One year stats

Isn't she just rotten? Love it!

Alaina had her 1-year-appointment today. She was 29.5 inches long (52nd percentile) and 21 pounds and 12.2 ounces (55th percentile). Her head was 18.11 inches (71st percentile). I think she had a little growth spurt recently because a couple of weeks ago she was barely eating but in the last few days we could barely shovel food in fast enough! She is doing great developmentally. She has a few consistent words (mama, dada, nite nite, yay, yea), a couple of signs (eat, all done, and one that sort of means more but can also mean milk), and some nonverbal gestures (waving, clapping, pointing). She isn't walking yet but she gets all over the place cruising and crawling. Her favorite thing these days is to crawl really fast into the entrance of another room and wait for you to come "chase" her. She laughs hysterically. I must get this on video. Her face looks something like this, when you "catch" her.

She was really good at the doctor's office, which is impressive considering that her teacher had forgotten I was picking her up at 2 and had laid her down for a nap at 1:45. Eeek. Alaina was a little unsure at first, holding tight to my arm when the nurse took her vital signs. She had two shots today and she was upset by them. I talked her through what was happening and she calmed down, only to have to go down to the lab and get her finger pricked for a blood test. As soon as we got in the lab room, she looked around and started crying. Poor thing was really upset when the nurse (phlebotomist?) kept scraping her finger to try to fill the vial. And oh the bandaid. The bandaid with cotton was just too much.

Once I got her cuddled and settled with a bottle, she was much better. We went to visit Chad at work and she really enjoyed that. It was nice to have a visit to the doctor where nothing was wrong! She was a little cranky this evening but it could have also been due to her nap schedule being a bit off. She's been sleeping great tonight so hopefully she doesn't react negatively to the vaccines. She's done pretty well in the past.

So a healthy girl. Her ears are all clear which is nice...Unfortunately, mine aren't! I got my first ear infection as an adult (at least in memory) and boy is it ever painful! I've got drops and am on an antibiotic. The first day was just terrible. I took one of my leftover pills from surgery and it didn't touch the pain. I tried all kinds of tricks I found on google--warm compresses, blowing the blow dryer in my ear, Tylenol, Aleve, Ibuprofen (not taken together of course!). The thing that worked the best was some crazy home remedy--a salt rag--where you put 4 tablespoons of salt in a rag and tie it with a hair elastic (no metal). Dip the salt ball in a bit of water and microwave for 10-15 seconds. Hold that to your ear for about 30 minutes, rewarming as needed. It's crazy how it worked! I also tried dry heated salt in an athletic sock but I didn't have as much luck with that. So yea, the salt rag. My new go-to ear infection reliever. And I hope I never have to use it again!

This weekend's fun included watching the Derby. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with grief at missing the Bluegrass State. Kentucky in May is amazing. I miss seeing the horse farms during spring with all the foals running alongside their mamas. Nothing is more beautiful. I can't wait to take Alaina back for a visit and let her see. The Derby does lots of gratuitous horse farm shots so I certainly got a taste of home. I also brought the derby home a bit, giving Alaina a little Derby style hair accouterment. She didn't get it. Yet. Next year I'm going to have a derby party and Alaina will need her own hat for sure. It's no surprise that Pinterest has tons of pins for crafting pint-sized derby hats...

Of course, Alaina said she was very busy this weekend. She had to help review a manuscript for work. She might be better at spotting methodological flaws than I am...

Speaking of work, we just wrapped up finals week and I finished my online class for teaching an online class. This feels fantastic. Summer as a professor really is amazing. It's the time when I feel like I actually get to spend the most energy doing the things I really want and the things that weigh most heavily on tenure and promotion. And parking is great. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy teaching and really like the courses I have prepped. But not teaching is even better. I'll still be at work most days but I won't have grading, preparing lectures, or faculty meetings. I am serving on three comprehensive exam and one thesis committee that will be within the first six weeks of "break" but all of that is sort of fun (less so for the students!). My lofty goal is to submit six manuscripts this summer. The data is collected for all of them so it is possible. But given how poorly I have performed on my New Year's goals, I am not unrealistically optimistic.
I also need to get my wisdom teeth pulled and go to the eye doctor. A very productive summer indeed...

