Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Put it in your mouth...
Jayla has finally figured out that the things that she can now hold in her hands are also suitable for sticking into her mouth. Among the things that Jayla has learned to put in her mouth this week:
Thursday - An empty granola bar wrapper. I eat about about 4-5 granola bars a day (seriously, it's that bad!) and I was having one with her sitting on my lap. She was eyeing the empty wrapper when I finished so, I gave it to her. First she crumpled it up a few times to hear the sounds that it made. Then she wadded it up and stuck it in her mouth! I was excited because it's the first thing she'd ever really stuck in her mouth. But, now I'm worried that if she forms a granola bar habit that's anywhere close to mine, we might as well buy the Quaker Oats company and put it in our backyard - it'd be cheaper!
Saturday - I was buying some new underwear at Gap Body. Jayla likes to be included in purchasing decisions. So, I asked her what she thought of them. She asked for a closer look so I put them on her lap in the stroller. She picked them up and crammed them in her mouth. I took that as a "yes, mommy, I like these!"
Tonight - Her feet. She discovered her feet about 2 weeks ago and has been staring at them and reaching for them ever since. (The funniest thing was last week when she was trying to figure out why her toe was wiggling.) Her daddy is so excited about this one. He sees it as a developmental milestone and since she was about 5 weeks old, he has been worried that her belly was too fat and she was too inflexible to accomplish this trick. He didn't believe me when I told him she did it. But, then I showed him the saliva on her feet! And here she is shortly afterwards:
Thursday - An empty granola bar wrapper. I eat about about 4-5 granola bars a day (seriously, it's that bad!) and I was having one with her sitting on my lap. She was eyeing the empty wrapper when I finished so, I gave it to her. First she crumpled it up a few times to hear the sounds that it made. Then she wadded it up and stuck it in her mouth! I was excited because it's the first thing she'd ever really stuck in her mouth. But, now I'm worried that if she forms a granola bar habit that's anywhere close to mine, we might as well buy the Quaker Oats company and put it in our backyard - it'd be cheaper!
Saturday - I was buying some new underwear at Gap Body. Jayla likes to be included in purchasing decisions. So, I asked her what she thought of them. She asked for a closer look so I put them on her lap in the stroller. She picked them up and crammed them in her mouth. I took that as a "yes, mommy, I like these!"
Tonight - Her feet. She discovered her feet about 2 weeks ago and has been staring at them and reaching for them ever since. (The funniest thing was last week when she was trying to figure out why her toe was wiggling.) Her daddy is so excited about this one. He sees it as a developmental milestone and since she was about 5 weeks old, he has been worried that her belly was too fat and she was too inflexible to accomplish this trick. He didn't believe me when I told him she did it. But, then I showed him the saliva on her feet! And here she is shortly afterwards:
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Experiments
Remember in high school and/or college when you used to have to do science "experiments" in class? (They were "experiments" because the teacher already knew what the outcome should be). Well, in science class you learned to keep all your variables constant and only change one thing at a time. Even though my husband and I have degrees in chemical engineering, the whole "change one variable at a time" thing didn't really sink in for us. See the following scenarios:
1. At the beginning of last week, Jayla was very fussy at the day care and at home. We thought it could be from coming off vacation for 10 days...maybe she needed more milk in her bottles for the day care...maybe she was constipated...maybe her gas was painful...maybe she was teething. So, last Wednesday, I added another 1/2 ounce to each of her day care bottles, she had two massive poops, I gave her Mylicon and Orajel and she finally stopped fussing. Do we have any idea which one was actually wrong with her? No - because we changed all the variables at the same time.
2. Over the weekend, Jayla let us get precisely 0 hours of sleep per night. So, last night after observing her in her crib for a few minutes, we decided to take off the bumper and everything soft in her crib. She was rolling around a bit much and specifically grabbing the bumper and pulling it into her face. So, we emptied her crib (for some reason there was alot of soft stuff in there - isn't that like against the new parenting laws or something?), turned on a night light where she usually sleeps in the pitch dark, and lowered the thermastat by one degree (to 73). She slept the entire night. Woke up at the exact time that she needed to get her morning nursing in. Again, have no clue which of those things did it for her...but, we're shooting for an exact duplication tonight!
1. At the beginning of last week, Jayla was very fussy at the day care and at home. We thought it could be from coming off vacation for 10 days...maybe she needed more milk in her bottles for the day care...maybe she was constipated...maybe her gas was painful...maybe she was teething. So, last Wednesday, I added another 1/2 ounce to each of her day care bottles, she had two massive poops, I gave her Mylicon and Orajel and she finally stopped fussing. Do we have any idea which one was actually wrong with her? No - because we changed all the variables at the same time.
2. Over the weekend, Jayla let us get precisely 0 hours of sleep per night. So, last night after observing her in her crib for a few minutes, we decided to take off the bumper and everything soft in her crib. She was rolling around a bit much and specifically grabbing the bumper and pulling it into her face. So, we emptied her crib (for some reason there was alot of soft stuff in there - isn't that like against the new parenting laws or something?), turned on a night light where she usually sleeps in the pitch dark, and lowered the thermastat by one degree (to 73). She slept the entire night. Woke up at the exact time that she needed to get her morning nursing in. Again, have no clue which of those things did it for her...but, we're shooting for an exact duplication tonight!
Monday, January 09, 2006
Committed
Yesterday, my little family and I participated in the Parent Commitment service at our church. The service is designed to be a time where parents can publicly commit to raising their children in a Godly home and teaching them about Christ. It turned out to be a really nice evening. The following was read by our Pastor when my family was introduced to everyone:
The verse was actually chosen for Jayla by the church. We were given an option to change it but, I really, really like that one for her, especially in light of her initial hospital stay.
So, in leiu of a baptism for babies, our church has this service. My husband is still very adamant about getting Jayla baptized soon. He hasn't figured out when or where or what in the world we will tell Jayla when our church basically teaches against baptizing babies that "cannot make a choice for themselves".
In other news, my parents were here this weekend to attend the service with us. We also went to Fogo de Chao to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday, which is coming up on Thursday. We had an AWESOME time!! Jayla slept through the entire dinner - has no idea that we ever even went.
Jayla Tamia, meaning Ascending Spirit, born August 24, 2005
Her verse:
Isaiah 40:13 - but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
The verse was actually chosen for Jayla by the church. We were given an option to change it but, I really, really like that one for her, especially in light of her initial hospital stay.
So, in leiu of a baptism for babies, our church has this service. My husband is still very adamant about getting Jayla baptized soon. He hasn't figured out when or where or what in the world we will tell Jayla when our church basically teaches against baptizing babies that "cannot make a choice for themselves".
In other news, my parents were here this weekend to attend the service with us. We also went to Fogo de Chao to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday, which is coming up on Thursday. We had an AWESOME time!! Jayla slept through the entire dinner - has no idea that we ever even went.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Routines
To get home from work, I take one of the major Houston freeways out of downtown. When I exit the freeway, I turn left to get to my house. Since I've been back to work, I've had to turn right after exiting the freeway to go pick up Jayla. Every afternoon when I leave work, I think of nothing but her until I get to her. Well, yesterday was slightly different. For the first time since I've been back, I exited the freeway and turned left to go straight home. Of course, as I was actually making the turn through a yellow light, it dawned on me that I had forgotten by baby for the first time. I immediately turned around to go get her. I think that must mean that I am finally comfortable back at work and getting back into the groove. So much so that for that brief moment while I was turning left, I had forgotten how drastically my life has changed in the past 4.5 months. I don't feel bad about it, rather excited that I do have the ability to have a life that is separate from my child. As a special treat, when I walked into the room to pick up Jayla, she looked up and made eye contact with me and broke into the absolutely biggest grin I've ever seen:
Speaking of routines, Ms. Jayla woke up last night at 3:19am. That made about the 5th night in a row that she has woken betwen 3:00am and 3:30am. The routine goes something like this:
1. Jayla screams
2. Mommy kicks Daddy to wake him up
3. Daddy goes to Jayla's room, shoves a pacifier in her mouth, holds her head down (because otherwise she flings the pacifier out so that she can continue to scream), and she immediately falls asleep within 30 seconds.
4. Daddy comes back to bed
5. Jayla awakes at 6:00am (as she is supposed to) for breakfast
Well, last night I decided to help Daddy out because he is noticably more tired than I am this week. So, I did the routine this morning. She woke up at 3:19am and I was back in bed with her fully asleep by 3:25am.
But, I'm thinking that we are going to have to break her of this. I don't know why she feels the need to do that. I'm wondering if we should let her cry through it a little bit to see if she can put herself back to sleep. We haven't done it on a weekday just because it's easier to go to her room for 6 minutes then go back to sleep. But, maybe tonight. We haven't had to make her cry for anything yet in her life but, this is obviously an issue because she does it like clockwork...hmmm...
Speaking of routines, Ms. Jayla woke up last night at 3:19am. That made about the 5th night in a row that she has woken betwen 3:00am and 3:30am. The routine goes something like this:
1. Jayla screams
2. Mommy kicks Daddy to wake him up
3. Daddy goes to Jayla's room, shoves a pacifier in her mouth, holds her head down (because otherwise she flings the pacifier out so that she can continue to scream), and she immediately falls asleep within 30 seconds.
4. Daddy comes back to bed
5. Jayla awakes at 6:00am (as she is supposed to) for breakfast
Well, last night I decided to help Daddy out because he is noticably more tired than I am this week. So, I did the routine this morning. She woke up at 3:19am and I was back in bed with her fully asleep by 3:25am.
But, I'm thinking that we are going to have to break her of this. I don't know why she feels the need to do that. I'm wondering if we should let her cry through it a little bit to see if she can put herself back to sleep. We haven't done it on a weekday just because it's easier to go to her room for 6 minutes then go back to sleep. But, maybe tonight. We haven't had to make her cry for anything yet in her life but, this is obviously an issue because she does it like clockwork...hmmm...
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