Tonight, we didn’t get going on bedtime till an hour later than usual. Elliora was overtired and resisted sleep for an hour or more, with much whining and crying and squirming around. She nursed and then got mad when I tried to snuggle with her. I put her down in her bed, and she relaxed for a few seconds before getting mad, and sitting up and crying. I tried putting her down in the pack’n'play and rubbing her back while singing to her, and got the same reaction.

After about an hour of going around and around in this way, I was so exasperated that I did something completely ridiculous. I sat with my legs crossed and laid Elliora down on her tummy across my lap, her head on one knee, and patted her back. She calmed down almost immediately and was asleep in less than a minute. My reaction could be summed up thusly: What the–!?

BABIES.

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At naptime today, Elliora nursed and then declined to actually go to sleep. So we got up and played with Photo Booth instead.

(0:58)

In this one, you can hear her saying “yeah,” one of her favorite words; and you can see her bottom teeth pretty clearly a couple of times. Every time she leans forward, she’s touching the monitor where she could see her face, and occasionally banging on the keyboard.

(1:07)

When I say “ow” in this one at the :49 mark, it was because she flung herself backwards so suddenly that her head connected with my cheekbone rather painfully. I don’t know if, when she says what sounds like “back,” if she was actually saying that word. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to repeat it and move her back to the laptop. At the end when I tell her to say bye-bye, she actually says, “ha,” which means “hi.” Contrary little twerp.

(0:39)

If you only watch one of these videos, watch this one. It’s the shortest, and there’s lots of laughing (plus me pulling faces) in it.

(23 seconds)

(12 seconds)

(53 seconds)

Happy Friday! Have a good weekend, y’all.

The other day, I had put my hair in Velcro rollers while Elliora was napping in the hope that I could coax my two-days-since-washing hair look a little more lively. When she woke up I had yet to take them out. Her reaction to seeing them when she woke up was pretty funny. First she was a little scared. Then, she realized it was still Mama under there.

See how she’s patting my chest? She does that when she’s happy and I’m holding her. It’s like her way of saying, I got my mama riiiight here, it’s all good.

I see these things on your head, Mother. Whatever could they be for?

And there you are in the mirror, with those funny things still on your head.

Wait, am I freaked out by this? Hmm, perhaps I am….nah, I’m not. It’s just funny.

pretty: I like playing with the shutter speed when there’s a fountain around. This one is in the main park in Erin and Rocco’s downtown.

happy: Annalie loved this ziplining thing on the playground in the same park. She went on it over and over and over again. There was a similar piece of playground equipment on the playground at our old church in Maryland, and she loved that one too. And she was pleased as punch with herself when she was able to go all the way across the rings on her own.

funny: Silly ice-cream posers. And goofball me, posing on Annalie’s scooter with Elliora on my back.

real: This is what happens when you accidentally fall asleep with wet hair when you’re putting the baby to bed for her afternoon nap.

Pretty, happy, funny, real is about capturing the context of contentment in everyday life. Via girlwithgreencard.

This little punk is in the thick of the eight-month sleep regression. Basically, her brain and body are in overdrive, learning and perfecting new skills like waving hello,

crawling,

pulling herself up,

and standing.

Not to mention all the teething that’s been going on.

Clementines make good teethers. Also limes.

With a nod to Jen.

Her two top teeth and two more on the bottom are working on poking through her gums, too. They haven’t popped through yet but we’ve been able to feel how swollen her gums have been in those spots.

And then of course there’s the fact that we just got home from three weeks in California and Oregon, which means she’s three time zones off schedule. And we’re back at home with our cats (exciting!) and all the toys that she hasn’t seen for ages (whee!) and all this familiar furniture she’s apparently been dying to pull herself up on for ages because as soon as we set her on the floor that’s what she immediately does every time (ZOMG being vertical is AWESOME!1!!).

There are many, many reasons for her to be having trouble sleeping easily and peacefully right now, is what I’m saying. But that doesn’t make it any less frustrating to live through.

Last night, after three hours of me and Troy taking turns trying to gently parent Elliora to sleep—rocking, back-patting, nursing, walking, singing, etc.—we gave up and brought her out to the living room to play happily with her toys while we watched TV, exhausted. She went to bed with us an hour later.

Tonight she took a one-hour nap at 8 o’clock, fooling us into thinking maybe she was going to sleep better. Hahahaha, what suckers we are. She woke up at 9. Around 11 we brought her out to the living room to play while we caught up on White Collar. (Do you watch? We love that show. It seems to get better every season, doesn’t it?) She managed to keep herself awake and relatively happy till 1:30am. That would be 10:30pm PDT, which would still be at least two hours later than she ever stayed up when we were on vacation.

