Thursday, October 23, 2008

More Milestones

We achieved some more milestones

The girls no longer want me to read to them at bedtime. This wasn't a sudden move but rather started with one of them wanting to finish whatever she was reading earlier, instead of listening to what I was reading, and then slowly transitioned into both of them reading their own books. We still read together for half and hour before bed, but the difference is that we each read our own books. This day had to come but I feel a certain twinge of loss.

The girls are going to school on their own consistently. It has become matter-of-fact - a peck on my cheek, an airy "bye mom" and they ride off on their bikes. I no longer follow them five minutes later. Here again my instinct is to go with them but I think it is a necessary step in independence. I have to really hold myself back.

They are both finally sleeping through the night. Finally! One has always been a poor sleeper and we have tried to teach her good sleeping habits at various stages of life. Invariably she ended up in our bed at night which was fine until a couple of years ago. Now that they are older, our bed is not big enough to accommodate the whole family. If the kids came in bed, either I or my husband had to find another spot to sleep. We made another attempt to get the kids to stay in their beds and surprisingly not only did it work, it was a fairly painless process for all of us. Phew.