My bookshelf- Edition #5

Auschwitz- Dr Miklos Nyiszli
Throwaway- Heather Huffman
Power of Six-
Divergent-
The Giver-

Developmental Crying

Lately we've (and by that I mean Afton) been having some sleeping problems in our home. Up until the last month Afton had been a pretty good sleeper. Even if she woke up at night we could usually get her right back to sleep.

Then August happened and suddenly Afton started waking up at least once a night and sometimes it took us more than an hour to get her back to sleep.
This usually involved rocking and soothing and even sometimes feeding when we got desperate for sleep.
This last week Afton has been waking up 3-5 times per night and it is HARD to get her back to sleep. It gets to the point where I'm so frustrated and half asleep that I just put her in her crib and crawl into bed (plus I usually stomp back to bed. I have to take my frustration out somewhere right? It might as well be on the floor.)
So last night was no different. We finally brought Afton back to bed with us after 2 hours of unsuccessfully trying to her back to sleep in her crib.
So today I called the Kaiser nurse line to get some advice. This was hard for me because I am not a ask-other-people-for-advice kind of mom. I am a google it or read a book or ask my sister(she doesn't count as other people. But both of her kids sleep like angels so that was out.)
After explaining the situation to the The Kaiser nurse, she immediately said it sounded like "Developmental Crying." In a nutshell it just means that babies start to abruptly wake up in the night often around 4-12 months of age after they have been sleeping through the night. There is no real reason. And she told me what I really was already thinking and dreading: you are going to have to let her cry it out. Go in and check on her every 10-15 minutes or so. Comfort her, pat her back, kiss her and lay her back down. Then leave. Repeat X amount of times until she goes to sleep.
Tonight I put Afton to sleep at about 7:30. She woke up crying at 8:30 and so it started. We are now on about the 4th cycle and she is half halfheartedly crying now off and on so I am thinking it shouldn't be too long until she falls back to sleep for good. Not too bad.
Now let's see how I feel about it at 2 in the morning. That will be a whole different story.
So, the moral of the story? I have learned since becoming a mom that life will NEVER be the same. Not only does life change once you have the baby but then it KEEPS changing after said baby gets older and older. I will certainly not take for granted my precious sleep ever again that's for sure. I got used to sleeping 8-10 hours straight and then WHAM, Afton throws developmental crying at me. Ha.
But, through it all, seeing her beautiful smile in the morning after a long night still makes me happy. And her laughs make my heart melt and throb at the same time. And her weird one legged crawl makes me continuously laugh. And... I could go on but I think you get the picture.
What I am trying to say is she could wake me up 2-3 times a night for the next 18 years and I would still love her. Because that's what being a parent is all about. Selflessly giving your precious sleep up and then not being grouchy about it in the morning.


(And Afton if you are secretly crawling out of your crib at night and sneaking onto the computer and reading this, it would NOT be cool if you woke me up at night for the next 18 years. I wasn't serious about that.)

New Car Smell

After almost 6 years with Flora (Yes, I name my cars, don't you?) it was time to trade her in.

It was bittersweet. While I won't miss trying to get Afton out of her carseat in and out of a two-door vehicle, I will miss my first car.

I had many a fun moments in Flora... She drove me to Utah after graduating college to start college at BYU.
She drove my around with my wonderful friends during those said BYU years.
She was there when Chad and I met and drove us to Utah to pick out my wedding ring.
She lived in Salt Lake with us for the first 3 years we were married and endured the snow and salt.
She moved us back to California and spent the next few years driving us from place to place.
She was there for us when others weren't...ahem...The Audi who we do not speak of.
She brought our first baby home safely from the hospital.
And she took Afton and Oliver on their first road trip to Idaho and Utah.
She saw many great scenery and mountainside views.
But alas, all good things must end someday and unfortunately Flora's days were numbered. But I am sure she will make some other family very happy.
As for us, well, we got a newer model. And we are very happy.
Say hello to out 2012 focus. Not sure what we will name her yet. Any suggestions?

9 months

Dear Afton-

(First of all can we address how hilarious this picture is? Note the squished food in her hand. That habit makes for a very fun cleanup. Also note the huge chunk of peach stuck to her chest. This just makes me laugh. Not to mention the face. Now THAT is a funny face.)

Where to start? These past few months have brought so many new exciting adventures to our family. You mastered sitting up and then went on to scooting around on your butt. You entertained yourself often with that maneuver. But of course that wasn't enough so you taught yourself how to stand up in your crib. Then you were pulling yourself up on anything and everything. Then came crawling. Now we can't leave you in a room by yourself for more than 30 seconds (if we're lucky!). And all that in a 3 short months. Whew!

I'm tired just thinking about it. But it is so fun to see you learning something new everyday. When your face lights up with a smile because you know you accomplished something big, my heart melts.

You also have your first two teeth now and I am pretty sure you are working on more due to your mood swings. But don't worry we love you all the more for those. Except could you PLEASE sleep through the night maybe once a week? Right now you are waking up at least once a night (the last few nights has been more like 3-5 times) and it is killing your dad and I. See what you can do about that, k?

You also know how to feed yourself pretty good now too and have been trying lots of new foods lately. I still try to feed you mainly fruits and vegtables but we have tried beans and corn now. Of course all your grandparents and aunts and uncles sneak you some good stuff now and again (I.E. mashed potatoes, popcicles, ice cream and ketchup).

You love Baby Einsteins and always give me a big smile and a scream of excitement when you hear the music or see the caterpillar at the beginning of the DVD. You also are starting to explore the house more. You have tried to eat Oliver's dog food on multiple occasions now and are getting pretty good at cleaning our floors of any lint.

You have waved once for Grandpa Terry although we can't get you to do it again. You also clapped your hands when Dad was playing patty cake with you the other night. AND you repeated "Mama" for me the other day. No one else was around to hear it but I am thinking about putting it down in the books as your first word. We shall see. We shall see.
Afton you are such a sweet little girl. I get told everyday from strangers how beautiful and well behaved you are. You are the center of my world now and I don't know what I would spend my days doing without you. Thankfully you still let me rock you sometimes and those are my favorite times. I am trying to remind myself to slow down everyday and spend time with you because you are growing up so fast. Thank you for bringing me so much happiness and making your dad and I better people. We love you.

Mom and Dad

Afton, don't eat that fuzz.

She mastered the art of sitting up in a few months. Now she can play with toys like this.

Then she mastered the art of pulling herself up in a few weeks.

And finally, she's working on crawling.

So I've been using phrases like "Afton, please don't eat that fuzz." or "Afton, Icky." a lot lately.

Next, we will move onto walking and at the rate we're going she will probably master walking in just a few short hours.
Slow down life!

Like daughter, like dog

Afton is watching this because she likes dancing chickens that sing.

Oliver on the other hand just likes to eat chicken.

These two constantly keep me laughing.

Who knew a dog and baby could be so much alike?

Payback

Most people that know me well, know that I am pretty opinionated and very passionate, no strong willed, fine, stubborn.

No kidding, when Chad asked my dad to marry me, my dad replied, "Are you sure? She's really stubborn." Yeah. And by the way I get this stubbornness mostly from my dad...
Chad and I are a perfect match because we both have this quality. So he didn't mind answering yes to my dad's not so subtle question.
Fast forward four years which is how long we've been married and I think I have toned down a little on the stubbornness and learned how to compromise. You really have to to be successful in a marriage, right?
Well then came the baby in the baby carriage. Enter Afton.
My mom teased that maybe I would get a stubborn baby as payback for being such a hard baby for her. Apparently I wouldn't go to sleep or something like that. Hmmm...
Well I think her wish came true.
(In her defense this picture was right after a nap. One, I am cranky after a nap too. Two, I would be mad if the flash went off in my face right when I woke up.)
(And this was isn't so much throwing a fit or being cranky but it's just so dang funny I had to throw it in. It looks like she's making a westside sign and making a "yo" face. To answer your question, no she's not in a gang.)
Moral of the story: don't be stubborn because you will pass it on to your children and then you will have to deal with their stubbornness and your stubbornness.
*cough cough* Dad.
Don't worry he doesn't read my blog. Not that I know of at least.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Remember how Afton inherited my stubbornness? Well from Chad she inherited his cartoon watching abilities. Yep. Chad's idea of a stellar Saturday morning: Batman, Superman, Justice League, Jetsons, Tom and Jerry, Etc. Afton's ideas of a perfect Saturday morning: Baby Einstein on mom's phone.

Enthralled.

"Seriously mom. Go away. I'm watching cartoons."

"No really. Why are you still here?"

"Okay fine. You can watch cartoons too."

MY Saturday mornings would be so boring without her around. Who need cartoons?

Friday Night Lights

Fall=Football
Friday Nights=Football games
While I don't pretend to like football it is fun supporting Chad's younger brother at his games every week. He is one of the star players so it's exciting to see him make goals, I mean touchdowns. (I really don't like football)
A few weekends ago Afton attended her first football game.

And really we know that everyone actually comes to the football games to hold Afton.

Believe me, she gets passed around plenty.

The grandparents hog her.

Can you blame them?

Maybe someday I will actually pay attention to the game. Probably not when this cutie is around though.

It's going to be one of THOSE days

Garbage day is Thursday.
Which means we need to put the garbage can out Wednesday night.
Last night we are already in bed asleep and I remembered we hadn't put the garbage can out.
I tell Chad and he starts to climb out of bed (I love him) but I tell him to lay back down and say he can just do it in the morning. He happily grunts and rolls back over and falls fast asleep.
Thursday morning rolls around and Chad leaves for work at 4:30 am (poor guy) but doesn't put the garbage can out. I will let it slide because of the 4:30 am thing. I can barely function at 8:30 am.
Well 7:45 rolls around and I am torn from sleep by the garbage truck beeping down our street. I swear they install that beeper on all the trucks to wake up the snoozers who forgot to put out their garbage cans. Right?
So I literally jump out of bed and luckily Afton is just waking up next to me (she got in bed with me at 4:30 because she woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep in her crib. Give me a break ok? She was also up at 1:30 as well. Teething, not fun.)
So I throw some clothes on, grab Afton, run downstairs and plop her in front of baby einstein for a few minutes while I sprint to get the garbage can out front.
And then I see the garbage truck lazily making it's way down out street. It already came by our house. Ugh.
Our garbage can is full so waiting until next week is out.
I don't think the garbage man would appreciate me running after him, nor would be self esteem appreciate me running after him. That's out.
Idea.
I checked our neighbors can across the street. Success! Still full.
So I trudge our can across the street and hope I can fool the garbage man into thinking my neighbors have two garbage cans. I'm new to this whole "garbage can" etiquette thing.
I have no idea if this is allowed in garbage can land.
Then I make my way back inside to find Afton happily staring at Baby Mozart, who by the way, is a very gifted musician and is one of my heroes because he can entertain my daughter while I am doing the dishes... or fixing breakfast, or dinner... or cleaning the toilet. You get the picture. And don't worry I DO spend more time with my daughter then Mr. Mozart, I promise.
So I feed Afton nectarines for breakfast. She manages to get more on her nose/hands/feet/hair/anything else in the vicinity than she does in her mouth. This is a common occurrence lately. All the while I am stealing glances across the street waiting for the garbage man to get to my neighbors house.
Finally he does and it's the moment of truth.
Aha!
In goes my garbage.
Success again!
I think I may have actually done a little dance and whooped.
Then it hit me.
Dang, I'm sad. If tricking the garbage man into emptying my garbage is something to get excited about, it's going to be one of those days.
You know, the ones that make you so tired to the bone that you fall into bed exhausted.
Or maybe, it was one of those days yesterday and that's why I am getting so excited about garbage and the fact that I found a loophole for procrastinators like me.
What I am getting at it is, sometimes we need to celebrate the little victories in life or else we let the little failures (i.e. Afton spitting her food out and making a COMPLETE mess EVERY meal, Afton waking up every 4 hours at night, Oliver pooping in Afton's room, Oliver eating a poopy diaper I accidentally left on the coffee table) in life get us down.
So I WILL be happy about my garbage success and I WILL NOT feel like a loser for it.
Thank you very much and have a good day.

Oh and don't forget to put your garbage can out?

Summer according to my iPhone

It has been a wonderful summer, has it not?

My iPhone has managed to capture all the little moments when my camera wasn't in hand.

The silly Afton moments...

Which believe me, are many.

The days spent outside on a blanket.

Or inside on the couch playing with Oliver.

The lazy Saturday mornings spent sleeping in.

The weekdays playing on mom and dad's bed.

The weekday mornings getting ready for work.

The bath times.

NAKED BABY ALERT!

CUTE NAKED BABY ALERT!

And the Sunday naps with dad.

It's been a pretty good summer folks. But I am happy it's September and that fall is nearing closer.

Thanks iPhone.

Discouragment and Encouragement

It's crazy how every new day with Afton brings something new. This last week I decided to let Afton feed herself with a few finger foods (mostly cut up soft fruit).

There was a lot of smearing and smooshing on her tray.

But she did manage to get quite a few pieces in her hands...

And even a few from her hands to her mouth.

But don't worry because I had my vacuum on standby in case any drooped on the floor. (Oliver has realized his life just got a whole lot better now that Afton's feeds herself once a day).

Eventually Afton got tired of the effort it took to get one little piece of banana in her mouth and resorted to this...

And this...

And was pretty dang proud of herself. And I have to say her mom was pretty proud too!

And yes there was some gagging...

But mostly just my smart little girl growing a little older and wiser.