MOJO Rising

Dare I jinx myself, but ever since we moved, or, rather, ever since I went to Memphis for 4 days and Kevin resumed his primary caregiver position, Harry’s sleep has been unquestionably perfect! It wasn’t too shabby before- we, especially Kevin, worked hard and probably got a little lucky. Now Harry goes to sleep voluntarily and hangs out in his crib until we say “Good Morning!” That is, he hangs out in there, but he is often wide awake and either talking to himself or yelling “MaMA!” As you know, MaMA applies to both Kevin or myself. Harry gets SOOOOO excited if he so much as hears one of us coming!

On days when I am home, I pick Harry up around 4 PM. We play in the house or in the yard. The other day we spent and hour in the driveway while Harry locked and unlocked my car door. We wait for Kevin to get home before eating dinner. Harry prefers 5:30 and gets a little bit, well, short with me if dinner isn’t ready by 6. He bit me the other day, but he smiled and hugged me afterwards.

He gets his “Mimo” (my milk) and heads to his high chair and gets his bib on. Usually he feeds himself these days. He doesn’t always use a spoon for his yogurt, so some days he gets a bath immediately, other days he can head back outside. Between 6:30 and 7 he is in the tub. Lately he’s been hanging out in there until he is pruned. He pulled the plug after about 15 minutes On Tuesday, but even without any water, he was happy to stay and play with his tub toys.

After Kevin puts him in his pajamas and hands him his water and Snoedel, Harry hangs out in his room for a bit. I removed all of the noisy toys, so he usually enterains himself with Mega Blocks, his tea set, or ready books. We sometimes count down t o 7:30. When it hits, and sometiems before but not more than 2-5 minutes after, we say “Night, night” and Harry reports it and walks to his crib. Some nights he quietly “cries” himself to sleep to unwind for about 10 minutes. Other times he falls immediately to sleep.

The downside to this bedtime ritual: It has started to put me to sleep as well! By the time we are done with Harry, I am too tired to get anything done! I suppose this won’t be as much of a problem once the house is unpacked and if I ever catch up on my work responsibilities. It is the perfect opportunity for Kevin and me to spend some quality time with each other.

In other news, I got word that Harry bit “Sid” yesterday. Kevin was appalled. Having been the victim of a pinching/biting neighbor when I was a tyke, I can sympathize. I have also experienced my own Harry bites, so I sympathize even more! But, I know that there is not much you can do about a 1 year old who bites. They do so out of excitement or anger. It is difficult to discipline a child who is not yet 3. We will continue trying time outs, and may even bite him once (gently!) to see if that works. It did for Bailey. In Harry’s defense, Sid is a really annoying kid. I have seen him do things to Harry, like pull on his legs when I hold him. He also must immediately have ANY toy that Harry decides to play with, even if he did not previously know it existed. Even more annoying, he whines and cries about it and screams. I want to bite him myself sometimes. Harry has never had any issues with the other kids there, but I have witnessed at least one altercation between Sid and mild-mannered Susanna (who reminds me of Olivia Newton John for some reason---mini-sized!). We will work on it, but I am not too worried at the moment. By the way, I eventually whacked that neighbor in the head with my metal lunch box.

Some of you may know that I have been a little stressed this past week. Could have been the boxes, could have been annoying work issues. I was able to get a massage that helped a little. Last night I was able to watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Now I am pre-occupied with why we are all not Angelina Jolie. What a lucky lady! For oh-so-many reasons! The one thing I have in my favor in that arena is that I’m not Jennifer Aniston. I try to avoid the headlines, but I am usually unsuccessful. But, seriously, poor Jen. It is one thing to know that someone like Angelina exists, but to have her as actual competition…Ugh!

While I had my mind on this one, I finished up my day super early and was able to get an early flight home out of Duke country. I also got the call I was waiting for while en route to the airport. I have lots of energy after going to sleep at 9 PM last night. And since Avis and Hertz were both booked, I got stuck with Enterprise Rent A Car. What great service they give! At least in Raleigh-Durham! I got a free water bottle, they checked the car for scratches before I got in, they delivered my bags from my car to the shuttle bus, and they cancelled the pre-paid fuel service I got since I didn’t use much gas! Not sure if they are this good everywhere, but I may have to look into it! I even lucked out with the hotel last night. Again, everything was booked for back to school week. I had another hotel many miles away, but forgot there was one across the street. Millenium Hotel. Never heard of it, but it was as good as a Hilton, and saved LOTS of time. It’s nice to get my MoJo back. Dare I jinx myself again?