I saw this wonderful post on Devoted Parenting about how to reduce the risk of SIDS.
SIDS stands for “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome” which is the cause of death listed a lot of the time when babies just stop breathing in their sleep and there is no other way to explain it. It is a horrific thing for any parent to have to go through which is why I feel compelled to share the link here so that nobody has to experience this.
I noticed that one of the things Lynda listed is that if you give your baby pacifier that helps reduce the risk of SIDS in the first year of life. I believe this is a relatively new safety tip. I heard the reason for this is that when a baby is sucking on a pacifier it is giving the brain a reminder to breath at the same time.
I know that many parents don’t want to give a pacifier because they are concerned their baby will not want to give it up when they are older. For us, we did give our DD a pacifier because it helped her to sleep better at night (plus I had heard the info. about SIDS). What we did is it NEVER left the crib, she was only allowed to have while she was sleeping and it was part of our routine that when she woke up she had to drop the paci into her crib. Then when she was around 18 months old I just took it out of her crib one day and put it away and she never cried or asked for it. I’m not trying to brag for those of you who have had a harder time getting rid of it. But this is what seemed to work for us. Luckily little E is just a very adaptable baby and she accepted that it was time to get rid of her paci.

Last night we snuck out of the house to see a movie (Thanks Mom). We ended up seeing Marley & Me because I always wanted to read the book but never got around to it. After getting through the first half hour, which I mostly already saw through previews, it turned out to be a great movie. I came home last night and hugged my dog a little bit tighter. This movie embodies that love/hate relationship we all have with our dogs and how that relationship changes when you have kids, and then grows even stronger as the kids grow older. It‘s not just a movie about a dog though it really is a movie about marriage and kids. How your marriage changes and grows stronger through time and how when you first have kids you say to yourself “What the heck did I get myself into?” But as time goes on you get better at being a partner and a parent, actually you just get better overall.
I am still in that beginning stage of parenting where I am still trying to figure this all out and this was a good reminder to me that….Yes, things do get better.

My title is a little bit sarcastic today.  This is more me just venting.  Toddlers are an interesting dichotomy of opposites.  They can be cute and loving one minute and obnoxious and defiant the next.  Evangeline has just recently entered the testing stage and man can she test mommy’s patience.  On a typical day she will wake up sweet and loving, just full of smiles and hugs and kisses.  She is easy and agreeable.  I say, “do you want milk?” and she nods happily and is content.  A few hours later she is demanding, and cries and screams if I get up to do anything.  Throw’s a tantrum if she can’t have something she wants.  Is defiant. This morning she threw her milk on the floor when she was done eating (her daily ritual).  When she got down I asked her to pick it up and put it on the table, which she normally does just fine.  Nope not today she sat there and stared at it and didn’t move. 

I am just sitting here this morning thinking… “how long does this time last for?”  She is only 18 months old, do I really have another 12-18 months of this?  When she is being cute and adorable I find myself loving this age and never wanting it to end.  But 2 seconds later she is throwing a tantrum and I am wondering, “when will it end?”

Okay, so we all agree that although our kids are beyond lovable most of the time sometimes they are  not so lovable.  For example, every time I change my daughters diaper she throws a fit because she does not like to be slowed down.  She will yell, kick, and scream.  If she is being extra feisty she will kick me really hard and very forcefully try to turn around to get out of having her diaper changed.  Anyone who has ever parented a toddler in diapers I’m sure can relate.   I have tried many different strategies and nothing has seemed to work.

Well, I was reading a quote today that said something about kids needing to be loved the most when they are being unlovable.   If ever I am going to run out of patience with Eva it is going to be when she is throwing one of her diaper changing fits.  So today I repeated that quote in my head like a mantra.  When I changed her diaper she threw a fit, tried to turn around, and kicked me the whole time.  I repeated the mantra and tried to remember that I needed to love her throughout that.  When I was done changing her I told her I loved her and she stood up and gave me a hug.  Of course my heart melted.

Someone showed this to me yesterday and I think it is really cool.  I love Supernanny, she has some really great ideas and her website is very helpful.  It is especially great for people like me who are not the most crafty.

http://www.supernanny.com/Reward-Charts.aspx