One of the annoying things about parenthood that never occurred to me before I became a parent is the sheer amount of waste that comes with a baby. I'm not talking about diapers- that had occurred to me. I am talking about food. Every day, I throw out perfectly good strawberries that have been squashed rather than eaten, apples that have been nibbled on and then tossed to the floor so many times that they are too bruised to eat, milk that was requested but not drunk... as you probably know too well, the list goes on and on.
I am not particularly squeamish about eating after Pumpkin (unless she is showing signs of being ill), but I cannot keep up with what she discards. I have to keep offering a wide variety of foods, because that is the only way to increase her still quite limited palette. But one aspect of the "you may have to introduce a new food as many as 15 times" doctrine that none of the advice books address is how bad you'll feel about all that food you will throw away on the 14 unsuccessful tries!
At least we have a compost heap, so some of that wasted food gets recycled.
I will be writing my review of the Baby Signing Time volumes that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago soon. Pumpkin's sleep has been pretty bad lately, and she has been insisting that I get her down for the night. Hubby is trying to break that pattern right now, and I think I will go to bed early. I may waste a lot of food, but I try not to waste an opportunity to get some extra sleep!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Future Rugby Commentator
Pumpkin is having major issues with bedtime all of the sudden- Hubby isn't allowed to get her down, I have to nurse her (this is after her post-walk nurse and her post-bath snack)... It is too depressing to write about, actually.
So, instead I'll give you some vignettes from Pumpkin's viewing of last weekend's final Tri-Nations Rugby match between New Zealand and Australia. (It was a really good game, by the way, but that is not actually important here.)
As the All Blacks performed their haka, she slapped her hands on her arms, almost mimicking the moves the players were doing. However, although Hubby has been trying to teach her to stick out her tongue, she didn't join in that part of the haka. (You can find video on YouTube if you've never seen the haka and are curious.)
Whenever a ruck formed, she said "uh oh!", presumably because there was a pile of players on the ground. And what would they be doing there if they hadn't fallen over?
Anytime anyone lined up a penalty kick or a conversion she announced "BALL!!!"
And my favorite... at one point, a bit of a scuffle broke out after a lineout. Rodney So'oialo came running up to join in, and shoved one of the Aussie players. Pumpkin shook her finger at the screen, and said "no, no!" I suspect the referee said something similar.
We decided that she was about as eloquent as the usual commentator, and wondered if we should offer her services to Sky Sports.
So, instead I'll give you some vignettes from Pumpkin's viewing of last weekend's final Tri-Nations Rugby match between New Zealand and Australia. (It was a really good game, by the way, but that is not actually important here.)
As the All Blacks performed their haka, she slapped her hands on her arms, almost mimicking the moves the players were doing. However, although Hubby has been trying to teach her to stick out her tongue, she didn't join in that part of the haka. (You can find video on YouTube if you've never seen the haka and are curious.)
Whenever a ruck formed, she said "uh oh!", presumably because there was a pile of players on the ground. And what would they be doing there if they hadn't fallen over?
Anytime anyone lined up a penalty kick or a conversion she announced "BALL!!!"
And my favorite... at one point, a bit of a scuffle broke out after a lineout. Rodney So'oialo came running up to join in, and shoved one of the Aussie players. Pumpkin shook her finger at the screen, and said "no, no!" I suspect the referee said something similar.
We decided that she was about as eloquent as the usual commentator, and wondered if we should offer her services to Sky Sports.
Monday, September 15, 2008
A Tale of Two Issues
I had a nice, upbeat post about how much better Pumpkin is eating planned. She's tried several new foods this week. And actually eaten some of them!
However, the sleep thing isn't going nearly so well. We've decided that we need to work more on having her fall asleep on her own, in her crib. She already won't let Hubby hold her while she goes to sleep, so this seems like a good time to work on this. But tonight, I tried to get her down without prolonged rocking or snuggling... and it didn't go so well. She whined and whimpered, and I comforted from a far. But when she really, really cried, I couldn't stand it and picked her up. At which point she said "Boppy!"
So I nursed her, and she fell asleep in my arms. I'm going to go to bed now in preparation for a rough night. I'm trying to remember that the food thing has gotten better, and the sleep thing will, too, eventually. The only problem is that it was pretty easy to figure out how to handle the eating issue, and it is far from easy to figure out how to handle the sleep issue. Some people say cosleep. Some people say let her cry herself to sleep. Other people say just about everything in between. I wish I could figure out what Pumpkin would say!
However, the sleep thing isn't going nearly so well. We've decided that we need to work more on having her fall asleep on her own, in her crib. She already won't let Hubby hold her while she goes to sleep, so this seems like a good time to work on this. But tonight, I tried to get her down without prolonged rocking or snuggling... and it didn't go so well. She whined and whimpered, and I comforted from a far. But when she really, really cried, I couldn't stand it and picked her up. At which point she said "Boppy!"
So I nursed her, and she fell asleep in my arms. I'm going to go to bed now in preparation for a rough night. I'm trying to remember that the food thing has gotten better, and the sleep thing will, too, eventually. The only problem is that it was pretty easy to figure out how to handle the eating issue, and it is far from easy to figure out how to handle the sleep issue. Some people say cosleep. Some people say let her cry herself to sleep. Other people say just about everything in between. I wish I could figure out what Pumpkin would say!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Week in Review
It has been a very busy week! I had one all day and two half-day training sessions at work, so was extra busy during other times trying to catch up on the work I wasn't doing while I was being trained. I suspect next week will be a bit busy, too, since I didn't really succeed in catching up.
Earlier this week, I posted about some of our recent struggles. I got lots of concerned emails and calls from people who know me in real life, and several nice comments, so I thought I would update you all on how things are going. In a word: better.
Pumpkin had an up and down week at day care. She had a couple of really bad days, which involved several biting incidents and a lot of crying. But she also had a couple of really good days, which included lots of happiness and "nice touches". Today was one of the good days. She bit once, but the teacher said she was sorely provoked. She said a little boy was bothering Pumpkin. Pumpkin apparently tried to "use her words" first, but the little boy didn't listen, and before one of the teachers could intervene, he got bitten. As someone who once hit a boy with a lunch box in a similar sort of situation (I was in the first grade), I can't really hold that against her!
Pumpkin also had a couple of decent nights of sleep. These coincided with the good days at day care, so Hubby and I are thinking about what we might do to encourage more good nights of sleep. Of course, if we knew how to do this, we would have done it already. But we feel like we should try to do something, since Pumpkin is suffering the ill effects from the bad sleep nights, too. When it was just Hubby and me suffering, it was easy to be lazy and not try to improve things.
Pumpkin slept well last night (she was up only once, although it took a couple of tries to get her to stay down after that wake up). However, getting her to sleep in the first place was unusually challenging. She wanted to play in her crib, or walk around her room, or do anything but settle into my arms to rock to sleep. Then, once she did decide to snuggle in and relax, she didn't want to be put down. I got up once to turn the music down, before I was going to try to put her in her crib, and she cried out "noooo!" and wrapped her little arms around me like I was threatening to drop her. She eventually went to sleep, but it took a couple of tries to get her into her crib, and in the end she was more asleep than I usually like her to be when I put her down. I can hear her in her room now, putting Hubby through the same sort of trouble tonight.
Pumpkin took a bath on her own tonight, so the bath freak-out was short-lived. She was in the big tub instead of her little plastic tub, but there were no bubbles and she went in with no fuss and splashed up a storm. She also insisted on several rounds of "This Little Piggy". She hold out a foot, rubs her chest, and says "wee, wee, wee" to indicate that we need to play this game.
The fruit eating continues, which is making my fruit-loving Hubby very happy. In addition to the apples and bananas that must be consumed whole, Pumpkin will eat bits of strawberries and pineapples. She still hasn't show any interest in cantaloupe or grapes, except to squish them.
Hubby and I went out on Wednesday night, to see Tim Finn in concert at a very nice dinner venue downtown. The concert was good, as was the dinner, but boy- that was a pricey evening! I couldn't help but think of the house cleaning that we could have had instead. But I didn't complain, because we have settled on getting the house cleaned once a month, and the only thing delaying the start of this plan is my lack of time to set up the appointment.
It was interesting to watch the crowd at the concert. Tim Finn (with his brother Neil) was a founding member of Split Enz, and was also in Crowded House for awhile. He played songs from both of these bands as well as his solo work. Women may age and a little younger sang along to the Crowded House songs. Women about 5 years older than me sang along to the Split Enz songs. Most men didn't sing. At one point, several women decided to get up and dance (Six Months in a Leaky Boat is the song that sparked this). They eventually have about 20 women up dancing, but only two men. I almost felt like I should get up and dance, like maybe I'd missed some sort of underground female signal. But I was too tired- by this point it was 9:30, which is when I'm usually heading to bed! He played "Stuff and Nonsense", which is one of my favorite Split Enz songs. It is a great truthful love song- it wasn't until I had a baby that I could comprehend a love that you knew would last forever. You get married in the hope that you can make the love last forever, but you never really know. (Incidentally, some of my favorite lyrics about marriage are also from the Finns, in Won't Give In: " What does it mean when you promise someone/ That no matter how hard or whatever may come/ It means that I won't give in... " I've posted about this song before, at the bottom of another very long post.)
The other interesting news this week is that I got my first invitation to get some mommy-blogging swag. The folks who produce the Singing Time videos have offered to send me a review screener of a couple of their new Baby Signing Time volumes (check out the comments on Wednesday's post for the details, or go to the Signing Time competition page to see how you can get in on a competition to win the Baby Signing Time gift set. I agreed to do the review- we've been very happy with how signing has helped Pumpkin communicate and I've been curious about the Baby Signing Time series. We only have DVDs from the "regular" signing time series. Hubby asked me if I had any ethical concerns, and I told him to shut up. He's just unhappy that he won't be able to hassle me about the amount of time I spend blogging now!
Oh, and the thing I thought would be a big deal this week, which was that I stopped pumping, was no big deal at all. Either I was too busy to think about it, or I really was ready to be done. We're still nursing whenever Pumpkin wants. She announces "Boppy!" when it is time to nurse, and gets very excited as I put the Boppy around my waist and get ready to nurse. I still enjoy the nursing, but the mixed feelings I thought I'd have about the end of pumping have turned out not to be so mixed.
Earlier this week, I posted about some of our recent struggles. I got lots of concerned emails and calls from people who know me in real life, and several nice comments, so I thought I would update you all on how things are going. In a word: better.
Pumpkin had an up and down week at day care. She had a couple of really bad days, which involved several biting incidents and a lot of crying. But she also had a couple of really good days, which included lots of happiness and "nice touches". Today was one of the good days. She bit once, but the teacher said she was sorely provoked. She said a little boy was bothering Pumpkin. Pumpkin apparently tried to "use her words" first, but the little boy didn't listen, and before one of the teachers could intervene, he got bitten. As someone who once hit a boy with a lunch box in a similar sort of situation (I was in the first grade), I can't really hold that against her!
Pumpkin also had a couple of decent nights of sleep. These coincided with the good days at day care, so Hubby and I are thinking about what we might do to encourage more good nights of sleep. Of course, if we knew how to do this, we would have done it already. But we feel like we should try to do something, since Pumpkin is suffering the ill effects from the bad sleep nights, too. When it was just Hubby and me suffering, it was easy to be lazy and not try to improve things.
Pumpkin slept well last night (she was up only once, although it took a couple of tries to get her to stay down after that wake up). However, getting her to sleep in the first place was unusually challenging. She wanted to play in her crib, or walk around her room, or do anything but settle into my arms to rock to sleep. Then, once she did decide to snuggle in and relax, she didn't want to be put down. I got up once to turn the music down, before I was going to try to put her in her crib, and she cried out "noooo!" and wrapped her little arms around me like I was threatening to drop her. She eventually went to sleep, but it took a couple of tries to get her into her crib, and in the end she was more asleep than I usually like her to be when I put her down. I can hear her in her room now, putting Hubby through the same sort of trouble tonight.
Pumpkin took a bath on her own tonight, so the bath freak-out was short-lived. She was in the big tub instead of her little plastic tub, but there were no bubbles and she went in with no fuss and splashed up a storm. She also insisted on several rounds of "This Little Piggy". She hold out a foot, rubs her chest, and says "wee, wee, wee" to indicate that we need to play this game.
The fruit eating continues, which is making my fruit-loving Hubby very happy. In addition to the apples and bananas that must be consumed whole, Pumpkin will eat bits of strawberries and pineapples. She still hasn't show any interest in cantaloupe or grapes, except to squish them.
Hubby and I went out on Wednesday night, to see Tim Finn in concert at a very nice dinner venue downtown. The concert was good, as was the dinner, but boy- that was a pricey evening! I couldn't help but think of the house cleaning that we could have had instead. But I didn't complain, because we have settled on getting the house cleaned once a month, and the only thing delaying the start of this plan is my lack of time to set up the appointment.
It was interesting to watch the crowd at the concert. Tim Finn (with his brother Neil) was a founding member of Split Enz, and was also in Crowded House for awhile. He played songs from both of these bands as well as his solo work. Women may age and a little younger sang along to the Crowded House songs. Women about 5 years older than me sang along to the Split Enz songs. Most men didn't sing. At one point, several women decided to get up and dance (Six Months in a Leaky Boat is the song that sparked this). They eventually have about 20 women up dancing, but only two men. I almost felt like I should get up and dance, like maybe I'd missed some sort of underground female signal. But I was too tired- by this point it was 9:30, which is when I'm usually heading to bed! He played "Stuff and Nonsense", which is one of my favorite Split Enz songs. It is a great truthful love song- it wasn't until I had a baby that I could comprehend a love that you knew would last forever. You get married in the hope that you can make the love last forever, but you never really know. (Incidentally, some of my favorite lyrics about marriage are also from the Finns, in Won't Give In: " What does it mean when you promise someone/ That no matter how hard or whatever may come/ It means that I won't give in... " I've posted about this song before, at the bottom of another very long post.)
The other interesting news this week is that I got my first invitation to get some mommy-blogging swag. The folks who produce the Singing Time videos have offered to send me a review screener of a couple of their new Baby Signing Time volumes (check out the comments on Wednesday's post for the details, or go to the Signing Time competition page to see how you can get in on a competition to win the Baby Signing Time gift set. I agreed to do the review- we've been very happy with how signing has helped Pumpkin communicate and I've been curious about the Baby Signing Time series. We only have DVDs from the "regular" signing time series. Hubby asked me if I had any ethical concerns, and I told him to shut up. He's just unhappy that he won't be able to hassle me about the amount of time I spend blogging now!
Oh, and the thing I thought would be a big deal this week, which was that I stopped pumping, was no big deal at all. Either I was too busy to think about it, or I really was ready to be done. We're still nursing whenever Pumpkin wants. She announces "Boppy!" when it is time to nurse, and gets very excited as I put the Boppy around my waist and get ready to nurse. I still enjoy the nursing, but the mixed feelings I thought I'd have about the end of pumping have turned out not to be so mixed.
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