Walk Like Amanda
Been a rough week, getting-to-the-computer wise. Felt like crap the first half of the week, so much so that I had to call in sick on Monday. It didn't help that Sunday night I had an MRI on my elbow at 11:45 pm (Bethesda runs 24/7 ops, and that was the earliest appointment I could get), got home around 2, and then found myself alternating with Supermom trying to get Erin to go back to sleep -- she had a fun awake and crying period from midnight until 3:30.
So when my alarm went off two hours later and my head felt like the Hindenburg, I figured work didn't need to see me that day, and I'd get better soup at home.
Having failed pretty miserably at trying to nap with the rest of the house, I stayed up after lunch, and brought Erin downstairs after her usual wisp of a snooze (she's going to be great at college, with all the late-night studying and sleep deprivation practice she's had here in these formative years). For a lark, I decided to try her (no) hand at walking, and tarnation if she didn't take a few itty bitty steps with no help before plopping on her haunches. I managed to bust out the video camera and got her to go again a couple more times, so she's definitely on the precipice of finding her land legs. She's also climbing up the stairs with wild abandon and sliding down them with less wild and abandon-free precision. I don't know where my wife came up with the whole "toes and knees" idea, but the kids just get it. Down stairs, off the bed, from our laps on the chairs, she's a sliding, floor-bound fool. The other morning I plopped her down in the couch, told her to stay (works for Bailey), then went to go get her a banana. Came back, and there she is on the floor, looking around the corner at me on all fours. "Howdy!", was her smiling, didn't-fall-off-the-couch expression.
Her vocal acuity is getting better, too, as her "Maaaaaa-MA" and "datdat" attest to. "Grandad" comes out as a definitive two-syllable g-sounding thing quite different than her 'daddy', and we think we're hearing the attempts at "kitty" or "Tucker" in the yiddish-like "chcchchch" she spits forth when she sees him. But the Word of the Month is definitely "up." "Up" means "I want up." "Up" means "I want down." "Up" and a point means "I want that." "Up" can mean "do that again."
Not such a good thing, though: I was reminded, during one of my 3:30am sessions of walking her around her room to get her back to sleep, how Ryan learned the word "open" and used to say it so sadly and pathetically when I was holding him, reaching out to the door, hoping his mother would come in.
But despite the fact that Erin still gets up 4-7 times every night, we are seeing progress -- she actually put herself back to sleep once, and a few other times I've gone in and she was still lying down, so, sleepier than the usual grabbing onto the siderails. I even got her to go back to sleep without picking her up, just by gently shaking the end of the crib. But it occurred to me that except for that one night in December, she hasn't really slept through the night, so neither of I, since the last night in Hawaii back in early November. Granted, this doesn't compare to the years Ainsley's gone without, but this is my blog, and these are my beans. As it were.
So when my alarm went off two hours later and my head felt like the Hindenburg, I figured work didn't need to see me that day, and I'd get better soup at home.
Having failed pretty miserably at trying to nap with the rest of the house, I stayed up after lunch, and brought Erin downstairs after her usual wisp of a snooze (she's going to be great at college, with all the late-night studying and sleep deprivation practice she's had here in these formative years). For a lark, I decided to try her (no) hand at walking, and tarnation if she didn't take a few itty bitty steps with no help before plopping on her haunches. I managed to bust out the video camera and got her to go again a couple more times, so she's definitely on the precipice of finding her land legs. She's also climbing up the stairs with wild abandon and sliding down them with less wild and abandon-free precision. I don't know where my wife came up with the whole "toes and knees" idea, but the kids just get it. Down stairs, off the bed, from our laps on the chairs, she's a sliding, floor-bound fool. The other morning I plopped her down in the couch, told her to stay (works for Bailey), then went to go get her a banana. Came back, and there she is on the floor, looking around the corner at me on all fours. "Howdy!", was her smiling, didn't-fall-off-the-couch expression.
Her vocal acuity is getting better, too, as her "Maaaaaa-MA" and "datdat" attest to. "Grandad" comes out as a definitive two-syllable g-sounding thing quite different than her 'daddy', and we think we're hearing the attempts at "kitty" or "Tucker" in the yiddish-like "chcchchch" she spits forth when she sees him. But the Word of the Month is definitely "up." "Up" means "I want up." "Up" means "I want down." "Up" and a point means "I want that." "Up" can mean "do that again."
Not such a good thing, though: I was reminded, during one of my 3:30am sessions of walking her around her room to get her back to sleep, how Ryan learned the word "open" and used to say it so sadly and pathetically when I was holding him, reaching out to the door, hoping his mother would come in.
But despite the fact that Erin still gets up 4-7 times every night, we are seeing progress -- she actually put herself back to sleep once, and a few other times I've gone in and she was still lying down, so, sleepier than the usual grabbing onto the siderails. I even got her to go back to sleep without picking her up, just by gently shaking the end of the crib. But it occurred to me that except for that one night in December, she hasn't really slept through the night, so neither of I, since the last night in Hawaii back in early November. Granted, this doesn't compare to the years Ainsley's gone without, but this is my blog, and these are my beans. As it were.
posted by Dan at 10:36 PM
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