Thirty-Seven Months

Dear Peeper:

You are thirty-seven months old today. Yeah, yeah, I know. I don't actually say that, I usually just say that you "just turned three," although I suppose the time limit on that one is getting close.

This has been a huge month for you, developmentally.

A month ago, you were wearing panties at home when we remembered to put them on you, and you slept nice and cozy in the middle of our family bed.

Today, it's been a month since you've worn a diaper in the daytime, you've not had one on - even at night - in three weeks, and it's been a couple of days more than that since you've slept in the big bed (except for one nap with me this week, which was quite an accident).

I am so proud of you, and so glad that both of these things happened on your time-table, but I am also a little sad about them, because - Hello! Who stole my baby!?!

Actually, I don't have too much ambivalence about the potty thing, except that it was easier to stick a diaper on you and go than to stop at every potty we pass and make you "try," and now that you seem to be committed to the big girl bed, a couple of times when you seemed to be wavering (both were when you weren't falling asleep in there and you got back up) I found myself really wanting you to get okay with staying in your bed, because I was a little worried that if you went back into our bed for a night, you'd be there to stay.

Of course, you usually aren't all alone in there all night long, nor are you usually holding it all night. Generally, you wake up once or twice, and I take you to the potty before lying down and nursing you back to sleep. Sometimes I fall asleep with you and stay until morning. That's not so bad, now that we have a real twin bed for you (well, a mattress and box springs) instead of that damn youth bed.

Morning stull comes kind of early, though. No matter what time you go to bed, it seems that you're up and ready to go at eight. When you were in our bed, I could usually get you to nurse and sleep a little longer, and that works for a little while if I'm waking up in bed with you, but if I'm running in from our bedroom, you're too awake by the time I get there.

A couple of nights, you have actually slept all the way through with no wake-ups and no pees. That was very nice.

In other news, your latest obsession is with the Nutcracker, and we are enjoying watching you fall in love with something new. We listen to the music in the car all the time, and you can now identify at least three or four of the songs by name, and can sing a couple of them.

You have a Nutcracker and a Mouse King, and a couple of different things that you've called the Sugar Plum Fairy - a beanie baby bear, dressed like a pumpkin, wearing your tutu wrapped around it several times, and a panda bath puffy (when you saw it you said, "Oh! She is a ballerina!"), as well as two different Nutcracker books.

I've also ordered a DVD, but I don't know when you'll actually get it, because I made a deal with you last night that when you finally fill up the Elmo column on your Sesame Street potty chart - which is for "Uh oh, gotta go!" you can have it.

That's seven times that you have to tell us that you need to go potty.
I've given you the first two of the seven stickers for progress toward what we're really looking for - 1- I asked and you said yes, 2- you were trying to get the bathroom door open, and right after that you pooped in your panties - but at some point, I have to hold out for an actual "Mama! Pee-pee!" before the pee-pee starts flowing.

I really hope that the incentive helps, because if you're just not developmentally ready to do that, then I'm going to feel like a real jerk for holding out on the DVD.

You are already quite into Christmas, but you seem to be more concerned with the candy that Santa's going to bring than the other gifts. (That's my girl.)

Today, for the first time, you told "Santa" (I was wearing your Santa hat) that you want "some truck toys and some car toys." He may have to put in a special order to the elves on that one.

Several times, though, you have put on the Santa hat and told me, "I am Santa Claus. What I could bring you for Christmas?"

You're full of the funny these days.

The other day you told Mommy, "I wanna go outside with clothes on Mommy, with you," (turned to me) "and with not you."

 
You've been all about Mommy lately. If she's home, you don't want much to do with me, until it's time for goody. I just love watching the two of you play, and I don't mind the break, so my feelings aren't too hurt.
 
She's had several days off work in the past week, so you've had lots of time to play together. She's been giving you most of your baths, and I have gotten quite a kick out of listening in on your conversations.
 
A few days ago, you declared that your bubbles were "dipping sauce" (ranch dressing, of course), and you lay back in the water, with just your little face showing and say "Oh no! I fell in the dipping sauce!"
 
I have no idea where you got that, because we usually just talk about "dips" not "dipping sauce."
 
A lot of times you say something that one of us can't figure out, and then the other explains the Sesame Street sketch that it came from, but you come up with some pretty good ones on your own, too.
 
Several of which I will remember as soon as I hit the "publish" button on this post, of course.
 
Which I need to do, and then go get in bed, because either you are going to wake me up before long, or you're going to sleep through the night and I'll be kicking myself for wasting it by staying up late.
 
So, happy monthiversary, kiddo. Enjoy your big girl bed, and I'll see you in the morning.
 
 
I love you,
Mama

One Minute in History 11/11/11 11:11

The blog Peaceful Parenting did a photo project on 1-1-11 that worked out so well, she decided to do it again. The instructions were simple - just take a photo of whatever you're doing, or what's in front of you at 11:11 (am, pm or both) on 11-11-11.

I can't believe that I manage to remember and actually take both morning and evening, but somehow I did.

The two scenes that I captured - neither of which was staged (well, I could have unstaged the first one if I'd wanted to, but I didn't) - together make perfect illustration of the micro-season of our lives that we are in right now.

11/11/11 11:11 am - Peeper on the big potty at a convenience store
We are now two weeks into now-that-we're-three-years-old-we-wear-panties-all-time-time-in-the-daytime and it's going very well.

Also, I have figured out why five year olds insist on visiting every public restroom that they pass. It's because when they were three, their mothers made them visit every public restroom that they passed. Or maybe that's just me.

11/11/11 11:11 pm - Peeper asleep in her big girl bed, wearing nothing but panties
Peeper is also one week out of the family bed (although Mama's usually in her big girl bed with her for at least a quarter of the night), and almost that long out of diapers full-time, even at night.

Both of these moves were her idea, and have gone quiet smoothly so far - one wet bed and one kerplunk on the floor, not withstanding.

They may or may not be permanent changes yet, but she's happy and we're mostly happy (Although we are a bit ambivalent about not having her in bed with us - especially when she wakes and I have to actually get up. What's that about?!) so it's all good.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I think I've mentioned that Peeper "wears panties all the time, now that she's three years old," but I've not given any sort of update on how that's going.

Actually, it's going quite well.

On her birthday, we went to playgroup in training pants, plus some extra absorbancy, and changed them twice, because she'd already peed when I took her to the potty.

A chat with the mom who was hosting us that day (she has two girls, four and six years old) gave me the confidence to go ahead and take her out in public (and, more importantly, to other people houses) in just panties, and she's done great.

(Basically, she assured me that nobody is going to hate me if Peeper pees on their carpet. I sure hope she's right.)

We still have to tell her when to go potty, she's not telling us at all yet, but in the, what, ten days (!?) that we've been doing this, she's gone on the big potty at friend's houses, Target, Red Robin, the grocery store, the convenience store, and Michael's, that I can think of off-hand, has learned to keep herself from falling in - sometimes with no hands! - and has only had three pee-pee accidents - one at home, one in the backyard, and one at T's house. (Sorry, T!)

Each of those times, I'd either said or at least thought that it was about time to go to the potty, then saw something shiny and didn't take her. Then saw something peedy.

She's had probably the same number of panty-poops, but that's nothing new. Two were at friend's houses, but that's only a issue in terms of having to change panties. Better than peeing on someone's carpet!

(My new diaper bag routine is a couple of pairs of spare panties, a pair of pants, a pair of socks (although we generally ditch our shoes at the door at friends' houses), plus one pair of training pants and a diaper, just in case it comes down to that.

I have pre-ordered (for my store, with the plan to snag one for Peeper) some newly-released bumGenius trainers, which are pull on/off, but with a side-snap escape hatch for poopies. One shell comes with five replacable liners, so you don't have to change the whole thing.

My plan was that when they arrive (late November or early December) we'd probably ditch the old faithful (and getting really short in the stride, and increasingly leaky, the poor dears) bumGenius 3.0s in favor of the trainers for night time, but now I'm starting to wonder if we'll need to do that.

That's right. What you're looking at there is Peeper asleep in her big girl bed, wearing nothing but panties.

(What you're looking at beside the bed is Mr. Panda's booty. He's our make-shift bed rail / floor cushion.)

This is the fourth night that she's slept there, and the second night that she's gone diaper-less, and so far - knock wood - so good.

On Friday, I had her all bathed and diapered and jammied when she either pooped (which she often does, as soon as her jammies go on) or had a pee-pee leak (see above, re sad, old diapers) so I was changing her. When she was nakey, she escaped, and hopped up into her big girl bed, which she'd not slept in since before we got sick at the beginning of September.

I offered to finish her diaper there, but she hid under the blanket and said something about going to sleep there.

I asked her if she wanted to get her night-night goody in her big girl bed, and much to my surprise, she said yes.

To my bigger surprise, she actually fell asleep when I nursed her in it (that's a first), which was around 11:30. Shrike got in around midnight and we talked for a while. Peeper woke up, nursed down, woke back up almost immediately (I guess I snuck out too soon) and nursed back down, before we went to bed around 1:30.

To my astonishment, I didn't hear a peep (so to speak) from her until 8:30 the next morning!

On Saturday, she took a long, diaperless nap in her bed (yeah, I wasn't thrilled, but she was soooo tired) and was up until about 1:30 am. She woke back up at 3:30, and I just crawled in with her and slept there for the remainder of the night. Which was not nearly as long as I'd hoped, given that we had no plans to get up early for the next day.

Last night, she was really tired, and was just having a rough time all around. There were tears and wailing and much very uncharacteristic distress.

When I tried to get her diapered and jammied, she was having none of it. She really would have rather stayed nakey, but eventually started crying for panties. I told her that she had to wear a diaper to sleep, because "It's a really long time, and if you're just in panties, you'll get pee-pee in the bed."

To which she responded, "III wooon't doooo daaaat! III wooon't doooo daaaat! III wooon't doooo daaaat!"

Oh my God. What could I say?

At this point in potty training, am I going to force my kid into a diaper, when she's begging for panties and promising (?) not to pee the bed.

No. No, I am not.

I did tell her, though that she could sleep in her big girl bed in panties (It's a crib mattress, thus waterproof), but if she wanted to sleep in the big bed, she would have to wear a diaper. (We do have a zip-on plastic cover on it, but it has ripped - right down the middle. Thus, the only part that's not protected, is right where she sleeps. Of course.)

She opted for the panties in the big-girl bed.

She fell asleep around 9 in my lap, but like a big dumb ass, I blew the transfer and woke her up. There were a couple of false starts at nursing to sleep in the bed, but she finally conked out in my lap around 11:30 or so.

She had pee-peed maybe fifteen or thirty minutes before that, so I just crossed my fingers, and made plans to wash the sheets in the morning.

I crawled into the big bed and snugged my wife (again!), and Peeper slept until about 5:45. The first thing I did when I got to her, was feel her booty - and she was dry!  Before I got in bed, I took her to the potty and we both peed while she whimpered, then I spent about an hour in bed with her before I snuck out. She slept until 7:57 (seriously, clock is going off at 8, can I get three more minutes?) and was still dry!

I told all the moms at playgroup about it, and she went around the room collecting high-fives!

Tonight, we were torturing her on the way home, around 6 pm, to keep her awake, and around 8, she was begging to "go nighty-night in my big girl bed" but when I relented and laid down, she nursed a while and caught her second wind.

While she was back up, Shrike and I rearranged her bedroom, primarily to make it more comfortable for me to nurse her in that bed.

See, the thing is - in the big bed, she's on my right, but I can just roll a little farther over toward her and give her the left breast just about as easily as the right. But that works because the left one is bigger, and stretches farther. (Oh, come on. You aren't symmetrical either. If you think you are, go strip down and stand in front of a mirror. I'll wait. . . . See?)

But, the way we had her big girl bed set up, I had to lie with her on my left, and it was very hard to get the right breast to her. I had to lean way over and tense up to keep from just rolling on top of her, and usually use my hand to keep it in position.

Lately, my neck and shoulders have been really tense and sore, and I'm thinking that it could be related. I was sort of feeling it before she started sleeping there, but it's gotten much worse over the past few days.

So, we finally got around to shifting things around to the places (more or less) that we've been talking about ever since we converted the crib into the big girl bed.

We unanchored the book/toy shelves, put the crib dresser in that corner, scooted the bed up against it, so it's a headboard, and put the shelves on a different wall, then re-anchored them. I also moved a couple of the panda prints (calendar cuts, actually) because they looked funny with the furniture in the new places.

Other than figuring out where the hell the shelves could go, it was really much easier than we evidently thought it was going to be.

I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with where everything is, but it is much more comfortable, and the little dresser is no longer sitting in the big middle of the floor.

The "book nook" isn't so nooky (huh?) any more, but that's okay. When she's taller, we can flip it upright and stick it in the corner, and it will be very cozy.

Shrike really would have liked to have taken both the glider and the changing table out of the room, but for absolutely no logical reason, I just wasn't ready to do that yet.

We've never actually used the glider for rocking/nursing, and evidently, she no longer wears diapers (I'm not promising that we're done with them - that may have been  fluke, and she may not have another dry night for years), but I just can't do it.

Yes, I know, there's plenty of room for diapers - or the new trainers - and "washies" in the crib dresser, if we even still need them, and there's a nice, comfy bed to sit on, but nope, just not ready to make it that much of a "big girl room."

I'm not really sure how I feel about all this.

The potty-training thing, I'm mostly thrilled with, but it is just a little bittersweet.

The big girl bed, I'm very ambivalent about.

On the one hand, I am so proud of her for being big enough to make this decision (at least for these past few nights, who's to say she won't be back in with us tomorrow, for another six months) and to be doing it so smoothly, and on that same hand, it sure is nice to be able to actually snug with Shrike at night again, but on the other hand, I have so loved our family bed, and I sort of miss it.

One thing I'm certain of is that these past few nights have made me even more glad that we've chosen to cosleep for the past three years, because this thing about having to get up out of bed when the kid wakes up in the middle of the night is bullshit. I don't know how people do it with a newborn.

I keep asking myself if I'm pushing her on this, but it really does seem to be her decision. I gave her the option and she really ran with it. I've mentioned the very same option numerous times over the past few weeks, and she's had no interest (except when A and J slept in her bed, of course) but for now, at least, she's all about it.

I've also been trying to "check in" with Shrike about her feeling on the whole matter, and I think she's about in the same place that I am.

She was saying this evening, that while there are, no doubt, things that we are doing wrong with Peeper, and there are, surely, things we're doing that are "spoiling" (ugh, I hate that term) her, that she's sure that letting her decide when she's ready to move out of the family bed and when she's ready to stop getting goody are not among them.


I told her that, in a way, it seems a little unfair, because I still get to cuddle her in bed when we nurse to sleep (and back down) and I sometimes (well, one night, so far) still get to sleep with her, if I conk out before she does.

Shrike acknowledged that, but said that, on the other hand, she doesn't miss it nearly enough to make it worth sleeping in that bed.

I hear ya.

Update - Morning: She woke up around 1:30 or so and I took her to pee and nursed her back to sleep, but she wasn't settling down solidly enough for me to escape. When I woke up around 5 am, I was able to sneak boff, but that only lasted about half an hour. Took her to pee again, went back to bed with her and we both slept until it was time to get up around 8. With those two potty trips, she and the bed stayed dry again!

Big Girl Bed

A few weeks ago, Shrike and I were bemoaning our lack of us-time, when suddenly, I was struck with an inspiration. I realized that, most nights, Peeper nurses to sleep in my chair or on the couch sometime around 9 pm, and I move her into bed, where she (most nights) sleeps all by herself for about four hours until Shrike goes to bed, and then (most nights) sleeps with her, while not nursing, for another two or three hours until I go to bed and then (most nights) sleeps with both of us, not nursing, for a few more hours until morning.

Or, maybe she nurses to sleep in the bed, or maybe she wakes every hour before we go to bed, or maybe I wake her up when I crawl into bed, or maybe she's latched on from the time I get there until we get up in the morning.

But more often that first thing.

So, I thought that if we could get all the crap out of the crib, and then convert it to a twin bed, maybe, at least sometimes, after she falls asleep, I could put her down in there, and we could actually go to bed all by ourselves for a little while, until she wakes up and joins us.

Mind you, neither of us (none of us, I assume) is ready for her to completely be out of our bed, but for my part, at least, when this plan hatched in my mind, the thought was a teeny bit sad, but mostly very liberating.

And, I figured that, given her recent interest in playing "go to bed" based on her Sesame Street videos, this might be a time that she would be receptive to the idea or, at the very least, she'd enjoy having the bed available to play in.

Last night, I got some of the clothes and other junk cleared out and moved to the basement, and this morning before Shrike went to work, we move the rest of the clothes down to the basement, at least until the weather turns. (Note to self: You have three bags of 24 months / 2T and one bag of 3/3T winter clothes, plus one "2T and up" - Do not buy any more clothes until Spring. If then.)

At that point, Peeper insisted on getting in there. I figured I'd better take a picture, since it was the one and only time she'd be in a crib. (Actually, that might not be true. I think Shrike stuck her in it for a few minutes to play a long, long time ago. I didn't like it one bit. Oh yeah, and that whole open-heart surgery recovery period thing. Doesn't count.)

Then the walls come a-tumblin' down, and . . .

Big Girl Bed!

(Look at the adorable little mini-mattress that fills in the place where the dresser was, and makes it a twin bed. When it's just by itself, it looks like a bed for a doll. There's a tiny little spring thingy that goes under it, too!)

The whole set-up is probably going to change a bit, mostly because the dresser section is too freaking heavy to move downstairs, so I want to find a place for it in her room. Also, I like have the drawer space, and I want her to have some sort of nightstandish kind of thing.

My plan is to move the bookcase out of that corner and put the crib dresser there, with the bed up against it, so that the dresser is like a really wide headboard. Then, I think the best bet might be to flip the bookcase vertically and put it in the corner at what will then be the foot of the bed. And switch the two mattresses, so the joint isn't actually underneath her, that doesn't seem comfortable. And buy sheets.

She's already discovered that it's good for lots of things.

Including sleeping!

We talked to her a lot about how "when you're ready you can goody to sleep in Peeper's New Big Girl Bed, or when you goody to sleep in my lap, I can put you in Peeper's New Big Girl Bed, and then when you wake up, you can come in the big bed with Mommy and Mama."

I suspect that when she wakes, she'll just cry and I'll either go get her or just go get in with her (This is why we went to the full twin, rather than leaving the bookcase on and making it a toddler bed!) but just in case, the plan is to use the babygate in the hallway, so that the two rooms (across the hall from each other) - and probably also the office, which shares a closet with her room, and the bathroom, because eventually she'll go to it in the night - are isolated from the rest of the house, so the doors can be open and the critters won't be getting in bed and stomping on anyone.

This evening, after her bath, I asked her if she wanted to get goody "in the chair, in the big bed or in Peeper's New Big Girl Bed" and she said "Not Peeper's bed," but after one unsuccessful attempt at bedtime in the big bed, we were playing in her room and I suggested "Would you like to get your goody in Peeper's New Big Girl Bed?" and she said - and I quote - "Let's do it!"

She pile at least three pandas into the bed, and I went and got Bingo, and I wasn't sure there was going to be room for her and me, but we got settled in - with a thin blankie under us and a quilt over us, because we don't actually have any bedding for it yet - and she nursed for quite a while, before decided that she wasn't sleepy after all, and would like to go read books.

That's about the point at which I asked her, "This afternoon, when we were goodying in bed, did you maybe fall asleep for a little while?" and she nodded "Yes."

I don't know if she really did, but I suspect that I did, so it's entirely possible.

While we were reading, and she was nursing on the couch, finally looking sleepy, I tried to get her to tell me which bed she wanted me to put her in when she fell asleep, and she wouldn't answer, and just said, "Don't talk about it," and "Not choose."

So I said, "I think you're thinking that it might be fun to sleep in Peeper's New Big Girl Bed, but you're not sure if you want to, because you've never done it before. Is that right?" She neither confirmed nor denied, so I suggested that I put her in her bed, and then when Mommy and Mama go to bed, I could move her, or when she woke up, she could move to our bed.

She fell asleep shortly after ten, and I moved her in there a bit before eleven. (I may have slept a while on the couch, myself.)

It's almost one now, Shrike just went to bed, and Peeper's still snoozing away in there.

I'm not sure what to do when I go to bed, I sort of left it open about moving her or letting her move when she woke, maybe. I'm a little worried that if I move her, she'll wake up and be awake, so I'm leaning toward just letting her stay til she wakes, and she won't really know if I'd gone to bed yet, right? I mean, she knows that I go to bed after Mommy, so Mommy being in there asleep won't mean anything.

Of course, after I get done posting them, I'm going start on a design for a new website, so I may be up for a while, so she may wake before I got to bed anyway, and might be moot.

I can't imagine that she'll get very awake at all without crying and moving (or me joining her there) but I'm prety impressed that she's been there this long, because when I peeked in on her earlier, I did see her wiggle around and roll over and bonk into the wall (that's new!) and go back to sleep, so that's pretty good.

I've put out a request to the MOMS Club folks for a used (cheap or free) set of sheets, and was planning to let her pick out some Special Sheets of Her Own in a little while - after payday, at the earliest (Have you priced kid's sheets? That's crazy!) but possibly as late as her birthday or even Christmas, depending on how it was all shaking out - but if she really sleeps there a good portion of the night, or even if she doesn't, I'm thinking that we probably need to go pick out sheets tomorrow, to celebrate her First Night in Her Very Own Big Girl Bed.

And how am I feeling about it all?

Ambivalent.

I really love sleeping with her, and I never want her to feel like she's not welcome in our bed, at least to come in for a while when she needs to, but I'm actually quite surprised at how okay I am with it, because the idea of at least a bit of grown-up alone time in the big bed every night (and maybe even the occassional Grown-Up Alone Time in the big bed) also sounds very appealing.

Of course, that would require actually getting off the computer and going to bed. . . .

Verbal

She may still be using them only one at a time, and Shrike and I may be the only ones who can understand the vast majority of them, but I just tallied up (what I can remember of) the new words that Peeper started using during our trip and it seems that on my "official" list, she now has more spoken words than signs.

Well, That Was Weird

Peeper had a long, lateish (3 - 6 pm) nap this "afternoon," so I was expecting a late bedtime. She dozed off around - hmm, 11ish? - while I was talking on the phone with Frappa, but woke up while transferring to bed, and was up a while longer.

While I was waiting for her to be ready to go to bed for realsies, I put away some of her clothes that were piling up in laundry baskets - which took a while, because they included a bunch of new hand-me-downs that didn't yet have homes - and as I was finishing that, she was kind of whining around, so I figured she was getting sleepy.

When I was done, I brought her in here to nurse, and she made quite clear that that was not what she had in mind.

So, I put her down, and she toddled off to her room.

When I got there, she had a stuffed bear in each hand, and was dragging them over to the rocker.

Now, this rocker is literally the only piece of furniture in her room that we paid more than a couple of bucks for, and of course, we never use it.

(Guess what? The computer chair also rocks. And it has a computer in front of it.)

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've rocked or nursed her in it.

But, she wanted in it tonight, so I sat down, and arranged Peeper and two bears on my lap, and she nursed for a while.

Then she stopped, and looked and me and grinned for a while, not saying a whole lot, just sort of playing with her bears.

Then nursed some more, and stopped for a while, and nursed some more, and stopped and put my breast away (well, needs some help, but she tries), and then the weird part. . . .

She lay her head down on my chest, cuddled up, closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Without a boob in her mouth.

I don't think she's ever done that before.

I know this probably sounds weird, because she spends so much time in some sort of physical contact with me - I'm holding or wearing or carrying or nursing her - but she rarely just cuddles, without nursing, and I'm always like "awwww" when she does.

Don't get me wrong, I love all that other stuff, and nursing cuddles are especially cuddly, but sometimes it is nice to feel like she just wants me for me, and not for the boob. 

Oh, By the Way...

. . . have I mentioned that the child is walking?

Two or three days ago, I noted that, although she was obviously capable of walking across the big middle of the room unaided, she still prefered to hold onto something if she could.

Then, a couple of days ago, I saw her walk the length of one wall in the living room (the one without any furniture), and instead of having a hand on the wall the whole way, she was only touching it every three or four steps, as if to make sure it was still there.

A few minutes later, she made the same walk, but this time, she didn't touch the wall at all. She just held her hand up, ready to grab it if she needed to.

Since then, she's been walking without touching anything more and more every, oh, hour - even if she's going right along a wall or the couch or something else cruisable.

She still cruises some, and certainly still falls down plenty - usually on her nicely-padded booty, but occassionally on her not-so-padded face - but I think it's time to admit that she's walking.

Within the past couple of days, I've started just putting her down onto her feet any old place, rather than sitting her down, or "parking" her against something to hold onto.

I've also started having her follow me around the house, rather than picking her up and carrying her to another room.

Remember a few weeks ago, when we baby-proofed the house?

Well, we evidently did not toddler-proof it. We're doing that now, as she shows us what we've missed.

I've been shutting the door to the dogs room if we're in the kitchen, to keep her from going out there and getting in their food and water. I told her the other night that she was "grounded from that room," because she wouldn't stay out of it.

Today I realized - the third time I took one away from her - that we can no longer hang dishtowels on the oven handle.

And, of course, we've gotten very good about closing both the toilet lids and the bathroom doors.

I guess she really is a toddler now, isn't she?

When the fuck did that happen?

On The Move

Peeper is still getting around primarily by cruising, but she's certainly able to walk if she needs to.

Shhh - Baby Sleeping!

We've been seeing / making some changes in Peeper's sleep habits lately, but I've been scared to write about them, for fear of jinxing it.

It's been almost a month now, so I'm going to take my chances.

We've never really had big "problems" with Peeper's sleep, other than the nights that she's napped too late and then stayed up way later than we wanted.

That was mostly my fault, for allowing the nap (knowing damn well that I'd be sorry a few hours later) so I can't really complain too much.

Once she's down for the night, though, she will wake a few times to nurse (which just requires rolling over and flopping a boob in her general direction) and that's it until morning - which is usually about ten hours later.

(When I told BabyBro that, he (the father of then-six-week-old twins) said, in awe, "Ten hours?! In a row?!")

Only very, very rarely have we actually had to get up with her in the night - and that's only been when she's sick and feeling crappy and having trouble breathing while laying down (and while nursing).

Yes, we do realize how lucky we are.

The one catch to her nighttime sleep, though, has been when it happens. Because of Shrike's second-shift schedule, we've always waited up for her and then slept from like 2 am (or later, at times) to noon.

Which is fine and dandy, except that everything in the world that you can go and do with a baby - from MOMS Club activities, to story time at the library, to The Little Gym toddler time - happens at 10 am.

Evidently, normal babies sleep all afternoon, and then their big brothers and sisters come home from school, and then there's dinner and bedtime and for some reason nobody wants to play with me and Peeper at 9 pm! Or even 3 pm.

So, for quiet a while, we've been trying to figure out how to get her on an earlier schedule, so that we can go and do in the mornings, but without a lot of luck.

Then, we fell back.

I think we are the only parents of young children in the entire world who were actually happy about what the time change did to their kid!

On Halloween, Peeper just happened to get an early and short first nap, then she fell asleep while trick-or-treating, and had an early and short second nap, which set her up to go to bed about an hour early.

And the time changed that night - which added up to a two-hour shift in her bed time and wake up time.

Somehow, I managed to maintain that shift over the next week or so. We bathed around 11 pm, and were at least ready for bed when Shrike got home. Some night, she was even asleep in my lap, and actually stayed that way through the dogs greeting Shrike, and the transfer to bed.

When we went to Texas, we didn't have Shrike's schedule to work against, so we continued to keep it up, even going to bed and getting up "earlier" some nights, because of the timezone difference.

Then, we made another big shift while we were in Texas.

As I've mentioned before, Peeper has always taken her naps in my lap, usually nursing the whole time.

A few months ago, we switched to getting her to sleep for the night in bed, rather than nursing in front of the computer then moving to bed, but the naps hadn't changed.

Also, it was very difficult to leave her alone in the bed while sleeping, either at night or during the day, because she'd wake up so easily. She would get a much longer nap in my lap, so it was hard to get motivated to do anything different.

Mostly, I really like her sleeping in my lap, but sometimes I do suppose it would be handy to be able to "do things" while she's alseep, somewhere other than in front of the computer.

When we were in Texas, though, she was often in dire need of a nap, but not settling down while other people were around, so I'd take her in the bedroom and nurse her to sleep in the bed.

Sometimes, I fell asleep with her, but other times, I snuck out and left her alone with a baby monitor, and - wonder of wonders - she slept!

Maybe not as long as she would have if I could just pop a boob in her mouth when she stirred, but long enough to get the job done.

Then at night, I also snuck out of bed for a while - to get a snack, or start some laundry, or blog and check email / facebook / twitter, or just to have a bit of time to "myself."

I guess that was the thing that made it different there - although my family was around all the time, I was still 100% "on duty" with Peeper 24/7. At home, I hand her off to Shrike and can relax, knowing that she's perfectly happy, but when we're travelling, I can't leave the room to go potty without worrying that she's going to be upset about it, so those few minutes of "freedom" while she slept on her own were very welcome.

The other thing that I think really helped was the music. I started playing music while we were napping to drown out the noisy neighbors, but I've kept it up and made it part of our nap/bedtime routine.

Since we've been home, I've stuck with this new routine, and have tried to do one nap a day in bed (usually the second one; for example she's in my lap right now, having her first nap), and then we've bathed and gotten in bed by around eleven most nights.

I leave the music playing for her, and turn on the monitor and go about my business.

Yes, I would hear her cry without the monitor, but it makes me more comfortable with going to the other end of the house - where the kitchen and laundry room are. Also, I'll hear her more quickly, and can get in there and settle her before she gets good and awake.

Most nights, she's not stirred or woken enough to cry until well after Shrike's gotten home. I think the music helps a lot by drowning out the other sounds in the house - like me doing dishes (on occassion) and, especially, the dogs greeting Shrike when she gets in.

So far, we're thrilled with this arrangement.

Peeper doesn't seem to mind too much (As long as we get to her pretty quickly when she does wake up - I do still feel awful about her waking up in there alone, even if it's only for a few seconds, really.), I get some free time (maybe I'll even work my way up to cooking while she naps, or something crazy like that) and Shrike and I actually have a few minutes alone together, which is pretty novel, and rather nice.

On a semi-related note, now that we're getting up earlier, I'm trying to get out to more MOMS Club activities - sometimes even all by myself.

As hard as it is (and I do still hate walking out the door and leaving Peeper behind) I do enjoy myself while I'm there and the baby-free time is rather refreshing.

Also, I know that it's very good for Mommy and Peeper to have some time alone together, without Mama checking up on them, or poised to swoop in to the rescue.

Yesterday, I went to book club for about three hours. Things went pretty well at home, and I didn't even cry!

Shrike tells me that Peeper did have one "episode" during which she was crying and was signing "milk" at her (Knife in my heart! But also, so proud of her!) but then she settled down, and when I got home, they were both asleep in the bed!

It seems that they were reading books in Peeper's room, when Shrike noticed Peep's head bobbing up and down. She put her in the bed, and she was out.

This morning, I went to a MOMS-only coffeed (At Starbucks! In Target!) and they stayed home again. This trip was much shorter, because I had to get home from Shrike to go into work early (early deadline tonight, because of all the Black Friday inserts going in tomorrow's paper).

This time, when I picked Peeper up to say goodbye, she just waved at me like, "Yeah, whatever, Mama. Check ya later," and Shrike said she was just fine the whole time I was gone.

If this goes well another time or two, we might even have - gasp! - someone else watch her, so we can have - gasp! - a datenight or something.

Any Day Now

People have been telling us for months that Peeper is "about to walk," but I think she really is now.

You saw the video from Wednesday, of her voluntarily (with coaxing) letting go and taking a few steps, and she's been doing that more and more.

Since we've been at the conference, I think she's had a lot of incentive to try to go places on her own, because there are lots of other babies to go check out.

Last night, she stood up for at least a minute or two, just like it was the most natural thing in the world.

A little while later, I was sitting in the floor, and she was sitting on my leg, and before I realized what was going on, she'd stood up (just like an adult would pop right up out of a chair) and walked about two or three steps over to another baby.

I was like, "Whoa! You're not supposed to do that!"

Today, she's been standing unassisted a lot more, and taking some more steps.

There's a twelve-year-old boy here who's taken quite a shine to her, and has made it his goal for the weekend to teach her to walk. This afternoon, she was very happy to walk back and forth (about four steps?) between us, which just made his day.

Then, this evening, she took off from my lap and walked several steps, almost to a little kitchen toy (the exact same one our library has, actually).

She made it almost there -about 2 steps away, and I think she realized what she'd done and sort of panicked.

She stopped and crouched a bit and kind of swayed back and forth and then plopped down on her booty.

It was quite impressive.

I think our days are numbered.

Daily Peep: Steppin' Out!

Peeper's newest trick (as of today): Voluntarily letting go and taking a couple of steps!

Daily Peep: First Haircut

Before




During

After



With D, who cuts all our hair.


With D and her Big Girl certificate!



(Not shown: Mama crying, after the scissors were put away and the camera was off.)

Steppin' Out

Remember a month or so ago, when Peeper took her "official first steps," after we'd stood her up between us and let go, and she threw her feet in front of herself a couple of times as she fell into our arms?

Well, she's really not done it again since then.

But, a couple of times lately, we've let go of her and she's stayed upright for a few seconds, and a few times, when she's holding onto something with one hand, and has a toy in the other hand, we've seen her accidentally let go to handle the toy with both hands, and balance for a few seconds before grabbing hold again.

