Addison - the 20 Month Old!

Addison is now 20-months old, so close to the big 2. We can't believe it! Yet, she shows little resemblance to the little baby she once was, and much more to the little girl she is becoming.

Sleeping Beauty

In early January, Addison began a streak of waking up in the middle of the night screaming from what appeared to be nightmares. Sometimes it would happen as early as 10pm or as late as 4am. However, nearly every night for over a week, she would wake up crying. One or both of us would go to check on her and comfort her. She would stop crying shortly after we held her. A few times we just sat and rocked her in her chair and she would fall right back to sleep. However, when we would try and lay her back down in the crib, she'd cling to us and scream so we brought her to bed with us. The second night this happened we tried to get her to tell us what was wrong. We asked if she was scared and she just said "guy" and "hat" in a little timid voice, it broke our hearts! So no messing around, we brought her right back to bed with us. We were freaked out by it and wondered who "guy" was. She had been watching a lot of drum corps that week - and the corps does wear helmets. Plus, when the show starts there's a close-up on the drum major in his helmet and she's always excited and points saying "Guy!" So we thought that might be what it was, even though it didn't scare her when she'd watch it. But perhaps thinking of it at night in her dark room creeped her out? On the other hand, she'd also watched "Monsters, Inc" a few times. My niece and nephew have both had nightmares from watching that movie so we thought that might be a factor too. In any case, we hid the movies away so she can't watch them anymore - at least for awhile.
After a handful of nights like that, the nightmares stopped. However, what we feared would come of it happened...Addison now enjoyed sleeping with Mommy & Daddy at night. So she'd go to sleep just fine, but then around 4-5am, she'd wake up calling for us. We'd go check on her and she'd want out of her crib and into our bed. A few nights we tried to fight it, but it resulted in a screaming Addison. So the need for sleep won and we gave up and brought her to bed with us. Other than her sometime erratic tossing, turning and kicking through the night - the other problem we faced is that she would then wake up at 5:30am when Tim's alarm goes off. I would stay snuggled with her and sometimes she'd fall back asleep, but by 6am I have to get up so then she's up for the day. It was an adjustment at first, since I had been used to the "luxury" of sleeping til 6am and done showering by the time Addison would wake up at 6:30-7am. Now I had to make a mad dash for the shower as soon as Tim would get out so he could watch her while I quick showered before he had to leave for the train! Whew! But as anything we've adjusted and now it is the new normal. Addison has slept all the way through until 7am a few times and at worst comes to sleep with us around 5am. Which may actually mean she's just getting up earlier. We may try and experiment and shift her bedtime later so perhaps she will sleep later?

Playtime
Addison is a very playful, energetic little girl. She puts a smile on our face everyday. Tim & I often laugh about all her silliness after she's asleep and talk about how funny she is. I've made a note to self to tell her all about when she gets older :)
She has been playing with her Christmas toys a lot and it makes us so happy to watch her play in her home and all the toys she has set up for her. We put all of our/her kids' movies in a basket next to the TV and she really enjoys looking through them all and having the "control" to be able to tell us/show us what she wants to watch. Although, as she's learned the names of her favorite movies she often times is able to just tell us flat out! She's also turning into a little techy toddler and knows how to put DVDs in and out of the player. Much to my pleasure, she is also very good at putting the DVDs back where they came from.
Addison loves her books and happily sits and flips through them all on her own. Her new favorite thing is to grab two books, find a place to sit and then call either Mommy or Daddy over to sit with her and read. She'll say, "Book too" and pat the ground next her. So we sit next to her and flip through a book while she toddler babbles to herself and flips through the book. Every few minutes she'll look over to see our page and then switch books with us.

"Running too" is another variation of her favorite games with Mommy & Daddy. Addison has created her own little "track" in our home, running through her play area through the living room and foyer then around and down the hallway and through the kitchen. Round and round she goes and wants Mommy & Daddy to run with her. She runs for 20min at times so it nearly counts as a workout for us. Haha! Her favorite time to run is about 30min before bedtime...we figure this is her last burst of energy.
Another great pasttime for Addison is lounging in her play tent and watching a movie on the portable DVD player. This came in very handy during the Packers/Bears NFC Championship game where she went into her tent to cuddle and ended up falling asleep for most of the game! What a great little girl!

The Potty
Just a few days after my last entry, Addison pooped on the potty. It was amazing! Tim was playing with her and all of a sudden she said "poop" - Tim asked "do you wanna go on the potty?" and she said yes. So to the bathroom they went and, well, she went! And it was what would have been a very full diaper. She was so good she even waited it out on the toilet! Tim called me up to share in the "joy." (Yes, a stinky toddler toilet is a joy for us!) It was quite the experience to clean, but what a great achievement. She has continued to use the potty several other times, but only one other #2 since then. She uses the toilet probably a couple times a week. We still haven't fully forced it upon her and are still leaving it all up to her, since she's a little ahead of schedule. But we are so proud of her for really doing it all on her own! I have a little "dream" that she will be mostly potty trained by her 2nd birthday. What a feat that would be!

Oh, and I'm sure she'll love reading this when she is 14! :)