Teething

Teething has reared it's ugly head again in a bad way. I believe she's been teething non-stop since what, October? But the last few days a low grade fever kicked in, she has a runny nose and has showed mommy how good she is at incessant whining, which has led me to believe that all of the world's problems are due to teething. They make babies cranky and consequently, they make caregivers cranky too.

One good aspect to the 7 (likely more that I can't see yet) teeth all coming into her mouth at once is at least these symptoms are not leading to a sickness. As of now, I do believe it's just teething and nothing else. But all in all, the Monkey is a Mess. Capital M.  She's so irritable that at the drop of a hat she can go into full blown hysterics where not her mommy, her daddy or a bottle will soothe her. Thanks to this guy (see below), she's been snugging into her Monkey woobie and getting more shut eye than usual.  What are we, 11 months down on a 24 month teething trek??  I'm starting the countdown until those final molars come in and we can say all is good in the world again.

Friday's update

I admit it. I was going to slack today and not post. But Mike is out of town, and my turkey pepperoni and banana pepper pizza is baking in the oven so I've got some time to blog. Turkey pepperoni is seriously good, btw. You should try it if you haven't.

For updates - the Monkey is working on 5 new teeth coming in all at once. Her mouth is in serious overdrive and therefore, everything goes to the mouth. She's constantly chomping on something.  In total she has 7 teeth either in or making there way. She's going to be a regular old jack-o-lantern pretty soon!

I don't think I've blogged about naps in quite awhile. She's now pretty much regularly doing 3, 30 minute naps. Unreal. It's not enough and she often wakes up crabby but she will never go back to sleep. Anyway, that's our reality right now. 1st nap is around 9am. 2nd nap is around 1pm and the third nap is around 4pm. Night time continues to rock and has been this way since what, 10 weeks? I don't remember exactly but thank god for her night time sleep skills. I'd go clinical without them.

Ok, my last tid bit for this week...last night we introduced the Monkey to The Penguin, a delicious diner up the street from our house. They are known for their fried pickles and I believe I've taken you all there at one time or another. If not, let's go the next time you're in CLT.  It's an ecclectic place with great service and something like 10 "Juke Box of the Year" awards hanging all over the joint. It's full of the Ramones, Dead Kennedys, Beastie Boys. The list goes on and on and has always been Mike's favorite. The place is pretty cool.

So the back story. Back in the day, Mike and I got into the habit of going out to eat the night before he traveled for work.  Often that would take us to The Penguin.  But since Mike now travels weekly, going to The Penguin that often would put one or both of us on the fast track to a coronary. So that trend needed stopped.

Anyway, Mike is in Raleigh this weekend visiting a friend so since it was technically the night before he was going out of town, I decided to introduce Eloise to The Penguin. And, she loved it!  I will admit, I did put her back into her punk rocker outfit, Ramones onesie and all. I had to. No other place would appreciate it like The Penguin and their tattooed and pierced wait staff. Of course she did get compliments on her costume, she loved the juke box and was all in all completely enamoured by the entire scene going on.

It's really a perfect place for kids. We went at 6pm when there was no one there. Sat down immediately, ordered immediately, had beers in front of us in like 39 seconds. Our dinner arrived shortly there after and the Monkey had constant entertainment around her to take in. The music was loud so if she got loud no one knew. The buzz of the wait staff kept her head going back and forth like a tennis match. And we were in and out, from first greeting the hostess to then thanking her on our way out, in 30 minutes. Literally. Yes, we kind of ate fast and pounded our beers and on a scale of 1 to 10 for a "nice evening out with your husband", I'd rate it a 5 but for a "dinner with a nearly 11 month old and her 2 parents", it was a solid 10. We will definitely be doing this again. And next time I'll lay off the fried pickles:).

Monkey updates

I feel like I'm turning into the worst blogger. Agh. I've been so busy lately and blogging has fallen off my to-do list. Not good. I'll try to get back on track here.

Ok, Monkey updates that I've been meaning to jot down. I'm going to list them and then come back to explain...

1) Tooth number 4 has poked through.

