It was a fairly quiet month, and by quiet, I mean we slept. We only had to fight cry it out for three nights before she figured out that she was staying there until she slept, so that was bliss. She still isn't sleeping the entire night, and she usually doesn't stay in her crib from dusk to dawn, but we're making massive progress, and my heart is so thankful. Most responses to that statement are met with "Makes ya wish you had tried it sooner, huh?!" Well, the simple answer is no. It would've have been nice, but it took me Ten months to feel like I knew my child well enough to know the difference between upset and whiny, and it made it a lot easier to stay downstairs because of it. We're on our way. We're not there yet, but maybe by her first birthday, we'll have a baby sleeping through the night. In the meantime, I soak up having four hours of blessed silence with my husband at night, having the opportunity to clean up dinner messes, and time to work on her "One Year" book. My morale has lifted so significantly, and Ella is finally comprehending that sleep is a good thing. Hal. le. lu. jah.
That was about as quiet as things got around here, because Ella found her voice. She's been a rambling machine for about two weeks now. Noise, nonstop. Always talking. She's super successful at saying "Dada," "Hi," "Bye Bye," and "Mama." The only time she chooses to say Mama is when she's mad, upset, or knows that it's bedtime... I'm conflicted as to how I feel about it. She's been rambling those syllables for a few months now, but she really comprehends what they are now, because as soon as Cody walks into a room, she yells "Dada!" In the mornings, when I pick her up, she puts her hand on my face and says "Hi." When I wave at her, she waves back and says "Bye bye!" It's so fun, and of course, I always shriek and clap like she's doing things that no other ten month old in the world has ever done, so judge me, because I don't care! Sometimes out of left field, she'll accidentally form a word that she couldn't possibly know, but we still celebrate and encourage it like she did it on purpose. For example, she says "Dared" probably 3 times a day... that just so happens to be what I call my little brother. There's no way she would know... but we still point at a picture of Jared and say "Dared!" over and over. Pre-Motherhood, I was always puzzled as to how we as humans learn the english language. I see it now. The greatest teachers in the world are mothers that get too excited about words that babies don't realize they're saying, so we shove them down their throats until the baby eventually starts repeating it just to shut mom up. Truth. But regardless, she rambles random syllables all day long, and it still makes me laugh out loud. It's my favorite "Ella-ism" right now. Maybe someday I'll miss communicating with her using only facial expressions, but at the moment, this phase is super fun.
We took another brief road trip this month. Most of Ella's family in the Northern part of Texas don't make it down here too often, so we made a quick trip to see them. The last trip to Wheeler involved a 2 month old that nursed every two hours, and a house that was too hot for three people to share a bed. This time around was much smoother sailing, we made excellent driving time, and our sweet Baby showed all of her best tricks for her grandparents. Those trips are hard, and I'll be the first to say that Wheeler isn't my first choice to "vacation," but I never want to look back and regret that we didn't introduce her to that side of her Daddy's life any chance we had. We were ready and anxious to get back home, but we also enjoyed the quiet and horrible cell reception. The winds were less than favorable, so we were stuck inside the entire visit, but it meant extra quality time. Here's a sweet picture of Ella playing in the floor with her Papa. It was so sweet to see them interact together. It made my heart swell and my eyes water.
All of that to say that I am SO THRILLED April is over. There are very few times that you'll hear me complain about my husband's job, because it's truly one of the greatest blessings in our lives. However, in December and April, you'll hear me complain a lot. April is the busiest month of the year in my marriage, between women's conferences, marriage conferences, Easter, special events focusing on Easter, out of town trips, regular job commitments, and extra lunch and work meetings for my husband. He's the sound man, and if there's an event at the church, he's there. Last April was tough, but I was also pregnant, and didn't care what happened in life. I just wanted Tums and a brief Coma to get me through the day. This year, I had a miniature human in my life, and my usual relief buddy was gone most nights of the week. When he came in at night, there was a silent battle for who was more exhausted, and I think really the answer was that it was a tie, mine being in the mental realm and his being physical. I think he tracked his footsteps one day, and they equated to ten miles of walking. I would never keep track of such a thing, for I would either find myself incredibly depressed or inspired to work out. Those are both things that I try to avoid. It was a hard month, and I battled feeling sorry for my husband while simultaneously sorry for myself. Dangerous road, that one is. It's hard to be supportive of your husband for chasing after the call on his life while you feel guilty for saying "It's a job!" Where's the line? His job pretty much revolves around making sure the name of Jesus is heard (literally, he controls the volume). When I wanted quality time with him, he was either recovering or preparing for the next event at work. My selfish tendencies tried hard to reveal their ugly heads, and it was a battle all month long. But it's over! And to the best of my knowledge, life should be pretty smooth sailing for the next 3 months. I'm so thankful for my husband's job, and I know that there are wives that rarely get to see their husbands every month of the year, so I'm willing to sacrifice two months out of twelve if it means we maintain this routine.
I know what you're thinking. "Kaylea, all I want to know is if Ella has any teeth."
The answer is No... but there's HOPE. I can see her top tooth! I can SEE it. I have no clue where her bottom two are, and at this point, I could not care less. They're on the horizon. Or so I've convinced myself... who knows. I've probably convinced myself that I can see a tooth and there's really nothing there, but I remain hopeful. Hope. Hope Guides me. It's what gets me through the day and especially the night. Oh, look, another "Knight's Tale" reference. Sometimes they just slip out before I realize what I'm doing. Anyway, I don't know what else to say about it other than I'm 99.9% sure that there is a tooth protruding through her top gum, and that I have a baby that would probably make most teenagers abstain from bad decisions if they were left with her for more than ten minutes. We have depended on tylenol and hyland tablets, because otherwise I think I probably would've locked myself in a padded closet. I've lost my patience with her a couple of times, but for the most part, I try to remember that she's responding to pain the only way she knows how, even if it makes me want to consume an entire bottle of something fermented.
I think we've all established that I'm fairly honest on this blog. I'll say boldly that I didn't enjoy the 6-8 month phase of child development. Learning to sit up and learning to pull up were not fun for me to watch as a mom. The battle for independence from a mom that knows better is something that I'll fight for the rest of my life, but I saw glimpses of it for the first time in those stages. Exhausting. I was just a title bit crazy feeling during those months. However, I LOVED having a 9 month old. It was such a fun month full of new tricks, and a sweet time of bonding between Ella and myself, and an all around awareness that we're moving out of "baby" and into... well, not baby. We adore the sweet giggle that invades our sleep, and most days dread that her first birthday is rapidly approaching. We celebrate her life and her growth, but we hurt because we already know how badly we'll miss these days. But that's enough of that. It was a sweet month, here's her disaster of a socktopus picture!
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