The Dancing, Overtired (Toilet) Queen

Is it seriously only 9 days until Christmas? Wasn't it Thanksgiving, heck, the summer just a short time ago? Time really seems to be flying here.

It's nice to be able, though, to sit down after a long day and just relax on the sofa. In a few minutes I'm going to pop in that treat of holiday treats: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I'd be eating some Christmas goodies if the mac-n-cheese I made Livers and me hadn't ruined my plans.

Speaking of Livers...

I thought I'd regale (or nauseate) you with a delightful story of epic proportions, circa last Sunday night. For as long as I can remember Livers has had an unfortunate fascination for toilets. And by unfortunate fascinations I mean if it's open she's gonna shove her hand in and give it a swish. Usually having the lid down is deterrent enough.

Sunday, however, I had taken Livers with me to turn on some Christmas lights outside and I set her upstairs with J so I could plug in a strand that had come unplugged. He was in the restroom washing up, so I yelled up to ask if the toilet lid was shut. He said that it was, so I put her over the gate, assuming that she'd be fine. Well, you know the old saying about assuming, right? As I turn to go back outside I hear J yell, "no, no, No, NOOOOO!!!" followed by a, "Oh my God, that is disgusting!" I figured she'd just shoved her hand in the toilet, but oh no....

The toilet had not been flushed yet AND there was toilet paper in it.....

which she proceeded to take OUT of the toilet and....

eat.

I didn't know what to do first, wash her hands or wash her mouth out. What do you seriously do in this situation??? I went with choice #1, which J apparently thought was the wrong one and scolded me, so I snapped back that I couldn't do both at once.

What is it with toddlers' fascination with the toilet, anyway? And when does it end???? Please tell me.

In other frustrating news we are going to need to break the rocking-to-sleep-at-naptime habit something serious. Luckily it IS only a naptime thing, as Livers easily goes to bed on her own at night, but it makes it no less frustrating. A lot of the times I can easily get her from my arms to the crib without incident, but lately we've been having a problem where as soon as her head hits the bed she wakes up WAILING and will not be comforted. There's no rocking her back to sleep or lying next to her on the floor or trying to get her to sleep with you in your bed. Generally once this happens the jig is up and she won't sleep anymore, which means we'll have a child who's gone 12 hours straight without a nap on her hands by the time dinner rolls around. Good times, people, good times. Unfortunately cranky child makes for cranky parents, and that atmosphere just ain't cool.

Yesterday when this happened she cried for an hour. Straight. And never napped. Today when I made the conscious decision to start breaking the cycle she cried for 20 minutes straight before finally sleeping for an hour. Hopefully we'll be able to reduce the crying by even more tomorrow and maybe even get some more sleep in her. I should've done something about this a long time ago (when she was more pliable), but I loved holding her when she was peaceful and I wasn't ready to fight the battle. Since she'll be two in a mere two and a half weeks I figure it's time, and it'll make it easier if she stays over with any grandparents.

Things aren't all bad, though. I've been getting really tickled watching Livers get into the Christmas spirit. We love to go out in the evenings to see houses decorated with Christmas lights. As a consolation prize for not going to Wally World we drove around looking at lights, and she just had a blast. When driving by one house she spotted another with some lights and exclaimed, "Wow, looky dose Chrit-mas lights!" Every time before I put her down at night I have to open her blinds to look out at our lights in the front yard, and the smiles on her face just melt your heart.

She loves her Christmas songs, too. It amazes me how quickly she picks up on the words to them. She and I love to watch Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (or rein-a-deer, as she calls them), and if you leave out words she'll fill in the blanks for you. The same goes for "Frosty the Snowman", which she certainly SHOULD know by now since she plays her Frosty doll all.the.time, and also "Silent Night".

She's also gotten huge into dancing. Her version of dancing is hilarious, but it exhausts me to watch. Here's why:



How the poor thing doesn't have shin splints is beyond me. :)

Well, I'm off to relax. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!