Big Girl Issues

As Ava's second birthday quickly approaches and a new baby has plans to arrive in the spring, we are doing big girl things! She has shown some interest in the potty but mostly scared to ever try until recently. We encourage her to try through the day but no luck until this past weekend when she finally did it! Randy is the lucky go-to and so she regularly goes to him now when she needs to potty.

We also started and have now completely transitioned her to her big girl bed in Bella's room. We had plans to move her in there around her second birthday but she started climbing into the new bed on her own a few weeks early. We would entertain her interest and let her try it out but it mostly lasted a few minutes each time. Last week we made the change by not giving her a choice anymore and making a big deal out of her being a big girl! It was a success after three short days. Nap time served to be a little more difficult until this weekend so as you can see she gave up one day and went to sleep on the floor. The first night she slept the entire night in there we found both girls watching tv the next morning together. Ava doesn't have a chance at sleeping in anymore like she used to! Big sister has her up at 7:30 now. Research suggests that children make the transition from the crib quite a while before a new baby comes to take over. This way, her move to the big girl bed is all about her and now about a new baby taking her place causing her to resent him in anyway. It worked quite well with her developing an interest on her own and then some reinforcement and encouragement.