The husband and I took the day off to get some much needed work done around the house, and to possibly either stop by the State Fair or see a movie… or if can’t decide, we may just be productive the whole day. Time will tell. 😉
What bad news does to us.
Back to School 70’s v. Today.
I would love a smaller version of this house.
And some fantastic Honest slogans.
Happy Friday!
It’s amazing how much quickly a toddler’s interests can change, and also funny how some things they will never tire of. I’m trying to think of what his first real “obsession” was, and I think it was Elmo. We got him a plush (non-talking version – I’m not crazy), shoes, shirts, books and other paraphernalia and he was happy as a clam. But then along came Thomas.
All we heard about was Thomas and how he wanted to watch Thomas, so we gave in and watched so much Thomas. His next pair of shoes were Thomas and he got a blanket that he still loves as well as plenty of shirts. After some time he got his beloved train table and finally some track and trains, which we’ve slowly added onto. And what little boy doesn’t love hot wheels? Or grown boy for that matter.
Then came various Disney movies (right now happens to be Tangled) as well as his new obsession – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I had to break down and buy him a couple of DVDs so we didn’t have to keep re-watching the only MMC movie available on Netflix. We also got him a plush Mickey that he happily carries around with him. The first day he insisted on bringing him to day care, which was pretty cute.
We also have a new obsession with bubbles, which has made bath time even more fun. Phoebe doesn’t really care one way or the other; she finds Enzo’s antics more amusing or just splashing everything in sight.
And then you have the ridiculously random things that toddlers and babies like such as boxes, bags, balloons, and shoes. I catch Enzo in my shoes fairly often. He thinks it’s hilarious to clomp around in them. It’ll be interesting to see how long Phoebe’s interests stay the same as her brothers. Obviously right now we have a house full of gender-neutral toys as well as toys geared towards boys or girls, so I wonder if/when she’ll decided she watns to dress like a princess or play with dolls and houses rather than trains and cars. Maybe she’ll do both like her mama. 😉
We’ve been tearing up some of the landscaping in our front yard, so it’s been a good reason to get the kiddos outside now that the sun hasn’t been blistering hot. I’m making a note that our next house has to have an entrance that doesn’t have full afternoon sun, or at the very least it has to have some kind of porch or overhang so that you don’t have to wear a glove to open the front door.
Anyhoo. We’ve just always been more play on the deck types because the deck is right off the kitchen and provides an enclosed area where we don’t have to keep a close eye on the toddler. However, since we’re trying to move a ton of rocks from the front landscaping to replace with mulch, it’s a slow process (mostly for Josh), but it was a nice day so I took the kids outside to watch him and to play with sidewalk chalk.
Enzo obviously loves sidewalk chalk, and Phoebe would love to just stick it in her mouth… like my shoe. Whoops. (Don’t worry, I immediately moved my foot when I realized she was really going to go to town if I let her).
She also insisted on tasting the driveway as well.
Thankfully Enzo is past the stage of putting everything in his mouth so coloring with crayons and chalk is a lot more fun. He had me write their names and draw different shapes, which is thankfully all he asked for because that’s really the extent of my drawing capabilities.
Now that we’ve finally reached that time of year where the air is going to start feeling more and more like Fall, we should probably take advantage of these nice weekends we have left. At the very least we have to get all of the shrubs with invasive roots pulled and areas prepped for bulb planting (which I’ve never done, so let’s hope that goes better than the rest of my failed gardening this year).
I would have to say that the hardest part of having a toddler is navigating the tricky slope of meltdowns and tantrums. Things have actually been fairly good for a while. We would have your random little meltdown that would generally end in a reasonable amount of time, and we could handle it. We bought a book called ‘Calm Down Time‘ and even made Enzo a calm down place that he actually used… for a while.
Every once in a while, though, we go through a stage where the tantrums and meltdowns are of epic proportions. The last time this happened was when Josh was traveling for business and when he got back the intense tantrums started up and lasted for a few weeks. It was exhausting for all of us and honestly? We didn’t know what the best way to handle them was. We’ve tried so many suggestions and are still trying to find a method that shortens the outbursts, or better yet, stops them from happening.
The past weeks our beloved toddler has been a bit of a bear, and we’re not really sure what set it off. The only thing that has changed is that about a week ago he developed a canker sore in his mouth (who knew they could be hereditary??), which was really painful for him and he didn’t sleep well for probably 3 nights and didn’t nap well either. He’d wake up crying a few times a night despite giving him Tylenol. He was obviously grumpy, but the pain started getting better and he started sleeping better, so we figured things would be good. Not so much. My hernia surgery hasn’t affected life all that much. I’ve been doing as much as I can with him and only pick him up if necessary (even though I shouldn’t be lifting him at all). The only other thing we can think of is that Phoebe is becoming more mobile and that while he usually loves her and enjoys her, he’s experiencing some jealousy.
I suppose it’s only natural, really. He woke up happy as a lark this morning, but his attitude immediately changed when he realized that Phoebe was already in our room. We are beginning to realize that we may need to change how we do a few things. Because Phoebe is starting to move around more, she can be grabby and curious, but doesn’t understand sharing or otherwise, so we need to be more proactive about moving her instead of always expecting Enzo to move and making sure that we tell Phoebe to share as well if only so that Enzo sees that we aren’t playing favorites. He’s also going to have to learn that some toys he needs to play with in his room and that if he she is somewhere first and he brings a toy next to her, she’s just going to grab it and we can’t always be there to referee. Josh and I may have to start switching up the bedtime routine as well… so far I’ve been mostly handling Phoebe’s bath and bedtime (mostly because Enzo wanted Josh for so long), but I think I may need to ask him if he wants me. Maybe he is jealous of me spending so much time with Phoebe and I never even realized it because we just got into a new routine.
It’s not easy being a toddler… or the parent of a toddler, for that matter. If anyone has any great advice or references for toddler tantrums and jealousy, though… send them my way!
I don’t know about you, but my Friday got off to a fun start. Our toddler woke up happy (after finally sleeping through the night after 3 nights of tossing and turning and crying on and off), however, his mood went downhill fast and he ultimately was carried out to the car while screaming. About halfway through the drive, his mood finally lifted – I was thrilled! I could hear giggling from him and his sister, and took a peek in the mirror only to realize they were laughing because Enzo was tearing apart his toast and throwing it all over the back seat. Sigh. So… Friday!
Considering I had surgery last week, this article about how anesthesia works was interesting.
The answer to why your body does that flailing thing right before you fall asleep.
An interesting read about a couple of MLM essential oil companies and certain claims they make.
If Michael Bay directed Up.
And, finally. We went ahead and watched Divergent last night… and sadly it followed the books fairly closely, which meant that for the first 3/4 of the movie Josh was confused and experienced the same “Wait… what?” moments I had while reading the book. Watch this trailer instead. 😉
And Wonton Makes Three 