Some photos

So, you should be able to see some of her spots in that second one (taken tonight). Doesn't she look so old these days?

My afflicted child...

Roxanne has big awful yucky hives all over. We're pretty sure that they are a reaction to her MMR vaccine that she got on Tuesday, but we're off to the doctor tomorrow morning to double check. Cross your fingers for us. She doesn't seem too bothered by them, but she really looks awful. And she took a spill at the park today and scraped her forehead on the concrete.

Before you lobby to get my mama's license revoked, I do have some good news. She pooped!!!! Yay!

Family visits

Roxanne got to see lots of family this weekend. Justin's sister Kaitlin and her boyfriend Jamie came down yesterday to look at different apartments for their move to Atlanta in the fall. Roxanne and I didn't come to all the touring, but we got to eat brunch and dinner with them. We also got to play at our house for a little while. Roxanne was a little standoffish at first, but she warmed up to them eventually and started acting like her usual "hammy" self. Today we went to Roswell to go thrift store shopping, and my mom came to meet us at the second store (Goodwill). Justin went and had some alone time at Starbucks while me and Roxanne and Nana shopped. Nana let Roxanne stick her hands in her Cheerio bag and get big handfuls, which is one of her favorite things to do. It's something I don't allow anymore... Aren't grandparents way more fun than parents? We also went to Wal-Mart while we were in Roswell, which is a rare trip. I actually went in by myself and feel like I spent hours in there... It's like a black hole. But I had to return something, and I ended up getting Roxanne a booster seat that I've been wanting for months. It's so exciting! It straps onto big chairs, so it's perfect for restaurants.

The most exciting part of my day today was finding a Weebles castle at Goodwill. It's missing a couple of small parts, but it's in GREAT shape. And it was $5. Roxanne really likes it. We put new batteries in it, and now it plays music and has a motorized moat that keeps the Weebles moving around the castle in circles. She really gets a kick out of that moat. She hits the button over and over again. It's really a shame that Weebles were discontinued... I decided to keep scouring consignment sales and thrift stores for more Weebles and Weeble-related stuff, but I'm going to try not to get on Ebay for any of it. That would be a can of worms... There are TONS of Weebles on Ebay.

Poo trauma continues. I'm not using the suppositories any more, so it has now been over a week since Roxanne pooped. Tuesday is D-Day though. Trauma or no trauma, It can't go beyond that. Poor Roxanne.

And on that note, I'm out. I've got more knitting to do. I'm working on like 3 projects at once. I just finished some baby hats for J's new baby, and one for Evie. I love knitting. It's so relaxing. I will say it gets tough with Roxanne though. She is always trying to get my yarn balls and going "baaaalll, baaalllll, baaaallll" while trying to walk off with it. She's like a kitty. Stinker.

15 month check-up

Roxanne went to the doctor on Tuesday morning for her 15 month check up! Justin took her, as he has done for the past few appointments. I have to admit that I feel a little left out on that front, but I appreciate him taking her. I feel awkward having to be late to work since it would inconvenience people. I remember how tough it was when our day care provider had to be out. But anyways, it sounds like everything went great! The doctor said that Roxanne looks very healthy. She is 25.2 pounds, which puts her in the 80/85% for weight, and she is in the 95% for her height, which is 32.5 inches. She's a big girl. Although her head size, 18 1/4 inch, puts her in the 50%. What does that mean?

We were worried about a few different issues, but Justin was able to get reassurance that none of them were a problem. One of the main ones for me was her teeth. She has some staining on them, even though we brush her teeth at least once a day (I know, we should do them twice, but she is only 15 months old...). The pediatrician said they were still well within the normal range, but that if she keeps putting up a fight about letting us really brush her teeth well (which is a nice way of saying that she turns into a wild monster when we try to brush her teeth, although she loves to hold the toothbrush herself and poke us with it or chew on it) we should take her to the dentist.

Her sleep is getting better. She's now sleeping in her crib all night long, but still waking two to three times. I've been nursing her once a night, which is a good reduction from what it was (half night open bar) but I've been looking at Dr. Jay Gordon's method for night-weaning, and following it would mean that for the next three nights; no nursing after 11:00pm. I like his method. I'm going to try and stick to it. If you look at it, we've already made it through the first set of steps. We had a rough few nights getting Roxanne to stay in her bed, but she is really getting better. I've been feeling much more rested because the sleep I get between her wakings is much better, deeper sleep. Mainly because there isn't a little monkey kicking me and elbowing me all night.

