Getting Ready for Bed

So I am taking pictures of our night-night routine so I can make a book on Shutterfly or someplace about what we do before bed. This was a suggestion in the No-Cry Sleep Solution. It will actually include real pictures of herself. I think she'll dig it as she gets a little older, especially.

Here she is in my desk chair. She has discovered spinning. She loves to spin in the chairs. Here is a rare shot of her bottom 2 teeth. She looks particularly tired in this shot. It's kind of funny, actually. I floss her teeth with these kiddy flossers and then let her play with it while I get her dressed.

"Hmm. I wonder just how to get this exactly between my teeth like Mommy does?"

Little girl in a big chair! Here she is enjoying the fruity floss flavor. Yummy! :)

The package says you should floss your kids' teeth until they are 10. I *really* hope she is able to do it sooner than that. That's a long time!

Pulling my Hair Out

Ok. So here is Claire after eating some spaghetti. She is not happy. Neither am I.

This is actually how about 90% of our meals end. She cries, screams, and is just generally unhappy.

I am pulling my hair out. Today I went to see the "darling" of the ped practice we go to. I liked him much better. I realized why. Instead of playing peek-a-boo and being all cutesey-wootsey like the regular ped (female) doctor we see, he actually was professional. He answered my questions and had EXCELLENT communication skills. Poor guy had to kind of clean up the mess the other doctor left. I basically went in not too happy.

I don't think putting Claire on cow's milk and pediasure (aka: basically sugary formula for older babies) will help her learn to eat better. Last night she choked badly on a soft spaghetti noodle. It's whole wheat spaghetti, but it's well-cooked and wasn't that long. Anyway, I asked why they weren't using separate charts. He was open to plotting her growth on the chart I brought in from WHO and was going to look into it more. When he showed me her chart again, I noticed that on the right-hand side that all these different types of formulas were advertised. I actually said "That disgusts me," and pointed to the names.

He was kind of shocked, as was I. I can't believe I said that. But I'm glad I did. LOL! He explained that these were not the "1977" charts but updated ones. I said, "Well, given all those ads on the side, it's hard not to say they are formula charts." I think I was making him squirm. Since I was already on a roll, I had the audacity to say, "Isn't that a direct violation of the WHO code?" (See my post about that.) He said it might be if he were to give me that paper to take home, but the chart is just for them to keep and use as a record. So THEN I said, "OH, so it's just subliminal messaging." Yup, I was on a roll. Then I said, "I see Pediasure is listed at the bottom of the formulas, so it's basically formula?" He said he was fine with me not using Pediasure or cow's milk, and agreed that it won't help her to eat more solids.

Today we had an off day. I honestly don't think she ate more than the 1 bite of yogurt I forced in her mouth this morning. She throws so much food, it's ridiculous. I used to think Kate from Jon and Kate Plus 8 was insane for mopping three times a day. Now I know why. Messy children. I am mopping three times a day. It's not like I do the whole floor, just the big chunks of food, etc. It seriously takes an hour from start to finish. And it's not like I get the highchair spotless. I just want the major food stuffs gone. ARGH! I just don't want our carpet to get all stained and gross. I also have forgotten to wipe down the highchair and let me tell you...food grows mold seemingly overnight. ESPECIALLY cottage cheese. We are talking BLACK by the next morning. Yucky!

So anyway, back to the appointment...he basically had ACTUALLY read the chart! Kudos to him. I actually think some people have a better memory than others, and clearly he does! He referred to some of the other things in the chart. (Still gagging on Cheerios at 12 months.) So he asked how her choking was this week. Well she's choked 3 times this week. And I don't mean gagging. I mean choking. Red face. Can't breath. Spits up. Cries. Screams. Wants out of her highchair and to be done for that meal.

So I am considering looking into his advice more about getting some intervention of a speech-therapist or something to come and work with her. I'm not ready to be done nursing, and she definitely isn't either. But I am ready to be done nursing every 2 hours around the clock. I REALLY think she'd sleep better if she managed to eat a good solid dinner.

It's like she has to be in the perfect mood for eating. Not too hungry or full...not too tired or too awake/wanting to run around...and then the food has to be just right. And the banana she eagerly ate the past 4 mornings, might just find itself flung across the room, sliding down the glass on our back door.

I'm not too keen on the whole intervention thing, but really...what else can I be doing at this point?

Splishy Splishy, Splash Splash!

Here are some bath-time pictures of Claire. No, normally we don't bathe in a swim diaper. I just put it on for the pictures so we could be modest.
She likes to chew on the washcloth. Yummy! She looks tired in this picture! :(

And, yes, she likes to drink the bath water. How can I stop her?

Here she is blowing bubbles and drinking the bath water...yummy?

And of course, she loves to play peek-a-boo with the wash clothes! YAY!

Indian Summer!

Claire loves to hide things in the trunk of her car (converts to walker--look familiar?).
I love this shot as her hair sort of looks like it's sticking up!

This is one of my new favorite action shots. Today was gorgeous. You can't ask for better weather in November! YAY for Indian Summer weather!

Claire in our front yard. She likes to touch the leaves and shake the branches.

There she goes! She loves walking around and being outside. The dress and shoes are from the Lees from Claire's birthday.

Claire and Mommy getting ready to go to church this past Sunday.

Despite being a little over-exposed, I like this shot of Claire!

Claire gives real hugs now! She's been doing it to her stuffed animals for awhile, so it's about time that she does it for people! She will squeeze you and pat her little hands on your back.

Here we are getting her shoes on to get ready to go. This is a rare glimpse of me not having my hair pulled in a pony-tail. SHOCKING! I know...

OK! All ready to go now! Yay! I really probably encourage her to be on this table. Oops.

I sat her on the couch in an attempt to get a shot of her, but as you can see she was being goofy.

HI! Claire has gone back to waving a lot. I like this much better than the throwing stuff at people in stores, etc. to get attention.

Ok, how awesome is our camera to get this action shot of her foot in the air. Yay!

Look! There she goes. It's hard to get shots of her face, but really, who wants to see shots of her back of her head?

Let's go on a walk! ALK! ALK!

Why not to Spank

I was raised not being spanked. We also plan on not spanking. I know people that spank their kids and understand it's a personal choice. But it's not a choice I'm going to make. Here is a great blog about it http://phdinparenting.com/2008/11/04/best-anti-spanking-resources/ I know people that spank babies as young as 9 months, and frankly, it breaks my heart. Baby-proof your house, make sure your child is well-rested, well-feed, and has plenty of attention throughout the day...and and really you should avoid the issues of spanking.

Preventative discipline people. Just like in teaching. Don't allow something to become an issue or "leave something" open to become an issue. This is something that unless you have had a child I don't think you can truly understand. This is because the baby goes from a newborn blob to slowly mobile. First just reaching and rolling a little bit slowly. Then rolling more and grabbing better and farther. Then this is when you realize how to baby-proof. Your baby will show you what needs to be baby-proofed. And thank goodness, we are not like horses or something, whose babies can walk within a few hours of giving birth! We don't have to baby-proof for SEVERAL months.

I think this is yet another great plan of God's to get the parents slowly used to the idea of a baby and such! But until that baby becomes a mobile crawling machine, I never realized that babies get into everything. What age do babies stop? Never? LOL! But basically you can't punish the baby for exploring its environment at this age, anymore than you can spank it for talking in the middle of church...it doesn't know any better. Now I know the meaning of that saying. "Children just don't know any better." They really don't.

And it really breaks my heart to hear a mom say "Don't hit!" to a kid that's hitting and then smack it. GEE! What a great way to show what you mean!....NOT! I just can't imagine the fear in a child that would be randomly hit for random reasons. Hurry up! SMACK. Sit down! SMACK! I think there are enough tough knocks in our world and parents don't need to be one of them.

I also have had several parents say to me, "Oh, we were never going to spank, either! You just wait. Just wait till the terrible twos." It drives me nuts. REALLY! It makes wonder how awful their kids were...or how awful they were to their kids...

And no, I highly doubt you're going to randomly check in with me and find me spanking anymore than you would find me with a bottle of evil formula plugged into a future babe's mouth. And no, I don't condemn you if you spank, have spanked, or see no problem with spanking.

I just think it's INCREDIBLY wrong, sets up huge issues, and and and...

Would you spank a dog or cat? No? Why? Because it doesn't work! Why is it going to work with a little human? It's not! It's merely going to give them something to hold against you in the future.

One of the most interesting journal entries I had my students write while I was teaching was "What would you do differently as a parent than your parents did with you?" (I had my kids write daily journals when I taught English. I read them all daily as well. It only equalled about 20 lines in journal notebook, and I could read each in about less than 1 minute each and grade them all in about half of my block prep, daily. (I read fast...you have to if you are an English major. But consider the grade level they are writing on too. Very easy to read!) I digress.) The most common journal was "I wouldn't spank!" No kids ever wrote "I would spank!" Of course you also had the absurd, yet funny entries, like bigger allowances, etc...

Ok, so that's my view on that...and at 15 months, no, I don't have a ton of experience with "real discipline" issues, because she's never had a tantrum. If she melts down, it's because she's over-tired and not getting what she needs...sleep!

So this time change is killing me. I HATE IT! I hate it getting dark out so early, don't you? But on the plus side, Claire is going to bed at 7. But that's bad as she wants to get up at 7, and I'd like to sleep another hour. BOO. Should I spank her for that? ;)

Halloween 2008

Here is Claire in her Exer-saucer enjoying her first KitKat bar! YUMMY! SHE LOVED IT!
She also had fun outside looking at all the Trick-or-Treaters. We had a GORGEOUS day for trick-or-treating. It was right about 70 degrees. Her outfit was almost too hot! But it cooled off as the sun set!

Here is me holding Claire. She is wanting down whenever we are outside. We also got her real "walking" shoes. (Target $9.99) I refuse to pay more than $10 ever for a piece of clothing, top or bottoms for myself. Perhaps I could look better, but really, who am I trying to impress? Feel free to sign me up for WHAT NOT TO WEAR. They would probably have a field day with me ;)

Claire is very excited because she sees all the people and wants to go see them! My cousin Kami got Claire this pink Carebear outfit. What a perfect outfit for our CLAIRE-BEAR!

Here come some of Claire's "fan" club. These 2 little girls live next door and just love Claire to death.

We took her around the big loop in our neighborhood and showed her off to some of our friends and neighbors. She had fun, as did I. Instead of burning off calories on our daily walk, I collected them in a bucket. HEHE! Claire and Josh are helping to eat the candy though! We did run low on the candy we had bought to pass out and passed out all the sucky candy like the Smarties and Tootsie Rolls that we had collected once we got back. Trick-or-treating was 5-8:30. That seems way too long. Wasn't always like 2 hours when we were kids? Like 6-8? Also, I thought it was funny how people gave us extra candy since she's little. We took her in the stroller...I think they pretty much know she's not going to eat all that candy, so they gave us some extra for Mom and Dad!

Cooking in Claire's Kitchen

Claire loves to play with her kitchen. I got this kitchen at a yard sale for a whole $5. What a deal! It even has batteries and talks! Barbie talks. Slightly creepy, yes, but Claire loves it!

Mostly she loves to open and shut all the doors. There are 3 doors on this thing. YAY!

I was trying to get her to smile for me, so I was playing peek-a-boo. This used to work. But now she'll do it back. Sometimes, she'll even do it when she sees the camera. LOL. I guess we need to play peek-a-boo more often then at picture time!

You can see her teeth in this one! Look mom! I brush them!

I love the look she has in this one too. It's her shy look!

Here she is opening the "microwave" for some popcorn. Popcorn? Wait, that's a choking hazard!

She likes to put stuff in and open and shut the doors. It's a great way to learn object permanence and keep her busy.

Here she is open and shutting the little oven door. It also has a sink and a stovetop with knobs that turn! There is also a little freezer/fridge on the side with the 3rd door.

Here she is putting one of her shoes into the microwave. YUM! Roasted shoes!

And now she's off to play with her soft bunny! Don't you love these tights. I <3'es them! :)

Did you vote yet? We did! We didn't even have to wait! We just walked right through! It was great!

Purple Snow Suit

Claire received a purple snow suit (coat and snow pants) from Glama Lynn and Grandpa Jason. Yay!

The snow pants have a zipper on the legs for easy diaper changes in the snow. How practical!

There are also three snap settings for the overall part of the snow suit. It's by Columbia.

It has a hood and pockets! That's something I always look for in coats! Thanks Glama Lynn and Grandpa Jason! This is a great present! :) Now come visit us and see some snow during the winter for a change!

It's a little big on her, so it should fit this whole season and perhaps even next year. (It's a 2T.)

I'm trying to make sure we get more pictures with me in them, as most of them are with Josh...and of course lots of ones with Claire!


We've been very fortunate in being given many things for Claire. Thanks to all our generous families and friends. :) I hesitate to mention people sometimes, as I don't want to leave anyone out!

Just Playing Around

Claire loves all of her stuff animals at the age she is now. It's really cute to see her hug them!
She also likes to try and put on any shoes or coats that are within her reach.

These sandals are as long as her legs, but she thinks it's great fun to try and put them on!

See the towel she is standing on? She jacked that one from the bathroom. She also likes to steal the kitchen towels to play with them. I can give her ones to play with, but she'll still take the ones hanging up. Hehe.