Ben and me with ashes
I didn’t mean to go away for a week unannounced. I did in fact write an announcement that I’d be breaking for the first week of Lent. But somehow it didn’t get posted. Oops.
And then of course since I’d turned off the computer I didn’t notice. Mea culpa!
I’m still trying to decide what level of internet activity I’ll pursue for the rest of Lent. The break was good for me; but I did miss writing. I kept thinking of things I wanted to say.
Things that happened in the past week:
Ben began cutting his first two teeth. He’s now got little sharp points in his lower gums.
Lots of nights of sub-par sleep. And one night with really good sleep that almost made up for them all. Almost.
Sophie has developed a habit of needing a lot of extra comforting in the middle of the night. It used to be I could just go in, hug her and whisper a few comforting words and she’d resettle. I’m trying to figure out how to get back to that place. It isn’t easy. I’m afraid I lost my cool with her quite a few times in the past week as, tired and frustrated, I just wanted things to go back to the way they were. I’m now working on a much slower progression of weaning her off the need for me to stay in her room singing to her until she falls back to sleep.
Hopefully once her sniffles go away this will get better. I’m wondering if perhaps she might be starting to cut her two-year molars. Only time will tell. But wouldn’t that be my luck to have two teething children at once.
I mentioned before Sophie’s explosive progress in language. Yesterday she surprised me by reciting almost all of the Hail Mary. She’s also got a bunch of nursery rhymes down. I love it.
We’ve tried to start Ben on solids. He’s not really taking to them. Though I did have my first small success this morning with egg yolk. He actually made an mmm sound and ate three or four bites before he gave up. He definitely wants to hold the spoon himself. He’s that kind of baby.
I would like to copy that and use it here. Our night prayers are very disorganized right now, and this is nicely done for our large age span.
Just wanted to say I think this is wonderful. It may even help Bella if she wakes during the night, since she has it memorized, to help herself go back to sleep in the peace of the Lord. Wonderful idea, Melanie!
Renee, be my guest. Hope it works for you.
Katherine, my thoughts exactly. Maybe not soon but perhaps in years to come…
I think this is just beautiful and I wouldn’t blame you for not wanting to change it! But, just in case you’re interested, when my oldest had out grown his afternoon naps but I still had two youngers who were desperately in need of them, I would put him on a bed or a couch to himself, give him books and maybe a few quiet toys and tell him that nap time was now quiet play time. He wasn’t allowed to get off the couch or chat with Mommy unless it was something important. He might not need a nap anymore, but he definitely still needed some rest (and so did I)! His bedtime stayed the same as the other children and I still had some time to during the day to do what I needed to.
Charlotte,
I think we are moving in that direction. Some days we do try to have quiet time rather than nap. But we’re still trying to figure out how to make quiet time work for us. Bella isn’t very good at staying put and being quiet while I am putting Ben and Sophie down in another room. Sometimes it seems the best course is to keep her with me. And then she often does fall asleep in her bed while I’m settling her sister. I find that if I keep her in the living room after they are down she finds my presence too much of a temptation to chat with me and I don’t get the rest I need.
I shouldn’t even think about trying to settle the nap dilemma until we are done with Sophie’s ear infection. Right now everything is chaos as she needs me in my doctor mom hat. And the past few days Stephanie has been visiting from Seattle and so Bella has not had even quiet time but has been playing with our guest.
Oh some day it will all shake itself out, I know and all this worrying about it will seem silly. Thanks for listening and offering your experienced advice .