Apr 12 2013
Nesting in her nursery
We’ve been working hard getting Annada’s new room set up (Aragorn gets her old room). At first Annada had a lot of concern about switching beds. She’d happily sleep in the new bed (which is a bunk bed) if someone was sleeping below her (like Aunt Erica or Meme). But when it was just her, she’d switch back and forth.
Until… she discovered that she could fit ALL of her stuffed animals in the twin size bed. When I first saw her bed covered in a mound of 30+ stuffed animals/baby dolls I said no way. Without thinking it through I told Annada, “You don’t even fit in the bed! You have to be able to lay flat and comfortably or the animals go.”
Well, Annada immediately climbed up there and began very carefully arranging each animal and baby doll in her “nursery”. She found a way that each one could lay flat, have a blanket and still leave just enough room for her to nest in.
It reminds me of when she was a baby. She always loved sleeping either in my arms or in an infant rocker. It didn’t have to swing, it just needed to cuddle her on the sides. She also wanted to be swaddled with one arm out. When she got older, she slept pressed against the rails of the crib so that she woke up each morning with a mark on her forehead.
Even now she sleeps wrapped in a blanket with one arm out. If I cover her up in her sleep, the arm shoots back out right away. (An awful lot like she was in the womb too – one arm up).
So there is something extra sweet to me when I see her surrounded by animals, covered up, arm free, sleeping like… well, a baby.