It Can't all be About the Snow

Here's a couple shots of Hadley's toes and fingers with some special accessories on them:

You might look at these pictures and think, "Oh yes, she wants to paint her nails and toenails so she used stickers for pretend." But these are not painted toes and nails. No, no. These are Hadley's "climbing claws."

Roar.

You can imagine the disappointment when Hadley tried to use her climbing claws to climb things like the door to our pantry, or the walls of the playroom. It stinks when one's imagination doesn't pull through.

We've been losing a little sleep over Hadley these last few weeks. I don't mean that in a "I'm really worried about her" type of thing. I mean that Hadley, in her realization that she can get out of bed ANY TIME SHE WANTS has taken to roaming the halls in the middle of the night. Not only that, but she has started to get up when we get up. At 5am. Both of these issues are disturbing.

First, it is just terribly unnerving to be sleeping and to have this strange feeling that you are being watched. You think you're just asleep and having an odd dream, but just for kicks open your eyes and see that yes, you are in fact being watched.

"What's up, Hadley?" I ask her.

She says nothing.

"Do you need something?" I try again.

Nothing.

At this point Jesse gets out of bed, walks her to the bathroom, and then walks her back to the bedroom. This can happen anywhere from 1-3 times at night. It's tiring. Not tiring like the nights when you're doing the "crying it out" routine waiting for a baby to go to sleep. It's more suspenseful tiring.

The getting up at 5am is hard because 1)I would like to believe she needs more sleep, and 2)as selfish as I am for saying this, that is my time. I get up then for me. If Hadley's up that means I need to pour juice, have a conversation about why we always use the potty first thing in the morning, comb her hair, make her breakfast, discuss when we will watch Diego or Mickey Mouse. I don't want to do that at 5am.

So earlier this week, after Hadley got out of bed minutes after we put her in it one night, Jesse lined up three M & Ms on the dining table. He told her that she could have them if she stayed in bed until 7am. He showed her the clock next to her bed and said that when it said 7:00, she could get out of bed, and unless she had to use the bathroom, she isn't supposed to get out of bed in the middle of the night.

So far it's worked. And I feel bad that I've made my daughter follow a rule for chocolate, but we weren't sure what else to do. Of course this makes me analyze how important it is really that I get to have some time to myself before the girls get up. If I were a better person I would welcome the fact that Hadley wanted to hang out at 5am. The days are numbered when I will be the only person she'll want to hang out with.

As for Harper, her new favorite thing to do is color.
It can get a little messy. The other day I walked into the playroom to find the area of floor where Harper was sitting completely coated with marker.

Here's a video of her trying to put the cap on a marker.




The snow has stopped, and we were able to get outside for a bit today which was nice. We are all looking forward to the Cherry Blossoms, that's for sure.