I think my girls are both in a transition.
Katherine – its obvious. She just turned 1. She is walking a few steps, standing a lot… at school she is now a young toddler, with only one nap a day (she sleeps great on a cot – who knew?), and drinking from sippies (she says no thank you except for a few sips of water). At school, they say she is doing great. At home… it comes out at night. When its time to sleep. She drinks her bottle, goes to sleep like an angel. And then 9pm hits and its very hit & miss from then on out. Sometimes she cries herself back to sleep. Sometimes she cries until we feed her or try motrin (she has also gotten 4 teeth in the past 6 days.) Sometimes daddy has to just hold her, though that is rare. She prefers to be in her crib with her pacis. It got to a point where I brought her to the pediatrician – are you sure there isn’t an ear infection in there? Nope. Healthy – which is great. But man, this is rough. We do have a plan to get her not so picky about sippies (she does fine, she can use them fine, she just shakes her head no after a sip or two and hands it back.) We have a plan to disassociate sleep & bottles. So we’ll get there.
Amelia – this one is harder. I think she is having a bit of a rough transition into little girl from toddler. She is a sensitive loving girl, and I think some things just take a toll on her. She’s in a new room at school which she LOVES. But she is learning a lot more, at a faster pace. She has a lot going on in that head of hers. So sometimes going to sleep is hard and she needs a back rub. She gets scared easily so that’s a challenge – just the other night the TV made a noise and now she is scared of TVs when they are off (not on of course – Mickey is still the favorite around here.) She doesn’t always understand why we say ‘no’ – that there is logic – and she gets all teary and sad. Especially if she is tired. She used to be in the independent I can do it phase, really before she could do it. Now she has entered an ‘I can’t’ phase – which makes mommy mad. I don’t ever want to hear her say that, I just want her to try. SHe is allowed to ask for help if its not going well – but to not try, not acceptable. So that’s the battle we have a lot around here. Besides, most of the stuff? She could do (and has done before.)
These rough times are really a small part of the day to day life around here. Most of the time the girls are doing great – but we are in a transition, and there are a few bumps along the way.
Speaking of turning one – we did Katherine’s one year photo shoot with the fabulous Elizabeth of Libbie Wicket. I really didn’t know what we would get – I knew in the beginning there would be good ones – because the first 10 minutes were a good smiley 10 minutes. But what followed felt like a hot mess of cranky teething 1 year old and slightly non-cooperative 3 year old…. so to see these photos? The first time I watched them was with awe. The second time made my grumpy wake up mood go away. Another time today made me tear up. Thank you Elizabeth.
