Setting the boundaries

It's that time of year again! Every year, around late October or early November, I get my annual cold. A few nights ago, I had this intense sore throat before going to bed. I knew that when I woke up, it was either going to be gone or I was going to be feeling even worse. The next morning, I didn't feel either better or worse, I felt pretty much the same. However, that night I decided to go to bed a little earlier than usual to get some quality "rest," which is something that I have been lacking for quite a while now. I woke up about two hours later and felt worse. My head was hurting, my nose was stuffy, my throat was scratchy, etc. I ended taking some cold medicine in order to sleep peacefully. Cold medicine? Ahhh, yes. It has been such a long time since I was able to take medicine other than Tylenol to help with my issues. I remember last year I wasn't able to take anything to help my horrible cold because I was pregnant. THAT, was probably the worst cold of my life. I think that we take everything for granted, including something as simple cold medicine. You don't realize how much you appreciate little things until they aren't available to you anymore. This morning, I am happy to say that I am feeling much better. I am still not at my best, but I know that in a few days I will be as good as new.

There is something I learned while being sick, and that is that there is no such thing as a "sick day" when your a mother. No matter how crappy I feel, there is no way that I could just snuggle in bed all day with a bowl of soup. Jayde doesn't understand the fact that I'm sick. I still need to cater to all of her needs, regardless of how I'm feeling. It's not easy being sick with a 9 month old baby. She is everywhere in the house, and I'm always having to watch her every move to make sure she doesn't get hurt. Not only that, but I need to make sure the house is vacuumed and cleaned so she doesn't get a hold of something that shes not suppose to. It sounds easy, but it's not. Every time I put her books back on the shelf, she pulls them down. Every time I put her toys back in the box, she takes them back out. Every day is a day of me cleaning stuff up with her behind me messing it up again. As annoying as all of this sounds, it's not. She's a baby and that's the types of things she enjoys right now at this age. Her getting into everything and making a mess out of my entire house is just a part of her growth and development. I just wish I wasn't sick, because cleaning my house 100 times in a day can be exhausting.

"Mommy! Get up and come play with me!"- Being sick isn't so bad when you get to look at this face!

I'm pretty sure that I mentioned before that Jayde is able to get into a standing position by herself. She has mastered this technique, and now it's all she wants to do. What she has been starting to do lately is cruse, which means she is moving along the furniture. This also means that she is switching between furniture, like moving from the coffee table, to the couch, to the end table, etc. In conclusion, I have no doubt that she will be walking well before her first birthday. Walking is something that she has been determined to do since she knew it was possible. As exciting as this might sound, it is also a little scary. Walking doesn't only mean that she will be able to get into more things, but it also means that the probability of her getting hurt will also increase. As much as I am looking forward to this milestone, I'm also sad. This is going to be her last leap to independence. She will soon not be my little baby anymore, she is well on her way to toddler-hood.

The nice thing about Jayde being older is that she is able to eat what I'm eating. For example, last night we both had chicken and broccoli for dinner. This morning we both had oatmeal with banana for breakfast. Eating with her is not only helping me eat better, but it is also helping her explore newer solid foods. Right now, since she is learning to eat, it is important for her to learn what is good for her to eat. If I fed her nutritious food every night but I sat down at the table with McDonald's, what good would that do for either of us? Right now, she eats what she eats because she has no choice. When she gets older, she will be able to choose the food that goes into her mouth. My goal is that when she is older and gets to make that decision, she will choose the right foods. She is looking at me and listening to my every word and watching my every movement. Who she will grow up to be is going to be strongly influenced by me, so I know that I need to lead by example.

Lunch time! Pasta!

Discipline. Everyone has their own way, and no one agrees on the best way to go about it. What is important to know, is that RIGHT NOW is the good time to start enforcing rules. I feel like I spend half of my day saying "no" because Jayde is spending half of her day testing her boundaries. (No, do not touch the TV. No, do not push the buttons on the DVD player. No, do not put mommy's shoe in your mouth. No, do stand up in the bath tub.) The good thing is that since I say "no" so much, she knows what it means. The bad thing is that she hasn't yet learned to listen. Just as I sit to relax, Jayde will crawl over to the TV, stand up, and start touching it. I will say "no" once, and she will usually look back at me and smile because she knows she isn't suppose to be doing what she is doing. After she doesn't listen, I will have to get up and grab her and then set her on the floor away from where the TV is. I will then look at her and explain to her why I just removed her, "No Jayde, do not touch the TV. The TV is not for touching, it's for looking at." Even though she will eventually do it again, whether it be that day or tomorrow, I know that one day she will know that touching the TV isn't something that she can do. And hopefully when that day comes, touching the TV will be something that she will no longer do. I am not going to lie, it can sometimes be exhausting setting boundaries. I can totally see how some parents let some things slide. However, I refuse to be one of those parents. If for a week I tell her she can't do something, and then the next I'm too tired to enforce it, what will that teach her? It will teach her that the world is confusing and that if she does things long enough I will eventually give in. I am not saying that I am going to be a strict parent, but I want my daughter to grow up to respect the rules that are put in place and to not be out of control like some other children I see.

