For the last few months, Lulu seemed pretty much the same. We had our sleep schedule. Rolling was mastered. The day from wake- up to bed time was set. Bottles, meals, naps. The day was pretty organized. And Lulu wasn’t doing too much that was new.
And then. Everything happened at once. She got her top teeth in and BOOM. Crawling. Signing. Clapping. Standing. Cruising. More Crawling. More Clapping. Saying “Dada.”
Unfortunately for our kitty, Lulu can get where ever she wants. Which is usually toward the cat. Specifically to get the cat’s tail. It’s just so fluffy and pull-able. Poor Teddy.
Any who. Viddy and I have been signing some basics with Lulu for the last forever. “Milk,” “All Done,” “Up,” “More,” “Book,” “Eat,” and our recent addition, “STOP!”
When Lulu is crawling toward something dangerous – cords, the cat, the fireplace – we sign “Stop.” We say her name and she looks at us and then we do the sign. And then… she signs it back. And then keeps doing what she wanted.
Ex. Lulu begins crawling toward the speaker wire that I realize needs to be secured. I say, “Lulu, stop (sign stop). Come here.” Lulu stops, looks at me, and signs ‘stop’ back. And then keeps crawling toward the speaker wire. I say, “Lulu, STOP. Come here. Look at the blocks/dinosaur/music thing/stuffed animal.” And she stops, looks at me, and signs ‘stop’ back. And then keeps crawling toward the speaker wire. Repeat.
Sigh. Learning is hard work.
We try and redirect her. “Hey! Look at these not-as-exciting blocks! Aren’t they awesome! They bang together!”
Sometimes it works. And if that doesn’t work and we have to physically move her away, then she throws a mini tantrum.
Another thing we’re working on is eating books. Lulu will sit in our laps and let us read books to her. She LOVES it. She loves the pictures, stories, and any book that has flaps. But the books she loves the best are the cardboard board books. Because she gets one, flips it around so she can get the spine in her mouth and starts chewing away. Like a little beaver.
She knows the routine when I catch her chewing the book. She holds the book out to me and opens her mouth and hangs her tongue out so I can go fishing for colored cardboard bits.
When I catch her I sign ‘stop’ and say, “Books are not for eating. Books are for READING. Let’s read.” And I’ll pull her in my lap and we sometimes read or she sometimes throws a mini tantrum.
As I’ve mentioned before, she signs ‘milk’ about 50% of the time. If that. But she definitely knows the sign. Whenever I sign “milk” she gets really excited. And she usually signs it when I’m feeding her a bottle. She’ll lie in my lap and sign “milk” “milk” “milk” “milk”. Over and over and over. I’ll say, “Yes, milk. Yummy milk.” Although I’m thinking in my head, “nasty smelling formula, gross gross.”
Lulu is a lot more fun now that she’s mobile and learning how to communicate. But it’s more challenging to keep up with my little busy, active, happy baby. My days of being able to do homework while she is awake are OVER. She wants my attention always, and if she doesn’t want my attention it’s because she’s doing something she’s not supposed to, like pulling on the cat.
Short video of Lulu signing ‘all done’ and then starts clapping.
Almost 10 months and our very active, happy baby is happily doing everything she’s supposed to do.
Crawling: About a week ago Lulu started to inchworm places. She would bring up her knees and propel herself forward – stopping herself from face planting with her hands. And then she does it again and again and again. And sure enough, she slowly gets where she wants. Today she figured out the alternating hands/knees crawl. And then I took a moment and looked around and realized that I need to BABYPROOF. I’m seeing my house in a whole new light – I’m seeing every single safety hazard! AHHHHH! Other than cupboard locks, baby gates, and outlet covers – any other suggestions??
She also loves to stand and pivot back and forth from parent to toy. Cruising and walking are coming soon. I’m excited for her and I’m sure I’ll get more exercise running around my house chasing Lulu.
Eating: Baby food is no longer in my house. All that pureed jars and such is no more! Lulu is eating 100% table food. Thank goodness. And thank goodness for my splat mat. All the peas, black beans, chicken, ground beef, eggs, bread, cantaloupe, kiwi, etc are all over the place – and my dog-like cat gets an extra meal from it. Lulu is very entertained by taking her food and dropping in off her tray…. not because she’s done eating, just because she wants to…
Talking: Sometimes I think she tries to say Kitty – it comes out “GEEEGEEEEE”. Viddy doesn’t think she’s saying it. Her favorite ‘words’ are “BREE BREE BREE BREE” and “YA YA YA YA YA YA.” Although her verbal words are up for debate she does sign “All Done,” “Up,” and “Milk” – milk is hit or miss, she knows how to do it, but she signs it about 30%. We are working on “sleep,” “home,” “cat,” “eat,” “water,” and “clean.”
