Too much too soon?

I bought Norah some cool toddler-markers. I ignored the label that said “18 months” as I paid my $6 for 3 markers, not to mention what I paid for the giant pad of “activity paper”. Last night, we finally had an opportunity to try them out, and she loved them! You may be wondering why I don’t have any scanned copies of her masterpieces posted here. Well it turns out that Norah loved to eat both the paper and the markers, and the only masterpieces that were produced were on her face, her shirt, and the rug in the living room (mental note, try the paints in the kitchen, or outside!) I patiently showed her how to make marks on the paper, and guided tiny hand across the vast white expanse, but alas, those were the only marks that made their way onto the paper!

As I wrote last week, we quit with bottles and formula. Since then, we all had a nasty stomach bug and Norah has been cutting some molars. Needless to say, we all had a couple of days where we really didn’t feel like eating much of anything. We kept offering juice, water, milk, but she really didn’t seem to want any of it. Monday night I gave her a Popsicle, which she loved as she munched it down quickly. “Supermom at your Service” I thought to myself! For multiple reasons too unsavory to mention, I was up more or less all night that night, and when Norah woke and could not be consoled around 5:30 am the next morning, Matt and I were both at our wits’ end.

She was writhing violently, climbing and clawing me in the process, she wasn’t interested in popsicles (my secret weapon!) and Oragel didn’t seem to make a dent in the tooth situation. When Matt suggested we try a bottle, I felt defeated, but honestly, I didn’t know what else to do, so bottle it was… she happily slurped it down, and slept until after 9:00. Guess she was hungry. Supermom was deflated…. Pppppfffffttttttt …

Today, Thursday, I awoke after a full night’s sleep and I was showered and ready when she woke up, but instead of our usual quiet chatting and snuggling time, we had a repeat of Tuesday morning’s scene… after 25 minutes of wrestling with her, and offering her several different sippy cups, I broke down and gave her a bottle again, of milk this time. Pppppfffffttttttt… she slurped it up, and we went along with our morning routine. At least it was milk, I guess. She’s been fine all day at daycare, happily sipping from her cup like the big girl she is.

So now I wonder, am I pushing her too much too soon? I don’t want to be one of those mothers, as she is growing up, but I do want to challenge her to do her best, as my parents did for us. I really don’t know, as usual, so I guess we continue and see how it goes.

If at first you don’t succeed – adjust! No choice anyway ... I wonder how that will look on my uniform?