come on, parents.

today marks the end of the second week of emme's transition in to warblers - the 18-36 month classroom at her montessori school.  all in all, i think it's been a good transition, if a little tough in some ways.  her sleep hasn't suffered as much as we expected, but her naps are not quite where they were/should be, which makes her more tired and irritable in the evenings.  that's especially hard for me, as i have absurd expectations that since i'm with her for so few hours during the week, each moment should be absolutely perfect. 

from around the time she landed in the emergency room on easter until a couple weeks ago, emme was going through a pretty intense mama phase.  the pediatrician told me she'd be more worried if emme weren't going through that phase, so i (and justin) worked on nurturing her through it, and offering alternate methods of communication that did not involve a high-pitched whine of MAMAAAAA.  she was doing much better, though she could still devolve into a clingy mess given the right circumstances.  anyway...this morning, she woke up after a normal night's sleep and would NOT be separated from me.  i had brought her in to our bed to read a few books before ramping in to the morning routine...she was going to read with dada while i showered.  well, i might as well have told her we were shipping her into indentured servitude - she was hysterical about it.  the remainder of the morning went similarly...she would fling herself at my legs and cry and call for me even when i was standing right next to her. 

what gives?  is this normal?  i think it is, but man...what do you do in this situation?  i know people don't typically comment a whole lot on my blog, but i would love to get some advice on this one.  the options we have tried/considered are:

• love her through it - give her attention because she must be experiencing some insecurity.
• re-direct her - try to distract her with a book/toy/food/outside/etc.  this is somewhat successful unless i'm still in view/hearing range.
• communicate with her - justin and i both try to explain calmly and with normal tones that we like her normal voice.  i also try to offer positive reinforcement when she talks to me in a normal voice preemptively.  this has not been very effective so far. 
• ignore her - assuming that this is an attention-seeking endeavor, rewarding it with attention is probably not reinforcing the behavior we want, so maybe we should ignore her?  i think i am going to be really bad at this.  i also think my deeply-entrenched sense of guilt over all things will make this very hard.  but...i'm willing to try if it might help. 

are there other things we should be considering?  is this one of those time-heals-all-wounds things?  to be clear: i totally have perspective on this.  this is NOT a huge deal, and the fact that this is our major parenting dilemma right now sets us in a very coveted category of families who have it WAY easy.  but, i'm just curious as to how others deal with these things.  my goal is to turn emme into a person that is fun to be around and well-adjusted (which i think she is, mostly).  tools and tips for aiding in that journey are always appreciated. 

as a side story, one of the new things our bug is saying lately is "come on".  it is adorable.  she does the little hand gesture with it and will say "come on dada" when we are going to the kitchen or outside or wherever.  very cute, that little rascal.