2) The Monkey has stood on her own at least 3 times that I've witnessed and to be perfectly honest, it freaked me out.

3) She's officially "cruising."

4) Dare I say we have a nap schedule around this place??

5) The Monkey's boyfriend Brody is here this weekend and it's going to be a 2 day slumber party for the kiddos!! (Mommy is equally as excited about said slumber party!)

6) The entire state of North Carolina is covered in florescent green pollen.  Like you'd see a green outline of the state border if you were up in space. I'm not kidding. Oh wait, that's not a Monkey update.

7) Big bath tub.
8) Climbing the stairs.

Ok, the Monkey has another tooth popping through on the top. It's adjacent to the other and it's a top incisor. She's been fussing a little so I figured something else was poking its way through and sure enough, there it was. Another sharp edge.

As far as standing goes, it lasts for like 2-3 seconds but it's the real deal. She will not be holding on to anything, have no clue that she's even doing it and then plop, down on her bottom she goes. It's impressive but scary all at the same time.

The Monkey is now cruising down the sofa, the ottoman, the window sill, and anything she can get her hands on. This skill is starting to pick up some speed but for now she's still very deliberate and thoughtful. Walking prep. Ah! Scary!

Nap schedule - do I really say it? I've been advised not too but for the sake of sharing Eloise's sleep woes, I might as well share some good news. She pretty much now takes 3 - 30 minute naps a day. Weird that this is where we've netted out after all of our efforts but she seems to sleep from 9:30-10, 12:30-1 and 3:30-4. Completely random but that is where we are at this very moment - and have been for about 2 weeks. Not the best but sort of a "schedule" nonetheless.

This weekend the Larsons are in town and they are staying with us for a few days. They have relatives that live in town so typically it's easier for them to stay there. But this time, they've decided to stay here for a few nights and we could not be more excited! Brody, my super fav 2 1/2 year old is definitely courting Eloise in a bad way. This will be his weekend to really put the moves on since they'll be having a slumber party!  Many pics to follow.

It's truly a miracle that I don't have allergies. For all of you who do, I'm so, so sorry. It's that time of year again when the entire state of NC turns a disgusting color of green. Our cars are covered. Our house is covered. Every nook and cranny of this place (outside for now - and trying to keep it outside) is completely covered. The freaking cat is green.  It's the sacrifice we pay for our beautiful trees blooming and believe me, our neighborhood is looking pretty great these days but this dang pollen is insane. I must push it out of my head each year. Anyway, we need the leaves to finish and a good rain to soak this place and we'll be good to go.

About a week ago I put Eloise into the "big bath" vs. her rubber ducky bath to see if she was ready. Conclusion - Mommy is not ready for Eloise to start taking "big girl baths." I almost had a heart attack. And meanwhile, she was having a blast. Slipping and sliding all over the place, diving head first for toys.  Ah, yeah. My heart can't deal with that quite yet so we're going to keep using the pink duck tub that she's quickly growing too big for. Maybe in a few weeks we'll give the bathtub a whirl again.

The Monkey can offically climb the stairs. Outside that is. For some reason she has not tried the inside stairs at all but the brick ones on the front porch she loves and has gotten quite good at climbing up in a flash. Pics below on climbing.

But first - and as promised, check out this hilariously cute tutu pics!  My friend Kimmy has done it again with her fabulous crafty skills and came up with this darling number. I mean can you even get enough of this??

 (as soon as the box of goodies arrived, I busted out the tutu and put right on over her clothes. and then of course, took 7,000 pics. who wouldn't??)

And the Monkey climbing the front stairs...

Friday's updates - teething continues in a big, red, chapped lip sort of way

Happy Friday all - To start things off, here is Positive K with "I got a man". Another old school song that reminds me of high school and going to Hilton Head with Graham. Too funny. And check out the ad before the song. Nice touch YouTube. I guess that was just a matter of time, right? Agh. Listen here.

