Being polite

Today, during music class, the teacher let the kids (as usual) strum the guitar strings at the close of class.

About 4 kids ran over and pushed in front of Carolina. She looked at me, looks back at them and then says, "Cuse me kids. Play geetar too?" no one moved. She lOoked at me again. I smiled and motioned to her to move in. She lOoked frustrated.

I walked closer and said quietly "If you walk around there, there's some room for you to squish in."

She did and then all the kids left to get stickers. So she had the geetar all to herself for a few minutes. Delighted!

Two episodes of crying -- but not what you'd think

First, we went for a walk after her afternoon nap and lunch. It was about 5pm and overcast so we just went to walk around the surrounding blocks. When we got to 46th Street, we heard some drums and I thought it sounded (correctly) like a marching band. We ran down towards where the sound was coming from and lo and behold a young drum corp was coming down the street.

Carolina was delighted and so we waved and walked along the remaining portion of the "parade route". It wasn't much of a parade but something to do with Jesus on the cross and stopping at the local Episcopal church. The drum corp had about 20 members and they were all between the ages of 8 and 12. They were pretty good, and Carolina kept saying "mas! mas!" after each set.

When the playing was over and everyone was filing into the church entrance, Carolina started bawling. Hysterically. She was so loud, people a half a block away were looking our way. It was because the music stopped and there wasn't going to be more. She was so terribly disappointed that it took her 2 blocks to calm down. Poor musical kid.

Tonight she played her first video game with her Papa on the Wii: Super Mario Galaxy. She had such a good time that when Papa turned off the Wii, since it was bath time, she started crying. The kind of crying you might hear if she hurt herself and wasn't terribly injured but very "sentimental" (as my husband would say in Spanish).

Two cute things from today

First, we were listening to music from iTunes on this computer and after each song Carolina would clap and say "bravo! bravo!". Really, she did.

Then tonight when I was holding her and humming so she'd relax. Wait, let me back up a minute. She woke up at 5am and then 6am, and has been teething a lot because a front canine and a back "2 year molar" are coming in at the same time. She's been very uncomfortable and sleeping through the night has been harder than usual. She napped for 3 hours today and then I woke her up -- she wasn't happy with me about that.

So I held her and hummed for longer than usual, to help her relax and maybe bang her head less. Well, after about 10 minutes she noticed I had my eyes open so she waved goodbye to me. I nodded, picked her up, brought her to the crib and kissed her. As I am putting her down into the crib she puts Elmo towards me, and I kiss him good night too. She seemed satisfied that I kissed them both good night.

Super, super cute!

And man, she's really talking more and more. More words, more sentences and I just can't wait to understand all of it. I also can't wait for all these teeth to come in. She seems to be really tortured by it, more than usual. I've seriously considered putting alcohol on her gums but I know that just gets her drunk and doesn't actually soothe the pain. I'm still mulling it over, depends on how badly this crying out at night gets.

I am a good mom, dammit

The worst thing that ever happened to me as a mother was that I read too many baby advice books. The best thing I ever did was listen to my husband who told me to put them down. And for some reason it just occurred to me today that I'm doing a pretty good job.

Every one of those books did very little except make an over-achiever/student type person like me, who was anxious about being a mom and 'doing it right' all the time, feel like I was doing it all wrong. There was less than a handful of actually really great advice that I got that helped with Carolina specifically.

Carolina is a bad sleeper. I didn't train her that way, I just followed her insistance when she WOULD NOT sleep in a stroller, or baby carrier. She has 'the whine' and it's the most potent thing she's got in her arsenal to get me to pay attention to her and simultaneously lose my cool.

But, given the serious sleep deprivation I went through her first 10 months of life, I did a good job, dammit. I do say so myself.

In other news, she's really really getting close to standing up from a dead sitting position and walking. She's been cruising around the living room more and more, and getting up on her knees and almost up to a stand.

I know other babies in the neighborhood who are around Carolina's age by a few weeks either side and some of them can stand up but don't walk. So I know it's not necessarily that one follows the other. But you should see the look of envy and wonder on her face when she sees the toddlers in her Friday morning music class running around. She's in awe.

It's great to watch her and then when she comes home that day, she's figured out something new. It's like a petri dish of advancement that music class.

(And, of course, as I've just finished typing this up. Feeling positive and good about myself. She starts to cry and bump her head against her crib bumper, only 15 minutes into her nap. Yeah... talk about keeping it all in balance.)