Mid Week Updates

This past weekend was pretty busy. We had some friends, Tony and Tara visiting from out of town, here for GDC and scoping out the area in hopes to maybe move here. We met them in the afternoon and went to a cool SciFi bookstore called Dark Carnival. After we went to down town Berkeley, walked around checked out a comic book store and got some Gelato.



Later we met some mutual friends. Mike, Diana, and little Otter over at our house and we had dinner in. Joel loves to cook for friends and it is so fun to have people over for dinner. Especially when they have a baby for Holly to play with! Earlier in the day Holly and I went shopping at Costco to get some dinner supplies. I found some fresh salmon for 12$ and it was enough to feed 6 people, large portions (normally in a restaurant for 12$ each) Joel had just read in his Cook's Illustrated magazine some tips on how to keep it from sticking to the grill, and it worked like a charm. Everyone loved it. He also made some potatoes and asparagus from our veggie box and threw on some chick for me and a few Garlic Chicken Sausages for everyone to snack on.



I love Costco, when you can buy in bulk for some things you get amazing prices, and while for just the two of us, it would have been a waist, for a small gathering it was perfect. We also get fresh chicken breasts in bulk there and Joel will prepare some dinners and freeze them, for easy access later in the week. I also picked up some wine, which was a good deal and everyone enjoyed that. Holly and Otter hung out for a bit. He is only 4 months old, but a hit of the visit was getting to weigh him on our scale. He was hear about 3 weeks ago and gained 1.5 lbs topping out at 16.5 lbs, only 2.5 lbs lighter then Holly and she is a year old. He liked hanging in her little nest, and we tried him in the little red chair which he liked last time, but with the added bulk of his cloth diaper, he is too big for it now.. Its amazing.On Sunday we ran some errands and cleaned the house and rested from the week.




Monday was crazy busy. Holly had Therapy in the morning with Katie, it had been almost 2 weeks since she had seen her do to some reschedules and illness. This session was to be video taped for her to share with her colleagues and it was fun to work the camera and watch them play.After that Paige and Amy came over. Paige is 3. It was amazing having her. We joke about Holly leaving a path of destruction in her wake "Hollzilla" but Paige, in ten minutes did what it would take Holly an entire day to do. Every bag of blocks and toy was dumped out and she had a blast running from new item to new item checking everything out. It was certainly a glimpse into my future, and while slightly overwhelming, it was so fun.



She and Holly played remarkably well. Holly would follow her around as fast as she could like a little puppy wanting to play with and touch everything Paige was playing with. Paige has seen video's of Holly in the ball pit, and she wanted to try. I posted these on Wednesday but they don;t really do the experience justice. Paige would hide and bury herself under the balls and Holly would look for her. Then she would press her face when she found her, and then push her own face into the net and make a funny face at her. They did this over and over. Then Paige would dump out ball and Holly would hold them up for her to grab and Holly was laughing hysterically. She was having so much fun, I don;t think I have ever seen her laugh so much, she was utterly mesmerized by Paige and how much fun Paige was having in the ball pit.Eventually we had to wind things down, Paige had to go home for dinner with her Dad, Amy was a former co-worker of mine, so while we mostly talked mommy stuff i did get a few updates on my old job which was fun too. We certainly will be getting together again soon.



Then I was off to pick up daddy for the last day of our parenting workshop. Holly exhausted fell fast asleep in the car and slept the first 30 or so minutes of the workshop. Once she woke and we fed and changed her she was very cuddly. She likes to wake up slow and stay in my arms for awhile. But then of course Seth came and she just had to go and play with him. She was so well behaved. Now that she was pretty familiar with the space and had done the rounds she was happy to stay in the general vicinity of Mom and Dad and play with Seth and her toys.





Lots of the other parents had coffee cups and the little ones kept trying to get into them, so we gave them a cup of there own to play with, Seth was showing Holly how it works. They are just about the same age, I think Holly might be 1-2 weeks older. It is amazing watching two kids of the almost exact same age play together, the similarities and differences are so neat. At the end of the class when it was time to go, Seth gave Holly a hug. It was so sweet.



