Finally!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
20 Thoughts in 20 Minutes
I am not much in the mood to post lately but if I don't write something soon we will be on our Christmas vacation, so here are 20 random things I have been thinking about. I am giving myself 20 minutes to write it, because Amelia is napping and there is other stuff I want to do.
1. With the simple adjustment of Amelia's bedtime, all of our sleep problems have been solved! Oops, not really. After that one post about the early bedtime, Amelia started waking up, babbling and sounding fairly happy, at 4:45 am or earlier. So we moved the bedtime later. After 4 days, it was still happening, so we moved it back up to the earlier time. Now she's waking between 5:30 and 6.
2. I am so sick of thinking about sleep I could scream. Yet I still really, really want to sleep better.
3. I am confused about weaning. Sometimes Amelia seems to be self-weaning, other times she is a nursing fool.
4. I am disgruntled at the mixed messages I perceive about breastfeeding. When women are pregnant and have very new babies, the message seems to be "breastfeed or else!," a message that is more harmful than helpful. Then once the baby reaches a certain age--maybe 9 months or so--it's "hurry up and wean." Is this just in my own head?
5. Amelia has a new friend who is a hitter. What do you do when your baby hits other babies? And what are you supposed to do when your baby has a temper tantrum?
6. I miss my family. You know who you are. Come visit us.
7. Actually I have been very, very sad that we love so far away from our families. If we lived close to family Dean and I could leave Amelia with people who love her and desperately want to see her while we--gasp--saw a movie or something. What were we thinking?
8. That said there are a lot of things I love about my life here. I have a lot of friends. I love our house. Denver is amazingly interesting and easy to navigate. And
9. despite what you may think after reading my grouchy blog posts lately I am so, so glad that Dean has a job that allows me to stay home with Amelia while she is a baby.
10.* In a perfect life, I would go to a yoga class every day, get a massage every week, and write for 2 hours every morning.
11. I have been writing some. I am taking a "master class" that requires a "manuscript." So I have been reworking my manuscript. It's getting shorter instead of longer.
12. I wrote this series of poems that was 40 words each, 4 words per line for 10 lines. Now I don't like it and I am making the lines twice as long. But some of the poems want to be 5 lines and some want to be 6.
13. It was supposed to snow 6 inches here last night and not a drop. Denver has negative humidity, I swear. But after a week or so of unseasonable warm weather, now it is very cold.
14. Amelia is starting to say "no." Sometimes for no apparent reason. It often sounds more like she is just making the sound for the letter n.
15. Teething, you will be the death of me. I am attributing all of Amelia's weird sleep and fussiness to teething. The upper molars are breaking through at approximately 1/16 of a millimeter per day. Sometimes, out of the blue, poor Amelia starts wailing and gnawing on her fingers. We are making liberal use of Ibuprofen, Baby Orajel, and cold teethers.
16. I am still wearing my pajamas. If you want gift ideas for me, think warm pajamas.
17. Also: warm slippers, the ingredients for margaritas, those wrist warmers that are like gloves without the fingers, and gift certificates for yoga classes and massages. And could you come here and watch Amelia while I go to the yoga classes and get the massages?
18. If you asked me what I wanted to Christmas in the past couple of weeks and I said I didn't know or nothing, sorry. I just thought of that list as I wrote it.
19. I also like Anthropogie gift cards.
20. But what I really want more than anything is for all of our family to come visit us a lot. All of you. Everyone. And if you are Gano, we are serious when we say we want you to live next door.
*In rereading number 10--and the rest of this post, for that matter--it occurred to me that am a very spoiled person. I already have what tons of people would consider a very perfect life. I really do love my life, even if it's not perfect. Winter is making me grouchy. And underneath a lot of these superficial worries are more substantial ones, like how Amelia is going to grow up in a world filled with poison and melting polar ice caps and war and a Congress full of politicians who overuse the phrase "the American people" and can't get anything done. But my 20 minutes are up. So let me just add one more thought:
21.** What I really, really want more than anything is for everyone on earth, to be able to have the space to breathe, to consider the kind of world they would want to leave for the people who will come after them, and to be able to, with love in their hearts and in ways big or small, make the world that kind of place.
**Now I feel like a contestant in a beauty pageant. But it's been over half an hour and the clock is ticking. Peace.
1. With the simple adjustment of Amelia's bedtime, all of our sleep problems have been solved! Oops, not really. After that one post about the early bedtime, Amelia started waking up, babbling and sounding fairly happy, at 4:45 am or earlier. So we moved the bedtime later. After 4 days, it was still happening, so we moved it back up to the earlier time. Now she's waking between 5:30 and 6.
2. I am so sick of thinking about sleep I could scream. Yet I still really, really want to sleep better.
3. I am confused about weaning. Sometimes Amelia seems to be self-weaning, other times she is a nursing fool.
4. I am disgruntled at the mixed messages I perceive about breastfeeding. When women are pregnant and have very new babies, the message seems to be "breastfeed or else!," a message that is more harmful than helpful. Then once the baby reaches a certain age--maybe 9 months or so--it's "hurry up and wean." Is this just in my own head?
5. Amelia has a new friend who is a hitter. What do you do when your baby hits other babies? And what are you supposed to do when your baby has a temper tantrum?
6. I miss my family. You know who you are. Come visit us.
7. Actually I have been very, very sad that we love so far away from our families. If we lived close to family Dean and I could leave Amelia with people who love her and desperately want to see her while we--gasp--saw a movie or something. What were we thinking?
8. That said there are a lot of things I love about my life here. I have a lot of friends. I love our house. Denver is amazingly interesting and easy to navigate. And
9. despite what you may think after reading my grouchy blog posts lately I am so, so glad that Dean has a job that allows me to stay home with Amelia while she is a baby.
10.* In a perfect life, I would go to a yoga class every day, get a massage every week, and write for 2 hours every morning.
11. I have been writing some. I am taking a "master class" that requires a "manuscript." So I have been reworking my manuscript. It's getting shorter instead of longer.
12. I wrote this series of poems that was 40 words each, 4 words per line for 10 lines. Now I don't like it and I am making the lines twice as long. But some of the poems want to be 5 lines and some want to be 6.
13. It was supposed to snow 6 inches here last night and not a drop. Denver has negative humidity, I swear. But after a week or so of unseasonable warm weather, now it is very cold.
14. Amelia is starting to say "no." Sometimes for no apparent reason. It often sounds more like she is just making the sound for the letter n.
15. Teething, you will be the death of me. I am attributing all of Amelia's weird sleep and fussiness to teething. The upper molars are breaking through at approximately 1/16 of a millimeter per day. Sometimes, out of the blue, poor Amelia starts wailing and gnawing on her fingers. We are making liberal use of Ibuprofen, Baby Orajel, and cold teethers.
16. I am still wearing my pajamas. If you want gift ideas for me, think warm pajamas.
17. Also: warm slippers, the ingredients for margaritas, those wrist warmers that are like gloves without the fingers, and gift certificates for yoga classes and massages. And could you come here and watch Amelia while I go to the yoga classes and get the massages?
18. If you asked me what I wanted to Christmas in the past couple of weeks and I said I didn't know or nothing, sorry. I just thought of that list as I wrote it.
19. I also like Anthropogie gift cards.
20. But what I really want more than anything is for all of our family to come visit us a lot. All of you. Everyone. And if you are Gano, we are serious when we say we want you to live next door.
*In rereading number 10--and the rest of this post, for that matter--it occurred to me that am a very spoiled person. I already have what tons of people would consider a very perfect life. I really do love my life, even if it's not perfect. Winter is making me grouchy. And underneath a lot of these superficial worries are more substantial ones, like how Amelia is going to grow up in a world filled with poison and melting polar ice caps and war and a Congress full of politicians who overuse the phrase "the American people" and can't get anything done. But my 20 minutes are up. So let me just add one more thought:
21.** What I really, really want more than anything is for everyone on earth, to be able to have the space to breathe, to consider the kind of world they would want to leave for the people who will come after them, and to be able to, with love in their hearts and in ways big or small, make the world that kind of place.
**Now I feel like a contestant in a beauty pageant. But it's been over half an hour and the clock is ticking. Peace.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Early to bed...
late to rise!
Amelia has been waking up at 5 or 5:30 am more often than not these days. This weekend, we kept her up till the ungodly hour of 7 pm on Saturday and Sunday nights. Both nights we had something we wanted to do outside of the house (Saturday we went out to dinner; Sunday we saw Christmas lights at the Botanic Gardens). She was literally in bed asleep at 7 so this was only 15 minutes to half an hour later than usual. (I don't think she ever really adjusted to the end of daylight savings time.)
Yesterday she was up and wide awake again at 5 am and a mess by 9:30, so she took a very early, and shorter than usual, nap. She was yawny by 4:45 pm, so I decided we should put her in bed by 6:30. We gave her an early dinner, and she ate well, but as soon as we took her out of the high chair she had a meltdown. She cried while we filled the tub and when we put her in the tub. Se we got her right out and took her upstairs and she was in her crib asleep by 6:20.
After one wake up at 3:00 (I went in at 3:30), she is STILL SLEEPING--and it's 6:55!!!
Amelia has been waking up at 5 or 5:30 am more often than not these days. This weekend, we kept her up till the ungodly hour of 7 pm on Saturday and Sunday nights. Both nights we had something we wanted to do outside of the house (Saturday we went out to dinner; Sunday we saw Christmas lights at the Botanic Gardens). She was literally in bed asleep at 7 so this was only 15 minutes to half an hour later than usual. (I don't think she ever really adjusted to the end of daylight savings time.)
Yesterday she was up and wide awake again at 5 am and a mess by 9:30, so she took a very early, and shorter than usual, nap. She was yawny by 4:45 pm, so I decided we should put her in bed by 6:30. We gave her an early dinner, and she ate well, but as soon as we took her out of the high chair she had a meltdown. She cried while we filled the tub and when we put her in the tub. Se we got her right out and took her upstairs and she was in her crib asleep by 6:20.
After one wake up at 3:00 (I went in at 3:30), she is STILL SLEEPING--and it's 6:55!!!
Friday, December 3, 2010
For the Record
There are a couple of things I wanted to record in yesterday's post, but as we know, I was interrupted. If I don't write this stuff down I forget it within two weeks.
First: teething. Yesterday I was going to write that Amelia seemed to be getting her molars but this morning we discovered that the one on the left side has almost broken through! Finally. She has been gnawing on things on that side and drooling like crazy. Now for the other side. Then, totally unexpectedly, while we were reading our pre-nap stories, I noticed that not one but both of the two bottom front teeth are coming through also! (These are the two on either side of the two very front teeth, which she already has.) So that is three new teeth at the same time. Maybe that has something to do with her disrupted sleep?
(Note: if you are Dean and you happen to be reading this, normally I would call you at work to inform you of this breaking news, but Amelia and I have plans to show you her new teeth when you get home. Try to look surprised.)
Second: naps. It has been a long time since I complained about naps and I wanted to record the progression what what has happened. If you recall, Amelia was moving from two naps to one and her doctor had suggested that I keep her up till 1:00, saying that if she napped in the morning I should wake her up after half an hour. I tried that once and let me say that it goes against every fiber in my mother being to wake a sleeping baby from a nap. But I did it and Amelia was sleepy again by noon. However we had unusual circumstances that afternoon and she ended up falling asleep in her stroller. In my second stupid move of that day, I tried to pick her up from the stroller and move her to her crib. It didn't work and that was the end of the waking-the-baby-from-a-nap experiment.
My next idea was to keep her up until 1:00. The problem with that is that she would wake up still crying and very tired in an hour or less. So I tried leaving her in the crib to see if she would go back to sleep. She would not. After that, I decided to forget the whole thing and let her sleep as long as she wanted whenever. For about two weeks she would go down anytime between 9 and 11:30 but then sleep for at least an hour and a half, sometimes nearly 2 hours. And this past week or so, she has been pretty consistently going down at 11:30 and sleeping for almost 2 hours.
So we have once again hit a predictable pattern, which makes everyone happy, mainly me. It's just so hard to plan anything when you have no idea when the baby will need to nap. With this pattern I know that if need be we can have a short outing in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon. The only sad thing is that most of Amelia's friends are still taking two naps so she is basically asleep when they are awake and vice versa. The other moms are very concerned that the two nap thing will end but actually, I prefer the one longer nap. Amelia's second nap was always unpredictable anyway. This way we actually get out of the house a bit more.
Anyway I am sure this new pattern will last only as long as it takes me to really start getting used to it--here's hoping that this riveting information about Amelia's naps and teeth have enriched your Friday. I am off to read.
First: teething. Yesterday I was going to write that Amelia seemed to be getting her molars but this morning we discovered that the one on the left side has almost broken through! Finally. She has been gnawing on things on that side and drooling like crazy. Now for the other side. Then, totally unexpectedly, while we were reading our pre-nap stories, I noticed that not one but both of the two bottom front teeth are coming through also! (These are the two on either side of the two very front teeth, which she already has.) So that is three new teeth at the same time. Maybe that has something to do with her disrupted sleep?
(Note: if you are Dean and you happen to be reading this, normally I would call you at work to inform you of this breaking news, but Amelia and I have plans to show you her new teeth when you get home. Try to look surprised.)
Second: naps. It has been a long time since I complained about naps and I wanted to record the progression what what has happened. If you recall, Amelia was moving from two naps to one and her doctor had suggested that I keep her up till 1:00, saying that if she napped in the morning I should wake her up after half an hour. I tried that once and let me say that it goes against every fiber in my mother being to wake a sleeping baby from a nap. But I did it and Amelia was sleepy again by noon. However we had unusual circumstances that afternoon and she ended up falling asleep in her stroller. In my second stupid move of that day, I tried to pick her up from the stroller and move her to her crib. It didn't work and that was the end of the waking-the-baby-from-a-nap experiment.
My next idea was to keep her up until 1:00. The problem with that is that she would wake up still crying and very tired in an hour or less. So I tried leaving her in the crib to see if she would go back to sleep. She would not. After that, I decided to forget the whole thing and let her sleep as long as she wanted whenever. For about two weeks she would go down anytime between 9 and 11:30 but then sleep for at least an hour and a half, sometimes nearly 2 hours. And this past week or so, she has been pretty consistently going down at 11:30 and sleeping for almost 2 hours.
So we have once again hit a predictable pattern, which makes everyone happy, mainly me. It's just so hard to plan anything when you have no idea when the baby will need to nap. With this pattern I know that if need be we can have a short outing in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon. The only sad thing is that most of Amelia's friends are still taking two naps so she is basically asleep when they are awake and vice versa. The other moms are very concerned that the two nap thing will end but actually, I prefer the one longer nap. Amelia's second nap was always unpredictable anyway. This way we actually get out of the house a bit more.
Anyway I am sure this new pattern will last only as long as it takes me to really start getting used to it--here's hoping that this riveting information about Amelia's naps and teeth have enriched your Friday. I am off to read.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Breaking News: Motherhood Remains Challenging Beyond Baby's First Year
I don't know when I am going to stop being surprised that parenting is hard work.
I guess when you have a newborn and you are shocked and exhausted, everyone's first instinct is to tell you that "it gets easier." I have told several new moms and dads that very thing over the past 14 months. And it is true: compared to having a newborn, having a 14 month old is much easier. But every day presents new challenges. I never seem to hit the stride I keep expecting to hit.
The main issue continues to be sleep. We went to a playgroup the other day and it seemed like all the other moms were radiantly well-rested. Their babies, all roughly Amelia's age, sleep 12 or 13 (13!) hours a night. (Well, there was one other mom whose baby sleeps worse (much worse) than Amelia. Interestingly, Amelia and that baby are the only ones who are still breastfeeding.) Amelia was only waking up once around 4 am but since our return from Santa Fe she was been up at 1:30 and 4 or so and is more often than not up for the DAY at 5:30. We have been trying to let her work it out on her own but she has had a little cold and half an hour of crying is all I am willing to do when I know she is not in perfect health. After all, when I have a cold I wake up stuffy and thirsty and such. So if she does not go back to sleep within about half an hour, I go to her and nurse. I alternate wildly between thinking that this is the best thing for her and thinking that she is just in a bad habit of nursing back to sleep. Last night between 1:30 and 1:45 I had decided I was DONE nursing at night and I was not going to do it EVER AGAIN but by 1:45 Amelia sounded so sad and tired that I had to will myself to wait 10 more minutes to go to her. And when I did she was stuffy and her little cheeks were wet with tears. So I felt terrible for leaving her in there alone for even 25 minutes.
Self-doubt, anyone?
Obviously, I have not solved the sleep issue. Please let me know if you have the answer.
In other news, Amelia may not have been a toddler on her first birthday but she is definitely one now. She toddles from hither to yon all day long. She almost never crawls anymore. And: she has tantrums. Toddler tantrums. If she doesn't want to get into her carseat or her stroller, she arches her back and screams. If we won't let her, say, bite into a grapefruit or climb on the stove, she protests with gusto. She has her own agenda now and it involves exploring anything and everything at her own desired pace.
So one of the new challenges is to pick the right battles. We try to make our house so that we don't have to say "no" all the time but we can't anticipate every potential tantrum-causing event before it happens. I have been trying to pick a few things to be very firm about, like the aforementioned climbing on the stove. She has been trying to use the handle of the drawer under the stove as a stairstep and grabbing the knobs on the stove to pull herself up. Obviously that is very dangerous, especially if something is cooking. So when she does this I give a stern "No, no."
