Miracle of miracles

I was hesitant to write about this yesterday, because I was certain that it was just a fluke, but it has now happened two nights in a row and now I cannot contain my jubilant glee: Lilli has SLEPT THROUGH IN THE NIGHT IN HER CRIB TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW!! By this I mean that we have put her to bed, transferred her to the crib and she has stayed there without waking up until about 6:30, at which point I have nursed her for about half an hour in bed. It is GLORIOUS to sleep through the night ourselves, though admittedly we have both woken up constantly throughout the night, scared that any second she was going to wake up. But it didn't happen! Maybe if we get used to it we'll be able to sleep through the night too! Anyway, we are keeping our fingers crossed that this trend continues. . .

Actually, I am kind of amazed that this process has gone so quickly. I wasn't expecting it to be so relatively easy, and we didn't even have to resort to letting her cry it out. Yay! I just hope I'm not speaking too quickly. Perhaps two nights does not a trend make. . .Ok, no more jinxing, so I am going to shut up on this topic.

In other news, we went to a birthday party for a friend's baby who turned a year and there were other babies present. We thought Lilli would have fun and interact with the other kids. What we learned is that our child is a big ol' wimp. These other children were generally used to having other kids around and acted like it. Lilli, however, acted like she was being approached by aliens and anytime one of them touched her she would burst into tears. She totally wouldn't assert herself and acted all shy and demure and not at all like her usual spunky self. Babies were yanking toys from her left and right. She was kind of like the Gentle Giant. (She was HUGE compared to other little tykes.) This has shown us we need to expose her to some other babies! Well, SUPPOSEDLY, some cousins are thinking of moving back here sometime with their baby. So they say :) And my brother and his girlfriend are expecting so. . .patience. I just don't want her to end up being shy. I was shy and I hated it. I want to save her from that torturous social experience. I guess what will be will be, but maybe I better get scootin' on enrolling her in that gymnastics class I wanted her to take.

Lilli has been the biggest ball of grumpy whininess imaginable lately. This is kind of hard for us to take, because usually she is so joyful. Whininess: it SUCKS! We are hypothesizing teeth, which is what it seems most parents ascribe unexplainable whininess to. Plus, she has a mild cold. So, instead of complaining, I thought I'd make a list of all the cute minutiae she's been able to do for awhile that I have failed to mention:

Walk backwards
Say Lilli
Say "mooooooooo!" when we ask what does the cow say
Point at the moon at say "moooooon!" Possibly related to cows because we have a book where the cow jumps over the moon
Look in the mirror and laugh when she's wearing a funny outfit
Tilt her cup up to a complete vertical in order to completely harness the powers of gravity
Tell everyone that I'm "mama"
Help me put her pants on by stepping into them
Identify many body parts
Slam into me from behind, hug my legs, and then stick her head through them
Do our taxes (just kidding! I wish!)

We also took Lilli to her 15 month checkup yesterday. She weighed in at 26 lbs 14 oz (an increase of 3/4 lb) which is about the 95th percentile and was 33" tall (an increase of 1") which is in the 99th percentile. She gained a whole inch in her head circumference to put her at 19" so the size of her head is catching up with the rest of her body and she is leaning out a bit. You can see her growth has slowed down A LOT though. All that running around I guess. I remember the days when she used to pack on a pound a week! We were lucky that they were out of a vaccine so they didn't give her any shots yesterday. I don't know if any of us could have taken her being grumpy from teeth, cold, AND shots.

Unbridled Optimism!!

Well, after our first night at attempting to have Lilli sleep in her crib, I thought I probably should have titled my previous post "Unfounded Optimism" rather than "Guarded Optimism." As soon as Bob and I got into bed, little Miss Light Sleeper perked up her ears and declared the unfairness of the whole system. I had managed to get her to go back to sleep at one point before this, and although it had taken awhile, I was optimistic that we could do it again. Hmmmm. So anyway, Bob had a go at it and she immediately commenced Operation Screaming. This was psychological warfare and she was running a pretty effective campaign. We managed to keep our cool and Bob continued to pat her belly and sing to her in her crib. She didn't try and sit up but clearly she was protesting. After a LONG WHILE of this, I decided to try my hand at it. As we women know, what a man cannot do, we women must :) (jk, Bob :)) I sang and sang and patted and patted but my patience only managed to make Lilli start this horrible heart breaking keening noise as though I was twisting a knife in her little heart. It was almost too much to take, but I think I might have been able to last through it if by that time both my legs hadn't fallen asleep from leaning over the crib rail so that I would sing in her ear. We have a cheapo crib from Ikea that has no working mechanical parts such as a rail that slides down. So we CAVED, which was ok, because our No Cry Sleep Solution book says it's not a do or die situation. As soon as I brought Lilli to bed she was all smiles and coos and she immediately snuggled her head into my neck and went to sleep which made me feel SO GUILTY of course. How could I have inflicted such torture onto my own child?

So, last night, Bob and I were scared, but we were determined to fight off guilt, keep the big picture in mind (sleeping! alone! together!) and to be persistent and try again. We put her successfully in the crib to sleep, then when we went to bed we were very very quiet. Like mice! We held our breaths for a very long time before it seemed clear that she was NOT going to wake up and oh, joy! How lovely it is to sleep in one's own bed and move around! Although, of course, there was not much moving around as we didn't want to make too much noise (we will have to save that for that next step: moving the crib back to the nursery). So in any case, we awoke at 3:30 to see her standing in the crib, and Bob carefully laid her back down and she didn't even MAKE A PEEP. Ok, so she didn't go to sleep, but no crying! Bob sang to her and patted her and and she just stared up at him and smiled, for like, twenty minutes. Finally, I decided to nurse her, even though I don't want to encourage that, because I knew it would speed the process along and plus I figured better to reward her not crying then giving in when she is wailing. So I nursed her and then Bob put her back in the crib while she was still drowsy. NOW, the crying started, but it was more like a quiet whining than the heart breaking banshee wailing of the previous night. And who could blame her? She had just been ripped from my warm boob! After a bit I swooped in and sshhhed her and she fell asleep and we all slept soundly until around six when she had her morning nurse and then up at 7 am. Not perfect but SUCH PROGRESS in just one night. I am much encouraged. The only thing hindering us now is this darn cold she has. She is like a snot faucet.

Guarded optimism. . .

We've been attempting to teach Lilli about bedtime and I think, FOR ONCE, our plan is working!! It's amazing. We had a plan, we followed through, and it's working. Who knew? Anyway, I think I mentioned a while back how we had instituted a routine, got her off nursing at bedtime and such. Well, she's still waking up in the night, and although she often wants to nurse, sometimes she just cuddles up to me (sometimes in the MOST UNCOMFORTABLE POSITIONS FOR ME, like with her head ON TOP of my head) and goes to sleep. Sometimes she finds a comfortable position with her feet tucked under my chin and snoozes away. This is better than the alternative, but not much better for our sleep. So, we decided a while back that we wanted to get her to sleep in the crib. In the spirit of this, I bought her a couple of books awhile back that are specifically bedtime books and often show the protagonist of the book going to bed and liking it. Lately at the end of these books, when we say "nigh nigh!" she'll fall backwards into bed and look very pleased with herself. Tonight we had a breakthrough in that we were in the living room and I said "Lilli, do you want to go nigh nigh?" and she headed straight for the bedroom and tried to climb up into our bed. So we were optimistic and the scene was set. We followed through with our routine, got her to go to sleep, did a successful transfer to the crib, which we moved to our bedroom today, and lo and behold it is a miracle but she is SLEEPING IN THE CRIB. Hallelujuah!! Hopefully tonight she will wake up less because there will be more space and less tossing and turning of other people (Bob!) and we will all wake up refreshed! Is such a thing possible!?! And then! And then! Maybe when this works for a while we will move the crib back to the nursery! I may be getting ahead of myself now. . . one step at a time. But I can't help but be optimistic. Woohoo!

Comments revisited!

