22 months!

We only have a few more of these monthly updates left!

Touchdown, MSU!

Let's see where we left off ...

Ana is: Talking so well! Like, practically in mini-sentences.

"Mama singing!" she'll say if we're in the car. (Nevermind that my "singing" these days is usually like, Bodak Yellow. So, #babyappropriate is what I'm trying to say).

Or, "Ana sleep!" / "Ana bed!" she'll say if she's tired. Honestly, I've written this before, but her being able to tell us what she wants and needs -- it just makes this whole thing incredibly easy.

Also, I think I mentioned last time that her counting is like, on point. But you guys, she can basically get to 15 most days. And after that, she'll just start making up numbers. "Teen-teen!" as James says.

And this warm fall has meant the swimsuit remains in rotation! (Probably not for much longer).

Ana's sleep issues ...

Have mostly subsided. I told you I wouldn't quit! I've been tracking in the Notes section of my phone, and the past three weeks, she's gone down successfully five of the seven days. Most are without struggle, just like at bedtime, she'll turn over, shut her eyes and she's out in a few minutes. We don't hear a peep. Other days involve a little bit more of a meltdown (but tbh, she sleeps way longer and harder when she knocks herself out with a bit of a fit. Is that horrible for me to say?) and yeah ... other days she just has quiet time in her crib. Five for seven isn't bad. And I've experimented with like, "Should I wear her out more?" or "Should we run more errands?" (like in the mornings), but I feel like whether or not she's gonna nap is kind of a crapshoot at this point. What we do, doesn't so much matter. But MAN, the nap continues and we are grateful. Knock on wood always.

I had Friday off and we both went down for about three hours. It was glorious.

Also, she's been a better-than-normal sleeper in general at night. I mean, that feels unfair to say, because she's been bad ass sleeper almost since birth, but like, last night, she went down at 7:45p. Woke up at 10a, no interruptions. James and I were like, "Say whaaaaaat? THANK YOU!" Someone remind me why we're about to destroy this with Baby No. 2.  ;)

Prly because No. 1 is so cute?

We ran a little experiment ...

To see if we could switch her back to normal dairy milk. As I've mentioned in many a blog post, I don't think she has a dairy allergy; I just think normal milk is loaded with protein and it binds her up. Also, she likes it way too much. For real, she will skip all meals in favor of milk sippie cups, and she will just sip-sip ALL. Day. Long. And turn down real food. Annoying.

We've never cut dairy all the way out. Ana has always been allowed cheese and yogurt and stuff, and we've always wanted her to get her calcium in. We thought perhaps the milk obsession was just a phase. So we were all, let's reintroduce it.

I'd heard things, from people in my Facebook moms group (for those of us with constipated kids), and from at least two real-life friends, about how it can be beneficial to keep the babies on real milk, but instead of dumping in MiraLAX, to add in about a teaspoon or so of powdered probiotic. So I ordered one off Amazon made by the brand Garden of Life, just for kids.

For those of you who are unfamiliar (don't feel left out -- I was very unfamiliar at first), probiotics are kind of having a trendy moment right now in the health world. Well, it's all about "gut health." As in, "Everything starts in the gut!" Yeah, yeah ... now, I don't mean to be a naysayer. I'm sure -- like most everything -- there's some truth to the idea. So I won't say too much against it.

But I will say, we made the switch: meaning we put Anz back on regular milk, dumped the probiotics in (which are supposed to "heal" the gut and encourage healthy digestion), and we got straight F'd. Basically, and I shouldn't blame the pro-bios, but we learned Ana is just as obsessed with milk -- for real, she went through nearly a gallon in one day -- and she was constipated again in no time. BAD. Like, we had a horrible week. Constipation affects nearly everything. She won't nap as well, or she'll wake up crying, or it's harder to take her out in public because she'll stop whatever she's doing, seize up and just SCREAM, etc. I can't even tell you. Granted, we also know it's not as much of a physical thing, she's a withholder ... but still, having hard poops just makes the problem 50 times worse. When she finally went, it was heart-breaking. I was like, "F this, I'll spend a little extra to keep her on coconut milk so that she'll eat her vegetables and drink her prune juice and go regularly again." I guess we broke our own rule on that one. Nothing was broken. Why did we try and fix a system that was working for us?

#judging

Although I will admit ...

We kind of broke my golden rule on this one: If you're gonna give something a chance, give it time to actually work.

One bad car ride does not mean your baby hates the car. One week of denied green beans does not mean your baby hates green beans. I usually preach that you need to give things (well, depending what they are, of course), at least a month or so. Otherwise, it's not a fair chance. Babies are indecisive and they don't know what they want. YOU have to call the shots.

(For example: Ana hated her pacifier the first month, along with her Rock n Play. I was like, "Nah. ALL BABIES LOVE THOSE THINGS, I'll try again later and refuse to let her win." Guess who swore by her paci and R&P through the first 8-9 months?) BET.

Anyway, with this particular experiment, we did not give the probios a chance. Once Ana got that poop out (sorry, TMI, I swear I used to write about makeup), it just hurt my heart too much to let things go on the way they had been. James picked up about 60 cartons of coconut milk on his way home from work (<--- slight exaggeration but not by much), and we moved on.

