She Get It From Her Mama

Oh no she di'int. Homegirl has got some attitude. Case in point, today's battle over the outlet plugs.

Nyla was in her walker this afternoon. She was circling around and around the kitchen island, and on both sides there are outlet plugs. Unfortunately, I haven't put any safety plugs in there yet. I know, bad mommy.

Well, on one of her revolutions, she stopped at the plug and started to go for it to play with it. "Nyla, no no." I said to her. She gave me a little cheeky look, then continued around. Back to the outlet she came, and I said even more sternly, "Nyla, no no!" Here is the point where Ms. Diva came out. Homegirl turned to me in her walker and gave me this look like, "Mom, puh-leeeze." Thinking she's slick, she put her fingers on it again.

That was it! I went and took her hand and with two fingers, gave it a little sasa (Samoan for spank). Now don't get on your soapboxes. I didn't sasa her hard at all. Just a little alert to her that it's bad. I don't like saying "no" to Nyla for stuff that's just trivial, like putting cardboard in her mouth or rolling around the edge of the carpet. I'll just tell her, "come here Nyla. Come over here." But when it's serious stuff, things where she can get hurt, I say "no."

So I sasa her fingers and say, "No, Nyla. Bad." At first I thought I got through to her. She backed away a little bit and nervously looked around. Then she looked straight in my face with her big hazel eyes and laughed. OH. HELL. NO. She laughed like, "Elizabeth, I am just getting started!"

Miss Thing has an attitude. Hmph. I wonder who she gets that from. *ahem*

Santa Claus

This morning, I ventured out with Nyla and her stroller in tow. I was on a mission to get to the mall to see Santa and have Nyla take her picture with him. I didn't want to stand in those massive lines on the weekends, so we loaded up and headed to the mall right at opening. When we got there, I was pleased to see that only three people were in line ahead of us. Whew! Beat the crowd.

Standing in line, I had time to think about how miserably wrong this whole situation was going to go. I was going to take Nyla out of the stroller, take off her lamb hat, and she was going to see Santa and scream like an animal. She would be crying crocodile tears and kicking and screaming with her red face. The picture was going to be of Santa giving her a curious look as she is trying her damnedest to get off of him. All while this is going on, I'd be standing in front of her by the elf trying to get her to smile. It was going to be disastrous.

"Next." Here comes the screaming.

We walked up cautiously toward Santa. Nothing from Nyla yet. I got her out of the stroller. Nothing still. Santa said, "If you just back her up to me and set her down on my lap, she'll only see you and won't cry." Oh yeah right, Santa. But he is Santa, so I did as I was told...I'm on the nice list this year.

Lo and behold, no crying from Nyla. Not even a hint of crying. She just sat there with her little scowl...you guys have seen enough pictures of her to know what face I'm talking about. The elf snapped four pictures, I picked the one that was least scowl-y, and we were on our way! First visit to Santa was a resounding success! I love it!

My favorite part of the whole escapade, other than Nyla behaving like an angel (she's on the nice list too), was the kid behind us. While he was waiting, he was just looking at Nyla, picking his nose and eating his boogers. Lol hilarious! Like it happened all the time. Kids are so funny! Also, parents beware. Santa at the mall doesn't have all his teeth. But he is a very nice man.

Nylabelle, the holiday season has begun! Thank you for being mommy's sweet angel this morning! You're the best.

Merry Christmas everyone! 

It's Been a Busy Week!

Well, Nyla's first Thanksgiving came and went and it was wonderful! She was so adorable; she even got to feed herself some mashed potatoes. Of course more of it ended up on her face and clothes than her mouth, but who cares? She laughed the whole time so we were thrilled!

We traveled to see Paul's family for the holiday, and now Paul and I have come to the conclusion that Nyla is a terrible traveler. Holy no sleep for four days! Every night, we would put her to bed at her regular time and she'd be out. Fast forward three hours and Nylabelle was crying up a storm. Generally we were trying to wait it out with her, but seeing as she was in her Pack-N-Play right next to our bed, the "crying it out" didn't last too long.

We put her in bed with us and tried to go back to sleep. Did she fall back asleep? NO! Homegirl decided that in the wee hours of the morning, the best thing to do is try to climb all over mommy and daddy. She would laugh and say "mama" all while trying to climb over Paul. In daylight hours, this is adorable. In the middle of the night, this is extremely irritating.

Finally we are back home though, so hopefully she will get back into her rhythm and sleep sleep SLEEP. We'll see...update tomorrow.

She's Feeling Better!

Well our girl seems to be feeling better. Three days of antibiotics and a little baby Tylenol seem to be doing the job! We've had two nights of full sleep, meaning 8+ hours! YES.

Nylabelle is good. Mommy and Daddy are good. Okie-doodle is good. Life is good.

