The One Constant: Transition

Well, we've come to the end of another week. It's Friday night again, and our friend Robert is here with us, hanging out and helping John work on his Asianese. Actually, I hear them speaking English right now so maybe Robert is working on his English tonight! Lovely smells are drifting from my kitchen as the second (and final) layer of some apple cake is baking. I meant to get it done right after supper but my daughters had other ideas, so now it is 9:24 pm and we still have not eaten dessert. Oops. Good thing I have some decaf (not regular!) coffee on hand.

Clara Anne and Chloe must have had a private conference earlier in the week, deciding amongst themselves that all of the changes they've recently gone through were not enough. On December 1st, Chloe began her transition into the world of adult food. Well, maybe rice cereal cannot quite be considered adult food, but anyway she has started on that path. It didn't take her long to catch on--about halfway through an ounce of milk she started figuring out how to swallow it and was impatient for more. I must confess that my heart sunk a bit, knowing that now begins the discipline process with my sweet Chloe girl. She will have to learn how to keep her hands off the bowl, not to grab for the spoon, and not to blow raspberries as she's eating. Thankfully she is already doing pretty well with those things. Now we will have to work on those impatient half-whines between bites! Yet another transition!

Chloe has also been doing really well with sleeping nearly 12 hours every night, so John and I decided that it was time for her to transition into sharing a room with Clara Anne. Then during the day, Clara Anne can nap on our bed to help train her for preparing to move her to a big bed at night. So far, they are doing all right in the same room. There have been occasional times this week where they woke each other up, but hopefully soon that will decrease as well as they get more used to the other being in the room.

Clara Anne used to be my sound sleeper who needed about 17 hours of sleep a day. That has now transitioned to about 15, and even those times are interrupted somewhat by her crying out, needing to use the restroom. Most of the time she truly needs to go, but sometimes I fear that she is using that as a "get out of the crib free" card. She knows the magic words that will move Mama's heart to let her out, "Pee-pee more?" I have seen the truth of Paul's words: "The Law was added as transgressions increased." We've had to establish new rules as Clara Anne keeps testing the boundaries! I am trying to make sure that her efforts to manipulate me into letting her use the bathroom "one more time" are never productive.

Speaking of which, Clara Anne has stayed dry at night for the last 10 days, at least, so we have graduated to all underwear, all the time. No more pull-ups! She is really becoming a big girl. It's hard for me to believe her two year birthday is coming up in a few weeks!

Well, it's time for me to go and frost my cake. Robert recently was in a larger city nearby where there is a Starbucks and came back with some Decaf Sumatra for me. I think it will go perfectly with that apple cake!

Check back tomorrow for some pictures from this past week!