Little Adult

We took Court to Target this weekend (a working mom's paradise) and I realized just how much she watches and emulates me. She was walking around the aisles (as she will not stay in her stroller much anymore), grabbing the clothes off the racks and saying "cute". I was cracking up.

My brother bought her a miniature grocery cart with little groceries and that's her new favorite toy. She takes the groceries in and out of the cart a million times a day, picks up the packages and pretends to read the labels. I know she gets that from me!

She's also doing this little hair flip thing that freaks me out because it's like she's this little Monica clone. Scary! Can the world really handle another one of me?

We even have matching hairdos. Her hair is getting so long, I really don't know what to do with it. It's not long enough for pigtails, so most days she gets this big Pebbles pom-pom on the top of her head to keep the hair out of her face. The pics below show some of her bad (and one good) hair days.

Too cute

I really need to update this more often. Too much cute stuff is going on and I'm forgetting it all!
I'll start with an update on her everexpanding vocabulary:

vamonos - grabs my hand and pulls me where she wants to go, with a little flip of her hair
Courtney - Puts her hands on her chest and says her name and claps for herself. I was worried she wouldn't know her name, since we call her everything but her name, and every person has a different nickname for her, so my husband was determined to teach her. She's not real good with the "c" sound so right now, it sounds like "Ourney", but it's a start
Einsteins! - Loves the new Little Einstein program, so I bought the video. It's so cute that we actually turned off the Monday Night Football game last night so she could watch it because she asked so darned nicely.
Uncle - she used to hate my brother but seems to be warming up to him as late. Thank goodness!
Uh-oh Spagetti-o - Just adorable. But I need to explain to her that when she throws her cup of cheerios on the ground on purpose, this does not constitute an "uh-oh".
Thankyou-Welcome - she says it altogether now that she knows the sequence. She figures she'll get the entire thing out of the way from the beginning.

We've also hit quite a milestone in the Houtz household! She now takes naps in her crib at home. You have no idea how happy this makes me. It was causing me major stress! She's winding down to one nap a day, so her schedule is all over the place, but the one constant now is that her nap will be in her crib.

Our current battle is her frequent bouts of constipation. I know this is a gross subject, but such is life. Since we switched her to whole milk, every bowel movement seems painful and difficult. She goes stiff and if she's standing up, she just falls over and stays stiff on the ground in an almost pushup position. It's really quite pitiful. I've tried daily does of prune juice and that doesn't seem to be helping. Who knew that my husband and I's lives would revolve around baby poop! If she goes, we get all excited and a good day is had by all. If she doesn't, we talk about how she didn't go and anxiously await her next one. Wow, we need to get more of a life.

Till next time

We're Back from "Bacation"

That's what Courtney called it. We went to Palm Desert to visit my father-in-law for a week. It was our first family vacation. I have to admit I was pretty nervous. As usual, I obssessed about the sleeping situation: How will we get her to nap without the big stroller? What if she wants to sleep with us in that tiny guestroom bed? Do you think your dad will get up with her in the morning? Turns out my worry was for not. She was amazing. Went right down in the port-a-crib at night and slept all night every night. She napped twice a day every day, even for my FIL one day when he watched her for us. She had a great time, though we battled bouts of crankiness due to a stubborn tooth breaking through on the bottom. I'm exhausted, though! Seven days straight chasing after a 14 month old is no walk in the park, let me tell you. I can tell you that I treasured every moment, but that would just be an out and out lie. I'm sure that sounds terrible, but I'm just being honest.

Despite my post vacation exhaustion, we all really did have a good time, especially Court who had 4 grown people fawning all over her 24-7.
Day 1: spent hours spending a small fortune at the Palm Springs Outlets on baby clothes. $400 later, I realized I only bought myself an $8 T-shirt. But Court got some really cute Skechers that light up on the bottom. A definite must-have!
Day 2: The living desert. Palm Desert's version of a zoo. It was freakin' hot, but she didn't seem to care, as she brushed every single goat in the place...TWICE.






Day 3: Tried swimming in the pool. She wasn't having it. I'm stressed, of course. We spent a ton of money on swim lessons last spring, and now she's afraid of the water. Maybe she's only afraid of cold water...she's used to a pool heated to 90 degrees. I'm hoping that's what it is, but you can be sure that I will soon be placing a call to Fremont Swim School to book her for the winter session. But, she did look cute running around in her diaper. As soon as I took it off so she could wade around naked, she peed on the ground. Not quite housebroken!





Day 4: A break at last! The in-laws took her for a day. They were so excited and I gave in despite my initial worry-wart, overprotective reservations, because I was desparate for some time with my husband. So Casey and I went to lunch and gambled at one of the local Indian Casinos. He won $700 playing cards, which paid for the trip (except for the outlet spending spree), and we came home to a napping child! My FIL rocks! They took her to a children's play museum and to the park. I guess their plan was to fully exhaust her until she fell over into a nap. Well, it worked.
The pic below is one they took of her dressing up as a vet. I don't think she liked it, but it made for a great picture!





We basically chilled the rest of the week and took a ton of pics. I'll close off this entry with my current fave!
Also..I should mention that the pic of Courtney and my FIL at the track won 3rd place in an online photo contest!

Mother's Groups


Don't get me wrong. I'm all for mommy's groups, whether they be live or online. I just don't like the way they make me feel sometimes. I go to BabyCenter to chat online or visit the boards and most of the time, I get really helpful information, but some other times, I leave feeling like an inadequate mother, and I can't help but think that's exactly how some of these other mothers would like me to feel. I go on about how frustrated or concerned I am about a situation and solicit feedback from others in similar circumstances and I get responses like "well, I can't relate because my child is so perfect, blah, blah, blah" "how can you feed your child prepared food...they have their whole lives to eat junk" "you put your child down with a bottle...don't you follow the Weissbluth technique?" "You mean to tell me you didn't buy the Britax carseat?" "Well, Sally walked and talked at 9 months, is your kid a retard or something?" I'm exaggerating a little, but not a whole lot! Our children will have the rest of their lives to be exposed to competition among other children or between adults. How can we in good conscience begin subjecting them to it now in order to fulfill our own disgusting need to feel adequate? It's made me obssessed with trivial things like sippy cups, naptimes, shoes, diapers...I mean, are these really the important things about motherhood?

Well, enough ranting, I guess. I will just tune out the naysayers and focus on the support I do get from some of the really wonderful mothers I know. I get some really great advice, but I usually like it when I actually ASK for it.

Speaking of advice...It's been suggested that we purchase Court her very first POTTY! Lately, she's been telling us that she's peeing. My husband hasn't quite gotten that yet. The other night he was drawing her bath and she said "pee-pee" He then proceeded to take off her diaper and she peed all over the floor! She's also tugging at her diaper. I have no delusions that she will be potty-trained anytime soon. I just want her to get used to the idea that she has her own potty. Now the really important question....do I get the Dora the Explorer or Elmo potty chair? I'm sure there's a discussion board somewhere arguing about that very decision right now!