Toddler Antics

Selena has always been a little monkey. Climbing on things. Jumping off things. But the older she gets the more acrobatic her antics become. She loves making dad be a jungle gym and climbs all over him. She also loves to ride on his shoulders. She likes climbing and flipping in and out of Allie's pack-n-play. We still go to Toddler Gym at the Y and she likes walking on the beam (the real sized ones), holding my hand, and then jumping off the edge. She also likes swinging upside down on the bars pretending to be a bat.

Her play is becoming more imaginative. She likes to play with her stuffed animals and baby doll and she makes them have little conversations. She likes blocks, and we build multiple story houses for her toys. She also really likes TV and her favorite show is Blue's Clues and she also likes to watch Kipper clips on youtube. I dislike her watching as much TV as she does, but it does make life much easier. I can have her watch a Kipper clip or two while I put Allie down for a nap and it prevents her from coming into the room and waking Allie. Or if I need to pickup the house I can have her watch an episode of Blue's Clues and get my chores done without her whining, or making messes faster than I can clean them up. It will be nice when she can read on her own, then she can read a book instead of watch TV.

For rainy day activities we've started doing some toddler yoga. I got Yoga Kids\ dvd from Netflix and got the books Itsy Bitsy Yoga for Toddlers and Preschoolers and Little Yoga: A Toddler's First Book of Yoga. So far she likes the yoga dvd and the Little Yoga book. I haven't tried the Itsy Bitsy Yoga with her much. But she seems to enjoy it and it gives us something to do.

Halloween was fun. She dressed up as a pumpkin and was very excited about it. She remembered trick-or-treating last year and was excited to do it again this year. We just went around our cul-de-sac and she got plenty of candy. We've been slowly doling it out as bribes to go potty.

I'd like to say she is potty trained, but its still a touch and go sort of thing. Some days great, other days not so much. We're making progress, but it is very slow. We've tried potty charts, rewards, etc and they work to an extent but not completely. I think emphasizing that she is in control of when she goes and not showing any reaction when she has an accident is what is working the best right now. I really wished I had waited longer before we first started. With Allie I am going to wait till she can pull her pants on and off by herself. With Selena I was going to wait for this, but I thought it was a long ways off, but it really wasn't, and I was anxious to get her potty trained before the baby came.

We have a new bedtime routine with her and it has worked out well. She now lets Dad get her dressed, read her bedtime stories, brush her teeth, and tuck her in, while I put Allie to sleep. Then I come in and snuggle a bit and sometimes I will leave before she is all the way asleep, which is a huge milestone. Now if she would just stay in her bed longer through the night... But I'll take what I can get.

Dealing with new behavior issues has been a challenge. It seems every few months she hits a new behavior stage and I get really stressed trying to figure out how to deal with it, and then I figure it out and relax a bit. Thankfully running away has not been a problem for a while. (Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself by writing that.) I'm not sure if she outgrew it or restraining her in the stroller as soon as she bolted was the key to fixing that problem. Right now tantrum/crying when she doesn't get what she wants, hitting, spitting, sharing and not doing what she is asked are what we are working on. I am very lucky to have a private message board I belong to with a wonderful group of moms to get support and ideas from. There are a bunch of us with 2 - 3 year olds and babies so we are all in the same boat. Specifically two pieces of advice I have gotten that have worked really well are for not picking up her messes when I ask her to and for dealing with spitting. When she says no when I ask her to pick something up, I physically take her hands and help her pickup what I want her to. As soon as I do that she picks the rest of the stuff up happily and willingly. It is like magic! To deal with the spitting I take her to the sink and have her spit in the sink over and over till she is tired and bored of spitting. So I have small successes and I am working really hard on maintaining my patience and teaching her acceptable ways to behave.

21 Weeks Pregnant - Halfway Done

I can't believe it is already half way over. I feel great, pretty much like normal except for the big belly. I am just now starting to have trouble bending over. I have also been getting quite a bit of Braxton Hicks contractions in the evening which makes it even harder to bend over.

