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Making holiday cards
for her teachers |
So, a while back I had it in mind to write a post about all our favorite things going on. We were having a great few weeks. Evie was back to her normal adorable and mostly agreeable self and Cora was sleeping like a champ. I was making lists of all the favorite sayings of Evie's, including:
- Oh-pea-meal (oatmeal)
- Dewwert (dessert)
- "Nope!" (negative response, but somehow adorable)
- "Ohhhh maaaan" (whenever she makes a mistake)
- Wad-du-wah (water)
- Cocking her head to the side and starting to stutter whenever she's really excited about something she's trying to say.
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Evie feeding Cora on Will's single parent
day, aka mama has flu #2, |
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Then Christmas happened and it went SNAFU. First, I got
my third round of a flu bug. Apparently there are 3 going around this year, and I've been lucky enough to catch them all within a month. Another 48 hours unable to move with a high fever. Fortunately, we were in Michigan so Evie was able to play with her cousins and still enjoy the holiday. Also fortunately, none of the cousins got the bug. But the next day Evie did, and so did Cora. Both girls went from super enjoyable to absolutely miserable, both running high fevers and finding comfort in nothing. Slowly but surely we're working our way back from this, but it has taken it's toll on Will and I.
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| The girls at a holiday party |
Evie's current negative response has switched from the adorable "nope" to a stubborn "NEVER!" and she storms away. This has to do with almost everything from asking her to clear her plate to going to the potty to going to bed to reading a book. She doesn't want us to sing her songs to bed anymore. "Just put me straight to bed and leave, please." At the very least, she is dressing herself every morning now, so we've moved beyond that battle. She is defiant in almost every statement, but half the time apologizes and says "sorry mom, but I'm not going to ___". Another battle that seems to have faded is the insistence on not wearing shoes. Perhaps this is the way it goes. Test a limit until she realizes we're not backing down, and then move on to a new limit to test.
Post-flu, Cora went from being dream baby to oh-mi-gawd-what-is-happening child. She naps for
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| Evie with the flu |
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| Cora: easy, happy, baby pre-flu |
short periods of time and then screams when I try to calm her back to sleep. When she goes to bed at night, she falls asleep and then wakes up after 45 minutes and then screams for about 2-3 hours. It is brutal. Last night I made Will promise me that he'd never agree to have another child. I'm done. Not cut out for this. When Cora screams, I buckle. I don't have the backbone to just try to rock her or pat her or sing to her. I inevitably nurse her even though I know she's not hungry. Because I know it calms her. Even though I know it perpetuates the cycle of her thinking she needs me as a prop to fall asleep. It's the same mistake I made with Evie and it took months to fix. I'm trying to stay strict to a routine for this week and see if we can get back on track. I know being sick throws anybody off, especially an infant. And I can't really complain because once she does fall asleep after the hours of crying, she's typically only up 2 more times and goes back down fairly easily. Evie used to be up 8-12 times a night. So comparatively, this is a walk in the park. I suppose I should count my blessings!
Speaking of blessings, I just put Evie down for the night and she seems so grown up. After a small battle about using the potty, she changed into her jammies and put on a pull-up and socks all by herself. Then she climbed in bed and asked that I not sing a song, but only turn on the sound machine, turn off the light and "close the door tightly so it won't open". Happy to oblige my love. Though I do miss singing!
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| Evie, 3 months |
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| Cora, 3 months |
And one more one-off story to share. I pre-made dinner for tomorrow night. It is a lentil stew. Evie was not excited about the looks of it. So I told her it would make her toot. She giggled. Then we sang the song "beans, beans, the magical fruit..." and boy did she love that. It got me realizing perhaps I don't loosen up enough. I'm so worried about being the perfect disciplinarian that I don't teach her silly songs like that for fear it'll come back to bite me in the ass later. But really, who does it harm to have an almost three year old giggle about tooting? So Evie, Will and I danced around the kitchen singing the song while she ate a few beans. If it means she's willing to eat dinner tomorrow, you better believe I'll sing the song all night long.
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| Cora finding her feet |
Update: I didn't publish this post last night because I couldn't get the pics to upload. Evie did not eat dinner despite our song, but was a delight otherwise. And Cora is officially 3 months old! She still doesn't love tummy time, but tolerates it. She has discovered her feet and is captivated by them. Not rolling over yet, but thinking about it. And she still has gorgeous blue eyes. We'll see if they stay that way or if the dominant brown gene will win out.
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