Parenting is not for the weak or the lazy

Have I mentioned how difficult it is to parent a 1 year old? The last few weeks have been extremely trying. I look at the pictures above and wonder what happened to my sweet little boy. I frequently wonder if I'm being too strict and and always worry that I'm being too harsh. Our most frequent battles are over not touching the dvd player, throwing everything off the highchair tray and diaper changes. He gets his hand swatted when he disobeys but he cries for 5 seconds and is back to doing what he was just disciplined for. I know he's worse when he's tired so this morning I put him down for his nap a little earlier than normal but he's just screaming in his bed. I'm hoping (probably naively!) that we're just getting the terrible 2's out of the way early. One of the hardest things I think is looking back at the day and realizing that the bad outweighed the good. It's difficult to swallow. As a mom you think it's your responsibility to make your child's day great so when you have a not so great day you feel at fault. I keep reminding myself that this is a season that will pass. There will be easier (as well as more difficult) days ahead. Raising a child is not like babysitting. I'm not always going to be the fun one.

I realize that the above paragraph was mostly word vomit and possibly doesn't flow well but my brain is mush and that's what happens. I am up for any advice from parents on how to handle screaming, discipline and expectations!

Now on to good things! Owen has slept through the night 5 nights in a row! The best part is I didn't even do anything to train him. He's been going down at 7:30 and getting up around 7:00 which is great. He then naps at 9:30 and again around 2:00. Lately the morning nap has been at least an hour and a half and the afternoon nap is maybe an hour.
Owen is also doing pretty well at following directions when he wants to. He was playing with a Tupperware bowl the other day and put it on his head which was really funny. After that happened I started asking him to put things on his head and he will try! Most of the time it just gets to his ear but he tries. He'll drop his paci in his crib when I ask him to and he'll look for his owl blanket.
He enjoys putting things in containers then dumping them out.
He loves playing with my phone and figure out how to push the button that will bring up the photo of him and I.
He's obsessed with buttons. I was holding him the other day and he kept pointing at Pat then we realized that he wanted to touch the buttons on Pat's shirt.
He likes broccoli and pasta but not a lot else. He's still really picky which is frustrating. Even his beloved Cheerios have lost some love.
He signs "more" for everything. Signing "all done" is usually flailing arms and a disgusted look. Instead of signing "milk" he beats my chest and looks down my shirt.
He loves dancing to music.
Banging the cabinet doors is fun but when mom says "bang!" it is hilarious.
I gave him milk for the first time last night. He is not a fan.

Pasta night

Valentine's Eve dinner

Just driving around the mall on my birthday!

I tried so hard to keep his mouth off of that thing but no luck.

Sleeping, standing, and discipline

I can't get over how much Owen has changed in the last couple of weeks. He's becoming more coordinated with walking and crawling. He pretty much only army crawls when he's not on carpet. After watching him I think it's because it's too slippery to stay on his knees so he just sticks to using his arms. He still doesn't really venture out of the living room which is good and bad. It'd be nice if he would just crawl into the kitchen if I'm in there instead of crying for me but at the same time it's nice to know where he is.

Now that he knows how to pull himself up in his crib he does it all of the time. Getting him down for a nap has become more of an ordeal because of this. He hasn't been sleeping as much lately and I'm thinking he maybe needs to go to one nap instead of two. I'm going to start that tomorrow and see what happens. I moved his bedtime from 7 to 7:30 last week for reasons I can't really remember. He's been napping for less time (today was 45 minutes each) so we'll try 1 nap and if that doesn't work we'll move his bedtime back to 7 and see what happens. I'm not thrilled about the prospect of only one nap but I remember saying that about going from 3 to 2 and it ended up being okay.

We've started to discipline Owen for a few things when he's doing something he knows he's not supposed to do. He falls apart when it comes from Pat but when it comes from me it's almost like he's thinking "is that all you got lady?!" He'll stick his bottom lip out when we say no and when the "no" comes from dad it is quickly followed by many tears. All I get is the lip and a straight face which can be hard to not laugh at at times. Pat has learned that he has to be extra loving after the "no" since it seems to affect Owen so deeply. We definitely have our work cut out for us with this guy!

I've become obsessed with watching Owen play lately. Now that he has some mobility he's exploring everything and it is fascinating to see him try and figure things out. Sheesh. I love that kid so much!

Check out my new skill!

He's a pasta with pesto over mac n cheese kind of kid. 

