First, Meredith is doing wonderfully. She seems to be going through a learning spurt right now. It seems that she says a new word we haven’t heard her say before every day. She has so many new abilities, she’s even counting a little bit and seems to recognize some letters and colours. Though we don’t drill her on any of these things, so I couldn’t say for sure. I think she is on the verge of potty training. If we leave her diaperless, she will often go and sit on the potty of her own accord to pee or poo. With diapers on, she still doesn’t signal before she goes, but we’re definitely getting there. She has started sitting her doll on the potty or toilet and making our “psss” sound for peeing though, and then pointing and clapping for the doll. It’s really cute.

She finally got her eighth front tooth last week, and I think she may still be teething this week. She’s nursing pretty much constantly. It’s actually really starting to wear on me. She was up every hour or two through the last couple of nights nursing (prior to that she slept 6-8 hours in a row most nights) and it seems during the day I can’t sit down to relax without her wanting to come join me and nurse. Don’t get me wrong, I love our nursing relationship, but it is hard some days. And while most days if I don’t feel like nursing at the time she asks she is okay accepting food or a drink or play and cuddling as a substitute, these last couple of days she hasn’t been at all. I remind myself that there is a reason, whether I’m aware of that reason or not, and that the times she needs it most are not the times to refuse her. We’d been discussing how she’d gotten tall and thin, so it’s possible that it’s because she is growing out now, or maybe it’s just all the learning she’s been doing recently.

We went to Calgary for a visit with family a few weeks ago, and it went really well. My parents have been separated since the beginning of April, and it was obviously a good thing that should have happened years ago. They are both so much happier and more pleasant to be around. The trip was a bit of a whirlwind, trying to fit in so many people in just 7 days. We drove both ways, though I think until Meredith (and any other children we have in the future) are a bit older, we may fly from now on. The ride wasn’t actually that bad either way, but twelve hours stuck in a car, even with breaks, is a lot to ask of anyone, let alone a two year old. We did do most of the driving at night, but even still.

Now, we are currently dogless. We left Tipsy in Calgary with my mom. Part of me is sad and I miss her, but I have to be honest and say that mostly I feel relieved that she’s in a home where she seems much much happier, and is doing so much better. I volunteered at the SPCA for seven years in my teens and used to scorn anyone who would rehome a dog, so I never thought I would do it. I don’t think I would still ever dump an animal at the SPCA where I don’t know what would happen to it or where it would go though. Reactions when I tell people range from “It’s about time, that dog was neurotic”, to “I wondered when you were going to find her a new home”, to “When are you getting another one?”. lol, unfortunately for her, it doesn’t seem she was well thought of around here, which is too bad because she is a very sweet, friendly little dog when she’s comfortable and happy. Anyone who knows her really well actually really loves her. But she also had neurological problems and fear aggression, and because of the two combined wasn’t very trainable in some ways. We got her from a breeder who was ill, and she was the only puppy in her litter, and so for the first 6 months of her life she grew up completely unsocialized.

We didn’t walk Tipsy except at night because she was aggressive and stressed with other dogs or people around. We are the type of dog owners who want to be able to give a dog an inch and not worry about it. We want to be able to let a dog run ahead on the leash and sniff sometimes, come up on the furniture, go first out the door, sleep in our bed, get free love, etc. We are the type of owners who have a dog to be his companion and friend, not his master. Tipsy was the type of dog who if you gave her an inch, she’d take a mile, and then try and take more. We had to make sure she knew we were dominant, or she would get stressed and nervous. When new people visited, she often had to be locked in her kennel or she’d be a nervous wreck. There’s so much more I could say about her, but I don’t want to go into all the reasons we had for giving her to my mom, suffice it to say that she is doing wonderfully there, in a quieter home with a very friendly, submissive dog, and it really makes any guilt and heartache we had over the decision dissipate. My mom had a dog pass away two summers ago, and her current dog has been in mourning ever since. He loves having another dog around too and Tipsy is learning about doggy communication from him, so it’s a good partnership.

All that being said, we (and by that, I mean mostly me, though Meredith has gone looking for her a few times) really miss having a dog around. But I’m being picky about any new dog we get. He/she has to be friendly, good with kids, confident, trainable, friendly… Because I stay at home, I have lots of time to spend with a dog, but I want to spend that time having fun and going for walks, not constantly correcting behaviours or trying to change bad habits. We weren’t really in a rush, but I put out a few feelers to some local rescue groups, and as it turns out we may end up adopting one sooner rather than later.

Kris got his tonsils out last week. He’s been in a lot of pain this week. He had obstructive sleep apnea, and neither of us were getting much sleep because of it. It caused other problems too, like he has always had problems breathing through his nose. He went to an ENT who recommended a tonsillectomy. He got a second opinion from our GP, who is very holistic, and a naturopath. Both gave some suggestions on things to try, but after looking at his throat said his tonsils were some of the biggest they’d ever seen. (He also had a hygienist say the same thing to him without being asked.) He went on an elimination diet for 13 weeks, which did seem to be helping a little. He was snoring less at least, but he still wasn’t getting a good night’s sleep or breathing easier, so when we got a call that the surgery had been scheduled he decided to go ahead with it. It’s too early to tell if it fixed the sleep apnea, but we’re hopeful. He’s been drinking a lot of green smoothies and other cold, soft foods.

This weekend we’re heading out again, this time just for a short plane ride to Kelowna though, for Kris’ grandmother’s funeral. She was 95 and had lived a good life, so I think it will be more a celebration of her life than a mourning of her passing. Hopefully, Kris will be feeling well enough by then to go.

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We spent Thanksgiving with my relatives in Langley. My mom’s brother, sister, and mother all live there. In particular, I’m very close to one of my aunts (my mom’s brother’s wife, follow that?) and my cousins. My aunt is like a second mom to me, and I’m far more like her than my own mom. She is much more open and understanding about our way of parenting as well. My mom and my sister drove up and met us in Langley.

Then we came back here, and a few days later my mom and sister came over here and stayed for a week. It was nice to see them, but my mom is a bit of a stressful person to be around. She has major mood swings and will sometimes get angry for seemingly no reason. She also seemed to feel the need to micromanage Meredith and was constantly telling her to be gentle with the animals (even if I was standing right there petting the animals with her and she was fine). She also liked to call Meredith a “drama queen” (even when there were very obvious reasons why she was upset) and rolled her eyes when I picked her up or hugged her when she was upset. I’m sorry to say it, but it does make me glad not to live in the same city. Now that I have my own daugher, I also find it sad to think that she was so disconnected from us that she thought we cried so much for no reason. Sometimes I don’t know the reason, but the majority of the time there’s a very obvious reason, be it teething, stress from traveling, etc. My sister was also labeled a drama queen (and still often hears that), and yet my mom will storm off (for no reason that we can figure out!) at times and expect someone to follow her and ask what’s wrong and sympathise with her.

It was great to spend the time with my sister though. I consider her to be one of my best friends and Meredith adored her and at times actually wanted to be with her more than with me! *sniffle*

Halloween was fun. I was visiting with a great friend and her son. It’s so wonderful to spend time with parents who have similar values to me, and her son (who is older than Meredith) is such a sweet kid and in a really fun stage too. We went through baby clothes (she is pregnant) and it was almost enough to make me want another soon-ish. But I’d like to wait a little longer in case my milk dries up or Meredith weans herself while I’m pregnant as children sometimes do. I haven’t got my period back again yet anyway. I don’t want them to be too far apart though!

I got home, and to my surprise a really great friend from Calgary was here, just for the day. Turns out WestJet was doing a special for anyone with the last name Web, Sweet, Candy, or Orange. They could fly for free just the one day, so he came out to visit us. We went to a Halloween party just for a couple of hours, then came back here to hand out candy. I dressed Meredith up and took her out just for about 20 minutes, around our co-op and a little bit next door. She had a great time. Many of the people let her pick out a candy from their bowls, and she would put it in her bag herself and then reach for another and most of them let her have another too. I will have to post some pictures tomorrow if I get a chance. We actually didn’t end up with much candy though because I put a lot of it into our bowl to give away when we got home again. I kept a few things for Kris and I to eat and we let Meredith try a little as well.

Meredith is teething again. I thought she might cut the tooth on Halloween, but she didn’t. It looks really sore this time around. It’s quite swollen and red. Lots of nursing and a little bit of Gumomile seems to be keeping it tolerable for her this time though. She still has her teething necklace too. I think that combined with the traveling and having guests has made this month a little bit stressful for her, and at times very small things can make her very upset. I think it’s often a build up and the small thing that seems to have caused the problem is really more like the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.

Regardless, I adore the stage she is at right now. She is so much fun, and I just love everything about her. She loves to help out, and will help with laundry, dishes, putting things away, or any other little jobs we give her. She is picking up a lot of signs and has made up a couple more of her own, and her spoken vocabulary seems to be expanding as well. She definitely knows what “no” means, and though she’s never said it yet, she will shake her head or nod when we ask her questions. I love that I can ask her things and she can tell me the answer now. Sometimes there is still some guessing involved, but it makes it so much easier.

