little jumps

Little one is about to be 4... This means I'll be on some manic birthday planning after this.

Figured I'm normally writing about the process, so today I'll share the latest for little one.

She's also been going through a development jump. She's (successfully ) dressing herself without me and her writing is getting much clearer. She's exploring humour (ok, her jokes are mainly funny for the absurdity at this point). 

A month ago, if you asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, the answer was 'big'. Now, she's saying a doctor or an astronaut (depending on when in you ask).

A lovely vtec laptop was gifted by friends a while ago and it seemed like time to let her explore it last week... Two days later, she was typing out her own name! Considering we were initially talking about what delays there may be for her language and speech, this is an extra achievement :)

She had been still going to bed with a milk bottle until recently. This had moved to water with the illness, so then I've taken the chance to do the step away from nighttime bottles. The first couple of nights did not go smoothly.

This is probably worth sharing as trying to find the therapeutic way through. 

As I mentioned we've been phasing across to water from milk, having the milk before coming upstairs, but the issue has been that the bottle itself is the comfort thing. Unfortunately this then means the bottle teat is potentially not great for her teeth development. 

We had a reward after night two (she wanted nails painted) for doing something very hard and getting through. This allowed us to talk about why we were doing it again and how it will help her. 

She also helped to throw out her bottles, recognising that the tops were broken now. Reinforcing that is a natural time to make this step.

Night three and four had much less screaming, so at least we're headed in a positive direction, even if tomorrow we're back to it! 

She wasn't very well last month, so between the recovery from that and the development jump, it means there are also a lot more moments of calling for her primary foster carer. This is probably the longest gap we've had, but that was also who she was with her last time she was particularly ill, so it's a big association for her.