Being Sara » toddler

My High and Low Kid

Sara — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:09:33 +0000

My first kid was pretty even tempered. Sure he had his moments, but he is pretty much the same relatively happy kid all the time. Parker on the other hand, is my high and low kid. He certainly makes things interesting!

High: Spontaneous ‘I love you Mama’

Low: Pulling out the 6th and last pair of clean underwear and pants for the day during potty training (and yes, the dryer has been broken for over a month…)

High: Excited exclamation from the back seat as Zach is driving past a speed reader “39! Mama, that’s 39!” (yep, the number on the reader was 39 – no clue how that happened…)

Low: Ear piercing screeching in public places while spread flat on his stomach (i.e. Olive Garden, Boston Museum of Science, etc…)

High: Happily playing with his brother for nearly an hour!

Low: REFUSING to let anyone except Mama comfort him (which is simultaneously sweet, but sad because this ‘phase’ has been lasting for over a year now…)

High: Getting closer to potty trained!

Low: Still going through 1-2 pair of underwear and pants every day (the shoes are slightly more problematic)

High: The mimicking is just so adorable ‘Have good dreams Parker’; ‘Have good dreams Mama’

Low: He figured out how to properly use the word nuts. ‘You drive me nuts Mama’ or (loud Parker sigh) ‘Them dinosaurs drive me nuts Xander’ (yep, it’s really tough to keep a straight face when he says this stuff)

High: Regardless of the day I’ve had, or the day he’s had, when I walk in the door at day care I am always greeted with a running hug and the biggest smile ever. Hand’s down one of the best parts of my day (who doesn’t love it when someone is happy to see you?)

He’s my high/low kid. The highs totally make the lows worth it and I wouldn’t want him to be any other way.

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Conflicting Feelings

Sara — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:26:33 +0000

I like to sleep. I sleep pretty well when I don’t have small children climbing into my bed in the middle of the night. I also like to eat foods that my kids don’t yet find appetizing. I like to go out to dinner and a movie with my husband. I like to close the door to the bathroom and keep it closed the whole time I’m in there. I like it when my house stays picked up for more than an evening. Sometimes I miss the days of sleeping in and eating what I wanted and the freedom to do things on my own schedule. Sometimes I look forward to the days when my children will be self sufficient. When they will be old enough to stay home alone, or to the days after they have moved out of our house and I find free time again.

The other day I told Xander when he was older he wouldn’t want to hang out with me, he’d choose to hang out with his friends instead. Xander giggled, smiled and told me he’d always want to spend time with me because he loves me (duh Mom).

And then, things like this happen. And last night when Xander crawled into my bed at 11:30pm saying he’d had a bad dream, I didn’t send him back to his bed. I wrapped my arms around him and held him for the rest of the night.

When I drag my exhausted body out of bed at 5am so I’ll have enough time to make lunches and breakfasts and find clothes for everyone it feels like these days will never end, but I remember that soon enough I’ll be trying to drag my boys out of bed and frowning at the piles of smelly laundry on their floors. I will think back to all of those nights where I held a sleeping child in my arms and miss the days that I sacrificed sleep or privacy or sanity for my babies.

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Happy 2.5 Birthday Peanut!

Sara — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 20:18:03 +0000

Just in case anyone reading this isn’t already aware, we celebrate Parker’s half birthdays. He was born at the end of December, and it’s not a great time for anyone to get together to celebrate a birthday when we’re all busy celebrating Christmas and New Year’s. We decided before his first birthday that we would acknowledge the day with a brunch for family, but not celebrate with a party or presents until the summer. It’s worked out well. Parker gets his special day, and he isn’t sad about it being in the summer instead of winter. We kind of like kicking off the summer with Parker’s party and then ending it with Xander’s party. This year Parker’s wasn’t really at the start of the summer, but we’ll get back into the swing of things next year.

So, we celebrated. Lots of people came and it was a great afternoon. Pretty hot, but not bad in the shade. Parker got his cake (which was really his primary focus for the day) and wound up with some really fun toys. He is finally getting to an age where he has friends that he likes to play with, and a few of them came – it was great to see him playing so well with them. Making this little boy happy was totally worth the 7+ hours of cleaning I did along with the 4-ish hours we drove to have a free day to clean, plus all of the hours in the hot sun Zach spent working in the yard. We always say parties are a good excuse to make sure your house is really clean…

He is a stereotypical two year old, fiercely independent one minute, and desperate to cling to my leg the next. His speech is getting better and better by the day, and the things he says are so freaking cute, most people can’t help but mimic everything he says – we’re guilty of it too, but if I were him, I’d be sick of people copying me by now… Just recently he’s been in to ‘singing’ his A,B,C’s but can only do it if he’s watching someone and mimicking them (oh, the irony). He can count to 16, but won’t do it anytime we want to show off his new skill of course. He tries his hardest to keep up with his older brother and manages to succeed most of the time. His imagination is phenomenal and he can play make believe with his brother for lengthy periods of time. I am still the favorite, but sometimes Dad can kiss a boo-boo. And he melts my heart every day when he calls out ‘I love you Mommy’ as I’m walking out the door. He doesn’t always make it easy, but I’m still head over heels in love with this little guy.

