A Room of Her Own

So tonight, without any fanfare, Miss Koala was put into her new mini crib in her OWN room. It seems like it could be going a little better--she only went 2 hours before she woke up, but I'm hopeful things will improve. I'm excited to have my bedroom back. I might get all kinds of crazy and read The New Yorker. In bed!

More updates later.

Better!

Finally better. And this morning N and I were up BEFORE THE BEAN! Because she SLEPT TILL 7:00! It was very weird. N was up way before us, but while we waited for her I felt like we were the parents of a teenager and we were waiting to yell at her for coming home so late.

I know better than to think this might happen again. But maybe the darkening shades we put in her room are working?

Should N Buy An iPad?

The poor sleeping has continued here at The House of Bean's. Last night we had to go into her room a total of 6! times. I'm 75% sure it's a combo of molar teething and the rapid rate of her development and the fact that it's still pretty light when she goes to bed. And also I think she's overtired. Not to mention who wouldn't want their mom or dad to hold their hand through the crib rails ALL NIGHT? Today I tried to compensate by putting her down for her nap and bedtime early. I think maybe we've been trying to stick to a "schedule" too much and if a kid hasn't slept well (in a week!) then maybe they should nap an hour early. The nap went pretty well---she yelled for a bit, but didn't attempt to destroy her crib by shaking it violently like she's been doing. I left before she woke up, but her sitter said she slept for just under two hours which is good. She cried for about 10 minutes now, but let us hope this silence is not the lull before the shrieks.

We had a very nice Easter here with N's family. The Bean was very well behaved, but even when she's not people think she's cute.

My due date was 7! weeks from yesterday. I'd like to go early (not too) this time around, but N says I have to stop wishing/thinking that because I'll be in a very bad mood when Baby Meow Meow is 2 weeks late. This week our friends are going to help N move of the office so we can start attempting to make it a nursery. I'm looking forward to it--- since I had to move with Miss when she was 3 weeks old, it will be nice to have things up on the wall, places to nurse, change, etc.

Did you know it's driving me crazy that we don't know if it's a boy or a girl?
Luckily, N and I have agreed to name him/her iPad. We're hoping this gets some media attention so N won't have to shell out $500 for a new toy.

Winter Blahs and Blues (But No Whites)

So it's not that I wish we had the blizzards that the mid-Atlantic states got or anything. Being snowed in with The Bean doesn't sound too fun, but....Would we really be snowed in? NH is mad good at plowing and people here don't become shut-ins because of a few feet of snow. I guess snow seems a little tempting if only because we could go sledding again and it's nice to look at. We have nothing here but ugly grass and patches of ice, but it's still too cold and windy to spend much time outside. The most Miss Bean can usually stand is 10 mins and then we have to come in and have either tea (she gets milky weak decaf) or warm milk with cinnamon and honey. The above pic is from last year was just moments before N slipped on the ice at Lake Morey and The Bean cried for 45 mins and then projectile vomited all over the director of N's old camp.

Today Miss Bean refused to take an afternoon nap. At one point she called "Mommy" when I was outside her door so I went into her room (she'd been fussing for a while) and she'd wedged the three baby dolls between her crib and the wall so they were looking over at her. Forty minutes later, when the nap mission was aborted, I brought her onto our bed and told her she had to be quiet. She would be for a minute or two, but when I'd open my eyes, she'd be an inch from my face grinning. It was hard not to laugh. It's nice that she's getting a sense of humor.

Not funny for Miss Bean was that I took her to get shoes before her doctor's apt today. It was a new experience and she burst into tears when the man tried to measure her foot. I think it was because she was tired. Ditto for her hysterics at getting weighed and measured. Normally she's pretty chill at the doctor, but today she was a mess. It'll be interesting to see how she is when she goes back for her next well baby, which won't be till she's 2! Which means, assuming everything is good, we'll have another kid in tow! I figured out that her next appointment will be right around when New Baby aka Yoda aka Baby Meow Meow aka Baby G will be getting her/his 2 months vacs...so we could get both kids shots for the price of one trip! Whew!

I have no idea how I'm going to handle two kids. Really.

It's so cool how much Bean is learning and growing every day. Today she said "yo yos all gone" when she finished the raisins I bribed her with and then, this evening, she not only took off her pants pretty much unassisted, but she went so far as to put them in her hamper! You go, girlie!

Okay, I'm staying OFF the web this weekend so have yourself a good one.

