I feel a little bad that I haven’t mentioned Smushy at all lately. (Not that I’ve mentioned anything, but we’re fixing that.) She seems to be adjusting fairly well to the move. There are a few things I wish I had done differently, though even with hindsight, I can’t see what I could have done. We made the mistake of letting her have her binky 24/7 and definitely had to pay the consequences. It was really just easier to pop a binky in there than really deal with anything since there has been so many other things going on.
So I decided it was time to go back to bed only. It used to be car and bed only, but honestly, it is a pain in the ass to keep track of that thing while we’re out and about. Also, I hate that every picture I take features the ugly green monster front and center. So I changed it to bed only. And it’s gone pretty well. Today she didn’t even ask for it at all except when I first put them up after naptime. And even then it was just for a minute. So yay for easy transitions. I know I should get rid of the thing completely and I know I’ll look back on this as SO NOT A BIG DEAL, but right now it’s a BIG DEAL. I’m a chicken. Plain and simple.
The movers broke our (very expensive!) bed, so all we had was a queen mattress on the floor that we all piled into every night. Smushy got used to us laying with her while she fell asleep. Can you spell trouble? On Monday, Mr. Silly decided to start the transition back to falling asleep on her own. (Since she now has her very own big girl bed!) Which, I should add, she did awesomely in Texas. He failed miserably. MISERABLY! I left, as was the deal because I am a chicken, and he stayed with her for an hour until she fell asleep. I married a big wuss. So Tuesday night I took over and after 10 minutes of crying and getting up every 30 seconds, she fell asleep. The next night she only got up once. Tonight was a little harder (night 3 regression), but still nothing terrible. I think we pretty much have it licked. Now, it’s still not as good as it was in Texas since she cries every time we put her down for nap or bed, but infinitely better than before.
Smushy is starting school on Monday. I fully intend on being the weepy mother who has to run from the room so her child doesn’t see her bawl. Then I will sit in my car and cry my eyes out until I have to come home. I know it’s going to be great. I will have the time to clean without someone messing everything up right behind me and go to doctor appointments without dragging a whiny kid along. She is going to love doing different crafts that I’m not creative enough to think of and making friends and playing. I’m also hoping she’ll be a little better about sharing (Current favorite sentence: “Gimme! That’s my _____!”) and get used to other adults as authority figures. Right now she gets really sensitive and cries when anyone else so much as asks her to stop doing something. She’s definitely not like that with us. So I know this will be good for everyone. I’m just sad. I have been there every day since birth. She has not been away from me for more than 12 hours (once–usually no more than 3 hours) . I’ve never had someone watch her while I ran errands or had some me time. I can count on one hand the number of times she’s been away from me. I think Im going to miss her, even if it is for only 4 hours a day, 2 days a week.
All in all though, things are good. She loves playing outside in the huge yard. There are horses next door that she can go see and maybe sometimes pet if they happen to wander over to our fence. We’ve gone to the corn maze and pumpkin patch and apple picking. Things we couldn’t do in Texas. She gets to see a real and true Fall and probably her first snow soon. We’re looking forward to sledding and building snowmen and making snow angels followed by chocolate milk and a toasty warm fire. I think she’s going to be pretty happy here.
