Borrowed Time

Glimpses (3)

Saturday night, J went out with a few friends and I had a low key night at home with some laundry.

You should know that I pushed J out the door to spend time with friends and I did laundry of my own free will. Miracles do happen sometimes. 

I was folding a few things of G’s and around midnight and decided to sneak into her room to put them away & to check on her.  I’ve gotten pretty good at this stealth move and can usually pop in & out unnoticed and with no one awaking from their slumber.

Welp. That failed Saturday evening. The second I stepped foot in her room she stirred.  I froze, naturally, but the damage was done. Before I knew it, she was standing up in her crib, arms outstretched.

I scooped her up and settled into the rocking chair, like I’ve done so many times before. But these times are increasingly precious, as G loves her bed these days.  I’ve written about our sleep style and the gist of it is – she reaches out for her bed the second we zip up her footie pajamas (all hail the footie pajama, may she never be too old for footie pajamas).  Basically – she doesn’t love being rocked to sleep anymore.

So we settled in and she instantly conked out on my chest.  These moments just rocket me back to 2 am feedings in infancy.  I remember how her little body fit perfectly on my chest, knees tucked up under her tummy, head on my right shoulder, hands tucked underneath her chin.  She was 3 weeks early and so teeny when we brought her home.  In fact, I could lay her down on the rocker’s foot stool and – head to toe – she didn’t take up the entire width of the stool.

But then you have nights like Saturday – and her head is on my right shoulder, but that is all that is similar to infancy.  Her arms rest where they landed, one flung around my side and the other draped over my left shoulder.  Her legs are sprawled, nearly hanging off the side of the chair and the weight of her makes my shoulder twinge, just a little.

But this moment, for this little girl who is loving her independence, feels like I’m on borrowed time.  I’m getting this extra cuddle time on accident – and maybe because I was a little dumb in going into her room at midnight. 

And as with stolen things, this moment had to go back, because after just a couple minutes of snoozing, she lifted her head back up, looked around, and pointed back to her bed.

So I gave her back, begrudgingly, and helped her settle in to her crib.  I smiled as she tucked her legs up to her belly, because at least that hasn’t changed, and helped her find Bop to curl up with.  I draped a blanket over her, even though I knew that by morning it would be cast into a corner, and snuck back out of her room.

And hey, if late night laundry on a Saturday night earns me a few minutes of rocking my daughter to sleep, I’ll burn the midnight oil more often.

 

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I Saw the Sign

baby sign language

Lately, we’ve been working with G on saying “please” and “thank you”.

Because, you know, raising a kid who has basic manners helps in one’s quest to appear to be an adequate parent.  I mean, I realize that at 17 months we’re far away from her using them & using them correctly but if we can add those two magic words to her vocab list I figure it can’t hurt.

Anyway.

The number one thing she wants in the world right now is food.  Before she had her adenoids removed she was pretty meh on food – but now she wants ALL THE FOOD ALL THE TIME.

So naturally, we’re asking for some pleases and thank yous surrounding meal time.  The thank yous are coming easily and adorably ‘Tank too’.  I may or may not be caught asking her to say thank you for no reason other than I want to hear her sweet little voice say that those words – it is the most precious thing of all time ever. 

And greedy momma that I am, I’ve been dying to hear a “peeease?” come out of that little girl’s mouth.

Alas – no dice.  No please. No peas. no peeze. Nada. Zlich. Zippo.

This is surprising – because we’ve moved so far from the days when she would only say “dat”.  She’s repeating everything (heaven help us) and it’s fun to hear her mimic real words.

But please? Puh-lease. Girlfriend is having none of that.

Let me set the scene:

G sees her cup on the counter. She points to it and says “eh eh eh” while doing the ‘more’ sign.  I say “G, do you want your cup? Can you say please?” G then rubs her chest and does the ‘more’ sign and then points to the cup some more.

Rinse and repeat times a million and apply to a hundred different scenarios.

Every time I asked her to say please she just rubbed her chest and did the more sign. Every. Single. Time. 

And since we did this around food/dinner time I just assumed that she was saying she was hungry, what with the chest/tummy rubbing and all.

But then Friday evening I finally realized that she might be using sign language.

And you’ll never guess what sign language for please is.

baby sign language

 

Oh you know. JUST YOUR STANDARD CHEST RUB.

So G, I owe you an apology, I have been working hard to get you to say please and here you’ve been saying it all along.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to catch up with my sign language basics so my house doesn’t go full-on lost in translation.

 

P.S. If you don’t have Ace of Base stuck in your head by now then I’ve completely failed. 

 

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Slices of Life – June 2015

slices of life

 

(Psst – if you’re at all interested in the little “slice of life” of how J and I met then I suggest you go to the OKC Moms blog to read all about it. And DON’T JUDGE ME.)

 

Just like last month, I’m trying to keep track of little snippets as they happen. I want to be able to look back and remember the little things, so forgive me as I use this little corner of the internet as my scrapbook today.

When she really likes something she’s eating she will throw her head back, smile, and give us an approving “mmmmmm”.  This most often happens when there is sugar or Mexican food involved.

She adores her little chair that my parents gave her – she climbs in it and is just so pleased with herself when she’s sitting there, you can just tell she feels so big & special in it.

I taught her recently to “smell the flowers” so now I’ve created a bit of a flower smelling monster.  She loves to run up to flowers, leaves, herbs, what have you and give them an enthusiastic sniff.  She did this the other day with a picture of a flower in one of her books.

When we ask her, “what does the doggie say?” she pants like a dog instead of barking. It. Is. The. Best.

She is obsessed with lift the flap books – she gets downright giddy when we read them to her & we’ve started bringing them to doctor’s appointments with us because, more than any toy, that is what makes her happy & keeps her most occupied.

She can correctly identify her head, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, belly & toes.  When asked where her shoulders are she shrugs her shoulders in response – I count that as partial identification.

Vocabulary: Purple, Blue, Shoes, Mama, Dada, This, That, Dog, Ball, Bubble.  She uses the “more” sign to indicate that she wants something, and has started nodding her head yes and shaking her head no in response to questions. Hurray for some communication!

When we say “G, tap your toes!” she jogs in place, hopping from one foot to the next. I cannot wait to get this girl in a dance class.

We have developed a full on obsession with Sesame Street – or at least the theme song.  She gets downright giddy & dances whenever that comes on.

Instead of running to me when I pick her up from school, I basically have to chase her down.  It’s all out of her desire to show me ALL THE THINGS.  “Mom, look at me with the vacuum. Mom – did you see the blocks? Look! Let me show you the shapes on the walls!” I’m definitely the only mother chasing down her child at the end of the day.

She still loves to sit on my lap while I do my make up in the morning, and will grab the eyelash curler and hold it up to her own eye.  I find my blush brush in random parts of the house every day – she has claimed it as her own.

When we ask her if she’s ready to go to bed she will often reply with, “Bop“.  That’s the name of the little stuffed puppy that she loves so much – she knows that Bop stays in the bed and when she’s tired she’ll often look at us and ask “Bop?”

 

G at 17 months – you are so fun and you make us laugh every day.  We love seeing the little girl you are growing into! 

 

 

 

 

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