Anyway, I am going to try to update a little more often this month, even if it’s just short. It should be a slower month for us, though we will be helping a friend move at one point. I hope everyone out there who celebrates it had a great Halloween!

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Meredith has been enjoying helping to dress herself for a while now.  I kind of wish I’d taken more notice on when it started, not that it matters but I like to write things like that down in her baby book.  Probably before she turned a year, but getting so much more lately.  She will go and find her shoes and then hold them to her feet or hand them to me to help her put them on.  She lifts up her feet one at a time as I put them on.  She will bring me pants too, and will stand and lift her legs one at a time while I slip them on.  She also knows to put her arms through arm holes in shirts.  A couple of weeks ago, I started to put a shirt on her and she cried and pulled at it.  I took it off again, and she went and found a different shirt and handed it to me and quite happily let me put that one on.  She’s already picking out her own clothes!  She is showing some independence here too, as she sometimes doesn’t appreciate our help.  She spent about 20 minutes one morning with a pair of socks, examining them, finding the hole, trying to slip them on her feet.  She almost got one on, and I reached over to slip the last little edge around, and she yanked her foot and the sock away from me and started all over again.  Silly me!

She’s signalling more when she needs to go pee, but still definitely not consistently.  She wears the ecaPants we got around the house mostly now, but I still put her in diapers, or at least a wool cover/longies, when we go out.  However, she has learned a signal for when her diaper is wet, which is patting her hip, and is getting pretty consistent with that.  We just started patting our hips this past week when we asked her if she needed her diaper changed, and she’s caught on really quickly.  She obviously knows when her diaper is wet/dirty, so I’m hoping that will extend to her doing it before she needs to go too.

Speaking of signs, she made up her own sign.  I still haven’t quite figured out what it means.  At first I thought maybe it was her own sign for milk, even though she’s been using the ASL sign for it since she was about 6 months old.  But I think maybe it means “more” now.  Mostly she uses it when she’s nursing or wants to nurse, but she wants to play with the other breast while she’s nursing.  But she did do it once on the swing when I asked her if she wanted to swing some more.  What she does is tap her index finger into the open palm of her other hand.  I feel kind of bad that I don’t know exactly what she means by it, but I may never know.  At least I’m aware she has a sign that means she needs something, and can respond.  I’ve been trying to sign a lot to her.  We have a deaf cousin, so I’d like her to learn sign language at least enough to be able to communicate, since I’m close to my cousins and we see them a few times a year.  I’m trying to get Kris to learn some signs to do with her too, but I know it’s hard to remember to do them.  I think once she catches on, she will probably learn them pretty quickly.

Two signs she has learned in the past couple of weeks that she uses a lot now are shaking her head for no and nodding for yes.  I think though that sometimes she shakes her head no when she means yes still.  But it’s really handy to be able to ask her something and have her tell me for sure yes or no!  I think at first she shook her head (or bobbled it really) because she thought it was funny, but she caught on pretty quick that she could communicate by doing so too. 

She has discovered the park in our complex, and has fallen in love with it.  She will go get shoes/pants and then head to the door and stand waiting patiently (or not so patiently at times ) for us to get our own shoes on and follow her there.  Sometimes we go out the back way, and there is a forest behind our house with tons of blackberry bushes.  As we walk to the park, she wants to stop and pick blackberries.  Lately she doesn’t want us to pick one for her, she wants to do it herself.  She will grab on to one and squeeze as she pulls, which usually results in the berry bursting and purple juice flying everywhere.  I’m not sure any of us own clothes anymore that aren’t stained purple.

Another really cute thing she’s taken to doing lately is sitting on the bottom step.  She will take a sock, or a sippy cup, paper, a toy, really anything she’s semi-interested in, and toddle to the stairs, and plop herself down on the bottom one or the second from bottom.  And then just sit and play.  I think maybe they are the perfect height for her to sit comfortably right now?  I actually set up table and chairs that my mom had bought for her.  They say they’re for three and up, but I don’t listen well.  She can get up on the chairs herself but I think they’re still a little tall, but the chair itself is small enough that she sometimes finds it hard to get herself positioned comfortably.  The stairs are much shorter but there’s lots of room for her to sit.

We bought her crayons for her birthday.  At first they were just yummy food, but she will colour with them now.  She doesn’t have a ton of interest in them yet, but she’ll sit for a few minutes and scribble.  She also loves the little keyboard that used to be my grandfather’s (though she sits on it to play it) and the bigger keyboard that was my uncle’s (which she actually uses with her hands).  She will go to one or the other and point and yell until we turn it on for her.  I’m trying to show her how to do that herself, but she hasn’t quite caught on to the smaller one (it’s a sliding button), and the bigger one she can turn off but can’t quite push hard enough to get it on yet.  We have noticed since she was quite young that she seems very aware of music and seems to enjoy it.  She loves to dance and occasionally even sings a bit.  She seems to actually sing/dance with the beats for the most part too.

