PS Mommy thread with toddlers 12-36 months

[monarch64]

Hey everyone! Thought I'd post a quick update and some pics.

Alex is now 26 months and is talking up a storm (finally complete sentences) and is 90% potty trained. We did the weekend thing a month ago and let daycare know and she's been doing great at it both there and at home. Quirk: for some reason she's decided she only wants to wear dresses, and this includes at night while she sleeps. Equally important are shoes but I will not let her wear shoes in her crib. Hair bows and headbands are also typical requests. I'm not sure why the sudden surge in femininity, but I'm not complaining.

Love all the pics! This sure is a good looking group of kids.

LC, hfm is going around here as well. Took A to the doc for fever/sore throat last week and she tested neg for strep, etc. but they said hfm was all over the place. Luckily she didn't have it, just some random virus. Hope you've all gotten healthy again!

MP, uh oh about Ev getting in a tussle! I feel like it's bound to happen. Not fun for us parents but they seem to get over stuff quick.

Amc, birthdays are so fun when it's your own kid! I am really excited for the holidays now. So fun when they finally "get it."

JGator, sorry to hear about the sleep regression. Also how is she doing with water these days? I think about you guys when I bathe A now, wondering if K has gotten past her distrust. We have a doll baby that goes in the bath and A has a cup and a wash cloth she washes her baby with. Maybe that would help K if she's still having issues? She just gets prettier and prettier, love this latest photo.

Sorry if I missed anyone. Here is a "then" and "now." It is so great to watch them grow and change!

 

[JGator]

Monnie, love the new pic of Alex. She really is stunning. I love her hair and skin coloring. K still screams and tries to get out of the tub when we rinse her hair during her bath. We did get a special visor but she doesn't let us put in on her head in the bath tub so we just rinse it with a hose attachment we bought for her tub quickly. She also cries at swimming lessons if she gets water on her face. She LOVES babies (she calls all her dolls Baby). So, I htink the bath tub baby is a good idea. Thanks! K is big time into shoes, hair bows, and accessories also.

MP, sorry to hear Ev got into a tussel. But, at least he's not a push over. I think K will let people walk all over her because she's so timid. We'll see though. She's going to start a co-op pre-school when she turns 2 which is 2 mornings a week.

AMC, glad to hear B slept well for you. I hope he keeps it up. It must be difficult being pregnant and having a toddler with sleep issues.

NEL, I think our 2 K's are a lot a like. It is nice to have our house to ourselves again. My mom is coming though in early September for about 10 days. She doesn't bother me, but gets on my DH's nerves. But, we had 2 long visits by his parents in May and July so I think my mom is due for a visit since she hasn't seen K since January. A tip on the flash cards. Can you get a small ring and put hole punch holes in them? I read that online some place. I need to do it with ours also.

LC, thinking of you. Hope you are hanging in there.

AFM, K has been getting up at 5 lately. I made the mistake of getting her one morning and the next day, I let her CIO for 30 mins because I was so dead tired the day before. I think K is still 24 lbs which is what she weighed at her 18 month visit. Do you think that's normal? Also, she really isn't eating much dairy. She has one bottle at night which is likely 10 oz. She will ask for yogurt in the AM, but then only eats 1 bite. She has refused cheese for about the last 6 months or longer. So, really she's only getting 10 oz of milk a day. She refuses milk in the sippy cup during the day. I'm also beginning to wonder if that's why she still only has 11 teeeth. I'm going to ask the nanny to try to push more milk on her during the day. I'm leaving K for the first time for an overnight trip next week. I'm really dreading it. I think she is going to flip at bedtime and when she wakes up with me not being there. But, I guess it will be good bonding time for DH and K. And, maybe DH will appreciate what I do with K more! We'll see. Wish us luck.

 

[mayerling]

Delurking to put in my 2 cents on the milk issue JGator is facing. N has refused milk since we travelled to the US in May. I tried to give him formula on the plane (didn't realise they just give you whole milk if you ask them, duh! ) and he hated it so much that he's refused to have any milk since. I'm not worried. I realise the US has completely different recommendations on milk intake (my AAP manual recommends milk for every meal and snack ) but in Europe the recommendation is completely different (2 cups a day, max) and, actually, there are other ways to make sure they get the nutrients normally found in milk, and in bigger quantities too. So I wouldn't worry, JGator.

 

[pancake]

jgator - just a quick fly-by:

1. She needs 500mg calcium a day. It doesn't matter where she gets it from. If she'll drink 10oz of milk but not eat yoghurt, cheese, or other dietary dairy/calcium sources, then give her calcium-fortified milk. Check the labels.

2. That won't be the reason why she only has 11 teeth.

3. You can try and push more milk on her during the day but from memory you have had issues in the past with poor solids intake so I would be wary of trying to push too hard.

4. The weight doesn't sound like a problem. Kids go through periods of slower and faster weight gain and growth. Provided that she still tracks well longitudinally, don't sweat the increments.

