*Insert BIG GRIN here*

If you recall, not too long ago I was so desperate for Marissa to take a good nap that I climbed into her crib with her. Well, drumroll please...

Marissa is sleeping like an angel for bedtime AND naptime! After several weeks of the bedtime routine, she's been doing amazing. So the other day I decided to do the bedtime routine for naptime too. And whatdya know - it worked! I hold off nursing her right before noon, which is when she used to fall asleep, but not stay asleep. So after lunch (12:45, this girl eats slowly!) I change her diaper, read her a "boo" (book) and tell her it's night-night time. Today she cried for 2 minutes. The funny thing is, she totally knows what's going on during the routine. We ask her to say night-night and she says it with such despair and in such a pitiful voice because she knows what it means. But she usually reaches for her crib anyways. I am LOVING the schedule we are on now. When I used to watch the triplets, they were on a very tight schedule (for obvious reasons), and it made the day go faster when I knew what was coming up. Marissa has always set a loose schedule for herself, so it wasn't too bad, but now naptime is at 1, no matter what! Today we went for a looooong walk around the neighborhood, so I'm hopeful that she'll sleep at least 2 hours. The length of her nap doesn't seem to affect her, and it varies so much from day to day.

The only frustrating thing about this new routine is that it's impossible to do when we're at work. All the bedrooms are taken, and I can't/don't want to leave the pack-n-play there for only two days a week to get covered with black dog hairs. I don't know what to do. Nursing her to sleep just doesn't work anymore - she wakes right up when I put her down. And if she's not confined, she won't fall asleep on her own. I guess it's a good thing we'll be done with this job at the end of the year. But until then, I need to figure out a way for Marissa to get her naps in!

Anyways, I really hope that by writing this, I didn't just mess everything up. Lol. But I wanted everyone to know that I haven't been taking naps in her crib with her. Hehe Bye!

Wow

Marissa's vocabulary has already grown in the few days since I came up with that list! Keys, eyes, knee, and boo-boo are among the new additions. It's crazy!

I've been worn out lately. Last Tuesday I started the day by doing two loads of laundry, and two loads of dishes in the dishwasher. Then it was NAPTIME* and I got a shower. Then at 4:15, I found out that we would be showing our house at 6:15 to the realtor-lady who is trying to sell more plots. This couple wanted to see our model, and we have one of very few of this kind in the area. They are mailing us a nice big gift certificate to somewhere for showing it, but holy crap. I've never cleaned anything so fast in my life. We're still unpacking boxes and arranging things, on top of the usual mess of toys and crumbs on the floor. I put everything away, in boxes, drawers, shelves, dresser drawers, etc. Moved boxes out to the garage. Shoved random things into our dresser. Went around collecting trash from every room and hallway. Swept the floors. Vacuumed the floors. Did more dishes. Cleaned the whole kitchen. And I did all that with a toddler clinging to my legs. Lol. Dan came home from work a little early and helped a lot too. So, the house looks amazing right now! But don't open our dresser. Lol. Now we just have to sort all the junk in the dresser, and our house will be amazing, inside and out! I love it even more now, and there's sooo much space! I didn't realize how much room we have, and how much open space there is, because we still had a few boxes sitting around.

*NAPTIME: Holy crap. Well, let me start with the good stuff. I'm in the process of weaning Marissa, but she wants to do it a lot slower than I do. Lol. So we decided it was time for a new bedtime routine. She used to just nurse to sleep whenever she was tired, but sometimes that wouldn't be til 11pm, and it was just really starting to get ridiculous. Also, I wanted her to be able to go to bed on her own before she starts climbing out of her crib, and believe me, she's been trying lately. So we turned bedtime into Daddy-time. At 7:55 (an average of the times she used to just fall asleep on her own), Dan takes her upstairs for a diaper change and pjs. Then they read a book in the glider. Then he puts her in her crib. The very first night she only cried for 3 minutes. So we knew we made the right choice. She's been doing awesome ever since. She still sleeps in til around 7:30-8:30am. It's soooo nice to have the evenings just be adult time. And I'm loving the freedom it's giving me.

But...

