Round 3: Tied

Here is the picture of Grandma's birthday present as promised. My attempt was to have her hands overlap on the fingers and have it look like a heart, we did the best that we could.

Molly and I joined Grandma and Grandpa at lunch to give Grandma her gift. Molly was upset that she couldn't see everything from her car seat so we tried sitting her in a high chair from the restaurant and it was a success! She was about table level and was able to see everything going on and was even enjoying playing with a spare basket. It was nice to eat a meal out with both of my hands and no screaming baby. She is very good at holding her head up and it working hard on sitting up by herself. It was a very exciting moment and #mollycomplishment!

 

Stalemate with Squash

For our third attempt at feeding Molly squash I alternated bites of rice cereal and squash. She did pretty well and ate more squash than the previous attempts but she still tried to spit it back out at times and gave me looks of disbelief that I would trick her. All in all she might not like squash but we will try it again in the future once she tries a few more foods. Next we will try carrots.

Parenting Struggles

Parenting is a tough job, I just never imagined that it would be this tough. Everyday brings new challenges. At this point in Molly's life I find myself easily frustrated with my inability to decipher what is wrong when she is crying or agitated as well as how to fix it. I know there are videos about understanding your baby's cry and for the most part my husband and I did hear differences in the beginning months. Since then there have been constant changes where actions or sounds now mean different things. There is a lot of talk that being a mother and parenting is supposed to come naturally, as if there is a specific gene that gets activated but it isn't true. It is really hard work that is constantly changing. It chips away at your self-esteem, not to mention your own self imagine as you navigate into a new identity. If you've given birth your body has made a bunch of changes from carrying your child to birthing and adjusting to sleep deprivation and possibly breast feeding, that doesn't even include the raging hormones as your body returns to its baselines and wrapping your head around the idea that there is now a new person completely dependent on your for every life essential. You have to focus on finding the "new normal" but that can take a while too. Today's Helpful Hint is something I'm still learning.

Helpful Hint: Cut yourself some slack. You will not be perfect and you shouldn't compare yourself to others on how they are parenting. Sometimes you just have to do the best that you can and have that be it, not everyday will be easy or good but keep fighting to do your best.