 

[Dandi]

Hi mummies!! I just can't seem to find the time to post these days but just wanted to drop in and say hi. Everyone's little ones get more beautiful by the day, I swear. PSers produce the most gorgeous kids Oscar is 20 months now, where does the time go?? He's still a happy little fella, a bit of a pill with trying new foods, but I've learnt not to stress about it anymore, it just isn't worth it. He eats great during the day, but dinner is still limited to lamb chops, sometimes bolognese (without pasta!), and my homemade chicken nuggets and salmon patties, so I cram heaps of veggies into those suckers!

ETA - the day I took this picture, believe it or not, it wasn't windy - O was just having a really seriously bad hair day

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Dandi, that picture is hilarious! Looks like static electricity, haha. And I do the same thing with "hiding" the veggies. I never really thought I'd be one to do that, but oh well. I often find myself putting peas in K's mac 'n' cheese. I also find myself bargaining these day. As in "Eat 3 more carrots and you can have dessert". Never thought I'd do that, either, haha.

JGator, thanks for the flash card suggestion, that is a great idea!! And sorry to hear about the milk/calcium issue. K has been on a milk strike for the past 2 weeks or so. I let her have chocolate milk when we were out as a little treat and now she thinks regular milk is "yucky". Wish I could help you with that one! Hope your mother's visit is uneventful!

Monnie, love the pics of Alex! And yay for being 90% potty trained and talking in sentences! Isn't it funny how they suddenly have preferences for clothes/accessories? K has been wanting to wear socks to bed for the past few weeks. I let her choose her PJ's and she only wants the footed ones. I was hesitant to put her in them at first, but now it's been getting into the 50's at night, so it gets cooler in her room.

MP, it's a really good sign that Ev's curve is holding steady. My understanding is that when they are growing rapidly like now, that's when it's most likely to start get worse. So if he's growing without the curve increasing, that's fantastic. The good thing is that you're very much on top of it. It's so nice that you have these records that you can always refer back to.

Ugh, clean up has been such a disaster in our house lately. K used to be so good about picking up and lately she refuses. I get so annoyed.

amc, your boys are going to be so big! When I was growing up, I had a cousin who was a typical big, football-playing boy's boy. I remember going to my aunt and uncle's house and thinking there was SO. MUCH. FOOD! He would literally go through gallons of milk a week. The good news is that he ended up getting a football scholarship to college, so my aunt and uncle have always joked that his college money went to grocery bills. I think having 2 boys sounds like a ton of fun.

K's tall, but not as tall as B. She was only 37" at her 2-year appt. (grew another inch in the next few months). Her doc thinks she'll be 5' 9" - 5' 11". C is a very tall baby as well--I took a brief measurement the other day that put her in the 99th percentile. I think it would be better if they're both tall.

AFU--
So far the "terrible twos" have been pretty smooth sailing. K was challenging the month she turned 2, but I also had C that month, so I couldn't attribute her behavior solely to her age.

BUT! These past couple of weeks have been really challenging. K is pushing her boundaries. It's so tiring. Here is an example:

K gets a toy out, plays with it for a minute, then throws it across the room and moves on to another toy.
Me: K, can you please pick up the toy you just threw?
K: NO!
Me: (Annoyed). Yes, you're not playing with anything else until you pick it up.

Now she wants to see how far she can push it. She doesn't pick up the toy and tries to play with something else.

Me: I said no--go pick up your toy. I'm not kidding.
K: NO!
Me: Do you need to go to time out until you can listen to me?
K: NO! (K's vocabulary is still obviously very limited)
Me: (getting more annoyed) THEN PICK UP THE TOY!

K AGAIN attempts to ignore me

Me: You're going in time out because you can't listen. K runs away.
I grab K and put her on the sofa, then set the timer.
Then K starts throwing pillows off the sofa and putting one foot on the floor (this is a test--how far can she get off the sofa before I give her the attention she wants)
I start time out over and tell her to stay on the sofa and not throw pillows. She does it anyway.
Finally, I put her in our foyer where there is nothing to do but stand. She cries for 2.5 minutes until time out is over.

THIS HAPPENS PRETTY MUCH EVERY NIGHT! Spending the evening this way is unpleasant, but I don't want to just let her do whatever she wants without any consequence. I think I need to read some other discipline books. 1-2-3 Magic works really well for behaviors I want to stop (like whining), but getting her to DO things (like clean up) is a different. And I always feel like I'm handling wrong because I get annoyed.

