L is for Lion

I was tagged by Quirky Mom with the Letter L If you are interested in your own letter leave me a comment.

Ten things:

L is for:

Love: The most important of all things. I don’t think I really knew Love until I had my daughter Holly. I of course Love my Family and My Husband, but the Love of a Child so unconditional, so forgiving, if someone tried to explain it to me before having Holly I would have thought that I knew what they meant, but it is only after her that I truly know. After having Holly I told my mom, now I understand just how much you love me. It is a love like no other.

Laughter: Is a healer of all things. Just when I think I may be at the end of my rope on no sleep and feeling sick and weary and grumpy Holly will do something so silly or cute that I just have to laugh and it makes everything else go away. I think it might have something to do with that first L word J but also Joel makes me laugh, he can’t help it and he loves when I laugh, it is apparently easy to do and I can never stay mad at him because he will say or do something goofy and make me laugh.

Lucky: Is how I feel now that I have Holly. I realize that there may be challenges ahead and there will be delays and life won’t always be as easy as it is for other people, but Holly is a blessing and I feel so lucky to have her, and well I think she is doing so far much better then feared and I feel lucky with each new development she makes and grateful that she is such a wonderful child. I also feel lucky for having Joel the most amazing husband, I have only learned to appreciate him more since Holly was born and I think she has brought us even closer together which I didn’t think was possible.

Learning: Is a lifetime pursuit. I love to learn so much that I made a career out of education, school, and learning. I have always loved to learn new things whether it is a lecture or a discover magazine. Now I get to learn and discover through the eyes of my child which makes it even more magical. Not only do I get to share in her discovery and awe, but I also get to learn about her, who she is and what makes her tick.

Language: has never seemed so important to me then now. When I was in college I studied Linguistics and Creative Writing, among other things. I was fascinated with the history of language how it evolved and grew. I loved learning about sounds and how they form, accents and regional dialects. I also love the use of language, witty statements and clever dialog. But now I am learning the difference between language and communication. The lack of language can be very frustrating and I am learning how to communicate without it. I am also obsessed with it as I work with Holly on learning to speak and trying to remember back to my college days of diphthongs, bilabial, open vowels - wondering if any of it is useful in helping her little mouth shape the sounds she needs to make words. But mostly I have to remind myself that without language there is still communication, and to appreciate that too.

Lazy: is how I am feeling this week. I am so tired from Holly being sick, and from me being sick, and from her being clingy and needing to lie on mama every moment of the day. Tired after a long day of hard but ever rewarding work not having the energy to clean, keep-up with chores or basically do anything responsible, So right now I am feeling very lazy. I also feel like I should be doing more with Holly. Because my days have been long I let her play independently and sort of zone out watching her, or catch up on blogs and writing posts and checking email, at least when she is not hanging on me or trying to knock down the laptop. I feel like developmentally I should be doing something educational with her every moment of the day, and when she is cranky and grumpy and I am tired and I put on Baby Einstein to give us both a break I feel like I am being lazy. But then again, I am known to be rather hard on myself and need to remember to cut myself some slack every once in a while. She is a very active and attended to baby.

Legends: Are something I grew up on and can’t wait to share with my Daughter. First there are stories about my family and Holly’s ancestors. Also there are fairy tales and ghost stories and legends of mythical places and creatures and beings that fill my imagination. I love imagination and that can be sparked by so many legends. Greek Gods, Water Nymphs, Dragons, and Unicorns, I can’t wait to begin to share these legends with Holly. Well I have already begun telling her some stories, but I look forward to when she is older and we can watch movies and read books like The Tales of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, His Dark Materials, The Last Unicorn, or even Harry Potter.

Linger: Is what I tend to do at social gatherings and events. I can’t help myself, but I am often the last one to leave. I tend to linger, I don’t like things to end and I want more. I will linger at the end of a concert and watch as the roadies tear down, I will linger after a Movie and watch the credits until the very end. I will linger after a party because it was over too fast and now that the crowd has thinned there is more time to bond with and chat with the host. I will linger at a Friend’s house after a play date because we have had so much fun and it has been so long since we have gotten together that I don’t want our fun to end. I also linger around the edges, overhearing a conversation that perhaps I can add something useful too, Linger when there is drama because I am curious, and linger at the end of the night because I don’t want to go to bed. Maybe it’s a bad habit, but it’s me.

