December is starting to look calm compared to our first month of 2009 and the coming months ahead. Our house went up for sale two weeks ago and we had two showings last week. It's a great motivator to keep a clean house, but it is really tiring having to clean all the time.
After a month of not sleeping at night, Reagan has finally slept through the night for four straight nights which makes all of us feel much more refreshed and happy. The final two molars came through in the last two weeks and John (mostly) and I were up with her two, three and sometimes four or more times a night starting around 8pm until 5am. Last night Reagan actually slept from 7pm until 7am this morning!
Reagan is now 14 months old and like I have said before continues to amaze and frustrate us at the same time. With the lack of sleep and new molars breaking through we have had to learn how to deal with tantrums. One tantrum even managed to clear the table of plates, wrappers and cups at Caribou Coffee. In the last two weeks, I've gotten pinched, hair pulled, bitten and hit. I honestly don't know where this behavior comes from, but it must be a little innate. It's not like Reagan is around other kids a lot that act like this and John and I certainly do not pinch or hit.
Our ECFE instructor suggested taking her out of the situation, speaking in a calm voice and trying to distract Reagan with other things. As pleasant and heartwarming as that advice is, it does not work for our free spirited little girl. I love that she knows what she wants and has always been very independent. This will serve her well later in life, but in the toddler years it is not easy. For now, time outs are held in her crib for 1 minute (1 minute x age of child). Sometimes this calms her down and she plays with her Nuks, but sometimes she's still mad but will forget shortly after what she is mad about.
Slowly but surely some vocabulary is developing. The other day I heard her say "Mo" while she was in her highchair and I looked over and she was doing the sign for "More." She'll say "MaMaMaMa" when she wants me to pick her up and I did get her to say "up" yesterday instead. All of these seem to be a lot of imitation and not much on her own. The one word she has been using repeatedly is "Hi." It is not a quick "hi" like if you were passing an aquaintance on the street. It's a long drawn out "hi" like you haven't seen your best friend in years and just ran into her at the mall. Reagan says "hi" to her Nuks, her stuffed animals and other babies like she hasn't seen them for days or years. Hopefully, by Reagan's 15 month appointment this will be enough for the doctor to not worry about her vocabulary skills even if "Mama" and "Dada" aren't firmly in place.
Kindermusik ended last week and we're replacing it with a gymnastics class to get some extra energy out during these cold days. I think Reagan will really enjoy it now that she's starting to climb and loves to run back and forth in the living room/kitchen. It's on Saturday mornings so John can join us too.
John started back at school last week and since then we've barely seen one another. This will be tough semester for him, but with everything that's going on it will hopefully go fast. He is taking 6 classes total this spring: 3 in the first half of the semester and 3 in the last half. The he will only have 7 weeks of summer semester until he's done. From what he's told me, there will be a huge graduation party sometime in August and everyone is invited.
After a busy December and January at work, things are finally starting to calm down for me. I'm enjoying actually leaving on time from work again. John and I took camera classes these past two weeks to learn how to better use our SLR camera, so now all I have to do is practice. A lot of things we learned applied to still subjects, which we obviously do not have. Next week, my friend and I start a quilting class for 4 weeks at a small craft store in Minneapolis. I'm really excited to have a project to do again. All the fabric is picked out, washed, ironed and ready to go! It's nice to be able to have some things to do outside of working and child care.
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