and i'm out

i took a blogger vacation so

i could go on a real vacation to cancun.

my bff, kassie, got married and i was so excited to celebrate with her.

actually, the last time ronnie and i were in mexico,
 we were with her and her fiancé.

(two years ago in cozumel)

 

but

i left brette for FIVE days with her grandparents.

and yes, i was a bit sad to go.

i just had this fear that she would think that i left her

and that's kind of devastating.

but i knew she was in good hands and

i knew that she [and i] would live through this.

even if it was bit rough.

on both of us.
 let's just say

i went through a lot of corona.

only, it wasn't hard on both of us.
just me.
she lived it up at mimi and papa's like a trooper.
the perfect angel.
it's cool, brette.
act like you didn't miss me.
whatevs.

i have a lot of fun stories from mexico
and some amazing pictures, but i'm too busy cuddling my sweet girl.

in the meantime you can live off these

a d o r a b l e

pictures of brette from the last few weeks that never got posted.

 

 

brette and ronnie working on the jeep. and yes, she is completely under the thing.

brette and her grandpa mel "riding" his harley.

me and b - - a little blurry

 

family lunch date and brette's first ice cream cone.

she devoured it and then started yelling for more so we had to leave.

yes, i have THAT kid.

 

brette's first pigtails.

a real moment for me.

 

 

i'll be back soon with a full

recap of mexico

after the long weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tikes on bikes

when ronnie and i found ourselves some sa-weet

vintage bikes we decided that bike rides need to happen every season.

then i got pregnant and it totally didn't happen.

but brian and jaime offered up their child bike carrier

and we decided to load up brette and hit the roads again.

and let me tell you,

i've never seen my girl happier.

she was seriously squealing.

we had to try it out just up and down the sidewalk,

but once we bought her a helmet, we hit the roads.

 

just look at that smile.



mr. poopy and ms. pee

so i've been a little reluctant

to share our newest adventure in the cox household

because its early for brette and a little odd.

 

have you heard of elimination communication?

it's basically the process of figuring out the way

your child communicates that they need to go potty

and trying to potty train them before the age of two or three.

you need a lot of time and patience since
they can't just tell you they have to go.

since i get to stay at home with brette i thought it was something we could try.

some people start this when their baby is just 3 or 4 months old.

i don't think i'm ready for all that. 

we started when brette was 10 months old

 and after i did some studying up on the subject.

apparently, before disposable diapers, most kiddos were potty trained

around 18 months.

once disposables became the norm in the 1950's our

potty training age doubled and now the average is around

3 years of age.

 

since our days of buying formula are numbered,

diapers are our next biggest expense.

if this was going to help cut off a whole year of buying diapers

i figured i could at least give it a shot.

 

here are the two reasons i thought it would work for us:

1. brette has bowel movements every morning around the same time.

2. i am cheap and therefore really motivated to save a diaper or two.

 

i was tired of basically sitting there knowing brette

was going to poop and just waiting to change a shitty diaper.

not fun.

she always goes either after her morning bottle or after

her morning nap bottle.

so i thought i could start there.

when she gets up in the morning,

i change her and give her a bottle.

we play for 10-15 minutes and then i sit her on her potty.

and guess what?

the VERY FIRST TIME she pooped within a couple minutes.

it definitely gave me the confidence that this was something we could do.

of course, this doesn't always happen.

sometimes we sit there for a full 15 minutes and nothing.

that's my limit.

then i just re-diaper her and try again later.

happily, i don't change very many poopy diapers anymore.

in fact, as long as we're home,

i don't think i've changed more than three or four

poopy diapers since we've started this.

i call that a definite win in my book.

most days she only goes once, but

i'm always on the look out just in case.

as many of you moms know, it's easy to tell when you're kiddo

needs to go or is going poop.

we lovingly refer to it as "the poop face"

and its not cute.

here's brette's:

 

 

we happen to be shooting her 11 month photos when i caught this.

we rushed to the bathroom and made it to the potty in time.

whew.