Left: is the side of the country I live on and pretty much defines much of the city I live in. Perhaps Liberal is a better L word to define this, but I embrace Berkeley and its politics even when at times the notions are even a little left for me. I believe is social justice and paying higher taxes for schools and roads and parks. (from Wikipedia) I thought this was interesting.. and well it fits: In politics, left-wing, leftist, and the Left are terms applied to socially progressive and egalitarian positions. Originally, during the French Revolution, left-wing referred to seating arrangements in parliament; those who sat on the left opposed the monarchy and supported radical reform.

Limbo: Is how I sometimes feel or even “Lost” when it comes to knowing what is best for Holly and what her future will hold. I am so grateful to know her diagnosis up front, but it is frustrating sometimes because it is always there in the back shelf of my mind, will she continue to develop at this rate, will she be able to learn to read and do math, will she be in a mainstream classroom, is college a dream too far to think about, will she one day have a family of her own. Now obviously all those “Big” thoughts aren’t usually right there, it is more like what will potty training be like, when will she say her first word. When will she begin to feed herself? But really I feel like I am in Limbo, because I don’t know what behavior is normal development? What behavior is from Fragile X and what is just nothing at all. Limbo, because I sometimes don’t know if I should be upfront and tell people about her diagnosis, or if it is really not important to mention at all. Limbo because before this I never felt like I was out of control, but that is a feeling I am learning to embrace.

Score!

Holly is actually back on her game. I was starting to miss my happy go lucky baby and feeling in a rut of food and sleep battles but today was a good day! On Friday night she went to bed at 9:30 and she didn’t fuss and she stayed asleep until 10:30 this morning. I think the 13 hours did her some good. She didn’t want to eat breakfast, but mom got to sleep through that battle as Dad was up with her this morning. As typical she refused baby food but did snack on puffs. Mom didn’t sleep all day though, I woke up around noon and we played and she was so excited to see me. She crawled over to me and didn’t even want to let me go to the restroom. She is definitely in a clingy phase.

We laid down for her nap around 2:45 and she slept until 4:30. Mom and Dad worked out a deal this weekend. It is one of those Mini game Programming Contests, so Mommy gets to go to the movies and then she watches Holly an equivalent amount of time to let Daddy work on his game. So tomorrow I owe Daddy 4.5 hours of Programming time, and today just after Holly woke from her nap Mommy went to the movies.

So here is the Update from Daddy:

1. Holly is sad when Mommy leaves. The firt time I tried to leave I said goodbye and she tried to follow me out the door and was watching and seemed pretty distraught. So instead of leaving, I went and gave her a big hug and then Daddy took her into the other room to change her and I snuck out, and she didn’t even notice I was missing. (Until I got back, and she was exuberant – Waving her arms and repeating Mama. Joel reported that the only other time she had said Mama while I was gone was when he changed her, so he thinks she is starting to associate it with me.)

2. Holly was a happy cheerful Baby and they had a wonderful time

3. She ate an entire container of Bananas, even texting mommy with the good news. She ate it by the way with no tricks, she opened wide.


4. Holly learned about Gravity and thought it was Hilarious. Check out the Video Here: http://hollyzzdavis.blogspot.com/2009/02/hilarious.html


5. She likes snacking on Puffs


6. She had lots of fun bouncing.


7. She is a tornado that leaves a path of destruction where ever she goes.


8. Daddy and Holly are working on Colors


9. Oh this one is great! She is learning in. She likes to take the Ball from the pit and puts it into her shape sorter box. This was pretty good news from me, as I haven’t had much luck with “in” at all, though she certainly has mastered out.

Which reminds me. A few times she was able to put the Donuts “On” once on the correct stand, but it was easier to pit the large donut on the skinny stand from the block stacker, which was still great, so she is beginning to learn “In” and “On”

10. Holly knows what the remote control is for. We have watched a lot of those baby development shows, and they show how a baby will show a confused face when an object is used incorrectly, or doesn’t do what is expected. So today Daddy was moving the Remote Controls out of Holly’s Reach and she looked towards the TV and it didn’t come on. So looked back at daddy then back at the TV. Why wasn’t it working? So Daddy turned it on, and then off again and she was relieved that it worked just like she thought it should.


