It's been a long time since I've posted - and in the meantime, spring finally showed up!! Sunshine, warm breezes, green grass, the smell of things growing, daylight savings time, I love it all!! I told Emily today that soon it would be warm enough to go outside without a coat on, and she looked at me blankly for a second, then said, "Wear a coat outside." Okay, good plan, honey.
This morning, nearly everything she said to me was a one-liner worth reciting to others, although after a long day I can't remember any of them. She has me cracking up all the time, that is, when she's not driving me insane. I put Audrey down for a nap 4 times today, and 3 of those times I had to battle Emily saying, loudly, "Audrey awake!!" Audrey's eyes would fly open for a second, and I'd shush and bounce her back to half-sleep... then repeat. So frustrating!!
Also frustrating is this flirtation Emily is doing with skipping her nap. Today she laid down for a little while, but popped right back up once she heard me trying to Audrey to sleep (see above cycle, repeat. gah!) I just wanted to wait until Audrey was on a regular nap schedule, just so I could count on a break during the day, but I guess it's just going to be hard for a couple of weeks... or months...
Last week was spring break week, and Amanda had jury duty so I lined up alternate sitting for the girls. After a zillion changes in plan, the girls spent Monday with Grandma Sullivan, Tuesday with my aunt Janie, and Thursday back at Amanda's because she was done with jury duty by then. I am VERY glad last week is over, because with work-frustrations and the girls being out-of-whack due to the weird childcare, it was about more than I could take, especially after we JUST got everybody healthy again.
So we decided to go to Rockford for the weekend! It really felt like a nice little retreat. Mom is still recovering from twisting her knee on the ice a few weeks ago, and it's really frustrating her to be limited in mobility, but she had a great time with the girls. Dad is finishing the basement, so he and Travis got to bang around and use tools for a while, so they were happy. Emily was delighted to be there, and Audrey warmed up pretty quickly. We seem to be pretty good at taking this show on the road.
Let's see, about the girls. Audrey is ... a little stinker these days. She is still picky about taking bottles, and even nursing, depending on the noise level and excitement in the room, and all that. She laughs pretty heartily now, which is just awesome when it coincides with Emily's giggle. She also likes to stick her tongue out a little when she's smiling - kinda cute. She LOVES her baby bjorn!! She recognizes it as her wearer is putting it on, and then kicks and kicks and smiles and wiggles and kicks the whole time she's in it. Travis wore her for at least an hour at a St. Patricks' party a few weeks ago, and she was totally happy the whole time, and afterwards, too. I wore her at the grocery store today and we got lots of attention. Okay, she got lots of attention, but I enjoyed it too. Audrey seems to be very emotionally mature: she misses me when Emily and I leave her with her dad for a second, she is very uncertain in new situations with new sights, smells, sounds, and she actually cries tears! She seems to really know what's going on, and wants to be right in the middle of it - and therefore is hard to entertain, sometimes! She's not been the best sleeper lately, so I'm really worn out, but I'm going to darken her room a bit more tonight and hope that helps with the going back to sleep after eating.
I've been holding back in actually putting this in writing, but Emily is actually potty-trained now. Instead of relying solely on reminders, she will take herself when she has to go. There was about a week of accidents, which I commented to Amanda about one day while dropping them off, and since then, none! Even with being sick, she still did a great job going potty. Looking back, she always did seem to do better immediately after I had vented in frustration where she could have heard me. It's weird to think that she got the message listening to me whine about it to other people, when communicating to her directly didn't work?? Is that possible for a 2-year-old to pick up on? Anyway, I'm immensely proud of her, and don't mind the overnight pull-ups one bit. She'll get there soon, no doubt.
Have I mentioned what an amazing singer Emily is? She sings twinkle twinkle endlessly, but she can also sing Little Boy Blue, All the Pretty Little Horses, Rockabye Baby, Day is Done (Taps), and she's pretty darn good at her ABC's. She also helps me recite some of the poems that we like to read at night, and she chimes in with quotes from books. Sometimes I'll say a line from a book on purpose, to see if she picks it up, but sometimes she'll hear something randomly that happens to be from a book, and then the challenge is on me to figure out what the heck she's talking about! Amazing what she's stashed in her little head already.
Travis and I were playing with the girls tonight, laying on the floor of the living room and holding them up in the air on knees or feet. They were giggling, and it was just the best feeling. I have such a nice little family!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
I swear I picked up the wrong girl from daycare today. Emily was absolutely crazy tonight. This morning, we were snuggled up in the chair reading books while Audrey slept, and she snuggled in close to me, saying, "I love you, Mom. You're a nice Mom." (I like to tell her she's a nice girl.) It was so sweet! But as we pulled into the driveway arriving home, she cried and cried and cried that she wanted to go back to Ms. Amanda's, which she sometimes says but today she just wouldn't stop wailing. Within the following hour's time, she ran around the porch making marks on the walls with crayons, she threw toys at her sister, and peed her pants on the couch. What happened?????? I guess it started before we left today: Shortly before we left, she ran from me when I told her not to play with garbage bags, and then promptly pooped her pants. She doesn't seem to think anything bad about time-outs, and having poop in her pants isn't enough of a negative to drive her to avoid the situation (can you imagine?), although she does ask me to clean her up right away. I can't get her attention in order to try to treat anything as a teachable moment. I'm just trying to keep Audrey alive and unharmed, and my house from being demolished. Except when she's singing her ABC's on pitch, doing puzzles, talking about her happy/sad/angry emotions, naming colors, kissing her sister gently, reciting lines from her favorite books, and volunteering to take her plate into the kitchen from the table. How can she be so mature and bright and then so completely impossible the next second? Why does she have to be so TWO?
Audrey is finding her hands, and she's in the zombie stage right now. The look of amazement on her face is so incredible, as she's reaching for something and realizing she can feel it and move it and watch it all at the same time. She's up once each night about 4 AM most days, which is fine with me. She's pretty predictable for sleeping throughout the day, and we may have gotten on to a solution for her bottle-aversion at daycare: she's just too distracted to eat! I tried feeding her before we left on Monday, and she wouldn't nurse until it got quiet, and today she ate pretty well from the bottle better when shielded from activity with a blanket. Yay! She's been a little needy lately, wanting to be held, but I think that's just because I have to leave her sometimes while I clean up / discipline her sister and she gets lonely and bored. Having a baby is easy - what was I thinking was so hard two years ago?
I have been feeling pretty stupid about taking the girls to daycare lately. I feel like I just can't get it right, and the last thing I want is for my sitter to be annoyed with me when she's looking after my precious girls. If I can't set her up for success, it's my girls who have a hard time. And besides, I like her a lot and don't want anyone to have a hard day because of something I did or didn't do. At least I haven't forgotten Audrey's milk yet (I did that with Emily - forgot her milk, forgot nipples, forgot bottles entirely), but I have forgotten to leave Emily's outdoor gear. I was late picking them up last week by about 10 minutes, and I showed up too early that same day. I haven't worked with Audrey and her bottles like Amanda would prefer, but it's just too much work when I have such an easy alternative available. I even feel guilty because I ate spicy food for dinner one night, which did not agree with Audrey the next day, leaving Amanda with a very fussy, gassy baby. Emily had a time-out there for not picking up her toys, which is something we haven't emphasized here at home much. I forgot to change Audrey before I took the girls today (due to the pooped pants), so the first thing on her daily sheet was to change a wet diaper. *sigh* One of these days, I'll get into the rhythm, right?
Last weekend, we went to a waterpark with some friends, and had a really nice time. Emily was pretty excited to go swimming, even though she was probably only in the water for half an hour or so. Travis had a good time on the water slide, which apparently was pretty wicked and even better after a couple beers. I got to talk to some other friends who are fighting the same terrible-two's-plus-infant things that I have been. It felt good to get out and be social, and yet come home, have bathtime, and have everyone sleep well that night. Plus we watched the ISU women win, and that's fun too.
I told my boss today that I am thinking of looking for a different position at IVS, but I don't really know how to begin because part-time positions aren't ever formally posted - you just have to come across something by word of mouth. He was pretty surprised and was really interested in why I would want to leave the department, and I told him I was tired of feeling like my work wasn't worthwhile. I have yet to be on a project where I have actually gotten to do design work from the ground up, although some projects have been better than others. All the projects, though, have included massive amounts of documenting others' work, annoyed objections to my review of things that were implemented without my input, and lots of being told that my job is easy that anybody can do it, and should be doing it, too. I will be thinking this over more in the next few months, but I guess the nice thing to take from today is that my boss was really wanting to keep me in the department. At least somebody thinks my work is valuable! Travis is fighting frustrations at work, too, and went to bed at 9 tonight because he couldn't sleep last night, frustrated with work. I know we'll both get through this, but these workplace transitions are always hard. Maybe this is the stress that's tripping Emily over the edge... but it's the only stress in our lives. We really have it pretty good!!
