Success with the bed time routine! finally!

 

I think I have finally found out how to successfully put Loveliness to bed.  Now I hope that I am not speaking about it too prematurely and it will flat out fail tomorrow!  I am confident that this time it will work out right for all of us.  I know I have touched base on this topic a few times.  The problems lately have been that she is giving my husband the run-around when its time for tooth brushing and peeing.  When she finally gets it done, she is a monster about book reading or bed time.  This is usually on his watch, I might add.  She seems to co-operate a little better when I am doing it.  Only slightly better recently.  Today we had a huge success and I wanted to share it…

The three steps to having a bed time routine success are

1. Find out what is working, and build on that.  With our family our little girl really likes it when we Snuggle with her, and she loves it when I sing her bed time songs.  I usually sing three songs to her.  Its our special time and we enjoy it.  The lights are out, we are snuggled in bed.  She chooses the first song.  Its always – The Beatles ‘All My Loving’.  I choose the second song, and the third song is usually a new song she hasn’t heard before (I try my best).  Then we are quiet and snuggle for five minutes and I do my best no to fall asleep.  We are using the songs to build on. We are keeping our snuggle time as something she will always get no matter what.  We have skipped snuggle time before and we were all very sad about that.
2. Do not “take away” as a punishment. The best way in my opinion for this to work is to not take away any of what she is getting with her bed time routine.  Rather we are giving her a chance to earn what she will be getting.  If she behaves properly she gets to earn her first song, then if she continues she gets her second song etc… finally victory all three songs at bed, and a book
3. Encourage “good behavior” and reward it. I introduced this “new” way tonight and spoke with her about a new fun way for her to be able to have her snuggle time, book time and song time at bed time everynight.  I asked her lots of questions about how she would like being able to have each thing, and I told her that we didn’t like to take away book time and she agreed.  We told her that she would earn it, and explained how it will work.  As we did it, I expressed how happy I was with the way everything was going.  I made sure we had time for “high fives” and I continued to reiterate what a great job she was doing.

 

Our bed time routine went a little as follows.  I will try to keep it as point form as possible. Remember that I explain every detail to her about the routine so she knew what to expect and what was expected as well as how to gain “rewards”

We set the timer for 10 minutes.  If she brushes her teeth well (with my help) and drinks her water she earns song number one.  If she makes an attempt to go pee pee (no pee pee, is ok, as long as you try)  she gets song number 2.  If she does it before the timer beeps she gets to have Daddy read her book to her.  If she doesn’t get all crazy and kicky with her sister at book reading time, she listens and doesn’t complain when its time for bed she gets song number 3.  sprinkle the whole thing with high fives, big smiles, and encouraging words and we have success. ♥

Sunshines new tricks

 

So for those of you that don’t know.  Sunshine is almost 10 months old now.  She can crawl really fast, and even faster when you call her name.  She loves going near anything that is “electricity”.  My other daughter Loveliness often calls out “mommy Sunshine is going near electricity again” and then I come to the rescue and retrieve her from toppling over the Wii or pushing the buttons on the PS3.  If there is a cell phone, remote or any sort of gadget near her, she is on it!

Babies play Video Games too!

The newest trick she is doing is standing up and moving around while crawling on the furniture.  Couch surfing as some call it.  She is quite good at it and we are convinced that she will be walking in no time.  Loveliness was able to walk at 11 months.  The really impressive part of this new trick is how she crawls over to the dining room table, pulls herself up and holds on and tries to hang her body from the table.  She tries to do little pull ups.  When she can’t do it she starts to get mad and starts to yell. 

I need to change my bio- because the little girl that sat in her seat and was quiet like a mouse is not living at our house anymore.  This little one is a yeller.  I think she is starting to teeth even more these days and she is letting me know.  If she doesn’t like what she is eating. She yells at me.  She can’t get something. She yells at me.  I am in her way. She yells at me.  Basically she is making herself heard, she has found that we respond to her screams and is starting to communicate. 

We have been doing the baby sign language with her as well.  I have been a little slack with it these last few weeks so I plan to get back on it.  I think this will only help her with her frustrations.  When we do the signs for “more” and “eat” and “water”. She looks at us and yells.  She is very interested in words and she tries to repeat them,  I am just looking forward to a little less screaming. ♥

The Morning Brawler

 

Would you like to pull on my left ear ?

So this is the new game that Sunshine is starting to play with me EVERY MORNING.  Its called “wake up sleepy mommy” 

Or my right ear?

The game starts out very innocently.  A gentle hair pull is all that it is.  Not much to be alarmed about.  It then escalades into harder pulling, tugging and grabbing.  All the while she is trying to climb over my body and get to the other side of the bed so she can leap and fall flat on her face to the carpet below.  She is very spry for a baby of nearly 10 months old.We have been lucky so far and we have not had this happen, be we are wise to her tom foolery.  If my attention is not grasped by her follicle grasping she starts to pull on my ears.  I have responded to this with a pillow case on my head.  She is wise in her technique and comes back with a sharp jab in the face with her little claws of fury.  I am awake now.  As my eyes start to open I am attacked by the ram of her little fingers right up my nostrils! This wakes me up for serious!

Things I have done as a mother

 

I have been blessed with 2 beautiful children.  I have cared for other children in my home as if they were my own as well.  Here is just a little list of some of the things that have popped in to my head.

Raise your hands if you have done any of the following.

• Picked a booger from your child’s nose with your pinky nail.  You now keep it a little bit longer on purpose because you know such an an occasion will arise where you will need to do a “sweep”.
• tried to keep a journal of everything, had best intentions.  Life just moves so fast.
• nibbled teeny tiny toes
• laughed at the same knock knock joke all week
• Held a piece of chewed up meat wad in my hand until I was able to find a napkin or garbage to dispose of it.
• Needed time away, then thought about them every 10 minutes we were apart
• Smelled more bum bums willingly to check if there was a poop.
• Fell asleep at 8 pm with your kid because snuggling is so comfy
• used your shirt to wipe a runny nose. (theirs not mine!- ya because that would be gross!)
• kept hair, belly stub, and other treasures
• played hide and go seek and intentionally made noise because being caught was the best part
• watching them sleep for as long as you can, even though your eyes don’t want to stay open anymore.
• said, “don’t make me come and get you”, knowing that it was a game.  Fell for it and started running after them in the store.
• being so unbelievably proud of the smallest accomplishments, because they are such big milestones to overcome
• never new you could ever love so much

 

thanks for reading. I hope you were able to raise your hand a few times also.  I think I will go and make sure my little ladies are tucked in snuggly. ♥

Kindergarten Approaches

 

I cannot believe that it is almost time to send my little girl, err I mean my big girl, err I mean my big little girl to Kindergarten this September!  They say the time goes by fast, and boy does it ever.  I have to enroll her on Monday so she can be ready to go for September.  I need to get her ready starting Monday so she will be able to do all the things she needs to do on her own by September.

She is mostly ready, I think I am the one that is just needing to be ready.  I need to wrap my head around the fact that my little girl is growing up now.  Soon she will be gone for 1/2 a day!  I chose to stay home from work so I can nurture her and help her grow, and teach her.  I stayed at home because I believe that my time spent with her has been to help her for this step.  I never focused on what I needed to do to overcome this step myself.  I think I am more scared of her going off, than she is.

I do like the idea of being able to spend the mornings with Sunshine.  The one on one time we will share has been something that has been lacking from our relationship.  I can spend time playing with her, and teaching her, the same things I enjoyed doing with Loveliness when she was that age.  I look forward to that!  I may even be able to get some time at the swimming pool and take her swimming.  We have not been able to do anything like that since it would be too difficult to do that with myself and the both of them.

I just worry a lot about small things I guess. 

The first day she goes on that bus, I will be bawling like a little baby.  I will need my Kleenex. I guess I just have to let her go out there and take a breath in the big bad world! 

It broke my heart yesterday when I said.  “wow, so you will be going to Kindergarten soon eh?”

“but I don’t want to go, No- I don’t want to go away from you”

“don’t worry it will only be a half day”

“no- don’t leave me EVER!”

Then I told her that she would meet lots of new friends, and she could have little cupcake parties, and invite her new little friends over.  She was all for it!

Baby Gates STAT!

Looks like our little Sunshine is growing up.  She is now able to sit up by herself from a lying down position!  She has been doing a commando crawl for months now. She doesn’t just drag her legs behind her, she moves them, kind of like a frog does.  It’s hard to explain. 

Now she is sitting up though! We are so excited!  She is also able to stand and hold my hand beside the couch.  I usually slide her off the couch on her belly so she is in a standing position and I hold her hand.  She is always very proud of her self and usually stays up for a while.  When she is tired we ease her down and she goes on her merry way.

The only problem is when she sits, she still has the tendency to shift her weight backward and she falls smack on her head against the floor.  OUCH! We place a pillow behind her.  It doesn’t happen all the time and we have to follow her around with a pillow because she crawls around, but she is getting better at her new trick. 

Today, she was also trying to climb the Living Room Stairs!  She made the first step, and was rocking on it trying to go for the second stair.  Looks like I need to find some baby gates pretty fast.  It’s funny how these things creep up on you and you realize they are growing up.  I look at Loveliness and see such a “big girl”, Sunshine is still a baby, but catching up everyday.