Sleepless Night

I can't blame this one on night shift.

I just put my sweet baby back to bed...after she woke up and refused to be put back in her crib until just recently. I seriously thought about just grabbing a blanket and laying on the couch and snuggling with her, but I figured Jordon wouldn't appreciate me spoiling her like that since I have to work tonight through Sunday night.

I can't help it. I'm a sucker.
That sweet face.
That fluffy little hair that wisps against my cheek as we rock and she has her head on my shoulder.
Her smell of baby.
I love it. I miss it when I work. I have to admit that I'm jealous of any mommy who gets to be home with her baby every night, but that just means the nights I am home with my two loves is sweeter.
I'm thankful for being able to hold my sweet baby.

I was chatting with a nurse from labor and delievery a couple days ago and she was telling me about a case last week. A mother was in an accident and came up to the floor and delievered a 36 week stillborn little boy. I was speechless. I got choked up. My eyes started tearing up. Now that I'm a mom I can't imagine losing something so precious.
It breaks my heart for that mom...for that family. Such an unsupecting event that ended in tragedy.
I look at my own child differently now.
I'm thankful for her life and her health. We're so very lucky. Afterwards, I was anxious to get home and hug and kiss all over Kirkland.
Sometimes I feel bad because I complain that she had "a bad night" because she woke up after she was put down or she was difficult to get to sleep. At least I get to rock my baby to sleep. At least I get to enjoy all those little things that make her my Kirkland. I found myself earlier gumbling because I had just laid my head down for 30 minutes and she woke up. I feel so guilty. There's a mom out there tonight that will never get to rock her sweet baby. She'll never get to have a midnight feeding with him. She'll never get to see him grow up.

I'm thankful for Kirkland's "bad nights."

What are we gonna do?!

It's the little things in life that make me so excited such as my new dishwasher (early Christmas present for J and I thanks to my parents!). I think Kirkland got a kick out of watch daddy and grandpa try to replace the old one with our new cool one. It was quite entertaining watching her mimick what my dad was doing. He'd look under the dishwasher and get up and next thing you see is Kirkland's little butt in the air with her face on the floor trying to look too!

Within the past week Kirkland has learned to pick her nose. Yuck! I don't know where she got it from and I try not to laugh at seeing my 10 month old with her finger up her nose. The good news is she's learning to share--you can see where this is going! I had her in the bathroom with me while I was taking a bath and she stands at the side of the tub, sticks her finger up her nose, then offers her little finger to me like "Here mommy. It's for you!" Of course she's giggling as she's doing this. I thought, "Oh my gosh, I can see her doing this in church or at day care or preschool!" For now I'm trying the "gross/that's not nice/we don't do that" approach to breaking that kind of "sharing."

We're also on day #5 of no bottle with success! Matter of fact, she doesn't seem to even miss her bottle and hasn't made any fuss over using the sippy cup at all. It may seem too soon, but our pediatrician wants her off the bottle by 12 months and she was down to only having a bottle at bedtime. So far so good! We just have to buy more sippy cups that she likes so we don't have to wash a load of sippy cups every night. Only problem is in our search for "the right" cup we've probably bought about $100 to $150 worth of unliked cups. I'm hoping she'll get to the point of liking them; if not then we have a cabinet full of sippy cups for sale! Haha

I'm trying to think of fun things to do with Kirkland on my days off (without beating that activity to death!). I've been doing some looking and the public library in Camden has a story time for kids under 2 years old on Thursdays. Luckily, I'm off this Thursday so I'm thinking we may have her first trip to the library. Have I mentioned how much she loves books?! This girl will sit still (yes, in one spot!) for 20 to 30 minutes "reading" her books! I hope she still likes books by the time high school rolls around!

Growing up is hard...on mommy

Kirkland changes daily.
She learns new words.
Surprises us with new tricks.
She looks like she grows an inch a day. (And somehow still in her 6-9 months clothes depending on the brand.)

I can't get over how quickly my little baby that loved to be swaddled and rocked has turned into an independent, curious little girl. This time last year, we were still preparing for her to come. Now, we've started talking about her first birthday party (which is going to be TONS of fun, by the way!).

She amazes me at the things she can do now. Her favorite new things are cruising from place to place, throwing/rolling a ball back and forth, and "reading" her books-- mostly upside down and backwards, but it still counts.