I got to sub for some friends' volleyball team the other night, and it was SO FUN. I had forgotten how good it feels to focus on something and work up a sweat and get my heart going. It took me several hours to wind down afterwards, and since it was a 9:00 game that was kind of a sleep-killer. I have been reeeeally stiff the past two days, but it was totally worth it. I think this weekend will be worth it, too, since my sister-in-law is turning 30 and Travis volunteered to stay home with the girls so I can go socialize. We'll see if I can stay awake and keep up with the party!
Audrey is finding her hands, and she's in the zombie stage right now. The look of amazement on her face is so incredible, as she's reaching for something and realizing she can feel it and move it and watch it all at the same time. She's up once each night about 4 AM most days, which is fine with me. She's pretty predictable for sleeping throughout the day, and we may have gotten on to a solution for her bottle-aversion at daycare: she's just too distracted to eat! I tried feeding her before we left on Monday, and she wouldn't nurse until it got quiet, and today she ate pretty well from the bottle better when shielded from activity with a blanket. Yay! She's been a little needy lately, wanting to be held, but I think that's just because I have to leave her sometimes while I clean up / discipline her sister and she gets lonely and bored. Having a baby is easy - what was I thinking was so hard two years ago?
I have been feeling pretty stupid about taking the girls to daycare lately. I feel like I just can't get it right, and the last thing I want is for my sitter to be annoyed with me when she's looking after my precious girls. If I can't set her up for success, it's my girls who have a hard time. And besides, I like her a lot and don't want anyone to have a hard day because of something I did or didn't do. At least I haven't forgotten Audrey's milk yet (I did that with Emily - forgot her milk, forgot nipples, forgot bottles entirely), but I have forgotten to leave Emily's outdoor gear. I was late picking them up last week by about 10 minutes, and I showed up too early that same day. I haven't worked with Audrey and her bottles like Amanda would prefer, but it's just too much work when I have such an easy alternative available. I even feel guilty because I ate spicy food for dinner one night, which did not agree with Audrey the next day, leaving Amanda with a very fussy, gassy baby. Emily had a time-out there for not picking up her toys, which is something we haven't emphasized here at home much. I forgot to change Audrey before I took the girls today (due to the pooped pants), so the first thing on her daily sheet was to change a wet diaper. *sigh* One of these days, I'll get into the rhythm, right?
Last weekend, we went to a waterpark with some friends, and had a really nice time. Emily was pretty excited to go swimming, even though she was probably only in the water for half an hour or so. Travis had a good time on the water slide, which apparently was pretty wicked and even better after a couple beers. I got to talk to some other friends who are fighting the same terrible-two's-plus-infant things that I have been. It felt good to get out and be social, and yet come home, have bathtime, and have everyone sleep well that night. Plus we watched the ISU women win, and that's fun too.
I told my boss today that I am thinking of looking for a different position at IVS, but I don't really know how to begin because part-time positions aren't ever formally posted - you just have to come across something by word of mouth. He was pretty surprised and was really interested in why I would want to leave the department, and I told him I was tired of feeling like my work wasn't worthwhile. I have yet to be on a project where I have actually gotten to do design work from the ground up, although some projects have been better than others. All the projects, though, have included massive amounts of documenting others' work, annoyed objections to my review of things that were implemented without my input, and lots of being told that my job is easy that anybody can do it, and should be doing it, too. I will be thinking this over more in the next few months, but I guess the nice thing to take from today is that my boss was really wanting to keep me in the department. At least somebody thinks my work is valuable! Travis is fighting frustrations at work, too, and went to bed at 9 tonight because he couldn't sleep last night, frustrated with work. I know we'll both get through this, but these workplace transitions are always hard. Maybe this is the stress that's tripping Emily over the edge... but it's the only stress in our lives. We really have it pretty good!!
I got to sub for some friends' volleyball team the other night, and it was SO FUN. I had forgotten how good it feels to focus on something and work up a sweat and get my heart going. It took me several hours to wind down afterwards, and since it was a 9:00 game that was kind of a sleep-killer. I have been reeeeally stiff the past two days, but it was totally worth it. I think this weekend will be worth it, too, since my sister-in-law is turning 30 and Travis volunteered to stay home with the girls so I can go socialize. We'll see if I can stay awake and keep up with the party!
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