GOODnight and other musings

The current phase G is in is mostly awesome. She is imitating cats, dogs, and cows. She answers with said trademark animal sound if you ask, "Gilly, what does ___ say?" She will look for and retrieve an item if you ask "Gilly, where's your ___?" I even think she might be trying to say "belly", which sounds a lot like "bey", when she points at my belly or her own belly. Gillian also recently started chasing the cats in her odd crabcrawl way (which is freakishly fast, by the way), and giggling quite happily as they frantically avoid her. This game I love. I am sure Needy Peepers is in for all the attention she ever dreamed of. and then some.

At night, she no longer is asleep when I put her down after feeding her. Instead, she likes to sit up, her legs on either side of my waist, and lays her little head on my chest and snuggle...sit back, and talk to me a little (including pointing out a belly), lay back on my thighs and look/point at things on the wall, and sit back up and cuddle...this usually goes on about 8-10 minutes. Then I ask, "Gilly, are you ready to go nite-nite in your bed?", and, get this, she points at her bed...and then I stand with her next to her crib and say, "do you want to visit with Tigger and Bunny and go nite-nite?" (Tigger and Bunny are bedtime-only pals), and she leans toward/reaches for the crib! (obviously, this fascinates me) From what I gather from sounds through the door, after that she listens to her mobile and talks to her bedtime pals for a few minutes and that's it. She likes going to bed. And WE LIKE THAT SHE LIKES GOING TO BED. The other night, our neighbor was over, and Gilly looked at me, yawned, and started crawling toward her room. I asked "are you ready for nite-nite?" and she stopped, looked at me, and continued down the hall and into her bedroom. I thought, "THAT was far too easy...what's the catch?" No catch. She was tired and knew she wanted to go to bed.

The drawbacks to this phase: 1) 95% of food on the floor; 5% of food in her mouth; 2) do you know how hard it can be to get your child clothed and her diaper changed when there are clearly much more interesting things to do than sit still and get one's diaper changed and clothes on? Both of which are small prices to pay for the mostly joyful days and nights we have had of late.