Kirkland likes to mimick and repeat what she hears now too. She'll usually randomly say words that she hears us say and then won't say them again when you try to coax her into it, but the other day she mimicked Jordon saying "baby" and now every other word is "baby." Since she can't say "grandpa" yet she resorts to "papa" and she loves to go to my parents' house and pet the "pup pups" or "doggie," as she'll say every now and then. Other than that and her usual "mama, dada" and other few words she babbles all the time, especially when she's reading her books to herself.

We're slowly moving away from prepared baby foods, too! I'm so excited that K can share a meal with us now. As Jordon says, she eats "legit" food, like my mom's chicken and dumplings and green peas Monday night for dinner. I try to make foods that she can eat also at dinner time (if I get dinner done before her dinner time).

She's even doing so well with a sippy cup that we're doing a trial this weekend of no bottle...at all. It doesn't seem to make a difference to her so far. At least we could be a step ahead since Dr. Haile wants her to be off the bottle by 12 months.

I have to say that I love "mommyhood" and watching all the exciting things that my sweet girl is learning. I just wish I could slow time down a little so we could enjoy this stage a little longer. :)

My Child

My child. I don't know where she gets that little attitude from. At 9 months she has the attitude of a 16 year old.

Lovely.

I can't imagine what that child is going to be like when she is 16! At least we have a little over 15 years to work on her. Although, she does listen to her daddy very well. Sounds like I'll be using a lot of "Do you want me to tell your daddy?"
That one got me every time.

Last week, she was playing in the kitchen floor while I was loading the dishwasher when I saw her headed to the trash can.

"Kirkland, are you about to mess with the trash can?"
She turns and looks at me with a little grin. Who am I kidding? I'm asking a 9 month old if she's about to mess with that shiney silver trash can sitting there screaming for her to touch it!
I watched her grab that trash bag with those little fingers.
"No, Kirkland! Don't play with the dirty trash can!"
From the look the gave me, you'd have thought I had yelled at her or threatened her life or something!
Of course I had to document this! This is a picture right after I told her "no."

Then, she started drying it up because she saw I wasn't kidding. Notice the big alligator tears down her cheeks.

Of course, I had to laugh. I guess it hurt her feelings to have mommy laugh at her during this sensitive time. This is the look I got...

Just in case you can't tell, my little stinker gets her way...a lot!

Be Like A Glow Stick

I heard an awesome quote from 89.7 WMHK's positive thoughts for the day the other day that I thought I'd share on our blog.


"Lord, I wanna be like a glow stick. Bend me and break me till Your light shines through me." -Savannah's prayer

Not sure who Savannah is, but I'm sure she's a child. It amazes me at how shameless children are about sharing their faith and God! I've found myself censoring what I'd like to do or say because I'm worried about offending someone who may not believe the same thing I do. I'm fine with it if you don't believe in Jesus, or God, or the Spirit, but I can't let it stop me from living what I believe and spreading the love of God to everyone.

I remember my faith as a child. It was strong. I was on fire. I wanted more. Like I want now. I want to teach Kirkland to have that strong faith. I love that child-like innocence when it comes to loving God and telling people about Him. My goal for this week is to learn how to be shameless and child-like in faith.


"Mommy when I went under, the water was like total peace. The whole world stopped and it was just me and God." Grace Potvin via 89.7 on her recent baptism.

Goodnight...not so much

I think my child is going through a phase...or something. She is just aweful for me to put down to bed. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm gone 3 to 4 nights a week when it's her bedtime. So when I'm home at bedtime she knows she get away with anything.

Insert incredibly guilty feeling here.

We had her at one time where she would lay down before being completely asleep and be fine. Last night at 8pm she was wide awake and totally not interested in sleep at all, even though she was rubbing her eyes. I rocked her some and then figured I'd take the "Super Nanny" approach. Needless to say, Jordon ended up with her, he rocked her and put her back in the crib...then I ended up with her and she went straight to sleep. Go figure, little stinker. She's been asleep since about 9:30pm and it doesn't look like she's moved at all.

I have no clue what to do! I know it doesn't help that I work at night. Insert more guilty feelings here. Ugh! It looks like we're going to have to get tighter with her schedule, especially around bedtime. What to do, what to do!

