Babies like repetition. This is why Audrey keeps crawling under the kids’ little table and getting stuck and banging her head. It is also why she keeps crawling under the rocking chair, getting stuck, and banging her head. Because it’s predictable, see. Get stuck. Every time. Bang head. Every time.

It’s possible that this is why she manages to get her tiny baby clothes dirty enough that I have to change her outfit three times a day. Because then we can REPEATEDLY enjoy the flailing of arms and the kicking of Mommy as I try to work the buttons. I get the added bonus of repeatedly washing laundry. There is that.

It may also be why Owen continues to inflict mild injury on her. (“What? We don’t sit on the baby? Why not, exactly?”) He gets to repeatedly apologize and repeatedly practice being gentle. See, he’s helping.

And I’ve decided that this is what’s behind Audrey’s disinterest in sleep of late. It’s not that she’s trying to drive us all a little batty by waking up every 43 minutes from 7PM to 11:30PM. She just prefers to have the getting-put-to-bed ritual repeated. And repeated. She also gets to repeat the cranky-clingy baby routine she’s been working on, and I get to repeat my sort-of-still-patient mommy act. It’s working out well for us. And I’m going to repeat that to myself until I start to believe it. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.