In other news, Alaina is still trying new foods. We are slowly introducing whole milk and I think she is doing okay with that. We give her one ounce with every four ounces of formula right now.
We tried eggs last week and that did not go over well. She didn't seem to like the frittata I made for her (though Chad seemed to love it!) and really just ate a couple of bites. However, she definitely had a reaction to the eggs. I'm not surprised she's allergic since I am as well and they are one of the high-allergen foods. She has responded really well to things that have eggs cooked in them (like me) so I am not concerned. We will try them again in a few weeks.

However, she loved eating off of my corn cob! It was hilarious. She became obsessed. You can see the tears in her eyes from when we tried to take it away from her.

Man, I guess I have had a lot to update on, I feel like this is the longest blog in awhile. In other news, we got a new convertible car seat for Chad's car. We will keep the infant seat in mine awhile longer. We went with the new Chicco Next Fit and so far I am excited about its reviews and how it looks and feels. It is supposed to adjust up to 65 pounds and will rear-face until 40 pounds. Alaina seems very excited about it and is already relaxing in it and studying all its features.

Whew! So I guess that's all the excitement!

Spring break synopsis

This may be the longest I have gone without posting! Things have been very hectic at home and at work. Alaina is all over the place and into everything!

She is just so happy. Even when she is refusing to sleep. :)

She is fussy at times these days because her ears are still bothering her. We ended up doing another round of ear drops and they are draining again. So, I'm taking her back to the ENT on Friday and hoping for some answers. Chad and I are beyond frustrated with this experience. Poor thing just needs to be well.

The Friday before Spring Break I picked Alaina up early and took her to my graduate student lab meeting. FYI, I do not feel guilty having meetings the Friday afternoon before Spring Break so don't even ask (good graduate students don't take spring breaks). :) Anyhow, she enjoyed hearing about our upcoming projects and is excited that Greg and Hilary will soon be defending their theses and Ashley is proposing in a couple of weeks...okay, maybe not. But she was excited that we stopped by the new gelato/grilled cheese/coffee house, Blue Spruce, after work. She got her first taste of a semi-naughty food, strawberry sorbet. She was pretty addicted.

What are you waiting for? I need more sorbet!

Along these lines, and in response to new research saying you no longer need to wait until after 1 year to introduce high-allergen foods (though she is so close to a year ::sniff sniff:: that this is really a moot point), she tried peanut butter last week. I just gave her a tiny dab to make sure she did not have an allergic reaction and she was infuriated to get such a small amount. I am sad I didn't get that on video because her response was priceless. She has also tried yogurt and ground beef recently. On Sunday she had some small bumps on her chest and today she had a few around her mouth but I'm really not sure what that's about (both days she had pretty typical food). Trying not to sweat it too much. Because she has done okay, I am thinking that I will just do a regular birthday cake for her. I had been thinking about doing a vegan banana or applesauce cake but I think she can probably handle the little bit of cake/frosting that she will get. And it's a lot more fun.

We were all excited that Alaina got to meet her sweet cousin, Avery, who came to visit for a couple of days. I cannot believe that this precious little girl is almost 5 years old. I still remember being at the hospital before she was born. Of course, Avery was more excited to see the puppies than anything. But I think she misses her "momma Steph." :) I certainly miss her. This is a definite reminder how hard it is being away from family and how fast time flies. Glad we have more family coming to visit in the next couple of weeks.

T - 1 month and crying...

Our silly little girl will be a year old in just 1 month. It's very hard to believe. The first three to six months really did feel like an eternity sometimes but now I keep thinking she's 9 months old. The last few months have really flown by. It's so sad. She's just so big.

So this has been an interesting week for us. On Thursday I got a message from Alaina's school after I finished teaching. One of the directors said that when Alaina woke up from her nap, there was blood on her sheets, that had come from her ear. This freaked me out partly because the message was two hours old and of course, no one likes to hear that their child has blood coming from any orifice! However, the director went on to say that Alaina seemed very happy, she slept well, and she had been eating normally. I called the ENT and he indicated this was normal. Doesn't really sound "normal" but what do I know? We had an appointment scheduled for Tuesday (today) so he indicated we should continue putting drops in her ear (we had started the night before due to the excessive drainage) until then. Her school had also noted that her face looked swollen on the one side. It's hard to really see puffiness in such a chubby cheeked kiddo.

The blood has continued so I am glad we had the appointment. Basically, the ENT said both tubes looked good but that her left ear was infected. So we are back on Omnicef (again, the crazy drug that causes brick red stool) and a different ear drop. I imagine that will clear it up. It's hard not to be irritated--I thought the tubes were supposed to stop the infections. Again, Chad and I know that ear tubes are tremendously helpful in a lot of cases. So many people said that they were a God-send for their families. But so far, it's hard for us to see how she has really benefited. Instead, all we see is that they were expensive and they have caused annoyances (grumpiness following the anesthesia, being told we need to use ear plugs--which we are still doing even though it sounds like they aren't actually necessary, and now the infection/drainage/bleeding). But alas, this too shall pass.

