Challenging Times

Last night I asked Muffin to come with me to the bathroom for her bath. She said No bath today. And she didn't want it! We had quite a discussion, her daddy got involved and we finally got her in the tub. Then at night she again only wanted to sleep in her rocking chair, and made a big stink about it. Sigh… I've heard that year 3 is more challenging year 2 because they start really pushing the limits, we seem to have reached that point… hope she outgrows it soon!

Bedtime Troubles

Muffin had a rought time going to bed last night - our usual ritual is that I'll rock her to sleep, put her in her crib, then if/when she wakes up in the middle of the night she'll come to bed with us. If for some reason I'm exhausted or she's jut not falling asleep, I'll just bring her to bed with me so that we can get some sleep. Never been an issue so far.

Last night she was very sleep but not falling asleep, so I decided to bring her with me to bed. She did NOT want to go to my bed, and was crying her heart out that she wanted to sleep with me on the rocking chair. I tried to explain to her that I'm too big for her crib and that the rocking chair would give my back a boo-boo if I slept on it all night. She continued to cry, wailing, that she wanted to sleep on the rocking chair. In comes Daddy, who offers her the option of coming downstairs with him until she got sleepy. That led to even more wailing that she wanted Mami. I think it took her like 5-10 min of wailing until she finally calmed down enough to understand the options were a) go to bed with mami or b) go downstairs with daddy. She reluctantly agreed to option A.

About 5 minutes after we snuggled in bed, she asks, 'Mami, can we talk?' Of course I said yes… the poor dear wanted to talk about what had just happened, it just broke my heart! I promised her that one day soon we'll buy her a big girl bed and that we'll be able to snuggle on it together if she wants to. Then she asked to see her Daddy, just to ask him if he was happy now. So sweet!

Acting 101

For the last week or so, Muffin has been 'play acting' the Cinderella movie. She'll dress up in her 'Cinderella' clothes, then she'll ask me to play act all the other characters in the movie. I'll play the Fairy Godmother who comes to Cinderella when she's crying (after the stepsisters tore her dress), then I'll play the prince, then I'll play the duke, the stepmother, etc. Very cute the first couple of times we did this… about the 6-7 time she did this I began to wonder if we did the right thing in letting her watch the Cinderella movie, LOL! Especially when she has friends over for playgroup but still prefers to do the playacting thing as opposed to playing with her friend. Sigh…

Dress up?

Just realized that the blog looks so empty without pictures, so here's a recent one of Muffin trying to wear Mr Potato's glasses & hat. She looks so cute!

Boo Boos and Growing up!

Muffin is starting to try and use the power of positive thinking already - boy she's precocious! As an example - she asked me last night (right before bedtime) if we could go blow bubbles outside. I said not now, its almost bedtime. So she asked me again. I repeated my answer. So she asked me AGAIN, and I asked her in turn - what did Mami just say? Her answer was "Mami said yes", said with a smile. It took a few more back and forth discussions for her to understand that NO, we're not going to blow bubbles outside at night. She's been doing this a lot lately, sometimes she gets very upset if we don't agree with her request. Breaks my heart but what can you do? She's got to learn that life will not always hand her what she wants. It’s a tough lesson.

Another tough lesson yesterday (which I truly hope she learned) is that you don't put your fingers inside the door hinge. I had opened the storm door to talk to Daddy (who was outside doing some yard work), and did not realize that Muffin had snuck in and put her fingers in the door hinge. As I slowly closed the door I heard her yell, and was horrified to see her fingers in the hinge! Thankfully she's ok, just a little bruised.

The other thing we're noticing is that she's not eating as much as she used to, she grazes a lot. Feels like I'm starving her but I'm following her lead on what she wants to eat and how much.

Cousin B stayed overnight last weekend, and Muffin had a blast playing with her cousin. Given that he's a teenage boy, he did VERY well playing with her, though she did most of the work, LOL! Lately much of her play involves telling me (or whoever is playing with her) what to do. For example - sit here, I'm going to make you a snack (and she goes to her play kitchen to make it), then she tells me to eat it, and drink it, but to "be careful its hot". Then she'll tell me I'm a good girl. Or we 'play act' the Cinderella story (her favorite), she gets to play Cinderella and I play everyone else whenever she tells me. She'll even put props on me (like a 'cape' so I can be the prince, or a wand to be the fairy godmother). It’s a lot of fun to watch her inventing her world!

Updates

About 2 weeks ago, Muffin decided her name is not Cinderella anymore, its back to her name. I kinda miss being 'Sleeping Beauty', and daddy being 'Genie'. Oh well, one more memory to remember.

Birthday party turned out great -we lucked out on the weather! The morning (kiddie) party was a lot of fun, about a dozen little girls were there, and the highlight was when "Cinderella" (a live grown up Princess!!!) showed up. The afternoon party (for friends/family) was great too. Another very big highlight was having three surprise guests - Aunt A, cousin B, and mommy & daddy's friend S all showed up unannounced from out of state.

She's been eating less, and she's getting leaner. And skipping naps more often. I know we'll miss her belly belly and her naptimes way too soon!

Yesterday Muffin & Daddy went to hang out with a family friend and her 2 older kids (boy/girl) and boy did they have a blast! They went to a local park that has a mini zoo, a merry-go-round adn a little train. Muffin was brave enough to ride the train - wohoo!! - but we think it helped that there were two older kids in the ride with her. But there's hope for rides!!

Remembering Saturday

Monday she was remembering how she felt sick, when I got home from work she was talking about how she had thrown up that morning (she didn't). Then at bedtime she said 'I feel sick' and wanted a bowl to throw up in. After asking her tons of questions we determine she was play-acting, though she gave us a bit of a scare!

Trycicle

SUNDAY - Muffin is feeling much better, though we kept her on a diet of crackers, bread & juice just to be safe. Today was a fun day for her though - her first time on a trycicle! Daddy was there to help her out, she was *barely* able to reach the pedals but she definitely enjoyed it!

Great Day, Bad Night

We had a wonderful Saturday, spent it having a picnic with an old college friend of DH plus his family (wife & 2 twin kids, boy/girl, almost 6 yrs old). The park we were had a gorgeous view of the local river, and the kids had a blast running all over and playing. Muffin and the twin girl really took to each other, it was so cute to see them playing together! During dinner, Muffin said her tummy hurt, but she said it so matter of factly that we thought she was just saying it for play.

We finished the day at their house, put PJ's on Muffin and headed home. She promptly fell asleep, but about 1 hr into our drive home, she woke up crying. I reached out from my seat (I'm in the passenger seat) to comfort her, next thing I know she's upchucked some of her dinner into my hand! DH pulled over into an emergency lane as soon as he could, I jumped out of the car and after cleaning up, sat next to her the rest of the way home. Once home we went straight for the bathroom, cleaned her up, and just held her while she finished the job. Broke my heart, she was crying her heart out on the way home and you could tell she was feeling so miserable :( She finally fell asleep on the bathroom rug (which I'd rolled up and covered with a towel), and I cleaned up her clothes & stuff on the bathroom sink while DH worked on her carseat. Ugh!

We're a little concerned b/c she's not one to throw up, but she's done that randomly about 4-5 timtes in the last 6 months or so. And you bet next time she says her tummy hurts I'll take it seriously!

Pull ups & Monsters, oh my!

She's now wearing pull ups, yeah!! And she's doign a wonderful job in keeping them clean and letting us know when she has to go 'potty'. It probably helps that the pull ups have Princess pictures on them, and who would want to get them dirty, LOL!

Last night she was dressed in her Cinderella dress, wearing ballet 'glass' slippers and gloves, and she was playing with an imaginary monster that she would pet, tuck into an imaginary bed (including a good night kiss!), give medicine to, and feed. Too cute! Then she decided she needed to give me a 'massage' by pounding on my back - all this to help me 'feel better' because I had a headache.

Cinderella

So Muffin has decided her new name is 'Cinderella'. Whenever anyone calls her (either by her name or by a nickname like Sweetie) she'll correct them, saying 'My name is not Sweetie, its Cinderella'! And she has informed me that MY name is Sleeping Beauty.

Today I talked to her on the phone briefly, and she said ' Hello Sleeping Beauty'. Too cute!

We planted a few nasturtium seeds last night, about an hr later she wanted to see the sprouted seeds... I explained it takes days and days before they sprout... I hope the hurry up and DO sprout so she has something to see!

Brand New Blog!

I thought I should start a new blog to document how Muffin is growing and changing... so here it is!

I should probably start with a picture of Muffin, here she is in a picture we took for Xmas. Doesn't she look yummy enough to eat?