My little girl is growing up

I've been meaning to write a few things about Grace for a while now, we have had a few major milestones happen over the last few months.

Firstly I finally got my bum into gear and got her a big girls bed. The poor thing had been sleeping all cramped into the toddler bed, we were starting to hear a thud every time she stretched, so thought it might be time to up-size. I have spent ages searching, trying to find the perfect bed for her. I wanted it to be white, good quality and to have drawers underneath. I finally found exactly what we were looking for at a bed shop near Ikea.

It's great because there is storage also at the back of the drawers, so I have crammed all her old clothes in there (because I can't bear to get rid of any!). The drawers have all her winter clothes in them, which has freed up some space in her wardrobe. It is a king single, so it is HUGE. Enough room for us all to have a snuggle on.

I have a few new things to put on her walls, just need to find the time and motivation to do it and have it looking like a pretty little girls room.

Grace has been sleeping peacefully in her bed for the last month, I've even been known to have an afternoon siesta on it - Grace still insists on sleeping in our bed for her day sleep.

Oh and because she is such a big girl now, there are no more night nappies. Yippee!!!! My little girl has been out of day nappies for over a year and out of night nappies for over a month. The first night I was a little nervous, fully expecting a midnight bed change. I woke her up just before I went to bed and took her to the toilet, whispering in her ear to do a wee. She was still in a groggy haze, but did wee and then stayed dry all night. In the last month she has only had 2 accidents, and even those 2 were not completely in the bed. She must have done it as she was getting out of bed, but didn't make it in time. Some nights she doesn't go at all, and others she comes into our bed early morning asking to go to the toilet.

I am just so proud of my grown up little girl. Even though she has been day trained for so long, it's still so exciting to know that she is now fully trained and so independent.

Now onto other "not so good" Grace news.

She is absolutely driving me batty at the moment. I know (well I think!?) that she is being totally normal for a (nearly) 3 year old, but jees who would have thought that she could drive me so insane. It's the constant whingeing and whining that really gets to me, it grates on me and I can normally just ignore it, but when it is over and over and over again, I can't.

This has all started in the last 2 or so weeks and I have been racking my brains on how to get through this ratty stage. On recommendation I borrowed the 1-2-3 magic book from the library, hoping and praying that there would be some secret code in there on how to deal with annoying toddlers. I read it over and over, back to front - then started putting it in to practice.

This last week Grace has been in her room thinking ALOT. I'm trying to be consistant and following through with anything that I say. I tell her once what she has to stop doing, if she does it again I say "That's 1", she goes again, "That's 2", then if she dares again it's "That's 3 and straight to timeout. I had been using the hall as timeout, but now we use her bedroom. More as a place for her to calm down and be away from the fun.

It seems to be working but I really need to educate Duane about it more. She knows that she can get away with so much more from him. If it wasn't so hindering to me it would be funny. I overhear Duane saying to Grace, "That's 1, That's 2, I said 2 Grace, That's 2.5, Nearly 3 Grace, You know what happens if I get to 3, Don't Grace, I'm going to say 3 Grace"

I find myself stepping in and correcting him all the time. I've explained it all to him and he sees how I work with her, so not sure why he just wont follow through. It can be a pain in the bum actually having to stop what you are doing and put her in her bedroom, but I am hoping that the amount of times that we have to do that will decrease. Oh god, I am hoping!

She is just pushing so many boundaries and I feel so much more in control if I have a plan of attack. We'll see how it goes I guess. Apparently 4 year old are beautifully behaved though, so if it all falls apart I guess I only have another year of this lovely behaviour. It's not even like she is naughty all of the time, it's just the constant chatter, questions and running commentary of everything that she does. She constantly want to be the centre of attention and turns it up a notch if she isn't. She is constantly demanding that I watch what she is doing, or to look at the same things repeatedly.

Reading back over this makes me sound like an unattentive mum, but I do spend time with her. Unfortunately I also have another child to attend to and meals to make and housework to do. I can't be her captive audience ALL DAY LONG. I am yet to find something that amuses her for ages. She flitters between activities, unless we are outside and then she amuses herself most of the time. So we do try to spend as much time outside as possible, but most of the time she wants me out there with her - just to watch.

Oh damn I forgot, by the time that she is 4 Xav will be 21/2 which was another horrible phase. But then again, my beautiful boy has already perfected the art of the full blown tantrum so surely he will have that all out of his system by then and be a perfect little angel.

She is so beautiful and loving most of the time, it's just at the moment the constantness of her is wearing me down. She is a very "spirited" child, and I dare say that Xav will be the same. I don't want her to change her passion and excitement, I just want to maybe guide all that energy into something else. I'm thinking about enrolling her in dance classes, hopefully to help her out with concentration and taking instructions. Or not.

I say all this and yet when she goes to kindy of a Friday I miss her like crazy. I've even considered taking her out because I do love spending time with her. I'm nuts aren't I?

I know fully understand why every time we asked Mum what she wanted as a present she would just say, "Peace and quiet please." I'm sure we never gave it to her though, poor Mum.