Samantha: 29 Months, Week 1 {Apple Works, Napping Problem, and Fall Family Fun}

Ever since the season changed to fall, I have wanted to take Samantha to a pumpkin patch or something like that.  The place we visited last year was not open this year, so I had to find a new place.  I didn't want to drive too far away, but I wanted it to be something that was worth visiting.  I got some advice from moms at church, and we decided to visit a place called "The Apple Works."  We had a great time there.  It was a beautiful day and apparently it was Columbus Day so many kids had off of school, and it was very busy.  Our first stop was pretending we were riding the bus.

After figuring out what all there was to do and buying some tickets, we went for a ride on the train.  Samantha couldn't wait and was doing a very good job waiting patiently in line for our turn.  The little train took the kids around on a bumpy trail, showing the apple trees out in their orchard.

After our train ride, we checked out the playground area that was a barn with a hayloft with a slide coming down from it.  The slide was a black tube, and it was fairly dark inside.  The kids that went down before Samantha went down pretty fast and kind of bumped once they got to the bottom because the tube leveled out and went flat.  Samantha watched the others go down the slide and still wanted to try it herself, so I helped her get on and sent her down.  She did just fine going down the slide, and I went back down the stairs to meet her at the bottom.  She, of course, wanted to go on again.  We then spent some time playing in the hay and riding on the wooden rope swings they had hanging in the barn.

Next, we went to pet and feed the animals.  There were chickens, alpacas, goats, and a baby cow.  Samantha enjoyed walking around and feeding the animals, although I think most of the food ended up on the ground when she was trying to hold it out for the animals.

After feeding the animals, it was time to wash our hands and eat our picnic lunch. She was a little distracted by everything else at the farm and all the people around us, but I was able to get her to eat enough.  After eating we took a little walk across a bridge to a gazebo and then on a little path through the woods.  When we walked into the woods, Samantha turned to me and said, "Shh!  We have to be quiet.  This is where the wild things live!"  I love when she takes references from books and applies them to her life, like they are real.  It's so fun to see what ideas she takes hold of and what stories stay with her.

It was already close to Samantha's nap time, so I decided it was time to drive back to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin.  It was a very large patch and there were rows and rows of pumpkins.  Samantha had a grand ole time wandering from row to row looking around.  I told her to try and find one that was a nice orange color, that wasn't too big or too small, so of course she had to point out all the pumpkins that were smashed, green, or tiny.  I love our little girl.  :)  I wanted to let her pick out a special one by herself, but it was just too hard for her to choose among all the different pumpkins.  Eventually, I picked two that looked good and let her pick which of those she liked best.  Otherwise, we may have been there wandering through the pumpkin patch all afternoon!  Here's a blurry picture of Samantha posing with the pumpkin she chose.

After waiting in line to weigh and pay for our pumpkin, we were on our way out, so that we could get home for Samantha to take a nap and before my piano lessons started.  Samantha and I had a great day together outside enjoying some fall festivities.  I was so glad that we could spend this time together.  It's days like these that make me not miss teaching, at all.  I love this time with my little girl.  It's just wonderful to have these days with her, days that I will never get back.

Now, just to be ironic, the next day was not such a wonderful day with Samantha. Every day can't be a wonderful day, right?  Well, it was a Tuesday so we had Sadie at our house, and we went on our normal morning excursion to story time at the library.  Now, for the last several weeks Samantha has been resisting napping on Wednesdays after BSF, but we have never had problems on Tuesdays before.  However, this day was a different story.  Sadie was already asleep and had a great nap that afternoon despite all the noise coming from Samantha's room.  Well, when I put Samantha down for her nap, she was up there making all kinds of noise and kicking the side of her crib.  I didn't want her to wake Sadie up, so I went up to her room to tell her to be quiet and go to sleep.  When I walked in her room, she had thrown her blankie over the side of her crib.  Our rule lately has been that when she does this, we take her blankie away at least for that nap, but sometime longer.  She knows that this is what happens, but chooses to throw her blankie over anyways.  Well, I followed through with what we usually do and took her blankie away which, of course, resulted in her crying and being upset for awhile.  And, pretty much every time we take her blankie away, it is guaranteed that she won't take a nap at all, so I braced myself for a long afternoon.  I had a piano lesson that afternoon at 2:30 and just left Samantha up there making noise in her crib.  I apologized to the family afterwards and explained why there was banging coming from upstairs.  They thought it was pretty funny, and it didn't bother them at all.  After they left, I could hear a strange noise coming from over the monitor, so I decided to go back in Samantha's room to see what was going on.  When I walked in, I saw that she had gotten into the top drawer of the changing table, which is attached to the side of her crib, and had dumped out all her hair bands from a bag that we keep in that drawer.  I cleaned up all the hair bands and laid her back down in bed.  I was determined to at least keep her up there for two hours, even if she didn't end up sleeping at all.  Well, when the two hour mark came, I went to her room to get her up and found her sitting on top of her changing table, which she has only ever done once before.  I didn't want Samantha to think sitting on the changing table would result with her being able to get out of bed, so I made her climb back into bed and lay back down.  

However, throughout this time, and really anytime she refused to nap, I can just feel my anger rising.  I don't know why I get so upset, I don't know if I feel like she is stealing my private time away from me or if I'm upset that she isn't sleeping and then will be cranky all night, but I get so frustrated on days she doesn't nap.  In fact, I even posted something on Facebook asking other moms for opinions on what to do.  Here's what I said:

I need an opinion from some fellow moms. We are having some trouble with Samantha taking naps. It doesn't happen every day, but probably twice a week. Ever since she was a nursing baby, she had a little pink blankie and eventually started sleeping with it. It started out just at bedtime and then progressed to nap time, too. She used to just have it in bed, but now she takes it out and plays with it around the house, sometimes even bringing it in the car with her. She has grown a lot more attached to it.

Well, probably the last month or so, mostly during nap time, Samantha will throw her blankie over the side of her crib and then start crying because she doesn't have it anymore. When it just happened occasionally at first, we would give it back to her and then she would go to sleep right away. But then, she started throwing it again after we already gave it back to her. So we started talking to Samantha about how we would take her blankie away if she kept throwing it. Well, she has, so now when she throws it, we take it away. But when we take it away, she will not take a nap, she will just sit in her bed and play and talk the rest of the nap.

What do we do? Is she just throwing her blankie as a way to avoid her nap or is it her being defiant against us? Should we try to cut the blankie out of the picture so that it's not an issue anymore (but how would we do that)? Should we limit the blankie to just bedtime since we don't usually have this problem then? Should we move her to a toddler bed instead of a crib so that she can just go pick it up off the floor and get back in bed (but that may open up a lot more problems with playing at nap time)? Has anyone else had this problem? I don't think she is ready to give up naps yet, because other days she will fall asleep fine, and on days she doesn't nap she is a crazy, upset girl from dinnertime on. It is just frustrating to me when I know she needs a nap but is refusing to take one, and then she just laughs and smiles when I go into her room to reprimand her or tell her she needs to sleep.

I was just at my wit's end and felt like there must be something I was doing wrong as a mom that was causing her to not nap or some magic solution that could fix the problem.  I got some good advice from fellow moms, but mostly people that were in the same boat as me, which is reassuring to know that I am not alone.  However, I only felt better about it all once Ben got home, and I was able to talk through things with him.  I'm so glad I am married to him.  His levelheadedness balances out my tendency to jump to the worst possible conclusion or the most drastic measure.  We talked through a few strategies and steps we can take, starting small and getting progressively harder, if necessary, to take care of the problem of Samantha throwing her blankie.  Our first step was to make the blankie a special thing just for nap time and bedtime, to stop allowing her to take it out and play with it during the day.  When we first started her on this new rule that day, she protested a bit and cried for her blankie, but it only took a day or two for her to get used to that.  She just gives it a big hug and kiss before she gets out of bed, and that seems to take care of it.  Also, we have not had any napping problems since instituting this new rule.  We have no idea if keeping the blankie just for sleeping is what is making it better, but it certainly seems like it.  We (especially I) were so glad that it was an easy fix to this problem, and we hope that we never have to go beyond step one.  I'm so glad I have such a wonderful husband to bounce ideas off of and to support me when I get worried over nothing (and to love me anyways!)

Wednesday and Thursday progressed normally.  Daddy working, Sadie coming to our house on Wednesday, BSF, and most importantly, Samantha taking good naps.  In fact, on Wednesday I took a nap that afternoon, too.  Our little girl is so much more pleasant to be around when she takes good naps during the day.

I have been trying to be more creative at home, now that I have "more time on my hands," whatever that's supposed to mean.  But on Thursday, I decided to make some Rice Krispie Treats with the large amount of Rice Krispies we have in our house, and I made homemade play dough, something I've been wanting to do for a long time.  I used this recipe that was recommended to me by my sister-in-law.  I used recipe 1, split the dough into three balls, and then kneaded food coloring into the dough according to Samantha's color preferences.  So now we have red, green, and blue play dough to use.  It is so much softer and more malleable than the brand name play dough, plus we have a large quantity of it, making it so much easier to make more shapes.  We even went out that morning to run errands, and I bought a set of 101 cookie cutters!  Samantha has really been enjoying play dough at church and at BSF, so I was looking forward to having it at home for her, especially now as it is getting colder outside.

While I was making the play dough, I overheard this from the living room:  Samantha was pretending to talk on the phone in her play kitchen and said, "Hello?  Do you want to come over to my house Llama Llama, Nelly Gnu, and baby?"  Those of you who have read Llama Llama Time to Share will recognize this.  Whenever she talks on her pretend phone, she is always inviting people over to play.  Is she trying to give us a hint?

Thursday night, once Daddy got home from work, it was going to be a family night.  We had a great time playing together and dancing together.  First, Samantha thought that her table would be better in another place, so she pushed it from the living room all the way to by the front door.

