She'll tap dance on all our graves

What can I say? I insist on a stylish daughter even if I'm wearing sweats. No, that's not quite true. Having the Animalia has actually made me take more pride in my appearance, if only a little. I can't be the fatass mom with the crazy hair and the flip flops if my daughter is stylin'. So I try, if only a little more. So these are our favorite shoes right now. They're a size two. She's actually between sizes. The size twos are a little too big and the size ones, a little too small. I can't help but be glad we had a daughter so that I and her Nina boymagnet may pass on our mary jane obsession that we developed together but separately.

Last night was hilarious, mostly in retrospect. At the time it didn't feel hilarious because I was JUST SO TIRED. The Animalia didn't feel like going to sleep at bedtime. She wanted to chat. I put her in our bed, went to the bathroom, and when I got back she was doing this really loud "blah, blah, blah"-like thing to her Da's half sleeping face. I watched for awhile and he was sort of opening his eyes every couple of minutes and saying things like "yeah, that's interesting" but in this mumbly sleepy voice. And then I got into bed and chatted with her for a bit, nursed her and still no sleep. So I put her in her bassinet with her favorite musical Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal and just lay there, exhausted, and listened to her chat at full volume with him. Then she started laughing. Sometimes I wonder what it is about that particular toy that she loves so much. He's soft, sure, but so are lots of her toys. It plays a music box sounding version of Teddy Bear's Picnic. It's sort of a tan color, not like the vivid or shiny things that typically catch her attention. But damn, nothing makes her laugh like that.

I got the energy to get up and start rocking her. She was in serious play mode. It was a battle but somewhere around midnight she finally crashed. She must've been exhausted because she didn't even want to wake up when I got her dressed to go to her Nana and Papa Grande's house.

I love watching her when she's in sleepy mode. She'll open one eye and close it. Open the other eye and close it. If she manages to get both eyes open she'll just give me a pursed mouth, judgy look and I think, yeah, that's my daughter.