After I did this the second time I found out that Amelia may have inherited my very strong sensitivity to being scolded. I was, by all accounts, an excellent baby so I wasn't scolded very much but when I was I would cry and cry. (I also cried a lot.) I hated thinking that I had done something wrong and that anyone was mad at me. When Amelia turned around from the stove to see my grave expression her own face crumpled and she burst into tears. Not tantrum tears, hurt feeling tears.
So there again is a new challenge. I tried to simultaneously comfort her and emphasize that she can't climb on the stove.
The same thing happens when we remind her to be "gentle" to the Christmas tree. Actually after only a few times of this she really won't touch the tree at all and just looks at it. So I suppose we are doing something right, at least as far as holiday decorations are concerned.
It's so interesting watching Amelia's little personality. She is definitely more extroverted than both Dean and I combined, but she also seems to be a kind little soul. She hardly ever takes anything from another baby anymore, which is not kind of rare from what I have seen. She will walk up to the baby and his or her ball or whatever it is she wants to see and put out her hand, but then stop and just look. Of course if said baby does not "share" the item fairly soon, unless Amelia is distracted into playing with something else) it is another story.
The good news is that while parenthood certainly makes life infinitely more challenging, it makes like more interesting and more delightful to an equal degree. Amelia has been "dancing" and has moved from what Luli named "the cool jerk" to a little twist and bounce. It is adorable. She loves music. (I wonder where she gets that?) I will try to capture her new dance on video soon.
What else? Amelia eats a ton now. Some of her current favorites are soy sausages, Cheerios, cheese, rice, raspberies, pears, green beans from a can, chicken salad, and these Snap Pea Crisps. (Take the time to read the product description. It's hilarious.) She drinks a lot of whole milk from a sippy cup and recently discovered orange juice. And she is a pro with the sippy cup now, having finally learned how to hold it up. (I taught her (!) by making game of putting the sippy cup in my mouth and dramatically throwing back my head. I was proud.)
She can say "baby" for sure also "momma." She is working on replacing "ball" for "dog." She understands a ton of what we say to her, and will follow fairly complicated directions.
Her hair is getting very long and has to be brushed every morning--she wallows in her crib and wakes up with crazy bed head. To fix her hair, I put a towel in the sink and set her on the bathroom counter. She plays with the toothbrushes and things while I douse her with detangler and comb. And comb and comb. Then she gets a little ponytail.
In mommy news, if you remember that book contest I entered, I am pretty sure I did not win because I have heard nothing about it, but this spring I am going to take a class designed to help writers create their first book. It's not cheap, but I think it will be worth it, as it will get me out of the house and working with other writers again. (And since it is in the evenings, it will be a catalyst in making us learn how to put Baby A down without nursing.)
I obviously lost steam on my influential book project but I been reading, among many other things, Leaves of Grass. I promise to write about it soon. If you don't know anything about Leaves of Grass, it's got a really interesting history so check it out. (There will be a quiz.) I have also been reading a lot of other books. I am 1/4 to 1/2 into at least 3 novels and 4 books of poetry, plus two issues of Poetry and an article about the stock exchange from The New Yorker. I seem to have a short attention span.
Maybe I should use the remainder of naptime to read. Of course as I am typing this last sentence, Amelia is waking up.
I guess when you have a newborn and you are shocked and exhausted, everyone's first instinct is to tell you that "it gets easier." I have told several new moms and dads that very thing over the past 14 months. And it is true: compared to having a newborn, having a 14 month old is much easier. But every day presents new challenges. I never seem to hit the stride I keep expecting to hit.
The main issue continues to be sleep. We went to a playgroup the other day and it seemed like all the other moms were radiantly well-rested. Their babies, all roughly Amelia's age, sleep 12 or 13 (13!) hours a night. (Well, there was one other mom whose baby sleeps worse (much worse) than Amelia. Interestingly, Amelia and that baby are the only ones who are still breastfeeding.) Amelia was only waking up once around 4 am but since our return from Santa Fe she was been up at 1:30 and 4 or so and is more often than not up for the DAY at 5:30. We have been trying to let her work it out on her own but she has had a little cold and half an hour of crying is all I am willing to do when I know she is not in perfect health. After all, when I have a cold I wake up stuffy and thirsty and such. So if she does not go back to sleep within about half an hour, I go to her and nurse. I alternate wildly between thinking that this is the best thing for her and thinking that she is just in a bad habit of nursing back to sleep. Last night between 1:30 and 1:45 I had decided I was DONE nursing at night and I was not going to do it EVER AGAIN but by 1:45 Amelia sounded so sad and tired that I had to will myself to wait 10 more minutes to go to her. And when I did she was stuffy and her little cheeks were wet with tears. So I felt terrible for leaving her in there alone for even 25 minutes.
Self-doubt, anyone?
Obviously, I have not solved the sleep issue. Please let me know if you have the answer.
In other news, Amelia may not have been a toddler on her first birthday but she is definitely one now. She toddles from hither to yon all day long. She almost never crawls anymore. And: she has tantrums. Toddler tantrums. If she doesn't want to get into her carseat or her stroller, she arches her back and screams. If we won't let her, say, bite into a grapefruit or climb on the stove, she protests with gusto. She has her own agenda now and it involves exploring anything and everything at her own desired pace.
So one of the new challenges is to pick the right battles. We try to make our house so that we don't have to say "no" all the time but we can't anticipate every potential tantrum-causing event before it happens. I have been trying to pick a few things to be very firm about, like the aforementioned climbing on the stove. She has been trying to use the handle of the drawer under the stove as a stairstep and grabbing the knobs on the stove to pull herself up. Obviously that is very dangerous, especially if something is cooking. So when she does this I give a stern "No, no."
After I did this the second time I found out that Amelia may have inherited my very strong sensitivity to being scolded. I was, by all accounts, an excellent baby so I wasn't scolded very much but when I was I would cry and cry. (I also cried a lot.) I hated thinking that I had done something wrong and that anyone was mad at me. When Amelia turned around from the stove to see my grave expression her own face crumpled and she burst into tears. Not tantrum tears, hurt feeling tears.
So there again is a new challenge. I tried to simultaneously comfort her and emphasize that she can't climb on the stove.
The same thing happens when we remind her to be "gentle" to the Christmas tree. Actually after only a few times of this she really won't touch the tree at all and just looks at it. So I suppose we are doing something right, at least as far as holiday decorations are concerned.
It's so interesting watching Amelia's little personality. She is definitely more extroverted than both Dean and I combined, but she also seems to be a kind little soul. She hardly ever takes anything from another baby anymore, which is not kind of rare from what I have seen. She will walk up to the baby and his or her ball or whatever it is she wants to see and put out her hand, but then stop and just look. Of course if said baby does not "share" the item fairly soon, unless Amelia is distracted into playing with something else) it is another story.
The good news is that while parenthood certainly makes life infinitely more challenging, it makes like more interesting and more delightful to an equal degree. Amelia has been "dancing" and has moved from what Luli named "the cool jerk" to a little twist and bounce. It is adorable. She loves music. (I wonder where she gets that?) I will try to capture her new dance on video soon.
What else? Amelia eats a ton now. Some of her current favorites are soy sausages, Cheerios, cheese, rice, raspberies, pears, green beans from a can, chicken salad, and these Snap Pea Crisps. (Take the time to read the product description. It's hilarious.) She drinks a lot of whole milk from a sippy cup and recently discovered orange juice. And she is a pro with the sippy cup now, having finally learned how to hold it up. (I taught her (!) by making game of putting the sippy cup in my mouth and dramatically throwing back my head. I was proud.)
She can say "baby" for sure also "momma." She is working on replacing "ball" for "dog." She understands a ton of what we say to her, and will follow fairly complicated directions.
Her hair is getting very long and has to be brushed every morning--she wallows in her crib and wakes up with crazy bed head. To fix her hair, I put a towel in the sink and set her on the bathroom counter. She plays with the toothbrushes and things while I douse her with detangler and comb. And comb and comb. Then she gets a little ponytail.
In mommy news, if you remember that book contest I entered, I am pretty sure I did not win because I have heard nothing about it, but this spring I am going to take a class designed to help writers create their first book. It's not cheap, but I think it will be worth it, as it will get me out of the house and working with other writers again. (And since it is in the evenings, it will be a catalyst in making us learn how to put Baby A down without nursing.)
I obviously lost steam on my influential book project but I been reading, among many other things, Leaves of Grass. I promise to write about it soon. If you don't know anything about Leaves of Grass, it's got a really interesting history so check it out. (There will be a quiz.) I have also been reading a lot of other books. I am 1/4 to 1/2 into at least 3 novels and 4 books of poetry, plus two issues of Poetry and an article about the stock exchange from The New Yorker. I seem to have a short attention span.
Maybe I should use the remainder of naptime to read. Of course as I am typing this last sentence, Amelia is waking up.
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