Seventeen Months Old

Wow I can't believe she's a 17-month old now!! At present she's in her Pack and Play watching "The Wiggles: Cold Spaghetti Western" and dancing and speaking to it (her own language).

I've been on crutches for awhile now since I tore my ACL in late October playing tennis and subsequently had reconstructive surgery in late November. The knee is doing better, and I'm doing some aggressive Physical Therapy to get the thing to bend to full motion. I'm currently at 80 degrees, 85 with a painful push from the PT. At the same time I've got Morton's Neuroma on the left foot which is killing me. I had Cortisone and Schlerosing injections for it...after my second schlerosing injection yesterday it was feeling SO much better until just now. So I'm hoping this is just a temporary flare and it's going to get better soon. I need to get back on my feet!! It's hard to take care of a toddler on crutches and I'm lucky my Mom, Mother in Law, and Nick helped so much. I've got her walking up the stairs on her own (just have to stand close behind her) and I put her on my lap and get down the stairs on my butt. I even can pick her up if I put all my weight on the good leg.

Looking forward to a HEALTHY 2007...!!

Something Smells Funky in the Playroom

Ugh! Yuk. P.U.!

Both Nick and I first noticed it last night, while we were playing with Skylar in the corner of what is now "The Playroom". It's actually a converted garage that was made into a room before we bought the house. I was glad to have the extra space rather than a garage. We used to have a pool table in there, but no more. Now it is completely dedicated to play. It's nice actually, looks like a pre-school. Maybe I should open one. Oh now that's a STUPID idea.

It's a very comfy place to watch baby, and since I added some plastic (unbreakable by toddlers) IKEA chairs and throw pillows, a nice play to sit and have a cup of coffee (being very careful not to let her GET it!). For some reason Skylar prefers to wander from this magical room of toys into the kitchen or dining room, somehow more fascinated by opening my cabinets (which I've since "locked" so even WE can't open them without aggravation), crawling under the dining room table (where she gets stuck trying to get out from under the stairs and cries, or stands up and hits her head on the table and cried, yet still persists in doing it), or trying to climb up the stairs (now blocked by yet another baby gate, so I'm really TRAPPED and even the cat forgets about it and body slams herself into it - so much for her being able to see at night).

This awful smell... Nick thought it must be a dirty diaper, so we went upstairs (poop patrol, we call ourselves, only parents would get this). But, alas, no poop. "Must have been gas," he said.

But it wasn't. The smell remains in the playroom. I cleaned it up, looking for what HAS to be a lost bottle hidden somewhere. The scent is clearly that our sour milk. It's powerful. BAD. But where is the bottle? Where has she hidden it.

I think it must be the worst. It must be that milk or formula actually spilled into the rug. So now I guess I have to shampoo the carpet. It's bad enough I haven't gotten around to swiffing the kitchen floor yet.

Could it be that all the spit up we cleaned up by wiping it up with towels and wipes (actually smearing it INTO the rug, no other choice) is starting to ferment?

This will be one fun (not) cleanup project. Won't be having any guests for dinner, drinks or anything else until we get this one solved. They'll definitely want to leave.

Ooops, crying from the nursery. She has AWOKEN!!!

Later, the Mom

Toddler Time!! She's 13 Months Old Now!

The nap thing is going well, she's sleeping! A little later than predicted, but so far we do have an afternoon nap thing going on a daily basis!!

This morning we went to Toddler Time. Parents sit in a circle and listen to children's stories, followed by arts and crafts. Skylar was so excited, she couldn't help but stand inside of the circle and clap and chirp - when she is excited her "talking" sounds somewhat like the "yip yip" of a Shih Tzu. I could not hold on to her!! When the last story was over I clapped more for the fact that it was over than for the story itself. As for the arts and crafts thing, all Skylar did was keep taking all the pencils and crayons from the other kids who were trying to color. Why do I put myself through this? Oh, it's to "get out"...!! I did enjoy having a nice cup of cappucino afterwards with Jess who joined me with Gavin, and browsing through some of the books. We didn't buy any - this time.

Now that Skylar is eating "real" food, we have a new set of challenges. It's a mess!! I thought I'd give her peas and carrots to pick up and eat by herself. How cute. NOT. She just smushed them up into her hair and high chair, what a mess. There are always cheerios on my rug, I vacuum but it never looks it. Today I gave her a slice of cucumber and she marched off with it, so I wonder if she actually ate it or stuck it under a chair cushion somewhere. The scary question is, will I ever know??


My Little One Year Old!!

Afternoon Naps - At Last!

Skylar's nap schedule has been becoming so regular, with the help of my making sure we keep to a schedule every day! I'm so happy she's napping (for over an hour now), both she and I need it!

This morning she kicked, splashed and paddled in her swim class, then watched some Barney and had a bottle before I tried to rock her to sleep. It didn't work. She was in no mood to sleep. I put her in her crib anyway, "nippy nappy time!" I said and she screamed and carried on, holding on to the rail of her crib like she was in a barricade, but I went about my business and emptied the dishwasher (peeking on her from time to time!!). I felt AWFUL letting her cry like that. Usually, I didn't. I usually didn't even get as far as putting her down in the crib unless she was drifting off to sleep. Or, I would pick her up responding to her desperate cries.

Even though I felt like Meanie Mommy, I let her cry until after a few minutes she was playing in her crib, then eventually tossing and turning until she fell asleep all cuddled up in her blankets. Of course I've been checking on her SO many times and now I'm actually WAITING for her to wake up so I can feed her and we can go about the rest of the day - run errands and such. It's a beautiful day, but hot.

I think we are getting somewhere with this nap thing!!

Almost ONE Year

Wow, Sky is almost a year old! I'm still organizing the pictures. I am making progress though. I didn't keep up with the "Memory Books" completely, but I filled in stuff here and there. I can't remember stuff, the year is sort of a blur. Yesterday she took 4 steps on her own! She loves the water and really loves her weekly swim class. Though I think she goes there just to hold on to the rubber toy goldfish. She has one in each fist the WHOLE entire time and will NOT let go without a hissy fit. I let her have them. That's what she thinks she is there for anyway. Maybe I'm too permissive. Oh there goes my "inadequacy as Mom" thing again. I'm getting better with it. I'm becoming more confidence. Now, when people give me advice, I just act interested while thinking to myself, "who cares?" Some of it's useful I guess. I do things my way. So does Skylar. And that's that.

Now I've Mommed for a year, and I'm catching up on "my" life. The most important thing to me all year was focusing on
Sky, but now I can "balance" her life and mine. Free time was spent organizing my house, getting things in order, just trying to accomplish basic things that used to be easy: cleaning, making dinner, getting through the mail and running errands. I am definitely not Super mom or super person or super anything. I don't care about that either!!

I have some goals: to finally take the test so I can get truly certified as a web master, to actually do some web stuff, organize my house and photos, lose some weight and get into shape, work on my family's house upstate, and have fun with Skylar of course.

11 Months Old

Wow, I can't believe it's almost one year already! My girl is SOOOOO big. She's been working hard on her standing skills and "cruising". Her first long trip - 5 hours in the car to the mountains upstate - was this weekend, and she was a stellar traveler. Nick changed the car seat over from the Graco infant carrier to the Britax Roundabout...she's facing forward now and loves it. She adjusted well to the new car seat, and also adjusted well to the house upstate. She had no problem sleeping in the crib up there. We had a nice weekend, but it was geared towards working on packing up the house, getting Mom's stuff ready for her move to Arizona.

Tonight I took my first tennis lesson, it was fun. Learned forehand, backhand, and volley. Looking forward to next week.

300 Days Old!

Today Skylar is 300 days old! She'll be 10mos on Sunday. She is starting to stand on her own (by holding onto things), and is very sturdy. She will be walking before long. I can't believe how tall she is! About 29" inches, and solid. This baby sure has grown!!