Terrible (and Terrific) Twos!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Bud!

Birthday donuts!

Well, we've hit another milestone, so I guess it's time to update the blog.  Hopefully I'll have another blog to post before he turns 3. :)  It's been a very interesting year watching him grow.  It's still amazing to me the process of toddler's learning and how their knowledge seems to grow exponentially, one week he's saying a few words and a few weeks later he's talking in full sentences.

He has two main obsession in life these days: TV and Snacks (or in Seth terms, TZ and Nacks). Pretty much from the moment he's up until the moment he goes to bed, all he asks for all day are nacks. "I want a nack, mommy!" I ask him what he wants for breakfast and the answer is always "a nack" I try to be good about only giving him 2 snacks a day when we're at home and the afternoon snack is now usually some fruit and maybe a few pretzels.  When we're out in public, though, it can be a totally different story.  We were at a play date the other day and after I'd refused him a snack 5-6 times, he goes over to my friend and asks her for a snack.  I've seen him occasionally do this with his grandma, but never with anyone else.  Sounds like we may have a little moocher on our hands!

TV is his second favorite thing in the world, but I'm much better at only allowing this certain times of the day and not every time he asks.  He will only watch a couple of shows and doesn't really like to watch anything new, but once he does like a new show, it becomes an obsessions.  His new favorite went from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to Dora.  I've heard Caillou is pretty annoying, so I do not allow that to be on, but I think Dora might be right up there with him!  He does actually learn stuff on the show, so from that aspect, it's not too bad, but some of the characters on the show have the most annoying voices ever, especially Dora!

I'm also amazed at how much he has learned already.  He can count to 11 and knows a few shapes.  He's still working on colors, but seems to be getting more consistent with guessing them correctly. In the past two weeks his desire to color/draw has really increased.  Before, I could get him to color for maybe 20 seconds.  Now, he actually asks to do it and he seems to like to draw more than coloring pictures.  I've now started to ask him what he's drawing and he goes through phases.  For a while it was seahorses, now it's snakes.  Sometimes he'll say he's going to draw something and then ask me if it looks right.  What am I supposed to tell him?  Of course it doesn't look right!  You're 2 and just draw a bunch of squiggles, so I just ask him back if he thinks it looks right. Most of the time he says no.  At least he's a good critic of his work.
 

Hard at work on his drawing

We went out trick or treating for the first time this year!  We did a practice "Trunk or Treat" at Aunt Mitch's church which went great and he really seemed to enjoy himself, even wore the costume happily (after refusing at first to put it on). He didn't say trick or treat to anyone there, or even on Halloween night, but we had fun going around seeing the neighbors in the rain. I even made him wear a poncho over his costume that I worked really hard on and didn't want ruined!  We had another Halloween party for my Mom's Club, and I didn't want him to ruin his penguin costume, so he went as Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory.  I thought he pulled off the costume well.

Another wonderful thing about two year olds is that they can be just a slight bit stubborn, or in our case extremely strong-willed! I blame it on his Italian genes, since we all know daddy can be a little quick-tempered as well!  Time-outs are becoming a daily occurrence and we just had out first public time-out yesterday.  He kept trying to take a toy off of a little girl at the library, so I whisked him off to an unused room for timeout. I'm sure it's only the first of many that we will have and hopefully he'll be a better behaved child because of it.

Speaking of stubborn, we had our first swim lesson last night.  He was super excited to go and even willingly put on the swimming cap (which I thought was going to be a fight).  Everything went downhill after that, quickly. He liked the water, just didn't really like to listen to the instructor or participate in any of the activities.  He screamed for at least 25 of the 30 minutes we were there.  Hopefully things will get better as we continue to go.  At least he looks cute in his required attire!

All in all he's a pretty good kid and a quick learner.  He's all boy and loves sports and dirt.  Can't wait to see what this year brings for us.  Should we start that time-out counter now? :)

Playing his "harmogiga"

Pumpkin painting

Riding in the longest grocery cart in the history of the world!

