Category Archives: toddler

22 Months

Just a couple of months and our spunky gal will be 2. It’s just a number, but at the same time it signifies a lot in my mind. At 2, she won’t be able to be a lap baby on a plane ride and she won’t be counted as a “baby” under most other circumstances either. Granted, she’s technically been a toddler for a while, but my snuggle bug has been hanging onto her baby status for a while.

While she may still carry around her blankie and lovies and need a nuk, she’s becoming quite the big girl. We’re not pushing potty training at all right now, but it’s been her own choice lately to try and go now and then and she had her first victory the other night! Admittedly, I’ll be kind of happy when no one is diapers anymore, but I’m in no rush. You’ve got to love a baggy diaper butt, right? One thing that’s not to love is our suddenly very picky eater. I know it comes with the territory as her brother is pretty picky too, so we’ll just keep trying and offering new things and hope she changes her mind soon. 😉

Aside from her super endearing quality of being able to fall asleep while sitting up, she has so many others that make us smile each day. She’s getting really good at the alphabet as well as counting to 10 and now if Enzo asks her “What comes after ___?” She can usually respond with the correct answer. She has also started grabbing books on her own and sitting down to read. At bedtime she’ll have me read a couple of books, but then insists on reading them for herself, which is pretty darn cute. When I tell her it’s time for bed, she holds up her finger and says, “One more.”

She still adores dancing and singing songs, and I love listening to her start singing songs I’m unfamiliar with. Apparently they have a clean up song at daycare, so this weekend she started singing it while we tidied up. Despite her cuteness, she can also be quite the sassy lady, though, and one can only wonder what the next year or two will bring. We’ve entered the territory of tantrums and adamant No’s with a side of limp noodle and the need to do everything by herself, which in itself isn’t so bad. Independence is a necessity, even if it can be hard to come by at this age. Soon enough, little girl, soon enough.

Camping: Part 2

Paul Bunyan Land is one of those kind of over-priced, small-town amusement parks that you go to because it’s random and there isn’t a whole lot else to do. It’s kind of cheesy in a fun way, really only has a handful of rides for kids (most of which aren’t running all the time), a petting zoo and some wacky dioramas. It also has This Old Village, which is kind of fun, but we didn’t have time for it with the kids. Right away Enzo saw a few rides that he wanted to go on, and a few more that he stared at for a while, but said, “Maybe next time when I’m bigger.”

Phoebe was fairly nervous and since they wouldn’t allow parents on the rides with small kids, we took a gamble putting her on a ride alone with Enzo after previous experiences. She held on for dear life, but I think she was okay because her big brother was next to her having a blast. They both loved the train (of course) and the boat was also a big hit, which sort of surprised me. I figured Phoebe would panic when the ride operator picked her up and plopped her in the boat rather than me, but she thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Things They Say (and Do)

There is never a dull moment… well, okay maybe there are a few here and there, but count on a kid to say or do something to end whatever quiet boredom you may have been experiencing.

Enzo has been talking a lot about birthdays lately… his in particular. I can only assume it’s because a friend had one at preschool? He will randomly bring it up, though, and change themes. Most often he is having a boat birthday and “you can come to my boat birthday if you want to!” However, sometimes you’ll hear, “Phoebe, if you don’t stop, you’re not coming to my birthday party.”

His imagination is also thriving and the other night he kept having fake phone conversations on a TV remote that he was pretending was a phone.

“This is Paw Patrol, what’s wrong?”

Another thing we often hear him say is, “One day when I’m so much bigger…” or “One day when I’m a really big strong boy…”

As for Phoebe, she spends a lot of time singing still and also talking about Paw Patrol since her brother has gotten her hooked on it. Her devotion to Minnie remains, however, so that is her main request. You can also count on her to ask for chocolate milk upon waking in the morning, but woe to you who puts it in the wrong cup because her shriek of disdain is ear piercing.

Since we’re working towards potty training her, she does talk about going potty and “poopin” rather frequently. The other day when I was at the table in fact, Enzo came over and suddenly said, “There’s poop on the floor, Mama.” Huh? I looked down and sure enough, there it was. And acting as innocently as can be was Phoebe who pointed at it just as surprised, even though her diaper was also discarded next to her. Nice try, Phoebe.

With both their language skills progressing more and more, they seem to play much better together. Granted, Phoebe refuses to ask nicely when it comes to them playing with him, so there’s still a little bit of sibling rivalry, but for the most part they have a really good relationship. Both Josh and I had one of those heart bursting moments at the mall not too long ago…

Phoebe was playing on a toy and got off of it only to have another little boy climb on. She tried to get back on and fussed, and we explained she needed to wait her turn. After a minute he got off, and suddenly Enzo ran over (to take it we assumed), but then Phoebe ran over after him and he motioned her on it and said, “Phoebe, here you go! Quick!” and then he totally stared the other little boy down and held out his arms to block him when he tried to get too close. I believe Enzo said, “You leave my Phoebe alone!” while throwing some major shade and protecting his little sister.

Ack! So darn cute. It’s moments like these we always hoped for.

21 Months

I feel like I just did a monthly update on our little girl, which just goes to show how quickly this summer is flying by. This past month we’ve seen a lot more of Phoebe’s personality and she is becoming more independent – or at least is trying to become more independent. She may not like to admit it, but she does actually still need us… especially for snuggles in the middle of the night. Those we’re still doing, however, we’ve now had a couple of nights that she has remained in her crib until morning. We’ve discovered that if Josh goes in instead of me she is more likely to go back to sleep… sometimes. There are still those nights where she realizes it’s him and starts crying for “Mama” to come get her.

Aside from hating getting dressed… and often getting undressed, there are a lot of things she loves right now. High on the list is Minnie Mouse. She loves Minnie and would prefer it if it were Minnie Mouse Clubhouse, but she generally likes the entire Clubhouse gang and would watch that and only that every day. She also likes pink… a lot. She points it out and gets happy when I buy her pink things to wear. Ha ha. On that note, she loves the pink shoes she got from her cousin Aubrey and gets excited anytime she gets new shoes now. If she starts dancing around in front of you, it’s quite possible that it’s because she’s wearing new ones and wants you to notice them.

As far as eating goes, it’s very hit or miss with our gal. What she loves one day she will pout and firmly say “No” to the next day. She and her brother ate and entire container of strawberries the other day and she nearly finished off an entire container of blueberries all by herself before that. One important thing I’ve learned is that she’s far more likely to eat something if she can serve herself, so if it’s a fruit or veggie, I try to give her that option. She’ll also eat her weight in homemade mac n cheese and bacon. When she found out we were having breakfast for dinner last night, she immediately sat in her chair and would look at me expectantly and ask for bacon. I had to keep explaining dinner wasn’t quite ready yet. 😉

She still loves to dance and sing and has started counting. She doesn’t get all the numbers in the correct order, but more or less she can count up to 13. I heard her in the living room and went and peeked to see her moving the beads on the abacus as she counted. She recognizes a lot of letters and shapes and is doing well with colors. She often surprises me with something new she’s learned, and I’m sure having an older brother has helped a lot. Thanks to Enzo being so polite lately, Phoebe has been especially good saying “Please” and “Thank you.”

It’s fascinating to watch her change… sometimes overnight. Oh, how I love my sassy girl.

Lazy day at the beach

Not counting California, we’ve only gone swimming once this summer… several weeks ago. Not quite as often as I had originally planned, but what can I say? Neither Josh or I are very big swimmers, even though we do like the water. The kids are still getting plenty of water exposure, though, and are enjoying water days more and more. They do love sand, however, and that’s one thing we don’t have at home so we should probably try and take them to the beach at least once more before the summer ends.

Enzo’s an old pro at this point when it comes to wet sand and building castles, but Phoebe was a tad reluctant for me to even put her down. After a little coaxing (and once she saw Enzo digging in) she decided she was ready to get down, but she absolutely did not want to get her feet wet. Ha ha. That meant she also did not want me going in the water with Enzo, but he was having such a good time splashing in the water and didn’t even panic when he fell and got water in his face.

Eventually they both got more brave and Enzo decided he wanted to go further out than usual while Phoebe finally figured out that a little water between your toes isn’t such a bad thing. She didn’t necessarily want to go in the water, but before I knew it I was fetching her bucket after bucket of water so that she could dump it on herself. It was a nice victory. It’s funny how they surprise me in random ways almost every day.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures