Making my life easier

Our girl has skills. (Or is it skillz? I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be using words that end in Z).

She has achieved quite a few new things in just the last 2 weeks or so ... some of which I am loving, and some of which I am tolerating until they pass.

Under the "why didn't I think of this sooner?" category ... Girly will now lay on the floor, propped in her Boppy, and feed herself her entire bottle. I had seen a triplet mother I know (can you even imagine?!) do this with her trio, but it never occurred to me to do it with my singleton. I just attempted it one morning out of desperation - Dad out of town, Mom has to be somewhere, Baby won't nurse and now Mom has to pump. I sat by her on the floor pumping while she was thrilled to be feeding herself. I sat her up to burp half-way through, then she finished. I am telling you - this is GREAT.

She is also on the move. Not full-on crawling yet, but definitely scooting backwards, rolling all directions, up and down to sit, and more than anything else, totally motivated to get to things. Like hangers and remotes and plastic bags. Literally, on a Monday morning we sat her in the middle of our bed with toys while we got ready for work, as we had for months, and by Friday this was no longer a safe option. So, now we have the Pack n'Play in our room (Dad calls it "her house") so she can play with toys. While confined. Plus, it is so cute when she scratches her fingers on the mesh siding and presses her face into it to see us better. Maybe not so much "house" and more like "jail". Whatever.

While all the moving has taken some getting used to (I know, I know - it only gets more challenging), it has also affected her sleeping in good and bad ways. On the bad side, she practices moving in her crib. So, she'll be quiet for a while, then scream out because she is stuck on all fours, or crammed into the bars at the bottom of her bed. She settles quickly once we move her and I know that soon she will be fine on her own. I am certainly willing to tolerate this because of one SUPER unexpected side effect of all the moving. Our former "I'll-start-crying-at-5:15am-until-they-get-me" daughter has slept late for the last FIVE mornings. Before you get too excited, by late I mean somewhere between 6:15-6:50am, but this is still a major accomplishment. I can only conclude that she much prefers sleeping on her side or belly. The lovey also helps, which she now truly cuddles in the most adorable way. I can also conclude that I am happy.

Finally, a new entry into the "clearly I am a Mom now" category: scraping off cradle cap with oil and a comb. Eeewww. Our Gal has had cradle cap pretty much since birth. She was born with a mop of hair, though, so it was kind of hard to see and even harder to get at to remove. When she was brand new, she had it in her eyebrows and it looked sad, but as she got older, it just didn't seem to matter. While I still don't think it matters or bothers her, fast forward to 8 months when you pick up your daughter at daycare and they have been playing beauty parlor and her hair is up in a pony. AND she has yellow waxy scales all over her head and looks like a creature from some alien movie.

I had read that baby oil or olive oil would do the trick, but it just seemed to be a Challenge with a FULL head of hair. I bit the bullet today, though, because it was driving me crazy. I loaded the Girl in her highchair with graham crackers, poured grapeseed oil (so she doesn't smell like a salad) on her head and scratched away with a comb until she wouldn't tolerate it anymore. Then, I took the greaser straight to the tub and, while The Fonz look was cute, I am happy to report that her scalp is MUCH improved.