Monday, January 31, 2011

Lilah is a Diaper Bunny!!

Here are a few pictures from Lilah's tumbling class. She started a few weeks ago as a Diaper Bunny and takes classes on Saturday mornings. There is seriously nothing cuter than the seeing your one year old daughter in her little leotard and pigtails for the first time.

At first glance I expected the class to be more of an open gym type environment but it is actually quite structured. Sure I want her to learn the proper way to walk on the balance beam or swing from the bars but in all reality she isn't even a year and a half old, not to mention she can't even reached the toddler sized bars they have set up in the classroom. (Nor can she reach the rings which in my opinion creates a mild case of disinterest of these activities on her part. Can't say that I blame her) I realize that seventeen months may be a little young to enroll a child in tumbling class but all in all she is doing really well and seems to be having a great time. The teacher encourages the parents to assist their children with proper techniques for sommersaults and cartwheels often times using elevated mats in order to help them out. While this works for some of the older kids in her class (12-24 month class)Lilah would rather just dive over and off the mats (as you can see in the picture below). One thing is to be certain... the child has no fear whatsoever.






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Friday, January 21, 2011

That's Life...

Most mornings Ryan takes Lilah to her baby sitters. She lives on the other side of town and since he tends to start his morning close to the area it works out for him to drop her off. On the rare occasion that he can’t take her to Linda’s it is up to me to get her there. Usually I enjoy doing this because it means that I get a few extra minutes with my baby before I head off to work. Today was supposed to be one of those mornings. Focus on the word supposed to.

I started off the morning with a flourish… waking up before the alarm on my phone hit six and getting myself ready for work before I even got Lilah out of bed. I was in high spirits, it’s Friday and then end of a long week and I managed to get myself and Lilah out of the house with plenty of time to get coffee and put gas in my car. (Lilah looked adorable by the way- it was her first day of wearing pigtails) After getting gas we hop on I-35 and start the journey to the babysitter. And that is when it happened. Flat tire, below zero temperatures, the skies are spitting snow and I have a one year old in my backseat. Fighting back tears I called triple A and explained my situation; being sure to express a sense of urgency at the low temperatures and the fact that my daughter is in the back seat. A tow truck showed up a little over an hour later and my car is now getting a new tire. Apparently the broken tire had a hole in the side of it. Who knew? Thankfully my mom met me and Lilah on the side of the interstate and got us where we needed to be. Regardless it wasn’t the way I wanted to start my day and now instead of being at work I want to put on some warm clothes and go watch tv. To quote Billy Joel, l would like to forget about life for awhile.

And to quote Frank Sinatra…. That’s Life.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Oh What a Night...

What a night. That about sums it up for the first week of the New Year (along with the last few weeks of 2010) for Ryan and me. It seems that after many months of sleeping harmoniously throughout the night Lilah has converted to night owlish behavior and refuses to sleep. On most nights, it’s tolerable at best but last night was one of the worst nights we have ever had (sleep wise) with her. I feel guilty even typing that but it’s true... I can only think of one other time she was literally up the entire night. Every half an hour or so Lilah woke up screaming in pain yelling, “Ow” or “No” repeatedly. Every half hour. All night long. With no temperature and no other outward signs of illness we simply just comforted her and would cuddle her back to sleep. Just as I would finally start to fall asleep the crying and screaming and thrashing would start again.

Having a child has definitely taken a toll on our sleep patterns but overall I think we adjusted pretty quickly to the transition. I realize that the days of sleeping in until ten.. (Even eight thirty or nine would be wonderful) are long gone and normally I handle this with gusto but I must admit today I am struggling to get by. My eyes play sneaky tricks on me; closing as I try to cope with the rather mundane task of changing company numbers on roughly ninety five employees... my head pounds with the beats of a night spent awake, comforting a restless and sometimes hysterical little girl. My ears are doing that thing where voices seem miles away and more than once I have spaced out in the middle of a conversation. What I wouldn’t give to put on my most comfortable pajama pants and crawl into bed, blissfully sleeping the day away.

On top of the tired foggy bubble that is no doubt holding my body hostage I am also struggling with an overbearing sentiment of worry. Why, after so many months of sleeping through the night, is Lilah waking so abruptly? Is it night terrors, growing pains, tummy aches, did something on the TV scare her? Is it simply a phase she is going through- determined not to have to spend the night in her own bed? I just don’t know and above all the lost sleep this is what truly bothers me the most. Once the night was over and she was dressed for the morning she more than willingly flung back a smile or two as she put her arms through her jacket and headed out the door to start her day, no evidence left of the wakeful episodes of the night before.

Hopefully tonight will be a great turn around of events and we will all get some much desired sleep.. in the meantime I think I will grab another cup of coffee..