20 Months

ROUGH.  That is the only word I can think of to describe this last month.  While this past month has brought on some new, fun things with P, it has also been not my favorite month.  I'm not sure how much of it is attributed to our recent move (make that second move in a month) or her age, but my guess is that it is a combination of both.  Probably one of the worst new things to happen this month is that Peyton has pretty much refused to sleep in her crib for naps.  Now I know that it sounds silly to say that she has "refused" but by refused I mean that she won't have any part of napping in her crib.  No matter how hard I have tried, she just screams and cries and won't lay down and take a nap.  Even on the two days that she went to Mother's Day Out and was worn out she still would not sleep in her crib.  She will fall asleep the second we get in the car but you better believe that as soon as I bring her back in the house and lay her down she is awake!  What has started happening is that she will get so worn out by the end of the day, she will finally give in and take a nap at 5 or 6pm.  Of course that means that she in turn will then stay up late, thus starting another bad habit.  Also related to this not sleeping issue is the beginning of tantrums.  I swear at times I have thought "This is it.  We have hit the terrible two's."  She has started throwing fits of crying and screaming and nothing pleases her.  She wants her way and that's it.  In fact, at one time I was the one who always bathed her and put her to bed and now she won't let me come anywhere near her to do either of these things.  She wants Matt, and only Matt to bathe her and get her ready for bed.  If I try to do it she will scream and cry and as soon as Matt comes to her rescue she is fine!!  Did I already mention it's been a rough month?!?!

Giving bunny kisses

Now that I have talked about all of the not so fun things that have come about this month, I guess I should mention that there have been some really sweet and fun things that P has started doing.  Probably my most favorite change this month is that she has started to pretend play---she likes to have tea parties and cook in her play kitchen and she is really talking up a storm, repeating a lot of what we say.  Some of her new phrases are "Oh boy," "cooking," "barking"(for when Ellie barks).  She has also started winking when we take her picture.  It's very funny!  All I have to do is tell her "say cheese!!" and she flashes me a smile and winks!  I don't have a clue where she got it from but it is hilarious!  It's becoming a slight problem though because I can't get her to smile anymore without winking so she has one eye closed in all of her pictures haha!

Say "cheese"!

S

Loving on Ellie

Sweet sisters

Sleeping Beauty

Since we moved, Peyton has pretty much refused to take a nap in her crib which makes for a very tired baby (and momma)!  Around 5 this afternoon I went in to the kitchen to make some cookies and it didn't take long before I realized that things sounded awfully quiet in the den.  I peeked around the recliner to check on P and this is what I found: 

First Day of Mother's Day Out

Today Peyton went to Mother's Day Out for the first time. She is supposed to be going two days starting in the fall so I thought that we might give it a test-run and send her one week this summer.  They have a carpool line where you drop your kids off in the morning and pick them up but since this was her first time to go I wanted to take her in so that she wouldn't feel like I just left her.  Well things didn't quite go as I was thinking they would.  We walked in and found her classroom and the teacher was standing behind one of those doors where you can close the bottom half and keep the top half open.  She immediately saw us and reached out for Peyton.  Here I am in complete shock, thinking that I am going to walk my baby into her classroom and explain to her that she is going to stay and play toys and make friends and mommy will be back to get her in a little while, and instead I am handing her over to a strange lady while she is crying out "Mommy, Mommy" and reaching out for me.  SO HARD TO LEAVE HER!

 

 

I ended up calling to ask the Director a question about Peyton's Blue Form and she said that Peyton had stopped crying after I left and that she was playing in the gym and seemed to be having a good time.  As hard as it was leaving her so upset, I was glad to hear that she was playing and having fun.  I also talked to the Director about coming in to pick Peyton up instead of going through the carpool line but she suggested that I try the carpool line that way Peyton would see that they "bring her back to her mommy."  So I took her advice and picked her up in the carpool line..sweet thing looked so tired when I picked her up (she is used to napping at 11:30 and I didn't pick her up until 1).  She loves the gingerbread men cookies at Savage's so we stopped there on the way home so she could have a little treat on such a big day!