Mommy Fail and Mommy Success

Just when I think I'm becoming more confident in being a Mommy....failure strikes.  This time it was no big deal, I only made my child freak out that she was going to choke.  Ha.  

Cami loves her peas.  So, after watching her mash up the (easily dissolving) Gerber puffs and MumMums and have success with a couple carrot chunks, I thought I'd give her some real peas.  She loves peas, so of course she'd love eating the real thing, right?

I boiled my fancy peas (HEB Central Market Organic, only the best, of course....we'll ignore the fact that hardly anything else she's eaten has been organic), and made sure they were nice and soft and had cooled off.  Cami had eaten the rest of her dinner, so I decided to just try a couple.  I gave her one.  She took it and began to chew.  Success!  I got her to smile to see that it was mostly gone and gave her another.  She began to chew.  I'm amazing, I thought.  Cami continues to chew...and chew...and chew.  The outside of the pea is still in her mouth.  She starts to look a little upset.  I can see it written on her face:  Mommy, why is this not dissolving into nothingness?????  She starts to fuss and I start to panic that she's going to breathe in and get the external pea portion lodged in her throat.  I try and get her to stick out her tongue.  I show her how to say "Ahhhhhh".  No luck.  I try to open her mouth.  She jerks away and fusses more.  Pea still in mouth.  I don't want to just force my finger in her mouth and push it down further (I'm a trained First Responder after all...that's a no no for choking....they just never taught us how to handle pea shells).  So, I do the only other thing I can think of.  I call my mom.

I doubt my mom was expecting "Cami has part of a pea stuck in her mouth and she's getting upset and I can't get it out and I don't know what to do!" when she answered the phone.  However, despite probably rolling her eyes (don't deny it, Mom), she patiently told me to give Cami some water.  "They're still there!!!!!  And she's not drinking it because they're still there!!!!!"  So she patiently instructs me to sweep it out with a hook motion (oh yeah, I think they taught us that in First Responder class....) and alternate giving some water.  I successfully removed the pea casings.  Crisis averted (although Cami was shooting me dirty looks).  Mommy fail of the day.

Now, Mommy Success is a little bit of a misnomer.  Every part of this Cami would do instinctively whether or not I was ever around.  However, she has become quite the active little crawler.  I would put a video up, but my phone is in the midst of dying a slow death and not cooperating.  She giggles while she crawls when she picks up speed and is pretty much loving every aspect of being mobile.  Especially the fact that she can examine dirt, stairs, electrical outlets...all the good stuff (I've also had a little success with "No-no" but that I'm sure will end up being a fail when Cami gets better at throwing a fit).  I love all the giggles and smiles and romping around the living room and front hall and it makes me feel like I'm doing an okay job.  And then, my active little overachiever, did TWO new things in one day!  She has been eying things above her the past couple days and this morning started pulling a LOT on her crib rails.  I thought her figuring it out would take a few days.  Nope.  30 minutes into her 2nd nap she woke up (Sigh, I thought) and began pulling on the rails and in about five minutes was standing up and looking around her room.  Lucky for me, she fell over and went back to sleep, but geez, quick learner.  She also waved bye-bye today.  She's swung her arm around a couple times in a manner which may or may not have been a coincidence, but today she pretty clearly waved.  Ah-mazing.  

 And, tomorrow, she'll be asking for a cell phone.  Or something like that.

Who's Baby is This??

It's been awhile since I updated anything on the blog, because it's summer, and grad school is over and I don't typically have to be near a computer unless I'm on Facebook.  Cami is now seven months and one week old (crazy!) and she is most definitely becoming her own little person.  It seems like in the past month more than any other, she has begun making her likes and dislikes known and is like an entirely different, more social, baby.  So, of course, since she can't politely say "Mommy, I'd rather not do that right now, please," (because, of course, she'll speak that way) she yells at me.  Full volume.  It's an interesting cross between a fussing cry and a mad yell.  Cami prefers for me to never move her arms for her (I can totally hear her saying, "I can do this myself!!!!"), so you can imagine getting dressed and putting her in her car seat is occasionally a battle.  And, as she's getting stronger, she'll try and move her arm away.  She also is going through a streak where she prefers for me not to leave the room (too bad, I'm leaving the room if I need some water....that's why the living room is safe).  So she'll yell at me until I return.  This has included naps for the past three weeks.  I always kiss her forehead twice before I leave the room and on kiss #2, like clockwork, these pathetic, noisy sobs would start.  So, that was fun.  However, I don't want to jinx myself, but that didn't happen yesterday (and one nap was at our friend's house where we were celebrating the 4th), and it didn't happen this morning.  I can only hope that little phase is coming to an end. :)
Like I said, Cami is also expressing likes (this isn't all negative) and has started a full on giggle that is HILARIOUS!  She loves to be tickled and loves to be held up high in the air, and still loves the pool.  It's so much fun to do something to make her laugh.  She also loves Minnie, Elmo, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (the songs anyway, we're not quite at watching the story unfold yet).  She loves holding her books and turning the pages like a big girl, and has just learned how to turn out the light.  She also has a face we refer to as her Bulldog Face where she scrunches her nose up and blows out like she's blowing boogers.  She thinks it's hilarious and does it ALL THE TIME since we think it's pretty funny and do it back to her.  Although, she's started doing it while we're walking around in the stroller....people might wonder if there is something amiss....
That's all for now....we may have more adventures as the summer progresses.  I'm about to call KinderMusik and see if their summer session still has openings.  Heehee, that could be pretty cute.