A New Era

We transitioned Mihret from a crib to a toddler bed at around 18 or 19 months because I found her teetering precariously on top of the crib rail one day yelling, "Mama! Mama!" We weren't super excited about not having our baby in a crib, but we also didn't want to take any trips to the ER to deal with head injuries, so we made the switch. Fortunately, she didn't seem to understand that she could get out of her bed by herself...that is, until this past Saturday when she didn't want to take a nap (and in fact, didn't take a nap for the first time since we brought her home). I know, I know...I should be thanking God that we got an extra 6 months of our girl staying in her bed. But now that she's figured it out, she's spending a lot of time showing off her new-found ability. Her little head peaks around the corner with the biggest smile you can imagine. Cute, but terribly inconvenient.

Yesterday I made the mistake of letting Mihret nap for too long. She normally takes one nap that lasts 40 minutes to an hour. She woke up after 45 minutes, but was crying and fussing and seemed so sleepy that I laid down with her in our bed. Big mistake! We both fell asleep. An hour and a half later, I woke up panicked because if Mihret sleeps too long during the day it is super difficult to get her to fall asleep at night. She, on the other hand, was not at all interested in getting out of bed, so it took a while for her to fully wake up. A part of me thought, "Maybe she's needing some extra sleep right now and she'll still sleep good tonight." Wishful thinking...

So last night we read books, I rocked her for a while, put her in bed and patted her back for a while. I thought she was asleep - or at least close to being asleep - so I left and went into our office. About 5 or 10 minutes later, I heard something fall in her room. I got up to check it out and her light was on. Not only that, but she had a handful of books and there were several books on the ground. I asked her what she was doing (I know...stupid question...) and she grinned at me and said something like, "I got books." Oh, of course you did. I put her back in bed and patted her back for a while. She seemed pretty settled, so I left again. This time, she ended up going into our bedroom where Chuck was reading, and said, "Hi, Dada." He put her back to bed and put the gate up so she couldn't leave her room. She got out of bed, turned on the light, and looked at books several more times and each time the response got more and more stern. Finally, I got her to go to sleep and went to bed myself since by this time it was close to 11 pm. Yikes...

An hour or so later, she woke up again and Chuck patted her back and shushed her back to sleep. Then he took down the gate so we wouldn't kill ourselves getting to her room if she woke up again. Around 1:30 am, Chuck woke me up and said, "She was downstairs." Those of you who know me well, know that I am a very sound sleeper and that most of the time when Mihret wakes up in the middle of the night, Chuck is the one who gets up with her because I sleep through it. So it is somewhat amazing that he was able to wake me up to tell me that, but not at all surprising that I couldn't grasp what in the world he was talking about.

Chuck: "She was downstairs."
Me: "Who was downstairs?"
Chuck: "Our daughter."
Me: "Mihret was downstairs? What was she doing downstairs?"
Chuck: "Sitting on the stairs."
Me: "Did you take her downstairs?"
Chuck: "No Carrie, I FOUND her downstairs."
Me: "Where is she now?"
Chuck: "In bed asleep. I think."
Me: "Huh..." (then I turned over and fell back to sleep...sorry, Chuck!)

CCS Edit: And Mihret got up another two times after that, until I finally took her into the spare room and let her sleep with me. After about an hour of her being asleep, I put her back into bed where she stayed until an hour later when she woke up again.

Okay, so I'm not the greatest mom in the middle of the night. Fortunately, Mihret has a good dad! But in the morning when I heard the whole story, it definitely freaked me out. We've decided that we'll have to keep the gate up on her room each night and hope that we remember it when we are trying to get to her in the middle of the night. But how do you keep a child in her bed once she's figured out that she can get out of it? Any suggestions are welcome...

