All smiles

Well, the bonus to separation anxiety is Meg's face just lights up when I smile at her now. That's been true more or less for a while, but right now, it's as if I am the most beautiful angel to grace her world. That certainly makes up for some of the hard time she's been giving me. It does frighten me a little that I'm such a pushover now for a good smile. Right now her wants are so small, you know, a highlighter to chew on or a piece of Zweiback. Imagine how it will be when she smiles at me and she's asking for that Louis Vuitton purse that's one sale, "It's only $800. I'll clean my room every day and not pick fights with my brother. Pretty please!" No matter that I've never come close to buying something that expensive.

Meanwhile, I will give Meg a pony. After a rough night last night, tonight she was smiley and happy and went down easily. I made a point to go through the full routine with a warm bath followed by that last bottle in her quiet room. She was mostly asleep when I laid her down, but after I left, she rolled around talking to herself for about 10 minutes. I forced myself not to go in and she dozed off on her own.

I have been analyzing the situation (something I like to do). I think part of it was we left the kids with our neighbors to go out Thursday night so I think that may have piqued her separation anxiety. That followed by a weird day out and about yesterday. Andy had a birthday party at
Burke Lake Park (which he loved since he got to ride the carousel and the train). Bjorn was reffing so I had Meg in a stroller and she napped weirdly in her stroller followed by more napping in the car, which is never ideal. Today, I moved her swing back into her room and that led to a 1 1/2 hour nap, her best all weekend. I don't know if her being better rested meant she was less cranky or what, but I'll take it. What do you think, overthinking much?

In other news, the ice cream truck came to our block today when I was out walking with the kids. Andy had never really noticed it before since it usually comes closer to 7 and that's bath/bed time in our house. So I spent the $1.75 on a green and orange ice concoction and he was so thrilled. It just about made my day to see him so happy from something so relatively simple.