This past week I got a cold. After 2 hours straight of talking on Saturday, that cold turned into a lost voice. No biggie. Kinda funny, actually. Having never lost my voice before, I thought it was funny, anyway. The only time it's a big inconvenience is when I'm trying to yell at Vivienne to put my china tea cup down, etc.
Anyway, not feeling too well, I haven't gotten a whole lot accomplished and frankly don't have the desire to, which doesn't really add to my short-term self-esteem, if you know what I mean. Well, it took another blow tonight the probably addition of a new scar...to my face.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Destination
First of all, a crib update: I took the crib apart and Vivi's mattress is now on the floor (on top of a very soft, fuzzy blanket) surrounded by all her stuffed animal friends. This way I don't have to worry about her getting hurt as she continually crawls out of her crib. It actually is working pretty good. She had been falling asleep in front of the door, but the last couple nights she's stayed in her bed which is encouraging. She loves her 'new' bed; she jumped on it right away, sprints into the room and throws herself on it, and jumps from our bed onto hers. It actually has made her a lot more willing to play by herself in the bedroom, which is great because it makes our house seem a little bigger.
Last week as I had the opportunity to deconstruct a crib by myself, make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (yum!), and my house stayed relatively clean, I couldn't help but think 'This is how I've wanted it to be; I've arrived.' I realize that it presumptious; my house has since turned into a toy/clothes warzone and there are now dishes in the sink (that will not get done tonight). However, I do believe after 3-4 months of being home, I am just now starting to feel more comfortable and get in a groove. I honestly didn't think it would take this long. I figured it would take me a week to decompress, but after that my house would always be clean and I'd make dinner every night. That hasn't happened exactly, but I have finally learned for myself something that I've been told my whole life: do small clean ups as you go along. I never had the energy to do the dishes right after dinner, but pots really are easier to clean if you don't let them sit overnight! Our bedroom still accumulates quite the mess, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that I can't get in there during the day because Doug is in there sleeping.
Anyway, I don't know if I will ever be one of those women whose house is spotless and everything is always clean. However, I do feel more comfortable with the cleanliness of my home...there's not as much clutter because I've had time to go through some of the piles of stuff. I will keep working towards always having a perfect home, but I've realized that's just not one of my priorities right now. Maybe someday, but until then I will let myself be satisified with the progress I have made :)
Last week as I had the opportunity to deconstruct a crib by myself, make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (yum!), and my house stayed relatively clean, I couldn't help but think 'This is how I've wanted it to be; I've arrived.' I realize that it presumptious; my house has since turned into a toy/clothes warzone and there are now dishes in the sink (that will not get done tonight). However, I do believe after 3-4 months of being home, I am just now starting to feel more comfortable and get in a groove. I honestly didn't think it would take this long. I figured it would take me a week to decompress, but after that my house would always be clean and I'd make dinner every night. That hasn't happened exactly, but I have finally learned for myself something that I've been told my whole life: do small clean ups as you go along. I never had the energy to do the dishes right after dinner, but pots really are easier to clean if you don't let them sit overnight! Our bedroom still accumulates quite the mess, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that I can't get in there during the day because Doug is in there sleeping.
Anyway, I don't know if I will ever be one of those women whose house is spotless and everything is always clean. However, I do feel more comfortable with the cleanliness of my home...there's not as much clutter because I've had time to go through some of the piles of stuff. I will keep working towards always having a perfect home, but I've realized that's just not one of my priorities right now. Maybe someday, but until then I will let myself be satisified with the progress I have made :)
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Baby Houdini!
Until last week Vivienne managed to climb out of her crib intermittently just a couple times. That was until Friday night. We left poor nana Marie (Doug's grandma who lives upstairs) with the relatively 'simple' task of putting Vivi to bed so we could to the temple...when we got home she said Vivienne spent 1.5 hours crawling out of the crib and Marie had to keep putting her back time after time after time.
I was hoping that was just an anomaly since Saturday night went off without a hitch. Sunday was a completely different story. She was up until 11pm either climbing out of the crib or screaming because we were right there telling her to put her leg back in the crib. Finally, we just strapped her into the swing so we could go to bed. Doug even tried laying down in the dark in front of the door so Vivi tripped over him when she escaped and he scared her...I actually thought that might work, but it didn't. Her crib is in our room, so I decided we'd just lay in bed and keep telling her to lay down so she knew we were there and that resistence was futile. One hour later (that was after the hour of just putting her back in the crib time after time), we got sick of seeing her run back and forth in her crib and scream like a crazy animal and put her in the swing where she slept like...not a baby...until morning. We even tried putting her in the pack and play, which is higher and she looked like she wouldn't be able to get out of for a couple weeks...but no. She was pissed off and got out of there faster than I could walk down the hall to the bathroom.
