The End of CoSleeping

Since the day my daughter was born she has slept in my room, on my bedside. Every night for 2 years and ninety four days she slept either with us or in her bed, next to mine.

When we brought her home from the hospital she started out in her bassinet, that lasted for about 6 months. I don't remember exactly when, or why but she ended up in our bed, and she just stayed there. Until last year, after we moved here to California, I set her crib up as a toddler bed and we slowly transitioned her into it. First I had her bed set as a side-car. This allowed her to move back and forth easily. After I got her accustomed to sleeping in her bed I moved it about a foot away from our bed. I put a neck pillow along the edge to prevent her from rolling out, something I'd seen done on pinterest with pool noodles. It wasn't perfect, and she still rolled out a handful of times, but it worked good enough. She got to the point of mostly sleeping in her bed sometime last fall. But I was still breastfeeding her so she moved into our bed every night at some point. It was still convenient to have her in our room.

Just after the first of this year I got a cold, and partly due to cold medicine and partly due to it just being time, Evey weaned. With her no longer breastfeeding she was sleeping almost the entire night in her bed, only climbing into our bed to wake me up in the morning. At this point the only thing keeping her in our room, was the fact that I liked having her there, I was comforted by the fact that I can check on  her any second of the night.

She has this beautiful room.

(I lost the sheet to her bed, so I need to make a new one, or go to Ikea to buy another.)

The last thing I needed to do was to attach her dresser to her wall.

It weighs about a billion pounds and it's unlikely she would be able to tip it over, but the chance that she did, it would surely crush her if it fell on top of her.

Yesterday I put about 30 holes in the wall trying to find the studs, but I found them, and I got this sucker attached to the wall, it's not going anywhere.

So last night she slept in her big girl bed. For the first time in two years and ninety four days she didn't sleep next to me. I had a hard time with it at first. I checked her on the monitor about 400 times. But she slept all night, until 8 this morning. When I woke up to the sound of her whispering to her bunny "hop, hop, hop" 

8am

"hop hop hop"

When I remotely moved the camera she looked up at it so I was able to get these cute shots of her face. Then she went back to playing with her bunny. I laid and watched her for about 15 minutes before she called for me.

I am so proud of her for making it the whole night in her big girl bed. And I'm very proud of myself for not moving in there with her, no matter how badly I wanted to.

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How are we?

I feel like I haven't really done much of an update in a while. So here goes, an update, in mostly pictures

Evey has learned to be sassy and stubborn

"hey, at least i'm not standing on the table anymore..."

but remains cute as hell

We BBQ a LOT, like almost every weekend for the last month

ymmm Ribs

We have started to think about maybe potty training (someday)

We have breakfast with dinosaurs sometimes 

I am cooking much more frequently than in Montana

The weather is pretty nice 

I am still trying desperately to drop a few pounds

desperately

happy mornings (not too early usually, thankfully)

But all in all we are having a good time, and getting along pretty well in cali. 

It's not what we expected, but hey, it's not snowing either, so there's that! 

hiding those roots

Ikea is going to put me in the poor house, good thing it's over an hour away and surrounded by crazy traffic, or I would be there every day.

 I can't forget Little Red! We traded in my beloved Hello Kitty Mobile (Jeep Patriot) for a much more gas friendly Toyota Corolla! Also, Yay for no more transmission problems! (briefly mentioned here)

Oh and I am starting school soon. Gotta finish someday right? Two classes start this month, and one next month, and that's all I've got planned until spring. Wish me luck! 

Toddler Tantrum

Things have been rough around here the last weeks or so. Can terrible twos start before two? That's the only explanation I've got.
We have had some pretty terrible tantrums here. It breaks my heart to watch my little girl get so upset because her cartoon is over, or the carrots got yogurt on them, or the dog (who is 12 pounds) stepped on her foot. We are also trying to work on enforcing rules, like you can't just dump out the cheerios if you don't want to eat them. Trying to enforce rules, also normally results in a tantrum. I don't want to raise a spoiled brat, but sometimes it's just easier to give in to her, because she doesn't understand. Yesterday I cried with her, as she cried, I don't even remember why, she cried a lot yesterday. 

The hardest thing about her tantrums is how she acts, She often starts thrashing about, and will intentionally hit her head on the floor,or on you if you are holding her. According to Dr. Google, this is normal because she is experiencing all these new emotions and becoming aware of them, but doesn't have the verbal skills to express herself, so she throws herself around or smacks her head into things. These are really the worst, I try to hold her so she doesn't hurt herself, but usually the tantrum then gets worse for a few seconds (minutes? feels like an eternity) before she starts to calm down. 

