Mommyof1’s Weblog

UPDATE: After her 18 month pediatrician visit – she weighs 28lbs, 90th percentile and she measures 32.5in, 75th percentile.   She is apparently right on track with her speech, despite my worrying.  The dr said that she should be developing a lot of new words in the next couple months and beginning to put 2 words together and if she doesn’t do that in a couple months, then I should call.  Otherwise, she is saying an appropriate number of words.   Other than that, she is doing well – she can sort and stack, problem-solve, roll and throw a ball,  jump, eat with a fork and spoon, and brush her teeth.

I was being induced at 38 weeks because of my high blood pressure.  I was freaking out about the needles and the pain and the “what’ifs”  The reality of my short 3.5 hour labor, the epidural which was waaaay worse in my imagination than in m reality, and yes even the 1.5 hours of pushing without said epidural were not as bad as what I had envisioned.  And of course it’s all better as soon as I heard that frist little cry.

Fast forward 18 months.  She is now a walking, (kinda) talking, little ball of energy!  She has such a personality.  Definitely has inherited both mommy’s and daddy’s stubbornness and strong willed natures.  When she wants something, we know it.  She tests her boundaries and is not a big fan of the word “no”.  She loves eating and will eat anything that I give her.  She is very active – loves running around, swimming, going to the park, and climbing on everything.  She doesn’t talk a lot yet, she does have words though – in addition to ones I’ve blogged about in the past – there is duckie, fishie, twee (three), and her favorite – mas!  More in Spanish.  She says that when she wanrs more of anything – food, a book read again, more playing, etc it is her favorite word.  She now also motions along with Itsy Bitsy Spider, and sings along to most music.  She loves music – she has for a long time, dances along when there is music on tv, or in the car, or a restaurant, if it’s something she knows-  like the  theme song to Dora or the Backyardigans – she will “sing” along, not the words but she sings her own way!! Speaking of Dora, that’s another word – Dowa, she loves her and Diego.  The other favorite is the Backyardigans – which also happen to be MY favorite.   I go to the pediatrician on Monday so I will update then with her stats.  Overall, she is a very good baby toddler.  She is very sweet and loves to cuddle.  She is also my little partner and we go shopping together and run errands together.  She has inherited my shoe addiction.  I’m sure the fact that I buy her every single cute shoe I see does not help – but she loves her shoes – she puts them on herself – not correcly of course, and she also puts on everyone else’s shoes that may happen to by lying around.  She has learned how to use a fork, she does make a mess but she knows how to stab the food and then get it in her mouth.  The spoon is a little trickier b/c the stuff slides off, but she does try to eat things like yogurt by herself.

2 pictures – then and now.

Dear mortgage lender,

From the beginning I was wary of using you since you were affiliated with the seller/listing agent, however we decided it was worth it and the rate was good.  We had 6 weeks to get all our documents in order before the closing date listed on the contract.  Why then TWO HOURS before the deadline do you inform us that you need something that is impossible to get so quickly?  Then after we get you said information, why do you tell us documents will be sent the next morning if they are not.  Why – now 3 days after our closing was supposed to happen and 5 days after the original deadline to have documents completed are they still not at the title company?  Why have you told us repeatedly that they have been completed and sent when they CLEARLY HAVE NOT BEEN!!?  Are you so incompetent that you cannot handle a simple transaction that is in your job description?  And, be assured that we will not be responsible for any penalties that we incur as a result of closing after the date on our contract.

*Update* Also – please read through our paperwork before you send us an email stating we do not have flood insurance, because it is on page 2 of the documents from the insurance agent.

Dear title company,

Our closing date was supposed to be June 12th.  I understand that you did not have all the necessary documents in your hands by your deadline and therefore we will have to delay closing.  However, why do we need to chase you down with repeated phone calls that go unanswered and emails that are not answered or vague when they are.  This is not a surprise, we have had plenty of notice so everything should be ready to go on your end as soon as the documents are delivered.  I was wary also of using you because of the same affiliations as the lender.

Dear listing agent,

You, especially, have been a moron.  From day one – I have not liked you and you should be happy that you are not dealing with me directly.  It seems to me that you do not really want to sell this house because if you did then you would not be so confrontational and negative about everything.  Your one line misspelled responses to questions are irritating.  Your know-it-all attitude and advice to disregard our attorney’s advice is ridiculous.  I have had it with you and cannot wait until we have closed and I no longer need to worry about being polite to you.   I want an actual answer and guarantee that the 3 years of owed property taxes and HOA dues will be paid by the current owner (the bank) because I REFUSE to sign anything until I am assured that is no longer an issue.

