Sleep Training and Toilet Paper

Shiloh is improving with her sleep training!! Great news! I was talking with some other moms yesterday, and Abby mentioned something I've known I needed to do for a while!! I'm also reading about that in the sleep training book, and now I'm finally ready to do it. DON'T JUDGE- I usually walk Shiloh around the house for just a few minutes to get her to fall asleep and then I place her in her crib (yes, even for naps). This week I've been reducing the amount of time I walk her around the house to just a few laps, which doesn't take much time because our house isn't that big. I will continue to do this over the weekend. Starting MONDAY, I will walk around the house once and then place her in the crib! Wish me luck! I hate hearing her cry and I'm hoping that I've weaned her from the walking enough to have her not cry too much . . . we'll see! If it crosses your mind, please pray that this goes well.

This is something that should help her to fall asleep on her own at night. I will admit that she definately goes down for naps MUCH better than at night. I figured (and have been advised) that I'd start training her to fall asleep on her own with naps and then we'd move to bed time.

On a completely different note, my crazy little girl has discovered the toilet paper roll! I was making the bed in our room, and I usually let her crawl around and discover our room while I do that. She went into our bathroom, and it got quiet. That typically means she's doing something she probably shouldn't. I went to see and this is what I found.

I took the pictures really quick and then said "Shiloh, no touch." This is what Marc and I are trying to tell Shiloh when we don't want her to touch something, and she's actually learning quite well!! I repeated "no touch" a few more times while she looked at me AND SHE DIDN'T TOUCH IT AGAIN!!! (Marc read in Parents magazine not just to tell your child no, but to tell them what you don't want them to do. This makes sense but we hadn't thought of that. We're trying it and it seems to be working.)

Here are some pictures from the park today :)

Hugging mommy's knee!

Tyler Robbin Marvin is Here!!

I love this season of life!! It's bringing us lots of new life, tears of joy, and much excitement!!! Yesterday, we welcomed a healthy baby boy into our world!! Tyler Robbin Marvin was born to my good friends Susan and Robbie!! Many of us waited at the hospital to celebrate with them! Here are some pictures!

Marcy, Small Fry, and Abby

Anna, Sara Rains, Sarah Beck, and Rylie

Shiloh eating lunch in her stroller- she was actually chewing in this photo

Here is 5 week old Rylie Rains!

Proud Father!

Tyler Robbin Marvin

A Busy Day

Got passpot for Shiloh . . . check! Got diapers and a few extras at Babies R Us . . . check! Hang out with Amy . . . check! Make dinner . . . check. Do dishes . . . check. Do Laundry . . . check. Go to Breckenridge Part . . . check. Bath for Shiloh, put Shiloh in bed, hang out with husband, and lastly blog . . . check! Today was an eventful day full of errands, napping, cleaning, and spending time with ones I love!!

I have to mention that I tried to convince the postal worker to let Shiloh wear a bow for her passport picture. Much to my dismay, the US Government won't allow babies to wear cute bows in their hair for passport photos . . . darn.

While we were in the passport office, Shiloh was really cute! Being the attention loving baby that she is, she made faces and waved at the other people in line! I tried to snap a picture of it, but you can't really see her animated expression in it. :)

Here is a picture of Shiloh in Babies R Us looking at some toys!

There is a park in walking distance from my house, and that's where we usually go. Because I had taken so long running errands, I wanted Shiloh to get a special treat! Breckenridge park is only about 5 minutes from my house (driving), so I decided to take her there! I could tell that she was very excited at the thought of crawling, standing, walking, and climbing on NEW things! When we pulled up to the playground, she was shaking her legs very excitedly! Here are some pictures from the park!!

I haven't mentioned these milestones yet, so here goes.

8 months- Shiloh clapped for the first time! At Erin's wedding, a really fun dance song was playing, and Shiloh just started clapping. At the time I swore I'd never forget the song. Yep, I already did. The funny thing was neither Marc nor I prompted this action. Yes, we'd clapped for Shiloh before, but not right when she started!! She was pretty much on beat too, which will help her when she starts taking violin lessons in a few years!!

8 1/2 months- Shiloh said her first word!!! It was "Hi" She'd been making the sound, but at 8 1/2 months she made the connection that it went with someone entering the room. We weren't quite sure when this clicked, but it was 8 1/2 months that we were sure it had!!

9 months- A few days ago, Marc decided that it would be cute to teach Shiloh to hold the phone to her ear and say "Hi Dada." We kept practicing and sure enough she got it!! Of course, she only does this new "trick" if she feels like it. When she does, we think it's adorable. That makes "Dada" her second word!!! (I'm really pushing "Mama" for her third!!)

9 months and 1 week- She reached another milestone today!! She tried to walk downstairs at the park. She very skeptically placed her foot over the edge about 5 or 6 times, then moved her hands down the rails and did it!! She stepped down! I also think this might help her to grasp the idea of edges. At least I'm hoping that it will because when she is up on something, she'll just crawl right off.

Sleep Training Sadness AND A Fun Trip to the Park

We love our energetic, bundle of joy, but all of her energy causes her to eat a lot, which is preventing her from sleeping through the night!! The past 2 weeks I've been reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, which has been giving me lots of advice about how to help Shiloh not wake up for middle of the night feedings anymore. I've been following some of the advice and she's improved lots already. She's gone from 4-5 hours a night to 6-7 hours, which is GREAT!!

