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Monday, February 22, 2010

not napping

so... here we are over seven months later. veronica is a completely different person than she was when i last wrote. she sits, she crawls, she pulls up on things... and it turns out she's also learned to make trouble... just for the fun of it. this morning, i was feeding her breakfast -- pears, she loves pears -- and she decided that it would be funny to squirt it back out of her mouth. you know... just to see what kind of reaction she could get. as she phbbltt pears across the table and my glasses for the fourth or fifth time, i no longer had to stifle giggles... i just had to figure out how to get her to actually swallow her breakfast. breakfast, up until now, was the easy meal. fruit and cereal... no real thought had to go into it. it's sweet, she's generally hungry, so she quickly scarfs it down. i guess i'll have to rethink that game-plan.

napping has also become quite a competitive sport. veronica and i read a few books, then i nurse her, then i put her in her crib. this used to be fine... it would lead to sleep, as it should. but then she learned to crawl... and pull up. turns out it's much more fun to circumnavigate the crib several times than it is to sleep. problem is, kid, you're tired. and mommy wants to shower. as fun as it is to watch that little bald head retreat into the distance and come back around to stare down the surveillance camera, i still have to wait around until you decide that you're actually tired enough to sit down. and even then, it's twenty minutes later until you start dozing off... often-times still sitting (and thus pass-out folded in half like a fortune cookie). here we are at the hour mark, and your just now showing signs of fading. i want to go in and encourage you to lie down, but generally my entrance just leads you to giggle... like the victor you are. i will hold strong. i will not go in. i will just continue to whisper words of encouragement through the video monitor. "sleeeeep, veronica... it's good for you."

of course, i love these little battles. i never wanted (nor expected) my kid to be too complacent. veronica is becoming her own person... and in addition to the spraying food at breakfast and fighting naps with bobbly walks around the crib, she loves to cover me in kisses and cuddles. she'll crawl after mil or me if we've drifted out of her sight, giggling as she makes her way across the slippery floor. it's spectacular. i want to savor (almost) every moment, so years from now, when she's asserting herself in more adolescent ways, i can bring back memories of slobbery kisses and giggly peaks around the corner... maybe even some peary bits streaking across my glasses.