Sleeping Update

The sleeping is going much better, although sometimes it's still a guessing game (as parenting may always be?). After the first night of endless screaming, the next night she only screamed maybe 3 or 4 minutes. Wed. night was only about 2 min. and it wasn't nearly as loud. Her teacher said her naps are getting much easier & she doesn't even necessarily have to rely on the bottle. Afternoons have been a dream! I think she's so exhausted from school that she is ready to sleep. I can put her down awake & she'll talk to herself quietly for 10 minutes or so before drifting off-- no fuss. Sat. night she screamed again for a long time before going to sleep, but I think she had gotten past her tired point & was just too overstimulated to rest. (My dad will remind me that she got this from me, as I was the same way growing up.)

This week we don't have much going on in the evenings, so I can take the time to make sure

she has a relaxing routine at least an hour or so before she goes to bed, and we'll see if that makes a difference. She has a different teacher in her class at school, and she'll be off 4 days in a row, so I'm a little worried we'll have to start all over with that, but I will try not to worry. We'll get past all this, and one day have much bigger issues to deal with.

Meanwhile, this is a little thing, but for some reason it amazed me & showed me how much fun it is to see my little girl learn new things & grow up:

She has learned how to put things IN and take them OUT of appropriate places.

Like this elephant & the blocks that go with it. I showed her once or twice how to put the block in the hole, and then-- she couldn't stop doing it!

And this toy, too. She figured out the lights flash & music plays if the ball just barely goes in the hole. So she'll hold it there, and eventually drop it & pick it up & put it back in. (Today she tried to put a square block in there, though, so she doesn't completely get it!)

And she was gnawing on a teething ring while sitting in my lap. I opened my mouth and said "ah" and she put the ring in my mouth. Upon finding that it fit, she started to giggle and did it over & over. What a funny kid.

While playing in her room the other day, she found her "niche." She crawled behind her crib, where I had stashed a huge Dora the Explorer pillow and her teddy bear. She loved that pillow & climbed all over it, hanging out behind her crib for quite a while. (Oh, and I didn't give her that paci. She found it under her crib and in the mouth it went!)