Fits

Terrible Twos are Totally Here

In case there was any doubt, Avery has decided to kick it into full gear.  I believe she's basically try to exert her control over the house.  D and I have been locked in a battle of wills for several days now.  The smallest thing can set her off for an hour of time outs and crying.  The other day it was me taking away a container with orange peels; today it was taking away some pens that weren't child friendly; tonight it was me asking her to put her jammies on repeatedly and her going into clam shell to prevent this.  After several attempts at time outs, followed by giving her the opportunity to have milk and read books if she put on her jammies, I had it.  I gave her the choice: jammies followed by milk and books OR no milk, no books, and straight to bed.  She's been crying in her room for going on 30 minutes now.  I've resolved not to go up because when I give in at all, it makes to so much worse the next time around.  Why she decided to do this the night before we have to get up at 4 am to make a 6:50 am flight is beyond me.  Plus, I'm operating on about 3 hours of sleep from last night.  And we're babysitting tonight.  Nolan had trouble going down, Elise's molars are coming in so she's just miserable **, and I have some indigestion like I've never had*.  In other words, this night bites.

It also bites because I'm so annoyed with myself.  I meant to get many things done before we left.  I had time galore with D being home so much.  But it's like the more time I have, the less effectively I use my time.  So now, all I want to do is go to sleep, but I have to get other things done.  Grrrrr.  Of course, blogging is not one of those things either. 

It's now 40 minutes and she's still going strong. OK. I went up, but didn't give her any milk or read a book.  She only asked for milk, but I held firm.  I explained she chose not to have milk when she refused to put on her jammies.  I offered her water instead, which she agreed to.  She cried for another 10 minutes when I left her room, but we finally have peace and quiet.

I find it so odd that 75% of the time, she'll just fold herself in half (she sleeps like a clam shell) and go to sleep without any fuss, but that other 25% is a major fuss.  Major.  I think I would find it a lot less odd if she had ANY protest that 75% of the time.  I'm glad she doesn't, don't get me wrong, but as with pretty much everything about toddlers, I don't get it.

* This is almost literal.  I do not normally get indigestion.  I have had this burning in my chest since we were at the gym yesterday.  I'm quite confident that it's from anxiety and will cease once we land in Mexico, but in the meantime, it's f*(#ing annoying. 

** To be clear, people, I have zero complaints about babysitting Nolan and Elise.  They are normally cake and even if they weren't cake, I'd have no complaints because I like the little buggars and I like our date night arrangement.  Scratch that.  I LOVE our date night arrangements.  I'm simply noting the pile of steaming crap tonight was.

So Sad

I just got an email from our house cleaners (we don't use them regularly anymore, but I have implemented a new policy of having the house cleaned while I'm on vacation so we come home to order).  They had a baby on the 3rd.  It was a home birth.  Unfortunately, the baby started to look a bit odd on the second day and wasn't eating right, so they took her to OHSU.  Long story short, she had a stroke right before or during labor (unrelated to the home birth).  The neurologist called it a freak occurrence.  She has brain damage and has cerebral palsy on her right side.  They don't know the extent of the damage at this point.  Everything could be normal, or she might have some issues.  They sound like they're dealing with the situation very well.

The great news is that while the language portion of her brain was wiped out, because she's a newborn, her brain will just switch to use the other side of her brain so she'll talk normally!  Isn't that amazing!?

I can't imagine what they've been through.  More accurately, I don't want to. *Shudder.*