Baby Talk = Speaking in Tongues

Sophia has started talking! Its so fun to see her yell Da-Da and run for the door when Bill comes home. She has named our dog "Delda" (aka Stella) and calls all dogs that now. She also has mastered the adorable and very repeatable "Uh-oh" and uses it mostly in context as she chucks things from her high chair.
Now when babies starts making the ba-ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma-ma, da-da-da-da-da sounds it doesn't  mean that they are talking. They start doing this at like 4 months and inevitably some mom or grandparent will say "So-in-So is SO advanced, they are already saying da-da". Um no they're not. They are babbling and simultaneously spitting but not actually talking.
Eventually they start using the same sound or "word" repeatedly and consistently to refer to something. These days Sophia has become extremely demonstrative and runs around and points at everything while naming it something in her language. Its adorable. But I am quite tired of being called da-da....
Anyway, most recently she has begun to ramble on in what I call the boogety language. I have been trying to get it on video for a while now and finally succeeded. So here you go....boogety boogety boogety :)
(it takes a minute to load...sorry!)

Its not the best example but I am sure that you can tell she is speaking extremely fast using her own language and clearly thinks we are having a conversation. 

Things They Don't Teach in Baby Class (Part 2)

Daylight Savings Time- You are probably wondering why this of all things is on my list. Well, I had no idea that DST was such a bitch until I had a baby. The "fall back" happened when Sophia was about 5 months old. We FINALLY had a schedule and a bedtime routine. She was consistently going to bed and waking up at the same time each day. Until Daylight Savings Time....
As a college kid I loved 'fall back' because the bars stayed open an extra hour and I got an extra hour of sleep. Well as a parent of an infant I hated it. I had no idea that when the clocks magically jumped back one hour that my sweet little baby would that that 5:30 am was 6:30 am and be up for the day. But it happened and it took a week of bedtime adjustment to get her to go to sleep at 7pm and wakeup at 7am instead of 5:30! After the fact one of my friends said "oh yeah, you should keep them up an extra hour so they wake up at the normal time". thanks friend.

Babies R Us - Have you ever been a Babies R US (BRU)? I had never bothered until I was pregnant. And when I finally went in...mind blown. It was like a Bed Bath & Beyond....but ALL baby stuff. Aisles and aisles of bottles, cups, pacifiers, and all things baby. I had never felt so out of my element. Don't worry guys, its not just you. Females however will immediately start scouring the internet, baby books and picking their mommy friend's brains about what is what. These days I am a BRU expert and can spend hours telling you the difference between Chicco and Graco infant car seats or Dr. Browns vs. Playtex Drop In bottles. I could spend hours and hundreds of dollars outfitting Sophia in new gear (fortunately for my bank account, there isn't one close) But man that first time visit is NO joke.

Bedtime Routines- Now although they don't touch on this in baby class, there are literally HUNDREDS of books about bedtime and baby sleeping. You can spend hours researching a how to get your baby to go to sleep, stay asleep, sleep long, sleep later, sleep period. Here is my advice....get a bedtime routine going when baby is about 3-4 months old. Do that same routine every night no matter where you are. Same time, same order, same thing...over and over again. Yes its tedious. Yes its usually too early. Yes you can become a slave to it. So why do it? Because now Sophia can go to bed anywhere if we use that routine. Its been tested in Frederick, Long Island, OBX, OC, grandparent sleepovers, etc. It works every time. Do it....you'll be glad you did.

Why There are Minivans

I am not a minivan driver. I plan to NEVER be a minivan driver. With that said I know lots of my friends have crossed over into minivan land recently and sadly admit that its their dream vehicle. And as we prepare for a 3 day weekend at the beach I must admit I understand why....

Babies = a TON of stuff

Now, I will say that this summer we are schlepping down a considerably smaller amount of baby gear than last summer. Sophia was only a few months old for our first beach trips last year so we took TWO SUVS. Yes for a family of 3 and a dog. 2 large vehicles. Why would we do this? Here's why:

PNP (Pack and Play- aka portable baby crib)
Stroller
Bathtub
Bumbo Seat
Toys
Play Mat
Diapers
Monitors
Clothes
Bottles
Formula
Baby Food
Bibs
Diaper Bag
Boppy (baby pillow for feedings)

Plus you know all of our stuff and a 70 lb dog. It was great. Plus once we got down there I obsessively worried about the sun. Because you can't put sunblock on babies under 6 months of age and they overheat easily. So much of my beach time was spent...inside.