This reminds me that yesterday Holly learned about the Pause Button. She is into Cause and Effect lately, for example she knows that when she hits the big button on the phone it makes a dial tone – or hangs up on Oma – and yesterday she learned that when she hits the one yellow button in a sea of black ones on the Tivo remote Yo Gabba Gabba pauses. She had a lovely game of pausing and starting it over and over, making sure she knew just how it worked. This was confirmed later that night when she decided to pause the TV when Mommy and Daddy were watching 30 Rock during dinner. She was quite please with herself and to get our attention, especially when her efforts to get the food off our plate were not successful. Hey – I gave her a bite and she didn’t like it, but that didn’t stop her from coming back for more.


Also, I was a little concerned with the amount of time Holly has been watching TV this week. It isn’t a lot, maybe overall 2-3 episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba or Baby Einstein spread out over 1 day, but she has wanted to watch it almost every day, which is not typical. Usually it is 3 times a week maybe 1 episode each day. We really like Signing Time, and Language Nursery, but when she is cranky or I am trying to get her to nap we watch Lullaby Time or Symphony of Fun. This week it has been every day, several times, and she was cranky and it was the only thing I could do to sooth her, so I was worried that the TV was soothing her and spoke with Katie about it on Friday Morning. We live in an area where lots of people think “TV” is Evil, so I feel guilty about it. Katie however thought I was funny for worrying, and said if she is watching something developmental like Baby Einstein I should not worry, but even more so, she has been out of sorts, and slightly sick, and tired, so it is a good sign that she wants the stimulation, even when she doesn’t have the energy to be playful, but lastly she said she would rather her watch a few hours of TV to give Mommy a reprieve from the fussing and whining, then have me pulling out my hair, because then I am not at the top of my game. So all of this made me feel much much better.


Today we took Holly into the back yard. The ground was still sort of wet from the rain the last few days, so we put shoes on her which she kept knocking off and let her run around in her walker. http://hollyzzdavis.blogspot.com/2009/02/spaceship.html

We walked her around the yard and she specifically liked the Bambo, it tickled her head and she just giggled and scrunched her eyes in anticipation.


So here is mommy’s movie update. I went to see two movies today. First was, “He’s Just Not That Into You” which was a fun chick flick, it had a lot of Cameo’s and big name stars in it, it was a cute ensemble and I enjoyed it

Next was, “The Uninvited” So this was actually not my top choice of movies to see. I love Horror movies and there are a few out at the moment, but this one was at the lower end of my list. It happened to be playing at the right theatre and time so that I could see a double feature. I ended up loving this movie. There was a wonderful and unexpected twist at the end that was a delightful surprise, and rather than a horror it was much more a mystery thriller. But it totally reminded me of the Script I wrote, and gave me a lot of ideas on how to tighten it up and change a few things to bring it up a notch, so who knows maybe I will work on a revision sometime soon.

What We Accomplished

I think today was a success. I am so proud of Joel for staying positive and productive even though it may have seemed like I was trying to sabotage him with my cranky mood at every turn. It was so not my intention, I have figured out why I was grumpy and I will get to that later. But I swear my Husband is a saint, it was like I was undermining him with every decision he made today, I was reminded of Bree Hodge from last weeks episode of Desperate Housewives and I so don’t mean to be condescending, I just come across that way sometimes when I don’t even realize it.

I am pretty sure Joel realizes this, and that is why he is amazing, but it can be a downer especially when little things do go wrong, instead of being encouraging I was like.. see I told you so. However in the end he did such a wonderful job with the baby proofing. We didn’t get as much done as he would have liked, but then again I slept until like 12:30 and it was almost 2:30 before we left the house, and the darling that he is we even stopped at a baby store to just shop and look around.

We went to this great Plastic and Acrylic place where they custom cut the Plexi for the entertainment center doors, I of course was convinced Joel had the wrong measurements and there was no way they would be big enough, I was of course wrong, I mean come on, I should give the guy some credit, he does know how to use a tape measure. The Plexi was much cheaper than I expected which was exciting. Then we went to Subway for lunch. I was starved since I didn’t eat any breakfast.

After that we stopped at a used baby store called Little Raspberries. I learned that they are passing both a federal and already passed a state law that you cannot resell used baby clothes or toys. I was like WTF!! Yes, I suppose there is these fear that they are not up to spec/code and there will be toxic lead in the buttons, so no more thrift shopping for all of you frugal moms out there. That is insane. The store might have to close down. I mean they can still sell things like used swings and such, but no clothes and toys I am sure is ½ of their business and what about all of the stock they already have. I think it is just people going way off the reservation…

So I took advantage and purchased an adorable light blue traditional Chinese pants suit outfit thingy. I had just read this article about teaching our children to be global citizens and it listed all of these neat holidays we could celebrate throughout the year starting with Chinese New years on the 26th. This outfit was so beautiful and at that price I couldn’t leave it behind.

Next we went to the hardware store. Holly enjoyed sitting on my shoulders, but I got tired of her pulling my hair and ended up finding a cart and wheeling her around in it. We found a safety gate for the hallway and all of the various fasteners and hinges and such that Joel needed for his projects. Then we went home.

Holly fell asleep in the car for her second nap, so I decided I would sit and read my Magazine and let Joel get started upstairs with the drilling and such. She ended up only staying asleep for like 30-40 minutes total, and she woke up way cranky, I tried to sit her down and feed her Apple/Strawberry and she was having none of it, so I gave in and fed her a bottle. Normally I would push her to eat but she wasn’t simply resisting she was outright crying, which isn’t typical, so I knew she was still very tired and decided to pick my battles. After the first bottle I tried to feed her again, as she drank it down in about 2 minutes but she was having none of that, and drank another 2 ounces a few minutes later.

Once she had a chance to wake up and play, about an hour later I tried feeding her again. It was about 7:00 now and her regular dinner time. She wasn’t too jazzed about this, and had a few bites so I decided maybe she didn’t like this flavor and tried some Sweet Potatoes instead. She had some but still wasn’t that into it and getting crankier by the minute. She was so fussy and all over the place looking back and forth and trying to escape. She was reaching for the lid to the food container so I picked it up and said Holly if you open wide you can play with this. She stopped fussing looked me right in the eye and opened her mouth. I put a bit in and gave her the lid. I was of course in shock. She totally understood me. I could not believe it.. And then I told her that she was much smarter then I give her credit for. I was able to use the lib bribe for another 8 or so bites and then she was just done.

All this time Joel was happily at work, of course with me nit picking. There were a few obstacles he had to overcome and I was less then supportive when he was explaining them to me. On the surface this was because he never explained how he planned on doing this door thing to begin with so I couldn’t visualize his initial plan, but I was grumpy for other reasons.. I promise I will get to that.

So first he installed the gate across the hallway and of course Holly had to test that out. Then he brought up the child fencing we had downstairs that was given to us by a friend. I think this will be great for Holly’s party, we can use it outside in the backyard around the play mat and it will be wonderful. I wanted to over complicate things and move the swing to the other side of the room and have the fence go from the entertainment center in front of the bookcase and across the heater. We will eventually do this, as Holly keeps hitting her head on the swing and pulling books of the shelf, but Joel wanted to focus on the task at hand and not get off track, so we simply blocked of the heater. This is also Holly tested and approved and at least tonight she wasn’t able to knock it down, so I think it’s a win.

Next we installed some plexi glass in front of Mac’s tank where the wires, times, and extension cords are so Holly can’t reach inside and get at them. This was wonderful, as she can now safely go and look at his tank and pull up on this piece of furniture and I don’t have to worry, currently I had boxes in front of it making it too far for her to reach, but really not very safe. I also decided to move my laptop over here and plug it in there so I don’t have to stretch the wire across the living room when I need to use it or unplug it. So I am also happy about this.

So finally Joel was working on the main project, and this was the glitch. The plexi was actually about ¼ inches too big because he did not account for the space that the hinge on the top and bottom would take. I swear though in the outside world they looked way too small. But anyways, he devised a plan to cut a notch and sand down the area where the hinge went and did this as a proof of concept for the first of 4 doors. The second glitch was that shelf was pushed back for some reason and the others are flush, so he will have to adjust the other 3 shelves, and by this time it was late, so we decided to have him finish the install tomorrow since we have a proof of concept and know it will work.

Tomorrow we will also need to take down the Christmas tree, and do something with all the crap on top of the entertainment center. Ultimately it all belongs in the office, but I simply don’t have enough shelf space in there for all of my crap. I do think however that we will be able to get it all down. Oh and there is one other extension cord we have to do something with, but we have another do it yourself plan for that one too.

So for dinner we ordered pizza and holly was being very fussy. I tried putting her down twice and gave her two nighttime bottles and she finally fell asleep, but then about 2 hours later she woke up screaming with a night terror. This one lasted about 20 minutes and then I gave her another bottle (only her 8th though) and she fell back asleep, or stopped crying.. She did whimper however for a good twenty minutes and just a few minutes ago I heard her whimpering again, it’s been another 3 hours since she was last up. Something is going on with her, a developmental thing, or a growth spurt, or transitions. This morning she only slept about 40 minutes though and we had a very busy day out, so perhaps she just didn’t get enough naps and good sleep. I am not worried about her but she isn’t quite herself, so I am hoping she isn’t getting sick or anything. They say kids get 10 colds per year, and she was certainly sick in daycare, but since then she hasn’t been, so she is far from that 10.

So besides the fact that I am stressing because I have a stack of mail and bills I need to go through and organize I have this proposal that has been looming over me.. So here goes the explanation of why I am grumpy. I of course didn’t realize it until now that I am done with the review and I feel much better. So I am on this Committee for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), and I am one of the reviewers who gives all of the colleges and universities in this region (the western states) there accreditation. So I am not the official person who gives it out, that is a board who ratifies the committee’s recommendations, typically comprised of university presidents, but I am the person who does all of the legwork and my peers are VP’s and Provosts. So I feel very lucky to be on this committee, and it is pretty prestigious, and a wonderful thing for my career, plus nerd that I am, kind of fun!

Anyways When I was working a large portion of my time when into the work of doing the report needed for my own school to renew this accreditation, this happens once every 7-10 years. It’s a big to do, the whole institution is involved and it is much like strategic planning, but we also have to evaluate ourselves, and show how we are using what we have learned for improvement, so it’s all about assessment.

Well anytime a school wants to start a new program (I am over simplifying here) they need to write a proposal, prove some items and get permission from the accrediting agency. That’s where I come in. Once a month I read a schools proposal, see if they meet the requirements, the program is educational sound, sustainable, cost effective, assessed, planned, resourced, ect. And grant or deny approval. Each proposal has 2-3 reviewers. This month I am the lead reviewer for the first time. I received said proposal way back in December and my review is due 9:00 AM Monday.

Well of course I didn’t read it all over break, and then once break was over I got busy, so here is it 3 days till it is due and I have to read it, and well these proposals are long, and then I have to analyze it, and review and assess it and make educated remarks for my peers to read and get my game plan together for the conference call with the institution this Thursday where I tell them what I think and give them an opportunity to answer any questions before my team makes its final decision. Long story short.. This overwhelming responsibility looming on my shoulders has made me very grumpy. There aren’t enough hours in the day, Joel will ask me if I am coming to bed early tonight, and it’s not like I want to stay up until 4:00 Am, but It’s also not like I have time between 9:00 am and 10:00 pm to do paperwork, write the blog, pay bills, or read this review. So if I want to get any of that stuff done I do have to stay up and do it.

So now here comes the weird philosophical part of this post. Having to do this review, so reminds me why I am so happy I quit my job. I simply do not want the stress of having to write reports and a looming deadline at all when I could be enjoying every waking Moment with my daughter, carefree with no loomingness. However after 5 10 hour days with a Baby, reading Baby magazines, and talking to other Mommies about baby things all of which I love it was kind of nice to get out of that space and into a very different intellectual part of myself and remember how smart I am. I know I sound like an a$$ but it took a lot of hard work and dedication, and education to get to where I am, and the fact that I can evaluate this proposal and talk and write like I know what I am talking about, because I do, reminds me that I like my child, know a lot more then I remember sometimes to give myself credit for.

