Curls

Big girl haircut for the first time tomorrow afternoon. Watch this space for an "after" picture.

Now she really has bedhead

Encouraging Gwen to take her nap has been growing increasingly difficult over the past couple of weeks. We now regularly employ two strategies. The first is to re-enter Gwen's room 10-20 minutes after laying her in her crib, reminding her that it is sleepy time and that she should lie down, close her eyes, and go to sleep. This is a tip we got from Gwen's caregiver, Denise, and it often works (though everyone agrees that Gwen is a much-better-behaved child while at Denise's house). The second strategy is to check her diaper at that time, because it seems that 10 minutes into naptime is the ideal time for Gwen's bowels to kick into action. At first I thought that being in a dark room without any stimulation meant her body relaxed enough to let go the poop, but in my more suspicious moments I wonder if she does it on purpose to get an extra few minutes of wake-time attention. In any case, a diaper change is often needed in order to proceed to naptime.


So, on February 6th, nearly two weeks ago, Chris put Gwen down for her nap, then came back 20 minutes later to remind her to go to sleep. She ... greeted him at the door. Because she had climbed out of her crib. BECAUSE SHE IS A NINJA.


Well, not exactly a ninja. See, we had this piece of foam wrapped in a pillowcase and tied to the headboard of the crib, because Gwen, like her mom, is a very restless sleeper and tends to crash her noggin into the wood about 91872193456 times a night (approx.). So we very thoughtfully put a pillow there in the hopes that her incredible brain would not become overly damaged. However, her incredible brain eventually lit up with the thought that she could use this pillow as a step up to climb out of the crib.


I remind you that after this daring escape she was not crying or whimpering about being hurt. She had gotten out of the crib safely. When I ascertained that this was the case, I felt the matter was settled. Okay! My kid can get safely out of her crib with the help of a foam pillow, which has now been removed. Let's try to hide the fact that we are secretly proud of her for this, and move on!


But no. Chris disagreed. He lobbied for the next several days about converting Gwen's crib into a bed. I wept and wailed and gnashed my teeth (well, metaphorically - these veneers were pricey) over Gwen's lost babyhood. I felt Not Ready. I protested that we would have to do sleep training all over again, because essentially we were teaching her a new method of going to sleep. I told him that if we tried the bed and it didn't work, we couldn't very well go back to a crib. I complained that it would be utter hell. All my arguments were for naught - I knew what had to be done. Sure, she'd gotten out safely this time - next time we might not be so lucky.


Fast forward a week. A week in which, pretty much every time I went to get Gwen after naptime or in the morning, she was actively trying to get out of the crib. Towards the end of the week, she had figured out how to get her entire lower leg over the bar (ie, the bar of the crib sat perfectly in her 'knee-pit'). She had her arm on the footboard and was trying to figure out how to hoist herself upwards enough to get her other leg over. I was morbidly fascinated in watching this process. She didn't succeed in getting out (safely or not), but it was clear she was not going to give up.

So, last Sunday, after one of those afternoons where no amount of naptime reminding and diaper changing had any effect, I picked her up out of her crib and said, "Gwen, sometime soon you're going to get to sleep in a big girl bed. Would you like that?" "Happy!" she replied. "Oh, that would make you happy?" I asked. "Treat," she confirmed. Okay. LET'S DO IT.

Chris originally thought he was going to have to do some crazy carpentry with sawing off the bars and re-modelling the whole device, but instead we went to Zeller's and bought a bed rail. And also some new sheets, which ostensibly Gwen picked out, because I've heard that can help kids make the transition. Anyway, it didn't take Chris very long to take off the bars and put on the rail, and meanwhile I made dinner and Gwen dumped out a basket of laundry, so everyone contributed. And then, after dinner, we settled in for A Very Special Bedtime.

Gwen did indeed love her new bed. As you can see from the photo below, the bed rail makes it so there is only one spot in which she can get up to or down from the bed. Her first instinct was to jump on the bed, but we reminded her of what the doctor said ("No more monkeys jumping on the bed") and that she might, in fact, bump her head. She was still doing a lot of standing and walking, though, which isn't hard to understand since she has spent the past year or so doing those same activities in her crib.