The other big issue is Roxanne's poop habits. I know, I shouldn't talk about this on my blog, but I just have to. It's been an issue for months now, so I might as well put it on here so she can read about it some day. I apologize, big girl Roxanne. I'm sure by the time you read this, you'll be pooping like a champ. But for now, Roxanne is being AWFUL with her poop. She simply will not go. We've been giving her Miralax at the advice of our pediatrician, but so far, it's basically only serving to make her have more instances of holding it. That's the frustrating thing. Several times a day, I see her stiffen up her legs (I mean like STIFF, with locked knees), turn red with grunting and even breaking into a cold sweat. No matter what I try, she just holds it. We've been resorting to suppositories about once a week just so that she doesn't make herself sick but the doctor told Justin that we really need to try to avoid them, since they are adding to the "poo trauma." Never in my life did I think I would be writing on a blog read by members of the general public about "poo trauma." But, it is a big part of my life right now. Jealous? In any case, we are increasing the dose of the Miralax a little and hoping that helps move things along. Poor Roxanne. And poor blog readers. I hope that wasn't too awful.

The photos above are from my sister. They were taken at Bulloch Hall. You can see Roxanne's new shoes in one of the photos. It took me a very very very long time to find some that fit her. Just ask my mom and Justin who respectively looked at like fifty stores with me. Roxanne has what Justin calls "Berenstein Bears" feet. Basically, her feet are fat. And wide. These shoes are like Crocs, but they are actually made by Stride Rite and have a cute little floral pattern in the holes, and I think the bright pink is cute. I found them at Ross, so don't worry. Did you guys know that Stride Rite brand shoes at the store are like $45?? These were $8. Quite a bargain. And they are made for Berenstein Bears feet.

Weebles weebles weebles

Yes, it's 10:30 on a Saturday night and I'm blogging. I admit it. But I'm currently an NCAA widow. I'm sure some of you understand. *Ahem, Susan, this is your chance to complain about Jim* I don't really mind. I have been spending time knitting and playing on the internet upstairs while hearing intermittent yells coming from the living room. As long as he doesn't wake the baby...

So, I let almost a week go by without making a post. How does that happen? Now I'll do yet another long and rambling post and lose half of you readers halfway through. Nothing too exciting, but I am happy to announce that we have been making some sleep progress. The last two nights, Roxanne has stayed in her own bed until early morning. Of course, I've had to go into her room several times a night, but it's actually a huge step that she has been able to go for a couple of hours on her own in there during the second part of the night. I have to admit that Justin and I have not been letting her "cry it out" like we were going to try. We have been pulling her out of her crib and rocking her and giving her something to drink and getting her to calm down before putting her back in the crib. But the good news is that she will go back in her crib while she's awake and drift off to sleep on her own. This has only been happening in the last week or so, so I think that she is on the path to sleeping through the night. It has taken a LONG time, but I'm OK with it. We've learned a lot. And the best part is that she likes her crib now. She doesn't fuss when you put her in there like she used to. That was always my biggest fear with the "cry it out" method. It looks like a little nest, since I put the bumpers back in. She has several stuffed animals, a blanket, a TRANSFORMERS pillow (well, it's a regular pillow but the pillow case is Justin's childhood pillow case...it compliments the mellow green Amy Coe nursery set I so carefully picked out when I was pregnant...) and baby. She HATES to be covered with a blanket. But she will tolerate it being in her bed.

Today we went to Roswell for breakfast with my sister and my darling nieces, my mom, and my grandparents. Justin got to stay home (sorry Justin) and have some "man" time. We went to a consignment sale, and I got the BEST toy for Roxanne. I really struggled with buying it, since it was the most expensive thing I've ever bought at a consignment sale, but I finally gave into my instinct and got it. It's a Weebles tree house, and it came with 3 chairs, 3 beds, and a little table, as well as seven Weebles, and a Weebles van, which plays music, has head lights and seats three Weebles. It was $19. It's in great shape, and is absolutely adorable. My mom and I were thinking that Weebles were getting really hard to find, and when I got home and did some research on Amazon and eBay, I realized that they have been retired. So they really are hard to find. I also found out that they have been around since the seventies, although the look has changed quite a bit. My mom and I sat on the phone and looked at listings on eBay for an embarrassingly long time. The consensus is that I got a great deal, and after cleaning them up, Roxanne had a great time playing with them. The treehouse is technically supposed to be for Goldilocks and the Three Bears, although only one of the seven Weebles included is from that set, so it has a feature where you can push the chimney down, and the bed tilts and dumps the Weeble down a slide and onto a spinning circle where it will fly off. Roxanne thinks it's hilarious. And of course she loves the van. She drove it around the floor for quite a while. So no Baby Stella for a while, but the Weebles are adorable and were a really fun find.

