The Quinns: 25 Months Old

Ok, so I know I said I wasn't going to post any more monthly updates, and I won't typically, but this past month was BIG. My little Caker Baker gave up her paci. Monumental in her little life. And when I say "gave up", I don't want you to think it was done willingly. John and I decided it was time. Age two is kind of my paci cut off with my kiddos, but I kept finding reasons to postpone it a few weeks. But I decided after she had her tubes, it was time to take it away. Here is the last picture with her pacifier. This was while she was waiting to go back for her tubes.

We have a "paci only in the bed" rule at our house, but I broke it that morning in order to keep her from asking for food prior to surgery, and so she could be comforted by it after surgery.

I know every parent has his or her own reasons for either allowing the paci to stay indefinitely or deciding to take it away at some point. My primary reason for taking it away by age 2 is because both of my kids' teeth seem to very easily "influenced" by the pacifier.

Exhibit A:

I mean, does that even look like Curran?!

Exhibit B:

I guarantee you that in six months SC's teeth will look completely different.

I knew I would have to take it away at some point, so my thinking is that I would rather do it while she is still young enough to need/want to take naps {as opposed to when she is older and the paci is the only thing keeping her napping, and once it's removed the napping stops}, and I just PRAYED it wouldn't affect her sleep too much. Because she is my good sleeper and I need her to stay that way!

So the night after her tubes {last Friday}, we went over to a friend's house, and I told her that she is a big girl now and that we were going to give her paci to a baby who needs it. Well, there wasn't a young baby there like I thought there would be, so we gave it to a baby doll. :) And then I threw it in the trash when she wasn't looking. Mean mama. On the way home she did say, "I wanna hold it." I asked "Hold what?" She said, "My paci." So I had to remind her we gave it to a baby since she is a big girl now. She did cry a little bit going to bed but it wasn't awful. She woke up at 2:30am and I went in there because it sounded like she had a bad dream. I rocked her for a few minutes and she got back in the bed just fine. HOWEVER, that was a fluke because nap time the next day was AWFUL. Awful. She screamed bloody murder and never did go to sleep. I was seriously questioning why in the hell I took her pacifier away. But that night she did better and only screamed for maybe 10 minutes, and it has gotten shorter each night. And she really didn't even ask for the paci except maybe two times. She isn't sleeping as late as she used to, and that's not fun, but overall she has done pretty well. Not great, but well. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So as I mentioned, she got her second set of tubes last week. She did really well with the procedure, but unfortunately she got really sick on the way home. And I was worried that would happen because she got sick after her first set of tubes. But this time I was alone with her in the car because John was out of town. Luckily I could tell it was about to happen so I pulled over on the side of the road. But she rallied, and the picture below is after we got home {and she changed into fresh jammies}.

But soon after this picture, she asked to go "night night". That was 10:30, and she slept until after 2:00.

When she woke up from her long nap, we went and picked Curran up early and got some ice cream and went to the park. She was back to her usual self by then!

In the last month, she has really started talking up a storm. Lots of people have noticed the difference, too. She is using many more complete sentences and hardly ever limits herself to one or two words at a time.

She is obsessed with this potty training book that was Curran's. I think it's called My Big Girl Potty, but she calls it "Potty Time." She has sat on the potty a handful of times but hasn't done anything. She is not super interested, and I need to get her at least through the summer in diapers so she can wear all the cute little bubbles we have. :) This could potentially be my last little girl in bubbles so she may wear one every day!

She is also obsessed with Sofia the First on Disney. She requests to watch it ALL the time, but there is only one episode she likes to watch. It is on our DVR, and she always wants to lie in our bed and watch it.

I don't think I have mentioned this on the blog before, but it seems that SC is our little lefty. My dad is left-handed and has been dying for one of his granddaughters to be as well. SC still eats with both hands a fair amount of the time, but she almost always uses her left hand to write or draw. And someone else who is left-handed noticed her doing something random with her left hand and pointed it out. And to tell you the truth, I'm pretty excited about it as well because when I was growing up, I always wished I was left-handed. :) She must get a good amount of genes from my dad because he is also the only one in our family who has wavy or curly hair.

Lefty

My little Cakers is SUCH a mama's girl. She wants me to do everything for her, with a few exceptions when we hear "No, sister do it" when we try to help her with something. I have a hard time letting John put her to bed {although I really do appreciate the help!} because once she starts crying and I hear "I want my mama!" it's hard to stay away. She always wants me to hold her, which I enjoy, but it makes it hard to get anything done.