Attention Parents of Toddlers

If any of you do NOT have Fisher Price Little People, go right now and buy some. We got this for Christmas:

He LOVES this. He absolutely loves it. At first, he was really good about playing with them by himself. Now he still does sometimes, but we also hear a lot of "Play guys, Mommy" and "Play guys, Daddy."

We got some of the "guys" from my friend Erika, whose daughter is almost five now. One of my favorite guy memories is from a while ago, when I was talking to Erika on the phone and Emma was acting up (like they do). Erika said to Emma, quite sternly, "Emma, you go find yourself a guy and play with him."

~t

Another Great Use for Baby Sign Language

When your mouth is full of chocolate, sign language allows you to ask for more chocolate. I swear to God, that Zane has not signed anything in about a month (since he has begun speaking much better). Just now, after he shoved a mini Kit Kat in his mouth, he signed "More" so he could have another one.

He loves chocolate.



~t

Toddlers and Puppies

Honestly, even though these pictures tell otherwise, I'm not sure I would recommend this combination. If you hate peace and quiet and enjoy constantly disciplining little beings, go for it. Or if you just can't resist the cute factor. Because they are pretty cute. Even better if your toddler always shuts his eyes when he looks into the camera. Ha.







~t

Zane's Haircut, Part Deux: The Photos

As promised, I have procured photos of Zane's new 'do. It is so hard to get good pictures of him lately because when he looks at the camera, he sees the red light that signals the flash and that makes him blink, so he's almost always got his eyes closed in photos. Aaaaaaahhh! So, this time as I was messing with it, Kevin was out smoking, and I was trying different things. Kevin came in just as I said, "Maybe we can get Daddy to stand behind me and you can look up at him" and he said, "Maybe you should watch out for the dog who is currently peeing on the yoga mat." (which we have down for diaper changes, of course.) Dang. Oh well, these are the photos I got. The yoga mat is now in the dryer.










Forget what he looked like before?



A little mullety. Also a little like Cousin Oliver. Whew. That's over. I'll take slightly Republican. Really, I just go that short because he needs it that short for his new hair to get caught up with his old hair. And then we don't have to go as often!

~t

Puppies and Toddlers: Good or No?

Shout out to Bill Gottschalk for the phrase, "Good or No?"

As you may know, we just got a puppy. As you may also know, we got a son 22 months ago.

Sometimes I wonder about the sanity of getting this puppy while we still have our own human puppy. As if we don't have enough on our plate. And both Kevin and I like our freedom. (Sagitarrius & Aquarius). Neither of us are that big on discipline. Both puppies and babies come with a need for a lot of discipline. So maybe I should start with the obvious crazies (or cons?) (or NO?)

Here are the "No"s to getting a puppy while you have a toddler:

• More discipline
• More work
• More mess
• Managing toddler and puppy can be very difficult for one person:
1. You have to take the puppy out QUICK sometimes, but what do you do with the toddler?
2. The puppy wakes the toddler with whining or vice versa: they feed off each other.
3. The puppy wants the toddler's toys and vice versa. You want them to have their own toys.
• Basically, toddler and puppy together can equal anarchy.

But here's the thing: toddlers on their own equal anarchy anyway, so what's the diff?

Here are the "Good"s. Basically, they come mostly under a single heading: "Parents of toddlers are not used to having much of a life anyway, so what's one more little poopy, peey, adorable addition?"

• Poop, pee, and puke are no big thing deal to the parent of a toddler.
• You are accustomed to other messes, anyway, too.
• You are accustomed to constant vigilance anyway.
• You are unaccustomed to uninterrupted sleep anyway.
• You are accustomed to disciplining a LOT anyway, so what's a little more.
• We rarely go anywhere anyway.
• The place is somewhat baby-proofed, and therefore already puppy-proofed.
• It gives you a chance to teach your toddler gentleness to animals from the start.
• After trying to train a toddler on anything, you find that training a puppy is somewhat easier and takes less time.
• And the BEST reason to just go for the craziness: they're just darn cute together!

I'm sure I'll come up with many, many more bullet points as the weeks and months progress, so stay tuned!

