The Weekend

Sometimes, your kid looks all sweet and angelic as she's feeding the birds at the zoo, and you think you can never love anyone as much as you love her, and if she just so much as pointed at a pony, you'd buy it for her because she is just THAT awesome.


And other times, she poops in the box holding all of the magnetic wooden doll clothes, and you have to spend 20 minutes disinfecting anything and everything that poop might have touched, and if a band of gypsies even glanced in her general direction, you'd give her away in a heartbeat.
Lucky for the both of us, we seem to be short of ponies AND gypsies in our neighborhood right now.

Good and Bad

So, Brigid has spent the last few days getting up earlier than normal, napping earlier than normal, and starting her bedtime process earlier than normal.

And last night? I still didn't get out of her room until after 10PM.

Mostly because I fell asleep in her bed at 9:15-ish, but still...I think we were heading that way with or without my sudden bouts of narcolepsy.

But I've forgiven her. And do you want to know why I've forgiven her? It's because I'm a total sucker.

And she knows it.

Because, aside from her frequent declarations of 'ME NO YIKE YOU, MOM-MOM' when I'm doing something terrible to her (like trying to put her nightgown on her after her bath *insert evil queen cackle here*), Brigid is getting to be quite the suck-up in her old age.

In the last week, I've been told I'm wearing a pretty dress, pretty necklace, pretty shirt and pretty earrings on various days, PLUS she told me I have pretty hair. So, you know, I'm feeling pretty great right about now. I may even let her stay up until midnight tonight, eating ice cream, if she asks me to let her.

Flattery will get you EVERYWHERE, child.

Early bedtimes are wasted on the young...

Brigid has been exceptionally awesome in transitioning from one thing to another in her short two and a half years with us.

Moving to solid foods? No problem.

Dropping the bottle, especially the pre-bedtime one? Didn't miss a beat.

Losing her morning nap? Just slept longer in the afternoon.

Giving up her crib in favor of the big-girl bed? Best decision ever.

Getting rid of diapers? Eh...

Jury's still out on that one. Particularly the poop-related jury, because we seem to hate the toilet with a passion when it comes time for that little bodily function to take a run at things. This is my LEAST FAVORITE toddler 'quirk' of ALL TIME.

EVER.

The thing with all of these milestones, though, is that we knew when we had to make the move. Either the pediatrician told us it was time, or we suddenly realized we'd be needing that crib for someone else shortly down the road, or I absolutely refused to be responsible for diapering TWO miniature humans at the same time.

We had to take the chance.

But now, we are on our own. And I don't know what to do.

See, Brigid has spent the last week fighting her bedtime to the tune of 10PM, 10:30PM, or even almost 11:30PM on one lovely night that Steve would rather not have to relive anytime soon.

 (At least not for another six months or so! Am I right? Haaaaa.)

(Newborn humor. *sigh*)

And really, if I'm being honest, it's probably been going on even longer than that, since I don't really remember Steve or I exiting her room before 9:30PM in a lifetime and a half. And all of a sudden, she's waking up before 8AM, on top of it, which she NEVER does unless she's sleeping in the same room as us.

I needed advice.

And what do you do when you want to find out what everyone else has done in your situation?

Well, I don't know what you do, but last night, I took to Twitter. And Twitter told me it's probably time to drop that afternoon nap altogether.

And I kind of think, maybe, that I agree.

But, unfortunately, 'Twitter said so!' is not a valid argument in Steve's mind. And, yes, Brigid can get pret-ty crabby without any sleep before bedtime.

So...schedule experimentation, here we come...

After an early wake-up this morning, she went down for a nap an hour or two earlier than normal. Which means, of course, that she got up and hour or two earlier than normal, and now we wait and see if that makes ANY difference in whether or not we can get her to sleep before the sun comes up tomorrow.

If that doesn't work?

We may be in for a rough, nap-free weekend.

Fun.

Energy

Yesterday, Jen and Elizabeth came over to go swimming with Brigid and I in our neighborhood pool, and while it exhausted me to the point that I fell asleep on the couch while watching The Bachelorette (Team Arie, all of the way!!), Brigid was a little less cooperative for Steve, come bedtime, and she may not have fallen asleep until close to 11PM.

But, that didn't seem to stop her from getting up around 7:30 this morning (not that this is a horrible time to get up, or anything, but she usually sleeps in for another hour in the mornings...). We walked in to find her reading the books she'd set aside last night, for some post-daddy reading, that she hadn't actually had a chance to read since she didn't let Steve leave the room until after she was asleep. And when I asked her if she had been a stinker last night, she giggled and said yes. So...there's that.

(Do you want to know what else there is? Apparently, there is a group of mothers in my neighborhood who gather at the pool most days to let their kids swim together. And based on what I saw in their koozies as we were packing up to head back to my house, they like to indulge in an adult beverage or two while they're there. Drinking beer at the pool on a Monday afternoon? It might not be a bad idea to make friends with these ladies, is all I'm saying. They obviously know how to have a good time...)


Oh, and I had to get Brigid a bandaid after her bath. Because she walked into two different walls, trying to cause a bandaid-worthy injury, and we had to put a stop to that, somehow. This one was supposed to be for the elbow she bumped on the wall, but I think she forgot that the elbow was what was hurting in the time it took me to find the darn bandaids. She wanted another one for her knee, but Steve told her this was a magic bandaid that would fix ALL of her bumps in one shot.

At least she's still gullible enough to fall for excuses like that, right?

Traveling in Style

Roadtrips would have been so much more entertaining as a kid if they'd been done barefoot, on a plane, with access to an iPad.

(Also, Brigid is lucky we had a row of three all to ourselves. As cute as I find toddler feet, I'm not sure that any other passenger sitting close to us would necessarily agree...)


 

This weekend...

My baby sister graduated high school.

Brigid behaved during the ATL to IND plane ride, the actual graduation ceremony, the graduation open house, and the return plane trip.

(Minus that bathroom trip when landed in Atlanta, where Brigid wanted to sit on the bathroom floor while I was trying to pull her shorts up, and I am so mean because I wouldn't let her do that, so she tried to bite me. Other than that...)

I got to spend some quality time with my immediate family.

I was able to see the extended family I missed when I was home last Christmas, because Brigid was vomiting all over my aunt and uncle's house, and that I will miss again this Christmas, since I won't be doing much traveling, come November/December.

My favorite high school teacher stopped by my sister's open house to chat for a few minutes, and it was so very, very good to see her again.

(This would be the poor lady who had me, my middle sister, and my youngest sister all for English at some point or another, before finally retiring this year. I'm still not entirely sure if she just couldn't handle one more of us ladies, or if she was just waiting to complete the set before she moved on...I'd like to think it was the latter, but my sister is a huge pain in the butt, so I don't know for sure...)

Steve was able to make the 2 1/2 hour trek away from my parents' house, to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a ridiculous amount of beer (albeit really, really good beer) from a highly rated micro-brewery in northern Indiana.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful weekend, for all of us.

And now, to forget that I won't be able to get back up there for another year or so...

Sad.

Congratulations, Aunt Mary!! We are so very, very proud of you! Good luck in college next year, and don't do anything I wouldn't do ;)

Back Home Again...

The last time we had Brigid on a plane between Indiana and Atlanta, she fell asleep on the way to the airport, kicked and screamed her way through an hour and a half flight, then fell asleep on the train back to our car after we'd landed.

So, let's just say that I am a tad nervous about putting her on an airplane this weekend, for the same hour and a half flight, right before what should be her naptime.

Now, in her defense, that mid-air meltdown was after an entire weekend of wonky sleep schedules, with little to no naps and very, very late bedtimes, so she could be a complete angel on both legs of this flight.

Especially if we tempt her with iPhone game after iPad movie after not-so-healthy snack choice, which I am absolutely not above doing, at all.

Or, she could completely ignore all electronic and sugar coated options, and be a complete devil child, too.

So, I guess what I'm saying is pray for me this weekend, will you? Thanks so much...

And, I officially have a new favorite picture...

Yes, I've said this before. And yes, I know it is a complete cliche.

But I don't care.

When, exactly, did my baby become this little person, again?

Because I don't remember giving her permission to grow up this quickly...

(Oh, yeah...and big thanks to my brother-in-law for the awesome picture!)

Lazy Days

Yesterday, we spent all morning furniture shopping, and part of the afternoon playing with the neighbors and swimming.

Today, it's raining, and we're watching Lion King on our pajamas at almost 2 in the afternoon.

We like variety in our life around here...