Have a wonderful end of the year!

I am officially off for 5 days.  Hooray!  I’m looking forward to some extra time with my kiddos who have needed some extra Mama time the past few days.

It’s nice, though, after a rough week or so.  I think things are slowly mellowing a bit and I’m really keeping an eye on how I handle Enzo and his tantrums. It’s been more about trying to head them off really, and while it can take more time, I’ve already talked him out of a couple of tantrums.  I really do think he’s appreciated it too because after it happened is when he started being super Mama needy. This morning his dad brought him in and he was wriggly with the happiness and practically leapt into my arms.  Maybe both of them can sense that I’m really trying to work on keeping my anger in check and trying to just be more at ease.

I’m not perfect and got snappy this morning because he was pushing my buttons, but I noticed it, and stopped myself from falling into that back-and-forth with him and he did cooperate.  I’m figuring him out, though, so now I just need to show Josh how to do the same and our mornings/evenings should go easier. I know we’re still going to have those moments where nothing will stop a tantrum, but that’s fairly normal for this age.  As for why Miss Phoebe has been super clingy… I couldn’t tell you, but I think it might be teething and just this age as well.

One of things we both need to work on is that sometimes I have to be okay with her just crying, and she in turn also has to learn that sometimes she has to wait.  She gets rather impatient very quickly and then suddenly she’s got crocodile tears rolling down her cheeks.  I, of course, get stressed because my immediate reaction is to stop all the crying.  ALL the crying.  I always knew this would be hard for me… ever since middle school when we had to take those fake babies home for the weekend and mine was colicky and cried all the time. I was so stressed out because I felt I was failing as a fake mom to my fake baby because I couldn’t make it stop crying.  So, yeah, going into real parenthood, I knew that crying babies stressed me out. Boy were we lucky with two calm babies!

All that being said, knowing that Winter is the hardest time of the year for me, I’m doing what I can to be more diligent when it comes to taking care of my mental and physical health.  They obviously respond better to me when I can remain calm, so my goal is to continue to be mindful in everything I do.  I can’t tell you how good it felt when I was able to talk Enzo out of a tantrum that normally would have led to 10 minutes of screaming and yelling.  It only took a minute or two and it actually gained us time by just stopping everything and calmly helping him take a breath and figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.  I shall be Whisperer of Toddlers!

Anyhoo, here’s  to a wonderful last week of 2014 and a mindful, peaceful 2015!

Looks like someone has a case of the Mondays.

I won’t lie, it was a very long weekend and what we were hoping was going to be glorious, spontaneous and exciting ended up being slightly painful at times. I’ll post some pictures later, but apparently our timing was off.  Phoebe had a cold, which made her cranky and tired and Enzo… Enzo was being the epitome of a 2 year old.  Not listening at all, being incredibly sassy and overly crazy, and had one of those fun embarrassing meltdowns in front of dozens of other parents and well-behaved children. Needless to say, Monday morning couldn’t come soon enough.  Also, taking antihistamines always makes me feel groggy anyway, but for some reason I’ve been randomly breaking out in hives for a couple of weeks.  My doctor said to try antihistamines for a week and to wait and see if whatever it is will work it’s way out of my system, but apparently it’s time for an allergist.  Woohoo!

Hard to believe those baby blues could ever be anything but charming, right?  HA!  I’m sure it’s just the age, and something we’ll get through.  He really can be sweet and charming when he wants to be, but he can also be so incredibly stubborn at times.  The second mattress cover arrived, so we’ll be taking away pull ups at bedtime, and I’m sure he’ll rebel in the beginning as he’s been rebelling every morning when we say it’s time to change into undies again.

 

I get it, I’m sure it’s a control thing and right now while we think we’re giving him some control in being able to go potty by himself, he’s probably viewing it as something we’re forcing him to do.  Never mind the treats and stickers and prizes he’s earned for potty victories… nope.  This morning he said he didn’t want any of them, but we’ve made it this far, so there’s no way we’re going back to diapers. I really think it’s just a matter of being inconvenienced by having to stop playing for a few minutes that he doesn’t like.

 

Oh, these tricky toddlers.  They can make you want to pull out your hair one minute and then do something incredibly sweet the next.  This weekend wasn’t one of our finest parenting moments – we both lost our tempers more than once, especially after a certain someone slammed his sister’s fingers in a drawer after being told several times to stop playing with said drawers. Was there a full moon or something I wasn’t aware of because man alive, he’s never been this naughty before. Okay, vent/rant over.  Seriously, though… parenting is hard sometimes, and I’n not going to pretend it isn’t.

Be that as it may, he’s my little terror, and I wouldn’t trade him for the world.

13 Months

Life with two toddlers is never dull, and I have a feeling it’s going to get crazier once our littlest toddler is walking. She’s getting ever so close with her balance improving daily. She’s able to get up from sitting all on her own, but then once she’s standing isn’t sure what to do except to congratulate herself by clapping and shouting, “Yay!” Sometimes she’ll reach out for you, but instead of moving her foot forward, she falls forward.  I have no doubt that this is exactly what she means to do considering the laughs and smiles that follow as she gets up to do it again.  Meh, walking is overrated anyway. 😉 *Update* I started writing this Wednesday and as of that evening she took a step.  And then proceeded to do the falling face forward game.

There are many things that Phoebe enjoys doing, but one of her favorite games (when not trying to climb things she shouldn’t) is playing with the doorstopper on all the doors because it makes that awesome twang sound.  It’s not unusual to randomly hear a door shut followed by melodious musical renditions.  The only problem is that her brother will often go barreling into the room. Thus far we’ve had few injuries, so at least that.

 

This girl is such a personality, and is already extremely strong-willed.  She’s not afraid to let you know exactly how she feels about something, and takes delight in doing things her way.  Closed door? I don’t think so! I will pound on that door while shrieking to let you know exactly how I feel about it.

 

Our Squish is also a big fan of being carried, which can make mornings tricky when all she wants to do is be held and we have to get dressed and ready ourselves while getting her and her brother ready.  I’ve started putting her on the bathroom counter while I do makeup as that tends to keep her occupied and happy for a bit since she can toss everything within reach into the sink or onto the floor.  Don’t get me wrong, I hope she wants to be carried for a good while longer.

She is still drinking 2-3 bottles a day and while I thought we could wean her off of those fairly easily, she isn’t too keen on the idea.  She likes her warm bottle in the morning almost immediately upon waking up and gets cranky and impatient if you take too long with her evening bottle.  She also gets unhappy if it isn’t warmed up enough.  Her teachers are trying to get her to take her 3^rd bottle in a sippy cup, but she likes having the bottle right before her nap, so we’ll see how it goes.  Once again, though, I’m not really in a hurry for her to grow up since she’s my last baby.  😉

I think it becomes even more clear how quickly time passes with your youngest (and last).  These milestones are always so bittersweet because I know I can’t keep her small forever.

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. 😉

Dancing in the kitchen…

I don’t really remember how it started or who started it, but it began when Enzo was smaller (then tapered off) and is once again a favorite game of both kids.

 

There is nothing that gets more smiles than ballroom dancing.  Actual music doesn’t matter, but only ballroom dancing will do and is more exciting when each parent has a child and you pretend to almost run into each other.  Considering neither Josh or I are dancers, running into each other isn’t always on purpose. 😉

While Enzo enjoys solo dancing, he prefers the more chaotic dancing, whereas Phoebe will take both. She likes it so much in fact, that simply standing in the kitchen is often unacceptable and it’s a pretty safe bet that she will reach for your hand and look at you expectantly.

While it can be an exhausting game and leave our arms aching, it’s worth it for the giggles.  It’s also kind of funny/sad because Phoebe is never ready to stop and her sassiness comes out as she sort of screams/cries at you in frustration and won’t let go of your hand. I kind of love how much she loves music, and I’d love it if she wanted to take dance lessons when she was older.  Enzo seems more interested in sports, so it would be fun to have a little dancer (I always wanted to take dance lessons when I was younger).

 

I’m okay with just kitchen dancing for now, though. They’re growing up fast enough as it is.