Breakthrough #1:  Today, on her 10-month birthday, Shiphrah drank her milk from a sippy cup!  This made Mama exceedingly happy as she has been getting increasingly frustrated with Shiphrah's antics while bottle-feeding.  (The child just won't sit still!  She wiggles, kicks, and squirms the entire time she drinks her bottle and every few minutes pauses to pull the bottle out and play with the nipple.)  I had tried the sippy cup about a month ago and while she loves drinking other liquids from it (juice, water, lemonade) she refused the formula (she'd suck it up and spit it out every time, making a huge mess).  But today she was a happy camper!  I think the fact that she can get more milk from the sippy cup faster has finally dawned on her.  It also might have helped that I put an ice cube in the milk...she loves her beverages chilled!

Breakthrough #2:  This one actually happened almost a week ago.  Her first little tooth finally popped through the skin!  It's hardly visible yet, but that sharp edge certainly makes itself known.  I'm just thankful she's not a biter.  Or a hair puller (only when she's mad).  Or a hitter.  She really is a good baby.

Breakthrough #3:  Shiphrah has also discovered (as of yesterday) how much FUN it is to feed the doggie her food.  Yesterday during lunch she would take a bite of a green bean and then hand the rest to Schatzie while laughing hysterically.  So CUTE!  I'm sure it would get annoying quickly if she did it regularly, but as she loves her food, she only does it when she's full.

Frustration #1:  My adorable little daughter cannot keep herself out of trouble when Mama isn't watching.  She eats paint chips off her windowsill, she splashes in the dog's water bowl and then sucks on her fingers (EW!), she shoves handfuls of dog food into her mouth before Mama can stop her (we finally moved the dog food outside), she pulls toilet paper off the roll, she pulls tissues out of trash cans and shreds them, she pulls all of Mama's shoes out of the closet, she pulls books off of the bookshelves, and...........

Frustration #2:  ......she will NOT be entertained by toys!  One toy will hold her interest for maybe 10 seconds.  Mama's cell phone, a pen, or a piece of paper, however, will hold her attention for 10 minutes!

Frustration #3 / Breakthrough #4:  I have discovered that I can pretty effectively ward off my daily migraines by taking one pseudophedrine and one Excedrin every morning.  However, remembering to do this is challenging and remembering to eat enough food in the morning to ward off the dizzy/shaky/nauseous effects of the pseudoephedrine and caffeine is even more challenging.  I'm slowly figuring it out though.

Frustration #4:  Naptime/Bedtime for Shiphrah has become a nightmare.  She SCREAMS bloody murder every time we put her to bed, especially at night.  She sleeps fine once she's down, but the screaming goes on for at least 15 minutes every night.  Not fun for Mommy and Daddy.

New Development #1:  A neighborhood kitten has attached itself to our house.  It happens to look EXACTLY like Penny (aside from a bit of white on its tail) and therefore Schatzie really wants to play with it.  In fact, yesterday it took me 5 minutes to convince Schatzie that it wasn't Penny...she was rather confused when she realized that Penny was inside and Penny #2 was outside.  It's amusing though because Schatzie, my not-always-so-intelligent dog, barks ferociously at other cats from the neighborhood (grey ones, black ones, etc.) but only yips playfully at this kitten.  Weird.  Today the kitten came up to our back door and looked pitifully at me through the glass.  It's a skinny little thing so I took it a small bowl of cat food and it immediately wolfed half of it down.  I shouldn't give it food because I know it's a spawn of the mean tomcat across the street, but it really bugs me that our neighbors won't get their cats neutered/spayed and then have several generations running around that they don't take care of.  I can't stand to see an animal starve.  Plus this kitty is awfully sweet compared to the other ones and I'm a sucker for animals anyway.

New Development #2:  This could also be categorized as a frustration or breakthrough, but it's also new, so I'm sticking it here.  Shiphrah has begun waking up earlier in the mornings!  Unfortunately this makes Mama sad because she likes her sleep, but she must get over that.  However, she also unfortunately seems to be trying to give up her morning nap...or at least reduce it greatly.  Two days this week she skipped it and only slept in the afternoon.  Yesterday she skipped it and then only slept for two hours during her afternoon nap.  Needless to say I did not get a lot done yesterday.  Today her morning nap was only 45 minutes long, but at least it was something.  Hopefully she'll sleep another few hours this afternoon.

New Development #3:  I keep thinking of more things to write about.  I'm just about 16 weeks along in my pregnancy, but my belly looks more like I'm 6 months along.  Seriously, I wasn't this big last time until I was much farther along!  Oh well, I have started feeling the baby move!  Last time I didn't feel Shiphrah until 17 weeks...this time I guess I know what to feel for.  It's so exciting!!

I.love.this.weather!!!  Yesterday morning when I woke up I could literally hear fall in the air.  And then I opened the windows and felt it.  Aaaaahhhhhhh.  SO nice!  I love the first day of fall...when the cool breeze rushes in (which, btw, feels completely different than a cool breeze in the summertime) and the air smells crisp.  The hurricane certainly was no welcome event for most people, but it did have a silver lining...ushering in the FALL!  I love being able to open all the windows, turn off the AC, and not have to worry about the house getting above 80 degrees.  It all just makes me so happy!

Here in San Antonio we didn't get anything from Ike, but my little family had a bear of a weekend anyway.  Shiphrah is getting a tooth!  Yes, yes, almost 10 months old and just now getting her first tooth (a top one too...don't they usually get bottom ones first?).  Saturday afternoon through Sunday was miserable.  She ran a high fever all day (up to 104 at one point) and just wanted to cry all evening.  She didn't want to eat, she didn't want a bottle, she didn't want a pacifier, she didn't want anything touching her face and when her fever peaked, she didn't want anything touching her skin either.  Poor darling.  She woke up every 45 minutes on Saturday night (she slept with us) so obviously Mommy didn't get much sleep either.  She's better now, but still fussy and tender.  I can see the little tooth blister thing so hopefully it'll pop out soon.  I hate to think that we'll have to go through this again a dozen more times.  Maybe it gets better?

And for my most disgusting moment of motherhood thusfar...Shiphrah ate some bugs yesterday.  Not just one bug...several.  I had the sliding glass door open with the screen door shut to let the nice breeze in and she crawled over to the door and started picking bugs out of the door track and shoving them in her mouth.  She was so proud of herself too and was not happy when Mommy started cleaning out her mouth.  It was SO gross!  I nearly threw up several times as I pulled tiny legs and heads out of her mouth all crunched up and covered in baby slobber.  (<--there just isn't a smiley that expresses my grossed out face)

Anyhoo, it's the little angel's naptime!