Kayci Won't Sleep

Last night was rough. First, Kayci decided to bypass her power nap at 6ish and just go right to sleep at 7. That was fine, except when she woke up at 10 thinking she had just gotten up from her power nap and wanted to play. She didn't want to go back to sleep. Every time I tried to put her back down in her bed, she would wake up immediately and either cry or want to play. So we brought Kayci to bed with us, where she went immediately to sleep. She's old enough and aware enough now to know where she is and to like sleeping with us. However, neither of us sleeps as well when she's with us. Also, we've gotten her in the habit of needing one of us to hold her and rock her to sleep at night. So now we face a challenge: is it time to let her cry it out one night? Kristi doesn't think that going cold turkey is the answer. She thinks we need to go back and consulty the books and try to gradually get Kayci to put herself to sleep. I don't think there's any real way to do that. I think that if she fusses for a little bit she'll put herself to sleep without one of us having to hold her. Of course, the ultimate goal is for Kayci to go to sleep in her own bed by herself and to sleep there through the night. We just don't want to break her in the process, but she's getting (or at) an age now where if we don't make some tough choices it will be tougher to break her of some bad habits later.

Cereal and Hermann Park

This week Kayci started eating cereal. Later in the week, we started her on yams. It's a been a really fun week with Kayci. Mommy has a lot of patience when feeding Kayci. Daddy tried to feed her, but Kayci was too hungry and just cried. More food gets on her than in her because she hasn't quite figured out yet what to do with her tongue while she eats. But she loves eating food. She makes a really cool growly "aaaaahh" sound after she takes a bite.

Kayci has really started squealing quite a bit this week. She does it when she's happy. It comes out as a really high pitched, loud squeal and it's really fun to listen to.

We went to Hermann Park this week and rode the miniature train, which Kayci really couldn't have cared less about. She'll love it when she gets a little older, but at this point she was more excited that she was outside and that Grandpa was there.

Working Mom Blues

Okay, if this comes as a shock to anyone, I apologize. But I think it’s time to admit that I’m not SuperWoman. I can’t do it all, and I definitely don’t WANT to. It’s getting harder and harder to go to work in the morning knowing what I’ll miss during the day. I was sick 2 days last week (really sick, not just day off sick) and I can see how it would be really easy to get into the habit of working 2 or 3 day weeks :). Don’t get me wrong—I love, love, love my job. We say Cimarron is the “best school in the world,” and I truly believe it is. My job is amazing, and I work with amazing people (my Assistant, Elaine, could do my job AND her job blindfolded, and never miss a step). If I didn’t love my job, I think I’d be pretty hard to get along with right about now. When I’m at work, I’m AT work, and I enjoy it. But times like now, when I have a break and I can stop and think, I just miss my Kayci. And I miss her Daddy. And I just want to be in my little house on Laguna with my family, doing family things. Like laying on the floor on my tummy with Kayci, watching her play and kick. Like hanging out on the couch giving her a bottle and halfway hoping she’ll fall asleep in my arms so we can cuddle for a while. Like changing diapers and changing clothes and eating lunch and watching the Bitty sleep on her tummy with her hootie in the air. So, this is where I am. I love my life. I love my girl. I love my job. But more and more, I dread the 8 or 9 hours I’m away from my family each day. Argh. This, too, shall pass. 

To backtrack, before Kayci was born, I really thought I could do it. I thought I could do it ALL, and do it all well. Well, that’s out the window. I don’t care if my floor is spotless, as long as it’s clean enough to throw a blanket down for Kayci. I don’t care if there’s dust on the TV, or the buffet, or the pictures on the wall, if that’s 30 more minutes I can play with my Bitty. Right this second, there are dishes in the sink. For those of you who really know me well, you know that you won’t notice any of these things, and that the house is actually probably pretty clean. But if you look closer, it’s not Kristi-clean anymore. James got mad at me one day for nagging him about making the bed (I can’t STAND coming home to an unmade bed) and said “There are more important things in life than making the bed!” Boy, was he mad at me. But it stuck, and it runs through my head every day when I have to choose between doing something mundane that probably doesn’t really NEED to be done and spending time with Kayci. I can do laundry after she goes to bed, and if we take an hour before church on Sunday to clean bathrooms and floors and dust, I’ll live. 

And now, back to work. Time for round 2.

The Sleep and Eats Report

Last night Kayci slept in her crib without her side pads, which are foam pieces that are designed to keep her from rolling over while she's sleeping. In the last couple of nights, she's been rolling over from her side to her tummy in them, anyway. So we tried to let her sleep without the pads heeping her in place. She did really well. She started out the night wanting to sleep on her tummy. After her 3am feeding I put her to sleep on her back, but when I went in to check on her this morning, she was on her tummy again. That obviously means that she rolled from her back to front during the night- which is something she's never done before. As mentioned before, she's rolled from front to back.

Also, Kayci started on cereal this week. The first day we tried to feed it to her, she couldn't quite figure out what to do with her tongue and ended up making a big mess. So we beat her and sent her to bed. Tuesday and Wednesday she did MUCH better and actually ate some of it, although she kept asking us to give her Lucky Charms. I was so proud.

Daddy's 10-Year Reunion

The last couple of weeks have been really busy for me, so that's why Kayci's site hasn't been updated in awhile. I'm trying to teach Kayci how to use the computer so she can update her own website, but every time I leave her alone to practice and walk away I come back a few minutes later to find her trying to order things off of BabiesRUs.com and drooling on my keyboard. So it's up to me for awhile.

Last weekend was my 10-year high school reunion. On Friday night there was a mixer for families. We were a little worried about Kayci being up late, but being outside was enough to keep her in a good mood. She got to meet lots of other babies, some only a couple of weeks away from her age. It was really fun showing Kayci off to my old high school friends. We're obviously very proud of her. 

Kayci also got to meet my best friend Gary this week. Gary is a Marine and just returned from Iraq. Kayci took right to him. I think she liked his red hair.

Kayciversary Report

Today is Kayci's Kayciversary. 

This has been a really fun week. The weather this week was incredible thanks to a couple of cool fronts- highs in the 70s and lower 80s, lows from the mid 50s to lower 60s. Simply awesome for Houston. It's finally starting to feel like fall, and the entire Pharaon family is enjoying it. We spent a lot of time outside this week taking walks and playing in the backyard, etc. Kayci loves fall because she LOVES the outdoors. Now I just need to teach her how to climb a tree and make monkey sounds.

Kayci is really starting to vocalize now. She's definitely expirimenting with the range of her voice. She loves to squeal and then yell as loud as she can. It's really cute. She also can make a raspberry sound with her tongue when she wants to- and she loves it, apparently. Also this week, Kayci basically walked up Grandma's chest. Kayci will pick up her feet and make stepping motions as if she's walking. It's really funny when she tries to run. She's also gotten VERY interested in watching us do things, including eat. The doctor says that's a sign that she's almost ready for cereal, so I'm sure we'll get some this week. Watch for those photos next week.

We also tried letting her sleep on her tummy a couple of nights this week. She doesn't sleep any better on her tummy and she's a lot more vocal. In fact, Mommy and Daddy are so paranoid now because of all the "Don't let your baby sleep on her tummy" reports that we woke up at every little coo and grunt she made for two nights. It didn't make for very restful sleep for any one, so we decided not to tempt fate and just to go back to her back and side positions until she can turn over and sleep on her tummy by herself if she wants to.