Talking

Sour Patch Kids

As our children get older, it’s interesting to hear them talk more. It goes from learning words, to sentences, to actual random thoughts in their mind. And that’s where things get interesting. I start to hear about dreams they have about a mama dinosaur that their brother is afraid of but it’s really just “a nice dinosaur because it’s nice.”

I’ve also learned you really can’t take anything personal with kids. I was prepared for them to tell me they hated me, because I think that’s a normal part of growing up. That doesn’t phase me. Even saying that I’m the meanest mama ever and that I never let them do anything doesn’t phase me. (Sometimes they’re right!). It’s the specific ones that I think about days or weeks later. The ones that come out of no where.

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Small Updates

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Sometimes I feel like there’s nothing to update because every day seems the same, but at the same time everything changes so quickly that I have too much to share. Like E’s favorite song lately is Rihanna’s Umbrella (because what a cool thing to sing about!) and G’s favorite song is ABCDEFU (“She sings it wrong!”).

The baby baby is suddenly huge. I looked at her the other day and almost didn’t recognize her face. It doesn’t help that I think daycare has been brushing her hair so it doesn’t always stick straight up anymore, but suddenly she has these big cheeks too! She’s also huge, I just weighed her and she’s about 17 lbs which means she’s moved up a diaper size and a sleep sack size, but long gone is my tiny ity baby. It’s okay, because she’s almost entering a really fun phase, where she’ll be able to sit and play with us, and she’s starting to get really excited about food. I still don’t really have the energy to want to feed her table food even daily, but occasionally she’ll get to chew on something we’re eating and so far she loves it. And if not, she just chews on my shirt instead.

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Things I Don't Want to Forget

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Right now when G is trying to tell you something, he’ll often add on his version of “also” to continue the train of though. Except he pronounces it “aw-soh-lee” and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard. And I never want to forget him when he’s this little and pronouncing this word like this.

I don’t want to forget E calling to me from the back of the car randomly that “Mama, some day when I’m older I’m going to tell you I want to do gymnastics. I’ll let you know.” I clarified that he didn’t want to do them now, he didn’t talk to anyone at school about them that day either, so I’m not sure why it was on his mind, but not to worry - he’ll let me know when he’s ready.

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Life Now

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So how is life going these days, anyway?

It honestly changes minute by minute. So quickly I feel like I constantly have whiplash and don’t have time to breathe. I know we’re in survival mode and it won’t always be like this. We’ll get to a point where I’ll have time to respond to emails again, make those doctors appointments I’ve had on my list forever, and not feel constantly tired. And then I’ll look back and wonder where these days went.

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Echoes

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Baby F is less newborn infant, and more baby lately. It means she’s awake for longer stretches of time, and starting to pay attention to us. She loves when we talk to her and gets all excited and tries to copy us. Her mouth moves like crazy and her eyes get wide and when she finally gets a noise out, you can tell she’s absolutely thrilled with herself. So lately I spend a lot of time staring into her eyes and saying “Alpo” over and over to her as she watches intently and tries speak. I understand that sounds odd, but stay with me for a minute.

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Bits and Pieces

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Just a quick update of some random phrases that have been said recently and I want to remember.

  • Recently I was playing with E and his Legos, when I noticed one of the little Lego dogs was in the car he was driving around. “Is that dog driving a car?! Dogs can’t drive!” I told him. Except he had a great comeback and told me, “It’s okay, she’s 16, so she can!”

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Toddler Speak

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Our littlest toddler talks, quite a bit actually. You might not know this, because I haven’t posted recent videos, but he often speaks in full sentences now. He’s long had a large vocabulary of words, but now he’s starting to put them together more and more.

A recent favorite is to ask for us to put music on, and then ask the name of ever song that comes on. “What this song? What this song?” Over and over. Even if you just told him. And then he’ll ask the other adult in the room to confirm he gets the same answer. If you’re lucky, he’ll start dancing to it. He’s been unanimously named the best dancer of the house. When he feels a song, boy can he move!

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Toddler Speak

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I’m not sure why, but G seems so much older at this age than his brother did. Sure he’s bigger, but I also think his vocabulary is huge. He’s definitely speaking way more than E ever was at this age, and I think more than most kids his age. However, he’s still very much speaking as a toddler. In other words, every time he opens his mouth, it’s the best thing ever.

Every morning, he comes into my “offie” to say good morning and play with whatever he can get his hands on. He’ll often try to convince me to let him play with whatevers on my desk, by holding out his hands and asking me if he can hold it. “Hone? Hone?” If he’s rewarded with something, he’ll clutch it in his arms and ask “myes?” to confirm that it is his.

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Flying Creatures

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Something I didn’t quite understand about young children before I had them – it takes them a while to learn how to speak. And it’s not just vocabulary building, it’s pronunciation, but I’m not talking about the cute way they say spaghetti. There’s this whole period of time where they’re screaming the same word over and over at you while you play some desperate charades game of trying to figure out what they’re telling you.

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Just a Bunch of Monkeys

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Now that I have two little children, I feel like I’m finally understanding all of my friends that grew up with siblings close in age, and who are used to fighting about things being equal. My boss tells stories of his siblings and him fighting all out wars to reach the kitchen every night before bed, in order to have first pick at their evening drink of juice (even though his mom had painstakingly poured them all equally). Or I understand why my two older sisters had so many duplicate toys – buy one for one of them, and you better buy one for the other.

I haven’t exactly reached the stage where I believe everything needs to be equal, but I’ve at least witnessed the jealousy, and I understand it now.

