I'm not doing very well on my blogging. Let's just say March was utter madness, mainly because we were all sick and it went around in this vicious circle. But we are all better now. No more breathing treatments, no more kleenex boxes, no more pink medicine.
Mila got her third tooth on March 21. It isn't the typical middle one on top, it is one next to the middle one (to her, left side). Days later she got the middle one (right top). Grammy and I were joking that she'll look like a hill billy (Aldo's "I eat dirt" face comes to mind), but yesterday I saw that her other middle tooth is showing, not popped through yet, but showing. She gets on her knees and can inch forward on them, but she's faster army crawling with her left arm strength and left toes pushing. Over the weekend I caught her sitting on her knees looking into her car seat, playing with the seat belts. On Tuesday, I was on the phone with mom for maybe 20 seconds searching for a recipe, I came into the living room and found her STANDING, holding onto her walker. Now she pulls up on it every day. Last night she pulled up on the side of her crib.
Speaking of crib - this is the newest thing we have going on - we're trying to get Mila sleeping in her crib. She has slept with us every night since she was born, and I will admit, I don't mind her sleeping with us, except that eventually she'll need to sleep on her own. And, I believe that the marriage bed is a sacred place. Kids are welcome every now and then, but that time has come to an end for Mila. So, with this change, I have to get her on the bottle. Easier said than done. We've done it for two days and I've found she doesn't have a problem with the bottle or even drinking formula, although you can totally tell by her face that it's not her favorite. (Score for Mommy!) The difficult part is getting her to take a nap or go to bed with the bottle. It's one step at a time. Literally one step. First, we got her used to the bottle rather than me. Then formula. Then sitting in her crib for maybe 5 minutes with me there holding her bottle. She may be scared of the crib, I'm not really sure. Because last night while I was doing my 5 minutes, pushing it type-of-thing, I showed her the big pink paper balls that I hung as decoration from the baby shower. She wouldn't touch them. She would look at them, turn away and shake her head like she had the jitters. I took them down, but when we went back in, she looked for them still, and still shook her head. It was kind of cute, kind of sad that she's already maybe scared of something. I have breastfed every day for 8 months strictly from myself. They say sometimes moms get sad when then stop breast-feeding because it's like the baby no longer depends on you. I can see that. Mila bites, and she bites hard. I'm proud of myself for sticking with it, for continuing to breastfeed when it hurt, for continuing when it seemed tough like my milk was going low during growth spurts, for continuing when my milk was low through sickness. It's not an easy thing. Once you do it, it's like this huge accomplishment. And so it's kind of surreal that it's ending. I'll let you know how it goes. And maybe my body will go back to normal. (You know how when I was pregnant, everything was because I was pregnant? Now that I'm not pregnant, everything is because I'm breastfeeding. Examples: not touchy-feely physically or emotionally, dehydrated, and not on a cycle.)
I looked up the development for 34-week-olds the other day and it said that they'll start reaching up for things, and pulling themselves up. (Mila's ahead of the game.) But it also said that now is the time to start "labeling". They're learning the words, even if they may not speak them right away, they're learning them and remembering them. So you just repeat, repeat, repeat. We were playing with her toys, so I showed her BALL, PUPPY, BOOK, TOYS. She tried to feed me her BALL. It was so cute. I said, "Yum yum" and she kept feeding it to me, like it was play food. Do I remember when Luke used to do that? No. Sad face. I'm also teaching her KISS KISS. I always kiss her on the hand. I don't know why… it's just a thing. She always reaches out her hands wide open to me and so I kiss them I guess. I say, "Mommy kisses Mila's hand. Mommy kisses Mila's feet. Mommy kisses MILA!" and I finish by kissing her on the belly or in the crevices of her neck. She loves when I kiss her. She's been kissing us!! She'll kiss me near the inside of my elbow by falling forward with her mouth open and wait a few seconds and then laugh. Repeat. Slobber seeping out until my arm is covered because she's teething. Oh, my 8-month-old girl - you are adorable.
Her hair lays down. :(
Now for Luke, he is playing with her more and more - more rough too. He really gets her laughing, because he's willing to be loud and do crazy things. Mommy and Daddy aren't that loud. And we don't have the energy to jump up and down from squatting position. Especially for more than 5 minutes.
Luke started soccer at the end of March. He had his first game this past Saturday. He's good about staying in the game, not getting bored. He gets excited though and hops around on the field, galloping on his right side, so it gives away what leg he's going to kick with. And also he'll hesitate before his kick because he wasn't ready because he was galloping! Haha. I remember when Maecy played soccer she would get the ball and laugh, and wouldn't be able to keep it or control it. Luke is actually really good about kicking the ball down the field. During his game he assisted in many attempts at goal. The other thing he does really well, in Aldo's words, is "read the play" - so while every Kindergartener and First grader is in a huddle chasing the ball, he goes where no one else and is at the ready. "It's the mind of a defender." He still needs to work on the position of goalie and also shooting the ball in the goal, but in the that one game, I saw him improve so much. Yes, he let one ball pass him, giving the other team one point, but after that he dove for the ball! He saved two out of three shots. I couldn't be more proud. It was kind of tough because I didn't want him to feel disappointment for that shot - it tied up the game. I could imagine in that moment the other team winning later and him blaming himself. I reminded myself that I would cheer for him and the team the whole game, win or lose. Not let them lose heart. And also, that the point (agreed by other parents and the coach) was for the kids to have fun and learn some soccer basics. We're succeeding in that. Luke will walk around the house with his soccer ball. Whenever the weather is warm…. -ish…. Luke will ask if we can play soccer outside. He loves it! It was just an idea that we wanted him to get involved in a sport, whatever it may be, and he's embraced it. And Mila enjoys watching too! Oh, and I forgot to say, first game score 3-2… we won! And it was freezing! Never. Again.
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