This Week in Mommyhood

Cati has a one track mind and it's currently set on climbing on everything. She likes to climb over us, climb on Perla (no wonder Perla runs away when Cati approaches her), climb on the furniture, and the worst one, by far, is climb up the stairs. She learned how to climb up the 3-inch step in the family room and is obsessed with it. I don't mind her crawling up that step because it's small but she thinks because she can do that step she's ready to tackle the bigger steps. And the truth is that she can actually climb up the bigger steps. I'm at a parenting crossroads because on the one hand I want her to learn how to go up and down the stairs safely (I'm always behind her ready to catch her if she slips) but on the other hand I don't want her to think she's capable of tackling the stairs all by herself. I want her to be independent but I want her to do it only when I feel comfortable. Too bad Cati and babies in general don't function that way.

Cati's stair climbing has got me thinking about baby proofing. I'll be honest and say that the only baby proofing we've done is installing a safety gate at the top of the stairs. We didn't do any baby proofing when I was pregnant because I found it dumb to baby proof an entire home when we didn't know what areas would need baby proofing. I wanted to wait until Cati was here to get a feel for what areas she'd actually be living in. I guess I wanted the approach to be more reactive than proactive. I don't mean reactive in the sense that she needs to get hurt before I do anything, I mean reactive in the sense that I will baby proof the family room and not the living because we are never in the living room. Obviously, as Cati grows so will the area of house she plays in but for now I don't see the need in baby proofing every little thing, especially since I am constantly watching Cati.

It just goes to show you that you never know what type of parent you will be until you actually become one. I am a million times more laid back about certain things than I thought I would be. I'm more involved in certain things than I thought I would be. Somewhere along the line I found my inner crunchy mom and I became a big proponent of giving Cati breast milk and making all her food.

Speaking of food, Cati had her first meat this week. Turkey was the only new thing she tried this week and, at first, she wasn't a fan. She has since warmed up to it but it took me mixing only a teensy bit of turkey into her veggies. It still amazes me how Cati will eat just about anything as long as the main taste and texture is that of vegetables.

 

We went to a pumpkin patch this weekend and I got the cutest pictures of Cati in her cupcake costume and the pumpkins. You'll just have to wait to see! There was a petting zoo at the pumpkin patch and Cati was fascinated by the animals. I remember when I took her to a petting zoo a few months ago and she was oblivious to the animals. It's truly amazing to see how much changes in a baby in such little time. 

This was a good mommyhood week. I pray and hope the upcoming week is just as good or maybe even better.