22 MONTHS

• I can hardly believe it, but in just two short months, Marissa will turn 2! My baby is all grown up! We weighed her at home the other day, and she weighs approximately 21 lbs. Which means she only gained 1 pound in 4 months...I'm starting to be a bit concerned, but there's really nothing more I can do.
  

• Her language is exploding these days! But my absolute favorite word of hers is "poffle" = waffle. Wall, fire, tower (blocks), shirt, snap, raisins, cheerios, water, Uniqua, Pablo, Austin (from The Backyardigans), fork, pillow, blanket, home, car, truck, plane, stairs (to go up or down), socks, yogurt, and book are just a few of the words she has either learned new or refined the pronunciation. Every day she is putting more and more words together to form complete thoughts. Today at lunch, she said "Dada, home? I mish you" so I just had to call Dan and let her talk to him. So precious.

• Monday morning, Rissa and I drove to Indy to visit my friend and roommate from college. Her little boy is 5 months old and Marissa just loved watching him while we were there. She always had to know where "baby" was, and was just fascinated by him. She even succeeded in saying his name, Carter, which turned out pretty cute coming from her mouth. I've got some ridiculous/cute/hilarious stories from our visit:

• We arrived just before lunch, and Marissa had fallen asleep in the car for about 15 minutes before we got there. I wasn't too worried, since she has just been so awesome about her sleeping schedules for several months now. So after lunch, I put her pjs on (they don't have feet, but they snap all the way down) and put her in the pack-n-play. She screamed, but I figured she'd calm down as soon as she got used to the different room. Crap, I can't remember the exact time line of events. Well, she cried on and off for a while, and I went in and reassured her a few times probably. Oh yeah, I gave up and let her play downstairs for a while too, since I thought her cat nap in the car might have messed her up. Once I put her back to bed, she finally quieted down, so I went to check her to see if she was actually asleep. Well, what I found stopped me in my tracks. She was asleep, but her pjs were in a pile next to her, her diaper was all wadded up in a pile on her pjs, and she was completely naked. I debated long and hard about waking her up to put her diaper back on, but decided she needed the nap more than I needed her sheets to stay dry. Lol. She slept naked for an hour! The second I heard her wake up, I ran upstairs to put her diaper on and clean up the mess I expected. But she was completely dry! I was shocked!

• When it was time for bed, I didn't have anything better for her to wear, since I only packed a few things. So I gave her a mini lecture (lol) and hoped for the best. I listened on the monitor, and when she got quiet, I ran upstairs to see what she was up to. When I opened the door, she was standing up in the pack-n-play, holding her pjs and diaper, naked again! This time I think I yelled at her quite a bit. Lol. At this point, I realized we would have this same problem every time she was left alone in the pack-n-play. I asked Laureann if she had any onesies for her little boy that might fit Marissa. The biggest one she had was a 12-month blue football onesie, which fit Marissa perfectly. Lol. So we borrowed that for a few days.
• After all this drama, we all realized that since her pjs didn't have feet in them, I probably could have just put them on her backwards and she would have been stuck in them. So from now on, she either gets a onesie or backwards pjs (or both!) for every nap and bedtime, since she is too smart and figured out snaps and zippers.
  

• 3. The first time Marissa saw Laureann nurse Carter, she looked at me with a funny look on her face, then said "shhhh" (which was her word for nurse, when she asked for it - she hasn't nursed for at least 3 months). On the drive back home, when she was in her car seat, she was holding her baby, and said "shhh" and pretended to nurse her baby. I think it's so cool that she actually still remembers nursing. And as much as I was annoyed by it, and ready to be done, I miss it now! I miss that cuddle time, quiet time, and giggle time with her. She's way too busy to be bothered with cuddle time, quiet time, and giggle time with me very often anymore!

• Wednesday, I made Marissa a half of a peanut butter sandwhich and put it on her plate. Then I made myself a whole peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwhich and sat down next to her to eat it. She took one bite of her sandwhich, then pushed it over to me saying "no, no, no" then took my sandwhich out of my hand, and proceeded to eat the entire thing. So I had to make myself a whole new sandwhich! I was so pleased that she actually ate so much though, that I just let her! Whatever it takes these days!
  

• I'm sure there were other things I wanted to share from our visit with Laureann, but I can't remember anymore. We had such a good time, and Marissa really enjoyed new/different toys. I hope they are able to buy a second car soon, so L and Carter can come visit us!

• Calling all grandparents (great-grandparents?), relatives, and close friends: Birthday party for Marissa the weekend of April 26-27? Sound good? Be here, or else...

• My sister is gone for the weekend, visiting Liberty University in preparation for going to school there in the fall. Rissa already misses her Aunt RaRa!

sorry

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. I got sick Tuesday, Dan got sick Thursday, and the house is a disaster area. We're all better now though, just busy! I'll update again soon, I promise!

Holy Macaroni - Part II

Alternate title: The First Milestone I'm Glad I Missed

Marissa woke up this morning around 7:10, which is a little early, but not bad. But when I walked into her room, I had to rub my eyes. There were little pieces of hot dog (last night's dinner) all over the floor, all over her bed, all down the crib rails, all over her pjs, and matted in her hair. I feel like such a horrible mommy because last night I didn't even check on her at all, so I don't even know when she threw up! I didn't hear anything that sounded like it though, and she had been acting totally fine for several days. I sometimes go in and check her before we go to sleep, but I didn't last night. I'm really hoping she only threw up when she woke up, because I think she'd be pretty upset if she threw up last night and I never came to get her.

Anyways, I whisked her straight into the tub, before anyone else was even up getting ready for work. Then I threw all her bedding in the washer. Then we came downstairs, cuz she was begging for some milk. Before she even drank any, she burped, and spit up some more on her shirt. So we went back upstairs to change her outfit. So far, there hasn't been any more throwing up, but she's definitely a little out of it today. Poor girl. At least this is the first time she's thrown up at all. I guess we are lucky? We're about to have lunch though, and even though I doubt she'll eat much, I'm worried that she will eat, and then throw it up. She's still wetting her diaper normally, and she's had a few minutes of normal playtime this morning. I'm hoping it was just a one-time thing, especially since Dan's parents are supposed to visit this weekend! Seth (little bro of the triplets) used to throw up if he was too upset, so maybe she just woke up upset, and I didn't hear her in time? We'll see...

Ok, time to try out some lunch.

*EDIT* She at a few things for lunch, but hardly anything. Guess she knew she wasn't ready to eat much. Hopefully she naps for a loooooooong time (like yesterday - 2 hours 45 minutes!) so she's better when she wakes up!

Holy Macaroni

It has certainly been an interesting few days since Friday. She had a slight fever on riday, but was acting fine. No more fever now, but her nose definitely has issues, and she's been coughing this nasty little gunky cough. Not very often, but it still sounds awful. One would think she would sleep better since she obviously feels so miserable. But this has not been the case:

Saturday for nap, Dan put her down because Rach and I were cleaning/organizing/finding her room. Instead of going right to sleep, she whined immediate for Daddy, over and over and over and over again, finally peaking at a hysterical cry. We let her cry for a while, thinking she'd still just go to sleep. After about 30 minutes of listening to her cry, stop, whine, cry, stop, whine, etc. she let out a sudden cry even worse than before. So I ran in to check on her. What I found stopped me in my tracks. Her pants were on the floor. Her diaper was in a pile in her crib. She was naked from the waist down (obviously). Her knee was stuck in the crib slats. And she was hysterical. The only good thing was that she hadn't peed all over her bed (*see 'Sunday for nap'). So we cleaned her up, put her clothes back on, comforted her since she was freaked out by getting stuck, and re-did the nap/bedtime routine. We put her back in her crib, and she fell asleep immediately.

Sunday for nap, I put her down like I always do, and Rach and I left to go pick up something for Dan at Lowes (he and Jeremy were working on finishing the basement). I left the monitor downstairs for Dan to listen to in case she pulled the same thing she did on Saturday. He called 20 minutes later to say that she was still crying, so I told him to check on her in case she took her pants and diaper off again. He said he would check on her, re-do the routine, and put her back down. When Rach and I got back, I asked him how it went. He said her pants were on the floor, her diaper was on the floor, and she had peed all over her bed, the edge of the crib, and onto the floor. He did his (manly) best to clean it up, and put her back to bed. When she woke up, I took all her sheets and blankets off, and wiped down the crib, and cleaned the carpet.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, we will now be putting her in her full footie pjs or making sure she is wearing a onesie underneath her clothes for all naps, no matter what. And we follow her to the front door corner to make sure she doesn't remove all her clothes there too.

Sunday night after the Super Bowl (bo-ring!) I actually fell asleep pretty early for a change. I was awoken (woken? awaken?) suddenly at 3am by Marissa whining loudly. Over and over and over and over. So I went in to her room and told her it was still dark so it was still nigh-night time and to lay down and go to sleep. She got really upset when I did that, obviously, but I kissed her and left. She quieted down, and I feel back to sleep immediately, only to hear her doing the same thing again 15 minutes later. Repeat me going to her room. Repeat her crying harder. Repeat her quieting down. Repeat me falling back asleep. Repeat whole process until 4 FREAKING 30am. Finally she actually went back to sleep instead of just being quiet for 15 minutes. Only to wake up before 7am. So I got her and put her in bed with us, and put The Wonder Pets on for her to watch, so I could sleep a little longer. Except she wouldn't sit still, so we came downstairs before 8am. I dozed on the couch while she watched every show known to man. Then she ate a huge lunch: grapes and cheese - lol (she's boycotting meat and pretty much anything else while she's "sick"). Then I napped while she napped, but she whined for so long again, then only slept for less than an hour, so we still didn't get much sleep. I guess that would explain why she whined for about an hour straight before dinner last night. ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Last night she slept much better, but still woke up much earlier than she usually does. And she a basket case this morning. She won't stop crying for anything, except tv. Grrrr. So thats what we're doing. I can tell she's still miserable though, so I guess it's ok. She feels a little warm again too.

She is barely sick, but somehow she has succeeded in making the whole house miserable. I certainly hope this goes away soon.