Hellobee

I’ve been pretty MIA around here lately because we’re recovering from what can only be described as a crappy four weeks.  If Dante had written of ten circles of hell, I’m pretty sure the tenth would have involved sick twins.

Mr. Blue & I both work outside the home. We have fairly decent hours compared to other jobs in our profession, but we’re the only people in each of our respective positions.  If we’re not able to do our work, it just accumulates until we return. Cue the Baby Dudes getting sick.  And by sick, I mean neither the perpetual daycare sniffles not-so-fondly referred to as “baby kennel cough” at our house, nor anything critical or life threatening.  I mean just sick enough that they weren’t allowed to be at daycare and they felt miiiiiiiserable.

In the span of 4 weeks, they each were able to attend daycare about 5 days, though some of those days they were sent home early when a fever popped up.   We went to the pediatrician multiple times and were told it was a stomach virus and to wait it out, and then that it was another stomach virus and a cold and to wait it out, and then that there was an ear infection, and then that it was a cold but they wanted to do lab work, and then that one had c diff, and then that they had another virus, and then that they had respiratory infections aggravated by allergies for which we needed to add two medicines and some breathing treatments.  Good times were had by all….said no one.  Our little guys were just not feeling good, and they perpetually had one thing or the other that was a violation of our daycare’s sick policy.

Typically, one of us will take a day off to watch the boys and then the other one will the next day.  We look at our schedules to figure out who has obligations that can’t be put off and then decide who will stay home which day, if needed.  This round of sickness just kept going though, and we were quickly burning through our leave time, plus work was piling up.  In the past when we can’t take off and need back-up childcare, a family friend that is our go-to local babysitter will watch them or my mom has driven down (4 hours away) to stay with us a day or two.  The problem with this four week stretch was that our normal babysitter had an injured back and my mom had other important obligations, like taking care of my 93-year old grandma.  This meant we were on our own and had no other back-up daycare set up.

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When I wrote about Little Lion’s Montessori inspired nursery a while back, he still wasn’t mobile. A lot of the baby-proofing we did at that time was in anticipation of him being able to get into everything eventually…but we had no idea what a curious daredevil he would turn out to be! Now that he is able to freely explore we have had to make some adjustments, so I thought I would share how things have changed!

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Colin is really finding his stride as a toddler.  Months 17 and 18 have been exciting ones, as his babble becomes full blown chatter, and his preferences and opinions become more and more clear.  In my last monthly update post, he was finding his little walking feet, just finding a steady pace on his feet.  By his half birthday, his favorite pastime was “munning” – running – and he yells about it as he jogs in circles around our apartment, throwing balls and chasing our dog around.  Here is the latest scoop on Little Mr. C:

Family trip to the Shedd Aquarium – checking out the beautiful views

As a teacher, I was SO excited about Thanksgiving break! We were flying to Mr. Piñata’s parents’ house Monday night and staying until Saturday morning. I was thrilled to think of all this time without having to “work!” Of course I know that having a toddler around means a lot of activity, but I was hoping to actually get some relaxing and reading done after he went to bed at night (between 6 and 7pm) and during his 3-hr daytime naps.

But, no such luck.

Unfortunately, not only did our flight get in late and leave Little Piñata up way past his bedtime, he also got his worst cold yet! I think the germs must have settled in sometime between leaving our house and arriving at Mr. P’s parents’ house because that night Little Piñata refused to sleep in the Pack N Play. This is uncharacteristic of him as he usually goes right to sleep when we lay him down. So, he ended up sleeping in the bed with us, which meant he slept “ok” and we slept awfully, especially since his nose was stuffy and he was coughing most of the night.

The combination of his cold, being over-tired, and being  in a new place meant a refusal to sleep in the Pack N Play the first 2 days for more than 45 minutes at a time after I rocked him to sleep. So, I had to lay down with him during nap time and ended up getting into bed at 8:30pm with him 2 nights in a row. He ended up sleeping in the bed with me through most of the night wiggling and breathing loudly the whole time. Poor (or fortunate?) Mr. Piñata slept in the 3rd guest room there since there just wasn’t enough room for the 3 of us in the double bed. So, our sleeping routine was quite a bit “off!”

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We try to stick with the toy-buying strategy of “no buying any toys,” because we get so many hand-me-downs and gifts. Each year after the kids’ birthdays, we have them open a few gifts and set aside the rest to dole out slowly throughout the year. And somehow, we end up with a great variety of really awesome toys. So we do very little toy research and shopping.

This is the first year that Wagon Jr. is really old enough to go to a toy store and pick out his own toys, so when my mom wanted to take him shopping for his 4th birthday present, we were all pretty excited. WJ said from the beginning that he wanted a superhero toy, so we made a beeline for the section with Ironman and The Hulk. Immediately I knew this was a bad idea: every toy we came across scared him. Even the cute Superhero Squad version of Ironman freaked him out… he wanted a toy with a button, but when I pressed that Ironman’s button, it lit up and said something about firing missiles, and he almost started crying (out of fear, not joy). We all quickly realized that letting a 4 year old choose his own birthday present was probably a bad idea. I knew I had to choose a toy that was appropriate for his age and personality, let him “find” it and convince him that it was the coolest thing ever.

So I sprung into action and started browsing the aisles. I had an idea to find something that he could build with, because lately he has been building magnificent structures with blocks and legos such as these:

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Last night, my 2.5 year old son threw a tantrum the likes of which we’d never experienced with him. Ever. From around 7:00 PM when we tried to start his bedtime routine, until 8:05 PM when he finally settled down while his daddy read him a book, he raged. He jumped up and down. He stomped his feet, threw himself on the floor, screamed and yelled and just lost it.

Poor little guy. Being 2.5 is hard (and so, sometimes, is being his parent).

Perhaps you’ll find it helpful to do your own troubleshooting if I take you through mine, then, because I certainly appreciate insight into how other parents go about parenting.

First, I ask myself, what has changed? We’ve had a few weeks of upheaval, first with an overnight visit to the hospital that threw off the week, then a short school week plus time change, then a trip out of town to stay with his grandparents sans parents plus a time zone change, and now home.

How do I think he experienced that change? Well, he’s had different people with different routines in different homes across different time zones, all of whom love him and want to do our best for him, which also means we’re adjusting as we go. To my toddler, that means when we say something, it’s up for debate. Time for bed? We’ll see about that!

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I’m writing a book. It’s called “How Not to Potty Train Your Child” followed up by the sequel “How to Traumatize Your Child Into Hating Potty Training.”  So to say things aren’t going so great is an understatement.

Loves underwear, hates the potty

Drakey is about to be 3 1/2 soon.  Long before he was ever born and I worked as a nanny, I always heard boys take longer to train and that it was easier to train in the summer outside.  Drake is a summer baby so I thought it would be perfect to start when he turned 3.  Then I got pregnant and Juliet was due right as Drake turned 3. I didn’t think I would have much success potty training right as we brought a newborn into the home, so I figured it would be best to wait till life settled down a little.

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