Well, Ada is just becoming more and more of her own person, and it is so much fun to watch. It amazes me that one short year ago, she was not even born yet. This first year is such a whirlwind of development!! I was with Amy Speakman Hendrix yesterday, and she is due with her first daughter in September. We were talking about how crazy it is that this time next year, her daughter will be crawling around and starting to say a few words. I feel like the first five months are sort of a slow process, and starting with the sixth month, Ada just took off with developments, starting with sitting up and then of course crawling, and she is now able to stand on her own for short periods of time. She doesn't do it on her own, though. Scott and I get her to stand up and then we let go of her hands. It takes her second to realize she is standing on her own, then she slowly lowers herself. She is very steady, though, even in the lowering, so I feel like she could take off walking if she really wanted to. I don't know why I am encouraging the walking--ha, ha. I am already chasing her all over the place because of crawling. I can only imagine the things she will be into when she starts walking. I feel like the world is one big danger zone for a baby on the move. She is just so unaware that things can burn her, topple over on her, cut her, and I have to so be on top of things to make sure she doesn't get hurt. Just the other day she was pulling up on a kitchen chair, and she started to topple over, chair and all. Luckily, I was quick enough to catch the chair before it fell on her, but she did fall backwards and cried so, so hard. I am such a worrier, anyway, and I am bracing myself for the first big accident. Before Ada was even in existence, I used to dread the day that I was the mother and I had to be in control in emergency situations. I don't do well with emergencies or blood or anything like that, so I am counting on some mother thing kicking in when it really has to. I know it can't be avoided. I for one had two different accidents as a child that involved emergency trips to the dentist, so I know something of that sort will happen. It is inevitable, I suppose.
Anyway, I am just rambling on, trying to record all of these things that I want to remember. To make this less stream-of-consciousness, I will list a few things about Ada at ten months.
1. She is so incredibly smiley. She attracts so much attention wherever we go, because she smiles so hard at everybody. Hmmm...maybe she didn't get her mom's melancholy personality:)
2. She is still waking up at night, and I think I am ready to try letting her cry it out. We let her cry it out at nap time and bedtime, but we never have in the middle of the night. Honestly, it is just easier to get up and give her a bottle. But I think Scott and I would feel much better if we weren't having to wake up at night. We have tried taking turns, but even on Scott's night, I wake up. I just don't think there is any way a mother can sleep through a crying baby. So anyone who has done the crying-it-out in the middle of the night, advice? I am not good at it because I question everything--is she cold, hungry, hurting, wet? And I convince myself that I have to go in there. But we are looking at 11 months, and it is time for us all to get more sleep!!
3. As Scott mentioned on his blog, I have found a new plan for our long summer afternoons--the sprinkler. After the church pool day, which she loved, I realized that the sprinkler may be a better option than the baby pool. I knew that she loved the faucet in the bathtub, as well, and I thought the sprinkler was sort of the same concept. And I was right. She did love it. At first, she was pretty timid, clinging to my neck and stuff. But we slowly eased her into it, and after about fifteen minutes, she thought she was big stuff with that sprinkler, picking it up and slinging it around. I took lots of pictures, but unfortunately, our desktop has a virus, so I can't post them.
Her love for the church pool day makes me very frustrated that our neighborhood pool is not open. When we bought they house, we were told that we would have a pool, playground, and tennis courts by summer. Well, it's almost July, and there is a LONG way to go with the pool. Oh well, I guess we will enjoy it next summer.
4. I bought Ada her first bows yesterday when I was in Auburn (I will blog about that unexpected trip later), however, I can't decide if they are cute or tacky. I got fairly large ones, not the really tiny ones, in an effort to make it less tacky, but I am still not sure. Again, it's so frustrating that I can't post pictures because then I could do a blog vote--cute or tacky. I gathered up some hair, and gave her a little pebbles style ponytail. It was sort of cute, I guess. She kept pulling the bow out, though, so I don't think it's going to work anyway. We'll see. And hopefully the computer will be fixed soon, and we can do a vote.
5. What else, what else? She is now waving when she says bye-bye, and I think she connects the sign for more with the word more. I am not sure if she knows what it means, though. I have started teaching her all done, as well, but she hasn't caught on yet. She says uh-oh all the time. It's a little game that she plays--she drops things intentionally, and then she says uh-oh until we pick them up. Every time I put her down for a nap, I will hear a slight thud on the monitor, then her saying uh-oh over and over, meaning she dropped her pacie. I am trying to teach her that the game won't fly--she can't keep dropping stuff and expect us to pick it up.
6. I am still not sure about the whole discipline situation at 10 months. For example, she has figured out how to turn on the tv, so she likes to stand in front of the tv and turn it on and off, on and off, over and over. Today it occurred to me, that we should probably just make all of the buttons on the television a no-no, but I don't really know how to teach her that. She clearly doesn't get the concept. Again, any and all suggestions are welcome. And that is just one example. I feel like there a million things that she needs to learn are "no-no," but I don't know how to communicate that concept to her.
well, I guess that's all of the Random Ada facts for now. Hopefully the computer will be fixed before too long, and I can post pictures to go with the facts. Happy Friday tomorrow, everyone!!
2 comments:
Hey- we did the crying it out thing at around 9 months because my pediatrician warned me that I only had a little time left before she was just going to take advantage of me. She told me there was no reason that 4 month olds could sleep through the night, but my 9 month old would not, and I had no idea that Kate was just doing it out of habit. So- we busted out the earplugs. She said that Kate was NOT hungry (but I thought she was because she would eat if I fed her) and that if she was hurting the crying would not stop and it would be a different kind of crying. We just chose a week that we both were prepared to not get much sleep and we put her to bed and did not go in until the morning. I could still hear a little through the earplugs (but our place is tiny) so I didn't sleep much. BUT- within 4-5 days, she was sleeping through the night and soothing herself if she woke up.
I would highly recommend doing this now that I have done it and have seen the success. I was really skeptical of it wondering if it was hurting her feelings, if I was denying her needs, etc. She still wakes up every now and then since she is cutting her molars, but she whines for a minute and goes back to sleep. Kate did fine and I feel sure Ada would too! You and Scott will be so glad you did it!
And- about the bows. I started using bows because Kate would be wearing all pink and people would still refer to her as "him." I chose the small ones just because she doesn't have all that much hair to put in them, but she never leaves them in long! I think they are cute, I can't wait to see pictures of Ada wearing her new bows.
Obviously, I don't have little ones of my own, but here's what I understand from my psych. training...it's actually a very good thing to let them cry it out (when they're old enough)because they learn to self-soothe and won't be so dependent on their parents to comfort them every time they get upset. What I've read and heard in class is that you can go in every so often and rub their belly and say everything's ok, but just don't let them fall asleep in your arms.
I can't believe Ada is old enough to even be thinking about all this! I'm sure it will really hit me when I see her in a few weeks!
Oh, and what I've learned from class about discipline - the big thing is say "no" but also physically redirect her. In other words, pick her up and move her to something else interesting and appropriate. And if that doesn't work, I guess you have to evaluate the hand spanking thing. I can imagine that all those decisions are overwhelming and feel like they could have such huge consequences for her, but another very important thing I've learned in class is that kids are very resilient! I'm sure Ada is going to turn out wonderfully!
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