Mall Rats, Playing Nicely and Tom is Mean, Let's Throw Rocks at Him!

See the shirt?  Same one I mentioned in the blog about Ella being distracted by her Disney Princess t-shirt, and you can tell from the way she's standing...she feels fancy <3

So, we went to the mall the other day to walk around and pick out a birthday card for Tom's cousin.  It was Friday evening, and the mall was absolutely packed with teens.

Who do these little pukes think they are?

They walk around, all cocky and thinking they're bad ass, with this unbelieveable sense of entitlement unlike anything I've ever seen in my life.  And the "gangsta" thing has to STOP.  I don't need to see your boxers, put your hat on straight or take it off, and what the hell is with the groups of girls who huddle together in front of McDonalds, only to speak up if you go around them to get in line, "Excuse me, we're in line!"

Really???  Oh, sorry, it's hard to tell what you're doing when you're standing like herded sheep in your little circle of insecurity.

And, I'm sorry, but you're not "gangsta", you're not "bad ass" if YOUR MOM HAS TO PICK YOU UP!!!

Moving on.

So, the birthday party for Tom's cousin was Saturday, and Ella totally pooped herself out walking around, chasing after her cousin Destiney.  It was really cute: Destiney would open her arms wide and hug Ella and say "Cousin!"

Ella, my tiny little twerp, tried to toddle her way out the door, every time saying, "buh bye!"  It was almost impossible to round up the kids to get them ready to go, they just wanted to keep playing and running around.  Hopefully we'll get Ella and Destiney together again soon.

Yes, I said it: Tom is mean, let's throw rocks at him.

I was playing with Ella and her Mega Bloks tonight.  I took all the smallest blocks and made a long pole, which broke in half (they don't stay together as perfectly as Legos do), and the broken off part hit Ella's back (not hard) because she was trying to climb into my lap to grab my blocks anyway.  So, Tom decided to be "funny" and tell me I was abusing her with her own blocks, and that he hoped Ella could remember how to walk, and say certain words, because the trauma was so great.

Tom's mean.

I will take comedian Tom Cotter's advice: tonight, I will fill balloons with water and put them in the freezer.  Tomorrow, I will challenge Tom (the mean husband) to a water balloon fight.  Once he realizes he's bleeding from the ears, I will be the WINNER!

Muahahaha.

Crashing Through a Milestone and a Parenting Question

My Ella is officially a walker.  Up until now, she'd stand on her own, but when it came to getting from Point A to Point B, she'd drop to her knees and crawl there.  This evening, she held onto the edge of her playpen, made it to the coffeetable, then I picked up one of her pacifier straps and dangled it about 2-3 feet out of reach - and she took 2-3 wobbly steps, grabbed the strap and collapsed on me in a fit of giggles.

I nearly burst into tears.

I scooted backwards a few more feet on the floor, and Tom dangled another strap just out of her reach.  She stretched out her little arm, took a couple more steps this time, and collasped on Tom.  We kept this up for about 15 minutes or so, widening the gap between us each time.

A half-hour later, she was walking from our living room, through the kitchen, and down the hall to the bathroom, completely unassisted.  Then she went into the bathroom, where Tom was...indisposed...she knocked down all of the washcloths and wobbled over to Tom, giggling wildly.

I'm so, so, so proud of my baby.

Now, my question.  Well, really, I'm just looking for opinions from parents, but everyone is welcome to chip in their two cents.  It's something I used to think I had a solid opinion about, but now that I have a child, my opinion has completely changed.

My question: how do you feel about those backpack/harness "baby leashes"?

We didn't buy it ourselves, but when I was pregnant, a friend of Tom's mother gave us a ton of baby stuff, and included was a puppy backpack with a harness/clip thing in the front, with the puppy's tail as the leash.  My first opinion was, "Oh my God, who would do that to a child?  How humiliating!"

Now that my baby is mobile, and seems to be determined to stay that way, and coming up at a summer full of trips to amusement parks, I am thinking differently.

With the world the way it is now, I really think it would make more sense to put Ella in the harness.  I don't want to spend hours upon hours looking for my sweet, innocent baby in an amusement park because she wandered off - or worse.  It makes sense to keep her attached to us, but still allow her a little bit of freedom and protection.

Am I completely off base?  I would love to hear what everyone has to say.

