Full on crawling, oh the joy!

Let me just preface:  I knew that when I kept saying "I can't wait for her to crawl!" that I was going to regret it.  I knew I would, before the words left my mouth I knew it but still, call it "new parent stupid" but I still really couldn't wait!  And when she started to scoot around with spurts of crawling I was genuinely excited... no more.  While I knew I'd regret it, I thought it might take a little longer than it has. 

Crawling out of her pj's won't stop her

So our normal routine when I'm trying to dry my hair and get ready is I put Sam in the recliner in the office (where my hairdryer is) with all her toys.  I put her facing the back of the recliner with the foot part up and pillows stacked behind her.  This keeps her contained in a nice padded little box with moderate entertainment.  That combined with my blasting music, dancing around like a mental patient seems to keep her occupied long enough for me to finish...  no more.  :(  She's now bound and determined to crawl out of that chair, smack on her head.  So, in my never ending wisdom, I decided to side step that land mine and put her on the floor...  nope, that don't work neither!  Now she's everywhere, she's bound and determined to pull up on the rolling chair at the desk.  That of course, is just the perfect recipe for falling face first onto a chair leg, busting a lip, nose or other adorable feature and sending her into a crying tizzy that'll surely last for hours.  Needless to say, what used to take me 20-30 minutes from sopping wet to walking out the door ended up taking just shy of 2 hours today... joy! 

What used to be my nice, clean den!  :(

She's also trashing my house (I know Mom, try not to sprain your smile muscles).  She's all over the place and seems to have some sort of "don't touch that" radar.  I swear I could line up 5 completely new items, none of which she'd ever seen or played with, and if one of them was sure to result in complete dismemberment... she'd bee-line straight for the death toy! 

Found Mommy's magazine stash!

The best part of her crawling, besides the obvious amazement of her learning new things and exploring her world, is that the cats HATE it!  They had just seemed to figure out this whole baby thing with the stink and the crying and the screaming but now, now she's mobile!  Watch out fuzzy tails, Sam's coming for you!  They have lost all their safe places cause she finds them, right when they get comfortable and deep in sleep, here she comes!  Drooling and giggling, just dying to slobber all over them!  They lay there until the very last moment, keeping a close eye on her but not moving, as if they're thinking "Maybe if I don't move or do anything she'll lose interest, get distracted and head in a different direction!"  Watching her torment them, after the years of torment I've endured is priceless.




So conclusion:  Sam's crawling.  It's progress and it's a good thing but my foot is obviously firmly inserted in my mouth as I completely regret saying I couldn't wait for this milestone.  She's destroying my house and I know, it'll only get worse!

Why are baby teeth so sharp?!

I guess I've noticed before that, for example, puppy and kitten teeth seem significantly sharper than said animal's adult teeth and I suppose there's plenty of evolutionary reasons behind this.  But as Sam's two (that's right, count 'em TWO) toofers come in I'm questioning why human babies haven't evolved past the insanely sharp infant teeth! They are not, like wild animals, having to defend themselves from predators.  They are not hunting and gathering.  They are not gnawing on turkey legs.  They are (as they have been for a while now) eating milk/formula and smushed up "used-to-be-recognizable-as-actual-food" baby food.  They are essentially herbivores, so why do they not have herbivore teeth?!  Is it just to bite Mommy when she's not paying attention?  Is it to defend against Daddy sticking his fingers in there and getting all up in their business looking for more teeth?  Is it to bite other kids on in day care so Mommy has to go in and be scolded?  On second thought, that's probably the reason.  They've out smarted us and we're just to dumb to know it.  I get it now!

And we have a crawler!

Go go speed racer!!

I wouldn't necessarily call it "efficient" but...  we definitely have a crawler!!!!!    Scooting on her belly still seems to be her fall back mode and if the excitement gets too overwhelming she defaults back to it but when all conditions are perfect she will crawl to you!  Bittersweet moment, baby girl is growing up!!  Watch out world!  Sam is no longer the world's cutest "baby blob" now she's the world's cutest baby in motion!!  :)

My baby is growing up!!! :(

So at about 5:00pm today Sam was obviously in need of a quick cat nap.  I tried laying her down but she wasn't having it.  Now we've known she was capable of pulling herself up (because she's done it sitting on the floor with us before) but she's never done it in her crib... until today!  So needless to say, I laid her down, she got back up.  I had a feeling she wouldn't go down so I hid in her room behind her glider and watched.  I watched her wriggle around and play for a while, then I watched her sit up...  she then pulled up onto her knees at the end of her crib!  So of course I know the next step is one of two options: (a) she'll pull herself up to standing and either topple out of her crib over the side or crumble down at the knees like she does and bust her lip or nose or something on the side of the crib.  Or (b) she'll lean over out of the crib from her knees and face plant to the floor below.  Either option not a good one so we were forced to drop her mattress down a few notches!  So sad!  I feel like my little bitty baby girl is growing up!  :(

Surveillance photo of my sneaky sneaky little girl!

Your Baby Can Read! [Day 1]

Just got a copy of "You're Baby Can Read!" from a friend of mine.  Just popped the DVD in this afternoon, haven't looked at the directions or printed the flashcards or in any way shape or form prepared for it but it seemed to keep her way more entertained than any other cartoon or tv show!  If nothing else, it's wonderful for that reason!  I'm sure it was just a flook but...  they did the word toes and she grabbed her toes! So we'll probably do this once a day or so and see how it goes...  keep you posted!!

Ideas for the teething youngin!

So while I understand that every child is different and every tooth is different, I'm trying to compile some of my ideas and solutions for a teething baby.  Maybe if we can get a good enough list going everyone can find at least one or two things that will work for their child!

.I'll add this one first since it just came in the mail (a gift from my awesome cousin, Heather) today!  It's called the RaZ-Berry Teether and so far, she's loving it.  It's really soft and squishy so she likes to chew on all parts of it.  She's actually had two in her mouth at once a couple times so far, I look over to see her trying to figure out how to fit her normal pacifier in there with them!  Don't think it's gonna work out that way!  :)  I haven't found them in stores yet but I did find them on Amazon.com, the picture here will link you to them!

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I also found that cutting a refrigerated apple into skinless spears is something soft and cool that she can chew on.  You can also do frozen peaches but they're much messier.  The only precaution doing this is they can break off pieces of the apple so you have to watch carefully to make sure they don't swallow any chunks!  There's also a mesh pacifier that you can buy to put things like frozen fruit into, they don't cut down on the mess at all but they do keep baby from swallowing pieces.  I got one a couple years ago for my neice so I'm not sure where it came from but I wouldn't think it would be hard to find!

 

 Sam also loves the teething cookies/biscuits.  I know they make an awful mess but they teach her eating skills and keep her happy for about 15 minutes at a time so it's worth the clean up!  I get the Earth's Best Organic Wheat Teething Biscuits from Target but I think there's other kinds.  There's also something I found called Baby Mum-Mum Rice Cakes that are just as time consuming for her but make less of a mess than the teething cookies...  these would be my choice if you were going to give them to the baby in the car or at someone else's house!

 

So far, these are my best solutions other than the standard refrigerated teether and Ora-gel...  Any input or other ideas are certainly welcome!  Hope this helps somebody!

Attempting to figure this out!

Ah, the things I do while Sam naps...  house is clean, laundry's done, dishes are washing...  so I'll start blogging!  Absolutely no idea how to do it but, if my cousins can figure it out, it can't be that hard!  Stay tuned, we'll see if I really am smarter than the blog I'm using!