I'm reading a book on "Your Two Year Old" and it talks about how half years are tough. Kids are super, wonderful creatures when they turn full years, but when they hit the half year, they are crazy, uncontrollable, monsters. (okay that was a bit strong, but, let's just say they are not easy to deal with)
The boys are almost two and a half. Today we had one of those days. One of those monstrous days.
Before 7:45 this morning, we had 5 time outs. Three for Ryan and two for Evan. In reality, it was five in like 15 minutes. Ryan hit Evan. During the apology, Evan hit Ryan. It went on like this until it was me hitting my head on the wall.
Then after OT we went for a walk around the lake and even after going over the rules...hold my hand, listen, do not run away from Mommy. We were not there for 5 minutes and both boys took off in opposite directions. That cut our walk extremely short.
We got home and I wanted to wash off their shoes. All of their shoes were really dirty and could use a quick wash. During the time I emptied the car of 6 pairs of shoes, and got them into the sink to scrub, Ryan proceeded to howl. Endlessly. I job that should have taken 10 minutes at best was now verging on 30 minutes. I kept trying to get him to calm down. Take deep breaths. Relax, go read a book or something for just a few minutes, so I could finish this task. No such luck. He was now telling me, at about 10:30 that he was ready for lunch. He just had a very large snack and hour before, he couldn't be hungry.
I decided to let him wait a few more minutes while I finished washing the shoes. I heard him cry, and cry, and cry. I once again asked him to take a deep breath and comfort himself. I few minutes later, there was silence. Whew, okay, I put a load of laundry in to the dryer and came back out to the living room. There was Ryan passed out cold on the living room floor. Sound. Asleep.
Ryan's been sleeping like a champ, 4 hour naps, 11 hours at night, he woke up at 6 this morning, he should not have been this tired, this early.
I honestly don't know what is going on with him. The last couple of days he's been ready for lunch at 10:30 and ready to nap at 11. He then wants dinner at 4 and his snack at 6:30 and sound asleep at 7:15. He is so off schedule.
Of course, since he had a cat nap, he only slept for a short time and then wanted to get up. He then proceeded to cry every time I left the room for the next two hours. Our teacher was here and he was a peach, and as soon as she left, the wailing began again. It continued until Scott got home a little after 6. By 6:50 he was again crying to eat, and go to bed.
If this is how my days are going to be, times two, for the next 7 months...I think I'm going to need some earplugs and some medication.
Showing posts with label Two year olds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Two year olds. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
I've been trying to blog, but ...
...I have no good excuse.
I've been trying to blog about the trip the boys and I took last Thursday, we met my Mom and had an amazing time in San Juan Capistrano at Zoomars Petting Zoo. We first took a walk around the Mission, and then headed across the railroad tracks to the petting zoo. It was really great. We started in the giant pen that had dozens of rabbits and guinea pigs. It was a little overwhelming for me, but the boys seemed to enjoy it. Until they caught a glimpse of the little train. I'd have pictures but I can't get them off of my phone. Lets just say they rode, and there were some tears when they had to get off. After the train, we fed the horse and goats carrots. According to Grandma, Ryan was chased by three goats. I was too busy fending off my five to notice. She said he did fine. He was offering them a carrot, and then got a little spooked, he ran, they followed.
I also have pictures on my phone of the boys riding in a little red Jeep. It was a big hit too.
We really had a great time with Grandma. The boys see carrots and say "Neigh eat car-car" and "Feed" followed by "Choo-Choo". A week later, they are still talking about this trip. We have to go and do this again. Fun was had by all.
I hope I'll start breaking this posting dry spell soon. I think it has something to do with getting ready for vacation, and maybe the fact that the boys have been exercising their "two-ness", and maybe another topic that I will touch on,maybe tomorrow.
I've been trying to blog about the trip the boys and I took last Thursday, we met my Mom and had an amazing time in San Juan Capistrano at Zoomars Petting Zoo. We first took a walk around the Mission, and then headed across the railroad tracks to the petting zoo. It was really great. We started in the giant pen that had dozens of rabbits and guinea pigs. It was a little overwhelming for me, but the boys seemed to enjoy it. Until they caught a glimpse of the little train. I'd have pictures but I can't get them off of my phone. Lets just say they rode, and there were some tears when they had to get off. After the train, we fed the horse and goats carrots. According to Grandma, Ryan was chased by three goats. I was too busy fending off my five to notice. She said he did fine. He was offering them a carrot, and then got a little spooked, he ran, they followed.
I also have pictures on my phone of the boys riding in a little red Jeep. It was a big hit too.
We really had a great time with Grandma. The boys see carrots and say "Neigh eat car-car" and "Feed" followed by "Choo-Choo". A week later, they are still talking about this trip. We have to go and do this again. Fun was had by all.
********
I've also been trying to blog or at least post pictures of Sunday's little detour to the local CAT headquarters. In front of the building, they have these just sitting there, begging little boys to climb in them and have their pictures taken!
I hope I'll start breaking this posting dry spell soon. I think it has something to do with getting ready for vacation, and maybe the fact that the boys have been exercising their "two-ness", and maybe another topic that I will touch on,
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Everybody's Smilin', Sunshine Day...
Today was just one of those days. A day that made me feel like I was that Mom. No, not That Mom. THAT Mom-- Carol Brady. Shirley Partridge. June Cleaver. Caroline Ingalls. Olivia Walton. The one that handles things in stride, the one that has shiny faced little ones that do good, or at least try, and at the end of an hour, or half hour, they have learned a valuable life lesson, and everyone is smiling.
Too many times I feel harried, and hurried, and just plain worn out. Too many days I wonder, did I do enough to nurture, and stimulate the young minds I am molding? Too many days I wish I could be a perfect mom.
Now, I know I'll never be perfect. (no matter how hard I try. But gosh darn it, I have to try.) I know I will always beat myself up for something I feel like I got wrong. I know there will always be people who think I'm not being a good Mom, or that their way is better. It might be. But it may not be the right way for our family, and that is all I care about. What is right for Ryan and Evan. This was a day that I would feel none of that self doubt, or self criticism.
*****
Today at breakfast I asked the boys what they wanted to do today. (for once we had no plans) They thought about it and Ryan, today's spokesman for the pair, said "park" "Well," I said, "we went to the park yesterday, and we are going tomorrow, is there anywhere else you would like to go?" They thought about it for awhile, and Evan, very clearly said "zoo" (not a word I've heard from him, ever). Oh, I should note, that they both slept in to a glorious 6:30 this morning, so we were dining a bit later than usual. I quickly calculated all of the things I would have to do to make it to the zoo today, and decided to attempt to shift our plans to the Wild Animal Park. (it's about 20 minutes closer)
Once I mentioned the water, and they remembered the crocodile, we were set. We scurried around and left the house by 8:15. Arrived, sun screened the boys and myself, and were at the gates at opening. We did our usual, but the boys kept saying they wanted to feed the ducks. (I thought, hmm, we could have just gone to the lake 5 minutes from the house to feed the ducks, but...Okay, let's go feed the ducks)
Near the duck pond are little boat that are controlled by these wheels that today, the boys found very entertaining.
But even more interesting was the coin return and the little door where Ryan found a one dollar token, and a quarter, and Evan, not to be out done, also found a shiny quarter. You would think that they had just found a truck or bulldozer by the running and squealing. It was really cute, however, I quickly snatched their treasures from their hands (choking hazard much?) and sanitized their hands. (do you know how dirty money is? yuck)
Lunch was very uneventful (which in this house is great news) Evan ate two jars of Green Beans with very little fighting. Ryan ate all of his pasta and an entire container of yogurt.
During naps, I had the bright idea to try and cook with the boys. I've been hearing that they should start doing things like this but have been avoiding it like no one's business. I had to make some pasta for Ryan, so I decided to prep it, and when the boys woke up, we could "cook" it together.
Of course I have no pictures of this because um, you try to wrangle two toddlers in your non-childproofed kitchen, while trying to "cook" with them, AND then grab the camera too? No.
It went much better than I expected. They were so great. Evan loves the food processor, and Ryan does not, so he ground up the 4 chicken breasts. Ryan poured the chicken into a bowl, then Evan poured in the sauce. They let me stir, and package. And then we repeated the whole process again.* Each boy getting a turn at pouring sauce, chicken, noodles. They were so excited, they wanted to taste their creation!
After we finished, we drew pictures of what we had just done in the kitchen. Okay, I drew the pictures, they told me what to draw, and the colored over them. This gave us a chance to talk about what we had done, just a little reinforcement of concepts. Plus the boys were as always happy to color.
Okay, perfect mom award to this point. An outing, a cooking lesson, an art project, all. in. one. day. Feeling really smug and proud of myself for not taking the easy way anywhere in this day.
And then dinner. Evan threw up, argh. Ryan decided to moisturize in yogurt when I turned my back for a second.
Still, pretty good Mom, I grabbed my camera, snapped off a couple of pictures of yo-yo baby, and Evan ate 2 more jars of food, post vomit.
I'm not sure why today was so great. The boys were in a great mood all day. (provided that Row-Row-Row- Your Boat was on the ipod) It all just seemed EASY! I can't believe I just said that, but yeah, it felt easy. The boys behaved and listened perfectly on our outing. They were really great in the kitchen, and even when they didn't share, or when there were little meltdowns over the song playing, it was easy. Maybe someone spiked my Luna bar with a Valium. Or maybe the boys are growing up a little bit. =( What ever it is, I hope we have many, many more "Sunshine Day(s)"
*I make two pounds of pasta at a time and freeze it in portions for easy meals and while I have a huge bowl that could mix all of it at time, somehow it's just easier to divide the batch in half and use a handy smaller bowl.
__________________________
A couple of asides.
I read in one of my Parenting Magazines that the average parent argues with their toddler 20 times an hour, some as many as 55 times an hour. Huh???? I think I need a definition of argue. Oh maybe I need to be very thankful.
Ryan said his first three word phrase yesterday "Big, Truck, Book"
and Evan today "More, Music, Please"
Words, and two word phases are coming rapid fire these days, they are parrots, they are sponges, they are chatty Cathy's.
Ryan woke up after about an hour of nap today, but instead of screaming for me to get him up, he sat and played with his babies. (he now sleeps with no less that 15 stuffed animals, who go almost everywhere with us, if I allow it) The conversation went like this
"baby, yup"
"pha, pha, yup" (Snoopy)
"ty-ty, yup" (tiger)
"mon, mon, yup"(monkey)
"Fwog, yup" (frog)
"Baaaaaa, yup" (sheep)
"ma, ma, yup"
"Da-di, yup"
"EV-an, yup"
and then he fell asleep. and I sat laughing so hard I cried.
Evan has been recognizing his letters, both in print and with signs. It's crazy! I usually do the signs when we are singing the alphabet song, but never really tried to teach them the signs. A couple of days ago, Evan started doing some of them and telling me what they were. He'd say E and I'd look up and he had his hand in the E shape, I think he knows about 15-20 of the letters. He's always loved looking at the letters on our T-shirts, and we'd tell him what they were, now he tells us.
The "fist bump" is our new favorite show of accomplishment. However the "high-five" is still a close second.
And finally a couple of other pictures from outings in the last few days.
I just missed the perfect shot of the two of them looking at me with a huge fish over their heads.
There's some PG-13 shots that are not for the web, of these two buck nekid boys, taking a sun shower on the street by the Marine Room after our Saturday morning in the surf. I honestly don't think there is anything cuter than baby butts. (that doesn't make me creepy does it?)
Too many times I feel harried, and hurried, and just plain worn out. Too many days I wonder, did I do enough to nurture, and stimulate the young minds I am molding? Too many days I wish I could be a perfect mom.
Now, I know I'll never be perfect. (no matter how hard I try. But gosh darn it, I have to try.) I know I will always beat myself up for something I feel like I got wrong. I know there will always be people who think I'm not being a good Mom, or that their way is better. It might be. But it may not be the right way for our family, and that is all I care about. What is right for Ryan and Evan. This was a day that I would feel none of that self doubt, or self criticism.
*****
Today at breakfast I asked the boys what they wanted to do today. (for once we had no plans) They thought about it and Ryan, today's spokesman for the pair, said "park" "Well," I said, "we went to the park yesterday, and we are going tomorrow, is there anywhere else you would like to go?" They thought about it for awhile, and Evan, very clearly said "zoo" (not a word I've heard from him, ever). Oh, I should note, that they both slept in to a glorious 6:30 this morning, so we were dining a bit later than usual. I quickly calculated all of the things I would have to do to make it to the zoo today, and decided to attempt to shift our plans to the Wild Animal Park. (it's about 20 minutes closer)
Once I mentioned the water, and they remembered the crocodile, we were set. We scurried around and left the house by 8:15. Arrived, sun screened the boys and myself, and were at the gates at opening. We did our usual, but the boys kept saying they wanted to feed the ducks. (I thought, hmm, we could have just gone to the lake 5 minutes from the house to feed the ducks, but...Okay, let's go feed the ducks)
Near the duck pond are little boat that are controlled by these wheels that today, the boys found very entertaining.
But even more interesting was the coin return and the little door where Ryan found a one dollar token, and a quarter, and Evan, not to be out done, also found a shiny quarter. You would think that they had just found a truck or bulldozer by the running and squealing. It was really cute, however, I quickly snatched their treasures from their hands (choking hazard much?) and sanitized their hands. (do you know how dirty money is? yuck)
Lunch was very uneventful (which in this house is great news) Evan ate two jars of Green Beans with very little fighting. Ryan ate all of his pasta and an entire container of yogurt.
During naps, I had the bright idea to try and cook with the boys. I've been hearing that they should start doing things like this but have been avoiding it like no one's business. I had to make some pasta for Ryan, so I decided to prep it, and when the boys woke up, we could "cook" it together.
Of course I have no pictures of this because um, you try to wrangle two toddlers in your non-childproofed kitchen, while trying to "cook" with them, AND then grab the camera too? No.
It went much better than I expected. They were so great. Evan loves the food processor, and Ryan does not, so he ground up the 4 chicken breasts. Ryan poured the chicken into a bowl, then Evan poured in the sauce. They let me stir, and package. And then we repeated the whole process again.* Each boy getting a turn at pouring sauce, chicken, noodles. They were so excited, they wanted to taste their creation!
After we finished, we drew pictures of what we had just done in the kitchen. Okay, I drew the pictures, they told me what to draw, and the colored over them. This gave us a chance to talk about what we had done, just a little reinforcement of concepts. Plus the boys were as always happy to color.
Okay, perfect mom award to this point. An outing, a cooking lesson, an art project, all. in. one. day. Feeling really smug and proud of myself for not taking the easy way anywhere in this day.
And then dinner. Evan threw up, argh. Ryan decided to moisturize in yogurt when I turned my back for a second.
Still, pretty good Mom, I grabbed my camera, snapped off a couple of pictures of yo-yo baby, and Evan ate 2 more jars of food, post vomit.I'm not sure why today was so great. The boys were in a great mood all day. (provided that Row-Row-Row- Your Boat was on the ipod) It all just seemed EASY! I can't believe I just said that, but yeah, it felt easy. The boys behaved and listened perfectly on our outing. They were really great in the kitchen, and even when they didn't share, or when there were little meltdowns over the song playing, it was easy. Maybe someone spiked my Luna bar with a Valium. Or maybe the boys are growing up a little bit. =( What ever it is, I hope we have many, many more "Sunshine Day(s)"
*I make two pounds of pasta at a time and freeze it in portions for easy meals and while I have a huge bowl that could mix all of it at time, somehow it's just easier to divide the batch in half and use a handy smaller bowl.
__________________________
A couple of asides.
I read in one of my Parenting Magazines that the average parent argues with their toddler 20 times an hour, some as many as 55 times an hour. Huh???? I think I need a definition of argue. Oh maybe I need to be very thankful.
Ryan said his first three word phrase yesterday "Big, Truck, Book"
and Evan today "More, Music, Please"
Words, and two word phases are coming rapid fire these days, they are parrots, they are sponges, they are chatty Cathy's.
Ryan woke up after about an hour of nap today, but instead of screaming for me to get him up, he sat and played with his babies. (he now sleeps with no less that 15 stuffed animals, who go almost everywhere with us, if I allow it) The conversation went like this
"baby, yup"
"pha, pha, yup" (Snoopy)
"ty-ty, yup" (tiger)
"mon, mon, yup"(monkey)
"Fwog, yup" (frog)
"Baaaaaa, yup" (sheep)
"ma, ma, yup"
"Da-di, yup"
"EV-an, yup"
and then he fell asleep. and I sat laughing so hard I cried.
Evan has been recognizing his letters, both in print and with signs. It's crazy! I usually do the signs when we are singing the alphabet song, but never really tried to teach them the signs. A couple of days ago, Evan started doing some of them and telling me what they were. He'd say E and I'd look up and he had his hand in the E shape, I think he knows about 15-20 of the letters. He's always loved looking at the letters on our T-shirts, and we'd tell him what they were, now he tells us.
The "fist bump" is our new favorite show of accomplishment. However the "high-five" is still a close second.
And finally a couple of other pictures from outings in the last few days.
I just missed the perfect shot of the two of them looking at me with a huge fish over their heads.
There's some PG-13 shots that are not for the web, of these two buck nekid boys, taking a sun shower on the street by the Marine Room after our Saturday morning in the surf. I honestly don't think there is anything cuter than baby butts. (that doesn't make me creepy does it?)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
On being two
It seems that being two does something to a child. I'm sure there are a million parenting books with theories, and solutions, but nothing can prepare you for having two, two year old children. (or heck, even one)
It's frustrating. For. Everyone. The poor child does not have adequate language and coping abilities, and the parent is shocked. Shocked that their normally docile, sweet, polite, bundle of love can turn in an instant into a shrieking, whirling ball of anger, frustration and tears. How does this happen, literally in an instant.
We had an "episode" this weekend. The boys love music and are very good at telling us what song they want to hear. However this evening, Ryan was insistent that we play the "choo, choo" song. He repeated "choo, choo" about 100 times while Scott and I scratched our heads trying to figure out what song he was talking about. We played the beginnings of 30-40 songs, and he became more and more frustrated at our inability to understand what he was so clearly talking about. In the span of about ten minutes Ryan went from happy, singing and dancing boy to screeching, crying, frustrated baby. All I could do was hold him and try to explain to him that I knew he was frustrated that we didn't understand him, we were doing the best we could, and that maybe if he calmed down and helped us, we could solve the problem. We did finally figure out that the song was "She'll be Coming Around the Mountain"(They have a Thomas the Train book that plays that song, which is why I think he associated it with a choo, choo. Of course we should have put this together, right?)
Today, Evan went to work with Scott. BACK STORY: Scott has taken Ryan to work several times because Evan has had doctor's appointments and it is much easier for me to keep Evan calm if I don't have to worry about entertaining Ryan too. Scott starts his new job on Monday, and he won't have an office anymore (open workstations---I hate this business model) so in order to be fair, Scott took Evan to work with him.
(I know, it's just too cute!!!)
So I Ryan and I had some together time too. We went out and had bagels, we went to the store and then went to pick up Evan. Scott said good bye to the boys, like usual, but apparently, this was not enough. Ryan started screaming, and screaming, and screaming. "DA, DA, DA, DA" all the way home. let me repeat. ALL. THE. WAY. HOME. I could not talk him down from his hysteria, so I just turned up the music.
Yet through all of it, moments like this, are far more common than the moments I've described.
*
So why does it feel like the moments of shrieking are the true reflection of parenting skills?
_________________
*I should mention that minutes after this shot, Ryan took off running and ran into the parking lot while I screamed "Freeze" in vain.
It's frustrating. For. Everyone. The poor child does not have adequate language and coping abilities, and the parent is shocked. Shocked that their normally docile, sweet, polite, bundle of love can turn in an instant into a shrieking, whirling ball of anger, frustration and tears. How does this happen, literally in an instant.
We had an "episode" this weekend. The boys love music and are very good at telling us what song they want to hear. However this evening, Ryan was insistent that we play the "choo, choo" song. He repeated "choo, choo" about 100 times while Scott and I scratched our heads trying to figure out what song he was talking about. We played the beginnings of 30-40 songs, and he became more and more frustrated at our inability to understand what he was so clearly talking about. In the span of about ten minutes Ryan went from happy, singing and dancing boy to screeching, crying, frustrated baby. All I could do was hold him and try to explain to him that I knew he was frustrated that we didn't understand him, we were doing the best we could, and that maybe if he calmed down and helped us, we could solve the problem. We did finally figure out that the song was "She'll be Coming Around the Mountain"(They have a Thomas the Train book that plays that song, which is why I think he associated it with a choo, choo. Of course we should have put this together, right?
Today, Evan went to work with Scott. BACK STORY: Scott has taken Ryan to work several times because Evan has had doctor's appointments and it is much easier for me to keep Evan calm if I don't have to worry about entertaining Ryan too. Scott starts his new job on Monday, and he won't have an office anymore (open workstations---I hate this business model) so in order to be fair, Scott took Evan to work with him.
(I know, it's just too cute!!!)So I Ryan and I had some together time too. We went out and had bagels, we went to the store and then went to pick up Evan. Scott said good bye to the boys, like usual, but apparently, this was not enough. Ryan started screaming, and screaming, and screaming. "DA, DA, DA, DA" all the way home. let me repeat. ALL. THE. WAY. HOME. I could not talk him down from his hysteria, so I just turned up the music.
Yet through all of it, moments like this, are far more common than the moments I've described.
*So why does it feel like the moments of shrieking are the true reflection of parenting skills?
_________________
*I should mention that minutes after this shot, Ryan took off running and ran into the parking lot while I screamed "Freeze" in vain.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Two year olds?
Okay, so I have two, two year olds now. So what gives with this?
We were at the Wild Animal Park on Wednesday. We were supposed to meet our buddies Dylan and Tyler, but the were sick, (hope you are feeling better guys) so we went anyways. One of our favorite places is Condor Ridge. We hang out here for a while, play hide and seek, and just run in circles. Today, the boys regressed and spent a VERY long time on their hands and knees. They were laughing and just having a ball. I asked them what they were doing and Evan told me "Bay, Bay" (baby) I guess they feel like they are growing up too fast too!
We were at the Wild Animal Park on Wednesday. We were supposed to meet our buddies Dylan and Tyler, but the were sick, (hope you are feeling better guys) so we went anyways. One of our favorite places is Condor Ridge. We hang out here for a while, play hide and seek, and just run in circles. Today, the boys regressed and spent a VERY long time on their hands and knees. They were laughing and just having a ball. I asked them what they were doing and Evan told me "Bay, Bay" (baby) I guess they feel like they are growing up too fast too!
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