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15 Months

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Well hello there, 15 Months!

I was talking to the director of our daycare recently, and mentioned how happy G seems to be there, and in the non-infant room now. She replied “He’s just happy to be HERE,” waving her arms around “in life!” It’s pretty true. It doesn’t really matter what we’re doing or where we’re going, G is thrilled to be a part of it. The more he learns about life, the more he is enthusiastic about joining in.

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I Told You

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Sometimes I forget.

Until I catch someone looking at me, or I walk by a mirror. And then I remember, oh yes… I’m the adult wearing a Sesame Street shirt. Because it makes my toddler super happy. “My matching you!” he’ll say with a big smile on his face. Right now I’m the coolest person he knows, and I want to hold on to that feeling for as long as I can.

His new chant is “Mama FOREVER!!” which is mostly cute, but it occasionally morphs to “Mama RIGHT NOW forever” with the “right now” coming out as a demand, and the “forever” more a cry, and always happens when he wants me and needs to wait because I’m driving or busy or not there.

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A Baby Update

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I’ve stopped doing monthly updates now that G is one, which means it feels like forever since I’ve given everyone an update on this little one. I’m starting to wonder if I can even call him the baby anymore. Every day he becomes more and more a toddler, and his older brother becomes more and more a big kid and less and less a toddler. Still, I find myself calling G by “baby” more often than not. My boss has started to call me out on it every time I mention “the baby” in a story. But for now, I’ll give you an update on baby G.

In a lot of ways, G is a typical second child. Both his reactions and actions are completely the opposite of his older sibling. Anything E was/is afraid of, G loves. Anything that’s E favorite, G could care less.

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Hello Toddler

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Thanksgiving day marks E’s half birthday this year, making him officially two and a half. Guys, two is a lot of fun. One year olds are the cutest, but two is full of surprises so far.

We all know that E has been into cooking a lot lately, and that’s definitely still a thing. But his love of art has also been growing, and it’s making his craft loving Mama very happy. He’s been less into painting lately, and all about the “projects.” Give him a glue stick, and this kid is super happy. We’ve been cutting and pasting all over the place, and it’s amazing to realize that we can actually complete a real art project together, as opposed to when he used to just smear the paint over the paper and I’d peel up tape to reveal a more finished look. (We still utilize this for the baby though! He is all about the paint!). I’m always impressed at not only his ability, but the attention span he has, and the joy he gets out of doing these projects with me.

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Toddler Speak

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I love all the weird sayings and phrases that toddlers come up with. I never correct them, and I always mourn when they disappear. When there’s a loud noise, E used to say “Oh so noise!” but now he says “I herr-d that!” Both are cute, but I miss his ‘so noise’ that he used to say. Just like he didn’t know the word for crayons, so he used to call them colors. The other day he told me he wanted to color with crayons. I’m thrilled he’s learning, but it’s a little sad to let go. No longer do I get the “Um-me!!” when he’s hungry. Now I get “want snacks!”

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Bits and Pieces of a Toddler

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Every once in a while, E picks up a new phrase. Sometimes it’s obvious he got it from us, but sometimes it seems random. We assume it comes from daycare, but we never know for sure. Lately his phrase has been “walk away.” It’s equally hilarious and insulting. It usually comes when he’s doing something on his own and we’re trying to help. Like when he decides he wants to feed the baby by shoving food in his mouth, and we try to intervene, he’ll look at me and say “No, Mama. Walk away.” Somehow it’s cuter than if he just told us to go away, and it’s equally as funny when he tells the baby to do it too. We should probably try to encourage him to use different language… but we’re enjoying it for now.

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Bits and Pieces

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A few random stories that I want to remember, but aren’t really related beyond that:
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E has a new(ish) teacher in his room, and he has slowly but surely winning her over. She’s pretty quiet, so it’s taken me a bit longer to get to know her, and get a read on her. She was asking me a few questions about him recently which left me wondering if she was worried about his speech. I was talking to Tom about it, and mentioned that she kept asking about what he can say, and seemed surprised that he couldn’t say his name. To be clear, Tom and I aren’t worried. But the conversation led me to believe that maybe she was.

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21 Months

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Is 21 months a thing? I did 3 months updates for the rest of this year, so I guess I’ll continue it here, but don’t expect a 27 month update… maybe I’ll do every 6 months after the 2 year mark?

Nick Names: Bubba, Sweetness
Height: 33 inches (Estimated)
Weight: 25 pounds (Estimated)
Teeth: 11? (It’s getting harder to check!)
Words: 30+ (list below)
Favorite Things: turkeys, elephants, trucks, baby shark/row row/wheels on the bus, art projects of any kind, the color orange, his iron pills, baby brother, being tickled

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Talking

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It’s fascinating watching a tiny human learn how to talk. Some words will randomly appear with no sign of where they came from. Others are fought for. Practiced over and over.

Apple? Randomly popped up one day and never left. Dad? We’ve been working on that for MONTHS. He’s finally getting there, but there are still some days that Tom gets called Mama or nothing at all. But the days where he gets out a “da!” is worth it.

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18 Months

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E is officially a year and a half old!

It’s been quite a journey, and in about a month we’ll be embarking on our next journey when E becomes a big brother. So before life gets super crazy, I wanted to post an update of what’s going on in E’s world. A lot has changed in the past few months, but even more has changed in the last few weeks. It seems like every day there is something new that he can do, or some new thing that is so adorable and makes me melt.