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December 11th, 2003 - Thursday Just stuff I spent a good chunk of today decluttering, organizing, and all that other domestic fun. George and I were talking recently about whether we were going to stay in this apartment or not. We needed to discuss it because the deadline to cancel our lease is the end of January. When we were in his old apartment, we thought it was the end of February and we handed in our request to terminate the lease on the 2nd or 3rd of that month. Even though we were only a few days late, they wouldn't let us out but they felt badly for our predicament (basically we didn't have enough room for both of us and all our things. They compromised by giving us an apartment in one of their other complexes with one more room. Anyway, even though we're both really tired of living here (lack of storage space, living on a loud and busy street, etc), financially we're better off staying here one more year. The cost of paying our rent here while giving a deposit on a new place (which is the first month's rent) plus the cost of a truck for moving would just be too much. Maybe next year we'll be in a better position to do it. So, since we're "stuck" here for another year I need to make some changes. Hence, I'm trying to get rid of some things we just really don't need and can live without. I'm also re-arranging just to have a bit of change and I'd like to do *something* with our bedroom. I don't know what the heck happened in there, but we just never really got around to doing anything with it. The only things hanging on our walls are a calendar and one print. It's so dull and uninspired. I want to hang more prints and photos on the walls. I want to get rid of my freakin' Titanic dresser. It's huge and it's black and it was really cool when I bought it because it was during my goth phase. However, now I just don't really WANT a mammoth black dresser and it doesn't match any of the other furniture in there - everything else is white. Some days I just want to scream because of the lack of space and the overabundance of crap that we have filling it all up. Sigh.    George was out all day today. He left before Hayley got up and he came back shortly before her bed time. Periodically all day long, Hayley would just call out "Daddy?" Then she would play for awhile and shout, "Ay-yo? Ay-yo! Daddy!" She loves him so much. I shudder to think what would happen if he had to go away for a couple of days. Someone asked me how I set up the bed to make it safe for when Hayley is alone in it. She sleeps there alone for her naps and she sleeps alone from the time she goes to bed until I go to bed myself several hours later. I'm lucky in the sense that Hayley isn't a wild sleeper. That's helpful for me to sleep, but it's also helpful because she doesn't put herself in much danger of rolling off. What I do is use pillows. We never invested in a guard rail because I heard a few scary stories about newborns and rails. She's old enough now that I'd feel comfortable using one, but I don't think we really need on. Her crib converts to a toddler bed and has a built-in wooden guard rail so that will be okay, but for now the pillow arrangement works just fine. On the left side of the bed, I put a couple of cushions and then a pillow on top of those. I lay down on the right side and nurse her to sleep. When she's asleep I put the boppy pillow and my pillow on top of each other on that side, and slip out of the room. Most times when I go in there to go to bed, she's either in the same position or in the same spot but lying on her belly instead of her back. She's a very quiet and still sleeper, just like me. When I do go to bed, I put the spare pillows to one side for extra security. Just in case, I have a pillow on the floor on either side of the bed in the off chance that she does roll off. However, the pillows are stacked just high enough that I don't think she really could anyway. Even I would have to push myself to roll over the top. When she wakes up, whether it's from a nap, in the night, or first thing in the morning, she doesn't start thrashing about, she just cries out for me. Sometimes when I go in after nap time, she's sitting up, but that is about as far as it gets. She's so disoriented when she wakes up (again, just like me!) that she doesn't move much until she sees someone. The other thing that reassures me is that back when she was about 9 months old, I started teaching her how to roll onto her belly and slide off to the floor whenever she wants off the bed. She's an expert at it now and she flings herself off beds and couches with ease. That way I know that even if she did happen to wake up and want down, she isn't going to climb over the pillows and fall down. In the mornings if George is up and bustling about the apartment, I've often seen her very systematically move each pillow and cushion aside so that she can roll and slide to the floor. You know what? When you've been craving beer and chips all week long and you suddenly have beer and chips in front of you, it's really wonderful. On that note, here are some cute (what else?) pictures.
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Reading: The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown.
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