Singing his favorite song

Feeding a sheep at Soergels

Long Lost Friend

Dear blog,  I'm sorry we haven't hung out in a while. I've been busy.  I promise to pay more attention to you soon. :)

Blabber Mouth

From the minute he wakes up until the minute he falls asleep, this kid talks. I don't really understand all of it, but I understand quite a bit of it and he's really just a huge imitator.  I'm shocked at how much of a vocabulary he has already, and secretly long for some silence every once in a while!

Since I'm terrible at keeping up with the baby book, here are the words that he knows at 16 months:

mamee, dada, bye bye, shoes, socks, coat, hat, kitty, duck, snake, monkey, moose, animal sounds (moo, baa, meow, ribbit, hop, quack, panting like a dog, neigh, oo oo like a monkey, elephant sound), cookie, snack, banana (nanner), muffin (mama), Boo, Gigi, Grandma, Pap  Pap, CD, tractor, snow, spoon, bowl, bib, Emma, baby.  He knows that a car says beep, a truck says honk, a tractor says chug chug, a train says choo choo, and a fire truck says nee naw.

It's also been funny to see him trying to associate things.  Steve was out of town a few weeks ago, so anytime we were out, Seth would point to any man we passed and say dada.  He also often thinks he sees Gigi, and I think he's convinced that gigi is the guy from the Baby Einstein logo (see below).

He's also been working on his dance moves and tries to sing along to row, row, row, your boat.  I didn't realize that I was humming the tune the other day while he was in the other room, and all of a sudden I hear him going "merrily, merrily, merrily" (well, his version of that, anyway).  He also likes to do the wah wah of the babies on the bus, not the words, but the motion for it. He loves to give high fives, and is unfortunately starting to hit when he gets mad.  I can't wait to see his language develop over the next few months!

Life According to Seth

If Seth could talk (legibly), this is what he would have to say about life...

• Nuh Nuh (Snacks) are the best things in the world and I would probably sell my firstborn child for a Fig Bar.
• Only Mama can read me books.  Seriously, Dada, don't even try. ever.
• Please show me pictures of keeessshhh (kitties).  all kitties.  in all books. all. day.  long. I LOVE KITTIES!
• No I will not eat that food you put on my tray.  Wait, I can use a fork?  I can probably eat the food if it's on a fork.  Oh look, it flies through the air when you wave the fork back and forth. 
• Not the changing pad!  Please don't lay me down! NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Ha! I can roll!  I'll roll on my stomach to make my escape! Uh oh, I'm on my back again. NNNNNOOOOOO!  Oh, you'll let me play with a thermometer?  Look, it beeps when you push this button!  How fun! Oh, we're done?
•  One drink?  Seriously, mom.  I would like to have milk and water available to me at all times and yes, I will carry them both around with me and alternately drink both.  Although, it's hard to carry my book with kitty pictures around when I have two sippy cups.  Can you please call the 90s and get me a fanny pack?
• Was that a noise?  Dada?  Was that the ice dropping in the fridge or was that Dada? Is that a truck outside? Dada? Oh, a wall.  *knock knock* Dada?  Dada? Dada?  Where does he HIDE all day?
• I keep signing please but she's not getting me what I want.  I'll try again *please* *please* *please*  What do you mean "please what?"   *PLEASE* *PLEASE *PLEASE*
• What is this word "No" that you keep trying to tell me? You say it an awful lot.
• Can you please show me some more kitties???
• Real men wear crowns, not headbands...

 

Me and my BFF!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday spent with family and friends.  We're feeling extra blessed this year with our little one and our new home.  Here are some pics of our celebrations:

TL: All tired out from presents. TR: Opening presents with Pap Pap! BL: All the cool kids take their pants off (PS - I think he kind of looks like Gru in this photo with his big sweater and tiny legs.) BR: All ready for Church!

L: Not a huge fan of Santa! TR: Emma got Gunkle a puzzle with Tinkerbell on it. BR: Cousins in their Christmas shirts!

Some family photos and opening gifts Christmas morning.  Best Gift?  Why a box, of course! :)

No Place Like Home for the Holidays...

