Or, subscribe via email
Supporting
When Maya was about 4 or 5 months old she developed an affinity for bouncing. My arms were not prepared for the endless jumping and bouncing, it was quite an arm workout. Given her love of jumping and bouncing we figured she would be a big fan of a doorway jolly jumper so we picked one up at our local baby retailer. We were right, she LOVED it. It was hard to get her to stop using it. At almost 2 she would still ask me to put it up so she could bounce and swing around.
It was no surprise when Maya wanted us to bring out the jolly jumper for Anna when she was still to young to even hold her own head up for any length of time. I started putting Anna in the jolly jumper for short bursts when she was about 4 months old. She wasn’t a big fan at first. Eventually she started to enjoy sitting in it but hadn’t really figured out that she could make the thing move. I would bounce it a little for her and she seemed to like that, but if left to her own devices she would just stand there with this look on her face like “What exactly is the point of this thing?”.
Then all of sudden one day she just figured it out. I put her in the jolly jumper and she immediately started bouncing, jumping and spinning around. She was completely delighted with herself. She looked at me like “Mom, why didn’t you tell me this thing was so much fun?” 
Now she loves going in the jumper. She’ll squeal when she sees me putting it up in the doorway and can jump like nobody’s business.
It is so cute to watch her jump away, it reminds me so much of her big sister at this age. Maya gets a huge kick out of watching Anna jump away too.
I feel like I was just writing about Anna’s sleep regression and the resulting lack of sleep for both her and I, and now here I am about to tell you how amazingly she is sleeping. Something clicked for Anna in the last couple of weeks and now she is sleeping like a total champ.
Her sleep regression lasted for about 3 weeks. I wouldn’t say she was a terrible sleeper even on the worst days. But, I’m certainly thankful it seems to be over. At the height of her sleep regression she wasn’t napping well, only taking short 30 minute naps and never seeming particularly rested. She was getting up 2-3 times a night, which, as I mentioned in my previous post, was so uncommon for her. The lack of sleep made her a bit fussy and she just always seemed tired. I was hopeful our sleep troubles would be short lived as that had been my experience when Maya went through a similar phase during her babyhood.
As luck would have it, it was short lived. Something all of a sudden just seemed to click for her. It all started with her being able to soothe herself to sleep. Up until a few weeks ago I was rocking her to sleep for naps and bed time. One afternoon rocking her wasn’t working so I decided to just put her in her bed and see what happened. To my amazement she fell asleep on her own. I listened to her over the monitor cooing to herself for a minute or so and then she fussed a little, no crying just sort of whining and then silence. When I hadn’t heard anything for a couple of minutes I cracked her door and checked on her, she was sound asleep. She slept for over an hour. The next day I did the same thing for naps and she napped over an hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. Since then she has been napping wonderfully and seems so much more rested and her awake times last a little longer.
Once she was napping better she started sleeping a little better at night too, there is a lot to that whole “sleep begets sleep” thing. She returned first to getting up only once at night and each night her first stretch of sleep was a little longer. Then last week she started sleeping 12 hours straight through. I’ll hear her on the monitor occasionally some nights. She’ll coo a little for a minute or two and then falls back asleep. She goes to bed between 6-6:30 and gets up between 6:30-7, it has been wonderful.
Between the great napping and the super awesome night time sleep I finally feel like she is getting the sleep she needs, and I am too 
The girl loves her sleep.
So, for all you other mamas out there with kiddos going through sleep regressions, hang in there, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s no secret that Maya has spent the better part of her life with little or no hair. She was over a year and a half before she had enough hair to put the tiniest of bows in her hair. Slow, very slowly, her hair has been growing. 6 months ago I cut her bangs to help keep the hair out of her eyes but she still didn’t have enough to require a “real” haircut. So, we waited and watched as her hair got longer and crazier.
Lately, her hair has been difficult to manage, it was getting stringy and out of control, not to mention, totally a mullet. I knew the time had finally come, Maya was ready for her very first real haircut. After a little research I found this cute children’s salon here in town and made her an appointment.
With me a little nervous and Maya super excited we headed out the door this morning, neither of us quite sure what to expect. What we ended up with was a great experience, some fun memories and a gorgeous little haircut.
![013 [640x480]](http://www.letstalkbabies.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/013-640x480.JPG "013 [640x480]")
![015 [640x480]](http://www.letstalkbabies.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/015-640x480.JPG "015 [640x480]")
![018 [640x480]](http://www.letstalkbabies.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/018-640x480.JPG "018 [640x480]")
![020 [640x480]](http://www.letstalkbabies.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/020-640x480.JPG "020 [640x480]")
![026 [640x480]](http://www.letstalkbabies.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/026-640x480.JPG "026 [640x480]")
![031 [640x480]](http://www.letstalkbabies.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/031-640x480.JPG "031 [640x480]")
I cannot say enough nice things about the salon where Maya got her hair cut, The Hairy Elephant. They made it so easy for her to enjoy her first haircut. Our stylist was amazing, and patient, and fun. Everything about the place is designed to make children feel comfortable, welcome and at home. I loved it. I mean any thing that makes Maya make this face is gold in my books
![030 [640x480]](http://www.letstalkbabies.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/030-640x480.JPG "030 [640x480]")
We have begun our grand adventure into the world of potty training. The potty and step stool have been purchased, along with the pull-ups and we are ready to rid our lives of diapers.
Maya has probably been ready to give this whole potty training thing a try for a while now, but we wanted to hold off until after all the craziness and traveling of the holidays were over and we into a regular routine again.
So, a couple of weeks ago Maya and I hit up the “potty” department of our local Target and she helped pick out her new potty. We opted for adapter seat type that sits on the regular toilet (just makes the regular toilet their size!) and a step stool to help her get up onto the toilet. I showed her the options hanging on the wall and she picked out the Sesame Street one. With the potty all picked out I grab a step stool and a pack of training pants and home we went to try it out.
As I was unloading the rest of our bags Maya was in the bathroom practicing putting the potty seat on the toilet. I asked her if she wanted to pee in the potty, she said “ya” very enthusiastically. Inside I was jumping for joy thinking this potty training thing was going to be a piece of cake. Ya, not so. She freaked out when I took her diaper off and sat her on the potty. She was terrified of it.
After a little rethinking I decided that I would just let her try it out at first with her pants on. For the next couple of days I would ask her if she wanted to try out her potty. She would tell me that she did, but with her pants on It seemed to be working out well. She was warming up to the potty and getting the hang of the lingo and the flushing the toilet part. I figured the best time to try with the diaper off was going to be at bathtime because she almost always pees the second she gets in the tub and she would need to get naked anyway. The next bathtime I stripped her down like normal and asked her if she wanted to try using the potty. She hesitantly agreed (score). I helped her up on to the potty and told her to try going pee in the potty. She did, she peed in the potty (double score). Lorne and I made a big deal about it shouting “yeah” and clapping for her. The girl loves when you clap for her and wanted to go again so we would clap again, it was too funny.
Over the next week or so I managed to get her to sit on the potty everyday at least a couple of times and she was actually peeing in the potty at least once a day, most days twice. We were making some head way, getting the hang of things, when Maya got sick. It has been a week now since she last used the potty. It sits, lonely, beside the toilet waiting to be used again. She hasn’t had any interest in trying again since she got sick and now she is diarrhea so we’ll hold off again until she feels better and her “going” schedule is back to normal.
I don’t think it’ll take to long to train her once we can get back into it. I figure we’ll spend a little more time just testing the waters and putting her on the potty every so often before we start using the training pants. We’ll then try the training pants for a little while until she gets the hang of not going in her diaper anymore and telling us when she has to go. At that point we’ll try it out with real big girl underwear. I’ll keep you posted of our progress.
If you have any tips for us we’d love to hear them? Any tried and true methods to this potty training madness, anything we should avoid?