Another Day At The Park!

We had a wonderful time yesterday at the park. It was a gorgeous day- a splendid break from the rain we've been having- and we took the opportunity to go to the park and play. Paprika loved it, of course!

Tomorrow our new bed is arriving! We ordered it about a week ago- we've had our eye on it for about a year and have been scouring Craigslist looking for it, to no avail. We finally decided that no one sells an Eastern King bed frame on Craigslist in Los Angeles (at least no bed frame we'd be interested in buying). So, we took the plunge and bought it retail. They are delivering it tomorrow between 10 am and noon, which for us is like delivering it in the middle of the night, since none of us (Paprika included) wakes up before 2pm now. So, it should be interesting, and I wonder what the delivery guys are going to think of us when we stumble downstairs to answer the door sleepy-eyed mid-afternoon!

Today it was raining, so we spent the day at Pottery Barn Kids, letting Paprika play with all of the toys in the store. We opted against taking her to the indoor playground, since she gets sick everytime she goes there and we figured it would be packed on a rainy day like today. Pottery Barn Kids is better because there was no one there (the perks of a slow January retail season), and there are so many wonderfully displayed toys for Paprika's age-group! So we all went and spent an hour and a half watching her play with the kitchen set, run the play vacuum, put together the wooden puzzles, and play with their well-stocked dollhouse. Lots of fun!

Fun With Mommy's Beauty Products!

One of Paprika's favorite things to do is rummage through my box of beauty products in the bathroom. It's a box of stuff I never use- and Paprika can spend an hour sorting through it all. I sit there with her while she sorts, so I know that she's not going to get in any trouble while she's exploring. We have such a fun time together looking through this box- and sometimes Paprika will even climb inside the box. She thinks that is the most fun of all.

Our schedules are embarrassingly shifted now. I just put Paprika to bed at 2am, and last night I did not fall asleep until 7am. Mr. Mustard's working nights has us all up, and it's actually been quite nice to all be on the same schedule. After this week, he is on a day schedule for a week- so at that point, I will start waking Paprika up early (by 8 am) and have us all back on a day schedule. Then Mr. Mustard will go back to a night shift after that, and Paprika and I will stay on a "day schedule" so that we can interact with the outside world- and Mr. Mustard will stay on his night schedule and see Paprika and I in the afternoons when he wakes up. Paprika seems to be as much of a night owl as any of us, and would be happy to stay up all night! But, I have things to do during the day (like take Paprika to playdates with my friend Elizabeth) and for some reason, no one else with babies wants to meet up to play at 11pm! So we will be shifting shortly back to a more normal schedule.

Paprika is growing very quickly! Mr. Mustard measured her on 12/31 and she is now 31 1/4 inches tall- which is two inches taller than she was when we measured her on 9/21 (when she was 29 1/4 inches). She is staying about the same weight- she is consistently about 27 or 27.5 pounds on our home scale. She is so incredibly active that I know she's just burning off all the calories she consumes. I, of course, constantly worry that she's not eating enough! But she eats on the go- and likes to walk around the house holding onto a banana and occasionally taking a bite or two in between activities like reading books or playing with her stuffed animals and dolls.

Paprika is using her vocabulary to really communicate what she wants. She puts together sentences easily, and definitely has an opinion about what she wants to do or not do! She also has a very keen sense of humor and is always laughing or trying to make us laugh. It's a joy.

She's very easy to put to bed when she wants to go to bed. Last night I was laying her down to sleep, and she kissed her doll on the forehead and said "goodnight, baby" and then touched my forehead and said "goodnight, mama" before rolling over and falling asleep. It's moments like that where I just am in awe of how much I love Paprika.

My Little Night Owl

Oh, Paprika! See this tired baby in the photo? That was taken at the Christmas tree lot in Indiana two days before Christmas. I thought things would get better when we got back, but she's sticking to her late schedule. I am sorry to report that Paprika has been keeping me up late nights since we got back from Indiana. She is sleeping long stretches, but won't go to bed at a decent hour yet. Last night I couldn't get her in bed til after midnight. Today I skipped her nap (normally she takes a two to three hour nap during the day) in the hopes that she would go to sleep earlier tonight. That failed miserably and she didn't get to bed tonight until 12:15pm and was tired and cranky. Phew.

On a side note, we had a lovely afternoon today at our favorite, favorite park. It was gorgeous weather- and I forgot my camera, unfortunately. We ran into some old acquaintances there (the wife of one of Mr. Mustard's old co-workers who has a thirteen month old son)- and possibly kindled a friendship. It was a beautiful afternoon and I was so glad that we all went. Now that Mr. Mustard is working nights, we get to have time together as a family in the afternoons, which is really nice. The park was bursting with babies and dogs- and Paprika had a great time running around petting all the "puppies" (as she calls them).

Mr. Mustard is working on Dance War, which starts airing next week. The airdate for the Oprah show "The Big Give" has moved to March- so even though he worked on that for much of last year, it won't be airing til late spring. After Dance War, he will be on Big Brother, which is another night job. I am really a night owl, so these late nights don't bother me too much. But for Paprika's sake, I have to get her to bed earlier. We'll get it all figured out eventually, I suppose!

Christmas Wrap-Up

Paprika's second Christmas was a huge success. We left for Indiana on December 21, 2007 and arrived back in Los Angeles on December 31st. We stayed with my mom, Eric, and Robbie at their house. We had a great time, and it was so nice seeing family and friends. Our only difficulty was that Paprika refused to sleep much while we were there. We made every accomodation for her: my mom and Eric bought her a beautiful crib, we brought all her bedding with us from California, and the room where we all slept could not have been more ideal. Paprika wanted none of it, and spent most of the vacation awake. When she did go to sleep, it was very late (3 am) and after much cajoling by Mr. Mustard and me.

