Powdered Milk

Those of you who have known me for a while have probably heard about my disturbing childhood trauma involving powdered milk. If you haven’t already heard it, let me share it briefly now.

Like most people, I have very few memories from early childhood. About ten years ago when I was in college (oh my…was it that long ago!??!?), I had a flashback to a vivid memory of my parents forcing me to drink powdered milk. My parents swear that the reason for their deceit was simply that I could not digest regular milk. Still, I’m traumatized by the memory, and I take every possible opportunity to remind them of their total failure as parents, which is clearly illustrated by their feeding me powdered milk. I don’t know what made these memories haunt me in college, but I’ve vowed many times that I would never force my children to drink powdered milk. See, these are the vows that you should not make until you become a parent!

Fast forward to Hailey’s first birthday a few months ago. She has a little tummy problem and starts having diarrhea when she drinks regular whole milk. The doctor tells me to give her a few weeks on the Lactaid and then switch her back to regular milk. I gave her almost a month on the Lactaid, but when I tried to switch her gradually back to regular milk a few weeks ago, she started having the diarrhea again. So, I’ve retreated back to the Lactaid. Could it be that my child inherited what I thought was my fictional lactose issue that my parents swear warranted powdered milk?

I’m not sure what the answer is yet, but I have to admit that I found myself wandering around the grocery store Sunday looking for powdered milk for Hailey. Lucky for her, I didn’t find it, but I think that it may be coming in her near future. I just think that it’s probably safer to travel to Italy with powdered milk than to trust that they will have something for her intolleranza al lattosio (lactose intolerant) belly.

What Will Hailey Be?

Hailey is very clearly becoming her own person. She has her own ideas of what she wants to do, where she wants to go, and how she wants to get there. In honor of her newly found independence, I thought that I would take a few minutes to share with you some thoughts on what Hailey might be when she grows up based on what she loves right now. Here's what I've come up with so far:

The child loves shoes - loves putting them on, loves taking them off, loves walking around in them. So, option #1 is a shoe designer.

Based on her love of books and reading, I would say that it's highly likely that she could be a writer or perhaps one of those people that just continues to go to school forever. Wait, wasn't that what I was going to be before I met Luke?
Option #3 (one of my favorites) is the owner of a spa, complete with different types of baths and multiple facial treatments to keep her mother looking young.

Finally, as a worst case scenario, she might be one of those people that cleans out the port-a-potties. Sorry, babe, but that is your potty seat on your head.

Just FYI, we're not trying to potty train her yet, but she picked out this potty seat at the store so we decided to let her get used to sitting on it. It's immediately become one of her favorite "toys." Enjoy the rest of our picture set on the Flickr account.

The "No" Phase

As if the "toddling" around the house on two legs wasn't enough of a sign that Hailey has hit her toddler years, we’ve gotten one more clue this week with the onset of The "No" Phase. It’s unfortunate but true. My little angel now responds to every question, suggestion, or inference with a solid “no.” Well, sometimes it’s a solid “no,” sometimes it’s a whiny “nnnnnooooo,” and sometimes it’s a noncommittal “na.” What happened to my sweet child?

Of course, my reaction to this new development was to immediately ask the parenting experts (through Google, of course). A few minutes of research later, I’d come up with the following strategies to handle The “No” Phase.

1) Don't use "no" ourselves except in cases of emergency. Instead, say "uh uh" or "not right now" or better yet, give a rationale for why it's not appropriate or what she can do to be more appropriate. For example, say, "It hurts Mama when you hit her. Please be gentle with Mama like this"

2) Use humor to get a real answer and lighten the mood.

3) Help her understand the consequences of "no" when she really means "yes." This might involve saying "No, you don't want milk? Ok. Well, I'll put it right here and if you want it, you can say Milk please or yes when I ask you."

4) Don't make a big deal out of a "no" from her.

5) Offer her choices instead of a "yes/no" option. For example, "would you like a banana or oatmeal?" "Would you like to wear the pink pants or the brown pants?"

6) Distract her when doing things that she considers unpleasant such as getting dressed, having a diaper change, getting buckled into the car seat.

7) Let her do things on her own time frame. For example, "Do you want to eat breakfast?" "No" "Do you want to eat breakfast in 5 minutes?" "No" "Ok, well, you tell me when you are ready to eat breakfast, and I'll put you in your chair."

