Your You-Ness

{6 months old}
things i don't want to forget:

you play with my hair while eating - twist it around your hand and run your fingers through it. it's such a sweet gesture. i've been thinking about chopping most of it off, but you make me reconsider. 

speaking of hand movements, you are now practicing your dexterity by repeatedly opening and closing your fist. this is especially adorable when you're drifting off to sleep and we can just barely see your little hand peeking up over the pack&play (and then disappearing.. and then reappearing.. and then disappearing...)

you also like to delicately place your hand on our faces, or grab it with both and pull us toward you (so sweet!!). 

(you & aunt Loryn practicing a face grab/backwards hug situation)

i even love your "hunger face." - don't get me wrong, i would never want you to be hungry, but occasionally when you are especially ravenous, your eyes lock on to the target and you open your mouth as wide as possible while taking short, forceful breaths. i need to get that on tape. 

sometimes when you wake up in the wee hours of the morn, you don't go back to sleep right away. you just sit there and talk. daddy and i listen to your "aaaa. aaa. aaaaaaa"ing and can't help but laugh - even when we want to be mad that you're keeping us up.

it's official. you have inherited daddy's "crazy eyes." in other words, when you've been asleep for any length of time and awaken suddenly, your bloodshot, wide-eyed stare pierces through my very soul.. (well that may be a bit dramatic but you clearly look POed). don't worry, wake daddy up at the wrong time and i'm sure you'll get to experience them yourself someday. 

you are for real a professional ninja now. or baby beckham. those kicks are strong! and you kick with a ferocity i've not witnessed before. you've even taken to pulling your knees up and kicking off when mommy or daddy is holding you, and one of these days you're just going to do a backflip right out of my arms. careful munchkin!!

you gave us our first card for valentine's day. it had a picture of you sitting there smiling triumphantly and a little construction-paper footprint bouquet (made cuter by the little uneven monkey-toeprints). i cried.

you recognize "your peeps" now. anyone you know can summon a most brilliant dimpled smile (and sometimes even people you don't know). i love that you do this. you amaze me.

The Return of the Crud

so basically, you've been sick for almost 4 weeks now. it started off as a bit of congestion, and you had your first (low-grade) fever on Friday the 29th (of January) - which also happened to be the first of several snowdays in the past couple weeks from which you were quarantined. :(  we could tell you felt yucky, but even then it was only mildly irritating to your normally-sweet disposition, so we just let you sleep as much as possible and tried to wait it out. but in the last week and a half, the congestion has morphed into a runny nose and produced a scary-sounding cough that occasionally causes you to projectile vomit on anything in your path. not so much a good time for the washing machine to up and quit. 

just last week, you started putting both your fists in your mouth, drooling fiercely and then screaming in pain when we give you something to gnaw on. you seem to be calmed by the miraculous orajel swabs i preemptively purchased for teething. does this mean you're teething? and if so, those toofers need to stop hurting you. why do babies need teeth anyway? 

of course, mommy and daddy freak out a tad at the slightest screech (you being our first baby and all), so we took you to dr. brassfield on monday. to be fair, your cold symptoms did seem to be worsening rather than clearing up. but as we suspected, there's not much we can do to help you (you seriously can't imagine how frustrating that is!). if i haven't mentioned it before, we love our doc and ansley does, too. when she's not sick. 

at least we ruled out the big things. dr. b looked at you and said "i bet you don't cry for long at your house." nope. can't imagine why...

i guess i should take a second to explain. first, a disclaimer: i am not an expert, nor do i recommend raising your child exactly as i do. i know there are a myriad of methods out there and, really, who knows which is better than another. what works for me may not work for anyone else. so i'll try not to give "advice" unless it's asked. the following (and any further parental nuggets i choose to share herein) is simply "how we do." take it or leave it. right or wrong. crazy-brilliant or just literally crazy.

i've mentioned babywise in here before, and though i believe in its merits and fully trust its effectiveness, much like me and the pill, babywise and i have broken up. it was a mutual decision and an amicable split, but b-dub and i differ when it comes to the "cry it out" scenario.

there may come a time when i will feel the need to do such a thing. and i may eat my words with a healthy dose of my own saltwater tears, but at the current moment i simply cannot understand why i would set my baby down and leave her to cry when we can rock or sway for a few minutes, or even lay her in the crib while i watch over her as she floats painlessly off to dreamland. you could say she has us wrapped around her abnormally-long little fingers. but i just think right now she's a pretty good little baby, and i'm fairly certain she's not lacking the ability to soothe herself (her personal morning talkshow is evidence of this..). 

we did get into the habit of co-sleeping during the sickness as i feared for her respiratory function and needed to hear her breathing, but are finally easing back to the crib and she's done fabulously. yes, there are times when jon or i go to her in the middle of the night to re-insert the paciplug, but for the most part she sleeps well. and for me, that's enough. 

**disclaimer 2: if you're feeling out of sorts after reading this post, you're not loopy. i'm retro-posting, since i didn't have time to do so when i first started writing this. if you're new to.. me.. or this blog, i'm going to be doing quite a bit of this since i have "journal entries" that date back beyond a year and am seriously trying to organize pictures to go with them. i also have a list of pics and videos to add before i really "catch up" and can start posting in realtime again. so please forgive me if i don't get to the latest ansley stat. i'm trying!! i know.. i suck. 

will cute ansley pics help???

(snow-suiting up!)

(but.. now how do i get to my hands?)

My Funny Valentine

{6 months in a week!}

(don't mommy and daddy just have the most beautiful valentine in the whole wide world??! we think so :)

For our first Valentines together, we decided to take it low-key and just follow what has become our weekend tradition of going out to breakfast. We sat in a booth at Tex & Shirley's where I unloaded every toy and plaything known to man and you proceeded to ignore them and flirt with every boy baby in sight. Little harlot. ;)  There must be something about boys, because you seem to stare a bit longer at them [I'm convinced this all started on your first "girls' lunch" with Heidi and I when a mom walked by with a little boy and you literally turned your head to follow them as they passed]. 

(your "flirtface")

Well this particular day there happened to be an extremely cute little dude at the table next to us with his family. His sister gave him a Valentine (which I just thought was super-specially-cute anyway) and out of the blue he lets out the most charming baby belly laugh! Daddy looked at you and said "What the heck?! Why don't you do that yet?" And come to find out, laughing baby was literally only 1 day older than you. "Well," daddy said, "that's fine. She'll be laughing tomorrow." Hehehe I wouldn't hold my breath. Now daddy and I both know that babies develop at different rates; and as far as talking goes, you really aren't unusually vocal. So it's totally ok that you're not laughing yet. You do at least giggle. But then we started thinking - should we be taking this personally? I mean, maybe we just aren't that funny..   

;)

Happy Valentines Day, my little lovebug.

(playing the bongos)

(way too happy about that coupon in your hands. that's mommy's little girl!!)

You Like To Move It, Move It...

{5 months & some change}
You now do a reverse army or upside-down crawl when lying on your back where you pull your legs in and then shoot upward like an inchworm. Aaah the beginning of mobility. Help. You are also a teeter-sitter in that you can basically sit up all by yourself, but after a little while you lose your balance and topple sideways in a very cute manner (we try to catch you when you threaten to fall forward onto your sweet face). Your ninja kicks are getting very fast now, and you enjoy doing a little tap dance for our entertainment when standing. You ambushed daddy when he tried to kiss you the other day and laid a roundhouse square on his nose (that's my girl!). 

Your fav game in recent days is "light as a feather, stiff as a board." Well, not so much the light as a feather part. But you seem to find it necessary to suddenly straighten and stiffen your little self when held at a certain angle. Much to daddy's elation, bouncing is now fun for you and elicits a gummy grin that he can't summon enough. He practices the (low) throw and catch maneuver with great success. You really look like you're processing everything now. Of course, you've always had that look about you, but the wheels are turning faster these days. I can see it. Daddy is not ready for you to start with the "mama, dada" yet since that will apparently signal you've reached adulthood (or, at the very least, that you're no longer a baby).

Can you hear me down there?

{MLK day}

daddy had off today, and when the crud seemingly wasn't disappearing on its own, he called the pediatrician helpline to see if there was something more we could do. she told him to take your temperature and see if you had a fever. keep in mind, though ear thermometers are supposed to function with minimal effort, daddys don't always know how to work them. so when yours couldn't get it to register and the lady suggested "taking the rectal temperature," he just removed it from your ear and shoved it in the bum (so sorry about that honey). and when that didn't work, he realized that one of the protective caps was on and felt the need to reattempt the measurement sans cap. you poor thing. needless to say, we won't be using that thermometer again. nor will daddy be taking your temperature...

and speaking of ears, i cannot apologize enough if you develop a complex about your right one. for one reason or another, it simply will not stay back. when we hold you, put you in your carseat or lean you up against anything, your right ear folds over and refuses to straighten out! mommy will continue to manually pin it whenever i take note of this occurrence but fear that at this point, it may simply be too late. short hair could be an impossibility for you, my dear. i'm just sayin.

(protruding right ear can be observed here. it's ok though 'cause you'll get hair...someday)

(and you're so cute it won't matter! love the hands on the knees in this one, btw)

iCare/Daycare

{21 weeks}

daycare sucks. not for you; for me. i hate that they take you away from me, and that i have to work and can't keep you at home and watch you myself. but i know deep down that you're probably having more fun there than you would with me anyway, and you're actually learning things i might not be able to teach you (currently, you are "working on sitting"). they even had a cute little cubby and labels in the fridge and around the room for you before you got there. however, it does not help when i come to pick you up and they're like "oh she smiles all day; she has the best smile!" and then i come over for a love break and i get no smiles!!! dangit wth. ok so this doesn't happen everytime and you do sometimes beam at the sight of us, but seriously - you could at least pretend that you're happy i'm there and anxious to come home...  ;)   mommy is just insecure, though. i know this. when i had to drop you off on monday for the first time, it took Mimi Sally a good 10 minutes to talk me down in the parking lot  (and caused her a good scare when she answered the phone) because i was too upset to drive away. it was your "mommy? where are you going? face" as i left that stuck the bubble in my chest. ouch my heart hurt to leave you. this is why daddy shall do it from now on (except under extremely extenuating circumstances). 

unfortunately, since starting daycare, you have developed "the crud." this snot-infused, Darth Vader-sounding congestion presents itself at night and causes you difficulty breathing. at least it seems like it's difficult. i call you my little love dragon because you also tend to hiss. you HATE when we use the snot-sucker (a-hem nasal aspirator excuse me) to restore your air passages, but it gets the job done. of course, even after propping you up in your crib and getting a humidifier with Vicks insert for your room, one of us ends up transferring you to our bed in the middle of the night or early morning. we should just start you there - I think you sleep better with us (funny - mommy sleeps worse. not that i mind).   :)


*disclaimer: daddy did want me to mention that he offered to take on the responsibility of dropping you off from the start because he knew how hard it would be on mommy, and this was an isolated incident. i'll be better next time, i promise. 


bonus: your mimi has a short day on Thursdays and is going to be picking you up early when she can to spend the rest of the day with her. she did this for the first time last week, but forgot that your stay would probably require a diaper change and didn't have any on-hand. consequently, you were returned to us wearing this:

why yes, actually, that is, in fact, a puppy pad. 

needless to say, i changed you at once (as soon as i picked myself up off the floor and stopped laughing). 

Your Happy Place(s)

{21 weeks}

things that make you happy: 

• letting Hanna lick your hands and trying to feel her teeth (thank you Lord that she turned out to be such a good dog and just lets you - even when you grabbed onto her lip and pulled during one particular play-session and mommy had a heart palpitation that she was going to respond negatively. give that dog a treat!).

(no, you don't have pink jaundice; we just need a different camera. sorry baby)

• lying on your back and chewing on your feet (preferably whilst naked - you also babble like a crazywoman when you do this).

• taking baths. though you've become even more active in recent weeks and splash water like an overgrown orca calf, bathtime is also one of my favorite times with you. your current inclination is to grab the washcloth and feverishly suck the liquid from its grasp. since this seemingly cannot be prevented, i try to let you do so before things get too soapy.  ;)

• putting everything in your mouth. 

• getting to sleep. you are most fussy when tired and unable to fall asleep. when this happens, you must be aided by one of your soft blankie-bears or blankie-bunny, which you grasp tightly and flail around in a stirring motion. when the stirring radius tightens and covers your face, i know you're almost down. you also like being wrapped up and rocked (but really, who doesn't? i bet i'd sleep well too if someone put me down that way!)

• not toys [yet]. you are amused by pretty much everything but the toys that were lovingly purchased for you for christmas. i'm sure you'll get there, but i was just so thrilled to realize that 6 months seems to be the start of the "real toys" and you're getting close!! [sidenote: it was upon this realization that mommy in fact went a little crazy at Target and bought up a few 6mo+ toys, thinking that with your advanced development, you'll be playing with them any time now! isn't it interesting how when you go into Target as a parent, you no longer come out with shirt or pair of shoes, but rush straight to the kids section and end up with nothing for yourself?]  ;)