Well other then this Chaos, I decided that I would hang low on Tuesday I originally had a play date at a Bunny Farm and an Eye Doctor Appt scheduled, but the Dr. Called to Cancel, so I figured lets stay in and rest we can go see Bunnies another time, these play dates happen Monthly. It was a nice relaxing day which i spent most of it playing with Holly and reading a parenting book for my Playgroup / Book Club on Thursday. I will post more about that later.

Finally the weekend also had some sucky parts too. On Friday it seemed we may have forgotten to lock our car door, and when I went down to go shopping everything had been riffled through. I had about 20$ in change that was taken and sadly my GPS and cell phone charger were also missing. I was mostly mad that I lost all my addresses I had about 50 in there from all the stuff we had been doing, so it was annoying. It was hidden from view inside a compartment, so a passer by would not see it, I thought this would be good enough, even though Joel always tells me to bring it upstairs. But I guess with someone actually going through everything its not safe. Thank god though that my stroller, fast track, and Garage Door Opened were not taken, and nothing was missing from the garage. When I got to Costco I got a new GPS, so I am out 20$ Plus 169$ for the replacement, and a Pair of Sunglasses.

Sadly, however we are dumb, and the next night our other car got broken into. That is my "sports car" and the battery has been dead. When the grannies were visiting we had triple A jump it and i drove around for over an hour, then the next day they went to drive it and it was dead. We haven't even looked at it since, I haven't had time to deal with it. Well we aren't quite sure if it was too left unlocked, or if the person crawled in through the truck, which i can;t seem to lock when the battery is dead, but this time, it looks as if someone was "living" in my car. I heard noises about 1:00 Am and Joel had woken up, we looked out and saw something in the street that later we discovered were my floor maps. When he went to investigate and discovered it was torn up we called the cops. I made a report on both cars at this time. But inside we found a bag of leftover pizza, a sweat shirt and dress and shoes and even a wig. We don;t know if they had been there for several days or just that night, since we hadn't looked into the car for a few weeks, and the windows are tinted. I didn't have anything of value that I recall in there, so nothing seemed to be missing.

The next morning Joel cleaned all the stuff out. Then tonight, we were shocked when a woman knocked on our door and admitted she was sleeping in the car and she was so sorry and please don;t call the cops on her but can she have her stuff back. Joel told her it was in bags in the trash and she could go and get it. He said she didn't even look like she was homeless, but was very skinny and tired looking. it made me so sad. and in all honesty, I don;t think this was related to the theft from the night before, but then again, I am a very trusting person. Crazy Isn't it!

Monday Mumblings

Monday was such a hectic day. We had our 1 year evaluation for the Regional Center. Holly was like, what are all these people doing here at the same time? We had both Katie and Sally in addition to Leela our Case manager, and then Joel came home from work also. We went through Holly’s reports. Some of Holly’s main issues continue to be her tone, her hip extension makes it harder for her to work, she is still sort of bent, her butt sticking out so it is harder for her to balance, and she isn’t bouncing on her legs yet, but aside from the isolated items that are severely lagging, she is in the 11-13 month range for Gross Motor Skills.

Her Cognitive and Fine Motor skills were both between 9-10 months, as are her Self help, and Social, with a few scattered skills as high as 14 months, and as low as 6 months in all areas. She has such a range it is difficult to pin down where she really is. For example she is beginning to stack donuts, but not stacking blocks, or scribbling, pointing, clapping. Her language was the “worst” section where her expressive is about 6 months and her receptive around 8 months, which is in par with what the Speech Therapist informally told me last week.

Leela agreed to recommend a feeding therapist, or at least an OT evaluation with a focus on Feeding, Oral Motor, and Oral Aversion. Also based on the informal Sensory evaluation that Sally completed we are going to keep an eye on her Sensory issues, including her Sensory seeking behaviors and her Oral Aversions.

