Saturday, April 23, 2011

Dear Future Baby Number 2

Hi My Sweet Baby,

I used to think that you and your older sister Maisie would be close in age, but at this rate it might be another year (or 2 or 3) before you make your way into my arms. You see, as much as I would love to meet you sooner and become a little family of four, your big sister has not been so kind to her mama. She insists on keeping her very exhausted mother up every night with needy pleas to play, hold her, feed her and cuddle her. These are all things that I love doing for little Maisie, but at midnight then again at 2 am, 3 am and 5 am, not so much. The hardest part of all is that after each rough night she wakes up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6:45am and then is a a cranky girl (and I'm a cranky mama too) all day because of the lack of sleep.

Your mommy had all-day (not just morning) sickness and was very tired was when she was pregnant with your big sister and even risking that again while being beyond exhausted might be a deadly combo, for me that is (and maybe your father). I just don't think I am ready to do that again so soon.

Please be patient little one. You will join this family soon enough. We will pray for you and when the time is right, I will hold you in my arms, but for now you are just a twinkle in my eye. I love you sweet baby.

-Your Mommy

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Maisie's 11 Month Old Haps


It's been almost a month since my last post, but with boxes still needing to be unpacked, things to be organized, laundry to be done and a first birthday to plan (what in the world right!? She can't be turning one yet!) the blog slipped down the priority list.

Maisie has a few more tricks up her sleeve now and it's incredible all of the daily connections she is making. I thought I would list a few.

"Clappy clappy clappy"

Is something she has been doing since she was 8 months old. She would copy us when we would clap, but then at 9 months when we would just say "clappy clappy clappy" without actually clapping she would amazingly clap her hands. She would even do it when she was upset and crying. It was so cute because she would be in tears and then all of the sudden when we say "Maisie can you clappy clappy?" she would perk up start clapping away. She is a little more stubborn now and knows what we are up to, but sometimes she will stop crying and give a little clap.

Then shortly after that she put together that when she does something good I will clap my hands and say "Yay Maisie! Good job!" and she would join in with a big smile, but now she starts clapping her hands when she thinks she does something good without me telling her first. So she will put a block in her box or try to stand up and she will proudly clap as if to say "Mom, I did something cool! And I'm proud of myself!"

Something she started doing a lot lately is using one clap as a yes. Would you like some more food/water? *clap* do you like your food? *clap* want to play? *clap* or she simply claps when she likes something good like food, or when shes excited. Clapping is something she does multiple times a day and for many reasons and it never fails to make me smile.

Sharing
Maisie loves to share. She shares her food, toys and plug (yes, that's what we call her pacifier) and is so happy when we take them. Sometimes she will fake us out and offer a toy or a snack then she will snatch it back, but she finds it fun either way. She will even eat something and then take it out of her mouth and offer you her regurgitated nums. Yummy, but no thanks baby.

Pointing
A month or so ago she started pointing at things. Then she started realizing that when she would point, a lot of the times we would take her to that object or hand it to her and tell her what it's called. Now she will point at something and then clap once for a "yes that one, now hand it over". It's really helped her vocabulary even if she can't say it she knows what it's called.

Words
Words she now understands: balloon (Her current favorite. I still have left over balloons from my birthday) when we ask "Maisie where's the balloon?' she will smile and point right at it. Water- she will point at her sippy cup when we ask where it is. Mommy and daddy in pictures- she will point to a picture of me and say mum-mum (I went from mama to mum-mum. you should hear her say it! Heart melting cute) and the same for dada. Hi and she will wave, high five and she will give you a nice high five or 10, snack, book and kiss(my favorite) sometimes when you ask for a kiss she will get shy and bury her face in your neck, but if you're lucky she will give you a nice puckered kiss or sometimes an open mouth slobbery one either way I love it! I know there's more, but that's all I can think of right now.

Nicknames
Maisie lives up to the nick-names that we dubbed her when I was pregnant. Those are Crazy Maisie and Lazy Maisie. The crazy because she gets in moods where she super hyper or moods where she is bi-polar, super happy one second then very cranky the next.The lazy because she as no desire and I mean absolutely NO desire to stand up/walk/scoot holding the furniture. She is very able and that is why we say lazy. She is content crawling (she is a good crawler so I will give her that) and of course being carried. She used to pull her self up by grabbing our thumbs, but she refuses now. I'm not quite sure why, but hopefully she will start showing a little more effort towards standing soon, but honestly I don't mind. Because if I had to choose between her being talkative or physically active I would pick chatty-Cathy, but I hope she will start walking by summer so she can play outside without crawling everywhere.

Books
Are her favorite now. She seriously wouldn't mind if I read her the same book 50+ times and she would still love it. I think I have read her "The very hungry Caterpillar" like 10 times in a row. No Joke. Recently she will cry every single time we close the book so it's much harder to stop the reading fest than before, but I love her eagerness to read and I adore the excited look on her face and her little chubby finger pointing to all the fun pictures on the page or just the fact that she is sitting on my lap without pulling my hair, squirming out of my hands or trying to get something that she cant play with I.E drinking glass, laptop, phone etc.

The times that she has a book on the floor with her (we try to keep most of them up because she loves to eat the corners and bend the pages) she will pick it up open the pages 1 by 1 and pretend read the book. Its so cute! Sometimes she will even cock her head or open her mouth really wide and look at me with a "wow" expression on her face. I have even caught her lying on her back and holding the book with her feet. Have I mentioned that my child is insanely gifted with her feet? Let's just say if for some reason she lost her arms, she would be totally fine!

Big Girl Food
Maisie has been eating more "grown up" foods as of lately. She still loves her purees, but it got to the point where I felt she was only eating fruits and veggies, which I know is a weird thing to complain about, but the girl needs variety and foods that will be closer to what she will eat the rest of her life. Not pureed fruits and veggies. It started with oatmeal. Then to scrambled egg yolks, which she loves! Then brown rice and brown rice noodles. Then to cheerios (Joes-os), tiny pieces of chicken, but her new favorite meal is a slice of Dave's bread with a thin layer of organic almond butter and a couple drips of organic pure maple syrup. I love this combo! I even have it for breakfast with a glass of milk. Soon I am going to try organic mac and cheese, pumpkin pancakes and also hummus. I have a feeling the hummus isn't going to go over well. She is a semi-picky eater, but we will see.

Early Riser
Maisie used to sleep in the mornings. Usually waking up around 9:30 which was amazing because if I had to wake up multiple times in the night you best believe I would like a couple of hours to sleep in too, but recently she has been waking up early. I am by default a morning person, but when I haven't had more than 6 hours consecutive sleep in over a year it's a little more difficult than it used to be. Maisie's night wakings have been getting worse and it's not because she wants to eat, but because she has some teething pain or because she wants to play. So the past 10 days she has been waking up 6+ times a night PLUS waking up at 6:45am or 7am! Ahh saying I'm tired is an understatement. I keep telling myself this is temporary, but I would do almost anything to get a full nights sleep. Hopefully we will get into a good routine again and that way I won't feel like death in the morning.

Well that's Maisie's recent development in a nut-shell. I am so proud of her and just can't get enough of her cheesy grin and excitement of life. It's so fun to see things through her eyes. The things that are so mundane and ordinary to us I now see in a new light. Everything to her amazing and is just waiting to be seen, felt and even be tasted and how could that not be exciting?! I am loving all of her funny shenanigans. She is so perfect and I am a very lucky mum-mum.