Aurora Wells

At Aurora’s 18 month checkup, I complained again about how much I would love to quit nursing, and our doctor said, “Lisa, you just have to say ‘No milk’ and mean it.” Now that Aurora’s better able to understand our rules when we tell them to her, it’s easier to explain how things are going to go, and then do it. There’s less complaining all around.

Two weeks ago I sat Aurora down at naptime, cradled in one arm, on the comfy nursing pillow, rather than laying her down facing me, and handed her a sippy cup of milk. It didn’t hurt that it was chocolate milk. She seemed a bit confused, but drank happily while I read her a story. When she was done, I read another story, sang our regular song (Somewhere Over the Rainbow), and put her in the crib. “Shhh, nighty-night” I said, and left the room. She babbled, complaining a little, for 20 minutes, and then – silence! Ta-daaa! Every day since then has been pretty similar; about 15-20 minutes of talking, then an hour and a half to two hours of sleeping. Fantastic!

Tonight we drop the bedtime feeding, and you know what that means (at least in theory)? Freedom! I may actually, if I choose, go out for the evening and leave someone else to put Aurora to bed. Of course, I enjoy putting Aurora to bed, and won’t want to miss it very often, but at least I’ll have that option. See a movie that starts before 9 pm, perhaps. Go out on a dinner date with my hubby. I know, I’m such a wild thing.

Aurora and I have started attending a “class” on Wednesday mornings called “Fun and Games.” It’s a mish-mash of play gym, music, and art for 90 minutes in the morning, and I thought it was a great idea for getting out of the house, especially on rainy days. The problem is this; I can’t figure out how to interact with the other parents/guardians there, and Aurora can’t seem to figure out how to interact with the other kids.

If I may get a little personal here (taking a leaf from Verisimilleytude), I should be honest and say that I have something of a shy streak, made much worse by the coke-bottle glasses I wore throughout the entirety of grade school as well as Aurora’s entire life. I can be bold on occasion (brash, frank, obnoxious, whatever), but like most people, I hate walking into a room full of strangers and trying to be charming. Charming is a word that has never been used to describe me, to my knowledge.

So here we go to this play time extravaganza each week, and I know abolutely nobody, and no one seems inclined to talk to me, despite my somewhat clumsy overtures, such as compliments to their kids, or questions about the activities. Actually, most of the adults there seem to be nannies, who have a peculiar way of looking through me when I smile at them. This wouldn’t be so bad, not much worse than the usual play gym anyway, except that Aurora doesn’t seem to get along with the kids, either.

This is the castle that was overrun with bossy, fighting boys during free play time. (I took this picture during the art project time, when everyone else was involved at the tables.) Aurora just wanted to open and close the door over and over, but three much larger boys were each trying to control the castle and keep the other two out by “locking” the door, and kept pushing Aurora out of the way. I tried to explain that they should treat Princess Aurora with care, and used the firmest “NO!” in my arsenal when they started hitting each other, but eventually I just had to pick up my crying child and carry her away. Is this what school is going to be like?

When free play time is over, everyone gathers in a big circle for fun and silly songs, complete with hopping, tickling and tambourines. Then they gather for an art project. Aurora took this as her opportunity to play with the toys she couldn’t get to before with all the kids around. Also, she’s always the last one to get a snack, because she can’t stand being too close to the crowd of pushing kids around the box of cookies, and I can’t possibly guard her from so many elbows at once. It reminds me of the time at a summer camp overnighter when I didn’t get any breakfast because I patiently waited for everyone else to move away from the cereal boxes.

I don’t want Aurora to grow up to be a wimp, a loner, a wallflower or an outcast (although geek is okay). I don’t want her to be stuck with the “fuzzy end of the lollipop”. But how do I make her tough? Or more extroverted? Or should I even try? Can she get by on cuteness alone?

Sometimes a blog post has a purpose, a narrative, a coherent thought to organize around. And then sometimes I just have a few random photos I want to show you. Today is one of those random days.

Aurora got a haircut on Thursday, a cute little bob. I wanted it to be short enough to not get in her eyes, because hair clips are almost impossible to keep in her super-straight, super-fine hair (definitely NOT Nestor hair). I love that I can see the back of her soft little neck when she bends her head down, and it’s almost impossible not to kiss.

This is Aurora’s cozy little hangout spot between her closet and the glider-rocker in her room. We’re reading so many more books now that we’re not confined to board books. I check out 3-5 new books every week from the library, and I’ve actually gotten sick of some of them. This week’s favourite: Goodnight Goon, by Michael Rex. She has no idea what’s supposed to be scary, so I have no idea what she sees in it.

Speaking of libraries, we stayed behind after last week’s Mount Pleasant Library Babytime session, and Aurora helped clean up the carpet squares, gathering them one at a time and putting them in a stack for the library staff to pick up.

I’m sure Super Grover was more of a hindrance than a help (as he usually is) but she didn’t seem to mind. Note the three ladies behind her enjoying the show.

Then Grandma Gail sends me this cartoon today:

Absolutely!

This weekend we’re at Grandma & Grandpa Wells’ house, with Uncle Jim and Aunt Lori. The snow is mostly gone now, and the weather’s warm enough to venture outside:

“Mommy let me hold a stick!” I usually don’t while she’s walking around, for fear of eyes poked out, but this one was pretty bendy. Besides, she’s gotta learn sometime.

Aunt Lori and Uncle Jim enjoying the sun on a warm-ish afternoon.

Playing with Grandma & Grandpa’s windchimes.

Sitting on the stairs with Grandma, watching the sunset.

Making the gravy for the Easter turkey.

Aurora semi-patiently waits for dinner, chewing on an appetizer of yummy keys.

Easter morning; Aurora got the hang of the egg hunt really quickly!

They keep falling out of the basket!

“Look at all the eggs I found, Mommy!”

Wow, there’s yummy stuff inside.

Sharing some of her Easter booty with Aunt Lori.

Too much fun – good night!

A year and a half, now. Wow. Aurora is at the most fun stage yet; walking, talking, laughing at our jokes, playing with toys and stuffed animals, hugging and kissing. Her nap times have settled down into the first real pattern we’ve ever had (11am-1pm most days) and she’s sleeping through the night most of the time, too. She has strong opinions about things and certainly lets us know about them even without having many words. On the other hand, she also follows directions fairly well, and has started to repeat what we say, which helps language development. We counted up her spoken words this morning, and came up with about 40.

I hope Aurora is lucky enough to inherit the Wells’ eyesight, and never has a pair of glasses like mine. The fact that I’m legally blind doesn’t stop her from wanting whatever Mommy has, though. A most challenging photoshoot, considering I couldn’t see anything through the viewfinder: