There once was a girl with a curl, right in the middle of her forehead....
when she was good, she was very, very good and when she was bad, she was horrid.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way about their 2 year old. And luckily most of the time she is very, very good, but other times....
I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way about their 2 year old. And luckily most of the time she is very, very good, but other times....
well, isn't she darling?
She's trying to grow up so fast. In January she started a little preschool where 2 other friends attend. It's pretty low key, but she loves it, the teacher is wonderful and she comes home tired and happy.
Emma is getting excited about barbies. For some unknown reason, she calls them "barbecues" which is just way too darling to correct.
She's really interested in sitting on the potty, but not really ready to train yet. A few of her friends have just learned to use it and Riley is super excited to potty-train Emma, but with a new baby and a move on the horizon that will most likely equate regression. So until she's showing every physical sign of readiness, we're not starting that process. 
But she did claim independence from the crib. One night 2 weeks ago she starting climbing out, over and over again, luckily without injury. I guess we had to graduate from the crib sooner or later, I just thought we'd have a little more time to prep. So now one side is off the crib so it is like a toddler bed and she can climb out and in and in and out over and over again. We tried keeping her in her room with a baby gate; she climbs over, she climbs under and occasionally knocks it down. We tried night lights and lamps so she can read books for a while; she takes them apart. We're trying a sticker chart to eventually earn a reward; she's earned 1 sticker out of 6 opportunities. Now we also have a lock on the door, but I feel like she might be able to bust it any day. Anyone have any tricks up their sleeve?
The girls share a room, so we've been putting Riley to sleep in our room until Emma's completely asleep, but just this last week due to sickness or what ever, she's waking up in the middle of the night and waking up the entire house and has a hard time going back to sleep. Michael and I are starting to get sleep deprived and grumpy about it.
Some suggest a crib tent, but that feels like it would just delay the inevitable with the next baby coming and all. We're considering getting bunk beds for the girls and they seem pretty excited about it, but I have a hard time believing that would magically solve our problems. But it would be nice, huh? maybe worth a try...
But she is so DANG cute, during the daylight hours anyways...
7 comments:
My suggestion is one I used with my girls when they wouldn't go to bed (and still are bad about that sometimes...) is that I take away something they really enjoy doing daily, but that doesn't really affect you.
Olivia's favorite thing is dresses, skirts, or jumpers. If she doesn't behave at bedtime, the next day she has to wear PANTS and it's terrible to wear pants you know.
I think with Elizabeth we took away Star Wars or something. Now we take away her stuffed animal. Bedtime is hard.
Good luck.
And I completely agree that she is a doll. =)
Oh, Emma! You are trying to grow up really fast! We are going through the bedtime/naptime struggles with Julia now too, but she is also going to be three in two weeks!
Emma is such an independent little girl, maybe the best way to deal with this is to get her excited about what you want her to do? Then she'll make sure she does it well and does it herself? We've found out, that's the only thing that works for us.
treats/rewards didn't seem to work for eva either. nor taking away privileges/toys. the only thing i can suggest is persistence, persistence, persistence! as soon as she comes out put her back, eventually she'll get the point (hopefully it doesn't take too long. i know how quickly sleep deprivation can affect one's mood, especially in a pregnant state!). i'm sure you're doing that, and probably at this point it seems hopeless, but i think exactly what you do, new "booby-traps" to keep her in just delay the problem instead of fixing it. i think that's why we've had to retrain eva on staying in her room/bed several times now--graduating from crib, to being tall enough to open doors, to being able to take off the toddler knob, crawling over/under baby gates, being able to take off a TAPED toddler knob, etc. if i could do it again, i'd skip all the gimmicks and stick it out for a couple weeks or more, and have that be the ONLY time i have to "train" her.
I also agree with you on one other thing...Emma is "DANG cute." =)
Oh Jess, I can hardly believe it was just 6 short years ago that we were cramming together all the time and now you are soon to be mother of three asking for parenting advice. Sometimes I still feel like I am 22 and in hygiene school. Your girls are darling and I totally agree about the 2 year old thing...difficult yet so enjoyable. As for the bed situation, we went through the exact thing, climbing out, then making a toddler bed, then not sleeping in said toddler bed. I just got the doorknob covers and it worked long enough to get Cannon to sleep in his bed and not come out. It only took him a few weeks to figure out how to get them off but they had done their job by then.
Hope you get some sleep soon...
Jess, what cutie you've got there! Some of the things you put the most work in, comes the greatest rewards! :)
OH, MY GOSH--
that is exactly the rhyme that my mother used to describe me when I was little---
and I actually had the curls!
oh, I am so sorry if she inherited it from me!
Post a Comment