Teething is so crazy out of contol here it's at the point of no return. Or at least that's how Mike and I feel when we wake up what seems like 100 times per night to help the crying Monkey.  I keep a log of the Monkey's eating and sleeping throughout the day. I started this when she was 1 month old (not sure I was with the program prior to 1 month but I wish I had jotted it down then as well). It's a great tool to have when you have such major baby brain that you literally can't remember the last time she did either. And also it'll be a great keepsake someday since I also jot down notes about milestones and funny things she does. So with this blog and my daily eat/sleep log, this baby is well documented.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is I also track when we get up at night. And up until about 3 or 4 weeks ago, it had been awhile since I had to jot down times we got up because she's happily slept through the night for months. Well then we met Mr. Teething and our world has never been the same.

This morning when we woke up - well actually it was the final time I woke up for the crying Monkey, which happened to be at 4am where I promptly changed her diaper and brought her to bed with us. (it's the only way to stop the madness and it's something I indulge in on occasion. creating a bad habit? probably. add it to the list.) - I was greeted with our next teething side effect - a big, red, chapped bottom lip. (i'll try and get a pic of this later. she's napping now.) I couldn't believe it. I honestly thought that she had whacked her lip up against the rail of her crib or something. But then she showed Mommy how she got this big swollen teething battle wound when she started sucking away. Sigh. I looked it up online (at 7:30am when we got up for real) and it's totally something babies do to find relief when they are teething. Finger sucking, thumb sucking, lip sucking, the list goes on and on.

And you know what, I love how some kids breeze through teething like it "aint no thang." And then we have Miss Eloise. Have I ever mentioned that Eloise is a sensitive baby??? Holy cow. So we've got the chilled teething toys back out and in full effect. She's finally figured out that they are a good source of relief, so much so that we've caught her jamming them between her bottom lip and her gums. Poor thing. I've also called the Dr. about the amount of Tylenol and Motrin that I'd like to give her vs. what I am giving her and it's safe to say, she's been properly medicated. (It honestly felt like I was constantly giving her medicine. That's not my goal or something I want to do at all but this poor baby is in serious pain.)             

And despite all of this teething madness, she is still a happy, smiley baby. I should say, she's a happy, smiley baby during the daytime. She was a giggle maniac with Grammie Judy yesterday. Yes, she's definitely sad and crying at night. (do I need to start putting teething toys in her crib at night? something to think about.) I think the nighttime is by far the worst for her. She has no way to soothe herself besides her fingers, her thumbs and alas, her bottom lip.

Ok, so on to pictures. This week I tried something new. I tried to snap pics of the Monkey without the camera up to my face. Not an easy task - nor something I'd recommend. My goal was to get pics of her smiling, which I can never do because as soon as I put the camera up to my face, she's Miss Serious or Curious Eloise. No smiles to be had. But she's a smile machine right now. It's really cute. So I wanted to do my best to get some shots. And here we go. I'm showing you all of them because I think there are some that are too funny - proving that my attempt to take pics without looking through the eye piece isn't really the best idea. Lol!

Have a great weekend!

(btw - she started out this photo shoot in front of the play mat - then she pushed herself around the corner and ended up on the other side thus showing us her perfect John Travolta 'Staying Alive' costume impersonation with that sweet chest sticking out. too funny.)

Vail visit and teething continues

Eloise really enjoyed seeing her Grandma and Grandpa Vail this weekend. We ended up having beautiful weather for their stay, which was a nice reprieve from the cold of western New York.  We spent most of the time here in the neighborhood, taking walks, cooking, relaxing, and playing with the Monkey. One shopping spree to Baby Gap to use the 30% 'friends and family' coupon and that was about it for outings. It's proven to be so much easier to keep Eloise here, in her element, while nap quest continues. (and getting stuck in a funeral procession on the way home with Eloise screaming her fool head off also helped solidify our decision to stick around the house:).

Teething continues in a big way. The poor Monkey is in some serious pain. I need to call her Dr. to find out if this is it because other than an occasional diarrhea diaper, a constant running nose, drooling and hands in the mouth all day, she does seem like a perfectly happy baby.  But this weekend, she added one more item to the teething symtom bulleted list, interrupted sleep. Like every 2 hours for 3 straight nights of interrupted sleep. Seriously unreal. Mommy and Daddy are VERY tired.

