What my toddler really wants for Christmas

Jake, my 2-year-old, is finally old enough to kind of understand Christmas. He can successfully identify Santa, he’s obsessed with watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carrey version), and every time we drive past one of the many flamboyantly lit-up houses in our neighborhood he points and exclaims “Christmas!”

But when you ask him whether he wants to open presents on Christmas morning, he shakes his head no. I’m not sure why. I can only guess it’s because he suspects his parents will be oh-so-unoriginal and gift things like Mega Blocks and Fisher Price doodads and not anything he really wants.

Here’s what I think Jake would really want for Christmas:

Unlimited bath time
If he could, he'd live in the bathtub.

Christmas Secrecy

Elliot is 2 ½ years old this holiday season, and his level of engagement compared to last year’s is quite remarkable. Last year he was able to open his presents and was genuinely excited to see what he received. However, leading up to Christmas, he didn’t exhibit much in the way of anticipation or even awareness.

This year is quite different. I knew something had changed when he noticed that our local shopping center had put up its Christmas tree around Thanksgiving time and immediately started asking me when I was going to put up ours. This continued as he joyfully “assisted” in the tree decoration and has generally been in the holiday spirit 24/7 – as the little toy snowman who loudly sings “Frosty the Snowman” can attest. The fact that I haven’t broken that toy speaks more to my character than any public act of charity ever could.

A Toddler's Snow Day

Step 1: Let Mommy and Daddy layer on the warm winter-wear.

(A movie quote comes to mind: "Getting ready to go to school was like getting ready for extended deep-sea diving." -- Ralphie, A Christmas Story)

Bedtime Battles

Like most toddlers, mine fights bedtime. He comes by it honestly; he’s a night owl like his Momma and Daddy. Granted, some of it is dictated by Mommy and Daddy’s schedule. We go into the office a little later, which means we leave a little later, so dinner isn’t usually until 6:30. Then there’s bath, downtime (hey, I gotta get my snuggles in!), and finally, bedtime. We aim for 8:30, but many nights it’s closer to 9:00. And when we’re not on a school schedule? Fugehddabout it. . .he’s happily awake until after 9:30. Now, don’t worry, he also usually sleeps in. If we don’t have to wake him up for school, he’ll often sleep until 8:30 or 9 in the morning (please don’t throw things at me – I have plenty of Mommy guilt about how late he’s up at night).

Delay of Game

It’s as if overnight our sweet, compliant child has decided that he is a card-carrying adult member of our household. He takes this new status seriously, letting us know his opinion on everything, from what we eat, watch or read to where we go, and he even chimes in on directions while we are on the way.

It amazes me how much this little guy notices at the young age of 2 ½. A couple of weeks ago, on our usual route to school, I had to make a quick stop to drive through a restaurant. This caused me to turn left instead of right leaving our neighborhood. As soon as the car started to turn left, I hear from the back seat, “Don’t go that way, Daddy.” It was funny at first, but about 10 minutes later, as I was still trying to explain to him that I did in fact know exactly what I was doing, it had passed from being cute to just annoying.

Zombie toddler

My almost-two-year-old Jake is a frequent victim of toddler bites at day care.

Through Mom friends and co-workers, I’d learned early on that biting is common among little ones. It’s how some of them vent the frustration that comes with not being able to say what you need to say. So I didn’t let it alarm me too much.

But week after week, I found myself signing incident reports when a fresh set of red bite marks would appear -- sometimes accompanied by bruising or broken skin -- on his chubby little arm. It just broke my heart to see it. Today he is sporting very distinct red teeth marks on each arm, and I half considered dressing him as a toddler zombie instead of a dinosaur for trick-or-treating. (I’ve been watching too much of The Walking Dead, I think.)

Pumpkin Patch Photo Fail

This weekend we braved the overcrowded pumpkin patch for some good 'ole fall family fun and to take some sweet, memorable family photos.

What my toddler is learning in gymnastics

The other day my mom asked what Shelby is learning in gymnastics. As a follow up to my last blog, she is actually starting to pick up a few skills.  I mean, we have the cute outfits purchased for class and she is really starting to watch her friends on the other trampolines next to her and how they jump.

Shelby jumping:



Then over the weekend she started just randomly tumbling while watching her favorite Elmo video.

Potty training is a learning experience for the entire family

When I was a little girl, my parents always told me that the harder you work to achieve something, the more you will appreciate it in the end. Well, I never knew how true those words would be until now. As my husband and I work to potty train our oldest daughter, I think we all look forward to doing a little “potty dance” when she masters the task on her own.

According to her teachers at daycare, she’s a shining star – she goes to the restroom on time and rarely has an accident. At home, it’s another story. Most of the time, we have to ask her, and even poke and prod her to go to the restroom. But when she’s sitting on the “big pot,” as she calls it (she refuses to sit on her training potty), she’s kicking her legs and smiling.

Toddler Words

I’m endlessly entertained by the joyful nonsense jibber-jabber of my toddler. It makes my heart so happy.

I think it’s interesting, too, the words they start to pick up (or don’t), and what other toddlers his age pick up in comparison.

