dajamou

Where's the village?

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Post-Parting Depression.

We had guests at the daja digs last night. It was fun. It was relaxing. It was good food. (Which was a damn good thing since I broke the "no new recipes for guests" rule.) And today? Today I am a sodden lump of inertia. Where is the middle ground here? Why can't I coast on the good feelings for a day or so?

Plus I ate the last piece of chocolate cake and found the stash of Werther's. So the sugar-induced roller coaster is operational today, folks! Step right up!

I am officially a dumbass.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Achieving new heights of geekiness, all unawares.

I just found out that my favorite SF/Fantasy author, Diane Duane, is coming to Pittsburgh this weekend for a convention. So I'm going to my first con. I'm not even sure I'm all that interested in the con itself, but I missed her last time I had the opportunity and I'm not going to miss her again.

So I may come back from this weekend changed in some inexplicable way. And now you'll know why.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Typical, and yet not.

Sunday morning, breakfast time. Dajadaddy and the dajamou are talking about today's outing to the local Fairy Festival. Note that we've been discussing it ALL MORNING.

Daddy: You know what we're doing today?

Daja: What?

Daddy: We're going to the fairy thingy!

Daja: It's not a thingy, Daddy, it's a fest-a-bull!

(Daddy launches into an explanation of how the category "thingy" includes the subset "festival.")

Daja: It's a fest-a-bull, Daddy! (sigh of exasperation)

Daddy: I'm going to have to teach you about Venn diagrams very soon now.

Mama: I don't know what that is. What's a Venn diagram?

Daddy: Oh. My. God. You don't know what a Venn diagram is?

Mama: Nope. What's a Venn diagram?

(Daddy hurls himself at the dry-erase board, normally used for grocery lists, but occasionally employed as a teaching tool and art medium. He draws 2 circles on the board.)

Daddy: This circle is the set, "Everyone who knows what a Venn diagram is." And this is the set, "Mama."

(Mama simultaneously gets it and collapses into gales of laughter. Everyone else is standing around wondering what's so funny.)

Friday, June 02, 2006

A sleepy can o' worms.

It's getting harder and harder for me to be patient while the dajamou settles down to sleep at night. She's not nursing to sleep anymore, hasn't for a few months. What I have been doing is singing her to sleep. We do one song while nursing and for the rest I sit in the rocking chair and sing until she's asleep. This had been going pretty well until this week.

Things, however have changed. (Novel concept! Change! In a toddler's life! Who'd a thunk?) Changed in what way, do you ask?

She rolls around, fusses with her covers, asks me constant questions (as if I don't get enough of that during the day), complains about being thirsty or hungry, sings to herself, talks to herself, bites her nails, picks her nose, pretty much anything she can think of to avoid being still and quiet long enough to fall asleep.

I'm pretty tired by the end of the day. I just don't seem to have the mental reserves left at 8 or 8:30 to deal with this. It's frustrating as hell. So, since I refuse to go back to nursing her to sleep, here's the new routine (if you can call it a routine, since we've only done it 1.5 times):

1. Diaper/pajamas, brush teeth
2. The dajadaddy reads us a chapter from "The Wizard of Oz"
3. Hug & kiss from the dajadaddy
4. One song while nursing
5. Ten minutes of singing in the rocking chair, during which I'm not going to try anymore to force her to be still and quiet, because --
6. After the ten minutes, whether she's asleep or not, I'm done. I go downstairs, read a book, check email, whatever. It's now her responsibility to get to sleep.

Let me just say right here that I'm NOT making her cry-it-out. That's not my thing; I'd definitely say I'm on the attachment parenting end of the spectrum. The two nights when I have left her room to fall asleep by herself, she didn't seem to be upset about it at all. Which is why I tried it more than once, and will try it again. My reasoning for this is that 1) me getting pissy about her sleep is not healthy for either of us, and 2) perhaps, since she's taking it rather well, she's old enough to start doing it for herself.

So. We shall see what happens. I'll update as developments occur.