Best Advice I received after I gave birth to Adelyn:
Enjoy every minute, because they will fly by. Right after she was born, I felt like the days were not flying by. They were dragging. Lack of sleep really takes a toll on the body and mind, and for me it was no different. I was counting the days until she slept through the night so that I could be a normal, functioning person again. But I remembered this advice and tried to enjoy at least one thing every day. Now it has been over a year, and each day brings something new: a new word, a new facial expression, a new skill. And I can’t help but love every second I get to spend with my little Addie. She constantly brings a smile to my face, and I don’t miss the days of newborn-ness, because I didn’t let them pass me by without enjoying them too.
Best Advice from the pediatrician:
Babies are resilient. The thing I love about our pediatrician is that he doesn’t try to push a certain parenting style onto you. He literally said to us, “you are going to do what you feel is best, so just go for it”. And to a scared new mother and father, this was a little unsettling. I was looking for a list, “do this, don’t do that, be careful of this, this is the right way to do blah, blah, blah”. But as time went by, his advice gave me freedom to do what I thought was right, not what he thought was right. If I wanted to let my baby cry it out, I wasn’t a bad mother. If I wanted to rock her to sleep, I wasn’t spoiling her. And babies are resilient. They will survive on little more than sufficient food and lots of love and attention. They don’t need certain toys. They don’t need to be protected from every single germ, every single child wanting to touch them, every single cry that they emit. This news relaxed and reassured me that everything may not be perfect, but everything was going to be fine.
Santa's Helper
Ticklish?
At 14 months, Addie is still a little small for her age, but she makes up for it in personality. This girl has got spunk! She talks all day long! She is not making phrases yet, but once or twice I’ve gotten her to say, “Hi Daddy”. Her newest skill is running. She runs back and forth in our family room, and falls down almost every time she tries to stop. She also likes to try to pick up her food with one finger. She has found that if she licks her finger first, she can pick up cheerios, raisins, and pieces of bread with her index finger. She looks at me and says “Wow”. I, of course, am amazed. She eats everything and one of her favorite words is “bite”. This means she is hungry, and no, she is not willing to wait to be fed. Someday we will need to curb the habit of eating all day every day.
Other items:
We think her hair may be red.
She has 12 teeth, and the molars were seriously hard on her. Diaper rash, runny nose, and crankyness for 6 days straight.
She loves Gma and Gpa Brassfields dog, Sierra. Sierra is terrified of Addie, and Addie chases her around every time we are there.
She LOVES the Fancy Nancy books. Every time I put her to bed she requests “Nancy” by name, so we end up reading “Nancy” multiple times every day. We need something new…
She loves to brush her own hair, and sometimes brushes Mommy’s hair while she’s at it.
She has started to get MAD when we take things away from her. Are tantrums ahead?
- So mad
Brushing her hair
1.12.2010
So fun to read what Addie is up to these days, and those pictures are absolutely adorable. Seriously, she is way too cute. I also love your thoughts on the advice you got–well said!