Weird weekend

It was a good weekend, but a weird one. The trip to Prescott didn't start off so well. The drive was okay, but as soon as we got to the Highland Games, everything just felt wrong. It was hot, dusty, and miserable. The site would have been lovely in February. On Saturday it was entirely too hot, and there was NO shade. Daddy was cranky, I was pissy and you were throwing tantrums left and right. So we decided it was not the place for us to be. Grandma suggested we go into town to the Prescott Brewing Co. for lunch - it's her favorite restaurant.

And lunch was awesome. Perfect and exactly what we needed. We felt rejuvinated and as Grandma left for her drive home, the three of us walked down Whisky Row and enjoyed the old town Prescott square. We crossed into the Courthouse lawns, and you played in the grass with ladybugs for ages. I think we sat barefoot enjoying the shade and breeze for well over an hour. Positively lovely. BTW, pictures in the current album of the Prescott fun.

We drove home and enjoyed the rest of our weekend, complete with church and Phoenix Suns games. "Go Suns!" you still love to chant.

All is well on the sleep front. You are going to bed sometimes in your own bed now, with my help. That's fine. I don't mind the whole bedtime story thing. And when you've awakened in the night, you go back to bed without too much struggle. In the morning, one of us comes to open the door and you climb in for the last 1/2 hour or so of slumber. Again, I can handle that much. It's the 2 a.m. ones where you crawl in and nobody gets any more sleep that kill me.

You take the good, you take the bad

So, the good news was last night. I told Daddy I was going to have you fall asleep in your own bed last night, period. I get stubborn like that sometimes. Obviously you do too, because you weren't having any part of it. You were waaaaaaay overtired before long, and I thought there was no way you were going to give in. Finally, I sat down on the bed next to you, in the dark, and read an imaginary story out of a book. I don't even know what book I was reading because I couldn't see it, but the rhythm of my voice and the dark lulled you very quickly to sleep. You basically fell asleep sitting up and fell over into my lap. I flipped you back onto the bed (but not the pillow) and you stayed there, sound asleep. I put the blanket on you and shut the door behind me.

I shut the door because we also decided last night we were not going to let you come and climb into our bed. We didn't know how you'd react, or how we'd react, or exactly what we'd do but we were determined to find out.

So you didn't even try. Didn't wake up until I foolishly creaked the door open at 6 a.m. to wake you up. I think it was the blanket. You've been sleeping with just a sheet because it's been so warm, even with the air conditioning on. But last night I thought to actually put a blanket on you and I'm wondering if that didn't make the difference. You can bet I'll be doing that again tonight.

The bad news? No Flagstaff. I was SO looking forward to getting away from the city, the hustle and bustle of our normal weekends, and the 110+ degree heat. It's supposed to be in the one-teens by Monday! That's just wrong. But unfortunately the cabin is still winterized and we wouldn't have any water. That won't work. We might still go to Prescott for the Highland Games tomorrow, but that's it. No restful weekend, just driving and returning home much too soon.

Poop. Hopefully we'll at least get some sleep.

Old houses

This isn't really about you, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it does impact your life. Our house was built in 1954, hardly a 1920's Tudor but definitely an old house in Phoenix terms. People react very strongly when they learn the age of our home. Uncle Chris and Uncle Mason bought a house built just before ours, as did Uncle Tom and Uncle Talmar. 1950's houses in Phoenix are developing a certain cache. And while it's not quite as cool as the aforementioned 1920's Tudor, I happen to agree with a lot of what this writer has to say:

Does Lurch Live Here?

Old houses are the best. I don't know if we'll ever own a new house, and I am 100% okay with that. I think you'll appreciate it too.

The Latecoming Family Bed

We managed to avoid the whole cosleeping pitfall through your infancy. As a baby and toddler, you've slept (somewhat) happily in your crib. I thought the transition to your new bed would prove that track record sound and all would be well.

Not so lucky. You won't fall asleep in it - just in the living room as you used to. And you won't stay asleep in it. *sigh* Every single day this week, you've crawled into bed with us, sometime between 2 and 4 a.m. Usually you seem to really be sleepwalking. And last night was the first time I really tried to take you back to your own bed, and that just wasn't happening.

Our bed is only a queen bed, and you take up more than half of it with your sideways sleeping, kicking, stroking, etc. Daddy and I are getting increasingly bleary-eyed, and I'm getting anxious about finding a solution. I suggested to Daddy that we start shutting your door like we'd originally planned. But we both know this will lead to you either walking smack into the door, or finding it shut and pounding and screaming until we rescue you or you fall back asleep on the floor. I don't want to do that to you either.

So, I don't know what we'll do. I'd like to think you'll grow out of this phase, but I'm not so sure.

And no potty pee this morning, no stickers. Hopefully tonight.

Day 2

No luck last night and almost no luck this morning... until you sneezed. You started to pee on the floor and I plopped you on the potty. So I can't count that as you intentionally using it, but you figured out what was going on and you got cheers and stickers anyway. We'll keep trying.

Still waiting for the results of our service's search, but I'm being patient. I am not moving you just yet anyway. I want to do thorough research and I want this to be as painless as possible.

You're coming out of a growth spurt by the way, and looking more like a big girl every day. The pudgy tummy is almost gone, and you're just so tall I can't believe it. *sniff* No more baby Ceili.

Pee Pee in the PotTY! (to a conga line beat)

Pee pee in the potty! Pee pee in the potty! Ceili is big girl! She is not a ba-bee!

Sorry, had a little proud mommy moment there. You woke up in our bed this morning (due to a 3 a.m. sleepwalking incident that had you crawling in bed with us), and stayed asleep there as we got ready for work. I finally woke you up to get you ready for school and took you in to pee in the potty. I thought it wasn't going to happen as we read through the Elmo counting book for the third time. But all of a sudden, you gasped and the flow began!

I made a HUGE deal out of it, singing the pee pee song, giving you a sticker of your choice, putting a lollipop sticker on your doggie calendar bought just for that purpose. You just loved the attention, of course, and you were happy and cheerful and still singing the pee pee song at daycare. You were very excited to show everyone your SpongeBob sticker and tell them you got it for going pee pee in the potty!

Yes, I know, the potty talk will be getting old. But I'm excited for you. We tried all night last night to get you to pee in the potty, but you just wouldn't. It's been months and months since you last did, mostly because I haven't been consistent at all. Not anymore. We have a plan and we're sticking to it!

I also started in earnest getting some info on additional schools. I have a great benefit here at work that I'd forgotten about that will do most of the initial legwork, research and contacting places for me! Then I can take their research and go from there. I'm going to stop at the montessori I like with the huge waiting list and pick up some more info too.

Beware the empowered PMS-ing mama.

Toddlers, potties and daycare, oh my!

So many things occupy my mind and my time right now. Honestly, how I remember to get up in the morning amazes me. I have been needing to make myself two doctors' appointments for two weeks, but I keep forgetting. Maybe I'll do it today. Maybe not.

Anyway... I had a chat with Becky, your teacher this morning. It started by me asking her if she has your art anywhere. When you were in the one year old room, you had artwork almost daily. Daddy still has a pile in his car (that's another story). But since you've been in the two's room, I think we've brought home only two or three pieces. She did in fact have a small stash of about five pieces, and she's working on cubbie holes for each child's artwork. The cubbies are there, they're just not being used. Um, duh. But she surprised me when she said she hasn't been doing it because most of the parents basically don't care. She said most don't even come back into the classrooms to pick up or drop off their kids, they wait in the office for their kids.

WHAT?!

Okay, so then I figured I'd bite the bullet and ask about potty training. I told her that I wanted you to start this, but no matter what I do with her at home, it will be worthless unless she and the daycare push it too. And I wanted to know what she thought about it. She said that there's no sense in doing it at daycare if the parents aren't working on it regularly at home too, and most parents don't/aren't willing to.

WWWHHAAATTT?

