Category Archives: toddler

19 Months

What can I say? Our little mama’s girl has been pretty busy this past month, but has also been teething the past few days, which has made her a bit more clingy and sad than usual. I know it’s bad when we get to day care and she immediately latches onto my leg, pouts and says, “No! Mama up!” Nothing breaks my heart more than having to rush out the door, and the other day I looked back to see her face and hands pressed against the glass crying. My heart!

Anyhoo… most things remain the same, including her love of music and dancing. Now she’ll request “Happy” short for If You’re Happy and You Know It, as well as Ring around the Roses. She never quite makes it to “We all fall down,” but instead collapses before that. She’s been getting a kick out of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes too.

Because her older brother is usually in charge of the TV that does get watched, he is the one that picks the shows, but she has made it clear that she’s a big Jake (as in Jake and the Neverland Pirates) fan. We haven’t watched Daniel Tiger as much with her, but mostly because Enzo has been hooked on Little Einsteins, which she sort of enjoys because of the music, but also thinks it’s a little dull.

She is still very much a bookworm and it’s not unusual to see her pull out books and pretend to read them. Her favorites change now and then, but for the most part lately she still loves the Babylit books (especially Romeo and Juliet and Sense and Sensibility). She also likes The Hungry Caterpillar and Goodnight Gorilla. It’s the best when I sit down to read to her at night and she carefully picks out her books and tosses aside the ones she has no interest in that evening.

She’s learning so much and lately she’s been attempting to sing the ABC song as well as count. It’s super cute to watch her try and count her fingers and sing her ABCs. She’ll also stop you if you start singing a song she isn’t fond of. Oh my sassy, clingy little monkey. Never change.

A busy and somewhat chaotic weekend.

To my great surprise, the weekend ended up being much nicer than originally predicted! I need to upload photos, but for now you’ll just have to take my word that we were very productive and finally tackled at least one project that has been mocking us for a year. In the meantime, we have bubble photos because they need to go somewhere. As sticky and messy as they are, they cause such excitement when we bring them out.

I mean, sure bubbles are fun, but really? Nothing gets quite as many squeals and jumps for joy as bubbles do. Well, being allowed to jump on the bed is pretty awesome too. We had a bit of that this weekend, especially when Phoebe needed to be contained somewhere, so we put her in her crib.

I think Enzo may be feeling a bit under the weather, which could explain his moodiness and the extra tantrums we had this weekend. His nose has been pretty runny and stuffy and he woke up with goop in his eye that I’m hoping doesn’t mean he’s getting pink eye. Fingers crossed! The last time he was this cranky was during/after our California trip, so I’m trying to think of what was off. He did miss a nap on Saturday, but went to bed early that night and got a good nap Sunday. Otherwise his tummy has been a little off, so I’m thinking he may just be under the weather and without patience, which is always exacerbated when his parents are feeling a little stressed. It’s amazing how easily kids pick up on that.

I’m hopeful that we can get him sorted out this week and in time for our trip and that we can keep the stress low so we can avoid tantrums. The poor kiddo just doesn’t do well with change in his routine and gets really Hangry and needs a certain amount of sleep. So, we’ll do our best to accommodate him and also be more conscious of our own moods as both kids pick up on any and all stress.

While Enzo was on timeout for the umpteenth time this weekend, we had to keep Miss Sassypants from poking the bear. She wouldn’t leave him alone and was making the situation much worse, so we stuck her in crib. She didn’t seem to mind and just jumped and jumped for a while. We did get outside this weekend as well… a nice long walk and the kids helped me pick out flowers. Then I let them play in the water table on the deck for a while, which they both greatly enjoyed, especially Enzo because he was allowed to completely strip and run around sans clothing.

I don’t think anyone slept well last night, though, and by midnight both kids were in bed with us. Enzo either curls up right next to Josh or lays sideways and Phoebe prefers sleeping half on top of me or also sideways. Amazingly they don’t keep each other awake all night, but we do have those times when someone starts kicking and we have to do some rearranging. Funny… I didn’t realize we’d still be sleep deprived at this stage of the game. Oh well, this too shall pass and in the meantime I’ll make the most of these snuggles.

Another example of how all kids are different…

Well, we turned Phoebe’s crib into a toddler bed… for a day. A few weeks ago. Enzo was about the same age or younger when we switched him to a toddler bed and he did great – he was pretty much ready. Phoebe, on the other hand, was not ready.

Both kids started napping on cots at day care at around 14 months old, and did really well. Sure, there were days when they needed someone to rub their backs, but from what we heard they liked it, which is why we made the switch with Enzo so early. He really didn’t wander out of bed much when we made the change, and he didn’t make a huge fuss when he was put back in bed. I want to say the whole transition went fairly smoothly, which is why we decided to see if Phoebe was ready.

