Pure Bliss...

Since Nadia woke up sooooo early and was sooo fussy yesterday morning, I decided to put her down for a nap at 9:05. She fell asleep by 9:15 and didn't wake up until 11:50! Ian went down at 9:30 and didn't wake up until 11:20. This was the very first time that both kids were napping at the same time. The reason it was pure bliss was it meant I also got a nap!! I would have slept longer if Paul wasn't at home working on a paper. He woke me up twice to see if I thought we should wake Nadia up. At first I was tempted to do so to try to preserve the afternoon nap, but then I decided that the "bird in hand..." theory applied in light of the fact her afternoon naps had been less than an hour the last two days. I figured it was better to have one long morning nap now than possibly have a good afternoon nap. Since it was a bit warmer outside and I was trying to wear her out to increase the odds she'd take at least a short afternoon nap, I took the kids outside. I put Ian in his blue snowsuit and carried him in the baby wrap so that I was able to help Nadia get up the slide. The steps for the slide aren't meant for toddlers. I'm going to ask Paul to put in new steps on the ladder sometime. Unfortunately running around outside wasn't enough to get her to take a second nap.

While we were outside, I heard the words "leaves" and "dirt" many times. Nadia had fun playing with the dirt and dead leaves under one apple tree. She's also getting much better at saying her name, and she says it a lot more when she wants me to know that she wants to do something herself. Another change in the last few weeks is that instead of waving at everyone when we're out and about (such as at the grocery store), now she says "hi" to each person we pass. Many people didn't notice her waving, but most of them acknowledge her when she says "hi." I love that she's such a friendly girl! A couple of new words she's said this week were "counter" (referring to the kitchen countertop), "receipt" (took me awhile to figure it out but sure enough she was pointing to one on the couch), "this one," and "right there." This morning she said her first four word combination. As I handed her a cracker she said "I eat no mess." She's taken to taking food apart before eating it, and I am frequently telling her to eat it and not make a mess. As she took a bite she again said, "no mess." Good job, Nadia! You just never know what she's going to say these days! :-)

Yesterday I finished grading (until March 15 anyhow), did a load of laundry, and started packing our suitcase. My goals for today had been to finish packing, do another load of laundry, and write a performance review for a full-time adjunct in our department. I already gave Paul a haircut this morning, and since I didn't get as much sleep as I hoped to get last night, I think I'll do the performance review next week instead.

We still also have to be careful what goes in Nadia's mouth. She wanted to eat that dirt she was playing with outside. I introduced a new food to her yesterday; she again takes after her Mommy in that she loves clementines! One way she differs from me is that she wants to be outside ALL the time; it doesn't matter what the temperature is. She's going to be a happy girl once the weather gets warmer and Mommy is more willing to spend time outside most days. :-) I think I've done a good job of introducing her to a wide variety of fruits. She's even eaten papaya, mango, and guava yogurts for example. I was good at feeding her vegetables from when she was 6-12 months old, but I have been TERRIBLE with it from 12-20 months old.

Last night Ian slept from 8:30pm-1:30am. So we haven't had 3 nights in a row yet with a 6 hour stretch, but a 5 hour stretch is pretty good! He then slept from 2:30-4:00 and 4:30-5:00am. The reason he woke up at 5:00am was because Nadia was crying and it woke him up. We still have him in the pack 'n play in the living room, but somehow they are still managing to wake each other up. Nadia has a space heater which produces "white noise" in addition to warming her room, but that's not doing the trick. She woke up at 1:30 and 4:00 when he was crying. Since she didn't take a second nap yesterday, I decided to keep her up this morning even though she didn't have a good night last night. It wasn't hard to get Ian down for his nap this morning, but it was hard to keep Nadia from waking him up. I think next week I'll start putting his Nap Nanny in his crib for his naps in the hopes it will be easier for him to sleep, and then Nadia can play in either the family room or living room. I wondered if Nadia wasn't sleeping well because she was hungry (maybe we need to feed her a snack before bed?), but she didn't even want breakfast this morning until 9:30am. I wish she'd go back to sleeping 11 hours at night. Maybe she's teething? I am nervous about how she'll respond to the clocks shifting forward an hour this weekend. Hopefully it will mean she won't get up before 6am. I think Ian would have slept until 6:00 if she hadn't woken him up at 6:00. Ian is doing a great job of napping in his bed from about 9-11am; this morning he slept from 9:00-11:25! That can become strictly Mommy & Nadia play together time if I can get them both to take an afternoon nap at the same time. Then the afternoon nap time could be for me to take a nap and/or get some housework and/or schoolwork done.