Week 33 - The Hostess With the Mostest

Wow, what a weekend! Ellie hosted her first weekend guests and it was quite a houseful. We had Riley Keohane (almost 2 years old) and her mom Heidi (from VA), and Ryan and Meredith Thomas (from CA) staying with us for the weekend. In addition, we had Jim and Kathleen (from MD) join us on Sunday. We were so excited that Ellie could finally meet Meredith, Ryan and Riley, and that she was in a happier state then when Heidi met her last (which was at the height of her eczema/allergy madness at 5-6 weeks). Throughout the weekend, Elise was pleasant and very well behaved. She also seemed to love having a playmate around, and of course she loved having an audience (as she is still quite the performer). She also continued her recent trend of sleeping through the night, even with all the people and chaos. That’s really all we ask, especially when we are staying up late playing Taboo. (Side note: never play with Heidi for money. She is a ringer.)

We all had a blast hanging out with our friends and once again, we got the chance to see if we could handle more than one child at a time. A few times througout the weekend, Heidi left Riley with us while she was getting ready or something and we observed 1) that an almost two year old and an almost eight month old can definitely get along well 2) that when one of the children has entered a stage in life where they can bring things to you, it is immensely helpful. Meredith particularly noted this, since oftentimes she’ll ask me for something and I get very easily distracted. Ellie had fun throwing things onto the floor and Riley had fun picking them up and giving them back to Ellie, so it was a win-win for everyone!

The main thing is that we have entered a whole new developmental stage… Meredith and I that is, not Ellie. Sure she crawling all over and playing hostess by letting people pick her up and hold her, but more importantly, her mommy and daddy used a babysitter for the first time. This is a major step forward for us. Granted, we only went to a restaurant that we could walk to down the street for about 3.5 hours, but it’s all about baby steps isn’t it?

Actually, the almost literal strides that Ellie takes every week are staggering. She has mastered crawling. This, mind you, is no small feat when you have hardwood floors all over the joint. When she ventures off the rugs to the hardwood, she struggles to get where she’s going as she slides all over the floor, more pulling herself forward with her hands than using her knees to propel her. She’s not going to be crawling for too long however, since she much prefers to be on her feet. She stumbles along holding on to whomever’s hands will assist her get to where she’s going in a bi-ped fashion.

One last observation from this week is that she is mommy’s little girl. Previously, it didn’t really matter much to her whether I held her or Meredith. But after I was gone for four days, there was a noticeable difference whenever Mommy left the room. I’m okay with that since I’m noticeably different when Meredith’s not in the room too! But I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little hurt… but then I thought about it from Ellie’s standpoint – I wasn’t around. I had to work a little harder to get back into those good graces. I had to earn it.

I’m happy to report that as of this writing, I seem to have earned it back. The lesson learned is simply that the next business trip it’s Meredith who will have to earn it back.
☺

Week 32 – What a Difference a Week Makes!

This week, Marty went to a work conference in California for four days and left us girls home alone for the second time since Ellie was born. This time, however, he was gone during the workweek, so my parents graciously came over to help out for much of his absence, so we weren’t as much “home alone” as we were “without daddy” for a few days. (Thanks Oma and Opa! We appreciate it!) As it was last time, I think that it was harder for Marty to be away from Ellie than it was for me to have her by myself.



When Marty went to California for a wedding in October, he was gone just a few days and when he got back, Elise was the same little baby that she was he left. But as she gets older, Elise seems to grow and change so much faster – I swear she is bigger some mornings than she was when we put her to bed! (although she remains practically bald and completely toothless, she grows in other ways!) She is learning and doing new things at such a fast pace now that just a few days make a huge difference. Elise has already moved past her Creative Crawling stage (see last blog entry) and has now begun to crawl in the traditional knees and hands way - and boy can she motor. Of course she makes a beeline (she is done with Avenue Q) past all of her toys, directly for whatever object (electrical wires, heater, magazines, shoes) that she shouldn’t be getting into. What a difference a week makes!