Eloise has been happily sleeping through the night (both she and I are happy about this:) for 2 1/2 months and for some reason, starting Friday night, she was up more often throughout the night than when she was a newborn. Mike and I were seriously shocked. And sadly, when she got up, it was much harder to console her and put her back down. Like I said, I think the Monkey is in some serious pain, and/or she likely has a low pain tolerance like her Mommy. Add to the list that we had company this weekend. And, of course, we loved having them, but I do think this contributed to the Monkey's restless nights.

So it was a weekend full of some pretty crazy nights, which made for some tiring days but thankfully, Eloise was (surprisingly) a happy baby when she was awake during the mornings and afternoons spending time with her grandparents. She was really cute with them, giving them constant smiles, showing them her new tricks and also even adding one more to the list - she rolled back over after getting herself on her tummy. She had yet to figure out that "get back over" part when rolling. So far, she's only done this once (glad we all saw it) so with some practice, maybe she'll get this trick down pat.

Here's to a nap filled Monday and a chance at us getting back to our normal sleeping pattern tonight. Happy Monday and Happy birthday, Jody!

Pics from this weekend...

Fall outing and Friday updates

Today Eloise and I went to the park in between her naps so I could get some pics of her in the leaves. She's such a perfect model; I just love that about her. Always letting mommy put her in new, interesting places that she's never explored before all for the sake of some photographs. Today she held leaves for the first time (of course they quickly went to her mouth so I had to dive in and make sure she didn't eat them). And she visited the park at the end of the street for the first time. Pics below.

In Friday's updates - as we celebrated yesterday, Eloise rolled over from back to tummy for the first time. Today she continues to practice, which is really cute. She's all over this roll thing. After she did this yesterday, I had to look up whether or not I needed to worry about her in the crib at night. Will she all of a sudden roll over in the middle of the night and if she does, is this something I need to be concerned about? From the sources I read, I shouldn't worry. She's got great head control if she were to roll over during the night but on top of this, for now, it's unlikely that she will do this when she's asleep.

In the nap area, Eloise continues to do much better. She's definitely got the 'falling asleep on her own' skill down. On top of this, we've got a nice nap time routine in place that effectively signals to her that it's time to wind down and get ready for 'night night' or 'nap time', as we say. The only area left that is a little kluge - but hopefully will get better - is she's still a 'short napper.'

Each time I put her down, she'll sleep for 30-45 minutes. Most often around 40 minutes. And she doesn't settle herself to sleep again. Instead she wants to get up. The short naps are fine but the bummer is, I'm constantly putting her down for a nap. Exactly 1 hour after she wakes up, she starts yawning. It's like clock-work. So when I see this, we head upstairs and do our nap time routine again. And again, and again, and again. Serious act of patience around here for all parties involved, including the baby. This is all fine and good, and we'll keep at it until her naps lengthen but the conclusion is, she's taking on average 5 naps per day for 40 minutes each. 5 naps. That's crazy.

Teething obviously continues and I've changed her to Motrin vs. Tylenol, which seems to be helping. Also, I got the Hylands teething tablets, which seem to help as well. Her teething chew toy of choice are her own hands. We've tried everything from pulling out the pacifiers from the cabinet to wet, cold wash cloths to baby carrots and nothing seems to be more soothing to her than her own hands.

Right now, running is our favorite past time. We keep using the Bob and are super excited about this addition to our daily routine. So far this week, we've run 18 miles and counting. It's so nice that she fits in there. And even better that she enjoys it. I love the opportunity to run and finally get back in shape, she likes being outside, and another awesome addition - we can collectively accomplish all of this all during the daytime. No more worrying about daylight savings time and it being dark out before or after work (former winter time complaint). No need to worry about getting a Y membership (former winter time running solution). Now we can strap in the Monkey, head out for a run between naps and we're both happy. Huge win for the Vail household.

This weekend is Halloween and we're suuuuper excited!! I'm sure it'd take you one guess as to what the Monkey is going to be this year:).

Happy Friday!