2 YEARS OLD

I started this some time ago, and only now am finishing the post.

You are two years old and I can’t believe it.

You still don’t talk that much. Your favorite words are “mama”, “All done”, “go outside”, “milk”, “Ipeeed” (Ipod), and “elmo”.
You love to go outside. To run, to kick a ball, to swing, to slide, to hit a ball off the tee, to run the cozy coupe down the driveway, to play in the water table.
Your favorite foods are watermelon, cut up grapes (red ONLY), yogurt, and “fries”. You still dislike ICE CREAM!!!!!
You still can’t/won’t drink from a cup or straw. Grrr. You also drool a lot. Still. Even with your tonsils out.
You like to watch Elmo and Peppa Pig on the Ipad. You love the Ipad. I have to hide it.
You have been sleeping in your big boy bed which is both wonderful and sad (for mama).
In shirts you wear a 2T and in pants 18-24 months (still a little big).
Balls are your favorite thing, soccer balls, baseballs, basketballs, golf balls.
“Little Hippo’s New School” is your favorite book.
Your hair is starting to come in blonder and curly.
Playgrounds are your idea of heaven. If they don’t have toddler swings you get really mad.
Leaving playground results in a tantrum 75% of the time following by me having to carry you back to the car.
You hate bicycle helmets and forced teeth brushing.
When I sit on the end of the couch you like to climb on the end table and launch your body on top on my lap. While laughing. Again and again.
Sometimes you get snotty and yell “no” at least three times in succession. If you are really mad, you will toss your hat on the ground in protest.
There is zero interest in using the potty and you won’t even sit on it.
Your favorite toys are balls, sorting shape toys, and the very old 1970’s Little People Castle at my mother’s house.
You try to turn away when mom gives you kisses because you are very busy.

Angry Angry

Daycare was closed for the week for vacation. Since I took time off the week of the 4th, I didn’t want to take off again. P is in North Carolina for work. I hired a girl (aged 17) that had sat for us twice before, once went poorly, I gave her another chance, but then she did much better. Well this week didn’t go well. I instructed her the main issue is to take the children outside. It was sunny and nice. TAKE THEM OUTSIDE. She did not. For the entire three days. They basically watched movies all three days. She didn’t clean up after lunch. She gave B unlimited milk (Despite my warnings) and V unlimited soda. V gave her a very hard time. I think she knew she could run her. It’s like Caesar the dog trainer says – someone needs to be the pack leader. When there isn’t one, the other dogs will be very uneasy and try to take over. Every day when I got home, B’s diaper was soaked. He developed a terrible red burn/chap from his butt not being wiped properly. When I contacted her she listed all the places she would take them. I installed car seats in her car. Finally after much probing I called her out on and she admitted she was not comfortable driving them around. JUST SAY SO. I was angry. The very worst is how poorly behaved the kids were every night at home. Crazy, crabby, short-fused. I told her I didn’t need her on Thursday and we were done. What a disappointment.

Big Boy

Before Benny's surgery I had P move a bed into his room so I could sleep next to him and administer medication and watch for bleeds. It's not a huge room, so we moved out the changing table and I sold it. The bed is a double which it huge for little kids (his sister has one too), but wonderful for us. We can read to the kids, sleep there if need be, give it away to guests. I highly recommend it instead of a twin bed. SInce then, he has kept sleeping in the crib. At night, I've been hanging out with him in the bed until he falls asleep and moving him to the crib. Wednesday night he kept crying a lot and so I moved him to the bed and slept (haha, not really) next to him. Last night he fell asleep in the big bed, and I left him there. He slept all night! Then he opened the door and came downstairs like an adult human, quite pleased with himself. The negative is that he won't be able to sit in his crib and read until someone comes and gets him (giving mom extra sleep time).

Right now, he has a quilt from the Pottery Barn Outlet on his "big boy" bed. It's sharks. It is so so cute. I'd like find the other pieces of the set, but the outlet is over an hour away, and "who's got time for that"?

When the crib is no longer used by this baby I will be sad. It was given to us by friends - a beautiful, blonde wood Italian made Ragazzi. No one wants a drop side crib. I want P to make it into a porch swing ala Pinterest, but it probably won't happen.


Here he is eating yogurt: