Happy 5 Months, All Hail the Queen

Yuna turned 5 months today.

Before I got her ready for her 5th month photo right next to her gigantic birthday cake made of Chocolate Ganache, Chantilly Cream and Fresh Strawberries, her father woke me up at 10 am (today being Labor Day, I gotta remember to reward him for letting me sleep in) to tell me that she has reached another milestone:  She learned how to stand up on her own unassisted!  Bring out the confetti!!

I was just kidding about the birthday cake.  As much as we'd like to get her a small cupcake to remind us that she's growing up faster than my ingrown nail, we end up forgetting, then later on justifying the ignorance by saying that she wouldn't know how to blow the darn candle anyway so why bother?  

I do know someone who gets a kick out of throwing her baby a huge party every month.  I'm not just talking about the customary birthday-cake-wear-nice-clothes kinda deal.  I'm talking about THE PARTY OF THE YEAR which happens EVERY. SINGLE. MONTH.  You know.. kinda like this:

The Celebrant

The Gifts

The Balloon

The Food

Some of the Guests

I'm still waiting for her to post her daughter's 7th month party.  Word on the street is that they got Justin Bieber to do a small opening number, that should be good.

Katherine,  I think your baby's really adorable, and I love that you like to do them big... but really,  you make moms like me look so bad.  It makes me so anxious to find out what you've planned for her 1st real birthday, I'm almost on Xanax just thinking about it.

Anyway, we just got back from a weekend trip in Vegas last night.  It was our 2nd road trip to Vegas with Yuna and I must say that the kid's a dream to travel with.  She laughed all the time (score!), slept all the time (double score!!) and didn't seem to mind the 110 degree weather.  Of course, it didn't hurt to bring your  sister who happens to be a pediatric nurse and seems to think that your baby is all hers.  We came back to California relaxed and happy- it was the perfect start to the week.

Or so we thought.

It's as if this whole learning how to stand up thing bestowed a sense of entitlement upon my daughter which in turn made her think she is owed the right to be carried around all day.

Yuna has been quite the manipulator with her phony cries lately, and it frustrates me that she already knows she can totally pull this off with her dad.  I told you guys about how she learned that raising her arms means that she will get picked up, right? That grew old with me really quickly and she found out that I wouldn't have any of it, which in a way made me feel slightly like the adult between the two of us.  

Today was the worst, by far.  She held her father hostage for HOURS as he carried her around while he was trying to get things done.  As soon as I took over parenting duties to give him time to do his own thing, the little princess refused to be placed anywhere except my hip.  Ummm... Excuse me? When did this start happening? 

Not in my books missy.  I placed her in her Bebe Pod after carrying her around and she started whining again about sitting down against her will as I calmly explained to her that this needs to stop unless she wants to rob us off the time we need to prepare her bottles.  She wouldn't really like that, would she?

Our heart-to-heart conversation seemed to have worked up until her Daddy Dearest walked in the kitchen again.  She started crying like a sorry little baby and he picked her up like clockwork.  I told him instantly that she's obviously faking it but he replied that he doesn't believe in "disciplining" a baby until she can determine right from wrong.  With those words, he walked off to the room with Yuna in tow as the Queen looked back at me, smiling.

Is there a reset button I can press somewhere to change her back to her default setting?  The long weekend with Dada clearly screwed up my parenting preferences.