Valentine's Day Tradition

Zack and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day since we've got an anniversary four days later. However, Ela's grandparents have been vigilantly making sure that the holiday is not completely forgotten in our house. This year, the Ortman grandparents got her an adorable stuffed tiger, which she was allowed to open early so they could see her do it, and some wonderful Swedish cookies, which she's been requesting for dessert every night (she calls them "green cookie" because they have green sprinkles on the top). And every year, I look forward to my Valentine's Day present from my dad: candy from Lagomarcino's. We've been friends with the Lagomarcino family since I was little, and their candy is excellent. Last year and this year, Ela got a little gift from Grandpa and the Lagomarcino's as well. When the box came this year, it was all I could do to not open it immediately, so I was proud that we managed to get dressed today before I pulled out the presents to open. :-)

Ela, to my great surprise, suddenly took an interest in opening presents, so we had a lot of fun finding out what Grandpa got her this year:

She needed some help getting the paper open, but then...

I think she would have been delighted just to get the box!

So we opened that up...

...and found...

...an even prettier box! Yay!

The packaging material was a fun toy, too.

Then we opened the pretty box (she hasn't figured out how to work the latch by herself yet).

And found candy! The smell of it got Dory's attention. I let Ela have a piece before we put it away. She would have liked to have a bit more. Now she's enjoying putting the wrapping material in and out of her new box. Thanks very much, Grandpa!

May be next year I'll really get moving and remember to do some Valentines for the family in return.

I'm a Knitter

I learned to crochet when I was younger, and while I was in Japan, a friend taught me the basics of knitting, but I hadn't really done anything with it until now.

In an effort to find new ways to get rid of my super large stash of yarn, I thought I'd pick it back up and see what I remembered. With the help of the handouts my friend had made, I got the basics back, and I've now started on a scarf. It'll take me the next 15 years to finish, but at least I know I can do it!

The Battle of the Bed

This month, I'm declaring war on our sleeping situation... again. Pretty much all her life, Ela has been convinced that she should be allowed to sleep with Mommy and Daddy (primarily Mommy, since for the first year or so, Daddy was only around about half the time). When I was getting very little sleep and caring for an infant partially alone, I allowed this to preserve my own sanity. When we moved back to the US, we thought we'd try to get Ela into her own room. That's when the war broke out. She hated the crib, which lead us to using a toddler bed. That worked a little better, but she'd still prefer sleeping in a place with a warm body. We've had limited and occasional success getting her to sleep in there all night, but she goes through occasional clingy phases in which she manages to sneak back into our room more or less permanently at night.
This fall was one of those phases. The pattern became that she would go to bed in her own room between 8:00 and 9:00, then wake up in the middle of the night and want some company. She got to the point where she didn't even cry, she'd just crawl out of her bed, open her door (which is old and won't latch properly) and wander down the hall to our room. There, she'd climb into our bed and I, being half asleep, pregnant and exhausted, would just haul her in and let her sleep. Zack can sleep through anything, thanks to his navy training, so he generally wasn't aware of what was happening until later in the night.
The problem is that Ela likes to sleep horizontally on the bed, most of her body on or near our pillows, leaving very little room for Mommy's big belly or Daddy at all. Also, she kicks, and Daddy would like to keep all his teeth. So now I'm getting less sleep by letting her stay than if I'd make her sleep in her own bed. So we've moved her into her new room (making room for a crib in the nursery), and the new door actually stays shut, so the war is back on.
Of course, Ela takes it very personally that we insist she lay in her own bed. We traveled so much in January that she doesn't even like me sitting in a chair watching her fall asleep anymore, she wants me in the bed with her. She's starting to accept that bit, but Monday night she put up a really good fight about the middle of the night transfer. She woke up and began screaming at 2:00 am. I don't handle listening to her cry very well. My thought is, if I'm not going to be able to sleep, I should at least not be tortured by screaming child. So I called to her first, telling her it's still sleepy time and to go back to bed. This never works. I waited a little longer, then I wandered into her room, where I gave her a hug, and put her back in bed. This caused a temper tantrum. That bit doesn't last long, though. I sat down on the bed for a few minutes before moving to a chair where she can see me, and she settled down. Her goal is always to keep me in the room. She's learned to sleep so lightly that when I stand up, she hears me and begins the crying again. I sit, she gets quiet. I sat with her Monday until 3:15, at which point I kissed her head, closed the door, and went to bed to have my own temper tantrum. Zack took over getting Ela to sleep, and she did sleep for awhile, but by 4:00, she was in my bed.
Tuesday was not a fun day for me. I don't handle lack of sleep well, and I didn't have time for a nap.
But then last night, Ela was tired from keeping me up all night Monday. She passed out the first time around 9:30. At 12:40, I heard the crying. Same routine: tell her to go to bed, go in. This time, though, she was too tired for light sleep. She woke up a little when I stood up, but closed her eyes again immediately, and by 12:50 I was back in bed. I expected to hear from her again in the night, but she didn't come to see me until Zack was out of bed for the morning. It was beautiful!
So the score stands at Ela: 1 Mommy: 1. I'm bracing for another hard night tonight, but at least we made a little progress!

More Traveling

Another weekend, another exciting place to visit. Ela and I joined my parents for a trip to Atlanta for my sister's birthday. Emily was happy to have us visit, since Ela hasn't seen her new house or enjoyed any of the many activities in the area before. We arrived Friday night in time to have a late pizza dinner and meet Emily's boyfriend.
On Saturday, we went to the Aquarium. Ela loved looking at all the fishies.

Her favorites were the little colorful ones, though she had a really nice conversation with several of the grouper, which were about the same size as her.

After a nice nap, Ela got to go to the park with her aunt, grandma and the doggies (Emily has two and we brought one). I didn't go on that adventure, but I'm told it was great fun. There were swings and a dinosaur. Minjee made Emily a really cool sushi cake (which is a cake with candy in the shape of sushi on top, not a cake made out of sushi). There are lots of pictures of it somewhere, just not on my camera. :-/ Ela found that tasty and delicious. At bedtime, she got to try out her aunt's super cool bath.

Needless to say, she had a great time. On Sunday, we took another little walk, and Ela got in a little last minute play with the dogs before hopping back in the car. She decided that Dory needed a little stroll.

It was a short but fun visit. I hope we get another chance to head that way soon.

Snow Play

Over the weekend, we took a little trip to Wintergreen Ski Resort in Virginia. Mom and Dad rented a condo for the weekend, and on Saturday we all enjoyed the "winter activities" of our choice. My sister, her boyfriend, and Mom skiied, Dad read and watched Basketball, Ela took a 3 hour nap, and I got a prenatal massage. :-) Saturday night, Zack joined us, and made a great fire in the wood burning fireplace at the condo.
On Sunday, the younger guys headed back to the slopes, and the rest of us took Ela to the kiddie play area to let her try out the snow. We couldn't talk her into wearing mittens, but we got her all decked out other than that. She dove right in, enjoying walking in her snow boots.
Ela's Grandpa warmed her up to the idea of sledding with a little ride around the flat areas.

Then Minjee took her on the mini tubing slope.

She said "weee" as she went down, but they had a little wipe out at the base (running into another tube and trying to get up), so that was the end of that.
Ela also went through some of the play equipment with some help from her Grandma.

But her favorite part by far was the "Winter Carousel", which pulled kids around in circles on the tubes.

We spent about 45 minutes out playing with the snow before calling it a day. It was a lot of fun to see Ela actually enjoy the snow this year, as opposed to last year, when she rejected it as too cold and hard to walk on.
The skiiers all had a good time on the slopes, and nobody got hurt. In the evenings, we played cards and enjoyed meals in the condo. Over all, it was a very successful trip.

