Good Things First

Last night was our mystery date! Andrew took me to a jazz ensemble performance at FSU and Brian hung out while Lucy slept. It was so nice to get out for a little while and do adult things! Phoebe LOVED the music and just went crazy the entire time. All I could picture was the pic above...
It wasn't a long performance, but it's so nice to have things like that to do up here once in awhile. Almost makes us feel like we live in the real world again! Western MD isn't exactly known for it's cultural events, so we like to take advantage of what we can! It was so nice of Andrew to plan a date and surprise me; such a sweetheart.

Where To Next?

Well, Lucy would not nap in her crib yesterday, but she's gone to bed at night without a fuss, so we'll work on the nap thing. HOWEVER, she woke up at 4:40 and really thought it was time to get up for the day. Andrew and I both know that she has no idea what time it is at 4:30 and what she really needs is more sleep. A LOT more sleep.
So I turned off the monitor and went to the couch so Andrew could continue to rest. I went up to Lucy's room and put her back down. She kicked her feet angrily, but did about 20 more minutes. Fabulous. I went up again around 5 and did the same thing. She replied the same way, but I got another 25 minutes out of her. That's a major breakthrough.
At 5:30 she was UP. I thought to myself, "Decent people are sleeping right now, and there is NO way she's going to get her way on this one." I knew that she wanted to come downstairs, get in her chair with her milk and watch cartoons. No way.
So I pulled one of our white chairs from the loft into her room. I knew that if she saw the tv on the other side she'd immediately demand to turn it on. So I sat down with her in the chair and she passed out. I was totally ok with that, but sleeping in those white chairs is NOT cool. She slept until 7:30, which is the latest she's slept in MONTHS. We found Andrew about to leave for work and he said we could move the recliner in to her room tonight in the event that we end up doing this more than once. My ultimate goal is to get her used to what sleeping 12 hours feels like again. Right now she's doing 8 or 9 at a stretch, and she needs so much more! If I can get her used to a longer sleep cycle, hopefully she'll stop waking at 5.
Today we're also going to create a big colorful schedule with pictures of what Lucy should be doing throughout the day. I think she's really craving more structure, what with all the traveling we do and the holidays being here, so we're going to buy a big posterboard and hang it at Lucy-level so that she can see what her day looks like. I think she's old enough to start recognizing activities by seeing pictures, so we're going to try to keep things a little more organized around here.
Today we're going to run to Walmart and buy a "sink" for her kitchen. I also need a faucet. I hope they sell like, $5 faucets. We really don't need anything fancy...we're also going to buy some art supplies for a couple of crafts for Advent. Yesterday we made holiday cards- I'll post pics of them today. They were just too cute!

One and The Same

How can THIS adorable child possibly be the same person as....

THIS child?

Oh my GOSH.

Lucy is so cute. She's sitting next to me reading a book about snakes, hissing away. So cute.

We had an awesome weekend! The game was incredibly cold. I mean, it was about...16 degrees? I will never again go to an NFL game at 29 weeks pregnant, but it was so fun! We took the light rail from Lutherville and got to the Harbor around 4. We spent the evening walking around, eating dinner and dessert and seeing the Christmas lights downtown. We got to the stadium around 7 and found our seats, which were practically on the field. They were perfect, since I forgot my glasses.
The game was REALLY good and the Ravens whomped the Redskins, which is always good. We bought a blanket because I was freezing and Lucy is very happy to have it in her possession now.
I got a horrible headache in the second quarter and tried to go for a walk to make it go away. It just wasn't happening. Those pregnancy headaches are killer! So I decided to walk down to first aid to see if I could get some Tylenol. I walked in and the whole place fell silent, and I realized that they thought I was in labor. LOLOLOL. I walked up to the counter and said, "Can I get some Tylenol? Killer headache." The whole room exhaled in one big breath and someone handed me some Tylenol. It worked right away and I was able to enjoy the rest of the game with no problem at all! We got home around 12:30am, where Lucy was snoozing contentedly in her crib.
Lucy refused to sleep all weekend. Ugh. It was bad. On Friday night we went to Andrew's company party, so Lucy stayed with LB. She was really good and went to sleep in her chair for LB, but she woke up being carried to the car, and then she woke up in Frederick, and then she woke up at Andrew's parents house. Needless to say, she was confused and it started the weekend off very badly! Once we got there, she was up til 3 and then slept til 4:30 when Andrew got up with her and let her sleep on him til 6:30, and then I got up with her again and Andrew slept. We traded off all weekend, letting her sleep on us and do whatever we needed to do to help her get some rest. She insisted on falling asleep to paid programming all weekend and taking all of her naps on the couch. Oh well. I can't lie - I'm addicted to sleeping with my toddler. I don't mind one bit. She came home last night and hopped right into bed like the weekend never happened. I've never seen a little girl so happy to get home to her crib!
Today Lucy and I are staying in and staying warm! We need to run to the grocery store for milk, but other than that, we're going to have a lazy day. Lucy seems happy to be home and is just tearing the place apart. This week we really don't have anything going on. This weekend we're going to get our tree and get some work done around here. I think Andrew has a final next week, so he's going to be studying!
Well, Lucy has been very patient while I've been typing, so I'll post pics later.

Well, Lucy was in a perfect routine and sleeping like a champ beore we came downstate. Since Friday night, I think we've gotten a total of 8 hours...combined. She's been waking up at 4:30, scared because she's confused about where she is, because she won't go to sleep anywhere but the couch!
Tonight we're supposed to go to the Ravens game and Grandma is going to have to put her to bed...that should be interesting. I'm probably going to stick with the, "She's fine to fall asleep on the couch watching Blue's Clues" advice and hopefully tomorrow night she'll be able to jump back into her crib without issue.
We're having a FABU time down here, seeing family and relaxing. Today we're going to head to church and then I have a tiny bit of shopping to do before we come back here. Yesterday we had the sonogram and then we ate lunch with Mom and did our Christmas shopping. We're SO close to being done, but it looks like we'll be waiting for one more payday to finish up!
Next Sunday is Pink Sunday (3rd Sunday of Advent), so it's "Tree Day." We're going to have pink pancakes for breakfast - they'll be Lu's first pink pancakes! Nina and I used to eat a LOT of pink pancakes...after Mass we'll be heading out to find our perfect tree. Andrew has alluded to a Charlie Brown tree on more than one occasion, so we'll see how that goes. I've been trying to convince him to get a fake tree, but so far he's resistant. Big sigh. Looks like I'll be watering a tree again this year!
Well, off to the shower! Andrew and Lucy are downstairs and by now it definitely looks like I'm hiding from them. :-)