8) Keep a schedule! Be sure that she is getting regular meals and naps because it's much worse when she's tired or hungry.

9) Overexagerate the positives with praise, if she ever replies affirmatively.

If these don’t work, then I will have to resign myself to the fact that my child is simply a brat and that it is most likely my fault for ruining her forever. To avoid this dreadful fate, please submit any suggestions you have for helping us cope with Hailey’s new found negativity.

Huh?

Hailey has gotten into the bad habit of saying, "Huh?" after everything that we say to her. It's not that she doesn't hear us. It's just that she feels the need to say "huh?" I don't know where she picked this little game up, but at this point, there's nothing that we can say or do to make her stop. What if she doesn't grow out of it, and I have to repeat everything I say for the rest of my life? I try not to repeat, but then she won't answer. Yikes. She's only a year old and we're already having communication problems!

Here are few pictures that I snapped last night and this morning. She's starting to look like a little person now, and she's quite adorable in her little fall clothes.

A Second Cranky Thought

What I love more than anything is when I call to get “technical support” for an online application and find myself talking to someone my Grandmother’s age. Nothing against my Grandmother who is the sweetest lady that you’ll ever meet, but I don’t call her when I have a computer problem. Talking to this woman on the phone right now is probably worse than talking to someone who doesn’t speak English because she says things like, “Now, can you just erase all of the numbers out of the fields and type them in again?” Seriously, you want me to erase the 2 dates that I typed in and retype them even though they are completely correct because you think that somehow the computer is going to recognize them the second time around???? Then she says, “Maybe you could write the numbers down so that I can close out of it.” Lady, I don’t need to write the numbers down! We were talking about 2 completely fictional dates for my retirement. I could pick any random date and get the same error code. It’s pretty ridiculous. If you are a "technical support" manager, and you hire people who are running Apple IIc's and playing with Intelevision at home, you've got problems.

Random Cranky Mumblings

Let me start this blog by saying that I don’t feel good, which is pretty rare for me. Hailey has a chest cold and has been coughing for two weeks. Over the weekend, I broke down and gave her some Triaminic strips. Suddenly, she’s cured and I have a chest cold. Wonderful. Oh, but let me point out that giving children medicine in dissolvable strip form is about the best idea that anyone has ever come up with. In fact, I’d put it in my top 10 child rearing inventions ever.

Anyway, all that to say that I’m in a very cranky mood. Luke, however, should be in a very good mood because he’s been offered a position teaching on Monday nights at the Portfolio Center in Atlanta. I think that he’s pretty excited about it, and I’m pretty excited for him. And yet, it brings back mixed feelings for me as I know that I will probably never have the opportunity to teach. I could have finished my PhD, but I didn’t. It was a path not chosen, and I don’t look back on that choice often. But every once in a while, when I’m sick and cranky and in a crappy mood, I reflect on the doors that I’ve closed. Not that I couldn’t some day go back, but I can’t even imagine that right now. Couple that with the fact that I’ve been looking around for a topical blog to write on a regular basis. Unfortunately, all of the sponsored blog sites want bloggers who are “experts.” I’m not an expert at anything. I’m not even a semi-expert at anything, and so, I’ll keep up this blog for you but won’t be writing for the masses any time soon. Wish me better health and a better attitude in the future.

A Ball and a Seal

We had quite an eventful holiday weekend here in Atlanta. Grandma Scott was here because she is babysitting this week while daycare is closed. So, we spent the weekend doing “touristy” things like visiting the Botanical Gardens and the Georgia Aquarium. It was pretty fun. The Botanical Gardens has a great children’s area and Hailey had a very fun time climbing on stuff, falling in dirt and partaking in other such toddler activities. The best part about the weekend was realizing what does and doesn’t entertain her. For example, slide and jungle gym – not at all entertaining…stairs going down to the play area – big fun! Giant seals at the aquarium – no…red ball floating in the seal tank – highly entertaining! Watching beluga whales swim around – no…running the wrong way through the exhibits – lots of fun! Here we are taking Hailey all over the city to entertain her, and she’s entertained by the smallest things. It’s really quite amusing and should teach us all to appreciate everything around us from the mundane to the extraordinary!

One other funny note: I gave Hailey an old purse to play with. Her new favorite game is to walk around with it on her shoulder, but it's too heavy so she has to keep her hand on her head as she walks around. It's hysterical. I'll try to get a picture!