Fun With Cups!

We have been having a lot of fun with Paprika teaching her all about cups and incorporating her into our nightly dinner routine. We usually put Paprika in the swing or in her exersaucer next to us while we have dinner, but she decided a few days ago that she wants to be a more integral part of the conversation. She was not happy unless she was right up at the table with us! So, we have started putting her in her bumbo seat and pulling her up to the dinner table with us while we eat. We give her some cups to play with while we are eating, and she pretends to drink out of them!

Paprika continues to babble, babble, babble! Sometimes she chats for an hour at a time, and other times I can't get her to say a word. She is entering the stage of being much less cuddly. I miss that cuddly baby! Now she just wants to explore everything, try to crawl, examine her toys, and put anything and everything in her mouth. She still likes being rocked ot sleep at night, thank goodness!

Paprika usually wants to go to bed around 9:30pm, and wakes up at about 7:15am. A lot of nights she doesn't wake up at all. Sometimes she wakes up once around 4:30am to eat and then goes right back to sleep. The nights she wakes up at 4:30, she often sleeps in later, which I love. I think I like it better when she wakes up once during the night and then sleeps in later in the morning. I am really not a morning person at all, but I can stay up all night.

She is now taking two naps a day--one around noon, and one around 5pm. Her first nap is usually about 1 1/2 to two hours long and her second nap is shorter--about half an hour or 45 minutes. Sometimes she just takes one big nap of two to three hours, which is great because I get so much done around the house! I attribute this increase in napping largely due to changes in my diet. I cut out all soda and caffeine about a month ago, and this has made a huge difference. Also, I have since cut out 90% of the dairy in my diet (I find it irritates her), and also most of the extra sugar. I still have some maple syrup in my oatmeal in the morning, but other than that, I am sugar free. It's a day by day thing, but I really like the healthy changes I'm making in my diet. It's benefitting both of us!