Greasy hair and glad.

Today I skipped a shower in order to stay in bed with my 15-month old daughter Gianna a little longer. She's been sleeping alone now, in a play-pen crib type thing. She sleeps well now and doesn't seem to mind, but when I look down at her, she looks so small and lonely in the crib. I don't like how it looks like a little prison. She slept in our bed until about 6 weeks ago. I really liked having her there, and hearing her soft baby sighs and feeling her little warm body nearby all night. However, instead of sleeping better and more soundly over time, she actually began to wake more often, and needed to nurse to be able to fall asleep again. Gianna would wake every 90 minutes or so, and since I have to go to work all day, I was constantly tired and getting headaches. What worried me more though, is that each time my sleep was interrupted, I was starting to feel resentful, which would then make me feel guilty. So we made the decision to move her and things have been fine, and I think she sleeps better too.

So an era is over. I miss her at night. In the mornings, around 6:15, she wakes up and cries out. I go in to get her, and then bring her into our bed to nurse. After 15-30 minutes of leisurely nursing, she's usually ready to get up and play. Today, however, she nodded off again and I enjoyed this rare chance to snuggle.

After awhile I crept out of bed, and before too long she appeared in the hallway looking for me. We went about getting ready, and I turned around to see she had gotten into some coffee grounds. She had the grounds smeared all around her mouth and proudly held up the discarded filter. I laughed as I wiped her off, because I could see in her quizzical expression she was trying to decide if she liked the taste or not. I said, "Stick out your tongue," and she did so I could wipe it off.

This girl misses nothing. If she sees something new, she immediately wants to come and investigate. If I have on a different bracelet, or set down a glass of something to drink, she wants to see what it is. When I got new glasses the other day, she was so determined to get ahold of them, I actually had to remove them and put the old ones on for awhile. Of course, she gets very upset when thwarted, but usually can be persuaded to look or play with something else. I'm so pleased she loves books now. For the longest time, she had no interest and would slide off my lap or hurl the book to the ground. She got very impatient. Once she was around 9 or 10 months old, she began to tolerate the interactive ones, and now she'll sit through them all, one after another. She also loves to go outside. I found a beautiful wooden sandbox on Craigslist. It weighs a million pounds and we had to borrow a truck, but once we get it fixed up and painted, it's going to be marvellous. It's 6' X 4' with room for several children. Each end has a bench so an adult can sit there too. If the weather cooperates, we'll work on it this weekend. I really look forward to the weekends when I can spend all day with Gianna and my husband.