The To Do List

At Zack's family's house over Christmas, we talked a bit about New Year's Resolutions. I felt at the time like this was not a year for resolutions for me. With a new daughter (according to our recent ultrasound) coming in May, I've some changes coming my way, and it seems like a bad idea to set a whole bunch of new goals. Instead of resolutions, I have a to do list this year. The list is topped with preparations for the new baby, but there's also the usual clutter of things that keep slipping down to the bottom as new things pop up.
We started off the year right by letting Ela take a short vacation with the grandparents. Zack and I arrived in DC on our own, and we got straight to work rearranging. Our dining room table was a hand me down that has survived many generations of less-than-gentle use. It was time for a new one, so we bought one (and chairs to go with it, which are still on order), and put that up in our dining area. That was the easy check off the list.
Then there was the bigger task of rearranging for the baby. The room that used to be my office (which I never used because Ela would destroy it) is now Ela's room. We packed up the books, moved my desk out of there, and then moved her bed and a new dresser in, as well as a toy chest and enough stuffed animals to drown Dory. The room that used to be Ela's is now the nursery/reading room. It contains my desk, the baby's dresser, most of the kid's books a few of my books, and we'll move some toys up there for Ela to play with while I'm doing baby stuff up there. Mom brought Ela back up shortly after New Years, and brought lots of baby clothes to put into the dresser and the crib which we had been storing in her attic. She ran through the house like a whirlwind and cleaned things that haven't been cleaned since we arrived, packed up the stuff that we couldn't keep upstairs anymore, and now our house is under control.
So that's several major checks off my personal to do list for the time between now and May, but the list is still quite long.
Under the category "Things for Ela" I have a birthday party to plan (for March), and the hefty task of convincing her to sleep all night every night in her own room. We've been working on that for the last year with very limited success. As it currently stands, she naps in her own bed (or in her car seat), and goes to sleep in her own bed, but wakes up sometime in the middle of the night and joins us in our room where she thrashes and kicks and keeps us all awake for the rest of the night on a bad night, and only half the night on a good night. Clearly, we need to get her out of there sooner rather than later, but it's hard to see it that way when you're listening to her scream from her own room for hours at a time in the middle of the night. My goal is to push back the time that she enters our room a little each week until she sleeps all night in her own room. This is for my own training as much as hers. I can only spend so many hours taking her back to bed or listening to her pound on the door in one night before I lose my marbles. Beyond these tasks, I've got the usual daily or weekly tasks involving keeping her fed, clothed, healthy, learning, and so on. I'd like to sign her up for a dance or music or yoga class after she turns two (note I said "or" not "and"), but that will depend a great deal on how I'm feeling when the new kiddo arrives. So Ela alone could keep me very busy for the year.
Under the category "Things for The New Baby" I have a slightly smaller list. We need to assemble her crib, finish putting away her clothes, buy a double stroller (advice on this welcome), and pick a name (probably the most important on the list, right?). We seem to be having a little trouble agreeing on a name we both like, so that could take some time, but we've got time, so I'm not worried... yet. After May, the new baby's list will of course be growing signifcantly, but for now, it's managable.
Under the category "Things for Me," the list gets much more vague. I just want to be able to sleep once in awhile. I'd like to have time to write a little every day, too. And, of course, I want to continue to practice relatively healthy eating and exercise habits. The "Things for Me" on my to do list tend to get shuffled down to the bottom awfully fast, so I don't really focus on them much. This should probably change, but I feel pretty good about me right now, so I'm allowing my focus to stay elsewhere.
There's also a few things under the category, "Miscelaneous" but those tend to sort themselves out. These are the chores that make up my usual routine. Some adjusting will obviously be necessary after May, but I'm not really putting a lot of effort into sorting that out yet. I need to get to May first.
So we're starting the year with a push to the finish line with the baby stuff. We're very excited about our new arrival, and I'm sure the time will fly!

Christmas Celebrations

We spent Christmas this year in North Carolina with family. First, we went to Winston Salem. There, we learned a few things:
1) Ela has a knack for falling asleep right at the wrong moment. She fell asleep 30 seconds before we were planning to do presents, and 20 minutes into our visit to Tanglewood for the festival of lights. This does not, however, mean she's any better at going to bed at night...
2) If you need to entertain her, all you need is a cat and a piano. She spent half her visit following the cat around saying, "Kitty! Kitty!" and the other half at the piano flipping through music, singing, and banging on the keys.
3) She's not really into opening presents yet. When we finally got around to opening her presents, we basically had to force her to unwrap (she wanted to play the piano instead). I consider this a good thing, over all. :-)


Of course, once we got her to the toys inside she loved it!
After Winston, we went to Cary for celebration round 2. Ela wasn't please about wearing tights and having her hair in a pony tail on Christmas Eve, but she sure looked cute!

Her big Christmas present was a play kitchen, and she has spent hours playing with it since then.

So we all had a very Merry Christmas, full of lots of time with family, and plenty of fun.