Category Archives: toddler

Update on our furry friends.

Lest anyone should think the fur balls are unwell, they are in fact doing quite fine. We even got them a new cat tree since they spend so much time downstairs and could use some more places to hang out and sharpen their claws on.

While these pictures are a few weeks old, we do have some rare moments where they both will hang out upstairs even if the kids are present. Both of the kids get so excited to see the cats that it’s hard to explain why Ziggy always runs away and why Uzi sometimes will allow affection and sometimes won’t. Cats are fickle creatures. Since Phoebe is sitting up all the time now, photos like the above will happen less and less.

I suppose we just have ot keep luring them into the play room with treats and catnip in order to keep everyone amused. Apparently Enzo’s room still smells like cantip after the last time I put some in there because Uzi randomly went in there the other day and sprawled out on the floor. Enzo, as you can probably guess, is very pleased when that happens.

I’m constantly making the cats older than they actually are, but I think that Uzi is at least 10 years old, which would make Ziggy around 12 years old. I think. Somewhere I have paperwork of some kind that will end the mystery, or my sister will be able to tell me the year we got him because she’s much better at remembering things like numbers and I got him right after we moved into our first place together. Anyhoo… the cats are alive and well, although apparently the average cat only lives to be 12-15 years?? That can’t be right since our last cat lived to be 21 years old. Okay, so the cats are alive and well and most likely will be for a very long time. Random post complete.

Photo Dump

I take a lot of photos… usually of the kids or other things with the intent that they’ll end up on the blog, but then time passes and they’re quickly out of date. So, the photo dump. Just be glad I’m not dumping all of the hundreds and hundreds of photos I take that just end up on my hard drive, hopefully to put into a photo book one day when I have time.

Playing one of Enzo’s favorite games.

Really trying to crawl… with much less hair than she has now.

Reading with Daddy.

Love the Uzi/Phoebe love.

Oh, hey, mom.

Why is she not this little anymore??

Serious boy.

Just a little unsteady.

Duckies that are now too small.

Toddler Talk

Two continues to be such a fun age when it comes to communication… unless you count the many frustrations that also come along with wanting to communicate and not knowing how. It’s amazing how much Enzo’s vocabulary grows, though, and his sentence structure is getting better and better. Lately some of our favorite words and phrases have been:

“Josh, go get it!” This is funnier to me than it is to Josh, but I think it’s hilarious when Enzo calls Josh by name or when he calls him “Honey.” I don’t think he uses my name because it’s much harder to say.

“Ferdinand!” Or “Enzo’s Ferdinand,” which is referring to Enzo’s very large oversized stuffed bear. I have this weird habit of naming almost all the stuffed animals that come into the house, so we’ve always called the bear Ferdinand. Enzo’s newest game is making Ferdinand fall over onto Enzo and then Enzo will say, “Ferdinand sleeping? Wake up, Ferdinand!”

“Favorite (Fill in the blank).” Enzo has a lot of favorites lately, but the most important ones are Enzo’s favorite nuk, and his favorite lovey.

For a long time now Enzo has been known to switch all of his toys to the Spanish or French mode when available. We don’t know why, but he’s getting pretty good with pronunciation and knowing colors. Most of his toys have a Spanish option so we often hear him reciting “Verde, Amarillo, Rojo”, but since I took French in high school I sometimes throw some French into Enzo’s vocabulary for fun. Usually he’s game and will repeat, “Bonjour, Papa!” or maybe we’ll throw in some Italian and it’ll be “Ciao!” However, there are other days where the only response I get is a big sigh and “No Hola!” as was the case the other day.

While the constant repetition sometimes requires a lot of patience, it’s also very cool to watch his language skills grow. He’s getting better about using referring to himself in the third person less and less and his sentences are getting longer and making more sense. It really is amazing just how much a child learns in the first few years.

Weekend Away at the Company Cabin

One of the very nice perks about Josh’s new job is that the company has cabins that are available for employees to use. Because of Josh only being recently hired we didn’t think it was something we’d get to take advantage of this year, but lo and behold a free weekend came up, he put his name into the lottery and his name was chosen!

“Cabin” we discovered was an understatement, so we invited Josh’ sister and brother-in-law and their kiddos to join us. There was plenty of room for all of us to spread out and it had plenty of amenities. We knew a lot of things were already provided, but still brought more than we needed to ensure our bases were covered (and now we know for next time what we don’t need). I wasn’t sure whether or not to bring Phoebe’s jumper at first, but in the end I’m glad we brought it because Lady likes to jump.