Anyway, other than the boundary pushing things are going well

 

[amc80]

NEL, I feel your pain. B was riding his scooter/balance bike/tricycle and we were ready to go inside. He walked inside just fine, but then decided he wanted to watch Despicable Me (not Frozen, thank God). I said fine, but I need to take your helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads off. He threw a fit. He even threw his helmet at me and was screaming. This morning, he was screaming because I wanted to take his pajama shirt off. I swear, toddlers go nuts over the weirdest stuff. It's totally exhausting.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I think the unpredictability of it is one of the main reasons why it's so draining. The things K pushes vary from day-to-day. She will also sometimes have a fit if I try to take off her clothes. And it's not always for the same reason! Sometimes she wants to do it herself. Sometimes she just doesn't want to take them off--that's usually easier because if I let her choose her pajamas, she's more willing to shed her regular clothes. Giving choices has been a really good tool for us to avoid meltdowns. But to be honest, I don't want to always have to distract her with another choice (e.g.--K, do you want to watch Cinderella or get a puzzle? (she chooses one)--Me: then you need to put your toy away first!). Usually at the end of the day when we're both tired, I just don't have the energy I need to navigate through the potential tantrums.

ETA: last night was meltdown-free (yay) with no time outs. Must be some PS magic!

 

[monarch64]

NEL, (and others dealing with toddler tantrums) Alex has become so much more independent the past few months and is absolutely rigid about certain things unless I get creative and find ways to distract her. The past couple weeks with the dresses, she is SO insistent on wearing one that she now refuses to wear pajamas and when she wakes up in her (cotton knit, nothing fancy) dress she refuses to take it off to put on regular play clothes to wear to daycare. So we've just been sidestepping the issue by allowing her to wear what she wants. It is not my ideal situation, but she is happy and it isn't causing any problems, so whatever. The potty training is great BUT my husband thought pull-ups would be a good idea at night instead of regular diapers. Problem is that if she has an accident in the pull-up now, she freaks out and starts yelling/crying "mommy, I need pull-up!" Part of it is stalling because it happens like 5 minutes after we put her to bed, but part of it is also a bit of confusion between diapers/swim diapers/pull-ups/undies. I guess she'll figure it out eventually.

As far as boundary testing, yeah, that's happening here as well. I stopped giving options more than once and now tell her (after being turned down the first time, whatever it is she's doing that she isn't supposed to) that it's no longer an option and that I'm not asking her a question. She seems to comprehend this, or she senses the tone of my voice has changed and she either stops and obeys or says "HI!" with a giant grin.

Veggies--Alex will only eat them if they're obtained from the garden outside. I guess we're going to have to build an actual greenhouse because I can't grow year-round here without one. She will literally gobble up 25 cherry tomatoes off the vine, but if I send them in her lunch she won't eat them. Last night she took off with a jalepeno and was munching on that. Kids are nuts.

 

[Dandi]

Hehe NEL, I'm with you, I was always in the "he has to learn to eat his veggies" camp, rather than the Veggie-hiding one, but like you say, whatever! He's getting them into his belly at any rate., and I dish steamed veggies up to him every night when he as a meal that I can't hide them in. I know full well he won't eat hem, but oh well. Maybe one day he'll surprise me.

monarch, that's interesting! Maybe I'll have to start up a veggie patch! A jalepeno, seriously?? I can't handle those things!!

amc, I hear you on the tantrum thing! O is only 20 months so we haven't had any real full scale meltdowns (yet) but he throws a hissy fit over the oddest things, like putting on his jacket or shoes to go outside (it's winter here, so it's not negotiable!), and throws himself on the floor and howls. But he gets over it pretty quick at this point in time, or I have to distract him. Little monkeys! I reckon he'll throw some ripper tanties when he's a bit older. Can't wait for that!

 

[monkeyprincess]

NEL, you've also got my sympathy on the pushing boundaries thing. Ev is in full force testing his limits to see how far he can push it and what he can get away iwth. He'll just refuse to do what we asked him to do (pick up a toy, or come to the table) and then turn into jelly when you try to pick him up or lead him to where you asked him to go. Or he'll do really annoying things like start kicking me if I decide to sit in the backseat with him while DH drives, and I'll tell him no, and he laughs and says, "I kicking, I kicking" and keeps doing it. Or he'll just fight me every step of the way while trying to change his diaper and get him out of his pajamaes and dressed for the day. Stupid stuff like that that really pushes my buttons and tests my patience. But I guess that's just part of the growing up process. Argh.

Hope everyone else and their toddlers are doing well!

