Gooda-gooda-gooda-gooda-good
Zoë is back home now, after two days at Nanna and Grandpop's house. As I suspected, I missed her more than she missed me. When Andrew and I came in, she smiled at us both but was busy watching a movie and having a drink and couldn't be bothered to get too excited about anything.
She did just fine for those two days, which is just what I expected. It's all very gooda-gooda-gooda-gooda-good.
Nanna's house
Because of several rather serious bouts of what looked (and felt) pretty much like early labor, Zoë is at her grandparents' house. She went yesterday afternoon and is still there. According to Nanna Zoë is showing no signs of homesickness or loneliness or anything else, she's eating well, she's playing happily, watching her videos, etc. I'm not worried about her at all, nor am I surprised that she's happy at Nanna's house. She loves it there, pretty much.
I, however, am finding that a day and a half is about my limit on Zoë-missing. I keep expecting to hear her calling out or to wander over to me smelling to high heaven and put her little blonde head on my thigh for a cuddle. She may or may not be missing me, but by gosh, I sure am missing her! Not sure when we'll retrieve our daughter. Nanna's perfectly happy to keep her there more or less indefinitely and we're going out there for Christmas, anyway. With any luck, all these contractions will actually turn into real labor and all this "up in the air" and "fits and spurts" stuff will be over and Zoë will have a sibling...
Tummies
Zoë seems to have finally noticed the size of my very pregnant belly. I'm sure she doesn't know there's a baby in there (even though we've told her; she doesn't care at all), but she has certainly figured out that Mama's tummy is much bigger than it was. She likes to reach out and touch my belly sometimes now, almost like she's kind of awed.
I think it first dawned on her Sunday, when she fell asleep sitting on my lap. Her head slid down my shoulder and came to rest on the "shelf" of my belly. Pretty cute, I must say. Not very comfortable, but it wasn't so bad that I felt I should move her right away, so I let her sleep for a while. As she was lying there snoozing, the baby started to wiggle. I thought at first it was that the baby had the hiccoughs, because of the way the movement was rhythmic. If you watched, you could see Zoë's head moving as the baby kicked her over and over. When I finally did put her down, the baby stopped wiggling. Perhaps it wasn't the hiccoughs after all. Maybe the baby was just uncomfortable having big sister sleep on him/her that way!
Bromage Christmas Party
Saturday, 8 December, was the Bromage Christmas party. It was held at the home of Andrew's paternal aunt and her family (interesting side note: she and her husband are the same age I am).
It's a nice big, roomy house, with a very pretty yard and landscaping. Zoë had a lot of fun playing out back with various cousins and with Nanna and the occasional Auntie. She didn't care that much about playing with the other kids, really, although she did walk around mooching food from their plates (she wasn't that hungry; she just wanted to taste what they were eating). And yes, of course, there are pictures...
Optical mouse
I did a foolish thing. I showed Zoë a couple of interesting features on my optical mouse. It's got lights on it, you see, a blue one and a red one. Last night, she was standing near the place where my mouse is and for some reason I thought, "Hey, I'll bet she'll like this," and showed her the lights. Big mistake.
She liked it all right. My optical mouse is now her newest favorite toy, and she comes over to grab it every chance she gets. The problem is that when she picks it up and shakes it (or whatever), she causes unpleasant things to happen on the screen as I'm working. Things scroll, menus appear, etc. It's not good. So today I'm having to tell her not to mess with it. I tried to explain to her that she can play with it later if she likes, but for now, I'm working, and I need it. Not that I think a two-year-old can understand this, but I've always tried to explain things to her, mostly to get into the habit, I guess. I also had to explain to her, when she broke down in a big storm of sobbing and weeping, that I wasn't angry with her, that I love her, that she's a wonderful kid, and that I'm sorry she's angry with me and upset, but I really, really need to have the mouse to myself. No, she didn't understand, but that's okay. In fact, she actually turned my head away from her so she wouldn't have to listen to me, and went on crying. She's still at it, off and on, despite being in the other room with her Dad. Of course, at the moment I think she's probably tired (it's nap time) and that accounts for much of the melodrama. After a rest, I think she'll be in much better form.
Portable cot and too much juice
Zoë has pretty much destroyed her portable cot. She's managed to tear the protective vinyl around the boards that make up the floor of the thing, as well as having shaken it enough that some of the plastic around the corners is now broken (nothing dangerous, or we'd have stopped using it). In any event, it won't be suitable to put her younger sibling in, so we'll have to get a new one whenever the baby is mobile and/or outgrows his/her cradle, whichever comes first.
On other matters, for lunch Zoë had apple juice, some dried apricots, and chicken fingers. I gave her the apple juice and she drank it down in a big hurry while she munched on the apricots (I think she was hot, as well as thirsty), so I gave her another cup of it with her chicken (which took a while to cook, hence it was the second course). Not too long after she finished lunch, she threw up. I think she just drank too much juice, too fast, or she overfilled her tummy (or both). When we took her out of the high chair, she still had a very plump, full tummy. Puppies will do this, too. When you start giving them solid food, they gorge themselves (and look really cute waddling around with enormous bellies) and then throw up. They'll do that a few times until they learn the cause and effect, and that it's not really all that pleasant to have an overfilled belly. The same is true of toddlers. She'll learn not to cram in too much food on top of juice. Hopefully soon... cleaning of toddler spew is not the most fun thing I can imagine, and of all the things the kid does that I find wonderfully endearing, throwing up just isn't one of them.
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