New Wheels and Midnight Road Trips

Yea! We finally agreed, found, and bought a new car! It's a beautiful, sporty Subaru WRX wagon- and the best part is that Paprika's tricyle will fit in the back! Now we'll be able to bring her bike to the park so she can stop coveting other kids' bikes.

We had an eventful weekend. Saturday I finished up my sewing class and I am now the proud owner of a new pair of pajama pants that more resemble clown pants than anything else. Saturday night the three of us when to Chipotle for dinner (Paprika's favorite place- she calls it "Chips!" because she loves the chips and guacamole they serve). Then we went to the go-kart racing place and let Paprika sit in the big race cars, and we played a few video games. She really loves that place, and it's the only family-oriented place that stays open late enough for her (it's open til 1am).

On Sunday morning Mr. Mustard asked me if I'd like to go up to Santa Barbara with him and spend a few days up there. I said, "okay, fine- yes, let's go." So, we packed up all of Paprika's things, my things, loaded up the car and started driving. Halfway there we stopped to test drive the Subaru, which was great because there was a park nearby and Paprika got to stretch her legs and play.

We got back in the car about naptime, and thought for sure she'd go to sleep...but no. Instead, she continued to sing at the top of her lungs for the rest of the car ride up (about 1 1/2 hours)- singing about "Lalala Elmo Cookies, LaLa Cars, LaLa Moon!" Cute, but no nap.

After we get up to Mr. Mustard's mom's house in Santa Barbara, we set up Paprika's room to look like an exact replica of her room at home with all her comfy toys and bedding. We also did a lot of babyproofing. We did this while Paprika was having a grand old time running around trying to un-babyproof the house.

At about 9pm, we started night-night routine, since it was obvious that she was exhauted from not having a nap, but as soon as I would get Paprika near the crib, she would start shrieking crying. Screaming at the top of her lungs. So, we waited, and a little while later tried again...to no avail. After 6 attempts of reading books, saying goodnight to everything and nursing didn't work, we tried to drive with her in the car to get her to fall asleep. She fell asleep, but then when we took her inside to lay down, she started high pitched screaming again. So, I put her in bed with us and it got even worse.

At this point, it was 1:15 am and we'd been trying to get her to go to bed over four hours. Then Mr. Mustard said, let's just put her in the crib and see if she calms down (yeah right). After 10 minutes of her cries becoming more and more frantic (and me getting more upset), I went in and got her, put her in the car, and drove back to Los Angeles by myself (a two hour drive), at 1:30am. She fell asleep in the car halfway, then woke up about one mile from our house (when I had to stop at a stoplight). She was wide awake, but I took her upstairs to her bed and said "time for goodnight" and she hugged me and let out the hugest sigh of relief. Good grief!

It was very stressful, and I'm just so glad we were close enough to be able to come home. I really think she would have kept crying like that all night long. She likes her bed and only her bed, and is really set on that. I don't know what I can do to change that except to just wait. Until then, it looks like we're not going far from home.