mommapalooza

Shopaholic & Wee Little Clothes

I hope that I'm not the only person out there who has more fun buying clothes for my child than for myself! I honestly do. I have banned myself from entering an Old Navy until October at least. We received the new Robeez catalogue in the mail this week, and it's hard to resist the urge to run to a store and see the new designs in person!  It's crazy, but part of me wishes that they'd keep making those little shoes in larger and larger sizes so that I can still gush about them when Madeline is seven :)

Food, thy fickle friend

Things that Madeline used to enjoy eating:

• grated cheese
• yogurt
• applesauce
• oatmeal
• broccoli
• blueberries
• chicken
• macaroni and cheese

Apparently, she now things these are all poison or something similarly unappetizing. I honestly don't know what to feed her these days besides Cheerios and dried fruit! Bah!

Music for Mosquitoes

I still haven't found any explanation for the Canadian Pediatric Society's warning not to use citronella on infants, but my second purchase in the name of defending Madeline against West Nile Disease arrived in the mail last week - a tube of Avon's Skin So Soft lotion. I skimmed the ingredients on the back of the tube, and it looks like the insect-repelling ingredient is soy bean oil. I was all pumped to try it out on Madeline this past weekend at the Calgary Folk Music Festival, but would you believe that there were no mosquitoes?  Maybe they heard that the South Country Fair in Fort MacLeod was better and all flew there!

Last year I was too chicken to take Madeline to the folk fest -she was three weeks old, fussy, and breastfeeding was still a panicky thing, but I'm glad that we went this year. We went down to the park after her morning nap. She loved all of the green space to crawl around - so much grass, and fun piles of wood chips around the trees!  There was playground with the bucket swings for little people, and a ball pit, too. I'm glad that we brought the Zooper with us because she actually drifted off for an afternoon nap in it on Saturday, and also glad that we brought the Ergo carrier because sometimes being up high is what makes her happy. Music also makes her happy - it's really something to watch her start to wiggle her shoulders and wave her arms about when she hears a song with a good rhythm :)

Waiting Room

I never really let myself get stressed out about the state of the heathcare system before Madeline came along, but now I can be frequently heard growling about it.  There aren't enough pediatricians in Calgary, so instead Madeline is under the care of a family physician. Except, there are shortages of family docs, too. It seems that one has to be healthy to get in to see the doctor - everytime that Madeline has been sick and I'd like her doctor to see her in a timely fashion, the doctor is booked up for the next 4 or 5 days.  How dysfunctional is that?  A person has to know that they're going to sick in advance ...

In case anyone is wondering why I'm grumping, Madeline has had a bad cough for the last five days. But no fever today, so that's good. Still running around like the Energizer Bunny.

Cloth Diaper Update

A year later, we're still cloth-diapering. Still part-time, but it's the thought that counts, right?  I finally went out and bought a couple of larger covers for Madeline last week - she'd outgrown her Mother-Ease wraps awhile ago, so I had nothing to use with the pre-folds and was down to six pocket diapers. Anyway, we're trying out two of the Bummis Super Whisper Wraps and so far, they're just as good as the Pro-Wraps I had for Madeline when she was a wee thing. I'm thinking of cutting a few inches off of the prefolds (or at least a few, to test) as suggested on Karen's Cloth Diapering Pages as I'm running into the same problem as she was - the pre-folds are just too large for the covers and they're unnecessarily bulky in the angel fold.

One new thing in the diapering department is that we're suffering from diaper pail stink. Never had this problem before - I must be slacking off in the laundry department! I currently am trying to battle the stink with tea tree oil and baking soda and keeping my fingers crossed.

Also thinking of getting Madeline a re-useable swim diaper once we've finished off her current packageof Little Swimmers. I think I've read enough about them and talked to enough people who use them to be confident that they actually work!

Baby in a Bubble

Yesterday evening, Chris had an early soccer game, so Madeline and I tagged along to watch him play. I thought I was prepared - I brought a light snack for her,  a drink, a few books, a ball, and some citronella lotion as she's too young for insect repellants containing DEET and Calgary has a wicked mosquito problem at the moment. The lotion seemed to work well enough, too - I haven't seen a single bump on her while I have several new ones where I forgot to apply the lotion. Then one of my friends from a parenting forum pointed out that the Canadian Pediatrics Society warns against using citronella and lavender oils on babies, and doesn't say why! Argh! I'd love know! I am beginning to feel like we might as well keep Madeline in bubble until she's older and can use sunscreen and bug repellant with wild abandon. It's not like she's exposed to the elements constantly, but it's frustrating. I'd be tempted to try rubbing her with a dryer sheet - I've heard tales of those keeping the skeeters at bay - but dryer sheets and fabric softener are also no-nos for babies because of fire retardency!

