Pictures Due

I have to pull out the camera and take some shots of her 10th month before it's all over! Ack!

We have been taking videos. I have this dream project in mind. In light of my previous history littered with unfinished projects, I can't promise it'll ever be done, especially not by the due date I've set for myself, but a girl can dream.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, we'd primarily juggled Kiki from the playpen to the exersaucer to the swing to a lap and repeat. Now we've added the floor to the mix. Of course, as with everything, I make a huge production out of it by putting out a sheet, and blocking off all exits and the entertainment center with pillows, then dumping out a basket of her toys onto the floor. By the time the ritual is complete, Kiki is beside herself with excitement -- yeah, she's figured out that it means MORE FREEDOM!

She's still not crawling, but she does the military thing where she drags herself along on her belly. And she's an absolute champ at moving into a sitting position, and she gets into a crawling position like nobody's business, and rocks back and forth like she's going to take off. Only when she does.... she drops to her belly first.

The best thing about the floor, I think, is that now she has access to the dogs. They tend to pick out a piece of floor and lie there watching her until she gets close enough to reach out for them. Then they lick her hand, sniff her face, maybe let her pat their fur, then they get up and move to the other end of the living room. It's awesome motivation to keep her moving. We've got great dogs.

She's starting to make "meh-meh-meh" sounds, usually right when she's about to fall asleep from fussing. Like, umm, right now, in fact.

We've been Ferberizing her. Is that the right term? Where you put them to bed and let them cry themselves to sleep? She only starting crying when we put her to bed about a month ago. It is HARD to do dammit.

Okay gotta run.... she's throwing a fit.

Mea Culpa

Under pressure from husband and friends, I hereby publicly announce that yeah, okay, I'm actually not a Bad Mom. Are y'all happy now? Sheesh!

I do get hard on myself, I know it. Kipp gets the brunt of it. Honestly when I go public with being a Bad Mom, I'm not even in a bad space; I'm actually poking fun at myself.

I know I'm not UberMom, but nobody is. Hey, I try! And I have self-esteem problems, and I'm scared to death of failing my kids. It all adds up. But in all honesty, I know I don't utterly suck. I have my positive attributes.

I have approached UberMom though in that I've begun feeding Kiki fresh fruits and vegetables instead of the Gerber stuff. Go me!! It actually doesn't even take that much time to do. I thought it would be all time-consuming and stuff, but in light of everything else? Not so much.

Okay. Enough about me.

Kiki's making strides again. She seems to go through spurts of sudden milestones, then cools her jets for a while in preparation for the next bundle. I'm so proud of her! And of myself that I'm proud of her accomplishments instead of continuing to focus on what she's not doing yet. Oh, I still have my moments, but they're getting fewer and fewer, thank God.

So now it's bragging time!

She's actually moving herself into a sitting position all by herself now! She's still not sitting straight up without assistance, but she's getting there. The PT is happy because she's not pushing herself up from a full splits position, like many Downs babies do, due to their hyperextendability. Instead, she gets on all fours, then extends a leg out to the side, then sort of pushes back onto her butt. She's getting pretty good at it too.

And she's handling chunkier food better now too, and even starting to make chewing motions, instead of just pushing it around with her tongue. And every now and then, we catch her babbling a couple of consonants. We're always going "ba ba ba, da da da, ma ma ma" in her face, so of course she prefers to say things like "ga ga", "pa pa," and "ja ja" just to be persnickety.

She's really interacting with all of her toys now, and is reaching for everything. She doesn't sit quietly in our laps anymore; she's constantly trying to escape and explore. She's absolutely fascinated by the dogs, particularly Sugar. If she's on the floor and Sugar comes to check her out, Kiki often will scoot over to her and then fall on Sugar's back in a half-crawl tackle. She's already pulled ears and tail, and Sugar, bless her heart, is completely tolerant of all of it.

And that is our update for the week. Happy February, everybody!

Dilemma of the Day

The dilemma of the day is whether or not to cut Kiki some bangs. I'm on the fence; Kipp is definitely against it.

It must be a mommy thing. You know, the whole, "Get your hair out of your face. I can't see your beautiful eyes," line everyone's mom throws at them while they're growing up.

I'm always blowing her hair out of her face, or brushing it to the side. But invariably, it falls back over her eyes, hanging down to her nose. That combined with the fuzzy mess in the back of her head which never smooths out no matter how many times a day I run a comb through it makes her look like her mama never attends to her hygenic needs.

Yep, it all comes back to being all about ME.

She's gotten over her nasty little cold, thank GOD. Her 9-month check up showed her still on a great growth curve, though she's fallen behind on length a little bit (now 30th percentile.) And now I think she's going through a growth spurt -- eating like a machine and sleeping the day away.

So when I was a younger woman and dreamed of having kids, I always imagined myself as some kind of ubermom. You know, using cloth diapers, making baby food from scratch, the works. I obviously thought I'd somehow give birth in a world made up of 38-hour days and unlimited amounts of energy.

Anyway, I bring this up because this week? I made her vegetables! Myself! Me and my food processor! I was so proud. And she ate 'em without choking too.

And I've started her on yogurt. The yogurt is a MUCH bigger hit than cottage cheese was, let me tell you.

I can't believe it's February already. Is time speeding up or what?