Day 9: Crying It Out Big Girl Style

I hate the idea of crying it out. Sure, it SEEMS like a good plan, and Shawn is FINE with it, but as a mother it breaks my heart to listen to my daughter cry and not go help her. We had several bouts of crying it out when Madalyn got old enough to realize that there were things going on after she went to bed. It really hurt me to do it... and this only got worse when she started with the gagging herself and throwing up every night.

We had to take the crib rail down in her bed because our monkey daughter learned to crawl up the sides with her little feet. I caught her several times trying to escape (at 16 months! I didnt think we would face that until 2 at least!) I know she isnt old enough to really "get" staying in her bed, but I would rather deal with that then have her get a concussion from falling off the top of the crib.

So down came the rail, and now we have a huge dilemma. Madalyn wants to sleep with Mommy. Not as much Daddy, because supposedly she sleeps though the night when I am at work. So when Mommy is home she gets her 2 - 3 hours of sleep when we are up and about, then she has an internal alarm that goes off when we go to bed. No, we arent waking her up by being noisy, because we sneak into bed to keep from waking her up! She must sense us back there... who knows. Just as we will settle into bed we will here the pitter patter of little feet and then "mama? mama?" as she comes into the room.

I gave in the other night. I actually brought her back to bed and laid with her (yes I curled up in her crib size bed!) but she just wanted to play. For 2 hours! So VERY early Monday morning at 1 am I gave up and brought her into bed. She was asleep within 3 minutes! So LAST night the same thing happened, and I was dead set against her coming to bed with us. So we both tried to get her back to bed... with no luck. Everytime we would leave she would pop up her head and cry. So then... we just had to put the baby gate up. She of course came to the gate and cried and screamed... and we just had to let her cry it out.

It was awful... for about 15 minutes! Then she finally gave up, crawled into bed, pulled her Tinkerbell blankie around her, and went to sleep. She slept through the night until Shawn got up at 5 for work. (Yes 5! He has to work at 6:30!) He took the gate down, and she got up around 5:30 ish and same into the room. My rule (okay, my new rule) is that she is welcome after 5:30 AM because if she had her way that would be the daily wake up time. She slept with me in bed until 8 am when she woke up. I keep a baby book by the bed, so I can hand it to her in the morning and keep her busy. She "read" her A B C book for about half an hour.... (WOOO HOOOO SLEEPING IN!)

So we shall see how it goes... bed times are so difficult. I hate them. I wish we could go from playtime to asleep without all the drama in between. I feel like I am hurting her when I leave her at bedtime!

Day 7: Not a Day of Rest!

WHEW it was a long day today! We decided to add insulation to the attic, which was quite a project that involved emptying the attic, laying the insulation (Shawn's job not mine!) and then putting everything back. But we did get to go through boxes and boxes of stuff and get rid of some junk we had stored for no reason. Then we cleaned the shed and the carport... and finally the house is starting to look good!

Shawn starts work tomorrow, bright and early.... so there will be some changes around the Swanson house! I think it will be good for him to rejoin the "adult" world!

Just some pictures.... Madalyn eating a graham cracker. Nothing too exciting, but if she is busy with food she actually looks at the camera! I did them grainy on purpose, just to make them a little more interesting.











And I call this one why you always go running when you hear Maddie saying "no! no!" because usually it means she is doing something she knows she isnt allowed to. Like climbing into a shelf. :)

Day 6: In the Gardens

I am going to start this before I leave for photoshoots at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. I have a bunch of pictures to post, just random snapshots from the last few days. I will probably add some to yesterday's post so today's isnt so overloaded with pictures! :)

Okay update here. I had 4 shoots today, and 2 last minute cancellations and then a no show. I know I shouldnt let this get to me, but it was annoying to go somewhere and wait for someone to show up that didnt. I have a phone and make sure everyone has my number.... I went for some retail therapy on the way home and took advantage of a baby-free hour. I bought a basket for the living room to put her toys in. Note here: as babies get bigger so do their toys! Hers didnt fit in the little canvas bin anymore and I cant stand having them all over the place all the time!

So I got home rather bummed, and still had to be back at Kanapaha for a shoot this evening. I dont charge a deposit for people as of now, but it looks like I might have to, especially if I am paying a sitter to watch Madalyn. But I hate for good customers to have to pay for the mistakes of others... but there is pretty much no way around it.

When I got home I was in a crabby mood to say the least... and here is why I love my husband. He totally cheered me up. After cleaning out our attic all day (YES I did say cleaning out our attic! We will be adding insulation soon to help to combat our $500 electric bill!) he was extemely tired.... and I jokingly said a photoshoot with my daughter might cheer me up. I dont get to take many "real" photos of Madalyn becuse it is a 2 person job and for some reason it is like pulling teeth to get an hour of cooperation from him for photos. But he shocked me and said he didnt mind helping me today... so we packed up the baby and headed to Kanapaha an hour and a half early for my shoot.

We walked around, and Madalyn was really more interested in pushing her own stroller then she was posing for photos, but I did manage a few cute ones. I will be posting them soon. Regardless of if I got ANY photos, it was an extremely nice thing for Shawn to do. Then they just walked the grounds and checked out the flowers while I had my session.

So all in all, the day was great! And check out the pictures on Day 5 of the new car!
EDITED AGAIN TO ADD: I uploaded some photos after all. I only got to 3 of them, but these were the ones that jumped out at me. I am playing with some differnet conversions in my photo editing.... so tell me what you think!

And keep the comments coming! I LOVE them!

Day 1- Reading to Allie

Madalyn truly loves two things more than anything else. Reading books, and her doggies. The kid carries around her cardboard books all day, and when the dogs lie on the floor she sits right next to them and procedes to "read" them stories. She really tries to read. She can often be seen pointing at things in her books and trying to tell the dogs what they are. Today she grabbed a magazine off a shelf and went to lay with Allie on her dog bed to read.




I know she is too young to read, but it is so hilarious how Madalyn can identify her books. I think the best is how she "reads"
Mr Brown Can Moo . She calls it the "moo" book. The other day she opened to the thunder page, pointed and said "BOOM." So cute.

By the way she knows lots of animal noises. She can say "moo" for cow, "woof woof" for doggie, "meow" for kitty, "tweet tweet" for birdie, "neigh" for horsie, and "quack quack" for duck. She knows lots of body parts too! She can show you her hair, head, eyes, ears, nose, tongue (Shawn's favorite to see her stick her tongue out!) mouth, teeth, boobies, belly, belly button, knee, shoulders, toes, fingers.... and I am sure I am missing one....

17 Month Photos