We're also wondering if she is outgrowing her need for a nap. She seems awfully young to not need a nap anymore. Today, I put her down for a nap and thought she was asleep. She woke up as I was leaving and we went through the whole routine again...and again...and again. She never did take a nap today, although she did have an hour or so of "quiet time" (in which she got out of bed every five minutes to see if "quiet time" was over). She went down really, really easy tonight. I'm not ready for her to not take naps anymore, although if it means she sleeps better at night, it MIGHT be worth it. If anyone has any ideas, though, I would certainly welcome them!

Four Thousand Words

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, I love this series of photos that my mom took on Mihret's birthday because I think they speak volumes about Mihret's personality. I would say more, but then I might go over my word limit...

The Joy of Being Two

Mihret has been enjoying the rights and responsibilities of being two - including the "right" to whine whenever she feels the situation warrants it.


The other day she was protesting loudly about something and I asked her, "Mihret, are you screaming?" and she replied, "No, just whining." Oh, that's a relief.

Taking Mama to Tennessee

In February, Mama and I went to visit Uncle Dan and Auntie M and their family in Tennessee. (I know, I know...February was a long time ago, but I'm a little slow when it comes to typing.)

I was sad that Dada couldn't go with us, but Mama got me some hot chocolate at the airport, and that made it all better.

Getting hooked on Starbucks early

When we got to Tennessee, I saw Uncle Dan, Auntie M, and my cousins: Brittany, Bridget, Sophie, and Zach. I also met their two dogs. Vandy is a little dog and Daisy is a big dog. I kept telling Mama, "Vandy is Vandy and Daisy is Daisy." She seemed appreciative of the clarification.

The Welcoming Committee (or at least part of it...the rest of the family was watching Lost)

When I got to their house, I discovered more toys than I had ever seen in my life (well except for Grandma Fuenning's basement). I thought it would be a good idea if Dada came out to Tennessee and we just stayed there. Auntie M agreed.

One of my favorite toys was a music machine that played the ABC song (and a whole bunch of other songs that I skipped so we could get back to the ABC song). I sang and danced and got my cousins to sing and dance with me. I think it's their favorite song too.

I had a lot of fun with my cousins!

Peek-a-boo!

Mama said that my oldest cousin, Brittany, gave up her room so we could sleep there. I don't know what she's talking about it because I'm pretty sure it was MY room. I let her come in to borrow clothes every now and then...

Bridget was really good at playing dolls with me, and Sophie and Bridget know how to throw a great tea party.

Playing with Bella and Bridget

Tea anyone?

Sophie and Zach got dressed up one day for the Rock-n-Roll Read-a-thon at their school.

Cool Cousins

I think they were supposed to be reading, but I got to visit the school twice that day, and both times all I saw was dancing. School looks fun!

Dancing with Sophie at her school

On Sunday morning, we woke up to snow! I told my cousins that snow tasted like ice, but they thought it tasted like hamburgers. Silly cousins. They must really have thought that because after Mama made me go back inside (something about being too cold...sound familiar?), my cousins had an ice-licking contest on their front doorstep. (Auntie M wrote about it on her blog if you are curious.)

Mmmm...snow....

Coolest backyard ever

It was a short visit, but we packed a lot into a few days. We even had a talent show one night and my cousins introduced me to the "toot-ba". Mama was not quite as impressed as I was.

Me and Pooh and the Family

I was sad to leave, but I was super excited to see Dada again! (Of course, if Dada had just come with us, then we wouldn't have had to leave the Great House of Toys, but I'm not holding it against him. And he pretty much made up for it during my birthday, but I'll leave that post to Mama or Dada. Enough typing for me!)

Egg Scramble

Today was Mihret's first Easter Egg Hunt.

Yes, I know we promised updates from Tennessee and birthday spectacular... those are coming. Patience, grasshopper.

Where was I? Right- Today was Mihret's first Easter Egg Hunt. We chose to share this experience with the good folks in Monrovia, where they seemed to have everything in order. "Seemed" is the best word.

The first sign of problems should have been the fact that this event was co-sponsored by the Monrovia YMCA and the Network for a Healthy California. Yeah, it was on the flier, but it was hammered home like an atom bomb when the person on the loudspeaker informed everyone that "This year, there is no candy in the eggs; only toys".