Both kids were eager to see what their dad was up to, and just as enthusiastic to help out. Phoebe, however, cannot be trusted with small objects as she still puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, so her help was politely declined… and not so politely when she insisted that she hold the screws.

You should have seen the look on her face when we revealed her big girl bed. She was thrilled and climbed in (followed by her brother) and we high-fived thinking we had made a brilliant choice. Soon, it was nap time and the big test. It didn’t go well. She wouldn’t stay in her crib and she cried and cried and cried. We sent Enzo in to see if she’d sleep with her big brother… nope. He would nicely tell her to lay down and sleep, but she would go to the door and bang on it and cry. So long big girl bed, back to the crib we go.

In retrospect, it was really silly to have even tried the switch so soon. Unlike Enzo, Phoebe is fine being in her crib. She generally goes to sleep easily and is fine being in her prison (until about halfway through the night when she wants to be with us). I lay her down, say good-night and usually she sits up and waves nuh-night to me. Enzo, however, was always begging to get out of his crib, and has never enjoyed confinement. Granted, a lot of things have been different this second time around and every day their individual personalities become more distinct. Every day is a new adventure.

Thursday Musings

I’m not sure what to think of this silly weather we’ve been having… up and down and all the nice weather seems to fall during the week instead of on the weekend. Most Memorial Day weekends we’d be off doing something like camping, but we definitely weren’t about to do that last weekend. The kids have been extra cantankerous, though. I’m not sure if it’s the rain coming through or what, but I know I would certainly like some warm weather to actually fall on a weekend so I can soak it all up.

It doesn’t help that there has been so much going on either. It is time to fit in some evening walks and tackle our outside projects whenever the opportunity arises since summer is always too short. Soon we’ll be sending swimsuits to day care and trying frantically to fit in as many outside activities as possible. I want to camping, swimming, you name it!

The kids did get some cousin time in over the weekend, which is always nice, and I have some pictures from when we traded babysitting a few weeks ago that I need to go through. Josh got a couple of really good pictures and there are some fun ones of all the kiddos hanging out. I love watching our little tomboy keep up with the boys. I swear she’s more rowdy than her brother at times and giggles madly when she gets tackled.

Already she’s rebelling against the dresses I’ve gotten her… I put one on her the other day and she wanted it off. Then she wanted a skirt, but didn’t want a shirt on. Then Enzo wanted a skirt too, so I was like… okay, sure, why not? They both twirled and had great fun and then watched Strawberry Shortcake, which was Enzo’s choice. I think it’s good for both kids to get to do “boy” and “girl” things. I can’t imagine telling Enzo that I won’t paint his nails, but I’ll paint Phoebe’s because she’s a girl… he likes brightly colored things, so paint his nails I will!

Don’t ask me where this post is going… just random thoughts on a very hot afternoon from a very air conditioned office during the slowest time of the year. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough… plus its Josh’s birthday and I have surprises in store! There is nothing more fun than surprising someone. 😉

Our Kitty Friends

I think the cats are glad that we’ve almost got the house put back together after the garage sale. Change makes Ziggy nervous and Uzi has been rather talkative and upset that it’s been raining and he can’t go outside. On the plus side, the cats are getting more and more tolerant of the kids every day… even Ziggy sniffed both kiddos and allowed Enzo to give her a quick pet before running away in fear.

Understandably the kids desperately want to get their hands on her fluffy soft fur, plus she doesn’t realize that by being so elusive she’s making herself more sought after. Uzi, on the other hand, is taking full advantage of the fact that the kids (especially Phoebe) like to feed him things. It was adorable the first time Phoebe pointed at Josh eating chicken and asked for some to feed the kitty. Not in so many words, but she pointed, used the words “please” and “kitty” and we deduced what she wanted. 😉

Uzi couldn’t have been more thrilled. He does get a tad nippy when chicken is involved so the kids are learning to toss it to him rather than to hold it in their hands to avoid accidentally being bitten. Generally Uzi is extremely patient with the kiddos and they’ve been interacting more and more. There are nights when Enzo asks to leave his bedroom door open in the hope that Uzi will come sleep with him, but we’re not quite there. He’ll sleep on Enzo’s bed when he isn’t there, though. 😉

Uzi’s new favorite spot is the chair in Phoebe’s room, which is usually the quietest spot until the kids discover him. They love to copy him and do “head-butts” and he’ll often return the favor. My favorite is when he rubs up against them too vigorously and knocks them over. Ha ha.

Phoebe, however, has as much sibling rivalry with Uzi as she does with Enzo when it comes to my lap. Just like with her brother if she sees me snuggling the kitty she gets grumpy and shrieks and says, “No, Kitty!” and tries to get him out of my lap. I’m thinking it was a good idea we stopped at two kids because she is really not giving up her place as the baby.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures