Super Awesome baby stage.

These last few months have probably been some of the hardest in this whole mothering thing. The honeymoon period is about over so all those happy hormones are going away, but my daughter is getting more and more crazy. My nerves were suffering.

It seemed like we had a lot of things that we were working on, weaning, figuring out each day if it would be two naps or one, sippy cup, getting her to gain weight, cleaning up a lot of messes, etc. Finally, I think the stress and the objectives of her one year appointment have all been met. She's no longer nursing 7 times a day (which is what used to be going on) and she's using a sippy cup and no bottle whatsoever. (Finally, 7 months after casually introducing the sippy cup and she finally knows how to use it!!!) No more night feedings either- which went on until she was about 13 months old. The lack of night feedings also means that she now wakes up at 6 am, which used to be more workout time, but now that I know what we're up against, I think that I'm no longer going crazy. She's even taking a 2-3 hour nap in her crib.

It's weird how in the beginning of this whole mommy time, I was ready to have another baby right away. I was thinking if it would be alright if they were less than 18 months apart. As Ariana's seek and destroy personality starting developing and the nap scene got more crazy, I had more than one crazy mom episode yelling to my husband, "NO MORE CHILDREN!" It's probably been just a little more than a week since the last such incident, but Ariana is a changed baby. (Not in the diaper sense- in the new person, new stage sense).

Now that I did my triathlon, I told Reuben that we might start having kids soon. I don't think that he's thought too much about it all, because 1) he just always figured that it was my decision anyway (Good husband) and 2) He's too tired to think about anything else except for sick and dying veterans at the VA.

We'll see how long this super awesome baby stage lasts- the one where she goes to sleep and naps easily, eats all her vegetables and other healthy food, where she laughs and giggles and think that mom is the bomb, and still loves to cuddy. It may just last until tomorrow during church (where I have to be there early, stay late, teach a Sunday school class, and do all this alone with a toddler during her lunch and nap time. ) Until then, the mommy life is good.