Thoughts of Today

* When you take kids to a restaurant, ask for the bill asap so you don't have to wait around for 15 minutes after you've finished your meal while your kid goes into meltdown mode.

* House inspection on Friday. If anything major comes up, the deal is off. They said upfront they are not making any concessions after an inspection. S and I are already uncomfortable about our budget, as the house already exceeds what we wanted to spend & the property taxes on that place are insane. If it needs a new roof or the heat is on its last leg, then we just don't want to put any more into it. And we really can't until we sell this house. We really like the house, but we are both detached enough to call it off with little remorse. If we backed out now, we'd only be out the cost of the inspection.

* These new Jello Mousse Temptations are pretty good. Weird texture though (and I wonder where Julia gets her texture issues).

* Today Julia had quite a bit from the sippy cup. About 16 oz milk from a cup and only 4 oz from a bottle. It's not that she's attached to the bottle, but since she has been such an apathetic eater her whole life, it's been a struggle to get her to initiate picking up a cup on her own to drink. After her nap, she drank about 6 ounces from the cup over a course of half an hour. I was so impressed! Her therapists have been saying that bottles are more efficient to get calories into her. I was so impressed today with how fast she drank and how the tide may have turned toward the cup. She drank 2 ounces in about 10 seconds by cup. That's faster than she would drink from a bottle. Again, I'm thrilled. It's one of those things that probably only a parent of a kid with feeding struggles would understand.

* Took Julia to work today to weigh her. 21 pounds, 5 ounces with diaper, leggings & t-shirt. So I *think* she might be clearing 21 pounds naked. This is up half a pound since 2 months ago. That's not as much as I hoped for, but we did do the whole milk transition since then. We took her liquid calories from 30 calories/oz to 18 cal/oz over the course of six weeks. It's an adjustment to her system and forces her to take in more through solids. So given the radical change in diet (formula --> milk) and balance (liquids --> solids), I'd have to say the small weight gain is good considering everything. As for percentile, 21 pounds would be around the 10th percentile for weight. Yeah, she's a little thing ... but ... she's been hanging around the 10th percentile for a few months now. Julia's natural set point is probably to be a 10th percentile kid. I don't think I'll ever be saying she's a 90th percentile kid. She doesn't like food or eating that much, and she has a slender build. Let's say this all together: She takes after her daddy because her body type is certainly not mine.

* We ordered a down alternative comforter from Overstock.com. We had a feather one, but I'm allergic to it. Plus it was all these feathers in a cover, and it got all clumpy and bunchy. This one is in a box pattern, so the filling doesn't move around. This new comforter is really nice and keeps us warm. $30 from Overstock in a king size. Great deal!

* Julia's daycare was closed today and I had off work anyway. It was great to hang out with her today. We played this morning, left the house at 10am, came home at 12:45pm, we both took a 2 hour nap, had snack, played a little, and then Daddy came home. The day really zoomed by. The nap was very, very nice. I have been sleeping so poorly that it was so great to catch up on some sleep. And if Julia was like how she is now back when I was on maternity leave, I would have enjoyed it so much more. She was so unhappy last year. Today she was just fine. She still has some major clinginess issues. If we're sitting down on the couch and I get up, she freaks. I'm only going to the kitchen (which she can see from the couch), but she starts crying if I don't pick her up and take her the 10 feet to the kitchen. She rarely wanders off out of sight distance. It can be good on one hand (she's not going to wander off and get into trouble), but on the other hand it's really frustrating to deal with a kid who flips out if you move more than 2 feet from her.

* In ten years when I complain that my daughter doesn't want to be seen with me, remind me of her first two years of life when we had to be within 2 feet of her at all times.

* That's all my thoughts for today.