To begin, in case you don’t know what a “babers” is, it’s my daughter.  As I understand, most significant others call each other “babe” or “baby” or some form of that but that’s not something my husband and I ever did.  But when our daughter was born, I thought it made sense to call her a “babe” since that’s actually what she is.  Somehow it developed into Babers, pronounced babe – ers.  Babers.

Now that you know what a Babers is, I can tell you that she is an explorer.  She spends most of her awake time roaming around the house, exploring undiscovered territory, learning about things, and trying so hard to get into the 25 pound bag of flour in the pantry.  There’s just no stopping her.  At times I try to put her in her room and close the door just so I know where she is and that she’s safe while I cook dinner but suddenly she becomes a puppy, scratching on the door and howling.  Yes, she actually makes howling noises … occasionally.  It’s pretty funny.

Her favorite places to be are in cupboards.  She pulls things out of them on a daily basis, especially the ones in the bathrooms.  Those are by far her favorite.  The pantry is probably a close second.  Besides the flour bag, there are all sorts of containers and boxes that need a good chewing on and could always use a little more flying through the air – she loves to throw things these days.

Speaking of throwing, things usually go through a process with her.  When she first picks something up, she examines it with her hands and eyes.  If there are no fun buttons or designs to trace with her little fingers, she moves on to chewing on it.  The duration of chewing varies but it’s usually soaked by the time she gives it up.  Once she’s done, and especially if I’m trying to take it away from her at all, she throws it.  Sometimes she throws it straight down but usually she throws it a foot or two away which is really obnoxious when it’s my phone since one button on my phone is already broken.

She loves to explore the outside too.  When it’s warm (which days are few and far between), we go outside and she explores the grass, the cement, the plants, and anything else she can get her hands on.

It’s so fun to watch her learn!

Oh, and the wet mark on her shirt is from her love of exploring the shower.  It echos and is so much fun to scream into!

I look at all these little newborns and how they just lay so nicely in their parent’s arms.  I mean, it was just a few months ago that I would lay down my little babe, she would just stay still and stare up at me, give me one of her cute smiles, and not go anywhere!  Oh, how I miss those days!

These days, I put her down and she’s off.  It doesn’t seem to matter much where she’s going as long as she’s going.  This new place that we’ve moved into still has a lot more undiscovered areas and everyday she finds a new place or thing to play with.  Plus she loves to be able to stand up wherever she is.  And she takes full advantage of that while she’s in her crib.

As soon as we lay her down, she’s trying to stand up.  Earlier this month, we began swaddling her again.  It’s been off and on for the past couple of months but we realized that if we want her to go into her crib and not stand up for an hour before she starts throwing a fit because she’s so tired, we have to swaddle her.  Unfortunately, that only worked for so long.  As soon as we start to try to swaddle her, she starts wiggling.  She hates every second of it.  As soon as we leave, she twists and turns and turns into a little Houdini.  She can get out of her swaddle in no time at all.  And then she stands up and talks and laughs while walking around her crib.  And it drives me crazy!

Because not only does she not sleep for the hour or so that she refuses to sleep even though she’s exhausted, but she starts complaining a lot – she laughs and then cries.  Each time I walk in to see her standing up in her crib, she laughs and thinks she’s so funny.  I don’t find it as funny.  However, I also frequently find her in her crib sitting up, crying.  I try to help her lay down (even though she knows how to do that) and try to get her to relax.  And she hates that.  She only screams louder in my face.

So if you’re ever around me between 8:30 – 9:30 am or 1:30 – 3 pm as I try to get her to go down for her nap, you can see how stressed I am.  Her sleep is so important to her but unfortunately, she doesn’t know that.  I mean, honestly, if I could take two 2-3 hour naps each day, I’d love it, but she doesn’t love it so much.

Lately I’ve just been letting her laugh and talk, then cry and scream until she sits down and falls asleep.  It’s always kinda funny to go into her room after she’s cried herself to sleep to see her bent over, like she was sitting and fell forward asleep, sleeping so soundly.  I wish there was a better solution but I can’t seem to find one as of right now.  So for now, she’ll get to spend a couple hours in her crib each day, walking around and talking.

But on the flip side, I’m so proud of her that she’s so strong – after spending months just watching her lay on the ground on her back or sitting up but not move and refuse to learn how to crawl, I wasn’t sure if she’d ever try to move.  And now I know – she loves to move!

My day in the life of a mom (DLM):

Before

During

The Remains

We did it.  We cut our 10-month old’s hair on Sunday.  It was a lot tougher to do than I thought it was going to be.  I thought the mirror in front of her and the comb in her hand would distract her enough to keep her head still so I could make a few snips, but it didn’t work.  She was all over the place.

But we cut almost 2 inches off of her hair.  She looks so much better without her awful mullet.  It has also made her look about a year older than she actually is.

And the best part?  I didn’t cry once.