A bedtime story

The title of this posting might lead you to believe that I'm about to launch into a lovely flowery tale of make-believe and whimsy. I hate to disappoint but it's not happening. Rather, I thought you might enjoy hearing a little about the bedtime that happened earlier with Miss A.

Because we're all officially on summer vacation time, our schedule is... well.... null and void? We (kind of) have no schedule. *shrug* It happens. This isn't to say we aren't doing much. As I've already stated too many times to count, we are doing plenty! And on top of that, we are constantly leaving the door wide open for whatever else we might want to do that tickles our fancies. 

Today after Miss A's violin lesson it took us for-ev-er to get home! We did get a lot accomplished though. Still? Her nap time is usually about 1-ish in the afternoon and we didn't get home and settled until after 3:30. I guess we could have held Miss A off for her nap? But we knew she would be probably more grumpy than necessary so we urged her to rest herself a little bit. She played quietly in her room on her bed and eventually fell asleep and didn't wake up until probably 6-ish. Hmmmm... not good? *shrug* Yeah. Especially considering the fact that her regular bedtime is about 8:30-9-ish at the latest. Eh. Whatev.

D had a meeting tonight and so it was just me and Miss A passing the time for the most part. We played with her little people set and I made her dinner to eat while she caught up on some On-demand episodes of Caillou. By the time all was said and done it was 10pm - WHOA! I gave her the appropriate warnings for bedtime and she expressed resistance but then she looked up at me with her big brown eyes and said, "Can I sleep in your bed, Mama?"

*shakes head*

I can't say no to something like that. This is partly because, well, who couldn't say no to something like THAT, and also, I remember being little like her and loving the rare occasions when I got to do things like fall asleep in my parents' big bed and burrowing my face in their pillows. It was always a very comforting and reassuring experience for me when I was little and I have always suspected it's like this for most all little kids. And for this reason? She's never banned from such an opportunity. Her night terrors in the past months have always been best managed by letting her crawl into the big bed and she always falls immediately back to asleep. As far as I'm concerned? It's a small thing to have to carry her back to her own room in the middle of the night. The hours that I might lose are nothing compared to what are now her most formative years.

So, to make a long story even longer, I agreed that she could at least fall asleep in our big bed. And here is a transcription of the experience...

[We are finally in our pajamas and crawling into bed]
Me: Now, Miss A. We are going to say our prayers and then go to sleep! We are going to lay our heads down and close our eyes and go to sleep, OK?
Miss A: Can I have my bear?
Me: *sigh* Your blue bear? Yes. Do you want your bunny too?
Miss A: No. Just my bear please.
Me: OK. You stay here. I will get it.
[I leave and locate the bear and notice that D has come home. Miss A hears this fact and all bets are off again.]
Miss A: I need to come say good-night to Papa! I need to give him hugs and loves!
[Miss A gets out of bed and runs to find him. The usual exchange of good-night and "I love you" ensues. D reminds Miss A that it is late and she needs to go back to bed. Miss A scurries back off to bed.]
Miss A: I'm sleeping in Mama's bed, Papa! I'm sleeping in Mama's room!
D: Good-night, Miss A!
[I return to bed and give Miss A her bear.]
Me: Now. Miss A. Remember? We are going to sleep! We are going to put our heads down on the pillow and close our eyes and not talk. We are going to be calm and quiet. We are going to go to sleep.
Miss A: OK, Mama.
[We say prayers together. The lights are turned off. Miss A sits up. D comes in, crawls into bed and almost immediately falls asleep.]
Miss A: Papa is here, Mama.
Me: I know. Go to sleep. Put your head down. Quiet your voice. It's time to go to sleep.
Miss A: It's nigh-night time.
Me: Yes. Good night. Remember - if you don't go to sleep you will have to go back to your room, OK? Do you understand?
Miss A: Yes, Mama. I understand.
[Miss A lays down and I close my eyes. All of a sudden I feel her right in my face. She is blinking her eyes on my face and rubbing her nose on me.]
Me: Miss A, it's time to sleep now.
Miss A: Mama. I need butterfly kisses. Can I do noses?
Me: OK.
[We do noses. We do butterfly kisses. It is quiet again.]
Miss A: Mama. Papa is moving around. Papa? Will you please stop moving around?
Me: Papa can move around. He is just getting comfortable. It's OK.
[It's quiet again. There is a noise of some sort outside. Maybe a bug fluttering at the window.]
Miss A: Mama! What was that noise? Did you hear that noise?
Me: It was nothing. Go to sleep. If you don't quiet down you will have to go to your bed. Do you want to go to your bed?
Miss A: No, Mama.
Me: OK. Good night.
[It's quiet again. The dog is out for the count but he rolls over and makes a loud groan as he is wont to do.]
Miss A: Don't worry, Mama! That's just the dog. Don't worry, Mama.
Me: I know. Miss A, shhhhh...
[It's quiet again. Miss A is laying still. All of a sudden she pops her head up.]
Miss A: Mama? can I go in my bed now?

Like I said. I could lose hours of sleep! And it will always be worth it to me to be able to do this for her. ALWAYS.

Itty-bitty this and that

Miss A was supposed to go to school today since yesterday was our "family day" but we've been trying to get her started with violin lessons and her preliminary evaluation for readiness/first lesson could only be today. It only made sense to keep her home instead of rushing about. At least we have the luxury of keeping her home if we need to, right?

Right before we got ourselves all ready to go, D was outside wedding the flower-picking-butterfly garden. I had just gotten Miss all ready and he came rushing in all excited about something...

Do you see that? It's probably the teeny-tiniest-little praying mantis EVER. AMAZING. He found it on his shirt and we were all enthralled by it.

Miss A was even excited to try and hold it and not smash it! We were very proud of her.

And after we put the praying mantis back, we jumped into the car and headed off to violin lessons right away!

Miss A's instructor is a former colleague of mine and she's just an amazing performance artist and musician! She has assured me that Miss A isn't too young to get started but we are definitely going to have to do a lot of practicing and work with her to teach her the important things like not touching the bow hair and getting it all greased up.

The good news? Miss A was a little shy to begin with but was able to be brave and hold the violin (with assistance and do one of her first major motions which was learning how to pluck the strings!

Before Miss A will be able to use the bow with the violin though, we have to help her learn the proper posture.

It starts with holding onto the violin body in a specific way, lifting it high above your head, and then in one fluid motion, putting it under your chin in a specific way.

Miss A's greatest challenge so far? Not giggling and feeling ticklish under her chin/at her neck when the violin is there. She could barely stand having it in the correct position because she was so ticklish.

We'll work on it with her but in the meanwhile we are just excited that we have been blessed with the means to get her started with this. Hopefully we will have many more encore blog postings and eventually a video of her playing "Twinkle twinkle little star" at one point!

Family day one: Miss A channels her inner Elton John

Today was the first of what we hope will be many "family days" for this summer. D and I opted out of formal summer employment (like what we did last year - NEVER AGAIN!!!) but we are working. Basically, we are both freelancing with the many practical and varied skills we have. Surprisingly, we've both been kept VERY busy since school let out and there doesn't seem to be an end of that in sight. Still? We are doing our best to keep our priorities set right and straight and we have decided to do something we call "family day." It is a day we are setting aside once a week, EVERY week to do things that are very focused on things we will do together.

Today probably wasn't the best family day we could have had but this was only our first stab at it so we're hoping to get a lot better by the next one and then really have it right for all of them after. On today's agenda was the following...

• Take Miss A to get fitted for a teeny-tiny violin for her to start violin lessons
• Enjoy a really decent sunny day making mud pies, picking flowers, running through the sprinklers, and wading in the baby pool
• Finish cleaning Miss A's playroom while D tackled the mess that is our slow drain problem in the laundry room (This was done while Miss A napped.)
• Take Miss A to her first ever ballet class/lesson
• Have an easy going night just hanging out together

Like I said, not the most fun day and kind of of more utilitarian than anything else but I think Miss A had a lot of fun today and the point was just for us to be together and that is something we definitely were.

Here are some pictures to illustrate all of the fun we had.

 

In case you were wondering, Miss A dressed herself. A little on the Elton John side of things if you ask us but we're OK with that. She is her own little canvas for herself and we don't mind it one bit.

The size of her violin is 1/16. I really have no idea truly how small that is since I kind of know little to nothing about violins but it was explained to me that this is the next size up from the smallest and we could have gotten the smallest and have it fit her just right. She has a little room to grow with this one.

