It's going to be a long night

Is insomnia a side effect of chickenpox? It's 3.15am on Monday morning, and Lara is watching a Winnie the Pooh DVD and eating toast in the lounge.
We had quite a long, tough day today. Lara got us both up around 6.45 this morning, which balances out her new personal best of 10.20am on Saturday morning. She probably would have gone past 10.20am, but we could hear she was stirring and we felt guilty that we were still in bed at that time! It was a lovely day, blue skies and relatively warm, and because we couldn't take Lara to a playground where there would be other kids, we just took her and the boys for a long walk close to where we live. It was 3pm before we got home, and so we didn't really achieve much around the house, which put some pressure on us for Sunday.
We'd decided it was time for a change around of furniture, so we emptied one cabinet in the lounge and moved it, and replaced it with our computer desk from the study, and then went and brought our sofa bed down and put that in the lounge too. It all looks great now, and I'm writing this post at the computer desk while Lara is watching her DVD. All this was achieved between reminding Lara to use the potty, changing her clothes when we didn't remind her in time, and coating her liberally in calamine lotion.  She didn't have a nap despite her early start, well, not until she fell asleep in her chair during her tea. That only lasted a minute or two, but is about the best quality sleep either of us will get tonight from the looks of things!
Olga got her into bed at 6pm, which is very early for Lara, but the peace and quiet would last 15 minutes at most before she'd cry for Mama. Olga was on duty until we tried convincing Lara to go to bed with Olga, around 10.30pm, but Lara was having none of that, and then I took over. I didn't have any more success, I could get her off to sleep for 10 or 15 minutes before I'd get the call to come and give her milk, or water, or just a cuddle. We watched the start of the Superbowl together, then I decided we'd compromise and I set myself up to sleep on Lara's floor. Lara alternated between wanting to sleep with me on the floor, and wanting to sleep in her bed, until 2.15am, when she wanted the potty. I didn't mind this at all, and Lara obliged, but since then, she's been alert and awake, not remotely sleepy. We watched the end of the Superbowl (New Orleans won) in her room, then I decided I wanted a cup of tea, and Lara wanted to watch Winnie. She really is very alert, and has just come bounding up to be, telling me she's finished her toast and could she have a wipe for her hands. At this rate I'll reckon we'll keep going till 6am, when we'll go and wake Mama, and Olga can take it from there. I might try to sneak an hour's sleep then! Olga is going to be "working from home" today with Lara, and maybe we're doing her a favour, I'm sure Lara will be having lengthy naps during the day!
Well, 3.30am now, only 2 and a half hours to go. I've got the sofa bed down here now, perhaps I should pull it out and see if Lara fancies a lie down!! It doesn't look like it. I'll research the side effects of anti-histamines and chickenpox instead...

PS - I managed to record her at 4am...


PPS - She conked out on the sofa at 4.45am! I'm giving her half an hour before I carry her up to her bed.

Never mind potty training...

After the false alarm before the holiday, it seems Lara had contracted chickenpox, but it's only shown itself today. She had half a dozen spots at lunchtime when we took her home, and I'm about to leave the office now and go and see how the patient is...

Phasing Out Nappies

 

Just before she went on holiday, we started Lara's potty training, quite casually though. While she was at Baba Luda's though, this intensified to the point where Lara could run around the flat in knickers and a t-shirt, and was very good at asking for the potty when it was time for a tinkle. She has got so good at it that today was the first day we sent her to nursery without a nappy on. There were nappies in her bag, just in case things got out of hand (or all over hands, as the case may be), along with many replacement knickers and tights, but the staff reported she was very good, with only one tinkling accident all day, and a couple of poops, but we're taking it very much one step at a time, and we're not bothered yet about the pooping (plus that's the staff's problem at nursery, after all, they're charging a fortune so we don't feel the slightist bit guilty if thay have to clean up after Lara). However, when it comes to tinkles, she's very good, and tells us when she needs the potty, and so far performs the necessary 95% of the time.  So, from now on it'll be nappies when we're out and about, and through the night, but when she's at home or at nursery, it's knickers and tights with easily-pulled down trousers, or skirts or a dress. And that's just me, boom boom. 

She's sleeping very well again, so far this week it's been after 7am when we've gone in to wake her, or she's just been stirring around then. She is waking in the night, but this seems to be mostly when she's dreaming, and we've just given her a few seconds while we listen to the monitor, and she's gone back to sleep on her own. She's gone back to having an hour's nap at nursery, but this might just be about her body getting back used to UK time, we don't expect that to continue.

She's getting very vocal, and can express herself really quite clearly when she wants to, although there are times when there is just a general wailing or crying, usually associated with pointing at whatever it is she wants that we won't let her have, or we don't understand what she needs. We have started asking her to tell us in words what she wants, and she's learning that this method gets results more quickly than her wailing and pointing. She's also very funny with the dogs, she knows when Jackson's done something wrong (we're still working on his potty training!) and she'll go up to him, wagging her index finger and saying "Naughty Jackson, Naughty!"

There'll be more potty updates in the next few months - I'm sure you'll all be desperate to keep up with her progress!!

A Photo Album At Last

The travellers got home safe and sound early on Monday morning. The flight from Helsinki was a little delayed in taking off, which gave Lara the excuse for her only tantrum of the return trip, and this was just five minutes of loud sulking because she had to sit in her seat with her seatbelt on while the plane was delayed. Other than that she was very well behaved, and a pattern seemed to emerge of her falling asleep with half an hour or so of the flight to go, so after two and a half hours in the air. This will be worth remembering if we take her on a longer flight anywhere.
Her rash had recurred a little while she was away, but anti-histamines seemed to keep it under control, but there was one day when it was quite uncomfortable for her in the nappy area, and she spent much of that day lounging around watching Winnie the Pooh DVDs on Luda's laptop. The discomfort only seemed to last a day, and by the time she came home she was absolutely fine. We wondered if the drastic change in diet might have triggered it, the milk is certainly different there, and many of the foods contain additives or flavourings that she wouldn't be used to. Anyway, she coped like the little trooper she is, and even a sore ankle didn;t stop her running around, albeit with a limp. Maybe she twisted it when no-one was looking, but again, she was fine by the time she came running up to me in the Arrivals Hall in T3 at Heathrow on Monday morning.
Anyway, Olga managed to keep the photograph & video collection down to a very impressive 65 files, and I've trimmed it down to 30, with self-explanatory captions... enjoy!

Russia Jan 2010

(It'll open in a new tab, then click on the Slideshow button on the Album page)

Brrr..

Finally, I get round to updating this. The lack of posts itself gives you an idea of what my week has been like - busy. OK, ok, so there was an impromptu night out in Wycombe last night with some colleagues from work, but other than that, it's been long days at work followed by taking the boys for a long walk, then trying to get some jobs done around the house, then bed. I made the mistake of trying to tidy up a collection of photographs that were gathering dust on a shelf, and you can't just put them away, can you, you have to look through them, and that took a good few hours of Monday evening!

Anyway, Olga & Lara. They seem to be having a good time. It's still well below zero outside (anywhere between -15 and -25 degrees C) so Lara can only play out for maybe 30 minutes at a time. Olga judges by the colour of Lara's cheeks when it's time to come in! Although yesterday apparently Lara said "Go home now" which Olga took as a hint that Lara was cold and wanted to go back to Luda's apartment! Lara also said this earlier this week when Olga was showing some neighbours photos and videos that she'd brought along of us and the boys. During a video of Mishka and Jackson, Lara was watching, and came out with "Go home now?" which could have been a sign of homesickness.

Lara's being staying up quiet late, but we're happy with that. It actually keeps her body on UK time, and should make it easier when she gets home. Lara will only go to bed when Olga goes, so it has been midnight or later sometimes, but then Lara will sleep in until 9 or 10 o'clock the next morning. To start with Lara would fall asleep in bed with Olga, and then Olga would transfer Lara to her own bed (we're using an inflatable kiddies bed), but more recently Lara has been climbing into her own bed and going to sleep, after saying "Night night, Mama. Dark!" This bodes well for the time when we take the side off her cot, perhaps we'll do that sooner rather than later, but we're in no great rush to do it.  Her potty training is coming on well too, she is almost 100% consistent that when she asks for the potty, she'll do a pee in it. Poops are still in the nappy but at least now she does tell Olga when she's "performed", but again, we're in no great rush to fix that, we're just really pleased with her potty progress so far.

I'm really looking forward to Monday morning, and welcoming the travellers home at Heathrow, when Lara comes bounding into the arrivals hall. I just have to spend Sunday getting the house presentable!!

Here are a couple of photos Olga sent through last night...