First snow -- hooray!

Carolina woke up this morning and basically told this to her papa in one breath, after he opened her curtains and she saw it was still snowing,"I'm gonna make snow angels like Uniqua, Pablo, Austin, Tyrone an Tasha. An make tracks in Snowy Day. An put on jacket, an sweater, an boots, an pants, an socks!!"

We've been reading The Secret of Snow and The Snowy Day.

So right after Saturday morning pancakes, we headed outside where a lot of super fast-made snow angels were made on the sidewalk just before the legions of dogs came to pee and poop.

When we came back inside, Carolina was still excited and we helped her get out of wet clothes and I explained you have to put on dry, warm pants and a dry shirt. Sit on the couch and get a blanket. Then I'd get her a snack and juice. After she had on new clothes and the blanket was on she looked at us both and said,"Tank you eveybody. Is much better now." Because after snow fun, warm and dry clothes are good.

20 months and it's getting interesting

The last month has been busy. I've gotten a bunch of colds and we went on vacation to visit the family in Vallarta. It was a lot of fun at the beach, and Carolina didn't seem to mind trading playing in the snow (she calls it "no") with sand. She and her cousin had a lot of fun together and it was nice to be away. The 2 hour plane delay home wasn't much fun but it was mostly fine since she got her own seat (hooray for missing passengers) and they gave everyone free DirecTV as compensation for the delay. She was EXHAUSTED once we got to my parents' place.

She made 'friends' at the hotel because she spent most of each meal at the restaurant running around all the tables like she was in a sprint race. I was glad there were other adults in the family to take turns :)

There wasn't much sleeping at night but there was a lot less headaches as she's able to handle being awake longer during the day without good naps for a week. We also visited friends in Houston and it was her first time sleeping on a blowup bed instead of a crib. Surprisingly went well, although I think more than 2 nights on that and it would have gotten a little tricky with the head banging since the 2nd night was more active than the first.

There's been a lot more "No!" going on in our home. Not snow but actually saying 'no', and belligerent protestation. I suppose that's how it goes as we get closer to 2-3 years old. I'm amused and frustrated by her looking at me, smiling broadly (not sinisterly) and continuing to do what I just said 'No' to. I don't know why I find it funny, but in a way I do, so it makes it hard to sound all stern. We did try a few time outs. It had some effect but really, if she doesn't get to go outside and work out the energy she's got, then 'no' or 'yes' are irrelevant.

It's nearly her naptime and I'm hoping to get some rest so I can finally kick this cold!

snow, in all day, boogers and poop

I'd like to give another shout out to the strangers in new york who continually entertain and engage with Carolina on the bus and subway. Really. I find out some of the most interesting things from total strangers because I'm traveling with Carolina. She's quite the social butterfly.

We've been inside all day. She's just about to get up from her 3rd nap. I can hear her moving around and rattling her 'baby' doll.

With this stuffy/runny nose this week (glad the fever is gone) and uber-teething with 4 upper teeth threatening to come down, she's been up 3x a night and takes 3 naps a day. So after a month of solid effort to get her to wake up less frequently during the night, we're right back where we started.

We had a glimmer of hope this morning when she missed her 4am wakeup, but then she started crying at 5.30am When I went in at a little after 6am, and YES it was still dark out, she hadn't even pooped. Lord knows why she thought she needed to be up that early. The full-on poop came hours later. Which required a complete change of clothes, bed and baby's hair needing to be washed. Oh yeah...

Anyway, after these teeth come in, like last time, I'm hoping for a reprieve. And back to waking up just once a night.

You know what's going to happen. She'll be back to it for like 2 days and then we leave for a week in Mexico with a lot of travel while we're there and she'll be up every 2 hours since we'll be sleeping in the same room. Actually, it'll probably be a surprise whatever happens.

I'm looking forward to going to a friend's house after Carolina is asleep one night soon. See how she responds to daddy bringing her a bottle when she wakes up, and she's expecting the boob. She normally isn't receptive to it AT ALL. So should be interesting for daddy. Good man!