Thursday, February 24, 2011

Fourteen Weeks


I love this picture. Even though it was taken with the "wait ten minutes and get a blurry picture" camera. Even though our hair isn't combed. Even though you can't even really see the little teeny baby bump.

On a side note, I had someone inform me, laughingly, that at fourteen weeks I looked less pregnant than the vast majority of unpregnant people. Then they glared at me like it was my fault. And didn't believe me when I told them I was huge by the time Cadence came. Tony and I got a good laugh out of that!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A Rather Notable Entry in Cadence's Journal

2/22/2011 No more nursing at naptime - looks like you are officially weaned!



This has made naptime interesting, since up till now you always nursed to sleep. Sunday you wanted to put yourself to sleep - it took two hours and a couple reminders it was naptime, not reading time, but you did it. Yesterday you fell asleep in my arms in about two minutes flat. Today was a mixture of holding you and letting you rest in your crib, and it took about an hour. We'll see what our new "routine" turns out to be!

Yep, you read that right. After a long journey, blessed with absolutely no tears over not getting "Mama milk", Cadence is done nursing.
 
I have mixed feelings on the subject. On the one hand, I've been done nursing Cadence for a long time. It just wasn't something I savored anymore... but I know there will be times I miss it. I know I already miss getting to sit and read for a few minutes every hour!
 
Are you ready to hear about Cadence's journey to food?
 
Well... it starts like this. Once there was a little girl who nursed every single hour she was awake. She insisted on being swaddled to do it, and would sometimes also insist on having her head covered up. She gagged on everything else that went in her mouth, including bottles.
 
When she was about 15 months old, she started being able to eat things like yogurt and bananas. She still gagged on them occasionally, and certainly didn't eat a large quantity, but she proved she could swallow.
 
By 18 months, she could chew and swallow anything she wanted to without gagging. But - she still didn't want to. Finally at the end of August (about 19 months) we arbitrarily eliminated a nursing in the morning. It may not seem like much, but - do you have any idea how freeing it was to have an extra 15 minutes between feedings? She seemed fine with this, so a few weeks later I did it in the evening. The problem was, this little girl is... well... little. And she still wouldn't eat.

Finally by the end of November we had a somewhat set routine of only nursing 7 times a day. She would also eat enough once in the morning and once in the evening to sort of count as a meal. Sort of.

In January I decided I would only nurse her when she was going to sleep or waking up unless she asked for it specifically. She never once asked for it. She would ask for cheese. She would ask for pepperonis. She would ask for a drink. But she never asked for Mama milk.

From then on she weaned herself. It was like the less she nursed, the less she wanted to nurse. It was a miracle! I was concerned we would have many battles, crying, refusing to eat, wanting to nurse - after all, this was the child who nursed every hour. But there was not one single tear shed over the process. And the real miracle? She eats. Constantly. Anything. Any consistency, and crunchiness, and size bite... she eats it.

So now, less than a week before she turns two, Cadence is officially done nursing. And she is officially eating like a real, live, toddler!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

A What Now?

Tuesday evening I took a deep breath, squeezed in my middle, reached waaaaay back in my closet, and pulled out....

A dress.

That's right, a dress. Do you know how long it's been since I wore a dress? Let me give you a hint. Cadence will be two in *eep* less than two weeks. She is just now weaning. None of my dresses open in the front. There. You figure it out.

I was actually nervous when I put it on! We sure had fun though. Tony and I hadn't been out by ourselves in a long time (read: my birthday in 2009 is the last time we remember for sure). We went to Red Lobster courtesy of birthday gift cards, and didn't stress out about taking an hour and half to eat, because there was no one sticking their little bitty adorable hands in our food. Or bouncing in the booth. Or whining because she wanted to walk around. We had pleasant, meandering conversations. We laughed because in my dress you could see Cashew, but my skirts still hide him/her.

It's strange though. As nice as it is to be able to just leave whenever, to do things by myself, to do things with just Tony - I miss my baby. When we get back, it's like I've been gone ten years. She seems cuter, funnier... older.

I guess it just shows I'm a Mama. I need my baby. Always. Whether I can wear a dress or not.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Some Pictures

Here are some random pictures from December and the very beginning of January - right up to the tragic moment I killed our camera... AAAAGH! I'm going to have to steal pictures from everyone else of Christmas events not at our house, since I never bothered to take any :)



Here is Cadence helping get the Pelletier boys' Christmas ready. She carefully placed the tissue paper inside, then colored the label for the box.




Here we are making snowflakes. She tore hers, I cut mine.
 Cadence took this picture. I thought she did a pretty good job!
 After we cut out our snowflakes, we threw the little cutout pieces up in the air to watch the snow fall... that was fun.


 Cadence loves her teddy bear from Grandpa Leonard. She hugs it, kisses it, carries it around, uses it as a pillow, shares her books with it, everything.
 Here is Cadence painting, one of her favorite activities.


 Watching the singing light up moose was a favorite this year. I love this picture of Cadence and Daddy :)
 The first week of Christmas break, Josh brought Alex and JoJo to visit. We all had fun.
 We finally got around to going to the Festival of Light. Cadence loved it. She spent a lot of time just staring in awe... and when we would ask her if she liked the lights, she would grin and giggle.
 A random side note: both times I've gone I've been pregnant...
 Cadence reading her favorite book with Daddy. Since we got the teddy bear, Corduroy has also become a big hit.
 Christmas Eve pajamas:

 Christmas morning. She was delighted with every single present she opened... including ours.


 Grace was pretty happy with her new bones...
 Cadence's Christmas day dress. She refused to get out of her pajamas until after nap time, and even then we had to force her. She loves them. In fact, when they got too small and I was packing them away, she caught me and almost had a break down.
 Ok, see the mess on this child's hands and face? I left me food on the table while I went in the other room for just a minute, and when I came back the little thief was standing in my chair, eating my food and drinking my pop... and quite pleased with herself!
 Her first ride in her front facing car-seat. Technically at the time she was a few ounces short of legal, but she was too tall for her rear-facing, so we went ahead and made the switch. She loved it... she still loves it... The first time we were out, we saw a fire truck racing by with it's lights on. She was so excited, after it went by she started signing more. Um, we can't magically produce more fire trucks kid. Sorry.
 Eight weeks and couting...
 When I was taking pictures of myself Cadence wanted hers taken too.
 Ok... my OCD child went through all her letters and picked out just the t's, l's and i's to put on the fridge. Gotta love her...