Missing my baby

Isla’s always been a mommy’s girl and I can honestly say I wouldn’t have it any other way. Recently though, it has become increasingly hard to leave her as she is going through separation anxiety.

Mondays are always the worst day because we’ve been together all weekend long. This morning she would not let go of me…she wrapped her little thighs around my waist and pinched my back like she was holding on for dear life. After I sat her down, she looked up at me, reached for me and started to cry. The teacher quickly distracted her with toys and the older children. Isla soon forgot about me leaving and began to play with the other kids, but it still made it so hard for me to leave her.

Just as much as she is going through separation anxiety, so am I…I never like to leave her… even leaving her for a few hours gives me anxiety so the fact that she has started reaching and crying for me makes it even harder. I can tell this is going to be a rough stage for both of us. I never knew I could love someone or be this attached to anyone.

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Sleepless nights…

Since Isla took two steps forward, she took three steps backwards in her progress with sleeping through the night. The past three nights have been challenging. She has woken up at least twice each night, screaming out for me and walking/shushing/rocking is the only way to get her back to sleep. Needless to say I am running on fumes. To add to that, she only wants her mommy right now so the pressure to press forward has been immense.

In the mornings, she is as happy as a jay bird…laughing, smiling, generously showing love. This morning she leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I have to say – it made my frustrations of lack of sleep quickly fade away.

It’s amusing how quickly my tiredness diminishes with just one look at her. She is so eager to greet me in the mornings; ready to start her day and share smiles wherever she goes. I love waking up to her everyday… and even though I am waking up more than I would like in the wee hours of the morning, I am so grateful I have a sweet baby to wake up to. I know there are so many people out there that would love to be in my shoes… holding their babies again, rocking them to sleep and savoring in these early moments of life. I feel so blessed God chose me to be Isla’s mommy and try not to take that for granted no matter what time it may be in the night or morning.

My little walker!

On Friday, Isla took her first unassisted steps! She has been cruising along furniture and really anything she can pull up on for quite a while now. We were sitting in the floor playing and I reached out to her with a toy. She grabbed the other end of the toy and walked towards me taking two steps. Wow, I thought! She is ready to do this! I tried again, and again she took two steps towards me, even better this time. So on the third try, I dropped the other end of the toy and she took four steps unassisted! 

We tried again once daddy was home, but by that time her chubby legs had turned into noodles and she wasn’t interested in getting a workout any longer. We tried again on Saturday and Joel got to experience it for himself. She still remains unsure and somewhat uneasy.

On Friday, I could tell she didn’t realize what she was doing yet. Now when she stands, you can tell she is thinking about it… so much so that she must be talking herself out of doing it. I don’t mind though.

To be honest, I’m not really ready for my baby to be a full time cruiser. It’s all happening so fast! I am just fine to stay in the crawling stage just a little while longer. Slow down Isla-Rae. You are growing up too fast!

 

DIY Baby Bicycle Mobile

There are so many options out there for baby mobiles. It used to be your only choice was through a baby store and something more commercialized… not with the explosion of DIYers on etsy and creative moms everywhere the possibilities have become endless. 

For Isla’s nursery we took an uncommon route. We used a colorful leaf windchime in place of a mobile. We decided to hang it above the window, verse directly over the crib though. 

With the announcement of my sister-in-law’s pregnancy, I had a new reason to get in touch with my DIY skills again. The theme of the shower was bicycles, so to remain within that theme and pull it through to the nursery; I decided to make the mobile bicycle focused. 

Now, one thing I’ve learned from looking into making mobiles for my own daughter and making this one is that it can get expensive! Materials add up and often what you think will be an easy project turns out to be more difficult than your original plants, but I can confidently say that this was an easy DIY mobile project and the end result (in my opinion) is adorable!

Ok, for starters I had to determine what I would use for my base. At first, I was thinking of using a bicycle wheel, which is doable, but based on the size of the ones available to me and the weight, I decided to go with a bike gear instead. Another option would be an embroidery hoop which is also very easy to use, light weight and inexpensive. 

I cleaned the bike gear with steel wool and purchased spray paint from Wal-Mart to give it a fresh coat of paint.

