Miss Independent

We have given Graecyn more independence recently, which she is loving.

We started by not turning the monitor on during her naps.  We bought her a special clock called the "Ok to Wake" clock; you set the clock for the amount of time you want the child to nap for.  Once the clock reaches that time, it glows green signaling to the child that it's ok for them to get up.  Instead of Graecyn calling out to us when she was ready to wake up; she could watch for her clock to glow green and get up and come downstairs to find us all by herself.  She LOVED this new freedom.  We then extended it to the morning; again, we set her clock to glow green at a time when we felt it would be ok for her to wake up (6:45 a.m.).  If she wakes up and her clock is not green, she knows she needs to lay in bed a little longer until it glows green.  This clock has been such a great purchase!  It's so cute to hear her door open and the pitter patter of her little feet coming down the stairs and see the big smile on her face because she gets to be a big girl.

We did this for a few months and recently decided it was time to test out this system at night.  Cody was starting to roll over, which made me nervous not being able to see him on a monitor (we had just a sensor/audio only monitor on him).  Instead of investing in a second video monitor, we decided to move Graecyn's monitor into Cody's room.  I wasn't crazy about the idea at first - I wasn't sure how'd she feel about knowing that Mama and Daddy wouldn't hear her if she called for us in the night; I was worried she'd get scared if she needed to get up in the night.  So, to help make sure she wouldn't get scared, we found a special flashlight for her to use if she needed to find us; she loved it.  She uses this flashlight day or night to come find us.  In the morning, when her "ok to wake" clock glows green, she comes busting out of her room with "Miss Unicorn" in tow.  At nap time, she comes downstairs with Miss Unicorn's light leading her way (even though it's broad daylight).  I'm still adjusting to the middle of the night tap on my forehead or quiet "mama" and having her staring at my face.  I am sad that she's growing up so quickly, but I love to see how proud she is and how she is embracing her new independence.