Total Slacker

My goodness! So much time has passed and I haven't posted a single thing. Where to start?

First and foremost, Petunia is now sleeping in her big girl bed. She slept in her crib until this July, which is when I had my foot surgery, and she needed to sleep with me because I was on crutches for several weeks. After sleeping in my queen size bed for five months, you can only imagine how she was just dying to get back into her crib. Uh-huh! I really believe most of her problem with the crib is that she is constantly flipping and flopping when she sleeps, and a crib isn't conducive to that kind of activity.

My biggest concern was that we were going to have a giant struggle on our hands because Petunia doesn't like change. I think that's why I kept putting off setting up her big girl bed, but something had to happen. When I was able to sleep, I wasn't sleeping peacefully and I certainly wasn't relaxing. Because of that I was having problems with my neck and lots of headaches.

This past Saturday I wanted to put up the Christmas tree, but I just couldn't. Our house is small, and Petunia's toys had completely overtaken the living room. I absolutely could not even picture adding more to that room by putting up the tree. I decided then and there that it was time for some changes. So I took down Petunia's crib, moved the double bed from the guest room into her room, cleaned the rest of the things out of that room, and moved her toys from the living room into the new toy room (formerly known as the guest room).

Initially Petunia wasn't too sure about the new sleeping arrangements, but she did sleep in her new bed Saturday night. She woke up in the wee hours and I just crawled into bed with her until morning. Sunday night, same thing. Monday night was a little better, and last night was AWESOME. Petunia slept by herself all night in her bed. Yay! She now seems pretty excited about her room and her bed, and I couldn't be happier. I really know that neither of us have been sleeping well for the past year and a half. Perhaps we're looking at some positive changes in that department now. Now I just hope I haven't spoken too soon.

New bedding for her room hasn't been bought yet, because 1) I don't want to spend the money at this time of the year, and 2) I want to wait until Petunia is ready to select something herself. I think that will be lots of fun. Until then, we'll make do. She didn't have "baby" stuff in her nursery, so it'll be okay for the time being.

Let's see.... what else? Petunia has been trying to exercise self-restraint when it comes to the Christmas tree and the ornaments. If she could, she would take every ornament off the tree and put it back on at least a million times. I've shown her the ones she can play with and the ones she needs to only look at. She's really done fairly well, and I'm proud of her. I gave her a Little People Nativity as an early, early Christmas present, and she's played with it for long stretches at a time. I thought it would be a good way for me to explain the story about the birth of Jesus, but apparently Petunia has her own ideas about how to play with it. Oh, well, she'll get it one day.

Christmas songs are becoming very popular around our house. My sweet girl loves music, and she has no problem dancing her little jigs to "Joy to the World" and "Away in a Manger." "Jingle Bells" is also becoming a favorite of hers, and she already knows the melody and is working on the words.

We're not going to Louisiana for Christmas this year (boo!), but we will be making a trip down in mid-January. Flights are booked ($60 each way for each of us on Southwest) and reservations have been made for a rental car. We'll get to stay an entire week and I couldn't be happier. This will also be the first time I get to see my little great-niece. She'll be only 2 months old, so she'll still be a tiny little thing.

To change the subject... Have I ever mentioned Petunia being like MacLeod, my little scottie that passed away last year? I swear, those two are indeed two peas in a pod. No, I'm not comparing my daughter to a dog, because my Cloudy Boy absolutely did not think he was a dog. He was totally human, at least in his mind, and he was basically treated that way. I've said for many months that I'm convinced he and Petunia had a conference prior to his death so he could pass on all his knowledge to her. I'll definitely have to write a post about this soon. It's just the funniest thing.

I want to say congratulations to my friends, Kelly and Justin, who just came home with baby Annie. Annie is a gorgeous baby, and big sister Lucy is adapting to her new role so well. Also, a big congratulations to my Tennessee friends Chandra and Cliff who are currently in Russia. They are now the proud parents of a beautiful little girl, and will be bringing her home in a few days. I can't wait to meet these two sweet girls for the first time. A few other friends are traveling right now, and I can't wait for them to be home with their children. Safe travels, my friends.

Okay, so it's past my bedtime and I want to enjoy every moment of quality sleep possible. I hope Mr. Sandman is waiting for me in my bedroom. I certainly don't mind spending time with him!