Some quiet time

The first time we were in Virginia to visit, we spent an afternoon at the Boomer's and I saw 'Baby Wise 2' on their bookshelf. I commented that I didn't know there was a second addition and Katie said it was for toddlers. I asked if I could borrow it to see what I should have done in the last year of Alison's life. I did the Baby Wise techniques on her when she was an infant so it made sense to keep going. For the most part she was on track, but I missed the boat on independent playing. Apparently I was supposed to put her in the pack and play for a little bit each day to help her learn to play on her own and gradually move on to her playing in her room. Anyone who knows Alison would know that there is no way that was going to happen. Alone...yeah right. This week Katie introduced me to a blog by John Piper's wife (http://girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/) that is for Christian women that talks about being and a wife and mom. She was talking about reading that she's gotten done during her daughter's alone play time and I realized that I really did miss the boat on this independent play concept. It sounds wonderful. I would love for Alison to be able to play in her room by herself instead of following me around the house constantly. So I decided I was going start working on it, even if I was a year late. Thursday, I took her in her room and we played together for half an hour and then I told her she was going to keep playing and I was going to vacuum. Instead of playing she sat by the gate and cried the entire 10 minutes. Friday, she sat by the gate holding a toy and cried for the 10 minutes. Today, well today was victory! I told her it was time to play in her room and she said, "Okay" and without a whine played quietly in her room. I got carried away with changing the blog and before I knew it had been 20 minutes and she was still quiet. I wanted capture this monumental moment so I took this video (I know it's completely not entertaining, sorry).
We're starting to get into the swing of life in Virginia. We joined the YMCA. I started taking a Power Cut class and Ben started playing basketball there. They cancelled the class I wanted to take Alison too, but we're going to take a swimming class with her starting in March. We spent an afternoon touring downtown and went to the local museum. Our pantry problems are finally solved and I managed to solve the blinding light problem in Alison's room. I updated the pictures on the slideshow for your viewing pleasure.