Terrible Ones...?

Saturday night, after Ella went to bed, we cleaned up all the mess from her party. I put all her old toys away and set all her new toys and books out so she would see them first thing when she came out Sunday morning. She usually likes to be held first thing in the morning, but as soon as she saw all her new stuff, she squirmed to get down and took off to investigate.

Still a little sleepy...

The house was her present from Jeff and me. Unfortunately it got delivered, un-assembled, the afternoon of her Birthday, so we didn't have a chance to put it together before her party. That night Randy, Dahlia, and the kiddos came over and Alicia and Dahlia put it together. We still need to paint it, but Ella loves it, especially if there are any cats or other kids in there.

Silly girl!

An empty canister + a spoon = awesome drum set.

Playing in the cabinet.

Ella and Maggie at Nana and Gran's Halloween party.

I thought things would slow down a little once Ella's Birthday was over, but not so much. We were busy, busy this last week and next week is looking the same. I'm not sure if this is related or not, but Ella has been less than pleasant this last week. We settled pretty quickly back into a two nap a day routine, but then all of the sudden, she started fighting nap/bed time like crazy. As soon as I take her in the room and start our pre-nap/bed routine, she starts screaming and crying. She settles down when we sit in the rocking chair and will kind of relax and nurse, but as soon as she's finished and I take her to the bed, she starts fighting again. If I just lay her down, she'll try to get up, so I have to hold her or practically lay on top of her to keep her in bed. That infuriates her and she screams and cries even more. She just keeps squirming and struggling until she wears out and falls asleep, which can be any where from 30 minutes to two hours. Uggghhh! So frustrating. The one good thing I can say is that usually when she's out, she's out (I'm sure that'll put the jinx on that...). I have no idea what's going on with her. I've been reading, reading, reading trying to figure it out, but other than a few little things to try, it seems like it's probably just a phase that will have to pass.

When this first started, I was having a really hard time not losing my patience and my temper with her. I quickly noticed that her day time behavior was deteriorating as well. She's been extra clingy, cranky, and very quick to get frustrated and throw temper tantrums. Monkey see, monkey do, right? All of this was making for a pretty vicious cycle. So, I'm trying really hard to, and mostly succeeding at staying calm during all this and hopefully she'll follow my example for good behavior as well as bad. Although the sleep thing has only gotten a little better, she definitely seems more her usual happy baby self.

In light of all this toddler drama, I decided not to sign up for swim lessons this session. The timing wasn't going to be great and even though the pool is heated, it's still cold. We might sign up again the next session or I might wait until she drops down to one nap a day. We'll see.

Ella has started running, but she only does it once a day, when her Daddy gets home from work. We'll be sitting on the floor playing and I hear the garage door go up, which she doesn't seem to notice. So I'll say "I hear Daddy!" and she perks up and starts looking toward the garage. As soon as she hears Jeff come in the house, she takes off around the couch to meet him at the baby gate. It's so cute and it makes me smile every day.