"NO!!!!!"

The Dropping Game

Do you know what has been irritating me lately? The fact that every time Keith and I go out to a restaurant with Jayde, they NEVER have anything for her to eat. I don't mean typical baby food, because obviously I know that isn't on the menu. I mean something without all the bad things added to it. Why can't I order plain old chicken without all the seasoning? Why do the mash potatoes have to come with salt and pepper? Why do the steamed vegetables have to be saturated with tons of butter? I realize that, yes, I am very capable of bringing food for her. I also realize that I don't necessarily need to be eating out. And, I also realize that most food in restaurants are pre-made. I know that there are many parents out there who don't mind feeding their kids greasy french fries, but I do. Whether it's my daughter or someone else's child, I feel like there should be at least one thing on the menu that can accommodate them. Is that so hard?

Jayde is on the move. I now realize why people say that having a mobile baby isn't only a blessing, but a curse! Jayde is in to everything and anything that she can get her little hands on. I will turn my head for just one second and she will have made her way into the other room and pulled all of the books off of the bookshelf. All of her toys that used to remain in one corner of the room are now scattered across the house by the end of the day. The weirdest part is when I walk out of the room and into another for a moment, she will follow me. She is still doing her military crawl, which everyone who has witnessed it thinks is interesting. Although, in the last couple days she has been working on her "normal" crawl. She usually will start out with the traditional crawl for about 2-3 feet, and then plop down onto her belly and continue to crawl military style.

The thing that scares me now is the fact that Jayde keeps trying to climb up onto everything. The table, entertainment center, her crib, a chair- You  name it, she will try to climb up on it to get herself to a standing position. She has gotten better at it, but she is still clumsy, which she will be for a while since she is a baby. Her climbing on everything means that she is always falling, which also means that she will have a new bruise every couple of days. It isn't the actual standing that she has problems with, it is pulling herself up to a standing position that can be tricky. Once she is standing, she is a pro. Her favorite little game: to drop her toy while she is standing and bend over to pick it up off the ground. Then, of course, she will drop is again and repeat the process. It is so fun to watch her. She has so much fun and is so proud of herself being able to do it. That's the funny thing about babies. They have the most fun doing stuff that is a natural reaction to someone our age. Usually, if we were to drop something on accident we would pick it up without thinking about it and go on with our day. I sit here and watch Jayde drop something on purpose just to pick it up. While she is doing it, she will be concentrating so hard like it's the biggest and greatest task, which it is to her. I always laugh to myself. Watching a baby develop can be so interesting at times.

First Photo Shoot!

The day before the shoot:

Jayde's very first photo shoot is already here! I know I signed up for this whole modeling gig just for fun, but I'm pretty excited that she actually got a shoot! I found out that she got booked about a month ago, and here we are. A month has just zipped by! So this morning I got to sleep in a bit while Keith woke up with Jayde. He came into our room during my mid-sleep and told me that Jayde fell and bumped her head, but I really gave it no thought. When I woke up and walked into the living room, I saw this huge red mark on Jayde's beautiful face. WHAT THE F*$&?! When I first saw her face, I wasn't thinking about her photo shoot. My poor baby! Keith told me that she was trying to stand up against the entertainment center and that she fell and bumped her head. After I asked Keith a million questions about how it happened and why it happened, it then dawned on me, SHE HAS A PHOTO SHOOT TOMORROW!

Crap! Jayde's first shoot could be ruined by the fact that she has a huge red mark/bruise on her face. I knew I had to e-mail her agent and tell her about it. Basically I said, "Jayde had a fall this morning and she has a 'somewhat noticeable mark' on her cheek." I was nervous when she sent an e-mail back to me asking me to send her a picture ASAP. All the pictures I was taking made the mark look 10 times worse than it actually was. I was trying to take a picture where you could see it, but it wasn't too noticeable. Finally, I got a decent one and sent it to her. She took a while to message me back, which made me even more nervous. But after waiting for an hour, she finally e-mailed me back saying, "Don't worry about it. She will be fine." THANK GOD!


