Supermom Chronicles: Day 3

It's Wednesday of my first week home this summer. As you read in my previous post, I have several items I hope to accomplish this summer while I am off from work. While the list I created was done in no particular order, I did know going into this what priority one was: get Norah in a real bed.

This has been my plan for weeks. I knew I would do it once I didn't have to wake up for work in the morning, so that if Norah had a rough night in the transition, and I was up through the night with her, it wouldn't effect my work. My logic was this: Norah is showing signs of being ready to use the potty. YEE HAW! That day won't come too soon. But in my mind, before I could even think about potty-training, I needed to get Norah into a real bed so she could have the freedom to get up and go if and when she needs to. Seems logical, right? Yes... but...

Norah is her own person. Fiercely independent. Sneaky, even. Transitioning her to a bed, while joyous, is also terrifying. We worry about whether she will stay in her bed all night, much less her room. Josie was so easy to move to the bed -- she was ready. And being the first-child-people-pleaser, she would wake up in the morning and call to us in her sing-song voice, "Mommy, Daddy, time to get up!" It was wonderful. She wouldn't leave her bed until we came and got her. When she was a little older, we were able to tell her not to call us until her clock read, "Seven, zero, zero." It was awesome. We never worried about her roaming the house, destroying her room (though she did do that once or twice...), or you know, doing something extreme like sneaking out of the house.

Norah, on the other hand, has shown us time and time again that she is not her older sister. So while we are ready for her to be in a bed, we are slightly terrified that she will wander the halls in the night, descend one of our two stairwells, and make herself an omlet in the middle of the night. Seriously. This girl can do anything she sets her mind to. Anything. THANKFULLY, she set her mind to enjoy being a "big girl" and moving into the bed. Night one was a little rough for us. No... let me re-phrase. Night one was rough for me, while Norah did well. I sat outside her room with the laptop, making sure she didn't destroy her room or sneak out, while she drifted off to sleep. She didn't get up to play or anything... she went right to sleep. Around 1:45am, she woke up disoriented, so I went in and ended up laying with her for two hours. During those two hours, neither of us slept. In Norah's mind, this was prime "girl talk time." Every time I was about to drift off, her sweet little voice would whisper, "Hey Mama?" And when I would acknowlege her, she would babble about something for a couple sentences... only to repeat the process just moments later. In hindsight, it was very cute and something I will remember fondly. But in the moment... well... I didn't find it so endearing. :)

Night two went much better and she slept longer in the morning. She woke up twice in the night, but she soothed back to sleep very easily. YES! Victory is within our reach! Time to take the crib down and get it out of her room!

Tonight is night three and bless her little heart, she is fast asleep on her big-girl bed. Keep in mind, for now, the bed is nothing more than a twin mattress on the floor, but before too long, it will transform into a real bed with boxsprings and a bed frame. And so far... knock on wood... so far, there have been no escape attempts. Phew! Then again, the baby gate at her door probably helps. HA!



So here we are, three days into my 8 week leave, and I can knock one item off the list. Hmmm. I think it was probably the easiest item, but hey, it counts! I am on my way towards other goals -- Josie is signed up for swim lessons and I am well into a novel. Another "yay us" sucess wasn't even listed on my list, but it is a sucess none-the-less. So far this week, we have eaten every supper at home as a family. I can't tell you when the last time that happened in a regular week. Typically, I have had at least two evening meetings a week which kept me in Columbia until the girls were in bed. Some of those evenings the family would come into town and we would eat out together. Other times, Eric would feed them at home and I blow kisses to them after they are asleep when I am finally home. Well, I don't have those evening meetings right now, so we are eating as a family! WOW! And not only are we eating as a family, we are eating at home. Weird.

There are two more days before summer school is over and Josie joins me each day. NJ will go to daycare three days a week and we will have "girls day" the other two days each week. I had hoped to get their closets deep cleaned out before summer school was over, but alas, I forgot Norah would be with me this week while daycare was closed. Whoops. No closet cleaning with Norah on my heels! Oh well... so the garage sale will have to wait a little longer. No biggie... I have waited/avoided it for twelve years, I can certainly wait a few more weeks.

'Til next time, this supermom is signing off!