In other news, Alaina is really going now. She loves exploring the house. Jasper is a little less enthusiastic about her mobility but fortunately for him, he is still much faster than she is. She's also really loud so her squeals give away her unstealth "sneak" attacks. 

We feel really fortunate that she is a really good listener. We are attempting to set things up so that we are not having to say no (except in dangerous situations) or redirect/distract her. She responds pretty well to things being explained to her. It's crazy how babies pick up on more than we realize (here is the description of a cool, recent study that directly discusses how amazing babies are, with the ability to make predictions based on probability, their reasoning abilities, and their ability to feel empathy!). Today Alaina's teacher shared that Alaina is the "bib police". She likes going around and taking the other babies' bibs off. However, when they say her name, she looks at them and hands them the bib. Which is pretty stinking cute. Today, the other little girl in her class was laying on a boppy pillow, drinking her bottle and Alaina took it from her. The teacher caught this and said "Alaina..." and she promptly put the bottle back in Breckin's mouth. And then she held Breckin's bottle for her (while she drank it) for 5 minutes. My heart melted. How cute is that??? 

In terms of receptive language, she really does understand a lot of words (in addition to her name and the occasional "no"). She knows night-night, bye-bye, bottle, eat (both verbal and sign language), and up. She also knows what the gesture "hand it to me" means. She is still making lots of babbling jabber and will sign for "eat" and "all done." In terms of "words"/verbal language, she will sometimes say her version of all done and she can say night-night. I'm ready for her words to explode in the fairly near future. She really is just a sponge soaking it all up!

Every week, I feel like I'm thinking "this is one of my favorite videos." I'll just call this one sock. Watch what she does.

In terms of food, we are still (very) slowly introducing new things. She still does a mix of purees and finger foods. As much as we try, she still just does not like chicken. At all. However, that is the only meat she has had so far. She loves pita bread. I have been nervous about dairy but I gave her a bit of shredded cheddar cheese on Sunday. She loved it! Could not get enough of it! So far, so good. We really hope she is able to eat dairy. Depending on how the next few weeks go, I may make her birthday cake (the one she will eat/smash). I have found a few vegan cakes--one is applesauce and the other is bananas. She has had an oral reaction (bumps/spots around her mouth) to bananas every other time we try them, though. 

Anyhow, that's basically the developmental stuff from the last month. I can't believe that her next "monthly" post will be for her birthday! 

On the move

It's rare that I'll post unclothed baby shots but these were just too cute not to share. It's always possible I'll decide to take them down, I just couldn't resist taking a shot of her arm rolls. I just want to eat her up.

As you can probably tell, she's really getting around now. She's still a little slow but I'm sure that won't last much longer. And of course she is now just interested in those things that are not so baby-friendly.

She's such a little investigator--

Watch her wiggle:

I love how patiently she can play and then she decides she needs to go check some other things out. :)

She's pretty proud of all her new skills.

Overall, Alaina is doing great. I have had a lot going on at work in terms of an upcoming grant deadline, journal reviews (6 that are due in a two week period, 6! they are multiplying in my inbox), grading, manuscript resubmissions, etc. However, I've really had the chance to just enjoy Alaina in the mornings and at night. She can be a great stress reliever (of course she is also a great stress producer but I have written plenty of blogs on that subject!). This morning was definitely one of those times. And I certainly needed it!

We aren't sure if her allergies/sensitivities are acting up or if maybe she has a cold/virus. Overall, she is in a fabulous mood during the day but by bedtime, she gets pretty miserable with a runny nose, draining ears, and swollen/yucky eyes. When she first wakes up in the morning, she's a crusty mess. I have to completely wash her face before I can even feed her. Chad called the ENT's nurse today because her ears just seem to be constantly draining and gross. They said to start giving her ear drops again so hopefully they help. She's also gotten benadryl a couple of nights this week. But even without the benadryl, she has been sleeping amazingly well. I hope we stay in this phase because she sleeps from about 8 pm until between 7:30 and 9 am. Sometimes she gets up once around 10 pm for a final feeding but otherwise she's great. And then she wakes up super happy (eyes glued shut and all!) in the mornings which just starts my day wonderfully. This morning I just couldn't stop cuddling her. She's pretty irresistible. Even (especially?) when she's pathetic.

                                

You're a terrible mother

How angry would you be if someone told you (or someone you loved) that? Pretty mad, I'd bet. I know I'd be livid! Yet I hear myself and my friends saying it to ourselves all the time. "We are terrible parents, Alaina won't eat solid foods...doesn't use a sippy cup...doesn't get a bath every night...hasn't learned her colors yet...had an infection and we didn't know...can't solve a quadratic equation" and on and on. Clearly that's a combination of thoughts I've had, ones I've heard and just plain hyperbole. But it's pretty ridiculous really. I'm not sure why this realization surprised me given I know that self-talk outside of parenting can be downright nasty. My friend's husband told her over the holidays that she wasn't allowed to say it anymore. The funny thing is, she's nowhere near terrible. She's an amazing mom (you know you are)! She has the equivalent of two full-time jobs and yet has time to make it to her oldest's dance classes and home for baths every night. And she even cooks and cleans (at least occasionally). So in general, I think we are all doing pretty well. "Good enough" parenting is a real term with positive outcomes and I probably need to remind myself of that more regularly. Alaina's pretty lucky to have such awesome parents. :) I'm sure she will hear this a lot as a teenager. ;)

Where is this all coming from? A weird, unexpected reaction to Alaina's 9-month check up actually. In general, she's doing really well. First, the fun stuff. She is 18 pounds, 11 ounces (44th percentile), 26.75 inches (21st percentile), and her head is 17.75 (78th percentile). So she really is a little lollipop. Which I have been thinking she kind of looks like these days. :) She did really well with her two shots. Snoopy band-aids, if you were wondering.

So what went wrong? Well, nothing really. But in the waiting room, we always get a "Bright Starts" sheet that talks about milestones and what we 'should' be doing as parents. They tend to be fairly helpful and a confidence boost--"yay, I have friends who are parents that I can talk with about my struggles," "awesome! we always use a car seat, every time Alaina is in a vehicle," "look at us! we only leave her with trusted providers"--but yesterday, I noticed "feed 3 meals of solid foods," "start introducing more table foods," and "use a sippy cup" and got more overwhelmed than usual.

Parenting is a lot of work.

I fret over things that ultimately do.not.matter. Because of all of her sensitivities, Alaina has only had about 14 foods. I have seriously lost sleep at night wondering how she will possibly ever eat normal food because clearly we still have so many to go through, using a '4-days between new introduction' paradigm. Goodness, trying to imagine her eating mashed potatoes at a restaurant is enough to send me in a tizzy--before doing so, she would need to have tried white potatoes, milk/cream, butter, pepper, garlic, other seasonings, potentially other things I'm not even thinking of right now...and I'm terrified of dairy. I need to just give the kid yogurt and see what happens but I feel like before I do that, I need to meet with an allergist and have her tested. Ridiculous. She is not going to go into anaphylactic shock from a cheese cube. I am completely confident in that. So why the hesitation? And so what if at 12 months old, she isn't magically eating chicken nuggets and toddler muffins...? But how will she transition to the 1-year classroom where they feed them meals and snacks? And what about her birthday cake? She can't have frosting if she's never had dairy.

Seriously.

Yes, I hear myself.

So those were the things going through my mind before even being called back for her visit. So on the medical side of things, unfortunately, she still has/or developed a new ear infection. This is concerning because it is possibly the third ear infection since Thanksgiving. So some doctors start thinking about whether tubes are necessary (our doctor is not saying she needs tubes, just to be clear). So the pediatrician referred us to an ENT in town next week. Personally, I do not think tubes are warranted. I really, truly think this is allergies (or whatever the equivalent to allergies is in a 9-month old since allergies don't happen to babies...)/sinus issues. Chad and I both have allergies so she got hosed on the genetic lot for that particular problem. What if her ears are infected solely because she has had chronic sinusitis? Hopefully the ENT isn't 'tube happy' and will consider this as an option. Obviously if he recommends tubes, we would seek a second opinion. For now, we started her back on Suprax again. It seemed to help last time, at least while she was taking it.

The other issue we discussed at length is her lack of mobility. Although her teachers says she will roll at daycare, she almost never rolls at home (and they note that she rolls with less frequency than her peers). She is not crawling and she does not try to pull herself up. I've said before, I'm really not concerned about this. Developmental stages have long ranges of "normal". Her pediatrician also is not worried. However, she did say it might be a good idea to get a developmental evaluation just to make sure she doesn't need physical therapy. That said, while in the office, Alaina was standing with assistance and sitting up, sometimes pulling her knees to her chest. The doctor laughed at this and said this was evidence that her lack of mobility is very likely a motivation issue (or focusing her energy elsewhere, like on social or communication skills) rather than it being a gross motor delay. She noted that she has great posture and flexibility and is very limber. Anyhow, I have a call in to SoonerStart, our early intervention program for an eval. I'm actually a little excited about this because during my residency/internship, I did a number of developmental assessments for kids ages 0-3 and I've always wondered where Alaina falls in the various aspects; obviously I'm not going to test her myself. But I am a huge proponent of early intervention so if she does need therapy, I am glad we are getting assessed. Hopefully we can get some exercises to use with her at home, too.

I am trying to increase her food now, too. She's just been getting 1-2 tablespoons of food each day. So, starting today, I sent food to daycare as well. I had delayed this because I needed to order small glass bowls with lids, which came in yesterday.
And I'm alternating sippy and straw cups at dinner now.

Progress. But ridiculous how one appointment can cause such self-doubt and "mom guilt." And I didn't even get into the long, ugly thought process about nursing and preventing ear & upper respiratory infections...
But back to the topic at hand. Most moms are far more than "good enough". Long discussions with other moms about how "terrible" you are is just co-rumination at its worst and will exacerbate stress. So while it's one thing to feel terrible, I am promising myself (and my friend and her husband) not to engage in this destructive self-talk.

Anyhow, that was a whole lot of random rambling. Clearly baby girl is doing just fine. She's even starting to help around the house... ;)

The baby is well! And then she's not..

So there isn't a whole lot new this week. We were starting to notice, toward the end of the antibiotic, that Alaina had been doing much better. She had no cough whatsoever and her congestion had cleared up. Within three days of being off the medicine, all of that came back. On Tuesday she was very congested and Wednesday morning she woke up coughing. One of my colleagues said that her daughter's allergist told them that if babies and small children have sinus infections, 10- or 14-day courses of antibiotics tend to be fairly ineffective, that you really need a 21-day course. This was interesting to me so I plan to research that a bit. The fact that everything was clear until she stopped the medicine makes me wonder, for sure. Unfortunately, I also get the feeling that her ear infection never actually went away. On Tuesday, the owner of the daycare called because Alaina was very difficult to soothe and her teacher said she seemed in pain. They gave her some Tylenol which helped a lot. Repeated on Wednesday. Today she has been (and has made us...) miserable. Her congestion and cough were awful and absolutely nothing was making her happy. I ended up giving her Zyrtec this morning which helped a little with the congestion and just had to give Tylenol when I saw her pulling her ear. Thank goodness we have an appointment on Monday.

You can sort of even tell in this picture that she is having to breathe through her mouth more. Poor little thing.

So I noted in the last blog post that she isn't standing on her own, etc. However, she LOVES to stand up. You just have to help her. She really likes standing on the couch and going for the kleenex box. Whatever makes you happy, silly girl.

This is just an old picture from early December when Alaina went to work with me following her shots. She loves Ricki and even reaches for her to be held.

We got to celebrate Christmas again this week. Alaina got some more fun presents. She loves them...and the wrapping paper! (you can also see the little rash she developed on her chin that we are hoping is from drool and not from a wheat allergy...)

As I said, there isn't much excitement this week. On Thursday I got my very first flu shot. I am allergic to eggs so I've always been hesitant to get it but based on the new recommendations and also having an itty bitty that I do not want to get sick (and also carries germs back from the germ factory!!), I thought it was best. It ended up being a big ordeal. It took about 20 minutes and talking to six different people before they would finally give me the shot. Then, they made me wait a half an hour while under 1:1 observation in a patient room before I could leave. But whatever. My throat was a little itchy for a few hours after the shot and I've had a headache on and off since Thursday but no real reaction. Now we better not get the flu--I've only had it twice in my life! The other excitement is that Chad is building a computer this weekend. This is the fourth computer he has built. It's always a long process from its inception to completion and of course now he is being stopped every few minutes/hours to help with the baby. But it's pretty much done. He is obviously very excited about it.

In terms of my goals for the new year, I would give myself a C. 