Some people have asked me how to post comments or have mentioned they've had problems posting. While it is *amazing* that people actually want to comment (yay!), it's actually not so difficult. I did a test drive, and the easiest way is to choose the "other" box and then to just leave your comment. You can put her name as whatever, and add your url if you so desire. Very simple and easy. May luck be with you :)

Yesterday was possibly one of the least fun days of my life. Bob called to say he was coming home from school in the morning and then like two minutes later he called back to say he had just puked and NOW he was coming home. See, he had a whole bunch of dental work done and the dentist gave him this extra strength Vicodin. I guess it didn't sit so well=puke. So I was downstairs doing laundry when I hear the front door slam and footsteps RUNNING across the house and then blehhhh. (I hope Bob is not mad at me for sharing this. After all, it's just puke, right honey?) So I have Bob puking away and then being a generally sick boy in bed when I notice that Lilli is being AWFULLY cranky. Usually she is very not cranky. She usually runs around the house making little happy noises and carrying things around. But yesterday she kept picking up objects, carrying them around for a little while, and then cry dejectedly when said object failed to please, entertain, or comfort her. Very pathetic. At first I was annoyed. Jesus Lilli! I kept saying. What in the world is the matter??! Well, insensitive mother that I am, I had failed to notice that she was BURNING UP WITH FEVER! Ok, just a low fever, but she has never had a fever before in her life, and I don't think she knew how to handle it. So she was cranky, although she was so lethargic at one point that she was actually totally satisfied for a bit just sitting in my lap and watching Gilmore Girls. Is it evil to the see the silver lining? So here I was with a cranky baby and a cranky husband and THEN. I had to take the dog to the vet. And you know what? The little bugger has INFECTED ANAL GLANDS. I guess that explains the putrid smelling bloody extrusions he was leaving all over our bedding. That's right. If that's not enough to make anyone think twice about getting a dog, I'm not sure what is. (But it's not the poor guy's fault, and we are having to spend a crapload of money to fix it. Can you believe $100 for one little visit to the vet?? I guess it's worth it if it eliminates putrid smelling bloody messes. Blood, people, that smells like rotting fish. Bleh!) So then there I was, the healthiest one in the house, and I was the one who was sick in the first place.

Oh, yeah, and I forgot to mention the spinach Lilli got in her eye. I made her spinach and eggs for breakfast and she managed to get a big piece of spinach IN HER EYE, Lord knows how, and then I just had to look at it all day, swimming on top of her eyeball, because she wouldn't let me get it out. Finally, I sneaked it out while she was sleeping and it had migrated to the corner of her eye. So. Gross.

So. A very full day. The end.

Ponchos!

Hey, anyone want to see me wearing every type of poncho imaginable?? Click here: http://www.hilltopyarn.com/hilltop_patterns.htm!

Good news for those of you who hate this poncho trend. Capes are coming in! The new pictures will be of capes! Maybe I'll make Lilli a cape. . . hmmmm. . .

TV is a timesuck. . .but so is blogging

I haven't had much time to blog lately. . .too much tv to catch up on! I went to Lummi last week and it is amazing how much tv I came home to on the tivo thingy. I've been watching this show called Project Runway, kind of a America's Top Model for designers and therefore more intellectual (kind of, at least I tell myself that), and I've had a lot of catching up to do since the season is almost over. And Gilmore Girls! Lorelei and Luke broke up! So sucky! I was kind of depressed last night because of it. Hmmm. I just realized how pathetic that is. Anyway.

I haven't been neglecting my child, in case you were wondering. I've been watching tv durings naps and after bedtime, which isn't good because I have a sinus infection I think and probably should be sleeping instead of watching trash tv. Priorities, priorities. I am just HOPING and PRAYING that Lilli wouldn't catch it, but I think God has forsaken me on this one, because she got a bit sniffly today and I had to pry out THE BIGGEST BOOGER OF ALL TIME. Bob can testify.

In other news, Lilli and I are going to model in the fashion show for the yarn store I occasionally help out, as I used to work there: http://www.hilltopyarn.com.
I knit a sweater for Lilli to wear in the show and hopefully it won't be ginormous, because I have to leave it at the store for three months, and so I sized it with that in mind. Maybe they'll have pictures up on their website at some point and you can see Lilli in all her glory. Last time they had a show my picture ended up the Seattle Times online site. Woohoo! Big time! To be sure, if Lilli ends up in the paper, I will post the link.

Lastly, a small observation on parenthood. Having a child who mimics everything you do, why, you really realize all the things you do that you don't even realize! Like, I've mentioned how she's ewwws at every toot. But on a cuter note, whenever she gives a hug, she makes this humming noise, or when she kisses she goes mmmmmm. I thought this was so funny at first, until I realized that that's what I do with her. Of course she does it! She's cute because I'm cute! Ha! Just kidding! (Kind of :))

Oh, and I just read a couple of articles in last week's Newsweek about the Myth of the Perfect Mother. Interesting reading for mothers, I must say. I may have more to say on this subject later. Do you see a rant coming?