One of Ev's daycare teachers is super nice but also very socially awkward. She's always telling us way too much detailed information about how many bowel movements Ev has each day, etc. Anyway, yesterday when I went to pick him up, she was like, "I told your husband this last week, but when we do flashcards Ev knows the word for every animal and object. He's very advanced for his age, but he still sometimes gets walrus and rhino mixed up. I keep trying to tell him one has a horn that points up and the other has tusks that point down, so you might want to work on that at home." Seriously?!! I was like, "Uh oh, Ev, it sounds like you've got some homework!" I am thinking it's pretty good that he's 22 months old and can identify at least 50 different animals and their colors and sounds, etc. And he has a puzzle with a rhino and hippo at home, and he always says the right names, so I think we'll be okay Too funny. Other than his apparent rhino/walrus confusion, he's doing great and starting to talk in full sentences and narrates everything. We took him to a work BBQ, and he would just go up to random people and starting telling them all sorts of things. He certainly didn't inherit my more reserved tendencies

 

[amc80]

MP- Oh man, I feel your pain. B will sometimes fight diaper changes like crazy. Just getting him into his PJs is a huge battle. I'd love for the night routine to be this lovely, relaxing, bonding experience....but usually, it's just an hour long fight. I've found a few things that have helped, though. B got some bubbles for his bday, so I use those during bath time. I will blow some bubbles and then say "ok, you need to get your hair wet before we do more." So bribery at its finest. I was afraid he'd throw a fit when I put them away, but I just say "the bubbles need to go night nights" and he accepts it. Also, it was usually me putting B to sleep. DH would come in and say good night, and then B would want me to hold him forever, rock him, sing to him, etc. It wasn't an issue because it was maybe 5 minutes, but recently he would want me holding him until he fell asleep. Well, now DH stays with me, we tell him to lay down, we tuck him in, and then we both leave. And he's been totally fine with it the past two nights.

B got his daycare "report card" yesterday. Apparently the only place he has any issues is he sometimes has problems focusing when being given directions. What? A just turned two year old boy has trouble with that? Shocking.

We are spending the three day weekend potty training! Wish us luck!

 

[FrekeChild]

I've heard that three is worse.....

 

[amc80]

I've heard that three is worse.....

Shhhhhhhhhh

 

[FrekeChild]

I've heard that three is worse.....

Shhhhhhhhhh

I know. Believe me, I know.

 

[Kunzite]

I've heard that three is worse.....

Way, way worse. OMG I don't even have fitting word for how awful 3 has been. But O was such an easy 2 year old, it had to happen at some point!


Hi ladies I have zero free time these days but I just had to share this. We just closed on our house a few weeks ago and now the boys have a play room. They were hesitant to use it at first (they just kept bring toys to the living room) so when they were all in there together and quiet I was so happy....... you know what they say about a quiet toddler.

 

[Dandi]

Oh Kunzite!! Eek! Lucky your boys are so freaking cute!!!

 

[mayerling]

Ladies, when did your kiddos drop their daily nap, or at least started the transition to drop it?

 

[lliang_chi]

Mayer, Ethan's 2.5 and he still needs his 1 nap a day. Some kinddos can drop it earlier. One of my friends has a son 2-3 wks younger than Ethan and he drops his maybe 50% of the time.

Kunzite, YIKES! Definitely know what you mean about a quiet todler. It's like when thye're in the other room and you hear banging and playing you're fine. But when it's eerily quiet you're like "WTH! Where is everyone why is it so quiet!"

AMC, LOL I get the hour long fight in the morning to get Ethan to pee, brush his teeth and get dressed. Most of the time it's the morning that I have to deal with his tantrums. OMG it's sooooo exhausting. And he's the WROST with me. Thanks a lot kid!

MP, did you tell Ev that he's got homework to do? LOL! He sounds like such a smarty pants (in a good way!). Ethan's daycare staff was under the impression that he was 6 months older than he is because he hangs out with all the older kids in his classroom. It probably helps with his vocabulary etc too. So DH was like, "Oh who does he hang out with? (Teacher prattled off some girls' names) Yeah, sounds about right..." Ethan's totally into the older ladies, so no surprise there that he's hanging out with all the older girls. This is what I have to look forward to.

Dandi, Yes, I'm in the hide veggies from Ethan camp too. Although recently he's been into broccoli and (shockingly) green beans, so I've been buying a ton of those.

Monnie, so adorable that A "helps" int he garden but bonus that she'll eat those veggies. Wonder if I could come up with a fake garden and just buy the produce at the markets etc. We live in a tiny condo, so we don't have an option for garden...

NEL, Wow, K sounds like Ethan. He was kinda challenging at 2 but 2.5 is when he decided to just put his foot down. I'm not the most patient person, so I've had to just ignore otherwise Id get really pissed. It doens't help that Ethan will follow me around tantruming tell him me, "Mama walk away!" We've started putting him in time outs for tanturms, too. Do you do it right away? Sometimes he'll correct himself but then if the tantrum starts windign up @ 2 mins, it's going to be a long one. I haven 't figured out how to nip it in the bud.

 

[monarch64]

Dandi, I hope your boy never throws fits! Maybe you have a more easy-going baby. Crossing my fingers for you that you do. Tantrums are no fun for anybody! Not sure what I will do once fall/winter is here and there aren't more readily available veggies to pick. I have covers to put over the garden beds so I can continue to grow some cold-weather crops on into winter, but once late December/early January hits I think I'll have to start letting her see how I prep and cook veggies in the kitchen so she maybe will get more interested in eating them.

