Category Archives: winter

Random musings about winter, potty training and parenting.

I’m not gonna lie, I kind of like the mild winter we’re having so far. Sure, a little snow on the ground would be nice to make everything pretty, but a forecast of almost 50 degrees for the weekend? Seriously? We will definitely be taking advantage of the warmer temperatures and getting out of the house.

Granted, with potty training, getting out has been… interesting. I know it’ll get easier, but right now we’re definitely still in that phase where accidents do happen now and then. Also… how the heck do you easily take a little boy into a public bathroom. We found ourselves in a family bathroom this past weekend and Josh and I looked at the toilet, looked at Enzo, looked at each other and couldn’t figure out what the easiest way would be to get him on the toilet. Does he sit? Does he stand on the seat? How the heck do we keep his pants dry? Let’s just say there was some trial and error involved and we’re still not entirely sure what the best way is. Thankfully Enzo found it amusing as well and cooperated as best he could with two somewhat inept parents.

We’re determined, though! The other tricky part is finding something to do where two toddlers won’t get into too much trouble, oh and that isn’t really expensive. We can always do the zoo, but it would be nice to do something different. Once again, though, we don’t want to drive too far considering we don’t want to risk accidents in the car.

Parenting! Each day seems to bring with it new challenges and fun surprises. It also seems like Phoebe is ready to slowly start phasing out her morning nap. At day care she sometimes skips it and other days it’s very short so they want to see about cutting it completely. I’m okay with that since it would mean they would both be on the same nap schedule. Honestly, I’ll be okay with no naps at all. While the downtime is nice, they’re such a pain because they’re in the middle of the day. Guess I’m going to have to work on getting our family out the door a lot earlier. 😉

Curse that groundhog and his shadow…

I think my least favorite phrase this year has to be “Polar Vortex.” I normally wouldn’t complain about the winter – ha ha, yeah right – but this winter has been particularly frigid and I’m done. It wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t have an extremely active toddler, but we do, and active toddlers need to be able to run around outside and get rid of their absurd amounts of energy. I think I can count on 1 hand the number of days he’s been able to go outside and play at day care in the past 2 months.

I am, however, grateful that we have such a large amount of space for him to play in, in our new house, though. We had thought about staying in our much smaller townhouse and just being cramped to avoid larger mortgage payments, but the extra room has been wonderful for this crazy little tornado who prefers running over walking, climbing over sitting, and general chaos over calm.

We’ve tried to get creative with inside play, but we’re burned out on winter and have few ideas, so my husband introduced Enzo to Nintendo. He hasn’t quite figured it all out yet, but he’s getting better at recognizing that the buttons he’s pushing are controlling what’s on the screen. We probably need a few more games that are geared for his age and therefore easier. He now asks for “Tendo”, though, and we generally oblige considering his attention span is like 5 minutes and then he decides it’s more fun to jump on the bed and toss pillows around. (The Nintendo is currently hooked up to our bedroom TV).

I can’t believe this little boy is going to be 2 in just a couple of months. It’s a fun age right now (minus typical tantrums) and it’s entertaining to watch him try and copy everything as well as repeat everything, unless it’s copying certain words that are yelled when Daddy is playing video games. 😉 Okay, maybe I’ve slipped once or twice too. It’s all about redirection, though. The minute you’ve slipped, replace it with something else like… “Cabbage!” and he’ll instead try and say that over and over because Cabbage is much more fun to say than Damn or Shit. The counting is also fun… he tends to skip over 1 and go straight to 2 and 3. I also love his animal impressions and the fact that he watches Cake Boss with me on Netflix and says, “Cake… nommy.”

Brrr

I think the one bad thing about having a baby in the winter is that it makes going outside even less desirable than usual. It’s easy enough to bundle up Phoebe with her warm car seat cover, but we also want to avoid exposing her to the many ickies that are making their rounds. Thankfully she’s just had normal baby congestion, but we need to get the humidifier on the furnace looked at as it isn’t working and would make a huge difference if it was. In the meantime, the kids and I stay inside a lot, and make Josh do lame Winter maintenance. 😉

While Enzo’s growing independence can be somewhat difficult at times, it’s also great to see him more able to play on his own now. He spends more time in his bedroom, and he’s really getting into his puzzles and reading. Often at night he falls asleep reading after we’ve said “Night Night.” Keeping this in mind, we cracked open a reuseable sticker pad, and he’s been enjoying it. He doesn’t fully understand that you can create scenes with the stickers, but loves to pull it out and generally wants to see the Choo-Choo page.

Mostly his creations end up being of tragic train crashes and carnage, but eventually that might change… or not, if he’s his father’s son. 😉

We’re finally at a point where we’ve gotten the downstairs better arranged, so we’ll move some of Enzo’s bulkier toys down there that way there’s more room to play and offer him a change of scenery during the winter months when we’re indoors more. Plus, Phoebe needs room for her bouncy chair and blanket and eventually other bulky infant toys that we’ll have to split between the upstairs and down. If anything, Enzo will just be glad to see his kitties more often… too bad Ziggy is never excited to see him. Oh well, she’ll have to learn.

Week 17

Well, it seems like the belly has truly popped now! Behold it in all it’s glory!

Maternity pants are the best invention ever, though, I hate that it’s so hard to find pants that are long enough…

In other news, we are gearing up for a short week and a mini vacation, which I am very much looking forward to. As much as I usually dislike winter, I was glad to see a the first snow of the year yesterday… you can’t deny that a dusting of white makes all the brown far more pretty.

I think we’re going to have to trade in our frozen treats for more cozy ones, though.

Which means it’s the perfect time to make some tea and sample the fresh honey I received from a friend who keeps his own hive! Oooh, plus peanut butter and honey sandwiches are one of the best things ever.

In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the rest of the afternoon… I don’t think I’ll watch the Vikings lose again with Josh, but maybe I’ll curl up in a patch of sun with the cats and do some reading. I need some good recommendations for something new, I think. A good winter read…

Grilling Season

It’s finally starting to feel like Spring with the snow melting and warmer temperatures. We even got to hear the first thunder of the year last night while we got a bit of rain, but unfortunately missed seeing the moon.

Yesterday was a little chilly still, but we opened up some windows until it got too cold and got our weekend cleaning done and some baking as well.

Tracy and Jenny (Josh’s mom and sister) were in town so they came out to see us and we grilled up some steak and asparagus and got more use out of our deep-fryer from Dave & Buster’s – that’s right – when we win, we win big.

Then we watched some Planet Earth, which we picked up on BluRay for an awesome deal, and that was Saturday. Today it’ll be some shopping, including a new vacuum because it seems ours bit the dust yesterday after eating a sock (it never recovered), but I’d say 6 or so years is good for a vacuum that cost under $100 and cleans up after 2 cats. 😉

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures