Oh Miss Gianna

Life with a 2 year old, it's never the same day twice...

Passy Free! 

It's been over a month now since we've been a passy (pacifier) free household.  After the LaVoys "accidentally left" Weston's last pacifier up north, I decided it was time to start the process with Gianna as well.  It had been a long time since we only allowed her to have her pacifier in her crib for nap/bedtime, and I decided to remove all but one of them from her crib. 

When we came home from a visit to La Crosse, Andy was putting Gianna to bed and couldn't find that one passy.  He decided well, "it's now or never," and he did it!  She cried a little when he put her in her crib without it so he picked her up and rocked her a little longer then he laid her back down; she fell asleep without a fuss.  And that's the way it's been-- she's never mentioned a need for one since.  I never imagined it to be that easy.  I think I may have been more attached to it than she was;)

Imitation Play 

Andy and I have both noticed little moments, here and there, of Gianna's budding imagination play that's suppose to take off between the ages of three and four.  Right now, however, her imagination mainly takes the form of imitating actions we do or taking objects and imagining they are something else.  She's done both of these things for a while, but we are now seeing her do them more "out of the blue" so to speak. 

The other day she told us, "bye, see ya later; going to 'Sconsin' Dells."  She had her purse and came to each of us to give us a hug and a kiss before she "left".  A few times she has also checked her dolls' diapers (they don't have); she will say, "have to check Sophie's diaper... oh, just wet."  And a few days ago, when I melted crayon shavings on plates (something my sister, cousin and I did when we were little) and showed her how pretty the different colors were on the plate, she told me it was cake, and we had to go to different rooms in the house to "eat it."  It's also quite cute when she takes her billfold and keys out and leaves her purse in the car when we go to rummage sales because those are the only two things I take with me:)

It also goes the other way too.  Instead of imitating us, she finds it very amusing to have us imitate her sounds and motions.  We call it the copy cat game, and she especially likes to do it at dinner time.  Weston's a nice fill-in when he's around as they both find the game equally amusing;)

Here's a video-- she get's distracted by the camera so it's hard to capture the full game, but you get the idea.

"Andy, Andrea/Andrew"

It's been about a week now since Gianna decided to start calling us by our names instead of mommy and daddy all the time.  In the past, every now and then she said Andy instead of daddy, but she totally caught me off guard the other day when she addressed me as Andrea-- she had never done that before!  For a whole day she interchanged mommy and Andrea when addressing me.  I thought she would wake up the next morning and forget about the whole Andrea thing, but instead of waking up to "mommy... mommy... mommy," I woke up to "Andrea... Andrea... Andrea!"  I was feeling a little slighted when she called me Andrea instead of mommy but now I'd rather have her call me Andrea instead of Andrew!  Although she's back to saying mommy most of the time, every so often she calls me Andrew now.  I tell her that's daddy's name, I'm Andrea, but she just smiles at me and says, Andrew!

Nap Time or Lack There Of!

A few weeks ago we enjoyed the consistency of a 1 1/2  to 2 hour nap each day.  Gianna ate lunch, one of us would sit with her and watch about a 15 minute segment of Caillou or whatever other kid's show was on at the time, and then we would bring her upstairs for nap time.  It's the routine we had been doing with her since she condensed her sleep down to one nap a day.  When we said goodbye to the passy we had noticed it took her longer to settle down for her nap and fall asleep, but she would just play in her crib for a bit longer until she finally drifted off to sleep, and she was getting better at falling asleep faster.  Never the less, there was no fuss and we got a nice little time to catch up on a few things around the house.

Well, for some reason or another, this peaceful/ easy nap time has gone completely out the window!  She will now cry when we put her in her crib (and can keep it up for 2 hours I might add) and basically seems to put up a fight at nap time.  Andy and I are at a loss as to what exactly caused such a change.  We read that some children do give up there nap between the ages of 2 and 3, but we have a hard time believing a child can go from needing about a 2 hour nap to nothing in a matter of a few days.  I could see if she gradually woke up earlier and earlier and her nap shortened, but no nap at all?!  I don't think she, or we, are ready for that! 

When we went to La Crosse this past weekend, we left around nap time, and as I suspected, she fell asleep in no time and took about an 1 1/2 hour nap during the car ride.  This indicates to me she still needs a nap.

Right now, because we don't quite know what else to do at this time and because we don't have the energy (or perhaps the resolve) to deal with 2 hours of crying, we've resorted to either having her fall asleep during the TV time of her routine, lying with her until she falls asleep, and/ or taking a nap with her whether we wanted to or not.  It basically seems like she's having a hard time settling down to take a nap, doesn't want to stop playing, and isn't satisfied with the alone playtime we allowed her to have in her crib.  

I'm starting to realize how much I relied on that peaceful/easy nap time to make my day a good one; without it, the day seems to go downhill after the nap time struggle, especially when I'm the only one here-- my energy and resolve take a big hit.  I have a few ideas to try and solve this struggle, but any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! 

The one silver lining in this whole ordeal is we still have a consistent peaceful/easy bedtime!  At night, she peacefully goes to sleep in her crib in a matter of minutes, and we have some free time to relax or go to bed ourselves, at will.

OH MISS GIANNA!