 

as for pee.

it's a lot harder, as you can imagine,

because it's all day, all the time.

i sit her on the potty after every bottle and meal.

most times i can get her to go,

but she is definitely still peeing in her diaper too.

i am hoping that since we started her so young

that by the time she is able to communicate better

she will realize that when she needs to go potty to tell me.

i don't know if or how it will all work.

i promise to keep you updated.

my dream?

for her to be out of diapers by the beginning of 2015.

we shall see.

 

 

 

 

let's celebrate mom

i didn't get a chance to give a shout out on sunday to

M O M S !

especially mine.

she's really the

cats meow.

the cream of the crop.

the best of the best.

the one person i can call and ask anything.

well, except for money.

i leave those phone calls for dear ol' dad.

(wink)

 

 

i hope everyone had a happy mother's day

and celebrated that special lady in your life.

 

we drove down to warrensburg so i could spend

the day with my mom.

(and grandma, aunt and cousin)

it was such a nice relaxing day.

and it was my first mother's day with

brette in my arms instead of my tummy.

she's what makes the day so special,

not me.

ronnie let me sleep in.

7:30 instead of 6:30,

which, for real, makes a huge difference.

and if i didn't feel like doing something,

i busted out, "but its mother's day"

and ronnie took over.

mwah ha ha ha.

i'm sure it will come back to bite me on father's day,

but it was totally worth it.

 

 

hope everyone had a lovely sunday!

 

 

brette: eleven months

 

 

 

growth:

brette had a little viral infection last weekend

so i ended up taking her to the doctor and

she weighed 20lbs 11ozs.

(41st percentile)

according to ronnie's measuring tape she is still around 30 inches in length.

she's still sporting size 3 diapers and

is mostly wearing 12 month clothing.

the doctor told me that i might need to keep some motrin on hand
 because she is cutting her one year molars AND has five other teeth coming in.

holy, chompers.
she seems fine though.

she chews on her fingers a lot

but it hasn't interrupted her sleeping.

thank god.
 her hair keeps growing in the back,

but not so much in the front

so i'm pretty sure we're going to end up with a pretty sweet mullet.

that should be great in pictures.

no "crawling" but there is movement.

i'll take what i can get.

 

sleeps:

she sleeps from 8:00 - 6:30 every night.

it's a pretty early start for me,

but i'll take it, considering i get to sleep the through the night.

she takes two naps a day.

the first at 9:00 and

the second around 2:00.

recently her naps have been 2 to 2.5 hours long.

that is totally abnormal.

a normal day they last 1.5 hours.

maybe she's going through a growth spurt?
  

  

eats:

feeding brette is my favorite thing.

this little girl loves to eat

and ronnie and i love to watch her.

there aren't many things i won't give her,

but she still hasn't had nuts, honey, granola, bacon, chips, etc.

anything i think it too chewy or too hard.

i can load up her tray and she knows

to chew what's in her mouth before stuffing more in.

i used to give her only a couple pieces at a time

and she would just put as much in her mouth as possible.

fatty.

glad we've moved past that.

i can even give her a cracker without breaking it into pieces.

it made me nervous at first, but she does really well with it.

as for milk and bottles:

we are no longer nursing as of a couple days ago,

so she is strictly getting either formula or the breastmilk i have frozen.

i think my frozen supply will only last another week,

so i was thinking about starting to mix cows milk and formula

the beginning of june.

maybe that will help her transition to just milk soon after she turns one.

i can't wait for that.

i am o.v.e.r. buying formula.

i really wished i could have pumped more.

stupid boobs.
she will take milk out of a sippy cup, by straw or a bottle,

so i think giving up her bottle will be easy.

i'm not gonna try that until this summer.

don't want to change her routine too fast and all at once.

