Today, as I drove to Pumpkin's day care, I saw a jumping fish. My drive takes me past Torrey Pines State Beach and along Soledad Creek, which is a marsh/lagoon where it flows into the ocean. It is a beautiful drive. There are usually egrets in the lagoon, and I always enjoy the splashes of bright white among the green and blue of the lagoon. Today, I caught a flash of silver out of the corner of my eye. I looked over just in time to see the fish jump again, and then again. It made me smile, and almost made me not mind that I was about 10-15 minutes late in my evening routine (a colleague had cornered me about one and a half minutes before I was going to leave, and by the time I had resolved his issue, I was 10 minutes late leaving work).
I got to Pumpkin's day care, and was greeted with her usual joyous "Mommy!" and monkey hug (a monkey hug is when she wraps her arms AND her legs around me, and snuggles her head into my shoulder).
It was all down hill from there. Her teacher told me that my sweet little girl had bit four times today, even though she was otherwise in a great mood. Traffic on the freeway was horrible, so I didn't have much time to cuddle with Pumpkin before I had to start dinner. She watched Signing Time on the "eee-eee" for awhile, but then she came out to the kitchen, stuck her hands in the air, and demanded "up". When I said no, she collapsed in a dramatic heap at my feet. By this time, Hubby was home, so he picked her up, and took her kicking and screaming into the living room. Pumpkin wouldn't eat her dinner, insisted on being carried for the majority of her walk, wouldn't get in the bath for me (Hubby eventually took over), insisted on sitting on my lap for her snack, and then squeezed her strawberry all over my pant leg. To top it off, she threw a fit instead of brushing her teeth.
She's asleep now. I'm going to go have a beer with Hubby, and reminisce about the peaceful days when it was light enough to go for a decent stroller walk after dinner and Pumpkin would happily brush her teeth, as long as everyone in the house did, too.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Looking for Correlations
We continue to play sleep roulette. Recent research indicates that a feeling of a lack of control can make people see patterns where none exist. (Click here for the original article in Science.) Our recent nighttime experiences certainly corroborate this conclusion. Hubby and I are desperately looking for a correlation between the quality of Pumpkin's sleep at night and anything. Tonight, I'm hoping that the ease of the evening routine and the quality of the subsequent sleep are inversely related.
Last night, she was a little angel all evening. Sure, she was clingy (we're in a very Mommy-centric phase), but we went through our evening routine with little protest. She went down awake, but only protested briefly before listening to the rest of the story I was telling her and falling asleep. She was asleep by 8:20.
But then she had a horrible night. She was up earlier than usual to nurse, and never really settled back in to sleep in her crib. Hubby ended up sleeping with her for several hours, and I got up and nursed her again at 5 a.m. to get her back down for another hour and a half of sleep (next to me).
Tonight, Hubby hadn't even started reading her bedtime stories at 8:20. Every step of our routine was more challenging. Dinner was OK, but the walk was downright weird. Hubby was planning to stay behind and get the trash out for pick up tomorrow, but Pumpkin and I had barely left our driveway when she decided that Hubby needed to come, too. She charged right back up to the door, calling "Da-dee! Da-dee!" Once she had assembled the entire family for the walk, we set out again. Two doors down, we could hear a baby crying. This completely stopped Pumpkin in her tracks. She kept saying "Bay-bee. Bay-bee. Mommy. Mommy. Some incomprehensible toddler-speak that may have indicated that she wanted Mommy to go make that baby happy. Bay-bee." And then she would make the sign for crying. We tried to pick her up and move her along, but that prompted a tantrum. So I ended up crouching down next to her on the sidewalk, trying to explain that the baby had a mommy, who was going to make the baby happy again. We eventually walked on, but she kept talking about the baby, sometimes making the sign for crying, sometimes saying "happy", but not sounding too convinced that this was true.
We finally got home, and she nursed and had her bath. But then she wanted to play with the empty recycling container and open and close the door to the cupboard where the trash can is stored. Our attempts to deal with this patiently did not work, and she had a full melt down when we finally forced the issue. I had to hold her for several minutes before she would eat her snack, and she would only eat the snack on my lap, not in her chair. We won her back to the table with a lure of a strawberry. She does like a good "brerry". (I can't actually render or imitate how she says "strawberry", but it is my favorite of her words right now.)
It was an exhausting evening! Hopefully, Pumpkin thought so, too, and will sleep better tonight. If not, we'll keep looking for that elusive pattern. We just can't accept that it is not there. At least we now have a scientific study explaining why.
Last night, she was a little angel all evening. Sure, she was clingy (we're in a very Mommy-centric phase), but we went through our evening routine with little protest. She went down awake, but only protested briefly before listening to the rest of the story I was telling her and falling asleep. She was asleep by 8:20.
But then she had a horrible night. She was up earlier than usual to nurse, and never really settled back in to sleep in her crib. Hubby ended up sleeping with her for several hours, and I got up and nursed her again at 5 a.m. to get her back down for another hour and a half of sleep (next to me).
Tonight, Hubby hadn't even started reading her bedtime stories at 8:20. Every step of our routine was more challenging. Dinner was OK, but the walk was downright weird. Hubby was planning to stay behind and get the trash out for pick up tomorrow, but Pumpkin and I had barely left our driveway when she decided that Hubby needed to come, too. She charged right back up to the door, calling "Da-dee! Da-dee!" Once she had assembled the entire family for the walk, we set out again. Two doors down, we could hear a baby crying. This completely stopped Pumpkin in her tracks. She kept saying "Bay-bee. Bay-bee. Mommy. Mommy. Some incomprehensible toddler-speak that may have indicated that she wanted Mommy to go make that baby happy. Bay-bee." And then she would make the sign for crying. We tried to pick her up and move her along, but that prompted a tantrum. So I ended up crouching down next to her on the sidewalk, trying to explain that the baby had a mommy, who was going to make the baby happy again. We eventually walked on, but she kept talking about the baby, sometimes making the sign for crying, sometimes saying "happy", but not sounding too convinced that this was true.
We finally got home, and she nursed and had her bath. But then she wanted to play with the empty recycling container and open and close the door to the cupboard where the trash can is stored. Our attempts to deal with this patiently did not work, and she had a full melt down when we finally forced the issue. I had to hold her for several minutes before she would eat her snack, and she would only eat the snack on my lap, not in her chair. We won her back to the table with a lure of a strawberry. She does like a good "brerry". (I can't actually render or imitate how she says "strawberry", but it is my favorite of her words right now.)
It was an exhausting evening! Hopefully, Pumpkin thought so, too, and will sleep better tonight. If not, we'll keep looking for that elusive pattern. We just can't accept that it is not there. At least we now have a scientific study explaining why.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Friday, October 03, 2008
Dreamless in San Diego
I am taking a leadership training class at work. Our homework from the last class was to write a list of our dreams, big or small, work or personal. It has been a busy, frustrating two weeks since the last class, and I am only now thinking about this assignment. I brought it home with me, thinking I'd work on it tonight with a beer in hand (beers help you dream... really! Hubby and I hatched our plans for the big trip over beers at our local pub).
Hubby is enjoying a well earned night out with some friends tonight, so it was just Pumpkin and me through the dinner, walk, nurse, bath, snack, brush teeth, books, bedtime routine. Throughout, I was sort of thinking about the assignment, at least when Pumpkin wasn't busy telling me about the cat we'd just seen ("eee-ow! eee-ow!") or asking for "Daaad-ee". Nothing was coming to me, but I figured that once I sat down with my beer, I'd have no problems. I've always had dreams. Before the big trip, there was the wedding in the south pacific (mentioned in this post and this one). I had dreams of owning a house and not having to live with someone else's bad decorating decisions (the crushing realization that you can buy a house and still live with someone else's bad decorating decisions, as evidenced by my bright blue bathrooms, is the topic of another post). I always had a career plan, with short term and long term goals. At one point, I had dreams of earning my fighting shorts in Muay Thai (also the topic of another post).
