Nine Months

Netty had her nine-month check-up today. I can't believe we're at nine months all ready! That means technically our next baby could have been here any day now, and that's a thought that makes me shutter. I am VERY grateful that Netty, though still young, will at least be a little older when Baby 2 arrives.

Here's a few Netty Kay stats:

She is 17 lbs, 3 oz, which puts her in the 20th percentile for weight.

She is 28 1/2 inches, which puts her in the 80th percentile for height.

She sleeps through the night (mostly) for 11-12 hours and still takes two 2-hour naps

She is usually happy and loves spending time with Mom and Dad (sometimes too much time)

She has seven teeth, and chews everything in sight

Her favorite place to play is under my desk where there are cords and flashing lights and a nice trash can that usually has "goodies" in it.

 Lately, one of her favorite toys is her purse from Grandma Phelps, which is also a wonderful teething device.

 This is Netty's favorite position throughout the day. She is sitting on my foot. This way, as far as she's concerned I'm still holding her, but she can still reach her toys. Luckily she's not heavy enough yet to make my foot fall asleep.

 Here's a close-up of her purse.

And a close-up of Netty.

This is the little face I look at all day.

 This is her "Can-you-just-give-me-that-camera-please" Look.

Although still a little wobbly, she loves to stand.

Her favorite word

One Proud Mama

I always thought it was silly and ridiculous how parents would gush over their completely average children. But one conversation with my mom would tell you that I've turned into one of those ridiculous parents. I'm call my mom almost every day with the newest Netty developments, which usually involve her doing the same thing that every other kid her age is doing. I am grateful that she doesn't point out my silliness, because I am well aware of it. However, that doesn't stop me from beaming every time Netty does something new. I feel overwhelmed with joy when I think how this little girl went from doing absolutely nothing to holding two toys at once, army crawling all over our apartment, and saying "mamamamam" and "dadadadada."

 When a boy in our ward only four days older than Netty was pulling himself up to stand at our coffee table before Christmas, I felt a little depressed that my own brilliant child wasn't doing the same thing. After all, the doctor had told me that Netty was ahead of schedule. Now that the same little boy is walking, I don't feel so bad about Netty being a little behind him. I'm not ready for her to start walking! However, I was super excited one day when Netty pulled herself up to the coffee table. I cheered for her and clapped, and she thought it was great. She, too, started banging on the table with glee.

And then she lost her balance....

BBBRRRRRRR!

A New Favorite

Our living room is now constantly littered with Kleenex.

Christmas and a Little Bit After

I know I'm late getting this posted. That's the story of my life these days.

Christmas in Utah with our families was wonderful. We feel so fortunate that the Kays and the Phelpses live relatively close so we could see both of our families on Christmas.

 I made this absolutely ADORABLE Christmas decoration when I was in Kindergarten. For years my mom hung it in the kitchen, but more recently she hasn't. So I have made a goal to ensure that periodically throughout the year Mom finds a little Christmas cheer throughout the house. At Thanksgiving I hung it in the living room, and while Jon and I were in Utah, she hung it in the room we were staying in. Notice the askew picture frame on which it is hanging. That's because she heard us coming and was in a hurry. We left it up through most of our stay. Sadly, this year it was put away with all the other Christmas decorations.

Here's our family on Christmas Eve. Netty wasn't cooperating very well for the picture, but that's nothing new. She's a "squirm-worm."

This is a much better picture of Netty, although sadly, we didn't get a good picture with a smiling Netty AND Stephie's face.

Netty was very confused when we woke her up early on Christmas morning. But it was a busy day and we needed to get an early start. She did love the little plate of wooden doughnuts that Santa left her. She might have loved them more if they were REAL doughnuts.

This was Netty's face through most of Christmas morning. The poor girl didn't enjoy most of her presents until we got back to Rexburg almost two weeks later and she finally got a good night's sleep.

I crocheted scarves this year for Jon's parents and my mom. I decided that Netty needed one as well, so here's Netty with HoneyGram in their matching scarves. They also have matching peacoats.

This was the one present Netty really played with on Christmas morning. My parents bought her this push-toy that has all kinds of spinning toys on the front. She still loves it, and she chases it around the room as she's playing with it.

This is the only way I accomplish anything in the kitchen. Netty wants to be at my side all the time. Usually she just wants to be held, but in the kitchen she loves her very own drawer.

One Sunday evening Netty was really hungry but dinner wasn't ready yet. I put some Cheerios on her tray, but she insisted on eating the yogurt I was eating.

Yogurt Face

And an Otter Pop

Netty gets into everything these days. These little drawers keep her busy for a while. Thankfully, she doesn't know that the tops come off and the pens actually write!

