Sleeping: Two funny little sleeping quirks have popped up this month.  The first is that she has become a little afraid of the dark, and wants to have a nightlight in her room.  It has NEVER bothered her before….we have always kept her room pitch black with a darkening shade and everything.  But a few weeks ago, she started crying a few minutes after I put her to bed, and when I came in, she said, “I just can’t see.”  I stuck a nightlight in her room, and we’ve been memorizing Proverbs 56:3 “When I am afraid, I will trust in you.” 

The other funny sleeping anecdote is that she could retell me a dream in the morning for the very first time!  One night she woke up around 2 a.m. just crying and crying.  I went in and knelt by her bed – she was sitting up, and holding her toe.  “That fish bit my toe, that fish bit my toe,” she kept saying.  I kissed her toe, and asked her what kind of fish it was, and she sort of woke up and said she needed to pee pee.  The next morning, I asked her if she remembered the fish biting her toe, and she retold me this story about how she was sitting near the pond in her bed, and a lady told her there were fish in the pond, and one of those fish bit her little toe.  I put a video of it on her website.

Eating: Lana’s favorite thing in the world to eat right now is a hamburger at Sonic!  I think she would eat there every day if I let her.  She’s also become a big fan of the white part of boiled eggs.  Summer eating is lots of fun….we eat breakfast outside almost every day, which she loves, and many times we’ll have a sandwich picnic for lunch or dinner at the pool.  She’s still a big fan of having her foods separate….casseroles just aren’t her thing. 

Talking: A major focus for us this month has been teaching Lana to speak when she’s spoken to.  She is naturally on the shy side, and never more so than when strangers speak to her.  She’ll often duck her head and look away, very rarely answering.  It has been difficult for us to decide how to handle it….we don’t want to push her, but it also comes across as rude or disrespectful sometimes.  We’ve had several conversations with her about how she can respond if someone speaks to her while we’re out running errands (grocery store, library, etc.).  We do lots of role-playing while we’re in the car headed somewhere: “Lana, what could you say if someone tells you that you have pretty curls?  Lana, how do you respond if someone asks you how you are doing?”  On and on…..we just keep rehearsing how she can speak when spoken to.  It really seems to be paying off!  She is doing lots better with this.

Oh, and my favorite things she’s said this month: Dan’s sister gave birth to her daughter Sofia on July 23.  When I told Lana, she excitedly told her friends, “FiFi cracked out of Aunt Kenzie’s tummy!”  She’s totally envisioning Mackenzie’s stomach like an egg!

A couple of days after her birthday, she woke up from her nap, and said, “Okay, Mommy, I’m 3 now.  I’m ready for Tucker to grow out!!”

Discipline: We’ve heard that the “terrible 2’s” are nothing compared to the “terrible 3’s!”  Since she just turned 3, we’ll have to wait and see if that proves true for Lana.  Right now, we are memorizing the Fruits of the Spirit and helping her equate those with her behavior.  This has, of course, been very convicting for me as I talk through it with her…. 

Playing: Her very favorite things in the world right now to play with are her babies….she interacts with them endlessly throughout the day.  She reads to them, feeds them, changes their diapers, puts them to sleep, etc.  It is so neat to see her being so nurturing – she’s going to be great with Tucker!

Last month, we realized that we needed to work on Lana’s ability to play independently for an extended period of time.  Last week, I began implementing “Room Time” for her each morning.  This is time that she goes in her room and plays by herself with the door closed.  She has books, puzzles, babies, a little table in her room that we let her use for an activity of her choice during Room Time….playdough, coloring with colored pencils, etc.  We set the timer, put it in her room, and tell her that when it beeps, she can come out and find us.  We started with 10 minutes, are at 15 right now, and will work up to 30 or 40 minutes.  My hope is that she will have this Room Time while Tucker is having his morning nap, leaving me with a few minutes to check e-mails, answer phone calls, talk with Dan, fold laundry, or just put my feet up!  At first, I think she felt like she was being punished, but we have worked hard to make it positive, and she’s begun to look forward to it.  One day, she came out of her room with the timer and said, “Mommy, I’m not done reading my books!  I’m going back to Room Time.”