We’ve got some catching up to do.

Thumbs up! My garage project has taken up all my free time so we’ve got a lot to cover.

Sleep took a turn for the worst with Mama. Lots of wakings and our routine was Mama went to bed with Papaya and I’d go to bed with Nashi in the other room. Then Mama brings me an awake Papaya whenever she’s had enough, anytime between 1am and 5am. Or not at all if it was an ok night. So my brain was trained to be on alert for the switch that may or may not come at any time, which took its toll on my restfulness even though I’m with Nashi who’s sleeping just fine.

The solution? Taking from the Nashi playbook from around this age, we switched places. I sleep with Papaya and Mama sleeps with Nashi. A few things to accomplish here: Get Papaya to not need or expect milk during the night, which then gives her a fighting chance to sleep through the night. Because it took so long to update the blog, we are now a month into this plan. After a week of difficulty, Papaya is fine not needing or expecting boob in the night. She’s also mostly sleeping through as well, save a few short lived stirs or wakings that don’t really bother me. The tough part is mostly that her wake up time has lots of variance, between 5am and 6:30am. Not ideal. But, compared to all stages up until now, it’s the best yet.

She’s not yet walking but seems to get joy out of standing up. Doesn’t show any interest in walking practice while holding hands, so we’re probably a few months off from that. Lots of words and noises and fun games. Cutest recent thing is saying “no” to questions, followed up with a “no no.” She has four teeth with a fifth that’s popping through and she loves using them to eat.

We laugh together all the time and sometimes I can get a deep belly laugh out of her. A disturbing game she likes to play is bashing her head against things. If anyone says “bonk!” as a response to her hitting her head, she’ll smile and repeat the trauma several times. She knows her own name and still calls Nashi “brother.” Seeing pictures of him when he’s gone makes her happy.

We’re looking for childcare so I can spend time on our next project, a big home remodel that moves us out of the house for a while. After strongly considering moving outside the city, we’ve decided to stay where we are in the great neighborhood of Wallingford, so why not upgrade our house to keep up with our needs.

Going to end with a random quote from Nashi. After crying about something four year olds cry about, he asks for a tissue so we walk over to the bedroom and get one to blow his nose and wipe his tears. It’s actually a bandana we use as a tissue. He then says “this is ours now.” I tell him it’s for him because I don’t need one. He then says “well bring that with you in your pocket in case I cry again” and confidently marches back to the action.