I assured her that (a) I was very interested in what my daughter is doing at school, and in fact would appreciate knowing MORE about her schedule, her interests, etc. in addition to getting her artwork, and (b) potty training is very important to me, and my husband and we have been and will continue working with her at home and would appreciate if she supports us in that with her efforts at daycare.

Don't get me wrong, she's really nice. And she wasn't trying to say that I'm not interested in these things, just kind of the opposite. Nobody else is interested in these things in their kids. That is simply f'ed up.

So I made a decision right then and there. First, I don't want my daughter in an environment where the kids are in families that don't frankly care about the quality of their education or daily life. Second, I don't want my daughter in an environment where the staff expects that kind of an experience for their students (I want them to expect me to do my part!). And third, I want you potty trained, and fast. The sooner you are potty trained, the sooner I can get you out of there.

And the icing on the cake? One of your two-year-old classmates showed up in her Daddy's car (with FOUR large "Viva Bush!" bumper stickers on the back). Her Daddy got out of the car to come around and get her out, flicking a cigarette. I looked more closely and realized that he'd driven up, smoking a cigarette, with all the windows UP. From the film on the windows, it was far from the first time.

Something's gotta give.

Big Girl Bed

So I woke up this morning to Daddy gasping in surprise. He was surprised by your sudden appearance in our bedroom at 5:30 a.m. You woke up, and without a peep (we have the monitor on, remember!) got out of bed, came down the hall (still no fix for your doorknob), pushed our door open and climbed into bed with us. Not a peep. Grand. As long as all you do is come into our bedroom, that's fine, but I admit I'm concerned you'll start wandering the house. More babyproofing in our future, I fear. But you can get into things you couldn't before - like the darned refrigerator! I can just envision you hopping out of bed, wandering to the kitchen and helping yourself to the jug of milk. Welcome to childhood, right?

So, now I have to make a decision... I can fix your doorknob so I can shut it and you can't get out, which means that when you wake up I have to come and get you. And you seem to be waking earlier, which is a bit annoying. Or, I can leave things as they are and let you have control over where you go and what you do. That means I run the risk of having you playing with the TV, the piano, the refrigerator, etc. etc. etc. Hmmm.

Oh, and no luck getting you to fall asleep in your own bed since that first night. We're back to the fall-asleep-on-the-couch routine we're all used to. I still want to change that one.

Last night = Not so good

Yeah, well, you didn't do quite as well last night as the night before. You would NOT go to bed by yourself, even with me in the room. And I was really tired to begin with. You finally fell asleep on the couch as usual, and I left Daddy with the task of putting you to bed. I had a lot of trouble sleeping, as I'm coming down with a cold I think, and between that and the THREE times you woke up crying, I got very little sleep. I feel dreadful today.

One remaining item from last Friday that I didn't get into was your behavior. You were sent home with a note on Friday that you had severely bitten your friend, and that you'd been aggressive with your classmates all week long! Great. Just the news we wanted to hear. We spent much of the weekend reminding you about how to be a good friend, and discussing appropriate behavior. I think you got it, and yesterday she said you were pretty good. I asked yesterday morning for more details about last week, and it seems usually you're pretty normal (all toddlers bite once in a while). But Friday your bite was particularly bad. Anyway, she said you're usually provoked into it and the girl you bit was basically your best friend.

This has prompted us to do some thinking, and I'm looking once again into your schooling options. I called two montessori schools yesterday. The first had a waiting list of 18 people for just the toddler room and the enrollment director for the second was already gone. I'll have to call again today. I'm going to contact the state for more info too. But the cost... the cost! We're paying roughly $440/month right now, and the cheapest decent montessori I've found is $660 for full-time school/daycare. Grrrr. I still think it's an option we're going to have to seriously consider. I think you need more structure, and more learning opportunities. That just means we're going to have to pay for it.

I'll keep you posted.

O. Baby? O. Child!

So, I don't think I can call this a baby blog for much longer. You are less and less of a baby with every passing day. Today you are significantly less of a baby, and I'm a little sniffly over it.

Saturday night when you fought going to bed so badly, you screamed and demonstrated that yes in fact you can climb out of your crib. You didn't, but only because I pulled you down. It showed us that it was time to say goodbye to the crib after all.

So, Sunday after the Mother's Day festivities, we brought out the nearly pristine bed rail we scored for $3.00 at Goodwill. No, I'm not ashamed to admit that! Daddy scrubbed it with cleaner and hosed it down, not that it really needed it, but did I mention we got it at Goodwill? While it dried, I gave your room some attention. I cleaned generally, and put up high or relocated any possibly dangerous items. I put a door handle guard on the inside of your door and hooked the baby monitor back up. Daddy took the front off of your crib and put it behind for storage.

When it was dry, we entertained the idea of putting the bed rail on the crib, but that folly only lasted a couple of minutes when we realized just how easily you could push the entire bed, mattress and yourself included, right on to the floor. So, we turned our attentions to the daybed which has served as your changing table and general storage site for some time. Cleaned off and readied, the bed rail fit right on. It was perfect.

After your nap, I showed it to you and you were really excited by it. You climbed up, and quickly overcame your fear of climbing back down.

At bedtime, you were again fighting going to sleep. It should be no secret by now to readers of this journal that I've never made a big deal of making you go to sleep by yourself in your room. But I had an epiphany and decided, what better time to start? It took a bit of coaxing, and I had to stay with you for quite a while, but guess what? You fell asleep in your big girl bed. With Elmo and your "new doggie" (actually a big stuffed bear that looks kind of like a dog) at your side.

You slept through the whole night, never waking once. At 6:30 when I came out of the shower, Daddy was settling you in the living room to watch Finding Nemo for the 11,452nd time. He said he'd found you in the hall, calmly calling, "Mommy?" You woke up, climbed down, opened the door and came out. All by yourself. *sniff*

Now I need to replace the doorknob on your door. I couldn't close it last night because it is very squeaky and I was afraid it would wake you up. Seeing as how you clearly have NO problem getting out of bed by yourself, I really ought to do something about this!

Nice weekend

We had a very nice Mother's Day weekend. Friday evening we went to see Uncle Chris's band play at Paisley Violin. It was First Friday, which means the whole downtown arts area was just jam-packed with people. It was a really neat scene and I wish you were a little older and could enjoy it more.

Saturday was our annual company picnic, which was a blast! Pictures are in her Ofoto gallery. If you need the link, send me an email. You got to ride a pony... no, TWO PONIES! You had the time of your life, and between the ponies, the petting zoo and the bouncies, I think you thought you were in absolute heaven. You were really good, too, only getting fussy at all when it was well past nap time. We had a brief scream-fest as we were leaving at about 2:00, and you screamed for about 15 minutes as we headed home. You slept for 2.5 hours, which caused a VERY late bedtime Saturday night. In fact, Saturday night's bedtime prompted some events that will be a post of their very own immediately following this one.

Sunday morning, you slept in until 7 a.m.! Yippee! That's what happens when you go to bed at 10:45. But it was a nice morning. After a quick breakfast, we went to church where you were pretty well-behaved. Then we went to Flat Iron for a Mother's Day lunch. OMG, that was an INCREDIBLE lunch. We had beef tenderloin in a merlot reduction, salmon wellington with dill bernaise, seasoned asparagus and carrots, fingerling potatoes and a dessert of raspberry creme brulee. Speaking of dying and going to heaven! Actually, Uncle Chris, Daddy and I had that. Grandma had her favorite meatloaf, and was just as happy. Oddly, you refused to eat even one single bite (besides a tiny piece of bread before the food came). And then cheerios for dinner. It was not a day of culinary delights for you, I'm afraid.

Sunday evening, more relaxing and another 3 hour nap this time for you. Yikes! But it let us get some things done related to the coming entry, so it was worth it. And you were asleep by 9:30 so all was not lost.

All in all, a wonderful and rejuvinating weekend. I hope everyone else had the same!

