I'm so looking forward to T-shirt weather, for numerous reasons. Believe it or not, one of the main reasons is Julian's painful putziness. Some days, every step of a wash-hands process requires a countdown: go into the bathroom, get on the footstool, roll up sleeves, turn on the water, put hands under the water, hold hands out for soap, rub hands together, rinse, etc. "FIVE...FOUR..THREE...TWO...ONE!" That's me, counting down countless times, with increasing irritation each time. T-shirt weather means one step, and one countdown, eliminated: no sleeve-rolling-up. Yay.
This morning, I experienced something I haven't in weeks: I got to wake up when I needed to, not when something -- well someone else woke me. Katrina needed a morning nap by 8am, and I gladly lay down then too...and napped until I darned well felt like waking up. I woke up slightly, then lay partly awake with my eyes closed, dozed off again, then opened my eyes and looked around the room, and let my mind ramp up gradually, then stood up and walked around slowly, taking my time getting dressed. What a treat! So different from being jolted awake and forced to jump up and walk while bogged down by grogginess, every time I'm awakened. Katrina woke up at 11:15, having had a solid 3-hour morning nap. Wow.
I hated to waste my sleep windfall on a necessity, but that's how it is on migraine days. Starting last night, I've been fighting a bad headache, and wasn't able to feel completely good when I finally got up today. Still, needing the sleep and not getting it with a headache makes for a horrible day. And all told, today was pretty good.
Katrina's morning nap pretty much killed the rest of her napping today, unfortunately. After a curtailed half-hour afternoon nap, she needed a lot of attention and holding. Which I don't mind, but it gets to be a strain when ALL I can do is carry around a slightly grumpy baby.
This is becoming a bit of a dilemma: she needs the most attention (holding, nursing, bath, bedtime) right when I need to be busy preparing dinner, often before Dave gets home. Today there was no choice, I didn't even try to start dinner before Dave got home at 6:30. But that meant a late bedtime for boys -- and girl. Well, we'll figure it out.
Afternoon amusement included being watched over by big brother while I went to get Katrina some more clothes after a big blowout. Gabriel just loves lying with her and playing, and as long as Julian isn't around, he's usually very careful (though I did have to admonish him again about putting his finger in her ear).
Since it was so nice out, I put on a cute little shorts-thing that I'd been eyeing for a while. I love bare baby legs! (Perhaps almost as much as bare little-boy arms that eliminate the need for a countdown for sleeve-rolling for hand-washing.)
She had a grand time ripping the tissue paper off a gift she got from Bonne Maman today. Inside was an adorable purple corduroy dress with a matching bottom-thing (what are those called, a diaper-cover I guess).
Katrina did well trying to sit up, though I was holding her for most of this. Still, several times I had to let go of her, and she sat solidly for a few seconds.
Bonne Maman also sent some wonderful activity books for the boys (thank you Bonne Maman!). Gabriel loves a challenging aircraft-sticker book, and Julian did his first dot-to-dot tonight, from 1 to 10. I was surprised that he caught on right away, and had no trouble doing it -- except staying interested, that is.
Such a contrast between the two boys. Julian grasped the dot-to-dot concept more quickly, and is much better at the drawing part, but will only work at it 5-10 minutes at a time. Gabriel took much longer to understand it, and he was older, and was much shakier in drawing the lines. But he latched onto the task like a bulldog, working at it for hours, and soon demanding to know why the numbers stopped at 50.
I spent a lot of time alone with baby this afternoon while boys napped, and I like that -- time alone with your baby, especially when there are other kids in the house, is precious time. But after baby was in bed, I had fun tonight working on the new activity books with the boys too. That too is precious time. It certainly seems precious now that all three are in bed. That's the most precious time of all!
Happy Birthday Bonne Maman! And Katrina is 5 months old today!
3/5/07
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