How Do You Do?

It's been an interesting week up here in cold land. We really can't complain because we were spared the worst of the ice storms, but we had enough to cause us to have two-hour delays at school on Monday and Tuesday. If the forecasted storm had actually come to fruition last night, we'd probably be home today. Luckily, the temps were just a degree or two higher than forecasted and the ice became rain.

When school is delayed, teachers are still expected to report on time. The daycare, however, is only officially open during the hours that students are here. I just brought Sera's cereal and milk to my office, turned the TV on to PBS, and let her watch Curious George and Clifford The Big Red Dog, while I worked. She had her doggie and her Mei Mei, so all was good.

Yesterday, however, she did the funniest thing. I forgot to tell Jim last night, so this will be news to him, too. Her stroller was by my desk chair. At one point, I turned around to check on her. She grabbed my right hand with her right hand, shook it, and said hello. I started laughing. She did it multiple times. I've never shaken hands with her before. In fact, I don't think I've even shaken someone else's hand in front of her before. I asked at daycare, and they do a little bit, but not really. When I picked her up in the afternoon, they told me she'd been shaking hands and saying hello all day. Hmmm...I hope she's not a born politician. I'm kind of over politics right now. I'm already tired of the 2008 election.

Jim does the bath and bed routine about 90% of the time. On the few occasions I do it, she will look for daddy, but she's usually fine with either of us. On Sunday, Jim had his big game, so I put Sera to bed. We usually leave her room at 7ish and she's down for the night. On Sunday, she played, she tossed, she turned, and then she started crying for mama, up, mama, up. After a few torturous minutes, I went into her room and got her. I don't like to get her after she's gone to bed because it's never less than 2 1/2 hours before I can get her to sleep. It doesn't matter if it's 7:30 PM or 1:30 AM; it's 2 1/2 hours. I had things to do Sunday night, so I decided to try something different. I brought her into my bed, turned off all the lights, muted the TV and put on closed captioning. I was afraid I'd fall asleep if I didn't have something to focus on. And tucked her into bed with me hoping she'd fall asleep. HA! She watched silent TV. She played with Elmo. She played with doggie. She played the tickle game with me. I noticed that whenever she would actually lie down and try to relax that she'd start coughing. I figured her congestion was making her cough when she was lying down. I know it does me. By the time I decided to give her a little Benadryl to help her congestion, she was practically doing somersaults on my bed. She gets a little hyper when she's overtired. I gave her the medicine, put her in her crib where she sobbed like I broke her heart for about 45 seconds and then went sound asleep.

Next night, daddy's home so we're back to our routine. Jim puts her to bed and heads to the basement to do some work. I head upstairs to do some laundry. About 7:30, it starts again...mama, up, mama, up. Hmmm...last night didn't work. If I go in her room though, she'll want to play. Time for Plan C.

Plan C was similar to Plan B. I brought her back into my room. I made the room pitch black and I turned the TV to the XM Classical Christmas station. Surely this would make her sleepy. HA!! She sat up on my bed and played with my hands, my face, and tickled my belly. She played with Elmo, whose glowing eyes when he sings his song is just creepy in the dark. I had told her when I got her out of her crib that she could come with me for a little bit, but then it would be back to her bed. After 20 minutes, I took her back to her crib where she again cried for 45 seconds and went to sleep.

What would Wednesday bring? Was this going to be our new routine? When we got home from work, Sera and I played while Jim changed clothes and settled in. After about 30 minutes, I headed out to do a little shopping. My goal was to be back before 6 PM because one of the things I was buying was more bubble bath* for her. I would have made it but I had the most methodical cashier ever at Target. You know the kind. Pick up the item, look at it, try to scan it. Fail. Try again, turn it over and find the barcode, and finally, scan it. Stop and take a really good look at the item now. You may want to get one later. Look at both open bags and decide which one to place it in. Place the non-breakable item gently into the bag while adjusting the other items already in their oh so carefully. You know how fragile deoderant and books can be. I was ready to gently move her to the side and scan my own things in. MUST BE PATIENT.

Anyway, I didn't leave Target until 6, so I called Jim and told him he might not want to wait for me. He decided a few minutes wouldn't hurt and she'd been asking for me, so he waited. I had picked up two small $1 Christmas board books. When I walked in the house, I handed Jim the bubble bath and Sera the books. She was so happy to get those books. She and I sat on the couch looking at them while daddy got the bath ready. In minutes, he was downstairs and she was giving me a good night kiss.

I relaxed for 5 minutes but then could hear her calling me. I grabbed my bags intending to drop them off on my bed and put a load in the washer before peeking in on her in the tub. As soon as I got to the top of the stairs, she started calling me again. I put the bags down and joined them in the bathroom. Sera is becoming much more vocal about which one of us she wants. She spends a lot of time with me, so I do not begrudge Jim his time before bed. In fact, most nights I'm ready for a break by then. I guess because I'd been gone all afternoon, she wanted me to stay. She'll look at whichever one of us she wants to leave, wave, and says bye-bye. That's when we know we've been dismissed. She dismissed Jim. He didn't leave, however. He stayed in the doorway, and we chatted while she finished playing in the tub. When it was time to get out, I started picking up all the bath toys and Jim wrapped Sera up in the towel. She made it quite clear that she wanted me last night, so Jim suggested I take over the night routine, and he'd grill up some burgers since neither of us had eaten yet. That sounded good to me.

After I got Sera all lotioned up (her favorite part) and into her pjs, we snuggled on the rocker and watched a little bit of one of her dvds. She usually likes to play a bit before bed, but not this night. She wanted her blanket, which she's taken to call ghee ghee, and I have no idea why. And she wanted to snuggle. I had no problem with that plan at all. After a bit, I placed her in her crib with all her required objects**. I told her I loved her. She told me nigh-nigh. And she slept all night long.

Then I headed out to the delicous freshly ground burger my husband had grilled and dressed just the way I like them...plus two loads of laundry, a stack of Christmas cards, some bill paying, and a bit of online shopping....oh, and some blog reading, too. Just a normal relaxing evening at home.

*I know bubble baths aren't good for girls. We buy California Baby bubble bath. It's all natural, no chemicals. The bubbles don't last long, but it also comes with a wand that lets you blow more bubbles.

**It used to be one doll. We added doggie, a small stuffed Lady from Lady and the Tramp, about two weeks ago. The Elmo she got over the weekend from breakfast with Santa is now required, and last night, she insisted on bringing both new books to bed, too. She's going to need a bigger crib.