Wordless Wednesday – Our Little Ham

Setting boundaries

This is my daughter, playing with a picture frame that rotates sort of like a ferris wheel. 

It’s on 1 of 2 matching bookshelves in our living room that are filled with knick-knacks (reads – things Chloe shouldn’t play with.)  She discovered this picture frame last week and was completely enthralled by it.  She leaves everything else on the shelves alone and is generally pretty careful with the picture frame, especially after a kind reminder to “be gentle.”  So now we ask ourselves, do we continue to let her play with it?  What is she’s playing with it some day when we’re not right there and she pulls it off, the glass breaks and she hurts herself??  Would we be better off stopping her now before she forms bad habits?

The last one is what I lean towards, but just look at the picture.  She looks so happy to be playing with it!!

I’m so lucky!!

I am so lucky to have married a man who makes such a great dad!!  I didn’t get this posted in time for Father’s Day, but I still thought he deserved to be recognized for the amazing man he is.

The first thing Chloe Mae says when I pick her up from daycare is, “Dah?”  I respond by telling her that, yes, we’re on our way home to see daddy, and she smiles and giggles.  

He’s not only great at helping with the mundane day-to-day tasks of feeding, diapering, and dressing out child, but he’s also so much fun to play with!!  Sometimes when the two of them are downstairs in her play room, I’ll eavesdrop on their conversations and it never fails to make me smile.

And just as importantly, Aaron is a fantastic husband, which allows us both to be better parents.

So, sorry I’m late, but Aaron, thanks for being a great dad!!

Wordless Wednesday – Playing Paparazzi

Sleep, sleep – hooray!!

I’m fully aware that I’m probably about to jinx us here, but I can’t help it.  I have to share!!  After a year of struggling, Chloe Mae is starting to sleep through the night. 

I think our struggles have been a combination of her temprament, some mistakes made by us as parents and bad luck – colic, teething, 6 ear infections in 5 months, colds, etc…  At her 1-year check-up, we asked the Dr. what we could do to help her sleep better.  We told her that we were putting Chloe down in her crib still awake at bedtime, that when we went in in the middle of the night, we didn’t pick her up and she hadn’t been getting bottles overnight for months.  The doctor’s advice: “Well, it sounds like you’re just going to have to let her cry.”

*sigh*  I kind of knew that’s what we’d hear, but I was hoping for an easier answer.  We decided to wait a few weeks before we tried anything, because Chloe was getting tubes and we wanted to get her through that before we traumatized her (and ourselves.)  We were also hoping that maybe the constant ear pressure was one of the reasons she was waking up.  In the meantime, we were trying to pay attention to why/what might be waking her up so we could try to fix it. 

We know she can find her pacifier and put it back in when she’s sleeping, but sometimes it would fall out onto the floor.  We also noticed that when we went in in the middle of the night, sometimes she’d have her pacifier and Monty, her monkey blanket, but she’d have a leg stuck through the slats of her crib.  So we put her crib bumper back in.  The very first night we did that, she slept from 8PM until 5:45AM.  For us, that was a vast improvement, so we deemed it a success!! 

She’d been doing pretty good sleeping until 4AM (which was still better for us) or later, but after that we were up several times with her before we finally gave up and got up with her at 6AM.  I’d read some articles that said that putting your child to bed later could acutally cause them to get up earlier, because it messes with their sleep cycles.  So we moved her bedtime up by 15 minutes, from 8PM to 7:45PM.  We did this 2 nights ago and for the last 2 mornings we haven’t heard the tell-tale crib-banging until 6:30AM.

We’ve decided that we’re happy with the sleep improvements that Chloe Mae has made over the last few weeks, so we’re not going to push her right now.  Last night she woke up around 4AM, but was just barely fussing kind of off and on, so we let her be and she did fall back asleep on her own.  If she wakes up occasionally though, and is really upset, we’ll still head in and make sure she’s comfy and help her back to sleep – for now.  (We’re going out of town 2 weekends in a row at the end of this month, so we’re not going to worry about it much before then.)

A month or two from now, I might be complaining that she still wakes up, but we’ll deal with that when, or if, the time comes.

Wordless Wednesday – Capturing a Smile

Rice Cakes

This is another recipe inspired by Chloe Mae’s need to assert her independence while eating and our desire to give her healthy options.  I have an amazing husband who made these without a recipe, but these are the ingredients and approximate proportions.

• 2 cups brown rice, cooked
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1 cup shredded carrot
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan

Combine all ingredients and create patties.  We used our 3 oz. scoop and ice cream sandwich maker from Pampered Chef to get a nice, even patty.  Cook approximately 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and delicious.

These are delicious!!  I sneak bites myself when Chloe’s not looking 🙂  Always a bonus – they freeze and reheat really well.

A big head and low iron

Chloe’s 1 year check-up was traumatic for all involved.  She got a black eye about 15 minutes before we left for the doctor’s.  After having barely recovered, she was poked and prodded by the nurse and doctor.  The hysterics really started when she had to sit on the scale!!  I think her beloved monkey blanket was weighed with her to keep the crying to a minimum.  In case you were wondering, Chloe and Monty (her monkey) weigh 21 pounds, 12 ounces.

She actually did pretty well with Dr. Patten this time around though.  Chloe Mae even let the doctor pick her up and listen to her with the stethoscope while Aaron and I measured each other’s heads.  Yes.  You read that right.  We had to measure our heads at her appointment.  Chloe’s head has always been big, but at her last 2 check-ups, Dr. Patten has come in and said, “Well that can’t be right!!” when she sees Chloe’s head measurement chart.  So she re-measures and finds out that it is right.  Chloe’s head size is literally off the charts!!  She doesn’t think it’s probably anything to worry about, but decided to get our measurements and take a look at some info on parental head size and head growth.

Then came time for the shots.  There are 4 shots at the 1-year check-up.  When the nurse walked in, I asked if it was possible to get another nurse to help so Chloe could get 2 shots at a time and get it over with.  I’m so glad I did, because I don’t think Chloe took a breath from the time she got the first 2 shots until I was finally able to pick her up after the band-aid application.  We calmed her down and fed her some Cheerios, which cheered her up just in time to get her finger pricked!!

We got done and thought, “Whew!!  Glad we’re done with that until her 18-month check-up in November!!”  *sigh*  Not so fast.  I had a message later that day saying Chloe’s hemoglobin was low and they wanted her to come in for repeat bloodwork.   The nurse also suggested that we try to feed Chloe a lot of meat, because that would help raise her iron levels.  Sh-yeah.  Good luck with that!!  Our little girl is not a meat eater.  We made an effort to remember her multi-vitamin and took her back in earlier this week to have her blood drawn again.

Dr. Patten herself called us back today to update us.  She said based on our head sizes, she doesn’t think Chloe’s head size is anything to worry about, but just to be safe, she’d like to see Chloe again when she’s 15 months to re-check it.  At the same time, we’ll re-check her bloodwork.  She said her hemoglobin was up a little bit this week and she doesn’t think her low levels are from a lack of iron, but from something like ‘erythroblastemia’ which Chloe will outgrow.  I wish I had actually talked to her so I could find out exactly what she was talking about, but apparently it’s nothing to worry about, so maybe it’s better if I can’t spend too much time Googling it!!

At least there won’t be any shots at her 15-month check-up…

Chloe’s Birthday Party

Chloe’s first birthday party was amazing.  We had fantastic weather, delicious food and were surrounded by wonderful family and friends.  For our little monkey girl, we had a monkey theme.  Thanks to Google, we were able to make these cupcakes.

The cupcakes were not only cute, but delicious.  Chloe was too distracted to eat any of her lunch, but her focus was intense once she saw the cupcake.  (That’s my girl!!)  Note to self for future parties: Don’t wear a white shirt if you’re going to be holding a toddler eating chocolate frosting…

Then it was  present time!!  Chloe loved being the center of attention, pulling and ripping all the paper, and exploring all of her new toys and clothes.

Isn’t she amazing and adorable?!?