MoMonkey MoMonkey

HAPPY 9 MONTHS MO!

Mo is officially 9 months old today. I can hardly believe it. Time is going by too quickly. Her 9 month checkup is next week, so I'm sure I'll have more to report. I actually can't wait to see what she weighs these days. It seems the pudge monkey may have reached a plateau since she's been in size 18 months for a couple of months now! For awhile there, I thought she was going to be in 2T before she turned one!!

Developmentally, she's doing well. She is growing more and more interested in her toys. She loves to explore. She isn't walking yet, but should be very soon. She received a walking hippo toy for Christmas that she's having a blast walking behind. Pics will follow soon. She is still a great sleeper...definitely no complaints in that department. She's also saying quite a few different words...mostly babbling...but on occasion, she slips in something new. She knows the meaning of certain words like ba ba (aka bottle), hungy (aka hungry), etc. And she giggles a lot. Overall, she's a blast, except for the occasional temper tantrums. Those just started. She's learned the art of screaming and arching her back! I hear this is a normal phase, but nonetheless, I find it quite alarming when she throws those little fits. I'll be talking to her pediatrician about that next week.

Anyway, I'm still working on the Christmas pics. We are having some photo server issues, but pics should be up in a day or two.

Mo's 1st Christmas

These last few days have been a whirlwind of confusion! First of all, as a follow up to my last post, the multi-tasking didn't go so well. Wrapping gifts with an almost 9 month old getting into everything doesn't make for good things. What should have taken me an hour took over 5 hours. Of course, it doesn't help that I waited until 2 days before Christmas to begin wrapping presents for over 35 people!!

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. Let's see...the # of kids far outweighed the adults. It was madness. And of course, all the kids cared about was opening presents, which I know is typical. In other years, it didn't phase me. I was always the cool aunt who brought all the cool gifts. But now that I have my own child, the gift giving (or rather the gift receiving) bothers me. Don't get me wrong. I love giving my nieces and nephews gifts. In fact, I love gift giving in general. I try really hard to give great gifts. But it seems like that's all Christmas has become on my side of the family. It feels empty. And I want more than that for Mo. Don't get me wrong...I think all of my family feels this same way, but unfortunately, they have family on the other side who like to over-indulge.

While there, my sister shared a story with me about a friend of hers that spent over $1000 on her 2 year old son. My sister's friend was bragging about the fact that she had 98 gifts for her son, and was actually disappointed that it wasn't a hundred. What the freak???? Talk about over-indulgent. I can't even believe the parents think this is ok. This child is going to be absolutely horrifying the first time he doesn't get what he wants. And when he acts like a spoiled, selfish brat, the parents will likely assume the child is just being a typical kid. Stupid parents.

Sorry for the tangent people. This is one of those "hot button" topics that really, really irritate me.

I think it's so ironic that the hubby and I can afford to give our daughter all the best things. Yet that is the last thing we want to do. For Christmas, we gave her a few toys, some books, music, etc. But we didn't go overboard. And I have no intention of doing so in years to come. Why? Because I want her to appreciate the gifts that she receives. I want her to have a grateful heart. And it bothers me that she has to be exposed to other children who are ungrateful and expect everything. I only pray that she isn't influenced by them.

Anyway, it was nice to spend Christmas eve with my family. I love my family so much and enjoy all of the time we spend together. And Mo loves her Grammy and Pappy to pieces. Especially Pappy. She can sit with him on his recliner/rocking chair for an hour and be totally content just rocking back and forth with him. In fact, if he stops rocking for even a moment, she will rock back and forth on her own until he resumes. It's so sweet.

We got home after midnight and still had some wrapping to do. I say "WE" as if the hubs helped. Not. He slept while I wrapped. In fairness to him, though, he had just returned home on Christmas Eve morning from a business trip to GA. He was exhausted, as was I, but things needed to be done. Needless to say, I finally got to bed around 2:30 am.

On Christmas morning around 9:30, Mo woke up. The hubs and I felt like zombies and needed more sleep. We brought her into bed with us and played for a bit, she had a bottle, then we all went back to sleep. Until noon. Can you believe that? Anyway, by the time we got up, showered and dressed, it was time to prepare for our Christmas lunch. Hubby's parents joined us for lunch and we finally ended up opening our gifts around 4 in the afternoon. I have to say...that was a first for us! Never have we waited that long to open gifts!

The hubs and I had a reason not to be excited about the gifts we were giving to each other. Why you ask? Because neither one of us had time to go Christmas shopping for the other, and ended up ordering the bulk of our gifts from amazon.com 2-3 days before Christmas (which means nothing arrived in time)! So we ended up wrapping pictures of what we were giving to one another. The bright side is that this week will be fun as we wait for all of our packages to arrive!

Anyway, Mo got to spend some quality time with her Gram, Grandpa and Uncle Matt. She doesn't get to see her Uncle Matt very often, but seemed to enjoy her time with him. Uncle Matt was especially helpful in the "opening of boxed toys" department. I must say...the toy manufacturers package their items in the most unpleasant ways!

We spent Christmas evening with our friends Wendy and Dave - and their 2 kids Andrew and Zach. It was the perfect ending to our day. Overall, I think Mo's first Christmas was an absolute joy!

Pictures will follow in the coming days...when I have a chance to go through all of them!

MOVIE MARATHON HERE I COME

Well I finally did it. I joined Netflix. It was an impulsive move, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. For $17.95 a month, I can rent as many movies as I want and keep them as long as I want. And the best thing is - they're delivered right to my door. How sweet is that? I can't find the time these days to watch movies often, but on those occasions when I do, it's a major inconvenience to go rent them. And COMCAST ON DEMAND sucks because they have a limited number of movies and their new releases are never current.