Two things-

1. Any toy that would fit in an egg would also fit in the windpipe of a small child. Good thinking, Monrovia.
2. NO candy? At an Easter egg hunt? Are you freaking kidding me? What's the purpose of being a parent if you don't get any... uh... if your kids don't celebrate the resurrection of our Lord with sugary goodness? They've already screwed up Halloween, I guess this was the next logical choice.

Mihret being healthy. Derek being Derek

One thing we were thankful for was the decision to allow the kids to "search" by age group. They had the corral all set up, and even had about 6 teen aged and young adult volunteers to help with the process. Remember that number.

Volunteers volunteering. Now I get to tell Mihret that eggs don't come from boxes. Thanks, guys.

The calm before the storm

So, the "plan" was to have all of the kiddos (you know, the two year olds?) come inside the fence, wait on the perimeter, and then go get the eggs on the signal. Initially, there seemed to be a "no parents" rule, but after the 6 volunteers looked at the 60 toddlers, they changed that pretty quickly.

Herding cats. Check Derek's form- proper stance, visualize the target.

Eyes on the prize, dada. Eyes on the prize.

So, after 20 minutes of waiting in line, being banished to the outer regions, and being told repeatedly to "wait... don't touch that... wait...", the kids were given the signal.

Release the hounds!

To be honest, I think our little boo was a bit overwhelmed; she froze. But, so did about 80% of the kids there- that is, until their parents got involved. Some were holding hands and encouraging, some were looking at everything through the viewfinder, some stood back and watched the chaos. I was firmly lodged in group A.

But there was another type of parent, though, that absolutely amazed me- although, given what I do for a living, I shouldn't have been surprised. As I knelt there trying to let my daughter know that things were OK, and that the eggs were there to be picked up I was overwhelmed by the people who were scooping up goodies into their kids baskets. It's almost as if they didn't hear the announcement about "no candy this year."

The lady in the gray shirt over my shoulder actually nudged Derek out of the way to put more eggs in her daughter's full basket.

I can understand two year olds being a bit self absorbed and not understanding how to share. I guess I was surprised to be reminded that adults have the same issue.

Staged discovery, for mama and her new camera

Mihret ended up with two eggs, one of which we gave to a little boy who had gotten pushed out of the scrum and ended up with nothing. Again, this isn't about haves and have nots- if Mihret hadn't "found" any eggs while all the other kids did, that wouldn't be a problem. But when role models don't model...

Anywho- nothing says "Christ is risen" like hoards of kids being encouraged to compete over resources in a "whoever gets the most is the best" mentality. It really goes against the true meaning of Easter.

Especially if there's no chocolate involved.

THAT'S Entertainment

Those of you who have visited Stately Strawn Manor at any point during the last nine years have seen the monstrosity that is my/our entertainment center. If not, here you go:

Swedish design at it's finest

You'll notice, no doubt, that the side of this thing looks a bit like a ladder. Let's just say that someone else noticed it, too. And, you know how important it is to protect the little ones.

So, we commissioned our favorite semi-retired engineer to create a new console for us. And, wow, does it look amazing.


Polished like glass, solid as a rock, and really easy access to the bijillions of cords and connections. Ain't it amazing what a little know how (or in my case "know who") can do?

Just thought I'd share Terry's handiwork with the masses. As great as it looks, though, there seems to be something missing. I just can't put my finger on it...

Two day

Today, our daughter turned two.

Take a second and wrap your minds around that: We are parents of a two year old. Or, put another way, we haven't screwed this up irreparably as in a little under a year and a half.

And, you know what? I think these 16 months may have been the some of the best of my life.

Tonight was just the family celebration, her "official" birthday party is on Saturday- cake and all the trimmings.

So, we should have lots of photos up sometime soon.

That is, if I can find her underneath the pile of Little People she's acquired...

(no, not those...)