Whatever.

The only mom rule that trumps all other mom rules is "trust your gut." (Haha SPEAKING of healthy guts). But for real, mom intuition is there for a reason, and something was telling me to stop with the probio nonsense. So I did and I'm not sorry. Honestly, what works for some kids doesn't work for others. My baby gal still can't have milk because she won't eat or drink anything else. The end.

Love you anyway!

What else ... We have a potty!

I mentioned last time that we bought it. I was kind of on the fence about introducing it, but my mom was like, "She's so smart. She likes telling us when she goes. Maybe just give it a shot."

I think I also mentioned that I was nervous because I (still) fear some regression once No. 2 arrives. But then I was like, screw it. No harm in going slow, and letting her warm up to it. So I took said potty down from the closet this weekend and basically, I'm making this plan up as I go.

Right now, we're in phase one, which is, "Ana, I gotta pee. Wanna come?" And she always says, "OK!" or "Sure!" And I sit and she sits. I tried to remove her diaper once or twice and she got kind of weird about it. But she loves sitting and pretending to go, as I go. (And luckily, I go on the half hour rn because of the baby head that's sitting directly on my bladder). Convenient.

Anyway, she makes a fake peeing noise and smiles at me and I tell her what a big girl she is, sitting on the potty. Then we flush and wash our hands and go about our day. Phase two might involve getting her to actually sit there and pee, but ... stay tuned.

Joke's on me, probably.

She is so funny.

If I say, "Ana, are you being crazy?" She'll go, "Ca-rayyyyyyzayyyy!" and wiggle her little body all over like a crazy person. Today, we were out getting my oil changed, and she was all, "EXCITED! EXCITED!" (Sounds more like, "CITED!") But oh, she certainly was excited. And she was the only one. No one wanted to be in that waiting room/customer service area except for AG.

James will also call her the oldest little lady who ever lived, because at the end of the day, she likes to complain about her arthritis: "KNEEEEEES."

"TOESSSSSS."

And just recently, she started doing, "EYESSSSSS." She says the names of these body parts very dramatically, and grabs them as if she's just come out of arthroscopic surgery.

James will be like, "What (almost) 2-year-old complains about her knees like this? You are unreal."

Unreal I tell you.

I continue to learn ...

More and more from her every day. I'm trying to be a better listener. Granted, I think we've always done a pretty decent job of letting her learn the cadence of a conversation and such (you know, like the back and forth? Which requires listening?) but like, I want to really listen and hear her. The Harvey Karp toddler book says no one really listens to toddlers well, hence, some of their frustration. Also, if she's saying a word and you really can't understand it, I swear, if you repeat it back several times *while* scanning the room, you will probably nail it within 30 seconds. She certainly doesn't say things on accident or by chance. The other day, she was all, "BOG FAH-PACE" and I had no idea at first. But I kept saying it back, and I had her show me, and I surveyed the living room, and it wasn't gibberish after all. There was a BUG on the FIREPLACE.

Smarty pants, typing on the keyboard like a little mommy.

Swim lessons ...

Are over already!  :(  It was just a six-week session. I'm really proud of her though. Week one, as you might recall, was kind of disastrous. She wouldn't stay with the group, she wanted to do things HER way and her way only, she constantly yelled for "DOWN DOWN DOWN OUT OUT OUT!" and we were kind of the black sheep(s?) of the class. Week two was a little better ... as in, we stayed the whole time, but played on the stairs, just the three of us. And then weeks three, four, five and six? It was a whole new Ana. She definitely still got antsy when we did too much "baby" stuff (can't blame her there), but she was jumping off the side of the pool into our arms, blowing bubbles, reaching with her arms for the balls, floating (with our help, of course), etc.  This is one of those examples where I totally wanted to quit after week one. But I was like, "I'm not letting her determine her fate with swim lessons, we're going again!" And again. And again. And guess who loves swim class now?! (Just in time for it to end).

*Oh, and I think my resilience was largely due to the fact that registration was kind of spendy. Full disclosure on that one. We cheap, what can I say? We also found a bomb place for breakfast after class. James and I were in it for the stuffed french toast.

Brunchin with mom and dad

The Ganleys ...

Are driving in for a visit in two weeks. They've never seen our house. We probably won't plan much -- maybe the farmers market or a trip to the cider mill. It'll be nice for Ana to see her grandparents!

And then our little Ganley clan(ley) will probably drive up to Petoskey the following weekend to see Robby, speaking of (relatively) new houses.

We're doing a low-key for Thanksgiving (I'm actually working -- trying to bank comp time before baby)! And I'll be 30 weeks as of this coming Thursday. And I'm finally feeling ginorm! Here's my rambly pregzie post if you missed it or care about these kinds of things. Also, Ana continues to think she's pregnant too. She'll touch my belly and say BABY! And then lift up her own shirt and say BABY! ... Not quite, my grasshopper. Not quite.

See you in a month, if not sooner! I have some saved posts I just might share before then : )