We opted for the backpack straps for her vs. the shoulder strap. She was beside herself with shyness about the fact that she could carry it all by herself! Of course, it helped that everyone in the shop - staff and customers alike were fawning over her like she was the tiniest violinist ever made! *wink*

She was allowed to pick an ID tag and (of course) she picked PINK. Don't you just love how the length of the case of the violin is almost as tall as her? I love that! So sweet!!!

Woo-hoo!!! A CLEAN playroom! We managed to scrounge up some reasonably priced (via craigslist and cast offs from some teachers we are pals with) storage options. I don't even care that more and more we look like we live in a kindergarten.

The dog is all about being in the mix of things. Tonight Miss A tried to play Memory matches with him. It didn't work out at all.

They wouldn't let me take decent pictures of her because the parents were too distracting to the kids so I had to take this through a dirty window with disgusting sheer curtains. *sigh*

She did surprisingly well for her first class and we'll go back next week. Perhaps I'll get some better pictures? I don't know.

One of the best parts about this day was that I planned ahead and got some of the most amazingly beautiful pictures of Miss A yet! I absolutely anticipated the fact that I wouldn't be able to get good pics of her in her ballet get-up today (for the exact reasons that were confirmed by the ballet teacher above!) so I got Miss A dressed and took her pics right away at home on our beautiful wood floor with the terrific lighting from our picture window. Being a professional photographer is so handy sometimes!

Note: For the picture before this and after that, I digitally removed (read: photoshopped!) out the press-on tattoos and junky plastic jewelry. My goal was to turn out portrait quality prints! I'd say I nailed it pretty well and I'm happy with the turn out.

And that's it for our first family day of the summer! Other ideas that we might try for a spin are berry picking, trips to see the national monuments, going to the university pool, and trips to animal type places (read: zoos, aquariums, etc.)

Better than putting lipstick on a pig

Last evening Miss A was toddling around and decided to put one of her many necklaces on the dog. She looked at him and then looked at us and proclaimed, "He's BERY pretty!" We were both so tired that we acknowledged it and then just kind of moved on.

This morning, Miss A woke up extra early - BEFORE 630am when her usual is about 730-8 - and woke me up all upset that she couldn't find the cap to this flashlight thing she is currently obsessed with. I pulled her out of bed, convinced her to cozy up on the couch with me, and watch "a show" quietly while I woke the rest of the way up. As I was sitting there half asleep/half awake, I casually glanced over at the dog who had just flopped down on the floor next to us. This is what he looked like...

I just about started choking myself because I started laughing so hard!! We TOTALLY forgot to take the necklace off of him and he wore it all evening last night and then through the night to the morning!!! I think even HE had forgotten he had it on!! And there he sat just sitting there as naturally as ever, like dogs wearing necklaces was completely normal. I mean look at him!

Even now I am looking at this picture and can barely contain the amusement I have with it.

*sigh*

I really hope Miss A continues to do this type of thing. We NEED a "bery pretty" dog around here. What better way to start a day!

Fat dogs and little chairs

Now that Miss A has turned three, it's like she's all of a sudden become so much more entertaining. I mean, not to say she wasn't like that before? But... I don't know. I guess it's one of those things that goes along with the whole "Kids say the darnedest things."

Anyway, I don't have pictures to illustrate these moments but I thought at least it would be fun to record them here. So? Here's the first installment of them. I've got three!!

Overheard/saw this from around the corner of the kitchen... Miss A was setting up some dollhouse furniture in a circle...

Miss A: OKAY!! We can have a TEA party!!!
(Miss A goes over to a chair and attempts to hover/sit on one of them)
Miss A: I'm so big for this chair. I can't fit!

Here's the next one from when we were driving home from the Vet to pick up the dog. He had to have a patch of fur shaved for them to do the necessary procedures.

Miss A: Mama?
Me: Yes, Miss A?
Miss A: He's a fat dog. He's FAT.
Me: Why do you say that?
Miss A: Because he's FAT. He's fat because he has a boo-boo.

And the last one from the other day while I was sitting on a camp chair watching her make mud pies. She walked over to me and handed me a cup of water.

Miss A: Here, Mama. This is for you.
Me: Why thank you!
Miss A: (drops a large pinecone in the cup) That's a bread. (walks away)