Regression, Progression

So, I was sick for 10 days. After that, I went to 2 funerals, and tah-dah, here I am. I know, now you're worried my bad karma is going to get all over you if you keep reading this blog, huh? No worries. I strive for a 100 % karma-free environment in all my blogs; just ask OSHA. Anywhose, the last few weeks have brought a lot of changes, and I wonder where to begin? With Rain? Yes, I think so.

Rain has regressed a bit in the sleep department. About half an hour ago, she fell asleep. She's absolutely beautiful when she sleeps. Her lower lip pouts out, and she looks like a living doll. The fact that she's quiet doesn't hurt, either. When she goes to bed at night, she cuddles her huge stuffed lamb. She buries her face in him, and they snuggle fifty different ways before Rain chooses the best position for optimum comfort. The other night, we got home late, and Rain was angry because Tim wouldn't let her "drive" the car (she likes to sit in the driver's seat, put the key in the ignition, and play the radio). So, Tim had to drag her into the house raving mad. I put her in bed, and she kicked Lamb out. She looked at me all huffy, and really gave Lamb one in the face. I rolled my eyes and waited. As expected, Rain curled up and fell asleep in her blankets within five minutes. By the next night, her and Lamb had made up.

So, overall, I can't complain about the sleep situation. The problem we're having is during daytime naps. When Rain & I got sick a few weeks ago, she started a very bad habit. A lot of kids have a "lovey"; you know, something they cuddle with during naps. Well, for whatever reason, Rain is trying to make her former nursing ground her new lovey. One night as she was coughing and hacking away, she shoved her hand down my shirt, and within a minute, fell asleep. I sort of laughed at the time, thinking it was a one-time event. The problem is, she continued to do it the entire time she was ill and afterwards. I have to pry her off me every day, and it seems like a losing battle.

Don't get me wrong: Rain is not nursing anymore. She has gone over 2.5 months without a feeding. In fact, she was excellent about giving up her life-long routine, and for months, she didn't show any signs of regression. But, she still wants to find comfort there, and I think her illness sort of triggered that neediness.

Not sure how to proceed.

Anyway, Rain has not totally reverted back to babyhood, though. She's painting with watercolors (yep, with a tried-and-true set that comes in a case with a brush; very old school), eating quite well with a fork (ok, so sometimes she has to put penne pasta on the fork with her hand and then eat it), pulling dining room chairs into position for an escape route (she uses our chairs to reach the deadbolt lock on our back door), climbing like a madwoman (she has no issues zipping to the top of our 8-ft ladder), delicately balancing her play blocks (14 stacked on her play table the other day!), and overall trying to ham it up for us.

A few days ago, I pulled out this toy that she used to be terrified of. It's a car that makes all kinds of noise once you shake it up and let it ride across the floor. Well, the more we play with it, the less she seems to be afraid. Still, she gets jittery when I pull it out and sometimes makes a face. So how funny was it when I pulled it out the other day that she tried to use it to scare me? She would run up to me, lay it at my feet, and run off laughing like, "This is gonna be great! Wait 'til you see what it does--you're gonna freak out!" She'd run 1o ft away, hide behind our coffee table, and watch for my big reaction. Of course, she doesn't understand that you have to shake the toy to activate it. So I'm sitting there like, "OK." I shook the toy, released it, and Rain laughed like, "Aren't you freaked out??" Then she'd grab the toy, run up to me, drop it at my feet, and run off again.

We did this eight times.

She laughed just as hard the eighth time as she did the first.

It's progress. Really.