Babies, man. They’re so unpredictable. At least my babies are when it comes to sleep. Oh well. It won’t be too much longer and she’ll be sleeping peacefully again, I’m sure. By then I’ll probably be spending my days chasing her around and cursing our lack of child-proofing, wishing she were still trying to figure out how to stand up.

A few days ago I did the mean parent thing of offering a lemon slice to Elliora, expecting her to pucker up and make hilarious faces.

When will I learn my kids don’t ever seem to do the thing I expect them to do? She loved the lemon of course, and got mad when I took it away from her.

Troy likes to eat the lemon slices from his drinks, actually. And Annalie doesn’t care for them now, but when she was a baby she used to suck on lemons with gusto.

I think mostly Elliora is still in that fun phase where every kind of food is something new and wonderful to her. Today we went to lunch at a place with a salad bar, and Elliora ate an amazing variety and amount—applesauce, bits of hamburger, fries, beets, black olives, cheese, cucumber, edamame, peas, and bacon—and seemed genuinely pleased with every bite.

Earlier this week we spent the night in Southern Maryland, hanging out with old friends. I love this photo of Annalie and Christa each holding her little sister, and how Ashland is looking over at Elliora.

We got the chance to hang out with Angela and her girls for a little while, which was so lovely. I enjoyed getting to know Miss Katie (who is seven months older than Elliora) a bit better.

I hadn’t seen our friends’ dog Daisy in almost two years, but she remembered me immediately, wagging her tail and shoving her head under my hand.

A bunch of balls I crocheted for my godson and his sister. I actually crocheted the red, white and blue one and the rainbow-striped one first as birthday gifts for the two of them, but their dad liked them so much he asked if I could make a few more for them to have around.

The night we stayed at Rebekah and Jason’s, neither Ashland nor Elliora could not be convinced to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Bekah and I wanted to visit with each other, so we gave in and let the babies play on the floor, figuring they’d soon be tired enough that we could get them to sleep. They played contentedly for the better part of an hour. Woohoo, late-night baby playtime party!

It’s both surreal and awesome that a friend in Maryland (Rebekah) was able to check Attachments out from the local library and read this book that a friend of mine from high school wrote.

Vintage Muppets glass from 1981 (haaa, I accidentally typed “1891″ at first) is a total WIN. I loved the Great Muppet Caper as a kid, and I still love it as an adult. You all have heard about the new Muppets movie coming out this November, right? I’m super-excited about it. The trailers look incredibly promising, and I can’t think of a better person than Jason “Vampire Puppet Rock Opera” Segel to write and star in it.

Playgroup friends! Several of our old playgroup‘s families have recently moved back to the town where we used to live, so anytime we go back down to visit now it’s like a mini-reunion. Not everyone is there—Sarah and her family still live in Texas—but it’s still good to get together with old friends, and their new siblings.

Whoooaaaa, trippy.

As we were leaving lunch with to-go cups of soda, I offered one of the million coffee-cup sleeves I carry around in my purse to Bekah for her cup. She’s not a coffee drinker, and she said it had never occurred to her to use a sleeve for her cold drinks. I happened to have a few finished coffee-cup sleeves with me in a bag of crocheting, and I told her she could pick one out. She liked a pink-and-white striped one, but it was a little small for a typical soda cup. I added the blue at Bek’s request and I really love how it turned out. You’ll probably be seeing this pattern again.

One afternoon this week we had thunderstorms with crazy heavy rain. Jennifer commented on Flickr that this photo of Annalie looks like she’s peering into an aquarium, and it kind of does.

“See, Ellie V? This is how you make the picture TWIRLY.”

I wasn’t able to make it to the Ladies’ Night at my usual pottery studio tonight as planned. With me and Elliora both getting over colds, I wasn’t sure we were up for the 90-minute round trip, especially so late in the evening, so I reluctantly decided to stay here. Troy suggested I just go to the local pottery studio for some painting therapy by myself, so I did. When I picked up my fired pieces from the last time I painted there, the girl working said, “Oh, you’re Bethany Actually? I love your stuff!” Then when I got home, Elliora was asleep! She only stayed asleep for a half-hour or so, but hey, it was an extra half-hour. Extra half-hours are in short supply around here these days.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go cough another thousand times or so. Have a good rest-of-the-weekend!

I haz a ball!

I shall ignore all the toys and play with the ball.

Hey, did you see? I got a ball!

Rainball, you say!?

Nom nom. Taste the rainball. (Hee!)

What happens if I shake it?

Oh. It got away from me. Ball, where are you going?

I can…almost…reach it…

Grrrrr!

Did you see how it got away from me?

Ball, stop getting away from me!

Hmm. It got away again. Maybe if I yell at it.

Ball! Get over here!

Reeeaaach.

Almost.

Got it. I must become one with the ball.