Other Days

So yesterday The Bean woke up crying at 4:00 AM. It's the teeth thing so we pumped her with Motrin but she didn't fall back asleep till 5:00. I didn't fall back asleep till 5:45 and then I woke up with a shot at 6:00 because I had to teach. Then, I couldn't find my wallet cuz I'm forever moving it from the diaper bag to my purse to my car. I was all set to go to work without it when N. found it under a cookbook. Then, when I was driving onto the highway, the cap to my water bottle fell off, the bottle flipped out of the holder and I got soaked with freezing water while turning the corner. Of course the Xerox machine was broken by the time I got to school.

Then I had to collect research papers from students and now I have to spend the whole weekend busting my butt to read them so I can return them on Tuesday. I read two yesterday and it took forever! I'm not even grading---I'm just commenting and trying to help them. The papers are worth %25 of the final grade so I feel obligated to take the time. Ugh!

This morning The Bean got up at 5:00 (after waking up at 11:00 PM) and was in a really cranky mood. I know it's not her fault and most of the time she's pretty cheery, but by 7:00 I was begging N to take her with him to work. Things got a little better as the day progressed. We had an early morning play date here, took a short nap, and went out to lunch. Then we had two! friends over in the afternoon. I don't know when our house became play-date central. I'm mostly okay with it although I feel like I was inside too much. Hopefully, I'll be able to take a nice long walk tomorrow before we travel down to Putney, VT to see one of N's friends and her daughter.

Okay, the Internet-free weekend is beginning in like 30 seconds so the next time I'm on here I better only have 3 papers to go!
Happy weekend!

It's November? Already?

Hope y'all had a good Halloween. Miss Bean was a sheep and although she didn't baa once in costume a good time was had by all. Some friends and their son from up in the boonies came down here cuz you know, we're all urban. The rain held off so we got to check out all the kiddies on the green. Later, we took our sleepy sheep to a little get together in our neighborhood. The Bean seemed to enjoy all the festivities. The only time she seemed scared was when she was place directly in front of a giant gorilla. But who wouldn't find that scary?

What is scary is daylight savings being over. The Bean got up at 4:30 this morning. Although this was deemed NOT OKAY by the parental units, it didn't seem to change a damn thing. We're trying to keep her up till 7:00 (her old bedtime was between 6:15-6:30) but it doesn't seem to be working. She's hungry for dinner at 4:30 and ready for bed at 5:30. What to do? What to do!

And, surprise, surprise, here's a photo for ya!


I know he's scary, but don't be afraid of the man in the big hat!

Honk If You Wish It Were Snowing

The title is a reference to the sticker that has been plastered onto the stop sign at the end of my street.
No comment, here.

Sorry for the silence. We had family weekend 09 last weekend. It was a lot of fun most especially for the Bean who has realized that grandparents=attention. Attention=happy Bean.

Miss Bean knows a lot of words. Perhaps the most amazing thing is how much she understands. It seems like out of nowhere she is able to understand and do what I ask. Within reason, of course. I can say, "Beanie, can you pick up your cat over there and put it in the bag?" It's not 100%, but she can usually do it! Very exciting. Now we just have to work on getting her to put her toys away. And maybe wash a few dishes....

We've been having nap crises all week though. She's only been taking one nap, which would be okay if it was long, but yesterday it was only 30 minutes. This is very bad as Miss Bean gets wack-a-doodle drunk by the end of the day if she's sleepy. Luckily, she's been getting her zzzzs in at night, but mama needs a nap too. I think she might have a tooth eruption since she's been practically gnawing her fingers off since Saturday. Hopefully things will improve. But as N sagely points out, at least she's not protesting the night sleep. In fact, she's desperate for it and will point to her crib while I'm 1/2 through her nighttime song. And yes, it might be might my voice.

This week Bean has been insisting on having one of her baby dolls (it doesn't matter which one) in her crib when she sleeps (or doesn't sleep). I'm okay with this, but hope she doesn't get attached to a particular doll. We'd lose it since we lose practically everything.

Hopefully it won't be too miserable on Halloween. We live with an excellent baaing dog and panting sheep!

Waiting For The Bean To Wake Up

Cuz she'll be doing it pretty soon I imagine since it's 10:30 and she's been napping since 8:45! That's my girl! Remember when she didn't nap and I'd have to do everything in my power to get her to sleep? And then it would be like a 20-30 minute travesty. Now, she's on a napping schedule and generally each one is a bit over an hour. I'm a bit fearful since she took a long morning nap like this on Sunday and then refused to nap in the afternoon, which as you know is when mama naps. But yesterday she took a long morning snoozer and a really long snooze in the afternoon so who knows what's really going on.

