12:49AM
Never underestimate the value of the ability to speak.
Seriously. Calliope has been crying and fussing for an hour and a half. Only 15 minutes ago did I try FOOD. She's been through half a bottle of warm (cow) milk and 2 slices of raisin bread. OOooooooohhhh. If you look closely you can see the bread in her hand and the bottle next to her, by the light of "Life According to Jim."
>sigh<
Calliope, the sweet little thing, is not a sleeper. This is contrary to all advice of other parents who have more than one kid. The first one is supposed to be a lousy sleeper because they got all the quiet household time. The second, third, etc. are supposed to be progressively better sleepers, congruent with progressively louder households. WELL. She can be fussing, having fits, and rubbing her eyes constantly, and then lie in her crib and cry for an hour. And destroy her room. It's extraordinary how much damage an imaginative girl can do from the confines of her crib. Tear down curtains, slam pictures against walls, drag up chairs invariably piled with too-small clothes and pile her crib high with said clothes, toss all baby-appropriate toys overboard, rock the crib back and forth until all the paint is scraped off the walls... Of course if you check her for poop or to return the sundry pacifiers to her, not only will you be treated with a fresh round of screaming, but you'll be (literally) pelted with pacifiers.
Calliope does sign, she has maybe 20: help, water, kitty, milk, flower, cheese, bird, dog, food, hungry, bath, more, book, cracker, banana, cookie... So I don't really understand why she'd be signing and not talking, but she's not. She also doesn't sign when she's really pissed off, so the many opportunities she had to sign, say, "hungry" or "cracker" between 11:00 and now were, unfortunately, missed. I do not begrudge that. But this is uncharted territory for us, because not only was Clementine doing lots of talking by this time, but she was easily sleeping through the night.
Calliope really is adorable 99% of the time. She is the perfect blend of independence and still thinking her parents are the best thing that ever happened in the history of the universe. She loves the outdoors, and will head into the back yard and entertain herself for 30 minutes at a time. She loves the next door dogs and they her (they bark at everyone else except Clementine, no matter how many biscuits we give them). She walks all the time now, and sometimes even runs. She lives for popup books. In the grocery store, she rocks back and forth in the cart to the elevator music. When I nurse her, she points to parts of my face so I'll tell her their names (I remember now that Clementine did this, and wonder what else I've forgotten!). She'll help load and unload the dishwasher when appropriately inspired, and will always carry her little plate into the kitchen. She likes to put stuff in the rocking chair and see if it will rock back and forth. And now she's feeding me the last of her raisin bread, so she must not be hungry any more!
The bed (perhaps) to sleep (if I'm really lucky) and dreaming.... eh, whatever, as long as I sleep!
