Transition

Since I can't post any pics of my adorable children due to the FREAKIN' VIRUS (AHHHH!), I will just chat about transition.......the transition that is causing me a lot of anxiety...the transition that is wearing on my nerves and my emotional well-being...the transition that will most likely drive me to start drinking...a lot. O.k., maybe not that...but I'm seriously considering picking up some horribly, awful habit to numb my feelings on TRANSITION. What transition am I speaking of? The transition of getting Lili into a big girl bed, potty trained and nuk free...and the transition of getting Will off of bottles and formula and sleeping through the night. No, we're not trying to do everything at once, however what we ARE trying isn't going so well...I suppose that's mostly due to the fact that 1. Mama can't stand to let her babies cry it out and 2. Mama can't stand to see her babies so upset when she knows there is something that could be done to make them happy again. Hmm...so I'm wondering if MAMA is the problem here?!?!? Could be. Wouldn't be the 1st time and certainly won't be the last.

With Lili, I don't remember her transition from formula to whole milk and from bottle to sippy cup being so bad. Will has brought this process to a whole new level of craziness. We did get him off the formula, so I guess that's one step in the right direction...but eliminating the bottles is quite the undertaking. We are down to about 3 per day, with some days requiring only 2. We tried cutting him off a little quicker, but even daycare found it a struggle to keep him happy. His fussiness just wasn't letting up. Daycare came up with the name 'Phil', which is Will's alter ego and comes out when he's upset and angry. Seriously...everyone is pretty shocked when 'Phil' is around because he is the EXACT OPPOSITE of Will. There MUST be two of them in that tiny little body... Anyway, so the status is that we're hangin' on at 2-3 bottles per day (of soy milk), with sippy cups in-between. As for the night waking...well, yeah...not sure what to do about that. At this point I'm pretty sure we are down to about 2 options. 1. Suck it up and deal with it until he's 'ready' to sleep through the night or 2. Let him cry it out. So far, 2 hasn't really worked for us. I'm going to start reading the 'No Cry Sleep Solution' next though, in the hopes that there are some new tips to help us figure this out. Obviously we're not comfortable just letting him scream himself back to sleep, so we need some fresh, new ideas.

...and then there's Lil... We 'officially' started potty training a month or so ago. The 1st few days she did awesome. We implemented the M&M bribes and a cute Dora sticker chart to keep her interested in peeing on the potty. Then things started going downhill... Basically she likes to pick and choose when to go on the potty. There are times when the M&Ms and stickers just don't do it for her and she decides she can live without them...which means we are greeted with a wet Pull-Up. Other times she tells me she's a 'big girl' and goes through the motions like a pro. Since she's not even 2.5 yet, we don't want to push her, for fear that we will derail the process altogether. She's still young and if she's not quite ready, that's o.k. At the same time though, she shows a lot of signs that she IS ready and do we really want to stop now and risk a setback? One thing we haven't tried yet is putting her in panties. So far we've been using Pull-Ups and both daycare and I are wondering if she doesn't notice enough of a difference in them to trigger her to go on the potty...rather than just peeing in them like a diaper. Our next thought is to try that, so maybe a long, 4 day Thanksgiving weekend is the best time to do it? Another challenge for us right now are the nuks. Will would never take a pacifier, but Lili is always looking for her 'nukie'. To be quite honest, I don't think being almost 2.5 is 'too old' for one...I'm just more nervous about letting it continue and possibly having her walk around with a nuk in her mouth at the age of 4. That would not be good. That's the one thing though that I could totally see pushing Lili over the edge. We are going to have a VERY UNHAPPY child on our hands when those nuks are taken away.

I have to say, the other day I was watching Lili and Will in the living room PLAYING TOGETHER very happily and was suddenly grateful for their closeness in age. Then I remember the timing of these 'transitions' we are being forced to go through right now and their closeness is a little frustrating. It's so hard seeing your child unhappy...and even harder when you KNOW what would make them smile again, but don't want to 'give in'. Sigh... It will get better, right?