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What Do You Do With Your Mom’s Chap stick?

Sara — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:00:34 +0000

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I’m Hungry

Sara — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:46:25 +0000

So, I was prepared for the invasion of locusts disguised as my children when they become teenagers. I know that my cupboards will be bare and I’ll spend hundreds of dollars in food each week only to see it devoured in days. I was not however prepared for this to happen when they are 2 and 4. The most common refrain I hear in my house these days is ‘I’m hungry’. I hear it every afternoon without fail when I pick the boys up from day care. I give them a snack when we get home, and then they have dinner, and often another snack after dinner.

Last night was a perfect example. We got home, the boys ate applesauce. I gave them a bath and then made dinner. While making dinner they ate cheese sticks and two helpings of yogurt. They ate sandwiches for dinner (I didn’t have the energy to convince them that homemade pesto really is yummy) followed up by a popsicle and more cheese sticks. They ate constantly from about 5:30-7:30. And since I hadn’t really planned that much snacking into the weekly shopping list, it sort of depleted their breakfast options for the next few days.

Please tell me this is just a growth spurt and eventually we’ll get back to normal. I’m not sure my wallet can handle this level of eating for the next 16 years. I’m certainly not filling them up with junk food, and we always have plenty of leftovers for them to have seconds or even thirds of dinner and sometimes they do. Apparently the locusts are making an early stop at my house…

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“I Do It Self!!!”

Sara — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:32:15 +0000

“I do it self!” is a phrase that we hear in our house many times a day now. Parker, right on schedule, has decided to exert some independence on his life. Sometimes, it’s fine. When he woke up yesterday morning and wanted to walk down the stairs by himself, I watched from the bottom, complimenting him and telling him how big he’s gotten. His smile when he reached the bottom was worth the extra three minutes it took to wait for him. On the other hand, sometimes those exclamations are not really useful, like when he wants to take off his clothes. Thankfully, I got to stay downstairs working on dinner while Parker exclaimed no less than 12 times last night that he would put his diaper on himself. Luckily for Zach, Parker could not hear me chuckling in the kitchen or I’m sure he really would have hammed it up

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The Leash Debate

Sara — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:46:00 +0000

Apparently the current hot mommy topic is whether or not to leash your child. The ridiculously judgmental Erin Behan at Strollerderby doesn’t think you are a bad parent, but she does think you are lazy. Before I had children, I agreed with Erin, and probably thought worse. Then I had Xander, and after some work, he understood that we hold hands when in parking lots, etc. It took some time, but we got through to him. I didn’t really think much about leashes when Xander was a toddler. We didn’t need one, but I didn’t scoff at people who used them.

Then we had Parker. He has rocked our world. In parking lots we have two choices: Hold a screaming, writhing mess of a Tasmanian Devil in our arms for the length of the walk, or let Parker walk on his own. I dreaded picking Parker up from day care for about 4 months until I decided it was a battle I didn’t want to fight every afternoon. I am not lazy Erin Behan. I read books to my kid about holding your parent’s hand. I talked with him, tried to reason with him, tried to bribe him, tried to encourage him. I fought with him EVERY DAY for FOUR MONTHS. That’s EIGHTY DAYS of attempting to teach my kid. And I failed. I failed miserably. I’m certainly not going to put my kid in a stroller to walk the 20 feet from the day care door to my car every afternoon (and that would elicit some pretty painful screams as well). I continue this battle in bigger parking lots, and gather stares from everyone within a 100 yard radius for the blood curdling screams coming from my child. I’m out of ideas. Encouraging doesn’t work. Threats and punishment don’t work. Reading books about good boys hasn’t worked. Bribery hasn’t worked. He’s two and the most stubborn child I have ever met. If any child has ever been leash worthy, it’s Parker.

We don’t own a leash for Parker. But, there have certainly been times where I wished for one. These days, I get it. I could be holding Xander’s hand, and walking with him when Parker bolts for the nearest puddle. Xander can’t run as fast as me, so what do I do? Do I drop my 4 year old’s hand in the middle of the parking lot and chase my 2 year old down? Do I let my 2 year old run and continue on with the 4 year old? There is no good solution.

I have a friend who took her two children on a plane by herself last year. Her kids are the same age as mine, and her youngest has a very similar attitude as Parker. She had leash backpacks on both of them at the airport, and if I had been in her position I would have done the same thing. With everything you have to manage just for yourself at an airport, worrying about your kids darting off is just unnecessary stress.

So, I’ll take this post back to where every mommy blog will end up eventually on this debate. We’re all moms and we all make decisions that we think are best for our kids. Lets stop judging each other and get back to supporting each other. Erin Behan doesn’t have to use a leash on her kid, but she also doesn’t need to sneer at the parents who do.

