Category Archives: toddler

18 Months

Well, Miss Phoebe is a year and half old today. Despite her lack of fear and propensity to launch herself off of couches, beds, her brother, and other tall surfaces, we have managed to keep her alive. Time will only tell if we’ll avoid broken bones or otherwise before she’s 2. Much like last month, Phoebe has continued to surprise us all (her teachers as well) with her communication skills. She repeats everything, knows exactly what she wants, and is surprisingly easy to understand… most of the time.

We like to quiz her on her animals and Enzo often joins in as well asking her what sounds various animals make. He likes to get tricky, though, and will ask her what sound a bald eagle makes or a giraffe. She tries to copy us when we count, and will pretty much mimic anything that you do. Mostly amusing, but we’ll have to keep an eye on big brother. He taught her to grunt loudly when she poops (which is harmless), but also encourages her to do things he’s been told not to. So it begins.

She loves to draw, she loves music and singing, and she loves to dance. She also loves to be outside and it is always a great tragedy when it’s time to come in. She loves to slide, but is also starting to enjoy swinging as well. Jumping is also great fun, especially now that she can get both feet off the ground at the same time.

We sing a lot of songs (both kids love interactive songs) and occasionally Phoebe will try and sing them herself. More often than not, though, she claps along and does hand movements and always says “Yay!” when you finish. If she’s having a day when she doesn’t want to be in the car, I can usually sing a song or ask Enzo to sing to her and she is then happily distracted.

What can I say? She’s a clever, easy going girl. She’s finally becoming less of a Mama’s girl, though is still often prone to jealousy if anyone but her is in my lap. I just tell her I have enough love for everyone, and hopefully one day she’ll be less possessive. Funnily enough, Enzo gets rather possessive of her as well. When other kids at preschool try to talk to her or hug her, he frowns and says, “That’s MY Phoebe!” See, Phoebe? You’re greatly loved. 😉

Rub a dub dub

Never underestimate the power of a spring cold. I’m headed toward a sinus infection (I can feel that pain beginning in my upper teeth and cheek), so until I can get home and do a steam treatment I’ll have to find some helpful herbal tea at the store. It’s picture day at day care today, so I gave the kids a good scrubbing last night and with the rain I doubt they’ll be playing much outside today. Now that it has warmed up, the kids pretty much need a bath daily as they come home with sand and dirt plastered on sunscreen covered arms and legs. Thankfully, though, bath time is usually a favorite part of the evening.

Neither of the kids are fans of water spraying and the few times we’ve done showers (usually after someone has decided to poop in the bath) there has been much crying – the kids weren’t happy either. I decided to buy a frog shower head in order to introduce the idea of showering to the kiddos and help get rid of some water fears. The first time they looked at me like I was insane and both tried to scramble out of the tub, the second time… went much better. Now I can actually rinse them both off with it as long as I don’t go near Enzo’s face, otherwise I may as well have slaughtered a thousand kittens from the wailing that happens.

Thankfully Phoebe is a good sport when her brother takes over and accidentally sprays her in the face. I think she’s more into it then he is and will point to the frog and ask for it anytime we’re in the tub. I guess I can’t blame Enzo for not wanting water in his face. I admit there have been a few times when I’ve failed at my motherly duties and not done a good job keeping water and shampoo out of eyes. I’m just helping them to overcome their fears by subjecting them to them? Right? Water in the eyes today, skydiving this weekend?

One day we’ll laugh over the trauma I may have unintentionally put them through and one day when they have kids they’ll realize just how hard it is to bathe a slippery, squirmy child… kind of like trying to bathe a cat. At least with cats you have something to hold onto, though. 😉

Cookie Fun

A few weeks ago the kids and I were bored while Josh had to spend a weekend working, so we decided to make some cookies. I may not know how to draw or do cute little art projects, but I can definitely bake, and the kids were more than happy to lend a hand.

I grabbed a couple of chairs and set the kids up while I grabbed ingredients and Enzo proceeded to test them all out. He checked the consistency of the flour and sugar and decided what he would dump into the bowl and what Phoebe would.

I couldn’t easily take pictures during the ingredient adding steps, but they both took turns and surprisingly kept most items in the bowl. I did have to wait to open the chocolate chips until the end, though, since that was all they cared about once they realized what kind of cookies were being made.

The highlight was the mixer, though. Enzo didn’t used to like it, but Phoebe loves the mixer… and the blender and the coffee grinder and the vacuum, come to think of it. Loud noises don’t typically bother her and even when I vacuum she runs up and laughs. It’s nice, though, because once Enzo realizes something doesn’t bother Phoebe he’s more likely to not mind as much either.

If only this worked with foods they don’t like. It doesn’t matter how many green beans Enzo eats – Phoebe won’t touch them, and as for other delicious amazing veggies… well neither will touch sweet potatoes anymore. Sweet potatoes of all things… the tastiest “veggie” out there. At least they’ll eat peas and sometimes broccoli. I’ll take it. Oh, and let’s not forget chocolate chip cookies. They’ll both eat those.

So many of those. Especially when they’re Chocolate Chocolate Chip.

Home… yet again.

I had to stay home with our “sickie” again today because she had a mild fever yesterday and the rules are that a child has to be 24 hours without a fever before they can return to day care. While she does have a nasty cough and sounds a little like Darth Vader at times, part of me wonders if she’s already figured out the fake fever routine. While she was a bit clingy, she was not nearly as miserable as her teachers made it sound she was. Oh, but she was thrilled to have me come get her early. Poor Enzo was a bit concerned about his sister, though. One of the teachers saw him a little mopey by the bathroom and asked him if something was wrong and he said, “My sister is sad.”

This boy has been so very nurturing lately, especially to his sister, but also to his stuffed animals. When Phoebe isn’t feeling good he checks on her and does everything he can to help “mother” her. Not gonna lie, it’s ridiculously cute and so endearing. I’ve often found him caring for various dolls as well. Last night he said that Goofy was tired and tucked him into bed. I decided to play along and said I was tired too, proceeded to lay down next to Goofy only to be told, “That’s my Goofy,” as Enzo then gave me a stony look, picked up Goofy and walked out of the room muttering, “Leave my Goofy alone.” Oookay.

I’m thinking it might be time to get a proper play crib for Phoebe’s baby doll and perhaps for Enzo’s various stuffed animals since they can’t always sleep in Phoebe’s crib. Also, his bed is becoming overrun with friends at night. Not only does he have his stuffed animals, but when it’s time to sneak in and turn off his rocket flashlight we often find Ninja Turtles and books scattered all around him as well. I do so love his many sides, though. On the one hand he’s rough and tumble and loves to play “Bad Guys,” but on the other hand he also loves to nurture and care for others. I’m glad he’s so balanced.

Much like the weather

Just as the weather can suddenly go from warm and sunny to overcast, windy, and downright chilly, so too can a toddler go from being happy and healthy to being sick from out of nowhere. Phoebe randomly started coughing last night and today it sounds pretty awful, but she has no fever so I’m not taking her to the doctor yet. I did, however, have to get her early and bring her home because day care called and said she was pretty much inconsolable most of the morning, wouldn’t eat, and only wanted to sleep. Poor Squish. Oh well, at least we were able to enjoy the weekend… these pictures are not even from this weekend, but another fun weekend. :p

Such is life as a parent, I’ve discovered. You rarely have time to accomplish all the things you want to, or at least I do. Perhaps that’s just a reflection of my constantly changing priorities and motivation that is always on a roller coaster.

Most of our weekends often have a lot of the same going on, though. They often start way too early because the kids are very much against sleeping in. I’m usually the first to stumble out of bed with them and coffee is typically my first priority if I can manage it. This is why most of my morning photos have the flash… because our living room has very few lamps and they like to wake with the sun. Sigh.

This particular weekend was fairly windy and Enzo was feeling “off” on Saturday so I took Phoebe on a quick run to Costco. It’s grilling season and their organic beef is a great price, plus I bought enough aluminum foil to last us at least a couple of years. Then yesterday was one of Enzo’s friend’s birthday party so we went to that. I have a feeling most of our weekends are going to be fairly busy this summer.

We also found out that our city-wide garage sale weekend is mid-May, so yesterday I started doing some prep work for that. I think I have about 9 bins of baby clothes and so many toys and other kid items that it’s going to take quite a while to sort through everything and prep for it. Plus, we have books, movies, games and you name it, so it’s going to end up being a fairly large sale. I can’t wait to clear up some room in our garage and under our stairs. It’s going to feel very, very good.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures