Conversation with an Angel

For several weeks now my sweet son will give me (people) spontaneous smiles and toothless grins. He also talks/babbles on and off. It is adorable! However the story I am about to share, I have not decided whether or not to be jealous.

It is about 7:30 in the evening and I am getting ready to feed my son for the night. I lay him on the boppy pillow and try to get him to latch. He keeps refusing to and keeps straining his little neck to look up at something. From where I am siting on the recliner, there is nothing, literally nothing, that his little eyes can see that he would find so fascinating. However, he keeps giving the biggest smiles to...something. To top that, he starts babbling, loudly. I have never heard Levi talk so much or be so loud! This conversation continues for quite some time (around 10 minutes or so). He wasn't looking at me and there was no one or nothing in the room to distract him.

Call me crazy, but I think he was talking to an angel.

My heart is full

When my daughter woke up from her nap, I made her a snack and turned on the television so I could get a start on the mountain of laundry that has accumulated over the past week. There is a station called Smile T.V. and I can rest assured that everything she sees and hears on there will be safe.

So my daughter is watching a show and I am running back and forth between the living room and my bedroom gathering clean laundry and hangers. A commercial of some sorts comes on that I have seen before but not really given it much thought. A pretty song is playing in the background as we watch some organization pass out toys to sick/dying orphans (it is not graphic...all the kids look "normal"). All of a sudden I hear Constance say, "Nap mama?" as she is watching this commercial. I looked up as I was trying to head down the hall and said, "Yes baby, some of those kids are napping." After a brief pause, I said that, "those kids were sick and that we needed to pray for them." Without skipping a beat Constance walked over to me, took my hand and bowed her head! It took me a second before realizing what she was doing! I prayed a quick prayer for the little sick kids and we went back to doing what we had been doing.

Lord, may you always give my daughter a heart of compassion for the sick, hurting and lonely. May you make her strong enough to be able to handle what she sees.

Not a whole lot going on

Well, there is not a whole lot to share!

Levi is now 2 months old! Wow these two months have flown by. He was supposed to get his 2 month well-baby check up yesterday but the van broke down and we could not make it. The next earliest date that the doctor will squeeze Levi in, is not for two more weeks. Very frustrating as I was looking forward to seeing how big he has become. He absolutely thinks his big sister is something special. Whenever she is near he finds her and just grins and babbles at her!

On a good note, our van is in working order again. The battery was completely shot. I am very thankful that I did not break down BEFORE getting to Keith's work as it was cold, raining, I did not have a cell phone and I had the two kids all by myself. It did die in the parking lot of the school.

Constance is so big and can say so many new words! She can be a demanding little thing! She is definitely a daddy's girl and gets so upset if he has to go somewhere without her. She loves her little brother and has been "caught" several times loving on him without our prompting. I think she is going to have a blast when he is able to interact more with her.

Potty Training Day 5

This morning I officially stopped trying to potty train. While we had made some improvements this week, Constance was becoming frustrated. Very frustrated. The last thing I want for her to do is to resent her potty chair!

To back track some, we bought her panties thinking that might help her out. She would be more comfortable in them and when/if she went potty she would feel the wetness of the cloth against her skin. However she did not like the panties on her so we took them off.

To go forward again, this morning I asked Constance if she wanted to wear her panties and she shook her head and said no. I then was going to let her run around diaper free, but she did not want that either. So I put a diaper on my moody child and threw in the towel. My plan is to try again in a month or so.

I was telling my husband that I think some of the issues we are having is because Constance does not strive to please us. For example, some children who get extra praise for sitting on the potty, will willingly go to the potty and sit at any given point, waiting for the approval and praise of their parent. While Constance likes praise, she could care less how excited we get for when she sits on the potty.

However, after I officially stopped potty training, Constance kept at it without my prompting. She will still head to the bathroom after she has gone potty in her diaper. Several times she would take off her diaper and sit on on the potty! She also came to tell me when she had a dirty diaper. I was feeding Levi at the time and she kept coming into the living room and pointing to her diaper. I asked her if she had a poopy diaper and she shook her head in confirmation that it was...and then ran straight for the bathroom. This evening, her daddy was able to coax her into her panties and she had no issue with them!

So where does that leave us? For now, we are going to go at her pace. If she wants to sit on the potty, great, and we will encourage her in any way we can.

Sneeze

My children find themselves hilarious when they sneeze. And when I say children, I do mean both of them, Constance and Levi. Ever since I can remember Constance will just grin from ear to ear every time she sneezes. Now that she can say the word "sneeze" it is even cuter.

Yesterday after feeding Levi, he let out a huge sneeze. I looked down at him to say "bless you" and he was grinning from ear to ear and kept smiling!

I never knew sneezing could be so funny!

Christmas Giveaway Event – 4K in Prizes!

http://www.faithfullyfrugal-and-free.com/2010/11/christmasgiveawayevent.html

Someone has to win!

Potty Training

For the past several days, Constance has been showing signs that she can be potty trained. She can go all night without wetting in her diaper. She hates to be dirty or wet and comes to tell me every time she has gone. Once she has gone she wants a clean diaper asap.

I had contemplated trying to potty train in the near future however I started today. Why today you ask? In a very short amount of time Constance had two bad diapers and one wet diaper. She wanted to be changed immediately (which is fine for the poopy diapers but she could have gone longer in her wet diaper). I did not want to change her 100 time that day. So, I took the plunge.

I took off her last wet diaper and risked her being "diaper free" for awhile to see what would happen. Every 15 minutes or so I would have her sit on her potty. I did this so often because I was trying to "catch" her going and she could fully see what I wanted her to do. Sitting on the potty so often was frustrating her however so I will have to space out the times a little more.

Constance went roughly 2 1/2 hours without anything happening. Nothing in the potty. Nothing on the floor. Sigh. She now has a diaper on for her nap (I am not that brave yet). My plan is for when she gets up, I will see if she will sit on the potty so we can make the a habit from here on out. I will attempt the "diaper free" idea again just so I can see how often she would usually go...and of course, hopefully make it to the potty on time.

Now for a slightly funny story. My daughter is playing in her room without her diaper. I wonder to myself if it wouldn't be better if I brought the potty out of the bathroom and into whichever room she is in. She is playing with her Little People and I tell her that is she needs to go pee pee to sit on her potty. My little girl immediately stands up and starts scooting the potty towards one of her Little People Houses. I am getting excited! Is she really going to go potty for the first time? Once Constance has her potty in place she sits down...and starts playing with her Little People again. I quickly realized that she just wanted to have a seat while playing with her toys!

For the love of a sister

I had Levi in his bouncer seat in the kitchen this morning. The back door was open and I was letting him soak in the rays. He was content and just chilling. When Constance saw that the door was open she went and closed it. Since the door is normally closed I guess that was the natural thing for her to do. I went and re-opened the door however. My daughter sees this and burst into tears and tries to close the door again. I tell her that "mommy wants to leave the door open." She gets upset and is crying again. A small noise behind me catches my attention. I turn to see little Levi's lip sticking out, his eyes are watery and he is whimpering a little. The more she cries the more he keeps sticking out his lip!

To distract Constance I tell her to turn around and talk to her brother. She turns around, and lets out a little giggle. Immediately, Levi stops whimpering and keeps grinning from ear to ear at her! It was SO cute! He was upset that his sister was upset and was happy when she calmed down.

A serious case of...

"Mom Guilt"

You are right folks, that is what I diagnosed myself with. Is it contagious? Not really. Some moms may have experienced this feeling from time to time during the course of their motherhood. Others may not have.

What is mom guilt you ask? For me, it is when you have more then one child and you have to "neglect" one child to tend to the other child. By no means am I neglecting Constance in a sense of food, shelter, love and security. However, Levi, is...well...a little on the needy side.

At this point my readers may jump in and say, "Of course he is needy! He is a newborn." To that I would reply, "Levi is more needy then the typical newborn needyness." (For all my English majors out there please don't cringe at my made up word). He eats roughly every two hours and really is not content unless he is being held. Holding him 24/7 is impossible and it cuts into my play time with my daughter.

