Sunday, February 9, 2014

Oh all those TWOs

I have been waiting for this. This week marked a few milestones. Me going back to work, Livi at daycare full time, me going away for work for 5 nights, and Livi finally putting two words together. "Babba come!" With her arms stretched out to her grandparents on Skype marked the first step towards a sentence. Next was "Dadda cup" pointing to Stef's coffee cup. So amazing to watch and listen to this process.

She 22 months, will be two in two months, says two words in a row, and now I know why they call it the terrible two's. Is is always such  A GOOD KID that when she exhibits defiance I am shocked and admittedly, have zero patience for it. So we breath. I have read something very important lately "Children behave as well as they are treated" so it's super important to acquire the patience I currently lack when she refuses to get dressed, get her diaper changed, put on her shoes or her winter coat. As every toddler, she is looking to exercise control, so as much as possible, I give her a choice. What shoes she wants to wear vs stuffing a screaming kid into the pair I picked. What books she wants to read, what snack she wants, what outfit she wants, etc. she is very quick to point at her selection and is very proud of her new found authority. I have found she is much more reasonable in situations when there is no room for negotiation.

A little concerned about daycare at the moment. But as a control freak, it's only natural. She was sleeping there like an angel, until one day she woke up early. One of the teachers held and rocked her back to sleep. The next day her usual teacher that puts her to sleep on her mat was not there, and the other teacher held her for two hours. Now it's a mess. Livi refuses to go on her mat and only sleeps when someone holds her, and wakes up and cries when they transfer her onto her mat. So the director put a stop to it by having Livi in her office when she doesn't go on her mat. But when the director is not there, the teachers feel sorry for her and hold her. It's a hard situation because I need her to sleep there or she will get sick AND her routine is all messed up.....coming home and sleeping then is not good for her routine or her health. I drove her teacher home last week and talked about it. We went through some strategies to try. Reading her a book like Dadda does is the first plan. With me gone and the weekends in between, she will be out of daycare for 11 days, so I am hoping her derailed sleeping habits there will reset. Dadda and Nanna are taking care of her while I am gone. She is not settled into daycare enough for her to be there all day at the moment. As usual, I am freaked out about a sleeping thing. It has been the only thing of worry for me since she was a baby.....and it has always worked out. She is old enough to know what is expected of her and is perfectly capable of falling asleep on her own. I have to trust that she will figure it out, and so will they.

Work has been great and really looking forward to being at a meeting. This part of my job I missed the most these past two years and it's almost surreal that I am about to board a plane to Toronto. The only baby thing I am traveling with is a breast pump and it's actually weird not to be packing a stroller, toys, book, etc onto the plane. We've taken Livi on 6 trips where we flew so going by myself feels oddly light and relaxed.

Our trip to Mexico was awesome. She still talks about it. We were showing pics of it to family last night, and her response to seeing pictures of it again was ' GO! ' ......I couldn't have said it better myself.

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