Mummy notes

When I'm in my 60's, and bragging about how my daughter ALWAYS slept through the night, let this be a record that since 13 months of age, she has. I'm so in awe of it sometimes that I'm afraid I'll forget whether or not it was really true. Here are a few notes I need, as an official record of fact:

• the first 13 months were almost completely sleepless for me. Sapphie liked to nurse all night long, and the longest stretch she ever had was about 8pm to midnight, in her crib. After that she would come in the bed and most nights would nurse every hour.
• putting her on rice cereal didn't change her sleeping habits a bit (thanks to all you who advised me to put a little rice cereal in a bottle with my breast milk - I never tried it, but did find out that it wouldn't have made a difference at all!).
• When Sapphie turned 13 months old, Kevin and I had a talk with her about going to bed. As soon as we said it, she threw herself down on the couch to demonstrate sleeping. It was really cute but it also showed us that she understood what it meant to go to bed (and that she could understand what we were saying). We felt like she was ready for a new stage of independence. That night, we put her in her crib awake and told her we loved her and that it was time for bed. She cried for 5 minutes. We went back in, didn't pick her up and told her we loved her and that it was time for bed. She cried for 10 minutes. We went back in again, told her we loved her and that she needed to go to sleep. She cried for 30 seconds and went to sleep. That first night, she was up every few hours and we did the same thing - told her we loved her and to go to bed. Since that night, she has regularly slept 12 hours or more every night - uninterrupted.
  
• During the last few months, she has been regularly sleeping from 7pm until about 9am (and sometimes 10!). She also naps 2 to 3 hours a day.
• We have found that when she's overtired, she sleeps less, wakes up earlier in the morning, and doesn't nap as well.

A few weeks ago, she started a new habit (actually I didn't realize what was going on until a few days ago). She would wake up about once a night crying for me and I would go to her (we don't really let her cry because she usually needs something). She would point to the rocker and say "sing a song in the chair". It was so cute that I obliged happily. During the last week before Christmas she was doing it twice a night! I realized what was going on and on Sunday, as I was putting her to bed, I said "I need to talk to you about something." She said "yeah." I said "you know, you've been waking up at night and asking me to sing a song in the chair." She said "yeah."
"Well I don't want you to do that anymore. Mummy is sleeping when you do that and I need my rest too. If you wake up, I want you to snuggle with your lamby and go back to sleep." She said "okay."
And she hasn't done it since! It's so cool that I can communicate with her! How fun. I can't believe in a few weeks I'll be back to being up all night with number 2!

I'm sure that this was pretty boring for you, but since my blog serves as my journal I must sometimes do a factual entry for my records. More to come! I've already got some notes going on how my two pregnancies have been different...xo

Snow fun

Sapphie and I had some fun playing in the snow today. We took the dogs for a long walk at the golf course, and then of course she wanted to go over to the sledding hill to watch the kids. As we got close, she said she wanted to walk (yes, I brought her boots this time. And, thanks to Auntie Lucy for getting her a fleece with hand mitts!! We now have no mitten drama and have very warm hands). So I let her out of the backpack, and she walked. Then she decided to throw herself down and play with the dogs in the snow. Here she is saying cheese and trying to avoid a stick in the face (Cabot was dancing around her with a huge stick).

Here she was yelling "swimming!". She was trying to copy Cooper, who likes to "swim" and rub his entire face and body in the snow.

Watching the sledders. We did that for about half an hour.

Cheese!!!!

Geeking out with Uncle Ollie

Sapphie loves computers. It's a little unnerving, but she knows how to use an iPhone, iPad and an iTouch better than I do. And, we hardly ever let her play with them! Certain relatives, though, like to geek out and she knows exactly who they are and that they're a sucker for her requests (yes Uncle Ryan and Uncle Ollie, I'm talking to you).
She got Uncle Ollie on her birthday this Sunday. She said "come" in her soft voice and pointed to the bedroom, where she knows Colin keeps his computer. They had a blast taking computer pictures while I was enjoying Richard's amazing eggs Benedict and grilled venison steak for brunch. Here's some evidence:

Sapphie's famous "cheese!" face

Double trouble!

Ha! I caught them.

Then Auntie Hannah came and took Sapphie to Paris.

First real sledding day

This Christmas Eve, Sapphie had her first real sledding day. Of course we took her out last year, but only on the golf course (no hills, just flat). She loved it but was still too little to go on any hills. Here she is being towed by Kevin last year:

She had a blast and loved wearing her sunglasses!

This year, on Friday (Christmas Eve), I put her in the backpack and we went over to the golf course to walk the dogs. Honestly, it hadn't even occurred to me to bring the sled since there's no way I can pull it (34 weeks pregnant and a sore back), and I like having her in the backpack so she can see everything that I see. She still insists on wearing her sunglasses. And refuses to wear mittens.


As soon as we got there, I hear the shrieks of joy coming from the gigantic sledding hill and point out to Sapphie all of the kids sledding down the hill. "See kids!" She yelled. I told her we would go later, after our walk. So we did a loop on the course, then turned around and the whole way back, she asked if we could go watch the kids. We went over to the hill and she wanted to get out, but I hadn't put her boots on (she was wearing her slippers)! What was I thinking? I'm going through a huge learning curve during this switch from baby to toddler. I forget that she wants to do everything we do, not just sit there with her cute booties on! So Kev ran home and got her boots, but while he was gone she said she wanted to go sledding. So she and I headed home to get her sled, and met daddy in the driveway. He took her in our back yard on the ledge which is pretty steep! She LOVED it. Here's the video: