Ella, the Adventurous Eater!

Guess who likes pizza?

Ella!

We've created a monster!

Today started out well.  I've moved on from the heartbreaking cheese omelet incident, and warily tried peanut butter toast (yes, I've located the good peanut butter).  I made two toasts, just in case she was hungry enough.  I cut the crusts off, and cut the toasts into little squares.

Bracing myself for armageddon, I placed a toast square on her high chair tray.  She eyeballed it, then looked at me, as if asking me what to do with it.

I took a square and ate it.  Message received, my tiny squidlet.

Ella grasped the square between thumb and forefinger.  Toasty success!

She ate close to all of both toasts, minus the square I ate as an example, she threw two squares on the floor, and there were two left on the plate.

The other day, Tom and I made french fries with our dinner.  We always give Ella a few fries, so, I cut off the hard or sharp ends to a handful of fries and put them on her tray. 

A few minutes later, I notice Ella stretching and straining to see my plate.  I followed her gaze...to my ketchup.

"Eh!  Eh!  Eh!"  Ella tried to reach her fry into my ketchup.

Tom raised an eyebrow.  "Why don't you put a little on her fry?  It could be an interesting reaction!"

I shrugged.  I took Ella's fry, dipped the tip into the ketchup, and handed her back the fry.

She eyeballed it, then smiled, recognizing the red stuff.  She put it in her mouth, sucked the ketchup off the tip, and handed the fry back to me, motioning for me to put more ketchup on it.  What a little ham!

On top of all this, she's still not sleeping through the night.  Last night was another rough one.  She was up around 2am, down by 3:30, back up at 4, didn't go back down until around 5:30am.

We're running out of ideas; we've tried a bath and bedtime lotion, we've tried covering the heat vents in her room, we've tried giving her cereal before bed.  She's not currently sick or congested, that we know of.  If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to comment.  Any suggestions are welcome!!!

The Sheer Joy of a Baby Who Doesn't Want to Sleep, Eat, Play or Be Held

I love my adorable daughter.

Let me rephrase.

I love my adorable, but difficult daughter.

Sleep still remains an unattainable goal for Ella.  She falls asleep, we put her in her crib, and she's fine until around 12:30 or 1am.  Then, she's up, screaming, until well after 4am.  Sometimes later.

A few people have told us to give her a little bit of cereal before putting her to bed, because it might help her sleep better.  We thought it would be a good idea, so we tried it.

The first night: success!  She slept all night!  So did we!  Hooray!  The curse is broken!

The second night: epic fail.  She woke up around 12:30am, didn't go back down til somewhere after 4:30am.

Last night wasn't too bad.  I decided to try without the cereal.  She went down easier than usual.  She woke up around 2am, but safely out again by 3:30am.  Just an hour and a half.  Not bad.  AND she slept til 9am.  To me, any morning she sleeps til 9am is W.O.N.D.E.R.F.U.L.

We're trying to get her down right now, well, Tom is.  I'm in the living room blogging and watching Jerry Springer's dating show, Baggage.  For those of you who haven't heard of this, I know what you're thinking: "Jerry Springer hosting a dating show?  YES!  Where are my tap shoes?!?!"  (Side note: this one chick is crazy - she eats 3 boxes of chalk a day!  What the?!?!?  Where does Jerry find these people???)

So, today Ella was particularly difficult.  She didn't want to eat or play.  This kid always wants to eat!  As soon as she woke up, "Nuh-nana, nuh-nana!" was all she said.  I wanted to give her a break from the norm (oatmeal or rice cereal, mashed up fruit and milk) and decided to make her a cheese omelet.

One bite.  She took one bite, then looked at me with a look on her face that said, "Why are you doing this to me?"  It broke my heart.

I ate the omelet.

"Nuh-nana!"

"Okay, baby, Mommy will get you a banana."  I peeled her a banana, sliced it up and put some on her high chair tray.

She ate about half, then the rest was sent to the floor.  That's been our cue that she's not hungry anymore.

Well, I can't really say that she didn't want to play, because she played for a long time in her playpen, actually.  I love to watch her when she's playing with her Elmo phone, real cell phone (minus the battery) and her yellow phone that sings songs.  It's like she's her own little call center.

It wasn't until after her nap when she decided she didn't want to play anymore.  She stood up in her playpen, she reached for me and Tom, she hurled toys at us.  And let's not forget the super fun trail of endless screaming!

So, then I picked her up out of her pen and attempted to hold her for a while.  That was a challenge.  She's going through a "phase" (I think) where she wants to be flipped upside down all the time.  I swear she's going to be a gymnast because I'm pretty sure she'd rather be upside down than right-side-up most of the time.  And, when I've got her upside down, I need to remember to watch where her feet are; she likes to kick!

(Side note: OMG, watching the end of "Baggage", the guy's baggage is that he impregnated 9 women!  Holy crap!  JERRY!  JERRY!  JERRY!)

Anywho, so, when I tried to get her to stop flipping around like a tiny tree monkey, I tried to work with her on more words.  (She can say "yummy" now, very cute!)  Every word I said, she shook her little head, eyes tinkling with glee, tiny tooth-budded smile.  She's doing the head-shaking thing with alarming frequency now, even more than that one blog I posted, if you can believe it.

I'm reminded of an episode of "Friends" where Carol and Susan go to pick up little Ben from Ross' apartment, and they ask Ross how he was doing.

Ross: I asked him if he wanted to eat, he said 'no'.  I asked if he wanted to sleep, he said 'no'.  I asked him what he wanted to do, he said 'no', so he's sweeping.

Cut to a shot of little Ben sweeping Ross' floor with a tiny yellow and red broom.

That's SO going to be Ella.  If only she'd stand on her own longer than 10 seconds.

*sigh*  I love my adorable daughter.

To a 13-Month-Old, Everything is a Telephone

Weebles are not little, hard plastic, weighted oval people.  Little People are not little, hard plastic, stereotypical toy people.

A rubber duckie is not a bath toy.

Everything is a telephone.  Even the palms of her tiny little hands.

Ella puts just about everything to her left ear and says, "Eroo?"  Then, she hands the random toy out to me or Tom, because, apparently the person on the other end of the Elmo doll's butt, is asking to speak with us.  The caller on the other end of the Cabbage Patch doll's face wants nothing to do with her, but has some information that Tom and I need to hear...supposedly.

She does this with all of her toys, except, ironically, toy phones.  We recently found our old cell phone, and gave it to her to play with, in hopes that she wouldn't want to play with our current cell phone as much. 

Nope.  Ella only wants what we have.

And cucumbers are bananas, especially when not fully ripe.  In fact, anything on our kitchen table has become a banana.  I took a grapefruit from the fruitbowl on the table.

"Nuh-nana."  Ella pointed at the grapefruit.

"No, baby, this is a grapefruit.  Mommy's going to have a grapefruit."

She shakes her head, smiling. "Nuh-nana!"

"No, honey, grapefruit.  Mommy will give you a banana after lunch today, okay?"

Ella shakes her head, reaching for the grapefruit.  "Eh!  Eh!"

"Here, then.  Play with Mommy's grapefruit."  I put it on her high chair tray.

Smiling, she bites into the thick peel.  She stops smiling.

"Wasn't a banana, was it?"

Ella looks at me, confused.  She hefts the grapefruit up to her left ear.  "Eroo?"

Mommy Loves You, Damn It!

I absolutely love it that Ella is starting to say a few words now.  It seems like she's saying something new almost every day.  Here's a quick run-down of what she's been saying:

Nuh-nana - banana
Iss - this
At - that
Buh-buh - bye bye
Mummy/Mum Mum Mum - Mommy
Dah/Dada - Daddy
Aaah, Pooh - Hi Pooh
Ahpoo - apple (we think, not sure)
No

Let's talk about that last one, shall we?

Ella CAN say no (usually when we least expect it), but, more often than not, she will shake her head rapidly from side to side, with a huge grin on her face and her eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Ella, do you want another bite of cereal?"  *shakes head*

"How about tomorrow?"  *shakes head*

"How about on Valentine's Day?"  Nothing.

"Okay, Mommy will save your last bite of cereal until then, Sweetie."

(Obviously, I'm not saving one bite of cereal until Valentine's Day.)

See, this little back-and-forth happens a lot.  But, this is cute, and not frustrating.

"Ella, Mommy loves you."  *shakes head*

"Yes, she does."  *shakes head*

"Ella, yes she does!"  *shakes head, giggling*

"Ella, Mommy loves you, whether you like it or not, damn it!"

At this point, she's giggling so wildly she's almost falling down in her playpen, or, in some cases, stretching herself backwards in my arms, almost falling out.

I love my baby more than anything, but why, oh why did she get her father's sense of humor???

Two Quick Thank Yous and Competitive Parents

Okay, so just a quick "thank you" to the big brains behind Disney/Sargento's "Fun Cheese Shapes".  Ella loves cheese, and up until now, I've been giving her shredded cheese, but it makes a huge mess.  The cheese shapes are fun and not messy, and you get to eat Mickey's head every time!  So, again, "thanks" to the creators of this awesome product; I no longer have to clean slightly melted globs of shredded cheese out of the crevices of Ella's pajama legs :)

Also, another quick "thanks" to the Heluva Good company for making the White Cheddar & Bacon dip.  I'm currently in chip 'n dip heaven!

It's amazing how competitive parents can be.  I don't consider myself to be a competitive parent, because, kids develop and grow on their own timeline, and you can't force them otherwise.

But, to force your child, who only has two visible teeth, to eat something she clearly shouldn't be eating, just to make yourself look like the better parent - um...NO.

We were at Walmart the other day, and we stopped into McDonalds for a quick snack before grocery shopping.  Tom, Ella and I like to share the chicken nuggets, and, yes, I know I shouldn't be giving her McDonalds food at her age, she's too young, and it's not the healthiest.  We don't do it a lot, and we also take the breading off of the nuggets so she just eats the chicken.  Moving on.

So, this woman and her two kids is sitting across from us, watching us give Ella nuggets.  At first, I thought, "Oh, great, she's going to chastize us for giving our baby junk".  Then, I see her give her baby girl (who was clearly much younger than Ella) a Chicken Select.  A freaking Chicken Select.  The thing was almost bigger than the kid's head, she had to hold it with both hands, and couldn't open her mouth wide enough to even attempt to eat it.  I was watching this poor, sweet little baby (who we later found out was only 7 months old), as she drooled all over the Select, and finally, in a last-ditch attempt to hold it with one hand, drop it on the floor.

The mother sighed audibly in disgust, picked the Select up off the floor, put it on her tray, and gave the baby a fry.  She stopped trying to make antagonizing eye contact with me after that.

Meanwhile, Ella was just as happy as a clam, holding a nugget in one hand, a fry in the other, bouncing in her seat and giggling away. 

Seeing the other baby, Ella held out her nugget and said, "Nuh-nana?"

Baby Scream Radar and a Disney Princess T-Shirt

Last night, while I was cooking dinner, and the husband, Tom, was watching TV, Ella took it upon herself to let out a continuous stream of blood-curdling screams.  No idea why.  Just being generous, I guess.

I've noticed that she does this whenever we want to watch something we like on TV, or if we're trying to listen to something important on the news.  Or if we're trying to speak to each other.  Or think.

It's like Baby Scream Radar: "Ooooh!  Mommy and Daddy are doing that talking thing!  It needs to stop!  Scrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreach!!!!"  "Mommy put that show on TV again!  And it's not Elmo!  Scrrrrrrrrrrrrrreach!"

That would make one hell of a burglar alarm.  A baby scream alarm would ward off anyone; neighbors, childless couples...single male friends.  As if that glorious stench of baby (ie: sour milk and poop) wouldn't deter them upon opening your door in the first place.

Then again, this morning, I could tell she was getting into naptime mode when she stood up in her playpen, watching me, and whining.  That's usually code for "Mommy, pick me up, get my blankie and my binky, it's time to snooze!!!"

Today was slightly different.  I gave her a sippy cup of milk while she was in her playpen.  Mistake.

Now, most of her toys have a lovely white sheen, and her board book pages are stuck together.  She left the sippy cup upside down in a corner of the pen, the nipple bent at an angle allowing the milk to puddle.

Then I noticed her butt was wet.  And both of the feet of her pajamas.  And I had already changed her pajamas once since she'd been awake.

I put her in an outfit consisting of a blue Disney Princess t-shirt and pink leggings and placed her back into the playpen.  After 10 minutes of silence (and the ability to watch a full segment on the Rachael Ray show), I became concerned.

I peeked into the pen, and there was Ella holding the bottom hem of her t-shirt stretched out in front of her, as she checked out the three Disney Princesses, Tiana, Aurora and Cinderella.

Had she been doing this the whole time? 

To quote Gru from Despicable Me: "Lightbulb!!!"

Maybe if I throw a Disney Princess shirt on her everytime she gets into scream mode, she'll be distracted to the point of NOT SCREAMING.  And maybe, I'll have an element of sanity back.

And maybe, Tom and I can have a full converstation!

Hmm...let me rethink that one...

I Can't Stay Mad...

Last night was rough.  And that's an understatement.

Ella refused to fall asleep until almost 11pm.  She woke up around 12:30am.  Didn't fall back to sleep until after 4am.  Was up again at 5:50am.  Slept in my husband's arms until about 8:45am, then she and I were up and playing in the living room.

At these difficult times, it would really be a Godsend if she could form a full sentence, other than "Hi, Pooh!"  Or, at least two or three words that would tell us what's going on, like "Bad dream", or "Tummy hurts" or "Don't feel good".

As a parent, you get so frustrated when something is upsetting your child, but it's more upsetting when your child can't even explain their discontent to you.  And you want to be there for them all the time.

But, at 3am...ugh.  I can't stay mad.

I can't stay mad when the first words out of my precious angel's mouth at 9am this morning were, "Mama, nuh-nana!  Nuh-nana!"  Like nothing happened, like she hadn't just seen me less than three hours earlier, screaming in her crib.

I gave her a nuh-nana (banana).  And I looked the other way when she dropped half of it on the floor :)

Finding Love in Food and Bedtime Baby Lotion

Apparently, the adage about how you shouldn't look for love in food doesn't apply to babies, namely, my daughter, Ella.

This morning, though it was too early for her usual bowl of cereal with mashed up fruit and milk, Ella was pointing to the kitchen table and whining.  She started doing this a few weeks ago, when she realized we kept her bananas there, as well as her other baby snack items.  Unfortunately, this morning, we were completely out of bananas, but Ella spotted something else: banana cookies.  And she knows the box all too well.

Banana cookies, for those of you who have not yet experienced these things, are hard, crusty, crescent-shaped teething cookies flavored with banana puree.  Ella knows she can't have a cookie without being in her high chair.  So, the dance of "cookie love" begins.

I place the high chair in it's usual spot next to my seat and remove the plastic tray.  Ella's eyes light up, darting from the kitchen table to the trayless chair, her little feet stomping, and body crouched in anticipation.

I lift her out of her playpen, and she drops whatever toy she has now forgotten about.  She giggles wildly and wiggles her little body frantically in my arms as I place her in her chair and attach the tray.  Ella now has one focus: cookies!

She watches as I take a cookie out of the package and hand it to her.  She runs her beautiful baby blues across the cookie as if it were a gift from the Lord Himself.  She then looks at me, the Cookie Giver, as though I have just bestowed upon her the greatest treasure in all the land.

The cookie is gone in approximately 3 minutes.

The dance begins again about an hour later, when, moving on from the banana cookies, Ella spots the saltines.  Then, we break out the juice.

Okay, bedtime baby lotion.  Seriously.  I love the product, I really do.  It smells nice, and it really does help Ella to stay asleep longer (if 6:55am is "longer", I have no idea).  But, they should really consider refilming the commercial with a 13-month-old.

The sweet little infant would be replaced with a much bigger, and much, MUCH more mobile child, squirming and spinning out of your grasp, while you attempt to pin her to her changing table with one arm and desperately to open the lotion bottle with slippery, yet pleasantly-scented fingers.

Forty-five minutes later, the loving parent is pissed off and sweaty, holding a child who is so greased up with lotion that she has now slipped out of her pajamas and is chewing on the cap of the lotion bottle and making "yucky" faces because...clearly the lotion isn't meant to be ingested.

Just a suggestion :)

Sippy Cups, Baby Poop and Hidden Peanut Butter

Hello Everyone - Welcome to my New Blog!

I figured I would explain my Blog Title in my first post to clarify things a bit.

Sippy cups.  A big part of any parent of a 13-month-old.  We've gone through several; the most recent being a 3-stage "transitional" sippy cup, starting with a regular nipple, moving to a straw-like nipple device, and ending with your rubber sippy cup top.  All past sippy cup experiences have leaked, or been lost along the way, or thrown out because we cut a wider opening in the top to allow rice cereal through.

And, it would figure: as soon as she got used to this new one, now she's getting teeth.  The cycle of sippy cups is never-ending.

Baby poop.  We deal with a lot of it.  Right now, she's getting over a double ear infection, and she's on augmentin.  The medicine gives her massive diarrhea.

Now, I haven't been like those "movie moms" who unknowingly wipe the poop on their cheeks and foreheads, then have a great big laugh about it.  I've been fortunate enough to only get it on my thumb.  And knuckles.  And shirt.  Okay, more than one shirt.  And the couch.  Twice.  You'd really think I would have learned not to change her on the couch by now.  And I can't find the Febreeze :(

Hidden Peanut Butter.  I have a husband (that alone should be enough explanation).  He uses things, then, I swear to God, he hides them on me.  I knew we had good peanut butter, and I went to use it, and it was gone.  Then, suspiciously, I find the thick, rounded paper cover to the peanut butter jar left haphazardly on the counter in ripped up pieces.  Again, no jar.  This morning, I have located the peanut butter, and am hoping to enjoy it on an English muffin at some point today.

I wonder if he knows where the Febreeze is?