Amy sleeps well at night when she isn’t fighting a cold in which case she has a nasty night cough which has caused me some sleepless nights. She only coughs when she lies down which leads me to think its postnasal but it has been suggested by our family Dr that she is showing a tendancy to sensitive airwaves which could be a precursor to childhood asthma so its something we just have to wait out. She is in otherwise perfect health and usually goes to bed happy and wakes up happy. She sleeps in her big girl bed, usually surrounded by books rather than soft toys although she does request to have Biscuit her African bear in bed with her along with her collection of hard plastic dollies. I have a whole collection of photos of her asleep with various books over her face as she falls asleep midstory. Ron and I alternate between being happy that she loves books and reading so much and being frustrated that so often bedtime becomes a negotiation as to how many stories we will read! The first rule of parenthood “do not negotiate with the hostage taker!” Amy has not mentioned her dummy since the day after we ‘left it at Granma’s’ and although there have been a few occasions when I wished we still had it, overall its been a great success and I am happily planning on using a dummy for this baby and not stressing for a minute about how long the baby will use it or how we will get rid of it.
Amy still has a sleep most afternoons at about 1pm, if she doesn’t actually sleep she will still go into her bedroom and lie in her bed for an hour reading or singing to herself which has given me a great rest during the day. She hasn’t realised that she is perfectly capable of getting out of bed herself and so every morning and each nap time she calls out “Mummy (or Daddy) I’m awake, come and get me!” Ron and I are perfectly happy for this to continue for as long as we can manage it, it would be easier sometimes just for her to get out of bed on her own but for now she is still contained in her bed and her room until we liberate her! Its ironic actually as our doorhandles are so low that she has been able to open and close the doors in our house for months now! If we are a little slow going in to get her in the monrnings when she wakes between 7 and 7.30am she will lie and count “one, two, three DADDY” and increase the volume until we respond!
Talking about counting, Amy can count to 20 on her own and has a great memory for nursery rhymes and songs. She has come back from a weekend at Grandma’s reciting a story or a song that I don’t know and it amazes me how she will hear something one week and then be able to sing it days later, perfectly. She can recite most of her favourite story books out loud and read along with us and although we do point to the words, we are not actively trying to teach her. I have had so many discussions with early childhood experts and teachers who are adamant that parents should spend their time playing imaginatively with their toddlers until they start structured preschool and then we should be helping them with their learning. If we start too soon children can become bored, restless and unsettled in a classroom environment and this can lead to problems with behaviour before they have even begun learning or started school. Amy and I play together a lot and her favourite toys are still things she can pretend with. We play shopping and hairdressers (irony = I don’t go to hairdressers and Amy has only had two haircuts in her life, both of which she hated!) and I try and spend time letting Amy show me how she wants me to play.
Amy is lots of fun, quick to laugh and very demonstrative, she will often turn to me and kiss me on my shoulder or come over and give me a pat and ask “you alright Mummy?” She tells us she loves us frequently and spontaneously and says the same thing about her friends. She cries when we leave someone’s house after a play and will say “but I love so-and-so, they are my best friend”. She likes to arrange her own playdates and will ask someone’s Mummy if she can go round to their house which has made for some interesting conversations with Mummys that I don’t know that well! Amy is happy to spend time with other people and never cries when she goes to Grandma’s or spends the morning with a friend which makes me happy, I would hate it if she suffered from seperation anxiety after having spent so much time with me. I know we have some big changes coming up in our lives but I feel very lucky to have had so much one-on-one time with my daughter before introducing a sibling into her life.
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