Attitude

So Chloe is a very good baby. She is usually very easy to deal with. She rarely cries and is usually always happy. I'm sure it's because I'm usually always paying attention to her. And in all honesty, I should probably be encouraging her to play on her own more often, but I figure that can wait until she can get around better and I'm not constantly having to worry about what she's putting in her mouth, where she's going, etc.

She does cry when I walk away from her. No matter what. If she's by herself, she won't stop crying until I come back over there with her, and then she's fine. And it's not like she really wants me to hold her or anything, she just wants to know that I'm right there. And that doesn't really bother me.

Now if she's with someone else, and I walk away, she starts crying, but she'll stop after a few seconds as long as the person gets her attention. And then she won't start crying again until she sees me. And that doesn't bother me either, I think it just shows healthly attachment, as she's ok after a couple seconds.

Now here is what bothers me...

The girl LOVES food. Not baby food so much, but people food. And if she sees it, she thinks she has to have it. And the child will SCREAM until she gets it. And scream unless she CONSTANTLY gets it. Almost a full out temper tantrum. Like if she doesn't get it, she'll start flailing her arms and legs and everything. The problem is that usually it's my food. So if I try to eat it, it doesn't make her happy. And this goes well beyond the typical I'm hungry cry. She's not even hungry a lot of the time, she just wants it. And wants nobody else to get it. It's the kind of cry where it starts out as kind of grunt, then when she doesn't get the food, it turns into an ear piercing scream. Like she knows that I will give her a mouth full just to quiet her down.

At this point, I usually have to fight with myself over two thoughts:

1) On Oct 2, she's be nine months old. She can't possibly be old enough to think that if she throws a fit, she's more likely to get what she wants. She just knows that she wants food and connects screaming at the top of her lungs as a way to get it. (But if that's the truth, why doesn't she do that with everything???) At this point, is this really a battle that I should pick?

2) At what point do you start teaching her what behaviors are acceptable? If she sees that this works to get her food, I'm never going to be able to eat and she'll always get my food. So what I've been doing is if she starts the fake screaming thing, I stick her pacifier in her mouth instead of food. Then I wait until she's stopped screaming before I give her anymore. If after awhile she doesn't stop screaming, she just doesn't get anymore. (I don't starve her obviously, I'm talking about supplemental feeding here)

So my questions is this... at nine months, do babies have the ability to make logical reasoning connections??? I've been trying to work on no with her, but she doesn't really listen...redirection seems to be the way to go, but when we are eating, I really don't have that option. Thoughts???

I can already tell this girl is going to be a handful:)

Poor Chloe...

So I was reading some stuff on the news today or yesterday, or sometime. Apparently there is this massive recall of cribs due to potential safety issues. Most of them happened because the cribs were put together wrong. But what sticks out in my mind is in part of the article it mentions how the crib is the one place where you consider your child safe and don't feel like you have to be in the room with them.

Well, that hasn't really been the case for me. I mean, I do leave her alone in there every night and for naps, but in the back of my mind I always think about what happens if her little foot or arm gets stuck between the slats. Or what if she pulls herself up and topples over the crib. I always am listening for the slightest thump. Especially now that she can sit up all by herself, she crawls over to the edge, tries to pull herself up, and I'll walk in the room after I hear sudden crying and the poor little thing has all her weight against her head, which is stuck against the crib slats. Anyway, my point is that I've always had a little anxiety about the crib.

So today I go to put her to down for a nap. She's so, so sleepy. I leave her in there and go downstairs, and of course I hear a little whimpering on the baby monitor. Well, then suddenly I hear a thud and then hysterical crying. I run upstairs as fast as I can and she's laying face down, crying. I pick her up, and when I do, there's blood smeared all over her face, all over her clothes, all over the blanket. Blood everywhere. Dripping from her mouth. Lots of it everywhere. I was really freaked out at this point. I have a wash cloth and I'm soaking up blood from her mouth. After about 2 minutes, the bleeding stops and she finally lets me look into her mouth, although not too much. The best I can tell what happened is that maybe she pulled herself up in the crib and then fell and busted her mouth/gums on the rail or slats. But I have her a bottle held her for a few minutes, and she was asleep about five minutes later. And it doesn't seem to bother her at all. So we lucked out.

