Category: Family

Elly is 8 months old today. She is growing up so fast!

Despite not whole-heartedly embracing solid food, Elly remains off the charts in weight. At 25 lbs, she has outgrown all her clothes labeled 12-months or smaller.

On the other hand, I struggle to keep Elly from trying to eat everything that isn’t food. Why she just loves to try and eat leaves.

She is constantly trying to pull herself up and “cruise” (walk while holding tight to somebody or something) around.

Yet, she has no interest in crawling. Every once in a while, she fools us into thinking she is going to crawl. She poses herself perfectly on all fours. Then, she moves one hand forward and pushes her knees out, landing flat on her belly. If she really wants something, she might drag herself along the floor just using her arms. More often, she cries about being on her tummy until Dan or I help her up.

One of her favorite new toys is an activity desk.

She is able to pull herself up by just grabbing an edge. It’s the perfect height for her to hold onto or to lean on. Though all the buttons make noise, she spends most of her time just turning the page in the book back and forth.

Elly adores Jake. Her face lights up when he walks into the room. The feeling is mutual.

Jake is pretty thrilled to have Elly around too despite getting fistfuls of hair pulled out on occasion. You see, Jake loves cleaning up after Elly’s spills during mealtime.

This is a post from Knitted Gem’s blog, authored by Marie Haigh.

Beginning this week, Elly has decided that she is no longer going to eat any of the pureed vegetables or fruits that I made for her. She only wants bread or bread-based products.

Pizza crust?

You betcha.

Cheerios and Goldfish?
Oh, boy!

So naturally, I just had to bake Elly her own loaf of bread.

No daughter of mine will be eating Wonder Bread.

I’m pleased to say it was a hit.

Yet, I haven’t given up on getting Elly to eat her vegetables. Instead I’ve tried the sneak attack: spreading pureed veggies on her bread. It seems sad that I already have to bribe/deceive Elly into eating a balanced diet. I thought that battle was months away.

Elly took her first ride on the park swing yesterday ….

and loved it!

She was not quite as thrilled with the couscous despite having a blast getting it into every nook and cranny, including her ears.

Why I gave her a bowl filled with it is beyond me.

Silly Mommy. Would you eat borning cereal when there are peaches to be had?

mmmmm peaches.

Perhaps because of the complications I had with breastfeeding coupled with the fact that I have been blessed with a child who likes to eat a lot, I assumed that Elly would jump at the chance to eat pureed foods. Surely, I was the one holding her back. Instead I have gotten looks from Elly ranging from complete horror to utter confusion.

The irony of it all is that I struggled with the decision of starting Elly on solids before she turned 6 months. It tortured me for days. The pros were based mostly on the fact that I love food and I was giddy to start cooking for her. The cons were twofold: 1 the AAP among other organizations recommend nursing exclusively for 6 months if possible and 2 pride held my hand. You see Elly’s pediatrician had told me that I wouldn’t be able to nurse Elly exclusively for 6 months because Elly was such a big baby and would require supplements in order to get enough to eat. Hogwash I said. It flies in the face of the law of supply and demand, which breastfeeding is based on. At all previous times when Elly demanded more to eat, my body simply supplied more. No reason to believe it wouldn’t continue to do so. Besides, have you seen Elly lately? Does she look like she’s starving?

My dilemma was all for naught. Elly is going to drag me over the 6-month mark and force me to simply stockpile all the pureed foods I’ve made for her into the freezer. It’s a good thing we have a 2nd freezer in the basement.

My MIL has promised me that Elly won’t remain on a liquid diet forever. By the time she goes to kindergarten, she will be eating solids. Of course, I was hoping for a bit earlier than that. One thing is for certain, we will be doing this at Elly’s pace. I am not in control.

Update: Yesterday after writing this up, I tried feeding Elly “watered down” oatmeal, which is to say oatmeal mixed with breastmilk until made runny. The verdict: she didn’t hate it! The look of ‘what are you putting in my mouth?’ was replaced with delight. Unfortunately, she didn’t know exactly what to do with it after that point and ended up spitting the majority of it back out. But, it was progress.

PS. You’ll forgive me for not getting an action shot of Elly eating. Things get very messy and sticky quickly. Heck, even I wear an apron to help save my clothes. All action shots will have to wait until the weekend when Dan is home to watch/help.

She can’t sit up straight for very long, tipping over in a matter of minutes. Yet, oh how she loves to try again and again.

News Flash: For the past few days, Elly has been going to bed at a more reasonable hour. Last night, she was in bed by midnight which is a huge improvement over the 3am bedtime.

So, what was the trick?
No trick. Dan and I still hadn’t come up with a Plan B.
No, it just took Elly turning 5 months old.

I am halfway through making Elly her 1st of many Christmas gifts.

Here’s my question:
Should I wrap the gifts I make for Elly and put them under the tree?

On one side, Elly will only be 10.5 months old. Any gift opening will have to be done by Dan or I. Thus, I will be making Dan open a bunch of gifts for Elly that he has already seen and knows about. It seems a bit silly when you look at it that way. Rather than go through the ritual for tradition’s sake, we could focus on having a relaxing Christmas morning before we head over to family and the mayhem begins. (I do anticipate that Elly will be spoiled rotten).

On the other hand, it will be Elly’s 1st Christmas. There is a part of me that wants to lavish her with gifts even if she doesn’t understand why and can’t participate in the unwrapping. Plus, I will be making several gifts for her between now and Christmas: 4 dresses and a duvet cover. I suppose I could always place them directly in her closet.

My practical side says No. The mother in me is conflicted. The traditionalist says Yes.

Elly is a night owl. She doesn’t turn in for the night until 3am.

She started this habit about a month after she was born. Most of the info I read seemed to suggest that she would eventually grow out of it so I didn’t fight it. When Elly turned 4.5 months old, my patience began to wear thin. Enough was enough. I wanted to go to sleep with my husband and wake up sometime before noon.

With Dan on my side, I concocted a plan to wage war against Elly’s natural internal clock. The plan required us getting up at 7am no matter what time we went to bed the night before. The day was to be filled with a normal level of stimulation for Elly. At night, I would start my nursing and soothing regimen earlier.

The 1st night brought no change. The 2nd night saw little improvement as Elly went to sleep an hour earlier. The 3rd night we were back to status quo. The 4th night was the worst with Elly staying up till 4am.

It was after night 4 that I waved the white flag.

Little Elly has won Round 1.

Dan and I need to regroup and come up with a plan B.

During our engagement and the first years of our marriage, we had 2 cars. However, once we moved to an apartment that was within walking distance to the train station, my car sat idle. When the battery died, we donated it rather than maintain a car I only used once a month.

Since Pottstown hasn’t had a train running through town in many years, I had come to rely on a bicycle to get me from point a to point b. Unfortunately, Elly won’t be road worthy until she is one year old. Her neck just isn’t strong enough to handle the bumps of the road until then.

At first, I was only taking her places that were within walking distance from home. Then came the day when I needed to travel outside the mile radius surrounding our home in order to attend a doctor’s appointment. I mentioned it to Dan and he complained about having to rent a car again. It started to make sense for us to buy a 2nd car just to avoid the rental fees. Determined that there was another way, I looked into public transportation.

I had known for years that Pottstown had a bus system. What I didn’t know is how extensive the system was. Come to find out I could get almost anywhere within the town limits along with a few shopping plazas right outside of Pottstown.

The day I took my first bus ride with Elly was so empowering. I didn’t need to wait until Dan returned home with our only car. I didn’t need to rely on our local Enterprise. I could get to all my favorite stores in Pottstown anytime during the day that I wanted.

No more did I have to listen to Dan’s request/plea for a 2nd car. The day I relayed my bus ride experience to Dan was the very day that he conceded defeat.

I had won. We shall keep our 1-car status.