Some days I lose my daughter...

Some days I lose my daughter. Inevitably, I think she's playing downstairs and I go down to check on her, only to find her missing. So I wander through the house, looking for her, and I just about always find her in the same place... curled up under the blankets in bed, sound asleep. When she gets tired in the afternoon, she doesn't complain, she just goes and puts herself down for a nap. How great is that?

Sledding with Ellie

After the little heat wave we've been having, we finally got some new fresh snow last night! It snowed all day yesterday and last night and this morning, the slow kind of snow that just wafts from the sky alighting on trees, like this:

Flocked trees are great! Not as great as sledding, however, so that's what Leif and Ellie did this afternoon, using Ellie's NEW sled!

(I guess when Leif and Ellie were at Walmart yesterday Leif had a gift card from a return to spend, so he stopped to look at sleds. He and Ellie decided we needed a new sled, and she spied this purple one, exclaiming, "A GIRL sled!!" Guess which one made it home with them?)

We got a two-person sled, and Leif rode down the hill with Ellie a couple times, but mostly she wanted to do it herself. That's pretty common these days. She even dragged the sled up the hill by herself a couple times.

All in all, she had a great time. They were out sledding for quite a while, despite the fact that it was in the single digits. I dressed Ellie in layers and layers of clothes, with two pairs of mittens and hand warmers between them, in hopes that she would stay warm enough. Apparently, it worked! She didn't complain about being cold until Leif said it was time to go. She called me and asked if she could have some hot chocolate, so I got it ready for her while they came home. She enjoyed her hot chocolate, and then, tuckered out as she was from the sledding, collapsed into bed, happy as could be.

The Result....

Well, for the past few weeks we have been fighting and fighting and fighting with Eliana over naps and bedtime. She used to be very predictable... down for a nap around noon, sleep until 4:00, down for bed at 8, sleep until 8. It was great!

A few weeks ago, though, she started fighting us on naps. She hasn't been ready for a nap until about 3:00 or later, and she sleeps for 2 hours. Then she's not ready for bed until much later than 8. There are tantrums, she got out of bed repeatedly, she climbed out of the crib when we put here in there to contain her... it was not good.

So yesterday I did something I have not been looking forward to. I cut out her nap. She's just barely two, but she cannot keep the schedule she was on, with a two hour late afternoon nap followed by sleeping from about 10:30 (or later!) to 8. She was waking up grumpy from naps and in the morning and it was just wearing her (and us!) down. It called for desperate measures, and so we cut out her one and only nap.

The result? She was pretty tired yesterday around 3:30 (as usual) but instead of putting her down to sleep I just let her watch a movie. She curled up on my bed with a blanket and her milk and watched the movie. Though she was pretty drowsy, she didn't fall asleep. She had a couple hours of down time, and then she was up and running again! Leif put her to bed around 7:45 or so and she didn't fight him. And she slept until after 8 this morning! I don't actually know what time she got up, because she woke me up! But Leif left a little before 8 and she wasn't awake yet, so he just left her door open so she could come find me when she did wake up. And she came in at 8:20.

So that's what we have. A 2 year old who didn't take a nap and for the first day in several weeks, it went smoothly. There may still be days where she'll need a nap, especially if we're out and about and she gets worn out in the morning. But if she isn't asleep before 2:00 I'm not going to let her sleep. That was a miserable pattern. We'll wean her off the movies some other time, but for now it's the only way I can find for her to sit still for down time. And she definitely needs that down time still! But today was good. She had a couple freak-out tantrums (mostly when she was tired right before down time and bed), but those are pretty standard these days. She's 2. So we'll see how today goes and take it one nap-less day at a time.

Ellie's Toddler Bed...

In a fit of craziness, I moved Ellie's toddler bed up to her room from the basement yesterday. I fully intended to let Leif move it, or help him move it, or something, but inspiration hit and I did it by myself. So last night we decided to see how Ellie would do sleeping in the bed instead of her crib.

She has been wanting to climb into her crib by herself, but until two days ago wasn't able. Now she can, but not without some precarious perching! So I thought perhaps she's ready for a toddler bed so that she can get in by herself and feel like a big girl.

Of course, it does mean that she can get out by herself, but we pretty much accepted that whenever we tried to move her to a toddler bed she would get up at least a few nights. It's a process and we're ready to accept that. At least she can't open the door to her bedroom yet, so she's still contained to some degree.

So Leif tucked her in,

kissed her goodnight,

and as soon as we walked away, she popped right back up!

She laid back down and we left. We could hear her moving around in there, and she got up a few times. Leif put her back in bed once, and then we decided just to let her get used to the idea and see where it would go. After quite a while (we could hear her playing with things in there) we heard her knock knock on the door. She wasn't crying, but she was tired and definitely ready to go to bed... in her crib. So we put her down for the night in the crib and she slept until 10 this morning when I decided to wake her up!

When I put her down for her afternoon nap I asked if she wanted to sleep in the bed or crib. She told me crib. So it may take a while for her to get used to the idea of sleeping in the bed, but she'll get there eventually. She props her feet up on the crib rungs to go to sleep, though, and I think she was missing that with the toddler bed.

As a side note, all morning Ellie was pointing to or holding her belly saying, "Hurts, hurts" (but not crying or upset or visibly in pain) and I don't think she's been feeling well. I poked around on her belly a bit and didn't feel anything concerning, and she didn't seem to be in any pain when I poked around. I'm hoping a little sleep will do her some good and she'll be feeling better soon.