No Tada for Socks

Some bullets about recent thoughts and events as I watched my beloved Project Runway.

• Socks have been the bane of my existence the last few days. Natalie's socks that we have from the spring are so small now. The heel comes to her arch, but they still technically fit, as in they stay on her foot. But, we need something better since it has been in the 60's here pretty steadily. So, I bought her some cushy Hanes socks at Walmart. I'm thinking, "yea, soft, warm, comfy, brand-name socks!" We get them home. We put them on. She can't walk on the floor. They need to go back to the store. Yesterday, I went to the shoe store to get her new shoes (more on this later) and we get some Stride Rite socks while we are there. They are size 3-7, so they look HUGE! We tried one on in the store, and it was a little big, but fit since she is a size 3 shoe. Well, I put these on her when we get home, and she is falling down again. I don't want her to have to wear shoes in the house all the time because that isn't comfortable. And I don't think the socks with the rubber grippers on the bottom would be comfortable in shoes. I know that she is getting socks from my mother for her birthday, too, but now I'm worried about how those will fit and if she will fall in them or not. So, this sock problem was really bumming me out. It felt so silly to be upset about socks, but cold baby feet and falling baby are serious things. Lucky for me, Mike talked to me about it as if it was a serious issue, and we decided that either gripper socks or slippers would solve the problem.
  
• So, we went shoe shopping twice in two days. First, yesterday, we went to the shoe store where we got Natalie's first pair of shoes back in June. We got her feet measured this time and tried on several types of shoes. Even though her feet are considerably larger than they were, they are still small for her size and chubby on the top, so she needs a wide shoe. We wound up finding a shoe we liked, but the size wasn't in stock, so it is being ordered for us. Then today, we went to the mall to look for slippers at Payless, but they had no slippers. There were two sales ladies there and they said I could try some other shoes, so we did. I wound up buying a shiny pink Mary Jane shoe for her that is more slipper like than the shoes we ordered yesterday. But, after looking at them more at home, Mike and I decided that we aren't sure they will be comfortable for her to wear at home. I just don't feel confident in determining if her shoes fit or not. So, we will be getting our $3.15 back.
  
• Some time last week, I went through the closet in Natalie's room and looked at some of the old toys I have saved for my children. In the box was a few pieces of costume jewelry including a few bed necklaces (where the beads aren't loose) and four bangle bracelets. Natalie liked sucking on the necklace the same as she loved the Marde Gra beads of the visitor pass at Leavitt. The bangles took her a little longer to warm up to, but now, she knows that they go on her wrist and she takes them on and off. She also puts them in her mouth, of course, but she also has put it on the cone and taken them off my wrist.
  
• Last Sunday, we wanted to do something as a family to enjoy the fall weather. So, I suggested apple picking. I'd gone once a few years ago when Mike was out of town, but couldn't remember the name of the orchard. So, after a little looking on line, I found Ricker Orchard which is not far from Leavitt. The afternoon went great. The weather was very enjoyable. Natalie got to walk and crawl around the orchard. She had fun looking at the apples and pumpkins. She ate an apple right off the tree for the first time (whereas she has just had small pieces before). She loved the apple, and I've given her one again the last four days. The first day, she took a bite, looked at me, looked at the apple, and gave me this look like, what did I deserve to get something so good! Natalie also got to try their homemade doughnuts and cider, which she loved, too. We were going to bring her to look at the animals, but that was more money and we had already been there a while, so we went home. She took a super long nap in the carseat after that, too!
• I've started reading two books on teaching since I promised myself I'd take advantage of my lack of academic responsibilities to read all these teaching titles I collected over the last six years. One of them is about homework. I'm feeling very conflicted about it so far, and I'm only 25 pages in. The author states that homework is unnecessary, which I'm not sure I agree with, but that isn't the largest conflict I've had. The author has dedicated a lot of time into how homework affects families. I find myself feeling a conflict about being a mom. I have an uneasy feeling about how homework will affect Natalie and how powerless I will be to do anything about it, no matter how strongly I feel about it. In a lot of ways, I feel like my education will be useless in the face of Natalie's education.
• I love hugging Natalie and taking in her smell. It is such a wonderful thing that it is beyond words. The feeling of your own child in your arms, especailly now when she can start to snuggle and hug back, is just the best thing there is, then add on top of that smell.
  
