Bed, Optional

Ara discovered yesterday at nap time that she doesn't have to stay in bed once I put her down. The second I walk out of the room and close the door I can hear her get out of bed. Yesterday she was crying and I went in there a few times. It was more of a tired grumpy cry so I wasn't concerned she was hurt I just didn't think she would sleep if I didn't go back in and put her back in bed. She would look at me through sleepy puffy eyes and say, "no sleep". But then we would hug and I would put her back in bed, gently tuck her in, and walk out of the room hoping she wasn't going to spring right up. After the third of fourth round of this I began to rethink my strategy. Maybe I was giving her the impression that if she got out of bed she would be rewarded with attention and the postponing of the nap time! So I sat listening to her get out of bed and come to the door (which was closed). She complained and called for me. I stayed silent. Eventually I heard the unmistakable sounds of her laying down against the door. The silence after that told me that Ara had decided to take her nap on the floor in front of her door. Interesting. When she woke up I lightly tapped on the door and opened it a crack. She poked her hand through with one of her special blankets (there are 3 now). She proceeded to hand me the blankets, her birdy, and her blanky before she would come out.

Today when I put her down for nap time she got right out of bed again after I left. This time, though she didn't cry or call for me. Seconds later I heard her settling down for her nap on the floor by the door. I guess this is what we are doing now? Hmm. I consulted my books, nothing about your kid sleeping on the floor. For the time being I've decided I will accept the compromise. She isn't in danger of hurting herself and she is sleeping (although the naps are much shorter). My only concern is that it is hard to open the door if I needed to because of her blankets, stuffed animals, and well her. It's actually kind of adorable. She makes a little bed for herself and settles down. A thinks she wants to be able to hear me in case I do something fun while she is sleeping lol.

I've started doing a color, letter and shape of the week so we can focus on familiarity. She is counting up to 10 now, although she leaves out 5 a lot. She can name every animal at the zoo and associate a sound, well for the animals who make good sounds. What sound does a giraffe make anyway? She is adding so many words daily to her vocabulary it is astounding. Today she had gas which she thinks is hilarious so we worked on, "excuse me". "thooos me". We have been doing a lot of art with painting and markers. She is so cute she will ask me to watch her draw an "A" and then draw a perfect little circle. She feels a sense of pride in her art and is always excited to show her Daddy when he gets home from work. She points to it and says, "pretty". Markers suck though. Washable my ass. They wash right out of clothes but the marks on the skin look like serious injuries and stick around for a few baths. I actually banned markers for a long time because of this. I gave them another shot yesterday and I think they are banned again. Finger paint and water colors come out so they are my friends. Ok I'm tired and it's late. I shall stop writing now!