Rough Day

It's been a rough day today, starting with an early rise at 4:30am, when little lovely decided it was time to wake up.  She eventually went back to sleep at around 5, but by then the damage was mostly done.

Allison, who was perfect last week curling up and taking her naps, didn't want to sleep today.  We do our best to get her to nap, but if her mind is set against it, we're pretty much screwed.  I've said this before, but it really frustrates the hell out of us.  Today, however, she rebelled and tried to climb out of her crib.  I was just coming out of the bathroom when Diana came tearing around the corner saying that Allison had fallen out of her crib.

Then I heard the scream.  I'd never heard anything like it.  I hope I don't hear it again anytime soon.

10 minutes later and it was all forgotten.  But it took her that time to catch her breath and calm down.  We have no idea how she landed, but it didn't appear to be on her head or anywhere fragile, because she didn't have any apparent injuries.  Probably just knocked the wind out of her and scared the daylights out too.  But she was as upset as I've ever seen her, all crying and trying to catch her breath and talk to us at the same time.

I took her to the park this afternoon, and she was mostly fine, but turned a little rebellious.  After warnings about running away and staying on the sidewalk, she disobeyed me multiple times, so the park was cut.  She was given the opportunity to get in her carseat all by herself (as she normally does), but chose to waive that right, so Daddy did it (amidst screams of "No, Allison do it!").

So far so good this evening.  We're working on an early bedtime, which I really hope goes well.  Then a stiff drink and some mindless TV will go down nicely.

Mike just called to invite me to the movies, and asked how my day was.  I said it's been kind of a rough day, but it's hard to really explain it in any kind of meaningful way.  He was inviting me to go to the movies, which would normally be great, but as I said, I have other plans for tonight.

I think it's easy for non-parents to see the difficult side of having kids.  It's obvious that they take up a lot of time and energy, and can be difficult and frustrating.  What non-parents don't normally see, or can never really understand first-hand, is the boundless pride and depth of love we have have for her.  How often we look at each other and share a smile when she does something cute or particularly clever.  All those little moments are much harder to share with others in any sort of meaningful way.

Time to go say goodnight.  Bye blog.