In general it was pretty uneventful because I had seen all of the reports in advanced and worked with both therapist in writing them up and selecting goals. There are a few goals that Holly has not met yet that will be carried over to her next eval and the new ones will be added. I am assuming that the existing services wil be renewed and that we will get a follow up on scheduling the additional evaluation, and then I will continue to pursue Speech therapy, and while there is overlap, I really don’t want Holly to get delayed in language so I would like to have her see someone to help us help her stay current, or get current, but the feeding therapist should help her learn to use her tongue better so speech may naturally approve. Leela mentioned that she might be able to get a monthly speech consultant to work with the parents, and out insurance might cover it as well, but all will be reveled in about 2-3 weeks once I get the reports in. I hate the waiting game.

We are also having Holly’s hearing checked, just to make sure there aren’t any issues due to the fluid and ear aches and speech delays. So that’s about it on that update.

These pictures are from Monday night, we went to our positive parenting workshop. We tried to get Holly to stay in the Child care room, but it wasn’t so successful. She was ok when we first dropped her off, but that lasted only about 5 minutes and when she got Hungry it was too much to handle and she had a meltdown, I fed her and then Joel tried to bring her back in. He sat with her for a few minutes till she seemed to be having fun and playing but as soon as he walked out of the room she crawled after him and cried.

There was another almost 12 month old playing in the main room, so we brought her in, but she is much more mischievous then Seth the other little boy and she just wanted to crawl all over and get into everyone’s purses and knock over the coffee cups and I ended up sitting on the floor chasing her around most of the time. She did play with Seth some and they had fun and it was pretty cute. But then she had a poopie and got very cranky because her but is still soar. It is mostly healed, if I didn’t mention this she had a diaper rash that turned into a slight yeast infection and there is a section that it is a little raw so it is like open and bleeds if I try and rub and clean it, so it hurts her. Today it is almost gone but for that one red spot, so we have been treating it and letting her soak in the bath, but it is an uphill battle.

Class was pretty fun, but it was hard to both pay attention and keep an eye on Holly. I wanted to get some pictures of her Playing with Seth, but I got a picture of the mess she made instead.

Well not sure what else to update on… But this was how my week started.

Random Thoughts Tuesday

Holly's birthday party was amazing, and I will post about it as soon as I have a spare minute.

I hate Day light savings time it has totally screwed up our schedule. Holly has been going to sleep at 11:15 (right when she should if the clocks hadn't changed) and last night it was midnight. She isn't waking up early enough to get her naps and her lack of sleep has made her very cranky.

The poor baby has a horrible diaper rash that I think turned into a yeast infection, but I got Destin today and it seems better, but is still slightly raised. We were using Boudreaux but everyone told me it wasn't as good as Destin.. Destin is 40% zinc oxide versus 16% in Boudreaux.

I miss my mom, she went back to Florida already and her trip was too short. I was stressed all last week planning and preparing for the party, so I was cranky, now that I am more relaxed and its all over, she had to go.

Monday we had our positive parenting workshop and they talked about all the age appropriate behaviors kids do that adults don;t like, like throwing toys and blocks, biting, ripping pages from books. And how they must do these things to learn about the world around them.

At studio grow Holly was dumping blocks out of a bin and I didn't respond, and she kept gleefully throwing them out. Then she put on back in by accident and I clapped and applauded her. She was so excited, that she put several more back in the bin, to get my cheery response.

Grandparents are great, but I think Grand babies wear them out... They aren't used to hours and hours of doing what Baby wants and following them around.. but that's why they were parents 30 years ago, and grandparents now.

Holly likes all the extra attention but I think by the end of the day she is worn out and just misses momma.

Grannies are wonderful for taking Holly on walks around the park, she loves walks.

Holly has been waking up in the middle of the night, one night it took 2 hours to get her back to sleep, after her bottle she laid in bed with me, and just stared at the ceiling, for 90 minutes, I rubbed her back and head and leg and face, if I stopped she got upset, but as long as I gently rubbed her she laid quietly.

She is either getting her molars, unhappy about her diaper rash, going through a growth spurt, processing from her over whelming days, or all of the above.

Mom and dad get to go to the movies tonight, this is very exciting.

Mom feels like she is very behind on posting, and never got around to writing about our great Wine and Cheese Play date, or Chloe's last week.

Mom needs to find time to write all about Holly's birthday Party before it is too late. She promises herself she will do it tonight, once Holly is in bed.

Therapy was a wash today because Holly was so tired, she didn't get up at 8:00, so she wouldn't go down for her nap, then by the time therapy was over she was over tired and wouldn't sleep. She finally fell asleep at 4:50.. after being up since 9:00 AM, and in the first 45 minutes of her nap, she woke 3 times crying and needed to be soother back to sleep. At 2:00 she fell asleep for 10minutes then woke up screaming with night terrors during the day, but Mom woke her up and let her watch baby Einstein till she was calm, then tried the swing, but even after 45 minutes she still wasn't asleep, and then got grumpy and wanted to play some more.

Holly is a baby on the verge.... words and steps are days away, I can feel it. She so wants to talk and walk, she just isn't quite there yet, but she is working at it.

Random Thursday Update

The sleep schedule seems to have been working somewhat. I think part of the issue is that we need to also get Daddy on a good morning schedule. The days when Holly wakes up early on her own are the ones where she is down for a nap on time, rested for therapy, and the day goes smoothly. Days when she sleeps in and Daddy hits snooze, so she doesn’t wake up early, her whole day is off. She refuses her first nap, and ends up only taking one for the day. Sometimes I am able to get her down, if I try early like at 9:30, other times she fights it, because she has been resisting sleep all day. But even on the bad days, she has been in her crib asleep by 11:15 the lasted every day for the past week, maybe a little longer. I think since last Monday we started. And two nights she was asleep by 9:30 and a few by 10:00-10:30.

She has woken up twice though in the middle of the night, and her sleep is not always restful. Yesterday she needed a bottle but most of the time it’s her pacifier, or Mommy to rub her back for a minute. I know this is totally taboo, but we took one of her very flat and soft quilt, put it in a pillow case, and are using it as a pillow. She loves this and has been sleeping so much better. Her head is slightly elevated, and it sinks in just a bit and is very comfy. This I think has really improved the quality of her sleep.

On Monday we went to the parent’s class, but the Babysitter never showed up (sigh) so the parents each took turns, 15 minutes each to sit in the room with them. It was a bit of a mad house tonight, with quite a few older kids. It seems that everyone saw how calm it was last week and thought it would be great to bring their kids. Since Holly was only 11 months she came into the classroom with us. This was a bit amusing. She certainly had her way with the room. She crawled all around, dragged her toys all over the floor and was a bit of a menace. It was cute though; the other parents liked her, picked her up and rescued her when she was getting into trouble. There was a 7 week old there too and her mom put her down for a moment to write something down, and Holly made a B-Line for her. She Sooooo Wanted to see the baby, and play with her. The mom said it was ok, as the baby has an older brother, so she is a tough little girl. Holly lost interest s soon as I let her touch the baby, especially because she didn’t like me telling her gentle. The class was another introduction, getting to know ourselves and each other class, next week we get into the knitty gritty and talk about development and behavior specifics, but I don’t mind easing into it.

Holly is really making an effort to communicate. We played a rattle game on Monday. I would shake a rattle and then she would. I would shake two and she would shake two. She would chew on hers, so I would chew on mine and then she laughed at me. She would then quickly shake it, and I would follow. We had so much fun going back and forth. Well that night she had a communication with Daddy, through blowing Raspberries back and forth with each other. They did turn taking and volleyed back and forth for quite a while, like a whole little conversation in her language. It was so darn cute@!

On Tuesday Night we went to maybe our last Baby Brigade. Holly was such a good girl. She needed to be changed twice and had a bottle, but other than that she played in my lap. Crawled around my shoulders, snacked on pizza crust and had an ok but well behaved time. We saw Revolutionary Road. It was good, but it was really depressing. I can sum it up like this…. “It was about the endless, empty, hopelessness of it all . . . Life, in Suburbia, in the 1950s.”

