Skip to main content

Toddler Moments: the Cute and Crazy (April)

It seems like I should be recording the cute (and maddening) little things three toddlers do as my own journal of their antics. This would be the post to skip if you aren't into the minutia only parents find interesting.

Kate is sooooo two and in love with 'no'.
At the table, Kate: Mommy, all done.
Me: Okay, you want to get down?
Kate: no
pause
Kate, teary: Mommy, get down? (as if I'd been the one who said she couldn't get down)
I helped her down.


In the bathroom watching me get ready, Jane stares at herself in the mirror for awhile and then announces: my nose is like a door.
Me: a door? (panicked that she's shoved something new up there)
Jane, flaring and closing her nostrils: yes, see? It can open and close!


I have a feeling the kid's pronunciations are going to work their way into the family vocabulary as Gus's 'yogrit' became our word for 'yogurt'. My favorite so far:
banbaids (bandaids)
samwich (sandwich)


James has not yet grasped the concept of either/or.  Instead he repeats and agrees with whatever we said last. So, if I ask him, please choose either red or green, he'll respond, "Yes! Red! Green!"  


James' sweetness in little moments during the day make my heart melt. When we tuck him into blankets, either at bedtime or just to be cuddly on the couch during the day, he whispers, "So sweet!" or "Thanks, mommy". It's the fact that he whispers it so gently.


So James is suddenly, inexplicably, potty trained. Like, seriously overnight. He is 3 yrs, 8 months and I have tried to train him at least 3 times already. I mean, really tried. Like a whole week at a time of nothing but potty. For ages he screamed and hid when you mentioned it so the first stage was just getting him to willingly sit on it--with his clothes on--without a fight. I swear we were in that stage for a full year. Then, last week he just started saying, "I go potty!" and running and using it without any big hoopla on my part. He can now pull his pants down and up by himself before and after. He went from doing nothing to fully independent in about 3 days. I'm sure it has to do with watching Kate. Plus, I got pretty fed up with yet another I-sit-and-refuse-to-go-then-get-up-and-poop-in-my-diaper moment and scolded him pretty seriously. That may have been the tipping point. I feel like this is the way it's going to be with this boy. Nothing, nothing, nothing...then jumping to full mastery.


He loves books, especially vibrant picture books. He turns every single page slowly and looks carefully. He points to a picture and says, "What's that?" Sometimes he doesn't know and so I answer but but now he's memorized most items so I turn the question back by repeating it to him. Then he supplies the answer. He used to look triumphant by remembering something but now he's beginning to be a tad exasperated, wondering why I haven't learned these animal names he's been teaching me for months now!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Lied.

For the very first time I lied to a birth family member. I've been brutally honest even when it caused an uproar. I've been honest because I was personally committed to always telling the truth. Until now. Because this lie may actually be the best way to preserve Jane's relationship with her birth family. At our last video call with Grandma Jane seemed uninterested, unengaged, not showing any real emotion. I struggled to find things to prompt her to talk about. Over the next two weeks I waited and she never asked for another call. In the third week I casually brought up the topic and she did not really respond, certainly didn't ask for another call. Finally, yesterday I point blank asked if she wanted to do a video call and she said the word yes but her whole body language said no. It was clear that she was saying yes because she thought she was supposed to, not because she wanted to. So, I took her body language rather than her words and made the decision that we...
Post a Comment
Read more

So What About Mother's Day?

I was looking ahead on the calendar to our next visit and suddenly realized it fell during Mother's Day weekend. A flood of mixed emotions hit me immediately. Mother's Day is not a deeply important holiday to me. It's nice and all but I've never had super big emotions about it.  The girls can't know what it is yet and won't have any big feelings this year. But...years from now...will this be a uniquely difficult holiday?  So if no one cares right now can I just kinda slide this one under the rug and avoid all the drama? Please, please, please someone confirm this is a real option!?! Ugh, but what about the birth family. Is this a big deal for them? Are there major traditions? Will this be a minefield of potential hurt feelings? Is there a tactful way to call them up and say, so, on a scale of 1 to 10 how invested are you into making this a big rigamarole? While thinking this through I did some googling and found that the local zoo does a special Mother...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why This but Not That?

I've been thinking about how I react to everything the three toddlers do. After years as a special ed teacher and 16 years of parenting I feel like I'm pretty relaxed most of the time. I would generally describe my parenting style as: pick your battles and, really, are there that many battles worth fighting? But lately it seems like I'm having big reactions to some things that the three littles do. For example: they were all three playing in the front yard and Kate opened the gate and got out into the driveway, even though I'd made a big deal about only mama opening that gate. Walking outside and finding her outside the fence (the gate had swung shut behind her) was about the angriest I have been since the girls came. I went absolutely ballistic...to the extent that I won't even describe here what I did to teach her this was extremely dangerous behavior. We live in the country but our house is near a road that people go flying down because it's so quiet. No...
Post a Comment
Read more