We had a great time walking around Roswell with my Mom, Kendree and the girls. We walked over to Bulloch Hall and played in the garden there for a while. Roxanne is thoroughly infatuated with Ella and Chloe. She watches them very closely and tried some copy-catting. I wish she could see them more. We're selfishly glad that they are moving back to Georgia. Hopefully they can all spend more time together. Oh, and we got lots of clothes for Roxanne that are hand-me-downs from Ella and Chloe, and they are all fantastic. Between those and what I've already picked up at consignment (and Nana), I don't think Roxanne will need another stitch of clothing until she's 3. Fantastic! My favorite is a purple jersey poncho from Baby Gap. I put it on Roxanne and she loved it. She was waving her arms around and being silly and didn't want to take it off before dinner. She looks like a little hippy. Very wise and earthy.

Tomorrow we have to head back up to Athens to run an errand. Hopefully the weather will be a little nicer this trip. Last weekend was pretty icky.

That's it. I'm out of steam. Duke won. All is well.

Finally finished knitting!

Yay! I finished Roxanne's sun dress last night. I'm going to try and start a new project tonight to keep the momentum going. I also tried the dress on Roxanne this evening, and it fits fairly well. It's a little big at the neck, which is made worse by the fact that she won't stop trying to pull the buttons off. Awesome. I'm thinking of having her wear it backwards... But we'll see. The photos above are of me trying to get her to keep still in it long enough to get a picture. Not so easy. I'm uploading a few photos to Flickr, and also some videos that I keep trying to upload but get timed out because the Flickr Uploadr tool is really not good and fails while I'm uploading them every time. So if they go through, there are some that are kind of old, but still cute. I love the videos. And Roxanne really loves to watch them, too.

We had a nice weekend. We got to see Nana and Leah on Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday we went to Athens and had brunch with Grandma and Grandpa. That was really a nice treat, and it was fun to walk around downtown Athens with Roxanne (even in the rain). We went to Wuxtry, the record store downtown, and Roxanne and I walked laps while Justin browsed local music. The store is so old and falling apart, so Roxanne had a blast walking on the different floor surfaces, especially the bare plywood platform in the middle of the store. She climbed on and off of it about a million times and when she got up on it, she stomped and stomped around and danced to the hip obscure music that was playing. Then we went to Helix, my favorite gift-y store in Athens. It's overpriced, but has lots of really cool kids stuff. We couldn't decide on a good thing to get her (although I really want to get her one of these Baby Stella dolls but couldn't bring myself to pay so much for it) but ended up with a kids CD called Wiggly Biggly Toes. It's pretty cute. I think I will get her one of the Baby Stella dolls eventually because it has so many cool little accessory packages that will give Roxanne the full "baby doll" experience. I especially like how the pacifier and the baby's mouth are magnetized.

Which brings me to my next point... I was reading in this book (The Portable Pediatrician...my boss swears by it) that at Roxanne's age, they should have a baby doll to play with and start learning about taking care of it. So I can justify it... It's for her development! Right. Regardless, I realized this weekend that if we don't get her some "girly" things sometime soon, she is going to be a hopeless tom boy. My Grandma gave Roxanne some Happy Meal toys on Sunday, and included were two My Little Pony dolls. They are really cute, with long pink hair and little plastic brushes for the baby to groom them. Roxanne used the brush to comb her hair a little, then chewed on the brushes before throwing them on the floor over and over at the restaurant. As for the ponies, she was making them fly through the air while making her favorite sound: "kkksshhhhh." It's the noise Josh makes when he makes his toys fly in the air. Things like Batman and race cars. Roxanne makes most of her toys fly now, while making that noise. She also pushes toys along the floor while making that noise. After letting them fly some, she flew the ponies on the ground. I mean, I try to be fairly gender neutral with her and I don't really want to push her into being overly girly, but I do think she probably needs a little more balance. Can someone convince Justin that a Baby Stella should be in our March budget somewhere? And maybe the feeding set and the dress up set so Roxanne can really get a feel for taking care of Baby Stella? What do baby girls play with at this age? I don't even know. I feel like it's probably not that different, but Roxanne copies Josh a lot, and an almost-three-year-old boy definitely plays differently than a girl at his age.

