Ever since we switched to a toddler bed, she claims she's afraid of the dark. I don't really think she is because if we tuck her in and say goodnight, she has no problems getting up multiple times to wander downstairs in the dark to find us. I'm not sure though. She'll go down for a nap without me laying down with her, but so far at night, I have to stay in bed with her until she's out.
All day yesterday, she was talking about scary ghosts that were going to get her. Where does she get this stuff from? She has a Clifford Halloween book that has a ghost in it, but there's nothing scary about it. And, in the book, If you Give a Moose a Muffin, the Moose puts a sheet over his head and says Boo and scares himself. That's it!! I don't know where else she's learning about ghosts.
I need to do some research online to make sure we are handling these fears correctly so we don't have to deal with them for long or make them worse!! Did your kids express fears at age 2???
On a better note, at Hannah's family birthday party (which we attended as well), Jodi's mom who ran a daycare for 30+ years enlightened us on a good way to wean the binkie. She said cut it just a little bit every day until Sophie decides it's not comforting anymore. Rather than just hacking the whole thing off and saying it's broken, like most parents do. Which apparently makes kids really mad sometimes. So, we thought it was a really great idea. However, because we have mentioned the idea of cutting Sophie's binkie off before, she totally knew what was going on. Two nights ago, at bedtime, Daddy handed her her binkie after scripture and prayer, she put it in her mouth, and then took it out and said, Daddy cut it! Adam and I laughed our heads off. She didn't see him do it. We were hoping she would just think it was broken, but she called us out! Smart cookie. Yesterday at naptime, she asked Daddy to cut it more. I don't think she realized it would make the hole bigger. She wanted us to fix it and she asked for her Tigger binkie, which we lost months ago, and for her purple binkie, which is also recently lost. She still used it for naptime. Last night, I was laying down with her (after letting her stay up until 9) and she took her binkie out of her mouth and laid it down on the bed. She said, Mom, I need my binkie and I said, this is the only one we have. She said she didn't want it and went right to sleep. So, we'll see how she does today. Maybe she's over it! I'm just glad she can fall asleep without it and doesn't wake up in the middle of the night looking for it!!! YAYAYA!!!
Last update...at Church on Sunday, when Adam picked Sophie up from Nursery, they told her she was totally ready to potty train. She told them she had to poop and then did. I think the nursery leaders should potty train her :) She apparently talks about her bowel movements with them a lot more than us. I was glad to hear that though. We're going to tackle potty training as soon as we get back from the cruise.
4 comments:
Ally is expressing all sorts of fears right now and the biggest one is being afraid of the dark. We turn on the bathroom light for her and it seems to help her go to sleep, even though the light from the bathroom doesn't really shine into her room. I think fears are normal at this age. She is also afraid of shadows, but only at night time. During the day she loves shadows. She also, doesn't like to be in the bathtub/shower by herself, so she ends up taking showers with us.
We tried the whole cutting a small hole in the pacifier and it didn't work for Ally, hopefully for Sophie it does. Good luck!
Cute new pic's of Sophie on your header. Good job on the binky!...and the fears I think are totally normal. They start to have real imaginations around age 2!
This is kind of a challenging age because there are so many transitions right there in a row. Sounds like she's doing well, though! Have you tried a nightlight or leaving the hall light on until she's sleeping? That worked for us! How funny that she called you guys out on the binky cutting...hehehe.
Hannah didn't start being afraid until about 4 months ago or so. She has also started doing a lot of pretending about monsters and dragons. I wonder if Hannah talks like this with Sophie when they play. Maybe that would intensify fears. I don't know
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