Anna spent the morning merrily rolling around the floor among all of the new toys she got for Christmas. And then she was on her tummy, with an enticing toy just out of reach in front of her. She dug in her little toes and came thisclose to scooting forward. If it were simply mind over matter she would have gotten there, but she couldn’t quite do it. But in a week or so I think we’re going to be in big trouble!
Author: Sarah
Merry Christmas, 2008
4.2 Years Old!
Dear Carolyn,
Today you are four years and two months old! It’s also your Grandma’s birthday, and Christmas Eve! You are so excited about Santa. I can hear you bouncing around upstairs, almost an hour after we put you to bed. But you have to realize one very important thing: Santa doesn’t come until everyone in the house is sleeping!
Sleep is one of those things that seem to be a struggle in every family with small children, and ours is no exception. Anna, for example, does not nap – even though she should. And you? You think you can manage with nine or ten hours of sleep in a night. Which is kind of like me managing on four or five hours of sleep. It can be done, but it doesn’t make for very pleasant days. The tough part is that instead of sleeping, you read. And I haven’t quite figured out on what planet a parent could possibly say “stop reading and go to bed!” Plus, since you’re related to me? It won’t work anyway. I used to sneak into my walk-in closet and turn on the light in there and read books until I fell asleep on a pile of clothes.
So our days have been kind of cranky lately – you’re cranky because you’re up late reading. I’m cranky because I’ve been up late knitting, wrapping, baking, cleaning and decorating. So it hasn’t been the calmest month we’ve ever had, and we have had more than a few meltdowns – both of us have. And Anna looks at us like we’re both nuts. (Which is probably true, but she’s related to us, so she’ll be a nut too, right?)
This month should be better. I promise to go bed at a reasonable hour each night so I can be a more pleasant mommy each day. And you’re going to go to bed earlier because tomorrow morning under the tree you will unwrap the gift of sleep: “The Sleep Fairy”, which is a guided relaxation CD for children. Here’s hoping it works, and that we can all sleep better for the new year!
Love, Mommy
Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’
So it only took Anna eight days to learn how to flip back from her tummy onto her back. Life as we know it is going to change drastically, because a baby who can roll both ways is a mobile baby.
Time to figure out where to keep all of Carrie’s teeny-tiny choking-hazard toys…
So Insanely Tired
We were supposed to drive to NYC today, but the weather reports sounded really bad, so at 7 PM we made the decision to leave as soon as we could get everything in the car. Which was 9 PM.
Actually, though, all things considered it wasn’t a bad way to make the trip. We stopped once to change drivers and managed to get in at 2:30. And in reality, I’ve been up nearly that late for several nights in a row now, trying to get things done for the holidays – although not with the added stress of traveling. The kids pretty much slept the whole way, although it was tough to get them back to sleep once we arrived.
Now we just have to recover before our weekend of partying!
Very Patient Puppies
So I’m a little late with everything to do with the holidays – including the decorating. Yesterday Carrie and I broke out the “family room” box and decorated the mantel:
I was fussing with the lights for a few minutes, and when I turned around, Carrie had decorated the dogs:
Considering the efforts we went through to get the dogs to wear those things for Carrie’s first Christmas I’m flabbergasted. Either the dogs have really mellowed over the past few years, or they’ve realized she’s above them in the pack order…
Christmas Pageant
Is there anything much cuter than 4 (and 5) year olds in little costumes singing? I thought not. Carrie was the Innkeeper’s Wife in the Christmas pageant this year, and had one of the only spoken lines in the whole play: “No room in the inn!”
Unlike last year, the baby doll didn’t come close to falling on the floor, and all the wise men were willing to give up their gifts. This year the kids signed along with singing one of the songs – I noticed when Carrie would practice it at home that she was signing. It was really, really adorable. I have to admit I’m going to miss this sort of thing when Carrie goes to public school next year, although I imagine there will still be some sort of holiday concerts? And of course Anna will get her turn in a few years.
Polar Opposites
I came to the conclusion pretty early on that my babies were two very different people, but lately I’ve noticed how very, very, different they are. Let’s see…
Carrie’s natural clock would have her go to bed at 10 PM and wake up at 8 AM.
Anna’s natural clock would have her go to bed at 7 PM and wake up at 7 AM.
Carrie has always needed a lot of light in her room to go to sleep.
Anna must have her room pitch black to go to sleep. (My current working theory on why she doesn’t nap EVER is because it’s too light outside. My current plan to correct this: move to the North Pole. I didn’t say it was a good plan…)
Carrie learned to roll onto her tummy, and immediately was like “thank God, I can finally go to sleep now!”
Anna learned to roll onto her tummy, and is like “oh my God, I can’t go to sleep now!”
Carrie took bottles of milk straight from the fridge, and to this day would prefer that all food and beverages be room temperature or colder.
Anna must have warmed milk – we’ll see after we start solid foods next month if those will have to be warmed as well.
Carrie is most definitely a soprano. We used to call her our beloved little Nazgul because of all the high-pitched screeching.
Anna is going to be an alto. Or maybe just a quieter child all around…?
It will be fun to see what other absolute differences there are between these two as they get older!
Five Months Old!
Dear Anna,
Yesterday you turned five months old! I honestly don’t know where the time has gone – I alternate between feeling like you just got here and having a hard time remembering a time before you arrived.
If I had written this letter on time, I would have said you were thisclose to rolling over. But today I can tell you that you just learned how to flip from your back to your tummy! And my goodness, were you proud of that little feat, giggling and looking up at me like “look, Mommy, I finally did it!” As soon as you learn how to flip the other way, we’re going to have to re-baby-proof the house…
Right now your most very favorite “toy” is a water bottle. You love, love, love water, especially in bottled form. You’re not quite as fond of being in it for baths as you are of looking at it though. You’ve also really become adept at grabbing toys and bringing them to your mouth, so any small links or light toys are very fun to play with. We have a soft block that has handles and rings dangling off of it that chimes when you shake it, and that’s your favorite actual toy to play with.
You still sleep amazingly well at night, although naps are still elusive. Basically, you only want to take a good long nap whenever we actually need to go anywhere. If there’s a day when we have nothing at all to do and nowhere to go, you barely let me put you down for five minutes. Of course! I’ve given up on getting anything done around the house for the most part. Eventually I’ll have time, right?
In just a few short weeks you’ll be starting to try “solid” food – which is good, because you intently watch anything we put in our mouths and frequently try to grab things off of my plate. I can’t believe how big you’ve grown already, my little baby girl. I can’t wait to see what this next month brings!
Love, Mommy
Birthday
Happy birthday to meeeee! We had a fairly quiet evening in – just ordered pizza, had cake and decorated the tree. Although in retrospect, giving a four year old cake and then letting her stay up late and expecting her to help hang ornaments on a tree without knocking more off than she put on may not have been the wisest idea.
But now I have a Borders gift card and an iTunes gift card to spend on whatever I want. Happy dance!