Archive for November, 2008
Natural History Museum
Last weekend we went to Manhattan to celebrate Grandpa’s birthday. First, we took a nice walk across town:
And Natalie took a taxi-ride for the first time:
After discovering that the Frick Collection does not allow children under 10 to enter, we went to the Natural History Museum. It was lots of fun, even though most of the information was way over Natalie’s head.
Natalie had a blast looking at her reflection in all the glass, until she ran full speed right into a particularly fingerprint-free display. Natalie was okay, other than a bumped nose and bruised ego. But there is no stress quite like carrying a screaming-at-the-top-of-her-lungs toddler through a museum.
But I think Natalie’s favorite parts of the museum were the stairs and the magnetic rocks in the gift shop:
Obnoxious Behavior
“Natalie, what would you like to eat?”
“YOGURT!!!!”*
“Natalie, how do you ask nicely?”
“PLEASE!!”
“Can….”
“Can…I…have…YOGURT PLEASE!!!!”
“Okay, here’s your yogurt.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
“No? You just asked for yogurt.”
“NOOOOOO. I…WANT…APPLE SAUCE!!!!!!!!”
“Can you ask nicely?”
“Can…I….have…apple sauce please?”
“Are you sure you want it?”
“YEAH!!”
“So if I open this apple sauce, you’re going to eat it?”
“YEAH!!!”
“Okay, here you go.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I want to COLOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Oy Vey. Is this the terrible twos? When I relayed this conversation to Melissa, she looked at me with utter shock and disbelief. “Natalie? Really? She’s so sweet and quiet when she’s here!” Great.
*I’m way past trying to encourage Natalie to “use her indoor voice.” I am choosing to maintain my sanity by ignoring her shouting while silently saying to myself, “it’s a phase. it’s just a phase.”
Major Sleep Milestone!
Imagine Chris and I dancing a victory jig as we announce:
Natalie has learned to fall asleep on her own!!!!!! We’ve always had to put her to bed asleep, or had to lay in bed with her until she was completely out. For nearly 2 years we’ve spent up to an hour (on a good night) getting Natalie to sleep by nursing, walking, bouncing, singing, and/or back-rubbing. The bad nights involved all those things plus screaming fits and crazy/hyper refusal of sleep—the only way to get her to sleep was to drive her around in the car for an hour. Needless to say, we feel relieved, grateful, and ecstatic about Natalie’s newly learned skill.
It all started last Wednesday (November 5) when Melissa reported that Natalie fell asleep on her own for nap. At the same time, nursing was no longer a sure-fire way to get Natalie to sleep at night. The time it took her to fall asleep was getting to be over an hour, and involved nursing, giving her a bottle, then rubbing her back and/or singing until finally fell asleep. Chris could get her to sleep if I was out, but if I was home, nothing would do except Mommy. I was getting more and more impatient and frustrated.
On Sunday night I had been trying to get Natalie to sleep for what felt like forever. After she nursed and had a bottle, I started singing and rubbing her back. But she said “no” to singing and pushed my hand away every time I started patting her. So for while I pretended to be asleep hoping Natalie would be inspired. But no luck. Finally I decided to try a new method. I got up, kissed her, told her that it was time for sleep, I loved her, and that I would see her in the morning. I fully expected this method to be a complete failure.
But, much to our surprise, Natalie didn’t cry or even fuss. About 10 minutes after I left, she started asking for Mommy. By the time Chris got there she was crying pretty hard, but luckily Chris was able to get her calm without me having to intervene. Natalie was still awake when Chris left and after 45 minutes of silence, we declared victory!
Over the past week we’ve been praising Natalie’s new “big girl” skill like crazy and reminding her every day of our new routine. I’m still nursing her at bedtime, but when she’s done (usually after about 10 minutes) I give her a kiss and say good-night. Most nights Chris has had to go up and settle her down, but twice she’s gone to sleep without any extra reassurance.
One night she started crying pretty hard and I feared it was out of protest. But it turned out that her pj’s were wet and she needed new ones. Once Chris changed her, she went right to sleep.
After seven nights of success, we figured the topic was safe to blog about. I can’t begin to articulate how big a weight has been lifted. This feels like a major, major step toward our ultimate goal of getting Natalie to sleep though the night. Off to dance our jig…