Leaps and Bounds!

That's right! We are making leaps and bounds over here in the Potts household. I'm beyond excited.

I think I have mentioned in the past Makenna's sleeping issues. Something that has been VERY hard for me to fix. Ive read books, Ive followed advice and nothing. My little monster* is just very very strong willed and stubborn. We have finally made a break through though. HOORAY! We finally moved back upstairs to our separate rooms. After the playroom reno- a few things have stopped us from quickly going back up there but the biggest was probably my fear. I was so afraid that she wouldn't handle being in her own room (even though our rooms are only separated by a doorway). She loves her room during the day but that still didn't have me convinced that it would make night time any easier. I thought for sure she would go back to waking up every hour (like last time) instead of every 3-4 hours. I was wrong. She seems to really like sleeping in her room. She still wakes up every 3-4 hours BUT she no longer needs to nurse to fall asleep initially. Which sounds like such an easy task to conquer...but if you ever had to conquer it, you would know- its not. At all. Now that she understands me a lot more I am able to tell her that the milk is "all gone". Some nights she fights me a little (like tonight) but other nights she is completely fine with it and lays her head on my chest for me to rock/sing her to sleep. Love. Putting her to bed is SO much more enjoyable now. Not that I hated nursing her to sleep, I didn't . I love bonding with her. I would just really stress on how or if ever she would learn to wean. I definitely didn't want to be forceful about it but I started to think she would just want to nurse forever (insert Grown Ups joke here). Although our sleeping issues are far from being fixed, they are at least on the road. It may be a long road, it may be a short road...but at least we are on the road and not lost out in the dark woods!

In other happenings- she is talking and communicating a lot more. She shakes her head "yes" to answer questions. And 99% of the time its really when she means yes. If not she will say "no". As much as I dreaded her learning the word no- I love the way she says it. Its so cute. She almost sings it. She uses her sign language a lot also. I am SO happy we did that with her. She gets really frustrated when she cant figure out how to tell me something so the fact that most of the time she can, is awesome. Her latest thing is to go around saying "Appy" meaning happy. She will just walk around the house saying "Appy, Appy, Appy". :o) If you ask her if she is happy she will smile and say "Appy". Also when you ask her how old she is she holds up her pointer finger, for 1. So cute. We are still working on colors. She is good with her animal noises and loves loves her some monkeys.

In the last week, she has started to get interested in the tv. I have never forced her to watch tv or even wanted it but instead of having her listen to crap tv all day, I leave kids shows on- usually Nick JR or Disney channel. That way she is at least catching bits of kid friendly learning material if she does listen in. Her favorite show seems to be Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She likes Jack and the Neverland Pirates also...and Sponge Bob. All shows I approve of. I'm not a fan of the weird/creepy shows where people jump around in costumes and talk like babies. Yo Gabba Gabba- Im looking at YOU!

We found some great outdoor toys on Craigs List. Makenna loves them, sometimes its a fight to get her inside. Im glad she finally has something to do out there though! Once we get our fence up this fall, we are set!


*A monster may be a bad thing to you but to me, its my perfect little girl with tons of sassyness and spunk. If you know Makenna, the cutsey girl names just aren't her. She is my monster and I love my monster more that anything.