Oh, and on two unrelated notes, my friend Jacquelyn has made her blog private (one of the links on the left). If you read it, send me an e-mail and let me know. She promises that she will invite anyone who is a friend of mine to read it if they are interested. And also, I posted a new link to my friend Linnea's art blog. It's very interesting and fun to read. Linnea is glamorous and living in New York City. Yay Linnea!

Parental Pride

So, Justin and I had one of those super-exciting-the-baby-is-getting-so-smart moments tonight. After dinner, Justin and I were sitting in the dining room while Roxanne was "talking" to Katie, who was hiding under the dining room table. This is normal, since Roxanne is completely infatuated with Katie these days and has been trying to kiss her on the mouth lately (ick). Roxanne started walking into the kitchen and then coming back into the dining room (they are only separated by a waist-high partition over half of the opening, so it's pretty much open) and talking to Katie. After a couple of times, I stood up to see what she was doing, and realized that she was walking to the fridge, tapping it with one hand and then holding that hand out with her forefinger and thumb pinched together like she was holding something all the way back to Katie, to whom she offered the "treat" while jabbering at her. She did this probably five or six times before Justin tried to give Roxanne some actual food to give Katie, which sort of ruined the trick. No offense to Justin, I thought it was a good move on his part at the time, but in retrospect, it was so cool that she was playing such a specific game of pretend! I mean, I have shown her how to feed some of her stuffed animals before with a spoon, and she gets that pretty well, but it was me showing her. This was entirely her making up this game. I mean, we don't even feed Katie anything out of the fridge. And when we really thought about it, we're not totally sure how she knows that the food comes from there. Usually she's already in her high chair when we get her food out, and it doesn't seem like she would be able to see it.

For all of you reading this post and thinking that I'm silly for getting so excited about such a little thing, trust me... I know. If you had told me the things that make my day these days three years ago, I would have laughed at you. Being a mom is just beautiful. I know some days I complain about things a lot, but I shouldn't. All those cliches you read about in parenting magazines or see in movies are true for me. At least once a day I look at Roxanne and marvel at her. Just her. It's hard to see myself or even Justin in her, because she is so completely herself. She is perfect.

Oh me oh my. Is this sleep deprivation? Hormones? Someone please remind me about this post the next time Roxanne is slapping me in the face and saying "outz" in a wild giggle (her version of "ouch"). Or when she looks right at Justin at the dinner table and throws her asparagus on the floor, waiting about two full seconds before saying "uh-oh." Or in about an hour when she's screaming on the baby monitor... :)

Sleepless Nights...

We are in the process of trying to buckle down with Roxanne's sleep habits, and holy moly it's not easy. For months now we've been trying to follow the "No Cry Sleep Solution" methods, and they've gotten us halfway, but we are apparently stalled out. Roxanne still insists on coming back to sleep with me halfway through the night and all of our gentle methods seem to not working. The last couple of nights we have been letting her cry, but still going in and patting and talking to her frequently. She just gets so incredibly worked up that it's hard for everyone. And when we hit about 3:00 am I end up bringing her back to bed in a sleepy stupor. I also have been feeling incredibly guilty about all of this, since I feel like I failed her by not teaching her better sleep habits. But I have honestly been trying to follow the gentle methods I read about. I guess you can find write-ups about any parenting technique you want to. But for the past few weeks Roxanne gets in certain modes during the day where she is unsteady on her feet and falls constantly. I'm sure most of you have seen her at one time or another with a goose egg on her head or bruises on her face. She just wipes out like fifty times a day and I've recently become convinced that it's at least partly because she's overtired on a regular basis. Since she sleeps about 11 hours at night and 2-3 hours a day for naps, I'm convinced the problem is the frequent wakings during the second half of the night. And it affects me, too. And Justin. This house needs some sleep! But we're working on it. I'm going to talk to the pediatrician about it at Roxanne's 15 month check up in a couple of weeks.

