Christmas is going to be interesting this year.
Well, in more ways than one. But let me back up - I’m actually talking decoration wise. And no, I don’t have my tress up (yet!). I did start pulling out my Halloween/Fall decorations, though. Not all of them, but a few pumpkins here and there. It didn’t take long for a certain tiny human to notice… and demand that he be allowed to carry them around everywhere!
It’s not really about the bike. Sure the bike may have set it off, but in reality, it’s more about being a toddler. Being a toddler means learning crazy amounts of new things every day, discovering emotions that are overwhelming at the best of times, and having little control over anything in your life. Together it makes for a frustrating existence. Oh, and did I mention your mouth constantly hurts because teeth are literally ripping holes through your gums?
So that’s where we are.
I have to say, this may be one of my favorite trends in parenting lately. Yes, it’s a way to entertain and keep your toddler busy (YAY!) but it’s also super cool, and I want to play with it probably as much as E does!
They’re also super easy, and completely customizable. Basically you take a piece of wood, and screw on whatever random stuff you have lying around the house, or want to incorporate, and voila! You have something fun and entertaining that is teaching your toddler valuable life skills in the process!
The other morning, Tom was holding E while he opened the trash can to throw something away. From across the room I heard Tom laughing and saying “Oh no, don’t worry about Flappy in the garbage. You saw nothing!”
Remember our singing elephant? The one that my whole family hates, but E love so much? Well it officially makes the list as the second toy we’ve played with so much that we’ve killed the batteries. A singing toy truck from our neighbors was the first, and I’m pretty sure a singing laptop from my parents will be next since it’s been struggling and making some interesting noises lately. Are you sensing a theme? Our Bubba likes things that sing to him!
Fall has something the rest of the year doesn’t have - these crazy big pumpkin/apple farms that open up for picking. Well that’s the general premise anyway, but they’ve become so much more than that. They’re comparable to amusement parks in their size and activities, and they’re only open for two-ish months in the fall where everyone flocks to them.
They’re so overwhelming that Tom and I are a bit afraid of them. We’ve been to all the big ones and have had bad experiences dealing with lines and traffic and getting lost, so we usually stick to the smaller and less intimidating ones. Of course that means they offer less to do while you’re there.
A lot! The fall is always my favorite time of year. It seems like it always gets filled up with fun trips and visits and activities that we never get around to at other times of the year. There are holidays to look forward to, the weather is perfect, life is good! However, it seems like I’ll never get around to making a separate blog post about everything we’ve been up to, so instead I’m going to try and play a bit of catch up. So here are a bunch of random but good things we’ve been up to.
Also in completely random updates, E has 4 teeth! We have no idea when #3 and #4 came in - we flipped him upside down the other day (the only way to really check) and he has a mouth full of teeth up there! But since he only has 1 on the bottom, we hadn’t noticed. I guess that’s a good thing though. (Although now that we know they’re here, we’re thinking back on a cranky week last week and wondering if that’s what was going on!)
I like looking at sibling names. You can usually learn a lot about the parents by looking at sibling names. There's usually a similar sound, or feel, and you can see what was important to the parents. What their style is like.
Maybe all of their kids have names from the bible. Maybe they all start with the same letter. Have the same number of syllables. Have repeating double letters. Are contemporary. Are spelled uniquely.
Sometime around Mother's Day, when I was feeling constant all day nausea and exhaustion, Tom mentioned that I should get a hotel room some weekend and have a night away. A relaxing, kid free night, where I could catch up on sleep, and the boys would stay home and bond.
As nice as it sounded, I kind of laughed it off. "Maybe someday!" I said.
Well, it's finally hit us. We have a toddler. And?
I miss my baby!
One of my friends has a newborn right now. I know she's not getting sleep and it's hard and she's recovering... but that cute little baby isn't throwing tantrums yet! Well at least not about the things E is throwing tantrums about. Because if he was upset only because he was hungry or tired, that I could do! I have a year's experience on that!
It's funny, when we have free time at home, I don't say that E plays. Instead I say he's hard at work. He never stops moving, and is always on a mission. I'm not sure where the mission comes from, or why he's doing what he's doing, but he's very determined.
First he may come down stairs and go to his table and chairs, where all of his books are displayed. Very purposefully, one at a time, he must take every book off the table and put them on the floor. Once they're on the floor he'll ignore them for the rest of the day, but if you try and put a book back on the table, it must immediately be taken off again.
I'm pretty sure when anyone looks back on our Maine vacation this year, they're going to remember two things. E saying "hi! hi! hi!" and everyone singing "Do your ears hang low" until it haunts your dreams. Tom has taken to hiding the elephant, and my dad would start screaming from across the house whenever the song started, but the truth is E's reaction is SO CUTE, I'll push play over and over again.
Same goes with his talking. He's so excited to have figured out a word, and the fact that it causes reactions from people? It makes his day! Which means he'll walk around saying "hi" to anyone or anything. Unfortunately the birds, a person 3 blocks away, and the trees haven't figured out how to answer him.
We went on vacation for a week recently (more on that later - I'm still sorting through so many pictures!) but it turned out to be a big week for E! We woke up the morning we were supposed to be leaving to one very grumpy baby. I finally got a peek in his mouth and it looked like there was a tiny hole in his gums. Could he finally be getting a tooth!?
Of course we had no idea, because we'd made it 14 months without one, so we weren't sure what to expect. We tried giving him some frozen teethers, but he refused. He also refused all food. And he was STARVING. That combined with a failed nap left us worried. We pulled out the Motrin and decided to just jump in the car and get to Maine. We bought all the soft food pouches we could, which he sucked down the rest of the day. The Motrin seemed to help, as did the friends we met in Maine.
Let me apologize for holding this in for so long. It was never my intention... I just kept forgetting to tell people?
Maybe it's because I spend my days chasing around E that I'm too busy to think about anything else. Maybe it's because I've been so sick that even sleeping requires effort. (More on that later).
Hey Caitlin, how are you doing?
Oh great! I was driving home today, and it was only 92 outside according to my car, although it was at least 10 degrees warmer inside since the steering wheel was burning the skin off my hands. AC was on blast, and the windows were all down so I'd get the breeze. Felt nice.. right until something hit me on the side of my neck!
It's no secret that we love our daycare, and E especially loves it there. He learns new things all the time, and it's amazing. One weekend we noticed he had started bringing books over to us and then immediately sitting down on the ground and crossing his ankles like he's trying to sit cross legged. It's the cutest thing ever, and we definitely have circle time to thank for it.