Red Letter Night

Is it bragging if you can take no credit for the feat whatsoever?

Last night, Anika was playing to stall off bed time as long as possible. Just for fun (and only partially because I was about to take that singing mailbox and tell her and her damn alphabet song where they could go) I asked Ani to hand me the blue letter. She looked at the four plastic "letters" in front of her, carefully picked up the blue one, and handed it to me as if it were something we'd done every night. I was thrilled. I screamed to Armando to get in her, NOW, and he was sure something was horribly wrong. Look, she knows her colors!! I said, and would have been bouncing up and down except I was on the floor and too tired to move. He looked at me as if I'd told him she was speaking Mandarin. Seriously, ask her to hand you the orange one, I said. Ani looked up. Orange, she said, and then handed him the orange letter. I am not making this up. We played this game for awhile, and although she often got the orange and red letters mixed up, she seemed to know which was which. Add this to the fact that she's now starting to sing the alphabet song if she sees me making a grocery list or typing on the computer, and you've got one smart little cookie. Wish I could say she got that from me, but I'm afraid we parents can take no credit on this one.

What I'm trying desperately to teach her is something most kids have already mastered: how to fall asleep. Tonight didn't go too badly, but my neck is perpetually scratched up from her pinching-to-fall-asleep compulsion and she still wakes up more times per night than Reni does. I spoke with a parent at the playground today who said that their son, now 6, was like Anika. He still sleeps in our bed most of the time, she said with a sigh. I am hoping against hope to avoid this. Not because snuggle time isn't wonderful. It's just that we would all sleep better without her uncanny ability to turn like a rotisserie chicken all night long and yet somehow always end up sideways across the pillows.

I also realized today that Mr. Reni is getting bored with the whole "I'm a little baby" routine. He is craving more. More stimulation, more interaction, more one-on-one time with mama. He is constantly craning his neck to follow you across the room, grasping his toys (he can now pull out his pacifier and put it back in, and is visibly proud of this achievement), and practically falling out of his chair to reach his big sister (he often giggles when she talks to him). So tonight I started what I hope becomes our little bed time routine, at least while they are both on a separate bed time schedule. He and I read a few books before bed. Propped up in the boppy, he looked so big and his eyes were so round and his little mouth and hands and feet were just going going going with the excitement of it all. His favorite book so far is one from the MOMA called "Art for Baby," followed by a cloth goodnight baby book that he can open like an accordion, sweep his gaze as far as it will go, and bite the heads off the felt animals sewn into the pages.