New Parent Orientation

Hey everyone! Can you believe it's already the 2nd week of October?! What a crazy and busy and great month-and-a-half it's been!
To start off the month of September, Libby's daycare suddenly and sadly closed. It's kind of a long story, but ends with our family and about 200 others without childcare and with much stress. We searched for a couple of weeks for a center and never found one we were comfortable taking Libby to. I really don't think our standards are that high but there were places we visited and interviewed that I seriously wouldn't even leave her in for an hour. Dirty and unfriendly and at one of them, the 1-year old room teacher didn't even speak English. I just don't know how any parent could take their child to some of these places every day and feel good about it. Maybe our standards are higher than other parents but maybe if all of our standards were higher there wouldn't even be places like we saw.
Anyway - We ended up finding an in-home daycare just a couple of minutes from our house. Libbs has only been going there for a week, but it was a really good first week. Her personality is blossoming more every day and it's so fun to watch. She is funny and cuddly and active and bossy and the girl knows what she wants and will do what she thinks she has to to get it! She is having a hard time "playing nice" with the other children sometimes - she pushes and shoves and takes things and yells... Some of you might know that I've always, even before she was born, had a fear of having a "bratty" or misbehaved child. So when I took Libby to the doctor this last week for her ear recheck (another story in itself) for her ear infection I told the doctor about how she is acting. The doctor actually said this is not necessarily a bad thing. She said that it's a sign that, like her early motor development, this shows early social development. Tantrums and pushing and taking things are all part of social and lingual development - learning what she wants and working to get it. Average age to start these things is 15 months, so she about 6 months ahead of the curve. Doc says this is good because she will (or should) outgrow it at a younger age. But bad because when kids go through it closer to 2 years old, they have some speaking capabilities and more understanding of what you're saying to them. This way you can tell them this is not how you act - you need to say please and all that good stuff. But Libby is only 11 months old, so we can tell her that, but she's not really going to get it and she's certainly not going to do it. All we can really do is ignore her tantrums so as not to encourage them and tell her no and redirect her when she is acting out toward other children.

We have been using some basic sign language with her since she was about 3 months old and she is starting to use it! She can now give the sign for milk when she's thirsty and the sign for all done when she's full. She can point to your eye and your nose and give kisses and wave bye-bye. She claps and and dances (which is stinkin' hilarious!) and plays musical instruments. AND just this week while she's trying to keep up with the older kids at daycare she finally started walking - not just the 4 or 5 steps to get from here to there but seriously walking around the house! It's so awesome - she's getting so big! Oh yeah - and she's such a little book worm! She spends a lot of time looking at books and having mommy and daddy read them to her. Like seriously a lot of time...sometimes I have to, err, I mean get to, read a book 3 or 4 times in a row. If you need ideas for birthday - I would love to read new stories:)

So I guess that pretty much brings us up-to-date. I feel like I just totally down-played everything so I could fit it in here without writing a novel....It's really been an amazing month!

Little Tiny baby Banta is doing great as well - I got to hear it's little heartbeat at my appointment last week. And I felt the little munchkin move in my belly for the first time on Friday, the 7th!! My morning (or all-day) sickness is getting a lot better - hopefully it will go away for good soon! Last Friday I threw up so hard that I broke a bunch of cappillaries in my face! I looked terrible - there were purple spots all over my face. 6 more weeks and we're half-way through and we get to have our 2nd and last ultrasound!! It's so different from being pregnant with Libby that it makes me think maybe we're having a boy, but deep down I think it's going to be another girl! I guess we'll find out in 6 months since my husband is SO great and agreed to keep it a surprise again:) Love you baby!

Speaking of loving my husband - we just celebrated 5 years of marriage on Friday!!! It seems crazy that our wedding was 5 years ago, but at the same time I feel like we've been together so much longer than that. It has honestly been the best time of my life and I'm so blessed to have such a great husband and best friend.

Also speaking of love - my sister got married in September! I was honored to be her Matron of Honor. It was so great to see her and spend some time with her and the wedding was beautiful and so much fun! I am very very happy for her and Mike and I wish them a lifetime of happiness together!!

WHEW! What a whirlwind, right?! I hope I'm not forgetting anything...

Enjoy the pics and the musical concert below! She's way better at the flute now - I'll have to get another video for you...