2010

I realized that I only wrote 14 blogs last year. That is not impressive at all. At our blogging peak, we wrote almost 90 in one year. I guess with a lack of time and busier lives blogging falls down on the list, but I still like having it around. I am not going to commit to writing more blogs. Every blog I read usually has a low point and then they swear they will write more and they don't. I will just say that I will continue to post as I have time and something to say. There used to be two of us doing this, but m quit years ago....

Updates:

1. Potty Training: all done. check. [famous last words]. EG has done great. She wears panties all day and usually through nap as well. I sometimes put her in a pull up at nap if she has had a ton to drink, but she wakes up dry. I think that is about me not wanting her to have a bad experience (waking up with wet panties). She does wear a pull up at night, but she is waking up dry in the mornings too. I really had this potty training built up in my mind as a struggle, but so far it has been fine. Again, she was ready. It was her decision.

2. Getting out of bed. EG has been in a toddler bed since late summer. She has always been really good at staying in bed and going to sleep until winter break. She started getting out of bed after we put her down. These are things we have "caught" her doing:

twirling in her room
running down the hallway
sitting at the top of the stairs
reading books to elmo
playing with her new jewelry box
looking for dress up clothes

We were totally frustrated with the "game" of going upstairs and getting her back in bed. After a few days of thinking about it I went to find our old Dr. Ferber book. Sure enough, he had an entire chapter dedicated to this very issue. It made me feel better that it was a common issue and he had ideas for solving it. We used his method (as we always have) and of course within two nights and 3 minutes (total) of crying she was staying in her bed again.

3. Once we solved the getting out of bed and playing issue and potty training had settled down we realized EG was still having trouble sleeping. She would wake up and just need something -- covers put back on, kisses, a little rocking in the rocking chair, etc... What we started to put together is that she was cold during the night and/or uncomfortable. Her covers weren't big enough, she had so much stuff in her toddler bed that she couldn't move around so.....

4. Time for the big girl bed. Her crib converts to a full size bed, so we went to the mattress store and let her try out a lot of mattresses and we picked one out. I went and picked it up on Friday afternoon (we figured a 3-day weekend was a good time to try and transition) and brought it home. After an hour of trying to "convert" the bed we finally got it done. We put on the linens and EG practiced getting in and out of bed.

5. She has done great with the big bed for the two nights she has had it. She has trouble settling down to fall asleep -- she's pretty excited about the bed -- but once she falls asleep she stays asleep until morning. Hoping this continues. This morning when she got up she said, "My feet have room in my new bed!"