Terrified of the terrible twos

This week was supposed to be this great week to relax and unwind, catch my breathe, enjoy lazy days with Izzy and maybe even get a few projects done too. Izzy, however had other plans- plans apparently to let us know exactly what the terrible twos are all about!

The poor thing has had an unusual month, with international travel, a house full of people and a big birthday to celebrate. It all just came to a head the weekend of her 2nd birthday party - I guess she was fed up with being off her schedule for so long. For 4 nights and days Robert & I were beside ourselves in knowing what we were going to do...and kinda freaking out!!

The past 4 nights she refused to sleep in her crib. We put her in her toddler bed (still in the nursery) but she refused to sleep there too - instead she banged on the door, the walls & screamed her head off most of the night. She eventually just slept in the rocking chair from 4-8am. It was awful. Since she missed so much sleep these nights (as well as her daytime naps) she was not her usual happy self.

Now we officially know what the terrible twos are and we are both pretty terrified. Overnight Izzy changed into a totally different kid and tantrums were nonstop it seemed. We were all losing too much sleep ourselves and had no idea what we should do. (We read online kids do this often, sometimes for weeks or months at a time and were even more scared!)Thankfully, we had already starting setting up the guest room to be her big girl room, so after no luck in the nursery for several nights, we tried putting her in her big girl bed - a full size bed. She was upset initially when put to bed, she soon fell asleep. We were both excited when we woke up at 7 the next morning and realized we had all slept- all night!! It was like having a newborn all over again to keep us up all night!

During the day, Izzy was tired & moody - throwing tantrums throughout the day, but we could manage that. We don't know if she will wake up happy, sad, clingy, annoyed, grumpy or refusing to do anything we say, but as long as we are all sleeping, we will just deal each day with the attitude...
I'm so glad that she has returned to her easy bedtime routine and sleeping (napping too) without any difficulties! I was worried what I would sk if she did't go back to mapping - because I still nap when she does!

And that is our introduction to the terrible two's...