Aside from the basic Mama, Dada, Bye Bye, Night Night kind of stuff, here are some of my 21-month-old’s favorite words:

Bubbles
Abinky (his pacifier)
Ball
Apple
Elmo
Uh-Oh!
Oh no!
Aw Man!
Oushide (Outside)
Kitty Cat
Doggie

Can you take a toddler to the movies?

Well, the answer is yes. Kind of.

I have two sons – a 5 year old and a 21 month old – and about a month ago, the older one really wanted to see Planes. So my husband and I went back and forth over whether or not our younger son, Jack, could go. He’s only 21 months and we thought he might get overwhelmed or not be able to sit still that long… the list went on and on. I Googled ‘what age can you take your child to the movies’ and got a ton of conflicting answers, but, in the end we decided to go for it.

Gymnastics

Did you know you can enroll your child in gymnastics as early as 12 months old?  Well, Shelby just hit 18 months old and with all of the energy and lack of fear that she has I thought this might be the perfect activity for her.

We tried out a local gymnastics center near our house last week.  The great thing is you can go try out a class and see if it is for you before you commit.  So, we arrived about ten minutes early and immediately I knew this was the right place for her.

There was no sitting on the sidelines waiting for class to begin.  She started checking out the foam pit and climbing up the little stairs to jump in it.  Once class began I think the best way to describe it is organized chaos.  And guess what child added the “chaos” to the mix?  Yep, that would be mine.

Toddler Toothbrushing

One of Jake's many reactions to the "big boy" toothbrush

In all seriousness: how in the world do you brush a toddler’s teeth?

When we used just the little brush you slip on your finger, we had little-to-no problems. In fact, sometimes Jake really enjoyed it.

But now that we've recently graduated to the "big boy" toothbrush, every night after bath time I brace myself for his reaction to me pulling it out. It’s roulette.

Getting rid of paci

We knew we needed to retire the pacifier when our two-year-old son, Bennett, started biting his pacifier during the day and puncturing holes in it.  The holes alone weren’t a problem, but at night, when the pacifier no longer sucked, he would get upset with the hole-ridden pacifier and have a meltdown. When faced with that meltdown, his poor sleep-deprived parents would give him a brand-new pacifier. 

Enough was enough, and I was determined to no longer buy pacifiers.  Let's face it—I was a little embarrassed, and we had a newborn. So I started asking friends and family how to take a pacifier away. When is the right time?  With much advice, we started the process about four months ago. 

Tech Savvy Toddler

Last week was my dad’s birthday.  I told Preston, age 5, and Emory, age 2, that we would call PawPaw that evening to wish him a happy birthday.  Just then Daddy walked in the room and this became the conversation:

Emory:  Daddy, we’re going to see PawPaw tonight!

Me:  No, Emory, we’re going to call PawPaw tonight.

Emory:  Nuh, uh … we’ll see him on Facetime.

And, Facetime PawPaw is what we did.

Adventures in Boating

I think I have entered full-out Mommy mode.  We have a boat and enjoy summers on the lake.  It has always been a relaxing way for us to recharge our batteries on the weekend.  Last year, we took Shelby on the boat with us and of course she was still little so she slept through the whole thing.  This weekend we loaded up with some of our friends and ventured out on the lake for a couple of hours. Well, let me share with you how that unraveled . . .

First, just getting to the lake took us almost all day.  By the time we waited for Shelby to take her nap so she would be on schedule and a happy little boater it was after 2 p.m.  I think we actually got the boat in the water with everyone on board by 3-ish.  I really like to plan and I can tell you my planning mojo was completely off course with this outing.

Sick babies, working moms, and daycare dilemmas

My sweet boy has had a 101 fever all week long that just broke today. And lately, it feels like fevers are an every-other-week occurrence.

The recent one started when I picked him up from daycare Monday, plucking him from amid the herd of coughing, glistening-nosed babes. “Just so you know, another one went home with diarrhea,” a staff member informed me.

Oh, okay, great.

Not-So Crafty Momma Strikes Again!

It’s that time of year again…that time when Moms like me (aka, not-so-crafty Moms) feel the need to attempt cute, homemade things for their most adorable darlings. Yep…it’s birthday time!

For MONTHS – and that’s in real time, so imagine what it’s like in toddler-time – Sam has been asking for a Mickey Mouse Marching band birthday party. We’re a band family, so I was HAPPY to oblige that request! Plus, I already knew I had a Mickey Mouse Bandleader cake pan – SCORE! I could bake and decorate his cake again! However, I knew the cake from that pan would not be big enough for large number of expected party guests (family alone is nearly 30 people).

Like a Moth to a Flame

I wasn’t proficient at this “instrument” but both of my kids are!

When Henry was just starting to become mobile he was drawn to the door stop like a moth to the flame. He found every single one in our house and everywhere we went. We had to go around and take all the little white caps off because they were just small enough to be a choking hazard.

Child Development Gem

Oh my sweet, sweet, Henry. He’s two and a half and I am sure most of you know what all entails in having a two-year-old. And he’s had his terrible moments but he is mostly a wild man. Words that I commonly use referring to him are: wildman, bezrk-o, silly and well so on. These same words are often also used to describe his mother, so it’s all meant lovingly.