Daddy's Girl

Daddy's really do hold a special place in the hearts of their little girls. It is funny to me that Daddy can come home and baby will laugh in a way that I haven't been able to get her to laugh all day, almost like she was saving it all up just for him. I love to see them playing together. She watches him with love and anticipation even when he doesn't know it. And, although she definitely lets you know that she wants her Mommy, it's her Daddy that holds her heart.

And...We're OFF! Can't stop her now.

My little girl is really starting to grow up. Lately, she has been watching Mommy and wanting to do the things that Mommy does. Which, is actually really funny- for example:

I have been trying to get her to start drinking water from a bottle or a sippy cup, and NO GO. From the look on her face you would think that I was asking her to drink something off of
Fear Factor, but lately she has really been interested in watching me drink from my regular cup so I decided to see if she would actually drink out of it...the first two times looked more like a shower than a drink, but she was actually drinking it! Now, she will let me give her small drinks from her own sippy cup- SCORE! I was almost afraid she would never want to drink water.

Example two:
She was eating potatoes for the first time...and that was an experience! She doesn't try to spit the food out, like some babies might, instead she just trys to gag it up. So here she was, trying to gag up almost every bite until I started acting like I was eating it too, that and I mixed a little MORE apple sauce with it, then it seemed like she wasn't crazy about eating it but that if Mom could do it then she could too.

So here is the real point,
from this moment on- everything matters and all acts count. She is watching, she is learning, and she is choosing how to be based on what she sees.
So what will she see from me? What will she be learning from Mommy?
Hopefully it will NOT be "How to be a couch potato", or "If I scream loud enough, I will always get my way". I not only have to be a good example in the way I act, but I also have to teach her how I expect HER to act (and NOT to act).

With my little monkey sitting beside me, I look down at her cute bald head and know that that pudgy giggle box in striped footies is well worth it. I just hope that I can make it to and through the teenage years to come...so I guess I better start training her up in the ways she should walk now.

Am I doing this right?.......

I guess that we all wonder, "Am I doing this right?" when we are in the process of raising our first child. I wonder that ALL the time, even though I research and study up and of course receive a ton of "want it or not" advice from others.

The challenge is that whenever you find a good medical study or research paper or Q&A site that they always say at the bottom, "But remember, every child develops differently and these methods may not work for your child."
That is NOT what I want to hear, I want to hear, "this will work for you and maybe even be the magic to solving all of your sleepless nights and napless days- our guarantee!"

BUT, the silver lining is that ONE piece of advice works with EVERY baby, "It gets a little better everyday." I may not have found a magic trick for putting my baby to bed or for getting her to eat her carrots instead of spitting them out, BUT everyday is a little better because I learn more about baby and about myself, oh- and I guess that the fact that baby matures more and more helps as well.

To each her own in raising her own baby, but as a community we can all kling to the hope that tomorrow can be better than today- especially if today baby screamed all afternoon :)