We tucked her in and gave her lots of kisses and told her to have a really good sleep in her big girl bed and reminded her how proud we were. Then we turned off the light and walked out. Downstairs, I turned on the video monitor in time to see her shuck off the blankets (typical), stand up and march across the mattress (also typical), and walk straight off the unrailed edge of the bed, doing an impressive faceplant onto the floor (ooh, that's new! Four stars.).

Chris went in to comfort her and tuck her back in to bed. She DID NOT MOVE for the rest of the night. I actually went in an hour or so later to make sure she was still breathing.

The next morning, she was fine. She happily crawled out of bed before we awoke and brought a favourite toy back into bed with her. When I went to get her dressed, she invited me to snuggle with her in her bed. I was, once again, full of good cheer. I figured she'd scared herself just badly enough to NEVER again get out of bed in the dark, at least not while walking upright.

We've had a whole week's worth of (knockonwood) incident-free nights since then and I'm feeling pretty proud of our girl for her ease in making this transition. Sure, on Monday afternoon at daycare she burst into tears while watching a Humpty Dumpty cartoon, but what's a little post-traumatic stress syndrome among loving family members, hmmm? She was trepid about going to bed on Monday evening, but less so the next night, and not at all the third night, so I'm pretty sure she's going to be fine. And she is pretty proud of herself and her big girl bed.
The hitch, of course, came at naptime. What toddler in his or her right mind would choose to lie down and sleep when s/he could be playing with a myriad of intriguing toys? Well, apparently not our Gwen, and this was no surprise. She spent last Tuesday at home with Gramma, and had no nap at all. On Friday, she was home with me, and I was determined to make it work. I spent two hours - TWO HOURS - going into her room every single time she got out of bed, to remind her that it was naptime, and that she should lie down and go to sleep. After two hours, TWO HOURS, I was completely out of patience and totally out of ideas. So she didn't nap that day either.

Chris to the rescue, though, as he did something involving her window, a black flannel sheet, her blackout blinds, and painter's tape, and it is now pitch-black in Gwen's room with the light off, even in midday. Yesterday and today, she had terrific (and easy, non-patience-trying) naptimes.

Another milestone reached. Thank goodness she hasn't figured out doorknobs yet, or we'd *never* have a moment's peace.

Imagination

I posted this video to Facebook a week or so ago, with the comment that "I don't think she's old enough to actually pretend or imagine that there is food in the bowl." I was pretty sure that Gwen's cognitive development had a ways to go before imaginary play, which is really based on abstract thinking, could begin. Apparently, though, I wasn't giving her enough credit. According to this article, "as soon as children begin to use language — that is, they both understand words and start to use them — they also have the ability to pretend."

The article recommends encouraging Gwen's imagination by letting her play along with grown-up tasks. We've tried this a couple of times lately with hugely positive response. For example, one of the times Gwen is practically guaranteed to get fussy and demanding is when one of us is preparing dinner. It doesn't matter how much she's had to eat; it doesn't matter if there's someone else in the room with her, utterly devoted to her entertainment. If you're in the kitchen preparing food, she is up your butt.
So after reading this article, the next time I was cooking and Gwen was whining, I grabbed another wooden spoon and knelt down beside her with the bowl of dinner-to-be I was stirring. She helped me stir it and was THRILLED.

We tried to pull a chair up to the counter so she could stand and "work" alongside me, but we're not totally convinced that she won't just walk off the chair and smack her head on the floor, so that's not a perfect solution. We'll have to keep working on it. I've always looked forward to the joys of cooking and baking with my kid - I didn't think they'd come so soon.

PS: Gwen's sixth tooth popped on Tuesday!

Things Gwen has learned in the last couple of weeks

How to go downstairs on her bum. Finally, she can go downstairs as well as up! Till now, I have carried her downstairs every. single. time. Have I ever mentioned that her changing table is upstairs? And all her toys are downstairs? Yeah. Anyway, I'm not yet confident enough to let her go down the stairs by herself: our method involves me saying "on your bum" (which she usually echoes enthusiastically, "BUM!") to remind her to sit down at the top of the stairs. I sit beside her, and we bump down together. She often chooses to hold my hand as we do so. She has already extrapolated from this lesson, going down steps at the playground in the same way, so I'm really hopeful that she will stop falling down the stairs at the homes of friends and family.

How to give kisses. She will usually give them when asked, though at other times she'll respond to "Got a kiss for Mom?" with "no." (Which is STILL pretty cute.) The sweetest kisses, though, are the ones she gives unbidden. It melts my heart every time. You know that old saw about how if men had boobs, the wheel never would have been invented and civilization as we know it would have never arisen, because they'd just be at home all day playing with their boobs? Well, if the creation of civilization was up to me, and I had the distraction of Gwen-kisses to contend with, we'd all still be struggling to create fire. Well, you all would be. I'd be revelling in smooches.

How to say "Mom". Finally. FINALLY. I exist!

How to co-operate. I'm not saying she's turned into a model of well-mannered teamwork, but she does seem, upon occasion, to play along with our requests. Yesterday, she had the Forbidden Cupboard open and I instructed her from across the room to close it. AND SHE DID. At which point, of course, we heaped praise upon her; when she listens and obeys, we act like she just invented calorie-free chocolate.

What a bum change is all about. As mentioned, her change table is upstairs, whereas we spend most of our time downstairs. A week or so ago, Gwen walked to the gate at the bottom of the stairs and said "bum". Sure enough, her diaper was dirty and she needed a change. Impressive, no? Furthermore, if we tell her "let's go change your bum," she will walk to the bottom of the stairs and wait for us to unlock the gate. Once she gets to the top of the stairs, if we remind her "let's go change your bum," she will head into her room (rather than the several other, intricately tempting locations on the second storey: our room, the bathroom, and Chris's office).

How to impress her mother. Gwen has a little play table with a bowl on it. Occasionally, Chris will put some snacks into this bowl for her: being attached to the table, she can't do her usual trick of flinging the snacks all over the floor. A couple of days ago, I gave her a container with a few orange segments in it. I was cooking dinner at the time and not paying a lot of attention to her: I registered that she left the kitchen, then returned a few seconds later with the empty container, saying "all done". I was *certain* she hadn't eaten the entire orange in such a brief time, so I looked around for a pile of fruit. I found it in the play-table bowl. She'd walked to the living room, emptied the container into the bowl, and come back to return the empty container to me. My mind was officially blown.

Gwen's first ice cream cone

Two hours' parking in the underground garage - $1.00

Trip to the playground - free

Playtime at the library - free

Two gigantic stacks of books, one for Gwen and one for Mom - free

"Baby"-sized ice cream cone (yeah right) - $2.00


My flex days - priceless.

Big Night Out

Tomorrow is a big milestone for our family. For the first time in her fourteen months of life, Gwen will be spending the night without either of her parents, sleeping over at Gramma and Grandpa’s house. This was actually my mom’s idea, as I was mentioning to her that the few times Chris and I have gone out at night and left Gwen with Keith and Karen, the desire to Play with the Grandchild has easily won out over the obligation to Obey the Parents’ Instructions and PUT THE CHILD TO BED. In fact, last time they babysat in the evening, Gwen was not only awake, but downstairs! With Gramma and Grandpa! When we arrived home at 10:30pm! THREE AND A HALF HOURS AFTER BEDTIME!

That was five months ago, and like I said it was my mom who came up with the brilliant solution that if Chris and I wanted to go out on a date, we could leave Gwen at Keith and Karen’s overnight, and then if they decided to keep her up until midnight they would have to deal with the consequences. I LOVE THIS PLAN.

So tomorrow afternoon, I am dropping Gwen off at Gramma and Grandpa’s, where they will no doubt feed her copious amounts of dinner and spoil her absolutely silly and play with her for hours and hours. I will then go out to dinner with my husband, and then go see a play at the new downtown theatre (how civilized!). And I will not, WILL NOT call K&K’s house to see how Gwen is doing. Nope! I won’t. I will even try, really really hard, to come up with dinner conversations that do not include:
- Gwen
- Gwen’s diaper rash (now heading into month three!)
- My job

Hmm, guess I’ll be talking about schoolwork all night. Whee!

After the play, we get to go home TO AN EMPTY HOUSE and then we get to SLEEP IN. Although, as my mom points out, we probably won’t, because we’ll be wondering how Gwen is doing. I don’t know. Chris has a truly astounding ability to sleep in, and I … well, I’m not as good at it as he is, but I don’t feel too worried or stressed about how Gwen will fare with this new adventure. She has spent a lot of time with Gramma and Grandpa, and is really comfortable and happy at their place. She has slept over there a couple of times with us, so that won’t be new. She loves them (and their little dog, too) a whole lot and I think she is going to have a great time. So maybe I will get to sleep in after all.

Walkin'

We now interrupt the vaccination debate to bring you this breaking news - Gwen is walking!

There must be something about being 11 months, 2 weeks, and 5 days old, because Jen's son Anderson - born the same day as Gwen - started walking today too.

Please keep the comments coming on my previous post. Very interesting stuff there so far!

Big Steps

Gwen took about fifteen consecutive, unaccompanied steps yesterday afternoon. In fact, yesterday marked a real turning point with her walking, I think. Up until now her solo steps have been a case of Mom and/or Dad setting up the situation, which often includes physically setting Gwen on her own two feet, then distracting and enticing her to walk towards one of us. It's generally true that if she realizes she's walking, she'll stop, crouch down, and go back to crawling. Yesterday, this wasn't the case. It was as if she finally 'got' the concept of walking, and was practicing it, over and over and over again. At one point, I was laying on the floor and she used my body to pull herself to standing, then took a few steps away from me, crouched back down and crawled back to me, and repeated about a dozen times - getting more and more confident and steady each time. It was just incredible to watch.

I'm hoping to have a little montage of some walking videos to share with you next week, because as of this afternoon I am heading to Victoria to visit my best friend. Yes - I, solo. As in, Gwen is staying here with Dad. _Whoa._ I am nervous about this, but excited too, and I feel the time is right for her to have a weekend without me. Whether I'm ready is another question! I will admit, though, that when I realized I was going away for a weekend and didn't have to pack for Gwen, nor plan my driving times around her nap schedule, I felt absolutely giddy. I haven't felt this carefree in a long, long time!

Teeth, Part Two

Back in November, Gwen cut both her bottom front teeth one after another. We were expecting the next one to pop up about six weeks later, but months have passed and no teeth.

Teething symptoms, yes. Drooling, fussing, biting, fist constantly in the mouth, chewing the hell out of her crib, yes. But teeth? Not so much.

Until today. Four months later. You can't see it yet, but I stuck my finger in her mouth and felt the top right one coming through. Hallelujah.

I'm now trying not to imagine how ridiculous she'll look if that one comes through and the other top one doesn't follow soon. At least the pictures will make good blog fodder now, and good blackmail material later.

Housekeeping

Sorry for the total lack of posts lately, guys. Here is my lame list of excuses:
1. I have recently been appointed to my church's Council and to the Call Commitee (our pastor of 11 years is leaving, and it is the Call Committee's job to find a new one). I've held these "jobs" for about a week and have already spent nearly 8 hours in meetings. Not to mention a lot of time emailing and phoning and networking, oh my.
2. Gwen and I are leaving for our week-long circle tour in TWO DAYS. So any time not spent dealing with Church stuff, has been spent packing and confirming plans with friends and relatives.
3. I don't have a third reason, but I think lists should always include at least three items. Hi! I have OCD, have we met?

In other news, the Miraculous Giveaway is now closed, and I have three fantastic stories that will be posted over the next week (while I'm away! How brilliant! Almost like I planned this, except srsly, I'm not that organized) sharing tips about important and useful baby products. I have already contacted the winner, and a Miracle Blanket will hopefully be winging its way through the mail post haste.

Also, Gwen took a few steps last night - one day later than I originally predicted! She just likes to mess with me, I guess. Her dad and I were both playing with her on the kitchen floor, and I guess she was revelling in our devoted attention so much that she didn't notice she was walking. It was way cool!

More!

Gwen can now sign "more". I've been working on this sign with her for a couple of weeks, which means whenever she is eating I make sure to pause partway through the meal and say, "Do you want more, Gwen? More? Would you like more? More? Do you want some more?", making the sign each time I say the word. Then I say, "Okay, here's some more," regardless of whether she responds, so that she starts to understand what the word more means.

It seems to have worked. Yesterday she finished off a bottle after naptime and signed "more". I quickly rushed to the kitchen to make another one. Today she did the same thing for her dad when he was giving her oranges.

It's so amazing to see her starting to communicate with us. She's not even a baby anymore. I am simply in awe.

Next, I hope to teach her "all done" (for when she's finished eating) and "eat" (for when she's hungry). If we get these down, I'll never have to guess again about how much food she needs! Hooray!

First Words!

As you may recall, Gwen sometimes says "buh-buh" when waving goodbye, and she first did this on January 24th.

I was hesitant to call this the Official First Word, however, because it was really a mimicking of what everyone else in the room was saying. I kind of felt like the Official First Word should be spontaneous.

On Sunday, my wish came true.

I was trying to distract Gwen from her pastime of eating my bookmark. "No," I said, removing it gently from her hand and mouth for the third time in 30 seconds. "No, Gwen."

Well, Gwen is very into words right now. She immediately looked very closely at my mouth, concentrating intently, and said, "Nuh."

"That's right," I agreed. "No."

Half an hour later, I was wiping her face after a meal. It seems to be a universal truth that babies hate this with a passion. She whined piteously, pushed my hands away, violently shook her head from side to side, and cried out: "NUH!"

(This is the part of the story where my parents laugh knowingly and settle in to enjoy watching me being taken on the exact same ride I took them on for the first 17 years of my life. I can hear the self-satisfied chuckles from here...)

In Which I Ramble On For a Few Hundred Words About Only Vaguely Connected Subjects

We have a gate at the bottom of our stairs, but every once in a while I totally gap and forget to close it, and sure enough I find Gwen halfway up the first flight. It's always a forehead-smacking moment (for me, not her). Speaking of head-smacking, though, I've seen her take some fantastic headers while cruising the couch, even landing face-first so dramatically that I was *sure* there would be blood when I picked her up. (There wasn't, though.) And sometimes this makes her scream like a banshee and other times she just shakes it off as if she barely noticed the sudden transition from vertical to horizontal. My point is, I don't know why I bother trying to protect her from the stairs when she does such a terrific job of destroying herself on solid ground.

Things are going well these days. In fact, I would say the past few weeks have been the best since this whole motherhood adventure began. Gwen is sleeping well, which, let's face it, is the key factor in any assessment of life satisfaction. We have found a real groove with our days, heading out to one baby-related activity every weekday, which instead of making me feel rushed makes me feel appropriately non-bored (and Gwen the same, methinks). If I don't get out of the house and have a face-to-face conversation with someone I'm *not* related to at least every second day, I get a little irritable.

As such, we've been going to Strong Start a couple of days a week, and man, I really don't know why I waited so long to check this program out. It's made of everything wonderful: it's free, it's any age from birth to 5 years, it's fairly unstructured, it's every weekday, and best of all it's drop in. Come when you're ready, leave when you're done. Absolutely beautiful, and Gwen loves it. A gigantic classroom full of appropriate and stimulating toys, as well as a group of older kids to follow around and adore? PERFECT.

We also go to our Mother Goose classes on Wednesdays, and on Tuesdays Gwen hangs out with her Gramma and I get out on my own. Last week I took my laptop to an Internet cafe and did a few hours' worth of work for the volunteer organization I am a part of. It was bliss (not the work itself, but the aspect of it being uninterrupted).

Other than that, I've got a solid group of friends that I can call and/or contact on Facebook to arrange walks, playdates, and so on. It's a very good groove, and I am loving it.

That said, Gwen has had a cold the past week or so, and fear of spreading the germs around to our friends has kept me home from many activities, which I'm not enjoying. On the plus side, Gwen has been - for the most part - the most cheerful sick baby I've ever seen, not getting any more cranky for the nasty cough or the streams of mucous hastily exiting her nose. Woe betide you if you try to wipe it, though, for she will scream and weep as if being beaten.

Speaking of Facebook - and my awesome friends - one of them has started an Adequate Moms Group. It turns out there was a study done on the quality of parenting and the effect on the child's development. There is a significant difference in development between children who have negligent parents and those who have adequate parents - which is what you'd expect. However, the surprise is that there is NOT a big difference in development between those who have adequate parents and those who have excellent parents (whatever that means). So, with a sigh of relief, we can all embrace our adequacy. I'm writing a creed for the group: "I am an adequate mom. I have fed my child a Cheerio that she threw on the floor. I have fed my child a Cheerio that she threw on the floor the day before. When my child is playing in the next room and I hear a thump, sometimes I wait to see if there are tears before I go investigate." You get the idea. How freeing to be adequate!

Gwen's nap schedule has been weird lately. It almost seems like she's shifting from two naps to one - on Monday I put her down shortly after 10, and she didn't get up until 1:20 - nearly 3 hours!! Which left no time at all for an afternoon nap, because I wasn't about to have her nap from 4:30 - 6:30 and then be up until 10, thank you very much. So we got her to bed at 6:30 and she was SO ready. It's hard to predict from one day to the next where she will be at, and her being sick makes me want to just stay flexible and resist trying to squish her into a routine right now, because I know when I'm sick I need a little more downtime. So, once she gets better we'll work on the structure again. On the other hand, while the timing is unpredictable, the naps themselves are happening beautifully. At both naptime and bedtime she is putting herself to sleep in her crib after a diaper change, a bottle, a story, and a lullaby. It's absolutely heavenly to know that "getting Gwen to sleep" only requires 5-10 minutes of parental involvement.

I'm heading out on an ambitious trip next month. I owe my sister a visit (said visit was cancelled due to snow conditions in December) and I thought I'd make a week of it, visiting some folks in Vancouver and Powell River in a circle tour (since I missed out on seeing those folks due to the same damn snow). I plan to leave Nanaimo on the afternoon of Wednesday March 4th; spend two days/nights on the Lower Mainland; travel to the Sunshine Coast and spend the weekend with my sister and her family; then travel to Powell River and spend 3 days/2 nights there before heading back to the Island. One last hurrah before heading back to work. It will be so fun to show Gwen off to all the folks who haven't seen her in a while. Dude, she'll be walking by then! (maybe.)

Oh, and another thing. I think the combination of weaning Gwen + making some progress on her sleep (meaning *I* am getting more sleep) + losing nearly 20 pounds has just made me feel like my body is becoming mine again. I dug out some of my work clothes and even bought myself a gorgeous non-nursing bra, and I've been doing my hair and just taking a bit more care with my appearance. This has had a real effect on my self-esteem. Those women's magazines know what they are talking about. Also, certain activities that we thought would never happen again have actually begun to happen. And they are far more pleasant than I remember them being. Isn't that awesome?

Gwen is developing at a mad pace these days. She spends nearly all her time standing or cruising. She can cruise really quickly, and I kind of think that once she learns to walk she will progress to running and never look back. On Saturday, her grandpa saw her standing on her own for a couple of seconds: she pulled up using their sliding glass door, then pulled her hands away and just stood there for a moment. I haven't seen her do that on her own, but since I missed the original incident and was intensely curious to see if she could do it, I have stood her up myself a couple of times and then taken my hands away. She can, in fact, balance for 2-3 seconds. It's not much, but it's a start. Oh, and she has also mastered the pincer grasp (using her thumb and finger to grab something, instead of palming it) which should make self-feeding immeasurably easier. I'll try to get some video of her doing these things soon, because they are both awesome to watch.

I could easily write more, but wow, this post got really long. They call me wordygirl for a reason.

Does It Count?

Gwen is getting very enthusiastic about waving hello or goodbye. Last week, she dropped a toy off her change table and then waved goodbye to it, which I thought was awesome. On Saturday, she was waving goodbye at her grandpa who was going out to walk the dog. The four adults in the room, of course, were also waving giddily and saying "Bye bye! Bye bye!" Then Gwen said "bah-bah" as she waved. Does that count as her first word? Does she simply recognize that that's what you say when you're waving your hand around? Or is that kind of the definition of communication anyway?

On Monday night, Gwen sort of slept through the night. She cried for nearly an hour first, as Chris and I took turns sitting with her. She finally fell asleep at about 8pm. The next I heard from her was at 3:45am - she was whimpering in her sleep. The whimpering continued on and off until 5am (with me sleeping on and off during this time), at which point I finally got up and made her a bottle. When I went in her room, however, she didn't seem awake enough to pick up, so I just sat next to her crib and rubbed her back for ten minutes. Soon she fell into a deeper sleep, I crept out of the room, and she slept until 8:30am.

(A moment of glorious, reverential silence in recognition of the day Gwen let me sleep in until 8:30am. O my daughter, how I love thee!)

So, does that count as sleeping through the night? She did need a bit of assistance there at 5am, but she didn't feed during the night, and that's pretty cool.

(Similar thing happened last night: long crying session, good deep sleep, no night feeds. But got up at 6:30am, which wasn't quite as pleasant.)

I think Gwen is pretty much weaned. I know for certain I haven't stuck my boob in her mouth in over three days, and before that I can't even remember the last functional nursing session we had (as opposed to the usual "hey look, there's Mom's boob, what a PERFECT teething toy!"). I don't think she's been actually nursing for a week or so. Wow. As soon as I get some money, I'm going to go buy myself a pretty, lacy, NON-NURSING bra.

In retrospect, it seems silly to have buried the news that GWEN CAN SIT way at the bottom of the post

Holy crap. I've been busy as hell, obviously, and haven't had any time to update. Weirdly, not much of what I've been up to has to do with Gwen.

On Thursday night, I went to WordStorm. I was invited by a mommyfriend, Adrienne, whose adorable son Lucas was born the same day as Gwen. She and I have thus seen each other at many baby-related events and gradually got to know one another. A few weeks ago, I gave her my contact card, primarily so she could find me on Facebook. The card also has this blog's address on it, and the next time she saw me she told me she'd found the blog, read some archives, and was blown away by my writing and ALSO super gratified to read that I'd had a hard time with many of the stages she'd had a hard time with. That made me feel really good because that is EXACTLY why I write: so someone out there will feel less alone. Also, she happens to be a Journalism and Women's Studies major, so this marks the first time someone who Knows Of What They Speak has complimented my blog writing. Wow. That made my day!

Anyway, Adrienne brought me along to WordStorm, which is a spoken word event held once a month in Nanaimo. It's kind of like an open mic for writers, and they even compete for cash prizes. I had SO much fun. I have always believed that I disliked poetry, but it turns out that I like poetry when it's read out loud to me by the person who wrote it. And Adrienne introduced me to one of her friends as "a writer". OMG.

Then on Friday, I went out to a Girls' Night with some of my mommyfriends. It was glorious. We had a spa party: soaked our feet, dabbed on facial cream, and ate way too many Nanaimo bars. And talked talked talked talked talked. I love my friends so much: sometimes it almost feels like I am closer to them than I am to my husband right now. I guess because ultimately, my day-to-day life is a lot more like theirs than it is like his.

On Saturday evening we all went out to a local SCA event where I got to juggle the fun of sitting at the head table with a baby and Royalty. It was about as challenging as you'd expect, but I did manage to enjoy myself. Chris took Gwen home near the end of the feast, but because I am president of our local SCA group I had to stay to the bitter end (which was 1am).

If you're following along you will notice right about now that I was out three nights in a row without Gwen, while Chris was on full-time Dad duty. Impressive, yes?

Sunday was jam-packed with shopping and prepping and cooking for Operation Feed Mah Baby and, simultaneously, The Buechler Initiative (eating healthy meals, together, at a reasonable hour). I don't think I got a moment to myself until 4pm that afternoon. And then that evening, I got a call from my church asking if I would let my name stand for church council. After talking it over with Chris, I've decided to say yes. Our much-beloved pastor is leaving, and I can see no better way to ensure that things don't fall apart during the transition than to help be part of the solution. I help out a lot at church already so in a way this is a recognition of that. I'm a little nervous about the length of the term - three years - but I know if it's impossible I will be able to resign early.

Other news (in bullet form, since this post is getting lengthy):
- Gwen is starting to sit. I've even seen her get into the sitting position on her own a couple of times. YAY.
- She can also do virasana, aka W-sitting.
- I have started talking to my boss about returning to work. The news is better than I'd expected. I still have fears about how I am going to fit everything in, but I know that millions of other women have figured this out and I will too. This week's plan is to confirm daycare (wish me luck).
- Gwen's Uncle Mikey, my best friend, bought us "No!" for Christmas. The songs are awesome - way better than The Wiggles - but they are still stuck in my head all. The. Time. (Robot parade ... robot parade... AAHHHHH!!!)
- Gwen and I went to Strong Start yesterday, which was great fun. I think we will be going again, often. I only didn't go today because I thought I'd look like a loser with no life if I showed up two days in a row.
- The weather is improving, THANK GOD. The past two days, I have been able to get out for walks with Gwen. I even saw a robin yesterday. Spring WILL come again!

Teeth!

Yesterday Gwen cut her first tooth. This was exciting since I had practically given up on it ever happening - she's been "teething" for about three and a half months! The tooth (front left bottom) is not actually visible yet, but I can feel the edge of it poking up.

And then today, I am pretty sure the one next to it is coming up as well. She'll be full of snaggletoothed grins for all the Christmas pictures! Yay :-)

Milestones

I was just a smidge concerned recently - and probably wouldn't have been at all, if I wasn't a longtime reader of Schuyler's Monster - that Gwen didn't seem to be using any consonants in her babbling. She would say a lot of "ah ah ah" sounds, but no ba or da or ma or ga. A mere twelve hours after I confided my concern to Chris, Gwen started saying "ba ba ba". And she says it with great gusto and delight, too.



The other thing she's a bit behind on is sitting. She just doesn't seem to have any interest in it, to be honest. The picture below shows a typical moment where Gwen decides she doesn't want to sit on a lap anymore and arches her back until she's either standing or lying down.

I don't know why she's got such a hate-on for the sitting, given that it's one of my most favoured hobbies. At six months, she is supposed to be starting to sit unassisted for brief periods of time, but she won't sit at all unless you hold her forcibly in that position. My best guess is that the issues with her sacrum, which have since been worked on by her chiropractor and resolved, set her back a bit in that regard. I'm sure she'll get there eventually.



Another six-month milestone is the recognition of her own name. I tested this a few weeks ago, sitting to one side of Gwen and calling out to her. Sure enough, she turned towards the sound of my voice - trouble was, she didn't really seem to care if I called her "Gwen" or "Poohead". It was the tone and voice she was responding to, not the word itself. Although it's really funny to watch your infant daughter respond when you call her "Poohead", it's probably something we shouldn't do too often. In an effort to teach her her proper name, we've started using it to great excess. "Hello, Gwen's Dad," I will greet Chris when he comes home from work. "As you can see, Gwen is happy to see you. Aren't you, Gwen? Yes, Gwen, you are happy to see Gwen's Dad. Hey, Gwen's Dad, did I tell you that Gwen's name is actually Gwen? And not Poohead?"



The milestone that Gwen has reached and surpassed, on the other hand, is separation anxiety. Last week, my mother-in-law arrived for Gramma time while Gwen was asleep, and when she woke up, she was right pissed that I was nowhere to be found. She screamed for a solid 30 minutes, despite bottle, walking, shhing, and various other attempts to soothe and/or distract. Fortunately, I arrived home at about that time. I admit that leaving while she was asleep was not the ideal scenario, but there wasn't much else to be done at the time.



Even when Gwen is fully awake and in a social mood - which is most of the time - she is starting to really check in with me (or Chris, when he's around) about other people's attention to her. I went to meet my mom and her best friend at Woodgrove Mall this past weekend, as they were on the Island for some shopping and a theatre production. Gwen gave her Grannie (whom she doesn't see very often) a big gummy smile, then turned to find me and make sure I was still nearby. At this stage, it is still pretty flattering to know that she values me above all others, though I'm sure the novelty will wear off rapidly.



I read that separation anxiety is not actually the fear of being physically separated from the parent, but a cognitive stage - a realization that the infant is in fact a separate person from the parent, which causes fear as she realizes that I won't always be there. It's sad, but also exciting to realize that she is going through such complex learning.