Yet another curious sleeping position

What goes up...

Franny loves to play on the stairs. While going up is rather straightforward, going down can be more of a challenge. She would prefer to walk down, but both stubborn independence and her inability to reach the handrail prevent her from this approach. Over the last couple of months, she took to skidding down on her stomach--a method that also enabled her to move fast, which, of course, is always a bonus for Franny. Her latest strategy, though, is to scoot down on her rump, one step at a time. Although this is much more time consuming--almost excruciatingly so--she seems to favor it over the tummy slide. We'll see what she'll come up with next--I just hope it's not the head-first slide!

52 toy pick-up

Tonight, I headed into the library to see what Franny and her daddy were up to. Turns out, there was a lot of playing going on--or at least, a lot of emptying going on. Every toy had been pulled out of her toy cabinet and was strewn throughout the room. I am not sure why emptying everything is so amusing, but it sure keeps me busy putting everything away and relocating all the miscellaneous parts.

And I still haven't found that dark green cup, which drives me absolutely bonkers!

Sweet irony

Tonight, the girl went down with incredible ease. Go figure!

The bedtime battle

I love to watch Franny sleep. I don't know if it's because she is so peaceful (the opposite of the awake Franny); because seeing her snuggle up with her tiger is so sweet; because her ultimate sleeping positions can be so comical; or maybe just because the novelty of her sleeping hasn't worn off yet! Most likely, the reason is all of the above. Regardless, when she sleeps, I can't help but be in awe of the beautiful little girl that we are blessed with, and I find it hard to take my eyes off of her.

Unquestionably, we have gone through some serious struggles with sleep. Most recently, Franny has returned to fighting bedtime, at night and naptimes alike, with a serious vengeance. I don't pretend to understand the toddler's rationale (or lack thereof). But the current tragedy which surrounds bedtime is difficult, frustrating, and almost painful to be a part of. Last night, Franny fought sleep for two hours before surrenduring to sleep for the night. Currently, she is 12 minutes into fighting her nap. It's hard to even begin to comprehend her reasoning for the battle. We have the same bedtime routine everyday for every bedtime almost since the day she was born. Conservatively, that amounts to approximately1550 bedtimes (including naps). Therefore, the variance in her attitude about sleep from week to week--and even day to day--is stupefying, to say the least. Last week, we could put her down, tuck her in, blow her kiss, and walk out. The last few days, being left alone will cause Franny to reach levels of hysteria, although once I pick her up, she can be asleep within just a few minutes. What monsters are lurking in her closets this week that weren't there last week is, of course, impossible to determine. Yet, they are there.

The best approach to handle the bedtime battle is an extremely controversial topic among parents. I believe the best approach varies from child to child. For us, leaving Franny in fits of hysteria, leading to coughing and gagging, is cruel and unhealthy, and teaches her nothing; at this point, she is too overwhelmed with her emotion to comprehend how to begin "self-soothing"--a very popular word among the parent circuit. I obviously do not know anything more than any other parent, but I don't understand how falling asleep from exhaustion--both physical and emotional--teaches a child anything. Giving her the opportunity to work through milder fits of frustration and angst is another matter. However, the grey line where one crosses the other, is the fuzzy area that makes me extremely cautious, and I opt to be softer, rather than harder, in this respect.

I have just returned from putting Franny down, asleep--the classic parental no-no. But she is asleep. Her "complaining" had grown into full-on screaming hysterics. When I picked her up, her poor little body was shaking and her teary eyes almost made me feel guilty for leaving her for the ten minutes that it took for her to reach that point. We sat in the rocking chair and she was asleep after three minutes--45 minutes after I originally put her down. I don't believe her anxiety is manipulative or the classic toddler, independence-driven refusal. So, we continue as our intutition and common sense directs us, which I believe is the best thing to do. Which, brings me back to my original statement: I love to watch Franny sleep.

The "white stuff"

On June 15th I blogged about how excited we were that Franny had started to drink milk. This was a big deal since it had taken two months for her to drink even an ounce!

Then, in early July she began signing for milk. Since she wasn't signing much at this point, in efforts to encourage her communication, we gave her milk whenever she asked for it. By August, this accomodation had snowballed into milk being her primary source of nourishment. She peaked on August 19th, consuming 56 ounces of milk.

The realization of how much she was drinking was quite alarming to say the least, and we immediately started to limit how much she was drinking by encouraging her to drink water instead. She was responsive to this but was still drinking between 35-40 ounces of day through last week. Over our vacation, I reread some of my books, and determined that we needed to structure her milk consumption/eating if Franny was going to have an appropriate diet and healthy approach to eating. In addition to eating minimally, Franny had become a perpetual grazer, and would eat constantly--a few crackers here, a few raisins there... Again, if she could sign it, I would give it to her, so she ate A LOT of crackers, raisins, cereal, and cheese.

**Sidenote: I so not use books to create magic formulas on how I expect Franny to eat, drink, sleep, behave, etc. But I do use them for appropriate reference and to be responsible in my approach to parenting.**

So, this was our first week of our new eating and drinking: three meals, two snacks, and milk only at breakfast, lunch, and dinner; also, she only gets one shot at each meal--if she's not eating, I don't try to get her to eat something else--but she can eat as much as she wants with the meal prepared. This experiment was an eye opener to how irratic her eating was. I've since amended the plan to include two afternoon snacks, since she was getting so hungry, even with a hearty first snack. Although I've been strong about the whole situation, I have given her small snacks when she was obviously very hungry, since I don't think that it's fair to expect her to immediately adapt and change her way of thinking about food.

I have to give Franny a lot of credit--her response has been great, which is an incredible relief. She still wants milk quite frequently, but lives with drinking water instead. Now, in-between meals, Rick will tell me that "she making strong requests for the 'white stuff'..." We now understand why parents start spelling words in front of their kids! She also has started to eat a lot more, and has seemed to like the different meals I've made her for lunches, snacks, and dinners. Her banana strike seems to be over, as well. It does take a lot more planning on my part, but it's worth it.

Touchdown!

Franny loves her Auntie Cherl, but I think we are all just a little tired of her comments regarding the Ducks-Sooners game, which can only be described as borderline obnoxious. Given the Ducks' record with Oklahoma, it's been difficult to do anything but bite our tongues and hope for an upset. But Franny decided to break our misguided silence, display our Duck pride, and show Auntie Cherl what the Ducks will be doing on Saturday! Go Ducks!!!

Daddy's girl

Since we've been back from vacation, it's all about daddy. Throughout the day, she repeatedly does the sign for "daddy" and looks at me with a very serious and concerned face. She's done it so many times, I looked up the sign for "at work", which she picked up on immediately. She's also loves to sport the baseball hat he wore during our vacation, as well as check out her reflection in the oven door. The girl loves her daddy!

Franny's finest

Franny put on her Sunday best to go to a family friend's wedding reception over the weekend. Although she wasn't altogether happy about being at the event, she really enjoyed the punch and cake! But, I think that's the case for everyone at one wedding or another, isn't it?!

Thank goodness she can't reach the gas pedal!

One of the highlights of Franny's vacation was driving Grandpa's big red truck. Who can blame her--all those buttons to push, horns to honk, and of course, hanging out with Grandpa! They were quite a sight! Lucky girl! And, needless to say, one the highlights of our vacation was seeing Franny's little head peering around the steering wheel, beaming ear-to-ear, as they rounded the campground loop! Rattle, rattle, rattle.

Napping on the go

We enjoyed a number of bike rides around Sunriver during our vacation. But nearly every time, regardless of the time of day, Franny inevitably fell asleep. I'm not sure if it was the high desert air or if it's just one smooth ride...

Come Monday

We have just returned from another wonderful week of vacation in Central Oregon. We did our usual activities--hiking, biking, swimming, and relaxing. It is always incredibly special to have so much family time together, and this time was no different. The first Monday back is especially hard after being together for over a week. Franny and I gave ourselves a day to be mopey; but, now we look forward to the weekend and all the good times that lie ahead for us.