Here's what is gross. Last night around 11:30, Nyla started crying a little sleepy cry. I let her go for a few minutes, then decided that I should get up and at least snuggle her for a few minutes back to sleep. As I was walking to her room, she fell back asleep. Perfect! No more crying! So I went back to bed.

And therein lies the mistake.

I should have gone into her room. Then I might have been slapped in the face by the smell of antibiotic poop. The doctor had said that the medicine would probably make her poops (or stools as she called them) a little different. "Little" is the understatement of the year. Whoa, Nyla. It wasn't until this morning that I realized that she wasn't just sleepy crying; she had made a little surprise. And that little surprise packed a big punch! Damn near burned my nose hairs right off.

What grosses me out the most is that Nyla was able to fall back asleep and continue sleeping for hours with this massive, stanky poop in her diaper. A tip for me for next time: get up, Elizabeth, and change the diaper.

The First Ear Infection

Day 4 of her illness. I took Nyla to the doctor today just to make sure that she just has a cold and nothing else. It's a good thing I took her! Homegirl has an ear infection! The doctor says it's just a small one and that some antibiotics will clear it right up.

I had a feeling something else was up other than her being stuffy. Last night after putting her to bed at 1 A.M., she woke up 20 minutes later in an all-out cry. I mean banshee crying. It was out of nowhere! Now knowing that she has an ear infection, it makes sense that she cried like that; it probably is hurting! So we have 10 days in front of us of antibiotics and two or three days of baby Tylenol at night.

In other news, I carried Nyla around in the Baby Bjorn today because I forgot the stroller was in the other car. While waiting for Nyla's prescription to be ready, Nyla thought that would be a great time to take a dump. Do you know what it's like literally to be pooped on? We were sitting in a chair, so basically she was taking a dump on my lap. Obviously the diaper was in place securely so nothing made its way out, but the aroma and warmth that comes with poop was very evident. How lovely it was to be sitting there with my poopy baby. Just another event that thoroughly enriches my life. 

She's a Machine

You remember when Nyla was first born, how she was constipated all the time? How we had to "massage" her to get her to poop? How it was imperative that we give her extra water to soften her up so she would poop? Yeah, that's not the case anymore. We could call Nyla a poop machine. It seems like every diaper we change, there's a little surprise for us! Hooray.

She wakes up, poop.
She eats breakfast, poop.
She plays in her playroom, poop.
She wakes up from her nap, poop.

And it goes on and on. I'm not going to complain though. I like her being regular! I also like not having to give her heinous prune juice bottles all the time.

As Predicted...

Just as predicted, the last few days have been the longest days since Nyla has been born. Poor girl is just not feeling herself. She's still stuffy and has a little hoarse voice, so when she cries it is heartbreaking. And she's got a little cough so she sounds extra pathetic. Poor babygirl!

You know who else? Poor mommy and daddy! It has been disastrous with her being sick. She's not sleeping, we're not sleeping. She's fussy, we're fussy. Last night, Nylabelle decided that she wouldn't fall asleep until after 2! She was tired though; there was lots of eye rubbing and face burying into my shoulder. But she was so uncomfortable with her sickness (I'm guessing) that she was not falling asleep! The night before, homegirl woke up every two hours...all night long! It's like we're at the newborn stage again!

You know what is disgusting though? Baby boogers. Gross. Yeah, she's my child, but it's still heinous. And her nose is all red from me wiping it all the time. I was trying to figure out what to put underneath her nose to ease the chafing. I didn't want to put petroleum jelly because the pediatrician said that it's not good if she digests it. So what did I end up putting under her nose? My nipple cream! That sounds disgusting, but it's the jelly that keeps your nipples from cracking during breastfeeding. Worked under her nose like a charm. Now, no one go and tell her that she has titty cream on her face please.

Sleep Update

Just a quick update: homegirl is not sleeping through the night, still. It actually seems to have progressively gotten worse, as last night she only slept maybe three hours. She woke up this morning and was so stuffed up and had a little cough. I'm thinking our little girl is getting a little cold. :(

Feel better soon, Nylabelle! I'm pumping her full of fluids and keeping her resting. She doesn't seem like it's affecting her too much because she's still playing and crawling around. But those rosy cheeks and runny nose are a tell-tale sign of a cold. I'm relatively certain it's going to be a long couple of days.

An Honest Sleepless Night

It is an understatement to say that Nyla was up all night. Ridiculous. The only time that she was calm was when she was being held. She would knock out

Seriously?

It was one thing to have Nyla wake up in the middle of the night and want to play for two hours before going back to sleep. It's completely another to have it happen five days in a row! Holy no sleep!

You would think that with all that non-sleeping that homegirl would like to sleep a lot during the day, and in turn give her mommy some much needed sleep too. That's not the case at all. And since some of the nights that she wasn't sleeping were Paul's nights to get up, daddy is sleepy too. That makes us some grumpy parents.

