Blip

Kalina's life has so far been punctuated by blips. Blip! I'm a good napper. Blip! Now I'm not taking naps without a fight. Blip! I must be standing at all times. Blip! I enjoy my wrists. You get the idea.

Each blip lasts a week or two, except the poor-sleeping ones, which usually last at least a month. Kind of like a bbbllliiiippp. And all the blips overlap in weird ways--so she might be terribly afraid of her changing table for two weeks, 1 of which she's desperate to roll over on it and the other of which she can be calmed by being allowed to gnaw on a rubber snake toy throughout the diaper change. During that time period, she may be just finishing a must-shake-every-plastic-bag-in-the-house blip, but on the front end of trying to eat the cats.

Sometimes Kalina's blips combine to produce a miraculously mellow, nap-filled, happy-eating week for Baby and a peaceful, productive and happy-eating week for Mommy. Other times, they bring with them dark days of Mommy despair as poor napping combines with an unshakable urge to roll, without the propensity to roll back or sleep on her tummy, so that little or no sleeping gets done during the day. (Last week was the former, this week is the later--I knew I'd pay for week 1 sometime.)

Sometimes the blips repeat themselves. We look forward to sleeping-through-the-night blip, for instance, but are dreading a recurrence of must-be-walking-every-waking-minute-but-I-can't-quite-walk-by-myself blip that makes Mommy's back hurt so very badly.

Essentially, then, every week with Kalina is like a game of poker. Will you be dealt the ace of spades in addition to a smattering of painfully useless cards? Or will you have a royal flush? Or worse, will you fold before you get the royal flush?

Each good week my thought process is as follows:
1. The baby is easy. This is good. 2. The baby is still easy! 3. The baby seems to have the mental maturity of a calm 30-year-old! Finally! I'm positive this will last. 4. Since I now have an easy baby, I'm going to plan all kinds of activities for next week so we don't get bored!

Each bad week, which usually follows each good week, my thought process is as follows:
1. My life seems to be much more difficult lately. 2. Oh, that's because the baby has developed quite the opinion and isn't sleeping, either. 3. This stinks, but I will outlast it--this must be short-lived because it's soooo rotten. 4. Who planned all this stuff?!?

Either way, Kalina's blips are always an adventure: will terrible nighttime sleep pair with long naps, giving me both a reason and excuse to languish on the couch during these naps? Will picky eating match up with a cute new sound she's working on so I don't mind the fact that she'll only eat Cheerios and cat hair?

Only time will tell. Meanwhile, Mommy will be happily traveling through her own blips, which include everything from "chocolate keeps me sane" (that's definitely a bbbllliiiiipppp) to "we're going grocery shopping every day this week because I'm tired of all her toys and so is she."

P.S. Kalina stood today all by herself for about 8 seconds! Blip!

Photo: 2 months ago in MN. A little untimely but oh, so cute.