Proud Momma

This week's been a big week for us. Annabella shows us what a big girl she's becoming every day. She plays more, and she's learning new skills. Yesterday, she stood up in the middle of the room without pulling up on anything for the first time. And then she did it over and over again. And today was the first time we saw her put food in her mouth and eat. She ate puff after puff, crunching away. And my heart just swells.

We're also breaking Annabella of her paci this week. We just had the 2 pacifiers; we couldn't find anymore like them. And those 2 have started to degrade. The rubber on the sides are pulling loose, and I'm afraid she might be able to pull some rubber off and swallow or choke on it. I can't say the transition has been smooth, but it's getting better. Last week, before we yanked the paci, Annabella went to sleep 3 times at night without crying at all. I just put her in her crib and she rolled over to her stomache, pulled her legs under her butt, and settled down to sleep. With how much of a struggle we've had getting her to sleep, I can't tell you what an accomplishment it is for her to learn to go to sleep on her own. I'm hoping we get back to that place soon without the paci.

How can anyone not just love that face?

At daycare today

Little Girl: I like your baby.

Me: Thank you!

LG: How old is he?

Me: She's almost 11 months.

LG: Is that 1?

Me: Almost.

LG: So she's zero?

Me: Yes. I guess so.

LG: Daddy! That baby is zero!

Kids are so cute.

Ear infections and teething and swine flu. Oh my!

Annabella has infections in both ears. Again. We've lost count of how many this makes. At this rate, we're headed for tubes.

In other news, the H1N1 is overtaking Annabella's daycare. So we have that possibility to look forward to. Her pediatrician says it's really no big deal. I'm still a little terrified. Especially after they told us today that her teacher, the one who cared for her most of the day yesterday, left early and was diagnosed with the flu. So yeah, exposure has pretty much been guaranteed.

All 3 of us have been fighting off some sort of cold off and on for awhile. I think we're all looking forward to feeling better at some point.

But it's not all bad news. The ear infections seem to be clearing up. We do not have the flu (at least not yet). Annabella's crawling around like a mad-woman, working on getting teeth, and generally being a happy baby. And life is still pretty good.

Oh, and I'm working on getting more Annabella pix.

You know you're a mommy when...

• You have snotty tissues in your pocket, but the snot isn't yours.
• Getting open-mouthed, slobbery kisses on your chin is the highlight of your day.
• "No touch" is the number 1 phrase in your vocabulary.
• If butt-smelling (poop-detecting) were an Olympic sport, you'd have a gold medal.
  

Apparently I have a lot to say

I could just add to the previous post, but that would be more work. Plus that post was about Annabella. This post is about me. So yeah, 3 posts, 1 day...

I had no idea what being a mom would be like before I had a baby. And really I don't think there's anybody who could have prepared me for it.

There's the good stuff, which is better than pretty much anything else. Like coming home at the end of the day to a baby that just can't contain her excitement to see you. And watching your baby experience new things. And getting slobbery open mouth kisses on your cheek (or sometimes your nose). And holding your baby close and smelling her baby skin. Really, there's nothing better.

But then there's the bad stuff. Like never getting 8 hours of sleep, ever. Like leaving your baby at daycare when all you want to do is hold her. Like needing a break from being Mommy so bad that you just can't take it, but then having a hard time taking that break when it's offered, knowing you're leaving your baby behind. Like missing your baby all day long and feeling like you don't get to spend enough time with her.

Some days I have a really hard time being a working mom. A really hard time. If Annabella looks at me with puppy dog eyes as I leave the daycare I almost can't take it. Today has been one of those days. And she's pretty much taken center-stage of my brain all day long.

I know that me working is good for my family for a number of reasons. Annabella likes daycare and gets a lot of good things from being there, a lot of things I couldn't really offer at home. We can more easily afford the things we need and want. And I'm a sane person (something that would probably not be true if I were a stay at home mom).

But all those things I know in my head. And today my heart hurts.

2 Posts in 1 day!

Can it be? Am I posting twice in one day? Why yes, I am. After a month of neglecting the blog, there is Annabella news.

Besides the crawling, she has a tooth! I think all it took for her tooth to come in was for me to announce to the world that she was, in fact, not teething. I think it was about a week after that that her lower right tooth poked through her gums. And now she's working on getting her lower right one. I wish it would hurry up and break through her gums already. She's not been too terribly happy with the teething, and we've had lots of extra night wakings the past few days. I'd be pretty unhappy too if I had a giant bump in my gums where a tooth should be.

Also exciting Annabella news: she can pull to standing on her own. She needs something to hold onto, but she can pull up. And once she's up, she can stay up for a couple seconds without holding onto anything.

And maybe the most exciting on of all: Annabella first word is "Mama". Or not. My child, the one I carried around in my body for 9 months, the one who I've lovingly woken up to feed pretty much every night of the last 10 months, the one who I would give my life for...her first word is "Dada". The injustice of it all is pretty appalling. And it gets worse. Dada is "dada", but so am I. So when I stumble into her room at the ridiculously early hour that she wakes up, she looks up at me and says "Dada".

This past month has been pretty big for us with all the big milestones people ask us about, but I feel like I'm seeing her personality come out more and more all the time. In particular, watching her learn all these new skills has made me realize how cautious she is. For example, she wouldn't attempt crawling until she was sure she could get back to a sitting position, lest she be stuck lying on the ground. And she's very tentative about what she uses to pull up on. She doesn't just go after something...she thinks about it first. Not an altogether bad trait to possess.

Crawling

Annabella has started to crawl. She's still very tentative about it, but if you watch her for long enough, she might just go for it.

I was at daycare today, and I was trying to get her to crawl toward me. I scooted back 3 or 4 feet, grabbed a toy xylophone, and urged, "Come on Annabella. Crawl to Mommy. You can get the toy..."

In typical Annabella fashion, she looked at the toy, was mildly interested, but chose instead to go for something much closer to in reach.

So I sat there for several minutes, trying to make the xylophone look like the best toy in the room. And it worked, over crawled Emma to grab the xylophone. Not quite what I was going for.

Well, Annabella took one look at Emma playing with her Mommy and her Mommy's toy and booked it over to steal it right out of Emma's clutches.

So all I really need to get Annabella moving is a little friend to be jealous of. Anybody volunteering their baby?