Just Powers

I always knew it would happen. The minute I gave birth to Emma I began bracing myself for the moment when Mike became the parent of choice. She has consistently chosen me over Mike for the last 18 months but every time he starts to look sad about this I have reminded him “Look, I get a year, maybe two, and then she will be all about her daddy, for the rest of her life.”

Since she has had such trouble going to sleep lately, I have been the only one putting her to bed for a few weeks while we try to establish a consistent routine and figure out what works. Even though she has gone to sleep with no problems at all for a week or two, we have been afraid to jinx it by switching it up and start having Mike put her to bed too.

Tonight, after I brushed her teeth and washed her hands, we were on our way to the bedroom when Emma suddenly veered off towards the kitchen. She found her Daddy there and reached out for his hand and led him to the bedroom, where the two of them got her pajamas out and started the routine for bed. Mike and I looked at each other over her head with our eyebrows raised, and I took a step back and let Mike take over.

I thought when this happened I might feel pangs of jealousy or sadness. Instead I feel such joy that Emma has two parents she loves and feels safe with. No doubt the jealousy and sadness will rear their ugly heads at some point, but for now I am just happy to have a night off.

Update: Tonight, one night later, Emma went to kitchen, found her Dad, took his hand, then turned and took my hand and led us both to her room to get ready for bed. To say we were both little puddles on the floor would be an understatement. We just can’t believe this kid is for real sometimes.

I have heard a lot of people talk about the fact that when you have kids you become abnormally obsessed with their poop and love to talk about it with anyone who will listen.

Actually, not so much for me. My obsession is with Emma’s sleep. I think about it, worry over it, dream about it and talk to everyone about it as if it is the most important thing IN THE WORLD. Last week I went into a 20 minute description of Emma’s sleep issues with an unsuspecting but very nice mother at the park. Oddly, as I write this, I realize I haven’t blogged about it too much. Lucky you.

For the last two months, Emma has gone from being a model sleeper to my worst nightmare. She used to go into her crib drowsy, look at us as we said goodnight and left the room, and then roll over and go to sleep without a peep. We rejoiced, we high fived, we secretly thought we were the best parents in the world.

On the day she turned 15 months, she decided to make it very clear who is the boss when it comes to her sleep. Only once in the last two months has she gone to sleep without crying. Sometimes it is a quick, whimpering cry - those are happy times. Other times it takes us two hours to get her to sleep - those are the why-did-we-decide-to-have-kids-we-obviously-are-the-worst-parents EVAH times. We aren’t really sure what happened to cause her hatred of sleep. There have been a string of events that might be behind it - vaccinations, teething, sickness, travel, weaning from the nighttime bottle (which is uh, not going so well. Please don’t tell our ped…I plan on lying about it when we see him in a month.) If anyone knows about a 15 month old “screw this sleeping thing” phase that kids go through, I am all ears.

But maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Just now, not 20 minutes ago, my old Emma came back to visit. I put her down for a nap, she watched me leave, and rolled over and went to sleep. Aaaaahhhhh.

No doubt she will bring me back down to earth tonight - bedtime seems to be worse than naps for some reason - but I can always hope that the stage has finally come to an end.

And also, if anyone has any tips about weaning off a bottle at bedtime, please let me know. We have been able to switch her from the bottle to a sippy cup with milk at bedtime - but really isn’t that just cheating? Still milk, still the sucking action. I am torn about whether to go cold turkey on the sippy cup or whether to just go a little more slowly and trust that she will wean herself when she is ready. In the past we have leaned more towards trusting that she will do what she needs to do when she is ready, and it has worked, but I don’t want to set my kid up for future therapy centered around dependence issues just because I didn’t know how to take the bottle away. Which is not to say I am under any illusion that she will not already be in therapy for something else I have done to her…

Dear Interwebs -

I have been a huge slacker. I haven’t posted a real post in over two weeks. I have no excuse really, the time has just slipped away from me. Please accept my sincerest apologies and my assurance that it won’t happen again. For a while. Maybe.

In my defense, I haven’t been completely MIA. While I haven’t been writing, I have been reading. I know that Catherine at Her Bad Mother has been having killer false labor, and OH MAH GOD, I feel so bad for her (although maybe not so false as of today? Fingers crossed). I know that Doodaddy hit his 500th post, Jessica and A Parent in Silver Spring were featured in the Washington Post Express and over at My Merry Way June gets cuter every day. I have been hanging on every word written at Boobs, Injuries and Dr. Pepper, and have been holding Dawn at Alex Year One (Two!!) in my heart.

I’m gonna go sleep now and dream of all the posts I am going to write.

Talk to you soon.
Jen

Emma turned 17 months old today.

Her separation anxiety continued this month, with the most difficulty being Monday mornings at day care. Leaving her wailing in the arms of Miss Kathy made me want to quit my job at least four times this month. Somehow the knowledge that she is developing appropriately is no consolation on those mornings.

Sleep became a challenge for her this month (and last month too really) in a way it has never been before. And by *challenge* I mean *nightmare*. Our once rock-star-sleeper now cries every night before finally falling asleep. We don’t let her go too long before going back in and rubbing her back, and she eventually falls asleep, but it is so hard to watch her having such difficulty with something she used to do with such ease.

Besides the challenges, this month had its share of fun and adventures for her too.

Emma’s Grammy and Grampy from Massachusetts visited for a long weekend this month. She blew bubbles with them, and took them to Ikea and Mayorga Coffee and Red Dog Cafe and just generally hung out and had a good time. She can’t wait to spend a whole week with them at the beach this summer.

Emma also traveled to New Jersey this month to see her Poppy and Nonnie, Aunt Lexi, Great Gram, Aunt Sally and Uncle Bill and Uncle Tim and Aunt Elvie. She loved meeting Aunt Lexi’s new *baby*, Mowgli - a French Bulldog - and spending time with everyone. I think the highlight of the trip though was the grandfather clock that chimed every hour, causing Emma to run to the living room to watch it.

We have had hundreds of gypsy moths in our yard this month, and Emma can’t get enough. She runs to the back door every morning looking for them and whenever we go outside she finds them and waves at them as though they are BFF.

She also became obsessed with The Wheels on the Bus this month. She moves her hands in circles and looks at us with her eyebrows arched, waiting for us to start singing. She loves when the doors go open and shut and likes to jerk her hand behind her when the driver says “Move on back”. Cutest thing ever.

She is still playing with sound combinations, and although we recognize words occasionally there is nothing that she says with regularity. She continues to pick up sign language though - please and thank you! - and this month signed “more milk”, her first phrase.

We continue to be amazed at her bravery and determination and how much she understands about her world. We love her with all our hearts.

Taking turns from Justpowers on Vimeo.

I took this video back in January and never got a chance to put it up. I remembered it the other day and decided the cute factor far outweighed how late I am sharing it with you.

I met a FellowMom today. I like to think that I am pretty outgoing and make friends easily, but honestly I have found the task of making new mom friends to be a little daunting. So when I connected via email and a local moms Yahoo list with the mom of two kids who attend the same day care as Emma, I was excited to meet her. We agreed that we might meet today when we picked our kids up.

I arrived at daycare and met FellowMom. She seemed very nice and her kids are great, which is always a good sign, although I, like a dork, was as nervous as the first time I asked Mike if he wanted to get together sometime. We exchanged pleasantries and when our kids got restless we made the “Well, I guess I gotta run” face and got in our cars to go home.

On the way home I was in a left turn lane at a stoplight - with an arrow that must be further away than normal or something, cause I have almost missed the light more than once - and when the arrow turned green the person in front of me didn’t move.

“Argh-I-hate-everyone-why-can’t-anyone-drive-can’t-they-see-the-light-changed-what-
the-heck-are-they-waiting-for-oh-wait-this-is-the-light-I-always-miss-maybe-I-will-just-
give-this-slacker-a-little-horn-action-and-then-they-will-finally-move-their-butt” I thought. I tapped lightly on the horn once or twice and the driver waved in the mirror and started to turn.

As we turned, I looked a little more closely and realized…well you know exactly where this is going. The driver was FellowMom.

Beautiful. Just beautiful. Way to go Jen.

And I wonder why I have trouble meeting people.

Breakfast with Emma caught on video using our new Flip camera and uploaded to Flickr’s awesome new video service.

We *heart* technology.

Oh, and Emma.

Emma turned 16 months old today. It was a tough, but exciting month for her.

She spent the first half of the month feeling pretty sick from the vaccines she got at her 15 month visit - I suspect it was the MMR that did her in. She spiked a fever of 103.4, had what I guess is the classic rash associated with measles (or is it mumps?), and was really really miserable for two full weeks. Around the same time, Mike was out of town and she seemed to really miss him, which only exacerbated how bad she was feeling.

Once Daddy returned and she started feeling better, the slide incident showed us that Emma is pretty much fearless, even if the same can’t be said of her parents. She continues to go down the slide on her belly, face first, any chance she gets, as this video documents.

The climbing she was just beginning to enjoy last month has become an obsession. She climbs up on the dining room chairs at every opportunity and once even pulled one down on top of herself. Luckily we were right there to rescue her and she didn’t get hurt. The incident did prompt a “no climbing” rule for the dining room chairs however. It’s a battle we are not likely to win, but we keep trying.

She also decided this month that going down the stairs backwards on her belly is for losers, pah! She now walks up and down the stairs holding on to the railing, if there is one. If a railing isn’t there, then Mommy or Daddy better be, cause she is going anyway. When we leave the house in a hurry and I have to carry her down the stairs to get her in the car, she screams in protest. As soon as we arrive home and I take her out of the car seat, she wriggles out of my arms so she can walk up to the front door.

As if sliding and climbing and stair-walking weren’t enough, just in the last week she has started *jumping*. She bends her knees and then jumps up by straightening her legs without her feet leaving the ground. She thinks it is hysterical. Imagine what she will do when she can actually get some air.

Even though she is fearless on the slide and the dining room chairs, Emma started showing some pretty classic signs of separation anxiety this month, which certainly wasn’t helped by how sick she felt during the first half of the month. She was tearful and clingy much more than usual and it tugged on my heart something fierce. I used to be able to leave her at day care and she would happily run off to play with the other kids without so much as a “see ya mom”. Now I can’t get out of there without lots of tears and a pouty lower lip and the arms reaching for me in desperation. This of course causes me to have my own tears and pouty lower lip all the way to work.

I know it’s just a stage, and a developmentally appropriate one at that, but it is a tough one. She wants me to hold her all the time and has lost any ability to entertain herself, even though she used to be great at it. One day I know she will grow out of this though and I will pine for the moment in time when she wouldn’t even let me put her down so I could go to the bathroom. I will grab her and sneak in a hug and a kiss in the nanoseconds it takes her to peel herself away from me to go play with her friends. So I am trying just to cherish the closeness that comes with her new neediness and not feel smothered by it.

She is still mostly just chattering, not a lot of intelligible words yet, although every once in a while we hear something that is unmistakable. Last week, she said…wait for it…”lasagna”. Yep. Lasagna. She also says “EJ”, a friend she plays with about once a week, although it sounds more like “Eej”.

Her sign language on the other hand is going great - she seems to pick up a sign after only seeing it a couple of times, something that has amazed me on more than one occasion. In addition to “more”, “finished” and “milk” which she has been signing for a while, she now signs “again” (to be fair, a sign that is pretty close to more, but she uses it in context which blows us away), “apple”, “bird”, “thank you”, “eat”, “raisin” (my favorite) and we are working on “please”.

This month she shared Easter with her Aunt Jocelyn (who doubled as the Easter Bunny with her rockin’ Easter baskets - yes plural), went to the Kite Festival at the Washington Monument with us and visited the cherry blossoms in full bloom with EJ and Bridget. She did some gardening with Mommy and was fascinated by all the flowers showing up the yard - especially the hyacinths and daffodils in the front.

She continues to eat almost anything, and this month discovered she loves berries of any kind. She also enjoyed fajitas for the first time, and wolfed down the aforementioned lasagna. Oh! And finally this month, she got really good at drinking from a cup. At the beginning of the month she could do it without my help, as long as I was there, hovering, to make sure the cup didn’t end up in her lap. Now she is so good at it that I can give her the cup and leave the room, feeling pretty confident that she won’t spill. Of course, now we are working on getting her not to tip the cup over when she has finished drinking, which is a favorite game…

The separation anxiety notwithstanding, she is quickly turning into a little girl which is so fun to watch, even if it makes us feel sad at how fast it is happening.

Jumping for Cherry Blossoms from Justpowers on Vimeo.

Emma, her friend EJ, his mom Bridget and I all went down to the Jefferson Memorial yesterday to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. Despite the freezing cold wind whipping off the Tidal Basin all four of us stayed in pretty good spirits and were even able to find a sunny spot among the blooms to practice jumping.

Just for fun I went back to our pictures from last year’s blossoms - here’s Emma then. Big shout out to our friend Jack and his mommy Kate who went with us last year and moved away not long after. We miss them lots.

I found out recently via Just Up the Pike that the folks behind Arlington Cinema ‘n Drafthouse are opening a new venue in late Summer 2008, two minutes from me, in the movie theater at the Wheaton Mall. A night spot? Within walking distance of my house? Yippeeee!!

Montgomery Cinema ‘n Drafthouse promises first run movies, live music and comedy, sporting events and family friendly entertainment. The coolest part about the Drafthouses (besides the now incredibly close-proximity to moi) is that you watch the movies/comedy/sports/families in a restaurant setting. I saw The Business of Being Born at the theater in Arlington and had a great time eating dinner and drinking a couple of beers while I watched.

Now I definitely need to line up a regular babysitter, and maybe even keep her/him on retainer for a couple of nights a month!