Terrible..Ten months?

My sweet agreeable baby has been replaced by this crying, angry version.  Emily has always gone down so easy, especially her naps when she started napping in her crib, I'd just put her in, close the door and she was out within a mnute or two.  But for the last several weeks, she screams bloody murder at bedtime and naptime, and she's been waking up most night at least once or twice, crying.  I thought I was losing my mind, but I've talked to others and it seems she is going through her separation anxiety stage.  It breaks my heart because no matter how much I rock her or cuddle her, she cries just as hard when I put her in her crib as if I didn't rock her first.  Thankfully most nights she only cries for about five minutes and then falls asleep, but today's naptime didn't go as well.
I really wanted to get my work out in while she was napping so I could just relax this evening, but it took 30 minutes to get her down.  She also cries first thing in the morning when I bring her in the living room and leave to get her her a bottle.  Not sure if it is related or she's just coming into her own independence, but she's getting quite sassy too.  This morning I was letting her play a baby draw game on my phone but occasionally she would hit something and take it out of the game.  Whenever I took the phone away to try to get the game back, she would writhe around in my lap and even pinched me a few times!  I've always heard about the terrible two's, why did nobody ever tell me about this stage?

In cuter news, she has discovered it is fun to pick up an item just to drop it two seconds later and watch it fall.  Then pick it up again, and drop it again, lather, rinse, repeat.  Even more fun, she has found, is dropping something and seeing how many times grandpa will pick it up for her.  She's started weaning herself from her paci.  No actually, she's gone cold turkey.  I cannot remember the last time she willingly took her paci and kept it in longer than 5 seconds; it's been at least a couple weeks.  It's good, I never thought it would be a problem to break her off it since she could always take it or leave it, but it's always good when the kid takes the initiative themselves to break the habit.  But, it is bad because when she was really overtired or cranky, the paci would always help calm her to go to sleep, so I am missing it right about now.

Last week when it was bath night, I decided to let her take a stab at feeding herself.  I know she is far from being able to do it, but you've got to start somewhere right?  So I stripped her down to her diaper and let her have at it.  Perhaps choosing purple carrot for the entree for the evening was not the best food color choice though.  It was all over her, on her forehead, all smeared around her face.  It was very cute and funny though, and then we had a nice bath after.  She had troubles dipping the spoon in to get food on it, but once I helped her with that, she actually did get the food into her mouth most times.  Not bad for a rookie.

Speaking of her new night time behavior, my brother and his wife are coming to babysit tomorrow night so my husband and I can go out with some friends.  That should be fun for them.  I'm willing to bet she is still up when we get home because my brother will not be able to stand hearing her cry it out for longer than two minutes, he'll go pick her up and start the process all over again.  If she's super upset and crying for longer than 10 or 15 minutes I'll go get her, but most of the time she cries for 5-8 minutes and then falls asleep.  It sucks to hear her cry, but in the long run it's best to just tough it out till she zonks out.

And now for the fun stuff.....her first birthday is in just over two months, so I've been hitting pinterest for party ideas.  I want to make as much as I can; so far I've made her a black and purple tutu to wear on the big day.  For the beginning of the party I want her to wear a frilly dress but for pictures and her cake smashing, she'll wear the tutu, and I also made a sparkly stick on #1 to put on a white onesie.  I tried the tutu on her today and it is SO CUTE!  She also loved touching and playing with the layers of tulle.  I have to say, I was very impressed with it.  My pinterest projects are hit and miss, sometimes they turn out great, other times, eh not so much.  But the tutu looks perfect, I would even think it were store bought if I hadn't made it myself.

I also made her a pink and black tutu for her highchair which turned out pretty good.  Noticing a theme here?  Her basic theme is just girly.  If she is anything like me, she will start voicing her opinions very soon and they won't be in favor of girly.  If I didn't strike it rich with a girly girl, I want to "girl her out" while I still have the chance, and what is more girly than tutus?  I tried making her invites, they were to have a pink cardstock back, the writing would be on a smaller square of white cardstock and at the bottom, a ruffled piece of pink tulle.  I made a sample one tonight.  It looked fairly decent, some of the glue leaked around the edges but I was going to fix that by just using double sided tape.  But the big thing that makes me give them a thumbs down is my damn paper cutter is not cutting perfectly straight.

Maybe no one else will notice, but I do and I hate tiny imperfections like that.  I only have to make 10 invites, but I don't want to go through all of that and still be unhappy with them.  I don't mind if people know they are home made, I just don't want them opening up and going ooooooh, these are home made.  So, for $35 I just went to the site I was using the idea from and ordered them.  I've accepted that there are things I can make that look good, and things I cannot, so the invitations will be ordered.

Well, her tutu isn't completely done, and I have to go sneak into her room to get it.  Let's hope I step on all the right floor boards that don't squeak so I don't wake the beast, I mean, my sweet little baby.