Baby Rimes

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.

 

With the weather being so nice lately, we have taken a few excursions to the backyard.  Baby Rimes totally HATES the grass!  Daddy put her down on it in crawling mode, and she immediately lifted herright hand and left leg so that they wouldn’t touch the grass.  She refused to budge unless one of us held her hands so that she could walk-as long as she had shoes on her feet.

The one thing that redeemed us in her eyes was the most fantastic find of a tennis ball from the tennis courts that she discovered and chewed on for a solid 30 minutes while Mommy got the bikes cleaned up. 

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.

At long last, the Tooth Fairy has visited our little munchkin.  After a week of drooling, sleep loss, whining, biting, and crying, the itty bittiest tooth has broke through the gum.  Our lovely baby now has a jack-o-lantern grin (well, she will when the tooth comes all the way in!). 

Hooray for the Tooth Fairy.  We thought you would never come.

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.

So we met our first little furry creatures this weekend.  Aunt Sara and Uncle Paul have adopted a very adorable mutt by the name of Tess.  She and and the baby had such a good time!  Whenever the puppy barked, the baby giggled, and the more the baby giggled, the more the puppy barked. Very funny.

And then last weekend, we met up with Gramma Gay on her farm. GG has a new puppy too, who just loved licking the baby’s face.  Those two had a great time chasing each other around the house.  Baby Rimes also met the two goats.  They were just as hilarious as the puppies.  There must be some inside joke between babies and furry creatures that parents just don’t get.  Goats are pretty funny looking, though.  The horses heard the ruckus and decided they were better off on the far side of pasture.  Maybe next time they’ll come over for a baby pat.

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.

…Which is what we are now singing as we shake ourselves silly on the gate. Our little ankle biter likes to stand at the kitchen gate and rock herself as hard as she can to make as much noise as possible in the hopes that someone will come and rescue her from the other side.

She also sings this when she is so very sleepy, but just doesn’t want to go to bed yet. Baby Rimes will lay on the floor singing to her daddy as long as possible before he finally catches on and attempts for the 5th time to get her to lie quietly to fall asleep.

DADAdadadaDADA

It’s official.  The army crawl is so last week.  Baby Rimes has finally figured out how to coordinate all of her limbs to crawl in a normal baby fashion.  She sometimes gets confused and gets her feet involved, but that is happening fewer and fewer times.

She has also discovered how to pull herself up on just about everything.  She hasn’t mastered getting on her feet, but she is on her knees and getting ready for more.  Last night, while on the phone with Grampa H., Baby Rimes was playing her own game of peek-a-boo with Mommy.  She pulled herself up on the couch, then proceeded to duck her head and pop up with a big scream!  What entertainment!