Loudest... day... EVAR

Night before last didn't go so well, and yesterday was pretty screwed up, sleep wise. Rebecca and I slept in... big time, which threw off her naps, which worried me.

We still made it out on the tandem to pick up mom from work, though, which was a blast. Rebecca wandered around the fields at Tunney's Pasture and I got some cute pictures:


We got home, and I took one of the three of us. It's awesome, this is exactly what I imagined owning the tandem and bike trailer would be like:



Last night, though, she slept almost perfectly, with a tiny cry and a cuddle at around 10pm (she was down in 5 or 10 minutes) and over 12 hours of sleep. She awoke this morning at 7:30 as mom was getting ready for work, and she was wired! Before breakfast she was squealing and giggling and running around. She had a good breakfast, and a good morning nap.

She got up with her fabulous mood. More running around being incredibly cute, laughing at just about anything, and getting extremely excited about stuff. She ate well at lunch, and went down for a good afternoon nap. (I napped too, as I was bagged from last night, not Rebecca's fault)

We got up and out of the house before 4pm. I jogged down to Tunney's to meet mom. We made our way home in the BEAUTIFUL weather (18 degrees and sunny! That's more like it!) and she had a good play in the back yard with mom:

Here she is inspecting her chariot... erm... Chariot:



Rebecca continued through dinner and change time laughing and squealing/screaming which we're trying to discourage without making too big a deal of it. It was around her bed time, and she wasn't settling, and mom had a headache coming on, so I popped down to the video store with her for a little extra wearing-out time which seemed to do the trick. She woke up with teething pain, which seems to be par for the course these days, and we gave her some Tempra and she settled down pretty well. What a great day.

She sleeps! ....or not.

Well, Monday and Tuesday night were dreamy. We put Rebecca down and she went to sleep and... well... that was it. She slept right through 'till morning. A solid 12 hours each night with nary a peep.

Where did the teething pain go? Not sure. It's back though. She's working on her two top molars (one about 75% through, one about 25%) and has needed some extra cuddles the last couple nights (plus some Tempra).

She's still pretty chipper almost all day long though, so no real complaints.

First ice cream cone

Hands down, watching Rebecca try to figure out how to eat ice cream from a cone was the most entertaining moment of my week.
Despite ample guidance and repeated demonstrations, Rebecca was still determined to do things her own way. Rebecca's "own way" consists of eating the ice cream cone starting from the bottom of the cone, and working her way up. It also involves picking up ice cream with your fingers from the top of the cone, and putting it your mouth.
Subsequent to her first ice cream experience, Rebecca had an après-midi blanche.
Is there a connection? :) If so - I suppose I can only blame myself (and you Mom!). :) Just kidding. I wonder how Easter will go!
All I know is, 6pm is not the best time to start your afternoon nap.
Hopefully, her frozen dessert product encounter was - at the very least - soothing to her gums.
Teething continues to be a major problem. The third molar is 40% through (edges only! ugh!), and the fourth molar has just recently erupted (one point). I don't think the canines are far behind. We have been experimenting with teething biscuits and teethers which can go farther back, but unfortunately, Becca has decided that the best teether is her hand. I find it disturbing to see her gnawing on her own body (yes, yes, I am a hypocrite - being a consummate nail-biter), but it is difficult to find an alternative she prefers. I'm relatively confident that she won't really hurt herself.
I am sick right now with some nasty head cold (courtesy of Greg and Rebecca, though I'd be hard pressed to single out the initiator). It started as a throat infection that I could feel the beginnings of on Monday. Tuesday I stayed home and after drinking an extra-strength Neocitran, was unconscious from breakfast time until 3pm. Wednesday, I felt obliged to drag my butt into work for important meetings. By that time, the throat had recovered, but I was congested and toting facial tissue whereever I went. Today is Thursday, I thought I could handle another day, but, I had to leave half-way through. After a horrid night's sleep, I woke up feeling as though I'd been punched in the eye - one half of my sinuses are apparently quite annoyed with me - even my teeth feel funny. All this to say - Greg fetched me at midday with Becca in the car. No matter how lousy I felt as I walked to the car, the sight of Rebecca - squealing and kicking, absolutely delighted to see me - was uplifting.
I spent part of my afternoon watching Harry Potter (yes, kleenex box in one hand, lozenges in the other), while a very hyper Rebecca stripped off her pants and acted like a total nutjob. She will often strip off socks and shoes, but pants removal is more random, and I am never certain what her motivation is. A stuffed Nemo was tossed through the air at one point.
A very family-oriented weekend ahead. We shall see how that goes!

The good and the (not too) bad

First, the bad. Rebecca's sleep has been a little messed up of late. She has trouble settling down at night. We try to put her down between 7:30 and 8pm, and she gets up at least twice between 9 and 1am, sometimes three or four times. Depending how agitated she is, it can take anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour to put her down again, unless it goes badly, and we cave and cuddle her for an hour. What can make that tough is that once she's calmed down, night time is when she's the most into intimate one on one interaction, staring into your eyes and talking, playing with your face, etc etc. Then you go to put her down and she turns on the waterworks.

Anyway, we blame the latest bout on possibly a bit of a cold, reaction to her vaccines last week, and teething, pick one or more of the above.

Anyway, on with the good. She's babbly like anything these days, and at times it seems she's really expressing things in particular. I think it's only a matter of time before it coalesces into full on speech (or babbling + words).

She's really into the belly zrbtt game now, taking any opportunity to attack the vulnerable midsection of unsuspecting horizontal adults. She gets a big grin on, and moves in for the kill, tongue hanging out. It really drives mom into a laughing conniption, which I think has been pretty great positive reinforcement for her.

We went to the park, and enjoyed time on the swings this weekend, she loves it, and is becoming more confident on her feet climbing over obstacles and such.


There was a little puppy there who Rebecca wanted to chase, but the little girl who was their with her grandma told us in no uncertain terms "She's not friend-uh-ly." I think it was the grandma's dog. Anyway, the warning was appreciated and we steered our little animal terrorizer to the opposite side of the playground.