God bless the child

Happy Mother's Day!

Safari, baby

You have a very strange Grandmother. And Uncle Chris. I just received this email from Grandma regarding our imaginary African Safari this weekend for Mother's Day:

"I'm not sure if Chris cc'd you with this, but since
you're invited along, I thought you should have the
information re the Safari and leaving on Saturday PM:

Everything is in readiness -- we'll have to take a
second plane and parachute into the jungle with the
Land Rover, but the flight to Kinshasa leaves Saturday
evening. They have the cutest baby parachutes, though,
so Ceili will look adorable even as the wind whips
past her."

I told her I'm not going unless I'm assured of two things. First, the Land Rover must parachute BEFORE I do. Second, photographers must be on hand to record our plummet toward Earth. My demands had better be met, or I'm staying put.

Boom!

Well, last night was eventful. After a bout of racquetball with Grandma, I came home and tried to be Supermom. Generally I'd say I was successful, finishing 3 loads of laundry and some dishes and straightening of the living and bedrooms. Of course, we didn't eat dinner until 7:45, but something's gotta give, right? Gah. I didn't mean to feed you that late, but time slipped away from me.

As a result, you were fed and awake well after 8 when you should have been winding down. It actually took holding you, cuddling you, turning all the lights off and a lot of persuasion to get you to fall asleep at 9:15. I was grateful it wasn't later, since you showed signs of making it a long one. We caught the end of a show we were watching and I headed off to bed at 10:00.

At approximately 10:15, I'm guessing, I thought we'd been hit by a nuclear bomb. The most intense white flash surrounded the house and an enormous boom sent me flying 5 feet out of the bed. Of course, you slept right on through. How is that possible? But I digress.

Daddy and I immediately ran outside, where we saw the houses across the street had power but our side didn't. We heard voices and ran to the backyard, and it was clear the houses on the street behind us were out too. Turns out it was the power line behind our house, the transformer thing blew itself up. So, when it was all said and done, after hours on the phone with the electric company and "sleeping" while waiting for the electric company and through their repairs to the lines, then being restless the whole rest of the night worrying if Daddy's cell phone alarm would actually work... well, we were just beat. And you woke up about 1:45 a.m. in the middle of the final night's quiet, just for the heck of it.

So, I've decided tonight, no racquetball, no cleaning, something easy for dinner before 6:30 - and I'm going to paint my toenails bubblegum pink, just for the hell of it. And I'll be snoring by 9.

OMG!

Okay, without the "my" in there, OMG is your new phrase. So, setting aside the heresy I have to relate how you say it because it cracks me up. Let's say someone walks by on the street and the dog goes crazy with barking. You will come running through the room to me with a look of wonder and shock on your face and in the breathiest, most amazement-filled voice whisper, "Oh God! Oh God!" You did not get this from us, of course. I am re-teaching you "Uh-oh!" if you can believe that, because I'm trying to get this phrase back out of your vocabulary! Egads.

This weekend was a weird one. I had a yucky random fever on Saturday and you slept a ton so the day was a wash and I didn't get to go the walk. Very bummed about that, and not sure what's going on with my health. I should see someone about that.

Sunday was a handful. We went to church, then to the mall (got my engagement ring fixed - yay!). You got a new Nemo plate and enjoyed a lunch of rice and beans. Imagine the diaper I received as a gift from THAT later on! Lovely.

Friday night's concert was okay. The band is great, but they were a middle set and had to keep it short. They also didn't play the handful of songs I really wanted to hear. Add to that my absolute and utter exhaustion and we weren't much fun. We watched Wonder Stuff, then stumbled home to get you and crash in bed.

One good thing came from this weekend though. The Phoenix Suns swept the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the NBA playoffs. And what does Ceili say? "GO SUNS!" You're better at "GO D-BACKS" which you will now randomly yell out at inopportune moments, but you managed to get on board with "GO SUNS!" pretty easily. You can even yell "Defense!" and cheer/clap and boo at the appropriate times. Ah, that's my girl.