Jayde's boo boo on her cheek!

Later that day, I finally got the e-mail telling me the time and location of the shoot. Like I have said before, most go-sees and shoots are very last minute. The shoot is going to be at 10:30 am in the city of Inverness. Inverness? Ya. I looked it up on my GPS, and it's basically towards San Rafael. It's about 57 miles away from where I live. I kept reading the e-mail and came across the "please bring" section. It said, "Playclothes. Girly, backyardy feel with a little bit of a romantic edge. Natural textures, fabrics would be great here. Go a little more earthy but still ultimately preppy. Colors: pink, white, with touches of taupe and yellows." Um, what? Good thing her agent called right after I had read the e-mail, because I was completely confused as to what to bring for her to wear. She read the description and started to laugh. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought it was completely crazy! She said to just pick out some "preppy-ish" clothing, and not to worry about it to much. Most of the time, they won't even look at the clothes I bring because they are going to have what they want already. The clothes that I bring are kind of a "just in case" thing, for whatever reason. I then told her happily that Jayde's cheek was a lot better from what it was that morning. She just kinda laughed and said, "If for whatever reason it's a problem, they will just photo shop it out." Oh ya, duh. I forgot I was dealing with professionals.

The day of the shoot:

Keith decided to take the day off of work to come with me to Jayde's shoot. Thank god he did, because driving there was insane! There wasn't traffic or anything, but the roads where curvy and foresty. Inverness is really in the middle of nowhere! We got there at the perfect time, I had enough time to feed Jayde and change her diaper before going in. When I say that she had a photo shoot, your probably expecting this big wear house in the middle of a business area. Her shoot was at a house in a residential area. Like, they literally rented someones house out for the day to have the shoot there. In front of the house there were huge moving trucks with all these props and things. Basically, they choose a room in the house and completely transformed it into a nursery for the shoot.

When I first got there, I was brought upstairs where I met another mother with a 10 month old daughter who was also going to be shooting that day. There was this lady who was there who wasn't part of the shoot really, but her job was to stay with us and walk us through everything. She had tons of toys for Jayde to play with, which kept her occupied for most of the time. Eventually they brought in wardrobes, which was pretty much just a plain onesie with a pair of pants. I guess the wardrobes weren't a big deal since Pottery Barn isn't necessarily a clothing store. I was just a little thrown off by the plainness of it from the extravagant "please bring" section of the e-mail I had read the night before. A lot of the time is just sitting there waiting. Your waiting for the photographer and and for everyone else to make sure that the set is perfect.

Waiting around for her turn to shoot!

The other baby was completely ready, so they decided to shoot her first. They where having a tough time deciding what pants Jayde was going to wear; the first were too long, then to tight, and then just right. Finally, it was Jayde's turn. While shooting they try and make it so the parents aren't in direct sight of the baby. That way the baby isn't distracted and looking at mommy rather than the camera or whatever else they want the baby to focus on. Because of this, I wasn't really able to tell if she took good pictures or not. After a while, she got bored with the people trying to sing her songs and poke her feet. They asked me to come in there and try to get her to be active. Right when I walked in, she seemed super happy, she started laughing a smiling. Then, all of the sudden, she started reaching for me and crying. I finally got her to calm down, and they were able to finish getting the shots they needed. The only thing that was frustrating was that when they wanted her to sit, she would crawl and when they wanted her to crawl, she would sit. But what can you do? She's a baby.

The other mom and I sat in the room again and waited for them to review the pictures. After a while they came in and told us that they wanted to take a few more shots of each baby. We looked at each other like, "really?". Not because we didn't want them to take more pictures, but because the babies where exhausted, hungry, and where kind of done with everything. She went down first for a little bit, and then it was Jayde's turn yet again. She wasn't really having it this time around. They where able to get some shots, but she was just done. She was happy when I was holding her, but then every time I tried to set her down she would start whining. They told me it wasn't a big deal. They had already got what they needed and was just trying to get some"extras."