I've learned from Shiloh's cries that there are ones in the night I can ignore and she'll go back to sleep and ones that I need to respond to; HOWEVER, trying to differentiate her cries at 2 am is proving itself to be a little difficult. Last night was one of those mommy moments that breaks my heart. She was crying one of her "I'm upset and I will scream until you come in here" cries, and upon waking up I very optimistically thought to myself, "Shiloh will just go back to sleep." I rolled over and went back to sleep. About 30 minutes later, the cry was just as strong and getting a little stronger. I decided to go in there and see what was the matter, and discovered that she had a dirty diaper. Poor little girl!! I was so sad that she had to scream to get a diaper change. Good thing babies can easily keep short accounts . . . they have small memories :)

Today, we took a trip to the park, which Shiloh just loves!! I let her crawl around, climb up stairs, swing, and climb up a slide. I was quite impressed with her ability at 9 months old to climb up a slide, especially because she was wearing socks! I took some pictures of our trip, and here they are! (I must add a little thanks to my mom for giving Shiloh this REALLY CUTE outfit!!)

Here she is climbing up the slide!

Lastly, look at her top teeth in this picture!

Milestone Pictures!!

Heading to the hospital!!

Marc and I holding Shiloh the night she was born

Shiloh at the hospital (1 day old)

Our little pumpkin patch, Halloween (12 days old)

Shiloh's First Thanksgiving (1 month)

Marc's work Christmas Party (2 months)

A special outfit for my birthday (3 months)

Shiloh's first snow (4 months)

Happy Easter (5 months)

Shiloh just starting to be able to stand without us holding onto her (6 months)
Marc and Shiloh in what I thought was bluebonnets, but as it turns out they were delphiniums :) (7 months)
Baby Dedication at our church (8 months)

Shiloh doing the Incredible Hulk pose (9 months)

First Time Blogging!!!

To add to the list of my hobbies, I've decided to start a Smith Family Blog! Unfortunately because Smith is the most common last name in America, every cute name I created with Smith was taken . . . thus the naming of my blog, "The Marc and Reci Family Blog."

As of July 2010, my hobbies are learning to sew, cooking, reading, baking, spending time with my wonderful family, MONOGRAMMING, facebooking and now blogging!! My motivation to start this blog comes from my desire to keep track of Shiloh's milestones and the milestones of the future little Marcs and little Recis!! To begin with, I'm going to post Shiloh's milestones up to date! After this post, I'll be updating you all on a day and a life of being in the Marc and Reci Smith Family!! (Yes, I do feel the need to differentiate which Smith out of the millions of us you'll be following, so I'll frequently refer to us as The Marc and Reci Smith Family)

Shiloh's Milestones:
October 12, 2010 Shiloh was due, but decided not to grace us with her presence
October 19, 2010 We forced Shiloh out!! We welcomed our baby girl into our arms after a pretty easy labor. I say "pretty easy," because I have to give the birthing pain some mentioning.
About 4 weeks later- Shiloh Smiled for the first time!! I remember feeling like all of mine and Marc's lack of sleep was worth it. Our hearts melted everytime we could get her to smile at us (in fact, they still melt upon her precious smile)!!
About 6 weeks of age- She laughed for the first time!! I was changing her diaper and she looked up at me and laughed . . . that's right, I cried. I called Marc at work and excitedly told him through tears that she laughed for the first time! From this moment on, we spent (and still spend) countless hours trying to make her laugh.
2 1/2 months old- she rolled over for the first time. We still aren't sure if it was an accident because it didn't look to planned out; however, she did it! She rolled over from her back to her stomach.
4 months old- she rolled over from her stomach to her back. At this point, when we put her in her crib she would accidentally roll from her back to her stomach (which she'd been practicing since the early age of 2 months) and get very angry. In frustrations, she couldn't always get back onto her back, leaving her with no option but to cry out for help.
4 1/2 months old- no more gummy smile . . . her bottom two teeth made their early appearance and eased our minds. No we weren't crazy, she really was teething.
5 months old- she began army crawling
6 months old- she was trying to get her little leggies involved in that crawl, but still not quite there. At 6 months, we discovered through an awful night of throwing up that Shiloh is allergic to rice. This slowed down our food introduction for a bit, but she's doing great now!
7 months old- our lives have officially changed and our house is baby proofed! Shiloh is crawling around like a madwoman and can get anywhere surprisingly VERY quickly! She has a knack for finding the most dangerous thing in the room and heading straight for it. Our list includes outlets, scissors, picture frames, cords, electronics, etc
8 months old- Shiloh's top two teeth are making their appearance! Shiloh is pulling up and walking holding onto things. We're sure walking is just around the corner!
9 months old- Shiloh's still pulling up quite well. She's also walking with her baby walker and getting sturdier. She has been quite the climber these days. I try to take her to the park at least 3 times a week and let her climb up the stairs there. She's very active and loves to smile, which of course makes Marc and I MELT!! One of our FAVORITE things from the 9 month mark is her incredible hulk pose. One day while Marc and I were feeding her lunch, Shiloh tightened her body and made this really silly face, we just about fell out of our chairs laughing and she's been doing it ever since. When she wants attention, she'll do this little pose and she usually gets the attention she is seeking. Luckily, she'll do this pose (usually) after a few promptings from Marc and I!!

This will hopefully be the only really long list post!