Evelyn at 21 Months

This has been a difficult month for our little stinker ( and us)!  For about a year now, Evelyn has thrown up at bedtime, crying to the point of being sick, when we are in a new place.  Chalk it up to separation anxiety or just not wanting to go to bed, she has now begun this same behavior at home, during naptimes and bedtimes on most days!  We are desperate for this phase to end.  The doctor suggested melatonin to calm her at bedtime, but we haven't tried this yet.  He also suggested staying in the room until she falls asleep.  Well, this definitely doesn't work because she doesn't want comfort, she wants OUT!  She throws a bigger fit if we are in the room.  She throws her toys out of bed and screams up, up, UP!  After she makes herself sick, we clean her up (meanwhile, she is happy as a clam to be out of bed) and she will tell us when asked why she got sick, "cry and fuss."  Yep.  Then we put her back into bed and she either calms down and goes to sleep or we repeat the process again until she falls alseep.  She is napping less, sleeping shorter hours by the time this process is all done each night, and she looks exhausted and sick during the day.  We are not sure what to do!

*Update* We did try melatonin for two nights.  It worked very well.  She was definitely calmer when she went to sleep, so she cried less and fell asleep much faster.  She also seems to be napping better.  The last few nights (with and without) melatonin she has not thrown up, so we've stopped giving it, but we will definitely use it again if we get back into that vicious cycle.

I sure do love hearing her latest words and expressions.  She has taken to calling Lambie, Molly.  I think this started because she sometimes confuses the first and last sounds of a word, for example rather than saying "meow" she says "eom", etc.  She switched the L and M around and got Molly.  In her Easter basket she received another little lamb.  She began walking around saying "two Mollys."  This turned into her saying for anything that she wants more of.  If I give her a cracker, she will say, "two mollys.  She always wants to make sure she has more than one treat in hand.  If I give her a serving of food on her plate and it doesn't look to be enough, she will say "two mollys" rather than more.  She knows how to request specific foods, but for whatever reason instead of saying the actual name of the item, she does this.

Another word we hear a lot of lately is "self."  She wants to do everything independently.  I tried incorporating this at bedime, saying that it was time to go to bed all by herself.  She didn't buy it!  But she insists on trying to walk down the stairs, holding the railing she can barely reach, but we do have to have our hand on her.  She doesn't want to be in her stroller and insists on walking.  That one doesn't always happen.  She is so happy when she accomplishes the task she wanted to.

Evelyn enjoys scribbling on paper.  She will also put stickers on paper if I help her peel them off.  She has played with play dough a little bit.  She is a little hesitant to touch it, and wants to use the tools, but doesn't quite have the motor skills to cut through the dough.  We will work on this more during the summer.

Someone has discovered the joy of eating ice cream.  If she sees me at the refrigerator, she will come up and ask for  "cream."

We are in the final few weeks of music class.  Here she is drumming with her little friends Finley and Maeve.

And this was the day that she was determined to keep her sunglasses on everywhere we went.  She was the star of music class, and received many good natured laughs at the grocery store!

Harrison played in his final soccer game last weekend.  At the start of the season he told us that he was working toward making 25 goals this season.  We encouraged him, but also explained that this would be very tough to accomplish in 8 games.  Well, he ended the season with 28 goals!  Way to go buddy!

The silly shot!

Harrison, Harper, and Kent

His final goal!  What a slide!