both girls are napping right now, which has been a more and more rare occurence. Eleanor's sleeping patterns are all over the board. Mia was always such a scheduled sleeper, having to nap at exactly the same time and go to bed at precicely the same time every day or she just fell apart. This past Sunday, Eleanor took a 10 minute nap ALL DAY and didn't sleep until Rex put her in the Ergo on his back around 7 while we packed up to leave his parents' house. She doesn't even get fussy, just kind of climby, and then toward the end kind of slow moving and lethargic with that million mile stare, then she just falls asleep. She has fallen asleep before on my hip while I was just carrying her around the house doing stuff! It is so amazing how very different children can be from one another. Anyhow, we never know at night if she is going to wake up once or 10 times, sleep in her own hammock or need to be cuddled up next to me nursing, we just have to play it by ear every single night. Oh wait, pause for a sec, I have on the cooking channel right now, and Giada is making procuitto wrapped scallops. Yum. Oh, and here comes Mia downstairs from her nap, hair all crazy, carrying her bottle. Yes, she still drinks from a bottle at night and for naps at our house and my moms, but evidentally not at anyone elses. Maybe when she is 4 she'll give it up!
We decided to change her mother's day out program and take her out of swimming and put her in tap instead (so now she'll have ballet, gymnastics and tap). It was just traumatic for us all, every week when we told her it was ballet day- she would cry and whine and say she didn't want to go. When we get there she gets super excited and has a ton of fun, but she has so much anxiety about going underwater at the swim part that I was afraid that she would start connecting that feeling with ballet in general and would grow up hating to dance. From someone who grew up loving to dance, I would so hate for that to happen, so we'll try tap for a while and we can see if it makes her more excited about going. I just figure, we signed her up so she can have fun and if she isn't having fun then it is silly to spend the money. We do really want her to learn to swim, but maybe she just isn't ready. We'll try again in the Spring maybe.
On a more thought provoking note, wherever we go it is no surprise that Mia makes friends. Super good friends as far as she is concerned. Whenever we leave places that she has been playing with some kid or the other for a while she always asks if we can go to their house to play with them again. I usually respond by saying that I don't know where they live. She then got smart to that and will say, "well, why don't you call them and ask them?" I explain that I don't know their phone numbers, so she has recently figured out how to get around that as well. She has started taking it upon herself to ask people for their phone numbers and where they live to save me the trouble. She did this at Rex's cousin's wedding (the lady was his cousin's wife's mom, but Mia had never met her before) and this past week at Chick Fil-A. She made this big deal begging me to get the mom's phone number, right there in front of the mom and kids. It was really awkward! What is funny is that is how we have made some of our good friends- Rowena and Jesse who stayed with us for a while we met at the gardening store and Rowena and I exchanged numbers after the girls hit it off playing, and it is how I met Darby who we hang out with like every day, so how do I explain to her the difference? I told her we only get phone number of our very good friends, not all of the people we meet, but she says everyone she meets is her really good friend. How do you explain to a child that in our society we are supposed to shun strangers and not speak to anyone or try to make friends? (of course I am kidding, but that is how society runs itself in most cases). Rex says I should tell her we don't have time for any new friends, but that isn't true, so maybe we should get everyone's phone number that we meet, and if we can get together we do and if we can't we don't... who knows how many folks' lives we could get involved with? Especially since in our community groups we are going through a series on reaching out, involving yourself with others, living in community, getting to know your neighbors and strangers and people that you would normally just walk right by. Maybe she has it right and we have it wrong. Maybe instead of teaching her to be more isolated and private, maybe we should learn to make more friends everywhere we go! I'm not sure, but it definitely makes me think.
Well, this is long enough for today, I hope it all makes sense and isn't full of too many typos, it is hard to type with Phinneas and Ferb on the tv with a kiddo begging for chocolate milk. Next time I'll try to update on: our raw milk deliveries and making cheese and yogurt and starting a new dinner co-op!