This summer we are bringing 1 bag each, 1 baby toy bag, 1 stroller, 1 PNP, and 1 bag of misc. baby stuff. It will all fit in the cargo area.  Oh and of course Bill's surf board on the roof. Nice. (70 lb dog will not but thats what in laws are for, right?)

Why Sleep is Never the Same

When you are pregnant, lots of people give you lots of advice. Most of it is annoying and almost condescending. But the most annoying one is "get your sleep now!!" usually followed by an all knowing chuckle. I remember being pregnant and thinking yeah like I can store up all the sleep I get now and use it later, thanks.
I now have an almost 14 month old and she sleeps pretty damn good :) She has been sleeping 11-12 straight hours a night for about 8 months now. We were lucky and she followed the typically sleep extension progression that all the books said. She started soothing herself to sleep at about 4 months (i.e. we didn't have to hold her or rock her to sleep anymore) And we only had to deal with 1 week of "I learned to stand up so I won't go to sleep anymore" drama. All in all we have been pretty damn lucky on the sleep front.
But after you have a baby you NEVER sleep the same again. Maybe when they leave the house for college?? I don't know.
Here is what I do know: (yes I know every kid is different, this is based on my experience)

1-2 months - You are up every 2-3 hours. 4 hours if you're lucky. You never knew you could appreciate 4 straight hours of sleep in your life. This goes for men too! Whether your wife is nursing or not, when your little baby lets out that "what the hell? Where am I? Why am I alone? I'm hungry!"cry in the middle of the night...you'll wake up too. Those of you who say "I can't function on less than 8 hours of sleep"....uh YES YOU CAN. Its at this point that coffee becomes more than a beverage and more like a salvation.

3-4 months - You start getting 5-7 hours straight if you are lucky. Some still only sleep in 3 hour stints. But you are so used to getting no sleep that you wake up thinking something must be wrong, panic and check on the baby. Then the baby looks so peaceful, you stay and watch the baby too long. Now you are wide awake. Great. Inevitably when you finally settle back in, the baby wakes up.

5-6 months- This is when many babies turn the corner and really start sleeping for 8 hours or more at a time. Now depending on when your baby goes to sleep at night this can be wonderful. Sophia went to bed at 7 so she still woke up at 2 or 3 am. However, she also started getting teeth at 5 months. Teething is the anti-christ and mortal enemy of sleep. A teething baby wakes up to a sore achy mouth all night long and in response cries and cries and drools and cries. So you will be up all night long. You may cry and drool as well. Hope you got a comfy chair for the nursery...you will spend many hours not sleeping in it.

7-9 months- SLEEP! Around now Sophia was done with middle of the night bottles. She started sleeping 12 hours straight every night. She did this earlier but I know that at this point she was doing it consistently. Its wonderful. The first time your child does it, you might freak and worry. The 2nd time they do it, you think please don't let it be a fluke. By the 3rd,4th and 5th time...you are joyous. You feel the need to (and do)post about it on facebook and brag to your friends.
** Don't forget evil teething can interrupt this wonderment at any time**

8-10 months- For us this time frame went from fantastic sleeping back to what we called the "Bedtime Battle". Before we figured out that little 4 month old Sophia did not like to be rocked to sleep anymore there was a harried week or 2 of us almost losing our minds at bedtime each night. The local wine shop had an increase in sales because I would have a glass of wine or 3 after bedtime each night just to calm down.
At 9 months Sophia had discovered how to pull up on stuff. So cute. So deceptively cute. Its cute until its bedtime and you put your wonderful little sleeper in the crib and expect the normal, roll over go to sleep routine. Oh no. Not any more. That kid can stand!! The crib is a cruising baby's dream. Until they figure out they are exhausted and don't know how to sit back down....then its a nightmare. Stand up, cry, repeat. Even when you put the exhausted baby down, they stand back up. At this point you consider trying to explain why this is silly to a baby...then you realize you are losing it. Eventually we had to CIO (Cry It Out). It sucked. Doesn't work for everyone. Daddies tend to be the weak link (Sorry Bill). But if you stick to your guns, it works in a day or two. Unless you have a stress puker (a baby that stresses out when you let it cry and pukes instead. then you have a crying baby covered in puke and you have to start all over again.) I thank my lucky stars that Sophia was not a stress puker.

12 months - Your now toddler has made it back to the typical sleep routine by now. You have become accustomed to the occasional teething interruptions. Things are good. So why aren't you sleeping like you did pre-baby, you ask? Because after a year of not sleeping like a normal person, you are conditioned to sleep lighter, hear every sound and wake up. Also babies don't understand the "its the weekend so we sleep in" concept so whenever your kid wakes up during the week, thats their weekend wake up time. And randomly they will wake up at like 5:30am for no reason and so will you.

Now I am only 14 months into parenthood, so I am hoping or have been told that it keeps getting better. And I know when she is a teenager, I will be dragging her out of bed. But all I know is that I never appreciated how truly blissful it was to go to sleep whenever I wanted with no chance of being woken up unexpectedly at 3:18am. Or how what a true gift being able to sleep in on your day off for a long as you want really is. Because once you have a baby...you never sleep the same again.

Things They DON'T Teach in Baby Class (Part 1)

1. Teething - Oh don't get me wrong, teething is in all the books and you hear other people talk about teething. Its not like you don't know what it is or what to expect to an extent. What you don't know unless you've had a child before is that teething lasts FOREVER. Case in point: Sophia got her first 2 teeth at 5 months on the dot. Somewhat early in the teething range but still nothing unusual. She is almost 14 months and is still teething. And she isn't even close to done. She currently (as of today) has 13 teeth! And 3 of them are the dreaded molars. But she still has 7 more to go before she is done. She should have all of her baby teeth by 3. Yup 3, I am hoping by 2 so that we only have 10 more months of this..... (what its actually like to have a teething baby is a whole other blog in its self.)
 
2. The musical toys - Ahh yes the adorable musical toys. Babies love them! Press a button, something lights up and a song plays. Press another button or lever or handle and you get another light and another song. Fantastic.
Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat....well ok you get the point. You will here the same songs...wait not even songs, parts of songs, over and over again until you think you may go insane. Some toys must be hidden. Some toys must be turned off (until they figure out how to turn them on...) some toys must die. Any toy creator who makes a toy with only 1 volume level....LOUD is a sadist. I'm talking to you maker of the Vtech Ladybug toy!!

3. 3 feet down rule - This rule applies only when your precious little baby is suddenly mobile. Not the cute- rolling- around-mobile. I'm talking on-a- mission-to-move mobile. Actively crawling to start with. If you have a toddler or crawling baby you know the 3 foot down rule. If not ,here it is...look around the room you are in right now. I am sure it looks lovely. Now look at the bottom 3 feet of this room....what do you see? Probably normal, non mobile baby stuff. You may have even put the outlet covers in already (good job). Now I'll tell you want you see....disaster waiting to happen. Bahahaha (evil laugh)!!! Why? Because all the stuff that looks normal will become problematic once your very inquisitive baby can move. I am sure you know outlets and cords are bad. But what about all the other stuff?
Bookshelves with books or dvds below 3 feet become tons of fun for a toddler. Pull them out one by one and chuck them over their shoulder or carry them off into another room.
 Anything with a door or a handle? Yeah that will be opened and whatever was "safe" behind it isn't.....ask my friend about her son and the box of tampons....lol.
What about things you don't even think about...like the dishwasher? Ever try to empty a dishwasher with a crawling/walking baby around? Ha! They go right for the knives in the bottom cutlery section faster than you can blink. Dog water bowls = water amusement park. Dog food = baby food. I could continue but I think you got the picture....

4. Baby food - The baby food stage is so fun. Introducing new things to your baby and watching their instantaneous reactions is wonderful. Thats why there are so many "baby didn't like green beans" pictures on facebook. Or whatever new food is introduced. The look of pure joy, hatred, shock or disgust is priceless each time. Now what you don't know is that some baby food is delicious. If you make purees yourself you will realize this quickly. I have one friend in particular who I am pretty sure made extra sweet potatoes for herself each time. And also some toddler foods are quiet tasty as well....Crunchies are actually cheese puffs. Healthier for sure, but also come in a variety of flavors! Even cinnamon maple.....however I prefer, I mean SOPHIA prefers mild cheddar.