  

talks:
 she is babbling all. the. time.

and her new thing is pointing.

she points at everything.

then we have to take her to see whatever it is

she's pointing at and we tell her the name of it.

hopefully that helps build her language.

she says all kinds of things,

but no true words yet.

we have started teaching her blowing kisses

and giving high-fives.

she thinks both are hilarious.
she signs for a drink brilliantly

and i love knowing when she is thirsty.

can't wait for more of the sign language to kick in.

  

plays:

we hung a swing on a tree in our backyard

and she really likes to go for a swing.

we also have been laying a blanket on our back deck

so we can sit outside and play.

she is mostly interested in eating the helicopters that fall off

the tree so i spend a lot of time clearing the area of those.

i think her favorite thing are animals.

she loves everyone's dogs and cats when we visit people

and she loves finding louie and leia at our house.

she is definitely a social butterfly.

she loves being out of the house and on the go.

our days are much easier when we have a lot to do.

she gets more cranky when we stay at home all day.

i love it because i always prefer to be out doing something

so its nice that brette craves that too.

  

 

firsts:
 started pointing

she wore her first pair of separates for jammies.

(i know this is small, but it felt so weird not putting her in a onesie for bed)

she went potty in the potty!

(more on this later)

 

i can't believe my little one will be a year

next month.

it's true what they say about being a stay-at-home mom...

the days are long and years go by fast.

 

 

 

and if you notice,

i set her down on the green and blue flowers

and by then end she is over by the dresser.

see?  definitely "moving."

 

 

nursing no more

today is the day.

boob-free day.

yeah, that day.

 

i nursed brette for the last time yesterday

and had ronnie give her milk this morning out of her big-girl cup.

she is officially not breastfeeding anymore.

according to my schedule,

(yes, i have a weaning schedule)

i was not supposed to stop nursing until the 12th,

but since ronnie is going to be home for the next three days

i thought it would be good to take advantage of him being here

and have him do the morning routine for a couple of days.

just so she's used to not nursing by the time its just me and her again.

 

its been a really, really slow transition.

one we started back when she was just seven months old.

and now that she's eleven months,

i think we are both okay with moving on.

i was so nervous when i started weaning

that it was going to be so hard on brette.

but you know what?

i'm going to say it - - it was EASY.

so easy. 

slowly but surely is definitely my suggestion.

but not nursing anymore is still a weird feeling.

i have an amazing sense of accomplishment and pride

that brette and i lasted as long as we did.

e l e v e n   m o n t h s !

but i do feel a little hankering for the days

where i could sit and relax while brette lays on me.

she's not much for cuddling - - at all.

so unfortunately i don't know when the next time will be

that i'll get to snuggle this little one for an extended period of time.

i'll also miss the fact that nursing was my go-to when we're in crisis mode.

sick?

in pain?

won't nap?

tried everything?

have no fear - - - mom's boob is here!

and it worked.

every. time.

so now i'm going have to find another way to work

through some of our rough patches,

but, all in all, i'd say today is a good day.

 

f r e e   a t   l a s t.

 

now excuse me while i go to victoria secret.

i think it's time for a little bit of underwire to get back in my life.

 

 

 

 

my thoughts on nursing.

my thoughts on weaning.

an update on weaning.

 

 

 

where corn don't grown

brette will never live

where corn don't grow.

she loves it too much.

 

we held off on giving brette any corn

since its a little harder to digest

and i feel like you need some teeth to chew it

or it will just get swallowed whole.

but now that she's had it,

she is in love.

we made some corn on the cob the other night

and it was like christmas around here.

you can tell from the pictures that i started by

cutting it off the cob, but when she saw ronnie eating it,

she had to have it.

i think she liked all the salt and butter,

but she managed to eat the majority of corn too.

 

we might have a new favorite food.

and i couldn't pick which pic was the best,

so here's a play-by-play of b and her corn.

 

enjoy!

 

ps- for those of you not familiar with country music

where corn don't grow is a travis tritt song.

not just my bad grammar.