Consonants

1. I’m starting to hear almost consonants in Amy’s “talk” now — and maybe even two different vowel sounds. It’s fun to observe this as a former linguistics student… how language sounds are really not as discrete as we think they are, but more along a continuum. Each sound depends on how the lips and tongue and all are positioned and moved, as well as whether the vocal cords vibrate or not. Right now Amy’s “g” sounds nearly glottal, and her “b” is almost an “m.”

2. I just organized Mark’s top dresser drawer. I wonder if it’ll make things easier for him. I wonder how long it’ll stay this way. Who cares? It was fun and a nice thing to do. Oh, and I also just re-threaded a drawstring that had gotten lost in a pair of his shorts.

3. Amy’s in a transition stage again with her naps. She’s been skipping the early evening (third) nap, which makes it challenging to keep her up until bedtime, but Mark does a good job playing with her until then. How our evening routine has changed — ! So different from pre-baby, of course, but much more normal / okay feeling than when this baby arrived.

4. My hair is long enough to braid again, although it gets loose after several hours.

5. Tired of putting Amy’s socks on over and over and over and over again, I put on the little booties Barb crocheted — with a triple knot in the ribbon, they’ll stay on and tied despite being considered a toy.

High chair

From Mama Goose, for about half the price this model sells for new!

Arm Curls

Tired

Piggyback

Two Easter weekend pictures

Mark gets some smiles and laughs from Amy:

The church choir rehearses for the Randall Thompson Alleluia we’re going to sing later in the service:

Bib

The bib gets in the way of Amy’s efforts to suck her thumb between spoonfuls.

Dragonfly

Amy practices sitting up while playing with a toy.

It is 12:48 and…

It is 12:48 and…

…Amy is asleep…
…I am depressed…

It has actually been a pretty good day so far. Amy woke at a normal time; we had a decent time after her morning nap, with some sitting up play (nice to have this back — for a while after we got the entertainer thing she wouldn’t willingly bend at the waist when we tried to pull her up to sitting), some mirror play, some playmat time, some swinging while I played guitar and sang to her (good way to remember Good Friday), some oatmeal, and a bottle.

She fussed about her noon nap — even though she had fallen asleep at the bottle. But I think it was only three bursts of crying before she settled — and the last burst didn’t require my presence. Still, fussing is something I’m still hypersensitive to — it puts me on edge because I fear how long it will last or how angry it might make me.

I made and ate lunch, looked around the internet, and now I’m not sure what I want to do. I was going to work on the photo album (which is sometimes great because I enjoy the creativity, but sometimes depressing because it seems pointless). But I feel tired, and maybe I will go lie down with the kitty for a while.

Of course Amy will wake up anywhere between now and another hour.

I’m depressed because I feel like I haven’t used this naptime well, to get replenished for the afternoon, and maybe now it’s too late. And sometimes I feel like I run out of things to do with Amy, and that makes me anxious.

——

Edited to add: I did lie down with the kitty, and Amy slept for almost another hour. I felt better by then — I think it was good to just rest. And I got another bit done in the photo album during her later afternoon nap.

Blocking out the sun

Continuing with the theme of removing the sunshine from Amy’s life (she said, tongue-in-cheek), Mark seems to have guessed correctly that early sunrise was waking Amy up two hours earlier than we have been ready to deal with. So, last night we hung an old bedspread over her window (in addition to the blinds) and she woke at a much more reasonable time this morning.