While lots of space is nice, I could never live in a place that big long-term. You know how sometimes at night when you want a glass of water, but it feels like such a long walk and you don’t want to (even though the walk really isn’t that far)? Well, in this house, the walk really was that far. Plus, you have to yell to be heard and I could hardly see Phoebe from the kitchen if she was in the living room and I didn’t have my contacts in. Yeah, yeah, first world problems.

It really was a nice place, located in a quiet community on a lake with a nearby restaurant and playground for the boys. One of the really nice things were all the dragon flies during the day keeping the mosquitoes away. I don’t know if they’re always there, or if we just came at the perfect time, but it was so nice not having to worry about being eaten alive.

We did get some rain on and off, so it was a little hard to plan any day trips. The cabin was located near Brainerd, so it was tempting to go visit Paul Bunyan Land, especially since we stopped there on our mini-moon after we got married, but instead we stuck around and played outside and in. There were plenty of cars and trains and books and movies for the boys to keep them busy when we weren’t outside.

Overall both kiddos did well in our home away from home, and I think we’re going to see about switching Enzo’s toddler bed out for a full-size bed one of these days considering how well he did in a regular bed. It was also nice being able to lay down in bed with him when it was time to read books. He didn’t typically want to go bed while on vacation, and for the most part we let him stay up later than his normal bedtime, but even he started to realize that he did actually want to sleep – he just didn’t want to be left out of any fun. Considering both of our kids wake up at 6:00-6:30 during the week so we can leave the house by 7:00-7:15, they don’t typically sleep in on the weekend, so the lack of sleep and lax routine started to take their toll a bit by the time Monday morning rolled around.

It was nice to have a lazy weekend, though, and even Josh and I got a nap in each. It was a very nice luxury, even if Enzo doesn’t always realize right away how lovely they are. I’m kind of glad we can count on naps for at least another year. 😉 Toots is also starting to fall into a more regular nap schedule, which day care will probably help with as she gets even older. She naturally seems to nap around 9:00-9:30 and then again in the afternoon, sometimes even three naps if they’re short.

Anyhoo, it was a nice family getaway. Enzo got to play with his cousin every day (which made him very, very happy), Josh got to go fishing with his brother-in-law at least one time, and I even stayed up late (way past my bedtime) one or two nights having some nice chats with my sister-in-law. I’m hoping that one day I’ll have more to chat about than kids and parenting, but probably not. Ha ha. Nah, one day I’ll have more time and energy, but watching a baby grow into a person is just fascinating. You learn so much about yourself and your entire perspective changes at times. That, however, is discussion for another day since this post is probably much longer than it should be.

Splish Splash!

It’s certainly warming up (which is obviously to be expected in Minnesota in July), but with that extra bit of humidity it always makes it seem even more hot. We don’t really play in our front yard on hot days because it gets hot, especially the front door, which requires oven mitts to open. Note to self: some kind of front door awning is a necessity if front door is going to be in the sun all day.

Thankfully, though, our back deck is mostly in the sun in the morning and early afternoon and it slowly is covered in shade. That in addition to the nice size of the deck means Enzo has plenty of room to play with his water table.

Granted, now all I hear when Enzo is outside is, “Water, Mommy!” followed by “More water, Mommy, more water!” It’s hard to say no on the hot days, and really I don’t mind all that much if he gets soaked. He just has the worst timing, you know? I swear he only ever wants to use the table minutes before dinner.

Thankfully at day care they have one water day a week, and though he does have swimwear it’s so much easier to just strip and run around in a diaper (unless he’s out with no shade). I’m kind of envious of the kid’s tan, actually. I feel so pasty in comparison. Gone are the days when I used to sunbathe outside… bring on the fake tan with its slightly orangey glow! Funny… I just don’t care as much as I used to. Now I’ll wear shorts regardless of whether or not my legs look tan or not and I have spider veins that never went away from being pregnant. Meh. Anyhoo…

One thing about Enzo and water is that he doesn’t necessarily appreciate water in all forms. Showers and spray of any kind is discouraged and he’d rather burst into flames than to succumb to the gentle mist of cool water from anything that isn’t a standing pool. We’ll see how he does at the ocean, and we should probably get to a lake soon to introduce him to gentle waves again. Last year it took a while to warm up. Plus, this year we’ll get to see how Toots does!

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures