A Picture Says a Thousand Words...

Is Madeline Elmo obsessed? I don't know...you make the call. It all started back in her "sitting for one hour after eating" days when we let her watch videos. She fell in love with Elmo's World and of course, Elmo. Why do kids like him? I will never know...but they do!

My Aunt Lynn was out shopping at Marc's and bought Laila, her granddaughter, a few Sesame Street toys at $1 each. She ended up with an extra one, an Elmo in fact, and asked if Madeline would like to have it. She warned me that the toy was 18 months+, but we agreed it wasn't a choking hazard and gave her the doll. First mistake.

You see, there were no chokable parts to Elmo, but it was not until she dropped him on the floor at the mall all wet and slobbery when I decided to wash him for the first time that I recognized the need for the age rating. I look at the tag and see the words I would come to despise, "SURFACE WASHABLE ONLY". Why anyone would make a stuffed animal surface washable is beyond me, but it did explain why he was for children 18 months+. We tried to take Elmo away, but our child can talk and wouldn't you know that Elmo is one of her best words. She wakes up asking for him and basically asked for him so much, we realized there was no separating a girl and her Elmo.

In Seattle, Auntie Masha took one look at filthy, stinky old Elmo and decided something must be done. And we embarked on a two-Toys-R-Us trip in search of a perfect replacement: a washable replacement. Low and behold, we found a washable Elmo for 0 months+. Sold. We brought it home to her, she took him in her arms, and chucked him to the side, in favor of old Elmo. To this day, I am not sure she actually realizes "New Elmo" is actually Elmo.

Fast forward. Rami (my college friend) comes over to see Madeline. She brings a gift. Wouldn't you know she picked just the right one. Elmo. That talks. And is 18 months+. Learned that mistake and put him away for safe keeping.

So now we have 3 Elmo's, only one of which Madeline actually plays with. And so, the search is on for a replacement for "Old Elmo". My friend Stephanie from playgroup tells me she just bought her son Jack the exact same Elmo from Target for $4.99. Ok, so it isn't the Marc's price of $1, but definitely worth the upgrade. I head to Target to buy "New Old Elmo". It is love at first sight. "Old Elmo" goes to Grandma's (Madeline calls her Ama) and we are left with "New Old Elmo". Everyone is happy.

Until, as all Elmo's in our house do, he begins to get dirty and stinky. I act swiftly. We go to Target and buy two fresh Elmos. For our purposes here, we will call them "Newer Old Elmo" and "Newest Old Elmo". "Newer Old Elmo" is immediately swapped out for "New Old Elmo". "Old Elmo" gets to go live with Bobbie, "New Old Elmo" with Ama, and "Newest Old Elmo" goes to the hall closet, safe and clean until he is needed.

The moral of this story is three-fold. A) Never give a teething child a toy that isn't machine washable. 2) If you do, it will cost you $20 in replacements. and c) Buy stock in Elmo, I will send your kids to college!

Eating...

Madeline seems to eat all the time. Small amounts, often. It feels like over the course of a day, I am constantly feeding her.

So in addition to Madeline's regular feeding issues (milk protien allergy, soy allergy, various food allergies, and acid reflux), she has one other issue. She has a limit to what she can eat at one sitting. It is no wonder then that her first word was "all done".

But lately, I have been wondering if we are moving past that issue. She has learned a new word, "I want more" and has been using that often. Madeline has always known her limits and I trust that she is still hungry if she is asking. This prompted me to consider a revamp of our eating schedule.

Current Schedule:

7am wake up to a 6 ounce bottle

8am 1/2 piece of fruit like a nectarine

9am nap

10:30am wake up

11am 6 ounce bottle

12 pm Lunch (meat, something green, and a fruit)

1pm nap

3pm wake up/ snack like a bag of freeze dried apples

6pm dinner (meat, something green, rice, fruit)

7pm sleep/6 ounce bottle

Newly Proposed Scheule:

7am wake up to an 8 ounce bottle

8am breakfast

9 am nap

10:30am wake up-small snack

12pm lunch+2 ounce bottle

1pm nap

3pm snack

6pm dinner

7pm sleep/8 ounce bottle

We will see how it goes!

Keeping Houdini in Check

My daughter is a magician. I put her in the playroom and turn my back and she is all the way in the familiy room with her hand in the VCR and a DVD in her mouth. A split second, just like that! Something had to be done. I did the only thing I could think of...I moved the couches to block the TV area and hearth. Does it look good? NO! It looks ridiculous. Can you see the TV from the couches? NO! It is a weird angle. Has she had her hand in the record player, Wii, VCR, or DVD player. No. Priceless.

This gal is on the move! She is crawling all over the house, so much so we had to buy a gate for the kitchen. She seems to be attracted to things and places she is not welcome to touch/be. I just don't want to keep saying, "no touch" and moving her every two seconds.

Madeline continues to get more playful and beautiful every day. She loves walking with Daddy and getting mail from her house. She loves climbing in her tunnels and kissing her baby dolls. Madeline loves giving Mommy and Daddy kisses, too. In fact, yesterday, she said,"I love you, Mama." Ok, so it wasn't crystal clear, but I totally could understand her.

And She's Up...

Madeline has learned to pull herself up to standing. It is so fun to watch her play with toys differently now that she can stand up. It is like seeing the world in a whole new light. She is even able to sit down from a standing position...except when she is in her crib.

She grabs the bar with her hands so tightly they become white. This has made sleeping for our "good sleeper" a total disaster. I am afraid Madeline inherited my need for sufficient sleep. Without it, I am a weepy mess. And so is she.

She spent last night screaming and crying for two hours and had a repeat performance tonight. She only took one nap today and cried almost the whole morning from exhaustion. I am just hoping that she will perfect the standing tomorrow and let herself rest!

Any advice from the moms out there? Did you go in and help your child down in the crib, or let them cry it out themselves? So far, we have abandoned our cry it out to help her get down, but that seems to be a disaster. We are planning to try "cry it out" tomorrow night, unless I get some better advice. Lay it on me, people!

Madeline Navigates a World with Stairs

My last saving grace was that Madeline could not get up the stairs. If I needed to do something away from her, I could put her in the playroom and walk away knowing she was stuck (and safe) there for a few seconds.

That is, until yesterday. Alex gave Madeline a boost up the stair separating the family room from the dining room. And that was it. She has mastered getting up stairs. The down is still unchartered territory...but I am sure it is not far off.

Here she is at Barnes and Noble climbing the step in their children's area. The pictures are in reverse order.

We have also mostly moved out of army crawling and into real crawling. She is still faster army style, but she is willing to put in more effort today for some reason.

Ugg...you know what this means: more work for me!

Is She a Turtle?

When I take a shower in the morning, I put Madeline in her vibrating chair with a lap seat belt (not a five-point harness). She plays with toys and I pop out of the shower every few minutes for a game of peek-a-boo.

So yesterday, I was out of the shower, getting dressed and I see that Madeline is getting closer and closer to wanting to jump out of the chair. She was just leaning too far forward and the glimmer in her eyes said, "I am gonna do it!".

Well, I wasn't wrong. I few seconds later, she flings herself forward and ends up face down on the floor, still strapped into her chair. Since she did it on purpose, she was unhurt and unphased by it.

I, on the other hand, was paniced. So what does she do, she starts crawling around, dragging the chair behind her like a turtle.

It was so funny, but also, it was worrisome because I wasn't sure how to get her out without frightening her or hurting her. The buckle was underneath her and so I had to lay down upside down to carefully unbuckle her.

In the end, we had to come up with a new shower/getting ready routine. And I had to convince her she wasn't a turtle.