This and that

As Sonia gets closer to turning three years old (in May), it seems like she is developing faster and faster.  It's amazing to watch as she gains more control over her movements (especially her dance moves.... hilarious!!!), increases her vocabulary at an exponential rate, and shows me that she understands more about how the world works.  The questions she asks crack me up; the other day, she asked me what those funny things on my feet were.  When I asked her to point to them, she touched my ankle bones gently.  I realized that she can't really see those bones on her chubby little ankles, but when I showed her where to press so she could feel her own ankle bones, she got a glimmer of understanding on her face that made me smile.

Girlfriend is IN LOVE with lip balm.  Having fallen prey to marketing, I am in the habit of calling all lip balm "Chapstick"; therefore, if Sonia asks you for "daptik", she is trying to tell you that her little lips are in need of moisture.  She was using some tubes of Blistex as rolling pins the other day when she was playing with playdough.

Sonia just finally passed through a horrible month-long potty training regression.  She had regressed a bit in December (no clue why), but seemed okay through Christmas.  When this regression hit in mid-January, I initially thought it was a continuation of the other regression.  Her accidents got so frequent that I actually put her back in Pull-Ups full time for almost a week so we could all take a breather.  Luckily, at the end of that week, my mom came to visit, and with her support, we got Sosini back in underpants and headed in the right direction.  Thank you so much for all of your help, Mom!!  I love you!!  Now, Sonia is doing even better than before the regression.  She has been telling us more often that she has to use the potty, and the occasional slip-ups are very minor.

In hindsight, it is now obvious to me that this regression was most likely linked to Sosi beginning preschool.  It began around the second week of Stepping Stones-- right when her separation anxiety reared its ugly head and drop-offs became stressful & tear-filled.  But with the help of Sonia's awesome teachers, 6 weeks into the program, Sonia is now happily kissing me goodbye and heading off into the classroom to play.  It took her a while to get used to the whole preschool experience, but the teachers say that Sonia now seems comfortable and doesn't need much special attention at all.  She told me in a very serious tone the other day that "it's okay to be without you at pee-school, Mommy".

Right around the same time that Sonia started school (and her potty training regression), she also stopped napping regularly.  First it was just the occasional nap fail, then napping only every other day, and now napping just twice a week.  The end of naps might be nearing....  But, she did nap every day for the last 3 days in a row, so who knows?  Perhaps the nap pattern disruption was just a short phase; perhaps the end is just around the corner.

The nap pattern disruption did make me realize one thing: I, myself, need to stop napping.  I had gotten into the terrible habit of snoozing every day for however long Sonia napped (usually 90 or more minutes).  Then, I would stay up too late (or wake up in the middle of the night and be unable to fall back asleep), feel horrible in the morning, and nap again the next day.  It's a terrible cycle!  From what I have read, napping as an adult is fine (even healthy), as long as you don't sleep too long.  But, I have a hard time putting a time limit (such as 30 minutes) on a nap-- I can always talk myself into thinking that I need a longer rest.  During the last couple of weeks, I found that it helps to have an incentive not to nap, like being immersed in doing a 1,000-piece puzzle (I did another one-- this one had lots of flowers in it and it was SO HARD!!) or reading a really good book (like 11/22/63).  So, that's my napping story.

Speaking of sleep, we recently got Sonia one of those clocks that can be set to turn green when it's okay to get up and out of bed.  I can't tell you how fabulous this clock has been for us over the last few weeks....  Every night, we set the clock to turn green at 7am.  Sosini has always been somewhat of an early riser, but now she knows that no matter what time she wakes up, she needs to stay in her room and chill until the magic color-changing clock tells her that it's okay to bother Mommy & Daddy.  It's hilarious to hear her start proclaiming over the monitor, "It's geen, Mommy!  The light is geen!  The light is geen!  It's geen!  It's geen!"  She continues to announce this until one of us comes into her room to acknowledge the miracle that has just occurred.  On days that Sonia doesn't nap, I set the clock so that it will turn green after she has been in her room for an hour, playing. 

Thank you, magic color-changing clock!  Andrew and I are grateful for the extra sleep, and Sonia thinks that you are the coolest thing in the world.

So, that's what has been happening with us lately.