• Natalie was very snuggly today because she was off on her sleeping. She refused to nap for her morning nap, then only slept 40 minutes later and woke up full out crying. She was off until I nursed her, but still didn't cheer up until I sat with on my lap her watching Yo Gabba Gabba for 15 minutes. I have no idea what caused all this to happen or why she woke up so unhappy. I'm curious if she is trying to drop the morning nap, but the problem sleeping later would suggest otherwise. She did get a nap later in the car in the mall parking lot, but again it was 40 minutes. Last we checked, she was sleeping peacefully on her back, in her new pjs, using her giraffe as a pillow.
  
• At dinner, Natalie was loving her jar of sweet corn and rice. I decided on a whim to let her try to spoon for herself. Some times when I offer it, she gets upset, like I'm not going to give her anymore. So, tonight, I saw she wasn't getting how to take the spoon out of the jar, so I put the food on it, and laid it down on the tray. We did this a few times with increasing success. Next, Mike took over and he got her to put the spoon back in the jar (with help) and take it back out, but there was no food on it. So, I tried putting some of her food in a bowl, but she was pretty much done and knocked it on the floor, which is why we don't use bowls. Overall, I was very impressed with her spoon usage!
• After dinner tonight, the three of us spent a fair amount of time on the couch with Natalie going between snuggling, crawling, and trying to pet Ellie. At some point when she was walking around, she she put her arms up and said "tada" as I've unknowingly taught her to do. It became a joke and she kept doing it and laughing because we laughed. She said it different ways and would raise just one hand. It was so cute to see her keep doing something because it made Mommy and Daddy happy.
  
• Other cute things from today: We clapped out hands, and as soon as we stopped, she clapped hers. She did that two or three times. She stuck her finger all the way up Mike's nose. I mean her whole finger went up as far as it could go. When we were looking at a lift the flap book, she pointed to her ears when it was the ear flap. She actually will often imitate pictures by clapping or sticking out her tongue.
  
• I greatly enjoyed buying all these fall / winter clothes for Natalie, and I put almost all of them away for her birthday. Slowly, I've had to take items out of the gift bag waiting downstairs for her to wear. Today, it was only about 65 out, but she only had t-shirts, mismatched and too-long pants, and half-dirty sweaters. I managed to make her an outfit for today, though the pants made me nervous all day, but I pulled out a couple more pairs of pants and maybe three more long sleeve shirts. Now we should be able to get through more than a couple days before everything warm is dirty. I also pulled out a pair of zip up feety pjs like the ones she wore every night basically from birth to the summer. At first, she was fussing when I put them on and she pulled at them, but after a few minutes she calmed down. We think it was just her being tired. It will be interesting to see how she reacts to them in the morning since I don't get her dressed until her first diaper change with me after she's been up for a couple hours, and sometimes we wait until after her morning nap.
  
• Also in terms of clothes, I bought her Halloween costume yesterday at Kmart. She is going to be a lady bug. Its not my favorite in terms on concept, but it was the cutest of the choices. Most of the animal costumes were all these full body suits with hoods that I didn't think she'd agree to wear. There was a pumpkin, but it was florescent orange. As much as I want her to be safe, it was a little unnaturally bright to me. So, I went with the lady bug. It is a size 1-2 years, so we tried it on today over her regular clothes. It looked pretty good. We need to get a black or red long sleeve shirt to go under it, but we are all set for the leggings. It comes with shoes / booties, but I don't know if she will wear them. It also has a headband for the antenna. I'm hoping she will leave it on since she lets us leave her other ones on.