Melinda is still wonderful. I was a little premature in saying several emails ago that Melinda laughs. It is more correct to say that Melinda laughed (once). One night a couple weeks ago, while Tracey was changing her, she tried the game of peek-a-boo. Melinda had a ball. I came running in and watched for five minutes. She laughed each time we did it.
Since that time, we may get smiles, but no laughs.
Every night when Tracey or I put Melinda to bed, we say to each other, "we are so lucky." Not because she's a wonderfully behaved, beautiful girl who makes her Daddy smile from ear to ear (which she is), but because she sleeps - when we want her to. We put her in the crib around 8:30 or 9:00 each night, and she wakes up some time between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning. No night feedings, no waking up.
The secret? No idea. She decided that she wanted to do it around 2 months and has never looked back. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and for her to turn into a hellion. Maybe not tonight, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not until she's 12. I figure she's saving up for something big.
The down side to her sleeping "correctly" is that I don't see her as much. I get home around 6, we have dinner and play for a while, she eats, then goes to bed. I see much more of her on the weekends - which is good.
The bathroom is almost done. Yes, this is the project we started in August when we ripped out the bathtub. We papered this weekend. Who’d have thought a 6X10 room could take 7 hours to wallpaper? Certainly not I. But with the mirror and back up for the first time in 3 months, it looks like a real bathroom again. Just baseboard and towel fixtures, and we're done. Just in time for Gramma & Grandpa's visit.
Here's the most important thing I learned during this 6 month ordeal: when connecting two water-tight pieces of porcelain (e.g. toilet tank to toilet base), you can always tighten more, it is difficult to tighten less. When I attached the first tank, I wanted to make damn sure it didn’t leak. So I tightened it down until I heard the pinging of porcelain giving way. To be extra sure, I tightened a couple more twists. When I showed it to the HW store guy, he had a pretty good chuckle – there were stress fractures all over the base of the tank (like six on each side). It happened weeks ago, and the manufacturer had another in stock (that they gave to me free (because we had to wait 4 months for the first one)), so I can laugh about it now.
Since that time, we may get smiles, but no laughs.
Every night when Tracey or I put Melinda to bed, we say to each other, "we are so lucky." Not because she's a wonderfully behaved, beautiful girl who makes her Daddy smile from ear to ear (which she is), but because she sleeps - when we want her to. We put her in the crib around 8:30 or 9:00 each night, and she wakes up some time between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning. No night feedings, no waking up.
The secret? No idea. She decided that she wanted to do it around 2 months and has never looked back. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and for her to turn into a hellion. Maybe not tonight, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not until she's 12. I figure she's saving up for something big.
The down side to her sleeping "correctly" is that I don't see her as much. I get home around 6, we have dinner and play for a while, she eats, then goes to bed. I see much more of her on the weekends - which is good.
The bathroom is almost done. Yes, this is the project we started in August when we ripped out the bathtub. We papered this weekend. Who’d have thought a 6X10 room could take 7 hours to wallpaper? Certainly not I. But with the mirror and back up for the first time in 3 months, it looks like a real bathroom again. Just baseboard and towel fixtures, and we're done. Just in time for Gramma & Grandpa's visit.
Here's the most important thing I learned during this 6 month ordeal: when connecting two water-tight pieces of porcelain (e.g. toilet tank to toilet base), you can always tighten more, it is difficult to tighten less. When I attached the first tank, I wanted to make damn sure it didn’t leak. So I tightened it down until I heard the pinging of porcelain giving way. To be extra sure, I tightened a couple more twists. When I showed it to the HW store guy, he had a pretty good chuckle – there were stress fractures all over the base of the tank (like six on each side). It happened weeks ago, and the manufacturer had another in stock (that they gave to me free (because we had to wait 4 months for the first one)), so I can laugh about it now.
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