Summer is officially here, and it arrived out of nowhere. We went from 60 and 70 degree days earlier in the week to a 99 degree day today. And I'm not complaining. It's definitely hot, which tends to magnify every little (or not so little) aspect of pregnancy, but I'll take the heat any day over snow and ice and being trapped inside. Extreme heat, like we currently have, means that today is one of those days where I just feel big, and hot, and really really pregnant. But that's to be expected given that I'm almost 24 weeks along. It seems like this baby has grown dramatically over the past two weeks--or at least my stomach has. I'm feeling little kicks and punches all the time now and Jim has been able to feel them too. Lilly continues to point to my stomach and talk about the "huge baby" and asks to touch it all the time. When she sings pat-a-cake now, she's replaced, "put it in the oven for Lilly and Daddy/Mummy" to "...Lilly and the baby!" When I asked her today what she thought the baby's name should be, her response was, "Ummmm....baby Amelia!" She's always good for a smile, especially these past two days.
On Tuesday, Lilly's mattress was delivered and since we don't have a plethora of storage space, we decided that we (well, really Jim) would assemble Lilly's bed and take apart her crib that same night. This brought out a side of Jim that I hadn't expected, but that I found exceptionally sweet. On Monday, when I told Jim the mattress was being delivered the next day and asked him if he wanted to move Lil into her bed sooner rather than later, Jim told me that he didn't know if he was ready to put Lilly in a bed. After talking about it for a little while, it made perfect sense to me. Jim puts Lilly to bed every night and boy, do they have an elaborate bedtime routine; one that seems to get longer by the day! They read books, drink milk, sing songs, brush teeth, go to the bathroom, read more books, sing more songs, read more books (I can't begin to count the number of times I hear, "Just one more book, Daddy," from outside Lilly's bedroom door). Lilly asked me to rub her back the other day when I put her down for her nap, and when I started rubbing it, she said, "no, not like that...like Daddy's does it." Bed time is their time together and it's special for both of them, so it's no surprise that Jim wasn't too eager to stop putting her to bed in her crib. After all, once she's out, she's out. In my mind, it was like getting rid of diapers--there was no way I was going to go back and forth. But, just as Jim's reaction to the idea of a bed made perfect sense, so too did his reaction when he came home from work on Tuesday to bed boxes and a mattress and box spring in our hallway, all with nowhere to go. Clutter alarms must have started going off in his head and Jim's practical side took over and got to work. By 7:30 that night, Lilly's bed was assembled, the crib was disassembled, and Jim and Lilly were reading books together in her new bed.
Lilly was so excited to get into bed on Tuesday night. She helped Jim put it together (which Jim may argue actually added time to the process), helped me put on the sheets, climbed up by herself and tested it out; things couldn't have gone more smoothly. (She's airing out in these pictures! It was a hot day, most of which we spent at the park, hence the little farmer's tan, so what could be better than running around "nuny nuny" as she calls it, after a bath?!)
Enjoying the bed frame with her animals
Her new bed, milk and Judy...what more could a two-year old want?
Pretty excited to discover that Dad had lined up all of her friends at the bottom of her bed!
So tiny...I've never seen a twin bed look so big!
Yes, it was sad for us. Lilly is old enough to be potty trained and in a bed and it seems like she just came home from the hospital days ago. It was reminiscent of the first night in her own room back at our house on King Street, when she was five weeks old. I spent about half the night going back and forth between her room and ours, making sure she was still breathing. And just like that night, which took place over two years ago, she was fine every time. On Tuesday night, Jim and I went in at least five times between the time we put her to bed and when we went to bed ourselves. And just when we were starting to get sad, Jim went in one final time to check on Lilly and found this:
We couldn't stop laughing! Lilly must have climbed out of her bed, taken her pillow, Judy, and her one with her, and decided that the floor was a better option. I picked her up and asked her if she wanted to hop back into bed, to which she groggily responded, "yes." So I put her back in bed, wondering if we would wake up in morning to find her on the floor. I went in again one other time in the middle of the night and she was still in bed. We had no idea what was going to happen in the morning...whether she'd be up ridiculously early because she could climb out or whether she'd like her bed as much as her crib and enjoy lounging. True to form for Lilly, she lounged in bed, and called us in around 7:30 (with her usual, "COME IN! GOOD MORNING!"), but she didn't want to get up. She wanted us to get in bed with her and read books. Jim and I both breathed a sigh of relief and checked night #1 in a bed off our list. When I put her down for her nap yesterday, I asked if she wanted to go and read books in her new bed and her face lit up and say, "Oh wow! Yes! In my huuuuuuge bed!" I hope this excitement lasts forever. It has been interesting to see where she wakes up--she's woken up in bed as well as on top of all her sheets at the foot of her bed. Last night when we went in to check on her, she seemed to have the hang of things:
This morning, however, I left to go for a walk at 7 and we were just starting to hear noises coming from Lilly's room. Jim figured he had time to jump in the shower, only to see the bathroom door opening a few minutes later, and an extremely proud toddler emerged. She has discovered her newly found freedom!
It's hard for me not to be nostalgic every time a milestone passes, and I know that's natural. But yesterday, a woman at the grocery store gave me a little perspective. Lilly was waving and introducing Judy to this woman. When the lady asked what her name was, she was taken aback by this little voice saying, "I'm Lilly Grace C-lark" and she started laughing telling me how adorable Lilly is. She said, as most people do, to enjoy every second because it goes by so fast. She told us that her daughter got married last weekend, which prompted me to smile. I thanked her, and told her that we thought Lilly was so grown up because she slept in a bed for the first time! It's not quite a wedding. So for now, I'll put the nostalgia behind me and enjoy our little toddler, in her new, "huuuuge bed".
No comments:
Post a Comment