Baby Rimes

I have noticed an over-abundance of little bruises and scrapes on our little punkin’ lately. Of course, we’re not bad parents, but the first thing that pops into my head whenever we’re in public is, “please don’t think we abuse this poor child.” 

Of course, what I say is, “yes, this is our darling little klutz, isn’t she graceful?” 

So where do this purply blue splotches come from?  Oh, let’s see…it could be from climbing onto the kitchen chair and dancing on the seat with excitement. Or it could be from running through our hardwood floored house in socks.  Or perhaps it’s from crawling under the coffee table/bookshelf/bench/couch to retrieve a toy.  It could also come from the walking down the sidewalk while looking up into the trees or watching the boys across the street play hacky-sack or the woman walking her dog.

And each of these times: SMACK! Down goes our little klutz.  Now, if she’s anything like her mommy, she will have these bruises until sometime in her adult life (I still don’t know where that bruise on my elbow came from).

But I still fuss and fret over every new bump, bruise, scrape, and bit lip.

Our baby has moved up to the Toddler room at daycare.  She now takes one nap, plays outside daily, and has access to many climbing and rolling toys.  She is completely in her element.  But that mirror thing still escapes us and our little munchkin has a bruise on her forehead from getting too close to that pretty little girl in the mirror.

Meanwhile, Mommy and Daddy are both back to work and playing (ok, teaching) other people’s children.  The first days back are filled with smiling children, ecstatic parents, and lots of homework-just kidding.

Don’t worry Baby Rimes, your day will come soon enough.  For now, just enjoy the playing with your friends and the napping after lunch.  Kindergarten will come all too soon and Mommy will be really sad to see you grow up.

We are only 2 weeks away from the very first birthday! Mommy and Daddy have been planning a birthday party, however, with Baby’s birthday present being a brand new house, the party planning has been a little slow. Baby (Almost Toddler) Rimes will be celebrating her first birthday at her new residence.  If you are in the area, stop on by, you don’t have to bring a present, but if you bring some blueberries, she’ll be your friend forever!

I was recently remembering how much Daddy and I were waiting for our lovely little offspring to roll over.  We would encourage her, and help her out, and even push her over so that she could roll from her back to her stomach and back again.  Then, one day, she did it.  All on her own.  We were so very proud.  Of course, that wasn’t enough.  Then we wanted to see her crawl.  Not 5 minutes after she rolled over, we both said, man, it’ll be so cool when she can crawl!

So, the story continues, and we would watch our little apple dumpling get to her knees and rock back and forth.  Oh, it’ll be so wonderful to see this tiny creature scurrying around the house.  And eventually, she did.  What a sight it was to see our miniature person scooting all around the house and doing some nose dives because her head was still too heavy.  But, of course, a few days after that, we both said, man it’ll be so cool to see her walking all around!

Well, that day has finally arrived.  Our little punkin’ got up, looked around to see if anyone was watching, and then “woooosh!” out the door she went!  And we haven’t been able to slow her down yet.  When she wants to go, she wants to go! She has almost entirely skipped the cute little toddling stage where she wobbles back and forth.  No, our daughter is a walking champ.  She just gets up and takes off in the direction of the most breakable, tearable, messiest item she can find and wreaks havoc on our home.  Now, Daddy and I are saying, “man won’t it be cool when she learns how to slow down?”

I always have this feeling of abondonment as I drop off our offspring for someone else to watch.  She doesn’t care, but I do. I would much rather have my little princess with me all day and feel like a good mommy who raises her own child in a loving environment. 

The baby however, could totally care less that I am gone every day.  Her routine is as follows: we walk into day care and she immediately struggles to get out of my arms.  She crawls as fast as her little knees will carry her to the push cart.  Stands up on it and proceeds to zoom it around the room erradically for the 10 minutes it takes me to put her food away, and explain everything to the wonderful lady who is there taking care of my little punkin’.  I go to hug her and kiss her goodbye, and she flails wildly until I set her back down in front of the pushcart and resumes her wild trip around the baby room, not caring one iota that her mommy has to go to work and take care of a bunch of other people’s children all day.

I know the day will come when she will whine and cry and throw a tantrum every time I try to leave, so I should be grateful that she enjoys the place and the people who take care of her while I am away.  I still can’t help but feel a little lonely as I walk back to my car for the start of my day.

 

We have another happy little tooth to add to the first!  With much munching of grahams, gnawing on hands, biting of table corners, the second little tooth joins the ranks.  And of course, the wonderful sleepless nights that go along with it.  Last night, Baby was up at 11, 1, and 3.  The last of which was an hour and half marathon of crying, biting, and all out wailing. 

Anyone with suggestions for getting through this with as little sleep deprivation as possible will earn themselves some serious brownie points or cookies.

Baby Rimes has a new sleep routine. However, rather than share the new routine with her parents first to discuss the ramifications it might have on their mental and physical health, Baby Rimes decided last Saturday night that it’s now a good idea to get up no fewer than 3 times a night. That’s right, 3 times. To be fair, one of the nighttime wakings occurs just as Mommy and Daddy Rimes are headed for bed, which only delays our bedtime. However, with the addition of wakings around 12:45 am and again at 3:00 am, Baby Rimes has effectively turned our nights into a sequence of napping sessions. While I wouldn’t usually complain about sleep deprivation (both of us experienced it for the first month or two) it’s really hard to go from the accustomed one nighttime waking back to three

Alright, so I’m whining (Mommy Rimes doesn’t like it when I do), but if Baby Rimes doesn’t quickly resume her old schedule by responding well to efforts to get her to sleep throughout the night, Daddy and Mommy Rimes are going to need another night away from the baby sooner than we had anticipated.

Baby Rimes was baptised this weekend. She had her beautiful pink party dress on (compliments of Grandma and her sewing machine), her new pink shoes, and her big floppy pink hat. She was so excited that she didn’t even take a nap before church. She sat with Grandpa and sang the hymns-after everyone else had finished. She played peek-a-boo with the nice ladies behind us. She even screamed her “amens.”

But as soon as she was the center of attention, she was out cold. Not just a little bit sleepy, we’re talking a limp noodle. Pastor Wade held her limp body and drooping head while he performed the entire ceremony to a sleeping baby and her proud family. The only time she even stirred was when he put the handful of water on her head-and even then, she was only awake for a split second before drifting back off.

She awoke in time for a celebratory lunch with grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, and her fabulous godparents. She had cheerios.

Baby Rimes has spent her first night away from Mommy and Daddy. She got to stay with Grandma and Grandpa and kept them up til very late, but she did manage to sleep all night once she finally went to sleep.

Mommy and Daddy didn’t do too bad either. Although the tears threatened a few times, Mommy stayed so busy at her conference that she didn’t have much time to think about her baby. And we only called once.

I’m not sure why, but it’s always so peaceful watching Mommy Rimes and the baby take naps together. Perhaps it’s because I’ve never been a napper myself and am in awe of people who have the ability to just sleep for an hour without regard for what’s going on around them. Then again, it could just be the simple pleasure of watching both of the girls I love curled up together under the same blanket, faces snuggled against one another as they dream of the beach and warm baby bottles. I love Sunday mornings.