One Step Back, Two Steps Forward

I guess it should have occurred to me that something wasn't quite right when, about a month ago, Sadie started waking up in the middle of the night screaming. Honestly, I didn't really think twice about it. She would tell me she was hungry and I would give her string cheese and milk, smile smugly and dream of the day that Sadie's well-child check ups would focus on something other than how much she doesn't weigh.

Ryan, on the other hand, after about two weeks of this, came home from work, mumbled something about 18 months being a common time for sleep regression and dropped into a sleep-deprived comma on the couch.

I did, however, catch on that something might be up when, a couple of weeks ago, right smack dab in the middle of her bath, Sadie went into a petrified rampage and screamed hysterically until we let her climb out of the tub. One second she is very excitedly and happily playing with her bath toys while Ryan washed her hair and the next she is completely terror-stricken. Baths have been the favorite part of her day since she was about 3 weeks old. Now, if we even mention the word "bath" or walk towards the bathroom she runs the opposite direction saying, "No, No, No, No!!!"

Funnily enough, she has no problem with the sink.

I became completely bewildered last week when after asking for daddy all day long, Sadie ran to me and clutched on with a death-grip when Ryan walked in the door from work. Same thing happened when Grandma came to babysit.

This sent me into a googling frenzy. Google came back with "Developmental Spurt".

And then the light bulb went on.

In the past month, Sadie has not only become a non-sleeper and bath-phobe. She has also started saying two and three word sentences. Her vocabulary jumps by 3-5 words per day. She seems to understand and comprehend better when we speak to her. She follows commands better. She has begun jumping up and down. She has all of a sudden developed an insatiable interest in scribbling (and not always on paper). Her attention span has increased and she has the ability to sit and watch long stretches of movies (her favorites are "UP" and "Finding Nemo" which she wants to watch on a daily basis). And, most notably, she has perfected her use of the word "NO".

I always knew that growing up was hard to do. I just didn't know that the saying was referring to the parents.