Everyone's a Critic :)

I noticed, on a recent trip to Chapters, that Elizabeth Pantley has written the No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers. I have the regular version of the book, and I wonder how much of what she has to say is different!  I kind of regret not going to hear her speak at McNally-Robinson a few weeks ago when she was in Calgary, but I had other plans. 

Earlier that same week I attended the Raymond Parenting Sleep Clinic and I have mixed feelings about it.  On one side, there were some interesting points raised, like letting your child sleep in a crib at least until the age of three. Kitty Raymond advocates that for safety reasons - if the smoke detector goes off in your home in the middle of the night, it's better to know that your child will be in their crib instead of wandering around a burning house in a fright. I can see the benefits to that. The other interesting discussion was on the benefits of ending night feeding to give a baby's metabolism a rest and reset it for daytime nutritional intake. I never thought of that before.

On the otherhand, the main purpose of the seminar seemed to be about putting a warm and fuzzy face on the cry-it-out routine. I didn't need to take a seminar to hear someone suggest that I place my baby in a crib, close the door, and don't return until morning, or provide a hand-out detailing the steps to implement that program!  I'm sure that even parents who would never consider sleep training wouldn't need this spelled out for them.

dining with my daughter

Twice this week, Madeline and I have been ladies who lunch. These were my first solo attempts at getting food in both her and me in public places. The first lunch was at Chinook Centre, where we were killing time while I was having the tires on my car rotated. I was kind of worried about having to lug a highchair over to our table while pushing Madeline in her stroller at the same time, but we found a table that already had a highchair beside it. Madeline ate grapes, a bit of pasta salad, and nibbled at my chicken wrap. She really liked the bits of carrot in it. I let her have a sip of my pink grapefruit juice - she adores straws!

Our second lunch was today - we went to Ikea to get a spider-themed mesh laundry hamper for Madeline's room.  Before heading to the kitchen goodie section and the check-outs, we stopped off at the in-store restaurant. I had the ten meatball plate, and Madeline had the mac and cheese (which I gladly finished). The first challenge we had was like the one at the mall - maneuvering. I was managing okay with steering the shopping cart with my right hand and balancing the tray with our food on my left arm and chest. This is, until Madeline decided to grab the blue plastic cup of lingonberry juice and spill it over herself.  There were a few other rough patches with getting a highchair set up and discovering that I'd forgotten to grab napkins, but Madeline and I did alright. She shared her macaroni, and I let her try a wee bit of meatball and roasted potato. She rubbed her cheesy hands through her hair, and mine, too.  She was better behaved than some of the children there with many more lunches out under their belts :)

little girl, big personality

I know I shouldn't be, but I am really surprised at how quickly Madeline changes! About two weeks ago, out of the blue, the temper tantrum of frustration emerged. If there is something that she wants but can't get, or if I try to put her down when she is of a different opinion, out comes the back-arch and the howl! It's exasperating, but I try not to let it on!

Madeline is also becoming choosier about what she puts in her mouth (hopefully this phase also includes non-edible objects!). It's quite difficult getting a spoon of pureed food into her mouth these days. A few evenings ago, Chris took it really hard and personal when she rejected the sweet potato, tofu, and spinach dish he'd prepared for her in the food processor. I've come to terms with the fact that if I offer her cereal or yogurt right now, it will probably go directly into the "reject pile", better known as the kitchen floor.  We've stocked up on fruits and veggies in the meantime, and I turn into a steaming-and-chopping machine during naptime.

She's also obsessed with containers. The ones that her toys come in or can be put into are okay, but nothing is more fascinating than the containers that hold her food. Sometimes she's not content at mealtime until there is a bowl on her tray.  Yesterday at dinner she kept trying to scoop the chicken in the bowl onto her spoon - it was really cute!

shake it up baby

About two weeks ago, Chris and I decided that it was time to tinker with Madeline's bedtime routine.  I had to go to an evening seminar (ironically, on infant sleep), and I would have to head out before Madeline's bedtime.  This necessitated an end to my solo act of putting her to bed. Having Chris involved in bedtime was long-overdue. The routine had been "change diaper, put on jammies, put on sleepsack, read stores, nurse, bed", but having the feeding be the last thing before putting Madeline in her crib made it hard for Chris to be able to replace me.  The routine we've been working on goes more like "clean diaper, jammies, nurse, sleepsack, stories, bed" and Madeline is still a little unhappy about it, but she's coming around. I know that this abrupt change really amounts to dabbling in crying-it-out territory. It's taken us many months to get comfortable with the idea, considering that we started out co-sleeping and attending unfailingly to Madeline's requests for food and/or company, but it's interesting how our perceptions evolve as we continue to grow as family unit. It's important that Chris be involved in putting Madeline to bed.  We know that Madeline can fall asleep without being held and nursed. Of course, if I were her, I'd be protesting this change as well.   

P.S. One interesting thing - she is much more attentive to her bedtime stories when her dad reads them!