Food fight

Take a look at the picture to your left. What do you see?Yes, you see a cutie pie. Yes, you can observe her pink shirt, blue bib and button nose. Yes, she can hold a bowl by herself. What you are really looking at though, is victory! It's in the bowl! There's nothing to see and that right there is what I'm so excited about.

For 3 months I have tried to get Charli to eat solids. I have tried being funny, tried clapping, tried begging, singing, shoving, jumping, tricking and I even prayed. She would have none of it.

Clearly, she inherited my stubbornness. And the only way to win against that is sheer, defiant will power. Which is a problem for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm used to winning the battle of the wills but I'm also used to having a REM cycle or two to help with staying power. The last few months have been full days and short nights with interruptions every 2.5 hours.

I have had to motivate myself to pick the fight with food by reminding myself that I can wean her as soon as real food can sustain her. And once she's weaned, I can go out alone spontaneously again. No more planning a week ahead to make sure a bottle is ready and then racing home before the next feeding. No matter how much I hate this food fight and no matter how sleep deprived my little brain might be, I still know that it would be stupid stupid stupid to give up. So I have trudged for three months, asking for advice, handing the duty off to my Mom and sister when I can and trying to make Charli jealous of all the fun we have at dinner eating real food by looking at her and smiling every time I take a bite (okay, not really on the creepy dinner eating but maybe I should have tried it).

All that work with no success until last week when we sat down to do battle and she opened her mouth right up. She did it over and over again until the bowl was cleaned out. I wanted to be frustrated at the sudden switch but relief won out. I literally cheered. She liked that. Then I took a picture. I felt good about that. Now each night when I feed her, she eats and I cheer.... but I figured one empty bowl picture is enough.

Peek-a-boo...where am I?

Here I am! I find myself playing that game increasingly... not only with Charli but with everything else in life. The last few months changes in Charli, combined with the holiday marathon season meant that most areas of my life got compartmentalized and put away for a while. Now I find myself pulling out those boxes and dusting them off, including the one that had this blog in it.

If you haven't been around to actually spend time with us in the last few months, you've missed A LOT. Right before Christmas Charli was pretty good at sitting on her own. Here's an update since then:

-Charli figured out how to roll over but didn't ever do it because it meant being on her stomach and she hates that.

-She then became a flipping machine once she realized she could go places with it.

-She now has found flipping across the floor to be too slow and is trying to figure out how to move her knees once she gets on all fours. (However, she can pull herself to standing and is starting to take steps)

-Joel has a new job. No more '2 jobs, one working week'... thank the Lord!

-Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and 'just because' times, we have driven between NJ and CT more than I can count.

-Charli was dedicated in church.

-I went to a wedding in Missouri- my first time spending 4 days with just Charli and no Joel, Charli's first airplane flight.

-And as if we didn't have enough excitement and change in our lives, we had an international student come live with us from Jan-June. This of course included some room changes and moving of many things that have yet to be organized and put in a home.

But not everything has changed:

-Charli still won't eat solids

- Chelsea Football Club (the cat) still wines like a baby when Charli is crying or singing... and it still results in me throwing him outside.

Probably doesn't sound like a whole lot in there but it's been exhausting and wonderful and I think I am almost done playing catch-up on life. On that note, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Valentine's Day!