I just joined on Sunday night, and already received my first 3 movies in the mail on Tuesday. So far so good. If anyone wants to check them out, they're offering a 2 week free trial with no obligations. At the very least, you can get a bunch of free movie rentals for 2 weeks!!

Now I'm going to partake in some serious multi-tasking: watch one of my movies, wrap some presents and keep Mo from trying to eat all of the wrapping paper!

Put a Sock On It

You know Daddy is a mascot when your child starts wearing mascot related clothing. Here's a picture of Mo sporting her Phillie Phanatic socks.

TOYS

I have a toy related question for my readers. Do you follow the recommended age limits for toys, or do you buy toys that your little one is interested in? I ask because Mo isn't interested in her toys, which I realize is typical of most babies. So for Christmas I bought her a myriad of things that are well beyond the recommended age limit - hoping to spark some interest. What's your experience with this???

10 DAYS TO CHRISTMAS...EEEK

Is it just me, or did this month fly by? Last year at this time, I had my entire house decorated, all of my Christmas shopping done (with the exception of a few odds and ends), all of my Christmas cards mailed out, all of our get-togethers planned, etc. I even had all of my Christmas presents wrapped because I was one of those "wrap as you buy" people. Yes, I know. I am anal-retentive (as my hubbie so often likes to point out)!

So there's 10 days left until Christmas and let's see... I have very little Christmas shopping done. There are no cards completed or mailed out. In fact, they haven't even been purchased yet. I was planning to include a picture of Mo in our cards, but nope, that didn't get done either. I suppose that's a good thing seeing as I have no cards to put them in! We have no get togethers planned with our family and friends...so we will be doing lots of last minute stuff. And as for wrapped presents, it's kinda hard to wrap what I don't have.

So I wonder...now that I have a kiddie, is this the way it's going to be from now on? Or was this just one of those months that went by super quickly?

There is one good thing to this chaos though. My house is decorated. And it's beautiful. There's just something about the soft glow of a Christmas tree, snowmen spread throughout the house, etc. If nothing else gets done, I can just sit in my living room on Christmas morn and look at the pretty tree!

Kiddie TV

I love watching television. I never just sit around and watch TV as a single event. I am always doing something else while watching - like paying bills, doing paperwork, cleaning or the like... mainly because I'm one of those obsessive compulsive types who can't stop working. But I have a rule that the TV doesn't get turned on during the day - mainly because I don't want Mo being distracted by it and I refuse to use it as a babysitter. I did, however, start to let her watch Sesame Street for its educational value. She loves Elmo, Grover and Big Bird. While perusing the channels to find Sesame Street, I discovered Teletubbies. And Mo loved it. Absolutely loved it. Far more than Sesame Street. And I couldn't bear to watch it. Sesame Street is entertaining, but Teletubbies??? Kiddie TV is painful. And to think, it's only just begun...

DOGGIE CONVERSATIONS

MEAN MOLLY DOGGIE SISTER: grrrrr...growl...bark, bark, bark (translation: I hate you. Why don't you go back to where you came from?)
MO: laugh, laugh, giggle and smile.
MEAN MOLLY DOGGIE SISTER: grrrrr... bark, bark, bark (with more forceful intonation)
MO: laugh louder, smile bigger
MEAN MOLLY DOGGIE SISTER: bite Mo's fingers
MO: laugh even louder (this time the belly gut kind of laugh)

Hmmm....our oldest dog is downright nasty to Mo, yet Mo has no fear whatsover. What's up with that?

MELTDOWN MO

Madeline has been going through this thing that I'm hoping and praying is a phase. She's having melt-downs. I'm not talking about a little bit of whining. I'm talking about a "dramatic full blown crying...crawling to me in complete desperation, hanging onto my legs until I pick her up" type of episode. The first one happened a couple of weeks ago one night after I returned from doing some Christmas shopping. I figured it was just because we had been out for a few hours, she was tired, etc. But the next day, it was our usual routine at home and she had another one. Then a fews days later, out of nowhere, came another. Over the last 2 weeks, she's had about 7 of these episodes. The good thing is that I can calm her down as soon as I pick her up. But I must give her my undivided attention for at least a half hour by cuddling her, and singing/talking to her... not that I mind...I love spending quality time with her!! But I'm wondering what on earth caused these episodes to begin. And is this a something that will pass?

Mo Finds a Tree

This weeked we took Mo out to find her first Christmas tree. The sun was shining and a cool breeze filled the air. Not sure how much Mo enjoyed it, but she was an absolute angel.

One lady walked by, spotted her, and said "Is there a baby in there?" Another couple walked by and said that they were jealous because Mo looked so warm and cozy.

Thanks to Dave, Wendy, and Zack, who helped make the day absolutely perfect. Sorry it took us so long to find our tree.

Here's our own Mr. Bubble.

And the moment you have all been waiting for...

I present to you the 2004 Whistlerville family Christmas tree.

We learned that while MG was putting the tree up, Mo likes to eat Honey Nut Chex Mix. She is her daddy's child.

I PROMISE SWEETHEART

Dear Mo,

I promise you that one day you will be able to help Mommy with the dishes. In fact, I can't wait for the day that you can take on that chore for good. Don't you worry...that day is coming. The sooner, the better. But now is not that time sweetie! You're just too darn little!

Love,
Mommy

MY LITTLE CLIMBER