~t

Caspian's Early Christmas: We can't do anything normal

Caspian is leaving tomorrow to have Christmas with his mom, so we had our Christmas with him a little bit early. We let him open all his gifts and also let Zane open a good number of his. Zane didn't know quite what to make of it at first, but was good. Then, as things progressed, he got a little giftcrazy. And just a little crazy.

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~t

Moms of Skinny Kids Unite

One of my blogger mom buddies is having a similar issue we have had sometimes with Zane--pants just don't stay up! Now, I don't think Zane is actually particularly thin. He's not chunky either. I'd just say he's "sturdy", so I really don't get why certain pants have just never fit him.

Oddly enough, it's the more expensive ones from Osh Kosh B'Gosh that didn't work. (In Target brand or Old Navy, he does just fine.) As soon as they almost fit him in the waist, they really didn't fit him in the length. What is with that? I had to finally give up the dream that he was ever going to wear these cute little green cords. Funny enough, the last time I tried to have him wear them (what happens is I put them on him, and Kevin gets fed up with them falling down and changes his pants), I put on a matching shirt that was too small.

Theoretically, it was a smashing outfit. But I guess fit matters in the overall scheme of things. Usually, I'm pretty good baby stylist, but I wish I'd gotten a picture of him that day. (Later edit: If you page down to him in his Elmo chair, THAT'S the day! You can't really see how poorly his clothes are fitting, though.) :)

Anyway, to read more about toddlers and daily mom life, check out My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings.

Zane Hearts Elmo

On a recent trip to Walgreens, Zane and I were diverted. I had seen them before and tried to stay away. This time, it just happened. I could not stop it. The impulse buy...




He's got his own throne! Ok, you can't really see that it's Elmo. But trust me. (You can sorta see Elmo's hand.)

~t

Zane's New Pasttime

Look how proud he is of himself! He likes to just stack things. All sorts of things. He will make multiple trips to get a bunch of stuff from one place to another. Of course, one of his favorites places to stack things is on us. Kevin was the lucky recipient today.

~t

All Hail Dora

Dora the Explorer, of course! Zane loves Dora. When there is any mention of Dora, he says, "Dora, watch." In fact, I think that he is either psychic or can read, because he just said, that to me as I started writing this. That was weird. Dora is my best friend lately, too. He will just sit and be very calm and watch everything that happens on Dora. I feel a little bit like that bad mom I would never be, using the TV as a babysitter. But, as Heather noted, parenting is so much easier for the childless (love that). And I didn't know I'd be working from home, either. Challenges, challenges.

Now, he is bombarding me with the "Dora, watch." Must go put it on for him, so I can write my next blog post!

~t

Irrational Moments in Parenting

So, Zane took forEVER to fall asleep tonight. And then he woke up about an hour after he went to sleep and I had to go back up there. And he took FOREVER to fall asleep again. It is cute and sweet, in a way--the way he rolls over and grabs me to make sure I'm not going anywhere. And yet, in another way, I just sometimes want to jump up and scream, "Go to sleep already. I have so much to do!!!" Luckily for me, my more rational side knows that would not work and would only ensure I'd be stuck in there for about another 30 minutes, minimum. Don't get me wrong--I really love cosleeping. It's great for so many reasons: the closeness, the security, etc. But the downsides just sometimes suck. Still, I wouldn't change it. I just find myself stuck in bed a lot!

~t

Climbing the Gate

Last night I heard Zane up and around on the baby monitor after he had been asleep. Sometimes I give him a couple minutes to see if he'll got back to sleep. He rarely does. I almost always have to go in and I almost always have to nurse him. Life with a co-sleeping toddler! So, I gave it a second and then I hear a CRASH and crying. We run there to see that he had gotten the gate to his room down somehow. I won't even think of the multiple scary connotations of this right now, just hoping it was a fluke. However, I know he's been really into trying to climb the gate and his playpen lately.

I asked him, "What happened? Did you try to climb the gate?"

And he, oh-so-proudly said, "Yeah!"

I have to try and get one of his "yeah"s on video. He has such a way of saying it. his intonation seems to say "heck YEAH!" and "of course" and "I'm proud of myself" all at once.

~t