In the past week, she also learned a new party trick - pulling herself up. She has actually been pulling herself to a stand from sitting using our fingers and clothes (and lips and noses) for weeks now, but this is the first time she has been pulled herself to a stand using an object. In fact, she just discovered that she can pull herself to standing in her crib and this completely delights her. She thinks that it is the most hilarious thing ever - she whoops and squeals and laughs, so proud of herself. I think that this means that we have entered into a whole new era (and it seems potentially dangerous)!

Speaking of dangerous, this newfound standing (and thus falling) actually led to her first (of many I am sure) falling boo-boo. She was standing up holding onto the coffee table and slipped and bonked the bridge of her nose on the coffee table. At first, it was shaping up to look very bruised, like a broken nose, but it looks much less painful today. Even with her ability to crawl everywhere, she still prefers to stand (as she has since about two weeks old!) She is chomping at the bit to walk, but still does not have the greatest balance (ie: coffee table incident) so I think she’s still a few months away. But then again, who knows…a week can make a big difference in the life of a seven month old!

Week 31 - Creative Crawling

Quick – put up the baby gates, hide the breakables and give the cat a running start; Elise started crawling this week! Now, when I use the term “crawling” you are probably envisioning something like this: little baby on hands and knees, moving arms and legs simultaneously in order to get from point A to point B. Well, you would be wrong with that vision. While we can safely say that Elise is crawling now, it is not anywhere as graceful or efficient as the classic crawling imagine above.



She has begun to what we like to call “Limp Crawl” and it looks a little something like this: She starts on her hands and knees in classic crawling fashion. Then she tucks her right foot under her and uses it to propel her forward (which sometimes lands her on her belly, sometimes she stays up on her hands), then repeat. She usually uses the right foot, so she is not very good at going in a straight path, but she somehow (eventually) reaches her intended destination. We like to say that she gets from Point A to Point B by means of Q.


Like I said, she gets where she is trying to go, but it is neither graceful nor efficient. It is, however, absolutely hilarious. She also uses an alternate crawl, which we like to call the “Monkey Crawl”. With this crawl, she moves from Point A to Point B using her hands and feet, with her little butt up in the air walking like a monkey. She cannot get as far with Monkey Crawl (she usually topples over and then moves to Limp Crawl) but it is equally as hilarious and ungraceful.

Unfortunately in addition to the fun and joy that crawling has brought this week, Ellie has also had a not-so-fun past few days due to a nasty cold. Her nose is running like a faucet and she’s been having trouble eating since she can’t breathe out of her nose. She hates having her nose wiped and it is a full-fledged battle to try to get her nose clean (a process that is impossible anyway because right after we clean it, it’s right back to full of gunk almost immediately). Luckily other than the eating issue and hating getting her nose cleaned, the cold has not really dampened her spirits. Her newfound mobility is just too exciting!

Week 30 - Easy to Bed, Early to Rise

We’ve started putting Elise down without nursing her. Specifically, we decided and Meredith has executed, putting Elise down without nursing her. It was pretty much a guarantee that Ellie would fall asleep nursing when Meredith fed her at 7:30-ish each night. However, many experts will tell you and we can confirm, that the way a child falls asleep is the way they are going to want to go back to sleep when they wake up in the middle of the night. Therefore, if you rock a child to sleep, they are going to need to be rocked back asleep at 2:00 AM. If you nurse them, you will have to nurse them back to sleep. So all the Dad’s out there – if you want to guarantee that you will not be the one getting up to take care of junior in the night, then have mom nurse her to sleep- ‘Cause even if she makes you get out of bed, eventually, she’ll have to come in an save the day!
(Note: Dads. A wise man once told me that our job is to keep Mom happy, so I advise against making her be the one to get up and feed the little one. In my experience, Moms like sleep and will reward you for your late night sacrifices.)

So how is it going you ask? Great, surprisingly. Meredith feeds Elise around 6:15 PM, then it's bath time and the whole nighttime ritual which includes the family reading of "Goodnight Moon" and saying goodnight to many things upstairs together. Now, instead of feeding her, we lay her in the crib, and whisper 'goodnight.' We started out singing, ”Goodnight Sweetheart”, but that seemed to make her cry… if you’ve ever heard us sing, you’d understand why. ;-) Anyway, once we stopped singing her to sleep, she went down really easily. We just put on the Ocean Wonders Aquarium and she slips gently into dreamland. The whole process takes 10 minutes tops - it's been wonderful how easy it is to get her to go to sleep with our new process! I wish we'd tried this earlier!

