ZZZZzzz...... R's sleeping...... for now

She's sleeping.....finally.... for now..... in her "hockey bed"......Mummy and Daddy have also been catching up on the 252 hours of missed sleep in the past month.
Rowyn decided that she was a big girl now and leaped out of the crib one night after I put her down. She wasn't happy about going to sleep and I was just about to go back into her room to tell her to settle down when I heard a "thunk". I rushed in and flipped on the light and there was our innocent little lamb.... on the floor... staring up at me with big eyes. I didn't even know what to say. I was so shocked and surprised that I just stood there like a dolt. Needless to say, there were many many many nightime visits that night. I woke up around midnight to find her stsanding beside the bed staring at me... just hanging out looking at me. Weird and a not a little disconcerting! The was the end of the crib and the start of a LONG journey to her hockey bed.
The next day I ran out to the store and bought her new sheets, an Elmo book (Elmo is the fav these days) on "Elmo's countdown to bedtime" and a few other things for a transition to a big girl bed that night. We were optimistic that things would go well after a bit and anticipated a little resistance at first but NOTHING like we encountered.
Long story very short, we tried the "escort her back to bed with no eye contact, no emotion, and quickly" whenever she got out of bed. Theory being that she'd get tired of getting out of bed when there was no interaction from Mum or Dad. Nothing interesting = no getting out of bed.... Boy were the "experts" wrong on this one. We weren't even out of her room before her little pajama clad feed were hitting the floor to come back out. Hours and hours and hours later she'd fall asleep out of exhaustion only to be up 30 - 60 minutes later. I thought we were done with sleep issues after she was 6 months old. Nobody prepared me for this part!
I have to give Brad all the credit in the world for hanging out and dealing with little miss "i can get away with 3 hours of sleep a night" chick for an entire week while I travelled for work. What a trooper (even so, he desereved every bit of that hang over from unwinding that Saturday after I got back). Daddy of the year award goes to Brad.
ANyway, I digress. After a near divorce we FINALLY had a brainstorm. Out of desperation Brad put her crib back up and put her crib mattress on a built up box that was low enough that she couldnt' get out of. We kept the bed but used a consequence theme. We explained that if she got out of bed, she would go in the "little bed" (the crib). Her response "NO LITTLE BED MAMA! HOCKEY BED!!" Needless to say, she spent the first night in her little bed. Since then (about 2 weeks now) we haven't had to put her back into the crib, but we've left it up as the consequence for getting out of bed and remind her every night that she needs to stay in bed. Things are remarkably improving. She's happy with the light on a little bit and the door cracked open a bit. Mornings are early (5:30 a.m. - 6:00 a.m.) but we're not complaining... we're happy to get 7-8 solid hours of sleep. Our girl is MUCH happier too.
We're SO looking forward to Christmas and seeing family and friends! We're off to get our Christmas tree this weekend and decorate. More pics soon!

Hockey bed definition - Bed with guard rails... we had to think of something cool
Little bed definition - crib
Here's her room today. A little crowded, but it's working!!


The snow out our back and front door this morning. So pretty!

1385 Miles......

I'm exactly 1385 miles away right now. Hang'n in my hotel room waiting to meet up with some co workers for some dinner. I'm in Austin for work this week and already missing everyone... well sort of.
We're in the middle of a battle. One that I'm not sure will ever get a white flag. We had to transition to Rowyn to a "big girl bed" last week after she spent a VERY eventful night JUMPING out of her crib. I can't say I'm all that surprised but there was just no warning. I put Rowyn down for the night and she wasn't happy about it. I was just about to open her door to tell her "night night" again and I hear a loud THUMP. I swing open the door and there are two little eyes staring back up at me from the floor. I'm absolutely speachless.... and so is she. All I could get out of my mouth was "Did you.... Oh my..... You.....". Know what she said to me? "Hi Mama". We spent the rest of the night with late night visits. At one point I woke up to heavy breathing in my ear and it was Rowyn standing beside the bed. That pretty much sealed the deal for us to get the bed out and ready the next night.
I went out and bought Princess sheets, an Elmo book that talks about moving to a big bed (Rowyn is in absolute LOVE over Elmo) and a small stuffed Elmo doll thinking I would make things a little exciting and special. Well, I should have just saved my moola. We're in the middle of the battle of the wills. Rowyn is giving a supreme effort to make sure that she tells us she's going to get out of bed whenever she wants. Like a million times a night. We're all feeling a little stressed and anxious of this. Now I'm in Austin for the week and Daddy's on duty. Poor Brad. At least Rowyn reacts better to Brad than me. Nap time took 15 minutes and she was down for 2 hours today. We havne't seen that in 10 days to be exact. I'm crossing my fingers and toes that Brad wins the big girl bed battle this week. She loves her bed and talks about it all the time. We just have to figure out how to entice her to STAY IN BED!
On a more fun note, we had Halloween this year. Rowyn dressed up as a horse - aka Unicorn. Rowyn loves horses so rather than tell a squirming 2 year old that the costume that Mummy wants her to climb into is a weird thing called a Unicorn, I kind of bribed her and said it was a horse and I was going to put some special makeup on her face. Did I mention that Rowyn is a total girl? Necklaces, makeup, hair elastics, belts, purses, you name it. The kid loves it. We had a grand time parading her to houses in our subdivision. She even got the hang of saying "trick or treat" and holding out her bag. We gave her a few treats that night and hid the rest. No need to add to the jumping bean effect of being a 2 year old.
We also visited the apple orchard this fall where Rowyn got to see some miniature horses and pick apples.
We went to a pumpkin patch as well and saw lots of other farm animals.
Our adventures have been getting bigger and bigger and we're loving every minute of it. Rowyn's understanding, remembering, and enjoying everything. I think Brad and I are just as excited as Rowyn to do everything all over again with her.
I don't have many pics with me on my notebook but here's what I have.
More updates more frequently, I promise.