Things Big and Small

The big news in our house this week is that Miss M has slept in the big girl bed in her very own room for the last two nights, and is there again tonight.  She has barely uttered a sound in the middle of the night since we moved her out of her crib/out of our room.  I think all of her night terrors/night wakings/talking in her sleep was made worse by her rolling around and into the sides of her crib.  I wish that had occurred to me sooner, but on the other hand, I didn't want to move her to her own room in close proximity to the time the baby was born.  Yes, I know we made this move VERY late.  She's almost 28 months.  But with the layout of our place and her night terrors, it worked for us to have her in the crib in our room for a long time.  Well, it was easy for us, anyway.

Miss M and I also started a Spanish class this week.  It's pretty fun--partially in English and partially in Spanish and everything is done low key and as a game.  The instructor moves quickly between activities, and keeps things interesting.  I've taken her to one other class and daddy has done more with her, and between the two of us, we've noticed a pattern.  We have the kid who won't sit still.  I've noticed that there are kids her age who do actually sit still and pay attention.  She only pays attention to the things she wants to.  So, singing/music where she got to ring a bell?  She sat and paid attention.  Coloring?  She was utterly consumed, and colored more than any other kid there.  Story time?  She went to the door after the teacher had read the first two pages of the book and vehemently announced "I am DONE with story time!"  Luckily, it was loud in the room, and I don't think anyone else heard it.

Honestly, I am not exactly uncomfortable with her behavior, but I do wonder if I should be worried that she won't sit still.  On the one hand, I think to myself "she's two."  On the other hand, there are all of these other kids her same age who actually sit and pay attention.  I vacillate between thinking I should do more to corral her, and thinking that it's normal toddler behavior that I should ignore.  I talked with the teacher afterward, an affable guy named Paco, and he told me that his son is just like my daughter, and that I shouldn't worry, because I can always count on the pair of blond brothers in the class to be high-spirited.  Miss M wasn't disruptive (the blond boys are adorable terrors and totally disruptive), but rather roamed around the room checking things out around the fringes.  Nevertheless, I didn't find Paco's reassurances very reassuring.

Miss M has also started making like a wet noodle and going limp whenever we go to pick her up in order to do something she doesn't want to do.  She is often laughing when she does it, so it's not tantrum stuff.  It cracks me up a little.  It reminds me of our giant beloved dog that we had until we moved (who now lives with a friend).  She would lie down any time she didn't want to do something, because she knew she was too big for us to move (of course, this same dog also utterly misappreciated her size when it came time to wanting love, and would attempt to sit on your lap, with hilarious consequences for the recipient of her attention).  Anyway, the wet noodle child thing was all well and good until she did it at a museum with ceramic tile floors the other day (our house is carpeted, and therefore she doesn't get hurt).  She slipped right out of my grasp and her head crashed against the floor.    It was awful, and both of us were traumatized.  She seems none the worse for the wear, but I need to get her to stop doing this, if only so that I don't lose my mind that she is going to hurt herself by doing it.

Finally, my MIL was supposed to visit, then cancelled her trip due to health problems, then changed her mind back the day of the flight (we hadn't been able to cancel it), so she is here visiting.  It's nice to see her interact with Miss M, who is enjoying her company very much.  It's been a nice visit so far, although we haven't done much of anything, other than visit two museums briefly.  I'm glad for T's sake that she's had a chance to meet SB.  Her health issues are very worrying to me, and I know it was important to T that his mother have a chance to meet our second born.  I could totally be projecting (my grandmother recently died, which is the subject of an upcoming blog post, and suffice it to say that I'm currently having issues with saying goodbye to people when they leave us because I worry it will be the last time I see them), but I'm sensing a frailness that hasn't been there before, and I feel like she's holding something back about her health.  I hope I'm wrong.

Oh, and Miss M totally rocked the dinosaur exhibit that we went to yesterday.  There is one giant dinosaur that is kind of scary, but I prepared her for seeing it by picking her up, saying that I'd protect her and there was nothing to be afraid of.  As we walked by it, she kept repeating "I'm not afraid. . .I'm not afraid. . .I'm not afraid" over and over again (like a kid who was TOTALLY afraid but didn't want to admit it).  It was pretty adorable.  We were with friends who have a son the same age as Miss M, and we were at the exhibit primarily because he had never seen it.  They were a bit behind us in walking through the exhibit, which loops around and has a one -way traffic pattern.  Anywho, just before the big scary dinosaur, in a spot where the path doubled back, we connected and agreed that we would meet up just after the scary dinosaur.  Miss M and I waited for quite a long time, and they didn't arrive.  Miss M began asking to see the big dinosaur again, and since it was quite deserted, I snuck back down the path the "wrong" way to see it again.  Much to my surprise, there was no one viewing it (often this part of the exhibit is packed).  I finally figured out at that point that our friends' son must've been scared, and they must've had to backtrack out of the exhibit.  Miss M took in the big scary dinosaur for a bit, then announced to me that she was done and ready to go, so we left and walked out of the exhibit.  On the way out, our friends finally caught up.  Indeed, their dinosaur-loving toddler was terrified of the big dinosaur and they had never made it past him.  As we walked out of the museum, Miss M asked me to take her back for a third time, eventually begging "PLEASE mommy, can I go see the dinosaur again?!  PLEASE!!!"  Toddlers crack me up.