Baby Houdini.
I'm all about the Love and Logic, so I decided we were getting up early to go to work Monday morning so she would know the consequences of her actions (even if not directly, she'd be super tired). She was exhausted. But that didn't stop her from escaping the crib at grandma and grandpa's house for afternoon nap (our hot water heater broke over the weekend, so I thought I'd shower while she napped-that did not happen). I tried staying in the room with her until she fell asleep, but she knew she had a captive audience and so, even though she was exhausted, put on quite a show for me. I even swatted her butt to get her to lay down, but that didn't work. Instead, when she laid down, she started trying to spank her own butt and looked at me while wriggling her cute little tush in the air like 'I'm laying down, are you gonna spank me? Huh, are ya, are ya?'
Finally, after 45 minutes of that, I left the room and shut the door. She promptly crawled out of the crib and knocked on the door yelling for mama. After about 5 minutes she passed out in front of the door. She only slept for 30 minutes, but that's actually pretty standard for grandma's house.
After much brainstorming with family and friends I've tried a strategy that seems to mostly work. I baby proofed our room (took out the full-length mirror, moved all the books, closed all the drawers, etc.) and just lock her in the room. When she falls alseep, I put her in the crib. It worked like a dream last night, except for the small hiccup that she fell asleep right in front of the door, so I couldn't even open it (her face was taking the brunt of my attempts to open the door until I realized it was her face). She woke up at one point and then I just put her in the crib seamlessly. Tonight went pretty much the same, except we've already had one more wake-up than last night. However, this strategy is a lot less frustrating then putting her back in the crib over and over.
Oh, how I love my baby Houdini. If it weren't so frustrating, I'd be very proud :)
I was hoping that was just an anomaly since Saturday night went off without a hitch. Sunday was a completely different story. She was up until 11pm either climbing out of the crib or screaming because we were right there telling her to put her leg back in the crib. Finally, we just strapped her into the swing so we could go to bed. Doug even tried laying down in the dark in front of the door so Vivi tripped over him when she escaped and he scared her...I actually thought that might work, but it didn't. Her crib is in our room, so I decided we'd just lay in bed and keep telling her to lay down so she knew we were there and that resistence was futile. One hour later (that was after the hour of just putting her back in the crib time after time), we got sick of seeing her run back and forth in her crib and scream like a crazy animal and put her in the swing where she slept like...not a baby...until morning. We even tried putting her in the pack and play, which is higher and she looked like she wouldn't be able to get out of for a couple weeks...but no. She was pissed off and got out of there faster than I could walk down the hall to the bathroom.
Baby Houdini.
I'm all about the Love and Logic, so I decided we were getting up early to go to work Monday morning so she would know the consequences of her actions (even if not directly, she'd be super tired). She was exhausted. But that didn't stop her from escaping the crib at grandma and grandpa's house for afternoon nap (our hot water heater broke over the weekend, so I thought I'd shower while she napped-that did not happen). I tried staying in the room with her until she fell asleep, but she knew she had a captive audience and so, even though she was exhausted, put on quite a show for me. I even swatted her butt to get her to lay down, but that didn't work. Instead, when she laid down, she started trying to spank her own butt and looked at me while wriggling her cute little tush in the air like 'I'm laying down, are you gonna spank me? Huh, are ya, are ya?'
Finally, after 45 minutes of that, I left the room and shut the door. She promptly crawled out of the crib and knocked on the door yelling for mama. After about 5 minutes she passed out in front of the door. She only slept for 30 minutes, but that's actually pretty standard for grandma's house.
After much brainstorming with family and friends I've tried a strategy that seems to mostly work. I baby proofed our room (took out the full-length mirror, moved all the books, closed all the drawers, etc.) and just lock her in the room. When she falls alseep, I put her in the crib. It worked like a dream last night, except for the small hiccup that she fell asleep right in front of the door, so I couldn't even open it (her face was taking the brunt of my attempts to open the door until I realized it was her face). She woke up at one point and then I just put her in the crib seamlessly. Tonight went pretty much the same, except we've already had one more wake-up than last night. However, this strategy is a lot less frustrating then putting her back in the crib over and over.
Oh, how I love my baby Houdini. If it weren't so frustrating, I'd be very proud :)
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