Food For Thought

Food has become a big frustration with Sierra. If all I gave her were Smarties (bascially M&M's for you Americans) she'd be happy as a clam 24/7 ! Nevermind that her teeth would be rotting and falling out, she'd be the largest kid her age know to mankind, and on a constant sugar high which would not be a good scene.
What happened to my baby who nursed easily, took formula no problem, ate most of her baby food with enthusiasm?
She developed a personality and opinions.
Sierra has an enormous sweet tooth, thus the potential for a serious Smarties addiction. Nutella is the only thing she'll eat on toast. Vanilla ice cream is the world's best desert. She loves "dap -ee-dap". Translation: dips like syrup, ketchup, and ranch dressing. Carrots, potato cubes and french toast are merely vessels for getting the dip into her mouth. The other night at my mom's she was eating syrup with a spoon! (grandparents I tell ya) Carbs are also where it's at with her: Cheerios, noodles, bread, rice. The odd occasion there are chips in our house Sierra would eat the entire bag I'm sure! Meat and vegetables are pretty much from the devil as far as Sierra's concerned. Although she does like fruit and yogurt.

I hate meal times. Most of the time she is hungry well before a typical supper time and a small snack never suffices. I put effort into making her something and she pushes it away. She gets so dang grumpy and unreasonable when she's hungry that I keep giving her options until she eats something. I don't feel that I have much choice because of her surely mood and once she's eaten there's a complete switch in attitude. Seriously, she goes from whiny, ornery beast-child to sweet happy-go-lucky toddler. I feel like I run a toddler restaurant some days with all the choices!
I will give myself some credit and say that the majority of what I do offer her is fairly healthy: eggs with grated zucchini and cheese, grilled cheese, homemade vegetable soups, etc. Lately I've released my devious side and been sneaking in a variety of vegetable purees any way I can. (i.e. cauliflouer in banana bread, my hubby loved it never mind Sierra)
I hope this is all a phase. She's a bit too young yet to reason with, especially when she has a hungry tummy! I'm having a hard time deciding if she's pushing the boundaries as she approaches "2" or if this is simply a stage. All I feel that I can do for now try to make things as healthy as possible and not give in to Sierra's love of sweets just to placate her. I'm mostly winning but it is a bit of a battle.

My mother just lifts her eyebrows and goes,
"Hmmm, I had a daughter like that once."

Poltics

No, this is not about Barack Obama or the US election that just occurred.

• Obama, Obama, Obama - ugh, that is all I hear or see anytime I open a newspaper or turn on the TV...and I live in Canada!!!! That's a totally different country. Nothing against Obama or the US but really, I don't care much about politics at the best of times in my own country and now I'm being inundated with another country's election mania. Yes, I know it affects us greatly too, blah, blah blah.

• I would not normally be this emphatically anti-politics if we hadn't just endured another election of our own. Canada doesn't have nearly the campaign show that the US does, for starters we have 300 different parties rather than 2 - okay 7ish (if you live in Canada the ish makes sense but it's too hard to explain), and with more parties and less population there isn't near the funding for such galas to sucker in votes. Nevertheless, our campaigns still dominate TV and newspapers, and "Vote For..." signs are tacked everywhere like a bad disease of the land for it's duration and it all drives me crazy!

• Politicians are all a bunch of liars and lately are be doing this every two years because apparently we have a divided country.

• On a more serious note: I am thankful for a free country and democracy and wouldn't trade it for any alternative. I make it my business to know enough to make an educated vote no matter how irritating it all is to me.

• I wasn't going to talk about country politics. Sorry.

• Now that I've been at my new place of employment for six months all the internalpolitics are showing their ugly faces. No work place is perfect and all have their politics; I'm not naive in having thought this would be the prefect place where everyone is one big happy family but it's always a bit of a blow when reality truly hits. Maybe it's that I don't particularly wish to be at work in the first place; I'd rather be home with Sierra. Maybe it's the circumstances that have put me at work that are to blame.

• I certainly do not regret changing places of employment as there are enough aspects that I enjoy. But I miss the atmosphere of the place I used to work. My memories of my previous work place are of a more positive and fun environment than I have now. Granted it's been a year and a half since I worked there and bad memories often fade (like child birth thank goodness!) and today was a rather "off" day. But it must be a good sign for a place and it's people if its lasting impressions are mainly positive.

• Sigh.

• Yes, I'm greatful for my job, that I have one and all that. It's not ideal nor is the situation but then again life never is!

