Stubborn Bugger

I feel like I have been saying for months that Maisie is days away from walking. Well, guess what, she is NOT walking. I swear she has been pulling herself up, walking around furniture, taking a couple steps to objects, and walking with push toys for forever. But yet, she won't take that leap. That final release where she knows she can do this. Where she knows that life will never be the same. Where she  is no longer the baby.

She is so cautious. So unsteady when she realizes she is standing by herself. I swear it is a confidence issue more than anything else. Is that crazy?

I am basically positive she has the ability, but yet she holds herself back.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have enjoyed having only one walker for so long. Not sure what I am going to do when they are both running away from me. But Gosh Darn It, Maisie, it is time for you to walk.

And then there is the bottle. She refuses to drink from a sippy cup. For Calan, I just started to cut out his bottle. I just wouldn't give it to him at meals anymore. I have done the same with Maise, and the yet she will just go without till I give her a bottle in the afternoon. I give her a sippy cup with milk and a bottle with water and she refuses them both all morning.

She is just not grabbing on to the whole sippy cup idea. She just bites. I have tried all different types of sippy cups, but if any of you have a go to, PLEASE share. We are just getting no where. She is quite attached and completely not willing to move forward.

Have I mentioned that she is a bit of a stubborn bug. Can't decide if this trait is like my husband who just hates change, or like me, who no one can make me to do anything I don't want to do. Or, God help me, BOTH.

Generations upon generations

My immediate family taking a picture with my grandmother.

My family is probably the exact opposite from my husband's.

Bob's family gets together regularly. We see each other every Sunday and most of his aunts, uncles, and cousins probably once a month. I know about their lives from many upon many conversations.

My family has not been in the same room together in 5 years. I have not seen many of my cousins in probably a decade. We do not get together for the holidays. We do talk, but I only know most of my cousins through Facebook. (Sad, I know, but it is the truth.)

This past weekend we all FINALLY came together to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. Can you think of a better reason to come together?

It was wonderful seeing my family. Though with chasing Calan and keeping tabs on Maisie, I did not get to socialize as much as I would have liked. It was a little overwhelming.

But how wonderful for my grandmother to see her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren all in one room. I can only imagine how overwhelmed she felt at the surprise party.

I think of my grandmother as a pretty quiet woman. She is opinionated, but is pretty passive-aggressive when she wants to get her point across. She had 4 children in 5 years. She has 11 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren. She is an incredible baker and I think most of us think sugar cookies when we think of her. They are a family favorite.

There are many reasons as to why my family does not get together. The biggest being probably distance. But it was great for one moment for all of us to be together to celebrate her. For the most part, everyone minded their Ps and Qs, and it was a wonderful party. I am sure that it is still the talk of my grandmother's apartment complex.

Not sure when I will see my family again, but I hope that this party maybe starts to bring us all a little bit closer.

You win some, you lose some

This has just been one of those weeks where I have barely kept it together. One of those weeks where I feel like I am running around like a chicken with its head chopped off. One of those weeks where I am just counting down the days till Friday.

I am tired. I am unfocused. I am very, very unproductive.

It is one of those weeks where I kind of wish I had a job that I could just hide out and do the bare minimum to get by. A job where I can just be a little selfish for a full week. One of those jobs where I just have to worry about me and that's it.

I obviously do not have a job like that and obviously when I am having a week like this my children are the ones who are effected.

I talked about what happened on Monday. Yeah, that was a genius moment. And then yesterday, I drove off with my purse on the top of my car. When I realized 15 minutes later and circled back around, it was already gone by the time I got back. Purse gone, wallet that I loved gone, a little cash gone, a few gift cards gone, credit cards gone, etc. It was fabulous moment.

I have canceled what I need to, called the police in case it turns up, and at some point soon I'll head to get a new I.D. Everything is replaceable and it is not the end of the world, but it was just one more thing that has me wanting to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head and take an amazing nap.

Today, so far has been pretty good. I need to clean, but life is going OK. I am making it through.

This morning we visited a fire station. Calan had an amazing time. He was so excited. I was pretty proud of my little guy who never cried while waiting his turn (an issue in the past) or hit any other child (still working on it). It was a good time had by all.

In terms of teaching Calan this week, we have not gotten much teaching time in, so I will not be sharing "A for Ant" tomorrow. Sorry. Hopefully nest week has some kind of normalcy to it. Not sure how much more this momma can take.

You live, You learn, and You pray your kids survive

You know your day is going to start off great when you have to call Poison Control to make sure your son did not kill himself.

Yep, that was my morning. Parent error completely.

Maisie has been sick and I have been giving her Tylenol to keep her fever down. Well, this great mom left the Tylenol with lid off with easy access to my wonderfully curious toddler who then took what we think would be the equivalent of 7 doses of Tylenol.

