Adventures with a 2 year old

Yesterday Miranda learned that if she stands up in her pack'n'play and reaches over the side she can touch my arm and wake me up since my bed is right next to hers (she used to just play in her pack'n'play but no longer...).  This morning she started tapping my arm at 5:15 AM!  Oh no!  Who wants to get up at 5:15?  I tried to ignore her but that was impossible.  Then I put her in bed next to me and had her lie down.  Well, that was not successful either as she was the squirmiest little thing.  Needless to say, we were up very early.

We decided to go back to the beach today since we had to leave early yesterday.  Miranda played in the wading pool again and ate more sand at the beach.  Then we played in the waves.  Miranda loved the waves.  She started out holding on to me but got braver and braver.  She would sit in the sand and then get knocked down and bowled over by the next wave.  She would come up breathless and laughing.  Then she would start far back on the beach and run straight into the waves.  She was a little more fearless than I liked and I would have to catch her before she ran out too far. 

There were more people swimming today (but it was not crowded by any means).  "Official" swimsuits are optional here.  Lot of boys were swimming in their underwear and the women were in the water in their skirts and tops.  We also saw quite a few surfers.

We ate a late lunch and Miranda was a little charmer.  She waved and smiled at most people.  She waved to the police officer, she waved to 3 teenage boys who were inside (we were outside). One lady actually moved to the adjacent picnic table to watch Miranda, so Miranda waved at her a whole bunch of times.

I should mention that we had a odd occurrence during lunch. We ordered pizza and it came with a two liter of soda.  They brought the soda to us but there were no cups. When we asked for cups they said they didn't have any.  So, we asked how were we supposed to drink the soda.  There was a brief conversation in Zulu between the waitstaff but we weren't sure what was said.  Well, a few minutes later a waiter came by with 3 cups that he had gotten from the neighboring restaurant!  I'm not sure if we somehow managed to order the take-out special or what but it never occurred to us that they would not have cups.

Miranda fell asleep while we were leaving the beach but then was awake and fussy for the 40 minute car ride home.  I put her in her pack'n'play for a nap when we got to the lodge and then came downstairs (the last few times when I stayed with her she talked to me and giggled instead of sleeping).  Well, she did not like that I came downstairs but I was hoping she would settle down for a nap.  After a while, I heard thumping upstairs and when I went upstairs she was smiling proudly because she had managed to climb out of the pack'n'play.  Urgh!

I was so frustrated with her.  She was overly tired and grouchy and would not sleep (and this made me grouchy!).  When we first started spending time with Miranda she would sleep all the time and fall asleep easily.  I was even worried that sleep was some type of shutdown mechanism.  Now, she fights sleep and it seems like every other day we have a struggle with sleeping.   I'm out of ideas on this one...