Ugh. It’s been a while. Sorry about that! I actually formulate posts all the time, and then never actually get them written. This might be a long one!
So. Dare I say….I think we may the sleeping thing fixed. At least mostly. In a state of pure desperation, the first week of December I purchased a book called “Good Night, Sleep Tight.” Greatest. Sleep. Book. Ever. Daddy and I knew we were never going to let you cry-it-out alone, but continually allowing you to fall asleep in our arms only to wake up a few hours later and need us to fall back to sleep was not an option either. So we tried out this book’s method of “weaning” you. The gist is to re-train you to learn to fall asleep by yourself in your crib. The first night was the hardest – hand’s down. I put you in your crib, drowsy but awake. And I sat on the floor right next to your crib and calmly tried to talk to you and rub your back while you screamed at me and stood up asking to get out – for over an hour. And you woke up later in the night and we went through it all over again. But by the second night, you only took 30 minutes to fall asleep, and 15 minutes in the middle of the night. We’ve had a few ups and downs (you got a double ear infection right in the middle of the training cycle so we had to put it on hold for about a week). But now we’re at the point where we put you in your crib, tell you we’re right outside your door, and every few minutes check on you until you fall asleep. It takes anywhere from 5 – 15 minutes depending on how ‘active’ you are. You’ve even resorted to jumping up and down and laughing in your crib. But you no longer get mad at us or demand that we pick you up. You still have a bad night in the middle of the night every once in a while, where it will take over an hour to get you to calm down and fall asleep, but those are so rare these days. And you are so happy again! AND YOU NAP! So clearly, the experts are right: sleep begets sleep. (insert sigh of relief here)
Your language is continually exploding every day. You are starting to form sentences and you are really getting good at communicating with all of us. I love it! My current favorite word is “muk” – which is milk. We’ve all adopted it – like when we adopted the word “gunks” from Hadley. I can’t even keep track of how many words you have now – it’s wonderful. And it’s so funny, because your sister at this age barely said anything. Now, keep in mind, she started speaking in full sentences around 2 and never stopped….. but it’s still another funny way you are choosing to be different from her.
Though you still love to read more than anything, you have become quite opinionated about which books you’ll let us read to you and which ones you won’t. Though you love it now, you even dismissed “Goodnight Moon” about 10 times before you’d let us read it! Seriously. Greatest toddler bedtime book ever, loved by bazillions. And you wouldn’t have it. That’s my B. There are evenings where, sitting in your rocking chair, I have to present 7-8 books to get 3 read. If I try to read a book you aren’t interested in hearing, you slam it shut, usually with my hand still inside.
Movies are a different story. YOU LOVE TV! You are your father’s daughter. It doesn’t even have to be a cartoon – case in point:” The Princess Bride”. You love it. At the end of the day when you in walk in the door after school, the current routine goes something like this:
-throw jacket on floor
-walk to cabinet and demand a “SNACK!”
-walk over to bookshelf and beg for a movie
And if we deny you said movie, you generally throw yourself on the tile floor and fake-sob (while we ignore you) until you decide to get up and see what Hadley is doing. It’s quite comical.
I think I’ll wait to talk about Christmas until I get some of those photos uploaded. I’ll try to do that this weekend.
Iloveyoumadly.
mama
