy.”

I got this fancy new jog stroller/ bike trailer. I was pretty cold on the bike today, but since Peanut is enclosed in a shell, she was toasty warm. Of course she also had two shirts, a fleece hat, and a blanket on, but I am sure it had more to do with her fancy trailer.