Friday's updates

It's finally Friday which means Mike comes home and I get a chance to sleep in.  Ahhhhh.....yeah!  Mike and I took the advice of friends and now rotate "sleep-in" days on the weekend. I'm all about it. He's not so much a fan.  The Monkey wakes up around 6ish maybe 6:30ish these days but I don't go in there until 6:30 so she can play with her monkey lovey or go back to sleep if she's gotten up early, etc.  Then she comes in with us while I feed her (and/or pump - ohhhh the luxuries of being a breastfeeding mom) and then I hand her over to Mike and back to bed I go.  My day this weekend is Sunday. Why??  Because Sunday is my birthday.  Yippee! I love birthdays!  And gasp over this factoid for a minute - I'll be 35.  Can you believe it?? I know, I don't look a day over 27.  Cough cough. Ok, just kidding. I was just giving my face a full, close-up check-out last night and seriously, if I fall upon a stash of cash, the first thing getting a makeover in this house would be those wrinkles. Dang!  Waaaaaayyyyy too much sun over my years. Doesn't look pretty on this nearly 35 year old face but what can you do?  And if there is truly an over-the-counter remedy I'm all about it but I fear the damage is too far gone for anything but a clinicians help.  I'm so random. And no, this post is not to solicit comments from my friends. You know how I feel, self awareness is key. Ok, back to the Monkey. Lol.

This week she ate apples. She liked them but would give me such a hysterical pucker face with each spoonful that I decided to mix them with oatmeal. That way they went down much easier with that tactic in place.  She continues to do really well with food.  Beyond the rice cereal explosion, she's been fine with oatmeal, sweet potatoes, carrots, and now apples. Today we try pears.  Then I'm off to Target this weekend to get refills on all of the above (sans rice cereal) and then some additional foods like finger-food snacks (puffs, etc.). I want to see what she'll do with them. Since everything goes to her mouth, I don't think it'll be tough for her to figure out. Also, she's getting better, but not great, at holding a small Dr. Browns bottle of milk. She's still got some work to do on the tilt part but she definitely knows to put it up to her mouth, I then help her with the tilt and she'll hold it up to her mouth. It's really too cute to watch her feed herself.  So far this only works with a small Dr. Browns bottle because it's lighter. Larger bottles will come later. She can also do this with her sippy cup of water but she's decided now that she's not into water. We had a couple of good days with water and now she pulls the sippy cup to her mouth, chomps down on it, get s squirt of water in her mouth and promptly let's all of the water drip out of the corners of her mouth with a "are you kidding me?" look on her face. So much for following the Dr's recommendations to give her 8oz of water a day. I'm lucky to get 1/2oz in her.

Oh, so yesterday, of course a day after my "nap rant" on the blog, and the Monkey had a perfect day.  Well, "pefect" around here is defined slightly differently than the rest of the world's definition of "perfect" but whatever. She went down fuss-free for all naps (4 yesterday) and she had 1 nap that was 55 minutes (whoa!) and 3 naps that were her standard 34.  Love that they were all fuss-free. The protest-crying is enough to send me over the edge. But alas, I've thrown in the towel and tossed my frustration on naps to the wayside.  Much easier to type out than to actually live but I figure it I repeat it enough times I'll be as Zen-like as a Buddhist munk.

But wait, before I get into my Zen-fest, I need one last nap complaint and then I'll let this go for the week - 34-minute naps makes it virtually impossible to get her on any type of schedule. HUGE sigh. Because she sleeps so little for each nap, I can't bank on when she needs to go back down so therefore, a schedule is like a lottery ticket around here. You continue to play each week. You can pick your numbers in any sort of whacked out combination you'd like but you'll never win. Never. But of course you keep playing. You're totally addicted. Because hey, some day you may strike it rich. (my inner-self says....but the odds are so against me!) HUGE sigh again.  Here's the best part - I get to come up with stupid analogies to share with you like this one - Eloise's terrible napping skills and lottery tickets. Lord, hang this girl up!

Ok, back to our weekly updates - Puddle Duck's #2 is tomorrow. I'm very excited. They moved our class of 3 nuggets to the 10:30am class (vs. 10:00am) so combined we'll be a class of 9 little wet nugglers. Yesssss! Although I will say, tomorrow morning it's supposed to be 16 degrees here - nothing like selecting a swim class for Eloise during the coldest month of the year (Mom of the Year candidate). We'll bundle up and make sure she has a dry head before we venture back home again.

So any exciting birthday plans you ask??? Why yes!  Grammie Judy is coming over to watch the Monkey on Saturday night while Mike and I go out to dinner. I'm still debating on where to go but I think we'll head out to a favorite tapas restaurant of mine. We haven't been in ages and it's super delish and they have fantastic Spanish wine, as you'd expect.

And for today's pictures, this week the baby whisperer suggested we use the Pack-n-Play for its intended purpose - as an actual place where she can play.  Huh??  What a novel concept. (Mom of the Year candidate). So of course I'm completely game. It's a great idea because we can prop her up against the sides and she can practice sitting, she's safe, and then of course, it's nice that she's corralled and not going anywhere. So far it's working just great. She doesn't hang out in there for all that long just yet but 5-10 minutes is fine and hopefully she'll get used to it if we entice her with enough fun toys and she's into the mobile that's still hanging off of the side.  Or I could just drop her in there and ignore her all together. Just kidding. Literally as I'm typing this post, I'm sitting right beside the p-n-p and she's in there playing and checking out her mobile. Actually, she just fell over and she's whining.  Ding. 5 minutes are up!

Have a great weekend!