a day off?

i took wednesday off from work so that i could finish up some christmas shopping, wrap gifts, get our family presents shipped out, and mail out our christmas cards. it was non-stop action all day from 7am until 12:30am and i still didn't get everything done!

madelyn was having another difficult day. so matt and i discussed giving her a little motrin to see if it was something causing her pain that was leading this this totally out of character behavior. while waiting for the motrin to kick in (or not) i launched into the battle of the shirt. for a few days madelyn has not been willing to put on a shirt and it has taken a lot of effort (and time) to get her into one. not having a lot of time before we needed to head out, i struck a deal - what about a zip up jacket instead? she loved that idea. so we quickly finished getting dressed and she would put on everything but her coat (usually her favorite item). i did convince her to bring it with us even if she didn't want to wear it because she might be cold. she even carried it all the way to the car for me. and as soon as we got out of the car at the first store she asked to put it on.

about the time we got in the car the motrin started relieving whatever pain she has been in because she was like her normal self all day! she walked without wining into and out of stores. she carried the basket for me in one of the stores. it was so nice to run errands with a happy little girl again! we had such a fun day together. we even sat down and shared a pretzel after shopping at sam's before heading home for lunch and a nap (for her, not me - i had a lot of wrapping to get done).

i had hoped to get all the wrapping and boxing done for our shipments while madelyn napped, but 2-1/2 hours later i was barely halfway there! madelyn was really helpful with the wrapping. i would wrap something and she would put it in the bag for where it was being shipped. the wrapping must have looked like fun because madelyn tried to wrap herself up in the paper. then she spent some time working very hard to carry the extra rolls of paper around the house before building towers with the ribbon spools. like i said, she was her normal, delightful, helpful self.

since we had success with the motrin we feel certain that she is dealing with pain. and when she spit up a little bit of milk twice yesterday, i feel fairly certain that it is her 2-year molars. she only spits up when she is teething so it has been a sure sign that teeth are on their way. we have her 18-month check up on tuesday, so we will definitely discuss this with her doctor. we haven't given her any more motrin - so don't worry that we are drugging our daughter for our convenience. and her temperament has been slightly improved so maybe she is getting used to it. some of it is just the normal "terrible twos" type of things, but there is very obviously more going on with her right now. love.