So in the end it was kind of fun to read about this program, get all uppity about the things they were doing wrong, and be all impressed with the things they are doing write and being able to analyze it all and articulate my thoughts for my peers to read and finish the review. Now I have the call to look forward too, which I am usually never at all nervous or anxious about,. This time I am but only a teeny bit because I am the one in charge and the others will be looking at me to take the lead, so there is a bit more responsibility, but I am so also looking forward to using all kinds of grown-up words like rubric, educational effectiveness, Carnegie Unit Calculations, Needs Assessment, ect.

So all in all, what have I learned, well I don’t want to work, but I do need something on occasion to remind me that I have a life outside of my child. Not that I like being there for too long and can’t wait to get back to her clingy little arms, but to appreciate her, and who I am that made me such a great mom, I have to remind myself of what else is out there on occasion.

Spoiler Alert

Yeah to the free screener gods!!! I am so excited that we got to watch Quantum of Solace the new James Bond movie. Joel was going to see it with friends when I went to Florida, and I was sad that I wasn’t going to get to watch it with him, but then last night we had this FedEx package sitting on the counter that I hadn’t opened, and Joel is like, what’s that, and I was like I don’t know, it’s for you. And he was just telling me how all his co-workers were heading over to Pixar to watch the Academy screening of Quantum of Solace and he was sad that he didn’t get to go, so we open the FedEx and it is a brown envelop that says Quantum of Solace, we think it’s just the schedule of screenings, but then he opens it up and low and behold.. Thank you to the screener gods, it is the DVD. Whippeee…..

We had a fun romantic date night watching the film that fufilled all of its promise, starting off with an awesome car chase, that I particularly liked because the cars got very beat up, and I was scared for the stunt drivers.. This was speeding through the mountains of Italy, followed by a rooftop chase through Sienna. I won’t go into the details except to say that we were shortly followed by a boat chase, a few more street chases, and in the end, you can’t have a chase movie without a… wait for it… airplane chase! The move was a fun action movie, and typical bond. I did wish I had watched the last bond more recently so I would remember more what happened with Vespa, as the motivation for this film was somewhat fueled by revenge. I also thought that M didn’t react nearly as much as she should have, and lets Bond get away with way too much, but I suppose he wouldn’t be Bond otherwise.

Oh and one of my favorite scenes, a homage to Bond fans everywhere is the martini scene, I found it great comic relief, and a very original twist to a classic bond “thing” So yeah.. That was our evening. Dinner, then putting Holly to bed and by 11:00 we had a bowl of Ice Cream and the DVD in the player and had a cozy night.

Busy Thursday

So my mother’s group is getting on my nerves. Last week I went and saw a sign outside that they had moved to a new location, so had to get back into the car, and drive to and find the new location. The facilitator Jennifer did talk about how the set-up might change but I didn’t think anything was set in stone. See was set up as follows, 0-6 months, 6-12 months, and 12 Months Plus.. The 0-6 month group met at 12:30 which was awesome for me because that is when holly has her Therapy, so it is a time of day that is very active for her, and she typically wakes for her naps in time for a 12:30 appointment.

But when we graduated from that group we started going to the 6-12 month group at 10:30. This was harder because it is during her nap time, but I was usually either able to get her to take a short nap from 10-10:30 before hand, or if she woke up late in the day, I could keep her up and then she would be over tired, but immediately fall asleep for a long nap at 12:00 so it was ok. I was able to get there by 10:30, even though it is pretty early for me. The group has about 5 moms in it who come regularly and all the babies are crawling or sitting, and at a similar developmental area, starting foods, starting to be move active, ect. The Toddler group meets at 9:00 and sometimes we would see them running around before our group started, to give us a glimpse of what is to come.

Well, in the new location the groups need to be done by 1:00, so they decided to break them into 2 instead of 3 groups, the first 9 months and up and the second 0-9 months. The 9 and up group meets from 9-11am and the 0-9 meets from 11-1pm. So I had no idea this was officially changing and showed up today at 10:30 as usual, and the toddler group continued until 11:00 which was fine, as Holly played with all of the toys, crawled around and watched the other babies running around.

Then at 11:00 the other moms came, and when the group started and there were about 10 moms with babies all between 4-12 weeks old, and then me and one other mom each with an 8 month old. So they of course all wanted to talk about newborn issues, breast feeding, sleeping, ect. And the issues we wanted to talk about really had nothing to do with it, nor did they have any experience to tell us how they may have dealt with the same thing. So I feel like we were totally displaced.

Holly is 8 months old, so Jennifer said we could go to the older baby group, but hello people, that at 9am I had previously had 4 more months before having to go to the earlier time, and 4 more months of the calm before being thrown in with the sharks called toddlers, but it was so not appropriate for us to be in the infant group, so alas, I guess its 9 am. That said, next week is Thanksgiving, then I go to the mother’s group, and then the next 2 weeks I am out of town, and then the next 2 after that are Christmas and New Years Day, so by the time I go back to the group regularly Holly will be 10 months old, and I think actively crawling across the room and maybe even cruising, so perhaps by then I will feel like I am ready to be in the new group. Wow that was a lot of Bitching, so a not very big deal, I guess I just don’t like having my routine messed with.

This afternoon I missed Holly and Sally’s Session, but Joel came home for it. I was on a conference call for WASC, which is an accrediting body for Colleges and Universities in the Western Region, and I am doing this as professional Development, to keep myself active in my field. So I had to basically write a report and the approve or not approve a school who wants to start a new degree program, and then meet with my co-reviewers for 30 minutes to discuss the proposal, and then meet with the school for 45 minutes to answer questions and provide additional data. The meetings are all conference calls, so it is pretty easy to do these, and I have 1 report a month to do.

Sally normally comes on Wednesday at 12:30, but had to reschedule last minute, and I told her Thursday at 2:00 would be great, and then forgot I had my Call. So She came and tapped up Holly’s back, Holly had just woken up from a 90 minute nap (as I kept her awake all morning for the mother’s group) and had a bottle and a big poopie, so I expected her to be in a good mood, but I heard her crying in the other room the entire first 30 minutes of the call, so between sections while waiting for the institution to get on the line I came out to check on her, she was crying while Sally was taping her which she had never done before, but Sally had just finished so Joel picked her up and she said Hi to me, and then I had to go again, but she continued to cry and whine most of the session.

Joel reported back that while she was playing independently she would be fine but as soon as Sally would hold her or try and get her to do something she started to protest. Sally thought that perhaps Holly is at a developmental stage where she has learned quite a few skills and just needs to work on them, so she observed her at play and gave Joel a bunch of tips of things we need to do with her, like extending her legs was one. She also thought that the foam cushions I got were wonderful, and told us about a foam store that has more random shaped cushions we could get for a few dollars and was worth checking out, this weekend I plan on sewing the covers, so I am excited to let her play on them.

I got off my Call early, but Sally was already gone as she was making no progress with Holly. Holly was of course happy as soon as she saw me and was now ready to play. Joel went back to work and I decided to take her for a walk to the park. It was cool outside so Holly was wrapped up in the Jacket I knit for her and a green bean pod knitted hat from Silvia a friend of Jackie’s. She had on her purple Mary Jane sock/shoes and was nice and warm. She enjoyed walking in the stroller and when we got to the park was ready to play. There was a mom there with twin 2 year olds, and two older girls maybe 4/5 and 7ish they were all very cute with white blond hair and super rambunctious,

Holly liked watching them play. Later a mom and Oma came with a 13 month old and her older brother, I only know it’s the Oma because they were talking German the whole time, and they had fun, at 13 months old her baby was able to toddle around and play in the park a little more than Holly. Holly was the youngest Baby at the park, and basically could only swing, but that she did, and she loved it, she squealed with Joy and the other kids watched her swing because she was having so much fun. We also walked around the park watching the other kids play; there was a train, and a big slide. Then I sat her down and she played in the sand, it was a little pebbly, not too fine, so she liked to try and walk on it and it was a weird feeling on her hands, I watched her like a hawk though, as I was afraid she would try and eat it, but she didn’t. We stayed maybe 45 minutes and then walked home. She stayed awake for the ride back and then I put her into the swing and she fell asleep for her afternoon nap.

When she woke up we ate some more of her Garden Veggie baby food and she finished the rest of the container. She either really liked her green veggies or she is getting better at eating, I was very proud of her. We read some stories, played, and then watched language nursery, it’s my way of getting her to hear the sounds of Russian, Japanese, Spanish, German, and a few other’s too. They say you should expose your baby to the various language sounds between 8-10 months, so she is the perfect age.

Daddy came home and played some more with Holly, her new favorite game it trying to get to Mommy’s laptop Power Supply, I will put her on the far end of the carpet away from it, and she has to crawl several steps to get there but she does, I had to move her back about 6 times today. She has also discovered the Stereo and DVD Player, and tried to pull herself up on the Black entertainment center.

I didn’t want to make a big deal over her getting to it, as I was afraid if I took it away she would want it more, like the laptop cord, so I let her climb watching her closely, and she didn’t get into anything. My hope is she will find it boring, realize it’s not her fun toys and not be bothered to try and play with the electronics, but we will see how that goes.

She had a long busy day and fell asleep in her swing by 8:45. It’s almost 10:00 now though, and we transferred her into the crib which woke her up some so I am hoping she stays asleep, but the odds are not in my favor. She is quite wiggly on the monitor, but I have my fingers crossed, she is at least not crying.

New Week

Yesterday was a quiet laid back day. Holly was little miss energizer Bunny. She had her regular session with Katie, and Katie brought a colleague of hers Kristy to meet Holly. In comparison it seemed like Kristy was man-handling Holly, she was really getting in there trying to stretch and move her around to come up with ways to get her to drop her shoulders, relax and work her back muscles and extend, ideally we want her to do something like a backbend, but forward, keeping her hips planted.

I was shocked that Holly did not protest, she continued to be a very busy bee, and would not sit still for the entire 90 minute session, she would not be deterred, she wanted to crawl and climb and stand and reach for toys and twist and turn and she was on the go go go… and didn’t let Kristy get in her way. They were in awe with not only her energy level, but how cute she was trying to engage them, and how strong she was picking up toys, but more than anything else her determination. She is a girl who works and plays hard, and the moral of the day, is no one will stop her from doing anything, she will find a way…

I wonder where she gets that level of determination from…..

She took a brief nap after Katie and Kristy left, but not for very long, before she was at it again. We had a fun time playing and then ate some pears. She seemed to like them much better this time and ate 2/3 of a small container. Later she took a longer nap and that gave me a chance to read and comment on a WASC Report I am reviewing for a new program in Aviation at a school. It is nice to have a little bit of Professional stuff to do, a few hours a month is just perfect. I had been putting of the report for like a week, and it was due Tuesday at 8am, and I wanted to finish it before Joel got home, as it was our Anniversary.. 10 years married, and 15 years together.

I pre-ordered from Home on the Range 0 we still have a gift card from there that I have been using up, and they delivered chicken parmesan for me and pot roast for Joel. When he got home we decided to all sit at the table and eat, we are supposed to be socializing Holly to eating, so we put her in her little read chair and I gave her a Barley teething biscuit.

She seemed pretty interested in Joel’s food, and he had some potato, so I decided to give her it to try.. It was hilarious, I am a bad mommy for tormenting my little one, it was “spicy” Joel said it had some clove and cinnamony flavor, but was mild… Well, it was too much flavor for Holly. She picked it up, put it in her mouth, then made the most yuckiest face and grabbed it out of her mouth and threw it down, then tried to use her tongue to get the taste out of her mouth. I gave her the Barley biscuit back and she was happy, but I didn’t take the potato away, and she tried it three more times, I guess maybe she thought it would be different, and it probably was a little less each time, but it was really funny watching her trying to suck on it. Joel thinks I am going to traumatize her and make her not like stew like Mommy… I told him he has nothing to worry about she will like stew just fine. I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving and giving her all kinds of new foods to try.

She went to bed at 10ish and then Joel and I had Apple Tart with Coffee ice Cream and caramel Sauce and had a quiet night watching some tv and went to bed early. We talked about maybe doing something exciting for our big 10 year, but really a quiet night with the family was just what Joel wanted, he is so happy with me and Holly, he feels like his life is complete, and it was a very content filled night.

We decided sometime next year when someone comes and visits we will go away for a night and let them watch holly, but for now an evening together with her, is all that we need.

Today Holly had Pears with oatmeal, and I gave her a slice of apple to chew on. I think she liked the apple. Tonight we are going to Baby Brigade to see W. I should be getting ready to head out, so I have to go… It was a quiet day.