Tis only a season...I hope

I feel like the longer I'm a mom, the more I realize kids go through COUNTLESS seasons. Seasons of not sleeping, seasons of throwing fits, seasons of whining, seasons of not eating, seasons of hitting, and the list goes on. I usually totally panic when we enter a new season, wondering how in the world I am going to deal with the new "issue," and then as soon as I've decided the my child will never sleep again, etc, they start sleeping. Funny how that works.

So with this in mind, I feel like Miss E has entered a new, not-so-fun season. The "I hate bathing" season. Baths used to be a highlight to our day, a way to expend energy while getting clean, a way to waste time, we all loved bath times. Not so much anymore. As of about a week ago, Elliott has a total panic attack during baths, particularly the hair washing. She starts frantically trying to get out of the tub, while screaming and saying "all done" and "out." It is heartbreaking. Of course the joy of this age is she can't tell me why in the world baths are so traumatizing. My best guess is she doesn't like getting water in her ears, so I've tried all different ways to wash her hair, but it's really hard to not get water in her ears when she is totally freaking out. I'm at a loss. I'm just really hoping this bath hating stage comes to an end quickly or she might be getting sponge baths.

Another little season she has been in for way too long is waking up in the middle of the night. This basically started right before Mason was born and has continued off and on ever since. Not fun. There was definitely a couple of weeks when Mason was waking up twice a night and she was up for at least an hour in the middle of the night that I thought I wasn't going to make it. I don't do well with sleep deprivation. :) She seemed to get better and stopped waking up, but then recently it has started again. The good news is Mason is sleeping through the night, but I really hate getting up with my toddler...for no apparent reason. Again, the difficulty of this age that she cannot communicate WHY she is waking up. I would greatly appreciate it.