Nicolette's 14th Month

Nicolette's little personality is showing more and more these days! She is such a thoughtful and determined little girl.

One of my favorite things that Nicolette does now is "ballerina turns". I started showing her a simple bourree turn and she immediately started copying me. She doesn't raise her arms up yet but she's got the turning down pat. One night she was reading her ballerina princess book and she suddenly got excited and stood up and started ballerina turning just like the princesses in her book.  It made me giggle!

Nicolette LOVES books.  She has definitely taken to "reading". I was worried because during her first year I would try to read to her but she would wiggle and squirm and try to get away or just shut the books entirely. I of course jumped to the conclusion that she would be one of the children who hated reading, would barely be able to finish school and end up living in our basement for the rest of her life. Well, crisis averted...for the moment it seems that we have a reader on our hands. Books are her favorite toy these days. She even likes to build a nest using the Boppy pillow and go through the books in her bedroom one, by one, by one.

She has the Sandra Boynton book Barnyard Dance and the first lines are "Stomp your feet! Clap your hands! Everybody's ready for a barnyard dance." She now stomps her feet and it is so cute.

When we're reading books I'll use my finger to point to different pictures and we'll talk about what they are. A few weeks ago she started grabbing my index finger and she'll hold it and make me point to different things in the book. 

Her vocabulary is growing. She says "Mama", "Dada", "Up", "Done", "Wah-wah" (water), and when we ask What does a cow say she'll say, "Mmmmmmmmoo" or What does a sheep say? And she'll say "BAH!"

She's in a Mommy & Me ballet class and she's the youngest one by far. It's so neat to watch her intently observing the 2-2/12 year olds in her class. They can run and jump and she's desperately trying to figure out how to do it to. We got home from dance a couple of weeks ago and when I would say "jump" she would bend her knees and straighten them really fast and then giggle and giggle thinking that she was really jumping.

We've transitioned 1 Nap. She was probably ready earlier but I was afraid that if we switched she wouldn't get enough sleep. It took a couple of weeks to make the transition but now she's waking between 6:30/7, going down to nap around 12:30 or 1 and sleeping for about 2 hours. Bedtime is still 7-7:30. If she naps longer it takes her longer to fall asleep at night but we're trying to keep bedtime consistent. The transition has put a damper on Nicolette's social life but now that more of her friends are switching too we hope to be back at playdates soon!

But my favorite thing is our nighttime routine and Nicolette's new practice of Stealing kisses - if you missed it you can read more about that here.

She's a special little child and I'm having the best time watching her grow up. It's definitely going faster than I would like so I'm trying to take time to savor every moment.

Stealing Kisses

Nicolette has been doing the sweetest thing for the past week or so. I still nurse her right before bed and we do that with lights off because it's good "wind down" time for her. Well, she'll start nursing and after a minute (or less), she'll sit up and lean her little face into me and give me a kiss then she snuggles back in to continue nursing.  Sometimes she'll even sign "thank you" after I give her the kiss before she lays back down. MELTS MY HEART! She'll do this several times before she actually nurses. Oh my good golly...it is sooooooo sweet. She is the most precious little thing and these are memories that I do not ever want to forget.

Tiny Dancer

Yesterday was the milestone of all milestones! Nicolette's first dance class!!!! It's just a mommy & me class at our YMCA and we didn't even do any ballet positions or anything but I had so much fun. Nicolette was the youngest by far so she's definitely got some catching up to do. She was so interested in watching the other little girls (a couple 18 month olds but the rest were between 2 and 3) jump and skip and dance. It will be fun to watch her learn and hopefully develop a love for dance!

Tiny Dancer!

Waiting to be invited into the studio! 

They don't make leotards small enough
(that I could find), so mommy had to improvise.

We're in the studio!!!!

Of course Nicolette is drawn to the amp
#loveselectronics

Dancing! Maybe she should be a dj instead? 

"hmmmm....lets just turn up the volume a little bit!"

So excited to be sharing first dance lessons with her buddy Leela!

I promise she had fun...geez this girl can whip out a stone face
like no one I've ever met!

I debated whether or not to enroll her in this class because she is so young but took her to the studio one night for the Open House for the dance program and she just danced and danced and danced. So I figured what have we got to lose, we'll be in this together! So looking forward to the next 6 weeks (and hopefully next 20+ years) as a "Dance Mom".   

Menu Planning Challenge

So the Italian and I don't eat out or get take out very often (#toocheap)...we eat out or get take out maybe once a month and for the first time today I decide to menu plan our breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the week. While doing so, I realized that I am totally stuck in a cooking rut. I love to cook but have gotten stuck cooking the same 5 or 6 dinners every, single week. I don't mind eating the same breakfasts and lunches over and over again but I'd really like to mix up our dinners so I'm challenging myself...at least 1 new recipe per week. I'm going to TRY (no promises) to document our journey in order to hold myself accountable and I'd love to get ideas on recipes to try from any of you! Looking for yummy, not too complicated, not 100 ingredient recipes and as little to no dairy as possible to try each week so please, please, please feel free to post your recipe in the comments section and I hope to give it a try soon!

Nicolette is 13 months old! (and I AM a horrible blogger)

I use the term "blogger" loosely for sure.  I started this little blog as a way to journal my thoughts and feelings as we struggled through infertility.  Once we "conquered" infertility I thought I would use it as a digital baby book of sorts...a way to keep track of little moments, or thoughts and feelings I was having as I learned how to be a mother or to share information that I've found along the way.  Well as I look back over the 13 months and I see that I have only written 51 posts.  What the fudge? I'm terrible at this!

Anyway, today is a new day...maybe I'll keep up, maybe I won't but for today I wanted to talk about my 13 (yes THIRTEEN) month old daughter!!!!

Lots of pool time this month!

Lots of good sleep this month! HOORAY!

I was looking through Nicolette's Baby Book and for the first year it has spaces to summarize every month up until her first birthday.  Then when she turns one it goes to annual summaries.  What the heck? How am I supposed to summarize an entire year on one page? Those baby book people are cray cray! So I'm just going to have to make sure that I remember to do a monthly blog post summarizing each month. It's sad to me to look back and see how many things I was just SURE that I would never forget the date and moment that something happened that have just slipped away from me. I can't remember the date that she first found her hands.  I remember standing in the kitchen and watching her look at them in wonder but honestly cannot remember if she was 4 weeks, 8 weeks or 3 months old. (sad face)

But as a very wise friend told me,  "It isn't capturing the memories that is important, it's LIVING the moments that really counts." And that is true, even though I may never remember exactly how many days old she was when she first stared at her hands as she rubbed them together in wonder I will never forget the look on her face as she carefully wrung them over and over.    

Walking Well
Nicolette has pretty much mastered walking at 13 months.  She is all over the place and hardly crawls anymore (which makes me a little sad...I miss seeing that little diaper booty scooch across the floor).

Sleeping Well
YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY! At 13 months, Nicolette is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT and doing so CONSISTENTLY!  PRAISE JESUS!!!!  She still takes 2 naps a day 90% of the time.  Usually at 9am and 1:30/2pm.  Her morning nap is almost always an hour and a half but the afternoon nap varies, sometimes 30 minutes sometimes an hour or more.  We've had a couple of days with only one nap and she did really well.  I'm so blessed that she's not overly fussy and is so adaptable!

Obviously sleeping well (smileyface)

Had to sleep without her pj pants the last couple
of nights in CT because of her fever...poor baby

First Big Girl Shoes

We made a trip to a couple of shoe stores to pick out Nicolette's first big girl shoes! Now that she's walking I wanted to have shoes on her feet so that she wasn't walking all over the airport in her bare feet. She got a pair of sneakers, some pink glittery Toms and a pair of Pedipeds. I wasn't going to buy the Toms but as soon as the lady put them on her feet Nicolette looked at them, smiled and started toddling all over the store. She couldn't stop looking at them and smiling...I'm such a sucker. 

4 Top Teeth and 4 Bottom Teeth

Nicolette's upper lateral incisors came in this month.  We didn't have too many symptoms - no runny nose, fever, sleep or appetite changes which was nice! She just started chewing on things that could reach those areas better (i.e. the mallet from her xylophone, her rhythm sticks from her music set, the end of the hammer from her work bench or the handle of nail polish).