Now... I'm almost done with my beer, and still I have nothing. Sure, I'd like to travel more, but whereas in the past, I could always point to specific places I wanted to go (Easter Island, Angkor Wat...), now I have a much fuzzier idea that it would be nice to see some new places. I used to have big ideas about things I'd like to do in my work field. Now, I have no such ideas, and I honestly don't know what the next step in my career should be. I used to have specific goals I aimed for in whatever fitness activity I was doing. Now, my goal is just to make it to a yoga class once a week. Oh, and I'm at least 20 years younger than everyone else in my yoga class. The first day I showed up for class, the other students thought I was a substitute instructor.
I can't decide if this lack of dreams is a sad state of affairs, or just a normal phase of a relatively new mother.
I think I'll go finish my beer while watching a Daily Show or something, and just try to forget all about this assignment.
Hubby is enjoying a well earned night out with some friends tonight, so it was just Pumpkin and me through the dinner, walk, nurse, bath, snack, brush teeth, books, bedtime routine. Throughout, I was sort of thinking about the assignment, at least when Pumpkin wasn't busy telling me about the cat we'd just seen ("eee-ow! eee-ow!") or asking for "Daaad-ee". Nothing was coming to me, but I figured that once I sat down with my beer, I'd have no problems. I've always had dreams. Before the big trip, there was the wedding in the south pacific (mentioned in this post and this one). I had dreams of owning a house and not having to live with someone else's bad decorating decisions (the crushing realization that you can buy a house and still live with someone else's bad decorating decisions, as evidenced by my bright blue bathrooms, is the topic of another post). I always had a career plan, with short term and long term goals. At one point, I had dreams of earning my fighting shorts in Muay Thai (also the topic of another post).
Now... I'm almost done with my beer, and still I have nothing. Sure, I'd like to travel more, but whereas in the past, I could always point to specific places I wanted to go (Easter Island, Angkor Wat...), now I have a much fuzzier idea that it would be nice to see some new places. I used to have big ideas about things I'd like to do in my work field. Now, I have no such ideas, and I honestly don't know what the next step in my career should be. I used to have specific goals I aimed for in whatever fitness activity I was doing. Now, my goal is just to make it to a yoga class once a week. Oh, and I'm at least 20 years younger than everyone else in my yoga class. The first day I showed up for class, the other students thought I was a substitute instructor.
I can't decide if this lack of dreams is a sad state of affairs, or just a normal phase of a relatively new mother.
I think I'll go finish my beer while watching a Daily Show or something, and just try to forget all about this assignment.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
A Tonic
I had a frustrating day at work today, and was pretty tired when I got home. Pumpkin was home with my Mom, because she'd come down with a tummy bug Sunday night. I got out of my car and heard Pumpkin running around giggling in the backyard, saying "BUH-bbles! BUH-bbles!" My Mom had set up the bubble machine that Pumpkin's aunt gave her for her first birthday. It was producing heaps of bubbles, and Pumpkin was running around chasing the bubbles, having a blast. This picture is from an earlier bubble-fest, so the outfit was different, but the idea was the same:
After dinner, Hubby and I went out for a walk with Pumpkin, as we usually do. She usually gets out of her stroller when we cross the last street before our house, and she walks the rest of the way home. She has this half run-half walk that she does, which gives her a cute, bouncing gait. She caught up with Hubby, and reached her hand up to hold his hand. I hung back, watching Hubby and our cute little bouncing girl walk home ahead of me.
So I'll go off to bed tonight in a much better mood than I was in when I got home. Maybe Pumpkin will even let me have a decent stretch of sleep, to complete the cure.
After dinner, Hubby and I went out for a walk with Pumpkin, as we usually do. She usually gets out of her stroller when we cross the last street before our house, and she walks the rest of the way home. She has this half run-half walk that she does, which gives her a cute, bouncing gait. She caught up with Hubby, and reached her hand up to hold his hand. I hung back, watching Hubby and our cute little bouncing girl walk home ahead of me.
So I'll go off to bed tonight in a much better mood than I was in when I got home. Maybe Pumpkin will even let me have a decent stretch of sleep, to complete the cure.
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