whine whine (pass me the wine)
Pippa seems to be flipflopping between skipping her nap and going to bed between 7 and 7:30, and napping and going to bed between 8:30 and 9 (with the same wake-up time). I much, much prefer the nap and later bedtime. Even though it's the same total amount of sleep (about 12.5 hours total, which is fairly typical for this age), I much prefer the nap and later bedtime. With the early bedtime, she basically goes from dinner to bath to bed at breakneck speed. No story time, no nighttime quiet play, no helping Mama tidy up the living room. Plus, her mood is always in total meltdown when she hasn't had a nap, and I'm right behind her because I haven't had a break either. And then I'm useless for dealing with the day's detritus also.
I do know that she is much more likely to skip her nap if she doesn't get physical activity in the morning, so that is critical. She is also more likely to skip her nap if I'm stressed (especially if I'm worried she won't nap!).
She's got her canines coming in so she's ramped up the biting again, which is adding to the stress and sleep disruption, on top of the cold. Does anyone NOT have a cold? It seems like every kid I know has one. It's the weather changing I guess.
---
Had a bizarre incident at the playroom today. One of the local bakery chains around here donates its unsold day-old bread to various community centres, and this particular center always gets their delivery Wednesday night and puts it out Thursday morning for anyone who wants to take it. There is a TON of bread... like six big storage bins worth of bread, buns, scones, danishes, etc.
When I arrived this morning I noticed there was a huge double stroller with two kids strapped into it parked in the entrance, which was surprising because it's against the playroom rules to bring non-folded strollers into the playroom (otherwise it would be a jam). But I thought maybe the mom just got there and hasn't unloaded yet. I get Pipster and Little Boy unloaded and playing, and then stroll over to check out the bread bins. I pick out three scones and three hamburger buns (we're going to have hamburgers tonight).
Then I see a long, beautiful focaccia. I pick it up, thinking "Score!", because I've never noticed focaccia in the bread bins before.
This other woman standing there yanks the focaccia out of my hands and says "I was going to take that."
I'm stunned. I stammer an apology, thinking that she must have picked it up, put it back down for some reason, and I just didn't notice.
She stuffs the focaccia into her (ENORMOUS) reusable bag. Then she digs into the bread bin and grabs THE ONLY OTHER FOCACCIA and puts that in her bag too.
I'm just standing there thinking WTF. I notice LB is standing looking like he doesn't know what to play with, so I put away my little bag of bread and go get him involved in some play.
I look back over my shoulder and I notice the woman, with TWO enormous reusable bags AND a plastic bag, all STUFFED with bread, slinging these bags into the double stroller, and she leaves. So she isn't even here to have her kids play. She's just here for the free bread.
I have been doing better about trying to come up with charitable interpretations for the rude actions of others, but I am at a loss for this woman. Even if she is hungry or food insecure, there were literally dozens of loaves of bread, most of which were much healthier than the focaccia. It's rude to take all of one variety of something when there's someone else there who clearly would like one. And there's no excuse for grabbing the bread out of my hands, even if she had somehow "claimed" it.
I ran into a second irritating incident along the same lines. The playroom has a clothing donation rack where you can leave clothes and pick up clothes; I've done both. I saw a really nice winter coat there, so I picked it up and laid it with my diaper bag. When I went to leave, it was gone. I can at least thing of an alternate explanation for this one though: many of the caregivers at the playroom don't speak English well/at all. Someone may have been unable to read the "clothing swap" sign and thought that it was just where people hang their coats, and hung their child's coat there.
But I'm still bummed. It was a super cute, gender neutral (bright yellow with no designs), completely immaculate Baby Gap coat. Even if it was just a mistake and it wasn't meant to be donated, I still thought I had scored something cool, and then it vanished.
---
Last pregnancy, I waited until the absolute most conservative date of miscarriage risk dropping to start telling people beyond close family. At the time, I felt like if I had a miscarriage I would feel more comfortable sharing with a select group as a miscarriage and not have to deal with people who had heard the happy news but not the sad news and asking painful questions.
I think I feel differently about it this time. For one thing, while nobody seemed to expect me to be pregnant the first time, everyone is asking about it now, and I don't want to lie. I've been open with those who asked that yes, we would like to have another baby soon, Deo volent.
Currently I'm in the waiting period to find out whether I am or not. I thought I was last cycle and I wasn't. This time I don't think I am, so we'll see if my intuition is just wrong. If I am pregnant, I'm going to want them to do an early ultrasound because my cycles have been all kinds of wacky. LMP is not going to do it for estimating due date.