Then, later in the evening when we were upstairs, Daddy and Samantha had a wonderful time dancing to some Irish music.  I love to watch the two of them together.  He is great with her, and she is so in love with her Daddy.  Dancing is just not the same unless it is with him.

As far as updates for how I'm feeling with my pregnancy, this week I was 13 weeks along, so I am getting closer to the end of the first trimester, closer to the time when my chance of miscarriage drops significantly, and closer to my next appointment when I can hear the heartbeat of my little baby again.  My nausea seems to have subsided, which I am grateful for, even though it wasn't near as bad as what some women get.  The biggest symptom I have felt this past week is just exhaustion.  I can get a full night's sleep and still feel like I hardly slept at all.  I'm used to not waking up at all during the night, and now I am waking up many times a night to readjust my position or to roll back on my side when I find myself on my back.  

Also, Ben's side of the bed has been getting crowded with the four pillows I have been using at night to try and keep myself comfortable.  I researched these special pregnancy pillows online and found one that was reasonably priced, seemed to meet my needs, and wasn't so gigantic that it would take up half the bed.  With Ben's permission :), I ordered it off of Amazon and it arrived at our house on Friday afternoon.  I was so excited to use it that night and see if it helped me sleep.  This is the pillow I got, and I love it.  It was like an immediate fix to my sleeping problems.  I use it under my head and behind my back so that my back is supported and I don't keep rolling over on my back all night.  I am so glad I got this, especially since it can be used in so many different positions, like in supporting my growing belly later in pregnancy.  And, I think Ben is grateful to have one pillow in bed with him rather than four.  Ahh, the joys of being pregnant, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

On Friday, we had an oil change scheduled for the car, so we had Daddy around more than normal, which we will always take. :)  Samantha and I did take a trip to the Banneker Center to play for awhile that morning.  Although this is what playing at the Banneker Center looks like for Samantha:

She likes to sit in these little cars and pretend to drive her stuffed animals around.  Sometimes she will move and sometimes she will just sit there and watch all the other kids play around her.  Either way, it's cute, and we love her.

On Friday night, we drove up to Indianapolis to meet Grandpa and Grandma Toll for dinner at Jason's Deli.  We used to meet them for dinner more often, but I don't think we've done it since last February or March.  We discovered that it's kind of hard to pull this off now.  Samantha took a nap and then pretty much right when she got up, we stuck her in the car to drive up to Indy.  It takes about an hour and half to drive there, and then we were in the restaurant eating and visiting for awhile.  That is just too much sitting for Samantha, to go right from her bed to the car to a high chair.  She had too many wiggles that were just itching to get out.  It was also difficult for Samantha to fall asleep once we got back in the car to go home.  We were probably halfway home before she finally allowed herself to fall asleep, even though it was already past her bedtime.

After dinner we went to the mall to walk around for awhile before we got back in the car again.  However, Samantha was getting sleepy and ended up having an accident while sitting in the Mickie Mouse car that you can pay money to ride on.  She hasn't had an accident in so long we almost didn't know what to do.  We had an extra change of clothes, but no extra socks or shoes or even a plastic bag to put the wet clothes in.  We certainly weren't as well prepared as we should have been.  We have just taken it for granted how well potty trained Samantha is.  When she is not really sleepy and overstimulated, she does an awesome job of telling us when she needs to go potty.  Luckily, this was an exception, not a norm, but Samantha still will randomly say, "Sorry I peed on the Mickie Mouse car and made him sad."  To which I'll reply, "It's okay, it was just an accident.  We'll just make sure we don't do it again, right?"  I think our little girl remembers every place that she has had an accident.  I guess it's good that she has learned her lesson and feels sad when she has an accident, right?

On Saturday I had all these grand plans to hit up a couple local fall festivities.  However, the weather changed our plans.  It rained most of the day, so we just had a nice day playing inside and painting pumpkins.

Daddy was attempting to work at the dining room table through all of this, but it's pretty hard from him to work when he'd rather be hanging out with Samantha and me.  Here is Daddy pretending like he is riding on Samantha's shoulders:

 I think they enjoy each other. :)

After Samantha woke up from her nap on Saturday, the rain had stopped, allowing us to go to a fall festival for a little while.  We got there on the tail end of it, so there weren't too many people there.  And with the rain came colder temperatures, so we didn't want to spend too much time outside anyways.  Samantha got to watch some kids fishing, which she thought was really interesting, and she also got to jump in a princess bounce house.  The bounce house had a slide that you could climb up and slide down the other side, and at first she didn't think she could do it, but as soon as the other kids left and she had the chance to take her time and figure it out, she had a great time.  She then rode the slide many times in a row, with a huge smile on her face every time.  I'm glad when Samantha accomplishes something challenging and feels satisfaction over figuring it out by herself.

We had a great evening outside and even used some of our tickets to buy some brownies for a snack.  We stood on a bridge watching the boys and girls fish while we ate our brownies.  In reference to her brownie, Samantha kept saying, "I want some more Brown County!"  I don't know where she got that from because we only called it a brownie, but we thought it was pretty adorable.  I'm going to miss her little toddler/preschooler talk when she grows up.