Walk like a (Wo)man

As our progress on the to-do list picks up speed, we are getting even more excited about our upcoming adventure.  I even passed up a Gregoire croissant sandwich yesterday because I figured, hey, I can have the real thing in a just a couple weeks.  So, I ordered the fried chicken instead;-)

Meanwhile, Lilah is working very hard on learning how to walk.  She now walks between us and pulls up but in her own unique way.  Rather than using her arms for stregnth and balance, she simply plants her feet and stands up at an angle, pushing, rather than pulling, against my hands or whatever object she is using for leverage.  The walking is similar.  To get from Daddy to me, she leans forward catching my hands down low, leaving her body at a sharp angle relative to the floor.  Then, she steps forward until her body is upright which is when she has arrived where she wants to go.  She does this to walk over to the couch as well. 

We are lowering her crib in the morning as she made two attempts today to climb out and escape to the playroom with the dog. 

Her antics continue on the road.  Today, during what was supposed to be her afternoon nap/walk, she turned around and stood up in her stroller, alternating between looking out the back window with her palms resting on the sun shade and facing me while holding onto the handle, like she was riding a Segway (sorry no pics).  This was going fine until she decided to take a bite of the stroller bar, causing the vibration from the road to go into her teeth and make her very angry.  I calmed her down and put her back in the stroller correctly.  She spun around and stood up again.  She alternated between standing and sitting backwards in her stroller, cross legged for the entire walk back to the car.  To the obvious question of why didnt I strap her into the stroller; all attempts to do so led to unleashing the dragon.  Plus, her acrobatics were pretty amusing.  

Despite her rapid progress in the walking department, she still isnt crawling.  She is now consistently getting into official crawl position, and sometimes can kind of slump forward to get something, or pivot around an outstretched leg, but there is still no actual crawling.  This leads to her getting very frustrated, saying screw it, and simply standing up to try and walk where she wants to go.  I was worried about this at first, but my friend who is studying to become a nurse practitioner for babies told me that crawling is not actually a developmental milestone and I should quit worrying and let her do what she wants to do.

I am simultaneously thrilled by her new skills and terrified that in the next two weeks she will figure out how to let go.  I was counting on having a toddler by the time we come home, but was hoping my baby would stick around at least until we leave. 

How do you afford your rock and roll life style?

We Will Rock You

One of the things that I love most about our little family is the ability to get down to business in crunch times and get things done.  Well, Lilah isnt old enough to help yet, but she does seem to have a sense of when we really need her to chillax allowing us some time to attack our to do list.  With the trip less than three weeks away, we have officially kicked into high gear with respect to planning and preparations for  and are moving forward with surprising speed for a family with a 9 month old and a needy dog who is going to be heartbroken when he realizes that there is no suitcase packed for him. 

With the increased clarity on all the things that need to be accomplished before November 5th,  I am less stressed out that I was before.  Rather than feeling like an impossible mishmash of details to sort out is hanging over me, what I see now it is a straight forward list of tasks that we can put our heads together to divide and conquer.  Ensure adequate supply of perscription and otc meds, check!  Acquire frame pack for L-Bean, check! Call insurance company to inform them that Rene (swap partner) will be driving the car, check!

Truly, I am so excited about this little adventure we are embarking on.  I dont think Ive even been away from home for 3 weeks, let alone almost 2 months and I think it will be a time of personal growth for me, a Virgo, who usually needs to be well grounded to feel comfortable.  Happily Chris' air provides nice offset to my earth so if we can balance my inherent desire to stay in our house in Grenoble the entire time with Chris' desire to be on the road the entire time, a good time should be had by all.

For now, its keep our heads down and keep checking off that list with Baby's First Halloween thrown in there for some laughs.

L-Bean in her new chariot with Daddy.  They are twins!!

Enter Sandman

Please, enter.  Have a seat.  Take a load off.  Mister Sandman, you dont even have to bring me a dream.  Just showing up would do. 

When I announced my pregnancy, I did so by posting "Enter Madness, Exit Sandman" along with a picture of my sonogram.  Truer words were never spoken.  The Madness has been exactly as wonderful as I expected, but the sleep has been a different animal all together.  First of all, there is my Mommy Insomnia.  This will be a post unto itself one day but the long and short of it is that with Lilah's birth, I lost the biological ability to fall asleep without pharmacological intervention.  Now, Ambien has long been a lover of mine however, she makes a better mistress than life partner.  I am finally (thank you HMO) working with a sleep clinic to banish the sleep meds to their rightful place in the back of my medicine cabinet, but for now I pop a pill every night as I turn out the light because waiting simply wastes my time.

In addition to my own chronic insomnia being a surpise, no one ever told me that babies sleep would be a dynamic thing, constantly changing, each night with its own unique challenges.  I thought it would be marked by specific milestones that once crossed became "fond" memories that I would "forget" to share with my own children when they had children of their own.

My parents tell me I didnt sleep through the night until I was two so when Lilah started doing it at 5 months, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and concluded that her sleep success was a combination of luck, the plus side of not being able to breastfeed and karmic balancing from the 3 months of colic that almost consumed me.  Silly Mommy.  The first sleep regression eventually resolved itself after her bottom teeth came in and the boiling diaper rash cleared up after 3 weeks of searing her poor little patootie.  The next one came out of nowhere and was only addressed when we vowed never to feed her in the middle of the night again (This vow coming only after the night she woke at 1AM and screamed for almost 3 hours, refusing even her beloved bottle).  About 8 days ago, she stopped going to sleep on her own.  Went from good night kisses followed by promptly rolling to her side and drooling herself to sleep to goodnight kisses followed by HOWLING.  Maybe she was practicing for Halloween? 

We gave in easily and started giving her bottles to fall asleep, which in combination with the morning bottles in our bed that she had grown accustomed too, taught her that bed was for certainly for bottles, not for sleeping.  Last night, I told her no more bottles in bed, period.  "If you want a bottle, you have to come into the kitchen to have it"  (Yes, I told this, in English, to a 9 month old). She screamed for the next hour, only pausing when I picked her up and when I swore I heard her say "I do want want to come to the kitchen to try some milk."   

Now that I have the tools to at least manage my own sleep issues, the temptation to bring her into my bed and hold her all night, rather than work through these issues is strong, especially since my dreams of co sleeping during her newborn days never came to pass but I know better than that.  Though I know other mommies feel differently, based on my own sleep issues, I believe it will be more traumatic for her to learn how to sleep alone the longer I wait.  For now, we use the Five Minute Ford sleep training method.  I let her cry for 5 minutes, hold her for 5 minutes and repeat until she eventually falls asleep.  She's been quiet for half an hour now.  Ford Method ftw.  For now....

The Original Pic

You Can Go Your Own Way

As a parent, I struggle with times when another Mom (or Dad) whom I care for and respect feels  differently than I do about a fundamental issue of parenting.  Not wanting to start a fight, but wanting to stand up for my position, I can never figure out what I should say when these issues rise to the surface.  This usually happens when a related decision needs to be made that impacts both of our kids...Should we take a walk in the rain?  Is it ok for the babies to play in the sand? Should we watch Baby Einstein?  In these cases, it is not possible to "agree to disagree".  When I am the one who does not feel strongly about an issue, I can always concede to the other person to keep the peace.  But sometimes I don't want to do that because I am excited about an activity or really dont want Lilah to do another and then I feel stuck.  I have enough self awareness of my "rookie mom" status to know that another person could take a different position on most of these issues and have logic just as sound as mine.  At the same time, having "heart to hearts" about these issues can end up painful no matter how good the intentions going in. 

Speaking of which, for as much rhetoric as is flying left and right these days, I dont think people actually like to disagree.  A disagreement rarely feels like an equilibrium so issues are passed around again and again, with no new evidence presented, even when it is no longer fun or interesting for anyone.  I think this is why my mother in law spends so much time talking to me about politics and social issues.  I'm sure she would sleep better if I could just agree with her and I know I would if she could just agree with me.  I try not to bring these topics up in order to avoid the feeling of being unsettled, but she feels this tension even when it is left unsaid and so starts conversations none the less.

Speaking of political rhetoric, this morning on Forum, they were talking about charter schools and I felt like the discussion was being framed as either "Charter schools are great, Shut down traditional schools!" OR "Charter schools are dragging down public schools, They are the ones that should be shuttered!"  I had to turn it off after 5 minutes because it felt like pure spin.  Why must everything be framed in extremes?  Because it makes for good sound bytes, duh, but it makes me want to exit the debate and makes me scared for the future of the country because a position of extremes is inherently unstable.   I wonder if by taking extreme positions, it makes it easier for people to disagree with one another.  I think when you see "the other side" as being a polar opposite its easier to write them off rather than dealing with the valid points that they bring and the ensuing clouding of ones own position that this may lead to.  Taking this back to parenting, when people I dont like do things I dont agree with, I couldnt care less.

For my picture of the week, here is a snap of Lilah playing with scarves.  They are technically long enough that she could choke herself so maybe this makes me a Bad Mother.  But, I never leaver her along with them and they are so much fun so I say let the good times begin!