Love like Crazy

The chorus lyrics of "LEE BRICE - Love Like Crazy" really resonate with me and I wanted to pass them onto you. They sure are good words to live by baby girl.

Be your best friend,
tell the truth, and overuse I love you.

Go to work, do your best,
don't outsmart your common sense
Never let your praying knees get lazy
And love like crazy

11 Months

January 21, 2011

What a busy month for an 11 month old! You had your 2nd procedure, first trip to Big Bear, first Valentines and your first Birthday!

I like to call you "Miss February" Because through all your trials and tribulations you have shown courage, humor and forgiveness. I am so proud of you baby girl.

Advancements:
We have been working on word recognition: When I ask you these words, you point perfectly to each thing:
Nose, Hair, eyes, light, wave, clap, Mr-Dog, Bede-Dog, Dada

My favorite new thing you do is I seat you in front of your sliding mirror doors. You spin around on your butt and look at every movement, over your shoulder and around and just giggle profusely.

Schedule:
After reading BabyWise and Baby Whisperer I learned quickly that its not good to have a snack eater. As soon as you went to the bottle, I made sure to sit down in a quiet place and let you drink until you finished the 6oz bottle. You did this every 3 hours like clockwork with no snacking in between. I would pat myself on the back at a job well done. Now 11 months older I am instead kicking myself because unless you are on my lap in a quiet room, you will not drink a bottle or sippy. I start weening you off Formula, only giving you 4oz in the morning and 4oz at night with goat milk in between. You like Goats milk, but as mentioned before only if its given to you in quiet place on my lap.

Your sleeping cycle is still disjointed. You sleep from 7:30 - 11:30 and then cry until about 3am, I am still trying to let you cry it out as I can hear your cries are more moans than anything else. I check on you every 10 minutes but that only makes matters worse. One day sweet baby you will let mommy and daddy sleep.

10 Months

December 21, 2010

It took 10 months for you to form in my womb into a healthy baby girl, with 10 fingers and 10 toes, organs, brain and skin. In spite of you being such a complicated complex creature that's all it took and here we are another 10 months later, and you're trying to talk, walk, and express your opinions even.

Advancements:
At the beginning of turning 10 months you pulled yourself up in your crib. At first I was so excited until I realized you have no idea how to get down! Once you grow tired of standing, you start screaming, well before nap time that's no problem at all I go in and show you how to slide your hands down the crib poles. At night, its not as fun as we are already on lack of sleep. (Still waking up 1 to 2 times a night for a 6oz bottle) Thank goodness that only lasted a week.

Its amazing how you are now figuring how things work. You are poking your fingers through holes to get or maneuver things, you are placing objects into larger objects, you are looking intently at objects figuring how they work...Example: dad put safety latches on all the cupboards so you can't open them, you will open the door gently and look to see what is holding it back.

We think you're incredibly intelligent, I started working on your facial features, you're not quite pointing at your own yet, but when I ask you where is my nose or daddy's nose, you point straight at it. I also set out a pair of your little boots to dry and you came across them when we were playing, I said: "Those are Franki's shoes" and you looked down at your feet and pointed to your toes!

Your frustrations and opinions are now starting to form too. When you get mad with a toy you throw it clear across the room, when I offer you a bottle you don't want you swoop your arm across you shoving it with great intent from out of your sight. When your walker gets stuck, some days you have no problem just maneuvering it to where you want it to be, but other times you yell out in anger.

Regression:
I can't believe it I want to pull my hair out. When I thought your sleep cycle challenge couldn't get any worse, you decided simply one day, that you did not want to nap anymore. You're cranky and want to be held one second and put down the next, a sure sign you're tired but instead you will just stand in your crib screaming. I did some research and it seems that at your age your mind is racing, with all your experiences and learning, you can't calm down. When I can't stop thinking and am a little stressed I love taking a squirt of Bach's Rescue Remedy. Well I found out they make Rescue Remedy® - Kids. It is alcohol free and non drowsy, since there is no age specification I gave you half the suggested dosage when you were over tired and just would not lay down to sleep. It works fairly well.

I was so excited about you almost being one and only having had a minor wet nose once. Well I spoke too soon. On January 13 you started with a horrible sounding cough, I knew it wasn't whooping cough because you have been immunized. By Friday it was drastically worse, we had no sleep, dad and I took turns sitting in your rocker holding you upright because it seemed to make you cough less. First thing Saturday morning we took you to the doctor and low and behold you have Croup. Its a horrible viral infection that they can't administer anything except steroids to open your throat up. Ive had you in a steamy shower, the vaporizer runs non stop and we even have a handy little plug-in that fills your room with the smell of vicks. Anything to help you breathe easy. I am so angry that people don't keep their sick babies at home. We have waited 4 months to get you an appointment with the specialists at Rady's Hospital and now they may not do your procedure, all because parents choose to be selfish and cart their snotty nosed babies around. Please parents: KEEP YOUR BABIES HOME!

Firsts:
January 3, 2011 was your first day in daycare. I decided since our bank account is empty and I would like to some money away for you each month that I would go back to work. I am very blessed to be afforded the opportunity to do just two days. It was a nightmare for me trying to find a suitable daycare. I think I got Grey hairs over it. But finally I found an amazing lady called Jennifer Hawkins. She looks a bit like gigi with her cute blond bob and pretty blue eyes, she is in her 50's and from Durban! She has all the same thoughts on nutrition, discipline, no tv, packing away toys etc. She really is super!

Schedule:
Since you no longer want to nap I have changed up your schedule a bit, instead of setting you down at 10am you now go down at 11:30am. You tend to sleep a couple hours. If that's the case you will not nap again. If you only sleep an hour - I lay you down again at 3pm. You are still having 6oz every 3 hours (when you will take it) and are now eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.