We had the big ultrasound last week and everything looked great. We didn't find out the sex so it will be a big surprise when the baby is born. I think it makes it a bit more exciting. :) The only downside is we have to think of two names -- which is really hard.

I quit work at the end of the month will probably be right in time for me wanting/needing to take a nap at the same time as Selena.

The very particular 22 month old

Selena is doing wonderful and is getting very close to being 2 years old. Which is really crazy for me, but every day she learns more new things and can do more things for herself, so it is becoming more and more obvious that she is not a baby anymore.

But with this new found autonomy I am starting to notice that she is a lot less flexible. She will get something in her head and she becomes very insistent that it be done her way, and no other. We also have to give her more warning when we are changing activities or are doing something new. She became very unhappy when we "all of a sudden" took the Christmas tree down, but I think if we had warned her she wouldn't have been so upset. But even when she throws her little tantrums, it is still really cute.

She loves to read and most of our day is spent reading books. She has pretty much mastered all her letters and colors and is increasing the adjectives in her vocabulary every day. She still loves to draw, and have other people draw for her, and her drawing abilities are becoming increasingly impressive each day. Honestly I am in awe of her. It is so crazy to think that a little less than 2 years ago she could was completely dependent for everything.

And now that she is becoming a jabber box she says lots of funny things. When we run out of something (usually food) and tell her it is all gone she states, "buy more." She is constantly bossing Dyna around--telling her to come sit next to her, or go there. Unfortunately for her Dyna isn't as good as mom or dad at listening to her.

Christmas was a lot of fun, but she wasn't too interested in opening presents. She pretty much wanted to play with or put on the first present she opened, and could care less about the rest. She is a huge fan of Elmo and Abby (Sesame Street) and got some dolls, books and posters that she was very excited about.

She also has stopped using a binky. We lost it one day, searched for it for about 15-20 minutes before bedtime but couldn't find it (and still haven't found it). But she didn't seem too upset about not being able to find "blue binky," and has been fine (well at least no more difficult than normal) with going to bed and going down for naps. So that was easy. It is such a relief when things you think might be hard don't end up being so hard. The only thing is, now she tends to stick her hands in her mouth a lot more than she did before.

She is also very excited about the baby and she is constantly talking to, reading to, snuggling with, and giving kisses to my tummy. It is really adorable, and I know she is going to be a great big sister. When she sees other babies, she gets really excited. We were at the YMCA and a mom was there with a newborn, and she had set the newborn on the floor while she pushed her toddler in the swing and Selena saw the baby on the floor by itself and said. "Mama, baby, baby, help, help." It was really cute. She is constantly making me carry her baby doll around the house.

Selena's drawing of Dad

She loves to play dress up and wanted to immediately wear all the new clothes she got

She snuggled herself up on the chair to read

Sledding with dad

Taking care of her baby. She is very concerned that a baby must always be held.

Update on Selena

Selena is 7 weeks old today and she is getting much bigger. She enjoys eating, sitting in her swing, getting her diaper changed, taking a bath, and being carried in a sling. She does not like riding in a car without someone in the back seat, lying on her back in her crib or bassinet for more than a few minutes (but on the bathroom floor while mom is taking a shower is ok), or being held while you are sitting down. The fact that she does not like riding in the car is very hard for me and I am trying everything I can to not have a screaming baby during car rides. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

She sleeps fairly well at night, usually giving me about 4-5 hours of sleep, wakes up and eats, and then sleeps another 2-3. Some nights she probably doesn't even bother Floyd.

She doesn't do many tricks yet. She can scoot/wiggle 180 degrees when she is on the floor on her belly. She almost rolled over once but then got frustrated and started crying.

I've had a lot of fun making baby carriers - slings, pouches and wraps. I've also made some more pretty fancy diapers, but I'm not very good at it and mine tend to leak. Oops. I'm going to give it one or two more trys and if I can't figure it out I'm going to quit!

That is about it. I start going back to work next week so hopefully Selena will enjoy helping me write software.

Go here to see pictures of our beautiful girl. http://laurasweb.servehttp.com/selena