Now, Elise pretty much wakes up in the late 4:00 AM – early 5:00 AM area. This is very early, but it’s a whole lot better than 2:00 AM. Interestingly though, on Thursday night/morning, we woke to the sound of the Ocean Wonders Aquarium lullaby, not Elise – there were some noises, but she was more or less alternating between whining and cooing as she played with the aquarium. When it stopped, there was some silence and then it started again. Meredith and I could not go back to sleep due to a) the noise and b) the fact that over and over again, our genius daughter had figured out how to play and restart the music! Finally, the full on complaining kicked in and Elise was up for the day. We still have not figured out if she was doing this on purpose, or kicking her legs up and hitting it, or how. Further early morning playing will reveal her intentions I'm sure.

One note about the early rising, while it completely disagrees with our circadian rhythms, it’s really nice having a full morning with Elise. She’s usually in a good mood and we can take our time, playing with her, drinking our coffee and getting ready. We’ve really come to rely on it and it’s just a wonderful start to the day. Any chance to get more QT with the baby is a very, very good thing.

Lastly, this week should also be known as the week of the fruit. They say that you should start out by giving your baby vegetables because they are not as sweet, and she needs to develop a taste for them, before fruits come in and ruin the enjoyable bland party. Oh, my lord is that the truth! Last weekend we gave her bananas for the first time and let me tell you it was like she had never eaten before. She wanted more and more and fast wasn’t fast enough. I never thought there would be something she would want more than booby juice, but then came bananas. You couldn’t feed her fast enough. I think she would have been happiest sticking her head into a large vat of them and eating her way out. Then later in the week came applesauce. She’s cooled down a bit in her reactions, but she will happily eat enough applesauce or bananas until her tummy is full and she feels sick. Have you ever seen that scene from Monty Python’s History of the World – Part I where the obese man eats everything and then one last thin after- dinner wafer… yeah, it’s like that!

All in all, the Molloy’s are doing great – settling into a nice routine, which means of course that everything is about to change. Again.

Week 29 – On the Verge

When you have a child, you begin to see the world through the eyes of a parent, therefore appreciating your own parents and what you put them through over the years. (Thanks for the whole giving birth thing, mom!) You also begin to get an understanding of the way they must have felt when you reached certain milestones. It strikes you at the oddest of times. For example, lately I am starting to get a sense of what it must have felt like for my parents when I was about to get my learners permit. I am sure they were terrified that I was going to hurt myself or be hurt by someone else, but at the same time excited about the freedom, adventures and independence I was about to encounter. While Elise is obviously years off from driving, she is on the verge of being mobile…and I think that the same sort of feelings come into play.

She can’t quite crawl yet, but she’s almost there. She can get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth but goes nowhere. She can also lie on her stomach and move her little legs a mile a minute like she’s swimming. But neither action actually gets her anywhere. She can, however, roll. And boy does that girl know how to roll! Why crawl when you can roll around like a maniac to get where you need to go. Sure, you may get dizzy but it’s so fun! You should try it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ellie forgoes crawling and walking in favor of rolling. I can just see her now, rolling up on stage to get her high school diploma.

Milestones are just that – milestones. They let us know if we are progressing and how fast. The amazing thing about babies is that they pass milestones left and right… sitting up – check! Eating solids – check! Pooping solids – (grunt) check! Crawling – almost. One month in baby time can mean the difference between being mobile and sitting like a lump. (We love our lump just the way she is!)

In contrast, milestones for adults are so spread out. Granted we cover more ground than Ellie does but the theory is the same. And now that we are married, have a home, child, careers… what’s next? Where’s our next mile marker? Retirement?! Actually, I think we’ll just live vicariously through Ellie for a while. She’s going to be speeding through milestones so fast, it won’t even occur to us that she is our most important milestone yet.

Week 28 - Food Wars

Our little sweetie is one tough cookie. She bonks her head in process of rolling over and falling from sitting up, thrashes her feet and arms (when she's excited and happy as much as when she's mad!) banging them really hard on the floor, changing table or whatever...and is generally doing things that make us cringe daily and say "OW" (and she's not even mobile yet! yikes!) Yet these Ouch Moments don't really seem to bother her in the least. But while she may be a tough baby in some aspects, when it comes to digestion, our little girl is as sensitive as they come.

We were a little hesitant to start Ellie on solid foods because of all of the issues that she's had with breast milk and formula. For 22 weeks now I have been avoiding dairy, soy, and a variety of other things (broccoli, tomatoes, etc) that wreak general havoc on our child's gastro-intestinal system. When I eliminated these things back when she was only six weeks old, the doctor told us that 60% of babies outgrow milk and soy allergies and sensitivities by 6 months, while 98% outgrow them by a year.

As you may recall, back around Thanksgiving we gave Ellie her first taste of solid food (rice cereal). She loved it and ate it up like she had been waiting for that moment since birth. Well, two or three weeks later we tried something new: oatmeal. It was a completely different experience - not only did she hate it, but she literally gagged while we were trying to feed it to her (she REALLY hated it...or she is a total drama queen). This set into motion our on-going Food War. Realizing that she wasn't a fan of the oatmeal, we went back to rice cereal. Our smart, stubborn girl remembered the great oatmeal debacle all too clearly and promptly declared rice cereal inedible as well.

After several days of trying to get her back on the rice train, we decided to make things more interesting by mixing some squash in the rice cereal. Thus "squashy-rice," Ellie's favorite treat, was born. She began to eat well again, although not eating too much at one time. The following weeks we offered different vegetables with varying results: sweet potatoes (yum!), green beans (ew!), peas (ew!), carrots (double yum!). With all of ew's came the process of having to "reintroduce" eating to her again, as she was once again leary of being fed something disgusting.

So with all the excitement and variety in her diet, we thought it might be a good time for me to introduce something I have eliminated back into my diet. She seemed to be handling the solid foods pretty well (the ones that she will actually eat) and now that she's over 6 months, maybe she is one of the 60% to outgrow her allergies, right?! Can you see this disaster from a mile away? We honestly didn't!

The last time I had some soy, it resulted in gassy-chaos, but I did go completely overboard with the soy intake, practically eating every soy product imaginable in a ten minute sitting. So, last Saturday I ate a small soy yogurt in the morning and had some stir-fry (with a little soy sauce) at night and waited with fingers crossed. The results were pretty disastrous. She had horrible gas for 3-4 days - so bad that it was waking her up several times throughout the night (she'd wake up screaming bloody murder, pass gas and go back to sleep...eventually), was fairly fussy during the day and would launch into these screaming fits of pain. There is nothing worse than hearing your child scream in pain. Coincidentally we'd introduced carrots for the first time that weekend too, so we're actually unsure if the soy, the carrots, or the perfect storm combo of having the two things at the same time caused the gastro-intestinal wreck. I am not eager to try soy or carrots again anytime soon to figure it out.

I have a feeling that the Food War (her gastro-intestinal troubles and her sensitive pallate) is going to be an on-going battle. It's so hard to introduce new things or reintroduce things into my diet knowing that it could result in excruciating pain for our little baby. But we're taking it one day at a time and crossing our fingers that her little digestive system will mature enough to handle anything by the time she's a year old and that she's not in the 2% that will continue having these problems! In the meantime, I will remain dairy and soy free and we will keep slowly trying new foods hoping that each one will go in (and out) easily.

Week 27 - Leading Lady

I suppose I knew the time would come, I just didn’t realize it would come so soon. My daughter LOVES being the center of attention. It’s true: she is a limelight junkie – and it’s only getting worse! Ellie loves it when all eyes are on her, and she makes sure you know it. She is never happier, more talkative or more animated than when your face is in her face, giving her your 100% undivided attention.

She can play independently just fine, but while she is playing, you’d better be watching her! She can sit in her Baby Einstein exersaucer/jumper for hours playing with all of the attached toys. But the second you try to leave her to her fun to prepare dinner, go to the bathroom, write checks, read something, etc… she starts to cry. While she is playing, she inevitably takes short breaks to make sure that you are intently watching her every move. Head is down for a second? CRY! It’s not just when she’s playing that she wants your attention. It’s constant! The best part is, if you want to make Elise start smiling immediately, all you have to do is applaud her and say, ‘yay, Baby!’ It’s the cutest thing.

While she is nursing, if I try to do anything other than stare at her (eat, read, talk) she will stop eating and stare up at me until I give her my undivided attention once again. Sometimes if I am talking while she’s nursing, she actually reaches up and grabs my lips! She doesn’t like it when other people are drawing my attention away either – if Marty starts talking to me while she’s nursing, so stops and cranes her neck around and stares at him as if to say “Shut Up! She is busy paying attention to me!” Actually the stare down of Daddy is hilarious. She is so stern.

Maybe this is why daycare is so good for her. We took Elise back to daycare after the eternity of seven days without daycare. This is seven days of constant, in fact, overwhelming attention heaped on Princess Ellie. She was not pleased to say the least. Wednesday, Marty and I walk in the door and there she is, crying her eyes out because God forbid the daycare staff is paying attention to another little baby at that moment. Needless to say, she had a bad day. No sleep, eating sporadically and generally wreaking havoc at the school. The next day, Ellie was a bit better and when we arrived she was being carried by one of the workers after having just thrown a mild fit. By Friday, Ellie had completely given up and was docile and resigned the whole day. Slept well, ate well – it was as if to say, okay, I get it, there are others in this world who also need attention. As of the writing of this blog, Elise seems to have adjusted back to center of attention status fine and we will repeat the cycle at daycare again – we just hope I gets a little milder.


While we're at it, a couple of notes on daycare; the Director of the daycare told us on Friday that in the 17 years she has been doing this, she has never in her memory known a child who did not stop moving as much as Ellie. Perhaps that is why she is so skinny – she just burns calories non-stop. Also, another worker there was joking that Ellie out eats every other child at the daycare and that only a porterhouse steak could satisfy her. The steak part was the joke, she does eat more than all the other kids there. Please take a moment to feel sorry for my milk producers.

Week 26 (Six Months!) – Cause and Effect

I know that every parent thinks their child is a genius or at the very least above average, but like all those children on Lake Wobegon, mine really is. For a few weeks now Elise has been dropping things from her high chair, or from the couch or from wherever. Now, you may be thinking that her grip is simply too weak or that she is destine to be clumsy. However, if you’ve met her, or have read our blog about the claw, trust me the grip is fine. (and I have the clumps of hair missing to prove it.) I think Ellie is experimenting with gravity. She has this triumphant look of, ‘cool, things fall… hey parents, did you know that?’

Okay, maybe she just likes to make noise, but what really is impressive is that she has learned that when she drops something it goes on the floor. She has learned that if I drop something out of my high chair on the left side, I will lean over and look for it on the left side and vice versa. This is the complicated concept of cause and effect.

As I write this, I realize that this may be another one of those moments where Meredith and I are far more impressed with something then most people would be. I think all parents do this sort of thing though, especially with the first baby. We read into everything. I can’t truly explain the roller-coaster ride that is reading the mayo clinic’s guide to the first year and comparing Ellie’s skills to what a six month old should be doing. For example, it says that by this time your child should be sitting up on their own for five minutes or more. No problem, she’s been doing the sitting thing for weeks now. My baby is so advanced. But it also says that a baby should be eating solid foods pretty regularly. Well, how come getting Ellie to eat cereal has been such a challenge? Is there something wrong with her? With us? Are we forcing it on her? Will she develop an eating disorder?

Honestly, Meredith is the worrier, but I have found that I am so much more protective and worried than I ever thought I would be. It’s so frustrating. The logic is that Ellie will do things in her own time and the books offer a rough guideline, but there is this lingering panic that everything you are doing is stunting your child’s development. So then are we overcompensating? Okay, see, I could go on like this forever. Basically, the gist of it is, you read what you can, you create the environment for Ellie to figure things out and Mother Nature will take care of the rest. Above Average, Average, Genius, it doesn’t really matter. I can’t believe I’ve actually turned into one of those types of parents. But whatever your baby can do, mine can do better. ;-)

Bonus Family Picture Post - Merry Christmas!

Gift from Oma and Opa













Grandpa and Ellie Christmas Eve












Grandmom and Ellie Christmas Eve














Molloy Family

















Grandmom, Grandpa and (Great) Grandma Stauffer












Nanny (Ellie's Great Grandmother Wolfe)











Ellie's second cousins Cory, Emma, and Kamryn, with my first cousins Robin and Sarah and (Great) Grandma Meredith












The Wolfe Family













Grandmom and Pop (Ellie's Great Grandmother and Grandfather Meredith)












"Aunt" Lauren (Ellie's first cousin once removed)

Week 25 – Rockwell’s Got Nuttin’ on Us

I have Christmas Fever. This may not seem like a big deal to some people, but to those of you who know me well, you know that I had become a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to this nation’s most overdone holiday. It’s not that I don’t like the idea of Christmas – I actually love the whole spirit of giving aspect. But I have been a strong believer in celebrating Christmas ON CHRISTMAS. That means: no buying gifts in July; no listening to Christmas songs except on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; no obnoxious decorations put up the day after Thanksgiving. Marty and I have never had a Christmas tree before (we always celebrate the day somewhere else!) and we don’t get each other gifts (we usually just paid for our trip back east).

Actually, for me, Christmas had become synonymous with stress and exhaustion. For the past several years it meant flying back east for an intensely jam-packed schedule with family functions and visits with friends, rushing from one thing to the next, spending the majority of our “holiday” on the beltway and returning home completely exhausted and ready for a vacation.

Having a child, however, has breathed new life into my Christmas Spirit. Like so many things in my life, I now see things in an entirely new light. Ellie’s first Christmas was very exciting for me, even though she wasn’t aware that it was happening. We bought a tree, bought and hung stockings (over the fireplace even! how trite!), put up wreaths and other decorations (Christmas threw up on our house!) and Marty and I even decided to exchange gifts this year. I even caught myself listening to the All-Christmas-Music-All-The-Time radio station on numerous occasions that were not Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. If you’d told me this time last year that I would be listening to Christmas music I would have laughed until I cried. Why the change of heart? Well…I don’t know exactly.

Maybe it’s because it was the first of many Christmas’s that we will spend as The Molloy Family. While Marty and I have been married for 5 years, we weren’t really a family until now. At least, no one really considers you a “family” until you have kids – you’re just a couple. As a couple, you split time between your parents’ houses carrying out each others families traditions insisting that the way that each of you did things with your family is the “right” way to celebrate Christmas. So, this year we started a new tradition: The Molloy Family Christmas. We will spend Christmas morning at our house opening presents and eating Pumpkin bread and drinking coffee (well Ellie can’t drink coffee until she’s at least 4)…or whatever it is that we will do that will become our family’s way of doing things. We will do this so that one day Ellie will say to her husband “but in MY family we always…” and argue that her family’s way is the “right” way.

Our first Christmas with Ellie was as wonderful – she licked her presents (we wrapped up two toys that we already had) and was in great spirits all weekend, especially considering that we threw off her normal bedtime routine and put her in loud situations with tons of people for three days straight. We got to spend lots of time with each of our families, upholding many Wolfe/Molloy-Stauffer traditions, and we also got to have Christmas morning together as a family unit, starting our own tradition. It was the best of both worlds. It wasn’t stressful, it wasn’t rushed. In fact, I am already looking forward to doing it all again next year. What a difference a year can make.

There was one little thing that happened, that I need to document as well. At my parents house, Ellie woke around 4:00 AM crying in the next room over. Marty got up and went to her right away, fearing that since she was in a new place and not in her own crib, she might be a little confused or afraid. Well, by the time Marty picked her up and brought her into our room, she had fallen right back to sleep. So Marty, basically a lazy man ;-), decided that the effort was too great to get her back in the other room - so he laid down and we snuggled together as a family for a few hours. It was one of the nicest Christmas memories we will ever have to share.