My Daughter is a Daddy's Girl

My daughter is a Daddy's girl, and I'm okay with that.

This morning we were woken up earlier than usual by Everly babbling away in her crib. We dragged ourselves out of bed to start the day, but both of us were not really awake. Neither was Everly it seemed. She fed and we all went to go back to bed for a bit of an early morning nap. Everly was not having any of it.

I ended up going and getting her out of her crib, in my zombie state I brought her back to our room and cuddled with her in our bed. The whole time though she was staring at her Daddy and trying to get his attention. I finally let her loose and she started swatting at him to try and get his attention. I told her she had to try harder so she started to babble again. This got his attention. She happily played with her Dad and we eventually got our lazy butts out of bed for the second time.

My daughter lights up so much when Jason comes home from work in the evenings, the odd times he does have to go in to the office to work. Sure she does the same thing with me at times, its just incredible for me to see her do this with her Dad, there is just something different to the look on her face.

Today I also had her bouncing in the jolly jumper upstairs, Jason is working from home. He came and joined us for a short moment. He got her giggling and jumping up and down more than I had been when trying to entertain her.  He had to quickly run back downstairs to check something with work and grab his lunch. She stopped what she was doing and just stared in the direction her Dad had gone and waited, no more bouncing up and down, no more giggles and smiles. She was waiting to see if her Daddy was coming back. Sure enough upon his return her whole demeanor changed again and she was back to her joyful self.

I'll be honest, the odd time this does tug at my heart and make me a little sad. Sometimes I just feel like I'm the food supply. However, Everly and I share our moments too. It makes me so happy to see how this relationship is already forming between my daughter and her Daddy. She loves him very much. When Jason and I first met, I knew right away I had someone incredibly special now in my life. Now Everly is seeing how incredibly special he is too.

Little Feet

I find myself often playing with my daughter's little toes, that's also because she is often kicking things with them or grabbing her own toes lately. It gets me thinking about how it used to be that those little feet used to be kicking me in my ribs, now they help my daughter jump and bounce when standing on my lap.

Little feet are just so cute. All the tini little toes, all the wrinkles. You can't help but to smile when she giggles from you tickling her feet. Even when covered in funky coloured socks, or little boots of some sort people often stop and comment on how cute she is and how cute her little feet are.

It makes me think of the future and all of the places those little feet will take her some day. Today, happiness is cute little baby feet.

Slowly Going Crazy

Anyone else remember this annoying song? If you are a child of the 80's you most likely know this song and many others from this group. It sums up how we are feeling recently. We are slowly going crazy,  right now our daily activities do strongly rotate around Everly's routine. As it should be really. She is a very easy going lil girl and that does help a lot, but when she needs a nap, she NEEDS a nap.

It can be really frustrating at times when we have people who seem to not understand that we cannot just wake her from her nap to pack her in a car and visit during a get together or meet up somewhere to hang out. Sorry but Everly does come first right now and if she is in the middle of a good long rest we are not going to wake her.

During the time she is awake we do try to get out and do what we need to, such as get groceries or go for a walk as a family, before we know her next nap will be needed. We do let her sleep in the car if need be, but it is not our favourite thing to do because she does not get the best rest possible when we do this. It is sometimes difficult to get her back to sleep in the crib when we do get home, and we know she needs more sleep.

Sometimes though we feel we are trapped at home, especially if she is having one of her longer naps. We do tidy the house and get other things done. Maybe its time to start up some hobbies, I've always wanted to learn how to crochet. I am more content to just relax at home, however Jason will go crazy if cooped up too long. Its all part of how life changes when you have a little one.

Any ideas or suggestions for how to not go crazy?

Swimming swimming in my swimming pool

I have some great memories of going to swimming lessons when I was younger. My older sister and I had matching purple with white stripe bathing suites. I remember being so happy when I passed a level and got my badge for completing it. One of my old swim suites had the badges sewn onto it. I also remember how devastated I was when I failed levels. My Mom also let me try diving lessons, but I am horribly uncoordinated and managed to smash my head into the diving board on several occasions. Alas my dream of being an Olympic diver was gone.

Jason grew up in Kelowna, in the summer really all you can do is hit the water to stay cool. He also grew up going to swimming lessons. His family also had a boat and he learned how to water ski, and went water tubing lots. He was much more talented in the swimming area than I, he could have become a life guard at the pool for a job back then if he had wanted to.

We've had a few conversations about our kids joining swimming lessons, and really it comes down to water safety. We love being around the water, we go to a summer camp that is on an island so we are surrounded by water, and we'll definitely be doing trips to lakes either when we go camping or visit Jason's family. We want our kids to be confident in the water, and to also know what to do in an emergency. We have decided that we are going to have our kids all take swimming lessons.

The youngest a child can be to start lessons in our area is 6 months, so we have to wait for the July lessons to begin. Jason is really looking forward to the Parent and Tot lessons, and so am I. The lessons at this age are more about getting them comfortable in the water. I know some people are not big fans of the idea of starting swimming lessons this young as there is a fear of ear infections. Jason was prone to them, I was not. We have no idea what Everly will be like, but we do not see that as a good enough excuse for her to not learn how to swim. Did you know that chiropractic care is great for relief of an ear infection? Since Everly is already connected with an awesome chiropractor, I know this will be an option if we ever have to battle one.

We are looking forward to Everly developing skills and becoming a good swimmer. We hope she never has a phobia of the water (though her Mommy does have a fear of the ocean, but that is because she has a feeling that there is a shark with her name on it! [the panic attack while snorkeling in Maui on our honeymoon was interesting]). It already seems like she is a huge fan of being in and around water, she went in a pool for the first time at only a month old just to get her feet wet and loved it, since then the bath tub has become a major splash zone. If she develops interest in doing swimming, diving, or becoming a life guard we will gladly support her in reaching any of those as a goal.

