The beginning of this month was a bit of a blur, but then comes the second week. I had just been "bragging" to both a friend and my mom that Abigail was not climbing out of her crib. She was not around for either of these conversations. A had climbed out once about a year ago but then despite obviously knowing how, chose not to do it again. At two and a half and still in the crib, she was significantly older than the other two, and I was not pushing for her to move into a real bed by any means! Hah! That very afternoon, after my conversations, she climbed out of her crib. And from there, it was over and over! It was time to move her. Arghhh. We had a busy weekend and so the move was put off until Monday. This was not just any move but a complete transformation. She was going to begin sharing a room with Elizabeth and her own twin bed. I did feel hesitant. (And probably rightfully so. :))
We have had a few incidents brought on by her being out of her bed and into trouble in the room but the challenge has not yet been as bad as it could get. What has been far more difficult though is trying to enforce bedtime and getting her to sleep/nap as well as before. We discovered if we put her down for sleep about 30 mins earlier than Bizbeth, she will typically go to sleep and stay asleep when E comes in. But not always! And after falling out of bed at least once a night the first week, she was also quite tired from interrupted sleep. (That has improved drastically to only once in two weeks). All these factors lead to a less than well rested daughter. Her phrase "No way!" comical and always said with a smile before, has been yelled in rage far more frequently this month. Along the way, we are redirecting her temper tantrums with discipline, but it has been exhausting for both of us!
On a bright note, I am hoping that this might just be lack of sleep that is getting better as she is adjusting because the past week has been better.
In other areas, she is also definitely developing her own personality, unlike her sister, she definitely is not adverse to asking for help. "Help me, Mommy!" is a common phrase.
She is also the only one of my children who naturally cleans up after herself. When she walks in the door, she always takes her shoes off without prompting, but unlike older brother, she is careful to put them back in the allotted shoe bin. I even caught her yesterday taking her coat to the coat closet to put it back on a hanger! (even if she does put her coat on upside down sometimes)
Unfortunately, she has also been changing clothes about ten times each day and the clothes don't always make it back into the dresser. Most of the time it is to put on dress up clothes. Her "elsas" dress is a favorite, but E's clothes are also desirable. Unfortunately, poor E runs out of clean pjs too often with A wearing a different mismatched set of E's every hour. They are almost interchangeable size-wise...just a few inches in height.
Abigail is quite a good eater and not that picky. She loves "pizzas" (always plural) for dinner. She loves "jelly." The only complaints tend to come with hotdogs. Sometimes she eats them and likes them, but sometimes we hear yelled, " No ha-ha!" It has become a joke (at least among the two adults and d).
We have also had more than one challenge this month on the diaper front. Abigail has readily been willing to sit on the toilet for months but never does anything there so I had not begun the arduous task of potty training. This month though, she has begun taking her diaper off regularly on her own...dirty or just wet. Sometimes I know because she walks around bare-bottomed but more often, I have had the dubious pleasure of finding out only after I see a wet bottom and then strip her to discover nothing on but panties and the pants. We have tried potty training a bit haphazardly this month and she does not seem quite ready, but we may have to do something!
She still does better playing on her own than with the siblings, but she adores them and they her (E can often be heard to say, "Isn't she adorable, Mama?")!
This has been a long, exhausting month but growing up has its pains. And this little girl is definitely growing up! Love you, Abigail!
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