I guess I haven't given birth to an outdoorsy one. oh well. Suits me!

Just a bundle of joy.

Me: Lilli! Let's go outside and have fun!
Lilli: Ha! Not on your life woman!

Comments!

It seems that Blogger has changed their commenting technology which is awesome, because it kind of sucked before. People either had to have a blogger account or comment anonymously. Now, if you are so inclined, you can comment, put your name, and yet NOT sign up for a blogger account. Kind of like with a typepad account. Much easier. So I hope you will all feel encouraged from now on to include your names, so I can know what lovely people are saying what (and so if I don't like it I can come hunt you down. . .HA HA, just kidding! Really!).

Here I'm struggling to get her dressed. She just LOVES to be naked. What is it with babies and getting naked anyway? You can see she is not totally happy with the situation as just moments before she was frolicking about the house quite wildly whilst being buck stark naked except for her socks. Very classy. Mary took some naked pics but they all ended up being semi pornographic so I didn't include them. There are enough sickos who find this site searching for weird stuff. It's too bad thought that digitals cameras have that delay. She WAS pretty cute all naked.

Here are Lilli and me after we went for a walk outside. She hates having to walk on grass by the way. She just stands there and refuses to budge and whines until someone comes and gets her. Or she collapses in a heap. It makes going outside oh so much fun because I have to lug her around everywhere. That smile I'm wearing is hiding my exhaustion.

We just spent the last few days up at Lummi Island because my brother was in town. Lilli enjoyed having (relatively) new places to explore and lots and lots of magazines to look at. She also loved having a "kiki" around as she calls my grandma's cat. I'm not sure how the cat felt about having a baby around though. Anywho, here is Schuyler with Lilli.

A thoughtful stance. Plus, notice my eBay coat?? Cute, no?

Here are some pics my grandma took of Lilli at her house on Sunday. Right now she's thinking that she ate too many chips (jk, we don't let her eat chips ;)).

MASSIVE is the theme of today's post

Yesterday I wore a BRA WITHOUT FLAPS for the first time in over a year! It was so liberating! Nursing bras tend to be so bulky, what with the extra fabric and all from the massive FLAPS, and it was so nice to wear a tank top and not worry that the massive bra straps used to support my formerly massive boobs would be showing. I was able to go flapless yesterday because Bob babysat Lilli in the morning while I went to go do some yarn store stuff. So, back to the flaps today. *sigh* At least I got a taste of flap freedom.

On a different, but related note, yesterday I was admiring in the mirror how my tank top looked nice without a massively wide bra strap showing when I noticed how INCREDIBLY BUFF I am. This is not hollow boasting, this is the goshdarn truth. My upper body is RIPPED. As Bob would say, You want some tickets? To the gunshow?? Ha ha ha. Actually, I am not so pleased about this. I am already pretty broad shouldered, which is not always so desirable in a fairly small framed woman. Now my gigantic shoulder muscles only further accentuate this. I kind of look how Angela Bassett looked in her Tina Turner movie. Well, I exaggerate. She was HUGE. But I'm pretty big when compared to myself, pre Lilli. I guess that is one of the side effects of having an overgrown child: she still wants to be carried around a lot even though she is close to thirty pounds. Yeah, who needs a Nautilus machine when you have a sentient thirty pound weight at your disposal, just begging, literally, to be picked up and carried around? Now if I could just get her to cling to my thigh while I do leg lifts. . .

Mommy?

My mom will probably think this is just payback for all the times I called her by her first name just to annoy the crap out of her, but yesterday Lilli started calling me Mariko. Can you believe it? Bob and I both kind of looked at each other like "did she just say what we thought she said?" Actually, she doesn't really say "Mariko." It sounds more like "Maiko." At first we thought she might be saying "Michael," which would make Michael pretty happy, but she usually says "mama, Maiko, mama Maiko, mamiko, mamamaiko." Today she's been kind of integrating the two and calling me "mamako." All this is pretty cute, but now that the initial cuteness and shock is starting to wear off a bit, I'm not sure how I feel about it. It hasn't been that Long since Lilli started consistently calling me "mama" in a way that made it clear that she was referring to me. I LIKED IT. "Mamako" is kind of cute, but it's not quite so sweet as being called "mama" by your own dear little baby. I guess I kind of know now how Bobby felt too when Lilli started saying "Bobby." He was so afraid she was going to give up on "Daddy." Maybe this is an inevitable stage? When babies figure out that everyone has names, and maybe more than one? I hope so. . . I hope my mom doesn't get her revenge! (HI MAYUMI! MWA HA HA HA HA!)

