Aurora Wells

I hate to break it to Aurora that “taking care of hurt dinosaurs” is probably not a viable career choice. She seems so keen on it.

Just now, as I sweep the floors:
“Mom, when will you play with me?”
“As soon as I finish cleaning up the house.”
“But that will take YEARS AND YEARS!”

Which is my way of saying that even though it sucks, sucks, sucks that the naps are over, finito, yesterday’s news, gone with the dodo, and so on, there are some benefits. For instance, we can now take classes or make appointments after 11 a.m. without interrupting the Sacred Napping Cycle. The Cycle, for those of you that are interested, began each day at 11 a.m. with a full hour of lunch (Aurora’s a slow eater), followed by potty time, books, milk, song, etc. By 12:30 or 1 p.m. Aurora was in the crib, where she would complain or just talk to herself for 60-90 minutes before either pooping or falling asleep. If she pooped, game over, the diaper must be changed, and there was no napping after that. If she fell asleep, she’d usually be out for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, which means that the whole cycle took about 6 hours, during which I couldn’t do anything outside the house, and nothing that made very much noise within the house, either. Blog postings were an excellent way to spend a quiet hour (or four) each afternoon.

So yes, for those of you who are wondering why I don’t write blog posts very often anymore, it is because of the total lack of afternoon naps. Aurora’s last real nap was sometime around U.S. Thanksgiving, and although she did drift off on long car rides a couple of times in December, that was pretty much it for the whole nap thing. I’ve never heard of a child who was so convinced that naps were the enemy, and who had conducted such a successful war against them for so long, but there it is. The war has been won by Aurora. “Hail the conquering heroine!”

The other benefit of ending the naps is that nighttime sleeping has gotten eerily consistent, and consistently good. Bath at 7, in bed by 8:15, asleep by 8:30 means that she will wake up at 7:30 a.m. on the dot. She may vary by 30 minutes from day to day, but she’s remarkably consistent now, and for that I am extremely grateful.

So now Aurora and I are free from the tyrrany of napping (can you hear Mommy’s soft regretful sniffling in the background?), and we can stay longer at museums, or dine out for lunch (she loves edamame), or do whatever we want in the afternoon. We usually have “quiet time” for an hour, which consists of Aurora playing make-believe with her stuffed animals in the crib while Mommy answers emails, preps dinner, or grabs a quick snooze. It reminds me of Bill Cosby’s “Kindergarten” sketch, wherein the teacher announces that it’s naptime, and while 25 kids lie wide awake on mats, the teacher puts her head down on her desk and passes out. It’s all for the best. Really.

In the war against gravity, Aurora took a few hits Saturday evening. She fell at least four times between 5 pm and bedtime. Tiredness, perhaps. Check out the knees – the shape of things to come, at least until the end of adolescence?

She wears her scabs with pride, and seems to hold no grudge against the friends she was carrying, who kept her from being able to use her arms for balance.

Aurora shows off her stellar walking technique on a very warm Sunday afternoon yesterday.

Apparently, the sticker is the best part of a banana.

A quiet moment, contemplating the stickiness of a new label. Beautiful dress, eh?

Well, Daddy’s home from his business trip, just in time to scamper around all weekend trying to fit in errands, activities and chores. It’s a good thing he took off Monday, so we had a bit of time to relax after the madness. Here are some of the highlights:

Our first swim class! Aurora didn’t seem to really enjoy herself this time, but like with most things, she probably needs a while to get used to it before it becomes fun.

The class is at the Percy Norman pool, about a five minute drive or 20 minute walk from our house, near Riley Park. It’s nice to have a pool so close by.

After swim class, lunch, and nap, we headed over to Ryan’s 1st birthday at Jericho Beach. Unfortunately, we got a bit lost (don’t ask) and arrived way too late to make an appearance at Olin’s party right afterwards. Here’s the lovely Ryan, who has graduated to toddler status, while Aurora looks on with a bit of support. Happy birthday, sweetie!

Peter gets a thrilling ride from his Daddy Julian – he seems like just as much fun as Aurora’s Daddy!

Crawling is now an official mode of transportation for Aurora, not just an expidient way to get from cruise spot to cruise spot. She’s getting fast, too!

Then it was a race to try to get home before my Reading Group gals began to arrive. We had a fun little meeting, and would definitely recommend The Shadow of the Wind as a great read. I also received kudos on this blog, and it was decided that in our imaginary polygamous marriage (which would make things so much easier because then we could split the work according to who does what best) I would be the Shopping and Blogging Wife, so I could focus on where my true talents lie. Thanks for the compliment, guys!

More than a few of you have been asking about the sleep consultant, so here goes: a week ago, after a few nights of more broken-than-usual sleep and epic nap battles during the day, we decided to call Helen, the sleep consultant that our family doctor recommended. She’s taking some time off in August, so we got in just under the wire. Brian and I are pretty darn cheap when it comes to a lot of things, but really, can you put a price on your sanity? After a brief phone discussion she decided to take us on, but she expressed some concerns about our upcoming trip to the Okanagon. Will Aurora have time to adjust to the new regimen before travel throws her off again? Will it cause additional screaming at night to further upset Grandpa Bill’s equilibrium?

After filling out an extensive questionnaire about Aurora’s sleep, eating, schedule, and home environment, Helen started to work on a custom program for us. So far, all she’s sent me is instructions to use a white noise machine and a baby monitor. Oh yeah, I also have to remove the activity centre from the crib. Sorry, Grandma Gail. Apparently, this causes the kid to wake up more rather than settle back to sleep, so it’s gotta go. I think I’ll attach it to something else so she can play with it in a more active setting, like the living room.

So that’s it so far. We’ll start the sleep program in a week and a half, when we get back from Armstrong. I’ll keep you posted.