We'll Work On The Tin-Ear

Peanut has discovered her voice.

She talks non-stop. I can't understand most of what she says unless it is in context, but she is certainly trying. She sings the theme song to Elmo's World charmingly out-of-tune. Her favorite game to enourage us to not put her to bed is to start running through all the things she knows: She'll point to and name the parts of her face and body, she'll count, she'll name colors, she'll do animal sounds--all the things that she refuses to do when we ask during the day.

Which brings us to her other new developmental stage. She has decided sleep is for losers. I know all of you with toddlers who never have slept will be just broken up about this (you know who you are), and for you I will point out that she still doesn't cry about going to bed or me leaving. She just doesn't sleep. She'll lie in bed and talk to herself and to her animals for an hour or more. Occasionally she will call us with requests for juice (denied), milk (usually denied), Pooh book (denied, as we have undoubtedly read her more than one before bedtime), tooter (scooter, denied), and finally, the simple Uppy!, which is sometimes denied and sometimes granted, depending on how low my willpower is at the time. When she finally goes to sleep, she'll wake up an hour or so later, and do it all again. She doesn't usually wake up any later, but she is still pushing her nap later and later with the same tactics at Grandma's house.

What many of you don't know is that right after Big Daddy and I got married, I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I spent the next nine or ten months pretty much doing nothing but sleeping and watching Dallas. Watch enough of that and anyone will be ready to either get up and about or kill themselves, so I gradually worked myself up (i.e. walked to the mailbox and back for a few days, then walked out to the car, etc.)to where I could work, but I was not and still am not as energetic as normal people, even with a good night's sleep. I need a lot of sleep to be able to function, and even just one night with poor sleep really screws with me. When Peanut was a newborn, it wasn't as bad as you'd think, because first of all she slept a lot and second of all I always slept with her. It got harder as she got older, but because I was home alone all the time, I was still able to nap when she did. Now, though, I can't do that, so this not-sleeping thing is a little scary for me. While now she is happy talking to herself in her crib, I am afraid that won't last and I will never, ever sleep again.

Anyway, if you're still with me, I will share one milestone she reached last night, finally. I was holding her and she pointed to Big Daddy and said, "Happy! Love you!"  Then later, when trying to keep me from leaving her at bedtime, she announced, with appropriate signs, "Love you! Peanut love you!"

That definitely makes up for some missed sleep.