Ear infections and teething

To say that this week has been difficult would be an understatement. We took Owen to the doctor on Monday for the cough that doesn't end and found out he had an ear infection. He seems to be feeling better for the most part. The antibiotic was not so nice to his digestive system yesterday so we went through several outfits. Owen hasn't had any trouble today which I'm glad for. The worst part of yesterday was all of the tantrums I had to deal with. Owen throws a fit during almost every diaper change so having to change him more than usual as well as having poo everywhere made it even more difficult. Did I mention he'd been up from 12:15-1:45 the night before? Yeah, that was great. Fortunately he napped well yesterday so I was able to make it through the day. I think Owen's eye teeth are working their way in which I'm told can be a nightmare. The left side looks a little swollen and he keeps chewing on his bottom lip. He let me feel around in his mouth yesterday but I couldn't feel anything. Owen's waking and sleeping has been all over the place this week and the unpredictability is wearing me down. He's woken up between 6 and 8am this week which then means that his naps are not at the same time. I've tried to keep bedtime around the same time but there have been a couple of nights where he was down at 6:30 because he was so tired.

I've decided that as soon as Owen is done with the antibiotics we're going to work on weaning him off his middle of the night feeding. The reason I was okay with it was because he was waking up later with it but now that he's waking up earlier with it it's time to drop it. My other reason for wanting to end it is that it's taking a lot longer than the 10-15 minutes that it was. Now it seems to consist of me going in for 10 minutes then trying to go back to bed but then having to go back in there at least once. It's exhausting.

Owen has started throwing his pacifiers out of the crib when he wakes up. It's kind of comical because he's always in the same position when I go in to get him: on his stomach with an arm out of the crib pointing at the paci's on the floor and whimpering.

Over Christmas Owen started soaking through his diapers so we bought a box of overnight diapers and now that we're home he's barely wet in the morning. Ah well...

Here's a little video to show how could Pat and I are as parents...

9 Months

How did this happen already?? Time is just cruising by around here, that is for sure.

Owen's been rolling more but still can't really keep his balance when he's on his belly. I'm glad he's making the effort to get to things he wants rather than just crying when something is out of reach.

His cold seems to be improving. I haven't had to use nearly as many tissues in the last two days and he hasn't been coughing much at all. I'm hoping it goes away completely soon.

We've had some great nights of sleep and some average nights this week. Tuesday night I but him down at 6:45 and he didn't wake up until 5:30 and then went back to sleep for another couple of hours. I felt great after getting a long stretch and a late morning. He took good naps on Wednesday as well but then his nights went back to waking up at least twice. It seems that the days he takes short naps he sleeps longer at night. I love that he can sleep 10-11 hours straight but it makes for a long day when I get less than 2 hours during the day while he naps. At least I get one of the two!
A few nights this week I've given him a bottle before bed rather than nursing him. Partly because I had it on hand and partly because that's when he does the most biting. He's showing a little more interest in nursing lately which is great. It's been quite a while since I felt like I wasn't forcing him to nurse.

He still hasn't gotten anymore teeth but I'm okay with that (see aforementioned biting!). I'm pretty sure that once those top teeth come in he will strictly take a bottle.

Owen has his 9 month check up on Monday so we'll find out his stats then. He's still fitting into his 9 month clothes but I'm sure it won't be for much longer.

Owen has started to hate the changing table and cries every time I lay him on it. He doesn't mind having his diaper changed anywhere else so I don't know what that is about.

He started doing all sorts of funny things with his lips lately. Smacking them, sucking on his top lip, chewing on his bottom lip. It's all really funny.

Owen is loving his jumperoo and goes crazy in it now. It's a blast to watch him in it.
He's also loving books more. He's always liked them but would get fidgety or try to grab at the book while I read. Now he just snuggles onto my lap and cries a little when I put them away.
Some of our favorite books right now are:
Chicka chicka boom boom
Owen
Llama Llama Red Pajama
Fidgety Fish
Goodnight Moon

In the last couple of days Owen has started to want to sit on my lap while we play on the floor. He'll start grabbing at my legs and whining until I set him on my lap. Super fun.

In other exciting news I've been successfully eating dairy for the last month! I'm still trying to not overdo it mostly because I don't want to gain back any of the 60 pounds I've lost in the last 9 months. It is exciting that I'll be able to partake in the deliciousness of the holidays! I'll need to start working out soon though to make up for it.

Owen has a little Beavis laugh which cracks me up.