Missy took her first airplane ride and trip to the beach this month. I'm planning to do a separate post, but in short, she loved the beach. The plane rides could've been better but were certainly manageable. All three of us were sick, so that was a bummer, but we did manage to have a good time. Overall, we learned traveling with a baby is HARD WORK. Gone are the days of napping on the beach all day.
On the eating front, we haven't introduced anything too exciting, although Elliott did get some of my fish in Florida (she also got her first French fry, followed by many more). Elliott is starting to eat a bigger volume of food and really does seem to enjoy it. Cottage cheese, applesauce, Ritz crackers, puffs, and yogurt drops have been the biggest favorites this month. I feel like we haven't been home at all for dinners, so variety has been poor. One goal this month is to push the sippies. At this point, she can survive just fine without milk when I'm away, but it'd be nice to have that option. Plus she needs to start liking water. She nurses 3-4 times a day with a few quick sessions throughout the night. No end in sight for us and breastfeeding.
If motherhood has taught me anything it's to expect the unexpected. Consistency doesn't seem to exist
(atleast for very long), and Elliott is forever teaching me to break the rules. Vacation really screwed up her sleep cycle. We got it back only to have it messed up again thanks to back to back to back nights of late bedtimes for social reasons. Now I understand why some parents are so strict about being home early! Her sleep cycle is all over the place currently but on a good day we will get back to the 7:30pm-8am nights with 1.5 hr naps at 9:30 and 1:30.
One good thing is that we may be edging toward getting her out of our bed. Since we got back from vacation, she has actually been letting me put her in the crib at bedtime! It's still typically for short spurts, but I have been able to stay up until a decent hour. There were even a few nights when she stayed in her room till 1 or so (getting out of bed to tend to her will never NOT be a dread for me-I'm lazy). Truthfully, I miss her when she's not in bed with us. Getting over my anxiety and overprotectiveness will be a big feat for me, but if Elliott is telling me she's ready, I need to do it.
Elliott still has some anxiety when I am away. She always is fine if Andy is around, and she is definitely making a lot of progress with others, but it seems to be hit or miss. Last week, I filled in working at the hospital and she stayed with my mom and sister for 5 hours with virtually no tears! However, Andy and I had a wedding to go to and took it as our opportunity to have an actual night out away from her. I'm the only one to ever put Elliott to sleep so I knew it would be interesting for my mom. She surely wanted to pull her hair out, but Andy and I had a great time and it was really needed. I'm thankful that my mom never pressures me to rush home even when Elliott is being awful. I can still always sense how things are going, though.
One adorable new trick she has learned is clapping. It's constant and super cute. Elliott is also an expert at 'sharing.' She takes her paci out of her mouth and puts it to your mouth until you put it in. She does the same thing with food. At first I wasn't sure if sharing was her intention, but the more she does it the more I'm convinced that it's definitely to show us whatever she's got at the moment. It's precious. She's also still loving books and constantly is flipping through them. They are all over her bedroom and our living room. I also keep a few in her crib, and when she wakes from naps, she will sit quietly and read for a while. Sometimes I don't even know she has woken up. This also melts my heart.
Now that we are back from our trip and the cheer season is over, I'm really looking forward to slowing down this month. The only things on the calendar in April revolve around her birthday. With the cold Midwest weather wrapping up, I'm looking forward to some outside fun, too. :)
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