BAD dog!

I'm not the only bad example around here. Lilli's been carrying things around in her mouth. That's right! That darn dog! He's been teaching her how NOT to use her hands! She's been putting all sorts of things in her mouth and then bringing them for me to take from her. She prefers it if I, too, use my mouth to take the object from her. Kind of like that stupid pass the apple game. I'm just hoping the dog doesn't teach her anything else bad. I guess I can't let him lick his own butthole in front of her anymore.

thinking. . .

You know, I was thinking about that NYTimes article again (see a couple of posts down) and how they accused "mommy bloggers" of being self absorbed, etc. Um, hello, aren't people allowed to write about what's going on in their lives? That's what other bloggers do! Are mothers and/or fathers, supposed to ignore that HUGE facet of their lives, just because a certain part of the population finds no interest in it? I'm not talking about me here. This blog was supposed to be solely dedicated to Lilli, and it has kind of metamorphosized into my occasionally talking/ranting about other things too, including my own experiences. But there are a TON of "mommy bloggers" out there, who did not intend to start blogging just because they are mommies. Most of them wrote for themselves, about themselves, about things that interested them, often before they had children, but then children became a part of their lives that OBVIOUSLY they couldn't help but write about. It seems so stupid to put that spin on that article. Anyway.

Update: I just read mimismartypants take on the article. She says it much better than me. Apparently a lot of her blog has been published (how can we amatuers compete? :) ): http://smartypants.diaryland.com/020205.html

The FUNNIEST THING EVER

OK, so I know many of you readers probably aren't big Snoop Dogg fans or probably familiar with hip hop AT ALL (I'm thinking of my parents here. . .) but for those of you at least have heard "fashizzle" before, you might find this to be THE FUNNIEST THING YOU'VE EVER READ. It is a search engine that translates the little Google summaries into hip hop speak. When you go to the actual page, you can see what is actually written:

http://www.gizoogle.com/index.php?hl=en&ul=&criterion=lillian+reiko

I don't know, I may have to change my subtitle to "Life wit Lilli n ha many go'n on."

Oops!

I'm REALLY going to have to start watching what I say. Lilli has been a little mimic for some time now, but she's starting to become skilled enough to IMMEDIATELY be able to copy what I've just said. Maybe not the exact word or pronunciation, but she'll mimic the basic sound or intonation. This morning I was joking around with Bob and I said "GOD BOB!!" And Lilli said "GAH!" kind of a like a little South Parker would say. Bob and I both looked at each other in horror. We do not want to breed little South Parkers. And "God" isn't even that bad. Some who know me know that when I'm not in polite company I have a tendency to curse *just a bit*. I am starting to see that I'm going to have to learn to curb that habit. Oh well. It's probably good for me.

Another funny thing she has been doing for awhile is that whenever anyone farts (which unfortunately is kind of often in this household) she says "aaahewwwww!" She probably picked that up from me in reaction to Bob. Bob takes mine in stride. This morning it was hilarious when she had a particularly nasty toot, and she said to herself "aaahewwww!" Although she looked satisfied and relieved at the same time. I am just so afraid that one day we are going to go out in public and she's going to hear someone fart and she's going to tell them "aaahewww!" We would both be so embarrassed. The farter and me that is. Lilli would be fine with it.

Did anyone catch the NY Times article on "Mommy Blogs?" If not, here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/fashion/30moms.html?oref=login

It's an interesting article, but its premise seems to be that parent blogs are actually narcisstic pleas for self validation. Probably true, but I think the author missed a huge point. All the people that he interviewed (and it WOULD be written by a man) are incredible writers who provide a lot of comfort and solace, not to mention humor, insight, and entertainment, to people who are going through similar things in their lives. He seems to be implying that these people are writing only for themselves and not for their children, but what about all the other parents they're helping. Huh? Huh?