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Far Too Long

Sara — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:45:18 +0000

I love chapstick - especially whey they let me put it on myself!

It’s been far to long since I last posted. I can point to a number of reasons for this. Wordpress works funky on my iPad so I have to type everything in the excerpt box and then move it when I get to a real computer. We haven’t uploaded new pictures to flickr for ages, and those usually give me inspiration. The second child always gets shafted. The milestones are still exciting, and while they are new for Parker, they are not new for us. Couple this with the fact that he hates to have his picture taken and the result is far, far less blogging from Sara.

Our friend Jenny gave Parker some books (among other things) for Christmas. One of the books is No No Yes Yes. The first time I read the book to Parker, I had an strange sensation of reading it before. We read through it again and I realized I had not read the book before, just lived every single No No page. The book shows two pictures, a ‘no no’ and a ‘yes yes’ (no no dumping your food, yes yes eating your food, etc.). Parker does every single no-no in the book (except for pulling the cat’s tail). He dumps his food, he plays in the toilet water, he pours water out of the bath tub (didn’t discover that one until it started soaking the carpet the floor below). He runs away from us in parking lots, he hits his brother, the list goes on. Read the No No Yes Yes book and you’ll get a pretty good idea of how Parker acts.

I love the kid to pieces, but he is just a naughty little boy about 65% of the time. It’s harder to write about that stuff – I don’t want either of my kids to look back at this digital preservation of their lives someday and see all the glowing, loving posts about Xander and pages and pages of text about Parker’s latest behavioral flaw. And yet, I constantly struggle to find the good posts, the ones where Parker sticks up for his older brother or tries to give me a fish kiss with a face covered in applesauce. I’ll try harder to find the good stories along with the not-so-good to share, and I’ll try to carve a little time out of my crazy days to sit at a computer and write, and I’ll also try to upload more pictures to Flickr which will almost certainly make me remember lots more things to blog about.

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Busy, busy times…

Sara — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 16:45:59 +0000

Oh man have we been busy lately. So here are a few Reader’s Digest Highlights:

Parker and Xander are both sleeping in their own beds in their own rooms through the night. We get an occasional visit from Xander and Parker is usually up before the sun asking me what I’m doing, but I can’t really complain.

This is what the wine storage rack looks like on my kitchen island. What does yours look like?

Xander and I had an entertaining conversation the other day:

X: I’m going to get married when I’m 18

Me: 18 huh? Don’t you think you might want to wait a few years? You never know who you might meet.

X: (very matter-of-factly) But I’ve already picked!

Me: Oh really, who did you pick?

X: Katie.

Me: And did Katie pick you?

X: Yep.

Me: Well, what if you meet someone else in Kindergarten?

X: I won’t meet anyone in Kindergarten.

Me: What if you meet someone in 1st grade?

X: I won’t meet anyone in 1st grade.

Me: What if you meet someone in high school?

X: I won’t meet anyone in high school Mama.

Me: What if you meet someone in college? I met Daddy in college.

Long pause

X: Ok, I’ll wait until college and then pick.

Me: What if that person doesn’t pick you?

X: Then I’ll marry Katie.

So that’s my 4 year old with his life all figured out. Here is his Christmas list:

A Christmas tree for Parker’s room
A small (miniature) tree for his room
A house for his trains (no, not a train station – a house where he can take the trains apart and put them. It’s a picture he has in his head…)

We’ve gotten the tree for Parker’s room taken care of, so I’ll be spending the next week or so trying to figure out how to creatively find a house for trains.

Oh, and try not to leave your step ladder up when hanging Christmas decorations or this might happen:

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North Carolina and Parker

Sara — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:14:09 +0000

This was Parker’s first big trip anywhere. In fact, I’m not sure he had ever left the state before this trip. He did pretty well, and his mood was mostly fabulous. However, North Carolina was rough on Parker. Parker’s skin has always been a little extra sensitive to things like bug bites. He tends to swell up fast, and the swelling lasts for days. In the summer time we keep him on a daily allergy medication (which we’ve stopped, since most of the bugs are gone at home). Of course, what happened moments after we arrived in NC? A mosquito bit Parker on the eye lid. And naturally his eye swelled shut almost immediately. The poor kid ran around looking out of one eye for 3 days before the swelling subsided. Along with the normal bumps and bruises he also managed to get an impressive sliver in the bottom of his foot. It’s really not fun holding down your screaming child while your spouse pulls out a sliver. We both felt so badly for the little guy. Despite all of his physical injuries, Parker seemed to have an excellent time playing with his friends and family. He loved smashing sand castles on the beach, although after the 4th day of beach time he was ready for a new adventure, I think that for a year-and-a-half-old he did fabulously well on our first family vacation.

Being Sara » toddler

My High and Low Kid

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