Confessions

Forgive me father for I have sinned.

I have been spoiling baby girl with new toys, books, and puzzles a little too much lately. Remember last year when I wrote this post about how as far as toys I was doing pretty good? Well, oh how the mighty have fallen. This year I want EVERYTHING! She plays so good now and is just at the age where it is so much fun to buy her things because she is excited about them, but also isn't bratty about them yet.  Plus, I LOVE playtime, so I get sucked into the new toy trap almost as much as a 5 year old! But in my defense, I go most crazy for the geeky educational type toys. I do feel the need to note here that I think pretty much any toy has some educational value because PLAY=LEARNING. So there is my problem!

She seriously has more self control than me. The other day in JC Penny I needed to find something for $10 to use a coupon I had and I found these two little stuffed animal mice, Jack and Gus from Cinderella, and I was going to buy them to her. Well after she had been holding them for a while and when we went to check out she said "put them back"!  The back story here is that I usually tell her we are going to put the toys back with their friends and say goodbye/see ya next time. So she was actually the one that prevented an impulse buy.

Another way I have been defending myself is because most of my purchases have been from garage sales. So, I feel better about the price and that the toys are second hand and thus better for the environment. But, I'm still probably spending a little too much money and it's so close to her birthday! I'm sabotaging myself because there will be nothing good left for a birthday present.

Gah. So I have confessed my sins and I will try to work on them. Probably best to avoid temptation altogether and just stay home!

Ages and Stages: 22 months

Forgive me baby girl but this might be a shorter post as I have to type it on the ipad. Right now I am currently sitting next to you listening to you play with your "magic school bus" and little people.

"Man! Are you alright? I'll help you and give you wipe" [sounds sort of like wife :p]. "That's a very good boy. Good boys and girls". Then you bring in the dolphin, "get out, get out kids".

You play so well!! We recently purchased a train table at a garage sale and you love playing on that with the train tracks (particularly the bridge piece) and your little wood people and town blocks. You still love to paint and color and play with stickers. But the thing you LOVE to play with most of all is puzzles! You still like Cinderella and the dwarfs but your new favorite is the Lion King. We have the book and will watch the songs on YouTube. You will often sing Hakuna mata and even say the "nothing, what's a matta with you?" part lol. You also sing "Can you feel the love tonight" and will randomly talk about the circle of life :p. In fact, you call one of your puzzles your "Mufasa puzzle" because it has a cartoon male lion and cub on it! You are just sooooo awesome!

Your bottom two year molars are pretty much all the way through except a tiny piece of gum in the back, and on top they are just starting to pop through. You've actually had a hard time a few times the past week or so and bit me in the face the other day so bad it left a mark. We tried time out after that but it didn't seem to phase you. We know it's just your teeth hurting but we want you to learn it's not okay to bite people. The pain seems to be the worst right before they break through. You are down to nursing right before bed to fall asleep and if you wake up during the night, which is usually between 3:30 and 5:00am.

Random things I always want to remember:

When you say "honey" at the end of a sentence randomly.
"Bow to the king".
"Excuse me, bag".

Weaning II

I foresee many of posts on this subject as I know it is going to be a major transition for both baby girl and me. Last night didn't go very well and I caved. In my head I am worried about how giving in will just enable her more, but I am not cut out for "cry it out" or anything resembling it. I'm just too soft! It's literally torture for me listening to her cry, especially when I know it's my fault and I can fix it. But then where does that leave me? I would like to believe that there will be a time when she will be ready to give up nursing, but what if it's not until she is much older? I don't think I could go much past the age of two. Even if I felt okay with it, I know the pressure to wean would be too much for me then. I would love to believe she would stop nursing on her own if I got pregnant like many toddlers do apparently. But what if she doesn't? I don't think I would want to go through something like last night while pregnant.

So for now, since not nursing all day was a pretty easy adjustment I am going to continue that and then try giving up the night feed again in a week or two.

Are we really weaning?

Is this real life, am I really weaning my baby girl? I'm not even sure, so far today it looks like it. She is now 21 months and although I really didn't want to be a "weaner" I think I have made it to that point. I have so many emotions. In many ways, I'm ready. I am SO ready. Some of it has a lot to do with the pressure from other people, particularly my husband. But then I have my own reasons. Nursing a toddler is not the same as nursing an infant. It is less soft and cuddly and a lot more wiggly and pinchy. Also, as expressed in my last post I would like to start trying for another again soon and I although I love breastfeeding I don't think I could handle tandem nursing. Plus, I know it is going to be a busy summer so I want to do this now rather than later when it could be harder. And I definitely don't want to wean her during other transitional times like during potty training or getting into a big girl bed and such. I just feel like now is the right time. But in other ways I'm terrified. I don't want to put myself and my reasons before her needs. I don't want it to be traumatic for her. What if doing it too soon will make her insecure and clingy? I'm so worried she will hate me. I'm scared of how our relationship will change. I don't want my baby to get any bigger! I feel that anxious sick feeling and I'm sure I will feel this way over the next few days.

I go back and forth in my head about what I should do. So I guess I'm just going to go ahead and try and see how baby girl does with it. If it seems that she is tolerating the change decently we will proceed but if it seems to be too traumatic then I will just have to wait until another time.

Ages and Stages: 21 Months

Ah, you are such a little toddler now! You look so long and lean! You still fit into some 12 month clothes :P but are mostly wearing 18 month right now. We still can't get over how smart you are. You are literally repeating EVERYTHING now. Phrases and little sentences and everything. And of course you are communicating your own ideas through sentences and phrases too. Sometimes you will add "today" or "this morning" to random things you say and it is just too cute, especially when it doesn't really fit what you have said. I also can't get enough of the "you're so beautiful's" I get from you almost every day, as you cup my head in your hands. The other day you even told me, "you're so cute, mommy". The only time you are really that quiet is if we are around a lot of people. Recently you have been reciting the first few lines of your favorite book "Cinderella": "Once upon a time there was a girl named Cinderella. She lived with her stepmother. Stepmother didn't like Cinderella. She worked very hard every day." You come up with the cutest little games to play now, like for example when you go to the glass door and come and run into our arms and then tell us "Tinkerbelle too fast" or "Snow White too fast", referring to yourself. I love it when you pretend to be someone, last night you were pretending you were Sneezy the dawrf! You will say "Sneezy likes..." and "Sneezy is..." you know exactly how to play. You love to play with all your stuffed animals and wrap them up like your babies, so they become "baby Ernie", "baby Rosita", etc. You also love to take them and show them how to slide down the slide. Recently some favorites have been "George" (the monkey beanie baby), Spot, and Simba.You also have been really into playing with stickers lately, so we have been doing a lot of that. You still love to paint so I try to do that every once in a while too. I got you a little Melissa & Doug puzzle where you put shapes in corresponding parts of the picture and you like to do that and then clap for yourself and say horray!

We have been going to the park quite a bit lately and you love to see the other kids there. You will say "Hey, little boy, hey, hey, come mere" or "Hey, little girl, whatca thinking?". You are not shy at all and will basically follow around anyone you take a liking too.

You are definitely getting your bottom 2 year molars. They have given you some trouble here and there, but so far not as much as the 12 year molars (in my opinion). But I can tell they are just barely starting to pop through so I'm sure we have a long way to go. You have been nursing basically twice a day, for nap and night time and wake up once during the night. Except we did have a little regression on nursing frequency and night waking for a week or two at the end of April when your molars seemed to be hurting the worst.

Baby fever!

So thrilled to announce I now have a precious new Niece! And I officially have baby fever! For a while I wasn't sure if it would ever happen to me; the idea of another baby had me teetering from being super excited to completely terrified! But now that baby girl is not so much a baby anymore and keeping herself entertained more and more it seems like we could add another to our family. actually I am now feeling like I really want to give Baby girl a sibling to play and love! I think the time is almost exactly right! So let's hope fate will agree :)

Spring is here!

Finally the snow is melting! It has been gorgeous the past few days, today too but it's a little windy and this was early in the day, so we decided to keep the hat on.