Highs and Lows of Parenting in the Olsen House

Parenting is always filled with highs and lows (as was teaching). The highs are what makes the lows all worth it.

Two of our more recent parenting high points were from us being sneaky. Grace loves her formula, her snacks (toddler snacks) and cut up chicken... but refuses to eat any fruits and vegetables. Well, I have this cookbook of ways to sneak in vegetables into recipes, and though we haven't made anything in it yet (I'm sure we will later) it did give us an idea. If we mixed the baby food that has vegetables with her little bites of chicken (basically giving it a "sauce" of a fruit or vegetable mush) would she eat it? The answer is yes! Her chicken is a big enough draw that she doesn't seem to notice or mind that it is covered with good for her fruits and vegetables. We felt quite victorious!

Another sneaky moment came from my need to get her practicing cruising, which is walking while holding on to things, when she just wants to eat her snacks.









So, I lined up her snacks along our coffee table, and she was motivated to move from one snack to the next, while having to stand to do so. I kept her amused with this for probably 20 minutes! Even her therapist said it was a good idea, and actually, a lot of her therapy time is accomplished with one of her snacks as motivation. This girl loves to eat!



Playing independently with her toys has increased, as I show in this picture where she is enjoying Great-Grandma's barn set. Last night, though Blake and I were in the room with her around bed time, she just started playing with another toy, totally engaged and just looking back at us every so often. We loved it!


She is smiling more often, and has been instigating walking practice on her own lately, where she just wants to hold our hands, and then guides us around a room, usually laughing as she practices using her own feet. I made the dress she is wearing in this picture.


She is learning to identify her head, which makes me proud, and I *think* she is starting to say ball. It sounds like ball, and she does say it when we are playing with a ball... but she also says it when there is no ball anywhere near.


Just one more shot of happy playing Grace.

Now, some of the lows.

She still throws tantrums, not as often, or as long, but they still show up. Usually when she is frustrated or tired. I did decide to record part of one of them, mostly to show to all those who might think she is a perfect angel... that she isn't.


This is actually a low key tantrum, usually she is louder with a definite screaming quality. 
She threw a high key tantrum for almost half of her therapy time on Tuesday (that was fun).

One of these tantrums ties in with the next low. During her nap time yesterday, I had this great idea. I was going to make our own sidewalk paint, and see if she enjoyed painting the sidewalk. I got it all ready for her. When she woke up, she had a bottle of formula (normal) and wanted to start another bottle (also normal). She usually doesn't drink much of the second one, we think it is mostly for reassurance that there is more food available, adoption issue kind of thing.

She drank all of the second one. I wasn't going to give her a third (because one wasn't made), and instead tried to distract her with my "great idea." Sometimes she can be distracted out of a tantrum. Instead, tantrum arrived, since I wasn't giving her a third bottle of formula.

Tantrum resulted in a kicked over bowl of paint (only cornstarch and water, no big deal mess wise) :


I wasn't going to stress about getting her cleaned up right away, instead I figured she would get more messy after we started painting, which I was still hoping to do if I could calm her down.

She started shivering. Between yesterday's wind and her leg/foot covered in a water mixture... she was cold. Now I felt like a bad mom not getting her warm, so I bring her inside, clean her up, get her in dry clothes, and wrap her up in a blanket until she stopped shivering. Not my proudest mom moment.

The last low of parenting (which was actually hilarious... but still goes in the low category) was this morning. It is kind of a gross story, so you can stop now if you want. She has been sleeping great in her crib, and we usually can get a whole night's sleep out of it. She gets a fresh diaper before bed, and then a new diaper in the morning.

Usually the morning one is full... but not a big deal. As she was sleeping this morning right up until Blake was supposed to go to work, I asked him to get her up, change her first diaper, and I would handle the rest (getting dressed, food etc.). I am so glad I did.

It was a disaster! She had gone #2 during the night... and apparently due to tossing and turning had managed to get it all over her legs, stomach, back, etc. Then, when he was trying to take it off of her, she stuck her hand in it, adding to this utterly hilarious (and stinky) mess.

A bath was needed, immediately. So, Blake got to work a little late today so we could work together to get her all cleaned up after this morning excitement. Oh, the stories we are collecting to embarrass her with later. :-D

Good news is that I feel like most days the good outweighs the bad, which makes it all worth it. Even the large number of doctor's visits isn't so bad because I am thankful she is home and getting the care she needs. More updates later, I need to make sure that at least part of her naptime is productive. ;)