- So, Wednesday night I let Aria get her very own iced latte at Starbucks. She’s never had her own coffee before, and she said, “That’s mine?! Thank you!” with awe in her voice. Unfortunately, as I handed it to her I realized I had been so consumed with figuring out if it was possible to get her an even smaller size (it wasn’t) that I forgot to order decaf. It didn’t cause us any behavioral problems that evening, though, because Aria is amazing like that. However, it did cause her to become very worked up about her blankets at bedtime, and then she started to get nervous about everything. For example, when I went in for the umpteenth time to check on her and discovered she needed a diaper change, she was afraid to lie on her changing pad because she said there was a cat up there. I don’t know why that would be scary, but it was. I felt badly for her. And, let’s be honest, for myself, because I wasn’t done working for the day. She finally wore out at about 10:45, thank goodness.
- Thursday she woke up at her usual time, and she was in trouble before she even got out of bed. That poor child. We had a rough day yesterday. We had visitors in the morning, and she was lovely, but then she started to MELT. DOWN. I have never been so happy to see bedtime come. So, we did our bedtime ritual, and I put her down like normal, and she was pleased to go in bed….and within 20 minutes she was upset and calling for me. I went in and determined the best thing for us was to go through our bedtime ritual again. So we did, and it was such a sweet time. Somehow her little attitude had reset, and she was engaged and snuggly. And then, when we got to the end of our routine, we had this exchange (shared from Facebook).
Closing our nighttime ritual, I said to Aria, as I do most nights, “Time to go in bed now. Do you want to be carried like a big girl or a baby?” She leaned in close, looked deep into my eyes, and replied, “I want freedom.”
- Y’all, parenting is an adventure. Also, we make most of our own problems. At least I know I do. I am learning a lot about myself through this whole parenting thing. For example, I’m learning that when Aria is just incapable of listening to me and the tension is mounting, I start to shut down. Apparently my coping mechanism is to emotionally withdraw so I don’t lose it. I don’t like that in myself.
- In other news, Noah has been teething. He has two molars coming in, and I think a couple other teeth, as well. He’s had some roughs night and days this week, as well. Today seems to be better all the way around. And, I think I finally have a strategy for approaching changing his sleep arrangement. I’m sure I”ll be updating you on that next week. I am really hoping it will be a good update, and not five paragraphs about how I’m exhausted, and I need a break, and the kids are miserable, and Noah’s just going to sleep in our bed until he moves out.
- We also have plans to start work on the inside of the house, feed various people we love, get family pictures (we’ve not done that yet at all), and go to the zoo, in the coming week. Isn’t that lovely?
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