Monday, July 28, 2008

Weekly Ada Stuff

We are one week away from one year, and this means that we are one week away from no more formula. My huge hope is that my next baby(ies) will nurse for the entire first year, and formula will be a thing of the past in the Moore household. But anyway, saying good-bye to formula is reason enough for celebration, not to mention that we also need to celebrate Ada's birth, Scott's birth, and my birthing of Ada. So, there will be lots to celebrate this time next week. I have already ordered Ada's cake, and Scott's parents will be coming to McDonough to join us for the celebration, but I will blog about the actual day after the fact.

As for other Ada info...she is walking all over place and becoming very confident with it. She is able to stand up now without pulling up on something, so she rarely crawls anymore. In fact, we bought her her first pair of shoes yesterday so that she can begin walking when we are outside of the house as well. We let her try them out as soon as we bought them, and at first she was a little wobbly, but she seemed to quickly get accustomed to them being on her feet. She is able to drink her entire bottle by herself now, and I know that soon we will need to switch to a sippy cup. Any advice on making this transition, moms that may be reading? Her favorite toy right now is a wooden farm animal puzzle that my mom bought her. She loves to one by one take the puzzles pieces and hand them to me. I then say the name of the animal, the sound the animal makes, and I put the piece back in it's place on the board, hoping that she will mimic some of this. She does mimic a few of the animal sounds. It is especially funny when she neighs like a horse. She also likes to take the puzzle pieces one by one and put them in a container, usually an empty wipes container. Once she has filled the container she dumps the whole thing out. She completes the entire process over and over all day. She is getting better about allowing me to read to her, and she has an actual favorite book--a touch and feel baby animal book. She loves that one because she can feel the soft fur of the different baby animals. She will also let me get about halfway through a Dr. Seuss alphabet book. Those are the only two that she will sit and listen to. Another favorite toy is actually Ellie's barbie guitar that was left here after Ann's last visit. Ada loves to push a button to make it play a song and then she gets a huge grin on her face and "dances." She is still climbing on to and out of everything including strollers, highchairs, and grocery carts. Thankfully she can't climb out of her bed yet.

Mothering is equally fun and frustrating these days. With little Ada's personality growing more and more everyday comes much opportunity for connection and playing on a level that has not yet been a possibility. At the same time, her growing independence has created a need for almost constant discipline. It absolutely wears me out. I say no and spank for the same things over and over and over. But I know I have to dig my heels in and continue to enforce the no, or it will only get more difficult later. I am not a natural disciplinarian!! And that is Ada this week. Next week I will give a full report of her birthday party and her one year doctor's visit. I am anxious to see how much she weighs and what percentage she is in. Until then...

4 comments:

The Slagleys said...

The bottle to cup transition was easier than I thought it would be. If I offered her a cup once or twice and then gave her a bottle, she would always want the bottle. So, we just went cold turkey to cups. She was a little funny about the change from formula to milk, but we went cold turkey for that too. She finally realized that if she wanted anything, it was going to be milk in a cup. She did not like the hard top cups, so we went with the cheapos at walmart called Nuby, and they were great. They are really soft, which means they didn't last long because she used them as teething toys after a while. Now, we use the hard top Playtex cups and the bigger/slightly firmer Nuby cups.
I can't believe she is almost a year, and walking so well! What a big girl! Can't wait to hear about her birthday!

Melissa said...

Laura Beth~ I am not a natural disciplinarian either! I feel the same way about having to enforce no and spank throughout my days. Some days distraction works..but for the moments when she deliberately disobeys after I have told her no I have to spank. It is SO hard to do! I didn't think before having kids that it would be that difficult. Some days I don't feel like it is getting through to her at all! She continues to do the same things over and over. Oh well, I guess that is why we have always heard to "be consistant." Happy Early 1st Bday Ada~ cant wait to see pictures and hear the stories about it!

jane said...

the nuby works well for us too!
as far as the disciplining goes- i gave e his first "time out" the other day... i think it made a much bigger impression than i thought it would. he kept going after the outlet and smiling at me-- he was making it a game... i picked him up and (while telling him no etc..)carried him into the den. i put him on the other side of the closed baby gate and turned around a few steps away for less than a minute. he was crying.... so upset! but he has been better(not perfect) about the outlet!

Ann said...

Hey-this is actually about the last post. I am just now catching up. Anyway, you put it so perfectly about Auburn and Scottsboro. I have always thought about if mom and dad ever moved away from Scottsboro. I don't know that I would be that sad to leave this town, but I become extremely attached to houses!! So I would be sad about that. I still feel like a grieve over college a little bit. It's good to know you feel the same, because sometimes I wonder if it's because mine was cut a little short. If you can find out what shoe size Ada wears, let me know.