A LONG Weekend

As is quite obvious, I've spent a great deal of time playing with my blog. I found it extremely entertaining when it was not mind-boggling confusing and exhausting. I finally admitted defeat after hours and downloaded a pre-made background. It was late on Friday night or Saturday morning when I finally went to bed.

That was a mistake. Not in the blog sense. I think the blog looks nice and has come to life and reflects a bit of my personality. The mistake was staying up so late.

Alberto was up bright-eyed and bushy tailed on Saturday morning. I, on the other hand, felt as though I was run over by that mack truck from a month earlier. Fortunately, Alberto was the model child and at that moment, I truly felt the grace of God all over me. Ah, I was able to sleep in until 8am as Alberto played quietly in his bed. Bliss...

When I finally got myself out of bed and together, I called up my dad to see if we could have a day at the beach. And I was gently reminded that a hurricane was passing by us. Not that we really had any affects of Gustav, although we experienced some of the feeder bands. Not a good idea to go to the beach. Not a good idea to go outside the house. It was wet.

Both Alberto and I got wrestless. At a different point in my life, I would have been completely comfortable confining myself to the couch with my pillow and chick-flicks. But, with Alberto, that doesn't work. Plus, it's not fair to him. So, we went to the mall. They had fabulous sales! Alberto has a school wardrobe.

It was a quiet day. Alberto went to bed like a little angel and was asleep for the night. I, too, was tired from my previous night of trying to figure out this HTML code stuff. And then it happened. As I lay in bed, I wondered if I had figured something out in my head (mind you, I have absolutely no HTML training or education. This is just my mind thinking it knows more than it really does). So, I got up and tried to figure this out. Again, I was up late on Saturday night or was it Sunday morning.

Why hadn't I learned my lesson? Was I glutton for punishment? Why couldn't I just leave this alone? I really had to get a grip! I finally fell into a nice deep and restful sleep. That was until Alberto woke up at 6AM.

I had no idea what happened to the little angel from the day before. But he was replaced by a little guy that, let's just say was, vocal. Between the "eehhhh" "eeeeeehhhhh" "ahhhhhh" was "ANA" then repeat "eehhhh" "eeeeeehhhh" "ahhhhh". Followed of course by "ANA". Now, that just rubbed me the wrong way? Why on earth was he calling me "ANA"?

I pulled my limp body out of bed and my throbbing head with puffy eyes and went to the kitchen to start up the day. Of course, a starter dose of Diet Pepsi was definately required.

This weekend, Alberto displayed for me some of his developmental achievements.
1. He likes to play with water:
a. He enjoys dumping the dog's water bowl and then playing with the water that hasn't been absorbed by his clothes and diaper.
b. He heads straight for the toilet. He hasn't done anything as I have caught him before he could actually touch the water.
c. He drinks bath water. Gross!

2. He has learned to express when he doesn't like something or isn't getting what he wants.
a. He has the "eehhh" thing going.
b. He has taken to leaning back -- hasn't done the throw himself back thing.
c. He squirms in his confined seat -- squirms is kind of mild.

3. He has a pitchers arm. He enjoys throwing balls or any object overhand. It's quite impressive. He does try to play the throw it to the floor and "Ana" pick it up game but I don't play that game -- especially when he doesn't call me by the correct name!

Ah, the joys of motherhood after a couple late nights of obsessing over blog design. Ah, the joys of a possible glimpse of the terrible twos if I don't nip them in the bud.

So while I still had blog code in the back of mind, I was wondering which books I needed to get to address behavior modification and toddler parenting.

How do you teach a 15 1/2 month old boundaries? How do you stop the "eeehhh"? And finally, how on earth do I get him to stop calling me "ANA"?

Maybe, it all starts with my getting some sleep...

Lessons Learned: Learning something new is always fun, just need to keep it in balance. Sleep is essential -- apparently a lesson I don't seem to learn easily. The toddler years are fun, full of adventure and new discoveries. And having a toddler running around is a constant reminder to "snap out of it" and "focus"