Back From The Dead

You followers of mine are probably pretty close to un-following me by this point. You probably think to yourself "man, this girl posts pics of her kid once in a blue moon and thats about it - why the crap am I still following this dead blog??" I would probably equate your following to something like the Playboy situation (I do have a point here...) While everyone tries to claim they only read it for the substance of the writing, we all know its only because of the pictures that you stick around....

So what's been happening in Martin-ville you ask? Let's see here.... I guess the biggest thing and one of the many reasons I've been MIA is that sweet Maggie Claire is transitioning to one nap a day now. She was previously taking two - one mid-morning and one in the afternoon. Since she moves to a new "big girl" room at daycare after the holidays where they only take one nap, we figured the long break would be a great time to undergo the transition. I'm happy to report that things are going very smoothly so far (I'm sure I'll be kicking myself in a few days for saying that). We are pushing back her morning nap every day by 20-25 minute increments and when it got to the 10:30 mark we took away the afternoon nap completely and just made her bedtime earlier. (On a side note, I just have to say that kids are strange. I mean STRANGE. We usually put MC to bed at 7, however due to her still early single nap, we put her to bed at 6:00 last night. I was pretty sure she would be up at 5 am or something, however she slept later that she ever has! The child didn't wake up until 7:45 (she usually gets up between 6:45 and 7:00). Insane. Why would she sleep more when we put her to bed earlier? Craziness. I'm definately not complaining though - power to her, mommy got some major shut eye.) So anyway, now that MC is only taking one nap, I pretty much get zero time to myself anymore. Hence the absense from blog world...

In addition to the nap schedule, other things are going well for little one too. She is drinking from the sippy like a champ now (which is great news for mommy... I had pretty much convinced myself she was going to become completely dehydrated and just shrivel up like a little raisin or something) and eating fairly well. I would like to run this by you though - what does/did your child eat at 13 months? MC has shown to be a very picky eater and I'm running out of ideas. Her diet includes the following: lima beans, peas, mac and cheese, ravioli, fruit, crackers, bread, and mashed potatoes. Thats it. In addition to picturing my child as a raisin, I also imagine going to her crib to wake her and finding a large lima bean in her place. She seriously eats/loves them that much.

MC is also talking up a storm. I mean besides baby babble. She can now say: mama, dada, bye-bye, hi, cow, ball, pea, bear, baby, and sometimes dog. She's stingy with that one. She is also doing the baby sign for "more" (although she also uses it to mean she wants to eat. Which I don't really mind since at least she has a way of letting me know what she wants) She will go stand in front of the cabinet that has her food it in and tap her little hands together letting me know she wants the food in there.

I suppose I should also comment on the fabulous holiday we had. It was MC's second Christmas (although she was one 1 month old for her first and basically had no idea what was going on) and, unlike last year, Adam was home this time. If you've been following for a while you may remember that Adam was in Iraq from July to March of this year so he missed Christmas with us. Needless to say it was fantastic having him home. Felt MUCH more like Christmas. We also were able to have his parents and brother, and my parents to our house this year. If you have children you are aware that driving 3 hours to one family and 2 hours to another family is quite a challenge with the insane amount of baby crap you are required to tote along.

Thinking the holiday couldn't get any better, we opened the blinds Christmas morning to this...

yup, snow on Christmas day. It was fabulous. Not enough to go play in as it melted by lunchtime, but still a nice thing to look at while opening gifts :) MC also enjoyed trying to catch the flakes...
I suppose that's a long enough post for now. However, I do need to catch everyone up on the new job situation. Here's a big hint - I just passed my real estate state test ;) haha. Now for your viewing delight - the fabulous Maggie Claire ;)

Opening gifts Christmas day

YAY for presents!!!

Mashed potato hair haha

Cheeeessseeee!

Sweet baby girl...

Pass The Stamps

Nope, not dead. Just busy sending these out...

Thanks to Shutterfly and the fact that I am el cheapo, our friends and family can now happily expect this new fridge decor.

LOVED Shutterfly's "50 free Holiday cards" blogger promo and I think the cards turned out great! Hope they do it again next year!!!! Happy Holidays everyone! :)

This Post Is Going To Jinx Me

I know that posting about this is going to jinx the whole thing - but I can't help myself. We are making serious progress here people and I have to discuss.

So one of MC's daycare teachers has informed me that MC will not drink from any of the 100 sippy cups we send with her. Duh. She DID inform me that she is all too willing to drink from another kid's sippy cup. She tried putting milk in a sippy cup like the one the other kid had and MC drank the whole thing. She tried this experiment the next day and, again, she drank the whole thing. Sooo, basically in addition to being dramatic and stubborn, now my kid wants to be in a clique. The cool sippy cup clique. Great.

Sooo, what is a mother to do when your child only wants something because someone else has it? Well, right now, my butt is going out to buy 10 of them. If it means my kid actually drinks milk, I would buy anything.

On the home front we are also getting some major improvements. Again, I don't want to jinx myself here, but MC actually downed a whole glass of milk before bed last night. The sippy is one of the many hundres I've bought - and we've tried this one before, however, I guess last night she finally "got it" or something. Its a munchkin with a soft squishy spout like the Nuby ones. Anyway, like I said, I was shocked because I had tried giving her this one before and she wouldn't have any part of it. Also, the one she has been drinking from at school has a hard plastic spout - and this one is soft. It resembles a bottle more so I suppose at night she likes the whole "comfort" of having something more like a bottle. Anyway, going to try it again tonight to see if she's still into it. My only problem is that it seems like she has to suck hard to get liquid out. I feel like she would drink more if it were easier coming out - but on the other hand I don't want to mess with something if its working. I dunno, we'll see what happens tonight.

Speaking of tonight - MC is in her very first Christmas play! I seriously have no idea what 7 little babies are going to do on stage in footed pajamas, but with the cuteness factor, does it really matter? I'm not hoping for an academy award worthy performance - I'm keeping my expectations low. No screaming is really all I'm hoping for at this point. Wish us luck! :)

Well, If That Idiot Can Do It...

I think I have had a revelation people. Have any of you ever watched some skanky reality TV show where the women have children and thought to yourself - really? These women (or girls in some cases) have kids??? I stress out over MC every.single.day. (Am I doing this right? What if she does this? What if she doesn't do this? I'm obviously talking to myself so what if I'm a complete lunatic and totally screw her up?) Then I realized, hey, if these idiots can raise a child without killing them, surely I can too! I mean seriously, do you think these people constantly monitor their child's milk intake to the ounce? I'm guessing no. Based on some of the junk I've seen, they probably throw their baby a bottle of leftover beer and are done with it. Anyway, my point is, their child still survives. Its sad, but I freak to the point that I think MC is going to die or something if she doesn't eat like she should or drink all of her "required" intake of milk. If she was thirsty, wouldn't she drink?

Then I started watching rivermonsters. (I have a point to this seemingly major sidetrack in topic) It showed a large group of African villagers and that made me start thinking about tribe babies. (Sorry, I just don't really know what else to call them) Anyway, they were barely clothed and probably didn't eat a whole lot based on the fact that I thought some of them were going to literally kill over with excitement when the guy brought them a huge fish to eat. My point is, despite the fact that they didn't have the right sippy cup, they lived. Maybe I should just chill.

Now, I realize this is going to be much easier said than done. I am uptight. Always have been. However, I feel I need to soak in the advice of many a facebook wall poster and just go with the flow. Doctors all reccomend being off the bottle at a year old so I am taking her bottle away and I am not going to freak out anymore. hahaha. Lets see how long this lasts...

Bottle Battle

Ok. I am completely abandoning the 30 day challenge for the time being. We've got issues in the Martin household and I need HELP!

As you may know, sweet Maggie Claire is now a year old. Along with turning a year old the doc expects us to be off the bottle and formula. Formula? Check. Bottle? NOT EVEN CLOSE. My child will be going to kindergarden with a bottle in her backpack. Here's the deal...

I knew we needed to be off the bottle at a year so around 8 months or so we started giving MC water in a sippy cup (the kid will NOT drink juice and we liked the idea of her becoming a water lover). So anyway, she had her bottles of course, but she also got the sippy cup. I assumed that when it was time to ditch the bottles, she would all too gladly accept the sippy cup since she was already used to it. Well, you know what they say about ASS-uming....

After I got the low down from her doctor about how to do this whole "milk thing" works at her 12 month appointment I was ready. Guns blazing. It was a showdown - mommy vs. Maggie....

Day 1 of no bottle: We ran out of formula the day of her doctor's appointment so I wasn't about to go buy more since I knew we were getting rid of it all together. We had enough to make a 4oz bottle that morning and I knew her appointment was at 3 - so I figured I'd just tell daycare to give her milk in a sippy and see how it went. When she finished the 4 oz in the bottle that morning she started SCREAMING. Wonderful. This is going to be super fun. Let's just hope she gets thirsty enough to drink some milk at daycare today....

I picked her up for her appointment and asked the teachers how it went. Apparently she wouldn't drink ANYTHING. (Let me back track here for a moment and say that MC was never a HUGE drinker from the sippy when she was on the bottles as well. She'd drink some sips here and there but never guzzle it the way she did the bottle...) I figured that maybe she was one of those kids who didn't like milk - or needed it warmed or something. I thought that night when we gave her milk I'd warm it a little.

After the doctor's appointment we went home and had dinner. I gave MC some milk in a sippy and when she went to take a drink it immediately dribbled completely out of her mouth. Her poor little face was staring at me with a questioning "what is this??? YOU HAVE DECEIVED ME WOMAN!" Again, I figured maybe she just didn't like it cold and at bedtime I'd warm it and it would be find. Well, after her bedtime routine I asked Adam to go get some milk ready while I got her pjs on. He came back with a bottle full of warmed milk. Once she saw the bottle I knew it was over so I just let her have it - and she GUZZLED it. Obviously this kid doesn't have a probably with milk, its just the darned sippy cups. (On a side note, I probably did yell at the hubs about bringing in a bottle - he played the "I didn't know!" card and I let it slide...

Day 2 of no bottle: The next morning I attempted the sippy with warmed milk and she wanted nothing to do with it. She kept pushing it away like I was trying to poison her or something. We continued trying the entire day and while we did feel encouraged that she would take a few sips here and there, I knew she wasn't getting enough liquids. She barely had any wet diapers and when they were wet they weren't WET, only mildly damp. And we're only talking like 2 or 3 of them - not the typical 7 or so. Needless to say, I was freaking.

Day 3 of no bottle: The next day was much the same. A few sips here and there but probably no more than 2 ounces or so the entire day. Freaking again.

Day 4 of no bottle: Then comes Monday morning. After having a complete breakdown Sunday night with a long bout of crying, I decided something had to give. The kid had to drink - and I had to know whether it was the milk or the sippy she wasn't into. When I got her up, I again attempted the sippy cup. Denied. I then tried another type of sippy cup (I forgot to mention that throughout this process I have tried every sippy cup on the market, thinking maybe we just hadn't found the right one) Denied again. Then I tried putting some Nesquick in the milk via the doc's suggestion. A few sips, then denied. Then in attempts to figure this out, I poured the now chocolate milk into a bottle and handed it to her; of course she drank the entire thing. Experiment complete - MC is just as stubborn and hard headed as her mother and just wants a bottle.

While I now had the answer I had been seaking, I don't know where to go from here! How do I get her to drink enough from the sippy instead of demanding a bottle. I mean the kid went 2 days without drinking anything when I didn't give her a bottle! I've gotten a few suggestions such as trying different types of cups (done. I've bought hard spouts, soft spouts, with handles, without handles, with straws, without straws... you get the idea), and giving part of the milk in a bottle and then finishing with a sippy. I thought this was a great idea, however MC didn't. When she finished the milk in the bottle and I put the sippy in her mouth she started crying and pushed it away.

Now, I appologize for the super long post, but I need answers people. I am compeltely confused as to how to get my stubborn sweetie to give up her bottle. Also, if she wasn't such a picky eater I wouldn't worry about it as much - but the kid will only eat fruit, lima beans, pasta, and crackers (and of course the Gerber snacks like puffs and little crunchies). Any suggestions for a picky eater would be welcomed as well. I'm scared my kid will dehydrate before she gives up that stupid bottle so please help a momma out! Thanks!