Lights on Temple Square

Since my parents moved to Utah, they've tried to make seeing the lights on Temple Square a tradition. For one reason or another, Jon and I never made it last year. This year, however, we took Netty down. We went with my parents and Koji and Shin Hye, my parents "adopted" children. We all froze, and Netty threw several fits, but at least it was a night to remember!

 During the Nativity Presentation - Netty decided she'd had enough of the cold, and just after I took this picture she started screaming. We went inside to wait for everyone else.

 Once everyone joined us, we sat down and Netty chewed on a candy cane. This was probably the highlight of her night.

 Jon doesn't like having his picture taken, but I insisted.

 And then to make him feel better, I let him take a picture of me.

 And together.

Here's Koji and Shin Hye. Their baby, Julia, was born on Christmas Day.

Papa, Netty, and HoneyGram in front of the Salt Lake Temple

Our Little Family

Jingle Bells

It's no secret that Netty fell in love with our Christmas tree. One ornament in particular was her favorite. In fact, even though our Christmas decorations are put away, I think this ornament is still in with her toys. Here she is playing with it.

Why So Long...

Yes, the four-week absence was somewhat intentional. It's because when you have news that's good enough to share with the whole world and you're trying to prove to your husband that yes, you can keep a secret, you have to take a sabbatical from social media, including your family blog. But now we can share. Actually, I could have shared a week ago, but we've been spending so much time with family that I haven't had much time for blogging.

 
Jon and I found out about a month ago that Baby #2 is en route, due July 25, 2013. By now, most people have already heard either from us personally by way of visit or phone call or semi-personally (which is really a way of saying not personally at all) via Facebook. Please don't take it personally if we didn't call you or show up on your doorstep. Between the Kays and the Phelpses, we had a lot of people to tell, and with a croupy baby, two car breakdowns, and a crappy cell phone battery, we weren't able to call everyone that we wanted to call. If you are just finding out for the first time, I apologize for not getting the word our sooner. If you're a frequenter of Facebook and you're still finding out now for the first time, well, shame on you for not paying closer attention to your news feeds.

More to come later. Wishing you all a Happy New Year.

Love,
The Phelpses

Ferber Baby

Some babies are good sleepers, some are awful sleepers. I always classified Netty as somewhere in between. She would rarely fall asleep while nursing, and then I would rock her and sing to her until she fell asleep. Then we'd play the game of shuffling her in my arms so that I could lay her down gently, and all the while praying that she wouldn't wake up. At the first cry I'd jump up to get her and rock her until she again fell asleep. This method has been working for me up until the last month or so. Suddenly it was taking longer and longer for her to fall asleep. I was running out of songs to hum (hum because I have been surprised to learn how many words to Primary songs I DON'T remember), my arms would fall asleep, and still my baby girl was wide-eyed. A few nights it took as long as two hours before she would finally be "down" for the night. And that was just getting her to sleep the first time of the night. She'd wake up twice to nurse throughout the night as well.

While we were staying in Utah over Thanksgiving break we hit a new phase. It was the scream-bloody-murder-no-matter-what-my-parents-do phase. I thought that perhaps this was because we were in a different environment and she wanted to be home. We were all overly tired, and I was sure that upon coming home everyone would sleep better. I was right.....for two nights. And then we were back to hysterics. Poor Jonny didn't know what to do with Netty screaming for no apparent reason and me sobbing because I couldn't console my baby. On Thursday we hit a wall. Netty started kicking and hitting as she flailed and nearly gave me a black eye. So I started researching during nap time on Friday and decided that we were in desperate need of sleep training. I read about several different methods and didn't know which to try. After Friday night's fits in which Jon got involved, he agreed that what we were trying wasn't working. We decided to go with the Ferber, or "cry it out," method. It was drastic, but it promised the quickest results, something we needed.

Then I read a lady's comment on a discussion board. The comment went something like this: "This is the most awful thing I've ever head. Even letting your child cry for a minute is child abuse. I can't believe anyone would do this." She proceeded to go on about how anyone who lets their child cry shouldn't have children and that Dr. Ferber should lose his medical license if this is the kind of thing he tells parents. With that, I was in tears. I felt like I would never sleep again. It's times like this that I thank Heavenly Father for my husband. He took me in his arms and said, "That lady's an idiot. You need sleep. We all need sleep. We're doing this."

