A couple of days of changes

Maggie, our three year old, was missing from the camera Wednesday night/Thursday morning at about 3am. Normally this means she’s moved off the bed and can be found right next to it sleeping in a pile of toys, but that wasn’t the case.

I came downstairs at 3am and it was more lit up than it should be. The bathroom light was illuminating the hallway and living room walls, which when you’re not expecting it and half asleep is kind of eerie and ethereal in itself.

I found my three year old sitting on the toilet playing a numbers game on her Amazon Fire Kids. All of this data was new. Maggie has never set on the potty by herself, managed to get a tablet off a table without being able to see it, or any of a number of things that were happening right now.

She’s potty trained, but not nighttime potty trained, not generally able to remember exactly where a toy was hidden, and has never used a tool to aid in getting on a toilet, nor properly undiapered herself to get on.

These skills were all diminished the next day when we tried again, but then again she was now wearing daytime clothes as opposed to loose jammies so that probably accounts for that.

Aerin turns 11 months old today. She learned to crawl about two or three weeks ago and now rolls and crawls and chases kitty and tries to do everything big sister does. At 11 months Aerin is beating a 15 month old Maggie at transporting herself around as Maggie was on the lobster claw scootch.

Sometimes I feel like Aerin’s getting the short stick in attention because she’s so biologically scheduled and predictable. We wake up, she’s been up for 20 minutes or so, I make her a bottle and plug her up while I start getting ready for the day. Then it’s time to take her downstairs and change her into the outfit, then I put her in a pile of Maggie toys and start work on Maggie.

Maggie takes quite a bit to get from bed to changed to the living room and during that time Aerin’s just playing and watching. I play with both of them for a minute if I can. Then I go out to my car to get Aerin’s car seat and when I plunk it down she wants in it. I’ve stopped bringing it in until it’s time because if she sees it she just goes straight for it.

While that might sound like she’s anxious to get away from us, I think it’s because she likes being able to rock it back and forth like a mad woman. Strap her in, head over to daycare, haul both kiddos in and drop them off and that’s maybe 40 minutes I’ve had with them before work.

After work Aerin is a ticking timebomb. If she doesn’t go to sleep immediately and nap for an hour she’ll be asleep by 7pm for the night (until daylight the next day,) meaning she’s had another hour with us maybe.

Maggie’s horrible sleeping in some ways I think was better in terms of one on one time. Sure we were annoyed by the constant wakeups, fighting sleep, etc. But this was more personal time. Aerin’s amazing sleep patterns and work weeks tend to make me feel like I’m missing out on some baby development.

Then again, she’s also developmentally far ahead of her sister on several developmental timelines which makes me worry that by her first birthday I’m going to find her sitting on the potty with an iPad.