Sincerely,

Leanna

For this checkup I went to a new pediatrician.  I really loved my old one but she was just too far from my mom’s house.  So we tried out a new one and I really loved her too

Overall a clean bill of health.  Developmentally, Alexis is doing well.  She passed all the little tests the Dr had her do – stack blocks, pick up a small item, follow simple commands.   The only thing was her speech.  Alexis has a handful of words that she says – mama, dada, leche, kitty, night night, baba (for my mom), etc.  The dr said that was fine for now but that her speech should be expanding exponentially by her next check up at 18months.   She wasn’t concerned about it but still I want to make sure that she’s doing everything she should be.  I read to her pretty often, but I’m going to make a point of reading 2 books a day to her.  Not like huge novels – little board books.  Also I’ve been talking to her a lot more – really explaining everything I’m saying and seeing if I can get her to repeat.  I am also taking away the pacifier when we’re home playing.  There really is no reason for her to have it, other than habit.  So she can have it when she sleeps and when we’re out.   I’m not sure if speaking in 2 languages is confusing to her but I wouldn’t think so.   She weighed 26lbs and was 32 inches long 75% for both, pretty consistent to where she’s been.  She has some rough red patches on her skin the Dr said those are eczema and she gave me a cream to treat that and said it’s pretty common in babies.  She also got 4 shots!! I still declined the Chicken Pox, I would like to wait until she’s 2 for that one, unless I go back to work and need to have her in a day care.  She got DTaP, Hib, PCV, and HAV.  She’s actually never gotten that many at once, I usually split them, but since it’s more difficult these days giving her shots I figured I would get it over with all at once.  I’m not sure if that’s the reason why, but she had a moticeable reaction.  She was really groggy all day and very whiny and needy.  She did not want to put down, she wanted to be carried and wanted to cuddle.  She also got a low fever in the evening.  She woke up a lot at night and was very restless, like she was uncomfortable.  She has a big red welt on one of her legs too.  Sucks.

As for some of the fun stuff she’s being doing lately, there is a lot.  She loves music.  She “sings” along with her toys and the songs she knows.   She gets the tune right which is pretty cool.  She also dances all the time.  As soon as she hears music, which included the Final Jeopardy theme she dances.  She bobs her head, shakes her shoulders and hips.  When she’s sitting, she will move her head back and forth and tap her hands on the table to the beat – it’s hilarious!  She is also becoming quite a little monkey.  She copies  things now.  The other day I had the Today show on and right before they go to commercial they scan the crowd who is all screaming, so then Alexis starts coping the screaming crowd.  She also does this low grunting thing when she hears someone burp – mimicing them.  She has also gotten pretty good with a fork and spoon.  She can’t really get the food on them but she tries and manages to do it some times, but when I put food on them she knows how to eat with them.  She is also getting better at coloring and makes marks on paper about half the time, when she’s not trying to eat the crayon!!  She is definitely a little girl now, not a baby anymore!  It’s amazing how that transformation happened in the last 3 months!!!

15ish months

This was not our first trip with Alexis on a plane, last year she went to Nashville and to Toronto.  However this was the first time traveling with a toddler, rather than an infant.   What I was most afraid of, the plane ride was the easiest thing both ways.  I did give her 1/2 tsp of Benadryl.  I know a lot of people think this is “drugging” their kid, etc etc, but I really don’t have those reservations.  I asked my pediatrician and she said it was ok and told me how much to give.  Her only caution was to give it to her before the flight by a few days first just to test out her reaction since some kids get hyper, I did that with half the dosage and she got mellow.  So on the way to toronto I gave her the Benadryl about an hour before the flight and she was very relaxed.  We didn’t have a seat for her and she needed to be on our laps the whole time.  Normally, this is not a good thing for her.  She does not like being held, she wants to be put down and walk.  She normally squirms and whines and cries, and that is what I was afraid of.  It wasn’t only for the benefit of other passengers, it was mostly because I knew that she would be miserable being forced to sit for 3 hours.  So, she didn’t sleep very much on the flight there, only about 45 minutes but she was very calm.  She watched some shows on our DVD player, she played, we read books, she ate a little bit and that was it.  On the way back, she slept most of the flight.  We had an extra seat so we had her car seat there.  She fell asleep as soon as we pulled away from the gate and slept until about 20 minutes before we landed.

Now  the  real issue was the trip itself.  Alexis is very used to her “routine”.  I’m not crazy strict about it but she normally gets 2 naps a day around 10am and 2pm each an hour and a half.  Bedtime is 8 or 8:30.  I do make exceptions for days when we have things to do where she will skip one nap or go to sleep later, no big deal.  But this was 7 straight days of chaos.  She got one nap a day – maybe.  Some were in her car seat others were in the hotel.  Sometimes they were 2 hours, but most days, less.  bedtime was NEVER before 9 and most days it was after 9.  She didn’t sleep well in the pack and play and would wake up in the middle of the night crying and wouldn’t go back to sleep, so we brought her into bed with us.  So, what does all this mean?  Well, now that we’re back home she needs to re-adjust to normalcy.  She is napping just fine, but so far her bedtime has been a battle.  My normally easy to put to bed daughter who usually falls right to sleep when I put her down.  Well, now she starts crying immediately when I walk into her room.  Not just fussing or whining – the kind of hysterical crying where she makes herself gag – hysterical.  I tried leaving her, but I couldn’t do it.  I let her cry for a few minutes but it didn’t stop so I had to calm her down.   Anyway, since she goes down fine for her naps then I’m sure she will figure it out again and be fine, I’m not worried.   But even with all the craziness, she did great.  She was always in a good mood, no meltdowns.  She had her moments every now and then, but she was really good the whole trip.

Other than that, the trip was very nice.  It was Marc’s grandfather’s 100th birthday and that was the real reason we went up – to celebreate.  It was a very nice party.  We spent time with family and we also went to Niagara Falls.  My parents came out with us for most of our trip and they came with us to Niagara Falls.  Unfortunately it rained most of the time we were in Toronto so we weren’t able to do as much sigh seeing as we would have liked, but we still had a nice time.  I will not travel with a toddler for a week again though.  It’s too long.

A funny tidbit about our trip to Niagara Falls.  Alexis has a white noise machine in her room for bedtime and naps.  We went on the Maid of the Mist – the boat that goes to the base of the falls – it’s really cool.  You get wet and it’s cold and they give you these ponchos to wear.  Anyway, as we got closer to the big falls and the roar got louder, Alexis got a little squirmy and I sat down with her on my lap and she fell asleep.  I mean – OUT!  Within 2 minutes of me sitting down, she curled up and was out.   Definitely a creature of habit!

3 years.  Wow.  I know in the large picture 3 years is nothing, but to me it sounds like a long time.  It feels like we just got married.  I still see us as newly married.  Not that we act like newlyweds anymore, just that we have only been married for a little while.  So when I think 3 YEARS I can’t believe it’s true.

Since Marc is out of town we cheated and celebrated early.  We spent the night Saturday at the Viceroy on Brickell and went out to dinner.  And what did the parents of a toddler do on the night alone – came back to the hotel by 10:30pm right after dinner and enjoyed a very nice night of uninterrupted sleep!!!!! ::::yawn:::: I know quite different from our younger days, but hey priorities change!!

We have had (and still have) our share of growing pains.  Since this is the only time I’ve been married I can only assume this is normal.  I keep hoping it will get easier one of these days, but the stressors of like keep popping up so there’s always one more thing!  Looking at that picture of us on our wedding night 3 years ago I didn’t know what waited ahead for me.  I didn’t know that I would have a wonderful daughter or be a stay at home mom.  I didn’t know that I would be living with my parents while house hunting.  I didn’t know how difficult it was to sustain a marriage and how much work it took on a daily basis.  The compromise, the biting of the tongue.  It’s a constant learning curve, learning about me, about Marc, about “us”.  Because that’s the biggest part of marriage isn’t it?  Becoming “us”.  Sure I’m still me.  But not in the same way.  I can no longer think long term just about me, it will always be “us” even though “us” is now 3, not 2.

I don’t know what lies ahead.  I could not even guess at what our life will be like next year, much less 3 years from now!! All I know is that I’m up for the challenge.  I’m looking forward to what the next step is, the next surprise and what will be around the next corner.  I do know that I like the security that comes with being married.  I love knowing that I have a partner who is always there for me.  Yes, it’s been hard, maybe harder for us than it should be.  We definitely have strong personalities who clash on a regular basis.  But if I could tell that girl in the wedding dress what it’s been like over the last 3 years would I tell her to run for the hills or walk down the aisle?  I would tell her to walk down the aisle b/c it’s all worth it.   So I am committed to building a life together as a family.  I still love my husband – more so and in a very different way now than I did then!

Happy Anniversay Honey!!!!!  Thanks for a rollercoaster of a ride so far!! We’re still going up the hill and waiting for the crest so we can start coasting the rest of the way!!