Today was a little bit more trying day of solo parenting Anna. She woke up at 6:05am with a tummy ache (thankfully I had gone to bed early), was somewhat sensitive all morning, took a short nap, and was a real pain this afternoon.

However, that’s all over, and I’m sipping a Costco-sized martini after having eaten a Costco-sized ribeye steak that I truly outdid myself on–pan-seared on the grill. The house is a mess, Anna will probably be awake at 6am, and I have to go into work tomorrow, but right now… steak and martini. Mmmm.

Today was the first full day with Jen gone. For this trip anyway. Anna cooperated quite nicely. She slept in the morning until her light went off–earned a cookie, and behaved all morning until going to A’s birthday party. We went to the party, and she was a little skittish, as there were a lot of unfamiliar people, and she’s an introvert, just like Mom & Dad.

The party was fun, but it did make her late for her nap. I was glad to get her to nap at all, so I was pleasantly surprised that she slept for at least an hour before waking up crying. She was fussy after, but recovered quickly enough for a trip to Home Depot so that I could buy some PVC for a photography project.

After a trip to the neighbor’s for some fresh blackberries, and dinner, she had a fun bath and off to bed. No stalling tonight–I hope that’s a good sign for the morning. Me, I’m really really tired and hope to be asleep by ten, which probably means I should start now..

This morning Anna was at our door around 5:50am if I remember right. Upon finding the bedroom door locked, she pretty quickly went back to her room and was quiet until lights off. Jen is at a hockey tournament in Phoenix, so Anna and I went out to dinner at Claim Jumper. She chowed down.

After dinner, we went to Costco to purchase was has become a tradition for me when Jen is out of town–a big pack of steaks. Ribeyes this time.

Anna slept through the early part of the night pretty consistently for the last week or two, I guess I have that to be thankful for. Pretty slow day at work for me–what with two hours of volleyball and a haircut in there, I’m lucky I got as done as I did. With both my coworkers out today, it could have been much worse.

We’ve got a full weekend ahead of us. Birthday party tomorrow, probably a trip to the park and/or the shoe store beforehand. I have to clean the house and mow the lawn. And clean my car. All of that’s going to be a challenge with Anna in tow. Maybe we can fit in a trip to the Zoo or the Wild Animal Park.

Anna finally, and for the first time in several weeks, did not come to our door until 6:30am when her nightlight went off. Actually, I think she didn’t wake up until then, so while she didn’t get any practice staying quietly in her room. We’ll take it anyway.

An abridged Anna-to-English phrasebook:

• taspick: Chapstick
• tospick: chopstick
• pospicle: popsicle (see a pattern?)
• bunato: tomato
• lotzenlotzen: lots and lots
• do my fing: do my thing
• foospie: thirsty
• tocklit: chocolate

For a while I’ve thought that Anna’s sleep and behavior problems are related to a lack of attention. To test this, I took one day and left work early and played with her all afternoon. She slept like a champ. I think that was the last time she slept all the way through. Until today. After I spent the whole day with her yesterday, she’s still asleep and quiet at 6:25am. Let’s see what happens in another ten minutes when the light goes off.

Roughly two minutes after I posted this originally, Anna was crying an knocking on our bedroom door–only six minutes before her light would have gone off. She must be reading the blog. I should disable the LAN jack in her room.

Jennifer got an Sony DSC-T1 because it’s small and less complicated than my camera, and I sold my DSC-U20, because who needs two tiny digital cameras? Frankly I wasn’t using it that much.

This is a test of the email to blog gateway.

I’ve changed the blog from MoveableType to WordPress, as it’s free, and seems to work as well or better. It doesn’t currently work with my phone’s blog client, but it does have user-selectable skins–check out the “Styles” section of the side menu.

Day care is closed today and Jen is at a class, so Anna and I are staying home. Actually, we are at the zoo. I’m surprised how many people are here on a Monday. So far, we’ve seen the reptiles and had lunch. Will be time for nap soon.