Monday, March 29, 2010

C is for Cookie, Carousel, Complicated and Confident





Last night at 2am I heard "C is for Cookie". I'm not kidding. It kind of freaked me out, but then again I've been hearing things since I became a mom. I hear Lyla crying when she's not crying, I hear her saying mom when she's sleeping, so I just chalked it up to my strange voices. Well, one hour later at 3am I heard "I like Cookies" "C is for cookie". Hmmmm.... Jason woke up and said "What the heck?". I then knew I wasn't hearing voices. After I came to reality for a bit I realized that it was the new toy we bought Lyla for Easter with a gift card my dad gave her. It's a cookie jar that you can put shapes into and it tells you letters, and words, etc. Phew! I really am not hearing voices! Back to bed.
That brings me to C is for Carousel. A few weeks ago Jason and I took a day trip into Seattle and Lyla went on her first carousel ride. She loved it! Our day was so joyus, we went for a long walk on the pier, walked to Pike Place market, had coffee and a hot cinnamon roll, watched cheese being made, rode the carosel then had lunch at Elliott's. It was so fun to have a family day in Seattle.

Next, sometimes things can get complicated being a working mom and trying to maintain my life as well as my famlies life. Lyla started teething and our nice 2 weeks of sleeping through the night were over. She decided that life was complicated and that she wanted to be nowhere else except in mommy's arms. Jason and I went through a few nights of horrendus screaming and I even brought her to bed with us. After being up all night I became cranky, complicated and sleep deprived! My wonderful hubby came up with a plan. Literally, he typed out a plan and we both agreed to it. We were going to let her cry.

So, now that brings me to confident. I've learned a lot in the last few days and most importantly that I need to teach Lyla to sleep for her benefit. So that she can become a confident sleeper and not cranky (I'm trying to use C words here...). It started Friday night and she cried for about 18mins. We went in to comofort her and let her know that we love her and are here for her. We also let her sleep with her pink teddy bear and brown monkey that she loves. Saturday night it was about the same and last night even less. So today I was all alone for her nap time. Lyla was crying, and did not want to sleep but in between her rubbing her eyes I knew she was tired. So, I put her down, told her I loved her and let her sleep. It only took 8 mins! It was a hard 8 mins of her tossing, turning, sitting, and grabbing but then she fell asleep sitting up and quickly fell to her back and zonked out. She's still asleep now as I write this.
I am now feeling a bit more CONFIDENT! I hope this keeps working.

Monday, March 15, 2010

The quickest shower ever






I have mastered the art of fast showers. Actually, everything in my life is fast now.
I only have a given amount of time that Lyla will be content for. I would say that averages about 12 minutes. Okay, what can you get done in 12 minutes? Well I can do quite a bit. I strap her into her pink pappazan that she is too large for but I still make it work, then I get everything ready, shower, jump out to hand her Pete the Pelican, back in shower to rinse of conditioner, back out again, get ready (if it's my day off it means curly hair), swirl my bare minerals makeup brush with one hand while prepping my eyes with the other hand, eyeliner on, Pete again, makeup done, hair partially dry and put back into a pony, Pete is way across the room, quickly choose some casual clothes (I'm not wearing Bebe much anymore), deodorant on, sing aloud, Pete back into her hands, and I'm done. Poor Pete, he really gets beaten up in the process but Lyla loves him.

My next adventure was Lyla's cranky day at the bank. We all have those days where our hair doesn't look good and we feel bloated and constipated, right? Okay, maybe it really affects babies more and they are not afraid to show it. Well after a long morning of crankiness I needed to go to the bank. Not only the bank, but inside the store and not the drive through. I had to add my maiden name to my account. Seems like a simple task, but not so much. I pull out my sweet beautiful cranky bloated pants from her car seat and carry her inside. The teenage acne prone teller was quick to help me and didn't seem amused by Lyla's smiling at him, he went on to ignore her. So she thought, "What the heck?", she needed attention! While attempting to get my i.d. out of my wallet she quickly pulled out all of my receipts and cards and tossed them to the floor. She thought that was funny and let out a big laugh and a smile. Teenage boy was still not amused as I was now making the line a bit longer. Okay... let's cash this check is all I'm thinking. He directs me to the next teller whom can add my maiden name to the account. Lyla's mood quickly changes. The line is long. As the new thirty something year old man is working on my account Lyla lets out a big cry. A big one! The line was long and everyone was staring. Her face turns a reddish purple color, the cry comes again...she starts grunting, screaming and bearing down. Yeah, she's gotta go and she's going now! Oh man, she is going to blow! It was quite a show and meanwhile I'm trying to put away my cash, receipts, card, tend to my pooping baby and then the new teller asks me if I want one of the 3 credit cards I'm approved for.
I quickly said "Are you serious? Do you see what's going on? I have to go." Lyla was finished at this point. We both smiled and left.
She was happy the whole way home.

Oh the joys of motherhood. I'm lucky to have such an active, happy, loving, emotional, heart filling baby! Don't we all wish we could just let loose like her? Smiles!