new photos at last!

But first, some more verbiage:
It’s been single-digit cold, so last Friday I put on my bulky Ecuadorian cardigan, which Sam hasn’t seen yet this year. He looked at me appraisingly as I put it on, said, “Pretty, Mommy!”

Yesterday I was laid out with a bad cold and J. was traveling (again! but for the last time for the next couple of months, at least), so I spent a lot of time on the couch or the futon in whichever room Sam was playing (or watching videos, which he did a ridiculous amount of yesterday because I just couldn't get up to do anything with him at all). Sam kept looking at me concernedly and saying "Mommy too tired."

Later he was playing with his cars/trucks and crashing them into each other head-first, saying "Kiss! police truck kiss!" (smooch) (crash)

Reasons to sleep in the same room as your kid, #45: Last night Sam giggled in his sleep. So cute. No talking, so I couldn’t figure out a context, he just laughed for a little while.

Sam followed up yesterday’s sweet behavior with a burst of toddler wilfulness. I’ve read that the two’s are all about control, and now that we’ve established nightweaning, it’s as though he has to compensate by controlling something else. Sometimes I can give him something appropriate to control and all goes well, and other times I can’t, and all hell breaks loose. Today was the all-hell-breaking-loose kind of day. I'm very glad J. is home, and so is Sam, though for probably only slightly overlapping reasons.

*****

And now for the photos:

Remember how I said that Sam always wants to look at the screen, not be photographed? Here he is going, "See! see!" (As in, "let me")



The easiest times to get pictures of him are when he's engrossed in a book (note recent Most Favored Toy, the big firetruck, within arm's reach). That stuff on his face is facepaint from daycare, where they were doing a unit on wild animals. Sam was a tiger.



If he's on my lap (and engrossed in a book) then he can't even see that I'm holding the camera up! But the perspective isn't so good, except for the nice curly hair.



And of course, I can take plenty of pictures when he's sleeping, a state we have been very focused on for the past week. He's so sweet when he's asleep. And so not sweet when he's tantruming for "Cereal In A Cup!" at 4AM. For an hour.



But just look at that snudgie little hand! Yum.



And he did, indeed, get cereal in a cup (he is obsessed with this faux-wheat-chex cereal from Trader Joe's) the morning after he slept 9PM-7AM without nursing and without tantruming, though not quite without waking up and needing to be snuggled back to sleep. (It's not like he didn't get breakfast the other mornings, mind you, I just didn't mark the occasion with a picture. And yes, he usually eats a proper breakfast sitting at the table, but he was pretty hungry; he's still used to getting a snack of milk at 4ish AM, and without it wakes up Ready To Eat Right Now!)



Yum, ce-wul in inna cup. (I don't know why he duplicates the "in" part but believe me, he does. I have heard that phrase more times than anyone could count in the last week.)



And moothie.



7AM is a totally doable wake-up time (with the added bonus of getting us out the door in time for daycare, as opposed to late like we have been a lot recently) so now we just have to train him to get back to sleep completely on his own. Baby steps, baby steps.