It’s snowing. The iTunes playlists have been adjusted to pull in Christmas music. We’ve placed a holiday wreath and doormat at the front door. Our tree will probably be purchased over the weekend. The calendar reads December 1. ‘Tis officially the holiday season. And yes, to the people at Fox News, I am referring to it as the holidays.
For the second straight day M. was awake before 5:00 today. Not good times. She’s been fighting a cold for over a week, teething has totally cranked up to unprecedented levels (Three new teeth over the weekend, one is busting through today, and at least two more are close), and is learning to throw tantrums. A dangerous combination. Over the weekend, the poor girl could hardly sleep from all the sinus drainage and extra saliva from teething. She survived on a steady diet of Motrin and Pediacare to try to stem the pain and clear her airways. Poor girl looked like she had a faucet in her mouth some days so copious was the drool. I’m finally over my cold, but still struggling to get back on a regular sleep schedule. All that put together means I got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep last night. And I get to present in my publishing class tonight. Should be a real blast.
Over the past several weeks, we’ve finally given up the Baby Einstein videos, at least for the time being. In their place, however, the Disney channel has taken over. Each morning, we watch The Wiggles (two thumbs down from the parents; “Grown men shouldn’t act like that,” according to the Mrs.), Charlie & Lola (Two thumbs up), Higglytown Heros (one thumb up, one neutral), JoJo’s Circus (no real opinion yet, although I was disappointed it wasn’t about JoJo White), and Little Einstein. Not surprisingly, the Little Einsteins are a big hit. For the non-parents out there, the Little E’s are four cartoon kids who go on adventures to the tunes of classic composers in their jet called Rocket. In order to get Rocket off the ground, they have to pat their legs and say “Pat Pat Pat.” As soon as she sees the intro graphics to the show, M. starts patting her stomach and saying “Ba Ba Ba.” Very cute. Bonus points as I can usually sleep for the 30 minutes the Little E’s are occupying her interests.
Another feature on the Disney channel is Breakfast with Bear, which is split into four segments each morning that are spread through the other shows. Bear visits kids around the country and shares their experiences getting ready for the day. They get dressed, eat breakfast, play, and humorously to me, do the Morning Mamba. The Morning Mamba is just a dance to get the kids’ juices flowing. I think it sounds like something dirty and giggle each time I hear it. I’ve strictly forbidden M. from doing the Morning Mamba until she’s 25 and living on her own.
Tantrums are fun. You don’t have to be a parent to know that. There’s nothing quite like the total meltdown that comes with taking a sippy cup to refill it or something that isn’t a toy but was being used as one. Even better is when her mood violently swings back the other direction. Hand her a full sippy cup and she smiles, grabs it, and drinks, all while big tears are still running down her cheeks. Her worst area of throwing tantrums has to be wanting S. to hold her. It won’t be that long until the baby in the belly begins to dominate S. physically and she won’t be able to cart M. around in her arms all day. Those are going to be fun days when M. throws her body at S. to try to force her to lift her up, screaming the entire time.
M.’s got a couple strange habits these days as well. She is still throwing her burp cloth down at putting her head on it to let us know she’s tired, But now she also does that randomly, continuously, through the day. She’ll be playing in the basement, get quiet, we’ll look to see what she’s up to, and she’ll have her cloth on the floor under the bar, just laying there on it. She’ll see you, laugh, and get up and do it someplace else. Very weird since she does it all the time, not just when she’s tired. Also, I think she’s getting little woman’s disease. She insists on either sitting or standing on everything. She loves to stand on her typewriter, all her other toys, any shoes that are lying around, her diaper wipe box, etc. If she can get her feet on it, she’ll climb up. When she’s tired of standing, she’ll hop off, or more often tumble off, then back up and sit on the same object. It’s one thing to sit on a stair or chair. It’s another to sit on your Leap Frog school bus. Kid is weird sometimes.