We'd also like to apologize for the the bad weather we have been having recently. We bought a kiddy pool for Everly the last day of the heat wave, and now its just been sitting and waiting for the nice weather to return.

Smiles

There is no hiding the amount of joy my daughter brings me. There have also been tears shed over sleepless nights, frustration, out of concern and worry for her during hospital and doctors visits because of her choking and reflux, and of course hormones.

Each morning with Everly I'm greeted by her wide eyes staring up at me from her crib, and a huge smile. Normally some giggles will follow too.

I see the same sort of look in my Mom when I see her. She is always full of so much joy around all of us daughters. I pray that I will be half the Mom she is. Its nice to know that someone is always happy to see me and hear from me.

I hope to never hide how much joy Everly brings into my life. I hope she always sees my love for her whenever she looks at me, I hope she knows that I am so glad and thankful she is a part of my life.

It might be a little thing but I am going to make sure Everly always gets smiles from me. She shares smiles with me always and so freely. I hope I always light up the same way she does. That is my little goal.

The first time Everly filled my heart with so much love and joy.

Snail Mail

I am a big fan of getting letters and cards in the mail. It seems this is a lost art now. I've always tried to make the effort to send out Christmas cards, that is also a tradition that seems to be disappearing as the number of cards decreases each year. When I was little I always looked forward to the mail coming, especially around the holidays or my birthday. There was just something about an envelope with my name on it and knowing the contents and all the words written inside were just for me.

With having a munchkin I am hoping this is something she will get to enjoy too as she gets older. I hope that she will get to enjoy cards coming in the mail for many different things, and hopefully letters from her cousins, Aunt and Uncle in Ontario.

Organization is a skill I am lacking in a lot of the time, though I do appreciate good organization. I have tried to keep an address book several times over, but I always misplace it. Thankfully a friend of mine enlightened me to a great website where I could ask my friends and family to enter their contact info for me, only I can see it when I login to access it. If you don't think you are in my address book please GO HERE and enter it, I really like sending out Christmas cards, and other little things here and there, so please enter your contact info... especially if you want a card this holiday season.

My question right now is who uses stickers with their address on it? Who uses a custom made stamp? Who just writes in the corner of the envelope?

Jason and I used to have a stamp that said our names and address on it, we used it for all of our wedding invites, thank you cards,  for our Christmas cards during the time we lived at that address, and any other mail we could. It was so nice to not have to hand write our address over and over again. It was just a simple stamp, nothing fun to it.

I am considering getting a stamp again since we are planning on staying routed where we are currently for several years to come. Has anyone had a stamp made that is more unique than what I can just get made at Staples? I'd love to find something with a more interesting font, and maybe even a little design on it. Sure I could go onto etsy.com and find someone who makes them, but I'd love to see if anyone else has done this and who you went through before I commit to getting one.

Early potty training?

Why is it that little ones always have to "go" when they are in the tub? For Everly its as soon as her toes touch the water in the tub. We'd seen a couple blogs on early potty training and one night as kind of a why not try it moment, we held Everly over the toilet and she used it. We both went "Huh, I guess this could work... then we don't have to drain and refill the tub each time.". Call us crazy, but we've stuck with this routine for almost a month now. We've been hovering her over the toilet before her bath, and it has been hit and miss with it working, but Everly is only 4 months old.

I guess you could say we are part time early potty training her. Some people are much more committed to it, and do what is called elimination communication. I do know one family who have been doing that method since very early on with their daughter and are very successful with it. I was much too apprehensive to try it so early. Some people may think there is no way Everly could be ready to try this, but why is it the norm to wait til a child is over 2? That's not what is considered normal in other places around the world, so why not give it a try? Seeing to her bathroom needs is just as much a part of parenting, as seeing to her feeding and sleeping needs. Why not start now? Little ones do tend to give signals for when they need to go, now we're trying to figure out what signals Everly gives. Wish we'd been paying more attention earlier.

With Everly, she is now able to sit on her own for short periods of time when we put her on the ground, she is also able to support herself much better in her Bumbo and chair. I managed to get her an awesome Baby Bjorn Potty Chair which I had read great things about, and have seen it as the one used by many people who attempt to do this. She is able to sit all on her own and we don't have to worry about her toppling over, but we do still keep an eye on her of course. Last night she wanted to play with the diaper sprayer so we let her, anything to keep her distracted and happy while we all wait. The diaper sprayer is coming in handy for early potty training too, great for clean up. Seriously, all parents should think about getting one of those!

The other night we had a conversation about possibly trying this more often. Before we've only tried this just ahead of a bath. We'd noticed that several people suggested trying this first thing in the morning, and after every nap. Today we started doing just that. It has worked every time we have tried today! Obviously if we are away from home it is going to be a bit more difficult so we probably wont try this when out (unless I can find a good travel seat for her little bottom). I'm sure that being away from home is a challenge for anyone with a toddler. We are hoping that by starting potty training this early, that when we go for actually fully potty training her that it will be an easier process when she is a toddler. (Probably just jinxed myself)

Eco-novice is one of the blogs we read about this from, and it had a lot of helpful info.

Has anyone else tried this/are doing this with your little one? Are you considering doing this, why or why not? We're glad we've given it a try. We are trying to just keep it simple, be positive about it, and enjoy whatever success we have with this. We think little ones need to be given much more credit for how smart they really are.