Shortly after joining his company and getting acquainted with his "team," RWF told me that he works with a lot of young people. On Friday, we went to a picnic for RWF's department. At the picnic, I could see what he meant. He does have a lot of young people working with him, and I felt so old! I actually thought, "So the tables have turned. I'm no longer the youngest at the office, bidding my old crow manager and his stodgy, Talbots-attired wife adieu when they depart from the company "forced fun event." Mais non. This time, I am the old crow wife, clucking her tongue at her children, yet smiling brightly while greeting the young worker bees in RWF's department. Yikes! Reality sets in again. RWF works with a lot of nice people! I was happy to meet them and "enjoy" the hottest day of the year (!!!) with them. (Man, it was so hot. I threatened RWF several times that if we did.not.leave.this.minute....well, you know. In reality, we stayed until 7:30. It cooled down a bit after the sun started to set.)
Let it be known, that whenever I see Nico's little face, I think, "Oh, my love," and my heart folds itself up into a little origami something-or-other because I just can not get over this baby. He is so precious!
Bode is getting so big. He is definitely going on "5." Not that I really know what "5" is, but he is looking older, acting older, and talking older. Now, I can no longer placate him or stop undesirable behavior with a redirection. Now, when I try to placate or redirect behavior, he argues back or tells me "why" what I am saying or doing won't work. He is just too smart for me. And it's not just personal things that he is smart about (smart alec, sometimes) but brain-smart, too. The other day, RWF turned on a space program, and without any introduction at all, Bode announced, "Oh that is one of Jupiter's moons, Endura." We sat in silence until the narrator of the show confirmed that yes, we were in fact looking at one of Jupiter's moons, Endura. (Honestly, I can't remember if the moon was called "Endura" or what it is called. Look it up. Or ask smartypants Bode sometime. He'll tell you.)
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| "Hi, I'm 5 going on 42, and a future employee at NASA" |
And as you know, Gianna is a big 3 year old. She does not like to be left alone so I have to accompany her to the restroom every time she goes, and she now insists that her closet light be turned on every night as a night light. But, she no longer sleeps with her baby dolls or animals. She sleeps alone in her crib, with just her Hello Kitty blanket. And every night, she tells me exactly what to do, as if I'm some amnesiac that is charged with putting her to bed every night: "Put on my Hello Kitty blanket. Turn on my fan. Turn on my closet light. I want to see my pretty dresses. (channeling Vanna White, I dutifully open her closet door, with a flourish, and show her pretty dresses to her) Oh, so pretty! Give me my bah-bah and say Goodnight to me." She says all of this quickly, like an order, with barely a breath in between as I go through the paces.
And now that I've written that, I wonder, does she miss our routine? See, that has all changed, because on Sunday there was a big change to our routine.
On Sunday, RWF and I just bit the bullet and moved Gianna's crib into Bode's room. A short 2 hours later, and the verdict was in: Gianna will be moving back into her own room! What happened was this: to be expected, they were both soooo excited to be sharing a room that they couldn't sleep. Bode let Gianna out of her crib TWICE, and accompanied her downstairs to check in with us over silly stuff, like, "Hey guys, Gianna needs to go potty." (oh really? ) I was occupied because I was nursing Nico to sleep. So RWF had to deal on his own. The second trip downstairs occurred around 8:30 PM, which is 1 1/2 hours past their bedtime. And I was about to have a heart attack, thinking of them tripping and falling on the stairs as they made their way down in their giggly, wired, sleep-deprived state. I told RWF, "This will not do. I can not sleep knowing that they will be going up and down the stairs all night." Luckily, RWF threatened them with immediate separation if they did not return to their beds and GO.TO.SLEEP! It worked.
And to be expected, they both got up at the crack of dawn (5 AM) and yes, walked downstairs and attempted to wake me up (and Nico!), but RWF intervened.
There are so many issues. I am trying to put Nico down in the evenings after I put Bode and Gianna down for bed. So if they continue these shenanigans during the week, I'm not going to be able to deal with the situation and put Nico to sleep. Plus, there is still the whole frightening stair issue (Gianna does not go down the stairs without an adult holding her hand. The fact that she was walking down (and up) the stairs with Bode, who is not so stable himself, gives me heart palpitations!) And then there is of course the idea that Gianna has already lost a lot of sleep (over 1 night), and who knows how long she'll be able to go at this pace.
So. Miss Mia Gianna will most likely be back in her own room by the end of the week. Hope that you enjoyed the mini sleep-over, kids!
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| 9 AM and they are both already exhausted! |
The two monkeys are back in camp this week. It will be the last week of camp before school starts. Gianna was not so gung-ho this morning about returning to camp. It could be that she is tired from last night. Who knows. She was fine when I left her.
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| Is that snowman laughing at me?! |
She did insist on wearing a snowman hair bow this morning. And I had to wonder, is that a statement, that, like her mother, she is so over this stupid, hot, humid Northeast summer, or is it a harbinger of things to come (snowy freeze-your-ass-off winter)?
Happy Monday.
xo
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