It has been a very busy weekend. We are not the type of parents who cannot or will not go places with their baby – Kate has certainly gotten to see a lot of things in her short life so far. This weekend alone we helped friends move (well Den helped, I played with Kate), went bowling, ate dinner at a restaurant, and spent some time visiting with family. She did wonderfully, as usual. She really seems to thrive on activity and people. Of course she has her limits and we duck out early if she needs us to, but she does remarkably well. She seems to very much be an extrovert, which is the exact opposite of me. I have these horrible flashbacks to my childhood (I was the introvert, my mother the extrovert) and how badly we clashed and misunderstood each other. I hope I can do better by her.

She naps while out either in the car, in the mei tai, or just flat out sprawled on my chest, and it’s enough to get her through. Unfortunately she tends to not nap quite long enough, so evenings have been a little hairy around here. You’d think she’d crash early and sleep soundly, but instead she’s fidgety and wakes up at 9pm for playtime before bed. Although part of that is a need for floor time – while we’re out she doesn’t spend much time on the floor (obviously, since we’re out in public and eewww). So the past two nights when she’s refusing to go back to sleep at 9 or 10pm we just got her up and let her play on the bed with us. She was like the rolling energiser bunny. She only continually rolls in one direction so I’d put her on one side of the bed and she’d roll all the way to the other side into the wall, and continue to keep rolling even though the laws of physics when it comes to walls and babies are pretty much constant. So I’d move her down to the other side of the bed and let her go again. It was like one of those wind-up cars kids play with. It took about half an hour of that (and the giggles, oh my gosh the flirting and blowing bubbles and grabbing books and giggles!) before she was truly ready to go to bed for the night.

When we went out to dinner, which we haven’t done in quite a long time (we usually prefer to go out for breakfast), we looked over at the highchairs they had – wooden with just a couple of straps – and debated to ourselves about whether or not she could handle it. We decided to try it. And holy shit, she did fine! I’m just amazed at how quickly she’s figuring out sitting up since that day it clicked for her. Just a few days later and she’s getting quite good at adjusting her balance so she doesn’t topple over. Even when she does fall she’s learning how to curl up and roll down slowly instead of slamming towards the floor with her head. I appreciate that.

She seemed to be getting a cold at the end of last week – her nose was runny and she was getting congested. I braced myself for a bad week ahead, but it never bothered her much and already seems to be on the downside, she doesn’t sound quite as bad as she did. I’m giving thanks that her sleep hasn’t been messed up by it, other than her being a little clingier than usual – she wants me to stay with her, it takes me 4 tries to get her to sleep on her own right now. (Very frustrating, when I’m trying to get something done!)