Parenting seemed relatively easy until now, the baby cries? Hold her, feed her, change her, one of the above was the answer, now there is no answer. I don't even think she understands why she is so upset, which makes it so much more frustrating for her, and in turn, me. I am doing the best I can, and I am doing what feels right to me, but sometimes it feels like I am not doing anything right. Like yesterday, I think my neighbors (who were outside) we're probably about to come check on us, because Evey SCREAMED for about half an hour as I tried to get her to pick up the cheerios she dumped on the kitchen floor, (or at least sit with me while I pick them up) and then we sat in Time-Out, while I counted to 10, the first time and 30 the second time, her screaming and thrashing around the entire time. But I didn't back down, and in the end we got the cheerios picked up and we made it through 30 seconds of time out. and she quieted down and we played with blocks. 

How do you handle tantrums and terrible twos? How do you help your toddler find their way back to that happy place? 

Evelyn is 18 months!

banana face

Evey is a whole year and a half old. She is such an amazing little person. She is running, climbing, trying to jump. She is even talking, but just a little. She can say "mama" "dada" "cat" and "woof". Woof is the cutest thing ever, it sounds more like woo-woo, it's adorable.

bubble fun!

She is eating just about everything us big people eat, the only thing I don't give her is spicy stuff, some things she can handle, but I'm very careful. Evey's favorite new food is Japanese curry, we just tried it a few weeks ago and she loved it, even ate leftovers! She loves to play outside in her backyard with bubbles or on her slide. She is becoming quite an agile little monkey, climbing up things and impressing us with her smarts every day

Evey naps about once a day for an hour or two so mommy can get some diapers washed. We haven't started potty training yet, but we are letting her explore what the potty is. Evey is still breastfeeding and Co-sleeping part time. She has her own bed, set up in our room and she can climb into bed with us if she wants. She will normally spend most of the night in her bed and move when daddy gets up for work. She breastfeeds a couple times a day, mostly just for nap and bed time, but we get one or two extra in there depending on her. 

are you watching me?

She has all her teeth except 2 year molars and canines. but one top canine is cutting right now. We try to not watch too much TV, but she really loves Yo-Gabba-Gabba, and Turbo. Really anything with upbeat fun music, she loves. At her 18 month check-up she was 33 inches long and 24 3/4 pounds. She is growing like crazy, especially the last couple months, she has grown two whole shoe sizes and at least an inch or two since we left Montana. 

chubby little tamale 

The Battery Kid

Sometimes I think twice about posting things. Do I really want to share that with the world? Yeah, I'm an open book here and if one person can learn from my fail, I may as well share. Even parenting Fails (Example A)

Baby Roseola 

So without further delay, our most recent parenting fail-

Weekends I get to sleep in, Well a few weeks ago Evelyn had gotten up with Paul at about 9. At some point while he was in the bathroom she climbed onto a table and he found her with a battery, a AA battery. When he told me about it an hour or so later I mentioned that there had been two batteries there because I had just taken them out of something. We frantically searched the house and could not find the other battery. So off to the ER. The nurse came out to get us from triage and asked "is this the battery kid?" ... yep, we have the battery kid. We told our story half a dozen times, and yes we are missing a AA battery, I know how unlikely it is that she would be fine, and not have choked if she did try to swallow a AA battery, but we  could not find it, don't want to risk it. After a quick x-ray we still had no battery. But at least we knew it was not inside her.
I did end up finding the battery several hours later under some toys. So at least we don't have to worry about that anymore.
All of this after a week of her getting molars and getting a mysterious rash, that was later discovered to be Roseola. 

Spoons Aren't Toys

Okay. I am a first time parent and know there are common sense things that you just shouldn't let your kids do, being a new(ish) mom is no excuse. 

Letting kids play with silverware is a huge no-no. I've seen the picture of the kid with the fork stuck in his face (google it, I don't want to see it again) Well...

I used to let my child play with spoons. I would let her run off and play around with her spoons in her mouth when she was done eating.

After all, it's just a spoon right? 

One early afternoon, Evelyn had just finished her yogurt and I took her form the highchair and let her run off. I don't recall noting that she had the spoon, but it wasn't a big deal, I let her run off with the spoon all the time. So she is goofing around, playing with her toys. She climbs on her ride on Jeep, it's not that big, the seat maybe 6 inches off the floor. She loves to stand on it, so that is what she is doing, standing, and I don't notice the (metal) baby spoon is in her mouth, and she falls. Her scream startled me, she normally cries, but this was a scream. When I scooped her up there was blood pouring out of her mouth.