Even if that home is scattered with boxes and a huge mess, right? Our house is finally done and we are mostly moved in!  Still have a few things at the In-Laws house, hopefully they don't need their shed for anything too soon! :)  It's been an interesting process watching the house being built and I think we're pretty happy with everything.  There are a few issues here and there, but nothing major.  The last big piece of the puzzle is the fridge, which was supposed to be delivered tomorrow and we got a call today that it's not coming until early January, so we're very much disliking Whirlpool right now.  At this point, we can't really get anything else delivered much sooner, but I think we should consider cancelling and buying another fridge to prove a point to Whirlpool.

I got all of my Christmas shopping done before we moved, so I'm glad I don't have that to worry about, but I'm getting the urge to start making cookies.  I told the hubs that I would make his two favorite kind (Layered Cookies and Reese Cups) and that was it, but I'm really in the mood to make cut-outs.  I have no idea why because they make a huge mess and are very time consuming.  I think they're one of the cookies I always remember making with my mom and really put me in the holiday spirit.  There aren't many decorations out this year, but we do have a small (live!) table-top tree and the stockings.  I guess I'm just having a hard time getting in the holiday spirit.  Not that it's totally different from other years, unfortunately.  I'm just not one of those people that really get into the season. Hopefully as our little one gets older, I'll be better about the whole thing and not be such a bah humbug mom!

The Beginning of Temper Tantrums

I always thought that I had until our little one was at least 2 before I would have to deal with temper tantrums.  Boy was I wrong!  I suppose it comes with the independence that he is constantly seeking. Today has been one of those days and it's not even 11:00am, yet.  I'll cut him a little slack because he's had a cold and is teething, but my patience only goes so far.  He's starting to get more independent in eating, and I'm trying to embrace it and let him hold the spoon to feed himself.  I help him put some oatmeal on the spoon and then watch as he gets half of it into his mouth. After a few attempts, he decides he wants to hold the bowl of oatmeal himself, which I will not allow.  This results in screaming and flinging of the spoon with leftover oatmeal on it, and the signal of breakfast being done.  A little later, I put him in his outfit for the day and when I get his fleece coat zipped up, there is more screaming and trying to pull the fleece off right before flinging himself onto the hallway floor and screaming some more.  My two tactics at this point are trying to distract him or ignoring him.  Ignoring only works for so long, though, because he inevitably hits his head on something in his rolling/screaming fit of rage. Any tips on how to control these outbreaks before they get worse??

The Big One

I can't even believe that it's been a whole year with our little one in our lives.  Everything has changed so drastically since I was pregnant.  The hubs has a new job with much better hours that allow him to be home with us, I quit my job to focus on raising a family, we sold our townhouse and are living with family until our new house is complete (27 days!!!).  Everything is all very exciting, I just can't believe how much has changed.

And to my little one...  I know everyone feels the same way but I really am just astounded by how much you've developed in one short year.  You've grown from my whiny little baby boy to my hilarious little toddler.  You have the best facial expressions and I just can't get over how smart you seem and how easily you pick things up and remember them!  You sort of missed the rolling stage of life, but you started crawling at 7 months and walking at 10.5 months.  I enjoy chasing you around the house, but also miss the days where I could sit you on the floor with a basket of toys and know you wouldn't go anywhere. I love stripping you down to your diaper at the end of the day and watch you run around with a look of pure joy on your face.  If only you could spend your whole day in just a diaper!  You're obsessed with animals right now, particularly cats and dogs, even though we just found out you're allergic to cats.  I miss cuddling with you, but very much enjoy our pre-sleep ritual of reading and singing together.  You started cuddling again with me a little bit during this time, but now you'd rather point out my nose or touch my hair.  I can't wait to see what the next year of your life brings and how much you develop. I love you more than words can express!

 

One of my favorite videos!

 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  I guess it's been a while since I posted anything.  Probably because I'm busy chasing our little one all around the house! He's practically running, now, especially when he gets out of the bathtub.  I just get such a kick of him running around the house naked, and he seems to enjoy it so much!  He's only peed on a few rugs (sorry mom!)  Our house is coming along great and we should be moved in the first week of December!  Our little one dressed up for his music class today.  Since he looks so much like him, I couldn't help dressing him up as Charlie Brown!  Here are a few pics of what's been going on lately.

Family pic at the pumpkin farm

Think I can carry this one, mom?

Running around with my purse.  Daddy wasn't too happy about this pic.  shh!  Don't tell!

Mr. Brown!

Playing outside in his costume

Music Class

Playing instruments with Miss Lauren

Happy Baby!

Reading in his onesie and socks.

Frankenstein!

I guess I'm going to need to start exercising here soon so that I'll be able to keep up with our little one as he is now walking and I know it's only a matter of time before he starts running around.  I just love watching babies when they begin to walk.  With their arms straight out and all wobbly... reminds me of Frankenstein. 

Our little one has been adjusting well to our new living situation as we wait for our house to be built.  I wonder if he realizes what's going on or wonders why we never go back to our old house.  I think he likes living with his grandparents, though, and I'm sure they're all loving all the extra time with him.  We also started a music class for 10-weeks.  We go once a week for an hour and he really seems to be enjoying it, except for when he gets knocked over and starts crying.  Some day he'll be thrilled when there's a girl hugging him and pushing him to the ground, but for now it's a little scary I guess.  Here are some recent photos I've been too lazy to post!

Trip to Living Treasure Animal Park

Why yes, mom, I have to touch my hair when I eat!

Cords are so much fun!

Oh, I'm supposed to be riding in it?

All smiles

Oh, and we saw a praying mantis!

mmmmm!  Lasagna!

Future Role Models

It's funny how having a baby really changes your perspective of life and things that I have brushed off before really get on my nerves now.  Specifically, I look at the celebrities that today's kids admire and look up to and frankly I'm appalled. Maybe I just don't remember it or wasn't exposed (maybe my parents had the right idea of not having cable!), but I don't recall the celebrities of our decade being so raunchy and belligerent. We grew up watching Full House and Boy Meets World.  Shows that always had, as corny as they may be, good moral lessons.

Nowadays, all you see all over the news are inappropriately dressed celebrities setting horrible examples for kids claiming that "You're supposed to be a mess in your 20s" or 40-year old men singing about "getting nasty".

Raising my kids well is probably one of my biggest fears in life. Today's "Role Models" really scare me for what my kids will have to look up to in the future. I guess all I can do is try to raise them to be honest, sensible young adults who don't get sucked into the behaviors that will be displayed in front of them around every corner.

I recently read a great blog that concerns this topic and if you have a few minutes, it's a really good read:

http://givenbreath.com/2013/09/03/fyi-if-youre-a-teenage-girl/

9 Months

The nine month photo session didn't go as well as the others.  I probably should have tried again to get a happy one, but then I thought it might be funnier to have one of him crying. He's still a little bit of a grump and a lot bit of a whiner these days.  I suppose (hope) that things will get easier once he's able to communicate what he wants instead of following me around the house whining.  I've started some baby sign language, but need to be better at being consistent with it so that he picks it up.

He's a great crawler and even a pretty decent walker as long as he's holding onto something.  In the past few weeks, he started pushing his walker around the living room.  I think it moves a little bit faster than he would care to, but he makes it work. He pretty much babbles all day... probably gets that from daddy!  He can kind of say mama, dada, and byebye.  He waves byebye on a good day and will usually clap if you say "yay!"  He's learning to be a somewhat independent in his play, as long as someone is in the room.  He's still very curious and likes to know what every sound he hears is.  He also hates to be told no. Sorry little guy, you can't get into every cabinet in the kitchen or pull apart all of mama's plants and try to eat them.  He likes to help daddy unload the dishwasher, although daddy usually isn't very appreciative of the "help"

We recently got back from a trip to the beach.  He was a little iffy on the sand/ocean the first few times, but was really enjoying it the last time we went.  He was even crawling to the water.  He only ate a little bit of sand and one seashell (luckily, we pulled the seashell out before he choked on it or swallowed it. Parents of the year, right?)  It's amazing the things they can get away with when you turn your head for 1 second.

He still doesn't have a favorite toy.  He'll play with one for a few minutes then it's off to something new.  He has recently been carrying plastic rings around the house (just one at a time), so maybe they will be his favorite toy.

He's still not sleeping through the night, but he usually just gets up one time.  He eats and then can usually go back to sleep by himself. He's a great eater and pretty much eats everything that we give him.  I'm hoping that he'll get some teeth soon so that we can expand his finger food selection.  He eats a lot of fruit, puffs, and cheese right now.

