Girl shows her roots
The background to this post is that Daisy has been sleeping about 11 hours a night, regularly; she sometimes wakes up and cries for a few minutes but then goes back to sleep.
This afternoon we tried the babysitting co-op for the first time, and it was quite successful. We saw Arwen give a magnificent performance on aerial silk at the San Francisco Circus Center, and while we were gone, a wonderful mom in the co-op came over to watch Daisy and her own baby at the same time. I have to applaud her, since I haven't tried this yet and I know it's no small feat. She said Daisy was very good the whole time, only starting to become a little fussy at the end. The way she described it was so recognizably Daisy to me: she said Daisy started to whimper just a little bit, so she didn't take the fussing very seriously, but when she looked closely, a single poignant tear was rolling down the side of her face. That's Daisy.
Anyway, tonight Daisy started crying 45 minutes after I put her to bed. I tried to wait it out, but after 20 minutes of screaming, I caved in. When you cave in to a Daisy night-crying session, it's the saddest thing in the world. You walk in, and she's always on her stomach with her head up, eyes fixed on the door. When she sees you, she starts waving hysterically at you with her own peculiar Daisy wave: a totally limp wrist, which the arm sort of flings around haphazardly.
I had to sing to her while rocking her to calm her down. I have a set repertoire of soothing bedtime songs I go through, all very slow and lulling and sleep-inducing; these are songs I only sing when I'm getting her to sleep, so she will associate them with sleepiness. (I have a different repertoire of songs I sing for other moods and occasions.) She was entirely back to sleep as I neared the end of my sleepy song repertoire, all cuddly and quiet in my arms with her eyes closed, not moving. Then for the fun of it, and because I was bored with the typical songs, I decided to sing "Hava Ngila" as my last song instead. I was singing it very quietly and soothingly, but nonetheless, the sleeping (I thought) Daisy raised her little hands in the air, eyes still closed, and began to clap along with the song. She sleep-clapped all the way through it.
It amused me. And that is why this post is called "girl shows her roots."
This afternoon we tried the babysitting co-op for the first time, and it was quite successful. We saw Arwen give a magnificent performance on aerial silk at the San Francisco Circus Center, and while we were gone, a wonderful mom in the co-op came over to watch Daisy and her own baby at the same time. I have to applaud her, since I haven't tried this yet and I know it's no small feat. She said Daisy was very good the whole time, only starting to become a little fussy at the end. The way she described it was so recognizably Daisy to me: she said Daisy started to whimper just a little bit, so she didn't take the fussing very seriously, but when she looked closely, a single poignant tear was rolling down the side of her face. That's Daisy.
Anyway, tonight Daisy started crying 45 minutes after I put her to bed. I tried to wait it out, but after 20 minutes of screaming, I caved in. When you cave in to a Daisy night-crying session, it's the saddest thing in the world. You walk in, and she's always on her stomach with her head up, eyes fixed on the door. When she sees you, she starts waving hysterically at you with her own peculiar Daisy wave: a totally limp wrist, which the arm sort of flings around haphazardly.
I had to sing to her while rocking her to calm her down. I have a set repertoire of soothing bedtime songs I go through, all very slow and lulling and sleep-inducing; these are songs I only sing when I'm getting her to sleep, so she will associate them with sleepiness. (I have a different repertoire of songs I sing for other moods and occasions.) She was entirely back to sleep as I neared the end of my sleepy song repertoire, all cuddly and quiet in my arms with her eyes closed, not moving. Then for the fun of it, and because I was bored with the typical songs, I decided to sing "Hava Ngila" as my last song instead. I was singing it very quietly and soothingly, but nonetheless, the sleeping (I thought) Daisy raised her little hands in the air, eyes still closed, and began to clap along with the song. She sleep-clapped all the way through it.
It amused me. And that is why this post is called "girl shows her roots."
posted by Sarah Goss at 8:29 PM
3 Comments:
Sarah, that is so funny! I have 3 lullabies that I always sing to the Daizl. Now, no matter how tempted I might be to sing "Tzena,
Tzena, Tzena" I will refrain.
Thanks for the tip!
Well, you should definitely sing her "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena," maybe just not as a lullabye. I have different sets of songs that I sing on different occasions... I am trying to associate certain songs with sleep in her mind, so that eventually, when she hears them, her brain will be programmed to immediately make her go to sleep. Think that'll work? Ha!
Hi Sarah!
The clapping is really funny. I think my dad would like this story too. One of the early early songs he taught/sang to me was the Cal Bears drinking song! Whatever works!
Adrienne
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