The biggest development of this month was Sam's transition from crib to "toddler bed." Her crib is convertible, so we just removed the front gate and replaced it with two smaller barriers at the top and bottom. The mattress is so low that she wouldn't get hurt if she fell out, but I don't think she ever has. What she can do is get out of bed anytime she wants. This was pretty scary the first few nights. Not for her, but for me! Really, it's quite a big deal when you've always known that your baby is safe all night in a crib, but now she can get out and get into all sorts of trouble. It's also a huge milestone in the whole growing up thing. Both Adam and I are still marveling at what a big girl she is now.She made the transition very easily. She gets up and turns on her light sometimes, but for the most part, she just sleeps. The only trouble we've had is that she has started waking up early each morning. The first few days I went to her, but now I'm trying to ignore her. She'll usually cry for 10-20 minutes then fall back asleep, which is great, but a lot of the time I can't get back to sleep myself, so I've been quite tired lately.
Sam and I are going to Montessori together once a week now, and she is only in day care twice a week. This arrangement is working out very well and saving us some money too. I'm not sure what we'll do when the seven-week Montessori program is over. I might try to find some other formal activity for us to do together, but with summer coming we might not even need that.
Sam went through another developmental burst this month. This means that she had more tantrums, was willful, and was extremely physical, at least, by Sam standards. She got so many bumps and bruises for a while
there that I was afraid her day care teachers might start thinking something bad was happening at home. Sometimes we'd just be hanging out and Sam would fall down and really hurt herself and scream and cry. Then one or two minutes later, she'd stub her toe, then she'd get scratched by Jinx, then she'd drop something heavy on her foot, then she'd fall down again. It was really hard to watch her go through it. She's come out of it now, though, and the good part is that she is clearly more advanced than she was a month ago: talking in more complex ways, running faster, less cautious, and just plain smarter.Another good thing about this phase of willfulness is that we didn't use time outs, and it has worked itself out. I knew we'd have to go through one of these periods before I could truly say that the positive discipline works. I'm glad to report that it does. It did not "spoil" Samantha to refrain from traditional punishment. She didn't need to be punished. She just needed guidance. I'm pretty happy with the changes we've made regarding discipline, although I still struggle to figure out the right thing to do quite often.
Sam is starting to bring home learning from day care, which is really cool. One day I picked her up and when we got home, she got out of the car and lay down on the grass. I asked her what she was doing and she said, LOOK SKY. Later, I read the daily report the day care center gave me and it said that they spent time outside lying on the grass looking at the sky. Another day, we were driving home from day care and Sam started saying all the days of the week. She didn't get them in the right order, but she had never said any of them before, so I was surprised. Again, the daily report said that they learned the days of the week. I really don't care if she knows the days of the week - it's just rote memorization right now - but I'm glad to see that she is trying to share these things with me.
What else can I say? I love this kid.
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