And by that, I mean a very difficult week.
After doing one nap for little while, Natalie is back to 2 naps because she wouldn't sleep for more than an hour. She also just had 2 teeth break through and might be working on a couple more. She's also been sick for the past week- super snot and juicy cough. And the weather has sucked, so we've been cooped up indoors a lot. These factors, and possibly others that remain unknown, have resulted in a monster child who basically throws a tantrum from 2pm until 7pm, with a 30-60 mintute respite while she's asleep. During the morning, she does so well and plays independantly and seems very happy, but then as afternoon rolls around, she is so intensely impossible that it drives me crazy. She screams and cries if I pick her up, if I put her down, if I offer her toys, if I put the toys away, if I talk to her, if I sit down next to her, if I put on TV, if I turn off TV. And if I ignore her, she comes up to me and pulls on me, screaming like she's gonna die, and wedges herself between me and the wall/counter and begins to bang her head, crying even more. More than once, I've just been so frustrated, I stuck her in her crib and left. These recent evenings have found me irritated beyond belief or in tears. More and more, I want to go get a full time job, but Micah, ever the voice of reason, does not believe that wanting to get away from Natalie is reasonable justification.
Though, today he got a taste of how hard it is. He watched Natalie from 12-7, while I went to a Small Dog Rescue adoption event, got some groceries, picked up coupons and then went to a meeting. When I got home, he said something to the effect of, "Now I know why you don't feel like being all kissy when I come home at night." HA!
We did have some fun on Thursday. A few women from church hosted a Valentines Day party for the kids. Most of the kids were 2-3, but there were plenty in the Natalie age range. Though she didn't care much for or understand the activities, she had fun playing with balloons, climbing on the kid-sized chairs and eating pizza and muffins and anything else that kids left on the short tables unattended. The finale was cookie decorating and it did not take Natalie long at all to get her hands on a plate with frosting, where she wasted no time in eating it by the fistfull.
After months of wanting one, Micah finally got a scooter to ride to the MARTA station 2 miles away. He bough a new, unassembled one that is Chinese, but of a brand that is supposed to be slightly more reliable than the usual Chinese scooter. It's all put together now, but still needs gas and oil to start. It was frustrating to put together because the plastic covering parts did not fit well over the mechanical parts and the instructions were in broken English, with major portions missing, such as the part where you basically have to assemble the transmission. So, yeah, that was a tense day for Micah. But at least now he knows every single part of that scooter and when something goes wrong he will know how to fix it himself! Micah's a pretty easy-going guy usually, so when he was so ticked off while assembling the scooter, it was pretty dang scary!
Natalie is definitely learning. She knows her nose!
And even though most of her babbling doesn't make sense, she definitely has meaning behind what she's saying. It's just a riddle for us to try and figure out what that is. She loves blueberries, but now we are wondering if she says "blue" to just mean "food", or if she really does have a deep, continuous yearning for blueberries, motivating her to ask for them several times a day. Who knows?!
She understand a lot of directions that we give her, though she often does not follow them. You can tell when she knows what we're saying and is choosing to do something else. Her smile is just too, too sly when she turns around and does exactly what I just told her not to!
This week, we have a lot to look forward to- hopefully getting the scooter running, dinner with Micah's parents and the missionaries, and our relief society is hosting a seminar on how to read to children most effectively. The seminar could be on 26 ways to tie a scarf, and I would probably be equally excited for the chance to get out on a weeknight and hang out with other women!
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