When she fell she jammed the spoon into the roof of her mouth, and she cut a nice dent in her mouth. It stopped bleeding after a minute or two, but she wouldn't let me look in her mouth. She would nurse, so I figured that was pretty good. We ended up going to urgent care anyway because when she finally let me have a look she had a sort of pocket on the roof of her mouth and I didn't know if it was something that would need to be stitched closed. Thankfully it wasn't. 

It actually started healing very quickly, Here is a picture of her mouth a day or two later as it was healing. 

It was three weeks ago and she barely has a little dent in the roof of her mouth anymore. 

But we learned a very important lesson that day. Spoons are not toys (anymore). 

Tell me I'm not the only one who learned a hard lesson about something that was common sense. 

Project 52: Week 7

My favorite pictures this week are from the other night when Evelyn decided to yank on a vine from one of my plants, the plant came crashing down on her and she thought it was the funniest thing. As she stood there covered in dirt. 

She is half dressed because daddy started to undress her before I could grab the camera. 

dirt in her hair, in her mouth, in her ears. 

It was HILARIOUS 

Evelyn - 14 Months

Today Evelyn is 14 months old. Its incredible to see how much she has grown. She is walking and running, climbing and being a little monkey. She has 4 bottom teeth now and 2 top, about to cut a third. She still isn't talking much, she can say one syllable things - da, ca, ah, ee, and she screams MA when I piss her off. Since she isn't really talking we started working on sign language again. She surprised me this week and signed "more" after breakfast, and was elated when I understood her and gave her a banana. She can also sign thank you, but she doesn't use it in context, only when prompted. She is also waving hello, and has been much more interested in strangers. 

Evey will eat about anything, we have reintroduced strawberries and had no reaction. Pickles make her face turn red though, so we will be avoiding them for a little while. One of her favorite foods is spaghetti squash, she shovels it into her mouth by the handful. She usually has vanilla Greek yogurt or eggs for breakfast. Her favorite snacks are cheerios and gold fish. She eats whatever we have for dinner, lots of chicken. 

We let her watch TV sometimes and she loves Yo Gabba Gabba, she will grab the remote and do a "dancy dance" and we know she wants us to turn it on so she can dance. She still likes Sesame Street, but not as much as Yo Gabba Gabba. 

We had our first urgent trip to the doctor a couple weeks ago, but I'll write a separate post about that. 

Overall she is doing really great, growing like a weed, I think she gets taller every day, and she is constantly 'exploring' the world around her, and by exploring I mean getting into shit. 

All photo credit goes to Yearry Photography in Helena, Mt.
If you are in Helena you should totally check her out!
http://yearryphotography.com/

12 Months

Evey Likes: 

Running through the house

Playing in the dog water

Eating vanilla greek yogurt

Evey dislikes:

Having the yogurt cleaned off her face

the baby gates that keep her out of the bathrooms

Getting into the carseat

Evelyn, 

This year has just flown by. I am so excited that you are growing, but at the same time I miss my quiet little baby. You are so rambunctious, into everything. You certainly keep us on our toes. You are so much fun to be around though, and you have the brightest personality. You always make everyone smile, and you love to laugh, especially while you chase the dogs. We always get compliments on what a good, quiet and happy baby you are. We love you so much, and no matter how big you get you will always be my little girl. 

Love, Mommy

Shit My Mom Says - From Evey's Point of View

This weeks theme was mostly: Things that don't belong in her mouth

"don't drink the dog water"

"don't dip your crackers in the dog water"

"don't lick the fireplace"

"please don't eat the firewood"

"don't eat the dog food"

"spit out that dog food"

"get your banana out of the dog water"

(to dad) "she's dumping the bowl of dog water on herself again"

"did you just wipe yogurt on Renji?"
(don't worry, Aiko (the other dog) cleaned it off him)

Stay tuned for more.

Project 52, Week 1

I am going to try to do a new photography challenge this year. If anyone is hosting a linkup for a similar project let me know.
But I would like to take more pictures. Each week I will highlight my favorite photo or photos from the week.

It's not an artistic photo, not fancy, but it captures Evelyn perfectly. This has been her favorite face for about two weeks and it's just the greatest.

Evelyn: 52 Weeks

New this week:
First Birthday! 

Getting Ready for Christmas!

Great hair day

Just a little flashback: