So Much for the Baby Gate

We live in a 4 story townhouse, there are stairs everywhere. Most of the stairs are carpeted, but the stairs going down from the 2nd floor (which is our main living area) are wooden. Its not that Sophie falling down carpeted stairs isn't bad, its just that if she falls down the wooden ones we will definitely being headed to the emergency room so we have tried to block them from the beginning.

We bought one of those almost attractive black iron (looking) gates that you bolt to the wall, but our stairs are a little funky and it didn't fit. In fact because we have a short wall on one side and tall base molding on both sides we have yet to find a "nice" gate to protect our sweetie from the mean old stairs.

So we used what we had.

I had bought a play yard for Sophie, so I would have a safe place to put her for those few moments when I had to do something without her (like let the dog out). Of course it didn't take long for her to figure out that she could move the whole thing across the room while inside it and it was no longer considered safe.

So we have been using the play yard as a baby gate for the stairs. At first it was highly effective, if not more then a little annoying for the adults, and when daddy would come home she would crawl to the gate and wait for him to come up the stairs. Eventually she figured out how to pull herself up on the gate and then she stood and danced till he appeared on the steps below.

But then she discovered that there were more stairs...stairs that went up and could be climbed!

So I reconfigured the play yard to cover both stairs and though even more annoying for BJ and I it appeared to fix our little dilemma.

Until now!

A few days ago I was in the kitchen (literally just putting her cup in the sink) and when I came around the corner she was on the second step! She had quietly moved the gate out of her way and thought she'd see how far she could get until she was busted. Of course the moment she notices me she lost her footing and I caught her before she tumbled down.

To be responsible (realizing that it only takes a moment for her to get to the stairs and I can't possibly watch her every single second) I decided to teach her to climb properly and then to get back down. Big Mistake!

Sophie loves to climb the stairs, she's really getting good at up, but she's so stubborn, she wants to see where she' going so she refuses to go down backward. No matter how many times she looses her footing trying to go forward she will not face the stairs and climb down! And of course right now her little legs are too short for me to teach her to do down on her butt! So really the only thing I've taught her is that (very unrealistically) mommy will always be there to catch me!

So for now the answer to 4 stories of stairs is to keep an eye on her. Well no one said motherhood was boring!

Food

I am totally that parent!

I'm not judgemental about it, you can feed your child whatever you want, but Sophie eats about 90% organic, natural, and homemade food.

I choose to pay 2-3 times more for organic sweet potatoes, butternut squash, zucchinis and yellow squash, cook them up then mash or puree them.

It makes me feel better to make her food. I've tried homemade chicken nuggets (she hated them), and we've done the organic ones in the freezer section. It turns out she doesn't care for the breading, so I have better luck with just chunks of chicken. She loves fish, yogurt, whole wheat bread, grape jelly (no sugar added), even her "cookies" are good for her.

As someone who (like most Americans) has struggled with my weight for much of my adult life, I don't want to start Sophie on any food habits that will hurt her in the long run, but I'm having problems getting enough fat into her diet.

Fat is essential to healthy growth (even for adults) and yet finding good fat, in nutritious foods is really hard. Several of the baby food books I've read say its okay to give kids cookies, ice cream, even candy to help them get enough fat, but I don't want Sophie eating all that sugar. If I'm gonna give her something to eat I want it to be nutritious, I don't want to start her on junk food at 1 year (she'll have the rest of her life for that).

So we've introduced the grilled cheese, and I've started adding butter and whole milk to her veggies, but I'm now on a constant search for healthy, nutritious fattening foods.

By the way in case you are wondering, over the years I've switched BJ and I to some organic food, but yes we are total hypocrites! We eat pizza and tacos in front of Sophie and for now she's rather have her sweet potatoes!

So Daddy's Gonna Deploy!

So last week BJ came home with some news, he's leaves for Iraq in June for a year. Yep a whole year!

We are hardly the 1st family to have daddy leave. We've had friends miss their children's births, leave within days of baby coming home, and being away from their kids well over 365 days. This after all is the Air Force and though the AF might be more "family friendly" then the other branches of the military, its still the military. If the AF force needs you to go, you go, and its been along time since BJs been gone (at least for a deployment)

So we are choosing to be thankful.

Thankful that we got 3 months notice instead of the 2 weeks that some of our friends were given.
Thankful that we are close with our families and that going home is not only an option it is a great opportunity for Sophie to get to know them too.
Thankful that things like Facebook, Skype and Blogspot exist so BJ won't be out of contact and Sophie will be able to see Daddy on a regular basis.
So definitely this was not the news we wanted, and we hate the idea of being apart for a year, let alone BJ leaving his daughter, who he is crazy in love with, but this is the Air Force. We can choose to be bitter and angry, or we can believe that this too is in God's hands.




A little bonus picture of Sophie in her new pink track suit, that Grandma Jones sent. Seriously she's too cute!

Thwarted

If only this was how Sophie looked last night while we started driving to Wisconsin.

Yesterday afternoon we left for 10 days in Wisconsin, this morning we drove back to Virginia.
Sophie hasn't been for a long car ride since December 3rd. Apparently she has a 2 hour limit right now. She just completely refused to fall asleep in her car seat no matter how tired she was, instead she screamed. After 6 hours and trying everything to get her to calm down and sleep we stopped for the night. It was a less then restful night sleep and we knew that we would not make it to Wisconsin, so we turned around and drove the 3 hours home (yes it took us 3 hours to cover the same distance it took us to travel 6 last night).
The trip had been planned since we got home with Sophie back in December. It had been postponed once already (BJ couldn't get off work), but the truth is BJ and I have been looking forward to this trip home (to Wisconsin) for 13 years.
In all our years of 1st trying to get pregnant then waiting for the adoption to be complete BJ and I shared a dream. We have so long looked forward to going home to share our child with our family. To finally see the look of pride and joy on the face of our parents as they held her, to see the love and excitement of our siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins, for our families to share our joy. After all they have been waiting with us this whole time, how fun would it be to really rejoice with them!
We were in Wisconsin for 3 days after we got back from China, but BJ and I barely remember it. We were so exhausted, jet lagged, and overwhelmed that the trip isn't much more then a blur, and Sophie was equally as exhausted and utterly confused and frightened buy all the changes. Our families didn't get to see the "real" Sophie, she is so funny and chatty, such an active toddler, the baby they meet was quiet and immobile. She was adorable and sweet, but we want them to see the real her.
So turning back was more than disappointing it was painful. I have no idea when we will get home to see our families, (we have a high maintenance dog that doesn't fly to match our baby who doesn't like long drives) and that is so sad to me, but I am so proud of BJ and I for choosing Sophie's needs over our own (very strong) desires.
Sophie needed us to stop driving. She was so upset about being strapped down for so long, about not being able to be held (though I did a few times), about not understanding what was happening. The last time she traveled she was being taken from the only life she new to a new life, for all I know she might have thought we were taking her back. She was hysterical and she needed us to choose her over our plans.
She did better on the trip home this morning, but about the 2.5 hour mark she again became hysterical (thankfully we were almost home). BJ and I are exhausted and yes disappointed, but as we played with our little girl this afternoon and heard her giggle instead of scream, we knew we made the best choice.
I don't know when we will get home (to Wisconsin, yes both here and there are home), it might not be till summer. And maybe BJ and I will have to let go of the dream of watching our families Oooo and Ahhhh over our little girl (we totally recognize the pridefulness of this dream), but the day will come when we will get to share our joy with them and when ever that is it will be sweet.

I think my mommy license might be revoked...

I will start out with that Sophie is fine! She is happy, healthy and there have been no adverse side effects from my ineptitude. So my dog Monti takes pills because he's old and has a little heart murmur. Last night while giving him his pill (I was really tired) I dropped the whole bottle all over the kitchen.

BJ came and we scoured the kitchen and dinning room to make sure we got every last pill. I had just moved my Tupperware to a lower cupboard near the entrance to the kitchen so Sophie could play while I was cooking and we knew if she found a pill she'd eat it.

So this morning I was making french toast for her for breakfast and she crawled into the kitchen, opened her cupboard and started banging around. I didn't think anything of it till she got a little quiet, at which point I realized there was something in her mouth!

Aside from freaking out, I shoved my finger in her mouth in time to remove one of Monti's pills, just beginning to dissolve. I wanted to die.

I washed her mouth out, gave her something to drink then grabbed the phone and googled poison control. The lady was super nice (my phone gave me the Wisconsin poison control so of course she was nice : ) Thankfully Monti's medication is a diuretic, and because he's under 10 lbs, his dosage is really small. The lady told me that diuretics aren't considered poisonous, and that given the dose and the fact that I removed it so quickly there would likely be no side effects. If any of it got into her system then she might have a few more wet diapers then normal but as long as she she didn't show any signs of weakness (she didn't) she would be fine.

She was!

Like I good parent I called BJ to tell him what had happened and what poison control said, then we tried to brain storm about where she would have found a pill. He suggested that maybe it had gotten into her cupboard (our cupboard doors don't close well). It was the only place we didn't look (didn't even think to look). Well sure enough I opened the cupboard door and sitting there next to Sophie's Tupperware bowls was another pill!

I quickly cleaned out the whole cabinet to make sure there weren't any more pills. There were none (thank God)

BJ called me later in the afternoon to check to make sure she didn't have any reaction (she didn't) and me to make sure I was okay (still not happy with myself). He had told a few of the people he worked with what had happened and wanted me to know that everyone of the people in his office that have kids had some kind of similar story. One guys kid had eaten ant traps (turns out they are 99% peanut butter), another's child drank some children's Tylenol.

SO apparently its not uncommon for kids to find the one thing you really don't want them to find (and then eat it). Apparently no one will be calling child protective services on me, but I have to say it still sucks.

I don't believe in guilt (its a waste of energy...learn and move on) so I won't be beating myself up for too long about this, but you can bet that next time I drop something that could be potentially lethal to my daughter I will look even in the places it couldn't possibly be to make sure she doesn't get to it. I'd love to never have to call poison control again.

(She does totally love playing in the cabinet)

Naps (grrr)

After 3 days of skipping the morning nap (on purpose) this morning my daughter basically demanded "nigh, night"

Over the last few weeks, Sophie has been playing in her crib before she falls asleep. Its been adorable to listen too, however what was at first only a few minutes has grown to over an hour before each nap.

This got me to thinking;

1) she is clearly not tired enough when I put her down to fall asleep.

2) that adds up to 2 hours a day that she's playing in her crib when she could be playing with me.

BJ and I have been waffling about stopping the morning nap, (once she falls asleep both naps are still well over an hour), but finally at the end of last week we decided we'd give it a try.

Friday Sophie and I had a coffee date so skipping the morning nap was easy. We were home in time for an early lunch and Sophie took a nice 3 hour nap.

BJ was home Saturday and Sunday so it was pretty easy to keep Sophie up and happy in the morning. We moved lunch to 11-11:30 and Sophie was in her crib asleep by noon.

Then this morning we were playing in my room when she laid down on the carpet, looked at me and said, "nigh, night." It was 9:30 which was her usual nap time.

I picked her up and told her we were gonna go for a walk. We came down stairs, but before we left I had to feed Monti. As we went into the kitchen she started clapping and giggling, until she realized I wasn't making a bottle. I grabbed her coat and before I could put it on her she started crying and saying, "nigh, night! nigh, night!"

My poor baby!

We went to the kitchen, made a bottle (she giggled when she saw it) and went upstairs to rock (she sang "nigh, night" all the way up). She was just about asleep when she finished her bottle and was asleep within minutes of putting her in her crib.

I only let her sleep about 45 min, hoping that she would go down quickly this afternoon (it worked), but now the question is what do we do tomorrow?

Sleep is something I'm a bit sensitive about (if I don't get enough I have a very hard time being kind to anyone), if Sophie tells me she needs to sleep then I think she needs to sleep. At the same time, I think she would do better with just 1 nap.

So we will take it slow and see what happens.

The Girl in the Mirror

Is there anything more fun than watching your child discover herself in the mirror? Sophie spent a good 30 minutes giggling as she poked, kicked, even kissed herself in the mirror. It is a little sad to me that she will kiss herself in mirror but when I try to kiss her she gives me her forehead.

"Funny when I stomp the girl in the mirror stomps too!"

Ahhhh, a day in the life with Sophie