I woke up from my morning nap--trust me, I need it in order to be pleasant for the day. I wake up early to get Tommy off to school and then Natalie and I head upstairs for an hour morning nap. Granted Natalie doesn't always sleep right away. I'll hear her playing in her crib and be thankful that she's learned to entertain herself.
Anyhow I woke up from my morning nap and went in to retrieve Natalie like usual. I walked in and went to the crib.
Her toys were strewn all over the mattress. She sleeps with a variety of toys: Elmo, a few books, a dolly, a musical phone, a caterpilliar that tinkles out classical music and annoying songs about bugs and such...usually I find Natalie curled up at the end of the crib or something. Eventually she tires herself out and drifts off to sleep, you see.
But, after peering into the crib for a few seconds I realized with horror that she wasn't there.
It must've been a delayed reaction, I don't know. Because all I did was blink in confusion at the Natalie-less crib as though I expected her to suddenly morph on her mattress in front of me. But she didn't.
She was gone.
And suddenly my blood ran cold and my mouth began to open, ready to emit the loudest scream that I probably would have ever been cast from my mouth.
But then, in the corner of my eye, I saw a small pink bundle.
My eyes swiveled over and there she was.
Natalie.
My Natalie. On her stomach, all balled up on her large Tickle-Me-Elmo's lap.
I suppose my emotions caught up with me because I suddenly yelled, "Oh my GOD!" and scooped her into my arms.
Natalie was none to pleased to be awoken in such a manner. Her eyes blinked open in surprise and she looked downright pissed.
She muttered some not-so-nice sounding words at me and then pointed to my eye.
"Eye," she said seriously, not understand that her mother had believed her to be kidnapped 30 seconds prior.
"Oh my GOD," I said again, my heart beating fast. With Natalie against my chest, finger still cocked in the direction of my eyeball, I rushed into our bedroom where Tom was fast asleep.
"TOM!" I barked.
I had to tell someone.
"TOM!" I said again and the lump in our bed stirred and angrily muttered out a response. He cracked open one eye. "Who is on the phone now?" he grumbled, arm coming out from under the sheets and outstretched. He assumed that I was waking him up because a troop called, like usual.
But no.
"Natalie got out of her crib and fell asleep on the FLOOR. I thought she was GONE. I thought someone had kidnapped her!" The words tumbled from my mouth in a hurry as I held Natalie against my heart. Natalie was beginning to feel stiffled so she pushed against my chest angrily and struggled to break free.
Tom dropped his arm. "Huh?"
"Natalie got out of her crib and fell asleep on the FLOOR!" I repeated. "What if she had snapped her neck while getting out of the crib? What if she had been SMOTHERED by one of her toys?"
A smile began to form on Tom's face. "Have you been watching those Chucky movies, Amber? Toys don't come alive and smother people in real life," his scratchy voice explained.
"Well, she could get stuck in all her stuffed animals and be smothered," I explained, kissing a wiggly Natalie's head. She finally broke free and crawled over to her daddy, throwing her arms around his torso.
Save me from the crazy woman!
"She's fine," Tom said firmly. Then he yawned. "Well now that I'm awake do you want to do something? Get lunch, maybe?"
So we headed to the BX. Which is a small (and I mean small) shopping center on base. I thought their Toyland was opening today since I had an ad that said so. But no, near the front door was a sign saying that Toyland actually opened tomorrow.
*Sighs*
Then we decided to have Taco Bell for lunch. I wanted to try that new volcano taco and see if it was truly spicy. It drives me insane when places claim that things are hot but when I bite into them, they aren't at all.
The volcano taco was somewhat spicy. I added fire sauce to it and then it was perfect.
When we got home I had Tom move Natalie's crib to the lowest setting. Before it was on the second lowest and I assumed that Natalie wouldn't attempt to climb out.
Obviously I was wrong. It's just, her brother never even tried to get out of his crib until he was nearly three. He stayed in his crib for a long time because I figured since he was comfortable, why move him? It always baffles me when people start to talk about moving their one-year-old to a toddler bed. I suppose if another baby is on the way and they need the crib it makes sense...
It always surprises me how different Natalie and Tommy are. Tommy was my calm baby. He'd sleep anywhere and be content.
Natalie...well, some people might recall that she'd only sleep if someone was holding her for the first two months of her life. Then she was able to sleep in her swing. And then, finally, I was able to move her into her crib. But it took some time. She also screamed a lot more than Tommy. Still does.
So Tom moved the crib to the lowest setting. And I plopped Natalie in her newly lowered crib so she could try it out.
"You can't escape out of here now," I told her.
Natalie laughed at me. She lifted her leg as though to try to get herself out but realized she couldn't. She looked a tad insulted.
"Sorry," I said. "You're only seventeen months old. Don't grow up too fast."
Natalie pointed at me. "Eye?" she asked.
"Eye," I replied.
She's just growing up so fast.
I have some pictures of the little escape artist. I put her in one of her dresses.
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