Sleep - Snuggle Theory

As I mentioned earlier, both of our girls have blessed us by quickly learning to sleep well. Both of them, dispite rocky (scream-y) starts began sleeping through the night by about 2 - 3 months old.    I don't know that our "techniques" can completely account for this, but we did what we could to encourage it.  We didn't rock our children to bed.  Ok, I did with Abby for a little while. But when I got tired of her crying for me all the time I stopped.   We didn't "do babywise" (a parenting technique that relies highly on schedules and teaching your children to self soothe among other things), but when they cried I would let them cry for about 3-5 minutes and then go in a try to sooth them without picking them up.  And when Abby wakes up in the middle of the night (or at nap time) I've learned not to go rushing in there but I give her just a couple of minutes to see if she will settle herself down.  More often than not she does.

But. . .

Neither of my children seem to be very cuddly.     Maggie is most definitely NOT cuddly.  Even at bed time - she wants us on her bed, but not actually touching her.   This has improved a slight bit since Abby's arrival.  She will actually let us put a hand on her.  Sometimes, if we are very lucky, I can put my arm around her when I read her a book.  Now does does enjoy a good hug, but usually she is just NOT cuddly unless she is VERY tired or sick.

Are you familiar with Love Languages?  Both Ben and I have "touch" as our primary love language.  We knew that our kids might not have the same "love language" as us so when Maggie started pushing our attempts at snuggling away we tried to take it with a stiff upper lip.  And we hoped (and yes, I prayed) that our 2nd child would be more cuddly.


Now granted she is only 1 and perhaps this is just a phase she is going through but right now Abby is NOT CUDDLY at ALL!   If you put her in your lap she IMMEDIATELY starts squirming to get down.    So sad.


Sigh.


So this is what I'm wondering:  Is our children's lack of snuggliness a by product of their sleep training?   If we had rocked them more as infants, soothed them quicker  - would they be more snuggly now?


Even if that is true I'm not sure I would change what we did - I sure do love my sleep - but it's interested to ponder.    I would welcome any comments from moms - have you noticed a similar trend?

Maggie phones home

Last night at dinner Maggie was telling me our phone numbers and I was glad that she had finally learned them without me having to prompt her.  So I asked her if she'd like to call our home number.  I gave her my cell phone and let her call the house number.  She thought that was pretty cool.  Then, when the home phone rang, I went to answer it and she thought that was VERY funny.  We had a nice little conversation. 
So then she wanted to try it the other way around, so she called my cell phone from my home phone and told me to pretend that she was calling from college.  What?!?! I'm not ready to THINK about that much less pretend it - she hasn't even started kindergarten yet and she's already thinking about college.  sheesh! 

So I'm chatting with her like she's a big freshman and she wants to know when I can come to visit her at college. 

Me: "How about today?"
Maggie: "ok! What time can you be here?"
Me: "In an hour!"
Maggie:  "Ummmmm, I don't know if I can get the house clean that fast."

Oh, I died laughing!  Maggie says "What?!?"

:-D