The first two nights Paprika refused to sleep in the crib at all, and ended up in between Mr. Mustard and me in bed, fighting sleep before finally passing out. I now understand why so many parents love to co-sleep. There is nothing more cuddly than snuggling up next to your baby in bed. Up until now, Paprika has refused to sleep with us- when she gets on our bed, all she wants to do is crawl off it or jump up and down, squealing in delight. But in Indiana, she was so exhausted after almost 24 hours without sleep, that she finally decided it would be okay to fall asleep between the two of us.

Not to mention that in the hustle and bustle of all of our activity, all three of us got sick. Paprika was the first one to get sick, followed by me and then Mr. Mustard. We are all still stuffed up, but Paprika is mostly better now, I'm halfway there, and Mr. Mustard is still in the midst of it. He goes back to work tonight, so he's not in for a good time the next few days.

We had a very active and exciting trip back to Indiana. Here are the highlights:

Friday, December 21
Flew into Indianapolis. Spent the evening hanging out with mom, Eric, and Robbie. Finally got Paprika to sleep at 3am.

Saturday, December 22
Met up with dad. He took Mr. Mustard, Robbie, Paprika and me to Don Pablo's for lunch. Yum!
Then we went to the Christmas Tree lot with Eric and Robbie and picked out our Christmas tree.
Then, I had a "date night" with my mom and we did last minute Christmas shopping up at Castleton.

Sunday, December 23
Went with mom and Paprika to see Robbie play in the church band while Mr. Mustard and Eric went to the Colts game (the Colts won!).
Paprika and I spent the afternoon with her great grandpa and great grandma (my grandparents).
Then, Mr. Mustard, Paprika and I had dinner with Laura, Kevin, Caroline, and Stephanie at their house in Fishers.

Monday, December 24
Mr. Mustard, Paprika and I did last minute Christmas shopping with my dad, Nancy, and Robbie. Then we all took Paprika to see Santa and my dad treated us to a big lunch at Applebee's.
Spent evening wrapping Christmas presents and decorating Christmas tree.
Eric, Robbie and I went to Midnight Mass at Christ the King Church.

Tuesday, December 25
Woke up and opened Christmas presents under the tree at my mom's house.
Then we went over for Christmas day festivities at Grandma/Grandpa’s house (Paprika slept through this, so Mr. Mustard and my mom took turns going back to my mom's house to be there while Paprika napped). Over at their house, we opened more presents and had a wonderful Christmas dinner.
That night my mom and Eric babysat while Mr. Mustard, Robbie, and I went to see the movie "National Treasure."

Wednesday, December 26
Mom took me to her art studio downtown while Mr. Mustard, Paprika and Robbie visited with my grandparents.
That afternoon we went to my aunt Jane's condo to have the Ashmore Family Christmas celebration. All the Ashmores were there- it was great seeing everyone and catching up! My Aunt Jane made a great Christmas dinner and Paprika got lots of presents. We had a wonderful time talking to everyone and hearing about all my cousins' college plans.
Mom and I went out shopping that night at Keystone at the Crossing to take advantage of the after Christmas sales.

Thursday, December 27
Mr. Mustard, Paprika, Robbie and I spent the day with my dad and Aunt Jane at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. It was packed! Paprika had a lot of fun and especially loved the dinosaur exhibit.
That night my mom and Eric babysat Paprika while Mr. Mustard, Robbie and I went to see "I Am Legend."

Friday, December 28
We spent the day relaxing. My mom, Robbie, and Eric left for Florida in the afternoon. Ann came down that night, and we had a girl's night out at Bazbeaux's and Borders.

Saturday, December 29
Had lunch at my grandma and grandpa's house with my dad, Mr. Mustard, and Paprika. My grandma made lasagne (yum!). We had a great time hanging out and spending time together.
That night, Ann came down from Lafayette again and we had another girls' night out- this time dinner at Union Jack's and shopping at Keystone at the Crossing.

Sunday, December 30
My dad and his fiancee, Nancy, came over for a visit in the afternoon and we got to see Nancy's new engagement ring.
That night we had a wonderful dinner at Laura and Kevin's house. It was great spending time with them and getting to see Caroline and Stephanie one last time before we left.

Monday, December 31st
Left for the airport at 4:30am after getting Paprika to sleep at 2:45 am. We had to wake her up, and she was not happy! Two flights and one lay-over later, we landed back in Los Angeles. All things considered, Paprika is an excellent traveller. Even with no sleep, she was wonderful on the plane. We got home, threw down our bags, and all laid down for a 5 hour nap in our own beds. What a treat!

Despite Paprika not sleeping much on our vacation, we had a wonderful time. It was so great seeing everyone and getting to spend Christmas with the Becker, Spinks, Ashmore, Kohls, and McPherson families!

Happy New Year!

We're back from our long vacation in Indiana! Happy 2008 to everyone. We got back yesterday on Mr. Mustard's birthday. Today we are relaxing as a family and enjoying New Year's Day together. We went to the park this morning and had a wonderful time stomping through the leaves, smelling the roses, playing on the playground equipment, and enjoying the fresh air and 70 degree weather!

We had a wonderful time in Indiana. I will do an update of day-by-day stuff later. I have a bunch of pictures, and it was so wonderful seeing everyone and spending so much time with my family. It was a challenge getting Paprika to sleep, but now that we're back, she's sleeping great. She took a 5 hour nap when we got home yesterday, slept for 10 hours last night, and then took a three hour nap today. She's catching up on her rest, which is fantastic!