room time

When Rachel was little, she had playpen time each day, when she would play independently in the playpen for thirty minutes or so in another room while I cleaned or showered or whatever. When she was older she graduated to room time, where she did the same thing, but in her room with her toys instead of in the playpen. She did great, and sometimes would last even an hour in there playing by herself.

When Rebecca was younger, I did playpen time with her, too, but it never worked as well. She'd play for a little while, but it always ended in tears, wanting to be rescued and let out. I used to use her playpen time to shower and take Rachel out to the bus stop last year, when the bus stop was right across the street, so I wouldn't have to get her bundled up to go out in the cold.

Over the summer I finally gave up on playpen time, though, because she rarely played, and mostly cried. I started taking showers earlier, before my husband left for work. I hated doing it that way, but it was the only way I saw to do it.

This year the bus stop is quite a way from our house, so I can't leave her in the house anyway (Since it's been cold and icy we've been driving. Today was the first day we walked in quite awhile, though it was rough pushing the stroller through our neighbor's unshoveled, icy, snowy sidewalks...grr....that's a story for another day...).

But I decided that it was time to introduce Rebecca to room time. She needs to learn to play independently like her sister always has. So today was the first day. I told her that she was going to play in her room awhile and I was going to do some work and then come back and get her. Well, she didn't like that idea. She kept asking me to stay and play with her. I told her no, that I had things to do, but I would come back to see her in a little bit. As soon as I left, she started crying. I let her cry for a little bit, then went in and told her that it would be a lot more fun to play than to cry. I said, "You can play or you can cry, but you need to stay in here until Mommy comes back, and it would be lots more fun to spend that time playing!" She told me, "I wanna cry!" So I left again, and let her cry. She started yelling, "I wanna get out! I don't wanna pway wif my toys! I wanna go downstairs NOW!" I just let her continue her rant, and she soon stopped, and I heard her toys moving around, so I assumed she started playing.

After a few minutes of quiet playing she started saying (not yelling or crying, this time), "Hurry up, mom! Come in here!" But she continued to play. I left her for 15 minutes and then went in to get her. We cleaned up and I told her we'd practice again tomorrow, but now it was time to go downstairs. Hopefully the crying will get less each day and she'll start to enjoy it.

In other news, Rachel has another bad cold. Ugh. But some good news is that she's FINALLY learned how to tie her shoes!! She got her first pair of shoes that tie for Christmas, so she finally had motivation to learn. She caught on a lot faster than I expected her to. She's so proud of herself every time she ties them. Her knots are pretty loose, so we're working on getting them tighter, but at least she finally gets it.