Today’s session with Sally was a push. Holly didn’t wake up early, and didn’t nap, so by the time Sally arrived she was pretty cranky. We did some stretching, and we played with the pop up animals, although Sally’s can be opened by prying the top up, and well, Holly figured that out. So Sally has to tell her no and prevent her from opening them that way. Of course, she would find a way around doing it the “right” way. Last week Holly had some cool new toys, like a bag of little pillows that were all different textures, like corduroy, or stain, or shiny. There were several, ohh and fluffy, like a lamb. But Holly wanted to et them after feeling them, so we ended up taking them away, it’s not like it was something that would be easy for Sally to clean. Sally brought the Sensory Evaluation today for us to do, but Holly was so cranky that we decided against starting it. Hopefully we cn try again next week.

My mom arrived, we went to go and pick her up after Holly’s PT Session. She was waiting at baggage so once I got on the road; it was a super quick trip. Since I was all the way over near the San Francisco Airport, I decided to buy a High Chair from Craigslist. It was a Chicco Sahara, which I almost never see posted, but the seller was far away, but close to the airport. It is the one that Tracey and Lucian have, and Tracey did a lot of research on High Chairs, and said it was the best. I have been looking at them and really liked it but couldn’t make up my mind, because it retails for $139.99 and I could get a high chair for half the price, and didn’t know if I would use the features, 7 heights, 3 recline positions, super small fold, and two separate over the top clean off trays. Well I ended up getting it for only 60$ I was so excited it was like over 50% of the retail price. We tried it out tonight for Dinner, and Holly is still a little, little in it. The regular seat feels a little reclined so I needed to put a pillow behind her to get her up close to the table tray, so she wasn’t still dropping food onto her lap, but mostly I loved it. I like the features and it folds up small and is easy to clean, plus it will be wonderful once she begins to feed herself.

After that we went and picked up the Veggie box and then headed to Babies-R-Us. We got Holly a bunch of new Pajama’s, as she is growing out of the ones she has, fast. Then we took the plunge, and I finally got her a car seat, well Oma got her a car seat for her Birthday. Originally it was between the Britax Roundabout or the Maxi Cosi Priori, which is the same brand as my current car seat. I didn’t expect them to have that one, but they did, and I ended up not liking it. It was not very different from the car seat she currently has and when completely upright she is still pretty reclined. Well we needed some help to figure out how to do some stuff, and the Manager came over to help us, and he really recommended the Boulevard. This one was more expensive, but it went up to 65 lbs instead of 40. It also had a lot more head cushions, and comfort padding. After debating back and forth with all the pro’s and Con’s we went with the boulevard. But I think it will be really nice and last us a really long time. The Cashier recognized me, because I am in there all the time, and I forgot my coupons, and she and 15% off of one item coupon that she gave me, so all in all we saved like 45$ I was so excited, as that really made a difference in the price.

We went to a really fun play date over the weekend “Wine & Cheese” with Rhonda, Ryan, and Teagan. And then on Tuesday we went to Chloe’s. But since I have so many pictures from both of those, I will make them a separate post later.

Busy Week

This has been a very busy week for us. On Monday I attended a Positive Parenting workshop at http://www.bananasinc.org/ Banana’s, which is a great organization, BTW if you are local. It is a 6 week session, no babies. The first night Joel stayed home with Holly, as I originally thought she could come but found out last minute there is onsite childcare but it was “full” when I arrived there was plenty of room for her, but it was too late by then, so next week Joel will be attending with me, and we will see how Holly handles being away from Mom and dad for about 90 minutes, playing in the next room. The class is lead by an MFT and there are about 15-20 parents. We basically talk about parenting in a positive way, like rather than saying No all the time, say hands in lap, or redirecting. It is a very interactive workshop and the group has kids from 7 weeks to 8 years old and each has different issues they bring to the table to talk about. I look forward to future sessions.

One of the reasons I am also looking forward to this, is from what I have heard about the Spirited Child Series. The other mom’s like to call Holly Busy, and Active, but I can tell already her temperament is “spirited” so I am hoping to learn many discipline strategies now before I need them, so I can set them in place and well be proactive, because I’m like that. But I fear it may be too late in some cases already. I guess that’s why they say the first baby is your practice child.

On Tuesday I had a WASC Review which was sorta fun, as usual I enjoy doing the academic and educational stuff, just to keep me on my toes. This week I also got around to doing my taxes which was crazy, as I thought I was prepared, and I thought I scheduled the appointment at a time when Holly would be napping, but things didn’t work out how I planned. First I didn’t realize I needed her SSN, and I didn’t have it memorized, well I had, but wasn’t sure, and I thought my mom had it but she couldn’t find it, so I had to call Joel to go home and get it. Which was lucky because I found out you could deduct the cost of daycare, but I needed the tax ID number, and a few other items. In the end I got it done and filed so I was excited. But Holly was not asleep, so speaking of a “spirited” child. What was supposed to take me about 30-45 minutes actually ended up being 90 and Holly cruised and crawled and explored all over the H&R Block office. My tax Guy joked to a colleague that he was a babysitter tonight, as several times he had to hold Holly as I searched for some paper work or called Joel for information, and even more times than that he had to help pick up the many toys she threw off the desk onto the floor, or the other stuff she decided to drop. The other clients were also very amused and she wandered over to say Hi and explore the office. It certainly was a preview of what is to come, once she can actually walk, I swear I will need a leash.

We have made good progress on the eating front, or at least I have been. Joel has been able to feed Holly Yogurt in the morning, at least a half container usually, but he has not had any luck with other feedings. I on the other hand have gotten her to eat entire jars. Just this week at one feeding Joel gave up after about 5 bites of Pear/Blueberry and 20 minutes later I tried and Holly ate ½ container of Pear/Blueberry, finishing it, and then an entire container of Spinach Potatoes. Joel was in shock. I read an article the other day, which reassured me I was on track. It mentioned a few strategies I have been using, and they seem to be working. One is letting her hold her own spoon. I had started that months ago, but it was nice to see it in print. The next is to distract her with finger foods. While she is busy picking up and trying to eat them, you can slip in bites of food between, and she gets to practice her fine motor skills. Finally it suggested letting her practice with a Sippy cup, and feeding between sips. I have only tried that a few times, but will continue as she begins to understand that she can get liquid and its good.

I thought I was bribing her to eat, but Joel says I am rewarding her. My most successful strategies is using puffs. I give her the first few bites, which she almost always takes without resistance, and then she begins to shake her head no. So I show her a puff, and say, Holly if you want this puff you need to take a bite. She tries to grab it and I don’t give it to her, I repeat, and then she usually opens wide and I give her a spoon. Sometimes I say two bites, or three, depending on if it is food she like more or less, and then give her the puff. When Joel was feeding her the other day he realized that I taught her open without realizing it. He wasn’t really saying it and then said it by accident and she opened for him. So now he tries to say it more, but she doesn’t always want to open. I think Joel is less constant and gives in and gives her puffs anyways, so she knows he doesn’t mean business. So I assumed I was bribing her with Puffs, but Joel says it is rewarding her for doing the behavior I want, taking a bite, and it is a great way to get her to eat.

She is also slowly expanding her repertoire. We had Mac and Cheese Veggie Dinner the other day which she liked, and she is eating some pasta, and really beginning to like cheese. Next week I am going to give her salmon and peanut butter (not together) based on an article I read about how the Salmon can help prevent allergies, and how you should start peanut butter early, rather than later. But I will give it to her on a cracker though, as a glob of peanut butter is a choking hazard.

