MissE and Me: May 2011

It's been a while since I posted an update on The Terrible Two (duh-dun). While some aspects have gotten better, some are worse before they get better, and some we just haven't tackled at all!

Tantrums
Luckily the tantrums have lessened. We see the appearance of one every few days, although they are still often irrational. Life as a 2 year old is hard!

Big Girl Bed
Shortly after my first post, we started a sticker chart for "staying in bed" and gave MissE an "OK-to-Wake" digital clock. After 5 straight nights of staying in bed, MissE received a bracelet and after 10 straight nights, a necklace. Problem seemed solved...
THEN suddenly, we were once again being awoken by a soft "Wakey wakey up" at 1.30am and 4.30am. Within a few days, MissE gained the nickname "Jackie-in-the-Box". After tucking her into bed, she would slip out 5 minutes later and call down to us from the top of the stairs "I'm cooommmiiinnng dooowwwn nooow". After several nights of spending 45 minutes tucking MissE into bed after we had already tucked her in and walking her back to bed up to 15 times a night, we only had one option left: LOCKDOWN! Yes, Tough Love.

Night 1: Like clockwork, on the first night of lockdown, 5 minutes after I tucked her in, I could hear MissE jiggling the door handle. When she couldn't open the door, she cried for less than 10 minutes and put herself back to bed. However, at 1.30am, JAILBREAK! She was standing by the side of my bed once again. Upon inspection the next morning, a hard turn of the door handle promptly disables the child-lock.
Night 2: We jammed the lock with a long rod... or at least we thought we did, because sure enough, she was at my side in the wee hours of the morning.
Night 3: Aha! I turned the lock upside down and have seemed to have outsmarted MissE! We heard 1 attempt of a jailbreak that was unsuccessful.
Night 4 and so on: So far so good! MissE no longer tries to get up in the night and waits for us to come get her in the morning. We aren't counting our chickens yet so for the next few weeks the lock will remain on her door.

Potty Training
It seems we spend more time cleaning up rather than making "deposits" in the toilet. And while the sticker chart worked with bedtime, it doesn't seem to work with potty training. In addition, consulting the books has just left us confused: do we wait until next month and try again, or do we keep at it with a mop and bucket always ready???

A big milestone for MissE was moving into the Beginners Swim Class. Her swim school, Aquabliss, move toddlers into Beginners at 2 years and 4 months, and only based on skill and maturity, which I think is fantastic (speaking as an ex-swim instructor, traumatizing swim lesson = bad). MissE has been over-achieving in Babybliss 2 for some time now, often used as the demonstrator for new students so as we were edging towards 2 years and 2 months, Teacher Jenny said we just had to move her or she would get very bored. After special permission, MissE had a first swim lesson by herself on April 4th.