Sophia's "What the heck is cereal" picture ;)

Now this topic is endless and I have an actual list of things to add to this but it would take forever, so for now you will have to make due with installment #1. I am sure my 5 readers will be waited on bated breath for the next installment ;)

Daycare: Who Cried More?

I have been lucky enough to be a stay at home mom full time for the past year. Being able to see Sophia change and grow everyday for 13 months has been an amazing honor. It has been the most rewarding, demanding, under appreciated, exhausting, exhilarating job I have ever had. I was able to build and nurture a bond with my daughter that is my happiest achievement.

With that said, after a year of talking to a human being who does not talk back (yet) for the majority of my days and living in a quaint town where I know no one....I needed some adult time.  I am sure I will look back and cherish those first 13 months of me and Sophia time as she grows. However when you realize that you haven't left your house for 2 days and you are wearing the same combination of yoga pants and t-shirts on a daily basis, you begin to crave the "outside" world a little bit.

I was lucky enough to land a part time 2 day a week job at a local contractors office. Good pay, flexible schedule, hot boss...whats not to like?
My husband, Bill is my boss and has been very supportive of me going back to work on a part time basis, especially since it helps our bottom line and gets more done around his office. I on the other hand get to drive to work and drink Starbucks on the way, sit and do computer work (and chat on MS Messenger with my friends....shhh!!) and feel like I am only responsible for  me and the tasks at hand for 10 -ish hours a week. Its great!

Whats NOT great is the daycare drop off process....

Now let me say that we found a WONDERFUL daycare center 5 minutes from our house that takes 1 year olds part time. Its brand new and the director is wonderful and has a masters in Early Childhood which warms my elementary school teacher heart. Bill and I were very impressed with the center, the director, the staff and our neighbor's son goes there as well and they had only great things to say. So, all in all we got lucky and are very happy with the "school" Sophia goes to twice a week.

With that said....the first couple of days of daycare drop off is HORRENDOUS. There is no way around it. There is crying. Lots of crying. Baby crying. Mommy crying. Scared crying. Guilt crying. Separation anxiety crying. Just crying crying. And since my little miss is very aware at 13 months, she KNOWS I left her. She isn't a little baby blob who may sense that I am not immediately around but that she is safe. She can look around the room and say "not the momma, not the momma" and cry. :(

Needless to say every day for the first 2 weeks that I dropped her off I was a mess. As soon as she started sobbing, I would sob. I cry on my way out of the building, to the car, in the car, on the phone to anyone crazy enough to take my call (thanks Bill & Val & my mom). I would then make the mistake of going back to check or calling to check too soon and continue crying. I so wanted to run into that room, grab my baby and bolt.

But I didn't. And I am SO GLAD that I didn't. For the last week, Sophia did not cry one little baby tear and I didn't cry any big giant I'm a bad mommy tears. She had fun! Lots of fun! And I have started my refrigerator art gallery of pictures made with painted hand and feet prints :)

Handprint Flower

Handprints and 1st Macaroni Necklace

Everyone said "It gets better" and they were right....even though I didn't want to believe them.

Sophia's 1st Birthday Party

I can't believe Sophia will be one tomorrow. What a year! Its had its ups and downs but it is just so amazing to watch an infant grow into the little person who runs around this house all day.
To celebrate this momentous occasion we had a family and friends birthday party at our home. I chose a ladybug theme because 1) Sophia was a ladybug for Halloween 2) She loves ladybugs (or seems to be drawn to them) and 3) thats what I wanted and I am pretty sure I only get to choose for this one and maybe the next one lol :)
Anyway, I had a lot of fun planning and prepping for the party. It was nice to put my teacher abilities to good use. It was like setting up my classroom for the year except it was for one day and it was my house. Needless to say I may have gone overboard but I think I teetered nicely on the sane side of tastefully done :) If I didn't no one told me otherwise (which is both nice and wise of them!)

Here are some pics of the house and the party and such. I forgot to take pictures of the table with food on it of course and lots of other stuff as well but you get the gist!