A message from my MOM!

"Hope you are having a good morning, Kiss Sawyer for me, than more often I see her, the more I miss her. I’m in meetings a lot today if you can’t reach me. Talk to you sometime, your party was really nice, I just love your friends, talk to you later, mom xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo"

Messages like this make hard days a little easier.  I love my mom.



Today was Sawyer's first day of real preschool.  I had to take a picture.  Too bad I brushed her teeth, and that pretty much ruined her morning....  Then on our way outside she demanding these old Christmas decorations (silver swirly stick things) and wouldn't put them down.  I think I got like two pictures before the big meltdown, they may not be perfect to you but they are perfect to me. 

Let's play catch up...

Sawyer had her first episode of puking.  She never even spit up as a baby.  Always kept everything down.  She had a snot face for like three days and was totally fine, thought she had a UTI (that went away on it's own).   So this was foreign  to me.  Then Saturday night, well actually Sunday morning at 2:17am, Sawyer had vomited up her hot dogs and s'mores all over her bed.  So I cleaned her all up and was like well ok, she had some water and breast milk and laid right back down and went to sleep at 2:37, she puked up more and by this time I knew she was sick.  So we moved out into the living room, I went through three shirts and I just let SJ rock a diaper, and we went through my whole pantry of clean bath towels.  It was awful about every 20-40 minutes she was hurling up her stomach contents, until nothing was left.  After she'd puke she would rub my arm and say, "Sorry mah".  Poor girl.  Then she would go back to sleep and wake up puking again.  I would have taken her to the ER, and I work in one but there was no way I was putting her in a car.  I knew she was sick.  She couldn't keep anything down, she would just puke it right back up.  Then she looked a little better by daylight and slept a good two hours from 8am to 10am.  She would only drink water but would puke it right back up about ten minutes later. She would walk around the living room and then just put her head down on the coffee table.  I was so sad to watch.  By noon she was able to keep sips of water and some breast milk down.  I thought at first she just played too hard the night before, swinging on this huge swing set, Jake's parent had, because I know how motion sick I get.  But then today is Monday and she is eating a little more and drinking she still isn't 100%, but she had two bouts of diarrhea.  Poor baby.  I figured it wasn't the stomach flu because I definitely got some of her puke in my mouth, but knock on wood, I never got sick.  No one else in the family is sick either, that I know of.  Except maybe baby play group.  Grrh.

UTI turned speech problem...

So I was convinced SJ had a urinary track infection.  She was completely potty trained, like no accidents for four days.  Just decided to go the little green potty of hers that has been sitting in our living room since she turned one.  Started with pees and proceeded to go number two's as well.  No pressure from mom at all, she would just rip her diaper off and go.  I gave up on trying month after month, because she simply wasn't there yet.  She also has joined a baby play group on Tuesday and Thursdays, lots going on.  I wasn't brave enough to go out in public without diapers.  I would always just take her in diapers or just let her be naked in the house.  Then she started screaming when she peed and grabbing her diaper and saying "ouch'.  It was intermittent but then on day four, I was like your going the the doctor, she also regressed back to not using the potty at all.

I took her to a different doctor, then next day because hers wasn't in.  They wanted to cath her for a sample.  I refused being a nurse myself I find it very unnecessary to traumatize a child with that when all you need is a lousy urine sample.  She wasn't able to go so they sent us home.  That was so annoying to me. They doctor told me that I shouldn't force potty training because she is too young and to stop giving her bubble baths...grrrr....if they knew Sawyer, nothing is forced.  She does what she wants.

Then while Sawyer threw herself on the ground having a temper tantrum.  The doctor asked my..."Is this how she talks?"  UH...yeah?  "She is way behind, she should be speaking full sentences by now and she doesn't pronunciant either.  You should make an appointment with her primary doctor right away and get a speech referral...I know that's not why you came but it needs to be addressed.  Just make her two year old appointment early, she doesn't get shots so she can be seen early."  She does, she talks really fast and uses jubberish talk..and says the first part of the word..like mom, is mah, cheese is chee, milk is mil, the list goes on....

Like I don't have enough to worry about.  I cried all the way home.  I have always worried about her activity, she's always been really busy and stubborn not at all like any other babies her age.  But always way ahead and smart for her age.  She still randomly grabs her diaper and says "ouch" but doesn't have a fever and uses the potty sporadically.  One step forward and two steps back.  After talking with Jake we don't think there is anything wrong, I think people expect too much out of her because she looks way older.  She will be two November 3rd, I keep saying she's one.  Because it won't be long before she is two.

Beautiful girl

I forgot to mention Sawyer's 18 month stats....30.5 pounds and 35.5 inches!  Doesn't have to go to the doctor or dentist until she is two!  Which is right around the corner...

She is pretty much amazing.

