Wish I Was as Wise as My 10-Year-Old

Well, our Miss Brigid decided last night was a good one to wake up every hour and a half or so and be very, very agitated and disagreeable. She woke up first around midnight. I sat with her and she fell back to sleep on my shoulder in the big chair in her room. I made a successful transfer to the crib and dropped into bed myself. An hour and a half later, she was crying, sobbing. I went in and got her and brought her back in with us if only to get some more sleep. But she’d have none of it. She was angry and fitful and swung her fists around so that both Jack and I were getting clocked. I told her to either settle down or she’d go back to the crib. She didn’t do the former so she ended up in the latter. She slept another couple of hours and was back up again, “MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY!” Jack brought her in, and we had another go ‘round, although not quite so dramatically intense as earlier in the night. She ended up getting up earlier than normal, but was in a pretty good mood when I left for work.

She has had a runny nose of late and has taken to nose mining, signifying to me that she’s got something she can’t get out. I’m hoping, now that it seems to be moving, that whatever it is that’s causing her to stick those little digits up there will roll with the flow.

She may also be out of whack from three days in a row without a nap. Now that we’re back to a regular schedule – the weekend always throws us off – I’m hoping she’ll get back into a nap schedule. I don’t know what they’re going to do with her at Sibley at the end of March. Jack always has to do a whole routine to get her to go to sleep for her nap. They won’t walk around with her in the slingee until she drops off. They’ll just tell her to get on her cot and stay there. I’d like to buy tickets to see that. And if she does comply, I’d like to know how they do it so we can do it at home.

Margaret fared very well this quarter with her report card. We never doubted she would, but it’s nice to see in black and white. With the exception of gym, where she was given an A, she’s straight A-pluses again. She even got an A-plus in swim. This from a girl who until last summer wouldn’t, even when bribed with Harry Potter videos, jump in anything – pool, lake, slightly deep tub. She just decided last summer at the lake that she was going to do it. And now, just like I told her lo these many years ago, she didn’t know what she was missing. And that’s why she got the A-plus. Now, she’ll be able to get out of the Guppy class at the YMCA swim program.

Patricia is going to be jump-roping her way to a healthy heart on Thursday. Her school is sponsoring a jump-rope fund-raiser for the American Heart Association. She’s collected pledges (blog readers, it’s not too late to pledge, then send, her some dough) and will jump rope after school with her friends. She’s very excited to be doing this. It makes for a much better project than those fund-raising catalogs filled with overpriced junk nobody wants or can use. I hope to be there to take some photos that I will post later.

Patricia in general has been very careful about what she eats and has gone to the Y with Jack whenever she has the chance. Of course, she works hard at tap and jazz, too. She made a New Year’s resolution to be healthy. She didn’t mention weight; she didn’t mention diet. She just wants to eat right and exercise. And that, my friends, is the way to do it. Too bad I didn’t have her head on my shoulders when I was 10.

The photo, btw, is of the intrepid astronaut, Brigid, on her way out to do the first one-footed moon landing by a woman or anyone else for that matter.