Molars
Molars on the other hand are a different animal altogether.  I think Nicolette is working on a molar or two now.  It started last week during our visit to Gram and Papa Randazzo's house in Connecticut.  Her sleep was wacky - crazy short naps (20-30 minutes) and she had a high fever (102-103.7) for two days.  She was a little whiny and overall pitiful.  This was similar to when her top central incisors came in back in March. I know that people say that babies don't get fevers when they're teething or don't get higher fevers but Nicolette's doctor says otherwise.  When I took her in March when she had a high fever he said that it was teething, there was no infection and this seems to be the case too. I treated the pain/fever with a little infant ibuprofen and she's pretty much back to normal a few days later.  Still a little fussier than normal but the tooth/teeth hasn't broken through yet so I would imagine that we're in for that until it/they do break through.

Visiting Gram and Papa in Connecticut
Nicolette went on her second plane ride to visit Gram and Papa Randazzo in Connecticut.  She was great on the flight up and had so much fun peeking over the back of our seat and smiling at the guys behind us.  We had a maintenance delay on the way out so ended up getting in past Nicolette's bedtime.  The first night she had trouble going to sleep but I think that was because we rushed her into a strange place and put her in a strange room (even though mommy brought our sound machine and her special blankie and Ellie).  The first full day there she was so excited and walking (practically running) all over the place checking out her new surroundings.  Unfortunately our second day in Connecticut she started teething (molars - looks like the lower and possibly upper right molars).  She spiked a high fever (103.7) and was lethargic and a little whiny/fussy.  She spent a lot of time with Gram and Papa and got to spend a little time with her Aunts and Uncles and cousins. Her sleeping was all off while we were there...short naps, but still sleeping through the night (thank God) I don't know if the wacky sleep was due to being in a strange place or the teeth or both.  Unfortunately while we were there she took a tumble down about 5 (carpeted) stairs. I nearly had a heart attack and still feel terrible about it. I spent a full day questioning whether or not I am fit to be a mother (not exaggerating) and honestly still have moments when I seriously beat myself up...How could I possibly let that happen? The Italian and I were in the kitchen with Gram and Nicolette's 9 year old cousin Kyra.  Neither of us noticed that Kyra and Nicolette had moved to the stairs (about 10-15 feet away).  Nicolette is obsessed with stairs and thinks they are the funnest toy ever so of course she started going up them.  I heard a thud and immediately bolted to see her at the bottom of the stairs doing "the silent cry". Nicolette has never done the silent cry before but I've seen other babies do it. I scooped her up and did everything I could to keep from crying.  She cried for less than a minute and then was wiggling to get out of my arms and saying "s'dat? s'dat?" wanting to check out the candles on Gram's living room table. We both felt terrible but I felt and still feel particularly awful. Other than the fever, the weird sleeping and the falling down the stairs we had a good visit. Gram and Papa commented over and over about what a good and smart baby she is (I happen to agree, of course).

Playing with Daddy on the Plane Ride

Playing Billy Joel on the Piano with Daddy

Playing with Cousin Kyra

With Gram Randazzo

Playing with Papa Randazzo - he was determined to teach her to
count to 5 before we left!

Eating breakfast in her My Little Seat -
so glad we had this since Gram & Papa don't
have a high chair

Who needs toys when you have a tupperware box and some walnuts left over from Christmas? 

Going for a walk with mommy & daddy. First time
using the Boba in the back carry position - she loved it!

Sign Language 
I have not been diligent about teaching Nicolette sign language.  I don't always remember to make the signs every day, I'd say we're about 50/50 for mommy remembering to sign different things to her (oops).  Regardless she has really made progress with her signs.  She has "milk" down pat.  It was a little creepy on the airplane...I was holding her facing me and she totally stared me down and made the milk sign over and over and over again and then she started pulling at my shirt. Alright baby, I get it! She's also really good with the "Eat" sign and "More".  We're still working on "Drink" and "Water" but hoping we get there soon. I started adding in "Please" a couple of weeks ago and she picked it up within a day.  Need to work on "Thank You" and hope she gets that over the next month.

Ellie & Blankie
While we were struggling with sleep issues I desperately tried to get Nicolette attached to a lovey. ANYTHING to help the poor child her soothe herself and feel comfy cozy in her bed by herself.  Well this month she finally started snuggling up to her little "Ellie" the Elephant Lovey (we named her Ellie - she has two Ellies - big Ellie and lil Ellie the Lovey)  It is so precious.  I put her down for naps and bedtime awake and she just lays there looking at me while I gently tuck her in and hand Ellie to her.  She scoops Ellie up with her sweet little arm and cuddles it up to her face.  I love it.  Now...must purchase additional back up Ellie's STAT in case one is lost, dirty or destroyed.  

Pasta
Nicolette has a new favorite food.  Move over Salmon and Avocados...this girl is definitely Italian and she loves a good pasta meal (you can see photos here).  She honestly eats more pasta than I do and will cry for more.  That's about the only food, food she's crazy about these days.  She has a very light appetite this month...will take a few bites of toast, or fruit or veggies but mostly she just wants to nurse.  I think it may be related to the teething.

Car, Violet, Dolly, Purse...
Nicolette can now identify many of her toys and go get them when I ask her too.  She loves her Cozy Coupe Pink Glitter Car and makes a car sound whenever we talk about it or when she sees it.  She learned that from daddy.  He takes her on rides around the house in it at least once a day and makes the same car sound while she drives. She loves Violet the talking dog and her dolly.  She'll pick them up and hug them and it's so sweet.  She even gave her dolly a kiss the other day.  She has an assortment of purses (of course) and if I ask her to find her wallet, keys, lipstick, money or mirror she can pull the item out and show it to me

Mimicking
Nicolette has started mimicking so many things. It started with picking up a paper towel, towel or kleenex and using it to "clean" (usually the high chair tray). Then she would see me put on lotion and she'd pretend to put lotion on. While we were at the beach she saw me spraying on my Trader Joe's aerosol sunscreen (I put it on in the shower to keep from getting it all over the floor) I looked out through the glass doors and saw her holding her little bottle of bubbles in her hands and "spraying" it all over her body. Also at the beach she was taking her toy lipstick and using it as nail polish to paint Miss Rebecca's toes and then her own toes going back and forth over and over again. Yesterday (9/3) she was feeding her dolly a bottle which is crazy to me because the child never even took a bottle so how she knew to do that is beyond me! It's so cute and makes me even more aware that her tiny little eyes are watching everything I do and everything that those around me do. I want to be the best possible person I can for this little one and want to be careful to surround her with positive role models too.

Tantrums 
Yes...we're getting to that point too.  She had her first meltdown at the beach. She was holding onto a tube of Benadryl and I needed to take it back. She squeezed it SO HARD and when I got it from her she promptly sat down, squealed/cried and banged her head on the floor. It was a tile floor so of course it hurt and it left a little scrape on her forehead for the day. Then also at the beach, her buddy Ava was playing with Nicolette's purse. Nicolette went to take it from her and I told her that we needed to give it back because Ava was playing with it first then I handed it back to Ava. Well, Nicolette went full on arched back drama queen and "cried" for about a minute until I distracted her and got her focused on something else. They were mini tantrums but I know we're in store for bigger ones probably sooner than I'd like!

Animal Sounds
She's starting to make animal sounds. The first was Ruff, Ruff, Ruff for a dog.  She'll say it on her own when she sees a real dog or her talking dog Violet. She also started saying "Moo" for cow and yesterday it sounded like she was trying to say "Meow" when she saw our cat-child Sasha.

Jellyfish Sting
While at Seabrook Island for Labor Day weekend we wanted to play in the ocean (big mistake). We had been sitting there for a few minutes when I felt something "stinging" me in a couple of places on my legs. I went to hand Nicolette to the Italian and she started crying. He thought she was just crying because she wanted to be with me but I could tell something was different in her cry. She calmed down after about a minute or two and we continued to play in the water. When we got out I looked at her legs and noticed that the bottom half of her legs were nearly covered with bright red welts/rash. And as we walked back to our towels we saw a jellyfish lying on the beach. She was a total trooper and other than that 1-2 minutes of crying and the inflamed rash on her legs we never would have known that she'd been stung.

The Harmonica
This is the funniest thing...Nicolette has this Melissa and Doug Music set which is awesome.  She loves playing with all of the toys EXCEPT (cue creepy music)...the harmonica.  This instrument strikes fear into the heart of my sweet child.  The Italian discovered this one night while playing with her in her playroom.  He pulled out the harmonica and began to play it and she stopped everything, marched over to him, snatched the harmonica out of his hands and threw it back into the bin with all of the music toys.  He did it with her over and over again and has done so for a couple of weeks.  It cracks us up.  Exact same reaction every time.

The Piggy Bank
Nicolette has a toy piggy bank with coins and this month she mastered putting the plastic coins into the piggy bank slot.  She could literally sit there for an hour putting coins into the bank over and over and over again. Might we have a potential investment banker on our hands?  We'll see!

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In other news, we have an ongoing debate about whether or not we should try to add another kiddo to our happy little family. Life feels so wonderful right now...I can't imagine it getting any better but love the thought of her having a sibling. We'll see and will make a decision after much prayer and soul searching.

Night, night!

So my last post was a bit of a downer and for good reason...my baby was crying and it was making me miserable. Well, that lasted all of 3 nights (don't get me wrong, they were 3 miserable nights).

Last week Nicolette magically started going to bed with no tears.  Now, I lay my sweet baby down and she doesn't start crying as I approach the crib or wiggle and roll onto all fours as soon as I set her down or pop up to standing and reach out and cry.  Instead, my sweet girl stays on her back and looks at me as I snuggle her little blankie around her.  As I tuck her in she smiles at me and I get to stroke her sweet face say good night and tell her how much I love her and how I'll be right here when she wakes up.

For those of you who have never struggled through bedtimes with little ones you will never fully understand the sweet relief that this brings to me. I feel like a new person and my night time anxiety is so much better.  I do not believe that Crying it Out was what solved our problems.  I 100% believe that Nicolette's bedtime anxiety and former night wakings were due to her developmental milestones. Once Nicolette became a pro at crawling and standing that the night wakings nearly stopped but we still struggled with going to bed. Now that Nicolette has pretty much mastered walking, the fight to go night-night has seemingly ended. I believe that her little brain has just been working overtime at night trying to figure this mobility thing out and now that she's moved from walking to running (yes, she started trying to run this week, not well but she's trying) she figures that there probably isn't too much more to worry about so this sleeping thing might not be so bad.

Regardless of what the cause was I'm so happy to be where we are now.  I don't dread bedtime anymore and don't have the horrible anxiety before, during and after bedtime that I used to have.  We're all sleeping better and are still blessed beyond belief!

I'm a little sad...

Those who know me know that I was emphatic about not letting Nicolette CIO (Cry it Out) to fall asleep. For the first 6 months of her life we enjoyed a beautiful co-sleeping relationship and she never once cried as she fell asleep in my arms. I will never regret that time and am convinced that it helped to maintain our breastfeeding relationship.

When Nicolette was around 6 1/2 to 7 months old it became obvious that it was time to move to the crib. She was starting to wiggle and toss and turn more and more during the night and was waking up (I think) because she was uncomfortable and unable to move freely while snuggled in my arms. For 2 1/2 months we STRUGGLED to transition to the crib through chronic and incessant night wakings. Finally at around 9 months old, Nicolette seemed to have gotten the hang of sleeping in her crib. I was able to rock her until drowsy and put her in the crib. She'd fuss a little but I could rub her back or even lay down on the floor next to her and hold her hand and she'd settle down and fall asleep with little drama.

Around 11 months old she suddenly stopped letting me put her down. We'd nurse and rock and she'd get drowsy but start squirming, fussing and eventually crying. If I continued to hold her and rock her she'd work up into a full blown cry. I' put her in the crib and immediate crying, popping up to all fours or standing. I try patting her back, rubbing her, laying her back down, laying down on the floor next to the crib...no matter what I do, the crying just escalates and escalates. Pick her back up and rock her, more wiggling, squirming and crying.

Against everything that my gut tells me, I lay her in her crib, kiss her and tell her that I love her and that it's time to go night-night and I walk out of the room. She stands up, reaches for me out of the crib and cries. She usually continues to cry from anywhere to 1-10 minutes while she crawls around and changes positions a few times and is then fast asleep. I HATE IT!!!! I hate thinking that she is sad when she goes to sleep.

Those who know Nicolette know that she almost NEVER cries. Honestly, I'm not exaggerating. She's just a very easygoing, good natured baby. She doesn't fuss or whine when she's hungry, hardly ever cries when she bumps or bangs herself...nothing. And we don't have this same issue with naps. She'll even play in her crib before or after naps most of the time. So to have to hear her cry at bedtime EVERY night is pure torture for me. I'm out of ideas and don't know what else to do but let her cry. If I stay in the room she continues to stand up and reach for me and gets more and more worked up until she can't fall asleep. If I hold her she wiggles and squirms and cries and continues to get worked up. I honestly don't know what is "the right thing" to do.

So point being...never say never.  I'm now a CIO mom and I hate it.

If you have any other tips to share please let me know. I'm out of ideas and am sad about this every night.

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For an update see my subsequent blog post here. Nicolette started sleeping well and going to sleep on her own with NO problem as soon as she mastered the art of walking. I honestly believe that she suffered from Developmental Milestone Night Waking. Her poor little brain and body were just consumed with the thought of becoming fully mobile to sleep.  Once she mastered that, she was able to sleep peacefully! 

Mirror, mirror

I love how much my daughter loves herself.  I know that might sound crazy but she honestly does.  Anytime she catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror she cannot help but smile and giggle.  For her 1st birthday I had pictures of her hanging up EVERYWHERE and every time we'd walk past any of them she would lean forward, point, smile and giggle.  She loves what she sees and with good reason...she is beautifully and wonderfully made.

But I can't help and wonder when that will stop.

We all, especially girls and women, reach a point where we not only dislike what we see in the mirror or in photos, we actually detest it.  At what point will my BEAUTIFUL daughter cringe when she looks in the mirror or run to hide from a camera?  And why?  Why will she suddenly switch from smiling and laughing at the beautiful girl that she sees to judging, hiding from and covering up her gorgeous face.

I guess that the most impactful thing that I can do is to model good behavior for her.  I will resist all urges to wrinkle up my nose when I look at myself in the mirror, I won't hide from cameras or talk about how terrible I look in photos or complain about looking or feeling "fat". I will work on not shunning compliments - instead of deflecting when someone says something nice about me I will instead say, "thank you" (as difficult as that will be).  I will do this because I want my daughter to do the same someday.  

I know that I can't totally keep her from judging herself in the future but for now I'm going to encourage her self adoration as much as I can as I never want it to end.  

Pasta Night

Nicolette had her first taste of pasta the other night and boy did she love it! We had Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice Pasta with Trader Joe's Organic Spaghetti Sauce with Mushrooms.  (The TJ Brown Rice Pasta is a steal at $1.99 per lb, WAY less than you'd pay for the brown rice pasta at Whole Foods, Earth Fare or even Harris Teeter.  Wheat is a genetically modified crop so the wheat we eat today is NOTHING like the wheat of our ancestors so I try to limit as much of it as possible from our family's diet...you can read more here.  And the Organic Spaghetti Sauce is the only marinara sauce at Trader Joe's that I was able to find that does not include ANY soybean oil.  I think it's creepy how soy is incorporated into SO many different foods and despite popular beliefs soy is NOT a health food...anything but and almost ALL soy is genetically modified so I want to keep as much of it out of Nicolette's body as possible.  You can read more here).

Anyway, enough with the reading material...on with the cuteness!

Seiously...the foot up on the high chair tray cracks me up...every...single...meal.

12 Month Birthversary - otherwise known as 1st Birthday

July 5th was Nicolette's 1st birthday and she decided to celebrate by sleeping in past 8:00am!  Mommy & Daddy were waiting downstairs patiently for the princess to wake up and as soon as she did we both ran upstairs so that we could wish her a happy birthday together!

Happy baby!

After nursing and breakfast mommy had to hurry and get her into position for her monthly pics so that I could print one out for her birthday party.  I didn't want to cheat and take the picture before her actual birthday so I was definitely doing this at the last minute!  Getting her to even look at the camera was a challenge, not to mention getting her to sit still, leave the sticker on her shirt, face forward and God forbid I hope for a smile!  She's got too much to do to waste time sitting around posing for pictures!

"Seriously mom... "

"OK - I'll give you HALF a grin"

Happy birthday sweet girl!