Too Good To Be True

I've always heard that little girls mature faster than boys. They talk sooner, walk sooner, potty-train easier... Sure enough, Amy started talking a lot sooner than either of the boys, and she was speaking in clear sentences in no time. She was walking before she turned one. As for potty-training, she's been showing signs of being ready for probably a year now. But we've had too many other things going on and I just didn't think she could really be ready. Afterall, the boys didn't learn until they were 4. But in the past week, she has potty trained herself. I've only had to give the usual assistance, but she doesn't need to be asked or reminded. She just goes. Amazing!

The other thing we've always struggled with is transitioning the kids to sleep in their own beds. With each of them, Bill and I kept them in our bed while they were babies. They were well over a year before we'd take the transitioning challenge. And challenge it was. We'd have to start out every night with them in their bed and once they were asleep, we'd sneak out. Of course, they'd notice and we'd have to come back in several more times before the night was over. Eventually, we learned the method taught by The Nanny where you sit on the floor near their bed and continue to move farther and farther away until eventually, you don't stay in the room anymore. It sort of worked. We dealt with them coming out of the room a lot and quite a bit of crying. Nathan did a little better than Alex, but he was also in the same room as Alex so he was never totally alone.

We haven't rushed this process with Amy so much because we've had a lot going on and felt like the move would just cause new problems. So we contined to stay with her each night until she'd fall asleep. But now that we've been in our new house for a couple of months, we decided it was time. We explained to her that we were not going to lie down with her anymore; we would surround her with her stuffed animals, tuck her in, say prayers, kiss her goodnight... and leave. Surprisingly, she was excited by this idea. She talked about it all day. And when it was finally time for bed, we followed these steps exactly. She smiled as we left and said goodnight to us. And that was the last we heard of her all night. We've done this for two nights now. We are so very proud of her. But I'm starting to wonder if it's just a little too good to be true!

** Please note: This is not to say that girls are necessarily easier than boys. Yes, it would appear they do mature faster, but I've learned, at least where Amy is concerned, girls are quite a bit more temperamental and the term "drama queen" almost always applies. :) **