The Daily Fuss

Been Busy

So I took a little break. I needed it. There's a lot going on these days and while fully immersed in bloggy land much of the time, I consider myself a private person. Well, maybe not exactly private, but I'm not great at lying - which (in my opinion) includes sins of omission.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I preferred a month of radio silence to thirty, cagey What the Fuss? posts to avoid telling you all that I'm pregnant. What?!

Yep. Number Two is scheduled for debut in February. Leighton will be two in March. Luella will be seven on Christmas. (That's 42 in Yorkie years.)

It's certainly been very exciting, although not timed perfectly. We moved to our new house last thursday and I took on a new role at work and I feel like throwing up most of the time and packing was horrible and unpacking was even more horrible and none of my clothes fit and Leighton learned the words "no" and "mine" and has taken up whining and I'm traveling this week for work, and I'm sitting in a hotel room with a head cold that Lei passed generously to me on the way out the door.

Good times.

For the record, I will die in this house. I am never moving again. Unless of course we sell all of our possessions with this house and start over back in our condo in the city. Condo + City of Chicago = Perfect retirement community.

Anyway, back to reality and our little Number Two.

I am an only child. If I haven't mentioned this before, you may be having an A-HA moment. The fun of reading a blog is to put the pieces together over time and this is a big one.  I have close cousins, but I never had to really share anything - including my parents. Nor have I ever been involved in a sibling rivalry, much less argument for that matter. Come February, I will be way out of my element. GaGa and GaPa won't be much help either.

Come February, I fully expect that the utility and import of baby doll toys and furniture will zoom into sharp focus for Lei. Right now, she knows what to do with all of that stuff, but she sees it in a way that it relates to her as a baby not another, completely different, teeny weeny REAL LIVE BABY!

Number Two is going to blow Lei's little mind. And then, I fully anticipate her desire to send it back from whence it came.

I missed you all. Please forgive the sabbatical. I'm back.

I Can't Hear You

It started with pretending to ignore us. "Hey Leighton. Time for bed. Night night. Are you sleepy?" Come seven PM, all of these phrases were met with a blank stare.

Two days ago, this acting became too much for little Lei, and in keeping with the theme of open defiance, she made the decision to blatantly refuse to hear us. She puts her hands over her ears and turns her back to us when we start talking about getting cozy for bed. Only the dangling of a toothbrush will bring her back, and only for as long as it takes to effectively brush eleven little teeth.

Naughty.

It's hard not to laugh and thusly encourage such behavior. That's one of the toughest things about parenting - not laughing at inappropriate behavior. The other toughest part is not letting things get to you, and laughing seems an obvious remedy. Catch 22.

How do kids come up with these silly mechanisms anyway? Surely, Ryan and I don't stall lively discussions by putting our hands over our ears.  As far as Lei's concerned, she invented this little earmuff stunt all on her own. Clever little girl. Sadly, it does little more than entertain us - she still goes down at seven.

For those of you who didn't answer on the Facebook Fan Page, what time do your kids go to bed, how many hours to they sleep each day (24 hour period) and how old are they? Please post a comment and share your fuss with us.