Strawberries

The Guajolotita looooooves berries. Especially strawberries. Last year I got some strawberry plants and put them in pots amongst our thicket of mint. (That mint is going to become sentient in a year or two. It's insane.) In the postpartum, back-to-work, unpacking-from-having-just-moved-5-days-before-giving-birth disorganization I created/lived in I DID manage to keep them alive. However, lots of flowers shriveled from lack of watering on hot days and many berries rotted forgotten on the plant.

This year they came up in and all around their pots. After I noticed the plants flower ing from the living room window, I went out and watered them once or twice. Then a few weeks ago I saw the proto-strawberries!

Kiddo pulled the first ripe one off Friday night, and almost every day since. It's so fun to watch her jam the fruit into her mouth and start signing "more" before the juice has even begun to drip off her chin.

(Well, she always does that with berries, even sitting at the table - but it's especially sweet outdoors with home grown ones!)

Words and Phrases at 14 months

I found this draft, she's 16 months today so I'll back date this to 14 months per the title. I probably never published it because it didn't feel complete - which it can never be because every hour it's at least one new word!

She still says all of these at 16 months, though her pronunciation is more refined and "carro" "conejo" and "calle" are all different (of those three, only "calle" would be recognizable to a stranger).

English:
Up
Down
Hot
Ba-ba! (Bye-Bye!)

Spanish:
Mami
Papi
Che-Che (leche) (milk)
Gol! (pelota) (ball)
La-la (Abuela)
Ca: Caballo, Calle, Camara, Carro, Camion, etc...
Ahi esta! (There it is!)

Imitative sounds:
Guau-guau (Perro)
Mraow (Gato/cat)
Meeeeeh (Vaca, although this is the sound a sheep makes)
*tongue clicks* (horse)
Choo-Choo (for trains or cars or any vehicle)

Mami

The sweetest baby ever now says "Mami". Constantly, almost plaintively. And it breaks my heart.

She's NOT talking about me. She wanders around, reciting it to herself. She stares out the car window (while I am sitting next to her on the other side), repeating it over and over. There's barely a pause between iterations: "Mami. Mami. Mami."

Both my suegra and the nanny have coached her on this. During meals or diaper changes, they each recite with long, over-emphasized syllables: "Maaaammmmiii. Paaaapiiii." And since neither Mami nor Papi are around.... well, of course she learned no meaning to associate with the word.

I pointed out to each of them that it doesn't make sense to ask her to say "Mami" when Mami isn't there. But neither one understood what I meant. I should have insisted they stop. :-(

Both my suegra and the nanny are so proud that she says it. I am getting tired of smiling when they mention it.

Sleep training, night Q

I've got to insert another post about nights 14 and 16. But we're around night 29 tonight.

It's only like the 3rd or 5th time this kiddo has slept 6 consecutive hours. And the first opportunity I've had to also sleep those hours. All the other nights, her 6 hr stretches have been 9:30 - 3:30 and I haven't been in bed earlier than 11:30 - 1:30 on those nights.

This week she's been really wakeful again - maybe molars coming in, or maybe habits re-forming without having really been broken in the first place. So I asked The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe if he could get up with her tonight. He said sure - but also put her to bed.

Maybe you can see where this is going. She went to bed late because of our own familial disorganization (late dinner -> late bath -> late bedtime) . Once he was putting her down, I thought, "Oops. Never mind, I'll go in the first time she wakes up tonight instead, and he can get up with her after."

Well she's been asleep 5.5 hours. I am awake, with one engorged corn silo boob.

It's leaked long enough that the shape of my torso is soaked into the sheets. We've got quite a busy weekend so I have no idea how I'll be able to add another load to the list of "must accomplish!" laundry, but the mattress cover has to come off ASAP. The real problem here is of course that I WAS EXHAUSTED BUT AM NOT ASLEEP because boob pain woke me up.

There are additional minor annoyances including: why does she sleep on the night THCSITU agrees to get up with her? I am hungry because we had Thai delivery for dinner (and gave the kiddo half my food since THCSITU's order is too spicy). I am awake and so would love to do laundry or work on her baby book - but those things would wake one or both of these people up. Gah.

On another note, I need to take the time to plan and write a celebratory blog post. I don't want this to become a "list of grievances" type blog. Being this kiddo's mom has been more fun - and easier! - than I ever imagined. She's amazing and I am excited to see her sweet face when she wakes up.

Because my other boob just started leaking too. (Really.)

Baby no more

Finally have an official first word:
Agua

Contenders:
Gol
Not
Ah-choo
(She says all of those too, but not with regular context/meaning. Well, Ah-choo is FULL of meaning but not really a word.)

Though I LOVED having a tiny baby, I have noticed that this is physically easier. There are always a lot of things to accomplish, but just not so infinitely many loads of laundry, bottles to wash, minutes (hours) of nursing. Also kiddo can play on her own for ten minutes or more at a stretch. That's never when I desperately want her to so I can finish what I am trying to do, of course, but still a nice development.

On the other hand, the actual parenting is a lot more challenging. When to give in, when to hold firm, when is defiance a result of hunger/thirst/exhaustion and when is it plain old toddler contrariness? And we've only barely begun.

Sleep training, Night 3

SHE DID IT!!!

I will have to write about it tomorrow, because I have no idea if she woke up since I put her down (with 40 min of hysteria) again at 11:17. I think maybe once - vague recollection - but I doubt there was more hysteria.

I'm unfortunately awake anyway (at 5:17 am), with one engorged boob. But that's ok!!

Baby girl has an incredibly runny nose right now, so I thought about giving up and just starting sleep training over in a week when she's healthy. But The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe said we should persevere.

And she's still asleep!!!

ADDENDUM: she woke up at 5:55. I went in right away and nursed her, she drank a lot then went back in her crib without a fuss. I put her down & she rolled over and slept. When she woke again at 7:30 or 8, I brought her to our bed for nursing&sleeping. It's 9am and they are both asleep. I gotta finish these Cinnamon Rolls for Easter brunch.

Sleep training, night 1

We have 2 issues to address:
Sleeping in the crib instead of with us
Sleeping instead of eating all night

It's pretty clear that I am a human pacifier. Last few weeks, she's not eating that much but also WON'T LET ME GO. She's 12 months and almost 2 weeks old and eats like a champ during the daytime. She is physically capable of sleeping and not eating overnight. We just have to help her realize that.

So the plan was to have me nurse her before bed and put her down as always. But for all night wakings, The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe would go in and comfort her and put her back to sleep.

10 pm: asleep finally
10:30: awake. Kinda angry that THCSITU went in instead of me, but after a while she calms down for him and goes to sleep.
11:30: cries for under a minute before falling asleep in his arms. However, he has a really hard time lying her down. No clue how long that took - 45 min? Longer?
1:30: this time she is a bit madder but otherwise like previous? Not sure.
3:35: THCSITU tries to comfort the kiddo. 25 min of hysteria. Eventually they come find me in our room, Baby Girl leading her Papi by the hand. He is upset to see her so upset. Which I understand. It was no fun for me to listen to it either.

I don't want her to think she can scream till she gets her way - but since she has an on-the-boob night waking habit, she probably was honestly hungry by that point.

I put her on the boob as we talk about it. I was wrong to try and eliminate all the night wakings at once. She may not NEED to eat at night, but her body sure is accustomed to it. She settled down for THCSITU tonight with very little fuss, until this 4 am feeding. We talked about boob vs. bottle. I advocate that tomorrow we do the same thing, but at any 4am-or-after awakening I will go in instead of him. To feed her and put her to sleep - and leave her sleeping in her crib. We'll see if later in the week or next weekend we can start trying to push that feeding back, substitute a bottle of milk and then after switch to water, or just skip it entirely.

I took her back to her room where THCSITU had put her crib mattress on the floor and put some play mat next to it for him to sleep on. I nursed and rocked and sang to her - and noticed that she popped off before she fell asleep, and rolled back to sleep.

I set her on her mattress, which caused her to reach for the nipple again. But I just took it out of her mouth and she rolled to her side and fell asleep.

Here's hoping her next waking is at 7 - although this room doesn't have a curtain so I don't know if she will sleep once it's light out.

If only I could sleep... this mat is so uncomfortable!!