NAPTIME. Since Saturday or Sunday (can't remember), naptime has been almost nonexistent. Sunday she slept for a few minutes in the nursery before church (we tried a new church again - Rissa did fine, and I really love the church and it's a lot closer than the other one), and then for a few minutes on Rach's lap in the afternoon. But when we put her in her crib, she was done with sleep. Last Monday at work, she slept for 4 minutes before she woke up crying. And then Tuesday happened. First, let me say that I'm sure most people can understand why I might be losing my patience. At least I hope so. Because I'm a bit embarrassed about what I have to say next. Lol. After lunch, Rissa asked to nurse. Which is fine. That's what she does. She knows when she's tired and ready for a nap. So I nursed her to sleep. But once I put her in her crib, she didn't stay asleep (she used to). So I tried our latest nighttime thing, and just went in her room and told her "I love you, it's time to go night-night. Lay down please" and let her cry for a few minutes to see if it was going to work. When it was obvious it wasn't, I got her out to nurse her back to sleep again (used to work). Only this time she just nursed forever, eyes wide open, playing with my hair. By this time, it was much later than she usually falls asleep, so I knew she was exhausted. So I decided to just put her in her crib (like Daddy does for bedtime) and let her go to sleep. Yeah right! I let her cry for 5 minutes, then went in and told her "I love you, it's time to go night-night. Lay down please" then let her cry for 5 minutes, then went in and told her the line, then let her cry for 5 minutes...you get the idea. I did this for, oh, probably 35 minutes. The funny part was that every time I walked back in the room, she completely stopped crying and her facial expressions were like she hadn't even been crying at all. It almost seemed fake, except for the tears and snot dripping down her face to the crib then onto the carpet. Lol. Finally, I decided it wasn't working (duh) and thought I'd lay down on the floor next to her crib to calm her down. Still crying. At this point, she was completely wiped out, so I knew if I could just get her to lay down, she'd fall asleep. So, silly desperate me, climbed into her crib (don't worry, it was very sturdy and didn't even creak - lol), and held her in a tight bear hug for 15 minutes while I sang to her. Finally, she collapsed. Somehow I managed to extricate myself from her crib without waking her up. I don't think I will be doing that again. But there's got to be a way to get this girl to nap well again!

Thankfully, she's been doing better since then, but it's still a struggle. She's sleeping now, so I'd better get some stuff done before she wakes up!

Yeah, it's been a while.

Well, Marissa had her weight check a few weeks ago now.
A little background info:1 yr - 17 lbs, 10 oz; 15 mo - 18 lbs, 13 oz
So her Dr. wanted me to start her drinking milk and adding olive oil to her veggies (weird) to help her gain weight, even though she's completely fine otherwise, and is developing normally. So she's still rear facing in her car seat, which is killing all of us. Lol. I figured she'd gain a lot because we've also been letting her have dessert a lot more, and she's generally just eating better. Or so it seemed to me.
So...drumroll please...




19 lbs 6 oz

So...still rear facing. Not sure what her Dr. thinks because he wasn't there, we just saw a nurse. But I have a feeling he'll be calling sometime. I don't know if I should be concerned that she's such a skinny mini, or annoyed that the Dr. is so concerned when it's obvious that I'm also a skinny mini.


Moving on...I finally have a few minutes to catch up. We had an awesome time in Chicago a few weeks ago. We left Tuesday morning and Dan had to go to 5 or 6 stores to install printers, and he had to completely set up a brand new store for work. Rissa and I either played with the toys in the stores, took naps in the van, hung out in the hotels, or spent 6 hours in a mall. Lol. It actually wasn't too bad, and Marissa did very well. We managed to time the long drives for during her naps most of the time, so she wasn't too miserable. And we pulled out all the stops for entertaining her when she was awake. Lol. We sang every little kid song imaginable, identified every body part visible, and threw every toy on the floorThursday was the last day Dan had to visit stores, so Thursday evening we went to Ikea right outside Chicago. I felt like the Griswolds going on vacation to Wally World...I was looking forward to it soooooo much, and was soooooo excited to finally see the signs and parking lot. But I actually got to go inside, and it got even better then! Lol. Marissa was asleep, so Dan stayed in the van with her, and I got to completely take my time walking through the whole store. It was amazing. I found about a zillion things I wanted. Once I went through the whole store, I called Dan and he came and I just showed him the highlights and the stuff I wanted. Hehe. We didn't buy anything, but in the spring, once we have a little more money, and the store in Cinci opens...oh boy, watch out! I basically want to furnish our entire house with stuff from there! My favorite thing is the little kids table and chairs. Absolutely perfect.

