Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Today is Maria's birthday (well for 1 more minute according to my computer clock). Maria has been awake for about 18 hours of it, maybe more. She didn't get to sleep until about 2:30am last night/this morning. She took 1 or 2 hour-long naps, and now it's midnight and she's not asleep yet. I do not know what in the heck is going on with her sleep clock, but she doesn't like to go to sleep at night. I told Manoli we should move her crib into her room and try having her sleeping alone w/no distractions, but his response was "you want to get rid of Maria (from the bedroom), but you won't get rid of the cats". So I guess he's not ready yet...

Sue, the nanny, got Maria a wonderful big caterpillar balloon and a Furby. Remember those? So I read the instructions and learned how to feed it, make it dance, tell a story, sleep. Maria seems to like it. They say it can learn English, but I think it's only the pre-programmed words. I was hoping to make it say "Maria", but can't figure out how.

To show you what a mean, horrible mom I am, this is what I fed the birthday girl for dinner: green bean/carrot/potato mixture (same thing she had for lunch), pasta shells, couple bites of a vienna sausage (one bite of which she fed herself!), and banana pudding. What the heck kind of birthday dinner is that? (Scarred for life...)

But to make it up to her, tomorrow we're having a little party for her. Inviting a few of my friends over. Don't think there will be any little kids here; maybe her buddy Dakin. Just a 6-yr old, a 10-yr old, and adults. Manolis will cook souvlaki (pork and chicken marinated on skewers - very yummy!) and make Greek salad. I made cupcakes. Plus we'll have cheese & crackers, shrimp cocktails, M&Ms, ice cream, beer, wine, juice - not very kid-like... We're going to give Maria her own cupcake and see what she does with it. Well, I guess I'll give Maria a bottle (of milk) and see if that'll knock her out. I've already tried lavendar salve, Calms for Kids homeopathy pills, and cereal w/fruit - all my usual tricks, which aren't working. She'll probably sleep through the entire party tomorrow. 2 years old, can you believe it? She's been w/o the feeding tube for a whole year now!!! She's made so much progress in the last year. If only we could get her to sleep.