New Endeavors, How to Punish Your Monkey and Finding Loopholes

I cut Ella's bangs:

That was my new endeavor for the week.  At least, I hope that's the only new endeavor I attempt for a while.  It was completely nerve-wracking.  First, she's my baby, and she's beautiful and gorgeous and perfect, and I was terrified of cutting her bangs the wrong way and ruining her.  As you can see, as long as her bangs are parted to the side, it doesn't look so bad.  I tried to wear them straight down on her forehead, and they don't look too bad, either, but you can see how horribly uneven I cut them.  Secondly, she's so darn wiggly!  I had to strap her into her high chair so I didn't have to worry about having to hold her with one hand and cut with the other, or, less ridiculously, having Tom hold her, wiggling around in his arms.

Okay, moving on, deep breaths, everyone!

So, a friend of ours recently treated us to a fun-filled evening at Chuck E. Cheese ("Where a Kid can be a Kid" and every adult dies a little inside).  Anyhow, prior to this, Ella had become slightly attached to this cute, fuzzy, purple monkey, so, of course, the monkey had to come to Chuck E. Cheese with us.  While at our table, Ella dropped the monkey on the floor.  Our friend then picked it up and said,

"Ella, he's a bad monkey, he fell on the ground!  Spank the monkey, Ella!  Spank the monkey!"

Her six year old son, no longer transfixed by the glitter and noise of the various games, whipped around saying, "I wanna spank the monkey, Mommy!  I wanna spank the monkey!"

Our friend looked at me and said, "This is going in your blog, isn't it?"

Yeah.

You know those toys that have the shaped holes in them?  The child takes the colored, shaped blocks and fit them through the corresponding holes, right?  Well, Ella has three different versions on this toy: my Mom got her the first one, a castle, that has 8 shaped openings, but the castle itself opens on a hinge, and also has a "drawbridge" door-type opening.  The second version, given to Ella on her first birthday, is a purple mailbox with Elmo attached, has 5 shaped openings, and one "mail slot" in the mailbox door for the two plastic "letters".  The third toy, given to Ella by Tom's Mom, is a ball that opens into halves, and has 12 shaped-openings.

My point is, the child is supposed to learn "spatial coordination" or whatever, by playing with these toys.  Ella, however, has learned to employ loopholes.

Castle: Ella opens the "drawbridge" door and puts shapes in, takes shapes out, and occasionally, I'll find pieces of food, dolls, Little People cars and small books.

Elmo Mailbox: obviously, she opens the mailbox door.  Once, she put in her sippy cup, closed the door, and put up the flag for the mailman.

Ball: pretty simple, she figured out how to open the ball into halves...which she then takes one half and puts on her head.

Again, I'm SO glad she has Tom's sense of humor.

Lil Ketchup Dipper, Chica and a Question for My Readers who are Parents

I think I've talked about this before, but now there's more to say: Ella has a ketchup-dipping problem.

We went to Five Guys, and again, she recognized the red stuff in the small plastic cups.  "Eh!  Eh!  Eh!" she whined, holding out her fry.  Tom attempted to take the fry from her tiny fingers.

"Eh!"  she retracted her hand from his grasp.

Tom looked at me.  "I think she wants to do it herself!"

I shrugged.  "Go ahead and let her try, but YOU are the one cleaning the ketchup off her fingers!"

Tom extended the ketchup cup toward Ella.  She gingerly took her fry and dipped it into the cup, then put the red-tipped fry into her mouth, sucked off the ketchup and reached her fry out for more.

Curious and amused, Tom allowed her access to the cup again.  Experiencing this new freedom, Ella began bouncing in the high chair...a bit too much.  Her whole fist went into the cup.  But my clever little kid didn't miss a beat - she snatched up a fry in her clean hand, holding it toward the ketchup cup, "Eh!  Eh!  Eh!"

I've also realized that she does the whole "Eh!  Eh!  Eh!" thing while pointing at the trash can.  But, I guess I'll have to pick those battles on my own :)

Ella is crazy, crazy, crazy about Chica.  For those of you who don't know who Chica is, she is a puppet "co-host" of The Sunny Side Up Show on PBS Sprout.  Chica is a chicken puppet, she's orange, she has big, round eyes, instead of talking, she makes a squeaking sound, and Ella LOVES her.  So, every morning, from 9-12, we watch the Sunny Side Up Show so Ella can watch the snippets of Chica between cartoons and other educational programming.

What confuses me, though, is occasionally, they will also have Chica's Mom on the show.  Chica's Mom looks like Chica, except she's brown.  Also, she can say random words and phrases in between clucking sounds.  For example: when asked what types of exercises she liked to do,  Chica's Mom replied, "Bock bock, yoga!  Bock bock pilates!  Bock bock dancing!"

I think the perfect program for Ella to watch would have Chica, non-stop for, like eight hours, also featuring Barney, and together, Chica and Barney would teach the "Your Baby Can Read" programs.  That would be helpful.

I have the first installment of the "Your Baby Can Read" series, but it's so hard to find time to fit it in during the day, especially when we're out and about for most of the day.  I don't want her to miss any Chica, because it puts her in a great mood (until 11am, when she's ready for a nap), but I really want her to learn to read and comprehend.

Up until now, I thought writing a book would be the hardest thing to do...parenting SO trumps that!!!

Also, I don't know if it's a nation-wide commercial, or only here in PA, but Ella is obsessed with that Berger and Green lawyer commercial, but only the one with the little bald guy.  Every time it comes on TV, she just stares at it, mesmerized.

I love my little weirdo.

Okay, now I have a question for my readers who are parents: how do you get a toddler to eat when they push food away, throw it on the floor, or throw a tantrum when you try to feed them?  The only thing Ella would eat the other night was saltine crackers.  She also will eat French fries, but, I can't give her meals of only saltines and fries!!!  She's even throwing nuh-nana's on the floor, and they were her favorite!!

Suggestions are sincerely hoped for!!!

Straying from the Norm

Well, I decided I would take a break from writing about my kid for a change, and talk a little about myself, and how this blog came to be.

I'll try to not be upset during the blackout, as you all turn off your computers and read a book instead...still with me?  How kind of you.

Let me start by saying: pregnancy threw me for a loop.  I read that pregnancy affects women in many, many different ways.  For me, it totally affected my want to read and write.  I had zero creativity, no real desire to produce anything (other than a child in my womb, ha ha).  On rare occasions, I would get an inkling of an idea for a book, and I did keep a notebook around in case I felt like writing something down.  But, like I said, rare.

Even after I had Ella, I still didn't want to read anything other than parenting/baby books.  I didn't want to write anything other than milestones in Ella's baby book.  I strongly felt that attention paid anywhere else meant that I was neglecting my baby.

About 3 or 4 months ago, I started getting more and more writing ideas, almost on a daily basis.  I found myself writing them down, and some ideas even got fleshed out a bit.  However, I still could not bring myself to write any more than rough outlines.  Characters weren't quite coming to me.

But, I also realized that it felt good to do something I once loved, and I realized that , as Ella was getting a bit older, she didn't need as much of my constant attention.  She was starting to get into playing with her toys for more extended periods of time, allowing me some short stretches where writing, or reading the newspaper, or articles in writing magazines could squeeze in.

I was starting to feel like myself again.  Or, rather, a new Mom-version of myself.  It was liberating.

So, last month, I decided that I needed to give myself the final push to really write something again.  I went through my notes, but couldn't figure out which story idea to work on.

I thought back to a class I took in college, where I kept a blog as part of an extra credit project.  I really liked the idea of blogging without assigned topics.  Then, my Mom suggested writing a blog about Ella and being a new mom.

Who knew mothers were always right?  When do I get to always be right?

Oh, wait.  I already am.  :)

Miracle Book and the Elmo Crush

Originally Written: Monday, January 31, 2011

So, we came across this book called "The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers", written by Elizabeth Pantley.  It's supposed to help parents deal with all types of sleeping issues for children aged 1-6.  I'm not very far into the book yet, but so far, Ms. Pantley seems to make a lot of sense.

What we have read mostly has to do with ways to make healthy, sleep-inducing changes to Ella's diet.  It says to provide dinner and before-bed snacks that contain foods with tryptophan, such as: tuna, natural peanut butter without sugar (not the hidden kind), cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, bananas (nuh-nanas!) and the one everyone already knows - turkey.

It also says to eliminate any foods that are high in protein (at bedtime, not altogether!), as they can cause energy bursts: red meat, bacon/pork; as well as foods that stimulate the nervous system: caffeine, chocolate, peppermint, fatty/greasy foods, OJ/citrus juices, butter, MSG, sugar and simple carbs.

Well, there goes our coffee break, darn it!  :)

It makes sense though, and it makes me rethink what I eat and drink before bed, too.  Tom and I need to be Ella's role models, which means we need to improve our habits so she will adopt good habits when she gets older.

And, here I am, it's 10:30pm and I'm eating sugar.  Damn conversation hearts.  Apparently, I'm my own "Soul Mate".  And now they have a heart that says "Tweet Me".  Really???

My baby girl has a crush.  Her crush has a catchy tune:

"La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World!  La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World!"

It's pretty bad when I can sing the rest of the song in my head...every damn word.

Ella hands me her Sesame Street board books, and when I foolishly try to read them to her, she screams, "Ehmo!  Ehmo!"

She wants only to see the pages with Elmo on them.  She couldn't care less about the rest of the book.  Although, I am very proud of her, because when I ask her where certain characters are on the page, she points to them correctly almost every time.

This child will literally hurl books at me, "Ehmo!  Ehmo!"  And if I don't pick up the book immediately, she will scream "Ehmo!" until I pick the book up and locate Elmo.  Her arms are like tiny rocket launchers, I swear.  Once Elmo has been found, she smiles her flirty smile and shies away from the book.

I love my kid.

Sleep Strategies and "We're Getting Old!"

Originally Written: Sunday, January 30, 2011

So, I took Saturday off for some much-needed rest.  Needless to say, Ella is still not sleeping well.  Tom and I have looked into some other possible ideas to help her sleep.

We did try to leave her bedroom light on - no luck.  She woke up, Tom turned her light on, got her back to sleep, and a half-hour later, she was up screaming bloody murder with the light on.

I did some research into baby medications.  Tom made the joke that if he invented a baby sleeping pill, he'd be the richest man on Earth.  He's probably right.

Then, I'd be the happiest wife on Earth...money AND a sleeping baby!  :)

I was watching one of those doctor shows on TV; not sure if it was Dr. Oz or The Doctors, but they were talking about people with sleeping disorders, and said the first thing you should do is look into what medications the person is taking.  Well, right now, the only "prescription" Ella is on is the multivitamin drops.  I found the listing in my Pill Book, and it didn't say anything about sleep disruptions, but it did mention nausea and irritability.

Then we wondered if what we were feeding her was causing stomach upset at bedtime.  We've been trying to transition Ella from stage 3's (and 4's, in some cases) to regular food.  I also realized we've been giving her a lot of cheese, and that can sometimes cause stomach upset, especially if she were to be lactose intolerant (we haven't had any inklings before).

We looked into Ella's bedtime routine.  We haven't been the most consistent with bedtimes; we started trying around 7:30pm, when she would first start acting tired.  Then, we steadily increased it, 8pm, 8:30pm, 9pm.  Then, we had the crib mattress lowered all the way, it took a while getting used to have to raise and lower the side.

After the first night in the newly-lowered crib, she started having problems sleeping all night.  She could sleep perfectly fine in her playpen when we'd travel or stay at a friend's, and the playpen is even lower than the crib mattress (and less comfortable, I would imagine).

My point is, we've never had a really structured bedtime routine, and maybe that's the real issue.  Maybe we should start with a set time for her to start calming down.  Maybe we should adjust the foods and drinks we allow her for dinner and before bed.

It's worth a shot.

"We're Getting Old!"  This is what Tom said to me a few days ago.  He said this because we've both taken a liking to watching PBS Specials.  We talk about them with the same amount of enthusiasm that we talk about going on a vacation, or getting Christmas presents.

We get excited when we talk about living in the Goose House in Connecticut, or going to the milk bottle ice cream shop in Massachusetts.  We get mutually disgusted when we relive the "Sandwiches You'll Like" moment when the lady eats the "brain sandwich".

And now, there's an ice cream special.  Those of you who know me well enough, know that I love ice cream.  If ice cream was a person, I would do dirty things to it, and not feel guilty the next morning.

Anyway, the special is a tad dated, because when they talk about Ben & Jerry's, they show all sorts of Rainforest Crunch merchandise, and that flavor hasn't been around since I was in, like, 8th grade (unfortunately; it was a good one!).

Also worth mentioning: there's a seasonal ice cream shop in Cape Cod, and when an attractive woman walks in, the male employees made up a code, "Check the Vanilla", so they'll all know to look.  Likewise, the female employees made up a code for cute guys..."Check the Banana" :)

And, to top off our premature aging, I went and signed up to win tickets to *drumroll please*

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW!

I used to make fun of this show, and now I want tickets???  How old am I?

Oh, just pass the Metamucil and change the channel to PBS, will ya?