It’s 9pm, PAW Patrol is on the TV. Sabrina is on her phone, I’m on my iPad. Amanda is on the floor, moving from place to place. I can tell she is tired so I say “sleepy walk” and she spins and walks briskly wobbly to her stroller. I put her in the stroller, put my airpods in, and we are out the door. Down the hallway, down the elevator, and onto the street. I push her along and she’s “out” within five minutes. We walk some more to finish the loop and then back up to our loft. I carry Amanda up the stairs and lie her down in the crib next to Sabrina. Amanda sleeps through the night.
This is what happens on a good night, about once a week. The other nights follow the same pattern but can be more challenging. Sometimes two “sleepy walks” are not enough to put her to sleep. Sometimes she cries when I walk her, other times she squiggles around the stoller like it’s a climbing wall. Lately, she’s started turning around, facing me, and covering her eyes to play hide n seek. I started putting Amanda to sleep for her nap and at bedtime when Sabrina had her surgery. Before that, She’d stay awake next to Sabrina until exhaustion. The scheduled approach suits me more - nap at 1pm, sleep at 9pm. I had first tried to hold her to sleep, the problem being she’d cry which would cause our dog Kobe to howl which is a next level howl. Plus Amanda is getting heavy.
Amanda is just learning to talk, maybe it’s a bit behind schedule. For months, she’d been able to point and say “bobo” for things she doesn’t want, which turns out to be a lot of things. Until recently, it was hard to know what she wants. She now communicates that by crying sometimes preceded by a happy “na na” and finger pointing. She is very passionate about what she wants and doesn’t want.
There was a playground in the mall across the street that Amanda went to once or twice a day. Two weeks ago, they closed down. For the first week after it closed down, Amanda would still point her way to the playground only to cry when she could not get in. We bought her a six month pass to the more fancy (expensive) playground on the same floor. She likes it ok, but prefers another play area which is essentially a collection of broken toys. She can stand at the toy kitchenette for thirty minutes rearranging things before moving on to the broken toy raceway.
Amanda in the broken toy playground
Amanda is getting a bit more social and curious to what other kids are doing. At the old playground she had a couple of friends and she liked the clown. At Ritan park, there is an artificial grass square where babies and toddlers gather. Amanda likes it there. She especially likes taking the other babies toys.
Amanda at Ritan
Amanda has been amazingly healthy these two years. Besides birth jaundice, she’s only been sick once and it was relatively mild. She’s fallen a few times, bumps on the head has been the worst of it.
Amanda likes ice cream. She is an Allio.
Today we celebrate her second birthday. There are many moments where I wonder “what did I get myself into” and then she smiles and climbs on me and all is well.