MP, it's so nice that Ev is adept at flashcards (the teacher sounds odd but at least she's informative!), and so social himself! I hope that those things continue. I know it makes me feel good when Alex's teachers give us good reports on her development, and it's great to see her interact with near-strangers in a friendly, non-fearful way.

AMC, that's funny about the report card and the obvious "issue!" Be glad those same people aren't giving you reviews at work, right? Bit of nit-picking there, just to find "room for improvement," I'd guess. Glad potty training is going well (been reading your other thread, of course.) Sounds like he's mostly there and will decide on his own from here with a little encouragement from you and his dad. Alex has figured out that she really likes the designs on the pull-ups she wears to bed and so we've had some regression. I'm not pushing anything at this point. She still goes on the potty at daycare and at home, but she's feeling more secure and happy in a pull-up once she gets home on weeknights. Sigh.

Kunzite! Good to see you again. Congrats on the new house! Love the pic of the boys playing/drawing together. So sweet. Could you dedicate one wall to let them color on? Maybe paint that one with a couple coats of Killz and then another couple of chalkboard paint? When I was little, my brother and I both had long, walk-in closets, and my mother gave us free reign to color the walls. It saved the rest of her house! (Except for that one time when I found a Magic Marker and "colored" a couch.) Just a thought. Glad the boys are doing well.

Mayerling, I saw your other thread but I'll answer your Q here: Alex is napping about 45 minutes to an hour at daycare during the week, but on weekends she is still napping 2-3 hours in the afternoons (THANK GOODNESS.) She still goes to sleep at the regular time of 8-8:3- and is still sleeping through the night almost 12 hours. I think she's tired on weekends, just from being so active all day through the week.

LC, sorry to hear E is being a pain in the butt/having tantrums in the morning! We went through that recently when the "I want dress" thing just got out of control. I finally started holding her feet when she was trying to kick at me and using my VERY. STERN. VOICE that "mom isn't playing this game. It's not an option or a question that you can wear a dress. You are going to school today and that means play clothes." Whether it's my tone or my words, I'm not sure, but she reluctantly goes along with wearing what I ask her to now. (She was insisting on wearing a dress to bed, and then wearing it to daycare, and then wanting to wear it again after bath. Yuck.) Regarding veggies/garden: is there a community garden near you? I know it's late in the season, but was thinking maybe there's someplace like that you could take Ethan and show him some garden plots. Or, next spring maybe you guys could get involved in one and let him help? If you have a balcony or bright window, there are a lot of things you could try growing as well. I keep thinking about writing a series of children's books on gardening for the urban dweller but haven't had time to really flesh out my ideas. Someone may already have done so, I'll search around and see if I can find any.

AFU: her speech has exploded the past month but there are still times I feel like I just can't understand her and it's frustrating for both of us. I've been trying to coach her as far as enunciating her words more clearly, but when she gets tired she kind of reverts back to half baby talk/half big girl talk. And suddenly last week, she decided she wanted to be rocked every night. This is odd because we've never rocked her to sleep, like...ever. Even early on when I breastfed, we were always stationary, although reclined. I know they don't rock her at daycare, but I wonder if she's seeing some of the babies there being rocked and has begun to associate that with sleep. Tonight she refused to lay down and go to sleep unless I rocked her for the 3rd time, and I bribed her. (So ashamed, well, not really.) I told her I would give her a "special treat!" if when I came back in 5 minutes she was sleeping. She laid right down and closed her eyes. She was up talking to herself 5 minutes later and didn't fall asleep for another 15, but I'll call it a win.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Monnie--funny that A wants to sleep in dresses. K does the same thing, but it's getting chilly at night, so I put the dress on over her regular pajamas as a compromise. Sorry the dress wearing became an obsession--it's frustrating when you have to employ the "because I said so!!" technique (spoken from somebody who uses that phrase now). I'm also not ashamed of any bribing I do these days. K will now say "eat peas!" when she wants to watch television. Reason is that she's only allowed to watch after dinner and I usually bribe her into eating some veggies before turning on her opera.

LC--as a fellow impatient person, I commend you on your ability to walk away. I sometimes make myself count. Although I also want to show K that she needs to be calm when she's upset, so that can help me to keep from getting really frustrated. My tantrum technique was to ask as soon as I saw the first sign of a meltdown if she needed a minute to calm down. This is vital as it occurs before the "red zone" where nothing helps. She would usually say "no" and I'd tell her that's fine, but she needs to calm down (and listen, usually). If she continued, I'd start with the 1, 2, 3 thing. I think I'm blending two techniques there, but it worked for us. Now when K is upset, she'll go to the sofa (that's where I used to put her) without me saying a word, which only started in the past week or two.

Kunzite--congrats on the move!!! And that picture is hilarious! Thank goodness for Magic Erasers!

amc, don't you love it when you find a solution that works for a potential meltdown (e.g. telling B the bubbles need to go night night). When I find something that works, I cling to it, haha. And it's odd the kind of things that work. Lately I've been telling K that she can't have something now, but maybe later. That satisfies her, which I would never expect. I've gotten out of many a power struggle that way.

MP, hilarious that Ev's teacher felt the need to tell you that he's getting the walrus and rhino mixed up. I'm impressed he can distinguish those at all. The other day I pointed to a horse on K's shirt and asked her what it was and she said "moo". So not only does she mix up the animals, but she's still identifying animals by their sounds. Sounds like he's a lot of fun these days with all of the talking!

AFU, a few high-level things:
1. Speech. Or lack thereof. K is now "very significantly delayed" in her speech development. Still only using about 40 words regularly and only stringing 2 simple words together. The real issue (in my mind) is the lack of motivation to speak. She's not frustrated by not being able to communicate, which seems so odd considering how much she comprehends. And I'm not sure how to motivate her. Anyway, we're doing more hearing tests, she's going to start seeing an occupational therapist and we're going to try to start a class once a week with other speech-delayed kids.

2. K started ballet and it's the cutest thing on earth. The class is very focused on instruction (which is age-appropriate) and I was impressed that she followed nearly all of the instructions in the 45-minute class. The teacher was really nice and relaxed, there was only one other kid in class and they let me and the other mom in the class, so I think that really helped K to feel at ease.

3. Fewer tantrums these days, so I'm hoping the bad boundary pushing was just a phase. We can go days without a timeout, which is ideal. And K continues to be obsessed with Cora. I put Cora in Katie's crib (with Katie) in the mornings while I'm getting them ready. C will try to pull K's paci out and K laughs and laughs and says "no, Coco!" and then gently takes the paci back. It's so sweet that K is patient/gentle with Coco.

 

[JGator]

NEL, so happy to hear that Cora and Katie are getting along so well. That's adorable that you put them in the crib together and they interact. I don't think our K would be too happy with a baby taking out her paci! I'm glad you are continuing to get help for K's speech. My K says animal sounds instead of names too - her favorite being Neigh Neigh for horse.

Monnie, that's awesome that Alex has such an amazing language explosion. We bribe K all the time so I see nothing wrong with that!

LC, we are starting to deal with tantrums with K also. Particulary when it has anything to do with her request for "More Caillou!" or her paci. She's addicted/obsessed with Caillou and has a fit when I won't let her watch it. She has been sprawling on the floor for a few months, but recently started kicking her feet at the same time.

Mayer, no where near dropping the nap.

Kunzite, great to hear from you. We miss you. Your boys are just too cute for words. Love the picture, and congrats on the new house.

AMC, how did potty training go? And, I wouldn't worry about that "report card"!

MP, hilarious about the pre-school teacher's concerns on Ev's animals. K definitely does not know walrus or rhino. She is still saying sounds like Moo Moo, Neigh Neigh, Baa Baa, Chick Chick, etc. And, she's limited to the every day animals and farm animals!

Pancake, thanks for chiming in on K's calcium intake. She's actually had yogurt for the past 3-4 days, and her appetite seems to be on the upswing now. So, I'll stop worrying about this!

Dandi, Oscar is adorable! Love his staticy hair!

AFU, sorry I haven't posted in a while. We went on vacation to Maine in late August. We rented a house and K's room had horrible curtains so napping was a nightmare and she woke up over an hour early every day. We did have a fun trip, but I just wished I could have slept more! We went on a horse/carriage ride in Acadia park and K was so in love with the horses. We also picked blueberries which she loved. My mom was here for about 10 days recently, and K didn't really warm up to her and is still talking about my DH's parents who left in early August. Our nanny was out sick for a week so my mom had to backfill and that was a challenge as I work from home and had to divide my time and give K her nap daily. K starts a co-op pre-school next month. The class actually started, but she can't join until she turns 2. We met the other kids, parents, and the teacher 2 weeks ago. There are 2 boys who are 10 months older than K so I worry they are going to knock her over or something. One already took her toys at the first get together. I'm sure the teacher will handle it though. It will be good for K as she is still so shy. She won't even look at our neighbors who have a dog that she adores. I tell her that's the dog's mommy and daddy, and she still looks so shy and frightened by them. At the pre-school she wouldn't look at the teacher either. She's getting more stubborn and having more tantrums, but she also seems to be learning a lot of new words daily and repeating things after us. She can count 1-10 in French repeating the words after us, and has mastered 1-4 in English on her own. She gets the rest of the numbers out of order. We try to practice when we climb the steps. Also, she likes to sing the ABC song but jumbles things up and definitely gets things out of order. She also says - Itsy Cider for the Itsty Bitsy Spider and Icky when she sees ants outside....our nanny has a fear of bugs which she is transferring to K! Overall, very fun times and she's just a joy.

 

[monkeyprincess]

NEL, I love that your little girls get along so well. That's so sweet. That's the hardest part about my infertility and miscarriage. Ev loves babies so much and talks about them constantly, and I was so hopeful I'd have two close in age to enjoy their relationship. But anyway, I'm glad you are getting to experience it. And I'm sure K's speech issues are frustrating, but she is a lucky girl to have you as a mom and doing everything you can to help her. I am hopeful that you will see more progress in the coming months.

JGator, that's great K will be starting preschool. I'm sure it will take a little adjustment, but hopefully, it will turn out to be a good thing for her and help with her confidence. Ev does the icky thing for ants too. He has flashcards, and one of them is an ant, and he always says, "icky ant" instead of just "ant." He has also started saying icky when he sees a hair on the ground or on his clothes, etc. And so now he calls my hair icky. DH thinks its hysterical and says is Daddy's hair icky? Ev says no. Is Ev's hair icky? No. Is mommy's hair icky. YES! Little stinker. Cute picture. She's starting to look more and more like a little girl.

Kunzite, great to see you post. I can only imagine all the things you'll be dealing with three boys so close in age!

Hi to everyone else!

AFU, things are going great with Ev. He'll be two in less than a month, and as I always say, this is the most fun stage yet. He is a constant source of entertainment for DH and me. He talks constantly these days and remembers and repeats everything. Yesterday, we got a note saying that during snack time, he apparently threw his sippy cup on the floor, started biting his own arm, and pointed to his friend, and said "Naughty Jackson." I guess he was trying to blame his bad behavior on his friend? Not even sure how to handle that one. Apparently, he is going to keep us on our toes!

 

[JGator]

MP, that's funny. K was just calling DH's ears Icky this weekend!

 

[monkeyprincess]

JGator, the funny part is that he still wants to play with my hair all the time. I'll be sitting next to him, and he says "hair please," which is his way of asking me to lean in closer so he can hold onto my hair. I think it's a comfort thing. But I'm going to think twice about letting him do that if continues to call my hair icky!

 

[lliang_chi]

NEL, Gosh can I just say how it's ADORABLE that K has a nickname for Cora. I'm sorry you're getting worried about K's speech delay. But I'm glad that the class and the extra therapy are available for you. Seems like K definitely understands a lot so it makes you wonder why she's not one to comment/talk about everything that's going on around her. I remember you said she really enjoys watching/listening to your DH play music. Hopefully that helps as well. Dude, I totally hear you about the tantrums and methods to deal with them. I also ask Ethan if he needs a minute, now i"m thinking maybe I should ask him sooner and head off the major meltdowns. Today he had a fit because his back pack was in the wash.

JGator, sorry K is starting with the fits and tantrums. Not gonna lie, this is SERIOUSLY getting old. Ethan was throwing a fit half way through bath time today and wouldn't let me dress him. Only Daddy. Mind you 2 hrs before he didn't want anything to do with Daddy only Mommy (of course when I wanted to make dinner). This kid's timing is impeccable... always when we don't want him to be needy. The daycare sounds like it'll be great for K. Having lots of kiddos around will likely help draw her out a little more. Plus I'm sure she'd just love being around more kids all the time. IIRC, she'll be going for 1/2 days? Or maybe just a few days a week?

MP, I super agree with you that this is the best age so far (well, minus the tantrums). I love how they're so much fun and really have a personality. Plus they get so proud of themselves when they can do things on their own. Awww.. I love seeing Ethan's beaming smile when he figures something out on his own. That's funny with Ev and the "Icky" hair. Ethan's been like that with stinky, except I get the flattering remarks. "Is Q [the dog] stinky?" Yes. "What else is stinky?" Dada stinky. "Is Mommy stinky?" Nooooo

AFU: Few things.
1. We now have an imaginary friend named Ding Ding living with us. Apparently Ding Ding is a naughty fellow and Ethan blames him for pushing/tripping/crashing into him whenever he falls or is clumsy. Or if his toys break whatever. Once I had to resort to putting Ding Ding in a timeout once as a means to calm Ethan down after his Legos fell apart.
2. This past week Ethan's sleep has been HORRIBLE. Waking frequently and needing someone in the room with him to fall back asleep. Don't want to jinx it, but last night was THANKFULLY a good night.
3. Today Ethan refused to give me a kiss at daycare drop off. "No mama, no give kiss." What? If you're not giving Mommy kisses then who are you giving them to? The daycare teacher heard that and had a giggle. Then on his sheet today, she wrote "Well, Lisa, we found out where your kisses went... Ethan has a crush on A!" She's a cutie pie in his class a few months older than him (of course, he's into the older ladies). J is fired up because she's an Eagles fan (or more accurately her dad's an Eagles fan).

 

[FrekeChild]

I've been absent in any real meaningful way for a while, but I still read along and love hearing updates on all of the big boys and girls! Where have our babies gone?

A is now 2 and 10 months, and I swear, it's like having a 14 year old around sometimes. She never really stops talking any more, and she is NOT shy when you aren't doing something you want. For instance:

"Um, Mommy, can you speak?" If I don't answer her right away.
"Mommy, speak up! You're too quiet!"

Fun things she has said in the past few days:
"Mommy, I have a really big problem."
"Mommy, I'm really scared of really big spiders. Can Daddy take the big spider to work in a box?" (Halloween decoration.)
"Mommy, Nicky is a butt monster." (???)
"My favorite color is green. Your favorite color is blue."
"Daddy, you be a stegosaurus, I be a triceratops."
"Mommy has three holes in her ears. Mommy, where are your earrings? Your earrings are GONE!"
"Mommy is a Mommy monster, Daddy is a Daddy monster, Brie Brie is a fluff monster and Nicky is a butt monster."
When we go out, and are driving home, I'll sometimes let her tell me what directions to go to get to the house, and when she gives me the wrong directions and I drive there anyway, I hear, "Mommy. We are REALLY lost. Where is our house? We need Daddy." For the record, I'm the navigator in our household.
The other day, we were in the pool (it's still hitting 100 here) and we forgot to grab her flotation device thing. I told her that I would go get it for her, but that she had to stay on the stairs and not move AT ALL or she would be in trouble. I ran inside, grabbed the floatie, and came back outside - she hadn't moved from the top stair. So I get in with her and she says, "Mommy, I'm in really big trouble. I moved." I laughed it off and told her she was fine, but it took me a good fifteen minutes to convince her that it was ok and she wasn't in trouble. Lol. She has been in trouble ONCE - for dumping her milk all over my new storage ottoman.

(I really don't know where she got the butt monster stuff? What is entertaining is that Nicky is her dog, and they love on each other all day every day.)

So what I've figured out from all of this is she will repeat ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I say. And she picks up stuff from everywhere.

In other happenings, A is not potty trained - by sheer force of her stubbornness. Which she, ahem, did not get from me. Hah. Oops. She knows how it works, she knows what to do (and has done it several times), she just doesn't want to do it. So for now I'm just letting it be.

She has also become really particular about what she will wear and what she won't wear. So that's a fun battle we go through every day. And each item of clothing is a battle. Shirt, shoes, socks, shorts, skirt, overalls, dress, jacket, whatever. If she doesn't choose it, she screams if I put it on her anyway, and then takes it off as soon as I turn my back.

She's not a huge tantrum kid. She has thrown some doozies, but typically she talks it out, and we talk about why she's upset. It's weird to have conversations about feelings with an almost three year old. But it's nice to explain to her why we don't like toys strewn across the floor, and she seems to actually understand WHY when she can't find something she wants to play with.

I love love love this age. I've loved almost every age, but I love being able to talk to her and know that she understands pretty much everything I'm saying. Two more months until she's three. That's crazy.

 

[amc80]

I haven't checked in in a while, but wanted to say hi. I love seeing all of these pics! B is doing well. He is talking up a storm and really working on stringing multiple words together. We went through an awful sleep stage (I feel your pain, LC) for about two weeks, where B would wake up in the middle of the night and either cry or just be wide away. Thank goodness that's over and he's sleeping all night in his bed. He's a sweet kid most of the time, but there are plenty of times where I want to ship him off to grandma. The other morning he had two time outs before 7:30am, and he didn't even get up until 7:00. So yeah.

We are continuing with potty training. He will often tell us if he needs to pee. This morning he peed through his diaper and he came in and woke me up to tell me he was wet. He seems to be scared to poop in the potty so we aren't pushing it, we just remind him that poop needs to go in the potty and not his diaper. The big issue right now is he still refuses to pee on the potty at day care. They even have the same seat we have and he just sits there. I've even tried getting him to go (at home he will go on command, almost instantly) without luck. Any suggestions?

 

[Dandi]

My goodness monnie, JGator and Freke, you have the most STUNNING little girls!!

Does anyone's LO sleep in a sleeping bag? The past few days I've offered Oscar a blanket for his nap instead of a sleeping bag, and he will not have a bar of it. I'm really not that fussed if he keeps sleeping in one, he can sleep in one until he's 15 if he wants! I'm just curious to hear other mums' experiences with weaning off a sleeping bag, if you've ever used them.

Freke, I can't wait for that stage, or as DH calls it the 'word explosion'. Oscar says very few words (mama, dadda, nanny, poppy, yeah, nup, cheese, egg) but makes a lot of sounds. I don't want to wish his babyhood away, but talking toddlers are just hysterical IMO!

 

[mayerling]

Dandi, N still uses a sleep sack. I see no issue with continual use. He'll eventually have to be weaned because he'll be too big for it, but for the moment I'm just happy I don't need to worry about him pushing his covers off during the night.