Time flies...

I promise to update more often. There's so much Kirkland can do now that I can't even fit it in just one blog. But let's just say she gets into anything & everything.

My baby (and I use that name loosely because she's not so much a baby anymore) has started the "monkey see, monkey do" phase. My mom was telling her to "chew" last night and pulling her arm like she was pulling a train horn and Kirkland had to pull the horn too. We have to be careful what we say also because she'll just randomly blurt out words she just heard, like "grandad" and "patty cake." No lie. My 9 month old said "patty cake" just as plain as day sitting in her feeding chair and then started clapping those sweet, sticky hands to get her point across. She hasn't said it since. (haha)

Kirkland's also getting/gotten her first tooth. Watch your finger; that little tooth is sharp when she chomps down! I found out the hard way. And right next to that little white tooth poking through the gum is another one about to sprout. Surprizingly, she's taken this teething deal really well and only gets a little fussy every now and then. Luckily.

I finally had to hide put up everything from her reach on the shelves. The bad thing is, she still manages to find it and will sit, point, and make her "look here" noises until you acknowledge that that is indeed what she wants and she isn't getting it. Prepare for fit now. She knows the drawers and containers where I've stashed her goodies, but still insists several times daily to try to get me to cave in a give her "no no's." I hold up pretty well on this; my parents and Jordon on the otherhand, don't. We can see who the boss is in that group.

Half a year!

I can't believe we've already hit the "half a year" mark. It seems just like yesterday the nurse was handing her to me in the delivery room and now she doesn't think she's supposed to sit still.

At our pediatrician appointment this past Friday she was 26.25 inches and 16 pounds, 4 ounces. Big girl!! :) Developmentally she's right on time, even a wee bit ahead (just because she's so stinkin' determined) and healthy as a horse. She did end up with her first fever due to the vaccines she got, which ended up scaring me to death. Now she's fine and back to her normal little self. The nurses just loved her. Especially the nurse that gave her the vaccines, which she did really well with. She got one in one leg and only whimpered a little then the second one made her cry. The nurse told her she was sorry and Kirkland suddenly dries up the tears and gives her a huge toothless grin then let out a huge scream the second she walked out the door and then she was fine. Only my child!

We swear this child is teething. Drooling, crying at night, chewing on EVERYTHING, and puffy little gums. The bad thing is she hates getting Tylenol and tries to spit out the Ora-gel. I try to explain to her that they're to help her (yes, I explain even the smallest things to my 6 month old), but she just looks at me like "uh-uuh, you aren't getting that stuff in my mouth."

She's now on the move too! Not crawling, but rolling everywhere--I guess you do what you've gotta do! She still tries to get her knees under her and she's learning to "scoot" to her toys. Most of the time I put her on her play mat and walk to the kitchen for a second and come back to find her either completely rolled off the mat and/or turned 180 degrees from the way she started. I even found her this morning chewing on the flap at the bottom of the ottoman.

Everyone says that she has the best little personality and thankfully she's very good when she goes out with us, especially to her favorite restaurant, Charlie's on Broad. At Charlie's, when we walk in the waitresses say, "oh, you brought our baby to see us!" and we even have our own special table near the back. She even let our favorite waitress hold her while we ate our lunch last week. Not many 6 month olds can say they've been a hostess at a restaurant before.

Here's a picture of our sweet baby on her first Easter with Gran.


And our family Easter picture...



Six month pictures to come!

Still here!

So long since I've updated!!! Aaahhh!! Anyways, we're all healthy and happy. We've been a little busy lately, but I have the weekend off and an update will be coming!

Happy birthday to mommy!

Monday was my first birthday as a mommy! Best birthday ever I might add since I got my Christmas/birthday present nearly 4 months ago!

We're working on eating baby food now and she's doing well if we can just get everyone who keeps her to be consistant with our feeding schedule. She still makes the

"oh my gosh, what are you feeding me"

face at first, but then she starts opening her mouth up and gobbling up her food. So far we've tried sweet potatoes, carrots, fresh banana, and peaches. Sweet potatoes and carrots are "regulars" this week and then we'll add another "regular."

Today I plan on getting a food processor so I can make and freeze her baby food and we won't be wasting as much since she only eat a little out of the containers over the 2-3 days and then we have to chunk them. We'll see how this goes.

Still no rolling over yet. She's so close, but her arm just gets in the way. It's very close though.

We went to her first "awake" trip to the zoo last Thursday. The weather was gorgeous, but not so much her mood at first. After a 40 minute melt-down, scaring some little kids on a field trip, and freaking out the elephants we were sitting near, she was fine. I think she's a little spoiled though (duh) because I took her out to watch someone feed the giraffe that was standing right in front of us and after that she expected me to hold her and not put her back in the stroller. Not a great idea when it was just me and her and my arm ended up being so tired! After the melt-down, she did seem to enjoy looking a the animals, particularly the fish and the lizards (gross). I'm anxious to take her back, but this time with some help so we can take turns holding her and pushing the stroller.

Within this past week, Kirkland has laughed out loud for the first time (thanks to Granny Dot) and is soooo close to rolling over it's not funny! Now that's she laughed, I've only been able to get to do it once more.
She's a tough cookie I guess!
I've been trying to get her to roll over by putting her on her floor mat so that she has to roll over to be able to see the TV. Sad, I know, but for some reason this baby loves watching TV and she'll ignore you in a heartbeat to catch a glimpse of a football game.

I'm hoping to be able to post soon that she's rolled over for the first time all by herself!

"I'm not a newborn anymore!"

Three months old and not a newborn any longer!! I feel like we've accomplished something and should be like, "hey, we've kept her alive and healthy for 3 whole months and counting!!" haha...

Miss priss is growing, changing, and learning something new everyday. Her new favorite things are:
sitting in the Bumbo practicing not being a bobble head,

sitting in her feeding seat playing with toys on the tray,

sitting in the "happy seat" grabbing at toys,

playing with her tongue,

and looking in the mirror at herself.

She loves to jibber-jabber and smile about everything, especially when she's getting her diaper changed or sitting in her "happy seat." (She woke us up a few mornings ago "talking" in her crib to her mobile. Seriously the cutest thing ever!)

Now that I'm back to work, we've gotten ourselves on more of a routine. Jordon keeps her at night while during the day my mom, dad, or him watch her for me to sleep. I'm actually amazed at how well it works out with me working at night, but then if I worked 12 hour days I'd probably not get to play with her as much when I have to work.

Kirkland now goes to bed between 7:30pm and 8:30pm and sleeps between 8 and 12 hours at a time. We're so thankful because it gives Jordon and I a chance to spend some time together and to get some good sleep.

This little girl is seriously the best thing that ever happened to us and we're amazed by how much she's changed from 3 months ago and even just day to day! I never thought a little toothless grin could melt my heart so fast!

11 weeks...almost

Time just won't stop flying by!! Our little girl will be 11 weeks old tomorrow! She's still growing, changing, and learning new things everyday!

She has now started noticing her hands. She eats them, stares at them, and is trying to grab at things. She also loves watching someone elses hands and fingers and has a ball when we do finger plays with her like "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

She has been going back to sleep after her 6-7 am feeding and sleeping until 10 or so, which I won't complain about at all! She's also doing great as far as going to sleep. We try to put her in the crib around 10 or 10:30 pm and she's able to get herself to sleep if she isn't already.

My first day back to work was Monday. Yeah, I picked a nice, snowy, icy day to go back to work. My mom actually stayed overnight so she could watch Kirkland for Jordon to take me to work. From what I'm told, everything went smoothly and Jordon did great. Tomorrow he will be completely by himself with her, but I'm not worried at all.

I'll eventually post her 2 month old and our snow pictures. I'm such a slacker!

Tummy time, oh tummy time

My daughter hates tummy time. When I say hate, I mean hate. We've been working on trying to get her to at least like it, but now it's to the point that when you pick her up to flip her over and her knees hit the floor she starts fussing and eventually crying to get up.

We've tried almost everything and the pediatrician even gave me an article on how to teach her to like tummy time. We get in the floor with her, put a fun toy in front of her, and I even propped her up on the Boppy, but after a minute she gets mad and fusses and cries.

Today, I had her in the floor and picked her up and mentioned tummy time and she freaked before her toes even hit the pallet. All I could do was laugh. I think this little girl definately has a mind of her own.