For example, I lay Levi down (who is already fast asleep) and begin to play with my daughter. We are just starting to have a good time when Levi, who realizes he is no longer being held, wakes up crying. I try to ignore it at first and continue to play. Levi gets a little louder. I am getting a bit anxious but once again ignore the complaints coming from this tiny tyrant. Continue to play. The complaints turn into loud screams as I rush over to comfort him. My daughter is then left with incomplete and insufficient mommy time. And so goes my day. I have tried to give him a pacifier which he promptly spits out in disgust.

Do not get me wrong, I do get some uninterrupted time with Constance from time to time. I could just hold Levi while playing with her, but that does not seem fair.

Any advice from veteran mom's would be great!!

Updates

What is new in the world of Constance you ask?
*She says so many new words now that I can not keep up with them! Her newest word is "Jesus" however. Keith and I certainly have a talker on our hands.

*Her favorite food is still fruit. Every meal she gets fruit and typically it is the only thing she will finish. She is trying new foods though which I am very thankful for.

*She has blonde hair and hazel eyes. I though she was going to be a lefty but over the past few weeks she has been favoring her right hand.

*She LOVES Dora the Explorer and will ask for her by name.

*I am convinced that she is going to be a Veterinarian when she grows up. I have never seen a child so young who is this interested in animals. She loves cats especially.

*Constance has the greatest personality. She has a way of making anything...exciting.

*She loves baths and playing outside.

*She is definitely almost two! We are slowly being introduced into the world of two year olds. She likes to push boundaries and can get upset over the simplest things!

*Constance is also very brave. The bigger the slide the better! She gets that from her daddy.


As for Mister Levi, there is not much to tell.
*He is a little over 1 month old. Wow! When did that happen?

*He acts like he is hungry all the time and usually does not make it past 2 hours during the day before he demands to be fed again. Thankfully at night, he goes a little longer then that.

*Levi is trying to set the record for how many diapers he can go through before he is 2 months old.

I love being a mommy!

Mommy to Two

Hello Blogger world! Some of my faithful readers may have given up all hope of ever seeing another post from me. I can't say I blame you though. It has been four months since my last post, which was not even written by me, but by my husband. And before that, my postings were very inconsistent.

However, I am making another attempt to begin blogging again. Maybe I should set aside one day a week or every two weeks where I blog atleast...something. Not that our lives are very exciting or anything or that I expect you to wait at your computer every day impatiently waiting for what I will write about next. However, life with children, two small children at that, can provide for some very entertaining stories. Feel free to laugh at me as I attempt this thing called Parenthood. It will take me a little time to update pictures but trust me, they will come.

Before and After

It is amazing how things change when a little child enters your life.  It makes you realize how selfish you were before with your time and money.  But now we run into being selfish still with our time and money, but in a familial kind of way.  I think that our idea of family is different than anyone we have ever met.  We were not raised the way we view family, it just sort of happened.  Some people who don't know us (and some who do) think of our actions as selfish, and I think the rest of our friends just know that we are passionate about the home unit.  Let me try to put this into a more specific detail.

We do not make plans as an individual without checking with each other first.  If I want to spend some time with a friend of mine then I will make sure that I have not been neglecting my wife and child with my school, housework, yardwork, etc... to where this will further alienate me from them.  I have a responsibility to my wife and kid(s) to be a husband and a father before I have a responsibility to be a friend to someone else.  I do believe in the importance of friendship outside of my spouse, however, my best friend needs to be my spouse and maintaining the health of that friendship is tantamount above all other relationships.  If more people thought along these lines then you might see a drop in the divorce rate in our country, but that is not a guarantee considering how many factors go into a decision to separate from covenant vows.

Another example is with our daughter.  We do not put her in nurseries or any sort of childcare.  I am not going to let a family friend watch her, and barely will we let our own families watch her.  People keep telling us, and I believe behind our backs at that, that we need to learn to let others watch her so we can have "us" time or so they can get time with our daughter.  That is our call to make.  First off, I only know a handful of people intimately to where I know if they are a pedophile or not.  Sorry family, but if we don't talk about your vices in advance and only talk about the weather and safe subjects then you are not on the list of approved people.  Honesty and transparency are key to watching our daughter.  Moreover, I want our daughter to see her mommy and daddy in love and creating a healthy marriage.  I want her to learn how to worship, understand the sermon, and fellowship at church (a book that has helped us find support for keeping our kid in service is called Parenting in the Pew).  Thankfully we are not the only ones doing this one as is evident by how many others we see keeping their kids of all ages in church with them.  If our daughter does not want to come to you then DO NOT pry her from her mother's arms.  Somebody will end up with a bloody nose before this over with because my wife's patience is about shot on this one.  So if you were thinking about doing this then stop yourself now.  We don't want nor need any encouragement for our daughter to get comfortable being away from mommy and daddy.  In short, mind your business and let us parent how we want to parent.  If something we do is detrimental to our daughter's health and well-being in your mind then talk to one of us about it.  That doesn't mean we will agree with you, but I will definitely give you an attentive ear. 

On a positive note, I am very pleased with how well both sets of immediate family have allowed us our freedom in parenting.  You guys vocalize here and there, but overall you let our wishes for raising our kid be what goes and not what you think is best.  I am seriously grateful for this.  It makes in-law relations on both sides easier.  The only thing I ask is that if you feel like you have to tiptoe on eggshells around us then we need to talk because that is not healthy.

Thanks for reading!

Keith, a.k.a. Daddy Moose

Not so baby Constance

Whew! One would think that blogging weekly would be an easy task. My time is consumed with a sweet little girl with a big name. Constance. Before she became mobile I thought she kept me busy. Now that she is a walker…a very fast walker…my time is consumed with keeping track of her. Constance’s philosophy must be, “Why stay still when I can walk somewhere…or run.” From the moment she gets up to the moment she lays her head down at night, this child is moving! Her reach has expanded as well. Once we had a small juice glass crash to the ground because I thought it was far enough away on the table where she could not get it. I was wrong! The glass crashed and shattered and thankfully she did not get hurt. Just last night my husband put her in her high chair as we were getting ready to eat supper. He moved the bowl of corn muffins out of the way and went to the sink to wash her tray off. Just as happy as can be she reached as far as her chubby arms would let her and plucked several large pieces off the nearest muffin.

She is also so smart! She knows that keys are supposed to unlock doors and start vehicles. She knows to bring whatever object handed to her, to her daddy (or mommy) when you ask her to. She can point to all kind of animals on books when asked to point to them. Constance has also started making animal sounds. She can tell you what a cow says and can imitate what monkeys do. If you ask her if she is hungry or if she wants a snack she will head for the kitchen. If you ask her if she wants a bath, she will head to the bathroom. If you ask her if she wants to go outside you better be prepared to go because she is always ready to play outdoors!

Constance has discovered the joy of sitting on things. While outside she loves to sit down on the first step or on the curb just because she can. I guess they are perfect size for her and she feels like a big girl.

Speaking of being big. She jumped from wearing 12 month (and sometimes 18 month) winter clothes to wearing 2T! Yikes! She is still in a size 4 diaper. With Keith getting ready to be done with high school for the summer we are hoping to try some early potty training techniques. If it sticks, great! If it doesn’t then it is not a big deal.

We are having...

A Boy!!!

Sorry for lack of posts. Will blog again soon

My Typical Day

I will be 15 months old on Friday and this is what a typical day looks like::

-Since the time change, I wake up at 7:15a.m. Mommy sings to me as she promptly changes my diaper. I sometimes like to wiggle and squirm just to make things interesting.

-I eat breakfast after my diaper change. Mommy (or daddy if he is home) fills up my sippy cup with delicious whole milk. I quickly turn that over to see if any spills out of the straw. I then eat fruit, dried prunes and peanut butter toast. I pretty much eat that every morning because I am already a very picky eater.

-Once breakfast is over-mommy becomes mean. Can you believe that she thinks it is okay to wash off my hands and face? It makes me so mad and I do everything within my power to stop her.

- Now it is play time! Mommy puts me on my little couch where my baby doll, Lily, and my teddy bear, Grey Bear, are waiting on me. I grab Lily first, give her a kiss and talk to her while I point out her ears, eyes and nose. I then cuddle with Grey Bear and give him a big hug. After that I go from the living room to my room to the living room playing with and pulling out anything I can. I also love reading my books.

-Between 9 and 10.a.m. my mommy gives me a snack! I love snack time!

-I then play. Or fuss. Or play and fuss.

-Lunch is shortly after 11a.m. Sometimes I eat a great lunch, but usually mommy just has to stuff me with fruit. I am a great fruit eater.

-I then play again for a short time and mommy has my crib ready for nap time by noon.

-Unfortunately, I nap from about 12:20-2:20…on a good day. I personally don’t see why I need a nap.

-I wake up and get another snack! I am usually cranky at this time and don’t want mommy to put me down. So I get extra snuggles while eating. Then, after awhile I play again. Or I stay cranky and give mommy a hard time all afternoon.

-If it is a nice day I get to go outside and play. I LOVE being outside. Now that I can walk I can explore things quicker!

-Shortly after 5 is supper time! I then get to play some more. I also get to play with my daddy now that he is home. I love my daddy. My favorite game to play with him is chase!

-At 6:50 daddy gets me dressed and changed for bed, sometimes against my will. Mommy get my crib in order and makes sure that I have my favorite blanket, stuffed toy and pacifier. Daddy then brushes my teeth while mommy cleans up the living room and turns off all my toys that make noise. We then sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” Mommy or daddy pray and then I get to rock with mommy in the rocking chair for a few minutes before she puts me in my crib for the night.

We Communicated

My daughter and I went to Goodwill the other day. I had not been there in quite some time and had about an hour before needing to pick up my husband from work. Constance and I started in the front of the store and worked our way towards the back. Very quickly she became tired of sitting in the shopping cart so we went to the toy aisle. I figured I would let her hold something while we were in the store to keep her occupied. All the “nice” toys seemed a little pricey and I did not want Constance to become too attached to whatever object she held. I picked up a little stuffed kitty that looked clean and smelled fine. She loves her stuffed kitty that stays in the car so I figured she would like to hold this one as well. “Constance,” I ask holding up the stuffed cat, “do you want to hold the kitty while we finish shopping?” As I go to hand her the cat, Constance shook her head no and did the sign language symbol for no! So I put the cat down and we finished shopping without any problems. It was so cool though that she understood what I was asking her!

Good to the Last Drop

This started last week when my parents stopped through town to pick up their dog after being on a trip. My parents arrived, Constance woke up, and I fixed her a snack of mandarin oranges and milk. I am not comfortable with her eating a “whole” orange piece even though they are already small. I would hold up an orange slice for Constance and let her bite half of it, then she could eat the rest. Once she was done eating the whole orange she would suck on a finger or two of mine to get the rest of the juice off! It was so funny. Today I was munching on some leftover fried chicken strips and finished them off before my baby realized I was eating. She came over to investigate and I told her they were “all gone” and used the sign language symbol. She promptly grabbed my hand, smelled it and proceeded to lick the rest of the chicken off my fingers.

Another cute thing that has happened this week is when she kisses, she makes the “smacking” noise. I will have to try and get that on camera.

Lady Constance

On Saturday night my husband gives Constance a bath. I happily lay on the couch and await their return. When they are done, Keith brings a towel wrapped baby into the living room. Instead of putting on her pajamas right away I suggest we let her run around naked for a few minutes. She does not get much naked time even though she loves it. Keith agrees and sets our fully naked daughter on the living room floor. She squeals and of all things, takes off for her rocking horse. It is even funnier because she has not been very interested in her rocking horse in a week or so. Next thing we know, our naked daughter is happily rocking back and forth carrying a big grin on her face. We tried to take a picture but one camera was dead and the other ones frame is bent. Oh well. She will appreciate us not having that picture when she a teenager.

Leaks

Well, it finally happened. Constance’s diaper sprung a leak sometime during the night and her onesie and sleeper became soaked. We are not sure when this happened, as we did not know till we went to get her at 7. She has been in size 3 diapers for quite some time and we noticed here of late they were becoming snug in her chunky waist line. So, Keith went out and got us the next size so hopefully that will do the trick!

Ashamed at my lack of posts

I do have a few good excuses though. One, is that my husband had three snow days this past week. We love having him home but our schedule does not stay the same when he is here. And for those who have not heard yet, we are pregnant with baby #2, due in September. Any “free” time I have, meaning when the baby goes down for her nap, I spend napping. I am doing better than I was a week ago so that is good news. Now if I could just get rid of feeling nauseous then that would be wonderful.

Back to Constance.

She is huge and has given up on walking. She can take up to 4 steps at a time but over the past four days I don’t think she has even taken one! I am not concerned about it though since I know she can walk. She is still a very busy little girl and plays non stop.

A month or so ago she had some fluid on one of her ears and kept pulling on them. Her doctor told us at her follow up appointment that it looked like her ears were clear but to look for signs of her not hearing right. If she stopped talking as much or did not make any new sounds or noises over the next little bit we should bring her back in. I guess Constance is fine because over the past two weeks her sounds and noises have increased and she talks all the time.

First Step

Yesterday evening, Constance took her 1st step. Keith was holding her hands and had the baby walking to me. He let go of her and she took one step! It was awesome and I am thriled that both of us got to see it!

Rocking horse and a trip to the library

We have a little plastic rocking horse that is perfect for Constance’s size. For a week or so I would put her on the horse and let her rock away, all smiles. Then she would indicate that she wanted off and I would pick her up and put her back on the floor. Yesterday however, I was in the kitchen making cookies while my daughter played in the living room. I turned towards the room to see what she was up to and lo and behold, she was on the horse herself! She looked so pleased and I wish I had my camera handy. I figured she would rock some but that I would have to get her off the horse. The next time I turned around, she had just gotten off the horse successfully. Wow! She is so big! Now she can get on and off the horse at will.

After a rough night a few days ago I made the quick decision to load the baby up and head to the library. I wanted to have some books to read and a few movies to watch over the course of the weekend. After getting done with what I was looking for, I headed for the children’s section. I had never been in there before and it was awesome! They have a “little kid (toddler and under)” section with soft climbing mounds, and puzzles, toy trucks, puppets and hard books. I went ahead and got Constance out of her stroller and she immediately headed for the soft foam mounds. I tired not to think about all the germs she was being exposed to as my 13 month old crawled and touched everything that could be crawled on or touched. There were a few other little kids as well-one of who would randomly come up and take Constance’s toy whether I was right by her or not. What did the Grandma with the little 2 year old do about it? Nothing. She just chuckled, over and over again. Constance, who is usually not one to be bullied, did not mind giving up a toy every now and then. It irritated me though. Come on people! Grandma or not, you teach your (grand)children how to share! Regardless, Constance had a blast and did not want to leave. The lady who runs the kids section talked to me and convinced me to come and try their next “mom and baby” time. Basically, moms with kids who are infant-18 month will show up-your child sits in your lap and we sing songs, play with finger puppets and read stories. I am not too fond of this but the lady was very, very nice and I told her I would try it once.

A-Z

Constance is 1 year 3 weeks and 6 days old and she

A. Is wearing 12-18 month clothing
B. She is in size 3 diapers. It seems as if she has been in that size for quite some time now
C. She loves trying on shoes
D. She is now paranoid of me putting bows in her hair and will randomly run her hands over her head to make sure I did not sneak one past her
E. She loves bath time and splashing
F. Constance loves mandarin oranges, raisins, dry prunes, Cheerios, cheddar bunnies, nutria-grain bars, turkey hot dogs, and anything else that mommy and daddy are eating.
G. She is a very cute moocher!
H. She drinks 1-1 ¾ sippy cups of whole milk every day
I. She still has only 8 teeth
J. She loves to brush her teeth with her new toothbrush. Here recently however, she just likes to suck off the berry or bubblegum flavor toothpaste.
K. Constance loves music and will sway he body back and forth when she hears a good beat.
L. She can point to her belly button and head and everyone else’s nose but not her own. If you ask her to touch her nose, she will always touch her ears. Don’t ask me why
M. She sleeps 11-12 hours a night without waking up
N. Constance has the greatest personality and laughs and smiles so easily.
O. She gives free kisses at will to people she is close to
P. She loves riding on her rocking horse
Q. Constance can spend ½ an hour opening the doors to her play kitchen, putting something inside and closing it again…over and over and over
R. She smells her baby dolls feet often and always makes sure that Lily has her blanket
S. She takes one nap a day that usually lasts 2 hours.
T. She loves her two cats and relentlessly chases them. She smells them as well
U. Her back is very ticklish
V. She cackles more then she laughs
W. She wears a size 5 shoe
X. Constance gets so excited when she sees her daddy’s truck pull up to the house. She will usually stand at the door and say, “Hi dada.”
Y. She will crawl from time to time by sitting on her knees and letting one of her feet drag the rest of her to the desired spot
Z. Constance understands the word no and gets very upset when she is told such.

Stinky Toes

For Christmas, my folks bought a walk behind stroller for Constance as well as a baby doll to put in it. This is the first “real” baby doll for our daughter and Keith and I affectionately dubbed the doll as “Lily.” As Constance has started playing more and more with Lily I have noticed two things. One, I am concerned for her future motherhood as I see her interact with her doll. I do not think that throwing Lily on the floor and dragging her by her head is the makings of a good mommy. The second thing I have noticed is that she will smell Lily’s toes. It is hilarious to watch! When Constance was a little younger we would do that to her-That is, smell her feet and proclaim loudly, “Ewwww, stinky feet!” I guess that is where she gets the idea of smelling Lily’s feet.

Constance must have a sensitive nose though, as her dolls feet are not the only thing she smells. She smells the cats. She smells our hands. She smells her food even if it is a Cheerio. She smells her blanket and the pillows and the carpet… Now I am not saying she smells everything ALL the time but probably 1/2 of the time. As long as she does not start smelling our friends when they come over I guess she will be fine.

Long Time No Post

I just realized I have not posted since Constance turned one. With my husband being a teacher and us having our first Christmas break, our schedules have been off for the past two weeks.

Let’s see if I can recap.

Constance did very well at her birthday party even though she started out shy at first. We had my in-laws come, my parents and one of my brothers with his wife and two kids.

After changing to one nap for the baby, she went to three feedings (nursing) a day. I had planned on weaning her from her second meal a few weeks after her birthday but by default, she weaned herself from that meal on her birthday. She woke up from her afternoon nap too early and heard all sorts of new voices in the living room. I brought her to my bedroom so I could nurse her and change her into her birthday dress. She refused to nurse and was very cranky. I literally called my husband who was in the living room and had him help me get her ready. Because we skipped the second feeding on her birthday I went with that and tried not to nurse her second meal on the second day. She is now down to two meals (nursing).

A few days after her birthday we packed up the car and headed to KY to have Christmas with my parents. Constance did great, even after my sister in law came with her four kids. She slept a little rough while we were there but overall was fine. The last night we were at mom and dads, the bay had an awful night. She kept waking up and was restless and cranky. At 3 a.m. we took her temperature and sure enough she had a high fever! She battled a fever all that next day. We went home, took her to the doctor and was told it was a viral infection and we would just have to ride it out, while keeping her drugged on baby Tylenol and Motrin.

As for the actual Christmas presents, our baby still could care less. She opened two and she was done! Maybe next Christmas she will be in to opening her gifts-or maybe we will have the world’s strangest child who does not like getting gifts?

I think that Constance has LOVED having Keith home these past two weeks. She is such a happy baby. I have LOVED having Keith home.

At her last well baby appointment she weighed 22 pounds and 1 ounce. She was also 30 inches tall. She can say “dog” now and in reality says a hundred other things but we can’t make out what she is saying yet. She talks all the time. She also might be able to point to her nose when you ask but we are not 100% on that.

Since writing this post, we are now down to one nursing session-her night time feeding. If this continues to go well, in a week or so I will try to wean her off her night time feeding which will be the hardest I think.