I keep forgetting to post about one amusing bedtime with Travis while we were in Warrenton. For background, Travis is really into flipping light switches and always wants to turn them on and off.
I think it was Christmas night. Mark went to bed early, nursing his cold, and Gup was doing Hallie’s stories. Travis had perked up during the day and was still going strong at bedtime. I was determined to have a smooth bedtime with no tears and preferably no nursing him to sleep.
So, I nursed him first. Then we read all of our books, some of them twice. Then I turned out the light and expected him to settle in and grow sleepy. Hah! He squirmed and talked and wriggled. He twisted around to announce “see dat!” and point at LEDs on Gum’s desk. He grabbed for books and hurled away any that weren’t the ones he wanted.
I tried more nursing, more singing, and even plunking him into bed once, at which point he just wailed. By about 9:40 or so (we’d started around 8!) I was running out of ideas. Then Travis grabbed another book. He pointed frantically at a picture of a deer. Then he looked up and did the baby sign for light. Then he pointed at the book again and then did the light sign.
“No, Travis, I’m NOT going to turn the light back on!” I laughed at him. He sat straight up, knowing his message had been received, and lunged toward the door as if to flip the switch himself.
At that point I threw in the towel. I kissed him goodnight, plunked him in his bed, and left. I sat outside his door for the 8 minutes it took him to complain himself to sleep. And I don’t think we heard from him until morning. What a little communicator!
Hallie has just been bubbling over with happiness the last few weeks. It’s so good to have our joyful girl back. I don’t think I quite realized how subdued she was during the several weeks she was having a tough time with school. It was definitely not just during school times that her mood was different.
I still don’t quite know what made the difference, but we sure are enjoying a girl who is so often “entirely filled with laughter!”
Hallie played Santa for us all on Christmas morning. Her first assignment was to hand out stockings. She blew us all away when she went to pick up my mom’s stocking.
“Who is that for?” I asked her.
“Linda,” she replied!!
We all looked at each other. No one had told her whose was whose. And I was surprised she even knew Gum’s first name. She did it again with Gup (Neil) and Ralph and David and Anna. I assume she just recognized the first letters and knew the names she was looking for. Suzzanne’s name had a cursive “s” which confused her. And she wasn’t sure of Matt’s. For mine and Mark’s she just said, “Mommy” and “Daddy.” Still, we were all pretty impressed!
A week or two before Christmas, I noticed that Travis had red areas on his big toes. It didn’t look quite like ingrown toenails, but something was irritating them. It crossed my mind that his shoes could be too small, but he’d only had them 6 or 7 weeks. They were supposed to last 3-4 months!
Before we left for Virginia and while we were there, I saw him trip over nothing more than once. I made a mental note to get to the shoe store when we got home.
We made it to Stride Rite today (during a great clearance sale!) and discovered that his shoes are a whole size too small. As I grumbled to the sales clerk, she said, “Well, to get that average of 3 months, some of them have to be shorter.” True, I guess, but not too cost-effective for us!
Hallie had mentioned once or twice that her shoes felt tight at the ankles. I had her measured while we were there, thinking she still had a while to go. She, too, needed to go up a whole size! I’m sure glad they were having a sale!
The morning we headed to Newark for my grandmother’s memorial service, we loaded the cooler bag with drinks and snacks. Mark and I also had our mugs of decaf, which we sipped as we got on the road. We offered both kids drinks, but they weren’t interested.
About 30 minutes into our trip, Hallie announced matter-of-factly, “I see you drinking your drinks. And when a person sees a person drinking a drink, it can make a person want something, too.”
Mark and I burst out laughing. Finally I was composed enough to say, “Hallie, are you thirsty?”
“Yes, Mommy!” she giggled.
She knew full well she’d stated her request in a funny manner. And we all had fun laughing about how much easier it would have been to say, “May I please have something to drink?”
I think we’re all finally shaking the Christmas gift none of us wanted. I never got the full blown crud, but feel enough better today to know I wasn’t 100% all week. Travis still has a streaming nose but he’s been much happier today. And other than a few drips, Hallie’s pretty well mended, too. Makes us want to stay inside for the rest of the winter, though!
Between coughs and colds and trying desperately to get holiday cards and thank you notes out, I’ve been a poor poster. I’ll try to hit a few highlights and be more regular until my next freelance projects arrives, which could happen any day.
We’re home after a really wonderful Christmas. Despite a couple of bumpy nights with Travis–Christmas Eve was fully of wheezing, interrupted sleep, and a call to the doctor–we had a great holiday. The kids were just wonderful and they had a ball. I was a little worried we wouldn’t leave Gum and Gup’s without tears and hysterics from Hallie, but she kept a stiff upper lip.
We had a smooth drive home and managed to get the kids to bed at a normal time. (We hope they stay asleep!!!) We’re hoping to do the same ourselves shortly. More postings to come, though we may be busy house hunting. We need another playroom–that’s the only solution I can see for where to put all this new stuff!
Other than health issues, we had a lovely Christmas Eve. The Naylors and David and Anna arrived for lunch and my folks’ friend Huel joined us for dinner. We had fun eating, visiting, cooking, and playing with the kids.
The highlight was our after-dinner caroling. We used the Swanson-Naylor-Turner songbooks created a few holidays ago. Gum played the Steinway, I muddled along on my flute, Mark joined in on a few songs on guitar, Hallie and Travis played percussion and everyone else sang. I doubt we’d have won any awards, but we sure had fun.
Hallie got to open one present tonight and was thrilled with her hopskotch board. (T seemed to love it, too, and kept sitting in the middle of it.) Bedtime was a bit bumpy with one over-tired kid (Hallie) and one sick one (T). We’re keeping our fingers crossed that they are down for the night and will be up and full of cheerful energy for Christmas morning.
I think we’re about 50-50 on the health front now. Half of our holiday group is sick and the other half isn’t–at least, not yet. Travis is the latest target. He was up for two LONG stretches in the night last night. He sounded really wheezy, but I think it was just a rattle. It went away after some Tylenol and some co-sleeping with Mommy while Daddy hit the sofabed downstairs.
He woke up happy this morning and had an OK day. He wasn’t whiny but you could tell he wasn’t his cheerful self. He did a lot of cuddling and just sitting still, which is unusual, though he did show some sparks during our caroling and afterwards.
His temp was up to 102.5 at bedtime, and it took a return visit to get him settled for the night. At least we hope it’s for the night! He doesn’t have many other symptoms–just a slightly drippy nose and a hand crammed in his mouth constantly for his teeth. He’s such a good sport, but we’re eager to have our cheerful guy back. We tried to get some holiday card pictures today, but he didn’t smile in a single one. No one will recognize it’s really Travis if he’s not wearing a smile!
We got another great Hallie-ism last night. Hallie was wired at bedtime, having taken a late nap that it was nearly impossible to wake her from. As she zipped naked around the room, I tried to capture her to put on her pjs. I was getting really frustrated and finally resorted to the time honored, “1 . . 2. . .” Before I got to three she stood in front of me, still bouncing up and down.
“Hallie, it’s bedtime! I need you to be still and put your pajamas on,” I declared, exasperated.
“But Mommy, I’m entirely full of laughter. And when you’re entirely full of laughter, you can’t be still!”
As hard as it made bedtime, I think being entirely full of laugther sounds like a pretty nice way to be.