Headers

I have officially decided that I am extremely glad that I do not remember being 1. The new found skill of being able to walk may be fun and freeing in itself for a 1 year old but it also appears to be equally painful and frustrating. Although Sierra is quite an accomplished walker/runner (as much as a 1 year old can run) by now it's incredible how many things get in the way of journeying successfully to her destinations.

• For example: After a lovely fall walk this morning I had parked the stroller in the garage and she was slowly, indirectly of course, making her way to the door in the house. It truly amazes how unique a route a child can take to get somewhere. At one point she was standing on a rug by a side door that leads outside when she turned and started running towards me. Well, wouldn't you know it, a corner of that crazy rug decided to jump up and grab her foot. Her forehead didn't have a chance and connected with the concrete with a solid, awful, "thud."

I dropped the items in my arms, ran to her and gathered her up as her mouth opened,. The first cry came out, trailed to silence with her mouth staying open soundlessly for a very long time before gasping air back in and continuing with loud sad cries.
You can gauge the severity of the injury on the length of silence of the first cry. This was a bad one! After some hugs and "awwwe poor baby's" from mommy the crisis was over and we resumed our day. Sierra seemed to have forgotten it almost as quickly as the injury occurred, too bad I haven't!

• These things seem to happen regularly and for awhile there her head was constantly a rainbow of blues, yellows, and greens from bruises. Not only does she fall but furniture is at just the right height for running into or standing up under or other head maiming scenarios.

• Sigh.

Such is the life of a 1 year old and the parents caring for her!

Pain in the Neck, Yaya, and Jackets.

I'm supposed to be at work right now. But obviously I'm not at work since I'm typing a post. Okay maybe not obviously because I could be secretly typing on a computer when I shouldn't be. No, I'm at home. I successfully strained (is it still considered successful when one hurts oneself?) my upper back something fierce yesterday morning and am having serious challenges with my upper body mobility. How did I accomplish getting myself into this debilitating condition? That is in excellent question to which I don't have a satisfying answer to. I had just finished getting dressed, I bent over slightly for some reason and in a manner I'll never know and wish I did because perhaps I could have avoided my current predicament, and with that minor movement wham! my upper back seized up and I was wracked with pain. That's it, sorry. No grand heroic story of leaping out in front of raging traffic to save an innocent toddler or animal and rolling on the pavement with the almost victim safe in my arms and I in the throes of agony as a result.
I bent over.
Ping!
Done.
I somehow managed to accomplish grocery shopping that morning then spent the afternoon writhing on the couch in pain and unable to get into any type of comfortable position. I went to my chiropractor at my husbands insistence and it took him a half an hour to realign my upper back. Normally it takes him ten minutes for all of me. Although I noticed an improvement my muscles were still screaming at me and did so all evening and every time I moved during the night. Today the screaming has stopped but there is a lot of whining. I'm hoping by tomorrow there'll just be a small whimper here and there. I'm in a remarkably good mood all things considered.

• On to some tid-bits of Sierra. This is how I often find Sierra in the morning or after her nap (as in the picture). There is a small shelf with her books by her crib and she has learned how to get them and plays by herself for unknown lengths of time.
• She has figured out a reliable method of going down stairs in the last month. Why is down always so much harder than up? Up was a breeze, one day I was preoccupied with something in our basement hovel here and looked over to see my daughter fearlessly 3/4 of the way up the stairs! But talk about down...woowee, no siree! (Sorry, my second cup of coffee is almost gone, hmmm, maybe that's why I'm in such a decent mood) It actually started with my mom showing her how on the stairs of the deck, there are only three and they are quite wide. Slowly she navigated those and then graduated to the house stairs. Sierra sits down on the edge of the stair with her legs dangling over. Then she wiggles her legs which scoots her bum forward until she slides down onto the next step. Most kids go down backwards I hear, Sierra is not most kids. She's better! She's a genius! Doesn't every parent think that? Well, they should if they don't. As long as it doesn't get to the child's head and they get a high and mighty attitude of being better than everyone else. That can just lead to problems, just ask my husband, the teacher. Anyway, now I'm babbling.
• Sierra has also decided that crawling is intriguing. She never crawled; she scooted on her bumb and then walked but crawling would've been too easy! She's been around more little kids of late, many of whom crawl, so now she's decided to try it. She only goes a little ways before standing up and continuing on foot. It's almost as if she's thinking, "Okay, not bad, but crawling is for babies - it takes too long!"
• Sierra actually has a vocabulary and although it's an odd one we're having fun communicating with her. For example: "Yaya" is ice cream, apples, and bananas. I wonder why ice cream is "yaya" since it has no resemblance to the word, apples and bananas I can understand due to the "a" sounds but ice cream? (Carla shakes her head) Maybe my kid is not such a genius afterall. "Baba" is bottle, and grandpa (with a slightly different inflection only understandable to us!) "DUH" is "bang", developed when flies were trying to take over the house and we had wars with a fly swatter which made "bang" sounds. "Payyy" or "papa" is please. I taught her that in attempt to squelch the whiny demanding "uhhh" whenever she wanted something. Somedays I actually wish she had more words because there are many, many instances where Sierra definitely wants something and can't tell me what and gets frustrated when I don't understand. It is truely amazing how much she understands versus what she can say. I tell her to take her soother out of her mouth, and she does. I tell her we're going downstairs and she goes. I tell her to go to her chair at meal times and she goes, grabs her bib, and pushes up her sleeves. Okay, she really is a genius, even if ice cream is "yaya".