The other thing we are doing is mild sleep training. It’s a Hybrid we made up between the cry it out and no tears method. Another article I read say the trade off is time or crying. If you have a lot of time to get your child to learn to fall asleep on her own, like weeks then eventually the no-tears method will work, but if you need your child to learn in a week or a few nights even, then you get a lot of crying, but it happens fast. We just spoke with a family who did this and said it took only three nights. Night one was an hour of crying, night two thirty minutes and night three only a few. Now there son is sleeping on his own. Well we certainly can’t stand to have holly cry even 5-10 minutes, so that won’t work for us, but a little whining, and 1-2 minutes of crying is ok. So we have been putting her in the crib and she plays, for about 20 minutes and then wines, if she is whining we let her continue, once it turns into a cry we go in but do not pick her up (at first at least) usually I can calm her by rubbing her back and “hugging” her as she stands on the rail of the crib. But she reaches up wanting me to pick her up, and even that is heart breaking. I mostly make Joel go in, as she whines to him a lot, but isn’t as desperate and having a crying fit usually. She gets pretty sleepy and he had a lot of hope that this would eventually work. We do this for about an hour. Starting at 10:00 usually at that point, I pick her up and we have watched Baby Einstein and she falls asleep within minutes.

But this is the thing, getting her to fall asleep on her own is secondary to getting her to bed the same time every night. So the other thing we have done is try and create a bedtime routine. Bath (some nights) some Baby Einstein or playtime in Mommy’s lap. After 9:00 most nights we try not to let her crawl and cruise around on her own, as it keeps her keyed up. We tried story time, but the books seem to rile her up, as she gets excited about turning the pages, so we have tried “telling” her a story and singing a song. Then by 10:00 I give her a bottle in bed with me, and hope she falls asleep. Some nights she does, some she is settled, and if I rub her back and head a few minutes she falls asleep. If she is in an active mood where she wants to jump up and won’t stay in bed, then we put her in the crib, and do the “hybrid” method from above. So far we haven’t gotten her to bed by 10:00, but most nights now she is asleep by 11:00. So my question is, is that her natural bedtime, and I need to move late afternoon napes up, or cut them out, or do we need to move up our start time to 8:00 if we want her down at 10:00. I suppose if I can get her to bed at 11:00 every night and then slowly move it earlier, it’s a start. What I plan on doing after a few days of this working well is maybe feed her in the rocker instead of the bed and when she is sleepy but not asleep put her in the crib and see how that works. Oh and yes, lastly we are no longer letting her sleep-in in the morning, mostly. We try and wake her every morning at 8:00 AM. That means though, that Joel has to be awake, so it has been 8:00, 8:30, 8:45 some days, but we are working on it. I think a morning routine is also necessary for her to take her morning nap and be productive at Therapy., so I am in process of creating an entire daily schedule for a guideline, I don’t plan on being stringent, but having it written out helps remind us what the routine should be, even if we don’t follow it every day.

On Friday we went to swimming and had a blast as usual. Holly is starting to not like being tossed up in the air. She used to love it, it was her favorite part of swimming. We would jump up and down when the windows on the bus went up and down. I try it but then sometimes she makes a face that tells me she isn’t having fun, so then I don’t jump up any more after that or let go. I still lift her just above my head, and she still likes that. Maybe she is cold. It is hard to tell. After swimming I was on my way to get a new toy for Holly off of Craigslist, it is a Giraffe that you put a ball into the mouth and it twirls around and drops out of one of four exits. It was only 10$ but it didn’t have any of the balls. I thought our Bubble Gum balls would fit, but they are a little too big, so we need to get some smaller ones. The toy is normally like 39.99$ though, so it is still a good deal I think. It ended up being the same person I got the exersaucer from a while back. Well anyways, on my way I was stopped at a light and I had called my mom and a cop pulled up at the other light. I hung up when the light changed green, but a few minutes later he pulled me over anyway. He said it was from talking on the phone, California is pushing a zero tolerance policy and I said, well I wasn’t driving, I was stopped at the light I didn’t realize that wasn’t ok. He said, well you are also not wearing your seat belt. So he gave me a ticket for that. Well I am short, 5 foot, and the seat belt basically cuts across my neck and face and is dangerous to wear, so I show him, and say what do I do? Can I wear it behind my back or under my arm, and he says no that is also against the law. And I have to by one of those seat belt adjustment things, but in the mean time, he can’t tell me not to wear it, but I should do what is safest for me, and he will drive off before I leave. So he basically told me not to wear it. Go figure, so now I have to figure out how much the ticket is for.

We also had Xray's done and went to UC Davis Mind Institute this week, I will update you on this tomorrow.