Oh, and today Roxanne face-planted on the driveway at work and really scraped her upper lip. The inside of her upper lip was also bleeding, so between the two wounds, she was really really bleeding. She also scraped her elbow up. It was absolutely horrifying. But of course Roxanne only fussed for about 7 minutes. The dog got out at the same time, and Ben and Josh were running around like monsters, and I was crying and trying to get Roxanne's lip to stop bleeding... It was not a graceful time. I still feel guilty, but I realize I can't keep the baby in my arms at all times.

Ugh, now on to some pleasant things! Roxanne is getting more and more verbal lately. And for some reason, the last couple of days she has been extremely affectionate with EVERYONE. When she sees Ben's parents she walks to them with her arms open and when they pick her up, she gives them lots of kisses. The same goes for Josh's parents. And with me and Justin, every time we pick her up, she rubs our arms and puts her head on our shoulders. It's so nice, and I'm trying to keep it going. She has even been hugging and kissing Josh and Ben all the time. They are coming around to it, but at first they were a little less than thrilled... Ah, boys.

She's also doing better with feeding herself. At dinner, we can even give her a bowl with yogurt in it and a spoon, and she only makes a slightly giant mess. And she's using a fork pretty well, too. Especially with her favorite foods, like lasagna and other types of pasta. And pears. She loves pears. The photos are from her eating some leftover spaghetti she had at Nana, Mike and Leah's house. She loves it!

Some smarty pants baby tricks

I am trying to knit like a mad woman, but I just have to share some of Roxanne's favorite new tricks:

*She has learned what keys are for. If she can fish mine out of the diaper bag, she walks over to the lock on the door and acts like she is putting a key in the lock. She also does this with her toy keys, which is especially impressive because I have never shown her that. Somehow she knew that the toy keys were the same thing as the real keys. I guess she understands the words...?
*She really is into singing. She has started making longer sounds (still in gibberish) when I sing a song. It's different than her "talking." I sing a lot during the day, since I find it is a good distraction for myself when I start to get stressed out or annoyed (which happens kind of often when you are keeping up with three kids and have little to no adult interaction) and because the little ones love it. Her favorite songs to "sing" along with are "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Hush, Little Baby." She has also learned to do the "roll" hand motion for "Patty Cake" and that "There were five in the bed and the little one said, 'Roll Over, Roll Over,'" song. You know. That one. :)
*She is regularly imitating words now. Just in the last week or so she has started saying "hot," and "ouch," and both of these words are getting a lot of mileage. She likes to say "no, no, no, no" a lot, but sometimes she means "no," and sometimes she means "nose." The only way to tell the difference is that sometimes she has one of her chubby little fingers up her nostril and is in fact pointing out her nose. The other times she is usually chasing Ben and a toy that she wants.
*She has been showing a special preference for two different types of toys lately. One is the pull toy. She has several at home, including a super cute wooden cowboy (thanks Evie!), a puppy dog (thanks Nana!) and a chatter phone (thanks Grandma Dawn and Crapaw!). At Ben's, he has the same puppy, and she just absolutely loves "walking" him around the play room. But she is very protective, and of course since she is pulling him by a string and he is making neat little barking sounds, he is wide open for baby thievery. Some days I hide the puppy for my own sanity. Some days it's like baby wrestling federation in there. The other type of toy she has been particularly attracted to lately is the toy car. She knows to make a sound and push them around on the floor. It's adorable. Of course, she also loves any kind of plush stuffed animal these days, and we have various ones spread around the house. In the car is her sock monkey (from Aunt Kaitlin) and Cookie Monster, Bert and Elmo get cycled around in the diaper bag. Some days she holds the sock monkey, Bert and Cookie Monster in the car. It's adorable. She is also in love with refrigerator magnet toys. But I digress.
*Foodwise, she is getting very very picky. If it were up to her, she would probably eat nothing but lasagna for 3 meals a day. She's falling out of love with vegetables of any kind, although she still tolerates peas and broccoli on occasion. But she doesn't eat much... Fortunately, she still loves fruit, so I'm trying to compensate a little. I guess it's partly since she is still breastfeeding, but she just doesn't eat very much at meals.

OK, that's all I've got for now. I'll try to upload new photos tomorrow night. I'm totally wiped out. Since Atlanta Public Schools were closed today, I ended up with four kids at work, since Josh's brother couldn't go to kindergarten. Whew! It was a busy day.