Happy Day

Today was the weekly musical playgroup. Alisa usually crawls around from baby to baby and mom to mom while everyone is singing. She doesn't stay on my lap or the mat or pay much attention to what I'm doing. There is always some type of activity we are supposed to do during the songs (things like snuggle with your baby, baby sign language, bang the drum, wave the scarf, move the puppet, etc). Today she actually paid more attention to the activity I was doing (she finally saw me do a few signs!) so that was an improvement. After each activity we sing a song that goes "All done drums...all done drums...all done drums...it's time for something new" (inserting the activity/item--in this case, drums--we just did/used) and we do the sign for "all done." Then we hand in the drums and the musical therapy students bring the next item to us. Alisa does not like giving up some items like the drum...she cries (loudly).

Savannah and Benjamin have been going to the playgroup too. Savannah was watching her friend's 4-year-old boy Oliver so he was there with them today. After the playgroup was over, the 5 of us went to the mall for lunch. Alisa took a nap in the car on the way and finished it in the stroller while I ate. Then she happily babbled and smiled as I pushed her in the stroller for a couple of hours. I stopped by the store on the way home and she happily babbled some more and several ladies made nice comments about what a sweet baby she is. She fell asleep in the car again on the way home.

From the time I finished my lunch, I was expecting her to cry for her lunch at any moment but she never did. She hadn't eaten in 5 hours by the time we got home so Craig made her a bottle. She drank it, but wasn't even frantic when she saw it (usually once she sees it after 3 1/2 hours she realizes she's hungry). She ate all her baby food too and was just as happy as could be the rest of the day. She giggled and chuckled sooooo much and we had a blast. She also really studied her toys too and had a fun time with them. Many days she's not very interested in her toys and just wants to crawl around the room exploring and trying to touch things that are off limits (like the DVD player and the computer cords).

We were having such a good time and laughing so much that I didn't want to put her to bed. But alas, I had to because the monthly playgroup is tomorrow at 10:00 AM and I don't want to miss it. We will likely be late though because she went to bed at 9:30 PM. She actually missed her 4th bottle because she got a late start this morning and then went so long in between meals. She would have needed to stay up until 10:30 PM to be hungry enough to drink it and then she would probably sleep till 11:00 AM (assuming she sleeps the usual 12 hours) therefore missing much of the playgroup. She's only missed a bottle a few times and sometimes she wakes up after a few hours and wants it (other times she doesn't wake up till morning). We shall see what happens this time.

Funny how babies go off their schedule at the times when you need them to stick to it the most. For example, Alisa took an insanely long (4 hour) nap in the afternoon on New Year's Day and we almost had to change dinner plans with our friends for the 3rd time. And she tends to go to bed really late on the nights that I need her to go to bed earlier because we have to be somewhere early the next day. Tricky!