For the charms hanging down (the main attraction for the baby) I wanted to use something light weight and safe. While perusing Jo-Ann's site, I uncovered these wood flourishes, often used for scrap booking, and immediately purchased! They were on clearance too, which really nudged me to purchase.

I used spray paint to make the mobile colorful, vibrant and match the shower colors as well.

I found this red and white stripped twine at Target in the dollar bin and used it to string the bicycles, penny farthing bikes and diaper pins from the gear. I also used it to string the mobile to the ceiling.

In the end, we made a very cute addition to our baby shower decorations and also something that can be used in the nursery. I love the variations of bicycles and the tiny penny farthing bikes!

Isla Rae: 10 Months Happenings

At 10 Months, Isla is doing the following…

• Blowing kisses! – It is the cutest thing in the whole wide world.
• Giving kisses – another heart melter… she leans in and gives me a big sloppy wet one right on the lips.
• Playing peek-a-boo – she puts her hands over her eyes and then quickly pulls them away. She loves it when you act really excited to see her. It’s so cute.
• Standing solo – wow, she has really developed a lot lately! She went from wobbly standing while holding on, to standing up in the middle of the floor with no help while holding a toy! Her balance has improved so much recently. I know it’s a matter of time before she takes off walking. I’ve even been dreaming about it lately.
• Waving – she loves to wave hi and bye.
• Climbing – look out world, we’ve got a climber! She loves climbing up stairs and I hate it! She’s on the move all the time, but recently she’s taken it to the next level and is now climbing onto everything. She throws her chunky little thigh up on the object and pulls herself up. I just hope she doesn’t slim down from all this moving. I love her thighs!
• Teething – she has now cut 4 teeth total. The two on the bottom have come in well and the two on top are pushing their way in! It’s so funny to see her smile. Her smile has changed so much from that gummy smile to now seeing her pearly whites. No longer can I tell her to show me her gum-gums.

I hope to take some snapshots of her this weekend for her 10 month pictures. She is growing so fast. My little baby is becoming a toddler.Tear!

Letters to Isla Rae

Happy 10 months my sweet sweet girl!

You are a growing girl! You’ve developed so much just in the past few weeks. At 10 months, you officially have 3 teeth! Well, cut anyways… you can’t completely see the top one, but it’s there! The two bottom teeth have pushed through well, you’ve cut the top left tooth and the top right is working its way through. I’m confident you’ll have at least 4 teeth by the end of this month.  For the most part, you’ve done pretty well with teething, but I can tell they have been hurting you a little more than normal lately. 

You’re still not a good sleeper. You’ll go through a phase where you sleep for 4-6hrs straight for several days in a row, and then it’ll break and you’ll go back to waking up every two hours. I know all the milestones and developing has a lot to do with it. To a lot of moms, 4-6 hours seems insane… their babies sleep 8-11 straight, but you’ve never been a good or sound sleeper. Usually, you wake up at the slightest little bit of noise too. But regardless of the lack of sleep for both you and me, we both stay in a good mood. Just one look at your little bed head and my heart melts. 

You are still wearing 9months and can fit into 12 months clothing well now too. You hate getting dressed and getting diapered. You are very independent and busy. You want to be on the go constantly.

You love making noise. Your favorite toys are my Tupperware and wooden spoons. You love to bang them around and hit them with your spoons.

You are a pretty good eater. You like butternut squash, broccoli, love avocado and we recently introduced ham. 

You are waving and clapping still. You are standing up on your own. You can even stand up and pick up a book or hold a heavy toy while standing. Recently, you started walking along the furniture and walking from one object to the next holding on. I know it’s just a matter of time before you take off walking. 

You are saying bye-bye, Isla, Mama, Dada, Alldone (this one is really cute) and this weekend you said Papaw for the first time! You also started copying mom and saying no-no.

You are still an outdoors baby. You love being outside and it always calms you down. We are looking forward to doing all sorts of fun activities with you outside this spring and your dad can’t wait to get you in the pool. 

You are the apple of our eye and we love you soooo soooo much! Happy 10 months baby girl!

Love,

MA-MA J