Turning off the lights

For a few reasons, including the desire for a new look, I've decided to switch this blog over to Wordpress.

You will be re-directed automatically to the new site within 10 seconds, but if you're impatient or if the re-direct doesn't work correctly, click here to go to the new site at http://andbabybmakesthree.wordpress.com.

Be sure to update all of your blogrolls and bookmarks with the new address!

Buying stock in tissues

I am sick. Yes, again. And I'm really getting tired of this. This time it's a fairly minor (overall) head cold that has some pretty major sinus pain at times, which all began last night after dinner. I'm hoping it runs its course quickly and I can move on. It stinks to be sick on the weekend, but at least that makes it less likely I'll have to miss work because of it; I have plenty of sick time saved up, but I just hate using it all at once since after a while it starts to make me look bad.

But that's not all. Baby B also showed signs of a minor cold yesterday and today, though hers might be from teething. (I know most pediatricians say that cold-like symptoms are NOT related to teething, but with as many anecdotes as I've seen to support the possible connection, I'm not ruling it out personally.) She was also extremely fussy at dinnertime today, and I can see a bottom tooth very close to the surface, so I'm sure the pain is bothering her quite a bit. She woke up twice during the night last night, and she's already woken up once tonight--all very unusual for her. She has a new, different, and very distinct cry (it sounds like a cat that's being tortured) that we think we've identified as the teething pain cry, so that's helped us take the appropriate steps to alleviate her pain.

Despite our colds, we went to a local farm this afternoon for AutumnFest with some friends and had fun doing things like a hay ride, a corn maze, several farm animal exhibits, and a spooky farmhouse. The weather was perfect--sunny and mid- to upper 70s--if not very autumn-like. I'm definitely looking forward to enjoying the nice weather that the fall usually brings us, especially after such a hot and dry summer here.

When all else fails, shovel it

The other day, we gave Baby B some cut-up pieces of banana as her first real finger food, just to try it out and see how she did. She's got a real good pincer grasp, but since her fingers get wet from putting them in her mouth and because the bananas are slippery to start with, she sometimes has trouble picking it up. (Yes, I know about the trick of rolling the pieces in ground-up Cheerios or graham crackers, but we had neither at the time.) Rather quickly, Baby B figured out on her own that all she had to do was get her face down near her tray and push the piece of banana directly into her mouth without needing to pick it up. The Husband and I looked at each other in amazement as she did this not just once (which could have been a fluke), but two or three times in a row.

Is she very advanced, or what? ;)

We also recently gave her one of those mesh infant teething feeders, in which you put baby-appropriate foods (we used banana first and did papaya next) and they can eat them without fear of choking on big pieces. That went over very well, even though it is a pain in the rump to clean well.

Waiting no more

I went home for lunch today and on the answering machine was a message from that first (and original favorite) daycare we'd looked at--nearly 11 months ago--letting us know there's a spot in their infant room opening up soon and it's ours if we want it. We have to call back by tomorrow morning or else they're calling the next person. (Geez, thanks for giving us a little time; what if we'd been out of town? Apparently we were supposed to be waiting by the phone non-stop for their call.)

The big advantage to this other daycare is that we can see it from our back deck (which is fixed now, by the way), though our current daycare is about that same distance from my office (both of which are about 2 miles from our house). Also, the other daycare has not only a playground but a decent-sized indoor gym to allow for playtime during cold or other inclement weather.

However, I think we're going to stay where we are. We like the teachers and the director, and Baby B seems to like it there...and this other daycare is kind of an unknown at this point other than what we saw on our tour. Plus, I think the teachers at our current place would kill us if we took Baby B out, because they really like her a lot. When I recently told one of her teachers that my schedule was going to be changing, she panicked at first because she thought I was telling her that we didn't need to bring her there anymore, when in fact I was telling her that I'd be bringing her an additional day. She was outwardly relieved. If our current daycare were farther away or if we had any problems with it, I think we'd be more inclined to switch, but neither is the case for us.

Mostly I'm just amazed at how long we were on the waiting list--just short of a full year. It's a good thing we found out about our current daycare when we did and were able to get in there because I really don't know what we would have done otherwise. Things ended up working out just fine, despite the stress of not knowing if we'd have a daycare spot until right before I returned to work. I'd always heard about long waiting lists for daycares, but I always figured that was just in bigger metropolitan cities, not in my city. Boy was I wrong!

(Happy 8 months old, Baby B! I love you, my little Itty Bitty!)

Wordless Wednesday: A few of our (many) silly moments

To see more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here.

Stay away, bug!

I took Baby B to the pediatrician today for a follow-up appointment to check on her pneumonia and ear infections. I knew the pneumonia had cleared up within a couple of days (well, at least based on the visible symptoms), but I wasn't as sure about the ear infections since she's not really shown any signs of them besides a fever. However, the doctor said that everything looks clear and perfect with both her lungs and her ears, so that was nice to hear. Hopefully we've gotten this icky bug out of our house and we can finally enjoy some illness-free days.

While at the doctor's office, we went ahead and gave Baby B her first flu shot since they had them in the office already and it would save me an additional trip (and more time off work). The timing works out well because she'll be due for her booster next month at her nine-month appointment.

Oh, and I asked to have Baby B weighed while we were there, and she came in at 15 pounds, 6 1/2 ounces (with clothes on).

It goes both ways

Thus far in our child-rearing adventures, we've taken Baby B's lead on most things and develop our plan of action around her needs instead of what suits us best. As she's gotten older, it's become a lot easier to tell if what we're doing is satifactory to her; a big smile follows a fun splash in the bath, and a fast, happy grunt comes from her when she sees me lifting my shirt to feed her. I look to her for her approval to know that I'm doing things right and satifsying her various needs.

But it's interesting because it also goes the other way. When she's in the bath and clinks two toys together, she looks up at me to see if I've approved of her little noise experiment. When she crawls across the living room away from me, she steals a quick glance back at me to see if I'm watching her. When she takes a Puff from my hand and feeds herself, then chews it up, she looks up at me with her big eyes that ask eagerly, "Did I do it right, Mommy?"

We're caught up in an endless circle of looking for approval from each other to know if we're performing our respective jobs correctly. But at some point she will look for my approval, not find it because she is wanting to do something we do not find acceptable, but she'll still go about her actions anyway based on decisions she makes and reasons she will try to justify. My approval won't rate nearly as high as it does now...at least outwardly. And at some point I will look to her for approval, but she won't give it as freely because she'll be more concerned about the approval of her peers than the approval of her parents as she becomes her own person.

So much of parenting is outright fun, but so much of it is downright bittersweet.