Category Archives: toddler

Zzzzzz…

Going into being parents I had a vague idea of some of the things that could prove to be challenging. I knew to expect sleepless nights with newborns, that the twos could be terrible, that potty training could go smoothly or not, but I didn’t realize that so many things could drag out for as long as they do. In 4 years I think we can probably count on our hands the number of nights where we have slept undisturbed and have felt truly well rested. There always seems to be at least one child who wakes up in the night and if one child goes to bed without a fuss, then it’s highly likely the other one will not go down easily. Quite frankly, it’s exhausting.

I can only hope that this stage won’t last another 4 years, but who can say? Phoebe has suddenly decided she doesn’t want to stay in her bed at bedtime, unless I lay down with her and for some reason it is taking her forever to fall asleep lately. I’ll leave 20-30 minutes later only to hear her calling out for me, but even more aggravatingly she has started to lie down in front of her door making it impossible to get in her room! She thinks it’s quite hilarious and then Enzo ends up wanting to know what’s going on as I try to convince Phoebe to back away from the door. We’re working on leaving her door cracked and so far threatening to not let her watch TV the next day if she doesn’t stay in bed has been somewhat working.

Then you have Enzo who has to get up and pee at least once a night, but sometimes more than that and insists on a parent (usually Josh) to come and get him, which is probably for the best since I don’t want him getting hurt climbing out of his bed when he’s mostly still asleep. Sometimes Josh and I will surprise each other in the hallway late at night – him taking Enzo to or from the bathroom and me heading to Phoebe’s room or back to our bed, though generally if she calls for me in the middle of the night I end up just sleeping with her because I fall asleep while trying to get her back to sleep.

It’s a darn good thing they’re both fairly cute and have redeeming qualities or this whole lack of sleep thing would be a lot harder to bear.

Sports and things to add to my list of parental “fails”

Did you know that in order to register for things like T-Ball you have to do so really early in the year? Like February early? I did not know that, so apparently we’ll need to find something else to sign Enzo up for and depending on his mood he’s either interested in everything or nothing at all. We keep thinking that swimming would be good for both of them, but I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on lessons and have neither kid actually go in the water. The community center lessons are a lot cheaper, but they fill up quickly or there is never enough interest. So… back to the drawing board!

In the meantime, the kids can still practice a bit at home. Enzo really does have a good arm and seems like a natural. At the very least, maybe this year would be a good year to take the kids to their first ball game. They may not last the entire game, but we can always walk around and the food is good, so there’s also that.

What is it about baseball? I’m not a huge fan, but it’s one of the few sports I’m okay with watching and when I was younger I didn’t mind playing it either. I was awful at it, but it was still kind of fun nonetheless. Football just bores me and basketball is the same… plus the squeaky shoes. I can’t handle the squeaky shoes.

Enzo has always enjoyed sports. One of the very first television programs he watched was the Olympics… diving, I believe. Then has he got older he’d stare at football games and be totally mesmerized. Neither Josh or I played organized sports in school – well, he did for a short period of time, and while I liked running and was told I’d be good at Track & Field, I never joined.

We certainly won’t pressure our kids to join any sports or other extracurricular activities, but I think they might enjoy it. Now if we could just get our acts together and remember that you need to do things like register… well in advance. Hmm, maybe we can still find swimming lessons for them or gymnastics classes. They both like tumbling… mostly off of couches, but still!

Actually, Phoebe could probably use some balance assistance. The poor girl is not super graceful and is constantly tripping over her feet it seems. I have a feeling we’ll try and enroll her in a dance class considering how she loves to dance at home. I’m really just rambling aren’t I?

Okay, here’s hoping we can get these two involved in something or at the very least I guess I’d better start checking when I need to register for Winter programs since it seems like you need about 6 months notice. Add that to the list of things I never thought about before having kids.

My own little mini-me.

What’s that quote? A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be your best friend? It’s funny to think about how worried I was when I found out we were having a girl. Can you imagine? While I have a special relationship with each of my children, Phoebe and are definitely in a stage where we’re besties, but that works because Enzo is best buds with Josh too. We each have our own little mini-me and it’s kind of awesome. Josh has a fishing buddy who loves video games as much as he does, and Phoebe is a natural born shopper.

I usually try to shop alone, but if it’s a weekend I have to sneak out of the house or else Phoebe gets incredibly sad if she can’t go too. She’s also a terrible influence on me and we never stick to our list, but she’s also just a big time browser. If we walk past the shoes, she wants to try most of them on. She doesn’t even really want to buy any; she just has to be sure. Same with toys. She might pick a toy out and play with it, but she rarely throws a fit when it’s time to put it back. She just shrugs and moves on to the next thing.

