Visit From Cousin Mary Gill

Yesterday, Cousin Mary Gill (not my sister Mary Gill) stopped by for a short and sweet visit. She traveled by car from Ohio to Washington to visit her daughter in Tacoma then is heading south to Arcata where she lived until recently before she heads back home to Ohio. I was so happy when she called to say she was in the area and could swing by to say hi and meet Esperanza.

During her short visit, my cat Lucy attacked her dog, we ate leftover beef soup, we sipped fresh lemon verbena and tarragon iced tea, we snapped some photos in the back yard and Mary had fun playing with and entertaining Esperanza.

First Tooth

This photo was taken a few weeks ago. Esperanza's first tooth started coming in the same week she began crawling and I just realized I hadn't shared it yet. Now, both of her bottom two teeth have broken through and they sure are sharp. Today I gave her a partially eaten apple of my'n and she was using her bottom teeth to scrape pieces of the apple off. She's been teething for many, many months now and we've finally been rewarded and relieved.

And just because I have an obsession with taking picturea, here are a few recent ones...

My sister Cyndi, her son Roman & Esperanza My mom holding Esperanza before we took out her dread extensions and she got her own hair dreaded
My mom with her newly dreaded hair, her pups and EsperanzaEsperanza eating off of the floor Posing and looking cute as can beIt's not all fun and games

Nighty-Night

Last night was night 4 of Esperanza learning how to soothe herself to sleep. If you read the post My Pulsatilla Baby several months back, you'll know we tried this before and it was a disaster for all of us. Esperanza is very strong willed and will fight going to sleep even when she has what she wants. She's never been a thumb sucker, or taken to a binky even after we tried numerous kinds hoping she would. She also hasn't become attached to any specific blanket, toy or doll that would provide her comfort and help calm her to sleep. She has always needed me to nurse her to sleep. I do love nursing her and will continue to for who knows how long, yet I know that I won't be nursing her forever and that she needs to figure out how to fall asleep on her own or else we're going to be in big trouble some day. Plus, I'd kinda like to free up my evenings and have the option for someone other than me to put her to bed at night.

So, I altered the method we used last time a smidgen and gave it a shot. So far it's gone a lot better. I haven't given up. It is still difficult for all of us though. The first night she was very vocal about being uncomfortable with the new routine. The second night was better. She got to a point on night 2 where she was 'talking' to herself for about 20 minutes and it sounded like she was actually having a pretty good time by herself before she finally fell asleep (as you can hear in the video below). The third night was questionable. She wouldn't fall asleep for the longest time! One of the times that I checked on her I noticed the room was stinky. She had decided to give me a poopy diaper (she NEVER poops at night). So that kind of altered the routine and probably confused her about what was going on, but eventually she fell asleep. Last night went pretty smooth and it took less time for her to fall asleep than all the other nights. Wish me luck for all our future nights!

Even though I got the crib all set up in her bedroom and ready for her to sleep in, I ended up putting her in a mini pack-n-play in our bedroom cause I figured the familiar surroundings of the room would make it easier on her since she's never slept in that other room...hey, this is hard on me too and I have to take baby steps. The real challenge is going to be getting her to stay asleep.

Below is a video I took on night 2 of her chatting away, in a repetative sort of way. There is nothing to see but you can hear her. It was so funny, I had to capture it somehow and I wasn't sure how to use just a voice recorder on my camera...so black screen it is.

While Esperanza soothed herself to sleep one of the nights, I took the free time to make more strawberry jam. I was always intimidated with the idea of canning that I never even attempted it until recently. It's so easy though! While I did use a water bath canner (well, last week it was just a stock pot), apparently you don't even need to do the boiling process with jam even though ALL the pectin recipes say you do. My mom (and a really old cook book I have) tell me that it isn't necessary. I'm a little OCD though and decided to do it, just in case. I'm also looking forward to canning a lot more things this year as the season continues and various fruits and veggies become available.

I Wanna Stand Up

The other night before bed, I felt like just sitting back and watching Esperanza for a bit before the bedtime struggle routine began. It was worth it! Since she didn't start crawling until past 10 months old, obviously she's not what you'd call a motivated crawler. She'd rather sit and whine, hoping someone will pick her up or get her whatever it is she wants - usually attention. She does however really want to be able to stand up on her own. There have been a few times in the past couple of days that she's been standing without holding onto something for a couple of seconds before her balance gives way. As my mom mentioned today, she'll probably skip walking and go straight to running.

Here she is playing on the bed and trying to stand up while watching herself in the mirror on the headboard. Of course, the bed isn't the easiest place for her to actually be able to stand up, but it sure makes for some cheap entertainment. The messy hair, oversized t-shirt and super padded wool diaper cover make it extra cute...

~Scroll to the bottom of the page to pause the music before playing so you can hear her~

Look Who's Crawling

Yay for mobility! This past week Esperanza has been teasing us with a little knee movement here or there and then this morning she crawled across the room!

Sorry for the long silent pause part way through the video. I should have been cheering her on but I'm not a fan of my own commentary caught on video. She gets lots of cheers when the video camera is off.

Immediately after I got her crawling on video, I made an appointment to get the carpets cleaned tomorrow (they smell like dog poo). And now I'm going to have to get a vaccum cleaner and mop and actually clean the floors on a regular basis - dang. It's also time to baby proof. If anyone has a used baby gate they no longer are in need of, please let me know. I'd be willing to barter for something or buy for a cheap price.