Sleeping Beauty

I realized, as I was reading over past posts, that anyone reading this blog would assume that Andrea has been sleeping in her toddler bed like a champ for months now... you would be wrong. She does sleep through the night, and falls asleep on her own, but she sleeps on the love seat in the living room :)

 It all started a few months ago when she got a 7 day stomach flu and I knew she wouldn't get through the night without vomiting. So we let her sleep on the love seat and I slept on the couch so I could be there when she got sick. Well since the flu just wouldn't go away she got in a bad habit of sleeping in the front room. We tried to do the "cry it out" thing that worked so well last time, but after a week there was no progress. So Ryan and I decided to "pick our battles".

She takes a nap beautifully, and goes night night without a fuss. We just learned to turn the TV to something she isn't interested in. If we turn on Mickey or Yo Gabba Gabba she doesn't fall asleep, but if we watch one of our shows she is asleep in minutes. It's also a benefit that I have the couch available for me, when she does have a rough night. Last week she had an ear infection and sore throat so I stayed in the living room with her to get more medicine during the night.

Her bed is now used as a bench for her stuffed animals and it's also where she prefers to have her diaper changed, instead of on her changing table.

I'm hoping one day when she's older she'll get excited about a new twin bed and we can work out a reward system. But for now, we'll keep our lives simple by letting her sleep where she feels safe.

Christmas

Christmas was, well, interesting for me this year. It all began Christmas Eve when I was miserable everywhere. I had such a migraine that Ryan insisted I go lay in the bedroom til I could move again. I had such a bad sinus ache that my teeth hurt, and I felt a little nauseous. I didn't know whether to take pain medication, allergy medication, or pepto bismal. I thought all three might be a little to daring. So I started with Tylenol and got rid of the migraine in time to take our traditional Christmas lights drive around town. I sat in the third row of our car (because it's easiest for me to climb back there) so Ryan's parents could join us. My sinus' were so bad I couldn't stand it, and each turn was making my stomach a little more unpredictable. But I made it home without incident and we opened all of our Christmas Eve pajamas.

Christmas morning was a little better, no sinus pain, and no headache, just a little nauseous. Andrea woke up ornery but we finally talked her into opening some presents.

After she opened her lady bug tent and we put it up she wasn't interested in opening anything else. We had to put the tent in her bedroom to get the rest of the gifts unwrapped.

Besides the tent she received, a snow suit, an outfit, some DVDs, a coloring book, a rolling tigger, and some hippo bath toys.

Ryan received some Wii games, cologne, itunes card, and the annual Bob & Tom CD.

I received a jacket, a camera, slippers, and some DVDs.

After the first round of presents at our house the stomach flu hit in full force for me before we went to Ryan's parents. Andrea received even more spoils from Grandma and Grandpa and I think by that time she was just a little too overwhelmed with everything.

It took her a couple of days to truly appreciate everything and take the time to play with each new toy. I think we'll take it easy on her birthday, which is in a few weeks, good heavens!

Even with the stomach flu it was a fun day watching Andrea understand the idea of Santa a little better! I am so happy we have her in our lives, she makes everything so much fun!