Daddy dearest

Come on mom, let's find dad

In an effort to curtail Evie's bedtime struggles, we recently switched up her pre-bed routine.  It used to be that after dinner she played in the living room for a bit, then took a tub, nursed, and went to bed.  Essentially it was all me.  I not only needed a break, but Evie was crying every night after I left her room.  I figured this was probably because the last thing she did was nurse, and while nursing she was drifting to sleep.  So when I set her in her crib, she was ticked off that I wasn't staying to help her fall asleep the rest of the way.  The new routine is to head straight to the tub after dinner, nurse, and then have quiet playtime in her room with Will until she seems sleepy, then it's a quick book and bed.  After only one short week of this new routine she is hooked.

I think I hear him!

The last few nights she hasn't nursed very much because she is so eager to get down and play.  Because Will is usually in another room, she now goes out in search of him.  I get such a kick out of her in her footie pjs running out of her room and down the hall looking for dada.  Last night she found him in the kitchen and started clapping once she saw him.  She stood there waiting for him to come back to her room to play, and once she saw he was coming, she hightailed it back to her room.  The new routine seems to work well for everyone; she gets some alone time with her dad, I get some much needed alone time of my own, and she doesn't get as upset when he leaves the room as she used to with me.

Found him!

This change also seems to roll over into her daytime expectations as well.  When Will started to leave for work this morning, Evie hopped out of my lap and into Will's arms, then turned around and waved 'bye-bye' to me.  As if she was going to work with him.  When he didn't begin to leave with her, she sort of held her hand out to me as if to say "oh, it appears as though you might be coming with us.  Get up and let's go."  When Will set her down and actually left, she ran to the front door and banged on it, shouting "dada!".  When she realized he wasn't coming back, she started rummaging through my purse, pulled out her toy phone, opened it and called for "dada!"  I guess I'm old news now.