Reality Bites -- Or At Least It Did Today

After the idyllic Thursday night and Friday I had with my two girls, it was inevitable that the sobering, cold water of reality would eventually hit me full force.

And it certainly appeared with a vengeance starting a little before midnight on Friday night.

Bedtime on Friday was great.  We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See  (BTW Zo Peep and I discovered that as we made animal sounds during the story, Libby Doodle Doo totally cracked up.  She obviously had a game with her nannies involving animal sounds. Very, very cute.).  I put Libby Doodle Doo down at about 7:30.  She was a little fussy for a few minutes, but then sound asleep.  Zo Peep went to bed at a little after 8:30.  So far, so good.

But then at 11:45 PM, the Libster awoke with a eardrum piercing cry.  She woke me up and woke up her sister, too.  I tried changing diapers, offering bottles, walking her, rocking her -- nothing got her back to sleep.  Zo Peep was up for about 3 hours of it also trying a variety of techniques to calm her sister.  Nothing worked.  I finally put Zo Peep in the spare bedroom downstairs in our basement in hopes that she could at least get some shut eye.

Libby Doodle Doo finally closed her eyes at about 4:30AM laying next to me in Zo Peep's bed.

When I awoke at 6:30am, the bed had also welcomed Zo Peep who was stretched horizontally at the foot of the bed.

Today was exhausting.  I was tired, Zo Peep was tired, Libby Doodle Doo was tired.  With tired, came cranky -- for all of us.  I was determined to keep all of us up throughout the day in hopes that we would have a good sleep and -- therefore -- an uneventful night tonight.  I almost succeeded, but I fell asleep (as did Libby Doodle Doo) after giving her the lunchtime bottle (fortunately Zo Peep woke us both up after about 45 minutes).  

We accomplished little today.  I took Zo Peep to language class.  We went grocery shopping, I got gas.  At home I did laundry and continued to put thing away from the trip.  The house is a wreck.  Right now there are dishes in the sink, stuff all over the kitchen and dining room tables;  empty suitcases sitting on the dining room floor ;a stack of mail at least a foot high and miscellaneous junk everywhere.  I need a good 3 to 4 hours to get it back into shape.

Although Libby Doodle Doo was an angel during Zo Peep's Chinese lessons, she was a demanding little baby for the rest of the day.  She rejected most of the foods I offered her.  She cried loudly whenever I put her down.  The volume increased if I put her down AND left the room.  She seemed to resent any attention I gave to Little Zo Peep.

Zo Peep wasn't much better. Although I do admit that this morning she made my heart smile. At language class, the instructor begins each session asking the girls to introduce themselves in Chinese.  When Zo Peep's turn occurred she said her name was Jie Jie -- so proud she was to call herself a big sister.  But the rest of the day she was a bear.  She started to show resentment of her little sister's demands on my time.  She also started to regress and asked for her juice in a bottle, requested wearing pull ups and wanted me to put diaper rash ointment on a little irritation she says she has on her bum.  I expected regressive behavior, but I guess I didn't expect it quite this early.

I got both girls to bed with no problems tonight.  I think if we all have a restful night tonight, tomorrow will be much better.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.