"mompetition"

Found this article to be really amusing. During one of P's dr's visits several months ago, I was asked if he knew 10 words (or something close to that). Suddenly, I felt somewhat speechless. I was unprepared to answer this question. I felt like I failed as a mom (well, not really). I mean, to not count and recall every word your child knows prior to a dr visit is just so wrong. Obviously being facetious.

So, I found myself racking my brain trying to think of all the words a 9 month old could possibly know: "papa", "ball", "Paolo" (or more like 'Paaaaooo'). I just couldn't think of 10 words.  Of course after the visit I called my husband, sister and some others who are close to P and asked them to help me think of all the words he knows. My sister made the situation amusing. She definitely mentioned words he did know, but from what I recall, also snuck in some words he definitely didn't know!  Anyway, I wanted to share this blog post. I love one of the comments regarding mompetition. Luckily, I don't know any friends or moms who have tried to have a mompetition with me :)

http://www.mamapedia.com/voices/how-many-words-does-your-child-have

Sleep training is working!

Happy to report that P is taking less and less time to fall asleep on his own. I followed Super Nanny's tactics and they seem to be working so far. 1st night, as I sat in his room, he tried for 1.5 hours to get my attention by crying and throwing his paci at me. The next night, this occurred for 30 min. Last night, it took about 20 min. It seems to be getting better! Yeah, P!!

Mommies Talk Sleep Talk...or Walk?

My son Hates sleeping...like really really hates it! He's never thought it was a cool idea to sleep. Now that he's a year, you know, the big ONE year old mark entails many changes. One change, in particular, is enforcing the sleeping rule. It's an easy rule: Go To Sleep. That's the rule. Simple, right? Well, not so simple with P. He wants to play, he wants to jump up and down in his crib, take his pj pants off and throw them on the floor, whip his pacifier across the room, etc. He will do anything not to sleep.

Tonight, with the help of my husband sitting in his room with me in complete silence and the help of deep breathing, I survived the grueling task of putting him to sleep. He fell asleep on his own. It took ONE and a HALF HOURS and a lot of on and off crying, but he did it.

I could read lots of books on tips and tricks, but don't have patience to read about sleep nor do I have time to read a whole book on sleep habits, so, for those of you with awesome little ones that love to play and despise the mere thought of sleeping, what have you found to work, how long will I have to endure his cries for help out of his crib??

*excuse typos...blog typed on phone

Holiday Fun

Little P is approaching his 9 month birthday. I can't even believe we're a few months shy of his first birthday. I feel like it was just yesterday I held him in my arms at the hospital! 2011 has been a great year so far. My dad is doing so much better, and soon after he got out of the hospital, little P was born.  My sister had her baby, so my parents got to call themselves grandparents not once, but twice in one year. More recently, my brother got engaged to his awesome long time girlfriend. We got to celebrate many first holidays with our son, and we're now looking forward to Christmas. I'm sure he'll be more impressed with the wrapping paper on his gifts or even the boxes that they're wrapped in.  And as he opens, or tries to open - his presents, I know that I will be looking at him in awe that he is all mine (well, and D's). 

So, speaking of the holidays, this year was the first year that I did 100% of my Christmas shopping online.  We purchased for all little ones this year, which is super exciting.  I'm a little bummed that we were late in picking "angels" from our church's tree, but glad that my thoughtful brother in-law is holding a toy drive so we could boost some spirits for more little ones this year.

I haven't written a post in several months, but if you have time to comment and post what was on your kid's wishlist this year or your favorite gift purchased, I'd love to hear about it. My Amazon wishlist keeps getting bigger and I'm planning for P's future as he outgrows his toys :) 

What's in a complaint?

http://www.mamapedia.com/voices/stop-putting-down-your-kids-2645

Hey everyone! I haven't written in a while.  My SAHM status has been changed to a SAHM while Working status as of 3 weeks ago, so I've been busy creating a schedule for myself that will allow me to be a successful working mommy and wifey.  Anyway, I ran across this blog from mamapedia that I thought I'd share with all of you.  I thought it was interesting and the comments on the article were from a variety of perspectives.  It's fun to read the different views people have on one blog post. The article is entitled, "Stop Putting Down Your Kids".  As most of you know, my little one is about 4 months old. There is nothing that I could "complain" about. I waited and prayed for him, and now that I have him, I will embrace his cries, poopy diapers, crazy feeding schedule and most of all the smiles that he gives early early in the morning! I don't know what it's like yet to have a teenager, but I know if he turns out to be anything like me, then I'll have some obstacles to overcome as a mommy!  Read the blog and tell me your thoughts.  These were my thoughts:

1. Complaining about your kids is totally different than asking for suggestions and recommendations on how to overcome some of life's biggest (or smallest) challenges with children.

2. Nobody listens to someone who complains.We hear the person complaining because they are our friend and we want them to vent and let out their frustrations.  Again, complaining is different than someone letting you know of a serious health problem or something like that... hope you get my point here.  Action is important. If something is truly bothering you, fix it.  Say something.  Do something about it.  Don't complain day in and day out.

3. To piggyback off the blog's message, you would not want your child posting complaints about you on facebook or publicly, so why do that to them?  There are tons of support sites that allow one to be anonymous.  Again, if you need to gain suggestions from other parents (or therapists), then visit those anonymous sites. Everyone needs a venue to voice their concerns and gain suggestions from others.  Personally, I've gone to certain sites such as 'inspire.com' when I had my own obstacles to overcome, and it helped me.

4. Take this message and have it pertain to your significant other.  Not sure about you, but I could careless if your husband leaves the toilet seat up.  Totally none of my business.  Again, take action on it and tell him to "put the damn seat down".

Hope you enjoy the article!

http://www.mamapedia.com/voices/stop-putting-down-your-kids-2645

My Pal Scout - Someone Please Help Me!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had a shower last weekend. One of the gifts included My Pal Scout, the talking dog.  I will admit, this dog is really cute and I think P is really going to like it.  He talks, and even more beneficial, you could plug it into your computer to program your baby's name and some other information so that he says more meaningful phrases :) 
 
Well, the past two days my husband has gone into P's room before work to grab some of his clothes (husband's closet is in P's room).  As early as 5-5:30am, I have heard "Ruff Ruff Ruff, take me home and I'll learn your name".  The reason I'm asking for help is because I have a feeling my husband will be playing with all of the talking toys and I will go crazy... just kidding! It's funny to see a 30 somethin' year old guy find these types of toys amusing, especially bright and early in the morning before I've had my first cup of coffee.  These are the types of things I will endure for love.

How a White Noise CD Changed My Life

I thought I've seen it all in terms of baby gadgets and items that claim to calm your baby or put them to sleep, but I never ran across a CD that includes tracks of vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, hair dryer, running water, clothes dryer and electric fan noises.  These sounds are called "white noise" and the CD claims that "your baby and you will love baby white noise..."  Well, I don't particularly "love" listening to a hair dryer.  I'd much rather listen to whatever I have on the TV, but I love that my baby loves it.  It's like a miracle CD.  I tried it for the first time the night of my shower.  He fell asleep instantly. So then, I thought to myself, "Self, it was a coincidence".  He must have just been really tired from all the commotion at the shower, so I tried it again the next night.  Once again, he fell asleep right away with track 3, which was the hair dryer (I skipped to track 3 the first night, and since it worked, I didn't want to try the other tracks). 

Now comes nap time.... would it work or wouldn't it? That was the question. Weeeeelllll.... IT DID! Instantly - 1 second later and he was out!  No bouncing, rocking or rapping "twinkle twinkle little star" on my part necessary.  Amazing!

The CD is "Baby White Noise Sampler CD".