Of course we're going to go and wreck havoc with this beautiful napping by going out of town for like 10 days! First stop is Field of Corn, NY on Saturday where we're going to go celebrate our good friend's imminent departure to SCRANTON, PA MED SCHOOL! Yay Alison! And no, I don't think we'll ever stop making Office jokes. On Sunday we'll be going to the Big Apple where we're going to feed The Bean real NY bagels and pizza and go to lots of movies since we'll have lots o' Beansitting available.

We're also (supposedly) going to leave Miss Bean overnight with the grandparents while we go back upstate to watch our friendies get married. Surviving that (me, not Bean she's in good hands) we'll retrieve the Bean, come back to NH for a few days before going over to the other Grandparents in the Adks and leaving her once again to go to another wedding....And she's up! More later.

So now it's eight hours later and The Bean is sleeping (hopefully) for the night because she did not have her afternoon nap. She was so tired on the bottle that she fell asleep without finishing it (it popped right out of her mouth) and she curled up to my...uh...bosom totally asleep. It was really sweet as she has not done that since she was teeny. She remained asleep while I transferred her to the crib and I didn't even have to put the pacifier in her mouth, which is huge. Now I'm off to have me a beer. It's been a day.

I'm Way Too Drunk To Come Up With An Interesting Post Title

Actually, I'm very sober since I didn't even finish my beer, but I needed something a little more attention grabbing than I Can't Come Up With An Interesting Post Title. You know, for the moms. Anyway, things be feeling kind of mellow up in our house. N. is done with the schooling till August, which is pretty crazy. Of course he has work to do. We've been trying to figure out a schedule that works for both of us. Yesterday was our first day of him being at the pretend office. He actually was in the closet that performs as his office for most of the day, but we all pretended he wasn't home from 9-4:30. It worked pretty well except for when The Bean and I were having too much fun and he had to poke his head in and reprimand us. You know how those 9 month olds like to blast the house music.

For some reason I found it more exhausting than the days when N was really gone. I guess cuz he was here, but wasn't. Speaking of exhausting Brooklyn Mama has gotten an insane amount of sleep lately. I finally slept through the night (before I was waking around 2 even if Baby Bean wasn't) on Monday. Despite sleeping from 9:30 PM-5:00 AM and then from 6:00 AM-8:00, I still napped at 9 and then from 1:30-2:30. Last night I slept for 9! hours.

Tomorrow is day #2 of Dad at the office. It should be a little less exhausting since we have plans at the awesomeness that is The Bounce House. Having plans is huge these days. Bean and I get bored. Yesterday afternoon I was so desperate for something to do that I actually put the Bean in her jogging stroller and went out jogging.

We're planning on June being a work month, traveling a bit in July, and then winding down in August. I'm trying to get my own work done. I'm in this very sticky part of this YA that I was going to send to my agent like 2 months ago. And I'm also writing an essay on leaving New York. How very interesting, you think. What, you think all I do is puree beets and zucchini in my free time? Speaking of beets and zucchini, what do we think the chances are that little Miss Bean is gonna like the asparagus I'm gonna give her for lunch tomorrow?

No Sleep Till Brooklyn!

I just put The Bean to bed after a rather long day. N. is still at work so there was no respite for mama. It wasn't a terrible day though. The babysitter was here and in the later afternoon we went to the gym so Bean could have some fun in the day care. She had a blast although she was very tired by the end. Speaking of tired would you like to know the many ways The Bean lets her elders know she's ready for bed? Yes, of course, you do.
1. She yawns
2. She makes weird, deeply guttural, strangely alien noises
3. She puts her head down---on the floor, on her highchair tray, on the bottom of her closet, on your shoulder, which is the bestest
4. She gets very still
5. She gets very hyper and scampers around the room like a hyena
6. She cries
7. She laughs a lot, which makes you feel like you're being very funny when actually you're not
8. She acts like she wants to nurse
9. She climbs into your lap
10. She kicks her legs and won't let you change her diaper/clothes
11. She yells
12. She pulls her ear
13. She rubs her eyes
14. She pulls her hair, which is a feat since she's still pretty bald
15. She scratches behind her ear
16. Her motor skills start to stink
17. Her eyes get red
18. She starts to look dunk and stoned
19. She's too distracted to eat any solid food
20. While on the bottle her eyes roll into the back of her head--really, it's kind of freaky
21. She just wants to be held

Pretty wild stuff, huh? Luckily, she came with a manual. It's not like N. and I had to figure it out or anything.