In order to show us what a big girl she now is, she decided that she was ready for a big girl bed. She discovered how to climb out of her crib, and continued to do so repeatedly; so we thought it was time to convert her bed into a big girl bed. So we carried on the tradition of converting the crib into a bed on a holiday (Ashley's was changed on Christmas day, and Emily's was changed on Thanksgiving day--just one day before her 2nd birthday). She was ready for it...mommy and daddy weren't...lol. We were hoping we'd get a few more months out of the crib before we had two kids "loose" around the house. Haha. It was another bittersweet moment while we changed it--so exciting to see her achieving another "big girl" milestone, but also sad to think that there would never be another crib in our home again.
We had a fun birthday celebration. We celebrated on Thanksgiving day with us, grandma, Aunt Cheryl and cousin Alyssa, grandmom and grandpop. Grandpa had hoped to come too, but we had a little snow storm the day before, and he was still getting snow the day of and roads weren't good to drive. We went to see Frozen on Ice that morning, came home and had Thanksgiving dinner followed by cake and presents afterward. It was fun. We plan to do a joint friend party for her and Ashley in January since December (midway for both) is sooo hectic with the holidays.
So the latest....
Aside from the fun festivities, it's been a challenging time in some senses. First, we all got a touch of the stomach bug in one form or another. Poor Emily got it first. I felt bad because it happened on a day when we took a trip down to South Jersey. Prior to leaving, Emily was a little clingy to me. I didn't think anything of it, because she is a momma's girl and likes to be held a lot to begin with. Then we went to a party with our friends where she acted normal and had a great time playing, but she didn't really eat anything. I thought maybe she didn't like the foods, so offered her cereal which she also didn't eat. Again, with all the commotion I didn't think too much of it (kids would rather play than sit and eat), but in hindsight the signs pointed to something was wrong). Well, on the way home, out of nowhere, she threw up all over herself. We still had an hour to go. It was awful. Then she continued to get sick that night. Two days later, Ashley got it. Was fine all day up until 15 minutes prior. She complained that her stomach hurt and thought she might have to go to the bathroom. She gets settled into bed, tucked in, say goodnight--five minutes later she calls us crying, and had thrown up all over herself and her bed. This continued throughout the night. All of this is a few days prior to Thanksgiving/birthday celebration. Grandma, Cheryl and Alyssa were supposed to come the next day, but we pushed it back 3 days to be on the safe side. They came up Thanksgiving day when we thought we were in the clear, then I start feeling nauseous and have an awful heading during the Frozen performance. I never actually threw up, but had stomach issues and still felt slightly nauseous for days....Then Aunt Cheryl reports that Alyssa got sick the night they got back, then she and Billy got it after....grandmom and grandpop had a slight touch of stomach issues too....one heck of a stomach bug. I felt bad for everyone.
In addition to that, Emily has been having a ROUGH time with sleep the last few weeks (even a week or two prior to switching her to the bed--in fact, that's prompted the change because she kept fighting sleep and got so mad that she decided to climb out). She has been FIGHTING sleep like it's the plague. She just does not want to sleep, and she wants us to rock her, or sit there and hold her hand until she falls asleep (which takes a while sometimes), and it's just not possible. She also has been waking up 1-2 times in the middle of the night, and sometimes not falling asleep for an hour or two. We have tried EVERYTHING. It's been sooooo frustrating, and mentally and physically exhausting on all of us. We read that it is normal for her age and has to do with her REM cycle. But this girl goes from being one of the sweetest, happiest little girls during the day to a tantruming, kicking, screaming, pounding on the door, banging, throwing things kid at night when she doesn't want to go to sleep. We tried the cry it out method, and it went on for forever. We read up on it and are reassuring her once or twice, then trying the recommended approach of going in there, saying lovingly but firmly that it's bedtime, put her back into bed, and leave. Supposedly with consistency she'll learn the drill, but we haven't reached it yet (and we are good about being consistent). It's very trying. Matt has been working a lot these days (he picked up a second job), so I'm basically doing the single mom thing every single day of the week from morning until they go to bed. We're both tired and exhausted by the time it's bedtime, and it's very hard to stay calm and patient for the next long round of stress...but we are trying our best. I'm just praying it's not too long of a phase.
But aside from those two stresses, and the chaos of this time of year, all is good....We've been enjoying life, each other, having fun decorating for Christmas, visiting Santa, going to some Christmas parties, etc. The holidays are lots of fun this year. They are both old enough to understand what's going on (at least to some extent for Emily). Ashely is old enough where she'd ask questions and get excited when I told her about the different ornaments on the tree, they loved to "help" with the lights and decorations. They love to take the ornaments of the tree and play with them (I put the breakable ones up high so it can be hands on below). Ashley is so excited to have Chippy the Elf back too. We visited Santa and both girls were happy to see him. Santa was also a special guest visitor at the party we went to yesterday, and Ashley drew him a picture. Here most kids are asking Santa for things, and she's giving him something. I thought it was so sweet. Santa even read us The Night Before Christmas. It was lots of fun.
Well, that's about all that time will allow for right now.