I'm sure walking is right around the corner, so life will be very interesting when that starts!  I guess I'll learn to be a good chaser! :)

Excited To Be Leaving

Our little one has started to pick up on some hand motions.  Nothing too spectacular, but he can wave goodbye sometimes, or sometimes when you say byebye, he claps, as in "Yay!  You're finally leaving!" It's so amazing to me what he has picked up already and I guess it's time to start working on our baby sign language!

In other news, we close on our house next week and have to be out by the end of August, so we're busy finding boxes and packing everything up for storage!  It's going to be a hectic next few months, but I'm excited for this next chapter in our lives!

Heart Dropping Moments

Happy Belated Fourth of July!  It seems like we had a pretty busy weekend, but also seemed like we sat around a lot, too, so I'm not sure how we could've had both, but I guess I'll say we had a busy relaxing weekend.  Our little one also had two scary moments this weekend, and I know they're not the last two he will have in his life, but I'm glad he's okay and I was probably more scared than he was both times.

Scary Episode #1: His first dive
We were visiting my parent's house this weekend and our niece was playing in a plastic baby pool in the afternoon.  It was extremely hot, mid to upper-80's, so at one point I took the little one and put his feet in the pool, to which he, of course, whined about.  How dare I try to cool him down!  So, I set him down on the grass outside of the pool, so he was standing there holding the edge and playing with toys in the pool.  He seemed to enjoy this and my niece was having fun handing him toys.  I was sitting right next to him and was talking to my niece when all of a sudden I hear a splash and turn and grab the little one out of the pool, as he had fallen head-first into the pool (of only about a foot of water).  He coughed and whined a little after I pulled him out, but he seemed to be okay.  I think I was probably more scared than he was.  In the end, we all got a good laugh out of my excellent mothering skills and the hubs was just glad he wasn't the one to let him fall in a pool, because he would've gotten an earful from me.  Sorry, hubs, I'll try to be nicer about all the bumps and bruises you let our child get under your watch.

Scary Episode #2: mmm.. new food!
We took our little one to the nursery in church on Sunday.  It's only his second time going there, but our church isn't very big and there aren't usually many kids in the nursery, so I've been trying to be better about putting him down there so we can actually pay attention in church.  We dropped him off and I told the sitter that there was container of snacks in his bag if he gets fussy.. just some cheerios and puffs. After church, we head down to pick him up and I notice the area around his mouth is all red and he's sitting on the floor with some snacks that I didn't send.  The sitter mentioned that maybe his mouth was read from shoving food into his mouth Which, could be possible if you've ever seen him eat snacks, shoving as much in as he can, but he's never had that before, so I asked if he had anything other than what I sent.  She said she gave him some animal crackers, which I didn't think would cause an allergic reaction, but maybe, or maybe it was the other food he was eating.  In any event, we left church and when we got outside in better lighting, I noticed that the redness was actually hives.  At that point, I sort of panicked and called our doctor's office to speak with the on-call doctor.  He was breathing fine, but I was worried in case it got worse.  The doctor said to wash his face when we got home and just keep an eye on it, and if it didn't go away, to just call back.  We washed his face and hands when we got home and he was already looking better at this point. Everything cleared up soon after and he's totally fine.  I guess I need to just be clear not to give him any extra food while he's there next time. It just makes me worried for what kind of allergies he might have...

I wish time would slow down...

Babies sure do grow up a LOT faster than I ever expected.  We sold our house a few weeks ago, there have been a few bumps in the road, but if all the stars align and 5 contingency offers go through, we will be homeless in August!  We finally got a baby gate put on the stairs going down from the living room and silly me thought "well we'll be moving soon and he JUST started crawling, there's no way he'll be going up the stairs before we move, so let's not put a gate going up the stairs."  The words were barely out of my mouth and the next thing I know he's standing on the first step on his way to the second, and third, and fourth... with ease.  Hardly any stumbling or hesitation.  This little guy is determined!  Here's a video of him going up the stairs for the third time in his life... http://youtu.be/yW9-UZfAUTU

I miss the days when he would just sit contently on the floor with an old spaghetti sauce jar and a couple of rings.  Now, it's literally 3 seconds with a toy and he's off to the next big thing!