Then, tonight at Kindermusik, when we were dancing and such, two or three times, she let go with both hands, and then took a couple of steps to one of us!

Another Tooth!

I checked Peeper's mouth during our bath, and it seems that toothy #5 has broken through since last night.

There's another in the works, but it looks to be at least a week or two behind.

(Because I'm now such the expert on baby teething.)

More?!?

Okay, baby signers - what do you make of this?

Am I seeing things? Is she just trying to clap, or is she signing "more?"

Surprise Tooth!

A couple of hours ago, Shrike and Peeper were reading books in her room, and I was playing on the computer, when Shrike said, "Honey, I think she's getting some teeth on top."

Well, okay, we've had a bit of a reprieve from the teething grumpiness, so I suppose it's time to move on to the next round.

A day or two ago, I'd felt around up there and thought that I was starting to feel some lumps where teeth will be, so it makes sense that they'd be starting to bother her.

"Because I think she's grinding them together."

Yeah, I bet it would feel kind of good to push those sharpy-sharp bottom teeth into the top gums, where the new teeth are starting to push out.

"I mean, I hear it."

What?!

I went in there, and stuck my finger in Peeper's mouth, and what the fuck?! sure enough, there is another tooth poking through her gum, on the top left.

Shrike said, "I knew there had to be a tooth there, because I could hear them grinding. I know what grinding teeth sound like.

(She's a grinder. And, evidently, so is Peeper. Or maybe she's just playing with her new mouth-toy.)

"And you know what else?" Shrike said, "When she started grinding them - we were looking at this picture."



Whoa.

Daily Peep: First Steps!

We were playing with Peeper this evening, "walking" her back and forth between us.

Basically, we'd walk her to the middle, and let go. She might or might not put one foot forward as she fell into waiting arms.

Then we turned on the camera, and she did this. It's not much, but it's a start!



While this was uploading (and the camera's memory card was indisposed) she did it several more times, more and more deliberately.

More video coming soon, I am sure!

Daily Peep: Stealth Tooth

Weeks ago, I predicted that Peeper would get her first tooth while she and I were in Texas, and it has come to pass.

Her two bottom first incisors have been threatening to come through for a while, and the one on the right side was feeling really swollen, so I was sure it would be first.

This morning, though, I thought I miiiiight feel something a little harder and maybe even sharper than usual on the left side, but I wasn't sure about it at all.

I went out to lunch this afternoon with Frappa and a friend of hers (and the friend's four-month-old), at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

(I love this place. I served chips, salsa and chili con queso from there at our wedding.)

Frappa's friend, Peeper and I shared fajitas, and I'm saying that Peeper took one bite and thought, "You know, what this needs is a tooth!"

Midway through the meal, I took her to the bathroom for a diaper change, and while I had her lying down, I inspected her mouth and was able to see a tiny line of something that was a slightly different color on her gum - which felt hard and sharp.

I had to look and feel several times to convince myself that I wasn't just imagining it, but finally decided that it was for real. Probably.

Before returning to our table, I texted Shrike: "Tooth!!!(?)"

She called back immediately and I told her all about it.

I've felt it several times over the course of the day, and it's still there, and maybe even a bit more prominent.

I suppose that makes sense. If it was inside her gum last night and aaaallllmost out this morning, and barely out this afternoon, it stands to reason that it would be a bit further out by this evening.

I am still the only one who has seen or felt it, but I swear it's there.

Here are a few of my attempts at getting photographic evidence:

Daily Peep: Knee High on the Fourth of July

Peeper had a big day today.

We started with a cook out at our friends D & E's house, in celebration of both the Fourth, and E's retirement from the local police department.

Everyone was appropriately impressed with Peeper's handling of a hamburger patty (okay, a couple of quarters of a patty), forksful of potato salad and baked beans, and - a new one for her - corn on the cob.

(Don't worry, Anonymama, by the time she gummed anything off, it was creamed corn!)

D's parents were quite taken with Peeper, and her dad gave her a walking lesson.

(Please forgive all the conversation in the background.)


She also spent a good bit of time just sitting around.



And standing around. (Yes, we were spotting her very closely when she was standing. But not while sitting - she's pretty much got that one down!)



Yeah, this didn't last long. Still hates tummy time.



And for her next trick, she tackled another new food - strawberries!

(Note that we were smart enough to strip her down to a diaper first. I did not, however, strip myself down, and now my white shirt has strawberry stains on it.)


Since retirement, E is a "stay at home mom" to their new puppy. She's an Australian Shepherd / German Shepherd mix, and is three months old. She and Peeper are about the same weight.


Then we came back to town, had dinner at TGI Friday's, changed Peeper into her Star Spangled Jammies (because, oddly enough, it was getting rather chilly out), and killed some time at Target . . .



Before watching the fireworks display, from the Target parking lot - well away from the traffic and the big boom boom booms.

Happy Independence Day!

Milestone?

Today, for the first time, I had to pull Peeper's hands (then feet, then legs) out of her poopy.

Rah.