Life with a Peanut (con't)

Life with Sophie is never dull...

Oh what a week it's been. Jim says that because I posted that last post about how much fun life is with Sophie and how happy she's been that I set myself up for the week we had this week. Well, Tuesday was brutal. Just brutal. The kind of day they warn you about when you become pregnant and certain family and friends give you a look like "Heh heh, welcome to the club. Just you wait..." So anyway, I had a rough night on Sunday wherein I woke up around 4:30am and just could not go back to sleep. This tends to happen to me in the later part of my pregnancies apparently and I just sort of pop awake and can't get back to sleep so I get up and just do things. Well, this happened on Sunday so I was tired on Monday but still no real mishaps. But on Tuesday for some reason it hit me hard and I woke up more exhausted than ever. Apparently Sophie also woke up on the wrong side of the crib on Tuesday as well because the child was just a wrek all day. I don't know if she was starting to teeth again (she should be getting her two year molars soon so it could be that) or just tired or she's going through a developmental thing or what but man oh man... What a day. The girl had, I kid you not, 10 total tantrum meltowns. I can't even recall all the ten specific reasons at this point but they included not wanting to get her diaper changed, not wanting to get her stockings and shoes on (even though she asked for them), not wanting to leave the house, something to do with her stickers which I still have no idea what bothered her about that one, getting her toy stroller stuck, getting mad at mommy because I wouldn't keep running with her, getting mad at mommy because I wouldn't keep playing indoor hopscotch and any other number of toddler injustices that I can't recall now. It was nuts. She really hasn't been a very tantrumy kid to date. Maybe like one little one a day or so but wow. Ten in one day? Come on, kid. It really could be developmental because in the last few days she does seem like a bigger, more developed, little girl. She taught herself to climb up on the dining room chair by herself (on the fateful ten tantrum tuesday). Her coloring and writing has also changed significantly lately. I guess it's all the bath crayons she got for Christmas but she makes marks and honest to goodness they look like the letters she says. She draws something, says "J" and I look down and it really looks like a "J". Or, she'll say "little S" and honestly it looks like a little "s". Her speech has also gotten clearer and clearer in just the last few days even. She'll talk a blue streak and you understand every word she says. And, truly Jim and I think she's gotten taller in the last few days and longer hair so maybe this recent growth spurt has just caused some tantrumy little outbursts and developments. Let's go with that.

Then, yesterday she hit me. She was mad because I was trying to get her coat and shoes on so we could go run a few errands and I picked her up and was holding her so we could leave and she was having her little tantrum and she hit me in the face. That was a first. I kept my cool (I think) and then when I got her in the car we had a little "discussion" about "the incident." I told her it hurt mommy's feelings and made me sad but I understood that she was mad because she didn't want to stop playing. I asked her to apologize and she did. So hopefully that was a good way to handle it and hopefully it won't become a pattern. But of course I realize that hitting is a pretty common toddler behavior and we'll deal with it if it continues. This just in... Jim said that today Sophie hit him, too. Sophie got mad at Jim because he told her to stop being rough with Ollie. She apparently didn't like that and tried to hit Jim. So, I'm afraid we have a new little toddler behavior on our hands.

In other Sophie news, she continues to wake up and ask for "dress, stockings and shoes." I mean whose kid is this anyway? Willingly wanting to wear stockings every day????? We have been going through all the great dresses people have given her but I'm going to have to start buying more if this keeps up, I suppose. She has tended to sleep in a little more in the mornings these days (except today of course) somedays even sleeping later than when Jim needs to get up for work. We see this as a good sign that maybe her sleeping pattern is allowing her to sleep a little longer in the morning. She also has been playing much more with her stuffed animals and her dolls and castle and house. Her imagination is really active these days as she sits her stuffed animals at the table in chairs or gives them tea or tries to change their diaper. We were talking about maybe getting her a train table for her birthday in a few months but now that she has shown such an interest in her little people dolls we're wondering if a doll house isn't more the way to go.

And on the potty front, Sophie has started to tell me when she is "poopy" so that I will change her. It now clearly bothers her when she has a poopy diaper and wants it changed like immediately. This is only within the last week or two that she has really started to do this so I take this as a BIG sign that she is getting closer to potty training. She also did sit on her potty without any clothes on the other day. I was really impressed and proud of her as it was the first time she sat on it with no pants on. So, I continue to ask her if she wants to sit on the potty and usually she doesn't but I praise her and get very excited when she takes it upon herself to try it. I have really come to believe by these recent changes that she will do this in her own time (just as she has done everything else) and by modeling me and getting more self-aware of wanting a clean diaper, that we'll get there soon.

Well, sorry for the long post but I guess there really has been a lot of developments this week.

On the baby front, for those who don't know already we're pretty sure (well, we're actually totally sure) that the new baby will be named Emily. So, little Emily is doing well and kicking and otherwise just getting bigger and bigger. In the next four weeks or so she is supposed to gain tons of weight so big growth periods for both our little girls.