Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Toddlers are like little drunks

Today while I was making dinner, I kept hearing "smack, smack, smoooch, smack, smooch..." I couldn't figure out what the noise was, so I walked around the end of the counter to see Emmy sitting on the floor kissing Nightmare Potty Training Doll on the cheeks over and over again.

Bonus points: our door was open (broiler smokes, and alarms are ultra-sensitive), and our door is directly across the hall from our neighbors'.

Extra special bonus points: Emmy gives R-rated kisses. Lots of tongue. I'm glad Nightmare Potty Training Doll (who was, as usual, naked) is not anatomically correct. That could get awkward.

Emmy is also learning a new word approximately every two minutes. She's nothing like Grace was at this age. Grace, with her perfectly clear speech and eighty bazillion words and near-sentences ("Hot grease baby running!"). But the nice thing about having two such incredibly different children is that comparing them doesn't even occur to me most of the time. It's fun to see the differences, but I don't stress myself (or them) out by weighing them against each other. Emmy walked at approximately five weeks. It evens out.

She uses a spoon now. Badly. But she's at least trying, instead of, say, combing her hair with it, or shoving it up her nose.

She likes to hit. That's a not-so-fun one.

Also, nightmares! They have begun. I'm so thrilled. It's a good thing I'm a bit softer this time around. I think it's sweet when I go in to comfort her, and she collapses back into bed after just a pat and a few words from me.

You know what else isn't fun? A wicked 18-month sleep regression. Her brain just won't stop at night. She likes to scream. For two, two and a half hours. It's really fantastic. We don't know what to do about it except wait for it to end. It's not affecting our sleep; she's out by the time we go to bed. But she's not as happy in the mornings, and she just sounds so miserable in there. Moving her bedtime and naptime hasn't helped a single bit, so I'm certain it's not that she needs to go to bed later or anything. Her brain is just in overdrive right now.

I don't remember this happening with Grace, but maybe I wasn't as easily overjoyed by the small things when I had a newborn and a shell-shocked toddler. I'm not a fan of the nighttime shenanigans, but I love seeing the results the next day. Her personality is exploding, and it's such a joy. She's so fat and determined and ridiculous.

But please, oh please, let it end soon.

2 comments:

  1. She sounds adorable! So she's about 18 months old now? Wow, how time flies! I keep thinking of her as about 6 months, although I *know* that she's older than my youngest.

    Nightmares are the pits. My oldest is going through a nightmare thing lately (she's 4, so she's well into the age of imagination, and everything is dinosaurs and earthquakes and volcanoes and sharks eating her), and my youngest has gone from sleeping 12 hours to waking every 3-4 all night. How do you work letting her scream at night with your girls sharing a room? That's my problem, because I probably need to let the baby cry a bit, but since they all share a room it gets awkward. Thank goodness that the 2-year-old sleeps like a log, or I'd never get any sleep.

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  2. Yes, and she still looks like a baby, despite her hugeness. Grace never looked like a baby; at this age, she could have passed for at least two years, maybe three. Emmy is the opposite. Her face is still so babyish.

    As for room-sharing, I just let her go. Especially since I think Grace sometimes goads her on. Not to make her miserable, but if she knows her playmate is over there, finally falling asleep, she'll make a little squeal sometimes that she knows will keep Emmy interested enough to stay awake. She has kept Grace awake a few times, but if Grace is going to sleep, she's going to sleep. I actually think it's good for them. Since they started sharing a room, they have definitely bonded a lot more, and both of them are MUCH sounder sleepers. Also, we're now able to sleep in the same room with them without them thinking it's a party all night. So, since it's a temporary thing, I just leave them in the same room. If Emmy were to keep this up much longer, we'd separate them, though.

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