Lawrence Family: Eating cardboard and other news...

Audrey is growing and changing so much. Each day she gets a little stronger, a little more brave, and a little smarter. I tell her she is too smart for her own good! She is always in to something. My house is much more child-proof, but she always manages to find something she doesn't need to play with. She likes to play with things that are not toys. :P Her favorites being straws, plastic water bottles, and electronics.

I also laughed about her sleeping problems being "solved" in the last post. Ha! I said that too quickly for sure! Thankfully, things seem to be back to normal again. The week of June 9th (I remember this because one of my best friends had her baby on this day)...that week was the hardest week I have had in a really long time. That whole week she cried, fussed, whined if I wasn't holding her or right beside her at all times. Bedtime was the worst. She would start this terrible screaming as soon as I laid her down for bed. I naturally let her cry for a little while, but it didn't take long and I was back in there and rocking her to sleep. (Yes, I ate my words. I rocked her. haha :) I talked to friends and all were hesitant about letting her cry it out completely. After a few hard nights of the awful "glorified" crying, her naps became the same way. I finally called her doctor to see what she thought. She definitely thought it was separation anxiety because she didn't have any symptoms of being sick. She said that the only way to solve this was to let her cry it out. My heart sank. I really did not want to do that. But I also did not want to break this wonderful thing I have trained her to do....going to sleep on her own. Andrew and I talked about it, and we decided to try it. I definitely wasn't going to let it go on for hours. That seems terrible, but I know people say it works. The first night was so so depressing. If Andrew had not been with me, I probably would have given up. The first night it was 35 minutes, the second night 30 seconds, the third night 20 minutes, the fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on....no crying at all. Audrey is back to being a great sleeper again. Whoo hoo! I am curious as to what others of you would do/have done in this sort of situation. I know all babies and situations are different. I am blogging all of this mainly so that I will remember what I did with Audrey so I might know what to try with kid #2. Her bedtime continues to be between 6:00-6:30. If it is any later it is usually because we were really busy that late afternoon and couldn't do everything fast enough (eat, bath, bottle), or just because we are tired and are dragging are feet....poor baby! She is so much happier with this early bed time. Life is so much easier too!

I am so happy to announce the birth of Josiah Matthew Standridge! He is soooo cute!!! He was born June 9th to Matt, Kimberly, and big sister Havah. I cannot wait to go visit them soon and hold him again. I am so excited for all of them. How exciting to have baby #2! I wish I had more pictures to post. I forgot my camera when I went to see him in the hospital. :(

He is so adorable!! Meet Josiah. :)

I made another attempt at homemade baby food on Saturday. This time is went very smoothly! I made bananas and applesauce. Audrey really seemed to like them both. It sure does smell a lot better than the jar baby food. This morning I made squash. I thought she would like it, but I did not puree it as much as I had thought. It was slightly textured, which you would think by this point would be ok, but she started gagging. I tried it for myself, and it did have some tiny harder pieces in it. Oh me, one day she will eat "chunkier" foods. :) I am excited about making more food now that I seem to have a system going. There is so much more you can make for babies than what they offer on the shelves at the grocery store. I am pumped! Maybe if I can make most of her food, she will always like veggies? Hmm....I am going to try it. I am hoping it will also motivate me and Andrew to eat more veggies too. ;)

Audrey ate her first non-edible item last week: cardboard. Bethany asked me to sell her pots and pans on amazon for her, so she brought the box of them over to my house. Later that evening I saw Audrey playing with box. She likes to hit things with her hands, and that is what she was doing. She was hitting it, talking, looking, feeling. After a few minutes of silence, I looked over at her and noticed she was gnawing on the corner of the box. I went to investigate and a dime-sized portion of the box was missing! I did not see anything in the floor and I couldn't find it in her mouth. I guess she slowly gnawed on it and swallowed little pieces of it at a time. That silly girl! I called my mom first because I did not want to admit this to the doctor's office. She quickly relieved me by explaining how one of us (me and my sisters) ate a penny one time. She said that cardboard never hurt anybody, and pennies didn't hurt us! As long as she doesn't choke, it all comes out eventually. HAHA. I love my mom's advice. I felt better, and Audrey is fine. :P

This video is her eating a large "puff". I think they are called "Baby Mum-Mums" or something like that. She did good! No gagging.

Andrew celebrated his first Father's Day yesterday. We had a great day! I had Audrey make Andrew's gift this year. I thought it would be very cute and sentimental. Aunt Bethany offered her assistance to pull off this project. I could not have done it alone! What a wiggle worm.....and what a mess!