Lastly, she is teething big time.  Remember a couple of months ago when I said she’d cut a second tooth?  I lied.  That tooth came through a bit, but then disappeared.  I don’t know if the tooth actually goes backward, or if it stops coming and the gums end up growing back over, or what.  As a biologist (at heart at least), I really can’t quite wrap my brain around why that would happen physiologically, but anyway.  She had one tooth for a long time, then suddenly she has 5 teeth coming in.  That bottom one I thought was through is still coming through, and the four top front teeth.  The two on the sides at the top are the furthest through, with one having already cut through.  I’m thinking this amber teething necklace we got has to be doing something now, because though she’s had some very fussy nights/days, except for one instance none of them have been anything as intense as the first tooth coming through, and that was only one tooth.

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It also means that instead of crawling around to get toys she wants, she sits (or stands) wherever she is and points at what she wants and yells. I’m a big believer in allowing her to play without interference from me. I am there if she needs me or seems to want me to join in, but most of the time I am reading, or doing dishes, or whatnot, and she is doing her own thing nearby. But I am needing to be there for her much more recently, to help her get to where she wants to go. I don’t jump up and go running at the first peep though. If she drops a toy or something quite close to her and wants me to get it, I might say something like: “Oops, you dropped that block. I bet you can reach over and grab it pretty easily” first. I don’t let her get to the point that she’s really frustrated or upset, but often just pausing and saying something like that is enough that she will grab it on her own quite happily. And if not, I don’t mind doing it for her. I know her intention is not to be lazy or bossy.

I think she may be teething again, which of course might have something to do with her wanting us to do more for her recently.

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Meredith has two teeth. The first one cut through on Father’s Day and the second one last week some time. Teething was a pretty horrible experience for her, poor girl. I am glad we cosleep, as she woke up a few times screaming in the middle of the night and I was glad to be right there for her and able to comfort her. We bought a teething necklace online which arrived shortly after the first tooth came in, and it seems to definitely help. Or maybe it’s coincidence, but the second tooth was much less dramatic than the first. She still had a few tough days/nights, but nothing like the first time.

With the first tooth came a sudden interest in solids. I’ve written before that we allow her to taste off our plates and she likes to sample small bits. Now she actually eats. Her poop’s even starting to change, though it’s still mostly breastfed baby poop. She loves meat, fruit, veggies… pretty much anything we offer her. We’re trying to mostly avoid dairy, but I found a brand of yogurt that’s non-homogenized and organic and it’s very tasty. I’ve read yogurt is normally okay, and she loves it, so in the mornings I will often give her about a tablespoon in a bowl and hand her a spoon. She has figured out how to eat with a spoon already, just by watching us. We’ve never spoon-fed her or tried to teach her to use it. With this increase in solids, she actually started breastfeeding more, instead of less, so there is no danger of her weaning anytime soon. I’d like to make it to at least two years. My husband’s family is prone to ear infections and my family has allergies and asthma, so anything I can do to give her a boost I will do. The last couple of days her eating has slowed down again, so I think she was going through a growth spurt. She’s back to mostly nursing. I love that we just trust her to know what she needs and when she needs it.

Also exciting is that she started taking steps. She actually took her first step at the end of June, but still mostly crawls. I think crawling is faster and easier for her. The chiropractor told me that crawling has been shown to be really good for baby’s development and babies who crawl for longer periods before walking seem to have less spinal and back problems later in life. I’d love to see studies or read more about that, but it seems to make some sense. Plus it means she’ll be more balanced. We have laminate floors so the less she falls over the better!

I really can’t believe that she is almost one. I honestly get teary sometimes about it. That probably sounds so sentimental, but I think it’s something I never really understood until becoming a parent. She is such a joy and I am so glad to have her in my life. And while I sometimes wish time could freeze, like right now she’s snuggled into me in the mei tei sleeping while I write, I also can’t wait to watch her grow and learn and witness all life has to offer for the first time, and then many times over after that.

In my news, I’m wondering if my period might finally be returning. I’m really enjoying not having one, so I hope not, but I’ve been craving chocolate for the last week or so, and definitely showing other signs of ovulation. I charted before we got pregnant, so I think I’m pretty good about knowing my body’s signs. Though I know that all goes out of whack after having a baby so it’s hard to know for sure.

I’ve also been gardening and decluttering quite a bit. I’ll post some of my progress in those regards in future updates. I think this one has been long enough!

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