But my opinion sticks. Cribs suck. I'm all about the soft pack n play concept...

First Glimpse of Chloe

If my memory serves me correctly, which it usually does (unless of course I'm talking about misplacing something), I never posted Chloe's referral pictures. I have them out at her shower, but never officially posted, so I thought that I would share.

I'm not sure when the last one was taken, but the first three were taken March 22, which would have made her 2 months and 20 days old.

She was such a cute little thing! It's funny looking back at these pictures now. Of course I was so excited when I first saw them. There's nothing like seeing her for the very first time. But looking back at them now is a little different. At that time, all I could see was her physical appearance. Looking now, I see so much personality in the pictures. The expressive eyes, what those looks mean, I can guess what kind of mood she's probably in, etc. Too Sweet!





These pictures were taken today...meaning there is exactly six months between the time the first three pictures were taken and these. She has changed so much, but you can still see that little 2 month old in these pictures. So precious!!!

NEWSFLASH!!!

Ok--So obviously I haven't been updating this site as much as I have in the past. It's not for lack of things to say. It's kind of because I go so long I can't decide what to say. And I haven't been taking as many pictures as I usually do...

Anyway, I've added a new feature to the blog...you can now subscribe for email updates on the site. You enter your email to the right, and whenever I update the site, you should receive an email about it. At least that's the way it SHOULD work. That way I don't have to tell people that there is an update and you don't have to be constantly checking.

So Chloe had her 9 month well baby check up this past Tuesday. The doctor is very pleased with her development. She is now at 15.7lbs and 27 1/4 inches long. That puts her at 8% and 50% on the growth charts.

As most of you know, I've been dying to get her in a forward facing car seat, as when she's in the Eclipse the sun shines down directly into her eyes. So I asked the doctor when I could do that, hoping for a different answer, and I was told that I really need to wait until she's both at least a year old AND over 20lbs. And then the doctor adds, "At this rate, she's going to be well over a year old before she reaches that 20lb mark." Thanks. So there goes that.

She also wants me to spend the next three months transitioning her off of the bottle and baby food. Unfortunately she's on the lactose free formula, so getting her on cow's milk is really going to be kind of a trial and error process. We'll see if she really is lactose intolerant...

Well, I'm at work, so this is all I'm going to write about now...I really just wanted to tell you all about the email subscription thing...

I'M GETTING BIG!

Isn't my little outfit cute!?!?

Long time coming...plus pictures

Ok...lots has been happening, haven't felt like blogging about it. Sorry!

But I'm going to start doing a better job again, I promise!

So I'm starting back to work tomorrow. I don't really know how I feel about it. Well, actually, I do, it's just that I feel two absolutely opposite ways. First, I really don't want to go. I don't want to have to spend that much time away from Chloe. I don't want to miss the little things in her life. But unfortunately, money doesn't grow on trees, therefore, I have to work again.

If I could get past all that, I would have to say that I'm a little excited. It's been almost five months since I've worked. At least in the workforce;) I think that it will be good for me to get back to putting my degrees to use. Plus, I kinda enjoy what I do... So tune in next week for the official verdict.

Chloe and I have been doing very well. We've had a lot to adjust to in the last few weeks, but I think things are coming together. Or at least we're settling into a routine.

Chloe is teething really bad right now I think. I only say this becauase she's been super fussy and has had a major runny nose for the past week. She hasn't been sleeping well. However, I have yet to feel where any teeth might be coming in, so who knows???

She is up to 14.75 lbs. She's up and moving all over the place. She can get up on her hands and knees to crawl, just she usually just prefers to do the army crawl thing. She uses anything she can get her hands on to pull herself up. I'm sure she'll be standing before long.
She was officially eight months old yesterday!

That's about it for now...look for another post in the next day or so. Now here are the MANY pictures I've been promising: