MamaMort

What’s “it” you might ask??  “It” is any meal served to Chloe Mae.  If she’s in and out of her highchar and eats a good chunk of food in less than 30 minutes I am one happy MamaMort!!  Only a half hour to feed an 8 month old might not seem like much of a triumph to some, but Miss Punky Brewster has a bit of an idependent side to her (no idea where that came from!!) and does not want to eat anything we try to give her on a spoon. 

When she first started giving us a hard time, we ran the gambit trying to figure out why she wouldn’t eat.  Did she develop a sudden aversion to green beans??  That must be it, because she’s chowing down the bananas!!  Then she started putting up a fight for carrots and sweet potatoes.  Maybe she’s too tired at dinnertime when we’re giving her veggies??   Well there’s the answer, because she really doesn’t fight us in the morning or at daycare.  Then daycare was lucky if they could get more than a couple spoonfuls in her and she was fighting us a couple mornings as well.  It must be the distractions!!  There’s too many other kids at daycare and the dogs must be distracting her at home… 

We came up with all kinds of theories on why she wouldn’t eat off a spoon for us.  Then one night she was happily eating chunks of sweet potato, but refused the exact same sweet potato in the mashed up form on the spoon.  At that point we just decided that it’s because she’s stubborn!!  So we’ve adapted – isn’t that what being a parent is all about?!?

So now at dinnertime she gets finger food while we’re eating – chunks of sweet potatoes or carrots, peas, green beans – and some of what we’re eating when possible – beans from our soup or pieces of pasta and garlic bread.  Then when we’re done, we sneak bites of baby food in when we can to help fill her up.  Since she’s had ample time to feed herself without us trying to feed her, and making her mad, she’s usually a little more willing to eat off the spoon.  And she’s fed herself enough that we don’t need to feed her quite as much baby food.

For the moment, we’ve adapted and mealtime isn’t stressful.  And next week, when she decides that practicing her pincer grasp and feeding herself is no longer the thing to do, hopefully we’ll be quicker to adapt!!

Nadya Suleman, aka “Octomom,” claims that only a year after delivering 8 babies at once she looks like this, all thanks to diet and exercise.  No plastic surgery for this chicky.  If she truly managed to get rid of the extra skin, stretch marks and the scar from her c-section with just diet and exercise, I want to know her secret!!

Because let me tell you folks, after just delivering 1 baby last year, I’m looking for a 1-piece swimsuit this year!!

At 8 months old, Miss Chloe Mae is getting more adorable every day and is certainly developing her own personality.  She’s very stubborn and independent – we’re not sure where she got those traits from  

She’s hasn’t started crawling yet, but she scoots herself in circles  and she’s a great “leaner” to get to different toys.  She has most of her toys figured out and immediately knows which buttons to press to make noise. 

Chloe loves to imitate what other people are doing and has mastered shaking her head ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (and sometimes seems to give an appropriate answer), making a popping noise with her lips and making the motor boat noise with her tongue now – which produces mass quantities of spit!!

She’s decided that she HATES baths and now screams at even the sight of her tub.  We’ve tried everything we can think of to get her back to her happy, splashing self in the tub, but haven’t had any luck.  So now we just have a stinky baby who gets a bath once a week or so.  Luckily she’s plenty cute to make up for the stinkiness.

That’s what my adorable daughter thinks we should do in the middle of the night.  Play.  She wakes up crying, stops as soon as we pick her up and then stares at us wide-eyed, sometimes even giggly, while we try to get her to go back to sleep.  So we’ve tried calming her down and then putting her back in her crib to hang out since she’s wide awake.  But she starts wailing within a few minutes, and that doesn’t do anybody any good at 4:30 in the morning.  So we pick her back up and….well, you get the idea.

If this was the only time she woke up during the night, it might not be bothersome, but we deem it a good night if we get at least 3 consecutive hours of sleep, which doesn’t always happen.  So what should we do??

I feel like “they” say I should just let her cry it out, but if crying is the only way she can communicate with me, how can I ignore that??

One of the biggest things I thought about while pregnant was how the dogs were going to react to Chloe and how we were going to keep our little girl safe around two dogs that weigh close to 100 pounds each.  When she was first born she was always in our arms or safe in her crib or pack-n-play, so I didn’t think about it for a while.  But just a few short months after her arrival she wanted to stretch and squirm and the floor was the best place for that.  So then came the dilemna again – how do we keep her safe?? 

Fast forward a few months and we have a playroom.  Aaron had a pool table that rarely got used anymore and the room that it was in was barely big enough for it, making it difficult to play when we did.  So we sold it (thanks love!!)  We got a gate for the doorway, some shelves for toys and foam padding for the floor.   Then came Christmas and now Miss Chloe Mae has a room full of toys and free of dogs to play and explore in!! 

This little girl is keeping us busy – busy enough that her 7 month update is coming 2 weeks late!!  (The holidays might have something to do with that as well….)

Chloe Mae is a sitting machine these days!!  Her doctor and her teachers at daycare are impressed with how well she sits.  She’s sort of a like a Weeble – she wobbles, but she doesn’t fall down.  We’re amazed at how well she can catch herself.  She must be giving herself quite the ab workout.  No six-pack for our baby girl though.  She’s still chubby, chunky and cute!!

Although she can get herself from the sitting position to the crawling position, she’s not mobile yet, and we’re okay with that.  I know that as soon as she starts moving, we’ll spend the next 18 years or so chasing her!!

She loves looking at the lights on our Christmas tree and has started to take a special interest in the dogs.  I’m sure it won’t be long before they become best friends – as soon as the dogs realize that she can be a source of food and petting!!