we are young do we get praise for making good choices, learning and exploring. I'm so tickled with Ila's latest love, books!
Ila is constantly walking up to us with books. She hands them to us and sits herself down on our laps (or tries to climb up on them) ready for us to read. Since we have about 10 board books (which is all she is aloud to play with now, since we have suffered a few ripped books
already) it gets a little old reading the same thing over and over again. Trent likes to make up new stories that go along with the pictures and he uses all sorts of fun voices. Ila prefers him as a reading buddy, since my voices are not so exciting (even though i try!).
Dancing is also something we find ourselves doing at home, in the car, at church, and even in the grocery store. Ila likes to boogie! She will dance to about anything, but she really likes a good strong beat (although I did snag a video of Trent and Ila dancing to Enya the other
night).
Teething is pretty lame these days. We're going on week 3 it seems of molars and incisors trying to come in. When I feel her gums it almost seems like they all want to come in at the same time! Ila seems to be uncomfortable most of the time, but still happy, so that's nice.
We're also enjoying (and by enjoying I mean NOT enjoying!) Ila's new "game" called "I cry a lot when my parents put me to bed." This new "game" is hard for all of us. Trent and I are currently working out how to go about it, and I'm hoping we'll figure out what is best for our family soon! I'm very interested in how people handle bedtime fits, as it seems everyone does it differently, so if you would like to share what you do, leave it in a comment!
Christmas was great! We had such a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Christ with our families! We didn't get to see everyone we would have liked to, but we loved every moment with those we did see! Ila has practically a new wardrobe of cute winter clothes, and this is a blessing, as we were lacking in the long sleeved tops for her. There is also a pair of converse that are RAD that I'm looking forward to her growing into. She also is enjoying all her new toys!
Trent is now a potato crop manager, and is working hard and learning lots, as he and co-crop manager have a lot to figure out before planting! It's a new challenge, and one he was not expecting so soon, but a huge and exciting blessing!
We also started using the gym together at the farm. We both have been wanting to get into shape, so instead of sitting around wanting it we decided to go and get it. Our first workout was yesterday and I thought I would be miserably sore today but instead I'm sore in that way that makes me feel good. I actually feel my muscles, I still have some muscle! I'm working on dropping some jiggles and getting toned up, while Trent is just getting toned up. Trent helped me figure out a great routine for my upper body and cardio yesterday, and tomorrow its the lower body and cardio.
We are so happy here in our quiet little neck of the ranch. We've had some beautiful snow this week and are continually feeling God's blessings and love!
We had problems with Eric going to bed too. He would cry when we would put him down. Quiet time was important for him. So, John goes in and gives him his bottle of milk in the bedroom with the lights out before he goes in his crib. Then we give him his blankie and his toy frog and he lays down. If he gets really upset, we go in after about 10 minutes, but otherwise he goes to sleep usually after a minute or two. Or he'll sit in there and talk and bang on his crib for a while... I hope you get some relief on the sleep situation soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks Heidi! It's really strange that she is just starting this after a year of not throwing a fit at bedtime! Even when we took her pacifier away we had 4 rough nights and then it was back to normal!
ReplyDeleteMy opinion on the bedtime fits is that as soon as she realizes that crying is not going to get her anything, she'll quit. As long as she's getting extra "visits" from mom or dad, her fits are useful to her.
ReplyDeletei agree with anonymous, but also have found that securities help. a same, soft blanket, or a same soft cuddle-animal. and then continue with whatever routine you can commit to.
ReplyDeletewe lay them down. give them a kiss on the forehead, and both cheeks, and then lips. whisper good night, i love you. and then leave. lights out (all the way out) help too.
if she's still in the crib, screaming is all she can do. she'll only do it if it helps.
On the other hand, I think babies cry when they don't feel right. I don't think they rationalize "I want something, so I will cry". So whether or not mom and dad visit, if the tot doesn't feel right, they're going to cry. It seems to me that routines can help tremendously with making tots feel right, whether routine involve mom and dad visits or not. Preparing for bed with quiet time and easing into it, then a good program for attending to crying has sort of worked for us.
ReplyDeleteTrent, it's funny you had to move to Washington to become a potato farmer.
ReplyDelete