A Nap, a Birthday, and the Rise of the Great Tile Monster

Norah's naps have been scarce over the past few days. Jason had a 3-day weekend, for Memorial Day, and Norah could hardly stand to sleep when there was someone as cool and super-fun as Daddy to play with at home! Thankfully, today things seem to be back on schedule, with only boring Mommy at home. She went down without a fight for her morning nap, and she was sleeping so peacefully I just couldn't help but take her picture. (And for the record, she didn't wake up with the flash...she's a pretty sound sleeper)




Over the weekend, we celebrated Uncle Grant's birthday. Paige asked if I would mind making a "tractor cake", so this is what I came up with. Now, Andrea and Lyneil, before you go getting all excited that I didn't go with a big, green tractor, let me explain. Grant's tractor is a Kubota, so if I had made his cake look like a John Deere, I never would have heard the end of it!


One other noteworthy occurance over the past week, is the emergence of what Jason and I have come to refer to as the "Tile Monster". Norah has developed a serious fear to walking barefoot on our tile floors. (There she is pictured at left, "toeing the line" as Jason and I stand in the kitchen, encouraging her to come hither) I should also add, it is only our tile that she's afraid of. She had no problem walking around Grammy and Grandpa's tile floors this weekend.

For a couple of days, she was especially whiny before we finally caught on that it was only when she was barefoot in the kitchen or hallway.
We have discovered that if she's wearing shoes, she can traverse the entire house, regardless of flooring medium. She's also willing to walk barefoot on the tile if she is holding one of our hands. I trace this fear back to earlier last week, when I was mopping the kitchen. I removed Norah from the kitchen 3-4 times while the floors were wet, but she just kept coming back to them, which finally resulted in a cartoon character-esque slip and fall that left her lying flat on her back.
Sometimes she seems to forget her fear and walks into a tiled room, then when the sudden realization of where she's standing rushes over her, she starts shaking and crying out for rescue. She grabs onto the nearest wall or cabinet door, and will not budge until someone comes for her. We're still working on a home remedy for this one. We've tried walking with her on the tile, but as soon as we leave her on her own, she reverts back to crying. So weird. I didn't even think she had fallen very hard...there were no bruises, and she didn't cry for long. I guess no matter how much it physically hurt, it left an emotional scar of sorts.