Sleep questions for the moms out there

I don't think many people out there read this, but for those who do, and who have kids, I am very curious to hear from you how it worked in getting your kids to sleep through the night. Did you use the "cry it out" method? Did you try co-sleeping? Pros? Cons?

Did not inherit that from me...

Annabelle has started to fight off sleep, her beautiful little face crumbling in protest as the sleepiness overtakes her before naptime during the day, or before bedtime. She'll wake up twice after we put her down in the evenings, protesting futilely as we rock her back to sleep.

This is not something she got from me, because I LOVE to sleep. LOVE IT. You do not need to ask me twice to go to sleep. I have not had a full night's sleep since the beginning of the pregnancy, so 15 months now! Oh, how I miss it...

Another developmental milestone: the raspberry

Yesterday, somewhat abruptly and with the assistance of her father, Annabelle mastered the raspberry. You know, pfffffffffthhhhh. It makes me laugh out loud every time. She sees me, smiles, then goes pfffffffffthhhhh, saliva flying everywhere. The moms reading this are probably like, eh, this is old hat, the raspberry, my child has done it for years, but I am finding it so funny. Video available upon request.

Separation of church and state

In my zeal for Facebook I befriended everyone I could find, including a bunch of co-workers. This makes it difficult, however, when I want to gripe about work, about how my job has deteriorated into a daily grind of herding grumpy @#$ cats, which is making me VERY CRANKY. Because surely my Facebook co-workers would wonder if they were among the aforementioned cats. And maybe they are.

NG NG NG NG NG NG NG NG NG NG

When Annabelle gets very annoyed with us--generally because food is not being presented in a timely enough manner--she makes a little noise that sounds like "NG NG NG" or maybe "NYING NYING NYING". It makes me chuckle. I know, that's a little mean, but she's so cute.

Yesterday and to a certain extent today I had one of those days at work where people were not doing the things I needed them to do. Walking out of meetings! Failing to meet deadlines! NOT LISTENING! By the end of the day I was sitting at my desk just about to break into "NG NG NG NG NG NG NG."

Very tempting.

Must...have...tuna...sandwich

Annabelle's pediatrician said we'll know when it's time to give Annabelle her first real food when she starts making us feel guilty when we eat. And we weren't really sure what she meant, how could our sweet little petunia ever make us feel guilty?

But now we see.

We'll sit her in the bouncy chair as we start a meal, but she will politely but insistently request to be brought up. So we'll often give in because damn, she's so cute! And she'll be sitting on our lap watching very, very intently as we eat. Watch the food get put onto the fork, follow the movement of the fork to the mouth, watch the chewing. Look back at the food. Watch the fork come to the mouth, watch the chewing. Lather, rinse, repeat. All done with her huge blue eyes wide and solemn.

And now that her manual dexterity is getting refined she's reaching out for the plate itself, leaning forward with her body, stretching with her arms. When we sit at the dining room table she'll grab the placemat and drag it slowly towards her, her eyes fixed on the plate.

Hungry a little, sweetpea?

Next thing you know she'll be asking for a cell phone

Annabelle can now roll over. One second she's on her back and then she's a foot away on her tum. In her crib she can also do a breakdancing kind of move that rotates her body 180 degrees. I will try to obtain video of these new feats.

Meanwhile, the weekend with a set of grandparents has been lovely. They looked after her while J and I had dinner at our favorite sushi place. Fantastic.