I know I said that I wouldn't get used to her sleeping through the night, but man! It was so nice sleeping a solid 8 hours a night. Now, it's like time has reversed and we're back to being walking zombies during the day. Nyla, on the other hand, is her same old happy, playful self. I need to draw energy from her this week.

With her not sleeping very well, that made my running program very difficult to do last week. I was so pathetic during the runs that I need to repeat last week just to feel like I did something productive.

Nyla, here is your goal for tonight and the following nights: SLEEP. We're begging you!

Forsaken Again

Oh, sleep. Why must you forget about me? We're in hour 4 of being awake now...that's right. Homegirl woke up at 3 a.m. this morning and has decided that she's ready to be up for the day. Ugh.

It wouldn't be bad except for the fact that last night I started my little part-time job at the craft store and worked until after 10. My bedtime last night was just after 11. Let's do the math. Bed at 11, baby awake at 3. Awesome 4 hours of sleep.

I wasn't even going to go get Nyla out of her crib. I just wanted to peek my head around the corner to see if she was really crying or just sleep crying. But as I turned to head into her room, the aroma slapped me in the face. Nylabelle had pooped. So not only was she awake and crying at 3, she also had poo in her diaper. What a lovely thing to wake up to after four hours of slumber.

But it's not all bad! I missed my girl last night and didn't get to kiss her before bed, so I was happy to snuggle this morning. Only I didn't think she'd want to be up this long; I was totally anticipating her going to sleep after her bottle. Apparently she had other plans which included coming downstairs to play for a few hours.

Don't worry, everyone. I will be fine today. I already have my Starbucks. :)

Stroller Woes

It's true. I am a disaster when pushing a stroller. Hello, I run into everything. I can't even walk in an aisle without hitting the different stands that are set out. I'm just a disaster.

Nyla, on the other hand, just laughs and squeals the whole time while Mommy is trying to maneuver through the rows in Fred Meyer. I made the mistake of just cruising through the clothes section...hello, ran into all the different racks of clothes. I even got stuck at one point and had to pseudo-off road with Nyla by pushing her up and over one of the legs of the racks.

Who knew driving a stroller (that's what I call it) would be so difficult? Or am I just the biggest moron in the world not knowing how to push it correctly?! All I know is that having this stroller is a thousand times better than taking in her car seat, which weighs eight hundred pounds, and pushing it in the cart. When does she start walking again? :)

Incredible!

I'm just going to continue knocking on wood because homegirl has got this sleeping thing down right now! She's consistently sleeping through the night, now going on 8 nights in a row. Can you believe it?

But I know that I should not get overly excited about this; it's only a phase. That's why I appreciate it every night! Every morning when I wake up, I just soak it all in...all the hours of sleep in a row, all the feelings of restfulness...soak it all in! Now my next step to enjoying this more thoroughly would be to actually go to sleep when Nylabelle goes to sleep. That's hard to do right now because she's going to sleep before 8 o'clock. What is nice, though, is that Paul and I are getting some quiet time alone now...which means we get to curl up and watch some Food Network. :)

On The Verge

You guys! Our babygirl is on the verge of talking! Okay, maybe not full on talking baby-talk, but today marks the day our Nylabelle spoke her first word! I can't believe it!

We were at my Auntie Queen's house, and Nyla was just happily playing in her Pack-N-Play, and she started going, "mmm-mmmm". I just nonchalantly said, "Mama?" not thinking anything would even happen. Nyla stopped everything and went, "Maaaa-ma." You guys! How exciting! Honest on everything, I just about burst out into tears...like explosive tears! Our baby is growing up!

Then for the next few minutes, all she said was, "mama...maaaamaaa...maaaama." And just as soon as she started speaking, she stopped. We haven't heard it again today; she was only in the mood for talking for that five minute span. Believe me, those five minutes were some of the best five minutes of my life!

She's saying "mama" today, "Daddy get me a car" tomorrow! Or "can I have some money?" or even "I can do what I want!"

THREE! THREE! THREE!

Could it be? Dare I say it? Has Nylabelle figured out sleeping?

I woke up this morning with the biggest smile on my face because homegirl has slept through the night THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW! I'm talking put her down for bed at 8:30 and she doesn't wake up until 8:00 the next morning! I'm trying my hardest not to get all jacked up about this because I know it's just a phase...but let me just say, I love this phase!

She even napped really good yesterday, and I had fears that she wouldn't sleep at all. But she did sleep! Even as I write this, she is still sleeping. I have come to cherish my quiet time in the mornings now, instead of waking up to a crying baby everyday. I get up, get a cup of coffee, and am able to just relax and rev myself up for the day.

Nylabear, thank you for the last few nights and mornings! They're just what Mommy needed!