Sippy Cup: Hallelujah! After trying every sippy cup that Target offers and a few others – she takes a sippy cup. Kind of. As in, she drinks from it. And then it becomes more entertaining to bang it around and chew on the bottom. Her favorite sippy cup is the kid Camelback.
Books: Lulu LOVES her books. LOVES. And she has preferences. Animals are a must and lift flaps are ideal. And she really likes most Sandra Boynton books. Whenever I pull out a book she really likes she just giggles and waves her arms until I start reading. And she likes to chew on the books. Now that she has two top teeth she can scrape the books – some of the books have Lulu chew marks, they match the chew marks on my arms…
(the following is supposed to be a video of my cute baby clapping her hands… hopefully it works…)
It occurs to me by giving my daughter a happy smiling dinosaur, we’re ill-preparing her for a potential future. What if dinosaurs come back? She’ll see the dinosaur and smile. He’ll smile back at her. She’ll try to hug him. He’ll hug her…with his mouth.
I jumped on a bandwagon. It’s called the N0-Poo bandwagon. And it has nothing to do with toilets and everything to do with hair care.
I’ve begun a new hair care treatment regimen. I’m using the Curly Girl Method to hopefully eliminate my frizzies and increase my curliness. Basically it consists of a few things: No shampoos, Lots of Condition (I wash my hair and scalp with conditioner), eliminate silicone based hair gels (things that can’t be washed out with just water), and plunk (i.e. wrap my hair up in a long sleeved t-shirt at night) or air dry. In theory, and from what I’ve read on the great and spacious internet from other Curly Girls – I should see significant improvement in my hair in a month or so. (And for all those shocked that I don’t use shampoo – my hair isn’t greasy, my head isn’t itchy or stinky, so there).
So, what does this have to do with me having Celiac’s Disease?
Well, unbeknownst to me, most CHEAP non-silicone gels for curlies have….. you guess it – GLUTEN! Specifically wheat starch!
How could you haircare companies???? HOW COULD YOU?
I’ve made my peace with reading ingredient labels for things all the time – but hair care? Now I can’t even trust hair gel! Sigh.
So what can this Curly Girl with Celiac’s Disease use, without breaking the bank?
Suave Naturals Coconut Conditioner, Beautiful Curls Deep Conditioner, Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Gel, and Beautiful Curls Curl Reviver Spray.
Viddy was getting *slightly* frustrated by the increase in hair supply products. But hey, I had to figure out what I could use! Thankfully for Viddy I think I have found the goods. And nothing is terribly expensive.
Celiac Disease is a pain. ’nuff said.
Now that Fannie and I are closing in on the second year of our marriage in May, we’ve hit a new point in our marriage where our evenings barely exist in a tumult of book clubs, ward callings, quick shopping trips, small projects, etc. Lately, we have time for me to finish off the dishes and watch a show and it’s up to bed.
Somehow, when we’re doing the nightly chores: teeth brushing, face washing, water bottle refills, pill popping we get a second wind that results in a sleepy euphoria where we get slightly punch drunk. Then it becomes a bunch of silly jokes, what if conversations, breaking down the game film, and some nightly competition on the app of the week on our iPhones (Jenga most recently).
This time has really become our true one on one time with each other and is honestly my favorite part of the day. We have great conversations about the things going on in our lives, the people we know, and our future as a family. Honestly, I think a lot of it stems from the endless possibilities that awaits us the next morning and the day after. At this point in our lives, we have nothing but future ahead of us. And if you’re going to be rich in something, having a future together is something that I’m glad to have.
It’s a good thing that I LIKE to cook. I enjoy finding new recipes. Creating new recipes. (re)Trying vegetables (I’m talking to you, brussel sprouts, beets, and cauliflower). Viddy and I are doing a … healthy eating plan/nutritional readjustment/diet.
Pretty much, we’ve cut out all sugar and grains for 6 days of the week and then Saturday or Faturday we eat WHATEVER we want. Well, almost whatever we want. I want a asiago cheese bagel from Panera, but my celiac tummy forbids it. So, Faturday means Stewarts orange cream sodas, chick fil a french fries, popcorn, carbs, carbs, carbs, and sometimes cake.
It hasn’t been too bad. Other than when I see a Chick-Fil-A and I cry a little inside when it’s a weekday and I can’t get french fries. Or when I’m on Pinterest (follow me!) and all I see is bread and desserts.
In theory, Viddy and I should both slim down on this “healthy eating plan”. In reality, Viddy is slimming down and I’m exactly the same. Figures. As in my figure is curvalicious and doesn’t want to be anything else.
And now I’m done whining about my figure.
Some new veggies/recipes we’ve tried include:
Siracha Turkey Lettuce Wraps (YUM)
Roasted Brussel Sprouts (Surprisingly – YUM)
Shepherds Pie (YUM) with Pureed Cauliflower (BLAAAAAARG) instead of mashed potatoes
Roasted Beets (Yum)
Homemade Yogurt in my handy dandy crockpot (YUM)
Fudge Babies (YUM YUM YUM)
Thai Turkey Salad (YUM)
I’m sure you can figure out from my very unofficial rating scale that YUM YUM YUM is best and BLAAAAARG is not good.
I’m enjoying the time I have to cook. Since all my classes are online this semester I feel like I have some free time. Or more likely, I’m just procrastinating school work. I try and study when Lulu is napping… and sometimes I’m successful. Sometimes.
In other news, Lulu popped her elbow out and I had to learn how to fix it for when it will, probably, happen again. Lulu is now 9 months and is 70% in all categories except cuteness, where she is 100% cute. Her hair is coming in more curly, as you can see by the pictures to your right. Our beautiful wood floors are inhibiting crawling, but she is slowly learning the butt-scoot to get where she wants – which is usually toward the cat.
Our life, as of late, isn’t too exciting. Despite the lack of excitement, I still can’t get to bed at a decent time. We will hopefully be adding some excitement to our life in the form of buying a car that gets better mpgs and doesn’t leak transmission fluid. Any and all tips and tricks to car buying will be appreciated!!
Gluten Free Amazingness
Quinoa is a high fiber, high protein super grain. You can’t go wrong combining quinoa and cheese.
I found a similar recipe on Pinterest, but since I’m completely incapable of following a recipe – I came up with a slightly different version. Mostly thanks to my half Italian cousin who insisted on the Romano cheese.
4 cups cooked quinoa (I season it with bouillon, garlic, and pepper)
1 medium diced onion
2-3 good sized chicken breasts, cooked and diced
4 cups (ish) broccoli florets
1 1/2 cups Romano Cheese
1/2 cup Sharp Cheddar
1 container cream of whatever soup – Pacifica soups are gluten free. You can also make your own
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
A couple cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste. Romano is salty, so don’t go crazy on the salt.
Mix it all up. Put it in a LARGE casserole dish. Sprinkle some cheddar on the top. And bake at 375 for 40 minutes.
You can easily make this vegetarian by simply leaving out the chicken – it would be great with just the broccoli.
I apologize for the not-so-great photo. It was half eaten before I decided to take a picture!
Viddy and I celebrated Valentine’s on Saturday. We went out to a Gluten Free friendly Italien restaurant. I got a really big bowl full of pasta. And they even have GF bread – it was heaven. The company was great, too.
Before we went out for our lunch date, Viddy went and got a haircut and came back with the BEST Valentine’s surprise – flowers and french fries. He knows me so well.
Today, the actual holiday, Viddy is all the way in San Jose for a business thingamajig. And it’s just me and little Lulu. Lulu and I went shopping. The cat snuggled with me. I’ve avoided homework – so it’s been a pretty normal day. But my days are a lot more boring without Viddy around.
Thank goodness for the genius that is FaceTime. Lulu can see her dad for a few minutes, and Viddy and I can chat like we normally do, with the exception that when I poke my iPhone it doesn’t make the same noise that Viddy makes. And my iPhone isn’t so great to cuddle with.
I’m looking forward to having Viddy back on Saturday. In the mean time, my mother-in-law is visiting to help babysit while I’m in classes later this week. It will be great to have an extra pair of hands to help with the baby so I can take a test and work on school stuff.
While my sweetheart is across the country, Lulu will be my little valentine. She’ll cuddle with me for 7 second spurts and she gives big, open-mouthed, wet kisses.
Happy Love Day, everyone. I hope you get all the big, wet kisses you want.
((I thought I posted this on Saturday – Viddy’s Birthday – but apparently I didn’t…. User Error))
Viddy has reached a milestone.
30
He can no longer say he’s in his twenties. His days of late night partying, skinny jeans, reckless and crazy behavior are OVER.
OK. So, life isn’t going to change to much.
Birthdays are funny that way. You change age overnight and…. nothing changes. This past year was a big one. Moving twice, buying a house, having a baby. I certainly hope Viddy’s 31st year isn’t as event-filled. I can only take so many life-changing events.
Today we celebrated the big 3-0 at home, Dave grilled steak, I unveiled the lemon cake with lemon curd filling and raspberry cream cheese frosting (not that it was a big secret). We ate our dinner, introduced Lulu to frosting – she was impressed, put Lulu in bed and continued watching our Mythbusters marathon. We’re so cool.
Happy Birthday, Viddy.
Here’s to many many more laid-back, happy
birthdays.
