Life's been moving pretty fast lately which doesn't make much sense to me. One day it will be Monday and then suddenly it's Friday and I'm not quite sure what happened Tuesday through Thursday. There are plenty of afternoons that move by at a snails pace so it just doesn't match up how the time is passing so quickly. Everything is a blur when I'm not getting enough sleep. Bella had a really good month or two of sleeping and I was getting used to the four hour blocks of sleep I'd get at night with her waking up for the morning at 6am or later. This past week and a half have not been so ideal. She's been teething, gassy, and then caught a cold from her sister. On top of it all, she's transitioning to only two naps a day and just flat out refusing to even consider closing her eyes for a late afternoon nap which has led to some night terrors from over exhaustion. She's waking up at 5:30 AM or earlier. Phew! I'll admit this leads to very little sleep for me which in turn leads to a nasty, moody, irritated Mom/wife. Justin and I start competing over who is more tired and it just gets ugly. I'm very glad today is Friday because the weekend feels fresh and new ahead of me. Bella bean is (knock on wood) sleeping fairly soundly so far tonight and I didn't have to give her Tylenol, Motrin, Ora-gel, or Mylicon drops.
The most frustrating part of troubleshooting my 6 month old is that the screaming could be any number of the ailments I described earlier. Is her gums bothering her, is the cereal giving her gas, maybe she just can't breath through the snot in her nose. Seriously, I wish she came with a dashboard that had lights that popped on to indicate what the particular problem is at that moment. Alas, it's trial and error and a achy back for me instead.I'm really glad my girls have their father's immune system and the ability to sleep off a cold within 24 hours. Amazing! One day there is a runny nose the next day it's gone. Thank God we don't have lingering colds and coughs like so many kids I know.
Addie is such a joy right now (energizer bunny fits too). This evening we played hide and seek and every time it was her turn to hide she'd reveal herself to me even before I was done counting. Then laugh and shout "Again". I'm in love with her response to any question being "well, maaaaybeeee..." or "'cause maaaybeee..." it's hilarious. The last two days she's insisted that I "paint" a kitty cat face on her with my makeup so she can be a kitty and meow around the house on all fours. As a result, she's had my charcoal eye liner on her nose and as wiskers on her cheeks. She likes to tear off her diaper now when she poops and bring it to me (AWESOME!). She has the ability to pee and poop on the potty but refuses most of the time. It's a control thing and I didn't have it in me to battle with her this week. Next week we'll work on it. She's been a great big sister lately; including her sister in games and play. I love that she says "Bella look-it" or "watch this Bella" assuming that Bella is her captive audience. For the most part she is!
Even during hard weeks there are precious moments that I choose to focus on and hold on to as memories for when the girls are grown and at a place in their lives where they no longer want to sit on my lap after their naps. This morning Bella took a good two hour nap and just started talking when she woke up-indicating she was completely rested. I adore walking into her room and peaking into her crib to see her beaming smile. She starts arching her back and kicking her legs with the biggest grin on her face. Greetings like that are priceless. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Addie has school in the morning and I get the pleasure of picking her up from class. At 11:30 AM when Teacher Weng opens the door and lets the kids come out into the hall to find their Moms; Addie always has the most precious "I love my Mom" look on her face when she runs into my arms. Immediately she starts babbling about what she did at school that day.
Their may be bags under my eyes, dog hair stuck to the baby's drool, and Addie's perpetually wearing a soggy diaper; but life is still pretty darn good.
I'll freely admit that we had our Christmas tree up and decorated the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving. It's not such a travesty here in the Philippines where Christmas is celebrated during all the 'ber months (September, October, November, and December). To be honest I was getting excited for Christmas long before getting the tree up because holiday shopping here starts very early to get packages sent to the States in time. It is the second year we are using a (gasp!) artificial (despicably fake) tree. The thing looks so lovely and perfect that I can't really complain. The best part of the whole thing is the no-drama assembly. Justin and I have some funny stories of our real trees in our past. One stressful year we drove all the way to BFE rural Ashburn, VA to find the perfect tree that we discovered upon arrival at home that the trunk was at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the tree. Two trips to Home Depot later for bigger and more elaborate tree stands we might have had the tree up but crooked. The last few years in the States we got smart and picked out nice trees pre-cut at Home Depot that eliminated 90% of the stress. Long story short, real trees include a decent amount of huffing and puffing and secret eye rolling between my husband and I. I am pleased to say that this year there was none of that (over the tree at least...maybe about the ornaments our two year old broke but that's another story). I'm ALMOST ashamed to admit that Cora assembled the tree for us on Thursday so that we could have a nice tree decorating afternoon on Saturday as a family. We turned the Christmas music on and let Addie put all the kiddie ornaments on.
On a funny-how-have-I-gotten-old-note, I caught my husband chuckling to himself as we were decorating the tree. I, or course, inquired about the private joke he was enjoying. His response was that when he was younger he never in a million years would have thought that a red and green quilted Christmas tree skirt with teddy bears on it would be in his living room. In fact, he said, he never gave the idea of a Christmas tree skirt a single thought. It's just funny how things change and now with two daughters so much of his life will be the equivalent of quilted Teddies on skirts. He's a great Dad for girls. My daughters are so very lucky!
On crazy-my-husband-is-going-through-football-withdrawal note, I have jut been kicked off the computer because the Raven's game is on.
One of my new friends Sara