Both kids are getting so fun as they get older. It’s amazing how you’ll look at them at times and suddenly get a glimpse of them several years from now. Sure, there are growing pains, but that’s inevitable. There are times when Josh and I forget that they’re still both pretty little even though they may seem so much older, so we have reign our excitement in and plan for later. I can’t wait until we can travel to more places that we can all enjoy as a family. While you can go anywhere with kids, it doesn’t mean you’ll all necessarily enjoy it. I want to save a few things for when the kids can better appreciate it and remember it, but definitely before they get sucked into things like smart phones and typical teenage sulkiness. Ha ha.

If nothing else, let’s show them as much awesome stuff as we can, so that way they never get too lost behind a screen and still think we’re sort of cool on some level. Or we’ll just ban smart phones and tablets and force them to experience childhood the way we did on vacation. Okay, that’s not fair… we had Walkmans (still have mine) and portable CD players and Gameboys… as long as we brought enough batteries for the duration of the trip. We’ll just force them to road trip the 80’s/90’s kid way.

Going with the flow

It was one of those mornings yesterday. Phoebe girl was being a tad clingy and fussy, but the kicker came when she started crying while saying, “No day care. I go to work with Mommy! I no feel good!” The crocodile tears were flowing and unlike most days they kept coming. I wasn’t sure if she really wasn’t feeling good, so I thought about it for a couple of seconds and said, to heck with it. I asked Josh to take Enzo to day care and told Phoebe she could stay home with me. Her response? She still wanted to go to work with me.

So, I shrugged and said, why not? She hasn’t been to my office since she was a baby and I knew that people wanted to see her, so we packed up and in we went. She quickly made herself at home and was checking out my manager’s office (who thankfully is a mom too and had no problem with me taking the day off last minute) and wandering around the building. We colored at my desk and then I had to convince her to leave. Go figure.

I think she just needed a “Mommy” Day. She wanted nothing to do with anyone else and stayed glued to my side well until bedtime. It was nice, though. She picked a beautiful day to play hooky and we even went for a walk. I think I needed it too. Enzo, thankfully didn’t mind that he still went to preschool and was happy to see Phoebe when we went to pick him up.

It’s thrown off my week a tad, but on the plus side tomorrow is Friday when it feels like it shouldn’t be yet, so that’s a nice turn of events!

*I love that Phoebe had grabbed one of my cookbooks in the pictures above. I have always loved looking through cookbooks and apparently she does too. Ha ha.

Things they say and do…

Oh, where to begin? Enzo will be 4 in less than a month and Phoebe is well into the “Terrible” Twos. We’ve entered the land of crazy meltdowns, incapability to make decisions and stick with them, and straight up drama. Even Enzo has at times given me the look when Phoebe is having a moment and has sighed and slapped his head against his forehead. They’re both finding their way, and it can be hard to remember that at times when we are up against things that seem to inconsequential and silly to us, but obviously means something more to them. Ah, perspective.

Enzo:

Is so incredibly self-sufficient. It’s incredibly helpful right now since Phoebe is in that volatile stage, so being able to ask Enzo to go pick out clothes and get dressed is awesome. He also really wants to help Phoebe, but… Two.

Enzo: I can get your water Phoebe, because I’m 3 and I’m big and strong.

Phoebe: No! Mommy do it. Mommy’s bigger and stronger!

He is always making us laugh whether it be randomly breaking out into songs he know will get stuck in everyone’s head or other out of the blue phrases and silliness.
Is navigating the difficult waters of having a toddler sister. He is my introvert and needs alone time, and she… doesn’t care.
Is just as ready for warm weather as I am. I picked him up at preschool and he had rolled up his pants to make his own shorts.

Phoebe

Her vocabulary continues to grow and often it makes me laugh because her mannerisms are so like her brother. She looks up to him so much already, and I know that won’t change.
Where do I start with all the funny things she’s saying lately? She’s very much interested in everything, including the human body. We went to Target and were in the bra section when she ran up to them yelling, “Boobies!” I corrected her and then she just wanted to wear the pink ones and said she wanted to get a bra for Enzo too. Ha ha!
She is my cuddle bug and I get no exercise in in the mornings any more because she wants to just snuggle as long as possible. Her latest thing is to say, “I no feel good. I lay down in Mommy’s bed and watch Mickey Mouse.” Little stinker. She’ll climb up and pat the bed next to her and say, “Sit down with me.”

Some days it’s rough, but I do so love this parenting gig.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures