That Mom

Today I became "That Mom." You know, the mom that everyone is always looking at and talking about. The mom that I swore I'd never be, and yet, no one in my family is any worse for the wear, in fact, some are even better off! Let me show you...

First of all, today was Wednesday. That means that school starts 10 minutes later so that the staff can have a full hour before school of professional development time. I don't mind, I just don't always remember to send them later and we wind up wating outside the doors, and waiting with five-year-old boys is never good.

So, therefore, we don't get home from walking them to school until almost 9:30. By the time I get Alyssa settled down and down for her nap, it is almost 9:45. At 10:45 when it is time to take Zachary to gymnastics, just 5 minutes down the road at the community center, she is still sound asleep. I don't have the heart to wake her up for a ten minute adventure, after which we would be right back home. Enter my wonderful neighbor. I call her and she agrees to "babysit." This means that she gets my monitor and if Alyssa wakes up, she will use my garage code to get in my house and get her up. Then they will go back to her house until I come home. To me, this is a much better solution to a sleeping baby than waking her up for little reason. So, Alyssa stays asleep and I end up still having to wake her up at 11:40 to go and pick Zachary up. Alyssa got almost another full hour of nap this morning. Yet, the idea still makes me feel like, "that mom."

Then after gymnastics, Zachary, Alyssa, and I head to the Burger King by his school so that he can get a quick bite to eat and be at school on time. Since Alyssa had just woken up, I figured that I would nurse her there and then give her lunch at home after we dropped Zachary off. Well, Alyssa wasn't so sold on that plan. She wanted to eat, since the rest of us were eating and I hadn't brought any of her food. So, then again, I became, "that mom." I was finished, so I sat Alyssa on the table with her legs hanging off, facing me (I was right there, she wasn't going anywhere) and started giving her bites of french fries. That's right. I gave my seven-month-old daughter french fries. It totally worked too because she never moved and just kept right on eating. I think I gave her 4 or 5 fries in total. She couldn't get the bites in her mouth fast enough. It was actually kind of fun to watch her. Then we took Zachary to school and I brought her home and I did give her some yogurt and what not.

So, all in all, Alyssa actually benefitted from me being "that mom" and now I can completely understand why moms do many of the things they do. If you had asked me why 5 years ago, I would have just shrugged and shaken my head. I am learning--do what's best for your family, even if it means you have to become "that mom."
B

Alyssa Update-Six Months

Okay, so again, I know that she's going to be seven months tomorrow, but I didn't want six months to slip away--yet another thing that's getting away from me!

Anyway, Alyssa continues to be a very happy, very flexible baby. I am always amazed by the way that she can get herself from one nap to the next to bedtime given the confines of our schedule. She can't go down until about 9:30, after I get the boys dropped off at school, and she has to be up from her second nap by 3:15, and 2:45 on days when Zachary has school so I can get everyone. Then on Tuesday and Thursday nights, she has to get an early bath and then hang out at Jacob and Kyle's soccer game. This means that she cannot go to bed until at least 7:30. And through it all, she is rarely fussy and just loves to see all her brothers.

Kyle continues to be the one who can get the biggest belly laughs out of her. However, she has started to take a real liking to Zachary-since he is now the only one home with her all day. She loves to watch him run from place to place-especially if it if right past her.

She started sitting right before she turned six months and by now I would say she is a pretty proficient sitter. She has also started to try and get on her hands and knees. Look for a video soon. I'm not sure how much time I have until she is crawling.

Just in the last couple of days she has started babbling, so I'm not sure if we would consider her doing this at seven months, but it is so cute. She just talks to all her toys and it certainly sounds like she has something important to say.

Right after she turned six months we again started letting her cry at night (not going in and giving her the pacifier) and this time it worked great! She now goes down between 7 and 7:30 and sleeps until about 6:30 or later--one day as late as 8:15! We still do hear her cry at night every once in awhile, but it's gotten so much better. She will only cry for a few minutes and in the morning I often find her with a pacifier in her mouth-and not the same one she went to bed with! She is taking two great naps a day and I really couldn't be happier with her sleep.

She has also started eating three meals a day. Her breakfast is some kind of cereal-rice, millet, oatmeal, etc. mixes with some avocado. Her lunch consists of yogurt with fruit mixed in-usually pears or bananas. Her dinner is usually two vegetables or a fruit and a vegetable, whatever we have on hand. She loves her food and can get cheerios and puffs in her mouth all by herself. I can't wait until she can expand her food choices a little more!

Here are a couple of pictures from her last four weeks. She seems to be changing so much by the day!

B