Snuffaluphagus and a New Toy

Arden's just getting over her first cold. It really wasn't that bad at all but I was kinda proud that she hadn't gotten sick until she was almost 8 months old. She had a really snotty runny nose for about a week and at times I was feeling like a human tissue. The sucky bulb nose thing became our best friend, and Arden's new favorite toy to chew on (is that bad?! I did clean it before she chewed on it) But not her favorite thing for us to actually use on her. The first few days were miserable for all of us because she didn't sleep well at all. She would go to bed fine and then wake up screaming and would fight going back to sleep. Like cry, turned up to eleven, for an hour not wanting to fall back asleep. And then right when she's finally give in and I'd lay her down, she'd wake up and start all over again. Lots of fun. I'm telling you, a very true test of a parent's patience. After three nights of this, I was going to give it one more night before I called the doctor to go in and rule out an ear infection but she slept a lot better that fourth night and then every night since then she's woken up less and less. Which is good because I think if it had gone on any longer Dave and I were going to kill each other in the middle of the night. He doesn't deal well with sleep deprivation or mucus so a combination of the two was brutal for him. And now that Arden's getting better, Dave has gotten sick and is all snotty. This morning he started my day with the lovely statement after getting up to blow his nose, "Hey honey, I think I just blew out my mucus plug." Yummy. I love his way of continuing to add in his pregnancy knowledge long after we've had the baby.

On a nicer subject. My brother just got a new camera which instigated him giving us his older Canon Rebel- a very nice camera. It's a bit daunting for me because it's much more involved then my little Canon point & shoot but it takes really great pictures. If you've looked at our flickr page you know we take a lot of pictures (mostly of course of Arden) so it will be put to great use once I figured out how to use it more effectively. Especially since you can take lots of pictures very quickly- good and bad, I'm really going to have to work on my editing and deletion of pictures then to save everyone from having to go through hundreds of pictures of stuff (even if it is Arden- the cutest baby in the world).

Some Milestones!

So I mentioned in an earlier post that Arden was starting to get her first tooth. I noticed today that the ridge where I felt her first tooth was a bit longer, and upon investigation, noticed that the second bottom front tooth was coming in as well. One of my friend's said that the first 2 teeth are the worst for kids so I guess it's good that she's getting them both at the same time! For those who are wondering what the heck they're looking at in the above picture, those faint whiteish lines in the center of her bottom gums are the beginnings of teeth. I wonder how long they take to actually grow up and look like teeth?...

Arden's other big accomplishment recently, is being able to sit up on her own. She's been working on this for a couple of weeks now, but she's finally got it down so that she's not falling over as much anymore. I shot some footage for you. She even waves at the camera. My big ham of a daughter- no idea where she gets that from ;-)

Dave's "Mr. Mom" Night

arden & sutton new years day
Originally uploaded by M Drenzek

So let me preface this entry with the statement that, my husband tells this story a lot better in person, with more comic relief and a lot more let's call it..."embellishment"

Monday night my yoga teacher was offering a special New Year's Eve practice, that I wanted to go to and so did my friend Ellen. As some of you know, Ellen is the mother of Sutton, who is about 3 months younger then Arden. Dave offered to babysit both of them while we went to practice. Brave man. Ellen and I were both a bit shocked but didn't want to frighten him away from doing this so gave it a shot. With some brief instructions from Ellen, we left for a relaxing inspiring practice leaving Dave to fend for himself with the ladies.

He said the first hour went rather smoothly. Both babies entertained themselves on the activity mat, Sutton on her back staring up at all the toys, and Arden sitting up staring at Sutton the whole time. Then he said it went downhill when Arden decided that she wanted to eat Sutton. She tried to grab Sutton on both sides of her head and take a lick, much to Sutton's dismay. Sutton started crying, Arden got scared and started crying and Dave had to tried to calm them both down at the same time.

Dave admittedly now realizes that he should have taken some of that "downtime" to prepare for feedings, because after calming them both down he realized that Arden's evening feeding/bathing/bedtime routine was going to conflict with Sutton needing to be fed and put down. He heated up Arden's solid meal which he made too hot, had to cool with breast milk, which made it too runny, then he had to thicken it back up with rice cereal. He said by the time he was finished with preparing it he had about 4 times as much as she usually eats and a fussy, bored Arden sitting in her high chair. Sutton was content for bit while he got Arden stripped down (if you've seen early pictures, you know why she eats in just a diaper) but as soon as he started feeding Arden, Sutton was not happy with being in either the jumper or the exersaucer, so he picked her up and sat her in his lap while feeding Arden in her high chair. This is where I wish we had video. He said both babies were perfectly content this way. Sutton watching Arden eat, and Arden gobbling down more food then he'd ever seen, maybe thinking that Sutton was going to eat it so she had to get to it first! And Dave trying to juggle both of them!

So then Dave realized that it was impossible to give Arden her nightly bath with Sutton's approaching feeding and bedtime. So he put her in her crib in just her diaper to come back and bottle feed and put down. He figured at least in her crib she couldn't fall or roll anywhere while he was putting Sutton down. Arden didn't really like this idea, wondering why she was being put to bed naked and hungry and started to cry. But Dave decided Arden, being his baby, could cry a bit while he tended to Sutton. He changed Sutton and wrapped her in her special swaddle as instructed by Ellen and then popped the bottle in. He said it seemed like she took a long time to eat but that was probably because Arden was still crying in the room next door. As soon as he saw the first glimmer of sleepiness in Sutton's eyes, he tried to switch out the bottle for the pacifier "Raiders of the Lost Ark" style. And just as he was putting Sutton to sleep on the bed, the cat snuck in the room to take a poo in her litter box. Great. So he waits for the cat to come out, cleans the box and shuts the door. One down, one to go.

Meanwhile Arden has been fussing this whole time, and she practically cried herself to sleep. But she's naked and still hasn't been fed, so he gets her up puts her in her pajamas and feeds her until she's asleep.

So he thinks he's golden. Two babies asleep, Ellen and I not home yet. He was planning on putting on the facade that it was a piece of cake, when Sutton starts talking to herself in her room. Not full blown awake yet, but getting there. This of course happens about 2 minutes before Ellen and I call to say we're coming home. We get home, Sutton is wide awake in Dave's arms, and Dave is drinking a beer. She stayed up with us for a bit longer then Ellen fed her again and put her to sleep.

Bottom line- both babies and Dave survived, but Dave was obviously worn out. He did however offer that he would do it again if need be so he's either sadistic or a bit crazy, you decide.

The rest of New Year's Eve was a real rager. Dave, Ellen and I stayed up complaining that New Year's wasn't at 9 pm, flipping channels and then watching the ball/acorn drop and were in bed about 20 minutes later. We drank a total of 3 beers between the 3 of us. 2 of which were Dave's. We're getting old.