One more thing, we recently bought Sierra this little jacket at a second hand store.

It is lined and has a windproof outer part. We have stupid amounts of strong winds around here in winter so the jacket seemed like a good idea. Sierra hates the jacket. She cries and fights every time we put it on her. So my mom bought her this jacket at Old Navy last weekend and now the fight is over. I'll admit, it is wayyy cuter and more stylish. Sierra brought me the new jacket yesterday for her to wear and wore it inside for awhile!

Now this jacket is still out for debate. I bought it last year on clearance for this winter. It is warmer than the above two and is for the really cold temperatures we're sure to get. Sierra's worn it for a couple of walks recently and she complains when I put it on her but nearly like with the first jacket. I think it's because this one is so bulky and she can't move so well in it.

Why all this fussing over freaking jackets??? She is far to little to have such an opinion over clothes - isn't she?

• I could go on about my wonder-child but I know that these intellectual advances are generally only seen as remarkable to the parent of the child so I'll stop now. Thanks for reading my long post, I actually forgot about my upper back/neck pain for awhile!
• (I somehow cannot get my posts to post as I type them! With paragraphs and stuff the only way I can get them is with bullets. Any advice?)

Me and My Girl!

We had a miserable few days recently complete with a lot of rain and cold temperatures. It had me dreading the inevitable arrival of winter even more. Then today things improved and I'm enjoying the lovely colours of autumn and the warm air.
Sierra and I went for a nice walk along tree-lined streets this morning. We listened to the crunch of dry leaves beneath the stroller wheels and every time the breeze picked up were showered softly with more as they fell. It was really beautiful.
Upon returning home Sierra played in her sandbox with glee. Sand was thrown everywhere - of course!

Me and my girl on a fall day!

Today happens to be my 31 birthday and last night I was actually apprehensive as to how I would feel. I really hadn't thought about my birthday at all until yesterday. How times have changed from being a kid! I remember intense excitement in the weeks leading up to my birthday. My family always made a big deal of celebrating special events with birthdays being no exception. It was always a special day.
Now that I'm older and married to a man who's family didn't make birthdays as big a deal things have changed. Not that they are any less special - just different.
Today I feel happy and content and loved. I fell asleep last night planning to make the most of every moment today and enjoy them, so far I am succeeding.
I still get a party- of course! - with my family. It's on Saturday evening when no ones' working or anything silly like that!

Mindful

At a mere fifteen months in age I am amazed at how strong a personality Sierra is exhibiting. It's neat to experience Sierra the person bursting forth more and more but I think that she will be a handful yet!
Example #1:
Sierra was introduced to Oreo cookies recently and thinks they are delicious. She only had a few over a two week period but apparently they were memorable. The other night Sierra was being a crabster. She was hungry but staunchly refusing the food being offered by shoving it away. She was being whiney as a result of her empty little tummy but I was mostly ignoring it, I figured she'd eventually eat something. At one point I went to the pantry cupboard for an item and Sierra came running up to it. She immediately pointed up into the cupboard with an expectant look on her face and gave a little grunt that means she wants something. I looked and deducted that she wanted an Oreo. Now if she had just eaten a proper supper than I likely would have given her one but I was not about to allow my daughter an Oreo cookie for supper. So I said,
"No Sierra, you can't have an Oreo."
The grunting turned into a more inisistant yell, she was no longer asking, instead demanding.
"Sierra, you didn't eat your supper so you can't have a cookie!"
A tantrum ensued complete with a screaming yell and miniature feet stamping as I closed the cupboard doors.
I tried to distract her with toys, then the ever favourite books, and different food but she wanted none of that and continued hollaring.
Not knowing what else to do and not prepared to give in and allow her the Oreo Sierra was taken to her room and plopped in her crib for a time out.
The yelling escalated about a hundred levels.
She eventually lowered her crying to interspersed bursts at non-deafening level so I went and got her not sure she got the point.
She never did get her Oreo that night so I guess I won.

Example #2
This morning after waking up Sierra drank her bottle, per usual, as Trevor prepared her oatmeal, per usual. Once the bottle was empty he sat her in her high chair and she began complaining loudly. Sierra continued to voice her displeasure and vehemently refuse the offered oatmeal. Giving up, Trevor allowed her out of her chair. Sierra then promptly went to her Granny and sat on her lap and
- then ate her oatmeal!

Sigh.

We are really going to have to put our foot down with this one or she' s going to rule us and the house!

Poor Baby - again!

Sierra has grown into a generally happy baby. She smiles all the time, yells as loud as her little lungs will allow, babbles and squeals, enjoys her walks (both in the stroller and with me leading her along) and playing with her toys. Yesterday afternoon she developed a fussy, whiny demeanor. Nothing I did seemed to placate her, she even needed a time out in her crib at one point. At supper time her bottle was eagerly drained but solid food was staunchly refused.

Post nap number two. Sitting and visiting with some friends in our living room. Sierra sitting on my lap. Trevor says" Is that a sliver in her foot?"

"What!"

Sure enough, a rather long sliver was poking out of the bottom of her tender baby foot! Trevor delicately pulled it out with his fingers. She must have picked it up while 'walking' around barefoot earlier that day.

Food was once again gobbled down and my happy baby returned.

Ails

On Sunday the computer died.

The previous Thursday Trevor had tried to download a T.V. show. Despite his caution and all our virus programs something snuck in. Pop-ups became a nuisance and when we were on line the window would close for no reason. So we upgraded our virus program and ran a scan. The first time it froze at the 'delete' part, the second time it masqueraded having been a success but then when the computer was turned off....it refused to come up when we turned it back on!

Fortunately Trevor knows a guy who can fix such problems and was able to save our stuff and restore the computer. Yayyy!

I've had so much time these last four days, it's almost sad.

.

My darling Sierra has also been sick. The lesser appetite began late last week and the diarrhea on Sunday. Poor kid! I haven't had this many pooey messes since she was 2 months old! It's especially unpleasant to clean up while running errands! The little trooper has remained in generally good spirits (some crankiness for sure, but that's allowed) and she still wants to walk laps around our house a few times a day. The Health Link Nurse figures she caught a virus and we just have to let it run it's course, up to a week. I think she's close to the end; she ate more enthusiastically yesterday.

I'm such a mom, it has agonized me all week to have her ill.

Poor Baby!

To quote a friend "I was a bad mommy today."

Sierra woke up her usually cheery self this morning, ate a good sized breakfast of cereal and formula and remained happy throughout our morning of errands. We returned home at around noon and tried putting her down for her nap. Nope, it was too close to lunch to worry about sleep so crying ensued. We offered her a delectable lunch of baby mush and she exhibited a healthy appetite. Once again we lay her down for her nap. She cried again.

"Hmmm, rather unusual."

I let her play for awhile then tried for sleep again with no success. I fed her another bottle which she greedily sucked back.

"Ahh, her little tummy wasn't full! Who can sleep on an empty stomach?"

I lay her down again, and again she cried. I left her because I didn't think anything could possibly be wrong. I had checked all the usual culprits and given her drugs, just in case, so she had to be fine. She carried on mournfully for an hour and then I couldn't take it anymore. By now it was time for her to eat again. While I was feeding her supper, she farted magnificently and pooped.

"That's it! Her tummy was hurting, all should be well now."

We had a 6:00 showing of our house and had to leave. So we went to vote. Sierra remained calm but not overly smiley, but then again she hadn't slept all day. When we came home we thought
"She sleep now for sure- likely for the night."

A half an hour later she was becoming quite distraught. I held her, she cried, I fed her another bottle, she ate and cried, I tried the old new-born tricks, she cried. She was also flapping her arms so I knew she was in pain. I was at my witts end; Sierra was not settling down and my concern for her was mounting. Finally I thought

"I'll try a warm bath, a nurse once said that can help ease tummy aches."

I got the water running and proceded to undress her. I unvelcroed her booties and pulled off her socks and she screamed even louder. It was then that I looked at her feet and they were swollen! Upon closer inspection I deducted that somehow the way her socks and booties were put on this morning had caused the circulation to be cut off to her feet all day! No wonder she was screaming.

Within minutes she was settled down and splashing in the tub and offering smiles. Phew! I feel absolutely awful (even though it wasn't me that dressed her), but who would've thought? The shocks and shoes weren't on her feet that tight, just on wierd. Poor baby! She is now sleeping contentedly in her father's arms on the couch!