• I've cooked a meal two out of the three weeks (second recipe I made). Though to be fair, I cook on Thursdays and this week I had a work event until 10 pm so clearly I couldn't cook then. I was going to make something yesterday in the crock pot but Chad forgot to pick up a necessary ingredient at the grocery store. So we had pizza instead...

• I am 3/3 on taking lunches at least twice per week. 

• Alaina is moved to her crib! Hooray!

• I was doing awesome staying off Facebook at work but I slipped on this a little bit in the last week. Must do better!

• I have not yet opened the 30-day Shred DVD. Oops.

• We have not found a church.

• Chad chose Baked's peanut butter milk chocolate chip cookies for this month. I made them last Sunday and they were fabulous. We both took them to work with us the next day so they wouldn't all be consumed in one sitting. Which was a possibility. I haven't heard from Kris if she has made them yet. Unless you hate peanut butter (sacrilege!), I highly encourage you make them! They are a little more work than traditional peanut butter or peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (Southern Living also has a good recipe) but very worth it. Note that you must chill the dough for at least 3 hours prior to making them. Also, you should refrigerate the dough and stir it between batches or the last batch gets pretty funky. I am very excited to see what the Lawsons pick for February!

Countdown to Christmas!

We are gearing up for Alaina's first Christmas. It's an exciting and magical time. Of course we are very disappointed that we are not able to travel to visit family and friends this year. Hopefully next year! However, I'm excited that my dad is coming tomorrow for a few days and then my mom will be visiting soon. I'm really proud of us for not overspending this year, knowing that Alaina will have more fun with wrapping paper and boxes than the actual toys. However, we did get her a few fun things and of course she has gotten presents and money from family as well. We are hoping we can take her to see Santa this weekend. Of course we will take pictures!

This week Alaina's school has also hosted several festivities for the holidays. Every day this week I've dressed her in different Christmas or winter outfits. Yesterday was pajama day so she got to wear the adorable red/white striped reindeer pajamas. Today is red or green day so she is wearing her "first Christmas" outfit.

She is definitely starting to look more like her daddy. It is so funny to me how some people swears she looks just like me, others think she looks just like Chad, and some think she looks like a mix. What do you think?

I am fairly behind in all aspects of life, as usual. We ran into a few delays in getting cards made so we will be sending out New Years cards this year. Once they get here, that is. So yea, late on everything. My favorite purchase this year is Alaina's "baby's first ornament" that I got on Etsy. Seriously, how cute is this? (this reminds me I should post photos from her newborn and 6 month shoots in a later post)

At school, Alaina made her first ornament. I never thought I would like this sort of thing but it is hanging proudly on our tree!

We really love Alaina's teachers at school so we wanted to do a little something for them for Christmas. Given that she has seven teachers in her class, we weren't able to do anything big. Instead I just got them all some fun socks (they mostly don't wear shoes in the class, just fun socks, slippers, etc.), pocket antibacterial gel and tissues, and Lindt truffles. I wrapped them up to make these fun little packages.

In other news, Alaina's "spots" came back last week. They spread up to her face this time. Her school wanted to make sure this was nothing contagious so I did take her in to see a pediatrician at our clinic. He said they weren't contagious but unfortunately, he couldn't specify what it is/what is causing it. We are fairly confident it wasn't a virus. She never had a fever and seemed to be acting fine. He didn't think it was food or medication allergies. He said it was possible it was the start of eczema but thinks it's just sensitive skin. I definitely do not think it is just sensitive skin. I've never seen sensitive skin systemically spread like this. So who knows.

Our sweet little girl has been grumpier at night lately. I think her schedule is just off at day care. She may also be going through some phase--she has been harder to put to sleep (lots of screaming, flailing, arched back) the last few nights. However, she still LOVES bath time! Lately she has been enjoying rocking back and forth getting the water to make little waves she can splash. 

As a disclaimer, I will note that we always begin bath time with just a couple of inches of water. This is at the end of her bath, after she has been rinsed with several cupfuls of water. Chad and I give baths together so she had plenty of adult supervision while taking pictures and videos.

In general, I have just spent a tremendous amount of time this week being thankful. As we all are, I am still trying to process the horrific tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut last week. Whenever I get frustrated that Alaina isn't sleeping, wakes up at 3 am, or is grumpy, I just remember how lucky we are. I know without a doubt that there are parents who would give anything to have their baby back, even if it meant not sleeping at all one night. I do not want to ever take her for granted. We are just so incredibly lucky. I cry every time I think about it. So, whenever I can, I just hold her tight and enjoy her snuggles. I hope she is this cuddly forever.