Category Archives: toddler

6 Hours

We are a tired household. I think I remember feeling rested… once.

For a while now, Enzo has been staying in his bed all through the night. He used to come to our bed at some point during the night, but then that all stopped and he now happily stays in his bed all night… until 4:00am. I am thankfully asleep at this early morning wakeup call only because he usually insists that Josh come and get him and that it is time to wake up. No. No it is not. It is extremely difficult to convince a 4 year old that it is in fact still time to sleep and it is often around this point that I start to hear whatever whining or crying begins when Josh pleads with Enzo to please just go back to sleep. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Normally I wouldn’t sleep through his waking, but I too am often tired because of a tiny little human who likes to dig her feet into my stomach, back and ribs and often pull my hair while sleeping. She started waking up and wanting someone around 1:00am a while ago, but gradually that time has moved up until now almost every night at 10:00pm she wakes up and calls for me. I usually attempt to tuck her back in and get her to stay in her room, but even if she dozes off, within minutes she climbs out of bed and makes her way into our bedroom. So no more late night reading or late TV watching. Also, we have a king sized bed, so how is it that I end up with a mere 6 inches of sleeping space?? Not only do I have her burrowing into my side, but Uzi also insists that he needs to sleep on me.

Something’s gotta give. At the very least I’d be satisfied if she Phoebe stayed in her bed until at least I’m ready to go to sleep, however, we still don’t know how to get Enzo to sleep in until it’s actually time to wake up. No wonder he gets cranky, he’s gotta be tired. There’s got to be an answer, right? Anybody? I guess it’s time to consult the Google and then sort through the dozens of different ways to go about getting sleep again.

Tutus and Trucks

I have been ridiculously productive lately and it’s kind of glorious. Did you know painting really isn’t all that bad? Okay, I’m not a perfect painter and the guest room really needs one more coat of paint (but I ran out and meh), but I love how much brighter it is in there now. Granted, mostly it’ll be used for work, but now it makes me want to repaint everything downstairs… especially the cave where my actual office resides. The previous owners really, really loved dark colors, which also means it takes like 3-4 coats of paint to cover up. I’ve been moving things around and making lists of other projects around the house which means I’ve taken hardly any pictures. I think that also just means I’ve been enjoying our downtime and haven’t felt the need to document. Maybe I’m just at a new point in my life.

Phoebe is pretty happy with allowing me to take pictures, but Enzo has decided he mostly wants no pictures taken, so there you go. I’m not going to fight him on that (until our family photos next month). I don’t really see things slowing down in the future, so most likely I won’t be posting as often either… or perhaps they’ll just be short snippets so I can continue to keep track of what’s happening.

I never thought I’d say that I wish these kids would stop growing so fast, but lately I don’t mind as much. Enzo’s imagination gets bigger and bigger and Phoebe is right behind him. Their personalities are fantastic and not a day goes by that one of them doesn’t say or do something that makes us laugh either because it’s just plain funny or ridiculously clever.

Phoebe is my go-to for hanging out still. If the boys don’t want to go anywhere on the weekend, chances are good that Phoebe will want to come with. She always wants to go shopping and will often respond with, “Goin’ to Target?” Why, yes, yes we are. Don’t even think about going to Target without looking in her section, though. I wasn’t allowed to look at cute tops when we were there, but you better believe she was adamant that we stop in the Toddler area. Granted, she’ll happily look in every section and likes to hit EVERY aisle. We’re probably going to need to discuss budgeting sooner rather than later with her.

This photo is out of focus, but I love it because it’s just so HER.

On that note, I’m off… to the Cat Video Festival, no less. I’ll be Snapchatting (@dinosandbunnies) periodically if you want to check it out.

Potty Training: The update you didn’t ask for, and other random stuff

Oh the joys of potty training. Our bathroom seems to constantly smell like pee – just a warning if you come over and I haven’t had time to clean. It’s apparently not just a little boy problem because little girls also can make a mess when they’re rushing and/or too squirmy. Probably more than you wanted to know, but that’s my life right now. Potty training this time around has gone really well, though. Phoebe is still using pull-ups while sleeping, but has had hardly any accidents during the day time. We all cheer her on and even Enzo gets excited for her when she successfully goes on the potty.

I’m not ashamed to say that we did use some bribing as an incentive to go on the potty. It worked with Enzo, and they reward kids with an M&M at day care, so we figured we’d roll with that. I remember being irritated when we found out they were using candy as an incentive when Enzo was potty training… but now? It’s a battle I’m not going to fight, so yes, here’s your M&M for making it to the potty! Just like with Enzo, we’ll start to phase out the rewards once she’s really doing good and especially once she doesn’t need pull-ups.

These pictures are obviously from before potty training as Phoebe is wearing a swim diaper under her bathing suit, which kept falling off. Thankfully she had her big brother to help her keep them up, though.

While he can certainly be bossy at times, Enzo is also very good at looking after his little sister. He means well, he just forgets at times that he isn’t the parent. It’s moments like this when my heart swells, though. He’ll take her hand to guide her somewhere, or help her get something she can’t reach, or help her keep her swimsuit on when mom buys the wrong size.

I think we’re making up for last year when we didn’t get as much water time, and also because last year we didn’t realize there was a… thingymabobber (technical term) on the outside water spout that messed with the water pressure making it impossible to use a sprinkler. Thankfully Josh managed to get it off this year and now we have normal water pressure for sprinklers and pool filling!

We also discovered a divot in the yard that made the perfect mud puddle. Good thing we had extra grass seed because that patch of grass was destroyed when they were done with it. Next on the list? Water balloons! I got some of those little water balloons that you hook up to the faucet and it fills up a ton at once. Seriously, why can’t I think of the words for anything? Friday brain I suppose.

With the temperatures rising tomorrow, it looks like we’ll be heading to the bigger pool in the morning and hunkering down in the afternoon watching out for hail and wind and all of that fun that comes with summer storms in Minnesota. Happy Weekend!

Potty Training and a vague Disney film reference

“A whole new world… ” Sing it with me everyone!

Completely cheesy, but I really do feel like we’ve entered a whole new world in parenting. A world without diapers! Okay, we still have pullups for naptime and overnights, but I have a feeling we won’t need those for long with how well Phoebe is doing. I think being the second child has helped greatly.

I feel like we may have pressured Enzo too much with potty training – in true first parent fashion we were uncertain whether we were making the “right” choices and I especially was overly worried about being a good parent when I should have walked away from Google and Mommy forums and put a little more faith in myself. There is no right or perfect way to parent and the firstborn is unfortunately the guinea pig.

So, even potty training seemed like a stressful milestone when it really shouldn’t have been. Who cares if you use the 3 day method or use pull-ups or whatever? Part of the problem was also the pressure from day care to have him trained and I think it was before he was truly ready. With Phoebe, I felt the same pressure initially, but then with so many other things going on didn’t think about it again. We would ask her if she wanted to use the potty, but never pushed it and then suddenly she said she wanted to wear underwear and there was no turning back!

It’s been a little over a week and she’s been doing great. She still doesn’t always want to poop on the potty, but we’re getting there. I caught her making “the face” and ran her to the bathroom despite her protests and she was excited when it happened. She’s even going through the night without peeing sometimes! Accidents are happening less and less often and it’s fairly exciting… almost too exciting.

I hate public bathrooms and the germs and it is not easy taking kids to a public bathroom. Phoebe, however, has been crying wolf a lot this past week simply because of the novelty of getting to pee in a restroom. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to rush to a bathroom because she has said she needs to go potty, only to rush inside, set up her potty seat and have her sit down, smile, shrug her shoulders and say, “No pee comin’ out!” Sigh.

*The pictures have nothing to do with potty training, I just wasn’t going to post pictures of that*

Things they say and do…

I can’t remember every little thing they do, but it’s nice (for me) to write down what I can now and then so I can look back later.

Enzo
- Wants to be a dinosaur when he grows up.
- Has nightmares now and then, but has been able to tell us about them in more detail. The other night it was monster faces in his room. Only occasionally does he end up in our room, though.
- Huge imagination! We’ll have a conversation about wildlife and suddenly he’s telling a story about how when he was a baby (how most of his stories begin) a skunk sprayed him and a squirrel stole all of his candy. Yesterday it was a giant who tried to eat him (and apparently succeeded) but then he also looked at Enzo afterwards and said, “Time for dessert!” and ate him again…
- Quite the bossy pants and I have to often remind him he isn’t the parent when he tells Phoebe she can’t have any more TV if she does such and such. This morning he told her she couldn’t watch TV if she kept laughing. Yeah, not so much, Buddy.
- Has discovered my least favorite game of all time – the Copycat game. I turn the tables on him, but he usually just thinks it’s funny and it doesn’t stop him.
- Was worried we might move the other day and said he only wanted to stay in our house and anxiously asked if we would move. I told him not to worry about it for now. Poor boy likes change about as much as I do. 😉

Phoebe
- Peeeeze!!! Just a little bit (Don’t forget the thumb and pointer finger pinched together for the full effect). Also the outraged scream when you have to say “No” for one reason or another.
- No longer stays in bed when I leave her room if she’s still awake. Instead she climbs out and curls up with her head against the door, so when I try to go put her back in bed I can’t open the door… not until her demands are met and I agree to lay in bed with her again.
- Loves My Little Pony and she has a ton now thanks to Josh’s thrift store finds. I had to go out and buy some new outfits for her because she became obsessed and NEEDED pony shirts.
- Wants yogurt all day every day and every morning sits in my lap while she drinks her chocolate milk.
- Is in the midst of potty training! It’s going fairly well during the day time, and yesterday was the first day without accidents!

I know it’s said all the time, but they really do grow up so fast. I can’t believe we’re not going to have any diapers to change soon and that soon Phoebe will be moving up into the preschool room at day care. They won’t be in the same class, but will be seeing a lot more of each other. Sigh. Slow down!!

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures