Archives for August 2007

Pizza?

dsc00058.JPGSo on two occasions in the last month or two, Elena and I stood around the kitchen during dinner time and asked each other the age old question, “What do you want to eat for dinner?”. We like Pizza around these parts and we had grown particularly fond of Papa John’s Hawaiian Pan Pizza, so feeling adventurous we decided that we would call in a carryout special. This means that we have to get off our butts and pick it up ourselves, but the pizza comes out significantly less expensive, plus we had business to do in the area so we figured we would kill two birds with one stone and eat our pizza in the car picnic-style. Elena is always good about making sure we have everything we could possibly need. She typically packs napkins, paper plates, plastic utensils, soda, etc. and off we go. Emma seems to like the change of scenery as well.

In any event, we literally did that twice in the course of a two month period. Today during lunch we wondered aloud what we should eat for lunch. Our neighbors have raved about a local pizza joint so we decided that we would go try it out. Within minutes of our saying the word “Pizza”, Emma proceeded to dig through our pantry and prepare her to-go plate. She then approached her mother who was otherwise distracted and said, “Pizza?” Elena was stunned to see that Emma had collected the same items (paper plate, napkin, and plastic utensils) that Elena normally prepares for us. She is one smart cookie that Emmalicious.

Sleeping Like A Baby

dsc00058.JPG

So over the last three nights, Emma has awoken an hour or two after being put to bed crying for “Mommy” and “Daddy”. It’s gut-wrenching and difficult not to succumb to her enchanted calls, so periodically we enter her room to let her know everything is OK and that Mommy and Daddy will pick her up in the morning but right now it is sleep time. It’s amazing how much of this she understands because she immediately responds with a sad and crackly “no”. After comforting her we place her back into her crib but sure enough she is out a few minutes later. We tough it out until she falls asleep, and then enter her room once the coast is clear to pick her tired body off the floor and return her to her crib. It’s quite funny that Emma chooses a nice fluffy throw, that we place on her floor when we prepare her for bed, as her landing zone. She also raids her stuffed toy box and grabs “Emma the Frog” for some comfort. We have been placing Emma the Frog to bed with her ever since.

dsc00059.JPG

She’s a Heartbreaker


dsc07862_croppedsm.jpg
It’s 2:12 AM and Emma has been crying and calling out “Mommy” and “Daddy” for close to two hours now. I have gone into her room twice during that time to comfort her and explain to her that Mommy and Daddy love her but she needs to sleep in her bed. She responds with an extremely cute “No”. You see, her mother and I have been taking turns sleeping with her on an air mattress for a few days because she has been waking up at 2:30 AM every night since her now famous plunge. We have also been giving her a second bottle of milk to help put her to sleep which has resulted in some saturated diapers and bed wetting. Anyway, Elena and I decided that we needed to get Emma back into her normal sleep pattern. She has done so good for many months now. Our sleeping with her has enabled her to regress somewhat.Anyway, now that we have installed the “strait-rail” Emma will immediately vacate her bed once I put her in it. Since we can’t sleep until we know she is resting I decided to do a quick update to distract myself from the gut-wrenching calls. The last two times I went to put her in bed she told me, “all done” as she signed it. I couldn’t contain my laughter and asked her what she was done with. She is remarkably articulate at her young age and typically I can help her along. So I asked her, “are you done sleeping?”, to which she responded “no”. “Are you done with your crib?”, I asked, to which she again said, “no”. I was never able to figure out what she was done with but she was insistent the she was done as she repeated it a dozen times. She makes me smile and I so wanted to just fold and sleep with her tonight but I know we need to get things back to the way they were. Sleeping with her will only reinforce bad habits.

She’s been quiet for about 20 minutes so I am going to try to sneak into her room and place her in her crib. She can get out, but I don’t think she can get herself back in. As a result, I expect to see her sleeping somewhere on the floor of her room.

The Path of Least Resistance

So after Emma’s “Swan Dive” routine off the crib, Elena and I frantically searched for a solution that would attempt to “persuade” Emma to dismount in a more controlled fashion. Our solution involved the purchase of a “straight rail” which Emma and I installed promptly. The rail replaces her old one. It is half the height, and has an opening to one side which allows Emma to exit in a much safer manner while still providing her with some protection from inadvertently rolling off the bed during the night (She’s a flopper). After months of restful nights, we are back to square one since her fall. Emma’s newfound empowerment means that she doesn’t quite stay in her bed when I place her there at night resulting in my having to sleep with her on an air mattress in her play room. We have gone through two nights of that followed by Elena actually crawling into Emma’s crib with her to try to get her to sleep. Tonight I was able to put her to bed in her crib for the first time following our normal routine. Hopefully this sticks.

dsc07834sm.jpg

Emma always likes to help me build things. Here she is helping me retrofit her crib with the new straight rail.

dsc07847sm.jpg

Here’s what the newly installed straight rail looks like. Notice the opening on the right side.

dsc07848sm.jpg

Emma inspecting my work.

Emma At The Park

dsc06726sm.jpg

Emma at the park on July 4th of this year.

10 Little Monkeys Jumping On A Bed

You know how the story goes… “One fell off and bumped its head. Mama called the Doctor and the Doctor said. ‘No more monkeys jumping on the bed!'”.

_sc07668.JPG

So three weeks ago, Elena took Emma to “The Little Gym” and Emma was mesmerized by another girl who was hanging from a parallel bar by her hands. So much so that she decided she would give it a try. From that day forward Emma has been working hard to build her upper body strength by hanging from our refrigerator door handles, our kitchen counter-top, or anything else that she could get her hands on and subsequently lift her feet off the ground. Elena and I realized quickly that we were on borrowed time and as of last week I started to fully close her bedroom door when I put her to bed at night. Our fear being that she would attempt a great crib escape with her new found ability.

dsc07773.JPG

Needless to say, last night at around 10:00 PM, the thump we heard justified our concerns. Emma had managed to pull herself up and over the top of her crib and make a death-defying leap in total darkness onto the floor of her room. We raced to her side and examined her head and body for any obvious damage. By our estimation Emma had survived her brush with death unscathed. We gave her plenty of hugs and kisses and told her that she is not allowed to jump out of her crib. We returned her to bed and made sure that when she woke-up in the morning that we would not dally, as she is somewhat impatient and might try to throw herself over the top again should we not immediately appear before her.

When this morning came and Emma woke up, Elena rushed to the room to get her. Emma’s leg was already straddling the safety barrier. A few minutes later Elena came to wake me, a sense of urgency in her tone. Emma had apparently injured her leg from the previous nights fall. I jumped out of bed and placed Emma on the floor and asked her to walk for me. She took one step and collapsed to the ground as soon as she put weight on her left foot. She then uttered the word “booboo”. My heart sank and Elena and I prepared to take Emma to the hospital.

After a few hours of examination and X-Rays, it was determined that Emma had not broken anything. The Doctor was not sure where the injury occurred (foot, knee, leg, hip) but diagnosed her with a contusion. By this time Emma was walking better (i.e. she was not collapsing with each alternating step) which made an accurate diagnosis difficult. We took her home and she spent the rest of the day playing. Her walking had improved somewhat, although a limp was still evident. I imagine she learned how to bare her weight to accommodate her new injury. Toward the end of the day it was apparent that her foot had sustained the injury from the fall as slight swelling could be observed. Tomorrow we will try to wrap it during the day so that it can be somewhat immobilized. There is no chance that we will be able to get Emma to stay off of it so a wrap is the best we could do. Anyway, Elena is sleeping with Emma on an inflatable mattress tonight, and tomorrow we are going to see if we can pick-up a toddler bed. The crib, for now is off limits.