On the bright side, Poison Control says that it was not a toxic amount and he should be fine. However, to be on the safe side, I took both kids to our pediatrician this morning to get them checked out. Calan for his overdose and Maisie for her fever. She recommended that Calan have a blood test just to make sure his liver is OK, so we did that. We should know the results at some point this afternoon.

I am glad he is OK and that I dodged a serious mistake, but it is just a scary reminder at how quick things can go wrong and how I have to be so careful about everything. He is a very curious and resourceful toddler. He will get into anything and everything if not watch or instructed to stay away.

I hate that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know you did something wrong as a parent. I know that it was a mistake and that everyone is fine, but I hate knowing that I messed up. If you know me personally, I have a horrible time with mistakes. I have horrible guilt. I never break the rules because of the guilty feeling I feel afterward.

Calan is a quick little guy and luckily he is pretty resilient too. Hopefully, he survives his childhood with little damage in the process.

(As for Maisie, she is still battling a fever. The doctor thinks that it might be Roseola (baby measles). With that, the fever lasts for 3 days followed by a rash. So, if the fever isn't gone by Wednesday, we need to go back in. I hope she feels better soon. Let's just say, she is looking kind of pathetic right now and you can tell that she is just not feeling well. I like all the cuddles, but I would rather have my smiling baby back instead.)

C for Caterpillar

When trying to decide what I wanted to teach Calan this month, I decided that his name was a good place to start. He of course knows his name and I know that he somewhat knows how to spell it, but he for some reason refuses to spell it for me when asked. (I hear him spelling it when not prompted.) 

So over the next month, I'll be going over his the letters of his name and working with shapes and colors and numbers that go along with it. 

Here was this weeks lesson plans:

Telling the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar helped
to keep Calan engaged.

Goals:

• Recognize the letter C
• Recognizing numbers 1-5
• Picking out colors Red and Green
• Following directions



Our decorated C is for Caterpillar craft.

• Repeating parts of weekly bible verse: "The old has gone, the new has come" 2 Corinthians 5:17

  

  Tot Book Pack from 1+1+1=1 

Activities:

• Reading the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" with felt pieces.
• Coloring number Caterpillar pages
• Using 1+1+1=1 Tot Book activities to sort colors and sequencing.
• Create a C caterpillar craft
• Reading the story of John the Baptist

Calan did pretty good for our first week of activities. I tried to keep everything to under 30 minutes. He liked reading the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" with the felt pieces that I made. He helped me count all the fruit the caterpillar ate. He loves butterflies, so he liked it when the caterpillar becomes the butterfly. We have read the story many times before, but using the felt pieces helped bring it to life for him.

Coloring pages that we worked on each day
counting and coloring the fruit.

I was impressed with how much Calan wanted to color. In the past, it has been a quick activity that he had little patience for. I colored right along with him. We would trace inside the numbers. He liked it when I held his hand while doing this.

Calan did well at picking out his colors. He did OK at counting just to 5. He seems to always want to end with 8,9,10. He is starting to recognize his numbers, but isn't quite there yet. He did great at picking out the letter C and was even connecting C to Calan, which I knew he knew. We did not get a chance to work on shapes like I had planned. I was suppose to make a circle caterpillar that we were going to put together on the wall. We just never got around to it. I'll save the idea for a rainy day.

Next week will be A for Ant. 

What are we going to do about hitting?

The last two weeks at church, we have been told that Calan hit another child and last week tried to pull a kid by her hair across the room. Neither situation were we thrilled about, but we didn't know why it was happening. He rarely if ever hits Maisie and I have never seen him hit another kid when we are at play dates, so why was it happening at church? 

Toddler Times offers 5 Steps to stop
toddler hitting habits. 

Well, yesterday, Calan and I went to the library where there is a train table with only a few train cars that everyone has to share. Obviously for young children, the sharing is not easy. Calan wanted to use some of the cars that one kid had and when the kid literally yelled NO, Calan bopped him on his head. It was not a proud mommy moment at all. Calan then could not play with the train and had to stay by me while we looked for books. 

I am pretty sure the hitting is stemming from a lack of communication skills. I am not too worried about it. However, he needs to learn how to wait his turn. He is very good at sharing with other children, but does not understand why others do not share, hence the hitting. So, we will be working on waiting turns for awhile. 

I thought I was doing pretty good as his mom teaching him to share and wait and play nicely with kids. He doesn't hit Maisie, but I have seen him slightly push her out of the way if he wants something. She doesn't care too much if he wants what she has, so he rarely has to wait his turn. And that's the issue. So, he will be waiting and waiting and waiting some more from now on. 

Hitting is just not acceptable and I need to nip it in the butt as of yesterday. 

I hate worrying about my kid while he plays with others. Some of the issue is that he is not shy at all. I wish he was a little more shy and a little less in your face. He wants to play with other children, but doesn't understand when other kids are shy and don't want to play right away. Plus, I am sure half of them don't even know what he is saying, which obviously adds into the situation. 

But, mommy can't be there all the time and it is good to know (whether good or bad) how he acts when we are not around. We now know what we need to work on. We need to give him the words to communicate and the ability to wait. 

So praying this is a quick phase and that no one's children are hurt in the process. And I apologize in advance to any moms who have to put up with my crazy toddler. He is a work in progress. 

26 month / 13 month update

Wow. Kind of forgot to do last months update. I am slacking for sure. The kids are doing pretty great. It has been a pretty crazy summer. We have done a ton of things and have enjoyed the nice weather as much as we could. We were so thankful to go on vacations this summer instead of staying home with a newborn like the last two summers. I truly think that you have to have winter in order to truly appreciate summer.

So here is what they are up to:

Sleeping

• Maisie is sleeping like a champ. She still takes two naps, but is perfectly fine missing her morning nap if we have something going on. I would say probably 4 days a week she takes her morning nap. I don't think she is ready to drop it anytime soon though since I usually have to wake her up each day. Maisie cracks me up when I wake her up. I lightly touch her back to stir her and she sits straight up and looks at me like she is saying "I'm up, I'm up, I'm up." And sometimes she even claps. Makes me love her even more. She is sleeping great through the night. Bedtime is usually 7:30 and she is usually down within 10 minutes despite all the noise her brother is making. 
• Calan takes about a 2.5 hour nap each afternoon. While lately he has been protesting going down for a nap, usually within 15 minutes of being put down, he is out like a light. Night time sleep is a whole other story. The kids bedtime is 7:30, but he usually does not fall asleep till about 8:30. He is still rocking and our doctor has decided we should see a neurologist just to make sure nothing else is going on causing him to rock. Bob and I still believe that it is just a soothing thing, but it will be nice to hear from doctors that there isn't anything else going on. 
• Except on vacation, the kids are still napping in separate rooms. No plans right now to change that. Calan climbed out of his crib for the first and only time last week. Unless he does it again, we won't move him to a real bed for another couple of months. I am hoping by Christmas to have him a normal bed, but we shall see. 

Eating

• I really need to start working on table manners with Calan. I swear he has ants in his pants every time he sits in his chair to eat. Always moving and wiggling. Dinner is just our worst meal. He is so all over the place. 
• Calan is some what eating a little better, but not much. Veggies are still a bit impossible, but I can usually get him to take a bite or two. I choose my battles when it comes to food. 
• Maisie is start to show some signs of pickiness. When there is something that she doesn't like she takes it and reaches out to the side and drops it very purposefully to the dog. To say she is a stinker, is a bit of an understatement. But she gobbles down everything that she likes. She out eats Calan at most meals. Maisie has transitioned easy to milk, but is not transitioning well to a sippy cup. I am working out, but the girl is pretty stubborn. I know I will win, but it might be a long battle. 
• We ate out a lot this summer with so many vacations. The kids do pretty well out and about, but we tend to eat quickly. They are not perfect, but it isn't horrible taking them out. I just wish there were better children menu options. Enough with the fried food already.

Milestones

• The kids had their 2-year/1-year well visits. Calan is 37 inches tall and weighs 34 pounds. Maisie is 32 inches and 25 pounds, which puts Maisie in the 97th percentile for height. She is a long little girl. 
• All of Maisie's front 8 teeth are in as well as her 2 top one-year-old molars have poked through. 
• Calan's vocabulary continues to expand. He is still singing a ton and can sing the full alphabet. He counts to ten and knows his basic colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, purple, white, and black). The other day he sat down with a stuffed dog and read him one of his favorite books and new some of the right words to the right pages from memory. That was pretty cute. 
• Maisie is still not walking, but getting closer every day. She takes one to three steps and then falls. I know that she is close, I just thought she would have figured it out by now. But I swear she is close. 
• Maisie is saying a Dada and Mama and I swear she says Daisy after I call her Maisie Daisy. 

Schedule

• 7/7:30 - wake up 
• 8 - breakfast
• 8:30 - Pack-and-play time for Maisie and room time for Calan
• 9 - Maisie nap; Calan TV time
• 9:30 - Chores; Calan and mommy time
• 10:30 - Maisie up; play time or errands
• 11:30/12 - lunch
• 12:30 - nap
• 3:00- wake up / snack
• 6 - Dinner
• 6:30 - Bath and dad time
• 7:15 - stories
• 7:30 - Bedtime. (Calan usually falls asleep closer to 8 or 8:30, but Maisie is out like a light at 7:30)

Overall

• Calan is still the overly excited toddler. He just beams happiness. He loves to play, sing, run, jump, you name it. However, we have had some issues with him hitting. It seems to be because of a lack of communication skills and letting older children know what he would like or to wait for a turn. We are working on it.
• Maisie is still just an easy going happy baby, but pretty determined. She knows what she wants when she wants it and complains (whines) till we figure it out. She loves hearing music. She is just overall a pretty content little 1-year-old.