Food

I was just realizing tonight how lucky I am to have a good eater.  I hope she never ever changes.  Aside from like one or two foods, this girl seriously eats whatever I put in front of her.  Green beans?  No problem.  Cooked carrots (yuck)?  Sure!  Peas, meatloaf, spaghetti?  Keep it coming.  I cannot imagine preparing her some food, trying to feed it to her and she refuses and then having to dump it out all the time.  I know some kids are a little picky, but some kids will barely eat anything.  I am really praying this isn't just a phase and that she'll get pickier as she gets older.

About the only things I can think of that she doesn't like is scrambled eggs and angel hair pasta.  But I think both of those are texture issues.  Without salt, which I do not add to any of her food, I agree that scrambled eggs aren't worth it and are kind of rubbery.  I know she likes eggs since she'll eat omelets and egg salad so it must be more the texture.  The angel hair, I would say it is because it's like having hair in your mouth.  Well sort of, I loooove angel hair pasta but to a kid I can see why she wouldn't like it.  She likes other pastas.

I never thought I would ever get comfortable giving her solid foods, I was always so worried about her choking.  I still wouldn't let her eat in the car where I cannot see her or help her if she had trouble, but for the most part I am much more relaxed.  Plus she is just better about chewing her food now that she is a little older.  But sometimes she does cram too much food in her mouth and gag on it, but in those cases she either spits it out or throws it up.  Neither is pleasant, but much better than having to do the Heimlich.

Bed time has been getting easier.  There for a while it was tears all the time and I would often have to go in there and try to calm her down, which I would but as soon as I put her back in her crib she would start bawling again.  It has helped a ton that she is mostly down to one nap now though.  With only one nap, she is much more tired and ready for bed than before.  Some days she still takes two, like last week we went to my dad's for a Memorial Day BBQ.  With her Uncle Joe there, my dad and my aunt, she got tons of exercise walking around the yard.  Uncle Joe will never ever say no to his little princess so she can make him walk her all the time.  She was also up way past her bedtime, so the next day she not only took two naps, but they were each two hours long and she still went to bed with no problem that night.

I told my dad that if I feel comfortable by then, maybe she can go to his house for an overnight for our anniversary in October.  It's our 5 year anniversary, so it would be awesome if we could sleep in the next morning.  Hopefully I would actually enjoy it rather than waking up in a panic wondering why she wasn't crying yet.  

I'm nervous, but that's still 5 months away, so hopefully I'll be ready.  And if I am not, then we just postpone it.  We already left her overnight once, back when she was about 8 months old, but she stayed at home and my inlaws came over to stay with her.  I felt much better about leaving her with her in her own bed.  But, I'll make sure to pack her pillow, favorite stuffed animals and blankets, so despite being in a strange crib and room, maybe she'll feel enough at home to sleep ok.  Packing her elephant sound and light machine should also help.

I thought about staying a night there sometime with her before hand, a trial run to see how well she sleeps, but then I realized, if she doesn't sleep well when she stays there with my dad, it won't be my problem, haha.  My dad probably won't get a wink of sleep, checking on her all night.

Things with the puppy are getting a little better...sort of.  We wanted to hire a private trainer, so he came over the other day to do an evaluation but he advised us to wait another month before we started so that she'll be old enough to retain what she learns.  I was a little bummed about that, I was hoping to get started right away so she could become a better dog, but a month isn't so bad.  Besides I don't want to have to pay for lessons twice when she forgets everything she learned.  He also told us we can keep her in her crate much more than we were.  Basically she was only in her crate at bedtime and if we left the house, giving her free roam every other time.  But we cannot possibly closely monitor her all day long and not expect her to have accidents, so he said unless she is out with us to play for a specific set amount of time where we can closely monitor her, she should be in her crate.

This was fantastic news.  This drastically cut down on the amount of referring I have to do between her and Emily, and it cuts down on the number of accidents she has.  It's still frustrating and exhausting, but much better than before and knowing that training isn't too far off makes me hopeful that thing will get better real soon.  But note to self, we are never getting a puppy ever again.