Tales of Alina and Her Kitty Claws

Today is Tuesday, no Wednesday. Yup, that is the kind of day I am having already. It's not even noon yet and I don't even know what day it is. Maternity leave has a tendency to blur the days into each other.
 So I thought for the last two nights how cool it was that Alina was going to bed earlier than usual. Monday night she was in bed by 7 pm because she was up before 6 am to take her Nonna to the airport. Then Tuesday night rolled around and I figured that she could go down early again. She didn't wake up much earlier Tuesday morning, just one hour earlier. No problem, right!?

HA!  Foolish mommy!

   Wrong. She was up early today. I shouldn't complain because her early wasn't anything obnoxious like 5 am, like some of the a-hole babies my friends have. But, she was up around 7:30 am. Her dad loves it when she wakes when he's getting ready for work because then he has an excuse to pick her up and smooch her. When she's up that early, he can usually just put her in bed beside me, groggy and confused. If I just drape my arm over her torso, she gives up squirming after a minute and falls asleep. Well, that doesn't seem to work anymore. In fact, it's more like pinning your baby's arms down against her will until she SCREAMS in despair. So yes, that is how I woke this morning. I know, I deserve it. I have a six month old baby. What do I expect, right!?
 So Alina and I lay in bed for an additional hour because I am far too lazy to drag my butt out of bed to begin my mommy duties for the day. She is clearly getting annoyed that we've been laying around for so long. She starts to whine a bit here and there. I try to play little games with her.. I lay her between my legs and I smack my thighs to a beat and try to get her to smack them too. She just looks at me slightly amused. Her amusement fades quickly and I am like a joker desperately trying to entertain my king.. "Dance puppet, dance!!"

In bed, trying to keep her entertained.

  Eventually I gave in and got my butt out of bed. I took Alina directly to her bedroom to feed her. She usually eats well and sometimes if she's tired enough- falls asleep. HAHA- not the case today. Today is like no other day we've had before.. She refused to eat, then arched her back and yelled at me to entertain her some more. For some unknown reason I decided to try clipping her finger nails. Usually I can sing a song and distract her long enough to get the deed done. BUT- today, she just watched me intently. Every time and I mean EVERY. TIME. I put the clippers under a nail she would pull her hand away. It was like she was messing with me on purpose. OH YEAH- I remember why I wanted to clip her nails. They feel like kitty claws scratching at my face, every chance she gets. She's quite vicious when she wants to be...

She knows how I feel about cats.. you'd think she'd take it easy on me with those claws..

 Finally I gave up. I got one hand done and just left the other hand full of sharp, dangerous fingertips. I'll deal with it when I find my patience. I've been looking for it all morning.. I can't seem to track it down just yet.

 I give her a bath and dress her with a bit of screaming and yelling. Nothing out of control but definitely not her usual behaviour. I put her in her "office" and let her play where she is while I quickly get ready for the day. I put the kettle on for my decaf coffee and start to mix her rice cereal. She started shrieking and screaming so loud, like someone was pulling her limbs off... that I hurried into the living room to see what was the matter. Oh, she was just finished playing. Wow.

I would prefer this.. "Oh, hi. I'm finished playing now mom."

 I bring her to her high chair to feed her. She is quickly distracted by the new toy I place in front of her. Babies... so easily distracted, it's fantastic. But, as quickly as she was distracted she remembered that she was tired, hungry, annoyed with me and started screaming again. I have never seen her gobble down her rice cereal that quickly ever before. She must have been hungry. The only trouble was as quick as I'd scoop and shovel the clumps of food into her mouth, she would swallow and have her little bird mouth open for more before I had a chance to re-scoop. This frustrated her greatly. Plus when I'm under pressure I tend to get a bit clumsy. I start shoveling food into her nose and drop great big scoops on her hand. Another problem was that she was eating the food at such a rapid pace that I ran out of it. Well, if you have ever had a baby or known a baby.. especially a hungry, peeved baby.. you better get more food- pronto!!

 I don't know if I'm sick or what.. But there is nothing cuter than a screaming baby. They just look so sad it's pathetic and cute all at once. Alina had her first shots when she was three months old. All the moms I know told me about how sad it was, to see their baby in pain for the first time. It made them cry because of it. Well, when Alina had her shots, I laughed. I know! I'm sick. But she was so happy, just looking around and then boom- the needle went in and she went from being all like, "Why are we here? Why do I have to sit here on you like this?" to "WHAAAAAAT THE FUUUUUU#* WAS THAAAAT!!??" The cute to so pissed off and sad just makes me giggle. So when she was wearing her food goatee' (compliments of mommy) and started freaking out crying, I thought it was pretty damn cute. I couldn't help but kind of laugh at her, in a sympathetic way of course. I'm not that sick. I am more upset now, that I didn't think to grab my cell and snap a picture of it. It was so cute.

This is a repeat offender for pictures on my blog. BUT- imagine this face but with a food goatee'.. CUTE, right!?!

 So, yeah- that is how my day is going so far. Not horrible. Not great. But I decided while the little demon napped I would start my post. Then, out of nowhere I look at her on the baby monitor and she is just laying there, staring at nothing forever. She was getting all Paranormal Activity on me.. Kind of unsettling. But within minutes, she spit her soother out and started sucking her blanket. Then, the raspberries came in full force. She always seems to find energy after any nap... even the short ones.

JUST. STARING.

 I took a little break and have returned with a completely different attitude. My baby girl seems to have forgotten about her craziness this morning. I think I got my sweet girl back since she woke from her nap. Phew. Hopefully the rest of this day will be less screamy...

I can trust that face........... right?