Normal Weekday Routine
6:00am Wake Up (check diaper)
6:15am Breakfast at Home (followed immediately by a diaper)
7:30am Go to School
8:30am Breakfast at School
11:30am Lunch at School
11:45 – 2:15pm Nap
2:15pm Snack
4:30 – 5:00pm Go Home
5:00pm Small Snack
6:00pm Dinner
7:00 – 7:30pm Bath
8:00 – 8:15pm Read story/Go to bed
Normal Weekend Routine
6:00am Wake Up (check diaper)
6:15am Breakfast at Home (followed immediately by a diaper)
Nap can begin anywhere from 11:15 to 12:15 and will usually last from 2-1/2 to 3hrs. Lunch may precede or follow. More recently we’re actually getting lunch in before the name but for quite awhile there Sydney was too tired to eat until after her nap. If she eats before her nap, she’ll want a snack after it.
5:15pm Dinner
7:00 – 7:30pm Bath
8:00 – 8:15pm Read story/Go to bed
Naps & Sleeping Habits
Sydney wakes up nearly every morning at 6am sharp. On a rare day she may sleep until 7. When she wakes up, she’ll start whining softly. Eventually the whining will get more urgent and you know you really need to get her up.
If the whining starts at 4 or 5, let it go for a few minutes and she may go back to sleep. If not, she’s probably lost her pacifier. Go in, find it, hand it to her, tell her it’s too early and she needs to go back to sleep, cover her up, and leave. Don’t stick around any longer than that or she won’t fall back asleep.
In a strange place, sometimes Sydney will practically jump up when she wakes up and start screaming if she doesn’t know where she is. This has also happened at midnight or odd hours of the morning. In those cases, getting her back to sleep is EXTREMELY difficult and you will just need to lay down with her on a couch, bed, or floor until she falls asleep.
At school, Sydney naps from about 11:45 to 2:15. Some days she sleeps until 2:30 or 2:45 before she gets up.
At home, Sydney is usually worn out well before 11:45 rolls around and once crashed as early as 10:30. Other days she makes it until noon. A good nap is 2-1/2hrs. Half the time she’ll exceed 3hrs. Don’t be concerned if she crashes before she eats lunch. This is common on the weekend although we usually try to get something in her.
Sometimes Sydney will wake up from a nap, whine a couple times and then pass back out for another hour. Don’t rush in on the first sound she makes unless she’s screaming or she’s slept at least 2-1/2hrs. Give her a few minutes.
Waking Sydney up is never advisable. We only do it if naptime is starting to jeopardize bedtime (like napping after 4pm).
Our bedtime routine is to take a bath around 7/7:30, put on jammies, play until 8, and then read a few books in the rocking chair and put her in bed. Sydney may put herself to bed earlier than that. Sometimes when we’re away from home she stays up later. You should be able to call it based on her behavior. When she’s tired she’ll usually lay down, lay her head on something, or tell you “bed”. If she gets over tired though she’ll start acting very weird and contradicting herself. She’ll be grinning one minute and crying the next. She’ll want something, then not want it, then want it again over the course of seconds.
When putting Sydney in bed for the night it is not uncommon for her to whine for a couple minutes after you leave the room. Normally she’s asleep within minutes. If she starts screaming though and she’s getting more worked up, you can try more rocking or reading. Sometimes we lay down with her on our bed and move her after she falls asleep. If she’s throwing a fit it’s extremely unlikely that she’ll fall asleep. Normally in that case you have to clean her up and start over an hour later.
Diapers
When Sydney wakes up, take note of the bulge of her diaper. If it’s bulging (even a little) change it. At some point during or immediately following breakfast, she is going to pee a blue streak and totally soak her diaper. If it’s already fairly wet, it will leak. For awhile there we were regularly changing her diaper before and after breakfast. More recently she’s been waking up dry and the flood has come later. In fact there have been a few recent days where the flood has never come so we’ve changed a slightly wet diaper and sent her to school before the flood.
Pooping
During the week, Sydney usually poops mid-morning. On the weekend it’s anyone’s guess and occasionally she skips a day. She tends to be very gassy which doesn’t necessarily mean much. If she poops there’s about a 50% chance she’ll tell you, and 80% chance that she’ll go somewhere to do it.
She may also walk up behind you, pull out the back of your pants and check you for poop. Don’t be alarmed.
Baths
Normally we only fill the tub until the water is just above her belly button and then shut it off. We wash first and play second. Normally we turn the water back on just a trickle so she can play in it after we wash her. Lately though, she hasn’t been very playful and we’ve just washed her and gotten her back out.
Talking
Sydney is very talkative but is picking up words faster than she’s learning how to pronounce them. Here are some things you can expect her to say and the known nuances. Fortunately, Sydney is very good with yes/no questions and is starting to respond to “OR” questions. If you can’t understand her you can just start asking questions until you figure it out. Or say “show me” and she’ll lead you to whatever she’s talking about.
Crying and Coming are the same word and it sounds like “Kying”. She may ask if the other person in the room is coming when you leave the room with her. She may take your hand, say coming and pull you along. She may comment about her “babies” crying.
Potty – If Sydney says “Potty” she probably wants you to read one or both of her potty books. She also says potty over and over when playing ring around the Rosie. We think she’s trying to say Posy. …and sometimes she actually wants to sit on the potty.
Wah Wah is water.
Towel can mean “bath towel”, “paper towel” or “napkin”. If she asks for a towel she wants to clean something up or dry it off.
Mine! – We can all thank Kendall for that one.
Out – When she wants out of the bathtub or crib.
Side/Owside –When she wants to go outside.
Ight or Eye – Light. She is either identifying one or asking you to turn it on.
Down – When she wants down. If she’s sitting and pointing to the floor next to her, she wants you to sit down.
Bed – When she wants to go to bed. Sometimes Sydney wants to go to bed to suck on her pacifier for 5 minutes. …it’s like going out for a smoke.
See – When she wants to see something.
Kay – Ok. She substitutes kay for yes in some odd places. It’s very cute.
Two – Sydney observes anytime there are two or more of something and will say “two”.
Juice – Apple Juice
Move – She doesn’t pronounce this quite right but if she starts pushing on you and saying an “M” word, she wants you to move out of her way.
Sydney has even said “Cheerio” so expect to hear anything.
Pacifier
We let Sydney have her pacifier at night and let her keep it and her blanket when we get her up fro breakfast. After breakfast the pacifier and blanket go in her bed (or often just on the kitchen table) and she doesn’t get them back until nap time.
If she gets upset, she may say “bed” at a really weird time, which means she wants to go and sit in bed with her pacifier for a few minutes. We usually let her do this, but she has to leave it in there when she comes out. …and that usually takes some coaxing. I’ve found that saying “Will you take out your pacifier for dad?” works much better than attempting to rationalize being a “big girl” with her or asking her if she wants to.
Eating
Sydney is somewhat sloppy with a spoon but capable. She’s good with a fork on soft things that she can stab. Occasionally he needs to be reminded to take a drink, to chew, and to take smaller bites.
Sydney normally drinks 2% milk and apple juice (with ice). We also give her ice water. She is kind of a juice junky so we normally offer milk first at meals and for snacks. We offer juice and water when we come home hot and sweaty. If she asks specifically for any of the three we just
Sydney is a picky eater and her pickiness is often proportional to how hungry she is… and how the moons are aligned. At school she will eat nearly anything. At home not so much. Peanut butter is a good staple. Grilled cheese works sometimes. Macaroni and cheese is often a hit. She likes fries sometimes. She loves ketchup. She likes pretzels and hummus. Yogurt and Applesauce are both favorites however she insists on eating around the fruit in yogurt. Bananas are good. Sometimes she’ll eat apple slices. Occasionally she’ll eat a chicken nugget. Sometimes she likes corn although it’s difficult for her to eat by herself and the last few times she hasn’t wanted it.
Crackers are good for snacks as are Cheerios and other bite size cereal. She likes popcorn cakes (and popcorn). Sydney likes breakfast bars, bagels with strawberry cream cheese, toast, etc.
Avoid eggs (scrambled, over easy, etc). They give her diarrhea. Also avoid mangos, they used to give her REALLY bad diarrhea.
As far as junk food goes, Sydney loves it so we usually don’t keep it in sight. Normally crackers and pretzels are as junky as we let her diet get. She likes chocolate (both milk and dark). She does NOT like nuts and will spit them out if she finds them in her chocolate. Sydney does not like ice cream. …and recently told MeeMee “No” when she asked Sydney if she would like some. Try to keep the candy to a minimum.
Discipline, Excitement, Reactions
It is advisable to under react to everything at least at first.
For instance, if Sydney is about to spill applesauce on her or just did it, responding with an excited/frantic “Oh! Stop! No No No!” will likely cause her to melt and bawl hysterically. In fact when she used to spill, the realization of it sometimes that that effect. We’ve learned that pointing it out quietly and cleaning it up quickly is much easier than calming down and cleaning up Sydney.
Yesterday Sydney was stuffing too many banana pieces in her mouth and Meghan gave her an excited “no no” when she tried to stuff another one in. Sydney held it together but then felt the need to give Meghan an uneasy look as if to ask for permission with each subsequent bite.
For some reason her confidence is easily shattered.
Now if Sydney is intentionally doing something bad, we always tell her no followed by a much sterner no so it’s not like we let her run wild. We’ve just found that she does respond well to excited “no no no” actions.