She's a Biped!!!

I had a blog post for today all queued up, but it will just have to wait until tomorrow.

Yesterday I told my mom that I post on the most interesting or exciting thing I've done in the last 24 hours. My project for tomorrow it pretty cool, but this blows it totally out of the water. To stay true to my word I simply must post this.

Yep. That's my daughter. Walking.

Sleeping Through the Night

I'm about to share something that makes me feel totally anxious and conflicted.

My nine month old still doesn't sleep through the night. She's slept continuously between 10pm and 5am a total of twice. Ever.

I was lying in our guest bed nursing her and snuggling a couple of nights ago when I realized I don't really want her to sleep through the night. Not like I'm making an active effort to keep her from sleeping through the night or I'll cry my eyes out when she does, but I haven't made it my mission like everyone in the entire world seems to think it should be.

I like cuddling with her,

just the two of us,

while the rest of the world 

is asleep. 

It's nice. It's this perfect, warm, relaxing time we get to spend together when nothing else is going on besides us being together. If she didn't get up in the middle of the night the only time we would get to nurse is before bed and first thing in the morning when I'm thinking about all the things I need to do to get ready for work and out the door.

Okay, so there's that. There is my fondness for the time we get to spend together and the bond I have with my middle of the night nursing infant. Then, there is the message I get from the world that if my child isn't sleeping through the night at this point I am doing something wrong and my goal in life should be to correct my behavior so I can fix the problem.

The message is clear

If your infant sleeps through the night, 

you are a good parent and 

you are doing everything right. 

If your infant doesn't by 

almost nine months of age,

you have failed in some way and 

not only are you not as good a parent as you should be 

you are creating a situation which will have horrible consequences 

if you do not change your bad parenting ways.

So there's that too.

And then there is the feeling of jealousy when my sister tells me her 4 1/2 month old slept for 10 hours last night. I'm not sure if it's real jealousy from the exhausted part of me or jealousy that she's going to be perceived as a vastly superior parent or my own internalization of this message and wish that I was a "good parent."

I have no idea, but I know thinking about it makes me feel emotionally exhausted, much more than I'm physically exhausted from having slept through the night three times in the last nine months (Norie stayed with Grandma once).

So yeah, sleeping through the night. What's that like?

My munchkin is 8 months old today

That's right. Little Miss is eight whole calendar months old today. She's also nine lunar months (36 weeks), but most people don't count that way so we'll stick with eight. She's growing up so fast I can hardly believe it. She has four whole teeth outside of her gums as of yesterday. She's still not sleeping through the night, but nobody's perfect.

Look how little she used to be.

And what a big girl she is now.

It's crazy.

Oh and she made art last week at daycare. It's hanging on her art wall. I can't wait to fill it up with other masterpieces.

 

That's her little foot turned into a penguin. How cute is that? Have I mentioned how much I love her daycare? It's a lot.

Teething

I hate it. This adorable child has become an hourly (if not more) nighttime alarm. She's in pain and so am I. I hope it's through soon.

I slept so little Monday night that I went to bed right after I put her down last night. No project time. Just sleepy time. I was really glad I did too. It was the best half hour of sleep I got all night.

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

Instagramming Childhood

I had this (potentially crazy) idea that I would take pictures of Norie each moth to document her babyhood. Clearly, I did not yet have a baby when I came up with this idea.

You see, the thing about taking monthly baby pictures is you have to take the time once a month to take pictures of your kid. Like, not just whip out your fun while you're doing something fun or when they do something cute, but actually set aside time to focus on taking pictures of them.

I'm not good at that. We're too busy doing stuff and snuggling. Not that you should feel bad for actually doing it. More power to you if you actually get it done. its just not our thing. I am, however, really good at whipping out my phone and Instagram-ing our adventures.

I stressed about it a bit. Then I looked at the pictures I had taken of Norie this month. 

That is totally scrapbook worthy. Four month pictures: check.

Oh, and in case you're curious last Thursday I planted the mum by friend Nancy gave me in the dark just so I could claim another day of sticking to my 25 Things plan. I didn't take a pictures (because it was dark) and I didn't find time to post about it on Friday, but I did do something. :)

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos