Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Two and a Half

Our baby girl is two and half years old today. 


Fortunately for all of us she more adorable and sweet than she is frustrating in her two-and-a-halfness.

She has become quite a little chatterbox.  Her speech can be difficult to understand, but that doesn't stop her.  She likes talking to people, but will happily carry on one-sided conversations with her babies and stuffed toys or just chatter away to herself.  She also likes to sing.  


She walks, gallops, runs, and hops everywhere.  She also likes being carried up the three flights of stairs to our apartment.  If I explain that my arms are full she asks me to come back to her, often telling me that "[her] wegs are bo-ken."



Though not the most adventurous physically, she does love to climb.  She's pretty good at it too.  

I don't know how it happened, but we have a girly girl.  Her favourite colours are pink, purple and gray ("gay"). She loves to wear skirts, or better yet, two skirts layered one over the other.  Her dress-up  persona is a "ballewina pincess" who has a tutu, magic wand, and does little other than twirling and turning the people around her into kitty cats.  

She also loves to pretend to be Melissa (McClelland) from the band Whitehorse, married to The Bean's favourite musician, Luke Doucet. This mostly involves her stuffing a blanket under her shirt (their baby), going backstage (the kitchen) or "frontstage" (the living room) and talking to Luke (me) or playing instruments (whatever she digs out of our instrument basket). The Bean also likes to be Melissa when we play this game.

While she likes to play with people, she is usually quite content playing independently for periods of time. This floors me and Jen as it is something The Bean just does not do. She will draw, do Play-Doh, read books, do puzzles, play with stuffed animals, etc. 



She loves arts and crafts. Again, something The Bean isn't really into.  She'll often request to colour, paint or do Play-Doh.
  


We sometimes call her "Ms. Independent" for the obvious reason that she likes to do things herself. Not everything, mind you, but if she has her mind made up about something... She's quite a stubborn little thing.


Along those lines it should be noted that she is very nearly potty trained. She wears underwear when she is awake and can "hold it" for several hours. I can't remember the last time we had to change a dirty diaper. We do bring a travel potty and a change of clothes with us most places, the former which we use fairly often, which means the later hasn't been necessary. The down side is that she uses having to go to the potty as a major stall tactic at bedtime. Can't win them all, I guess. 

Her favourite books right now seem to be the Angelina Ballerina books and Dora books we have. She LOVES being read to and will snuggle right in for story time.

She is a pretty snuggly kid, overall. She's very, very clingy attached to me. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I'm primarily at home and that she still nurses 2-4 times a day (wake up, before/after nap when I'm around, and before bed). She "loooves nursing!" but tells me she will stop when she's 26.  Um. Yeah.  


Her best friend is clearly her brother. She goes along with 90% of his plans and is pretty much his shadow. She also really seems to like hanging out with my cousin's son who is seven months younger than her. She adores her Grandma too. Oh, and my cousin Paul. 
  


She still isn't big on breakfast, but overall eats decently well.  She's fussy about mean and won't eat chicken breast or pork chops, but will eat chicken fingers, hot dogs and sausages. Most grain-based foods are fine and she eats enough of a variety of fruits and vegetables that we're not overly concerned about her diet.  




She's a big kid. She's in size 2T and sometimes 3T and now wears size 7 shoes. I frequently get asked if she and The Bean are twins (though she is still quite a bit shorter than he is).

And finally sleep.  This is the one area I wish were significantly different.  I can't figure her out.  I feel like she should be getting much more sleep than she does, but it's a nightly battle.  Bedtime is 7:30pm, but she nurses until about 8pm and then usually doesn't fall asleep until 9 or sometimes even 10pm and is usually awake and coming into our room by 5:30am to nurse.  It's brutal.  She naps from about 1:00-2:30pm most days.  I don't know if she is overtired or overslept or what, but I am hoping something changes.

 A few more pictures of the little monkey from the past few months: 

 
  









Monday, June 22, 2015

Summer Bucket List 2015

I thought I'd be able to post this on the first day of summer, but go figure, the longest day went rather quickly. 

So, a day late, here it is: 

The Two Moms to Be Summer Bucket List for 2015
1. Check out new parks and go back to old favourites.
2. Swim in Lake Ontario. 
3. Visit animals at the zoo.
4. Spend time in nature. Look for new "nature spots" in the city.
5. Donate books to the book bank.
6. Smell flowers at botanical gardens.
7. Go to the Toronto Islands.
8. Make popsicles.
9. Meet up with local bloggers.
10. Paint rocks that we find at the beach.
11. Go to a fair.  
12. Take a moms-only trip. 
13. Eat things that we have grown and/or picked ourselves.

I can think of more things we would like to do, but this keeps it at an average of one thing a week, which seems completely doable.

And since people have been posting goals to, here are ours:
1) The Bean: Practice writing, reading and basic addition. 
2) Sprout: Ditch daytime diapers. (This is a bit of a cheat, since she's pretty much ditched them already.)  
3) Mama: Read. Crochet. Take photos. Organize photos.
...and Mommy is sleeping, so I'll have to get her goal in the morning.  

I think it's going to be a great summer!  




Saturday, June 13, 2015

Endings (and Beginnings)

It's closing in on midnight as I'm writing this, which is to say, I should be going to bed, but I'm feeling unsettled and thought coming here might help me  process things a bit.

The school year is wrapping up. The students are now finished and it's just paperwork and cleaning up the classroom. I had hoped to finish my report cards by tonight, but that's still a pretty far way off from happening. Oh, how I hate writing report cards. There's never enough space to say anything really significant so I agonize over what to include and how to phrase it. I wonder if the parents even notice. 

I was unable to make it to the closing ceremonies, which felt a bit odd. I said my goodbyes to the students the day before and also goodbyes and thank yous to the parents who I saw. Everyone was kind, saying what a wonderful year it had been and thanking me for the work I did with their children. 

I haven't said much about it, but things weren't going very well with my sister being here with the kids during the day and we now have another care provider. I wanted things to work out with my sister because: sister. But they just weren't. We were very lucky that we were able to find someone else on very short notice and just for this brief period as I wrap up work. It's been going well. The communication isn't the greatest as she is not a native English speaker, but the kids settled into the new routine without missing a beat and actually seem more settled now than they had been. I feel like they must have been picking up on the tension of the situation before. As a bonus, Jen and I might have a new person we can call on for evening babysitting.  

I am still feeling ambivalent about not having work lined up for the fall. I am, however, looking forward to the summer. Things have been piling up in neglected little piles all over the apartment. Mending. Photo albums (and baby books!) to complete. Enough tiny clothing and plastic toys to warrant a garage sale, though the thought of organizing one is a bit overwhelming at this point. And of course, time with the kids to look forward to. I have been compiling a large list of possible activities and outings. Summer Bucket List post is in the works. ;) 

As for tomorrow, I'm hoping to make it to the lake. I haven't been to the beach for ages, but I've been feeling a pull to go. I feel like I need grounding right now and walking on the sand, looking for pebbles washed smooth and listening to the waves just might do the trick.