She can count to five. She thoroughly enjoys, standing on the coffee table, counting to three, then lunging herself off onto one of us who is sitting on the couch.

I find her climbing on our bar stools. She can also climb on top of our table.

She stands on top of her kiddy table, and just watches tv that way.  Sometimes, she'll get mad and just flips it over like baby hulk hogan.

She sleeps like a big girl, in her own room (crib mattress on the floor).

She knows where your head, ears, eye, nose, mouth, chin and teeth are and she will show you. (Just be ready when she says, eyes! She'll poke your eye out.)

She loves putting on shoes and going "side", outside.

She loves dogs, and yes she still kisses strangers.

She throws thrash away, in the garbage can, underneath the sink.

She says so many words....too many to count.

After a messy pb and j, she comes up to me, sticks her sticky hands up....like mom please wash my hands.

She still loves baths, (we don't say this word out loud or else she expects one). She also drinks her bubbly bath water, even though we tell her not to.

She has all of her teeth, except her two year old molars. (Brushing teeth is a battle, usually requires two people and tears.)

She loves her sandbox.  And her pool.  She likes collecting rocks and sticks and throwing them in the water.

She thinks down means up.

She got her first black eye, bump on her head and skinned knee, all in the same week.

She loves her "bee bee" (binky).

Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak

Ever since Sawyer climbed out of her crib three nights ago, none of us have gotten any sleep.  I actually have been really depressed and frustrated lately.  Hopefully after writing this post I will feel better.  I hate to be negative but I must vent.  So I haven't felt this vulnerable since Sawyer was little little.  We finally got things down to a science, naps and all.  We could put Sawyer to bed awake, kiss her good night and she would sleep until morning.  Unfortunately this lasted a pathetic three months, and even looking back some nights she would stay up late with us or wake up at random hours of the night.  Between runny noses and time changes things weren't perfect but I would take them back in a heart beat. 

Gosh, it is so hard being a mom.  Things that I thought I couldn't stand anymore, I miss when they are gone.  I love Sawyer don't get me wrong but she hasn't been the most easiest child.  I swear none of my friends have had to go through the things I have had to go through.  Sometimes, I really get down on myself and think, why me...but then I smack myself and think how some people can't even have kids and how lucky I actually am.  The only people who get Sawyer are my husband, Jake, and my mom.  Everyone else is clueless, I can talk until I am blue in the face and people still just laugh and say things like:  It is just her age.  She'll sleep in the car.  She's going to sleep good tonight.  She is so smart.  That's how you were when you were her age.  These comments annoy me. 

I am convinced she is either going to me a genius or straight up t-r-o-u-b-l-e.  Me and Jake always talk about what we think she will be like when she is older.  I say she will be too smart for school and do just what she needs to pass.  She'll sneak out at night, wear tied dye clothes, she will chain herself to a tree in protest of it getting cut down.  Her first car would be a old school mustang.

We did convert her crib to a toddler bed.  She didn't go to bed easily though,  the last several nights we have have tried everything to get her to sleep.  Laying on the couch with a binky, with mommy or daddy, watching Shrek or Madagascar (on the dvr), rocking chair, our bed, cuddled up with lots of blankies, heat cranked, laying on the floor in her room, letting her cry, nothing works, this child would not sleep even in our bed she would just toss and turn and sweat and sneak out of my arms like a worm.  It was so frustrating.  She would just climb out of her converted crib and pound on her door, trash her room and scream in protest. 

After asking friends for advice, these are just some of the things people told me to do.

• convert her crib into a toddler bed (check)
• get a side rail, so she does roll out of bed (check)
• hold her laying in her bed, until she crys herself to sleep (mm, nah)
• pin her pajamas to the sheets (seriously?)
• give her benedryl (not even recommended to give at all until two years of age)
• put a tv in her room and let her match a move (no)
• just shut the door and let her cry, trash her room, ect (tried it and no)
• just put the mattress on the floor (her crib is real close the the ground)
• put her on the floor in your room (she needs to sleep in her room)
• get a baby cot so she can sleep in your room (no)
• just let her sleep with you (of course but long term no)
• get a tent crib attachment thingy (Jake highly considered this, he kept researching them online and even called a Walmart to see if they had one in stock)..I read the reviews and this just makes me nervous.

This sort of reminds me of something you would put a dog in.  Hopefully we won't have to resort to this.  She is still sick, sleep deprived and crabby.  It was a process getting her to sleep in her crib.  So this will take some effort.  Rome wasn't built in a day right?  Beside she can count to five.  If she can count to five she can learn how to do anything.  I have faith in my wild child.

mom: "one"

sj: "two"

mom: "three"

sj: "nine"

mom: "five"

See she is so smart.

The crib jumping bandit...

I think the video explains itself....What do we do?