+ Surreality at 3 a.m. +
You blissfully slept through a scary, freaky series of events last night. OH my. We all went to sleep fairly normally last night around 9:15. All was quiet and well in our house until a few minutes after 3:00 a.m. I woke up to Joe, touching my arm and sitting bolt upright in bed, whispering "Ceili's toy! Ceili's toy! It's going off. Someone's in the house." Foggy, I answered, "Maybe it just fell. It was on the edge of the couch I think." This is the toy in question (it was called a Magic Screen Learning Pal when I bought it and it's actually really cool). So Joe soundlessly got out of bed and grabbed his scary shock stick thing (he's a security guard, remember) and peeked out the bedroom door. He must have stood there for 2 minutes, with the sounds of the toy wafting through the otherwise silent house. "Hel-looo, my friends! *HONK* Let's play and learn! *HONK*" That's some freaky s#It at 3 a.m. He listened and stared intently into the near dark (thankfully there was a pretty high, full moon last night that let a lot of light into the house). As it ended its cycle and started to put itself to sleep, I felt relief. But when it ended and Joe stepped gingerly now into the hall, what happened? The damned thing started up again! Oy!

E v e r so slowly, Joe took a step, turned on the hall light outside Ceili's bedroom (me whispering earnestly, "Shut her door!"), peeked carefully into Ceili's room without shutting her door, and went down the hall into the living room. After a minute or so (my hand on the phone next to me this whole time, ready to call 9-1-1), he came back down the hall and turned on the house alarm. I jumped up and went to do my own double-check (hey, why not?) and to turn off the toy.

But get this... The robot was sitting solidly on the ground, next to the couch but touching nothing, right where I'd put it when I realized last night it was about to fall off the ottoman where Ceili had left it. You get that? It wasn't touching anything. It was sitting there, calmly chatting away to itself at 3 a.m.

I turned the switch off on the back and headed back to bed. Not that I could sleep. Every time I started to drift back off to sleep, I heard "Hel-looo my friends!" and the unmistakable tap-tap-tap of footsteps coming down the hall in my twilight imagination.

Blissfully, you slept through the whole thing.

+ Huh? +
Um, figure this one out. Blogger isn't blocked by the firewall anymore. I tried to post a members-only comment today on another blog and it let me. I got suspicious and high-tailed it over here. And lookie! I'm in. How very, very strange.

+ Speaking +
You're starting to form a few more words, or at least talk a lot more.  You've been a babbler for ages, but only recently are they starting to be somewhat recognizable. Beyond the standards you've had for a while (Mama, Daddy or Dada, Dah-dee for doggie, and Hi), your most recent verbal acquisition is "shishee" for fishies. Yes, I admit that I use that particular word of baby talk, but I do say it in a normal tone of voice if that's any consolation. But Goldfish crackers in our house are called "fishies." Or by you, they are "shishees." It's very cute. You are getting better at telling us what you want, though usually not verbally. Usually you will point vaguely and make a noise, either a whine or a sound that probably should be a word. I ask you what you want and you will repeat it or take my hand and lead me to what you want. Generally, if it's reasonable and you've made the effort to tell me what it is, you'll get it. What a deal, eh? It always comes with a lesson about what it is and how to say it, though. Yeah, welcome to being a kid. Nothing comes without a lesson!

+ No more hip worries +
So, it would appear that your last hip x-ray was fuzzy because you moved, little bugger. That's great news, though. We went to the Dr. again yesterday for what I hoped would be the last time. They did an x-ray and then the Dr. felt your hips and watched you walk. With a look, a check and 2 steps, you were cleared of all hip worries! I'm so grateful. I'm grateful that we caught the problem early and took the appropriate steps. I'm grateful that even though I didn't put the harness on you during your daytime naps, it didn't end up mattering at all. I'm grateful that you're just that much more perfect. :) It was a nice way to spend your 17th month birthday.

Holy cow, is that right? I remember thinking 18 months was an unimaginable age. Surely that was still eons away. Nope, it's at our doorstep. And you're growing physically and mentally by leaps and bounds. I am truly amazed daily by all the things you know and are learning all the time. Your current favorite is "Mine!" Yep, everything is yours. And you really can hold and hug 7 stuffed animals at once.

You're even sleeping better in your bed, at last. You still look to be rescued in the morning, sometime between 4 and 5, and that will probably stick around for a while. But when we put you in there at night now you mostly stay. Thank God for that too.

Finally, hopefully I'll be able to keep the updates coming regularly in here. My work firewall has now blocked Blogger, but I discovered the post-by-email feature so I think we're in good shape. Gotta love it. Thanks to Liz for helping me discover the back way in!

+ Sleep +
So, we tried out our new game plan last night, with measured success! You fell asleep on the couch after your bath and I put you to bed like usual. Off to a good start. You woke up at about 9:45, when I wasn't quite asleep yet (thank goodness). And the new plan was in motion. I came into your room, gave you your binkie, murmured loving things and put you back down. Then I went to lie down on the twin bed in your room and waited. You whimpered once, and I told you, "Lie back down. I'm still here." That was it. I waited for about 15 minutes to make sure you were back asleep and went back to my own bed.
 
Round Two came at about 2 a.m., which is par for the course. This is the one when I always cave in and bring you to bed, even on the best of nights. Not last night. I went back to your room, put your binkie in your mouth and tried to lay you down. You weren't particularly interested in staying down and cried intermittently for a while. Mostly you did a loud snuffle of indignation with a whimper or two every once in a while. Each time, I'd softly say, "Lie back down. I'm still here." I said it further and further apart, and you stood in your crib and watched me in the dark for about 15 minutes before finally lying back down. I wanted to wait to make sure you were really asleep before leaving, and woke up 2 hours later. Obviously, I went to bed then and woke up before you this morning in my own bed when the alarm went off.
 
It's not a perfect solution, but what I like about it is (a) You are re-learning how to put yourself to sleep without physical intervention by me, (b) You are confident, knowing I'm there and you're safe, (c) I have a nice place to rest and wait -- or sleep -- while you're drifting back off. We worked the plan out with Daddy a couple of days ago so he knows if the alarm goes off in the morning, he has to come and get me if I'm in your room. Hopefully the transition period will be somewhat short and you'll be sleeping straight through again in your own bed soon.

But we're getting there!

+ Bed updates +
By the way, that night you slept in your bed all night? Yeah, that was a fluke. Gah.

+ Protection 101 +
It's bad enough that I post even moderately private information on my site. But there's a reason I don't post photos generally, and have that information locked away in a passworded place. Freaky people steal them and pretend the children belong to them. They create web sites, post on message boards, etc., parading your children as their own. Sick and wrong, but it happens. If you are a parent or expecting, remember this lesson. Privatize your photos. Don't make your albums public, whether on a commercial site or on your own. Require logins, passwords, whatever. It's just creepy what some people will do!

+ One night down +
Of course it took a runny nose, Benadryl, a baby bath and falling asleep at 7:50 p.m., but you slept in your own bed until about 5 a.m. this morning. Yee-haw!

+ Behavioral and other matters +
So, we have a little problem. A couple of them. First, you've been outrageously clingy and stranger-phobic since the trip. Having said that, I do think you're getting a little better now, finally.

What's not getting better is sleeping. On the trip you slept fine in your pack and play. In fact, I'd fought with Grandma insisting that we bring it and you'd sleep in it. She'd tried to tell me you could sleep with me or on the floor (on a blanket). But I didn't think we could co-sleep very well.

Since returning you won't do anything BUT co-sleep. When we first got home, Daddy had to work a series of double shifts so it was a while before we got back on a regular schedule. To complicate matters, right after that was when you got sick and were running a fever up to 104.1. I was worried about you and kept you in my bed to keep an eye on you. Yep. You've been in our bed every night since.

I'm going to wrap this up since it took me over a week to finish and update you in the next post. :)