Whoa

   It was super hot and windy outside during our walk today. Hello, Santa Anas! Hello, Static Electric Head! Picture me: new haircut -

 

- rising straight up in the air. Short haircuts have way more volume! Yeah -- I looked goofy.

   Little girl almost couldn't fall asleep. I pulled her blanket over the stroller, because the wind was even warmer than being covered in a blanket anyway... and thought I was going to have to get her indoors and stroll her around in the living room for a bit. But tiredness won out.

    Lily was dancing so cute to Yo Gabba Gabba today. They were saying to clap your hands and jump and different things she's been getting more into recently, and she added her little bop to that. I have been looking forward to seeing her really get into dancing, and then when it happens I don't think to take a video until it's over. Typical. I dashed for the camera and tried to get her going again, but she will dance when she wants to - all I got was fussiness. No one really wants to preserve that on film - but it was nap time after all. 

   The only way I can get this girl down for a nap these days is to take her for a stroll. She was so used to nursing to sleep and I recently stopped breastfeeding her because I needed to take some medicine and get some tests done that weren't safe for breastfeeding. Since I didn't have much luck pumping, and Lily was already over a year, taking a sippy cup, and preferring her milk over solids -- it has really been good for both of us. I would have liked to have gone a bit longer and stopped more gradually, but it actually turned out pretty good in these circumstances. We worked out an altered bedtime routine so milk came earlier and Mike took over at the end. I cut out feedings one at a time with a few days in between for us to adjust - leaving the bedtime one for last. I thought: 'Well, at least she's not to the point where she's really asking for milk with words and I have to push her away..' (She rarely even said mama at that time - probably because I was always there.) And then the last night I planned to nurse her before going to bed she reached out to me, desperately signing milk with her hand, and said "Milk! Milk! Mama!" --Kids tug at your heart strings for sure. Now a daily walk is our routine - the only way to nap. Hence the wish for more trees in our neighborhood. On a couple really scorching hot days I was lucky enough to just put Lily in her stroller and head toward the door and have her konk out. I am really looking forward to cooler weather, and I am a total lover of summer and sunshine!