I went and got my stuff together, got the time card filled out, and then was able to leave. Afterwards both Jayde and I where exhausted and starving! We stopped and got something to eat on the way home, and then we were able to nap on the way home too since Keith was driving. It was a LONG day. It was a 1.5 hour drive there, a 2.5 hour shoot, and a 1.5 hour drive back home. I cannot wait to see how Jayde's pictures turn out. I am even more excited to see her as a model for the Pottery Barn Kids Spring 2012 collection!!!

Even though I was stuck in a room for the most of the day, at least I got to look at this beautiful view!

Change Overnight

The past week has been a little... how do I put it? Off. Basically, Jayde's sleeping has been totally horrible! I have no problem getting her to sleep. Its the same as it's always been, she is down at her bedtime with no struggle. So, what's the problem you ask? The problem is that she has been waking up at incredibly early times. On Tuesday she woke up at 4:30am. I figured she just woke up for a feeding, so I brought her out to the living room like I usually do and fed her. She ended up dozing off, so I put her back into her crib. She immediately woke up and started crying. I thought that maybe I didn't feed her enough, so I went back into her room to get her, fed her, and then tried to put her back down. Nope, she wasn't going back to sleep. I ended up bringing her into my bed, because I was not in any way ready to be up that early. I know that 4:30am isn't THAT early, but it is when your expecting to wake up at 7:00am. She ended up falling asleep in our bed and waking up at about 6:45am. The next night Keith asked me, "Do you think Jayde will be up at 4:30 again?" I responded, "I don't care what time she's up, as long as it's not at 4:30!!" Well, she didn't wake up at 4:30. Instead she woke up at 2:30am. SHIT! When I said "as long as it's not 4:30," I didn't mean earlier!!!! Pretty much the same thing happened, she ended up in our bed, and fell asleep. Last night she woke up at 3:00am, and again, the same thing happened.

Your probably asking why I don't let her just lay in bed and cry it out. The problem is that when Jayde wakes up at night, she pulls herself up to a standing position in her crib. I really don't think she would be able to put herself back to sleep while standing, she doesn't even know how to get herself to lay back down! Not only that, but she doesn't exactly have perfect balance yet. I have witnessed her fall and hit her head on the wooden panels, and I seriously freaked out! So not only will she not go back to sleep, but I won't able to either. Because I will be sitting there in my room staring at the monitor making sure she doesn't hurt herself. I researched the topic today, and this was my finding:

"At 6 to 9 months, your baby may be learning to sit up, crawl, or possibly even cruise or walk — quite a list of achievements! Not surprisingly, he may not want to stop practicing his new skills at bedtime and may get so excited that he'll wake up to try sitting up just one more time.

Children who are learning to sit or stand up may practice their new skills at night in their crib and get stuck in an upright position once they're sitting or standing up. If this is happening to your baby, you'll need to teach him how to lie back down

Separation anxiety could also be the cause of your baby's wake-up calls. Waking up and finding you not there may cause some distress. But he'll probably calm down as soon as you enter the room and greet him."

I could definitely understand her practicing at night, and possibly getting stuck. Separation anxiety? Jayde does have slight separation anxiety at times, it depends what mood she is in. When we are at an unfamiliar place with people she doesn't see often, she can get clingy and she won't want to be in any ones arms but mine until she warms up to them. But, is it even possible to get separation anxiety when your in your own bed in your own house? It doesn't seem possible to me, but apparently it is.

All I have to say that whatever the reason; practicing, getting stuck, growth spurt, teething, etc., I hope that this will pass sooner rather than later!

Jayde standing with the support of her changing table

Speaking of teething, Jayde is almost 9 months old and she has yet to break a tooth through! It's so crazy because everyone thought that she was going to be on the early side of getting her first tooth. We thought she started the process of teething at 2.5 months, and then again at 4 months, again at 6 months, and so on. She never got a tooth when we were "for sure" she was teething, so we gave up on talking about it. People always ask us, "Is she teething?" We always look at each other and respond, "I have no idea, but it is a possibility." I kept waiting anxiously for her to break her first tooth, but now when I think about it, I am happy she hasn't for two reasons. 1. The longer she waits to get her first tooth, the longer it will be easier to breastfeed her without getting bitten. Hell, if she doesn't get her tooth until shes a year old, I will never even have to worry about it! 2. I will have longger to enjoy her cute baby gummy smile.

Fall is finally here! Which means that Jayde's first Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas is coming up! I am ecstatic! It's weird to think that this year, I am now officially "Santa!" I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, because I know that I will!


Another amazing thing about fall- Starbucks pumpkin spice latte!

Oh, and I thought this was cool:

Crazy, huh?