We started "Ferberizing" for Sunday's first nap. We each kissed Netty, told her she is a pretty girl and that we love her very much, and I put her down in her bed. I set the timer on my phone for our first three-minute fit. In that time she was twisted in her blankets, her face was red, and tears were streaming down her face. I went in, rubbed her back for a bit, talked to her, and left a sobbing baby for five more minutes. Then seven. Then nine. Each time I emerged from her room, the look of distress was deeper on my face, and each time Jon held me until the timer went off. Finally she nodded off in the thirteen-minute increment. And actually, she slept longer than she had in a long time. I made three trips into her room for her second nap before she fell asleep. That night it was only two trips. She woke up once at 6:00 a.m., I replaced her pacifier, and she slept until we woke her up at 9:30.

On Monday the starting increment was five minutes and again increased by two minutes. By bedtime, I only had to go in once, I never got up with her last night, and I'm not sure when she woke up this morning, but I woke up in a panic at 10:30 and she was playing happily in her bed. We're at her second nap now, and I haven't been in since I initially put her in bed twenty minutes ago.

I swore I would never let my baby cry like I have in the last couple days. As I read back through this, it all sounds so simple, and it is anything but simple. Her first nap today was excruciating for me as I set my timer for thirteen minutes and listened to her cry for most of that time. On so many occasions I've almost given in and picked her up. But what I've found is a baby who is sleeping through the night, is taking longer and better naps, and is happier during the day.

So, lady, you're an idiot.

A Year in the Making, but Really a Lifetime

I have this awful habit of not finishing what I start. I've been like this forever. For years my family has been on my case about publishing a book, and though I've started hundreds of stories, I have finished relatively few (and the ones I have finished have been short stories). My brother convinced me to illustrate one of my short stories with watercolors and market it as a children's book. I worked very hard for two days dividing the story into pages and sketching the illustrations for each page. And now the papers sit untouched in my filing drawer. I bought ten or so picture frames from D.I. a while back and was going to paint them, print out pictures, and make a picture collage for our bedroom, and I have yet to finish sanding them. I am highly distract-able, and I think that's my problem. As a child I would have these grandiose ideas about cleaning every inch of my bedroom when we were having company, and I would dawdle so much that my mom would get irritated, tell me I wasn't moving fast enough, and I would shove everything in my closet and under the bed. I have boxes of books that I bought with the intention of reading, but after getting almost halfway through any particular book, I'd find another book that "I just have to read." And so I have actually read very few books for an English major. Jonathan often gets irritated when I won't put down a project for even a minute, and every time, I try to explain that the second I put down a project, I put it down forever, or at least for a very, very long time.

When I was in elementary school, my dad taught me how to crochet. Yes, my dad. I think he taught me because I would get too frustrated with myself if I didn't get it just right immediately, and my mom would get too frustrated with me. My dad had a little more patience when it came to teaching me to do things that took any amount of skill. And so for months I would make endless chains that I would tie onto my stuffed animals, and then I would drag the stuffed animals through the house and outside and on the trampoline and in the garage and tie them up to things and pretend that they were my pets. In high school I finally decided that I was going to crochet a blanket for my niece Rochelle. It was a crooked mess and only half finished. My sister-in-law probably thought, "Uh, thanks, but no thanks," when she pulled it out of the gift bag. It was a few years before I reattempted crocheting anything so ambitious. I crocheted a blanket for my niece Sophie. It was pink and green to match her crib bedding. For the first time, something I made actually turned out! I was so proud of that thing, not because it looked good, but simply because I actually finished it. So then I decided that my next niece, Lily, needed one as well. Four times I restarted it. Every time it turned out more crooked than the time before. But I was determined to finish another blanket. I bought new yard. I crocheted row after row. And eventually, in moving to Idaho, to Utah, to Idaho, to Washington, to Idaho who knows how many times, I never finished it. In fact, I just found it last night and said, "Maybe I should think about finishing that someday."

Last December I decided to crochet a blanket for Netty. I thought it would be so wonderful for my baby to have a blanket made my me. Of course, we've already established that my crocheting skills are sub-par, and I had to restart five times, and take out a few rows several times. In the thick of student teaching, I set the blanket aside and decided it would be a much better project for that month after graduation before the baby was born. But then I was depressed because our apartment wasn't ready and we couldn't unpack and I wasn't going to be able to make a home for my baby. And then the baby came and we moved again, and then I hated that place even more, and we moved again, and now it's the following December and Netty is seven months old. But after discovering that we have almost no money for Christmas, I became even more determined to finish this blanket. Yesterday I finally finished, and the moment I did, I snapped a picture, wrapped it, and slid it beneath the tree. I know Netty will love it because every time I would pull it out to work on it she would scoot across the room and grab and pull and make crocheting an even more miserable experience for me.

After completing another small crocheting project and a half, I told Jonathan, "Hmm, maybe I'll start another blanket." And he rolled his eyes.