In other news, we just got home from a week's vacation at Treasure Lake near Dubois, PA with my family.  The weather was nice at the beginning of the week, but was a little rainy/overcast as the week went on.  We took Seth to his first time at both and beach and the pool, and he hated both of them.  I think he just hates fun...

Seth and Cooper going to the park!

How many cheerios can I shove into my mouth at once?

Boo with his two grandsons!

Having a big boy bath!

Lucky Seven!

I can't believe he's seven months old already... and how active and on the move he is.

He's crawling all over the house and chasing me where ever I go, unless he sees stairs that he would like to climb down if we would let him or the door stop, which is his new favorite instrument. I'll be sitting in the living room and all of sudden i hear the "thwaaaaanngg" of the door stop repeatedly. He also thinks he's a big boy who can pull himself up to standing position and then turn and try to walk away, but since he can't walk he just falls over.  It's fun to see all the new movement, but i'm a little bit afraid of him not having any fear of anything.  He loves to eat almost everything I give him, except bananas. The food that all babies love. I haven't tried to give him bananas in a while, so I'll have to try them again and see how they go.  Still no teeth, but I'm hoping one will pop through soon!

On the move!

Whelp, it's finally happened. Our little one is finally on the move!  I almost teared up the first time I saw him start to crawl.  I can't believe how big he's getting!  I miss my sweet little newborn that would cuddle up for a nice nap with me.  Now, he's all independent and wants to just be on the move.

He still really loves his mama, though, and wants to come to me all the time.  I don't think I'll be able to run away and hide in another room anymore, though, because I think he'll just crawl after me, now. :(

In other news, we're getting our house cleaned up to put up for sale this week.  I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing.  We've been on a bumpy road with looking for a new house and have already had a few ups and downs.  I guess it can't hurt to get it on the market, though.  At least we can be picky with the offers we get because we don't really have to move right now.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

It's interesting to see what kind of parents we have turned out to be compared to the parents I thought we would be. Not that we have that much experience, yet, but I think we've done okay so far.  We usually take turns doing things for our little one, although I probably do a bit more, but the hubs is starting to catch up and do more things with the little one.  One of the things that both of us dislike doing, though, is putting him to bed.  I don't know why we both dislike it so much, because it usually takes less than 5 minutes and all it entails is reading a book or two and rocking/singing to him for a few minutes. Since we both don't like it, though, we've decided to leave it to chance and play rock, paper, scissors to see who loses and has to put him to bed. Definitely not a parenting style I ever saw us using, but it'll work for now! I'll be sure to tell our little one some day how much we enjoy spending every waking moment with him, though. :)

However, if Sheldon Cooper has taught us anything, the hubs and I know each other too well, so I guess we'll have to learn how to play rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock.  This would be fitting, too, since we sing Soft Kitty to our little one a few times a day.  I can't wait to explain to him down the road that his favorite lullaby is from a sitcom.

The Inconvenient Poop

Sorry, but you're the one who chose to read a blog written by a new mother, so you had to expect at least one post about baby poop.  I'm sure it won't be the last one, either. :) I'm also 99% sure our little one will look back on this some day and scold me for talking about his bowel movements.  As long as I have to clean them up, I get to talk about them to the world!  Fortunately, there are no gross images that correspond to this post. I do have SOME boundaries!

So, I guess as babies get bigger, bowel movements become fewer and fuller, which is totally fine, as long as we're at home when it happens.  Lately, though, all bowel movements have occurred in the carseat. Which makes for an annoying "short" trip to the store. I might as well just open up a baby changing station in the trunk of my car. I don't know why he has decided that this is his pooping place, but if this continues, I'm going to just bring the carseat into the house and leave him in it until his "business" is done for the day.

Since I don't have anything else to talk about besides poop, I guess I'll share some recent pics!

Can it spin while I'm holding it, mom?

Cool Dudes!

Yes, my skin tone matches my onesie.  A few more pounds/wrinkles and I'll be the perfect Michelin Man. :)