Friday, we got up and drove into the city, and went to the Museum of Science and Industry. The only reason we went there was so I could see the babies in all the stages of fetal development. Wow. That was just incredible. The rest of the museum was cool too, but Dan and Marissa were doing laps around the place while I studied all the babies. After the museum, we checked into our hotel, The Drake, and the lobby was really fancy. We were kinda disappointed in our room though. For the kind of money we had to spend on it, it wasn't even as nice as our rooms in the Comfort Inn. Lol. It was still cool though, cuz we were right downtown. Dan asked around for a good pizza place, and we walked to it - Gino's East. The pizza was ok, but I'm not really a pizza fan. Dan loved it, but we had to wait 45 minutes for them to just cook it. Geez. Again, we pulled out all the stops entertaining Marissa. Then we walked to the Sears Tower. Yes, walked. 2.5 miles - one way! I don't know how Dan convinced me to do it. Rissa got a nice long nap in the stroller, and I just about died. Once we finally got there, we saw the video at the top. During which, Marissa woke up hysterical (I think the loud movie woke her up) and nothing I did would console her. She was really upset the entire time we were up there, while Dan took a picture from every window - in the dark! Lol. Then we still had to walk the 2.5 miles back to our hotel! Marissa was awake for that walk, and loved every second of it - she just took everything in! We crashed that night!

Saturday, we got up and went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We met a few guys that Dan knew from college there, and their wives. I had "met" one of them online because she also used to watch the triplets before I did. Weird! They just adopted twin girls from Guatemala who are two days younger than Marissa - they were absolutely precious! We had a great time visiting with them before we had to leave to drive home.

It was a busy little trip, with lots of driving, but it was really nice to get away for a while, and Dan really got to spend a lot of time with Marissa, which I sometimes feel that he doesn't get to do that often.

A week ago Marissa also turned 17 months old! I can't believe it! She is babbling like a maniac these days. I tried to compile a list of all the words she says on a regular basis:
her pronunciation = real word
tee = tv (oops)
boo = spoon
poo = poop (yes, she tells me when she poops! very convienent, but I'm really not ready for potty training!)
tish = tissue
shee = seat (carseat, or booster seat for a meal)
peas = please (she also usually signs it at the same time)
mah = more (she also usually signs it at the same time)
all doh = all done (she also usually signs it at the same time)
tank ooo = thank you
shoes = shoes (definitely her favorite, good grief!)
house = house
bah = ball (also sometimes says bah-bah for ball)
choo choo = choo choo train
baby = baby (another all time fav)
hi = hi
buh-bah = buh-bye
no = no
yesh = yes
puh = cup
ssssss = nurse
Dada = dada
Mama = mama
Ra-ra = Aunt Ra-ra
dee = ding (oven timer)
apple = apple
tash = trash
ell = help
nye-nye = night-night
Cheeeeeeze = cheese (for pictures)
She can also say Grandma and Grandpa, but I forget how she says them, and I think it changes every time we ask her. Lol.

Phew! I'm sure I am missing some of course. She also basically repeats anything we ask her to try. It's sooo cool. I love hearing her voice! Well, most of the time. Lol.

She can also identify her hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, lips, fingers, hands, feet, toes, knees, elbows, and belly button.Mealtime has become a circus. Depending on the week, day, or even hour, she might hate a food or love it. They say to watch a toddler's intake by the week instead of the day, and by the week she eats fine, but daily, it's ridiculous!

Ok, moving on...Last Wednesday after work, Marissa and I drove to Indy to visit my roommate from college, Laureann. She just had her baby boy two weeks ago, so I had to see him! He is sooo tiny, and sooo adorable! It was wonderful to hold a tiny baby again, and we had a fun visit til I had to leave late Thursday night. Marissa absolutely LOVED the baby, and said baby every two seconds the whole time we were there. She tickled his toes, rubbed his fuzzy hair, and kissed his head. She even got to hold baby Carter! It was soooo cute. She was so amazingly gentle the whole time. She also did this weird squint/smile when we ask her to give us a smile. She is turning into quite a fun little girl these days.

Well, I'd better run. I smell something funny...Lol.