I'm wondering if I'm going to be one of those women who can't conceive at all until they completely stop breastfeeding. Some women are like that.
I really need to learn to stop obsessing about this and relinquish the idea of control over things I can't actually control. The illusion that we can 100% control our reproductive actions is one of the most widespread myths in modern culture, and even though intellectually I know it's hogwash, the myth persists in the back of my mind.
I do know that she is much more likely to skip her nap if she doesn't get physical activity in the morning, so that is critical. She is also more likely to skip her nap if I'm stressed (especially if I'm worried she won't nap!).
She's got her canines coming in so she's ramped up the biting again, which is adding to the stress and sleep disruption, on top of the cold. Does anyone NOT have a cold? It seems like every kid I know has one. It's the weather changing I guess.
---
Had a bizarre incident at the playroom today. One of the local bakery chains around here donates its unsold day-old bread to various community centres, and this particular center always gets their delivery Wednesday night and puts it out Thursday morning for anyone who wants to take it. There is a TON of bread... like six big storage bins worth of bread, buns, scones, danishes, etc.
When I arrived this morning I noticed there was a huge double stroller with two kids strapped into it parked in the entrance, which was surprising because it's against the playroom rules to bring non-folded strollers into the playroom (otherwise it would be a jam). But I thought maybe the mom just got there and hasn't unloaded yet. I get Pipster and Little Boy unloaded and playing, and then stroll over to check out the bread bins. I pick out three scones and three hamburger buns (we're going to have hamburgers tonight).
Then I see a long, beautiful focaccia. I pick it up, thinking "Score!", because I've never noticed focaccia in the bread bins before.
This other woman standing there yanks the focaccia out of my hands and says "I was going to take that."
I'm stunned. I stammer an apology, thinking that she must have picked it up, put it back down for some reason, and I just didn't notice.
She stuffs the focaccia into her (ENORMOUS) reusable bag. Then she digs into the bread bin and grabs THE ONLY OTHER FOCACCIA and puts that in her bag too.
I'm just standing there thinking WTF. I notice LB is standing looking like he doesn't know what to play with, so I put away my little bag of bread and go get him involved in some play.
I look back over my shoulder and I notice the woman, with TWO enormous reusable bags AND a plastic bag, all STUFFED with bread, slinging these bags into the double stroller, and she leaves. So she isn't even here to have her kids play. She's just here for the free bread.
I have been doing better about trying to come up with charitable interpretations for the rude actions of others, but I am at a loss for this woman. Even if she is hungry or food insecure, there were literally dozens of loaves of bread, most of which were much healthier than the focaccia. It's rude to take all of one variety of something when there's someone else there who clearly would like one. And there's no excuse for grabbing the bread out of my hands, even if she had somehow "claimed" it.
I ran into a second irritating incident along the same lines. The playroom has a clothing donation rack where you can leave clothes and pick up clothes; I've done both. I saw a really nice winter coat there, so I picked it up and laid it with my diaper bag. When I went to leave, it was gone. I can at least thing of an alternate explanation for this one though: many of the caregivers at the playroom don't speak English well/at all. Someone may have been unable to read the "clothing swap" sign and thought that it was just where people hang their coats, and hung their child's coat there.
But I'm still bummed. It was a super cute, gender neutral (bright yellow with no designs), completely immaculate Baby Gap coat. Even if it was just a mistake and it wasn't meant to be donated, I still thought I had scored something cool, and then it vanished.
---
Last pregnancy, I waited until the absolute most conservative date of miscarriage risk dropping to start telling people beyond close family. At the time, I felt like if I had a miscarriage I would feel more comfortable sharing with a select group as a miscarriage and not have to deal with people who had heard the happy news but not the sad news and asking painful questions.
I think I feel differently about it this time. For one thing, while nobody seemed to expect me to be pregnant the first time, everyone is asking about it now, and I don't want to lie. I've been open with those who asked that yes, we would like to have another baby soon, Deo volent.
Currently I'm in the waiting period to find out whether I am or not. I thought I was last cycle and I wasn't. This time I don't think I am, so we'll see if my intuition is just wrong. If I am pregnant, I'm going to want them to do an early ultrasound because my cycles have been all kinds of wacky. LMP is not going to do it for estimating due date.
I'm wondering if I'm going to be one of those women who can't conceive at all until they completely stop breastfeeding. Some women are like that.
I really need to learn to stop obsessing about this and relinquish the idea of control over things I can't actually control. The illusion that we can 100% control our reproductive actions is one of the most widespread myths in modern culture, and even though intellectually I know it's hogwash, the myth persists in the back of my mind.