What on earth I did with myself for a week

Over the past week, a lot has happened. Or a whole lot of nothing...depending how you look at it.

Tuesday of last week was my first day in a week-long break from work. Let me rephrase, Tuesday of last week was my first day in a week-long break from my job. We all know there is no rest for the weary parents of two year olds. I called it “time away” instead of “time off” because that seemed more accurate.

At any rate, I’ve been spending a LOT of time with a certain small blonde headed rambunctious little girl. I tried to keep us somewhat busy - activities or play dates or errands nearly every day. And boy howdy, did the two of us have a good time together!

I’ll be honest, I was a little worried I would begin to feel very cabin-feverish. I wondered if I would get really tired of being home day after day after day. But it went really well and all things considered, we had a blast.

We also talked Hubby into taking a half day off of work on Friday so that he could go toddler-clothes-clearance shopping with us in Des Moines. I’m a pretty firm believer that it takes two people to go shopping with a toddler. One to chase and wrestle and carry said toddler. The second one to actually do some shopping. Fortunately, I got to do the shopping. We got some great deals and found Reagan an ADORABLE Easter dress. Yeah Target! I must admit, I got to hold her little hand and walk her the entire length of the mall at one point when we were “all done” - and it was just a randomly sweet moment for me. Sometimes when I look at her, I still have trouble believing she is really here and that she is my little girl. I imagine this is just the beginning of many mother-daughter shopping trips. I enjoyed it immensely.

Sunday of course we attended a Super Bowl party at our church put on by our couples ministry group. Wow. Did we have a good time! Bedtime dictated that we only stayed for half of the game, but the setup at church was absolutely WONDERFUL. They had two separate viewing rooms with big screens. One room was quieter and had all the snacks set out. Another room had tiny tables and toys and craft stations for the kids - as well as a small room where they could watch movies. Reagan absolutely LOVED it. She ran from area to area, watching all the other kids and playing with some of the toys. Also, someone brought grapes so she was pretty sure that it was heaven on earth. It was really nice to be able to bring her along and have some socializing time, too! Then we went home and laughed ourselves sick as we watched The Office.

And I should tell you that I was thinking I would sit here and write to you about how all this sleep training we have been doing has been an absolute wonder and it has worked miracles and we have solved all of our toddler sleep problems...until last night happened. For some odd reason, she would cry or whimper at least once every hour. Hubby finally got tired of it and went to see what was going on at around 12:30. Not long after, PetePete joined us in bed. Evidently, she was wide awake for no reason whatsoever. And would you believe she laid in our bed, in between us, on her back, her hands folded carefully across her tummy, for the next two hours...but did not sleep at all. She watched her Daddy snore for a while. Then when I rolled over she said “Mommy, don’t fall down!” Every 20 minutes or so she would touch my arm or my face very gently and give me a very light pat. Around 2:30 we asked her what she needed to fall asleep. She pointed to her room and said “Rock and sing!” So Daddy rocked her for a few minutes, put her down, and she fell asleep. It was odd. I still can’t make heads or tails of it. Insomnia in a two year old. Does that happen? Aside from last night’s weirdness, her sleeping habits have been MUCH improved.

And in the middle of all of this we have had some lovely plumbing challenges and issues this past week. The ceiling in our full-finished basement developed a “water spot” which we noticed because the texture was raining down after Reagan’s baths. A call to the plumber, a whole cut in our ceiling, and a new drain and drain pipe installation, we are closer to having the problem solved. But its still dripping a bit so we need them to come back for a tune-up of the repair work. Such is the joy of home ownership.

In summary, being home with Reagan day after day has been really really nice. We spent lots of time coloring and playing and having conversations together. I can really hear her language development in the recent weeks - she repeats everything I say (not always a good thing) and can very effectively communicate with us on a variety of topics. She also says her own prayer at mealtimes now which is horribly cute and endearing. But my favorite was this morning when I unbuckled her seatbelt in the car and wished her a fun day with the kids, she said, “Bye bye Mommy! Lub ooo!” She sure made this past week incredibly fun!