Archive for the ‘Toddler Times’ Category

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This Boy…

August 4, 2010
Cheese!

Cheese!

This boy challenges me in ways I never could have expected.  I am his favorite at the moment and any other adult is just not acceptable.  During one-on-one time he is the most fabulous child.  He laughs and plays, he is helpful and happy and cooperative.  And then life returns to normal with additional family members and my little guy gets so upset.  He is obstinate and uncooperative and just plain grumpy.  He is our high and low child.  When he is good he is oh so good but when he is mad, oh boy watch out.  Regardless of the highs and lows I am so totally in love with him – even when he hits me and calls me “bad mommy”.  Apparently I can just give him a chocolate cupcake and all is forgiven…

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Friends

June 28, 2010
Parker still refuses to pose for pictures - this was the only non blurry one I managed of the two of them...

Parker still refuses to pose for pictures - this was the only non blurry one I managed of the two of them...

If you read my last post you already know that we’ve been pretty busy lately.  This means that Zach and I sometimes are running in different directions (usually him out in the yard trying to pick up or mow or plant things while I’m busy cleaning or cooking inside) and when it works out, the boys are left playing on their own.  This doesn’t mean they are locked away in some room by themselves, but they are in the living room or the play room while I bee-bop around them.  On both Saturday and Sunday this weekend they amazed me with their ability to play so well together.  On Saturday they played together for over an hour without a single tear or screech and no interaction with me.  I watched from the kitchen while they played (mostly with a big cardboard box) for an entire hour.  It reinforced my belief that kids really do love their siblings, and although they fight like cats and dogs some days, there are other days when they are the best of friends and at least in our house, at least for now, they play more than they fight and I love it!

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Time…

June 10, 2010

I never realized how much I took time for granted until I had kids (and really, multiple children – looking back, one seems like a piece of cake!)  These days I sometimes hear someone talk about their weekend, how they “puttered around in the yard” and took a nap.  Or sometimes I’ll hear college students complain that they are bored.  These types of comments start a subtle twitch near my eye.  Words like bored and nap (unless referring to a child’s nap) left my vocabulary 4 years ago.

Now there is never enough time.  Not enough time to sleep, not enough time to clean the house or put away laundry.  Not enough time to cook real food or play with my children.  Everything I do is done quickly and usually half-assed because there isn’t time for more.  This past weekend is a perfect example of what our lives are like:

Friday night – Zach played golf with some friends from work.  Sara took the boys home, fed them dinner, bathed and put them to bed.  No time for playing or enjoying children, just time to get the bare necessities done.  Then a little time for folding laundry.

Saturday – We are all up by 7am.  We shower and get the kids dressed and fed and leave the house by 10am.  We have to stop at a friend’s house because Zach forgot his laptop and keys in the car when he was dropped off after golf the previous evening.  Then we rush south to the nephew’s baseball game.  We are 15 minutes late (as usual).  We move from the baseball game to the niece’s softball game.  This one is slightly more stressful with Parker because there is a dirt road behind the dugout with  a slow but steady stream of traffic, and Parker thinks that running into the road is the best game ever.  After the softball game we grab some lunch with the family.  Then we pop into Lowe’s for a housewarming present, and head to a housewarming party (both kids crash in the car, which is a relief).  We stay at the party for several hours until Parker starts with the ear piercing screaming.  Zach and I have gotten used to it (the hearing loss helps I think) but we didn’t want to subject the rest of the crowd to his noise.  We got home in time for me to jump in the shower to rinse 8 hours of sweat (it was sooo very hot and humid that day) and dirt off before a friend arrived to bring me to a bachelorette party.  I arrived back home at 2:30 am.  My sweet husband let me sleep until 9:30 the next day, then we rushed to feed the kids brunch before heading out the door for a birthday party.  We arrived home Sunday night at 8:30 pm.

The piles of laundry and dishes and general house tidiness that I ignored last weekend are shameful.  The lawn is ridiculously shaggy.  The litter box has been ignored for far too long.  The list goes on and on.  Children are a choice.  Zach and I chose this lifestyle and 80% of the time I am completely satisfied with it.  However, when I hear about spontaneous vacations, naps on lazy afternoons, boredom, and a thousand other things that I no longer have now, that ugly green jealousy monster rears it head.  There is just never enough time…

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Busy Week

May 14, 2010

I don’t have any good excuses for my lack of blogging (plenty of bad ones, but no good ones).  It’s been a busy week.  Work has been very busy.  Home has been pretty busy too.

Xander managed to give Parker his first black eye this week.  It happened at day care.  Whenever I see the day care number on the caller id I expect to hear either that someone is vomiting or that someone has broken a bone (I’ve never received the second call yet, but I’m expecting it).  I love that the first thing they tell me is “this is not an emergency” (phew!).  Apparently Xander and Parker were playing, and even though we *just* had the conversation about why it isn’t ok to pick up your brother the night before, Xander tried to pick Parker up.  Of course, Parker is catching up to Xander, so it’s tough for Xander to actually lift his little brother off the ground.  To account for this challenge, Xander tried to pick Parker up by grabbing him around the knees, which of course caused Parker to tumble forward and conveniently directly into the edge of a heat register.  The shiner is impressive.

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According to the kindergarten readiness sheet day care sent home last week Xander needs to learn how to write his name legibly and draw a person with 5 parts (head, arms, legs, etc.) and then he’s pretty much G2G and since he has over a year to learn that stuff, he’s in good shape!  He’s been overly difficult in the eating department this week and we’re not sure why.

Xander has also decided he has a friend named “Vadin” (no clue how to actually spell that) who is “brown” and lives in Campton and it apparently a “big kid”.  I have no idea where he gets this stuff but it’s pretty cute.

We’ll hopefully have some fun this weekend (the weather is supposed to be nice) so I’ve got a few things planned – we’ll see what pans out…

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Words…

May 6, 2010

ParkerAs I think some of our good friends could attest to, kids at Parker’s age are on the verge of finally talking.  They want to talk.  They know what they want to say, but they just can’t find the words to communicate with the world.  And that is indescribably frustrating.  Parker takes this frustration out on the wrong toy you hand him when he flings it to the ground, or flinging himself to the ground when you just won’t do what he wants you to do.

“If only he could talk” Zach will sometimes say.  And we’ll wonder (and hope) that our son’s frustrations at the world will begin to abate as his ability to communicate improves.  He’s got a few words now.  He’s been able to say cat for ages.  Of course Mama and Dada.  He still hasn’t figured out any form of Xander or brother, but that will come.  He learned “uh oh” from his best friend at school and like to use that one regularly.

This week Parker has figured out “go” and uses it all the time – usually while someone is holding him – he’ll gesture in the direction he wants and say “go”.  Sometimes this works for him, and other times we tell him no (which drives him nuts).

He also can say “no” but usually when he says it, he means “yes” which can make for a rather confusing conversation if you’re not up on Parker lingo.  He’s getting better at communicating, even non-verbally.  These days he can walk up to you with a sippy cup and utter something entirely incomprehensible while holding up the cup and you say “oh, you’d like some more milk?” and take his cup, and now he won’t have a complete meltdown in the middle of the kitchen.  He’ll just smile up at you and wait (somewhat) patiently for you to fulfill his request.  Slowly but surely we’re making progress, and it’s making everyone in our house happier.