Now that wasn't so bad

I hate to jinx myself but it appears Roan has gone through the her quickest transition yet. Yesterday I thought we were just beginning a long and painful process, but today she's already back to being her super baby self. She slept through the night last night. She went down for two long naps without a fuss at all. And she's been in an excellent mood all day. Score!

She is eating a ton. We loaded her up last night with milk, formula, cereal and solid food. She seems to be doubling up on her normal amount of solids.

I have been rather lazy with the camera lately. Will have to do some clicking. Here is a pic of Roan with her daddy, Grandma Fifa and Grandpa Charles over the Thanksgiving holiday in Boulder.

A quick clip

After a very fussy day Roan perked up this evening when we went out to dinner. And then she got a big ol hoot out of crawling around the house with a blanket on her head. Apparrently that is just hilarious. It's a little dark; hope you can see the video.

well it was nice while it lasted

Roan is taking a pause from being a dream baby. I think she was worried she was making other babies look bad. No, but seriously she seems to be having another growth spurt. She's cutting back from 3 to 2 naps a day. She's not going to bed until 9:30 instead of 7:30 or 8 at night. And she's not sleeping thru the night either. The last two nights she woke up at 4:30 and 5 AM.

At least this time around it isn't a hugely disappointing turn of events. While we were enjoying several months of restful sleep and no-fuss naptimes, I was clever enough to just think "This is nice while it lasts." She seems to be in transition right now. Each nap is a little struggle. She's tired and grumpy for a long time before she'll finally go down. And it seems like she doesn't know what she wants a lot of the time. I certainly don't know what she wants half the time. There's a fair amount of crying going on. Including at this very moment. But at least I know that this is likely to be a temporary adjustment period before a new routine shakes out.

And I am definitely looking forward to the emergence of the new routine. Without one it's hard to plan a trip to the grocery store or a walk with other moms. By the end of the day i'm feeling taxed. Add to that the fact that my milk storage is running low and Roan isn't taking to formula yet, and you have a recipe for frustration. But so far I'm keeping it together. We're just taking it one hour at a time.

We've been so busy this week having lots of fun. Last Wednesday we went to a reading given by our friend Nick Arvin, who is an accomplished author. I say "we" but actually I went (along with Jen and Micah) while Arwen stayed home with Roan. It was too bad because the after party was at a fancy restaurant, and we had a great time. We had thought Roan would be able to go for a little while until she got tired, but it turned out that night she decided she wanted to go to bed early. Cest la vie.

Then this past weekend we went up to Breckenride to see our friends Jay and Clover. They always do a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at their house because they usually travel over the holiday. All I can say is what could be better than TWO Thanksgivings in one week?! Yum!

Jen's friends Jan Mendelt and Christina are visiting this week from Cincinnati. They're a lot of fun, and there's a festive air in the house.

Arwen's mom and stepdad will be coming in on Thursday afternoon for a holiday visit. We're looking forward to seeing them!

This week I've been trying to get ahead on my holiday To Do list. Christmas cards will be ready to go out after Turkey Day, and I whipped up a quick Christmas stocking for Roan. Arwen tried to tell me that I really did not need to make her one, but I just couldn't see how. Since Arwen has a stocking his mom made him, and I have one my mom made me, there was just no way around it. Especially since I had scraps of red fleece from Jen's Halloween costume and flannel from the ill-fated diapers lying around. Today we did all the shopping for the big Thanksgiving meal, including a run to the local wine shop for some special wines and beers. We're ready for the holiday fun to start!

In Roan news, she has been a very busy gal lately. She is making tracks with her push toy, cruising across the room endlessly. When she gets stuck on the other side of the room she just rams whatever's in front of her and cries in frustration until someone comes over and turns her and the toy around. Then she's happily on her way again. She can keep herself entertained for ages with that thing! (Check out the video below)

I think I mentioned (?) she has a new tooth coming in up top. It is sooo cute! Although it has been causing her a little discomfort lately. Nothing a little ice can't fix though. She is starting to branch out into some other foods. She tried peas this evening. Not in pureed form, but actual steamed peas. Not only did she think they tasted bad, she also thought they stunk and they made her gag. Other than that they were great. She did rather enjoy picking them up and putting them in her mouth, she just didn't like actually eating them.

I've decided I'm ready to start introducing some formula. Up to this point Roan has gotten 100% of her milk from me. I'm really glad that breastfeeding has worked out so well for us. I certainly enjoy the time being cuddled up with her. But the pumping is a drag, and it's been a source of constant stress worrying whether there's enough milk in the freezer for Roan when she's with the nanny. This weekend we had a little mishap with the milk where we misplaced two days' worth and it spoiled. And then this morning I got up early to pump and my efforts were foiled when I later opened the freezer and discovered the bag I had used had a hole in it. I got all bent out of shape about it, and that's when I decided it just isn't worth the stress. So I called and talked to our pediatrician's nurse and she gave me some pointers. Hopefully Roan will take to it.

I'm going to attepmt to end this post with a video of Roan with her push toy. Last time I tried to upload a video it didn't work, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This is what happens when Daddy "babysits"

Last night I went to yoga and when I got home Arwen showed me some pics he took of Roan while I was out. I nearly died when I saw the one above! I have never seen such an amusingly devilish look on her face before. How did he get her to DO that? And in the one at right, it looks like she really is taking a swig.

The funny thing is we're so protective about what she eats and drinks. Not only would we never let her have beer because of the alcohol, but ohmygod it also has WHEAT. No! Not the deadly wheat! It's on the list of highly allergenic foods that are to be avoided until she's over a year old, along with peanuts and the always feared and dangerous MILK. Just imagine the havoc that could be wreaked with a simple PB&J on toast with a glass of cold milk.

Last night I dreamt that we were at a family get-together and as usual lots of people were fussing over Roan. Next thing I knew someone (Uncle Rick - which I must say is totally in character ;) was feeding her chocolate chip cookies as fast as she could gobble them down. In my dream, my sense of outrage was so tremendous that I was instantly transformed from the sweet, polite woman I normally am to a raving, rabid Momzilla. The next thing I knew I was shouting and swearing at him about OHMYGOD THE SUGAR and SHE CAN'T HAVE WHEAT and DON'T YOU KNOW CHOCOLATE HAS CAFFEINE?!?! In my dream it was as though I believed Roan to have been inadvertently but permanently tainted through this careless act. As if I don't have enough legitimate things to worry about as a parent, my subconsious has to taunt me with this silly stuff in my off hours. Sheesh!

Busy, busy

Man it's getting tough to get it all done in a day. Hence the lack of blogging lately. But we're all doing well. Roan's keeping us busy of course. Now that she's more mobile and eating solids she gets dirtier and I'm endlessly trying to keep the floor gunk and dog hair off of her. There's more cleaning to do and more stain fighting to do in the laundry. There are also more minutes of the day devoted to feeding her, since we're up to 3 meals a day of solid foods in addition to her normal milk intake. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but besides rice cereal Roan only likes to eat orange things. Sweet potatos, carrots, corn, and butternut squash are all on the menu. But don't even think about trying to get anything green in her mouth. Or even fruits for that matter. I still try though. Every night I feed her what she likes as well as a couple of bites of something she doesn't. So far it hasn't resulted in an expansion of her menu, but I'll keep making new things available to her.

On Tuesday this week we went and had family portraits made at JC Penny. Can't wait to share them with you! With Beryl's amazing talents in the family I've hesitated to do that till now (Note, this picture and the next one were taken by Beryl, NOT Penny's) but with the holidays coming up I figured what the heck. Plus I've been getting awfully sentimental about the fact that Roan is 7 months now and over halfway done being a baby. It's really feels like her baby days are slipping away like sand running through my fingers. Even though we have a million snapshots of her, it's comforting somehow to have a traditional set of portraits. That she will grow up is inevitable. It's a good thing. But at least we will have these reminders at the waypoints in her journey.

What was funny was that while I found getting family portraits a necessary and comforting act, Arwen was rather disconcerted by it. It wasn't just having to shave, wear a button up and forgo his usual socks with sandals. I think he was questioning whether this was the beginning of me trying to make us into the picture-perfect 1950's type of family. He also wasn't thrilled with the fact that I put her in a pretty white dress with a white bow in her hair. "How is she ever going to be a tomboy if we dress her like that?" he wanted to know. I guess I don't have an answer for him on that one.

Maybe it's a case of me rolling my eyes back in my head and going into Mommy Autopilot, but this was really important to me. It has always meant so much to have the annual family pictures from when I was a kid. I could look at those things endlessly, thinking about how Mom was so beautiful or how funny Dad looked in his 1970's suit. I want Roan to be able to look back and see all of us as we are now and draw her own conclusions.

So this week has also been about baby proofing. We still have a long way to go, but at least we've gotten started. Roan is into absolutely everything. The other morning I caught her chewing on the edge of the dog's bowl, which totally freaked me out. She is constantly on the move and she's most interested in anything that is not a toy. To her delight, she found the tupperware in the kitchen. I'm happy to have her make a mess or make noise as long as she's not going to kill herself with whatever she's into, so as far as I'm concerned the tupperware cabinet might as well have her name on it.

I am still amazed at what a happy baby she is overall. She just smiles and smiles all the time. She'll be crawling around the house just cracking herself up at what I can't tell. Or she looks over at the dogs and goes into hysterics just because puppies are so funny I guess. Except at the moment she's going through a cranky spell. She woke up grumpy from her nap yesterday afternoon and she's still a grump. This morning she woke up with a green runny nose, so she's probably coming down with something. Or maybe it's teething. At least I can say that when she's fussy it's because there's something wrong. Even if I can't figure out what that something is.