Benchmarks

We've been encountering a lot of benchmarks in our house lately, and I don't mean the kind Penny's been leaving on our sofa.

Naomi is 3 1/2 months old, and she is fantastically amazing. (I hope every parent says that about their child.) The other day I was playing the piano while she lay on the couch cooing. She was happy for quite a while, but then her coos turned to cries. "Just let me get to the end of this song," I thought in my concerned-parent mode. I kept playing, and when I finally went over to see what was wrong, this is what I found:

That's right, Naomi is making benchmarks of her own, both in the puddle of drool on the couch and in the fact that she rolled over, from back to front, at 3 1/2 months! Penny rolled from front to back once at about 5 months, and I don't think she EVER rolled from back to front. At least, not until she could already walk and stuff.

So now I put her down on the rug when I play the piano. I can see her out of the corner of my eye, which is helpful when Penny goes over and says, "Squish Meimei," prodding her with a foot.

And that's a new couch, by the way.

We felt like we'd gotten too comfortable in our apartment. I mean, I'd finally figured out where all the light switches were and which ones turned on which lights. Kevin had arranged his speakers and whatnot into a fantastic surround-sound system. I remember looking at one of my cupboards and panicking a little bit, seeing that it was rather full and would be a lot to get rid of when we moved again. (It's been a while since we've lived in a place more than 5 months.)

So we moved.

It's a long and not terribly interesting story involving Kevin's job and some office stuff, but we moved to a new apartment in our same building. Its main selling points are that it has a study right by the master bedroom, which is now Naomi's nursery. Our other place had a room for Naomi, but it was the last one down the hall, furthest from the master bedroom. We couldn't hear her if she cried, and the baby monitor we got doesn't work with all the reinforced concrete walls.

Our new apartment also has a breakfast bar, which I didn't realize I loved so much until our other place didn't have one. It's just a tiny annoyance, but I pretty much hate moving everything for dinner down the hall to the dining room and then moving everything back afterwards, especially since evening is the time when one of the girls is usually crying and needing their Mommy.

We have a better view, more sunlight, a guest bedroom, a walk-in closet, a shower that doesn't leak onto the bedroom carpet (don't ask), and a better TV entertainment center.

You're probably wondering, what about the piano? Well, we did have to hire a piano company. They packed it up, moved it, and then even tuned it afterwards-- all for about $120!! Sure, it's not pocket change, and I'm not planning on moving it again until we're done in Shenyang, but that's a steal!

I do feel bad about our other couch, with its many benchmarks. I should probably remind them to have it cleaned.

And speaking of Penny peeing all over stuff, the other day while I was stuck nursing Naomi, Penny announced that she had to pee. She wandered off, and I heard her banging around in the bathroom. She toddled back carrying her little potty chair, and she proceeded to do her business right there in the hallway, putting her potty chair where I could see her. That's the first time she's initiated using the potty!

We've been in our new apartment for almost a week now, and so far, the couch is spot-free. I think part of it is that we've stopped giving her pints of fruit juice to guzzle, switching instead to water. Another part is that it seems to finally have clicked. We sent her to her room a couple times after she peed in her pants, and I think the light finally came on that, "Hmm, maybe I'm not supposed to do this after all." The things we think are obvious aren't always so to a toddler.

So Penny reached a benchmark and has been doing really well at preventing other benchmarks on our new sofa. When you come to visit, please feel free to sit anywhere you'd like.