Not My Child Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

My child definitely didn't wake up at 11 PM last night and keep herself and me up until 3:15 AM. Not my sweet baby. She also didn't refuse juice or formula for two days straight this week due to an ear infection, nor did she weasel her little self into our bed with us for two nights straight. She also didn't learn how to crawl on top of the couch like a cat, or figure out how to stand up in the seat of a shopping cart, even belted in. She also didn't demand to take the spoon from me last night while eating dinner, and proceed to dump out the rest of the jar of broccoli and cheese and carrots and spread it all over her high chair and me. She would NEVER discover that if she reaches through the holes of her babyjail she can grab at the netflix movies or the tv remotes or the books she's not supposed to have. She didn't discover the knocking over towers of blocks is her new favorite past time and giggled uncontrollably when Daddy kept building them for her. She definitely didn't run head first into a wooden post at Grandma's house and give herself a huge knot on her forehead and her daddy a near heart attack. And she would NEVER take two steps in front of her momma and then refuse to do it for her daddy. NEVER.


 

Ear Infections and No Juice and Knocking Over Towers, OH MY!

Dear Riley,
About halfway through the week this week you decided to boycott formula. For a day and a half, you stuck pretty hard with apple juice and that was enough for us. Then on Thursday you straight up denied any sort of fluids. By Friday, I was ready to commit you to the hospital simply for my own sanity, so we called the dr and made an appt. She was super perplexed by your symptoms, because you weren't spiking a fever and for the most part seemed to be in a relatively good mood. She checked you out, and said everything looked good until she got a peek into your left ear. Ta da! Your first ear infection. Problem solved. She said you were probably boycotting fluids because it hurt you to suck on anything, sippy cups especially. So she wrote us a prescription for antibiotics and told us to keep you up on a tylenol-motrin rotation every 3 hours to help with the pain control and that should help fix the no fluid issue. Grandma Sharon's exact words, I think were "you have this coming" to Momma. Momma had recurrent ear infections as a kid, and Grandma Sharon seems to think this is a bit of karma coming back to bite me in the butt. Ah well. You have been relatively peaceful and happy except when we try and give you a sippy- but you are more inclined to go after juice than formula, so that's what we've done.
It is so funny to see you lately- you are developing so much of your own little personality. You are stubborn, and love to climb on things. Just this morning you were climbing all over the couch and me and Daddy, and cracking up while doing it. This week you took steps on your own for the first time- but won't do it again. You are a stubborn kid. Have I mentioned that? You continue to crack us up on a daily basis with your faces and new things you love to do. Daddy was building towers for you this morning out of blocks and you were cracking up when you were knocking them down. What an 8.5 months this has been.
Love you as big as Daddy's leopard print snuggie,
Momma

Banana Pancakes, Fig Newtons and No More Sleeping

Dear Riley,
The trend of the last few weeks has been finding out what table foods you like and oh little darlin, there are many. So far, your favorites seem to be banana pancakes and fig newtons. You are oh SO healthy. You are extremely hit or miss as far as when you will eat baby food these days- for instance, tonight you sat down and ate 3 whole jars in about 8 minutes or less. However, twice last week I tried to give you baby food and you gave me a stare that made me wonder how I could even try to subject to you these injustices. Oh fickle child of mine.
The last week you have been going to the Schoolhouse at Union Creek with me. Before you were born, Momma spent 4 years working at the Schoolhouse, so to me, it is like a second home. It is quickly becoming one of your favorite places- there is so much to explore and so much to see and so many kids to play with. You hang out in the peanut shell (our favorite sling) and fall asleep for a few minutes, but wake up quickly, lest you miss anything.
Your other latest adventure is not sleeping through the night. You were the BEST sleeper for so long, and in what I can only assume is a desperate attempt to drive your daddy insane, you have decided it is appropriate to scream your head off at all hours of the morning until you get a cup full of formula. The irony in all this is that you won't take a freaking cup of formula during the day. Your screaming has even gotten to the point where I keep all the important ingredients to make you a cup by the bedside table, and most nights don't even need to turn the light on to make the cup. When I hear you sucking on the end of the cup, I hand you froggy and that's it, hopefully until the sun comes up through the window. You take up so much room in the king size bed that I have sworn many times in the last week that the next time one of our friends tell us they are pregnant the next words out of my mouth are going to be get a king size bed.
Love you as big as the cup of apple juice you drank today at the schoolhouse,
Momma

Baby's First Christmas (and New Years) (and OSU Rose Bowl Victory)

Dear Riley,
I've been meaning to write this for a few days, but ever since we got back from Washington if I have moved more than three feet away from you I have been afraid that you were going to begin breathing fire at any moment so needless to say I haven't had much free time to be able sit down and do this. It has finally found me, so here you go!
Your first Christmas- so Grandma Sharon loves Christmas more than anybody I know and has been so excited about your first Christmas it's just silly. She was going to Ohio to see Uncle Adam and her entire side of the family Christmas morning, about 2 hours after we flew to Washington to be with Grandma Sally and Grandpa Doug and Uncle Keith and Uncle Sam. So we spent Christmas Eve at her house- and while for awhile you weren't too sure about the whole present thing, eventually you figured out there were new things to play with. Despite Daddy's somewhat resistance, we got you a few toys and then Grandma Sharon got you a bunch of stuff. We hung out at Grandma Sharon's, you pulled her CD's off the shelf (your favorite thing to do at her house) and then we ended up leaving you there to spend the night because we hadn't packed a darn thing and were leaving the house at 5 AM! So we came home and packed to spend five days in Gig Harbor with Daddy's side of the family- then picked up you and Grandma Sharon at 5 AM and off to Denver we went. You continue to be the epitome of perfect on airplanes, which is starting to freak me out. We were terrified about taking you on this flight- but you were so freaking good AGAIN. You didn't even eat on the plane- except for Daddy's ice (you are such a strange little creature) and a bite of a cracker that I gave you. You looooved looking out the window and when you were ready to fall asleep, you put your little head down right on my hand and closed your eyes and passed out. Daddy and I were slightly terrified about how you would respond to so many people you didn't know because you are in the peak of the "Stranger danger" phase. You were sitting in your sling with me and Grandma Sally gave us a hug and said hi to you and you just looked at her and put your head down on my shoulder as if to say "this is my momma and you can't take her". Daddy said you did better with everybody than he thought you would, and I thought you did worse than I thought you would. If I tried to leave the room you screamed your head off until I returned. You did great as long as I was there!
While we were there, we took you to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and the Seattle Children's Museum. You so much loved the fish at the aquarium and totally loved playing with all the kids at the children's museum.I know there's more that happened but those are the highlights. I will post pictures for you after I find our camera.
You are eight months old now- eight freakin' months! How did that happen?
Love you as big as the basket of stuffed animals that belongs to you that is sitting on our living room floor,

Momma