Murray Update

My creative juices aren’t flowing right now, so I can’t come up with a better title than that. Sorry, I’ll blame it on the rain. (Yes, I started singing as I typed that)

First, thanks for your prayers for the sleeping. I wish I could say that Ella was doing great and sleeping through the night. Unfortunately, that is not the case. She’s still waking up every 2 hours. I did go buy the No Cry Sleep Solution and while she’s not sleeping through the night, we have seen marked improvement from implementing just a few things from this book (I’m only half way through reading it). First, she’s going to bed MUCH earlier than she used to. Our theory before was that if she went to bed later then she’d sleep longer and we wouldn’t be woken up in the middle of the night. That is true, but now that Ella is going to bed earlier and getting more sleep (even though it’s broken), she’s a much happier kid. She doesn’t fight as much when Metti arrives in the morning, and she doesn’t fight as much with getting her clothes changed or her diaper changed. She has also started taking more consistent naps, which is great. They are at the same time every day (give or take 30 minutes), which means that she actually goes to bed at the same time every night (give or take 30 minutes). And the best part is that Joe and I actually get to hang out together at night! All of this is great news! The problem is that she’s still waking up throughout the night…like 4-5 times a night. Ugh. What we need to figure out is if she’s waking up because she’s itchy, or if she wakes up and doesn’t know what to do so she scratches (it can be a nervous habit for Ella). It’s a “which came first, the chicken or the egg” situation. All we know is that when we go in there she’s just scratching all over…legs, arms, back, sides, EVERYWHERE! I stay in her room and try to rub whatever part seems to be itching the most, but even then it takes at least an hour for her to get over the itchy bug enough to calm down and go back to sleep. We’ve been alternating 2 anti-itch medicines. One of them used to work great, but the older she gets it doesn’t work so well. The other works great for 2-3 nights, then doesn’t work at all, and in fact, seems to make matters worse. This is where, once again, Joe and I need prayer for wisdom.

Ok, enough of that. This weekend the weather here was absolutely beautiful! Saturday Ella and I went to visit Joe at work (yes, he worked all weekend) and we took his office cookies. Ella was very excited to see where daddy worked and to visit his colleagues. She even drew a very special picture while we were there.

On Sunday we took Ella to Sunday School at church for the first time! We are really working on active steps to get Ella into play groups and other activities with kids her age. She’s extremely shy, as anyone who has met her knows, so I can’t just throw her into preschool without at least some preparation for being around a lot of other kids. All in all she did really well. She was overwhelmed at first, but as soon as they started singing songs she warmed up. They had play time in the church’s soft play room...how ideal for Ella! She didn’t really climb all over everything, but more enjoyed watching the other kids play. She did, however, love when the kids would jump in the ball pool and she’d go around and pick up all the balls that fell out and throw them back in (just like her Paw Paw). When we went back to the room they had snacks, and Ella actually sat by herself and ate the snacks with the other kids (this is a big step…usually she wants to sit on my lap). She also went to the puzzle table and did puzzles with some of the other girls. I only knew 1 other kid in the class, so I am not judging, but Ella was definitely the best at putting puzzles together. And I lined up the blocks and when she was counting them she was counting in Boppie’s language…GENIUS!!! Anyway, it was good for her and it was good for me to see some specific things we need to work on before she starts preschool.

Metti has been taking Ella to story time at the library for several weeks and she loves it. When I come home from work she tells me all about the story they read and the songs they sang, and shows me her picture. Metti did say that Ella is the only kid that actually sits and listens to the story and does what the leader asks. The rest of the kids are running around and not paying attention. Good job Ella! Metti and Ella are also going to try out some other toddler activities around Alexandria, so we’ll see how those go. I think it will be good for both Ella and Metti to get out of the house more and play with other kids, especially as the weather gets warmer.

Given the beautiful weather over the weekend, I washed all of Ella’s summer clothes. The problem…I have been buying all 3T and about half of them are too big. She’s in that terrible stage where 2T are too small (too short) and 3T are too big. Does this give me a good reason to go shopping? I will also add that if anyone has a daughter who has outgrown her 3T clothes I’d be happy to pay good money for them. :)