Parenting Fail(s)

So this whole "new parent" thing is certainly a challenge. Every day is a challenge. We struggle with how much to feed, how often, when to sleep, how to fall asleep, if we should wake up, what she should be "playing" with, who should watch her, is she cold, is she hot. Really I could go on, but you get the picture. We do feel we are starting to make some progress with understanding Miss Madison and cracking the parent "code." However, we've had a few mishaps over the past 24 hours that are worth sharing.

Friday, Ryan and I are in the car returning from the dreaded DMV, when I look in the rear view mirror and see this:

Perhaps you can't tell (ie the glare is terrible)...but this is Madison with her headband pulled down completely over her eyes. Like horse blinders. Of course we had to photograph this first before fixing it. Poor girl wasn't even fussing.

Then later...the same day. We are working on "sleep training" by having Madison learn to put herself to sleep. This does NOT involve crying it out, I just am not there yet. But does involve putting her down awake and having herself learn how to fall asleep without being bounced and rocked and patted for an hour! So I often stay in the room (aka hide in the corner out of sight) and peek on her. This is what I saw during one peek:

Not my finest moment. I am so worried about crib safety, this child has no blankets, the ugly breathable bumpers, an angle care monitor and yet she still manages to put the small "lovey" over her face! EEEEEEK. Of course she was just fine, and once I made sure, I snapped a quick picture for your viewing pleasure. We are now doing more frequent checks!!

And, just in case parenting wasn't challenging enough. I got up the courage to try out some new baking recipes for a BBQ we are going to tonight. The pictures on the internet of these cupcake ice-cream cones look easy enough, and so fun. However, several things went wrong with my attempt. First to note, the chocolate dipped cones are a bad idea when you plan to bake them in the oven. Chocolate at 350 degrees melts. And, what doesn't melt does burn. So yucko all around. Even after burnt melted chocolate, I decided I'd give the icing a try. As you can see below, it was not so much a success but a failure...

*Sigh* Such is life. So far, today our parenting has been a little better:) We spent the day at the pool with Madison, Aunt Michelle and a few friends. Now we're off to a BBQ (without the burnt, melted ugly ice cream cupcakes). Happy pre-4th of July to you all!

Thanks for checking in!