The Big Girl Bed

After saying multiple times that I would keep Zoe in her crib until she climbed out or moved out, I changed my mind. Although I'm quite confident she could climb out, she never did and she is certainly no where near moving out. We moved her to avoid some potty training regression we saw sneaking in on our territory.

Regression is a word that as parents we are confronted with regularly. Following the recent (thoroughly debunked) autism/vaccine scare, we watched our children like hawks post-vaccine, particularly the dreaded MMR. Are they talking a little less? Walking more slowly? Less eye contact? I will admit that I am not a worrier, so this applied less to me and more to many of the moms around me, especially the mamas of boys. I'm happy to say that so far all of our kids appear to be okay, but at multiple times all kids have shown, and will show, different signs of regression.

I expected a big back lash after Oliver was born. I'm not sure what I expected. Jealousy? Hitting? Anger? I didn't get any of those things. I got a child who had started to potty train and then could not be less interested. Okay, I'll take that over hitting, etc... Well, she pulled it together, potty trained herself (which is a separate post) and here we are today.

She is (or was at the beginning of this saga) still in pull ups for her nap and for night time, which I am okay with. She didn't want to wear them, but agreed when I told her that her body wasn't quite ready yet for sleeping in big girl underwear. That is the full title. They must be called "Big Girl Underwear" or a look of utter disdain is focused in my direction. I digress...

I noticed that she went from protesting the pull up and demanding I take it off the minute she wakes up, and generally even taking it off herself, to happily leaving it on and even using it after she had woken up. To me, that was regression, and I wasn't having it.

After a discussion with the the hubs, we asked Zoe if she was ready for a bed, and she was thrilled. I ordered the bed with some nervous anticipation. Would she sleep in the bed? Would she be scared? Would she leave the bed and start making grilled cheese sandwiches at 3 am?

So far, the answers are yes, no, no.

She loves her bed and looks forward to bedtime even more than before the bed arrived. She likes to play in her room and "pretend" to sleep. She is so proud of her bed, that when I accidentally called it a crib the other day she looked at me and practically growled, "I sleep in a big girl bed, NOT in a crib!" So far, although she knows she can get out and does occasionally to get a dropped doll or blanket, she stays put and waits for us to get her out of bed. She still plays happily in her bed, which is hands down my favorite tv show (god bless the video monitor). She is content.

I know this can all change, this is a honeymoon period, blah blah blah. But guess what, oh wait, she is trying to open her door. Gotta go!

Doing Things For Me

I forgot to do stuff for myself.

Not how to do things, I still manage to take care of myself on a daily basis, but somewhere along the way I forgot to do things that aren't for the family. I'm not trying to be a martyr or win any points here, it is just a fact. I enjoy doing things for my family. I don't mind using my precious hours alone to go to the market or run other errands. It's my job. I'm a stay at home mom. I'm so happy to have that as my job and would never want it any other way, but I realized recently that it can by my job and it can be my life, but I need something else to break it up. Nobody can be at work 24/7.

So today, which is one of the two days of the week I have part-time help, even though I had several errands to run I grabbed my knitting bag and went to Aroma Cafe. I spent an hour and a half sipping coffee and knitting. I relaxed my shoulders when they got tense (which they tend to do when I knit), I took some deep breaths just for fun and I relaxed.

For the first two minutes I felt a little guilty. I did have errands to run... I pushed the thoughts away and focused on my knitting and purling. It was such a wonderful morning and I need to do it more often.

So, I started a sweater for Zoe last week. I know the basics of knitting, but have never made anything other than scarves. I wanted to go back into knitting with a bang, and went down to La Knitterie Parissiene, a local knitting shop, with no intention other than leaving with a challenging project that will force me to do something for myself. Yes, I realize that I am making a sweater for Zoe, baby steps... The owner of the shop, Edith, was so helpful and supportive. I was worried she was going to talk me out of undertaking such a big project as a novice, but she told me it would be easy!!! and that she would take me through the steps. Well, it hasn't quite been easy, and I just had to pull out 4 rows of a painstaking stitch, but I've loved every minute of it.

I am making Zoe a purple sweater, since she tells me multiple times a day that purple is her very favorite color. I made the mistake of telling her that I was making her a sweater, and now every time she sees me with the knitting she asks if it is done yet. This afternoon I showed her the progress, she told me it didn't look like a sweater, and that I'm so silly. Then she wanted to help, so I gave her a set of knitting needles and an old ball of yarn and my baby girl and I sat and knit together. Watching her poke the needles into the yarn, and her joy while playing with the ball, tangling her little fingers inside and feeling the material, made me remember why I love my job. I love my job so that I can sit and make my baby girl a purple sweater while she plays with yarn and rests her head on my knee. My job will always overlap with my life, but now that I'm learning to do things for myself again, I appreciate the overlap.

I don't know how you do it, can you please help me?

I just heard this from my 2 1/2 year old while she was trying to turn on Oliver's toy for him. Yes, she is officially 2 1/2 as of the 5th. The time, which seemed to stand still while Oliver crept through his first few months, is now starting to fly while I watch my two little ones play and interact. If I squint, I can see the future. I'm pushing out the future that includes fighting and hair pulling and tattling, and I'm only looking at the future I see now.

Zoe is handing Oliver a shaker and saying, "It's ice cream Oliver. You like ice cream. Do you want red Ollie or green? You can have green and I can have red. Here you go, we can share. Okay I'm gonna eat mine now Oliver, you can eat yours. You'll like it."

She loves him so much and I can only hope that it will continue on like this. She loves to entertain him, and us.