My happy baby!
She is her Mama's baby for sure!
Cheering on the Heels with Daddy
Wow. That's all I can say about this one...
Her first attempt at rice cereal on Easter Sunday. She wasn't quite ready.
A few days later, a much more successful attempt.
mmmmm
Talking up a storm after her meal
Hanging out in her play gym
She loves this...thanks so much, Ash!
Her ultimate sign of satisfaction...sucking her fist.
Growing up big and strong!
So many of my pictures with Addie end up like this, with me looking at her instead of the camera!
A rarity...me looking at the camera and Addie looking in that general direction.
We've finally reached that time with Addie...you know, that time where you have to start gently laying down the law. Up until this point, we've been taking an "on demand" parenting approach. We allowed her to eat when she wanted to, sleep when she wanted to, etc, etc. She was on a schedule, but it was one that she fell into naturally. That worked perfectly for a time, but now, at nearly four months, her schedule is changing. She spends a lot more time awake, which is wonderful...more time to play! However, with more awake time, she also needs more discipline. Not the spanking, time-out kind of discipline, but the "no, you can't eat every half hour" type of discipline. We're also having to work on three...tricky...issues for us.
As you might guess from her pictures, Addie does not take kindly to being denied food. And of course, if she was really hungry, I'd feed her. However, if left to her own devices, Addie would happily spend all day cuddling and heading back in for snacks every few minutes. That isn't good for her tummy or our clothes or furniture. The amount of spit up this girl produces is just insane. She has an accurate projectile radius of at least three feet. So now my goal is for to eat only once every three hours, give or take a few minutes. It can be a little bit frustrating as she spent most of yesterday (Sunday) with Tim. He was post call and he proved to be much better at distracting her than I was. If she was sitting with me, she wanted to eat. So I spent a lot of the day either trying to soothe a fussy baby or watching enviously as she played with Dad. Oh well. It worked out anyway, as I did take a three (!) hour nap. They got to spend some father daughter time together and I got some much needed sleep.
Sleep is another issue. Adelaide sleeps like an angel...so long as she in her car seat or in her swing. Flat on her back is a flat out NO from the baby. Two thumbs down. So I'm trying to transition her out of her car seat and swing and into sleeping only in her crib. She isn't taking too kindly to this, to say the least. Yesterday she screamed for an hour before Tim and I finally caved and took her out of her crib. We were going in every five minutes to soothe her, but she just was NOT going to take a nap, despite her obvious exhaustion. I know that it will only take a few days of suffering and she'll be back to sleeping like a champ...but ugh, these few days are going to be wretched. As I type now, I am trying to tell myself that the banshee screams from upstairs are just normal and that a happy and healthy baby is one that can self soothe, etc, etc.
It is difficult though. She tries her hardest to induce us to pick her up. Addie is one smart cookie...she knows that screaming isn't going to work when we're in the room with her, so she immediately resorts to chuckling and cooing and smiling. Her chubby little cheeks will be covered with tears but she just laughs and flails excitedly when she see us. She is clearly communicating something to the effect of "Oh, thank goodness you're here, there's been a terrible mistake, someone put me in her alone ON MY BACK." Then we will kiss her and gently stroke her face and say "go to sleep, we love you" ...and leave....her face just crumples and the screams begin again. Sigh. Insert Carrie Underwood here...Jesus, take the wheel.
Our final issue is ...STRANGER DANGER. Except that in this case, "stranger" means anyone other than myself or Tim. This is a recent development in which anyone other than her parents is not allowed to hold Addie, talk to Addie, or in some cases, even look at Addie. This is a tough one. We have always taken Miss Addie Bell out a lot...she goes out to eat with us and to pretty much every social occasion. She is used to lots of people and has no problem with crowds, as long as she is in our arms. Even though we take her out tons, because so many of our friends here in the Roch have children, she is mostly with us at these occasions. Everyone is pretty much chasing their own offspring around, in other words.
Addie is young for separation anxiety, but it has hit her with a vengeance. This is hard for me, because I really hate to say "no" if someone wants to hold her. After all, I do want her to feel secure enough to be able to interact with other people. So I don't say "no"...instead I just watch in misery as she screams. Thus, everyone is miserable. The person holding her, me, and the baby. I keep trying though...she has recently sat successfully with my friends Jen and Diana for at least 60 seconds before she burst into tears, which is a small improvement. I'm just going to keep handing her off in hopes that she will eventually either realize that she's fine, or grow out of her fear of people. In other words, I'm praying that this is just a phase! And on the bright side, she'd be really hard to kidnap!
OK, so those are our discipline issues, but otherwise Addie Bell is tons of fun right now. Honestly, we are just lovin' this baby. She is so talkative and giggly and cuddly. I get happy butterflies in my stomach every day just spending time with her. We have a great time together. And she is growing up every day...she can roll over from her front to her back and she is able to play with toys now. She loves chewing on things, reading books, and her play gym and bouncy chair. I feel so lucky to have such a happy and healthy little girl!
I attempted to upload a video of Addie in her play gym below. She goes crazy in that thing...and she's recently started figuring out to how to "scream" without being upset. So she makes a lot of noise. It cracks me up. Hopefully, this will work out...I've never tried to go "live" before!
Edit: Ok, that is going to need some work. Oh well, I'll do some research and try to figure it out.
A family photo
Our daughter...I just love this one. Her face is so beautiful and I love the fact that you can see Tim's hands holding her up...it's a perfect illustration of the supportive and loving father that he is!
My pretty blue eyed girl. Same pose, slightly different shot...I just love the colors.
This one is hilarious. I love the pouty lips.
Rachel posted this one to her blog as a preview. As soon as Terri (one of Addie's grandmothers) saw it, she said "Now that's Addie." And it's so true! She always chews on her fists when she is contented.
Another tearjerker. I love the genuine laughter on both of their faces. They adore each other and truly enjoy their time together.
Laughing baby.
She was just talking up a storm at this point.
Cute little smile. I couldn't resist the tulle skirt.
She's not quite sure what she thinks of this one. I love it because she's a chubby little Buddha lookalike.
I'm pretty sure we were both looking at Tim in this one. She always reaches back and touches my face when I hold her facing out. It's her way of being affectionate and it melts my heart every time!
She's giving me "kisses". Her kisses involve eating my face. It makes me laugh every time.
