Lucy Finally Meets Mr. Pei

Just two days shy of her eight month birthday, Lucy finally met Mr. Pei today. He was speechless. Actually, he wasn’t, just in this video. But she did an excellent job hanging out while I brushed up on my Tai Chi. She mainly chewed on Sophie, smiled at other classmates, and showed them how she can squeak her little toy. Once class was over, I asked for Mr. Pei to take a picture with Lucy.

I was stunned to realize that I still remembered the moves after almost ten months. That is until about thirty minutes later when I hit some kind of mental wall and I could not remember what came next. I am not sure if that was the most I have allowed my mind to wander in a while, or what. Very odd. Or the exhaustion could have set in around that time. We are hopefully making strides in challenges in the sleep arena. This is probably why civilizations for thousands of years had their children around the age of 13, when it was easier to stay up late.

I decide over Christmas that talking to people about whether or not your baby was sleeping was a lot like the scene at the beginning of The Jeffersons. The clip shows the couples in a therapy session and they are beating each other with foam bats. Except you don’t have a foam bat to defend yourself. Instead it just goes on and on, leaving you feeling even more exhausted than if you just talked about how insane Jersey Shore is and you just can’t stand watching it. And inevitably everyone asks you how your baby is sleeping, unless you are a parent and know that no one really wants to answer that question. People who know nothing about babies know that this stock question will make them look more interested. Anyway…

We got together with the Joneses this weekend and Taylor let me borrow Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby. I engulfed the first half of the book. It made me feel better in that we are not THAT far off from where we should be at this age. Plus the book advocates to be consistent but not rigid. That is a relief, because I am far from rigid. You shouldn’t put your baby in bed EVERY night at 7 pm, but around that time. We are not quite to 7 pm, but we are getting closer. But I highly recommend the book to everyone. I don’t know why it took me so long to get my hands on a copy. If you are even thinking of having a baby, put this on your Amazon wish list for when the time comes.

I call today a success, especially after last week when I was feeling very depressed. Once Sherri left on Monday, I focused on reinstating Lucy’s nap routine. It had deteriorated to nothing during the holidays. She could nurse for half an hour and catch a second wind. It was awful and the marathon nursing was driving me nuts. I finally read somewhere to just start by laying down with her everyday around the same time so that she would expect a nap. By Friday, I was so tired of all the couch and bed time that I pretty much lost it. Henry skipped a work dinner and I headed out to the mall to return a few items.

All of those naps paid off, because this morning she was finished with her nap around 10:38. I realized for the first time ever that we could actually make it to Tai Chi. It was the most motivated I had felt since I can remember. We popped open the stroller, loaded up some toys and headed to the CCCC. Hooray! Then we visited Leah and Paul before meeting Henry for lunch at the studio. We spent the rest of the afternoon there. Lucy spent some time playing in the pack ‘n play. She unintentionally slid down and took a nap all on her own. Wow! It has been sometime since that has happened.

I worked on a few projects, tried to start a new one and then finally decided to make something quick and easy just to feel a sense of accomplishment. I will share that with you tomorrow. I hope! I am still teetering on the edge of exhaustion and we are off to Florida on Thursday. Christmas continues well beyond Epiphany.