Monday, October 27, 2008

Battle of Wills

Emma and I have been locked in a fierce battle of wills for the last two weeks. I'm determined that with her first birthday just around the corner she needs to branch out from formula and baby food-she's just not having it. I've been trying to introduce new foods to her for a while now, but she won't eat anything other than fruit and crackers (goldfish, vanilla wafers, etc). It really has me concerned because I'm pretty sure her doctor is going to tell me take her off the bottle during her one year checkup. She cannot survive on fruit and goldfish!

Well, the battle finally reached a pivotal point on Friday night as we were bumping heads over a Gerber Graduates meal of spaghetti sauce and pasta rings. Every time the spoon got near her mouth she would clamp her lips shut. She would lick the sauce off of her lips afterwards but wouldn't let me get a bite in her mouth. I gave her the spoon and all that resulted was our obese dog got a face full of spaghetti o's.

This goes on for about 15 minutes, with Jeremy watching the whole time. Finally, he senses that I'm about to jump off the nearest cliff and he grabs the spoon and gets her to take a bite on the FIRST TRY! WHAT!? He comes in and has probably only fed her solids a total of 10 times in her entire year of life, and gets her to eat. I was both pissed and relieved. Of course, after she takes the bite he hands the spoon back to me and sits down to watch again. So, I give it a try-and get the clamped lips AGAIN. Then my darling husband stands up, takes the spoon from me, and proceeds to speak to me like you would a 5 year old- "Now, Stephanie. Watch carefully, I'm going to show you how to do it one more time then you're on your own." He is so lucky that Emma's spoon was blunt . . .

I got the hang of it, finished feeding her and the crisis was averted. Once she decided to stop being stubborn and eat she actually enjoyed it. So do our dogs who now camp out under the high chair during every feeding.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Peer Pressure

Alright! Those of you that complain I don't keep you informed of the mundane lives of the Johnsons win-I've got a blog now. I can't promise how often it will get updated but I will try my best.

Emma has been growing like a weed and actually took her first unassisted steps this week. She only made it about four steps before tumbling into my arms but it's a start. And she is into EVERYTHING! I think I'm going to have to nail down all of our possessions. She's getting so rowdy that even the dogs are scared of her now. Rosie still ignores Emma and refuses to be petted (or slapped in Emma's case) for more than a minute, but Maybell will lick Emma in the face (yuck) and put up with all the tugging and slapping Emma dishes out. I really think that poor dog doesn't feel loved unless she's getting beat up on. Do they have therapy programs for dogs that confuse abuse with love? And let's not even get into the craziness she creates in her walker. Rosie and Maybell literally hide when I put Emma in her walker because she will chase them all over the house laughing like a loon.


R-O-W-D-Y
A few weeks we took her to the pumpkin patch and that was fun. Actually, I don't think she cared a whole lot (evidenced by the picture) so it was more for the grown ups. Even the dancing chicken didn't warrant a smile.

But now we're getting geared up for Halloween and then a string of birthdays in November. Holton's birthday falls on the 1st, followed by Emma's on the 8th, another friend's birthday on the 10th, and the 13th as well as my sister's. Whew! Good think Emma likes cake.

I'm stressing about her party because it has to be perfect-you only get one 1st birthday. Jeremy told me to drop the OCD complex and just have fun because she wouldn't remember it anyway. Yeah, that was helpful!
Sorry everything is a little jumbled, I'll try to make future posts pretty but I'm running out of time today.