Mia's downward teething spiral has put a particular crimp on things since it's affected both my ability to get much of anything done on the house, and my opportunity to take any pictures of her for her Seven Month shots- she's been in too foul a mood to pose for me. (Not that I really have been expecting to get those done anywhere near to on-time, with everything else going on.) It was just as well, today, since she ended up blowing out in the outfit I put on her with the intent to get to photo-taking at some point.
When lunchtime came and went without a decent first nap, and Mia began putting an inordinate amount of energy into fighting a second, I began to despair of ever getting Michael's Halloween costume done. I found a simple enough design via this blog post at Living Well on the Cheap. However, I knew it would be time consuming, especially without the aid of a sewing machine, so I wanted to get on it as soon as possible. Nothing doing with a cranky baby in my arms. Even the wrap wasn't going to help much, since I'd have to combine its use with a lot of rocking, and bouncing, neither of which are conducive to the task of pulling thread through fabric with a sharp implement.
In came Mei Mei to the rescue. She dropped by on her day off to deliver the baptismal gown we'll need for Sunday, and volunteered to give the costume a go. As I was finally getting Mia settled, Mei Mei began cutting and pinning. She continued to work dutifully as each child began to stir and made their way downstairs with me.
Mia's worst hour was in the time following that 30-minute second nap, and once it had passed, I was so tired that I began to nod off. Conveniently, in that time Michael found an unaccounted-for crayon and proceeded to redecorate one of the walls that I'd spent Sunday morning scrubbing clean.
I was frustrated, to say the least. However, the blow was softened a bit when I was presented with a finished costume as I brought the children upstairs for dinner a short while later. It took Mei Mei about three hours, but she did a fabulous job.
No big reveals on that one yet, though I may provide a spoiler tomorrow.
After dinner, Mia seemed- finally- to be back to her old self again. She was, in fact, in such a good mood that I felt confident that I could get away with trying a potential Halloween costume on her. I'd initially intended to use Michael's monkey costume from last year, but haven't been able to find the main body to complete the set. My only other option is Abby's Tinkerbell costume of two years ago, which I begrudgingly brought down from upstairs. Once I saw it on Mia, I couldn't help but get excited about the prospect, despite my prior feelings of disappointment.
As for those three steps sideways, those unexpected boons of the day...
Abby made a conscious decision to go binky-less last night, and succeeded.
That same night, Mia slept from 8:00 pm to 7:15 am, with just a short waking after midnight that she put herself back down from.
As I undressed her one last time in preparation for bed, I checked Mia's mouth and was astounded by what I saw. This morning, I was disappointed at the lack of breakthrough. This afternoon, I confirmed that she'd finally begun to cut her left top tooth, and figured I just didn't look closely enough earlier in the day. This evening, however, the top-left was even more defined, and the top-right was exposed along half of its width! At least her earlier misery was not for naught.
Though I don't expect to get much of anything done tomorrow, with Tom gone for most of the day, I hope that by Wednesday afternoon Mia will be so much improved that maybe there will be some hope for further progress, yet.
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| Little Sweetie, in her mismatched pants, but finally feeling much better. |
